Isn' this a bit of reinvention, we already have usb8x, don't we?

Or is there somthing that I missed?

msd8x uses usb8x to communicate with the drive. msd8x contains the UI stuff, the import/export code, etc and usb8x contains all the code that directly communicates with the flash drive.

You could think of it like msd8x is TI-Connect, and usb8x is the DLL file sitting in your system directory somewhere that TI-Connect calls to handle the connection to the calculator. Except that msd8x is much faster and more stable than TI-Connect :)

What?! No EXT3 support?!

Pish on ext3 - I want HFS+ support so I can surf my iPod.

NTFS is more worthwhile

FAT32 would be the next logical step. It's similar to FAT16 (which is what is implemented), and uses 32bit numbers like the rest of them.

Of course, at that point you're using almost all of the processor's registers just to store the sector you're looking up...

Even Linux only recently got a good NTFS driver. And now you're expecting a CALCULATOR to work with NTFS? It's not like flash drives are usually formatted with NTFS, anyway.

I'm sure a calculator would be better then linux -- just shows how much slower stuff progresses there.

Even DOS has had a decent NTFS driver for a bit! (just have to find it)

<sarcasm> Oh yeah, you know how easy it is to put together an entire OS for a PC, with desktop environments and other software, and make it interface to a lot of hardware where the manufacturers keep the specs secret like they're the CIA or something. Why can't all that stuff develop as fast as some little easy-to-program Z80 calculator with a few hundred KB of memory? </sarcasm>

Just what I was going to say... If you want a good NTFS driver for the calc (I'm sure it would be really complex, though) try convincing MS to open up their specs.

First off... Microsoft isn't going to open ANYTHING up, let alone an NTFS driver source.

Secondly, an EXT2 filesystem driver would probably be the best bet for 4 main reasons.
1. It can handle up to 4 terrabytes of disk space, floppy to HDD.
2. It will be easier to port since it is a more open sourced. (as compared to FAT32 and especially NTFS)
3. It can be installed on to Windows. There are drivers floating around on SourceForge.
4. EXT3 is reverse-compatible with EXT2. Therefore, you can mount EXT3 drives with an EXT2 driver.

BUT WHY THE __________ AM I GOING TO FORMAT A USB DISK SO I CANT USE IT ANYMORE FOR WINDOWS?????

PEOPLE ARE SO STUPID IF THEY THINK THAT EXT2 IS BETTER -- IT'S NOT! FAT16, FAT32, AND NTFS ARE ALREADY MORE UNIVERSAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dude. Take a chill pill. He JUST SAID that there are ext2 drivers for Windows (and there are, I've used them). ext2 is MUCH better than NTFS, and especially any FAT variant... http://www.fs-driver.org/ Go there, get that. Instant ext2/ext3 read-write support in XP.

However, mounting an ext3 as ext2 and writing to it kind of defeats the purpose of having a journal.

Yeah, I don't see what the problem is, since (1) ext2 is better than FAT12 (or even NTFS), (2) there are programs which let you write to ext2 from Windows. IMHO, ext2 support in msd8x would be great.

Let me lay this out...

1. USB drive must be used for school
2. School computers lock out all software installs
3. Last time I tried to load the program on windows at home I had to reinstall EVERYTHING and format the hard drive
4. My drive is a U3 disk and must be a native windows format for the U3Launchpad to load

5. I've only seen 1 formated in non-windows format and they ended up going back to fat32 to use it at school

Then get a different drive to format with ext2. My sister got one a couple days ago for $15.

great...that'd be my weekly lunch for 2 weeks...I have enough trouble keeping the $8 for subway once a week

Well then keep on using FAT16 or something and don't bother the people who want to use ext2.

Exactly!

Can't argue with this.

Most drives (at least the ones I came across) come preformatted as FAT16.

But like I said up above somewhere, if you want another file system, you're free to write it using the assembly interface.

See? Event the people who make them think that it would be a bad idea. If it's so great, why don't they preformat them for wierd formats

I don't think he's saying that it's a bad idea, just that FAT32 and NTFS are more universal, and so a driver for them would be more useful since more people would use it.

>If it's so great, why don't they preformat them for wierd formats

Um, it has nothing to do with the details of the format itself. It's because Windows doesn't natively support anything but FAT and NTFS. This is sort of like the "if [insert name of your favorite universal but buggy product] has problems, why does everyone use it" argument.

>"[insert name of your favorite universal but buggy product]"

um, computers...need I say more?

Not specific enough, the problems with computers come 90% from the software. Anyways, the point still stands, that the reason flash drives aren't sold preformatted with ext2 is because it wasn't created or even used by Microsoft.

maybe we should all switch to mac? I've got one from early 90's with a Motorola 68K processor that runs ~20Mhz and it works more reliably than anything else I've seen -- including new macs

Otherwise we could go back to a old IBM with DOS/Win3.1?

I don't see how this has anything to do with what we were discussing before...

What is it with you and open-source stuff anyways? You don't need to get so worked up over filesystems...

who's getting worked up? THEY'RE JUST WRONG!!!!!!!!

>who's getting worked up?

Um, after seeing your first post written entirely in caps, with more than 10 exclamation points in a row...I'd say...you? ;-)

oh, +10 ... I didn't mean to put that many, I'll count next time...

I do hope your joking...

not really, it's a fact that FAT16 is the most universal and therefore best choice. 2nd is FAT32, 3rd is NTFS -- there ARE 3rd party drivers for dos, linux, and other os's

Just because it's the most universal doesn't mean it's necessarily the best choice. It's got FAT support already, so I don't see anything wrong with doing something completely different like ext2/3. In fact, I bet it would be a lot easier to do that than to write an NTFS driver, as mentioned before.

>Microsoft isn't going to open ANYTHING up, let alone an NTFS driver source.

Heh, that was my point.

I don't think they need to -- people have already made ntfs drivers for dos without the source

That doesn't mean it's easy... Much more worthwhile to just let Windows users use FAT (which is already supported) and people who like ext2 use that. Seriously, who formats their USB drives with NTFS anyways?

Well, I tried NTFS w/ encryption for a bit, then I switched to FAT-bootable, then FAT32 for a bit, and now I'm running on a FAT-16 streak

btw, who in their right mind needs 4 terabytes????

I have a 30GB HD and it's got 36% free!

Being able to expand, even beyond what seems like reasonable limits, is *always* a good thing to make sure that a standard can be used far into the future when requirements have changed. Remember, just 10 years ago, people would've thought "who in their right minds needs 4 GB of RAM?"

I'd still say that. For graduation, I got a card to update from 768MB to 1GB

Everything worked just as well as now...even with the standard 256MB it came with.

*I* don't need 4 GB either (I'm using 256 MB on a 1 Ghz PIII system and doing fine), but some high-end stuff, like servers (even some people's gaming computers) does need 4 GB. If you still don't buy that, substitute 256 MB. In 1990 it would've seemed like insane overkill.

I personally believe 1GB is overkill but, I can understand RAM more than HD space...unless you're running a server and then you'd fill it all up...

>unless you're running a server and then you'd fill it all up...

That's sort of the point. Who knows how large hard drives are going to be in another 10 years?

Oh, now I get what you mean. No, you wouldn't fill it up, it would just have a RAID array. Seriously, do you think that servers now (which don't even have 4 TB drives) just have one hard drive? Now you're just grasping at whatever you can to make ext2 seem bad... It's just a filesystem, and no one's going to force you to use it. :-)