From: adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David)
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: Microdrive problems... Replace? Junk?
Keywords: microdrive QL floppy
Date: 5 Apr 92 19:42:27 GMT

[following up on 3 articles with the same subject to save header bandwidth]

quote Dave Woodman:
>  Yes, there is at least one program to do this that I know of:- Media
>Manager Special Edition from Digital Precision. This product offers file
>recovery, directory management, sector/disk editors etc and the ability 
>to write to and read from MSDOS and TOS disks. Only one caveat:- you can
>only process files in the top-level directory:- sub-directories will be 
>shown but their files will not be accessible.                     

If they have not fixed this by now, I wonder what Digital Precision are up to.
MMSE is supposed to be able to transfer files both to and from DOS directories.
DP must have reasonable trade from the QL market since they are still placing
full-spread ads in QL World.

quote Howard Clase:
>Use a utility that comes with digital
>Precision's "Conqueror" to copy the file from mdv to MSDOS format disk.
>(I think it is called "Discover")

The program bundled by DP is probably a cut down version of Super Media Manager.
It is easier (and has more sales potential) to give away half of one of your own
products than to include someone else's.
DiscOver is about the best transfer utility that I know of. This is the one that
I use most, though sometimes it is more convenient to use the Media Manager
utility that came with Conqueror or the AtariST transfer command built into the
ST-QL emulator. Multi-DiscOver can transfer QL files to disks of BBC, CP/M and
various other interesting formats.

quote Linus Torvalds:
>The QL serial lines have serious problems: I never got them to work ok
>even at 2400bps, and it probably gets worse at the higher speeds.  The
>problem seems to be hardware-related: at least on my machine the QL
>didn't correctly receive (about 1% error-rate at 2400bps with a 100%
>good line).  I've got the impression it was the 8049 chip programming
>that sampled the input pin at the start of a bit instead of the middle
>of the incoming bit.  Maybe it has been corrected on newer QL's?

I don't think the 8049 firmware was ever changed, but some of the TTL glue
logic was put on a PAL and a few discrete components changed. The only serious
failing in the standard QL serial port is that it cannot receive at 19200 baud
at all, and is only fast enough to receive 9600 baud with 2 stop bits. Maybe
you had a faulty machine or the hardware handshaking was somehow incorrect (?).

Linus mentioned giving up the QL for a PC, and then giving up DOS altogether.
(The second was undoubtably a wise move :)
There are two alternative solutions to the first move, either get a PC card for
the QL or a QL on a card for the PC. I am pretty sure these things have both
been produced. Of course on an AtariST or an Amiga, use a QL emulator. I would
not be surprised to see a Macintosh version shortly. Whatever people say, the
QL simply refuses to die. If it had been made in the first place with a better
keyboard and disks as standard instead of microdrives, it would have given the
competition a far better run for its money. The machine concept and operating
system were at least 5 years ahead and QDOS is still a viable OS.

--
Adam David
(adamd@rhi.hi.is)