Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!xanth!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!bungia!meccts!gorf!rms
From: rms@gorf.UUCP (Roger M. Shimada)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Apple
Message-ID: <106@gorf.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jan 89 14:28:04 GMT
References: <8901060920.aa17994@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> <452@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP> <3995@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: rms@gorf.UUCP (Roger M. Shimada)
Organization: At home in Minneapolis, MN
Lines: 25

In article <3995@pt.cs.cmu.edu> ralphw@ius3.ius.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre) writes:
>But, why would you want to directly access the drive hardware without
>using DOS 3.X, ProDOS, or GS/OS?

Speed?  Something a little out of the ordinary?  (See below.)

>All you're doing is guaranteeing incompatibility at some future date.

Not for 5.25" drives.  The hardware for 5.25" drives is identical
throughout the entire // family.

Actually, the odds of any DOS of changing is _much_ higher.  Did
you notice how the 5.25" driver is not installed on the GS/OS 
System disk?  (Though it is on the Tool disk provided.)

>Must be copy protection.

This is probably true for most people.

However, I think fast disk copies must rank in a strong second place.
Not having to format a disk before writing an entire disk saves time.
A hard disk backup program that didn't require formatted floppies to
back up on would be a good thing.
--
Roger M. Shimada						rms@gorf.mn.org