Re: Ada, the best language with the not-so-best tool chain

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Dennis Lee Bieber" <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message 
news:ulat9855qcom15kt7lk68rsidf44uau4q5@invalid.netcom.com...
> On Sat, 10 Nov 2012 02:05:23 -0600, "Randy Brukardt"
> <randy@rrsoftware.com> declaimed the following in comp.lang.ada:
>
>> The 8" floppy versions probably are worthless; I still have one set of 8"
>> floppy drives and our "best" Z-80 computer, but the last time I tried 
>> that I
>> couldn't get it to boot -- probably corroded somewhere from sitting 
>> around
>> in basements. And I'm sure its in worse shape now (10 or so years later).
>>
>
> I'm afraid to look into my old systems... I suspect the R/W head on
> the floppy drive will snap right off if I power up my TRS-80 Model III/4
> (the one with the whopping 128kB of bank-swapped RAM <G>). My Amiga
> A-1000 and A-2000 are probably not much better.
>
>> I've got the compiler on various weird 5 1/4" formats (like the Apple II
>> CP/M), but probably nothing that a PC could read. If there was enough
>> interest, I dig out all of the disks that we have and see if I can read 
>> any
>> of the binaries. Might have to find a CP/M floppy reading program (I 
>> expect
>> it exists).
>>
> Heh... The one place the Amiga was great. Since it did "whole track"
> I/O, rigging it for alternate file systems was strictly software
> decoding. Though I don't have a 5.25" drive for it -- I did have
> CrossDOS to read MS-DOS, and I think CP/M format floppies.

That was true of almost all 5.25" drives, including those in the early IBM 
PC's. We had a program that wrote some 200 different CP/M 5.25" disk 
formats. (Why there were so many never made much sense.) I know we sold 
compilers on many of those formats.

[I wrote such a program in my early days; programming the disk controller 
chip was relatively easy and the most important thing was making sure that 
the data got dumped to the controller fast enough.]

However, the Apple II with its variable speed drive motor was not one of 
those. The only way to copy disks for an Apple II was to use an Apple II. 
(We used a friend's Apple II; we had to buy him a new disk drive after 
wearing out one copying a thousand or so disks.) Probably someone did that 
commercially, and that would have made more sense if we hadfound them, but 
that was nearly impossible in those pre-Internet days -- you never found out 
about anything unless you saw an article or ad about something.

                                            Randy.