Re: firmware for the PseudoDisk

[sys.apple2@gmail.com]

Alex Freed wrote:

> While waiting for the production PCBs to arrive I wanted to improve on the
> firmware making the device more user-friendly.
>
> One thing I wanted is to enable using several partitions, each for its
> own ProDOS volume. Unfortunately it appears that Windows mounts
> only the FIRST partition. So even if I add FAT handling code to the
> firmware, I'll have to stick to a single partition.
>
> This is a "request to comment". What do you think is the best way
> to handle multiple images?
> ...
> 1. Make a Windows GUI   that allows writing images to the SD/MMC.
> No need for a "filesystem". Just some simple catalog of images that
> are always contiguous.

Not a good idea. This is a windows-centric approach. Even if somebody
wrote a GUI for every other platform, there are better ways to be
windows-and-everybody-else compatible.

> 2. Use FAT16 on SD/MMC to store files: .nib images and .hdv images.
> Treat them as nibble images and ProDOS volumes depending on
> extension. On boot load a program that will list the FAT catalog
> and allow selecting an image by name.

That's a much better idea as any platform can manage FAT16 disks.
You could limit the search to a predefined folder, for example a folder
called "Apple2", in the same way that the digital cameras do it.
Then we could group our (lots of) images in folders. To activate a
given set it would be as easy as renaming the proper folder to
"Apple2".
Also, please try to avoid the need for defragmenting. This is a call
for disaster ! The files tend "naturally" to be fragmented. I'm not
sure when you said in another post :

> It's relatively easy and fast to map ProDOS image's ralitive sectors
> to phisical sectors on the SD card. For nibble mode we only need
> a list of pointers to 13 blocks that represent a "track". "

Do you mean "It's relatively easy to read fragmented files" ?

Regards,
Jorge Chamorro