Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!njin!limonce
From: limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Another 1.4 Request (was: Re: Reading a 3.5" floppy on an XT bri...)
Keywords: CROSSDOS MSDOS ATARIDOS DOS-TO-DOS
Message-ID: 
Date: 1 Oct 89 04:21:21 GMT
References:  <1638@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US>
Distribution: na
Organization: Drew University/NJIN
Lines: 28

With the advent of MFM.DEVICE, doesn't it sound like 1.4 should
include the same capabilities as the Mac's SuperDrive?  I got very
jealous listening to a radio commercial by Apple about how some
company can collate all their data from all their computers on the
"Mac With SuperDrive" when doing their presentations.

Will 1.4 be able to automatically detect a file system and switch
drivers?  I know that FFS will now read OFS disks (under 1.4) but is
that because it switches drivers or because it handles things as
special cases when there are differences?

If 1.4 can/could autoswitch, it would seem that automatically
detecting MS-DOS/ST disks, FFS, OFS, C-64, etc disks and reading them
would be a VERY big deal.  I *think* the Mac needs special software to
do it; being able to access those files in all the "usual" ways would
be great.

Best of all, this is something that's do-able; not a pipe dream.  (Of
course, everyone would have to update their drivers to support the new
Tscafd Standard... oh, did I mention that I named the standard after
myself :-) [Tom's Super Cool Auto Format Detection])

-Tom
-- 
Drew University   -- Tom Limoncelli
C M Box 1060      -- limonce@pilot.njin.net
P O Box 802       -- tlimonce@drunivac.Bitnet
Madison, NJ 07940 -- 201-408-5389