c99 - getting started?

[+mizapf]

OK, to explain: As with virtually all classic computer systems, those systems used a proprietary file system that is not compatible with a PC file system. For instance, the TI file system used some attributes like file structure which do not map to the PC file system.

 

Now, when you are running an emulation, you encounter the problem how to handle your old files. There are two ways:

• Wrap a container around the TI file. This is the TIFILES format. It contains all meta-information so that the emulator may treat the file correctly; Tursi uses this approach for the Classic99 emulator. See https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/TIFILES_format . The TIFILES format was originally invented for transmitting files from one TI system to another via modem.
• Many other emulators, including MAME, use a dump of the whole diskette used with the classic system. The DSK format is just the contents of all sectors of the disk. This is pretty similar to what you may know from VMWare or other virtualizations. In that sense, the diskette image, as it is called, contains all the files, and the emulation just processes the diskette image like a real disk.

There are pros and cons for each of these approaches.

Edited March 28, 2019 by mizapf

[RXB]

Disk Images are much harder to work with then TI Files for me.

I can take a PC text file convert to TI File using TI Dir and then compile my code in Classic99.

 

Changing one file is easy but using Disk Image I am forced to keep more multiple copies of disks for a single file change.

This takes more files and space and needs notes to show which file was changed.

 

I would prefer to use a real TI but my hardware space is limited due to storage with kids moved in now.

 

I like the Mame/Mess better for full hardware support, but when using a PC to many changes are required for it.

Forced to put Mame/Mess in root of disk is scary, having to load additional multiple Windows support just to make it work.

 

I can run Classic99 from My Documents under folder TI99, this is very flexible for me without more windows support loaded.

[+mizapf]

Rich, for this very reason of exchanging files, I wrote my TIImageTool. Apart from this, I do not see any hassle with working with images. Maybe my typical usage is different from yours. I also use external editors, but when I'm done, I just import my file into the opened DSK image and continue inside the emulation.

 

I do not really have the option of simply choosing DSK or TIFILES in MAME. The crucial point about MAME is to use the original DSRs, and those DSRs expect to have a low-level access to the disk. It could be possible to have something like an on-the-fly creation of a memory-based DSK image from TIFILES found in a directory, and then after shutting down the emulation, recreate the TIFILES from the memory-based DSK, but this is just the beginning of a longer path, with lots of considerations, and - from my point of view - limited gain.

[RXB]

Yea I see, I have a problem of list files are larger than DSDD so forced to use Hard Drive only.

Or Classic99 as there is no file size limit or file number limits though that is less of a issue here.

 

And yes our usage is different as I use only Ryte Data GPL Assembler not any tools made for GPL that I like.

My issue with other GPL Assemblers is they all use goofy formats away from TI original formats or use macros that create more issue for me then solutions.

 

Thankfully both TIImageTool and TI99Dir are avaliable to use.