Date   : Tue, 12 Apr 1988 15:14:02 EDT
From   : <SAGE@LL.ARPA>
Subject: Media Master and Uniform

   I, too, was puzzled by the uncomplimentary message about Media Master.  I
have been using it on my PC computers for many years to convert numerous
CP/M formats.  I have had few, if any, problems, and I, too, have found the
manufacturer, Intersecting Concepts, to be most helpful and responsive.
 
   While on this subject, let me add some information on the relative merits
as I see them, of UNIFORM and Media Master on a PC type machine.  First I
like both of them.  Both support a vast number of formats.
 
   UNIFORM allows one of the drives to become a virtual CP/M drive, allowing
any DOS operation to be performed directly on files on the CP/M disk.  This
is very handy.  Unfortunately, UNIFORM does not know how to handle user
numbers correctly.  It warns you when there are files in user areas other
than 0, but it mashes them all together on reads.  On writes, UNIFORM
actually makes unnecessary modifications to the CP/M directory, permanently
changing user numbers of files in areas other than zero, and (most
unfortunately) destroying the order -- and hence the DateStamper time stamps
-- of all the files!  So, use UNIFORM with great caution and never on a
DateStamped disk you care about.
 
   Media Master does not create a virtual disk and is used only to perform
specific operations on files, such as copying them to or from the DOS disk. 
Media Master transfers files extremely rapidly (I don't know how they manage
that -- they are far faster than DOS itself).  UNIFORM is often very slow,
by the way (though not as horribly slow as I sometimes find it for some
foreign formats on my CP/M SB180).  Media Master does know about and deal
with user areas by allowing you to select the user area to work with (I
don't see why UNIFORM can't figure out how to do something like this, but
their programmer wrote to me that it "can't be done").  Media Master does
not damage the CP/M disk directory or time stamps.