Just going to post a brief status report here on my Apple II softlist work:

I had completely misunderstood significant things about softlists, so some side work I'd been doing for 3.5" disks was not really necessary and was backed out before it went beyond initial testing. Other than the embarrassment, it's not a bad situation as it means the end result I'm working towards will be a lot cleaner.

Honestly, part of the problem is that I've only learned what I need to know about getting these right by trial and error. I've been refining my tools and processes as I go, but some of the early data my first-generation tools generated wasn't great and requires some hand-massaging before I merge it in. This slows the process because I'm double checking my work for each entry as I go-- I'm too deep in to just throw out the first pass work and start over.

Nevertheless, we're getting there.