[comp.sys.mac] Reading Lisa-Format Floppies?

siegel@endor.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel) (03/07/89)

Do there exist any utilities to read Lisa-format floppy disks and pick the
files off them? I don't need to view these disks in the Finder, but some kind
of scavenger utility would be very useful.

R.
Rich Siegel
Staff Software Developer
THINK Technologies Division, Symantec Corp.
Internet: siegel@endor.harvard.edu
UUCP: ..harvard!endor!siegel
Phone: (617) 275-4800 x305

alibaba@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Alexander M. Rosenberg) (03/07/89)

In article <1339@husc6.harvard.edu> siegel@endor.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel) writes:
>Do there exist any utilities to read Lisa-format floppy disks and pick the
>files off them? I don't need to view these disks in the Finder, but some kind
>of scavenger utility would be very useful.
>
>R.
>Rich Siegel
>Staff Software Developer
>THINK Technologies Division, Symantec Corp.
>Internet: siegel@endor.harvard.edu
>UUCP: ..harvard!endor!siegel
>Phone: (617) 275-4800 x305

There is a not so simple way. There is a program called ReadLisa that
was made back in 1984, so that Mac people could snarf the source off
the Lisa Suppliment disks that Apple shipped with the updates.

I know that The Boston Computer Society has it on one of the older disks.
Give them a call at 617-625-7080. I may have been a Basic program. (ewww)


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Samuel_gold_Goldberger@cup.portal.com (03/08/89)

There was a utility distributed by Apple when Lisa owners
were invited to convert from The Lisa Office System to the
Mac operating system. I'd suggest an inquiry directly to
Apple, via telephone or AppleLink. Alternatively, check
with the Boston Mac User's Group. (I assume you are
talking about Office System files, not Mac files created on
the Lisa operating as a so-called "MacXL;" these of course
can be read by any Mac, including, one presumes, the IIcx).

ph@cci632.UUCP (Pete Hoch) (03/09/89)

In article <1339@husc6.harvard.edu> (Rich Siegel) writes:
>Do there exist any utilities to read Lisa-format floppy disks and pick the
>files off them? I don't need to view these disks in the Finder, but some kind
>of scavenger utility would be very useful.
>
>Rich Siegel
>Staff Software Developer

If the files are data files from the Lisa 7/7 office system then Apple
has a conversion program that will generate Mac files from your Lisa
files.  However I believe that you need a Lisa to do the conversion.


Pete Hoch

mentat@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Robert Dorsett) (03/09/89)

In article <15535@cup.portal.com> Samuel_gold_Goldberger@cup.portal.com writes:
>There was a utility distributed by Apple when Lisa owners
>were invited to convert from The Lisa Office System to the
>Mac operating system. I'd suggest an inquiry directly to
>Apple, via telephone or AppleLink. Alternatively, check
>with the Boston Mac User's Group. (I assume you are
>talking about Office System files, not Mac files created on
>the Lisa operating as a so-called "MacXL;" these of course
>can be read by any Mac, including, one presumes, the IIcx).

There have been several attempts at this.  The program that got the widest
distribution is called "ReadLisa," but it has serious problems--including
it not being possible to save data that's viewed.  The author promised to
finish it, but never seems to have done it.  On the Lisa side, under
the Workshop, there was a very useful program called "maccom," but that
was never ported to the Mac itself.

Some time ago, someone sent me a bunch of code fragments detailing how to
read a Lisa-formatted disk.  If anyone is interested, I'll try to dig it
up.

As far as I know, nobody ever figured out how to mount a Lisa 1 twiggy 
drive onto another PC, so I'll assume that's not what you're talking about.



Robert Dorsett
Internet: mentat@walt.cc.utexas.edu 
UUCP: ...cs.utexas.edu!walt.cc.utexas.edu!mentat

lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) (03/09/89)

In article <15535@cup.portal.com> Samuel_gold_Goldberger@cup.portal.com 
writes:
> There was a utility distributed by Apple when Lisa owners
> were invited to convert from The Lisa Office System to the
> Mac operating system. I'd suggest an inquiry directly to

The Lisa Migration Kit (written by yours truly).  It didn't mount Lisa 
diskettes on the Mac, but was a Lisa 7/7 program that would transfer Lisa 
files to a Mac MFS diskette.  It would only be useful for transferring 7/7 
documents to the Mac, and you would need to have a running Lisa Office 
System to do it.

It wouldn't be useful if you wanted to transfer some Lisa Workshop source 
files.  For that you would need to use the Maccom program distributed with 
the Lisa Worshop to transfer the files to a Mac MFS diskette.

I would direct queries to Sun Remarketing, which is providing support for 
the Lisa.


Larry Rosenstein, Apple Computer, Inc.

Internet: lsr@Apple.com   UUCP: {nsc, sun}!apple!lsr
AppleLink: Rosenstein1

sklein@cdp.UUCP (03/14/89)

On a related topic...

Does anyone remember the capacity of the Twiggy drives?  I seem to
recall that it was over 1Meg, but my RAM is fuzzy on the specifics...
-Shabtai Klein

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