ath@prosys.se (Anders Thulin) (05/30/90)
My impression of CD-ROM information business is that the currently
used storage formats are more or less proprietary, and useful only
with certain software. Is this correct?
It seems that certain higher-level standards would be useful, for
instance one that permitted CD-ROMs to be used as microfiche.
Are there any such higher-level (CD-ROM) standards under development?
Any pointers appreciated.
--
Anders Thulin ath@prosys.se {uunet,mcsun}!sunic!prosys!ath
Telesoft Europe AB, Teknikringen 2B, S-583 30 Linkoping, Swedencory@three.MV.COM (Cory Kempf) (06/01/90)
ath@prosys.se (Anders Thulin) writes: >My impression of CD-ROM information business is that the currently >used storage formats are more or less proprietary, and useful only >with certain software. Is this correct? No. There are some formats that are proprietary: Apple's HFS is one example. I believe that there is a DOS format that is "proprietary" as well. >It seems that certain higher-level standards would be useful, for >instance one that permitted CD-ROMs to be used as microfiche. I fail to see how a standard for CD-ROM daata encoding would make a CD readable by a microfiche reader. :-) >Are there any such higher-level (CD-ROM) standards under development? >Any pointers appreciated. Actually, there are at least two. I think that there are three, but the third also defines an OS as part of it. The two that I know of are NISO and Hi Sierra. Both describe the volume and directory structure, both describe the format for file names, and what information is contained in file attributes. Both are designed for use on little endian and big endian systems. Neither describes the format of data in files, although they both support dual fork files and files of records (both fixed length and variable length). I first worked with these about three years ago, so I don't think that they are that new. +C -- Cory Kempf I do speak for the company (sometimes). Three Letter Company 603 883 2474 email: cory@three.mv.com, harvard!zinn!three!cory