Programming IDE for RISC OS (CodeCube Cloverleaf project)

Totally different thing.

IDE disc F iling S ystem

I can recall IDEFS on RISC OS quite early on.

:-)

IDE (harddisc) means Integrated Drive Electronics which means that the low level disc controller is built into the drive itself rather than being a dumb drive with a separate controller as was the case for ST-506. ¹

IDE (programming) means Integrated Development Environment. Google Visual Basic, then you’ll understand.

Some screenshots: https://winworldpc.com/screenshot/1fc3ab78-c5a1-2233-11c3-a4e284a2c3a5
I was using this back on Windows 98. Wrote this with it http://heyrick.eu/software/winttx/ (which is either dedication or insanity, you pick)

¹ While it’s true that you still need a controller chip for IDE drives, the difference is that the IDE controller gives commands to the drive, that does what’s necessary and returns data. So really the chip is just acting as an interface between the processor and the device. With ST-506, you literally get the raw MFM data from the heads along with timing signals. You need to step the drive to the correct track, sort out the timing for its rotation, then decode the information from the read head. Writing is the same, but you’re supplying data as a blast of MFM. The drive does nothing for itself.