[Coco] Rusty ole FD-501

[Chad H]

Yea sad stuff, I feel ya.  For the most part I've been happy with his command line imaging tools.  Atleast we got the source.   Some posts I saw on the net said the problem developed in newer versions of the tools and may not have been present in older versions.   It just 'Sounds' like such a simple thing though.  I mean the Side 0 operation seems fine.   What is different about what it's looking for on Side 1 of the diskette?

Browsing through his source code I noted that both utilities reference a common DISK.ASM and there lots of comments on parameters but not sure if I can discern enough of the assembly code to identify any section I could experiment with.  I was thinking perhaps it’s a timing issue (head movement time, seek time, etc) or maybe a interleave setting?

A common workaround for this problem (and I've verified that it does work) seems to be to DSKINI the floppy using his tool so that it will read back both sides properly.    The CoCo side doesn't ever seem to really care which platform formatted the disk.  I'm remembering that this is a old problem that I had almost forgotten about.  I had been using this workaround for a while.  I just don't often need to format disks on the PC so its not fresh in my memory.  If in my experimentations with his code I stumble across something that makes a positive difference concerning this issue I will let you guys no so we can store it.

On the issue of 'old code', softwares and authors/programmers....

I know these computers have been around for many decades... some of us have been familiar with them since our early teens, if not before.  Over all of those years many softwares, utilities, procedures, ideas, hardwares, etc have been developed, shared and often marketed...but most forgotten.  It's the reason we have all of these user groups and file repositories.  Those of us in this for the long haul recognize the need to preserve the work of others as well as our own for posterity and the benefit of others in the future.  YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN SOMETHING WILL BECOME USEFUL THAT HAD BEEN PREVIOSLY FORGOTTEN ABOUT! Ideas are great!  Not everyone may share your enthusiasm concerning your innovations in hardware, software or other magical trinkets you meddle with but somewhere out there people will appreciate the contribution and experience a bit of awe in the wake of your hard work. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Stephen H. Fischer
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 9:53 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] Rusty ole FD-501

It has been many decades since I used John's 6309 emulator and about that time my interest went elsewhere.

It appears that he did some things like the GUI that I never heard about.

He was very unhappy about the response his work got and put the files on RTSI and disappeared.

Looking at the files I linked you appear to be correct about the missing files. I did grab a copy of his website and that might have more, but that file should be considered lost.

When I worked on "Urbane" I used Jeff's CoCo2 Emulator as both the emulator (Text Mode only) and the Port utility worked in a "CMD" window. ConText was the editor I used, a real programmers editor.

VCC is the emulator I have used most recently and used EmuDisk, CoCoDskUtil, PORT and OS9 for file transfers.

I am using EmuDisk right now to look at .dsk files (175) and getting more and more unhappy with each additional .dsk. And it is aborting on some.

There is no tool that is the best, use what you like and switch to another one when problems occur.

Fat32 world, not interested even though I could start Windows 98 SE with a few clicks in a virtual machine. That is where all my CoCo work will be done now. If a bad program does bad things it all can be erased just by deleting the Virtual Machine file.

SHF

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chad H" <chadbh74 at hotmail.com> 
To: "'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] Rusty ole FD-501


> Well it appears there are some files missing from these archives :(
> 
> I did see the DSKINI & RETRIEVE executables...but they are identical to the ones I already have dated 6/8/2003.  Verified with FC.
> 
> There are source assembly files for the tools with a slightly newer date, but I can't be sure if the patch you mention is there.  Plus I would have to figure out what kind of assembler I can get a hold of to compile them
> 
> Interestingly, in the 'johncollyer_website.zip' there is a page on his "CoCo Tools" which seems to be a Windows XP re-write of the DSKINI/RETRIEVE functionality in a GUI.  However, no application files :(  Tried doing a google for these tools and his name with no luck.  Anyone got a copy?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Chad H
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 7:35 PM
> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Rusty ole FD-501
> 
> Thanks! I will check that out!
> 
> Sent from my Transformer Infinity
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> From: "Stephen H. Fischer" <SFischer1 at Mindspring.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 07:20 PM
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Rusty ole FD-501
> 
> That is a known bug fixed by John Collier.
> 
> ftp://www.rtsi.com/RSDOS/incoming/Coco3%206309%20Emulator.zip
> 
> ftp://www.rtsi.com/RSDOS/incoming/johncollyer_website.zip
> 
> ftp://www.rtsi.com/RSDOS/incoming/john%20collyer/
> 
> The last contains a VHD with lots of goodies.
> 
> SHF
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chad H" <chadbh74 at hotmail.com>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 5:04 PM
> Subject: [Coco] Rusty ole FD-501
> 
> 
> ...  There was a strangle glitch with the utility though, I think I've seen it before with the 5.25" drives, where it wouldn't RETRIEVE side 2 of a disk written by the CoCo until you need did this weird thing...
>> 1) eject disk
>> 2) DIR -enter-  (drive noises and DOS errors of course)
>> 3) reinsert disk and RETRIEVE then it does fine
>>
> 
> 
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