[comp.sys.amiga.tech] Bug in Trackdisk.device?

peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (09/02/90)

Is the bug in 1.2 and 1.3 trackdisk.device that requires a patch in CrossDos
and MSH: also in 2.0?
-- 
Peter da Silva.   `-_-'
<peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.

d6b@psuecl.bitnet (09/04/90)

In article <6506@sugar.hackercorp.com>, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
> Is the bug in 1.2 and 1.3 trackdisk.device that requires a patch in CrossDos
> and MSH: also in 2.0?
> --
> Peter da Silva.   `-_-'
> <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.

_The_ bug? That implies that there's only one bug. :-)

What you might be thinking of is the hardware sync feature. All versions
of trackdisk up to and including 1.3 completely ignored it (hopefully
someone at Commodore can explain why). Anyway, the patches that you need
for CrossDOS 4.0+ (I don't know about MSH) simply invoke the hardware
sync feature. Not surprisingly, this corresponds to the 2.0 version of
trackdisk (so the answer to your question is "yes", I guess).
Note:This discussion ignores the real bugs and deficiencies of trackdisk,
which are fixed by TrackSalve.

One thing I don't like about the 2.0 trackdisk (and I don't know a lot
about it, as I haven't yet disassembled it :-)) is that, although it
does let you use the hw sync feature (via RawRead), it doesn't let
you specify the sync word; it always places a $4489 in the register.
Very annoying...

-- Dan Babcock

jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) (09/15/90)

In article <20544.26e39e69@psuecl.bitnet> d6b@psuecl.bitnet writes:
>What you might be thinking of is the hardware sync feature. All versions
>of trackdisk up to and including 1.3 completely ignored it (hopefully
>someone at Commodore can explain why).

	Because it originally didn't have it (in pre-a1000 paulas).  Software
people asked for it, it got added, but the software never got revised to
make use of the feature until I rewrote parts of trackdisk for 2.0.

>One thing I don't like about the 2.0 trackdisk (and I don't know a lot
>about it, as I haven't yet disassembled it :-)) is that, although it
>does let you use the hw sync feature (via RawRead), it doesn't let
>you specify the sync word; it always places a $4489 in the register.
>Very annoying...

	If you need that level of control, use disk.resource GetUnit/GiveUnit
and program the hardware yourself.  $4489 is fine for most uses: both the
Amiga standard and the normal MFM disk controller (aka IBM/ST/etc) formats
use $4489.

-- 
Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
Common phrase heard at Amiga Devcon '89: "It's in there!"