Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!decvax!jfcl.dec.com!frg
From: frg@jfcl.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: G+Plus and DCFormat3.0 don't mix.
Message-ID: <439@jfcl.dec.com>
Date: 20 Jan 89 16:34:45 GMT
References: <549@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> <713@uhnix2.uh.edu>
Reply-To: frg@jfcl.UUCP (Fred R. Goldstein)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 15

[the line eater lives!]
A minor request for the authors of DCFormat and other formatters;

DCFormat and some others DON'T produce the only COMPATIBLE format for
the ST and MS-DOS machines, which is said to be implemented in TOS 1.4.
I ONLY use Moshe Braner's IBMFMT on the ST now, for that reason!

The correct "compatible" format writes an MS-DOS boot sector but with
the Serial Number (random! Really Random!) in the right spot for TOS.
MS-DOS doesn't care, as that's just the ASCII version number of the
MS-DOS system that formatted it, or some such drivel.

DCFormat is really cute but without that detail, I can't move stuff
to MS-DOS machines, and if I use its MS-DOS boot option, it doesn't have
the serial number and the ST gets seriously confused!