[wellylug] Re. Scanning, storing, & publishing a 320 page document ..

[Ewen McNeill]

In message <467F6BCD.8010402 at paradise.net.nz>, Adam Bogacki writes:
>Hmm .. you are right. I wrote it on a text-only CP/M based Microbee,
>using stacks of floppies before HD's became common. [....]
>Will Etch recognise text written using the CP/M OS ?

Directly, no.  But if you have a physically compatible drive then there
are tools around which will allow you to read in the disk image, and
other tools that will allow you to decode the CP/M disk format.  I'm not
familiar with the Microbee, but I think it's new enough that it used
double density 5.25" (soft sectored) floppy disks which are relatively
easily readable.

See, eg, http://www.moria.de/~michael/cpmtools/

If the media seems to be in good condition then I'd definitely persue
this option over scanning in printed pages.  It'll be quicker and more
accurate.  (Several of my CP/M disks ended up unreadable due to various
bacteria, etc, degrading them.  But the vast majority were readable or
mostly readable.  Not bad for 20 year old media, some of which was
decidedly "budget" media at the time.)

Ewen