Re: Virtual serial drive

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

D Finnigan <dog_cow@macgui.com> wrote:
> Michael J. Mahon wrote:
>> David Schmidt <schmidtd@my-deja.com> wrote:
>>> On 9/14/2012 1:35 PM, Michael J. Mahon wrote:
>>>> David Schmidt <schmidtd@my-deja.com> wrote:
>>>>> On 9/13/2012 6:19 PM, Sean Fahey wrote:
>>>>>> On Thursday, September 13, 2012 1:34:20 PM UTC-5, Michael J. Mahon
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Be careful--the next logical step is having your IIc just be a
>>>>>>> terminal for
>>>>>>> an emulator running on the PC. And the serial link is too slow for
>>>>>>> graphics!
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I do like the idea of getting the time/date with each vdisk access...
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Well... let's toy with this idea. Why not a small form factor machine,
>>>>>> like a Raspberry Pi or similar mini 'PC' that could provide HD
>>>>>> partitions (and/or disk serving), clock functions (at least date and
>>>>>> time stamping) and serial to ethernet connectivity at the same time?
>>>>>> That's the kind of love the //c (and IIc+) could benefit from.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Until the SPVHD is shipping again (it's supposed to be getting a clock
>>>>>> driver too), a serial solution may be the only viable option for a
>>>>>> long time.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Is there a protocol for transporting the date/time somewhere I can look
>>>>> at?  Is there maybe a status request I can implement or something?
>>>> 
>>>> I'd suggest putting it into every vdisk protocol packet from the host in
>>>> 4-byte ProDOS format. Then the client could just copy it to the ProDOS
>>>> global page.
>>> 
>>> That's straightforward.  Does it have to be every disk access - or could
>>> it happen at initialization time and be done?
>> 
>> Ideally every block read. Then the time-date stamps would all be accurate
>> to the second, and any program wanting the info could just pick it up from
>> the global page. 
> 
> I don't understand your rationale, "accurate to the second," because as I
> understand it, the ProDOS date and time format doesn't store seconds.

Of course--should have thought longer. ;-)

So the time will be accurate to the minute. 

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon