Rumor has it that Vintage Computer Festival may have mentioned these words:
>On Wed, 11 Aug 2004, Steve Thatcher wrote:
>
> > If we create a physical description only and do not abstract the data
> > then any emulator must understand the OS file structure in order to
> > retrieve any internal file representation.
I don't wanna sound like a doofus, but:
So?
> My idea would make the file
> > re-creation simple in that the xml image file would be parsed for the
> > actual file data that an emulator would need. This makes the emulator
> > easier.
>
>You're describing an imagefile that contains a filesystem image, rather
>than, say, a disk image. This can be accomodated in the spec, but it's a
>different type of image than what we've been discussing.
It could be accommodated, but why should it when it would be easier for
someone to build a converter into an emulator image file?
This spec (as far as I understand it) is going to be read-only anyway -
this is for archiving after all. What happens when the emulator tries to
rewrite the disk image (say, from saving a modified file)? What will happen
to the original archive?
>It's up to emulator writers to read the spec and adapt to it.
Bam. That hit the thumbnail right on the head. ;-)
> We'll make
>the spec as flexible as possible, but first and foremost, the spec is
>intended to archive images of data media, and not to serve as a universal
>emulator image format (though it should be able to be used as such).
I'd like to add that IMHO it should be "read-only" so the emulator doesn't
destroy the archive when it rewrites certain sectors and/or files.
At least that's my take on the deal...
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Randomization is better!!!
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
Received on Wed Aug 11 2004 - 20:42:37 BST