Aley Keprt wrote: > I talked about your disk i/o module, what you programmed to > support DSK and SAD. > You did it on your own, although you could use my source.
Your original addition was just a bolt-on hack to the existing code - the new code is completely different (also being C++ rather than C). There's not much to it either - it's not as though I was rewriting hundreds of lines of code! > I don't understand why you still talk about SDF. I think everybody knows > what is it, and why is it. I'll continue to bring up as long as you continue to suggest that I created it for no good reason: "Si ignored, and made his own standard - oooh like Microsoft" > But there aren't any utils which can be used to make SDF from original > diskettes, so we can't use it. Nothing's been written yet, but I've not even finalised the SDF disk format! The images floating around were just test images that have no header, and have a fixed 80 track size (though they can be reformatted to other formats <= 80 tracks within SimCoupe). At the point SimCoupe gets an official release then there will be an SDF specification describing them. SimCoupe will support reading the old images, but will only write out the newer format ones. > So you still AGAIN and AGAIN (stupidly) ask, why do we need SAD? *sighs* > We need SAD since, we can't use SDF so simply. I can't actually remember the last time I used a util to convert from a real disk to an image. I did a batch conversion ages ago for all my real disks, and I've tended to just use those images with SimCoupe. Under W2K you can access regular format SAM disks with SimCoupe to read/write physical disks to use stuff on the real SAM, so there's no real need to frequent disk conversions. The same thing is possible under Win9x (tho much slower) and under Linux too. It's this lack of need (for me anyway) that's meant I've spent time on the main SimCoupe program rather than writing conversion utilities. I do still have the SAM program to allow a long-winded conversion of protected disks to SDF images, but I've only had to use it 4 or 5 times so far for the few protected disks I have. "We need" doesn't really include me anyway. > Generally I don't like DSK, since there's no file header and the same > extension is used by tens other emulators. They're a fixed size so they're easy to spot. If you organise your hard disk so they're under a branch for SAM stuff then there's no problem with knowing whether or not they're SAM images. It's only more complicated due to the Win32 file association for the shell, but even that is only a problem due to there being only one default handler. It's still possible to write a shell extension to handle the types along-side other programs that use the same .DSK extension. > SDF is good, but I have never seen a public converter > real_diskette->image_file. It depends whether you expect it to create an image from ANY real SAM disk - it's fine for normal format disks, but is a lot more complicated for copy-protected disks. A proper solution would end up different on each platform and require a fair amount of work. About 18 months ago you said you'd be looking at SDF<->real_disk conversion after your exams - did you ever get around to it? > DSK<-->SAD converter (2sad). Everything is free, public, and with sources. I downloaded the 2SAD utility from your page but the source wasn't included. Where can I get it from? > 1. you don't support US keyboard It should support ANY keyboard, including US, French, German etc. All you do is press the key combination you normally use to generate the symbol and the correct sequence is generated for the SAM. Perhaps you're using an ancient version, or have your keyboard set up incorrectly in Windows? What makes you think it doesn't support US keyboards anyway? > 2. you changed F1-F12 key functions So what? I also changed plenty of other things too... (anyway, Mr Pot, you changed Allan's layout as part of your SimCoupe tweaks). > So you work like Microsoft. We all know you're very pro-MS, so I'll take this as a great compliment! Thanks! ;-) > You do a very good output, but ignoring everything done by others, and > giving thousands or "reasons" why this and that was ignored. Who/what have I ignored? Do you mean that I'm not blindly accepting any enhancement suggestion made? Or that your upset that I didn't use your disk/key enhancements from the old version in the new one? There are actually more people working on SimCoupe than there ever have been before, and it's been enhanced a lot more in the last year or so than in the same period before that. Anyway Aley, why is it you're so pleasant in private e-mails to me, and such a tosser on the list? (sorry Frode, already washed my mouth out with soap!) Si
