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Re: best format for distribution (SHK? DSK? ZIP?)



On 8/2/2010 6:46 AM, N.N. Thayer wrote:
On Jul 31, 2:11 pm, Ivan X<ivan...@yahoo.com>  wrote:
Hello A2 world,

If I'm planning on distributing more of the Apple II software I've written
on my web page, what's considered to be the best format(s) for distribution
these days?

The reason I ask is that I pretty much spend my time in Apple //e emulators,
so I'm biased towards 140K disk image files because they're most convenient
for me, and also quickly converted to disks via ADT Pro for those who are
set up to do so.

However, I realize some users download directly to their Apple II's,
especially IIgs users; if so, I'd think image files would be less convenient
because they require making back into disks, or utilities are needed to
extract files from them, and I'm not even sure what exists for that, if
anything.

So, what's best? DSK? SDK? ZIP? SHK? 800K(PO)? Some combination of these?
Something else?

As an aside, what zip decoders exist? Any for 8-bit machines? Likewise, are
there any tools for extracting files from disk images? (I wrote a
ProDOS-based utility for extracting files from 3.3 images many years ago,
which was crude but functional, and may be one of the items I want to put up
if there isn't something better out there.)

Thanks,
Ivan.

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I've found DSK to be the best format for what I work with - which is
almost strictly 140K DOS 3.3/ProDOS disks, for use with ADTPro and
AppleWin.  For all my imaging and testing, this has been the single
most convenient format and I've never seen a reason to switch away,
except for copy-protection issues.

I agree.  The whole .do/.po distinction is now largely mooted by
emulators and utilities that recognize sector order on-the-fly and
present whatever is needed.

The only problems occur when using Apple II-based software to make
real disks from images, since much of this software does not discover
sector order from inspection, nor take explicit parameters to set it,
but expects the order to be correctly specified by the suffix alone.

-michael

NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."