CrossMAC Demo

September 12, 1996

This file describes the CrossMAC demo. Only some of utilities in the commercial product are distributed in the demo version.

The demo is a READ ONLY version of the CrossMAC FileSystem. It also will only allow access to the floppy drives. Access to Hard Drives and CD-ROMS have been disabled.

Requirements to operate this DEMO:

AmigaDOS 2.0 or higher

---AND--- Amiga high-density drive to access Mac 1.44M disks

---OR--- AMAX or AMIA cartridge with Mac 800K drive

---OR--- AMAX II plus/AMAX IV card with standard Amiga drive.

Download CrossMAC_Demo.lha

If you enjoy the demo product and would like to order the full version of CrossMAC, please use the "Order_Form" program. Fill out all the information and send it to the mailing address for Consultron which is displayed at the end of the "Order_Form" program. Prices are listed on main CrossMAC page.

RUNNING THE CROSSMAC DEMO

To run the CrossMAC demo, double-click on the Mount'Em icon. This will make an assignment and mount the floppy drives as MAC0:, MAC1:, MAC2: and MAC3:. (Please keep the files together since this demo requires it).

FEATURES IN THE COMMERCIAL VERSION

For those unfamiliar with the CrossMAC product, here is a list of some of the features that CrossMAC supports:

Mac formatted disks (HFS) are supported with following hardware:

• Low-density, 800K floppies with either the AMAX or AMIA cartridge and a Mac 800K drive or the AMAX II plus/AMAX IV cards and standard Amiga floppies.
• High-density, 1.44M floppies with an Amiga-compatible high-density drive.
• Hard drives with the appropriate Amiga hard drive controller.
• Mac HFS-formatted CD-ROMs with the appropriate Amiga hard drive controller.

Quasi-Mac formatted disks (HFS) are supported with the standard Amiga hardware:

• Low-density, AMAX 800K floppies.
• Low-density, EMPLANT 800K floppies.
• AMAX and EMPLANT hard drive partitions.

Other features:

• Support of both Mac data and resource `forks' as separate files.
• Amiga <-> Mac translation of international text characters.
• Disk changes are sensed automatically (if the drive provides the proper hardware signal).
• Mac icons automatically displayed under Workbench.
• Utilities to format, copy and check the integrity of Mac disks.
• File salvation utility to try to recover files from a corrupted Mac disk.
• Transparent support of MacBinary files.
• Not copy protected.

FEATURES DISABLED IN THE DEMO VERSION

• All writing has been disabled in the demo version this includes formatting of floppies and the automatic separation of MacBinary files.
• Access to Mac HFS-formatted CD-ROMS and Hard Drives.
• Access to AMAX and EMPLANT hard drive partitions.
• Amiga <-> Mac translation of international text characters since the CrossMAC commodity is not included.
  

UTILITIES IN DEMO VERSION

The Resource Extractor has been included with the CrossMAC demo but the ability to extract resources has been disabled.

View Hex has also been included and is fully functional.

UTILITIES IN COMMERCIAL VERSION

Besides the Resource Extractor and View Hex there are some other utilities included with the CrossMAC product. The utilities and a brief description are:

CrossMAC commodity - The CrossMAC commodity allows the user to optionally translate Mac text characters to or from Amiga text characters or eject removeable media is supported in hardware and software.

ConfigDisk - A utility to configure CrossMAC devices. It can create a mountfile describing the Mac disk to the Amiga OS. It is used primarily to configure Mac hard drives and AMAX partitions.

Mac_File_Salv - A utility that allows you to try to recover files from a corrupted Mac disk. It WILL NOT fix the disk but allows you to select which files you want to recover to another disk.

File_Type_Manager - A utility that allows you to manage an internal CrossMAC database. The database coordinates the Mac 'finder' information to the file extension you can assign to the file.

DiskChk - This utility attempts to check and read validity of any disk and report any errors.

DiskChg - This utility forces a disk change on the specified device. This command is useful for forcing a disk change on some removeable hard drive partitions which lack the hardware or software supporting automatic disk changes.

Dr_CrossMAC - Dr_CrossMAC is designed to help you diagnose possible problems using CrossMAC should the need arise.

Also included are Mount, Format, and DiskCopy which can replace older system utilities.

GENERAL USE OF CROSSMAC

CrossMAC separates the Mac file into two AmigaDOS files, a data file and a resource file. A resource fork is accessed or identified on the Amiga as a file with an extension of ".rs". CrossMAC only displays the forks that has information in them. If a fork doesn't have any information in the fork, the file will not be displayed.

CrossMAC displays the Mac icons for the files. The icons are the same icons seen when reading that disk running under a Mac. For CrossMAC to display the icons under Workbench, the icon information must exist. The icon information comes from the resource part of the Mac file. If the resource fork doesn't exist or the icon cannot be located within the resource fork, a default icon will be displayed for the file. If the icon information exists, the data and resource files will display the same icon picture.

CrossMAC puts special information in each icon for the different forks displayed under Workbench. If the icon displayed is the icon for a resource fork, double-clicking the icon brings up one of our utilities, the "Res_Extractor". If the icon displayed is an icon for a data fork, another utility, "VHEX" (View Hex) will run. This allows the examination of the data before any operations are performed.

To access the MacBinary file use the data fork name (no ".rs") and append a ".bin" to it. Then copy or read the file using the ".bin" name. Please remember that this creates a MacBinary II format file and some programs may not understand the MacBinary II format.

CONSULTRON CrossDOS CrossMAC