Re: dsk and do files

[CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)]

On Thu, 14 May 1998 04:43:38 -0500, Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>
wrote:

>Jeff Blakeney wrote:
>> 
>> In the case of SDK disks, GSHK cannot unpack 5.25" disk archives that
>> are not formatted for ProDOS.  It can create them, but it cannot
>> unpack them.  You have to use the 8 bit ShrinkIt to unpack them.
>
>     This seems to be a fairly common belief which may, to some degree,
>have been propagated by earlier versions of our FAQs. (The ambiguity was
>corrected in Revision 003.)

Umm, I think you need to go to Revision 004.  I just did some testing
and found that you and I were both partly correct.

GSHK cannot create 5.25" disk archives of non-ProDOS disks.  I just
tried it with a DOS 3.3 disk and got a dialog saying that GSHK
couldn't pack it and to use the 8 bit version.

However, I redid my test with the DOS 3.3 FST enabled (it was disabled
during my first test) and GSHK did create the SDK file from a DOS 3.3
disk and also unpacked it properly.  GSHK still couldn't unpack an SDK
created with the 8 bit ShrinkIt.

I didn't try it with Pascal but I'm sure it would work the same as DOS
3.3.

However, this still means that GSHK cannot create 5.25" disk archives
from DOS 3.2 disks, CP/M disks or any other disks that can't be read
as ProDOS, DOS 3.3 or Pascal.

To summarize:

Create     8 bit     GSHK w/FST   GSHK w/FST
SDK from  ShrinkIt    disabled     enabled
-------- ---------- ------------ ------------
ProDOS      Yes         N/A          Yes
DOS 3.3     Yes         No           Yes
Pascal      Yes         No           Yes
Other       Yes         No           No

NOTE 1: Non-ProDOS SDK files created with GSHK can only be unpacked
using GSHK.

NOTE 2: GSHK can only unpack non-ProDOS SDK files created with GSHK or
regular ProDOS SDK files.

Please note that I haven't run all these test. I'm just extrapolating
from the documentation and my own testing.  Someone should really test
it all before adding it to any sort of online reference.

>> Not
>> only that, but you have to have a blank disk ready before you can
>> unpack shrunk disks.
>
>     Yes; however, ShrinkIt (and GS-ShrinkIt) actually handles things a
>bit more smoothly here than the popular DSK file utilities. ShrinkIt
>will format a blank diskette when it moves an .SDK or .SHK disk archive
>to diskette. ASIMOV and DSK2FILE require that the target diskette for a
>DSK file conversion be pre-formatted.

There are still some quirks to using ShrinkIt and GSHK when unpacking
SDK files.

In ShrinkIt (8 bit version), you don't have the ability to catalog
non-ProDOS disks before you unpack a shrunk disk onto it.

In GSHK (16 bit version), you don't have the ability to catalog any
disks before you unpack a shrunk disk onto it.  That is, if you don't
have some system extension (CDA, NDA, et al).

So, unless you do some work before running either version of ShrinkIt,
you may be stuck having to quit to find out whether it is safe to use
a paticular disk to unpack the shrunk disk onto.

And if the shrunk disk has a .SHK suffix instead of a .SDK, then
chances are you won't think to make sure you have blank disks before
starting either version of ShrinkIt.

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