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Difference between MZT and MZF files

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 8:18 am
by Jo Even
What is the difference between these file formats? They appears to be the same to me. E.g. hlide's MZF compressor refuses to accept MZT files, but reads them happily when I rename them to MZF. Same with various emulators, they only accept one of these file suffixes but reads both types after renaming them.

Re: Difference between MZT and MZF files

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 11:59 am
by hlide
Yeah, I don't know the difference between MZT, MZF and M12.
The program mz7c is just checking the input is suffixed with .mzf to replace it with .mz7. Because there is no really standard about which suffix to use, I decided to keep .mzf for MZ F[ile/ormat?] instead of MZ Tape or M[Z) 12[00 baud?].

For me, MZF should be one 128-byte header then one data block.

Re: Difference between MZT and MZF files

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:02 pm
by hlide
I sometimes saw a MZT file having one header and several data blocks. The main issue I see with that is that format is not giving the details about the additional data blocks so it's pretty difficult to interpret/extract them without running the main program which is reading the next data blocks.

So in that aspect I consider a MZT file is supposed to be handled as the tape player would do: reading header, read first data block, run the program, the program fits a tape header and then read the second data block in the same way it would be with a genuine tape.

Sure you could have a MZF or M12 having the same data, but I would certainly rename them as MZT to make sure to understand you need a compatible tape loader.

As for M12, I'm not sure what it is.

My opinion:

- MZF for one simple 128-byte tape compatible header + one data block. It's a file with no obligation to have a tape system to load them.
- MZT for one simple 128-byte tape compatible header + one or several data blocks. This is a tape image meant to be played by a tape emulator which is able to resume reading a data block through MOTOR signal.

Re: Difference between MZT and MZF files

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:17 pm
by hlide
With that definition, mz7c can only process MZF files. And MZ7 files can also be renamed into MZF files too. It cannot work with a MZT file which has several data blocks.

Re: Difference between MZT and MZF files

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:47 pm
by Jo Even
Thank you for the clarification.

Re: Difference between MZT and MZF files

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:48 pm
by mz-80a
I always assumed MZT was for tape files and MZF for floppy images but I've always just used MZF anyway