"TYPE" like command for DOS 2.5?

[texacala]

So I have an ATR with Turbo Basic XL and a (slightly) modified version of DOS 2.5 that allows me to select B to return back to TBXL, program listing intact. But I wish I had something like a Spartados TYPE command to view the contents of a file included on this ATR. Not a full-blown text editor per se, just a COM file that's small, quick-loading, exits back to DOS, and (possibly?) lets me go back to TBXL. Any recommendations for such a utility? Thank you in advance.

[Mathy]

Hello texacala

 

Copying to either S: or E: won't do?

 

sincerely

 

Mathy

[flashjazzcat]

Won't copy wipe out TBXL? Or does this modified DOS simply use an augmented MEM.SAV?

[Rybags]

Copy to S: works best - reply N when it asks if it can use program memory.

 

You can do a quick & easy TYPE in immediate mode Basic:

 

OPEN #1,4,0,"D:file.ext" : FOR Z=0 TO 999999 : GET #1,D : ? "<ESC twice>";CHR$(D); : NEXT Z

 

<ESC twice> = press the ESC key twice. This makes the E: handler print the following character rather than act on it if it's a control code, stops the cursor and output going crazy.

 

If you're doing multiple files, put "CLOSE #1" before the OPEN.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Rybags

[texacala]

It worked, thanks! I had thought COPY would wipe out TBXL but no, I was able to exit DOS and return with program listing intact. This will be great for small text files.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

I have created such a disk for you ! It contains a) Turbo-DOS XL/XE, b) a ramdisk-driver, c) Turbo-Basic XL as well as d) a text file (as an example)...

 

You know, Turbo-DOS is fully DOS 2.5 compatible, it was written by Reitershan Germany with the DOS 2.5 sourcecode. The DOS will first setup a ramdisk, so a minimum of 128k RAM is required. Next it installs DUP.SYS and Mem.Sav in the RD, then it executes TB XL.

 

Whenever you want to go back from TB XL to DOS, just type DOS and its there within a second. In the DUP menu type e.g. TYP(e) *.TXT and it will display any ATASCII text for you on the screen (38 chars per line). Now, the important thing - go back to TB XL ?!? In Turbo-DOS one can set a back-adress with the command BAC (just type it and it will respond with 2080, the RUN adress of TB XL!), I already did this for you. So all you have to do now is press the Option key and instead of Atari Basic (which is normally executed) TB XL will be re-run... thanks to Mem.Sav your program should still be there...

 

The back-adress in Turbo-DOS can be used for other programs as well (e.g. Atmas-II) and with pressing the Option key one can return from Turbo-DOS to the program.

 

To get an overview of all available Turbo-DOS commands, press the help key or simply type HEL(p). Most commands are abbreviated with 3 letters, but in many cases it is allowed to write the full word. The Start, Select and Option keys also have functions:

 

Start: displays the directory of current drive (e.g. drive 1)

Select: switches between drive 1 and drive 8 (ramdisk); afaik can be changed to switch between drive 1 and drive x

Option: goes to back-adress, which is usually Atari Basic or DUP when AB is switched off, but can be altered with the BAC command

 

Note: Turbo-DOS 2.1 is available in four different versions (for different drive speeders / upgrades, like Happy, Speedy and XF551), the version here is for normal 1050 or turbo 1050 drives, so it will only work with 90k, 130k and 180k or the format commands FMS (single), FME (enhanced) and FMD (double); allthough the FMQ (quad or 360k) command shows up in the Help menu, it does not work here and responds with an Error message, this is normal, since a 1050 cannot format 360kbytes...(but its lazy programming, since other drives can)...

 

Hopefully, this is what you need - Andreas Koch.

back2080.zip

Edited March 14, 2013 by CharlieChaplin

[texacala]

Thank you Andreas! I use a 130XE with SDrive and I think this will work well. It's funny because I was just reading about Turbo Dos and XDOS on these forums the other day and my interest was piqued by DOS 2.5 file compatibility. Now I have a disk to test out, perfect, thanks again.

[Roydea6]

textvu.bas

 

I modified this basic program to turbobasic syntax for reading atari text file from Turbobasic. I modified it mostly for reading my 16mb game atr's to read the 'PICONAME.TXT' file from the game folders. Program prompts for a drive # <1-9> and then reads the directories looking for text files 'filename.TXT' it can be modified to search for any extention (i.e) LST, SRC, ATA. Even binary files ,but binary files aren't fun to read. Line 270 of program is the IF ......="TXT" line to change for other extentions you might need to view..even " " blank extender.

Should run from any DOS..

Also any KEY will pause and start listing (reading).

Edited March 15, 2013 by rdea6

[texacala]

Thanks Rdea6 for that program, very useful! I had thought of writing something like this myself and this is great, now I have it

 

For Andreas: Is the AUTORUN.SYS file needed to run .BAT files in Turbo Dos XL? I was able to follow SETUP.BAT, but in this case what else does AUTORUN.SYS do? Does the DOS write this file or can the user configure it? I tested the disk in Altirra and it works great-- so tomorrow I fire it up in the 130 XE haha

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

this Autorun.SYS of Turbo-DOS is a) a ramdisk driver and b) a batchfile-enhancement, so yes it is needed to run the batchfile and setup the ramdisk. On the original Turbo-DOS disk there is a batchfile-editor, named BATEDIT.COM to edit/create your own batchfiles. Alas, Turbo-DOS has two types of batchfiles: the ones for batchfile-enhancement (*.BAT) and the ones for DUP (*.EXE, yes the extender is EXE and is a batchfile under Turbo-DOS).

 

While the DUP batchfile (*.EXE) allows *all* commands that are available in DOS/DUP (like TYP, BAC, FMS, FME, FMD, etc.), the ramdisk-driver and batchfile-enhancement allows only *some* built-in commands (like copy file(s) to RD, run/execute file(s), etc.).

The ramdisk-driver and batchfile-enhancement starts automatically if you name it Autorun.SYS. Alternatively you can rename it to Autobat.COM and binary load it with one of the many available binary load commands, e.g. LOA AUTOBAT.COM or LOA AUTO*.* or LOA AU- or AU followed by SHIFT+Return; a "-" has the same meaning in Turbo-DOS as *.*; holding down Shift and pressing Return will load a *.COM file).

 

The DUP batchfile can normally only be started manually, you have to go to DUP and then hold down Control and press Return to load a *.EXE batchfile. But you can also combine both batchfile types. e.g. start a batchfile (*.BAT) via batchfile-enhancement automatically, copy some files to ramdisk and then start a DUP batchfile (*.EXE) which does execute further commands.

 

There are several german manuals for Turbo-DOS available:

http://www.strotmann...ib/TURBODOS.PDF

http://www.strotmann...dbuch-final.pdf

http://www.strotmann.de/~cas/Infothek/TurboDos/ReferenzkarteTurbo-DOS.pdf

 

I am not sure if there also exists an english manual or a reference card...

 

-Andreas Koch.

Edited March 15, 2013 by CharlieChaplin

[texacala]

Ah ok, I just read some of the documentation and see now there are a number of utility files. Thanks for the explanation, my German is not so good haha. I like this DOS. I like the shortcuts in particular and how the Atari function keys are well-integrated. Funny that the screen color is purple (?) . Maybe I can change it using one of the utility files.

[Roydea6]

Ah ok, I just read some of the documentation and see now there are a number of utility files. Thanks for the explanation, my German is not so good haha. I like this DOS. I like the shortcuts in particular and how the Atari function keys are well-integrated. Funny that the screen color is purple (?) . Maybe I can change it using one of the utility files.

 

What color for $02C6 (710) do you want it to be yellow, green, blue, red.? Just asking because I have already changed my screen color..

[+CharlieChaplin]

Ah ok, I just read some of the documentation and see now there are a number of utility files. Thanks for the explanation, my German is not so good haha. I like this DOS. I like the shortcuts in particular and how the Atari function keys are well-integrated. Funny that the screen color is purple (?) . Maybe I can change it using one of the utility files.

 

Yes you can,

 

but much simpler - you can do it in DUP.SYS, since it has a little built-in monitor... e.g. type ">" and a hex number, the DUP will display 8 hex values. Change one or more of these values and voila, you have changed memory. If I remember correctly you have to type >2205 and then change the first value to change the colour of DUP.SYS. So, type >2205 and it will display 50 followed by seven more hex values, change the 50 to e.g. 70 or 80 and you will get a nice blue colour, use other hex numbers for other colours.

 

To make this change permanent write the changed DOS+DUP with the INI command to disk. Please note that all utilities in Turb-DOS do also use this strange purple colour, you have to find out yourself what hex values need to be changed to change the colour there. I was much too lazy to do this and changed only the colour in DUP.SYS... -Andreas Koch.

Edited March 16, 2013 by CharlieChaplin

[texacala]

Thanks, I'll try it out. I was looking for Atari blue (just the normal DOS 2.5 menu color) so I'll play around a bit and see if I can find it.