Xref: utzoo comp.sys.apple2:8583 comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:3778
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!allred
From: allred@ut-emx.uucp (Kevin L. Allred)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: apple II emulation on an 286+ system
Keywords: emulation binary disk transfer
Message-ID: <39817@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 16 Nov 90 16:33:16 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.apple2,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas
Lines: 36

I downloaded the Apple ][ emulator that runs on 286+ machines from the
SIMTEL20 archives in the emulation directory.  The code was apparently
written in 1988 by Randy Spurlock, but the ZIP archive and all the
files are dated 1990.  The documentation is extremely brief.

On the subject of reading apple disks, it only states that, for
example, a file named DISK6A.DSK would be interpreted to be an image
of a disk corresponding to a disk in drive A connected to the
controller in slot 6.  In the distribution is a 144KB file named
DISK6A.DSK.  When I run the emulator, apparently it reads this file
and proceeds to boot up.  I can use the CATALOG command to look at the
files on the disk image, and I can RUN/BRUN some of them.  The problem
is that I can't figure out how the image file was created, or how it
would be possible to simulate a disk swap if I had multiple image
files.

Does any one know how to create a disk image file from an apple ][
disk (I will assume that making a serial connection between an Apple
][ and a PC is the easy part)?  Is there any way to read an apple ][
disk directly in a pc drive?

It seems to me that it would be easy if there were an apple ][ program
that would do a block by block binary read of the disk and dump the
info over a serial cable to a PC.  The PC would only need to forward
everything coming in on the serial cable into a file.  A nice short
direct serial connection would remove the need for any type of error
correcting protocol.  I suppose the same thing would work even faster
between parallel ports, if the particular PC had bidirectional ports.



-- 

	Kevin Allred
	allred@emx.cc.utexas.edu
	allred@ut-emx.UUCP