Date   : Sun, 22 Apr 2001 01:31:56 +0200
From   : Isabel Cisternas & Robert Schmidt <rschmidt@...>
Subject: Re: PC-BBC 4

Timothy Dalton wrote:
> So, I would download the 2 seperate image sides, mix them in BBCExplorer as
> one disk image, and then write this disc image to a BBC disk in FDC?

If FDC is set up to accept such an image.  Like most problems around
free software, people are very much on their own... :-)  (Especially
around *old* free software.)  Personally, I don't remember anything of
FDC usage, and "bbcim" is hidden by my own batch files.

*Rummaging in batch files many years old*

Here's my command for interleaving two single sided, single density
images, to a double sided, single density image (shortened if the inputs
are):

bbcim -interss sd 0.ssd 2.ssd image.dsd

For double density, use dd instead of sd.
There is a bbcim command for expanding an image to full length, which
you can find in the docs (an unprocessed man page, IIRC).

I'm not that familiar with BBC Explorer, as bbcim has always done the
trick for me.

> So, why don't the images come interleaved and un-shortened anyway?!!!
> And where on the BBC Lives can I find these images?

Are these the images in http://bbc.nvg.org/dir.php3?dir=disk/watford
we're talking about?  Maybe not, as these are full size, separate sided
images.  I think these were read with FDC, by a generous pair of BBC
fans at the time "The BBC Lives!" was born.

As with most giveaways and "charity" efforts on the net, some tinkering
is involved to get things to work at each user's end.  You can't always
expect to get things that work right out of the ZIP...

Cheers,
Robert