Re: GS/OS for xgs emulator?

["Dan Yertzell" <Dan-Yertzell@worldnet.att.net>]

Rob <roberta@inreach.com> wrote in article <33279E7A.782F@inreach.com>...

> Standard?  Your talking about a time when there where over a half dozen
> different computer formats (IBM, Apple, Commodore, TSR-80, Atari, etc.) 
> To come out with something that didn't follow the "standard" was kind of
> the standard back then.  To come out with a disk that would be readable
> on another computer, 10 years later, was not the most important thing on
> Apples' mind at the time.  Who knows, if things had turned out
> differently, you could be making statements about how IBM didn't follows
> Apple's standard for recording floppy disk.

You are still missing my point (I think).  The standard I am referring to
was the method of recording a disk, not the format of the disk.  For
example: think back to all those CPM machines in the late 70's and early
80's.  One of the major stumbling blocks to CPM *really* catching on was
that every manufacturer had their own disk "format".  But they all used the
same *recording* method: a Western Digital (or compatible) disk controller
chip.  Thus, all these years later, it is possible to read virtually *any*
CPM disk on a "modern" machine (PC) just with software.  There has long
been a shareware package called "22Disk" which does just that, it reads 22
different CPM "formats".  The reason?   Because they followed the standard.
 One exception to all this is, of course, Apple CPM via a CPM card. 

It may surprise some people here to know that computers and disk drives
existed before the Apple or IBM PC.  Or that when Apple was OEMing disk
drives from Shugart way back when, they were just getting the bare drive
mechanism with no electronics, and stuffing their own boards in them (the
Analog card).  If they had bought the complete drive package, they could
have been compatible with the rest of the world.

Still, I see your point about "standards" back then.  Everyone was trying
to go it alone and become *the* standard.  But I've always thought this was
a huge mistake for Apple, and it has always been a thorn in the side of
anyone who had an Apple and then moved on to anything else except another
Apple.  

If we each had a nickel for everytime we've read/replied to a message
asking "How do I read my Apple disks on my shiny new _________  computer?" 
  :-)

Dan