Re: Focus Drive //e woes

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

William Katz wrote:
> Mark Percival <mark.percival@a2central.com.remove-lup-this> wrote:
>
> > To: wkatz
> > William Katz wrote:
> >
> >
> > > You mention something about a CF card adapter?  I saw some CF card
> > > adapters on Ebay, but it looks like that adapter has a standard 40pin IDE
> > > connector on it.  How would I connect that to the Focus Card, that has a
> > > 44pin laptop-style connector?
> >
> > I bought something like this.
> >
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280067054389
> >
> > Works great.
>
>
> I think I will get that too, and a CF card as well.  Of course, that will 
> still leave me with having to find a way to partition it for use with my 
> Focus Card.
>
> Why was that Focus Utility only made for the //gs?  One would think there 
> should be something for the //e? Oh well.

I asked the same question of Tony Diaz in the 1990's.   It seemed
strange to offer a drive for the //e that couldn't be maintained
on the //e.

I offered to convert it to run on the //e if he had the source.  He sent
it and, when I took a look, I found something so bloated and foreign to
the //e that I would have had to start from scratch.

Since 99% of the voluminous code is just managing the quirky
GUI interface, and the only end result is writing out a block
containing the partition table, it shouldn't be too hard to do
on a //e.  But at the time, I recall having a hard time even
*finding* the structure and content of the partition table!
(I should try to find those files and see if I can figure it
out now...)

Since in the interim I had picked up a IIgs, I dropped the effort.

For me, it came to embody the fundamental problem of GUI-oriented
code:  huge effort and complexity in managing the GUI compared to
tiny effort on functionality.  The functionality of partitioning
could be captured nicely--with a very usable text interface--in
about 200 lines of Applesoft!

> Maybe I should consider getting a MicroDrive from SHH? I think they 
> provide a way to partition drives in an Apple //e?

That's a way to avoid the problem...and one of the reasons why
I expected a //e partitioning capability for the Focus.

-michael

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