Validator is a simple test program for checking High Sierra or ISO 9660 CD-ROM disks.
This program was written using Symantec's Think C. You will notice that the program uses Think C’s standard i/o window, and hence is not very Mac-like; this was done to help portability to other operating systems.
If you are trying to test a CD that will not mount on the Macintosh, you can do the following:
1) Start the program without any CD in the drive.
2) when you get the first prompt ("Do you want help?"), insert the CD in the drive. This will bypass the normal Macintosh mounting mechanism.
Validator keeps a copy of all of the messages it writes to the screen in a file it creates in the directory from which it is run. The file is named “Validation Results.” It’s a plain text file, readable by any word processor or editor. (The default creator is that of MPW, the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop. To read this file into another program, start the program first, and then open this file from that program.) This file will be created the first time you run the program, and will be appended to thereafter.
This program uses direct calls to the driver, bypassing the file system. By default, Validator tries to open the driver ".AppleCD". If you want to test a different media than CD-ROM, you can use ResEdit to change the name of the driver. This name is stored as "STR " resource #256.
For further information, you should consult the appropriate standards. The formats supported are:
For High Sierra: "May 28, 1986 Working Paper for Information Processing—Volume and File Structure of Compact Read Only Optical Discs for Information Interchange", available from NIST, Administration 101, Library E-106, Gaithersburg, MD 20899
For ISO 9660: "ISO 9660—Volume and File Structure of CD-ROM for Information Interchange", available from the International Organization for Standardization, Geneva Switzerland.
Please report any bugs or errors in the validation of your CDs.
