237 lines
12 KiB
HTML
237 lines
12 KiB
HTML
<html>
|
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
|
|
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
|
|
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
|
|
<title>CiderPress Requested Features</title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
|
|
|
|
<h1>CiderPress Requested Features List</h1>
|
|
<p>In no particular order. <a href="index.htm">Return to main page</a>.</p>
|
|
<p>Main application features:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Add: "Search" feature to find text and binary strings across
|
|
multiple disk images and file archives.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Copy & paste files to and from Windows Explorer windows.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Drag & drop files between disk images.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Drag disk images onto CiderPress window to open them.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: "Move file" command (moves files between ProDOS/HFS directories).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Directory sorting.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Graphical "blocks in use" disk map.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Allow choice between list and tree display for file list.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: "Undelete files" command.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: "Revert to original" feature (mass "undo" for all
|
|
types of files).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: ResEdit-style resource viewer.</li>
|
|
<li>Expand ZIP archive support.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: File compare, a la ProSel-16.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Ideas for tools:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Add: BinSCII encode/decode.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Decode "executioner", PAAF, etc.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: ADT server.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Macintosh-style partitioned image creator (can be used as CD-ROM ".iso" image
|
|
creator).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: partition & format utilities for CFFA, MicroDrive, and FocusDrive.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: bad block scan. Useful for .NIB, .APP, and .FDI images, as well
|
|
as physical media.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: more "bulk tools", e.g. bulk image testing.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: a recursive extraction feature that extracts files from disks in
|
|
archives on disks.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: "disk zap" to zero out empty blocks (improves disk compression).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: HDV Normalizer, which converts an "expanding" .hdv file into a
|
|
full-sized file.</li>
|
|
<li>Turn "disk sector viewer" into "disk sector editor".</li>
|
|
<li>Add 6502/65816 code disassembly to sector viewer.</li>
|
|
<li>Volume copier should allow you to have two volumes open at the same time,
|
|
and copy partitions directly between them.</li>
|
|
<li>Opening a file on a disk image should involve picking a name from a list
|
|
or tree,
|
|
not typing it in by hand.</li>
|
|
<li>Add a tool that splits a .NIB disk image into two pieces for SST (needs to
|
|
reconstruct sync bytes, etc).</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Disk image support:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Add: DDD Deluxe support [need format description or program disassembly].</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Davex archived volume support.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: zero out unused blocks (for better compression).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: support for storage type 4 [embedded Pascal volumes -- need examples].</li>
|
|
<li>Implement writing on CP/M and RDOS disks.</li>
|
|
<li>CP/M user number needs to be visible to user (maybe in place of
|
|
"type" column).</li>
|
|
<li>Retain 2MG comments when converting 2MG to 2MG. Convert 2MG comments
|
|
to NuFX comments and vice-versa.</li>
|
|
<li>Expand DOS Master support to handle arbitrary volumes embedded in ProDOS
|
|
hard drives.</li>
|
|
<li>Add "delete DOS" and "copy DOS" for DOS 3.3 disks.</li>
|
|
<li>Improve support for DOS files with oversized track/sector lists (e.g.
|
|
"fastloader" files).</li>
|
|
<li>"Krunch" Pascal disks.</li>
|
|
<li>Convert TXT to PTX when adding files to Pascal disks. (Might make
|
|
more sense to convert SRC to PTX, since PTX files were almost always source
|
|
code.)</li>
|
|
<li>Allow customization of nibble format, for reading sectors from
|
|
copy-protected .NIB images.</li>
|
|
<li>Allow nibble access to 3.5" disk images.</li>
|
|
<li>Handle non-Macintosh hard drive formats, e.g. Corvus partitioning.</li>
|
|
<li>Handle zip/gzip-compressed images larger than 32MB by expanding into a
|
|
temp file.</li>
|
|
<li>Recognize Infocom games. Show the game data portion as a file that
|
|
can be extracted for use with Windows-based Infocom interpreters.</li>
|
|
<li>Shared file access needs to be disabled, especially on disk images open
|
|
read-write. Right now you can run a disk image in an emulator while
|
|
it's open in CiderPress, which is convenient until the emulator deletes or
|
|
adds files and CP doesn't know about it. (CP re-loads the block use
|
|
map every time it does anything, so the most common forms of nastiness are
|
|
prevented.)</li>
|
|
<li>Add block-oriented write caching to improve speed on physical media (e.g. multiple-file deletes on a ProDOS
|
|
3.5" floppy disk).</li>
|
|
<li>Automatically expand undersized .hdv images.</li>
|
|
<li>Add an option to force writes on a "damaged" or
|
|
"suspicious" disk image. Not a good idea, but could come in
|
|
handy.</li>
|
|
<li>DOS/ProDOS "hybrid" disks (as created with Hybrid.Create on the
|
|
"Extra K" disk) are supported, but only one part can be accessed
|
|
at a time. This should be changed so that both parts can be accessed.</li>
|
|
<li>Provide translation of 13-sector boot block in disk sector viewer.</li>
|
|
<li>Add code to write FDI images (they're currently read-only).</li>
|
|
<li>Add an option to decide whether to convert FDI images to variable-length
|
|
tracks (which can be converted to .APP) or fixed-length tracks (which can be
|
|
converted to .NIB). This needs to happen in the FDI code because the
|
|
only way to do it reliably for copy-protected disks is to have access to the
|
|
self-sync information.</li>
|
|
<li>Add support for OS/9 format, for Stellation Mill 6809 card.</li>
|
|
<li>If a disk image isn't recognized, add a "specify disk format"
|
|
button to the error dialog. (Currently you have to enable the
|
|
"specify format" dialog in Edit->Preferences.)</li>
|
|
<li>Correctly identify newly-formatted DOS 3.1 .nib images, which don't
|
|
have valid sector data fields.
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Physical devices:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Try to detect or prevent media swaps, i.e. ejecting a floppy or CD-ROM and
|
|
inserting a new one while CiderPress has it open.</li>
|
|
<li>Find a less-noisy way to tell if there's a disk in the floppy drive in
|
|
Win98.</li>
|
|
<li>After N blocks read without errors, resume bulk reads. (Currently
|
|
the disk copier goes to single-block copies after encountering read errors,
|
|
and stays there, with a 5-6x loss in performance on slower devices.)</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Application tweaks:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Add: Quick-open last N files from list in "File" menu.</li>
|
|
<li>Paste should behave like "add files": the filenames of files
|
|
being pasted are guaranteed not to clash with other files being pasted, but
|
|
any conflicts with existing files should be resolved with a
|
|
rename/overwrite/skip dialog.</li>
|
|
<li>Copying & pasting DOS 3.3 'B' files with "loaders" should
|
|
work properly. (When you BRUN a file, DOS uses the embedded length to
|
|
decide how long the file is. Some cracked games put a loader in the
|
|
first part of the file, which then read the sectors out of the rest of the
|
|
file. Handling this correctly requires copying all sectors without
|
|
losing the length embedded in the original. Current workaround: change
|
|
type to 'S'.)</li>
|
|
<li>2MG file comments should be more prominent; perhaps in the Archive Info
|
|
screen.</li>
|
|
<li>More details should be available on why "damaged" and
|
|
"suspicious" files are marked as such.</li>
|
|
<li>Printed file list should have indication of "damaged" and
|
|
"suspicious" files.</li>
|
|
<li>"New -> Disk image" and "convert file to disk archive" should
|
|
allow formats other than ProDOS-ordered ".po" and DOS-ordered
|
|
".do" (e.g. 2MG).</li>
|
|
<li>Make toolbar buttons configurable.</li>
|
|
<li>Put the "..." in the middle of space-shortened file names,
|
|
rather than at the start or end.</li>
|
|
<li>Add hi-res/double-hi-res palette configuration, so individual colors can
|
|
be tailored for authenticity with respect to a particular type of display
|
|
hardware (i.e. NTSC television vs. RGB monitor).</li>
|
|
<li>Sector viewer should have a sliding bar to select offset into disk or
|
|
file, allowing fast access to arbitrary offsets.</li>
|
|
<li>Allow addition of a Binary II header when creating NuFX archives.</li>
|
|
<li>File copy & paste should copy comments found in NuFX archives.</li>
|
|
<li>Allow text conversion when adding files to NuFX archives (actually a
|
|
NufxLib change).</li>
|
|
<li>Have a "convert current disk" feature, instead of having to
|
|
re-open the currently-open disk in the disk image converter.</li>
|
|
<li>Add audio capture to the cassette tape import feature, so that cassette
|
|
tapes don't have to be captured with a sound editor.</li>
|
|
<li>Cassette import should recognize arrays and shape tables automatically.</li>
|
|
<li>Add audio export feature, converting BAS/INT/BIN to cassette tape format.</li>
|
|
<li>Add syntax checking to BASIC import feature. Add Integer BASIC
|
|
support.</li>
|
|
<li>Add a new option to Paste Special: paste the contents of the clipboard
|
|
into a newly-created text file. Useful for grabbing text data out of
|
|
other Windows applications.</li>
|
|
<li>Show compression stats, e.g. total size vs. total compressed size, for
|
|
NuFX archives.</li>
|
|
<li>Make the NufxLib error log output available.</li>
|
|
<li>Make rVersion and rComment resources more easily visible, perhaps
|
|
treating them in a fashion similar to NuFX comments.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>File viewer and file converters:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Add: Packed hi-res/DHR (ProDOS $08/4000 and $08/4001 -- never used?).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Packed hi-res (Beagle Graphics).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Dreamgrafix PNT/$8005 (and the less-common PIC/$8003).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: AppleWriter.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Magic Window.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Finder icons.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Sound files.</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Apple /// Business Basic (BA3).</li>
|
|
<li>Add: Magic Window.</li>
|
|
<li>Display text in an "Apple II" font. (There are some Apple
|
|
II fonts on the web that you can install and use with the file viewer.
|
|
CiderPress should include one.)</li>
|
|
<li>Support TimeOut SuperFonts in AWP converter.</li>
|
|
<li>Correctly support tabs in AWP and GWP documents.</li>
|
|
<li>Have option to convert AWP to plain text instead of RTF. (Can get
|
|
same effect by cut & pasting into Notepad.)</li>
|
|
<li>Expand files compressed with HardPressed.</li>
|
|
<li>Applesoft/Integer syntax highlighting could grey-out unreachable lines.</li>
|
|
<li>Have alternate Integer BASIC mode that deciphers the POKEs that conceal
|
|
BASIC listing in mixed Integer/assembly programs (fairly common in programs
|
|
from cassettes).</li>
|
|
<li>Add "save as" button to file viewer.</li>
|
|
<li>Add "reverse" conversions, e.g. RTF to AppleWorks, BMP to SHR,
|
|
etc.</li>
|
|
<li>Add a printer page setup screen that allows configuration of
|
|
margins. (Left/right margins are currently configured to deliver
|
|
exactly 80 columns of 10-point Courier New, in an attempt to match Apple II
|
|
output.)</li>
|
|
<li>Present "select all" and copy/paste in a menu or as buttons
|
|
(instead of expecting the user to know about Ctrl-A / Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V).</li>
|
|
<li>Provide a way to view files on a Windows filesystem.</li>
|
|
<li>Don't use a fixed pixel width for the initial size of the file
|
|
viewer. On systems with DPI set to 120 the buttons get squished
|
|
together.</li>
|
|
<li>Make the File Viewer a file editor. Allow editing of text files and
|
|
hex dumps.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>MDC:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Support multiple output modes (plain text, HTML, XML, CSV,
|
|
"native" listing that looks like DOS catalog, ProDOS catalog,
|
|
Pascal list, CP/M dir, etc.)</li>
|
|
<li>Adjust widths of individual fields.</li>
|
|
<li>Show the contents of SHK file archives.</li>
|
|
<li>Open up SHK and ZIP multi-file archives and examine their contents for things
|
|
that are obviously disk images.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
|
</html>
|