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From: blob@apple.com (Brian Bechtel)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs
Subject: Re: CD-ROM High Sierra format help wanted
Message-ID: <2056@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 24 May 89 18:37:50 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 42
References:<642@lakesys.UUCP> <3356@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>

In article <3356@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) writes:
> In article <642@lakesys.UUCP> davek@lakesys.UUCP (Dave Kraft) writes:
> >Hi, Where I work, we've got a Hitachi CD-ROM drive with a couple of CDs.
> >One says that it is in 'High Sierra' format.  I was wondering if anyone 
> >could describe this format to me so I could write our own retrieval
> >software.
> 
> I'm looking for the same.  Who is publishing the spec, and how may it be
> obtained?

The original High Sierra spec was published by NIST (formerly NBS) and is 
available from

  NISO/NIST
  Administration 101
  Library E-106
  Gaithersburg, MD 20899
  (301) 975-2814

What you really should be looking at is the international standard which 
is equivalent to High Sierra; ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119 or 
pANS Z39.60 198x).  This is (probably) available from the same source, or
write to the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva,
Switzerland.  (Sorry, I don't have a better address than that.)

These documents are written in bureaucratese.  For a human-readable 
description of High Sierra, look in the second Microsoft CD-ROM conference 
book.

High Sierra/ISO 9660 is a operating system independent volume format.  It 
specifies directory and file structures in a way such that the CD is 
readable under a variety of operating systems.  Support is provided by 
many operating systems, including Apple Macintosh, Apple IIgs, MS-DOS, 
Digital's VMS, and many varieties of Unix.

Note that High Sierra defines how to get to the files, not the file 
contents.

If you have further specific questions, ask. I wrote the Mac High 
Sierra/ISO 9660 drivers.

--Brian Bechtel     blob@apple.com     "My opinion, not Apple's"