Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!mks!wheels
From: wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Mediach() function question
Summary: returns maybe if disk is protected
Message-ID: <385@mks.UUCP>
Date: 1 Feb 88 17:18:12 GMT
References: <8801292315.AA23295@orville.nas.nasa.gov>
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 22

In article <8801292315.AA23295@orville.nas.nasa.gov>,
 rowley@orville.nas.nasa.GOV (Karl Rowley) writes:
> What situation would cause Mediach() to return "maybe"?
> 
> 				Karl Rowley

In one of the recent conferences on BIX, this was brought up. As I
recall, the answer was that Mediach() returns maybe if the disk is
write protected. 

The ST uses the write protect line to sense disk changes. If there is
no disk in the drive, the drive reports "protected". If there is a
disk in the drive, then the drive reports whatever the disk is set
for. So, the ST can accurately sense the changing of writeable disks,
but not protected disks. So, if it reads from a protected disk, it
sets the flag to maybe as soon as the drive motor times out, because
it really doesn't know.
-- 
     Gerry Wheeler                           Phone: (519)884-2251
Mortice Kern Systems Inc.               UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels
   35 King St. North                             BIX: join mks
Waterloo, Ontario  N2J 2W9                  CompuServe: 73260,1043