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ATARI 520 ST TOOLBOX
Volume One
Created By
CHESTER HOLMES and OLIVER DUCKWORTH
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DOCUMENTATION
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INTRODUCTION
I must say that Chester and I are quite appreciative of your
confidence in our ability to programme on the Atari ST machine
expressed in your purchase of this TOOLBOX utility. We do hope
that it brings you a great deal of enjoyment and satisfactory
resolution to the predicaments we all seem to get into while
working with these "blessed creations."
You must know that neither of us is totally above suggestion,
so we welcome yours concerning this programme, and other facets of
the Atari market (both stateside and international). You may reach
us through the mail at our American headquarters which is:
MIRAGE * 4055 W. SHAW #108 * FRESNO, CA 93711
At any rate, we do desire that you enjoy our work in this
package and that you will look forward with confident assurance to
the whole line of products Mirage will be releasing for us in the
near future.
With best regards, OLIVER DUCKWORTH
COPYING THE PROGRAM DISK
There is no piece of Holmes & Duckworth software which is
copy-protected. We believe that you, as a patron of our software,
deserve the right to make backup or archive copies without
limitation -- FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL USE.
Please honor our rights by not making unauthorized copies of
this programme. You must understand that in order to keep our
prices minimal and our quality maximal, we must have your
cooperation in this matter.
If you hear of anyone making illegal copies of this or any of
our HOLMES & DUCKWORTH packages, please give us a jingle. We
will, of course, preserve your anonimity through all legal
proceedings. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Mirage has graciously offered to provide support for our
products from their Fresno, California, offices. We have been
informed that their technicians will be available to receive your
calls every weekday afternoon from 1:00pm to 5:00pm (Pacific) at
(209) 276-1485. I regret that we will not be available personally
to field your inquiries, but can assure you that we have taken
great pains to make sure our assistants are well versed on this
programme.
FILES ON THIS DISK
This disk contains 11 files - five pairs of program files and
the file you are presently reading. Each of our software tools is
made up of two files - a program (.PRG) and a resource (.RSC).
When you copy the programs to your own disks, be sure to copy both
files over for each program. NOTE: You will find it useful to keep
a copy of the FORMAT AND COPY program on each of your disks (as we
do).
BEGINNING A PROGRAM
You may begin using any one of the programs in this TOOLBOX by
double clicking the left button of the mouse on its icon (the one
with ".PRG" at the end of it).
Although instructions for each of the programs is listed below, you
most likely will not refer to them often as the on-screen
prompting in the programs is quite extensive.
NOTE: If you are using a color monitor, it must be set to
"Medium" resolution.
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PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS & INSTRUCTIONS
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FILE RECOVERY PROGRAM - "FRECOVER.PRG"
This program is designed to recover a file that has just been
deleted (or "trashed"). Although your chances of file recovery are
very good, there is always a chance of something going wrong. It
is strongly suggested, therefore, that you make a backup of your
original disk before attempting to recover a file. Hopefully, you
will never need to use this program...but to err is human...
After double clicking on the "FRECOVER.PRG" icon, a dialog box
will appear on the screen reminding you to make a backup before
proceeding. It will then ask you to insert the disk that contains
the deleted file into "Drive A". After inserting the disk, click
on the "OK" button.
The dialog box will disappear and the window underneath will
show a listing of any and all deleted files on your disk. A letter
will preceed the name of each filename - use this letter to select
which file you wish to recover. Note that the first character of
each file name listed has been replaced with an underline.
At the bottom of the window you will be asked to input the
letter of the file you wish to recover. Upon entering a letter,
the computer will go to work. After recovering the file, you will
will be asked if you want to 1) Recover any other files, or 2) Exit
the program.
When you examine the directory, you will see that the file you
recovered is now included in the listing. The first character of
its name has been replaced with an 'X', marking it as a recovered
file. REVIEW THE CONTENTS OF THE FILE THOROUGHLY. Just because it
is listed does not mean that all of the file has been recovered.
In some cases, only the first part of the file will be retained.
Because there are so many variables involved, such as type of
file, number of deletions, order of deletions, etc., THERE IS NO
GUARANTEE that you will be able to retrieve any part of the file
you accidently deleted.
DIRECTORY LISTING - "DIRECTRY.PRG"
This is one of the simplest, yet most useful programs on this
disk. It does one thing that the writers of the Atari ST operating
system forgot to include (the little devils) -- it allows you to
make a printed listing of a disk directory without having to do
multiple screen dumps.
After clicking on the "DIRECTRY.PRG" icon, the program asks
you to insert the disk you want to make a listing of in either
drive (if you have two). The default drive is "A", but you can
select drive "B" by clicking on the button which reads "Drive B".
Once you have selected the proper drive, click on the "OK" button.
The disk directory will be read into the computer and you will
be asked to insert the disk you want to save the listing on. The
easiest method is to save the file that contains the listing on the
disk you currently have in the drive. You may, however, want to
keep a master directory disk that contains listings of all of your
disks. In that case, insert that master disk into the drive.
The default name for the directory listing file, the name
under which the directory will be saved, is 'DIRECTRY.LST' (shown
in the dialog box). You may change the name if you desire.
When the proper disk is in place, and you have chosen the file
name you desire, click on the "OK" button. Your directory will be
saved on the disk as a standard text file.
In order to print the file, return to the "DESKTOP" and click
twice on the directory listing file icon. Click on the "Print"
button and your directory will be listed to the printer.
FORMAT AND COPY - "FRMTCOPY.PRG"
You can format and copy a complete disk with the standard
GEM operating system...it does, however, require quite a lot of
work and time. We do think you will find our FORMAT AND COPY
program to be faster and considerably easier to use (typically
British).
Important Note: Always "Write-Protect" your original disk
before attempting to copy it. To do so, push the tab in the upper
right corner of the disk to the "open" position (up).
To begin, click on the "FRMTCOPY.PRG" icon. You can then
select to copy on either a dual disk drive or single disk drive
(the default is single drive). If you are using a single drive to
make the copy, you will be required to "swap" disks in and out of
the drive (you will be prompted). Be very careful to insert the
proper disk at the right time or you may end up writing over your
original (if it is not "Write-Protected").
If you are using the dual drive copy be sure you insert the
original source disk into "Drive A" and the destination disk into
"Drive B".
To begin the actual copy process, click on the "OK" button.
If all goes well (as it should), the copy will be made and you will
be asked if you would like to make another. If, by some ill stroke
of fate, an error in the copying process occurs, you will be asked
if you would like to "RETRY" or "ABORT". A disk error may be
indicated for a variety of reasons, some of which include the use
of a disk of poor quality, a disk not seated properly in the drive,
an unformatted destination disk in the wrong drive, a write-protect
tab in the wrong position, and so forth. Before ABORTING, check
your disks for some of these problems -- correct the situation --
and click on the RETRY button.
FILE AND SECTOR EDITOR - "FSEDITOR.PRG"
This program was designed to allow you to view and/or edit any
file or sector on an ST disk.
BEFORE USING THIS PROGRAM, WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU MAKE A
BACKUP COPY OF THE DISK YOU WILL BE MANIPULATING. YOU MAY ALTER
DATA ON ANY PARTICULAR DISK TO A POINT WHERE IT CAN NO LONGER BE
USED!
To begin, double click on the "FSEDITOR.PRG" icon. A dialog
box will appear giving you the option of editing either files or
sectors. Choose the option you want by clicking on the appropriate
button. A screen asking for your choice of either "Drive A" or
"Drive B" will appear. Before continuing, insert the disk you want
to view/edit into a drive. When you have done so, click on the
button which corresponds with the drive location of the disk you
just inserted (the default drive is "A").
File Mode
If you had previously selected to work in the "File Mode," a
file selection box will display on the screen. Select the file you
want to edit by double clicking on its name or by typing a file
name in the selection box.
After a file has been selected, the program will display the
first screen of 256 bytes. This is the beginning of your file.
Options available to you in your manipulation of the information on
this screen are listed below. Note: All options can also be
executed out by using the function keys (F1 to F10). Movement of
the cursor may be controlled either by: 1) Using the arrow keys,
or 2) By positioning the arrow (using the mouse) over data or ASCII
text and clicking the left button on the mouse.
Sector Mode
If, when you entered the program you chose to work in the
"Sector Mode," the first prompts appearing after the selection of a
disk drive will request the numbers of the TRACK (0 - 79) and
SECTOR you want to look at.
Note: The program is designed to be used with single-sided
drive systems only.
When TRACK and SECTOR numbers have been entered, the program
will load a SECTOR into memory. A SECTOR consists of 512 bytes, so
it takes two screens to display one full SECTOR. To view the
second portion of a SECTOR, scroll down using the Function
Key.
MEMORY EDITOR - "MEMEDIT.PRG"
WARNING: WITH THIS PROGRAM, YOU HAVE TOTAL ACCESS TO ALL 512K
OF YOUR COMPUTER'S RAM MEMORY. IF YOU CHANGE DATA IN CERTAIN
AREAS OF MEMORY, THERE IS A STONG LIKELYHOOD THAT THE SYSTEM
WILL CRASH AND LITTLE "BOMBS" WILL APPEAR ON YOUR SCREEN. The
"Bombs" cause no permanent damage to the system, but we do suggest
that you reset the system after their "explosion". It is also a
good idea not to have any disks in the drives during memory
"exploration". Don't blame us, we told you so!!! H. & D.
The MEMORY EDITOR works very much like the FILE AND SECTOR
EDITOR (above). After clicking on the icon which reads
"MEMEDIT.PRG", the very first 256 bytes of your Atari ST's RAM
memory will appear on the screen. The same set of commands
available to you in the FILE AND SECTOR EDITOR (see below)
are now at your disposal.
If you would like to look in memory at the code we wrote to
perform this program, it can be found somewhere between the memory
addresses pointed to by locations 432h (contains low TPA address)
and 436h (contains high TPA address ).
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FILE/SECTOR EDITOR AND MEMORY EDITOR
MENU BAR DESCRIPTIONS
FUNCTION DESCRIPTION
KEY
I. DESK -You may run any desk accessory from
within the FILE/SECTOR EDITOR and
MEMORY EDITOR
II. FILE
Print F6 -The current screen will be sent to
your printer.
Quit F1 -Quit to MAIN MENU
III. VIEW
Goto Offset F5 -GOTO a specific byte in the file or
memory. In SECTOR mode, it allows
you to select another track and
sector.
Find String F4 -Find a string of characters.
Capital and lower case specific.
This command is only available in
FILE mode and MEMORY EDIT.
Scroll Up F7 -Scrolls up one screen
Scroll Down F8 -Scrolls down one screen
IV. Options
Display F2 -Display data only. No changing of
data allowed.
Edit F2 -Allows data to be changed
ASCII F3 -When in EDIT mode, text only may be
entered
Hex F3 -When in EDIT mode, any hexadecimal
number may be entered.)
MIRAGE * 4055 W. SHAW #108 * FRESNO, CA 93711 * (209) 227-836
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