+Larry Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 How are "short" ATR's created? Is a proper-sized ATR shortened after-the-fact? What is the point of making a short ATR? Maybe one is that a regular 90K ATR won't fit on a real disk, but a shortened one will. (?) APE has no probem with most of them, but occasionally it "burps" when I attempt to mount a short ATR. I haven't thought to examine the errant ATR, but I'm guessing that so long as the size as stated in bytes 3 and 4 of the header are correct, then APE has no issue. Does AspeQt accept them? Any restrictions? The ATR Image Corrector always seems to work (so long as the file is really an ATR), Just curious... -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 I don't know if all the shortened ATRs are 'k' disks but I believe the 'k' disks were created to make it feasible to transmit disk images and to later reconstruct the images into real disks using only real Atari hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Hi Steve! Sorry, but I don't know what a "k disk" is. Did the Google thing, but all I come up with is blan"k disk" and stuff like a 180 K Disk." Have any background on these? -Larry I don't know if all the shortened ATRs are 'k' disks but I believe the 'k' disks were created to make it feasible to transmit disk images and to later reconstruct the images into real disks using only real Atari hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 (edited) He means the K file diisks, the ones that boot up with a letter K at the top left... Compacted I think... Edited February 13, 2013 by Mclaneinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Thanks, I found info on it here. Don't remember running into this before. (Live and Learn!) -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 How are "short" ATR's created? Is a proper-sized ATR shortened after-the-fact? What is the point of making a short ATR? Maybe one is that a regular 90K ATR won't fit on a real disk, but a shortened one will. (?) APE has no probem with most of them, but occasionally it "burps" when I attempt to mount a short ATR. I haven't thought to examine the errant ATR, but I'm guessing that so long as the size as stated in bytes 3 and 4 of the header are correct, then APE has no issue. Does AspeQt accept them? Any restrictions? The ATR Image Corrector always seems to work (so long as the file is really an ATR), Just curious... -Larry Well, 1) how are short ATR`s created? One can use a tool on the PC e.g. MakeATR by Ken Siders, XBoot by FoX. These tools just take the XEX/COM file, add some bytes for the bootcode and 16 bytes for the ATR header, so they do not shorten a proper-sized ATR, they never create a proper-sized ATR... 2) What is the point of making short ATR`s ?!? Well, in the past (90s) you did not have gigabytes or terrabytes of harddisk space, so saving some megabytes by using 1000`s of short ATR`s instead of standard ATR`s was a cool thing, not so today. In the past it was also an easy way to convert an XEX/COM file into an ATR image by using a command line utility under DOS or Win95... Nowadays there is really no point of using or creating short ATR`s on the PC. One can even create ATR images of whole disks on the A8 using some tools or utilities like e.g. Diskformer and transfer them to the PC via modem. Or much simpler use SIO2SD (version 3 upwards) or SIO2USB (Abbuc-RAF) on the A8 to create an ATR. Before I had SIO2PC, I copied 90k and 130k ATR images as a file onto a 5,25" 180k A8 disk with Ataridsk on the PC, then I used some A8 tools (e.g. Unimage, etc.) to re-create the A8 disk. Not to mention the many tools that are available on the PC today to create proper-sized ATR images (e.g. MakeATR by Soudi, Atadim by Raster, Total Commander ATR plugin, Atari emulators, A8 floppy simulators, etc. etc.)... In other words: I hate short ATR images ! -Andreas Koch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w1k Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 rename to XEX thats it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Dude, seriously, chill. These "short-ATR" images, as you call them are merely just loaders for what were standard atari binary files, the binary file would be loaded into the output buffer, and the bootloader would be affixed onto the beginning of it, with an ATR header. This simplification can be done, because of the way the resident boot loader in the Atari OS works, it doesn't' need all the empty sectors. The boot loader in question simply is a miniature loader that loads the binary file into the requested locations in memory, all while updating the appropriate vectors for boot load work. the K comes from Ken Siders, who wrote the loader and the utility to make the images. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 ??? Just curious means "just curious." Dude, seriously, chill. (snip...) -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 rename to XEX thats it.. Is this a joke? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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