From Newsgroup: uk.telecom.mobile

On 2025/7/7 17:20:37, Java Jive wrote:

On 2025-07-07 16:38, J. P. Gilliver wrote:

On 2025/7/7 10:3:5, Daniel70 wrote:

[]

"shirt pockets" .... supposedly responsible for 3.5inch 'Floppies'
being the size they are/were!!

Hmm. There was also a slightly different size/format; 3" I think it
was. My Oric Atmos used those, but it wasn't the only one - some other
maker (I think it might have been Amstrad (for their word-processor,
not the 664 games machine) did too.

For their CPC664/6128 computers *AND* their word-processors-a --a IMS, the latter's electronic design was developed from that of the former, so
they were very similar underneath the casing.

Oh. I thought the word-processor (one or two drives _in the monitor_)
slightly preceded the general-purpose home computer (probably mostly
used for games) - which was initially the 464, with a built-in cassette
deck with the 664 having a disc drive instead. That _might_ have used
the 3" floppies; I had thought it used 3-+", but it was a Long Time Ago
(and I never had one).>

However, this gave a problem when upgrading to a PC: "How do I transfer
my Amstrad data to my PC?", the answer being: "With great difficulty!"

The initial difficulty being where to get an external 3" (as opposed to
3-+") drive; I don't think I ever saw one. (Well, they _might_ have been available for the BBC series, though they mostly used 5-+", and 3-+" when
they got smaller).>

You could buy software to drive a parallel cable connection, but from
memory it wasn't cheap, so I devised a special dual format for an
external 5" floppy drive-a --a the format appeared as a (slightly modified from default, but perfectly valid) CP/M format to the CPC6128, and the entire CP/M disk contents appeared as one large file to the PC.-a Then I wrote a C-program to read the large file as a virtual CP/M format and
save the disk contents as the original individual files to my PC's HD.
Thank f*k we don't have to p*ss around like that any more!

Ah, happy days! Yes, glad don't have to mess with varying numbers of
sectors per track, hard-sectored (multiple holes!) 5-+" floppies, rCa all those different home computers. (Even the cassette formats were mostly incompatible - though do you remember basicode, via Barry Norman and the
Chip Shop!)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
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