[Coco] Have no idea what to call it, but, it WAS New tool: WIRED

[Brian Blake]

On 12/4/2012 5:01 PM, Luis Antoniosi wrote:
> Also I don't have a drivepak to test, but the WIRED could be easily
> modified to support it. Just do the same way I did with sidekick.
>
> Hey Robert, you if you have time and interest to add driveapak support
> to wired i can give you all the assistance you need.
>
>

Luis,

The DrivePak really doesn't need WIRED support - here's why:

At boot, the DrivePak with CoCoNet detects what devices you currently 
have on your system. Example:

My CoCo3 and MPI have the following:

Slot 1 - HDB-DOS for DriveWire cart (yeah, I could store in the SuperIDE 
and I'll probably get around to that...)
Slot 2 - DrivePak with CoCoNet ROM
Slot 3 - SuperIDE
Slot 4 - FD-501

Let's say I've got a serial cable running from the CoCo3 to the PC, and 
I'm also running the CoCoNet server. At boot, CoCoNet will detect the 
floppy controller, the DrivePack and the CoCoNet server connected to the 
serial cable.

I can turn on the floppy by entering the command 'DRIVE 0, OFF' I gain 
access to real floppy hardware.
If I enter 'DRIVE 1,#25 ' I mount the virtual floppy in the DrivePak to 
drive 1.
If I enter 'DRIVE 2,!"C:\COCO GAMES\DONKEY.DSK"' I mount Sock Master's 
Donkey Kong stored on my PC to drive 2.
If I enter 'DRIVE 3,@"WHATEVER WEB ADDRESS AN IMAGE IS STORED"  I can 
mount an image from the internet.

I can back up from drive 0 to 1; drive 1 to 0; drive 2 to 0; whatever - 
all without having to worry about restarting the CoCo with a different 
version of the OS. Yes, it's a MAJOR pain since the virtual disk 
mounting is done from the CoCo. And unlike DriveWire, which allows you 
to switch disks via the server GUI, there's no such luck with the 
CoCoNet based products.

Yes, you can accomplish the same tasks with DriveWire/HDB-DOS, but, 
there are more steps involved. However, with DriveWire, HDB-DOS there's 
far less typing, especially if you make a typo and don't realize it...


Brian