[Coco] emulator speeds(was "Parts is parts")

[RJRTTY at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/1/05 7:09:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
golgotha at toughguy.net writes:

<< I never could get this emulator to read/write real coco floppies via my 
 5 1/4 inch drive - the specs of DMK's emulator says it can do so, but no 
 documentation ever said how - can you shed any light on it?
 
 Regards,
 David >>

      Well,  I don't have my reference materials available at the moment
except for documentation of operation of  the function bottons so
if I screw up please somebody correct me....  :)

      First thing is I use the Kiel emulator exclusively on older hardware.
Namely a 486 DX4 and an early pentium laptop (circa 1999).   The only
drive I have ever used to transfer original SSDD 35 trk coco disks is
a true 5 1/4" 360k DSDD disk drive mounted as the "B" drive for
the 486 running Win 95 and Win 98.    I have never used a new 1.2M
5 1/4'"  DSHD drive to transfer a coco disk.     You can READ a coco disk
with such a drive but you can't WRITE or create one.    If you write to
a real coco disk with a HD drive (without special software) it will
probably be unreliable when used later on a real coco drive.

         I did try the emulator on a P3 machine when they were "new"
and it booted up ok and I was able to use DSK  images in the
virtual drives but thats as far as I went.    I dont know what version
of Windows it was but it was probably Win 2000.    I have booted
the emulator up in XP but I never did anything with it.    I hear on
this list that XP wont allow any emulator direct access to real
drives anymore so  it probably wont work under those conditions.

       Start by producing a print out of the manual and definitions
of the function keys so you can follow along.

       I'm assuming you have successfully mounted the DECB rom
image in slot 4 of the virtual MPI ,the virtual slot select switch
is set to slot 4 and you rebooted the emulator showing the DECB
startup screen with the appropriate header message.

        Let me say now I have only created and used SSDD 35 TRK
DSK images with this emulator.   I have no experience with 40 TRK,
80 TRK, or double sided  DSK images.      I also have no experience
with DMK disk images of any kind although they are supported.    I
mainly use this emulator to convert real coco disks into PC files that
can be archived and transmitted on the net.    I have used
it to develop some coco software because it is often more convienent
than a real coco and of course I use it to produce a fresh copy of
a real coco disk when I need it.   (it's also fun to see what a coco
looks like running at ten times the speed of the original.   Like
maybe what a coco4 would have been like if it had been built. :)  )

        Using the virtual drives on the emulator means loading one of two
types of "XXXXXXXX.DSK"  type pc files.  One type is a DSK
copy of a real coco disk.  The other is a special driver file which
targets a real disk drive on the PC allowing you to use it as a
virtual coco floppy drive.
For example, below is a partial list of these driver files included with the
emulator.

FILENAME:            TARGETS:

"FDD0_360.DSK" ...5 1/4" 360K DSDD floppy pc drive "A"
"FDD1_360.DSK" ...5 1/4" 360K DSDD floppy pc drive "B"
"FHD0_720.DSK" ...3 1/2" 1.44M DSHD floppy pc drive "A"
"FHD1_720.DSK" ...3 1/2" 1.44M DSHD floppy pc drive "B" 

          For example, if you want to use the 5 1/4" DSDD drive B
on your pc as virtual coco floppy drive 1 on your virtual coco
simply load the "FDD1_360.DSK" file onto your virtual coco's floppy
drive 1.
    The steps to do this are:

 From the virtual coco screen:
       step 1    "F9" function key to select floppy drive status screen
              2     cursor down arrow to select drive 1
              3    "ENTER" to bring up DSK directory screen
              4     cursor down arrow to select "FDD1_360.DSK"
              5     "ENTER"
              6     "F9" function key to return to coco screen

 Now your virtual coco will use the pc's "B" floppy drive as coco
virtual floppy drive 1.  Insert your real coco floppy disk into your
pc's drive "B" and read or write to it with DECB commands from
the virtual coco screen like a real coco.

         Now, create a new virtual coco floppy disk in virtual coco floppy
drive 0 using the [C]reate command from the pc file directory accessed
from  the virtual floppy drive status screen as done above.  You will be
prompted for a name then go back to the main coco screen and use
the DSKINI command to format it.

          Now, from the virtual coco screen, use the DISKCOPY
command to copy virtual floppy Drive 1 to virtual floppy Drive 0
by entering:

         diskcopy 1 to 0

When it's finished, you have a copy of the real coco disk in
your pc's floppy drive "B" as the "XXXXXXXX.DSK" pc file in
virtual floppy coco drive 0.

Going the other way and starting with the same
setup as above.  To make a new real coco
disk copy of a virtual coco floppy disk pc file "XXXXXXXX.DSK",
go to the virtual floppy drive status screen then 
into the file list as before.  Navigate to
the "XXXXXXXX.DSK"  pc disk file you want
to copy and enter it into virtual coco floppy drive 0.  Place a
real blank disk in pc drive "B" (format with DSKINI if necessary).
Then:

        diskcopy 0 to 1

When finished, you have a real coco floppy in your
pc's drive "B".

       One strange problem with the emulator is when
you mount a virtual coco floppy DSK file on a pc
drive "A"  (usually a 3 1/5 " 1.44mb floppy drive) and
a real coco floppy in pc drive "B" ( the 5 1/4" 360k floppy drive)
a diskcopy in either direction will USUALLY error out.
Reliable diskcopy operations require that at least one
of the DSK files reside on the pc's hard drive.    Diskcopy
operations between the pc's "A" drive and the pc's
"B" drive often error's out.     This adds an extra step
if you need to diskcopy a real coco floppy to a DSK
file on pc floppy drive "A".  You will need to place the
virtual floppy file onto the pc's hard drive and then copy
that same file onto the other pc drive.

That's about it and it's probably full of errors so
no warranty given or implied :) 

hope this helps

Roy