ephraim@wang.UUCP (11/21/86)
[I originally posted the following to net.micro.mac a few weeks ago. Because of local news problems combined with the changeover to comp.sys.mac, I don't think it got far. If it did, please excuse the repetition.] Since distributing version one of my SCSI Disk Formatter and Installer (SF&I), I've received a number of illuminating comments and suggestions from successful users of the program, and a few from unsuccessful would-be users. I expect to have version two ready to go in a few weeks (plus usual x00% slippage), but I'd like to hear more from people who were unable to use version one. New features in version two include: o The driver(s) are much more robust, and more versions are supplied. They've been tested on many more controllers. o The drivers support multiple drives with only one copy of the driver in memory. o The drivers support both fixed partitioning (via the DPM) and soft partitioning (using hidden contiguous files created and controlled via a Partitions DA). o Resources for various drives/controllers are now held in separate SF&I documents, so you don't have to resedit SF&I directly. o There's now support for commands that retrieve data from the drive (Mode Sense, Inquiry, and Read Capacity), so that setting up a new kind of drive is enormously easier. o You can provide your own code for any of the setup phases, in case it's not just a matter of issuing a single command. o The Select SCSI Address dialog doesn't reset the SCSI bus while trying to see who's out there, so controllers that do a hard reset should be easier to use. o The default volume name is now an STR resource, so it can be customized in your SF&I document. o Error reporting works correctly. The question is: What else would y'all like to see? Reply to uucp mail: decvax!wanginst!wang!ephraim MCI Mail: masstech US Mail: Ephraim Vishniac PO Box 1357 East Arlington, MA 02174