introducing MBUGDISKS

[Graham72]

MBUGDISKS is a companion catalogue to MBEECAT, extending coverage beyond the  MBUG MicroBee BASIC programs to the full breadth of the MBUG software library. 

Where MBEECAT indexes the 1,199 MWB program files across 74 discs, MBUGDISKS covers the remaining 3,940 non-BASIC files — utilities, applications, data files, and CP/M software spanning 186 discs.

Presented in the same CRT-styled interface, it allows users to browse, search, and view file contents directly in the browser, with support for plain text, WordStar documents, LBR archives, and binary hex dumps. A comprehensive extraction download system has been implemented even allowing saving .png format "screenshots" from the file viewer.

Together, MBEECAT and MBUGDISKS form a comprehensive archive of the MBUG collection allowing fast access to all the data.

A technical note has been provided to explain CP/M compression complexities and other information.

   

   

[ChickenMan]

Great work Graham, cant wait to see the final version.

[Graham72]

Thanks Chickenman. An update: all is well but I am having a hard time with unlocking .lqr files, extracting the file names to present in the viewer and then uncrunching a selected file to view/download it.

Those '80s compression techniques were full on, every bit was precious, no waste.

   

[ChickenMan]

Yep I found going into a LBR file and trying to uncompress a file locks my system (Windows 11) up.

[Graham72]

Yep I found going into a LBR file and trying to uncompress a file locks my system (Windows 11) up.

I've emailed you 3.2 .lbr seem to work , lqr now shows actual file names in hex dump so slow progress

[Graham72]

an update OR "how many .ext to process let me count the ways?"

the quantum is unique extensions: 366 file types used by 4,476 individual files.

LZH LQR ARC ARK compression formats with varying algorithms and throw in misformed Wordstar files and it has become a very big meal to chew on.

Progress is slow but steady. It will be a great resource. I think perhaps that it will not be totally complete but it will be a work that another may bring to completion using differerent programming tools.

[Graham72]

    An update: I have been trapped in .lbr decompression - after spending 24 hours away from the magic bytes 0xFE 0xFF  0x76 type 1 type 2 of crunched files I returned to the battle. I had found issues with using 64bit math in decompressing 16bit chains and open memory windows. I limited output to Microbee style memory restrictions <32k.

Partial success I started to show upto 50 coherent ASCII characters output then ASCII gibberish - I was happy! (compared to 2 days ago when I had only windings and asian characters).

I flipped, flopped, and & or, conveyor belt through v2.9 to v4.1. I was beaten. Always upto 50 characters only. So I gave my code to Claude and asked for a comparison with the avwohl/80un code on github. In less than two minutes Claude spat out 5 errors. YAY! 4.5 works. HTML/JS coding to reveal coding treasures of the mid '80's.

Squeeze, Crunch and Arc/k work. Some minor UI fixes remain.

[Graham72]

Thanks to Chickenman for ongoing tests and reporting that extension types dYC cYm etc are failing. I have identified the byte and rebuilding.

Meanwhile the total files covered can be revealed

MBUGDISKS EXT-SCANNER REPORT

TOTAL MEMBER FILES FOUND: 4125 - different to above figure go figure)
TOTAL UNIQUE EXTENSIONS: 497

(I have two errors reported which I am trying to identify). Not sure if it is 2 corrupt files or 2 corrupt librarys.)

This tally includes 7 more .mwb files which have been extracted and will be inserted into the companion MBEECAT.

[Graham72]

    Well I have a new middle name. Stubborn.

I refused to surrender to an exotic little library on Disk 182.

No matter what I tried I could not get the data to decompress. So I built a Z80 and CP/M emulator in the html. Now the files can be extracted and decompressed and downloaded.

Updating the release notes tonight. Hopefully in the Repository soon. (now I have to backtrack and pick up the pieces of other software projects that got put aside the past week.)

[Graham72]

Released to Repository, with other files. A huge thanks to ChickenMan for finding issues and giving me the impetus to follow thru to a (semi) polished utility.