Short:    Packs DFx, DHx etc., XPK support, V1.8
Author:   Christian Wasner
Uploader: [email protected]
Type:     util/arc

With  this program you can read or write data directly from/to a disk.  The
blocks of the disk are read and stored into a file.  All types of disks can
be read (i.e.  DHx:  RAD:  DFx:  etc., but not CD Roms).  When handling DOS
disks,  only  the  used blocks are read/written if not specified otherwise.
All blocks are handled if the disk has no known filesystem (e.g.  PeeCee or
Mac  disks  or  demo disks with trackloaders).  The data can also be packed
with  any  bugfree  XPK  packer.   The  program  currently only has a shell
interface, but a GUI is in progress.

All  this  sounds  like "Oh no, another DMS clone", but DMS can only handle
floppy  disks or devices with the size of floppy disks.  Even Non-DOS disks
can be handled (then all blocks are read, of course).  Another advantage of
PackDev  is  that  is  doesn't  use stolen code like the authors of DMS do.
PackDev  supports  the  xpk packer system thus it's much more flexible than
DMS.   You  can  use any xpk packer you like, e.g.  a disk with pictures or
sounds  or  anything  else  can be packed with an xpk packer customized for
that type of data.  When comparing size, you see that DevPack is only 24 KB
long !


Aug-14 1994 V1.0 - Initial release, never released I think...

Aug-18 1994 V1.1 - Minor bugs fixed

Apr-16 1995 V1.2 - Problems  with  OFS disks fixed (PackDev didn't know the
                  number of free/used blocks)
                - ALL, NOVERBOSE, QUIET and NOCONFIRM keyword added
                - Doc file corrected and improved
                - Filesystem  type  is  now  read  from block 0 instead of
                  reading  it from the DOS node, because the latter always
                  contains DOS\0 for Amiga floppies
                - Minor bugfixes

Apr-30 1995 V1.3 - If the partition with LIBS: on it is to be handled,
                  PackDev could not open XPK (sub-)libraries, fixed
                - Minimum XPK buffer size corrected
                - TESTFILE parameter added
                - Checksums installed, in case an xpk packer doesn't keep
                  them
                - Argument handling changed (you got me, Christian...)
                - BLOCKLIST parameter added
                - PASSWORD parameter added

Jul-02 1995 V1.4 - OS 2.0 workaround: Filesystems cannot be inhibited if
                  the DosList is locked. Now it is unlocked before
                  inhibiting (Thanks, Golly).
                - Bugfix: DosList was locked with LDF_READ|LDF_DEVICES,
                  but unlocked with LDF_READ|LDF_VOLUMES.
                - Minor docfile editing

Aug-17 1995 V1.5 - Read/write error output/user interaction was only done
                  if QUIET or NOCONFIRM were set. This must be vice versa,
                  of course (Thanks Dirk)
                - Documentation is now in Amigaguide format (Thanks to
                  Edd Dumbill, the author of Heddley, a great Amigaguide
                  editor)

Sep-03 1995 V1.6 - Added new parameters: TDFLABEL, NOVERIFY, TRUENAME
                - TDFORMAT does no longer write label buffers, use TDFLABEL
                  for this in future
                - XPK timing docs revised
                - Guide file improved
                - The guide became longer than the executable :-)

Sep-17 1995 V1.7 - Filename handling bug when reading fixed
                - On an 68000 packdev crashed when writing to a disk
                  (casted a char * to long *; reading a longword
                  from an uneven address crashes 68000/68010 systems)
                - Stupid bug with format options fixed (any specification
                  if disk formatting was rejected)
                - FORCE keyword added
                - Minor guide file editing
                - Thanks to Bosch and Dirk for reporting the bugs

Apr-15 1996 V1.8 - FORCE keyword  wasn't set as /S/O, fixed.
                - Version ID of archives wasn't 1.6 in V1.7, fixed.
                - If the DosList (list of devices, assigns and volumes)
                  or the device is in use, now 10 seconds will be waited
                  respectively.
                - A "0" was printed when calling PackDev. This was debugging
                  info. Removed.
                - Minor guide file editing
                - Thanks to Dirk for reporting the bugs

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