Re: Disk Image Server Software?

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

Glenn Jones asked:

>Apple II Oasis allows a Apple II computer to connect to a PC and access disk
>images like they were local ProDOS drives.

Yes--a very useful capability.

>Is there any software that would go the other way and let an emulator
>running on a PC access Apple drives? That could be accomodated over custom
>slot hardware/serial/parallel/LocalTalk/Ethernet IP whatever?

That would involve writing another Disk ][ emulator that, instead of getting
nibbles from a disk image file, communicated with a real Apple II and asked
it to get the nibbles from a real Disk ][.  (It is necessary for the real Apple
II
to access the Disk ][, since its correct functioning is a critical real-time
control problem that cannot be overlapped with communication with the PC).

Sounds like an interesting challenge for an emulator writer...

Since both the Oasis solution and the PC-controlling-Apple solution
require a running Apple ][ and a running PC side by side, why are they
functionally different.  In the Oasis case, you type on a real Apple ][,
look at an Apple ][ monitor, and can access a Disk ][ and disk images
on a PC.  In the PC-controls-Apple solution you type on the PC, look
at its monitor, and access a Disk ][ and disk images on the PC. ;-)

>2nd question is there an emulator that lets you access disk images directly
>off of an FTP server? I think I saw that somewhere but can't seem to find it
>again.

Same kind of problem--a custom Disk ][ emulator that accesses an FTP
server.  But unless you plan to use this to write to disk images on the
server, how is this different from just associating a .dsk file with your
emulator, so that when you "open" it in your browser, it automatically
fires up your emulator with the disk mounted?

-michael

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