I can't say much about the other brands, but so far as Apple was concerned, you're exactly correct. The Apple Disk II drives were quite 'dumb' and required a disk controller card (installed in a slot, on the motherboard) plus a software DOS (3.2, 3.3, etc.) loaded at startup from a bootable disc.
If one weren't careful, it was no trouble to start up an Apple II machine, write a nice piece of BASIC code, and then be unable to save it to disc - as the DOS had not yet been loaded. Very annoying, but not a mistake you'd make more than once or twice.. as loading the DOS requires a system reset, losing anything in RAM at that time. On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 8:58 PM, Eric Christopherson < [email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Jan 23, 2016, Jim Brain wrote: > > On 1/23/2016 7:15 PM, drlegendre . wrote: > > >" I am saying don't make a permanent hardware change to a 1541 that > > >does not have the switches unless you really want it to be permanent > > >because there is a software method of assigning drives that is good > enough > > >most of the time. BUT if you must make it permanent and you don't have > the > > >external switches, consider adding some form of external switch so you > > >don't ever have to open the case again to put it back to the default." > > > > > >Well then, we're having a major agreement. ;-) > > > > > >The device ID switch is the ultimate fix for Commodore drives, and I'm > > >really not sure why CBM didn't incorporate one into the design - at > least > > >from the 1540 on upwards. Can't have cost much to add a discretely > located > > >access hole (or a knock-out) in the case, along with a 2-place DIP > switch > > >for controlling device ID. > > But, they did. The 1541-II, 71, and the 81 have switches. > > > > I would disagree on your point that Commodore should have made it part of > > the design... > > > > Let's travel back in time. > > > > After the PET intro, Peddle designs a drive, a beast of a device, with 2 > > CPUs and it costs a fortune. Peddle is convinced a smart drive is best, > and > > the delay allows other manufactures to create "dumb" drive options (saw > one > > at World of Commodore, forgot the name). > > How did these dumb drives interface with the computer at a software > level? I'd think a DOS would need to be loaded somehow. > > -- > Eric Christopherson >
