PAKDOS.DOC

PAKDOS.DOC -- Documentation for the disk file manager/archiver,
 PAKDOS.100 and PAKDOS.200  v1.2 [1-7-91]
By James Yi [73327,1653]


___ What is it? ___

  PAKDOS allows you to compress and combine Ram files to disk, in addition
 to other routine disk file management tasks, such as Save, Load, Erase, etc.
  Since files can be combined, more than 40 files can be stored per disk.
  DO files get reduced by about %40-%60, BA and CO files %10-%30.
  It runs on Model 100 or 200 with either PDD1 or PDD2.


___ How to load and run it ___

1. Download the program in the form of text file.  There are two versions,
 PAKDOS.100 for Model 100 and PAKDOS.200 for Tandy 200.

2. Convert the text file to BA program file by going to BASIC and LOADing it.
  If you get ?OM error, you can either save the text file to cassette or disk
 and LOAD from there, or use DO2BA.100 or DO2BA.200 to convert it directly to
 a BA file.

3. Run the converted BA loader to create PAKDOS.CO.  While being created, its
 loading address is set according to the value of HIMEM; the address of its
 last byte is set at HIMEM-1.  If you are not worried about it conflicting
 with other machine language programs in HIMEM, you can just load it at the
 highest possible address by setting HIMEM to MAXRAM before running the
 loader.  HIMEM can be set by typing  CLEAR 0,xxxxx
 where xxxxx is the new HIMEM value.  After it is created, you may delete
 the loader.

4. Run PAKDOS.CO.  If it just beeps at you or gives an ?OM error, you need to
 make space for it in HIMEM by setting HIMEM to at or below the load address
 of PAKDOS.CO.  The load address is found out by going to BASIC and
 LOADMing the program by typing
  LOADM "PAKDOS"
 There will be displayed "Top", "End", "Exe" values; set HIMEM equal to "Top",
 by typing
  CLEAR 0,xxxxx
 where xxxxx is the value of "Top".  If you get ?OM error again, it means there
 is not enough free Ram.


___ How to use it ___

At the command prompt "PakDOS:", enter a command in the following format:

  CMD FNM1 FNM2 ... -OPT1 -OPT2 ...
 (Each item is seperated by blanks.)

CMD is the command string.  It is one character long.
FNM is the name of the file for the command to process.  Enter as many FNMs
 as are needed.
-OPT (option) is optional subcommand.  For example, -L option shows, in
 addition to the name of the file being processed, its size and date/time.


___ List of commands ___

Note:
 1. Although the command words shown below are spelled out, you need to
 specify only the first letter.

 2. Abbreviations for file name specifications: DFL = file on disk,
 RFL = file in RAM, FNM = just any name.

 4. Wildcards(*,?) are allowed for file name specifications when W is attached
 to it.  For example, RFLW means that wildcard substitution is allowed for
 RFL.  More about wildcards later.

 3. Use of brackets([]) means that the item in it is optional.  If a file name
 specification is in [], it means that by omitting the file name, you can
 pause before processing each file and press Y to process it, N to skip, or a
 control character(^C, ESC, ENTER, etc.) to stop.

 5. The following subcommands have common use in all of the commands that
 allow them:
  -I (Interact) gives a pause at each file to be processed, so you can
 press Y to process it, N to skip, or a control character(^C, ESC, ENTER, etc.)
 to stop.  For example, to select only some DO files, specify *.DO and use -I.
  It will then pause at every file with DO extension.
  -L (Long format) displays in addition to the name of the file being
 processed, its size, and where applicable, date/time and compressed
 size.
  -M (Move) deletes the file after it is processed.
  -D (Date/time stamp) stamps the
 date/time when creating a disk file.  As a side effect, putting the date/time
 on the file makes it unreadable by other disk related programs that do not
 expect the date/time stamp.
  -X (execute) executes DO, BA, or CO file after it is created in Ram, by
 Load or Unpack command.  DO and BA files load as files, but CO file does
 not, i.e., it won't be on the Menu when you exit the CO file.  If the load
 address of CO file conflicts with that of PakDOS, you can still execute it,
 but PakDOS will be overwritten.


  Pack DFL [RFLW] [-S] [-M] [-I] [-L] [-D]

compresses RFLW and stores them as DFL.  Packed files are simply combined with
 other packed files in DFL if DFL exists already.  The default extension for
 DFL is "PD".
  -S (Skip compression) skips compression, when you want to just
 combine files together without size reduction.


  Unpack DFL [RFLW] [-I] [-L] [-X]

decompresses RFLW from DFL and loads them to Ram.


  View DFL [FNMW] [-L]

lists packed files in DFL.


  Omit DFL [FNMW] [-I] [-L] [-D]

deletes packed files from DFL.  Leave enough free Ram to buffer the DFL.
  If there isn't enough free Ram, the DFL will be read from disk more than
 once, in order to process it in parts.  The more parts it has to be divided up
 into, the longer it will take.


  Save [RFLW] [-M] [-ADFL] [-I] [-H] [-D] [-L]

saves RAM files to disk.
  -ADFL option lets you append RFLW to DFL.
  -H (remove Header) lets you remove the 6 bytes header of a CO type file to
 save only the data part of it.  This might come handy when for example, you
 have Loaded a PD file from disk into Ram, and want to save it back onto
 disk; -H removes the header that was attached to the PD file when it was
 Loaded.


  Load [DFLW] [-I] [-L] [-X]

loads disk files to Ram.  If the file extension's first letter is not one of
 B for Basic, C for CO(binary) type, D for text type, it will load the file as
 a CO type file, attaching to it a 6 bytes header needed to store a CO type
 file in Ram.


  DiskDirectory [FNMW] [-L]

lists disk files.


  Erase [DFLW] [-I] [-L]

erases disk files.


  Type [DFLW] [-Pnn] [-I] [-L]

prints the content of disk files on screen.
  -Pnn (print) outputs the file to printer, sending the printer code nn at
 the end of each file, e.g., -P12 sends Form Feed, and just -P sends nothing.


  Kill [RFLW] [-I] [-L]

deletes RAM files.


  Files [RFLW] [-L]

lists RAM files.


  Read [RFLW] [-L]

prints content of Ram files on screen.


  Quit

exits the program.


  Bye

is a permanent exit, returning the HIMEM space occupied by PAKDOS to free
 memory, and deleting PAKDOS.CO if it's in Ram.


  HELP or any other nonexistent command shows the Help menu.


--- Other details ---

  ';' for command repeats the previous command.

  During files listing, press any key to pause, and then press a control
 chr(^C, ESC, ENTER, etc.) to stop, or any other key to resume.

  Holding down SHIFT stops batch processing of files, letting the
 current file finish, then stopping before processing the next file.

Just press ENTER at the command prompt to clear the screen.

  If you use it with PDD2, you can add the prefix 0: or 1: to the file name to
 specify which bank the file is in.  Then the bank selection is set to that
 bank for subsequent commands until you switch it back by using another prefix.
  For example,
  D 1:
 lists directory of bank 1 and lets all subsequent operations take place in
 bank 1. Or,
  S 0:*.*
 saves all Ram files to bank 0.

  Making a Ram file invisible makes it inaccessable by PakDOS.

  You can make CALLs to PakDOS to execute a single command and return.
  The following example demonstrates this.  It lists the disk files
 directory in long format.

10 LOADM"PakDOS"
20 PD=XXXXX:'"Top" address of PakDOS
30 C$="d -l"+CHR$(0):'Command string
40 C=VARPTR(C$):C=PEEK(C+1)+PEEK(C+2)*256
50 CALL PD+3,,C
60 END

Replace XXXXX in line 20 with the address of PakDOS's Top.  When you CALL
 PakDOS at Top, to run the program, or at Top+3, to execute a single command,
 like the example above, all Basic variables are retained and you will be
 returned to resume running the Basic program.  The only case where a
 variable might not be retained is when a string variable is assigned a single
 constant literal string, like this:

10 A$="hello"

However this can be corrected by changing it to:

10 A$=""+"hello"
  or
10 A$="h"+"ello"

The + forces the data of A$ to be located in a seperate variable storage
 area, instead of being imbedded in the program line.

  If you up/download files using the built-in 300 baud modem and run out of
memory to hold all the files, you can use PakDOS without having to logoff
 and relogon, by exiting the comm program, use PakDOS to save/load files
 from disk, and resume the comm program.

--- Wildcards ---

 * - Replaces a field...; *.* - any file; *.DO - any file with DO
 extension; GR*.* - any file beginning with GR

 ? - Replaces a single letter...; ?ILE.* - file name with any first letter,
 followed by "ILE" and any extension. ??????.?? is the same as *.*


		END