Patcher * Patching Programs
The Patcher is a universal tool to modify files or disks. It is the prefered
tool for WHDLoad installations to create files or disk images from the original
disks with a very own disk format. To learn more about the Patcher you should
read its documentation, located in the patcher archive
provided with this package.
Patcher needs ruby.8 font! You can find this font on your original
Workbench disks. If the font is not available the Patcher simply will not
start.
A short overwiew over the advantages compared to reading disks with
installation slaves:
- easy choice of source drive
- diskroutine cannot fail due too fast cpu
- works on escom-amigas with diskdrive-hardware'feature'
- multitasks while reading (it is even possible to install 2 games at the same
time if you own 2 disk drives)
- can display the track while reading (useful for bug reports) and imaging
problems (read error, disk full etc)
- can be debugged with a normal debugger
Disadvantages:
- initial ~6-8 h needed to get into it as programmer
- maybe bigger memory usage of ~1 MB, depending on the disk image (but for
people with fewer than 2 MB RAM hdinstalls arent that useful either)