Re: ZoomFloppy - formatting a disk in a 2031 disk drive

On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 11:29 AM, Steve Gray <sjgray@rogers.com> wrote:
> 2 cents:
> I think it's safe to say most 8-bit Commodore users now are from the
> post-PET days. The IEEE people are a minority, and so for most users a
> simple IEC solution is perfectly fine.

Can't disagree with that.

> Having said that, Jim, I find your
> products to be useful and very cost-effective.

Absolutely!

> I'm one of the IEEE people,
> as are many cbm-hackers here, so I like the option.

For me, the option means I can plug in an 8050 drive and read off
those disks.  It means I can plug in a 4040 drive and format a _real_
4040 disk and not suffer the interchange bug with 1541 disks.  I
haven't done it yet, but I also have a couple of D9060 and D9090 hard
drives and this gives me a chance to bulk-load them (none of mine came
to me working so I don't have any original disks to back up, but it's
also an option for those that do).

I paid for the IEEE connector to be attached because I _did_ plan to
use it.  It's true that 98% of what I do is to read C-64 floppies, but
that last 2% is still quite handy.

> I was not very much into
> parallel speeder cables, so for me that's a feature I don't need.

I, too, was never into parallel speeder cables - I suffered along with
the standard drive speeds in the name of simplicity, compatibility and
interchangability.  I do see some demos on YouTube and kinda marvel at
how fast you can squeeze data out of a 1541, but at least I never had
to worry if a given copy protection scheme would make it impossible
for my drive to load a game or if changes to the machine would make it
impossible for a clever game to run.

I haven't even managed to hack one of my many 1541 drives to add a
parallel cable just for ZF use.  I keep thinking about trying it but
those connectors are not why I got the ZF.

> I do,
> however, have lots of IEC systems and sometimes the ZF is a bit bulky.

I don't think a ZF is all that bulky.  I printed a nice case and it
just sits there between my laptop and the drive.  It doesn't have to
be the size of a walnut.

> Basically, it's finding a balance between demand, features, and price, and
> not everyone agrees, which is why it's good to have different designs to
> choose from. It's true somebody is gonna find a way to make money on
> bare-minimum hardware, and there's nothing wrong with that.

True.

-ethan