Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bbn!apple!apple.com!blob
From: blob@apple.com (Brian Bechtel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: read IBM 3.5 floppies on MAC?
Message-ID: <869@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 7 Mar 89 15:24:39 GMT
References: <346@gtss.gatech.edu>
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Distribution: na
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 35

In article <346@gtss.gatech.edu> chas@gtss.gatech.edu (Charles Cleveland) 
writes:
> Mary, a friend of my wife's, runs a Desktop publishing outfit and my wife
> would like to be able to take an IBM 3.5 in. floppy and give it to her 
> with say, for example, WordPerfect documents on it.  Now how WP documents, 
> or any other files, might have to be converted once they are on a Mac disk 
> or in its memory is not the question here.
> 
> We want to know what Mary can do with the IBM 720K 3.5 in. floppy in her
> hand and her Mac on her desk.

She has several options.  All of them involve hardware.  The Macintosh and 
IBM use different bit encoding methods, so she can't read the disk without 
additional hardware.

Dayna makes a fine product called DaynaFile which plugs into the SCSI port 
and contains enough smarts so that IBM floppies come up on the desktop and 
look like Mac disks.  Dayna Communications, 50 South Main, Fifth Floor, 
Salt Lake City, Utah 84144

Konnect sells something that plugs into the external floppy port and 
allows access to IBM 720K 3 1/2" floppies.  I don't have their address in 
front of me.

Apple sells the Macintosh IIx and Macintosh SE/30, which have the ability 
to read Apple II or Macintosh 400K  and 800K floppies as well  as IBM 
style 720K and 1440K floppies.  We also sell a 5 1/4" external floppy 
drive.  You can use any of these in conjunction with Apple File Exchange 
to transfer files back and forth.

Of the choices, I think the Dayna is the most transparent.

Disclaimer: I work for Apple.  These are my opinions, not Apple's.

--Brian Bechtel     blob@apple.com