[Coco] dw 3

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 9:06 AM, Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net> wrote:
> Darren A wrote:
>>
>> On 11/21/10, Robert Gault<robert.gault at att.net>  wrote:
>>>
>>> The main point is that with 256 disks per drive#, copying from/to
>>> floppies
>>> should not present any real problems. It is copying from one DW slot to
>>> another
>>> which is the main problem which is easily solved with a RAM disk designed
>>> to
>>> work with HDBDOS.
>>>
>> ---
>>
>> Setting up a RAM disk along with DriveWire is an extra step that only
>> complicates the process (assuming it's possible). Even then you have
>> to make multiple BACKUPs to achieve the desired result.  Then there is
>> the fact that some people may be using DriveWire on a CoCo 1 or 2
>> where a RAM disk really isn't an option.
>>
>> Having a switchable setting in the server that allows each slot to be
>> treated like a single floppy disk seems like an elegant solution to
>> the problem.
>>
>> Darren
>>
>
> Darren,
> I think you are saying that the switch should permit drives 0-3 to be drive0
> on each Drivewire slot instead of drives 0-3 on a single Drivewire slot. If
> that is the case, copying files from one slot to another is not much simpler
> than using a floppy for the transfer.
> To be most effective, the DW switch would need to be able to select any
> drive 0-255 per slot. If, for example, slot 0 was drive1, slot1 drive23,
> slot2 drive152, and slot3 drive237, and the Coco could address these as
> drives 0-3, then you would have an optimal solution.
>

Hrmm we may have some wires crossed.  What the switch does is to
ignore the drive sent in the DW op call altogether, and instead map to
a disk image based on the sector being read or written to.  Sectors
0-629 point to "disk 0", 630-1259 are "disk 1", and so on all the way
up to disk 255.  DRIVE #0-3 makes no difference, DRIVE 0-255 does.

> The only way I can see this working is if the DW gui had a toggle to select
> normal HDBDOS operation or the option to select a drive# for each slot
> (0-255) while the Coco addressed the slots as 0-3. The gui would need to
> display the actual drive value per slot so the user did not get confused
> when using the alternate scheme of operation.
> The user had better not use higher drive numbers (4-255) with the alternate
> scheme active, because HDBDOS would not function correctly.
>
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