CBM Funet Archive/cbm-funet-archive-2003.iso/cpm/faq/cpm-on-c128-4.txt

Text File | 2001-08-30 | 8KB | 193 lines

Cp/m on the c128 (article 4)

BY nOEL nYMAN

(cOPYRIGHT 1986 BY gEODUCK dEVELOPMENTAL sYSTEMS.
pERMISSION TO REPRINT THIS MATERIAL IS HEREBY GRANTED,
PROVIDED THIS NOTICE IS INCLUDED IN THE REPRINTED MATERIAL.)

iN THIS ARTICLE, WE'LL LOOK AT THE REST OF THE RESIDENT
UTILITIES IN cp/m.

user IS A UTILITY THAT WAS DESIGNED FOR SYSTEMS WITH HARD
DISK DRIVES OR MULTI-USER SYSTEMS.  iT ALLOWS YOU TO HAVE
SIXTEEN "USER AREAS" ON A SINGLE DISK.  tO ILLUSTRATE THIS,
TYPE:

a> USER 5

dON'T FORGET THE SPACE AHEAD OF THE NUMBER.  cp/m RESPONDS
WITH

5a>

tHE SYSTEM WILL NOW ONLY LOOK AT DISK FILES THAT WERE saveD
TO DISK IN THE USER 5 AREA.  wHEN YOU TYPE THE dir COMMAND,
YOU'LL GET A "NO FILES" MESSAGE BECAUSE ALL THE FILES ON
YOUR DISK ARE IN USER 0.  tHE USER NUMBER WOULD BE HANDY FOR
KEEPING YOUR FILES SEPARATE FROM ANOTHER USER'S ON A HARD
DISK YOU BOTH SHARE.  iT'S NOT VERY USEFUL TO US, BECAUSE
YOU CAN'T ACCESS ANOTHER USER AREA FILES FROM THE CURRENT
USER AREA.  tHIS MEANS THAT ANY UTILITIES ARE SHUT OFF FROM
YOU UNLESS YOU COPY THEM INTO THE NEW USER AREA. hOWEVER,
WHEN YOU TYPE A FILE NAME, cp/m WILL LOOK FOR A ".com" FILE
WITH THAT NAME IN THE CURRENT USER AREA.  iF IT DOESN'T FIND
ONE, IT WILL LOOK FOR THE FILE IN USER 0, AND load IT IF IT
HAS A "SYSTEM ATTRIBUTE".  aS WE SAW LAST TIME, THE SYSTEM
ATTRIBUTE IS NOT THE SAME AS A ".sys" EXTENSION.  iF YOU
WANT UTILITIES AVAILABLE IN OTHER USER AREAS, USE set.com TO
CHANGE THEM TO SYSTEM ATTRIBUTE FILES.  cHANGE BACK TO USER
0 NOW BY TYPING:

5a> USER 0

"erase" AND "rename" ARE USED TO ERASE (SCRATCH) OR RENAME
FILES ON A DISK.  tHE COMMANDS CAN BE ABBREVIATED "era" AND
"ren".  tO CHANGE THE NAME OF THE GAME twenty1.com ON THE
input cp/m1 DISK, TYPE:

 a> REN D:twentone.com=D:twenty1.com

tHIS IS SIMILAR TO THE cOMMODORE dos FORMAT WHERE THE NEW
NAME COMES FIRST.  tHE "D:" REPRESENTS THE DRIVE NUMBER
CONTAINING THE DISK WITH THE FILE YOU WANT RENAMED.  yOU CAN
OMIT IF IF THE FILE IS ON THE CURRENTLY LOGGED DRIVE.  dON'T
USE MORE THAN EIGHT CHARACTERS FOR THE NAME AND THREE FOR
THE EXTENSION.  iF YOU FORGET THE EXTENSION, THE FILE WILL
BE NAMED "twentone.   ".  yOU CAN CHANGE ANY EXTENSIONS AT
ANY TIME, BUT SOME UTILITIES EXPECT CERTAIN EXTENSIONS.
aVOID ".hex", ".mac", ".asm", ".bas", ".hlp" AND ".com" FOR
GENERAL FILES.  hOWEVER, IF YOU FIND A FILE ON A PUBLIC
DOMAIN DISK WITH ".obj" (OBJECT CODE FILE), OR ".bin"
(BINARY CODE FILE), TRY CHANGING THE EXTENSION TO ".com" TO
GET THE PROGRAM TO RUN UNDER cp/m+.

tHE cOMMODORE dos WILD CARD RULES APPLY TO cp/m AS WELL.
yOU CAN USE "?" AS A SINGLE CHARACTER WILD CARD, OR "*" AS A
FILE NAME OR EXTENSION WILD CARD IN MOST COMMANDS.  fOR
EXAMPLE

a> DIR *.com

WILL SHOW YOU ONLY THE ".com" FILES ON THE DISK IN DRIVE a.
uSING

a> REN D:*.BAK=D:*.TXT

CHANGES ALL ".txt" (TEXT) FILES TO ".bak" (BACKUP) ON THE
DRIVE SPECIFIED BY "D:".  tYPING

a> ERA *.*

WILL ERASE all THE FILE ON DRIVE a...BE CAREFUL!  iF YOU USE
A WILD CARD IN era OR ren, cp/m WILL PROMPT YOU FOR A
"yes/no" BEFORE EXECUTING THE COMMAND.

aLTHOUGH dir, ren, AND era ARE RESIDENT UTILITIES, THEY ARE
"BARE BONES" VERSIONS.  tHEY HAVE ALL HAVE ADVANCED FEATURES
THAT REQUIRE TOO MUCH MEMORY TO KEEP IN ram.  iF YOU TRY TO
USE ONE OF THESE FEATURES, YOU MUST HAVE THE CORRESPONDING
".com" FILE ON DISK.  fOR EXAMPLE, PLACE ANY DISK EXCEPT THE
cp/m SYSTEM DISK IN THE DRIVE AND ENTER

a> DIR [FULL]


yOU WILL GET THE MESSAGE "dir     com REQUIRED".  tHE
ADVANCED [FULL] OPTION REQUIRES loadING dir.com.  nOW PLACE
THE cp/m SYSTEM DISK IN THE DRIVE AND RE-ISSUE THE COMMAND.
aN EASY WAY TO REPEAT A COMMAND ON THE c128 IS TO TAP THE
cursor down KEY NEXT TO THE shift KEY, NOT THE ONE AT THE
TOP OF THE KEYBOARD.  tHE LAST COMMAND ENTERED WILL BE
RETYPED ON THE SCREEN.  pRESS return TO EXECUTE IT, OR USE
THE CURSOR AND del KEYS TO CHANGE IT.

yOU SHOULD NOW SEE A MUCH MORE COMPLETE DIRECTORY LISTING.
tHE FILES ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, AND THEIR SIZES
IN BYTES AND RECORDS ARE SHOWN. tHE SIZES WILL BE IN 1k
INCREMENTS FOR SINGLE SIDED DISKS AND 2k FOR DOUBLE SIDED.
cp/m RECORDS ARE 128 BYTES EACH.  tHE ATTRIBUTES OF EACH
FILE ARE SHOWN, EITHER dir OR sys AND EITHER rw FOR "READ OR
WRITE" OR ro FOR "READ ONLY".  ro FILES CANNOT BE CHANGED
WITHOUT CHANGING THEM TO rw WITH THE set.com UTILITY.

tHE [FULL] OPTION ALSO SHOWS TOTAL BYTES USED AND FREE ON
THE DISK, TOTAL FILES FOUND AND DIRECTORY ENTRIES USED.
lONG FILES MAY TAKE UP TWO DIRECTORY ENTRIES.  yOU CAN SEE
THE SAME DISPLAY ON A DISK THAT DOESN'T HAVE dir.com BY
TYPING

A> DIR [DRIVE=B]

pLACE THE DISK CONTAINING dir.com IN DRIVE a AND THE DISK
YOU WANT TO VIEW IN DRIVE b.  iF YOU HAVE ONLY ONE DRIVE,
REPLACE THE "B" WITH "E".  cp/m WILL load dir.com AND PROMPT
YOU FOR THE NEW DISK.

tHE LAST RESIDENT UTILITY, type, ALLOWS YOU TO LOOK AT FILES
ON YOUR SCREEN AND PRINT THEM ON A PRINTER.  aLL FILES ON A
cp/m DISK ARE EITHER ascii (TEXT) FILES OR BINARY MACHINE
CODE FILES.  yOU CAN ONLY USE type WITH ascii FILES.  yOU
CAN'T HARM ANYTHING IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY USE type ON A BINARY
FILE, BUT YOU'LL ONLY SEE GIBBERISH ON THE SCREEN, AND cp/m
MAY CRASH.  iF THAT HAPPENS, JUST RE-boot THE SYSTEM.

aNY FILE WITH ".doc", OR ".txt" EXTENSIONS CAN USUALLY BE
VIEWED WITH type.  iF YOU HAVE THE input cp/m1 DISK, ENTER

a> TYPE README.TXT

cp/m WILL DISPLAY PART OF THE FILE readme.txt ON THE SCREEN.
 wHEN THE SCREEN IS FULL, A PROMPT WILL APPEAR TO PRESS
return (ALMOST ANY KEY WILL DO), AND MORE OF THE FILE WILL
BE DISPLAYED.  iF YOU WANT TO EXIT type, JUST PRESS ctrl-c.

yOU CAN PRINT A TEXT FILE ON YOUR PRINTER BY PRESSING ctrl-p
BEFORE ISSUING THE type COMMAND.  ctrl-p TOGGLES THE PRINTER
ON LINE, AND ANYTHING THAT APPEARS ON THE SCREEN WILL BE
PRINTED AS WELL.  tHE ctrl-p COMMAND PRODUCES A TONE WHEN
THE PRINTER IS TOGGLED ON.  pRESSING ctrl-p AGAIN TOGGLES
THE PRINTER OFF AND NO TONE IS HEARD.

wHILE ctrl-p GIVES YOU HARD COPY FROM type, IT ALSO HAS ALL
THOSE "pRESS return..." PROMPTS IN IT.  yOU CAN AVOID THEM,
BY USING AN ADVANCED type OPTION.  eNTER

a> TYPE README.TXT[NOPAGE]

tHE FILE WILL SCROLL UP YOUR SCREEN WITHOUT STOPPING, AND
WILL PRINT COMPLETELY.  sINCE [NOPAGE] IS A NON-RESIDENT
FEATURE OF type, type.com MUST BE ON THE DISK FOR IT TO
WORK.  yOU CAN USE [NOPAGE] ON ANOTHER DISK BY TYPING

a> TYPE D:README.TXT[NOPAGE]

WHERE "D:" IS ANY VALID DISK DRIVE.

tHERE ARE MANY OTHER UTILITY OPTIONS, TOO MANY TO DISCUSS
HERE.  yOU CAN FIND OUT ABOUT THEM IN THE digital research
cp/m plus user's guide.  tHIS IS PART OF THE PACKAGE YOU GET
BY MAILING IN THE CARD BOUND IN THE cp/m SECTION OF THE c128
system guide THAT CAME WITH YOUR c128.  tHE dIGITAL rESEARCH
DOCUMENTATION IS EXTENSIVE AND A GREAT BARGAIN AT THE
OFFERED PRICE.  hOWEVER, IT WAS WRITTEN BY COMPUTER FOLKS
FOR OTHER COMPUTER FOLKS.  fOR EASIER READING, YOU MAY ALSO
WANT TO PURCHASE THE cp/m plus handbook BY aLAN mILLER, OR
CHECK OUT THE OTHER REFERENCES LISTED IN THE "article1.txt"
FILE ON THE input cp/m1 DISK.

yOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP BACK-UP COPIES OF YOUR SYSTEM DISK
AND IMPORTANT UTILITIES.  yOU CAN COPY FILES WITH THE
UTILITY pip.com.  pip IS EXPLAINED BRIEFLY IN THE c128
system guide.  yOU CAN ALSO USE dir+.com FOUND ON THE input
cp/m1 DISK.  yOU CAN MAKE FULL DISK COPIES OF ANY SINGLE
SIDED cp/m DISK USING A c64 OR c128 BIT OR NIBBLE COPIER OR
A DUAL DRIVE COPIER PROGRAM IN NON-cp/m MODE.  yOU CANNOT
USE ANY PROGRAM THAT USES bam OR DIRECTORY REFERENCES TO
COPY A DISK.

tEXT FILES OF THE FIRST FOUR ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES CAN BE
FOUND, ALONG WITH SEVERAL ADDITIONAL UTILITIES AND THE MOST
CURRENT cp/m OPERATING SYSTEM ON THE input cp/m1 DISK.  sEE
THE ORDER FORM ELSEWHERE IN THIS ISSUE.