ALARM

Display list of alarms, or message, if none set.

Date        Time    Message
------------------------------------------------
01/01/88    12:00   Meeting
------------------------------------------------

ALARM ON

A>ALARM 12:30 Lunch with Fred
Set message for 12:30 today.

A>ALARM 30/01/88 12:30 Ring Fred
Set message for time and date.

A>ALARM /ON
Load and run alarm if not already running.

A>ALARM /OFF
Suspend alarm action. When restarted, all alarms which should have been displayed during the inactive time are lost.

A>ALARM 30/01/88 12:30 /C
Cancel alarm entry for the given date and time.

A>ALARM /T
Terminate (ie cancel) all stored alarms

A>BACKG
Display information about all background programs:

Name    Memory Used State    Description
-------------------------------------------------
ALARM   17k         Running  Alarm clock
PRINT               Stopped  Print Spool utility
-------------------------------------------------
Available: 341k

A>BACKG <progname>
Display the status of a specified background program.

A>BACKG STOP <progname>
Stop a specified background program.

A>BACKG RUN <progname>
Run a program in the background.

Any valid program parameters may be added to the program name, for example:

A>BACKG RUN ALARM /ON

The program asks a number of questions, eg back-up or restore, which drive to back-up or restore and so on. Back-up may be restricted to an individual directory, with or without its associated sub-directories.

The final option available works only with files which have been updated since the last back-up (strictly those which do not have the archive attribute set) or those files which have been created or modified after a specified date. Each option is displayed on the screen. Simply select the appropriate answer when prompted.

CON: is used to denote CONIN: and CONOUT:
AUX: is used to denote AUXIN: and AUXOUT:

A>DEVICE AUX0 [SP=(9600,9600)]

Set the serial port to 9600 baud for transmit and receive.

A>DEVICE VALUES

Current assignments:
CONIN:  = CON0
CONOUT: = CON0
AUXIN:  = AUX0
AUXOUT: = AUX0
LST:    = PRN0

Displays current assignments.

When formatting a 40-track 360k DOS disc, the DISK utility formats all 80 tracks. Do not be tempted to switch a 40/80 drive to 40 track. The system takes care of the track IDs.

Do not expect a 360k disc formatted on the Master 512 to be read reliably in an IBM PC compatible. Format a disc in a PC 360k drive, and then write to it on the 512 if you wish to transfer data between the 512 and an IBM PC. This is not necessarily due to the problems associated with incompatibility between 40 and 80 track drives, but with floppy disc drive hardware and the differences between the NEC µPD765 controller on IBM hardware, and the WD1770 used on the BBC, specifically relating to speeds and the inter-sector gap sizes written. <But note here – YP>

A>DISKCOPY A: A:

Copy a disc using drive A, and prompt for source disc and destination disc when needed.

This command is not found on the 512 discs, but the equivalent functions can be found in the DISK transient command.

The reason that the standard command is not used is that the DR command does not support the special 640k and 800k formats allowed on the 512.

If applications require non-standard hardware devices (eg Mouse, X-Y Plotter, Analogue to Digital input) they must supply their own device driver software interface. This is naturally unknown to DOS, so 'FIDDLOAD' is provided to permit these alien devices to be added to DOS's list of hardware devices attached.

<For further information see here – YP>

A>FORMAT A:

Format the disc in drive to 800k. Before formatting, the user is asked to enter the disc into the relevant drive.

A>FSET TEXT.DOC [RO]

Make file TEXT.DOC read only. This prevents over writing or deletion of the file.

A>FSET *.TMP [RW,ARCHIVE=ON]

Make all files with a '.TMP' extension in the current directory read-write, and marked as archived

A>GETFILE :1.text A:text.doc

Copies the file text on drive 1 in ADFS format to text.doc on drive A in DOS format.

A>GETFILE :1.text A:text.doc /disc

Copies the file text on drive 1 in DFS format to text.doc on drive A in DOS format.

In version 1.2, GETFILE has severe bugs and should not be used.

In version 1.2a, GETFILE does not work correctly in ADFS or ANFS under any circumstances, unless it was loaded from a hard disc. The comments for 1.2 apply to this version also.

All bugs are fixed in 2.1, but even so the program seems to be what can best be described as 'delicate', frequently throwing up a 'channel' error from ADFS, without any obvious cause. The program is however robust if run from drive C (hard disc) or if drives A and B are used carefully, which means allocating one drive to DOS and one to BBC format, so the GETFILE program and the destination file would be on, say Drive A (a DOS disc) and the source file would be on Drive B (a BBC DFS/ADFS disc). This avoids the need to swap discs.

A>HDISK

Displays a menu of hard disc partition sizes to choose from. HDISK also has an option to make the hard disc bootable, ie transfer the system files.

A DOS partition is an area of the hard disc which is not available to ADFS, but can be used with DOS. Partitioning a hard disc will result in loss of all data. To make the disc bootable, an option can be used to transfer a new version of DOS Plus without losing the contents of the partition.

If you wish to allocate space to ADFS in front of the partition, use *CREATE to reserve disc space and delete the created file after using HDISK.

Version 2.1 of DOS Plus allows an additional range of partition sizes over earlier versions.

A>HELP

Calls the initial HELP menu.

A>HELP CHDIR

Calls directly for help on the CHDIR command.

The help system displays explanatory text on a number of DOS Plus commands. It can be used directly by following the HELP command with the command name required. Most topics also offer further subtopics and examples of command use.

Pressing return only will return you to the systems prompt. However, this causes an unnecessary reload of COMMAND.COM, it is therefore quicker to use CTRL-C, which does not.

HELP FMG will result in the message 'NOT FOUND' being returned. You must type HELP FILEMANAGER for help with the FMG command.

A>LABEL INVOICES

Labels the volume in drive A as 'INVOICES'.

Any disc, hard or floppy may be given a label. This exactly matches the *TITLE command in native BBC filing systems. The volume label is non-functional, but simplifies disc identification, as the label is displayed when any catalogue operation is performed.

The volume label may be up to 11 characters in length.

A>MEMDISK 128

Create a RAM disc of 128k. The RAM disc is always referred to as drive M in the 512.

When created the RAM disc can be used as a very high speed floppy disc drive.

Once installed the RAM disc cannot be removed without re-booting DOS Plus.

See Chapter Nine for further details of using a RAM disc.

A>MODE PRN0:=AUX0:

Reassign printer output to the serial port.

A>MODE AUX:12,,,

<-fs> is one of the following:

</option> may be:

A>MOVE text.doc -dos :1.$.letters.dostext -adfs /r

Copies the DOS Plus file 'text.doc' on drive A to the ADFS disc in drive 1, placing the data in a file called 'dostext' in directory '$.letters'.

A>NETPRINT chap1.doc chap2.doc

Queues the files 'chap1.doc' and 'chap2.doc' for printing on the printer attached to a network fileserver.

This command is functionally equivalent to:

*CONFIGURE NOTUBE

or the DOS Plus command:

STAR CONFIGURE NOTUBE

In both cases the action is not taken until CTRL-BREAK is pressed.

This command is only relevant to BBC Master micros.

A>PCSCREEN 7

Select BBC native screen mode 3.

This command can be used after another command or program has changed mode. Native mode 3 increases screen handling speed. Note that the native screen mode must be used only for text display.

The Master 512 supports IBM MDA (Monochrome Display Adaptor) and CGA (Colour Graphics Adaptor) screen modes.

BBC mode 3 is chosen because it matches the standard IBM MDA mode, which provides a text display of 80 characters by 25 lines. Unlike other modes, the text is not flattened.

A>PIP LST:=text.doc
Copy file text.doc to logical device LST:

A>PIP letter.txt=lettera,letterb
Merge lettera and letterb into file, letter.txt

PIP is a CP/M utility, and in keeping with CP/M standards always has the destination file first in the command line, the reverse of normal DOS Plus practice.

The PIP options listed here are shown for completeness, but PIP, as you may notice, is a far more powerful, but more complicated data transfer utility than COPY, which is why COPY was introduced, and also why PIP is retained.

Unless you are familiar with PIP, especially if simple disc to disc copying is all that is required, you are advised to use COPY.

More details on the use of PIP can be found in Chapter 14 and more advanced information in the Master 512 Technical Guide, also by Dabs Press. <Note: This command is not actually mentioned in the Technical Guide – YP>

A>PRINT
Display list of jobs in the print queue.

A>PRINT text.doc
Add the file text.doc to the print queue.

A>PRINT text.doc /C
Remove the file text.doc from the print queue.

A>PRINT /T
Cancels the print queue. If a document is printing at the time it is terminated.

A maximum of 32 files may be queued at one time. The files must all be in the current directory of the specified drive.

If a specified filename does not exist, a message is output and the next file in the list is printed.

A>PUTFILE A:text.doc :1.text
Copy the file text.doc from a DOS disc in drive A to a BBC ADFS disc in drive 1.

A>PUTFILE A:text.doc :1.text /disc
Copy the file text.doc from a DOS disc in drive A to a BBC DFS disc in drive 1.

In version 1.2 PUTFILE has severe bugs and should not be used.

In version 1.2a, PUTFILE does not work correctly in ADFS or ANFS under any circumstances, unless it was loaded from a hard disc. The comments for version 1.2 apply to this version also.

See the notes on GETFILE concerning use of the utility in DOS Plus Version 2.1. The same comments apply to PUTFILE.

SDIR
SDIR <filespec> {,<filespec>} ...
SDIR [opt{,opt} ... ]
SDIR <filespec> ... {opt} ...

A>SDIR C: [FULL]
Display full set of characteristics for all files in user 0 on drive C.

A>SDIR C: [SIZE]
List all files on drive C and their size.

A>SDIR [DRIVE=C,FF]
Sends a form-feed to the printer before displaying the files on drive C.

A>SDIR D: [RW,SYS]
Display all files on drive D with read-write and SYS attributes.

A>SDIR C: [USER=ALL]
Display all the files in all user numbers (zero to 15) on drive C.

A>SDIR [USER=2]
Display all the files under user number two on the default drive.

A>SDIR C: [USER=(3,4,10)]
Display all the files under user numbers 3,4 and 10 on drive C.

A>SDIR [DRIVE=ALL]
Display all the files under user zero on all the drives currently in use.

A>SDIR [DRIVE=C,USER=4]
Display all the files under user four on drive C.

A>SDIR [DRIVE=(B,D)]
Display all the files under user zero on drive B or D.

A>SDIR [exclude] *.CMD
List all the files on the default drive and user zero that do not have a file-type of CMD.

A>SDIR [user=all,drive=all,sys] *.PLI *.CMD *.A86
Instruct SDIR to list all the system files of type PLI, CMD, and A86 on the system in the currently active drives for all the user numbers on the drives.

A>SDIR X.SUB [MESSAGE,USER=ALL,DRIVE=ALL]
Search all drives under each user number for X.SUB. During the search, SDIR displays the drives and user numbers.

A>SDIR [drive=all user=all] TESTFILE.BOB
Instructs SDIR to display the filename TESTFILE.BOB if it is present on any drive under any user number, together with all file information.

A>SHOW A:
Display the access mode and free space on drive A.

A>SHOW A: [LABEL]
Display the label of drive A.

The Master 512 implementation of DOS Plus has problems when used with Sidekick, the popular 'pop up' utility from Borland International. Due to user demand Acorn have supplied SKS.CMD. It must be run before attempting to run Sidekick. If, as is often the case, you install Sidekick from an AUTOEXEC.BAT file be sure to include the SKS command first.

'SKS' may work with other 'pop-up' software, but this is strictly on a try it and see basis. The version of Sidekick should not be later than 1.50, or it will fail.

A>STAR
STAR version 1.00
*FX6,0
*(RETURN only)
A>

Tells the BBC to send linefeeds to the printer. DOS Plus will recognise this...

A>STAR BUILD -DISC-:1.notes
   1 A quick note
   2 on my DFS disc
   3 (ESCAPE pressed at this point)
A>

Create a short note on a Master disc in DFS drive 1.

If STAR is issued without parameters a * prompt replaces the normal DOS prompt. A series of BBC commands may then be issued until RETURN is pressed without an entry, when the normal DOS prompt returns. As each command is issued it is passed to the BBC Operating System for immediate execution, after which control returns to DOS.

Unfortunately STAR clears the screen and moves the cursor to the bottom line before executing any command, making it impossible to use normal BBC screen capture software (invoked by a * command) to save a DOS Plus screen for later retrieval.

A>TREE B:
   Space    Files   Path name
     27,136    2  b:\
    208,788   21  b:\gemsys
     75,157    6  b:\gemdesk
    112,104    5  b:\gemboot
    234,754    7  b:\gemapps
     37,632   14  b:\gemapps\patterns
A>

Lists the tree structure of the disc in drive B.