Date   : Tue, 07 Sep 1999 18:40:27 +0100
From   : Iain Williamson <Iain@...>
Subject: Re: Macintosh -> BBC disk image transfer

In message <Pine.LNX.4.10.9909070833040.19235-100000@...>
          James Woodman <jrw@...> wrote:

> On Tue, 7 Sep 1999, FARAZ CHOUDHRY wrote:
> 
> > Man, you shouldn't have got rid of your A310.
> 
> True.  But then I should never have got rid of my BBC A, or all the
> programs I had for it...

Well, I can't see anything wrong with that statement ;-)
> 
> > I personally also think Acorns are better than Apples!
> 
> No contest, I agree.  But the A310 was old, only had a floppy drive and
> 1Mb of RAM, and I needed a new computer.  The Mac was a lot cheaper than
> a RiscPC.

...and you couldn't quite face going PC. Understandable.
> 
[snip] 
> > I would imagine though that the files are unaltered in compatibiliy
> > with actual Beebs and so just serial link to it.
> 
> That's tomorrow's project.  Don't suppose you've got any advice about
> soldering 8-pin mini-DIN connectors, have you?  The pins are far too
> close together, and don't have any solder buckets (or whatever the
> indent things are called) -- they're just spikes.

Tin them. Use a pair of pliers, a steady hand, and a sharp eye.
> 
> > A 65x02 file is the same, I would imagine, whichever it's loaded into,
> > any emulator or the real thing.
> 
> I'll try it and see when I get the lead sorted out.

The raw files should be the same, otherwise you couldn't really call
the thing an emulator, if it didn't at least try to be a beeb!

The disc image files are pretty basic, I think, but should contain
everything on the disc assuming you're using a standard format.
IIRC it's just straightforward track-by-track bytes - little endian.
Can't remember whether it does one side then t'other, or does both
sides of each track in turn IYSWIM. I used to know, because I wrote a
simple decoder once.
-- 
  /""\       Iain Williamson
 C  oo      Software engineer 
 _(  ^)
/    ~\