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Updated Disks README

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Jeff Parsons 2014-11-03 08:45:57 -08:00 • committed by jeffpar
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disks/pc/README.md
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@ -9,32 +9,36 @@ Below are selected Disk Sets featuring "Ready-to-Boot" machine configurations:
You can browse the rest of our disk archives by type. There is no search capability at this time.
Learn more about PCjs disk image formats [here](/disks/).
### Disk Sets and Manifests
Disk Sets
---
Collections of related disks are organized into *Disk Sets* which can then be loaded from the
[FDC (Floppy Disk Controller)](/docs/pcjs/fdc/) component of an [IBM PC Machine Configuration](/devices/pc/machine/).
Disks can be organized into *Disk Sets* (manifests) which can then be loaded by the FDC component of
[IBM PC Machine Configurations](/devices/pc/machine/).
Disk Sets are stored in their own folders, along with a **manifest.xml** file listing the individual diskettes.
Manifests also record a variety of metadata about the software; more information about the manifest format
is available in [Application Archives](/apps/).
### Example
An FDC (Floppy Disk Controller) XML file, such as [samples.xml](samples.xml), typically contains <disk> entries like:
A simple FDC XML file, such as [samples.xml](samples.xml), *could* contain <disk> entries like:
<disk path="/disks/pc/dos/ibm/1.00/PCDOS100.json">PC-DOS 1.0</disk>
<disk path="/disks/pc/dos/ibm/1.10/PCDOS110.json">PC-DOS 1.1</disk>
<disk path="/disks/pc/dos/ibm/2.00/PCDOS200-DISK1.json">PC-DOS 2.0 (Disk 1)</disk>
<disk path="/disks/pc/dos/ibm/2.00/PCDOS200-DISK2.json">PC-DOS 2.0 (Disk 2)</disk>
<disk path="/disks/pc/games/microsoft/adventure/adventure-1981.json">Microsoft Adventure</disk>
<disk path="/apps/pc/1981/visicalc/disk.json" href="http://www.bricklin.com/history/vclicense.htm" desc="VisiCalc License">VisiCalc</disk>
...
However, if you wanted to load VisiCalc directly from the /apps folder, rather than using a pre-generated disk image,
you could do that with an &lt;manifest&gt; entry that references the application's manifest.xml:
listing all the diskettes available for the machine to load. However, listing individual diskettes is tedious,
so the FDC also supports **manifest.xml** files. Instead of listing the PC-DOS 2.0 diskettes individually,
they can be added to [samples.xml](samples.xml) with a single line:
<manifest ref="/disks/pc/dos/ibm/2.00/manifest.xml" disk="*"/>
The same feature works with [Application Manifests](/apps/#software-application-manifests). Here's how you might
add [VisiCalc](/apps/pc/1981/visicalc/) to [samples.xml](samples.xml):
<manifest ref="/apps/pc/1981/visicalc/manifest.xml" disk="disk"/>
The application must have a **manifest.xml** with &lt;disk&gt; section containing an *id* value that matches the *disk* value
specified above:
The application must have a **manifest.xml** with &lt;disk&gt; section containing an *id* value that matches the
*disk* value specified above:
<disk id="disk" dir="/apps/pc/1981/visicalc/bin/">
<file>VC.COM</file>
@ -49,8 +53,8 @@ If multiple disks are defined in the manifest, and you want to include them all,
As an added bonus, PCjs will automatically display the descriptive &lt;link&gt; whenever this item is selected, and it will
dynamically generate a disk image containing all the specified &lt;file&gt; entries when the selected item is loaded.
Pre-generated images are still preferred, and you can now include those in the application **manifest.xml** as well, by adding
an *href* value to the &lt;disk&gt; section that was used to create the image:
Pre-generated disk images are preferred to dynamically-generated images, and you can now include those in the application
**manifest.xml** as well, by adding an *href* value to the &lt;disk&gt; section that was used to create the image:
<disk id="disk" dir="/apps/pc/1981/visicalc/bin/" href="/apps/pc/1981/visicalc/disk.json">
<file>VC.COM</file>
@ -58,9 +62,9 @@ an *href* value to the &lt;disk&gt; section that was used to create the image:
<link href="http://www.bricklin.com/history/vclicense.htm">VisiCalc License</link>
</disk>
The PCjs DiskDump module is used to create all our pre-generated JSON-encoded disk images. In the above example, a
pre-generated disk image could be created from the command-line with either the "--dir" option (which will traverse all
subdirectories as well):
The PCjs [DiskDump](/my_modules/diskdump/) module is used to create all our pre-generated JSON-encoded disk images.
In the above example, a pre-generated disk image could be created from the command-line with either the "--dir" option
(which will traverse all subdirectories as well):
node diskdump --dir=./apps/pc/1981/visicalc/bin/ --format=json --output=./apps/pc/1981/visicalc/disk.json
@ -71,3 +75,5 @@ or with the "--path" option, which specifies either a single file or a set files
or via the PCjs server's DiskDump API:
http://www.pcjs.org/api/v1/dump?path=/apps/pc/1981/visicalc/bin/vc.com&format=json
Learn more about PCjs disk image formats [here](/disks/).