🚀 go-pugleaf

[I'm reading this in comp.sys.sinclair]

In article <4etnnl$4fj@news.microsoft.com>, Dorian Garson (doriang@microsoft.com) wrote:
: {Forgive me if this has already been addressed in a FAQ somewhere...}

  Well, the comp.sys.sinclair FAQ isn't posted regularly so I think you can
be forgiven by css at least.

: So we've got dozens of old relics that have nothing to save/load data 
: to/from but a cassette tape recorder.

  Not _quite_ true; the Spectrum can have add-on 3.5" disc drives and write
to DOS discs. And a genuine Spectrum can read ZX81 tapes (I've done it). But
yes, most people would only have cassette capability.

: Now, note that a PC clone with a cheap sound card can generate and capture 
: audio signals.

: Proposal: Is it possible to write an app that could capture programs & 
: data from an old computer's cassette interface via a sound card?

  It has been done for Sinclair machines, using the Z80 and PJPP emulators
 - look in <ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/sinclair/utils/pc/>. However, a sound
card is not very well suited for computer data signals, and Z80 prefers to
use a dedicated tape interface. Since very few of us still have original IBMs 
with the tape interface, this is mostly done by building a small adaptor and 
plugging it into the LPT1 socket. See Z80.DOC for details.

:  If so, could it be architected to accomodate all popular data formats and
: so that people could add new formats as they're discovered?

  Z80 emulates a real Spectrum very accurately, and can read just about any
Spectrum cassette format (though sometimes the data have to be saved as vast
VOC files). I don't know how many other formats it could be 
persuaded to read though.
  
: The benefits are obvious: greater reliabilty, limitless, random access, 
: and greater ease in trading/distributing/archiving legacy code for old 
: hobbyist platforms.

  A lot of this has been done for Sinclair machines;
<ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/sinclair> holds mostly legally-distributable 
software.

(+Rant)It's a pity the rest of Microsoft doesn't share this attitude towards
old hobbyist platforms; making their 8-bit programs freeware (as Hitech have
done with Hitech C) would be a very fine gesture.(-Rant)

--------------------------- 
John Elliott              | \o_~^~                     \|/      _o  \|/
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