D88 Viewer

Note

You can use this to compare two .d88 sets. The top (blue) half and the bottom (green) half hopefully work the same way.

1

Once you have loaded a file, select which disk/track/sector to view.

2

Choose whether you want to view by disk/track/sector.

3

Information about what you are viewing.

4

Hex view of what you have selected to view. You can drag-and-drop .d88s here to open them.

5

Change view to see the disk header displayed.

6

Compare the disk #1 and disk #2 views. Differences are shown by colour.

7

Open a .d88 or set by pressing this, or use the File menu, or drop one on the display marked 4. You'll get a message like "Nothing to display" if the program cannot open the file.

8

If you have loaded a multi-disk set, you can press this to write the individual disks out to files. You'll be prompted for file names as it goes along. New and experimental!

9

Area for graphical comparison of loaded disks. Set names shown here. This area is not re-initialised when you load a new .d88 until you press the "Map" buttons, so please be careful.

10, 11

Graphical representation of sector, track and disk info. Once a disk is mapped, moving your mouse over the display should show you roughly your position - shown at 11.

12

Press to map the disk being shown as #1 or #2 on the left.

13

Select whether to include disk headers in the comparison.

14

Map the comparison to see where there are differences. If you exclude the headers, you might find the disks are the same. In these next two pics the DS6 program disks from two sets are mapped and compared with and without headers - it turns out that the only real difference is that one .d88 has a 688-byte header while the other has a 672-byte header:

End

Once again, I think one must always apply one's brain to any funnies, as not all funnies are problems.