ADF-Blitzer
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ADF-Blitzer
ADF-Blitzer is a tool for reading and writing ADF disk images to and from floppy disks. Originally written by Magnus Lundin in 1998 and then updated in 2000-2001 by Andreas Etzrodt, it's been serving my needs and those of many other users faithfully since then. However, there were a few issues with the last version from 2001, so I decided to give it a long-overdue update.
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Version 3.0 Update
Since the last released version came with Blitz Basic source code, I had a look to see what was involved in updating it. Thankfully the code was quite simple - almost too simple in fact, so most of it was rewritten in a more structured way. This allowed me to make a number of changes and add features, such as:
- Put checks in place for file and drive access so it doesn't crash when a file isn't available
- Added a progress bar
- Added a Cancel button
- Improved the GUI layout slightly
- Added a low memory mode that works track-by-track instead of loading the entire image into RAM
- Removed requirement for fast RAM
- Fixed ASL file requesters so they're now the proper size and the save ADF requester is now a save type
- Added ability to select multiple ADFs for writing one after another
However, there are a couple of limitations with this current version that I plan to address in a future update:
- Writing is slower as the on-the-fly sector writing needed to allow the low-memory mode needed a change to how it works. I will reinstate the old, 40-second write method in the future, perhaps as a "turbo" mode.
- A 68020 CPU is currently required due to the AmiBlitz3 compiler. I'll work around that, perhaps backporting it to Blitz 2.1 in order to get it working on a 68000, with the aim of having it working on any Amiga with Kickstart 2.
- Screens with extra large window dragbars will push the window contents down into the gadgets. Some tolerance was added in 3.0 to accommodate this, but it appears I need more. This may mean ditching the ADF-Blitzer Ruby font look...
- There is no support for RAD: disks, since this and previous versions use commands hardcoded to access the trackdisk.device. I plan to rewrite these sections to use OS calls directly, and this will allow any 880KB floppy-alike device to be read or written.
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Use of 2.20 Source
Although mostly rewritten, 3.0 is based on the source of version 2.20 by Andreas Etzrodt, which he included with the 2001 release. He also stated that he should be asked before modifying the code, however repeated attempts to contact him at his various email addresses have all failed. So, I have added my 3.0 version to Aminet without replacing his 2.20 version, so anyone who wants his original archive can still find it there. I hope he doesn't mind this update, but if he does, perhaps he can let me know!
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