Re: MFM drive gone nuts

On 21/07/2014 8:09 AM, MikeS wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <silverdr@wfmh.org.pl
>
>> I am sorry but we shall have to "agree to disagree" and keep our 
>> opinions. Seeing the cut'n twisted cables makes me sick. Made me back 
>> in the days and every reminder of this brings the same feelings. Not 
>> only it caused the problem that drive address was depending on the 
>> position on the cable (!) rather than what I wanted it to be...
>
> I'm sorry that a 'non-standard' cable has that effect on your 
> sensitive digestive system; the Commodore world is certainly full of 
> them and I hope those don't have the same effect.
>
> You're certainly entitled to your opinions, but just because it wasn't 
> what *you* wanted it to be that doesn't mean that what many people saw 
> as a *solution* to a problem (and presumably by extension those who 
> preferred that approach) was "stupid", "utterly sick" and "PC-crap"; 
> sounds like your mind just isn't very tolerant of others' preferences 
> or open to alternate approaches to a problem.
>
>> Instead of deciding myself which drive is which and having up to four 
>> of them if needed, it enforced often unroutable configurations.
>
> At that time only two full-height drives would fit into a normal PC 
> case; if you wanted more then there was provision for either external 
> drives and/or an external expansion unit and the required extra power, 
> or even internal secondary controllers if you had sufficient room and 
> power (again, not unlike more modern IDE drives).
>
>> The lack of jumpers and provision for individual motor control is the 
>> result of this, not the cause. They were just not needed.
>
> The lack of provision for individual motor control is a characteristic 
> of the drives of the day and the floppy drive interface standard which 
> you like so much, and the twisted cable was a way to overcome that (to 
> me) obvious lack; you apparently think it's a good idea to have drive 
> B and its diskette spin every time you access drive A and vice versa, 
> but I don't.
>


I always thought of the PC way of drive selection by a simple cable 
twist was a very good solution.

All you had to do was buy a drive you intended as a second drive (which 
were factory set for drive A:) and plug it into spare connector and hey 
presto, B: drive.



       Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list