On Sun, 22 Jan 2023, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote:
On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 07:55:50PM -0800, geneb via cctalk wrote:
[...]
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the AppleSauce yet. Yes, it requires a
Mac. Yes, they're currently out of stock, but Yes, it's absolutely the
best solution out there for disk imaging. https://applesaucefdc.com/
It's certainly priced as if they think it's the "best solution". But it's
also closed-source, driven by a weird GUI tool, and unavailable for at least
six months. Charging a whopping $70 for shipping and tossing it into the
regular international mail is just icing. So it's not even close to my idea
of "best" on any of those fronts, but hey, whatever works for you.
I would love to see your equivalent hardware, hand soldered by you, and
included a software package that's light years ahead of anything currently
available in open or closed source. Follow that up by shipping it at a
loss because who cares how much it costs to ship something from Hawaii to
the UK, as long as some rando on the internet is satisfied.
Go ahead. I'll sit here, eaglerly awaiting your results.
My objection to such a thing being closed-source isn't just ideological. If
I am trying to read a disk which has an unrecognised format or is so mangled
that the software throws up its arms, I'm completely out of luck adding
support to it myself.
It's purely ideological. Otherwise, you would have asked the developer
what it takes to add new formats to the software. You could have also
gone to the Documentation page and discovered that the ability to create
new formats for both hard & soft sectored media is built in. Here's the
link to the Hard Sectored format documentation to get you started:
https://wiki.applesaucefdc.com/doku.php?id=adv:hardsectorconf
If you have no idea what format the disk is in, you can create an A2R flux
image of it and send it to John(author) - he loves puzzles like that.
Their response to Linux and Windows users is basically "run our software on
a pirate copy of MacOS in a VM". Yes, users of disk imaging tools are
unlikely to care much about violating copyright, but it's probably best to
not say the quiet part out loud here.
Oh ffs. No, "their" response is typically, "you can buy a used Mac Mini
off of eBay for under $200 and use that" and if you can't afford that,
THEN you can set up a VM. You can get a suitable Mac Mini via this link
for $150, free shipping and a 3 year warranty:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/144642477287 If you don't have an HDMI monitor or
USB keyboard, I suspect eBay can help there too.
Hopefully the statement at the end of the About page on the AppleSauce
site will get you to stop the "but closed source!" pearl clutching.
"Applesauce is not an open source project, and there are some wild stories
about why that is. But there are 3 independent people that have full
access to the repository containing every scrap of source code and
hardware projects about Applesauce. These people have been instructed to
release everything into the public domain in the case of anything
happening to me, or me getting bored and walking away from the project. It
is important to me that people understand that even though it isn’t
currently open source, there will never be a situation in which they will
get stuck with hardware that is no longer supported or supportable. All of
the file formats and such have already been fully documented and released
into the public domain. I have also released documentation for the entire
communication protocol between the client and hardware so that people can
write their own software.
No silly licensing rules! No special institutional rules, expenses, or
overreaching requirements. You are buying a tool from us. What you do with
it is your business.
The client software is the most powerful disk analysis software available
and is frequently updated adding new features. And it will always be
free."
If you're super butthurt over the price of the hardware, there's nothing
stopping you from writing firmware for the GreaseWeazel using the
documented communication protocol that the AS hardware uses. Of course
you'd still have to touch one of those icky* Macs, but I can't solve all
your problems for you.
g.
* [I *hate* Macs. Like with a screaming purple passion. The last good
computer Apple built was the IIgs. It's been shit downhill ever since.
That being said, the capability presented by the AppleSauce hardware &
software is a compelling reason to own one.]
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!
