archive file format exmaple

[Steve Thatcher]

that is real simple. You have a physical section that says it is a sequential block of data. You point to the data block that has a length. End of image file in the case.

If you know nothing about the format, all you can do is save a sequential data block.

I would still separate the two out for strictly consistency sake, so you can get the data easiliy to analyze. Once anlyzed, the a new image file could be generated with more info.

best regards, Steve Thatcher

-----Original Message-----
From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf at siconic.com>
Sent: Aug 12, 2004 5:59 PM
To: Steve Thatcher <melamy at earthlink.net>, 
	"General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: archive file format exmaple

On Thu, 12 Aug 2004, Steve Thatcher wrote:

> I agree in all what Hans had to say except for how data would be stored.
> This is supposed to be an archive format which would in my view preclude
> getting data from the outside world. My only other concern as I have
> stated before was that data should not be an integral part of the media.
> If a device happens to be a tape drive, the data on the tape still
> separates into "file" type data and overhead data required for the tape
> physical format. Enbedding the "file" tyupe data inside of the physical
> format makes the data inaccessible without special knowledge.

Steve,

What if you don't know what a tape you are archiving contains in the first
place?  What if you just want to preserve it in case someone else in the
future can figure it out?

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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