NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/comp/os/os2/misc/39471

Text File | 1992-12-15 | 2.7 KB | 51 lines

Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!uchinews!ellis!sip1
From: [e-mail] (Timothy F. Sipples)
Subject: Re: Misc OS/2 questions (especially CSD installation)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (News System)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 18:13:29 GMT
Lines: 38

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Tom J Parry) writes:
>There is not much of a difference between getting at OS/2 and DOS from the
>WPS (about 0.5 inches in my case) so formatting from DOS to get 1.76MB is
>not much of a hassle but you can't do it from the WPS and not while you're
>working in an OS/2 window without moving. SInce OS/2 will read (and I
>presume writE) these disks with no probs and FDFORMAT runs hassle free in
>DOS windows there is not a giant need for this kind of OS/2 support but it
>is slightly conspicuous by its absence. I doubt it would be difficult to
>add this to OS/2 FORMAT (not as the default capacity of course) or to
>convert FDFORMAT to an OS/2 app.
>It's not much (given the above) but there isn't a reason I can find for it
>not to be there.

Actually, there is.  And the reason is related to why HPFS on floppies
has been resisted.  (Actually, you don't really need HPFS on floppies
for the long filename support.  I'm working on that minor problem --
some small replacement COPY, DIR, RENAME, and DEL utilities are all
you need.  But I digress.)

Say, for example, you format such a diskette to 1.76MB.  Then you
decide to give it to a friend who has a machine running DOS, without
FDREAD.  The diskette is unreadable.  Now, unless you're a "rocket
scientist" (meaning that if you read this newsgroup you qualify),
you're going to get extremely frustrated because you can't exchange
diskettes with another user.  (There's enough trouble with people
trying to read high density floppies in double density drives --
that's confusing enough.  Add a few more nonstandard formats and
you're really going to get people confused.)

If they do add it to the standard format command, though, make it
undocumented and somewhat convoluted.  Say, add the parameter /NS (for
nonstandard) if you're going to create diskettes with /N:20 and /T:82.

--
Timothy F. Sipples      | Read the OS/2 FAQ List 2.0h, available from
[e-mail] | 128.123.35.151, anonymous ftp, in /pub/os2/all/info
Dept. of Econ., Univ.   | /faq, or from [e-mail] (send "HELP")
of Chicago, 60637       | [Read the List, THEN post to ONE OS/2 newsgroup.]