[Coco] Another Coco Virtual Disk Util

Tue Oct 22 12:51:46 EDT 2013

I found C# reasonably easy to learn. I has a very basic understanding of C/C++ ( I could read and understand it for the most part, but not write very much new code). I had a very good vb6 background. I just purchased a book or two for C# and did some reading, and LOTS of experimentation over the years. Even while writing this utility, I was learning something new about C# every day. The Visual Studio MSDN Help Documentation and GOOGLE have become very close friends of mine lol.

The Zip library I used is the SharpZipLib (http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sharpziplib/). I just flattened the namespaces into my own application's namespace. Archive handlers (and decompression engines) I have ported from original C code pieces  I have managed to locate.  In the case of the .PAK format, I had to do a lot of work determining the file's format, as there was no documentation anywhere that I could find outlining the file's format.

The virtual disk image formats (DMK, VDK, JVC, OS9, VHD) are all reasonably well documented in various places, and I did make some use of the M.E.S.S. Emulator source code to understand these formats better. As for RSDOS and OS9 disk formats, I have known much about these since my early days of being a coco user. Even still, I have learned much about them in the last month that I did NOT know previously (such as RSDOS track 17 sector 17 holding a Volume Label, and the DD.OPT containing the Path Descriptor data). I know nothing of the Track 16 and Track 20 in VDK formats you refer to. They don't make sense, since normally Track 16 and Track 20 are used for file storage. Can you point me to documentation on those?

I am considering adding WAV and CAS support to the utility, but might be some time before I implement them. The HexBox control used in my SectorEditor and FileHexViewer is a 3rd party open-source project. I had to create an additional class (FixedLengthByteProvider) to use it with the SectorEditor, and there are changes to the HexBox control that I am considering, but it is a very useful control. The ImageViewer just uses standard .NET PictureBox control. Nothing fancy there.

Yes, most of the time was writing the code to handle the various Disk Image Formats, and the higher level Disk Formats (OS9/RSDOS). But the GUI also took time to write. The most time of that was debugging. And although the lower level code for the Disk Image Formats and higher level Disk Formats are extremely important, to me the GUI code was the most important. The whole purpose of the utility. To provide an easy to use, and flexible interface.

Thanks for your comments and inquiries. I am happy to share my experiences.

-Walt Zydhek

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Luis Fernández
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 5:47 AM
To: COCO
Subject: Re: [Coco] Another Coco Virtual Disk Util

I'm still puzzled about how to do things with modern lenguages Although C and C + +, I have not used in years and some do not master the language concepts (classes and some other things,) I understand other polymorphism, recursividas, and others. 
I also know that I could do in VB2010 and there would (perhaps) much difference But some things amaze me, his project, and his quick realization, (sorry if I ask), it's just with the idea of learning The compression libraries, had to learn how to use them to incorporate in their sources, or you already knew and used previously?, That requires a certain time?. 
The libraries JVC disc formats, MDK, VHD, and the DOS, RSDOS, OS9 and VDK, sources are made by you or am I wrong?, If yours was very fast its implementation, you knew so deep the beforehand? (please do not bother me, it's just curious to know how you should do things) I for example take 2 months to understand format MDK, his virtues, the amount of real disks you can handle, consider as physically discs are recorded and each company and model (IBM, PANASONIC, TEAK, etc) FM, MFM and others. I have not yet been implemented, as creating a disc in this format the user could choose 100 parameters. 
The OS9 also presented some doubts about the default sector size for a directory.
THE RSDOS is best known for all but the VDK I had to learn from (zero). 
I was surprised, pleasantly, to find that the VDK has 2 directories (undocumented) Track 16 and Track 20, I guess you already know. 
I had to figure out how to detect the various formats without using the virtual disk extention, this is not standardized. 
I had to learn WAV, and CAS for the converter, PAK to BIN, CART Graphics Formats Compressed formats, BAS (Tokennized), Decompressing, and DRAGON RSDOS format and as differentiate I had to use a hexedit of another person. EditPad of Windos and MSPaint, you also implement or are the standard libraries?
I imagine the one-month time delay was used to make the important parts of the application, but you already had much previous knowledge of this? VC2010 even.
Just curious of the history of the application that I do, I find magnificent It would be very good to know its history.
Congratulations, go ahead
Excuse my English, my native language is Spanish 		 	   		  

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