I got the following off another list, and thought someone here might be
interested.

Hello!

I have finally established a wonderful student lab with 20 iMacs. (I also
have a lab on a different floor with 20 7X00 Macs, being a mixture of 7600
and 7300 machines.)

Trouble is, students are complaining about the lack of floppydrives.

Now, I could get a SuperDisk drive from Imation, and put it in the lab,
either bolting it down or letting it move around as needed. But I don't
like that solution.

My idea is to use an old LCII type machine or something, with a dedicated
application, which needs to be developed.

I believe it should be possible to call an application "Finder" with the
appropriate creator/type and have it launch instead of the Finder.

The floppystation application should do something like that.

All that the application should do is watch for DiskInserted events, and
when a floppydisk is inserted it should ask for an AppleShare username and
password. It should mount the users home folder and/or other volumes.
(Depending on how this is meaningful in the setup. This should be a
configuration option somehow.)

Then it should ask the user whether he wants to upload or download.

If he wants to upload, it should launch a virus scanner (Virex? just
Disinfectant?) and scan the floppy inserted, and possibly do some other
configurable tests. (Like, don't allow upload of certain types of files,
APPL for example). Eject it if it has virus or is otherwise invalid) Then
either upload everything on the floppy or offer the user the choice of
selecting files to upload.

If he wants to download, the floppy is formatted (after a suitable
warning), and the user is given the option to select files to download from
his home directory, and possibly other AppleShare directories to which he
has access. If the selected data can't fit on one floppy, compression could
be automatic, as could file-splitting. If more floppies are necessary, a
warning should be given.

PC-floppy support could be an additional option.

That's all this application should ever do. A user comes along, gets his
files and goes home, or uploads his files and finds an iMac for working.

I'm a systems administrator, and I have just never found the time to do
real Mac programming, although I have tried. So writing this application is
just beyond me.

But I sure think with the iMac, that such an application would be a great
success.

If you know an application that can do this already, let me know.

If not, this idea is free to use for any programmer who wants to do
something with it, no strings attached. It would be my pleasure to function
as a partner for testing and for hashing out the precise needs for interface
and functionality. A courtesy copy would be great, but if you make this and
want me to pay up to $100 for it like anybody else, I'll be happy to pay.

-Lasse  -  lassehp@...