Date   : Tue, 31 Jul 2001 04:08:02 -0700 (PDT)
From   : Thomas Harte <t.harte@...>
Subject: Re: Stealing a proper disc image format

>  I might have just the thing for you: [...] Vincent Jougin's
>  own proprietary disk image format, FDI

I did actually write a personal email to James Boulton (author of an ST)
emulator about FDI after a tip off from Simon Owen (author of the SAM Coupé
emulator), but he either isn't using it yet or I didn't make my intention
very clear because the conversation led to him sharing his WD1770 emulating
source code which supports just ADF and ST.

Anyway, I'm not really going anywhere with that, except to say that I did
actively pursue information about the format only to not find it. You don't
have a link or anything do you?

>  For example:  The author of UAE (the Amiga emulator) said in public that
>  reading Amiga floppies on standard PC hardware is 100% *impossible*
>  because of hardware limitations.  Disk2FDI is the first PC utility that
>  actually accomplishes this, ever.  (You're gonna love Vincent's trick!)

It does seem impossible without one of the hardware hacks (e.g. additionally
connecting pin 24 or 34 of the floppy disc, I forget which, to the status
line of the parallel port and having super timing capbility) due to the
usual FM vs MFM and gap data requirements. Vincent's obviously a very
devious person.

Incidentally, do you need two drives of the same size, or will any two do?
Also, without knowing much about the way the PC handles things, presumably
they both need to be on the PC cable that seems to be for floppy discs
rather than the more general one? Otherwise a floppy disc and hard (or ZIP)
disc would seem to fit the bill and everyone has those.

While I'm posting here on the list, my Advanced Plus 3 has an external and
disconnectable drive with a socket that looks exactly like the PC one but
the wrong way around (you know, both the PC connector and the drive are
either female or male I just don't know which is which), is it possible to
connect that to a PC?

>  I realize this is pretty young software (not "grown up" as such), but I
>  thought that you should at least know about its existance, and
>  particularly about the FDI format.  

Its better than trying to achieve something myself. Have you got a URL?

-Thomas (who is still quite clueless about disc drives, but will soon
overcome this)





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