Re: GCR <--CP/M --> MS-DOS and vice versa?

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

In article
<Pine.GSO.3.95.iB1.0.1030306052820.29043A-100000@halifax.chebucto.ns.ca>, Tony
Cianfaglione <ab616@chebucto.ns.ca> writes:

>Could a common ground be found, using these formats, to read/write Apple
>II disks on a PC.  Since both computers can use CP/M, could software be
>written to convert MFM material to CP/M which is then written to a disk.
>The disk is then put in a II and read via software into something the II
>can understand from CP/M.  Material could be written to CP/M on teh II and
>put into a PC to translate form CP/M.
>
>Let me guess...there is GCR CP/M and MFM CP/M and neither the twain shall 
>meet? :-(

That's right.  Disk encoding is a a lower level of abstraction than file
system structures.

MFM and GCR are disk encodings.  CP/M, FAT, and ProDOS, for
example, are file system structures.

Having a "bridge" between file systems does not address the fundamental
incompatibility of disk encoding differences.

Curiousity is a wonderful thing, but I would agree with some other posters
that too much attention is being given to a topic which is the computer
equivalent of "can we build a perpetual motion machine".

The problem of GCR/MFM disk interchange is _not_ solvable by software.

If someone offered you a program which would make your 115v computer
compatible with 220v without any hardware changes, would you believe him?
I hope not.  ;-)

-michael

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