[sebhc] Emulator future? + request for tools

[Eric J. Rothfus]

> I think an easier way to import/export individual files would be to write
> a utility which can read/write the .H8D disk images. If someone can provide
> me with details on the disk structure, directory, allocation tables etc. I
> can probably do this in fairly short order. This would give you a command
> which you can run on the PC, to list directories, extract and inject files
> in a .H17 image file. For an example, look at the ADI (Altair Disk Image)
> command that I include with my Altair emulator.

I built such a utility recently for HDOS.  It fits into the framework
that I use for the SVD.  I handles CP/M as well (as well as a few other
file systems like the TRS-80 line).  It allows listing of the files on
the filesystem, and extracting, adding, and deleting files from it.
For example:

    $ fstool -F hdos -E diskdump.asm

This command tells fstool that the filesystem is hdos.  It will "guess"
the format of the incoming image.  "-E" extracts the given file from the
image writing it into the local directory with the same filename.
You can use "-A" to add and "-D" to delete.

CP/M'ing is just as easy:

   $ fstool -F hcpm -A floopy.asm

In this case, a new image is generated with the given file added.
Note that the parameters for CP/M are buried within a particular
named format, in this case "hcpm" standing for Heathkit CP/M.

However, I'm not a DOS person, so it is written to Linux, running on
Windoze with the cygwin package.

The basic idea is that a front-end parses the file format, gets it into
an internal memory-based image, then operates on the file system given
a hint was to WHAT file system is on the thing...including, for CP/M,
appropriate blocking information.

I haven't had the time yet, but I'll put the source up somewhere within
the next few days so you can play with it if you like....converting
it to (gulp) DOS.  :-)  I have an HTML man page in the works for fstool
as well.

> Btw, what exactly is a .H17 file - I assume this ia a disk image?

The original .H17 is an (unpopular :-) ASCII representation of an H8/H89
compatible disk image.  Besides being in ASCII, it is basically a sector
by sector, track by track dump of a disk.  Note that it is QUITE
distinguishable from any other format on the planet.  :-)

Eric


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