5 ms·

Looking for High Sierra

99 points by kencausey 5y ago

stoned 5y ago
TIL: people had CD-ROMs in the 80s! Wow. I didn’t see a CD-ROM until probably 1994…
- itisit 5y ago
  You might enjoy this 1985 episode of The Computer Chronicles focused on optical storage: https://youtu.be/5TcsOgy9weg https://youtu.be/5TcsOgy9weg
marcodiego 5y ago
I remember an old SGI workstation which used a custom filesystem for the CD's: cdromfs. Don't know if they can be read on modern OS's.
- dark-star 5y ago
  SGI uses EFS on their CDs. It's basically the same filesystem they used on harddisks before XFS (in the IRIX 5 days)
  - marcodiego 5y ago
    Yes. I think my memory may be failing. I'm almost sure I remember having typed mount and seen cdromfs on the list. Maybe it was cdfs (https://nixdoc.net/man-pages/IRIX/man4/xfs.4.html https://nixdoc.net/man-pages/IRIX/man4/xfs.4.html) and mixed things.
    - bombcar 5y ago
      IIRC there were some filesystem a designed to support “appending” to but able CDs - joliet maybe was one of them - and cdromfs maybe have been related.
- Fnoord 5y ago
  I remember I converted CDs to/from EFS with a shell script. It wasn't complex, but I don't remember the details. Something with an offset?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
follower 5y ago
FWIW I went looking on archive.org and found "ERIC ED378962: Developing CD-ROMs: Pitfalls and Detours on the Road to the Digital Village." which had a very brief mention of High Sierra: https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED378962/page/n13/mode/2up?q=sierra https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED378962/page/n13/mode/2up?... There are also a number of High Sierra format CDROMs on the archive.
- follower 5y ago
  From "The PC Programmers Sourcebook" (https://archive.org/details/f15_the_pc_programmers_sourcebook/page/n369/mode/2up?q="high+sierra" https://archive.org/details/f15_the_pc_programmers_sourceboo...): Has section: "5.064. HIGH SIERRA CD-ROM DIRECTORY FORMAT" Includes a table of the details. Also adds: "Note: High Sierra and ISO 9660 formats differ slightly: - Two fields changed position. - All date and time fields have an extra byte In ISO 9660 to describe the 15-minute offset from GMT." "Source: MS-DOS Extensions (Microsoft Press), page 96 The Ins and Outs of ISO 9660 and High Sierra," Develop, July 1990" Life before the web, eh...
  - follower 5y ago
    This "CD-ROM Professional 1990: Vol 3"[0] (https://archive.org/details/sim_eventdv_1990_3_0/page/n63/mode/2up?q="high+sierra" https://archive.org/details/sim_eventdv_1990_3_0/page/n63/mo...) publication has some interesting historical trivia: * "At the slow pace with which NISO was proceeding (in nine months it still had not even named a committee), and with the historical knowledge that standards organizations take from three to five years to develop a standard, a meeting between Xebec and Reference Technology was held in August of 1985. At this time it was agreed to approach other participants in the industry to see if there was interest in convening an industry group to expedite the formation of a logical format standard. In October of 1985 representatives from the major CD-ROM industry participants met at the High Sierra Hotel in Lake Tahoe and agreed to cooperate in formulating a logical format standard. From this meeting the ad hoc group was formed and became known as the High Sierra Group. John Einberger of Reference Technology was selected as chairperson. From December 1985 through April 1986 this group met five times and completed a final draft proposal in May 1986. In June 1986, this proposal was presented to NISO and the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). In January 1987, the approval activity was passed on to the International Standards Organization (ISO) which performed its final edit in October 1987." * Article: "HIGH SIERRA VS. ISO 9660: A SUMMARY" * "NISO's first foray into CD-ROM is Z39.60, a standard for the volume and file structure of CD-ROM (and, potentially, other optical media). This standard is much better known as the High Sierra Group standard." [0] "CD-ROM Professional (formerly the Laserdisk Professional)" :)

99 points by kencausey 5y ago

stoned 5y ago

TIL: people had CD-ROMs in the 80s! Wow. I didn’t see a CD-ROM until probably 1994…

itisit 5y ago
You might enjoy this 1985 episode of The Computer Chronicles focused on optical storage: https://youtu.be/5TcsOgy9weg https://youtu.be/5TcsOgy9weg

marcodiego 5y ago

I remember an old SGI workstation which used a custom filesystem for the CD's: cdromfs. Don't know if they can be read on modern OS's.

dark-star 5y ago
SGI uses EFS on their CDs. It's basically the same filesystem they used on harddisks before XFS (in the IRIX 5 days)
- marcodiego 5y ago
  Yes. I think my memory may be failing. I'm almost sure I remember having typed mount and seen cdromfs on the list. Maybe it was cdfs (https://nixdoc.net/man-pages/IRIX/man4/xfs.4.html https://nixdoc.net/man-pages/IRIX/man4/xfs.4.html) and mixed things.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    IIRC there were some filesystem a designed to support “appending” to but able CDs - joliet maybe was one of them - and cdromfs maybe have been related.
Fnoord 5y ago
I remember I converted CDs to/from EFS with a shell script. It wasn't complex, but I don't remember the details. Something with an offset?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

follower 5y ago

FWIW I went looking on archive.org and found "ERIC ED378962: Developing CD-ROMs: Pitfalls and Detours on the Road to the Digital Village." which had a very brief mention of High Sierra: https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED378962/page/n13/mode/2up?q=sierra https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED378962/page/n13/mode/2up?... There are also a number of High Sierra format CDROMs on the archive.

follower 5y ago
From "The PC Programmers Sourcebook" (https://archive.org/details/f15_the_pc_programmers_sourcebook/page/n369/mode/2up?q="high+sierra" https://archive.org/details/f15_the_pc_programmers_sourceboo...): Has section: "5.064. HIGH SIERRA CD-ROM DIRECTORY FORMAT" Includes a table of the details. Also adds: "Note: High Sierra and ISO 9660 formats differ slightly: - Two fields changed position. - All date and time fields have an extra byte In ISO 9660 to describe the 15-minute offset from GMT." "Source: MS-DOS Extensions (Microsoft Press), page 96 The Ins and Outs of ISO 9660 and High Sierra," Develop, July 1990" Life before the web, eh...
- follower 5y ago
  This "CD-ROM Professional 1990: Vol 3"[0] (https://archive.org/details/sim_eventdv_1990_3_0/page/n63/mode/2up?q="high+sierra" https://archive.org/details/sim_eventdv_1990_3_0/page/n63/mo...) publication has some interesting historical trivia: * "At the slow pace with which NISO was proceeding (in nine months it still had not even named a committee), and with the historical knowledge that standards organizations take from three to five years to develop a standard, a meeting between Xebec and Reference Technology was held in August of 1985. At this time it was agreed to approach other participants in the industry to see if there was interest in convening an industry group to expedite the formation of a logical format standard. In October of 1985 representatives from the major CD-ROM industry participants met at the High Sierra Hotel in Lake Tahoe and agreed to cooperate in formulating a logical format standard. From this meeting the ad hoc group was formed and became known as the High Sierra Group. John Einberger of Reference Technology was selected as chairperson. From December 1985 through April 1986 this group met five times and completed a final draft proposal in May 1986. In June 1986, this proposal was presented to NISO and the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). In January 1987, the approval activity was passed on to the International Standards Organization (ISO) which performed its final edit in October 1987." * Article: "HIGH SIERRA VS. ISO 9660: A SUMMARY" * "NISO's first foray into CD-ROM is Z39.60, a standard for the volume and file structure of CD-ROM (and, potentially, other optical media). This standard is much better known as the High Sierra Group standard." [0] "CD-ROM Professional (formerly the Laserdisk Professional)" :)