Re: GS/OS for xgs emulator?

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

"Dan Yertzell" <Dan-Yertzell@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Sheldon Simms <sheldon@atlcom.net> wrote:
> In article <01bc2e89$b89e2360$c95092cf@system1>, "Dan Yertzell"
>> <Dan-Yertzell@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>>
>> > So many problems could have been avoided if Apple had followed the
>> > standard for disk drives and formats, instead of going their own way.
>> >
>> > <sigh> . . . .
>>
>> Say what? Apple's formats preceeded PC formats for both 5.25 and 3.5
>> inch disks. Apple didn't ignore any "standard".
>>
>
>But PC formats followed the already established standard of *digital*
>recording.  Apple's is analog, and *that* is the incompatibility. 
>There was a standard (though not a "PC" standard) and Apple ignored it.
>
>Dan

Oh my God.  Dan, I may disagree with Nate's attitude toward people
asking innocent questions, but this kind of Apple II bashing deserves
a reply.

The Apple used a different encoding method, but it was nevertheless
digital.  You can copy an Apple II 5.25 (or Macintosh or Apple II/GS
3.5" 800K GCR) disk a hundred times and the data does not degrade.
Try THAT with your analog cassette tapes!

Look, an Apple IIgs with a high density 3.5" floppy can handle BOTH
MFM and GCR.  The SWIM chip uses MFM to read and write 1.44MB floppies,
but GCR to read and write 800K floppies.  I can copy files from MFM
to GCR back and forth for hundreds of times and the file contents will
not change.  This proves that both are digital.  If I copied a song
between an ANALOG high bias cassette tape and a DIGITAL Sony minidisc
a couple of hundred times, the song will quickly degrade because
each time the song lands on the analog tape and is redigitized to
the digital minidisc, it changes a little.

BTW, if you want to talk about standards, the Commodore 64/128 and
almost all of the low cost home computers of the early 80's used
GCR encoded disks.  The controlling hardware was cheaper and simpler,
it seemed.

As for Apple using its own controller: Woz thought up a floppy
controller with something like 4 chips compared to the 35 that
HP was using.

-Scott G.