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This chapter shows you how to load DOS Plus on your Master system and then illustrates some of the naming conventions and rules for DOS Plus commands and files. Your first job after loading DOS Plus is to make a backup copy of the DOS Plus boot disc and that process is described here too.
If you have already been running an application that uses DOS Plus (for example GEM), you will already know how to load DOS Plus and you may already have taken a backup. In this case you may want to turn straight to section 2.5 of this chapter.
To load and run DOS Plus you need the following:
Master Series computer with a co-processor fitted
At least one disc drive
A copy of DOS Plus (on disc)
A blank disk (for the backup copy)
The co-processor is a printed circuit board housing an 80186 processor, which fits above the main circuit board in the Master series machine. It offers extra processing power to run computer languages, applications, and your own programs. For instructions on how to install the co-processor, refer to Section 7.3 in Part 1 (The GEM Collection) of this user guide.
| 1 | Set up the microcomputer following the instructions in the Welcome Guide and turn it on. A message similar to the following should appear.
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| 2 | Put the DOS Plus boot disc in drive A. (This may be labelled '0' on the disc drive.) |
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| 3 | The computer doesn't yet know that the co-processor has been fitted. The computer communicates with the co-processor through a mechanism called the "TUBE" and the TUBE must be activated before the computer will recognise the co-processor. Do this by typing the command:
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| 4 | Then holding down CTRL, press and release BREAK |
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| 5 | The screen ought to clear and then display a message like:
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| Wait for a few moments while the operating system is loaded from the disc in drive A. |
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| 6 | The screen clears again and will display a new message something like:
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| 7 | Finally the prompt, A>, appears which shows that DOS Plus is loaded and ready for use. | ||||
Before you do anything further, it is sensible to make a backup copy of the DOS Plus disc, and store the original disc safely away. If you don't take a copy you risk the problem of not being able to load DOS Plus if the original disc gets damaged or corrupted.
The way to copy the software is different for floppy disc systems (see the next section) and hard disc based systems (see section 2.4).
| 1 | Type
and a menu of options should appear. |
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| 2 | Choose the option, which is highlighted on the list that appears, by pressing RETURN. |
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| 3 | You will now be asked which disc drive you want to format on. Insert a blank disc into the second disc drive (drive B) and press RETURN. (If you only have a single disc drive then remove your master disc from your disc drive and replace it with a blank disc. Next, using the cursor keys, highlight the option and press RETURN. DISK will prompt you to swap discs at the appropriate time.) |
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| 4 | This leads to a menu of format options. Choose the which is the one highlighted, by pressing RETURN. |
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| 5 | A message appears to confirm your choice; check and press RETURN for yes. |
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| 6 | The screen displays the formatting progress track by track. At the end you will see a message asking whether the disc is to be made bootable. Press RETURN for yes. If you have a single disc drive you will be asked to swap discs at this point. |
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| 7 | The verifying procedure then follows automatically. At the end the screen returns you to the format menu. Move the cursor to the option by using the cursor keys and press RETURN. Repeat this and you will be at the main menu. |
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| 8 | Choose from the main menu and press RETURN. |
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| 9 | Press RETURN to copy from drive A and then press RETURN again to copy to drive B. (If you have a single disc drive system you will have to use the cursor keys to copy from drive A to drive A. DISK will then prompt you to swap discs at the appropriate time.) |
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| 10 | Press RETURN to confirm your choice when the warning message appears. The screen displays the copying process. At the end, take out the freshly-copied disc, label it, and stick a write-protect tag over the notch on the disc. |
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| 11 | Use the cursor keys to select the option and return to the A> prompt. Remove the original disc from drive A and store it in a safe place. Use the copied disc as your boot disc from now on. |
| 1 | Check that the hard disc drive is properly fitted and formatted – consult the Winchester Disc Filing System User Guide for instructions if necessary. |
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| 2 | Load DOS Plus from your DOS Plus boot disc as described in section 2.2. |
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| 3 | Type the command:
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| 4 | The screen offers several different partition sizes: you don't need to allocate all the available space to DOS Plus and you can change the size of the allocation later (Note, however, that doing this will involve the loss of all the data stored on the hard disc and so you will need to take backup discs before changing your hard disc partition size). 10 megabytes is a suitable size. When you've made your selection, press RETURN. Press it again to confirm the choice. If a message reports that the disc is full, try allocating a smaller partition for DOS Plus. If you see a display saying that compaction is necessary, consult the Winchester Disc Filing System User Guide for instructions on compacting the disc. |
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| 5 | The screen displays the progress of the allocation process and lists the options again. Choose , press RETURN and then press RETURN again to confirm the choice. This copies DOS Plus onto the hard disc and reports progress. |
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| 6 | Select the option using the cursor keys. This returns you to the A> prompt. |
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| 7 | Type the command
to copy your files from your master floppy disc onto your hard disc. |
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| 8 | Remove the DOS Plus boot disc and store it in a safe place. From now on you can load DOS Plus from the hard disc by pressing CTRL and BREAK simultaneously. |
We can now look at some of the features and conventions found in DOS Plus, by using a simple DOS Plus command. For convenience, in this section, we have assumed that drive A is the current default drive and therefore you will see the A> prompt at the front of each command; you don't need to type this when you are typing the command line. Remember too to key a RETURN at the end of each command line.
The directory (DIR) command lists the files on a disc. To see the files already contained on your DOS Plus boot disc, type
A>dir RETURN
The screen should fill with a list of files, each of the form:
DISK CMD 16640 16/04/86 9:13a
This example indicates that the disc contains a file called DISK, which is a program file (this is indicated by the CMD file extension), that occupies 16,640 bytes of store and was last changed at 9:13 am on April 16.
At the bottom of the listing is the number of files on the disc, the amount of free space (1 "byte" is equivalent to one typed character), and the message "system files exist" – this message shows that other files are present on the disc but haven't been displayed. System files aren't displayed by the DIR command because they are used by the system itself, rather than by you.
Next try typing the command with some capital letters – for example:
A>diR RETURN
You will see that DOS Plus displays the directory listing again. DOS Plus ignores upper or lower case differences. You can enter commands in lower case, upper case, or any combination of the two.
However, now try,
A>d ir RETURN
This doesn't work, and produces an error message, because DOS Plus recognises spaces as separators.
List the directory again by typing
A>DIR RETURN
and now look at how the files are listed. Each has a filename, for example, "DISK". (You will recognise DISK as the formatting/copying program you used earlier to make a backup of DOS Plus.) DOS Plus permits filenames of up to eight characters and using any combination of letters and numbers on the keyboard. Most other keyboard symbols will cause an error, because DOS Plus recognises them as having other uses.
Each file should also have a filetype. DISK's filetype is CMD, which, by convention, shows that DISK is a "command" file (ie a program) in DOS Plus.
Filetypes can be up to three characters long and you can chose any combination of letters and numbers, just as you can for filenames. However, you will find it useful to adopt some conventions for your filetypes. COM, CMD, and EXE filetypes are often used for program files. TEX or TXT is common for text files; BAK is standard for backup files of any kind. Applications will often generate files with readily identifiable filetypes – for example, GEM Paint creates files with an IMG extension.
These "filetype" conventions do not actually mean anything in themselves – they are just a useful way of classifying files. You could, without creating an error message, create files with random collections of 1,2 or 3 character filetype extensions to their filenames. However, just as it is useful to give files sensible filenames, it is useful to give files sensible filetypes.
Another advantage of filetype conventions is that they enable you to use 'wildcards' in certain DOS Plus commands.
For example, suppose you want a directory of all the command files on your disc. Type:
A>DIR *.cmd RETURN
The "wildcard" character "*" represents any character or group of characters in a filename. If you type:
A>DIR d*.* RETURN
You will see this lists all the files beginning with d. Wildcards are described fully in section 4.3.
As well as filename and filetype, the DIR listing displays the amount of disc space occupied by the file and the date and time it was copied.
Look again at the DIR listing of DOS Plus boot disc by typing
A>DIR RETURN
We have said that this lists all the command (ie program) files. Notice, however, that DIR itself is not listed. This is because DIR is one of many "internal commands". Internal commands are loaded into the computer memory whenever DOS Plus itself is loaded. The files listed on your screen are the DOS Plus "external commands"; they are only loaded from disc into the computer memory as you need them – generally, it is the large programs which are external.
You could think of the internal commands as the ordinary instructions and the external commands as utility programs. But they are all used in the same way.
The only practical difference between internal and external commands is that you don't need the DOS Plus boot disc in the drive when you are using internal commands. However, if you try to use an external command without the DOS Plus boot disc in the drive, the screen will prompt you to insert the DOS Plus boot disc into drive A with the message:
Not ready error reading drive A
Abort or retry?
Now try typing:
A>b: RETURN
Notice the screen prompt has changed to
B>
What you have done is change the "default drive" – the drive which DOS Plus automatically looks at if you don't specify a drive. If you now try
B>DIR RETURN
you see an error message, because DOS Plus looked for a disc in drive B and didn't find one.
If you want DOS Plus to look at a drive other than the default drive, simply include the drive name plus a colon when you type the command – for example:
B>DIR a: RETURN
This will list the contents of the DOS Plus boot disc that is in drive A, as before. But notice that the default drive stays unchanged until you specifically change it. You will continue to get the B> prompt until you enter the command
B>a: RETURN
to switch the default drive back to A.
To leave DOS Plus and disconnect the TUBE, simply type:
A>NOTUBE RETURN
and the system returns to the familiar Master Series prompt.