• Needed: Non-Windows disk image manipulator

    From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Wed Jan 18 08:31:34 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Hi, Y'all
    About 10 years ago I posted in this group about wanting an Apple ][ emulator that would run on my then new Chromebook. Now, thanks to DOSBox, I'm able to run ApplePC which satisfies my current Apple ][ environment testing needs. But now I'm in need of an image manipulator, like AppleCider, that doesn't need Windows, i.e. can run in DOSBox. Is there such a beast???
    Willi
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From fadden@thefadden@gmail.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Wed Jan 18 14:34:00 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 8:31:35 AM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    About 10 years ago I posted in this group about wanting an Apple ][ emulator that would run on my then new Chromebook. Now, thanks to DOSBox, I'm able to run ApplePC which satisfies my current Apple ][ environment testing needs. But now I'm in need of an image manipulator, like AppleCider, that doesn't need Windows, i.e. can run in DOSBox. Is there such a beast???
    To be clear: you want a command-line utility that runs in MS-DOS?
    What do you want it to do?
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From I am Rob@gids.rs@sasktel.net to comp.emulators.apple2 on Wed Jan 18 15:15:58 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    About 10 years ago I posted in this group about wanting an Apple ][ emulator that would run on my then new Chromebook. Now, thanks to DOSBox, I'm able to run ApplePC which satisfies my current Apple ][ environment testing needs. But now I'm in need of an image manipulator, like AppleCider, that doesn't need Windows, i.e. can run in DOSBox. Is there such a beast???
    There is MSDos command line software for the Apple II that Reads/writes to FAT formatted disks. Might be able to work within Applecider and allow access to files from DosBox. Although it may only access FAT12 disks.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From David Schmidt@schmidtd@my-deja.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Thu Jan 19 09:03:41 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On 1/18/23 5:34 PM, fadden wrote:
    On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 8:31:35 AM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    About 10 years ago I posted in this group about wanting an Apple ][ emulator that would run on my then new Chromebook. Now, thanks to DOSBox, I'm able to run ApplePC which satisfies my current Apple ][ environment testing needs. But now I'm in need of an image manipulator, like AppleCider, that doesn't need Windows, i.e. can run in DOSBox. Is there such a beast???

    To be clear: you want a command-line utility that runs in MS-DOS?

    What do you want it to do?

    Aside: this sounds like fun - spinning up a DOS Borland C++ environment
    again to cook up an image manipulator. Port most of AppleCommander
    command line to C++ from Java and off we go...
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Fri Jan 20 12:03:16 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Hi!
    On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 5:34:01 PM UTC-5, fadden wrote:
    On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 8:31:35 AM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    About 10 years ago I posted in this group about wanting an Apple ][ emulator that would run on my then new Chromebook. Now, thanks to DOSBox, I'm able to run ApplePC which satisfies my current Apple ][ environment testing needs. But now I'm in need of an image manipulator, like AppleCider, that doesn't need Windows, i.e. can run in DOSBox. Is there such a beast???
    To be clear: you want a command-line utility that runs in MS-DOS?

    What do you want it to do?
    Yes, command line utility that runs in MS-DOS. Ideally, it would take a text file and convert it to an image of a 5.25 inch ProDOS disk. That way, I could mount the image in ApplePC and transfer the text file to an existing 32 MB HD image for compilation and testing.
    Willi
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From David Schmidt@schmidtd@my-deja.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Fri Jan 20 16:02:46 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On 1/20/23 3:03 PM, A2CPM wrote:
    On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 5:34:01 PM UTC-5, fadden wrote:
    On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 8:31:35 AM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    What do you want it to do?
    Yes, command line utility that runs in MS-DOS. Ideally, it would take a text file and convert it to an image of a 5.25 inch ProDOS disk. That way, I could mount the image in ApplePC and transfer the text file to an existing 32 MB HD image for compilation and testing.

    So you want it to _inject_ a text file into an existing disk image? Or,
    you want the text file to somehow form the basis for a new disk image?
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Fri Jan 20 14:52:03 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Hi!
    On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:02:47 PM UTC-5, schmidtd wrote:
    On 1/20/23 3:03 PM, A2CPM wrote:
    On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 5:34:01 PM UTC-5, fadden wrote:
    On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 8:31:35 AM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    What do you want it to do?
    Yes, command line utility that runs in MS-DOS. Ideally, it would take a text file and convert it to an image of a 5.25 inch ProDOS disk. That way, I could mount the image in ApplePC and transfer the text file to an existing 32 MB HD image for compilation and testing.
    So you want it to _inject_ a text file into an existing disk image? Or,
    you want the text file to somehow form the basis for a new disk image?
    Either one. When I test using AppleCider and AppleWin, via Windows 10, I do any final editing on the text file with Notepad and then transfer the text file into a 32 MB HD image for compilation and testing. ApplePC accesses the same '.HDV' files as AppleWin so, for what I'm testing, I'm able to compile and test using the same sequences with both AppleWin and ApplePC. Creating a new disk image from a file is a simpler task, IMHO.
    Willi
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Fri Jan 20 16:19:32 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Hi, Andy!

    I'd like to work with you on improving AppleCider's ability to cope with images of CP/M disks.

    Willi
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From fadden@thefadden@gmail.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Fri Jan 20 21:22:13 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:19:33 PM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    I'd like to work with you on improving AppleCider's ability to cope with images of CP/M disks.
    Presumably you mean CiderPress?
    The support in CiderPress is a reflection of my level of familiarity with CP/M, which is pretty low. It supports 140KB disks, but read-only.
    I found what appear to be a couple of 800KB CP/AM disks, which look like CP/M with a different catalog start and possibly a different block size. The tricky part is stuff like, "The DPB is not usually stored on disc. It is either hardwired into the BIOS, or generated on the fly." (https://www.seasip.info/Cpm/format31.html) So it might be necessary to have a set of possible configurations and apply each in turn until something reasonable pops out.
    In any event, I hope to have time to make some improvements in a couple of months.
    With respect to your original question, Cadius (https://brutaldeluxe.fr/products/crossdevtools/cadius/index.html) can create disk images and copy files on and off of ProDOS disks. If you want actual MS-DOS, and not just command-line, it'd probably work for that as well, being straightforward ANSI C.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Jerry Penner@jerry+a2@jpen.ca to comp.emulators.apple2 on Sat Jan 21 00:21:24 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    fadden <thefadden@gmail.com> writes:

    On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:19:33 PM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    I'd like to work with you on improving AppleCider's ability to cope with images of CP/M disks.

    Presumably you mean CiderPress?

    The support in CiderPress is a reflection of my level of familiarity with CP/M, which is
    pretty low. It supports 140KB disks, but read-only.

    I found what appear to be a couple of 800KB CP/AM disks, which look like CP/M with a
    different catalog start and possibly a different block size. The tricky part is stuff
    like, "The DPB is not usually stored on disc. It is either hardwired into the BIOS, or
    generated on the fly." (https://www.seasip.info/Cpm/format31.html) So it might be
    necessary to have a set of possible configurations and apply each in turn until something
    reasonable pops out.

    In any event, I hope to have time to make some improvements in a couple of months.

    With respect to your original question, Cadius (https://brutaldeluxe.fr/products/crossdevtools/cadius/index.html) can create disk images
    and copy files on and off of ProDOS disks. If you want actual MS-DOS, and not just
    command-line, it'd probably work for that as well, being straightforward ANSI C.

    I probably know less about CP/M than either of you. The Debian
    `cpmtools' package has a file, /etc/cpmtools/diskdefs, with information
    on the disk layouts for quite a variety of systems and floppy-disk
    sizes. There are 98 such definitions in the package on my system.

    The two Apple II-related entries are:

    # Apple II CP/M skew o Apple II DOS 3.3 skew
    diskdef apple-do
    seclen 256
    tracks 35
    sectrk 16
    blocksize 1024
    maxdir 64
    skewtab 0,6,12,3,9,15,14,5,11,2,8,7,13,4,10,1
    boottrk 3
    os 2.2
    end

    # Apple II CP/M skew o Apple II PRODOS skew
    diskdef apple-po
    seclen 256
    tracks 35
    sectrk 16
    blocksize 1024
    maxdir 64
    skewtab 0,9,3,12,6,15,1,10,4,13,7,8,2,11,5,14
    boottrk 3
    os 2.2
    end

    Perhaps, this is helpful to someone?
    --
    --
    Jerry jerry+a2 at jpen.ca
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From David Schmidt@schmidtd@my-deja.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Sat Jan 21 11:30:28 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On 1/21/23 12:22 AM, fadden wrote:
    [...]
    With respect to your original question, Cadius (https://brutaldeluxe.fr/products/crossdevtools/cadius/index.html) can create disk images and copy files on and off of ProDOS disks. If you want actual MS-DOS, and not just command-line, it'd probably work for that as well, being straightforward ANSI C.

    I fired up my old Borland C++ compilers to start playing around. Of
    note, Cadius has some W32 dependencies (notably file structures) and of
    course it is ProDOS only and requires long file names.

    I guess that's probably the biggest hurdle here - actual DOS 8.3 names
    (and not VFAT extensions) in doing this in pure DOS.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Sat Jan 21 09:08:06 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Hi!
    On Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 12:22:14 AM UTC-5, fadden wrote:
    <--- snip --->
    With respect to your original question, Cadius (https://brutaldeluxe.fr/products/crossdevtools/cadius/index.html) can create disk images and copy files on and off of ProDOS disks. If you want actual MS-DOS, and not just command-line, it'd probably work for that as well, being straightforward ANSI C.
    "CADIUS.EXE", when run in DOSBox, reports 'This program cannot be run in DOS mode'. So, I'm looking into rolling my own.
    Willi
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From fadden@thefadden@gmail.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Sat Jan 21 14:08:44 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 11:21:28 PM UTC-8, Jerry Penner wrote:
    The Debian
    `cpmtools' package has a file, /etc/cpmtools/diskdefs, with information
    on the disk layouts for quite a variety of systems and floppy-disk
    sizes. There are 98 such definitions in the package on my system.
    Yes, this is what I was talking about. Filesystems like ProDOS and HFS have a universal "start here" block that defines the geometry for the rest of the disk. CP/M expects those values to be defined elsewhere, so simple acts like reading the disk directory require probing multiple configurations.
    Handling 140KB Apple II disks is reasonably straightforward. Handling arbitrary CP/M volumes feels risky. The most important thing, if you want to be able to write data to CP/M disks, is to have a reliable way to know when you've got it wrong.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From David Schmidt@schmidtd@my-deja.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Mon Jan 23 10:00:12 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On 1/18/23 6:15 PM, I am Rob wrote:
    There is MSDos command line software for the Apple II that Reads/writes to FAT formatted disks.

    There is? What/where is it?

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From fadden@thefadden@gmail.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Mon Jan 23 07:48:06 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On Monday, January 23, 2023 at 7:00:14 AM UTC-8, schmidtd wrote:
    On 1/18/23 6:15 PM, I am Rob wrote:
    There is MSDos command line software for the Apple II that Reads/writes to FAT formatted disks.
    There is? What/where is it?

    Peter Watson's shareware MSDOS utilities, for the IIgs (Orca/GNO).

    This looks like it: https://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/msdos-tools-v2-21.html

    Also: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.apple2/c/8bX4SstkN6A
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From David Schmidt@schmidtd@my-deja.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Mon Jan 23 10:55:20 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On 1/23/23 10:48 AM, fadden wrote:
    On Monday, January 23, 2023 at 7:00:14 AM UTC-8, schmidtd wrote:
    On 1/18/23 6:15 PM, I am Rob wrote:
    There is MSDos command line software for the Apple II that Reads/writes to FAT formatted disks.
    There is? What/where is it?

    Peter Watson's shareware MSDOS utilities, for the IIgs (Orca/GNO).

    This looks like it: https://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/msdos-tools-v2-21.html

    Also: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.apple2/c/8bX4SstkN6A

    Ah, writing MSDOS _from_ the GS. That wasn't the direction I understood
    was interesting to the OP.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From I am Rob@gids.rs@sasktel.net to comp.emulators.apple2 on Mon Jan 23 19:13:16 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Peter Watson's shareware MSDOS utilities, for the IIgs (Orca/GNO).

    This looks like it: https://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/msdos-tools-v2-21.html

    Also: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.apple2/c/8bX4SstkN6A
    Ah, writing MSDOS _from_ the GS. That wasn't the direction I understood
    was interesting to the OP.

    No. This is not what I have. The one I have is Prodos system based and does not have .exe or S16 files.

    I can't seem to locate it on Asimov, so I think I may have got it through someones collection I bought at one time.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From I am Rob@gids.rs@sasktel.net to comp.emulators.apple2 on Mon Jan 23 19:26:15 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    email me for a copy. I don't have an FTP client to upload to Asimov.

    No. This is not what I have. The one I have is Prodos system based and does not have .exe or S16 files.

    I can't seem to locate it on Asimov, so I think I may have got it through someones collection I bought at one time.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Tue Jan 24 07:08:20 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Hi!
    On Monday, January 23, 2023 at 10:55:22 AM UTC-5, schmidtd wrote:
    Ah, writing MSDOS _from_ the GS. That wasn't the direction I understood
    was interesting to the OP.
    It took me some time to realize that "OP" meant me. Anyway, I wrote a program which I'm naming "GPDDIF", which stands for generate ProDOS disk image file. It was coded using Turbo Pascal. The compiled executable runs in DOSBox and accepts the name of a text file as a command line argument and generates a 143 KB '.DSK' file that can be accessed by "ApplePC".
    Willi
    .
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Thu Feb 2 01:19:50 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    sim2du10.zip at ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/emulators/simiie/ appears to be exactly that which I originally requested.
    This information found at https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/apple2/emulator/2-9-10-SimIIe-SimSystem-IIe-version-1-0.html
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From fadden@thefadden@gmail.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Thu Feb 2 08:13:03 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 1:19:51 AM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    sim2du10.zip at ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/emulators/simiie/ appears to be exactly that which I originally requested.
    This information found at https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/apple2/emulator/2-9-10-SimIIe-SimSystem-IIe-version-1-0.html
    One thing to be aware of: for Sim //e, a ".HDV" file had a small header on it. CiderPress recognizes the files but I don't know how many other things will. The header is a fixed-length string ("SIMSYSTEM_HDV") followed by the volume block count, and the rest of the file is just ProDOS-ordered blocks like you'd find in .po/.hdv, so modifying the tools to work on other files should be straightforward.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Thu Feb 2 17:33:53 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Hi!
    On Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 11:13:04 AM UTC-5, Andy wrote:
    One thing to be aware of: for Sim //e, a ".HDV" file had a small header on it. CiderPress recognizes the files but I don't know how many other things will. The header is a fixed-length string ("SIMSYSTEM_HDV") followed by the volume block count, and the rest of the file is just ProDOS-ordered blocks like you'd find in .po/.hdv, so modifying the tools to work on other files should be straightforward.
    The DU "AFTP" program expects the ProDOS image file it accesses to have the 15 byte header you describe. I discovered that "AFTP" will work with '.DSK' image files. After exiting "ApplePC", simply use the MSDOS "COPY" command to prepend a 15 byte header to the disk image file you worked on with "ApplePC". "AFTP" didn't complain that the header I prepended to the '.DSK' file had a volume block count of $FFFF.
    Willi
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From fadden@thefadden@gmail.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Fri Feb 3 08:50:35 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    On Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 5:33:54 PM UTC-8, A2CPM wrote:
    "AFTP" didn't complain that the header I prepended to the '.DSK' file had a volume block count of $FFFF.
    The reason the block count exists is to allow the file size to be less than the volume size. So you could create a 32MB ProDOS volume, but only have it take up a few KB on disk, saving space on the host computer. The emulator (and, presumably, the tools) will grow the file as needed as more files are added.
    Something to be aware of if you're trying to work with a disk image of a specific size, since pretty much everything else assumes that the disk image file shouldn't expand.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From A2CPM@a2@wilserv.com to comp.emulators.apple2 on Mon Feb 13 12:55:32 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    Hi!

    Non-Windows disk image manipulator no longer needed as I'm now able to access CiderPress and AppleWin from my Chromebook via Chrome Remote Desktop. My thanks to all who responded in this thread.

    Willi

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Patrie@bpatrie@bellsouth.spamisicky.net to comp.emulators.apple2 on Tue Feb 14 00:23:29 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.emulators.apple2

    A2CPM wrote:
    Non-Windows disk image manipulator no longer needed as I'm now able
    to access CiderPress and AppleWin from my Chromebook via Chrome
    Remote Desktop. My thanks to all who responded in this thread.

    I don't know if it's an option on a Chromebook,
    but those can also be run under Wine.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2