Re: Even more changes to the comp.sys.apple2 FAQ

[gdr@eddore.myrias.com (Devin Reade)]

In article <51iq5s$qp2@darla.visi.com>, Nathan Mates <nathan@visi.com> wrote:
>This thing has almost doubled in size since I took it over a few
>months-- it's 146K now. Some of the sections I worked on over this
>weekend were connecting to the internet (#31), HD vs DD disks (#34),
>Partitioning info (35), AW -> TXT conversion (36), modems (42), GS
>printers (44), and a bunch more minor changes. Take a look at
>http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2.html

In the future, please continue telling which sections have changed
significantly.  This increases the likelyhood that someone will review
them.  (I, for one, don't have the time to go over the entire FAQ
each time.)

BTW, have you automated a monthy (biweekly?) posting of the FAQ to
csa2?

> Q#34 Can I use High Density disks on my double density Apple II drives?
>
> A: Only if you don't care about what's written to them. Basically, the
> magnetic properties of High Density disk media is different, and though
> you may be able to write to them and immediately read it back, after a
> few months, odds are pretty good that the disk is unreadable. 

This topic has come up before, so I'll repeat my statements since only
one viewpoint has gotten into the FAQ.

First of all, (AFAIK) the above statement is completely true when it
comes to DD vs HD 5-1/4" disks.

However, there seems to be a discrepancy in observed behavior with
HD 3-1/2" disks when used in the Apple 3.5" drive.  (This may also
apply to the AE and other 3.5" drives, but I can't say so one way or
another.)  I conceed that some people have reported problems, however
I've been using HD 3.5" disks (formatted as 800k) in my GS consistently
for over two years used DD before that) without any problems.

RUMOUR: It was explained to my a few years back that disk manufacturers
used identical media (re 3.5" only) in both DD and HD disks.  The
difference is that the DD disks were the ones which came from a disk lot
that experienced a higher percentage of failures when tested as HD disks.

I think that the FAQ should mention that some people have experienced
problems with HD 3.5" disks, but that results may vary.

> Q#42 [...]
>
> [...] You cannot boot copy-protected software or (or some FTA demos.)
> You can't daisy-chain a 5.25" of a HD card.

Try: 
	You cannot boot copy-protected software (or some FTA demos).
	You can't daisy-chain a 5.25" off a HD card.

Extraneous "or", period in wrong spot, and typo for "off".  There goes
another nit.

-- 
	Devin Reade	gdr@eddore.myrias.ab.ca