here is a "crude" example of what I was talking about.
try:
<archive image file version="1.0">
<definitions>
a place to put whatever relevant information is needed about the format or achive
or your favorite poem or joke
</defintions>
<target system>Tandy Model 100</target system>
<author>Ian Blindly</author>
<media>
<format>5.25" floppy</format>
<default-sector-data value="$AA"/>
<encoding>MFM? RLL? something ... </encoding>
<tracks>35</tracks>
<heads>1</heads>
<sectors size="256">18</sectors>
<wordsize>8</wordsize>
</media>
<datamap>
<head physical="0">
<track physical="0">
<sector logical="1" physical="4" datablock="DB1"
dataitemid="SB1" />
<sector logical="2" physical="8" datablock="DB2"
dataitemid="SB1"/>
<sector logical="3" physical="12" fill="$00"
/>
<sector logical="4" physical="16" fill="$00"
/>
...
</track>
<track physical="1">
<sector logical="1" physical="4" fill="$FF"
/>
<sector logical="9" physical="12" datablock="DB3"
dataitemid="SB1"/>
</track>
<track physical="22" datablock="DB3" dataitemid="SB2"
/>
</head>
</datamap>
<datablock id="DB1" type="boot">
<dataitem id="SB1" encoding="HEX" crc="1234">456789ABCDEF...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB2" encoding="HEX" crc="2341">1234567890A...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB3" encoding="HEX" crc="3412">890ABCDEF01245...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB4" encoding="HEX" crc="4123">456789ABCDEF...</dataitem>
</datablock>
<datablock id="DB2" type="OS">
<dataitem id="SB1" encoding="HEX" crc="1234">456789ABCDEF...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB2" encoding="HEX" crc="2341">1234567890A...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB3" encoding="HEX" crc="3412">890ABCDEF01245...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB4" encoding="HEX" crc="4123">456789ABCDEF...</dataitem>
</datablock>
<datablock id="DB3" type="file" name="DUMP.ASM">
<dataitem id="SB1" encoding="HEX" crc="1234">456789ABCDEF...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB2" encoding="HEX" crc="2341">1234567890A...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB3" encoding="HEX" crc="3412">890ABCDEF01245...</dataitem>
<dataitem id="SB4" encoding="HEX" crc="4123">456789ABCDEF...</dataitem>
</datablock>
</archive image file>
please don't get hung up on names, etc, The basic structure is what I have been
talking about. A utility can go into the archive file, find a <datablock>,
know what it is and extract it without having to know anything about the OS. Another
utility can read the media, datamap, and datablocks to re-create tracks in memory
to then write out to disk. There was earlier talk about years from now being able
to still re-create disks. I think that is a fine ambition, but that still requires
all the hardware and intimate OS knowledge to still be around. My idea was to at
least be able to extract the data without having to have ANY knowledge of the OS.
best regards, Steve Thatcher
Received on Thu Aug 12 2004 - 06:11:18 BST