Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc! From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: CD-ROM for the Amiga Keywords: Sun CD-ROM Message-ID: <1870@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> Date: 13 Aug 90 00:07:49 GMT Lines: 40 Return-Path: To: van-bc!rnews In <7741@gollum.twg.com>, david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: >In article <140444@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes: >>The question is, is there a market for these things on the Amiga? They >>have a scsi connector and talk SCSI, the Sun CD's are in High Sierra >>format (as are most I understand). The question is, if there was an >>Amiga driver for this guy would you consider buying one? > >If that's the same format as the Oxford English Dictionary disk >(and for that matter, all the other CD ROM's out there for IBM-PC's) >then > > **YES**! Welp, it is.... and it isn't... Most of the CD-ROMs out are indeed High Sierra and/or ISO 9660 (some small differences between these two standards). However, many of them also require software that will decode (uncompress) the contents, and a 'search engine' to look for the goodies. Unfortunately, a lot of companies do not make their data formats public, nor do they write the search engines for anything other than IBM or Mac (sometimes both on the same disk, sometimes one or the other only). I do think this will change, once a CD-ROM becomes available for the Amiga, and once it becomes a popular item. As with anything like this, it is a chicken-and-egg situation for most of the CD-ROM publishers, or those who would make CD-ROM drives available. This is why it is so important to have a CD-ROM available that will sell fairly well; one that will cause folks to go out and buy a drive. Personally, I think that a _fully_ indexed Fred Fish collection, whether it be on 1 disk or 3, along with a good search engine, would be the catalyst that starts the ball rolling (or the CD-ROM spinning). -larry -- Sex is better than logic, but I can't prove it. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+