Archiving Software

[Allison]

>
>Subject: RE: Archiving Software
>   From: "Cini, Richard" <Richard.Cini at wachovia.com>
>   Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 08:16:24 -0500
>     To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'"	<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>For archiving MSDOS disks I use ZIP files unless the disk is bootable, in
>which case I use readimg/writimg (Microsoft utilities).
>
>For cross-platform archiving, the only thing I've done so far is on the
>Apple, using ADT.
>
>However, ADT brings-up an idea. In my Altair emulator, we have a CP/M
>utility on one of the disk images which allows you to transfer files from
>the host to the emulator space and back (read.com and write.com I think).
>The program uses an invalid opcode trap to communicate with the host file
>system. You would use a program to convert a CP/M COM program on the host to
>an Intel HEX file which is then read into the CP/M environment through the
>trap mechanism. The reverse would happen except that the "write" does not
>convert it to Intel HEX -- it deposits it as a CP/M COM file.

There are programs for CP/M to handel hexfiles:

LOAD creates a com file from hex (CP/M standard tool)
DDT/SID/ZSID can do the same.

Unload is a PD program (small) that can create an intel hexfile from
a .com file  (the reverse of load).

Those two with PIP file.foo=CON: [or rdr:] can move files in or out
on a serial port.

There are many ways of doing this.

Allison

>The source is on one of the disk images. There's no reason why it couldn't
>be enhanced to move entire disk images instead of just files, and since it's
>a CP/M utility it should work on any CP/M system. Unfortunately I don't have
>enough experience in programming for CP/M, nor the time right now, to do it.
>
>Rich
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org]
>On Behalf Of Jules Richardson
>Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 7:02 AM
>To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>Subject: Re: Archiving Software
>
>M H Stein wrote:
>> Aside from bootable system disks, for which Dave Dunfield's imaging
>program
>> seems to be a much better solution than Teledisk, what's the best way to 
>> archive software in a way that makes it as universally useable as possible
>and 
>> downloadable/emailable?
>
>ImageDisk seems like a definite step in the right direction - it's certainly
>
>done a brilliant job when I've tried it.
>
>What it now needs IMHO is multi-platform support so that you don't *have* to
>
>use DOS and so that it can be used by more people. (Whether a Windows
>version 
>is viable I don't know; certainly Linux seems to give you all sorts of ways
>to 
>reach the bare hardware though - presumably *BSD would be the same)
>
>Other than that it seems a viable tool to use - the file format has a
>comment 
>field of unlimited length for any useful metadata, and is able to record
>where 
>bad spots were on the original disk.
>
>> For example, I have original distribution diskettes for CP/M Wordstar, 
>> Supercalc, etc. on 8" disks. Obviously images wouldn't be very useful for 
>> someone with only 5" drives or no 8" drive on the PC; on the other hand, 
>> a DOS ZIP file of the files on that disk would have to be copied/converted
>
>> back to a CP/M format disk somehow. 
>
>Well the ImageDisk file format's public - I suppose there's nothing to stop 
>someone writing utilities to pull data out of an image at the file level,
>then 
>spitting them across a serial link with a terminal app to the original 
>hardware. Or converting them back into a 5.25" image file, say.
>
>Getting the data off (and knowing you've captured it all) and onto modern 
>media is probably more important than what tools someone may use in the
>future 
>to interpret the data. Providing it's all captured of course!
>
>> So, how are the rest of you dealing with this?
>
>Burying heads in sand I suspect :) I've finally got a PC that'll handle FM 
>data (I think it was the 7th one I tried!), so I can start imaging my own 
>collection. Luckily I just have soft-sectored MFM/FM disks here; no 
>hard-sectored stuff, GCR encoded media etc.
>
>I need to make the host machine dual-boot DOS/Linux so I can just use DOS to
>
>the actual reading/writing, then Linux for everything else (archival, any 
>processing of the files, taking advantage of being able to use longer 
>filenames etc.).
>
>I'll give DOSEMU a try under Linux to see if it'll run ImageDisk, but I 
>suspect it won't allow the necessary direct access to the hardware... but
>I'm 
>happy to dedicate a box to disk imaging, so it doesn't really matter if the 
>Linux floppy subsystem gets clobbered in the process. I suspect that
>ImageDisk 
>won't even run under DOSEMU though.
>
>
>cheers
>
>Jules