Re: Is ProDOS supported in OSX?

[Roger Johnstone <rojaws@es.co.nz>]

In <ehgRa.10802$kI5.677@nwrddc02.gnilink.net> M. Pender wrote:
 
> Given time, Apple will probably eliminate floppies entirely.  So then 
> should I transfer all my old files to Zip disk?  Or CDROM?  Or 
> floptical? Or magneto-optical?  Perhaps QIC-80 tape?

Um, Apple eliminated the floppy drive from all their new Macs almost _
five_ years ago. Apart from JWolf, no one really noticed.

> Perhaps Apple should think about improving the operating system so 
> that basic driver support doesn't have to be "shoehorned" into the 
> code.

Mac OS X was, for the Mac at least, a completely new operating system. 
Apple had to add parts to OpenStep to turn it into a Macintosh OS. They 
had to decide which bits were worth rewriting for the new OS and which 
bits to leave out. As much as you or I would like to be able to access 
ProDOS disks directly, you can hardly blame them for leaving out support 
for a disk format for a non-Mac platform which hadn't been in production 
for 8 years.

> IMHO the problem is not the inherent stupidity in eliminating the 
> floppy drive, but in offering a 3.5" USB drive that doesn't support 
> the same media as the drive it supposedly replaces.

Apple doesn't offer any 3.5" floppy drives at all. The only drives 
available are third-party ones. But again, the last Macs that only had 
an 800KB drive were made around 1990, so for the vast majority it isn't 
a problem. Unfortunately for _us_, we are the tiny minority who would 
like a drive that can read 800KB disks, but tiny minorities make for 
very small markets :o)

-- 
Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand

Apple II - FutureCop:LAPD - iMac Game Wizard
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~rojaws/
________________________________________________________________________
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons"

  Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949