Your Commodore - Commodore Is Awesome

Drive - which allows you to change the
drive you are working on.I
Unit - this lets you change the device
that you are working on (8,9 etc.).
Report - this checks a whole disk for
errors, output is to either screen or
printer.
Change - to tell Diskdoc that you are
removing the disk.
LOG - displays a directory of the disk
giving the size of the file, the track and
sector of the first block of the file. If the
file is a PRG file then the start address
is given. In fact all of the information
that you would ever require.
Hunt - searches the disk for the occurrence
of a string of characters.
Memory - allows you to examine and
change data held in the disk drives
internal memory.
Sort - allows you to alter the order of
the files on a disk,
GO - reads into the buffer either the
first sector of the disk directory, the
BAM or the header.
Ink - allows you to select whether the
disk is initialised before the fi rst
operation.
Name - allows you to change the disk
name.
Validate tidies up your disk directory
as the normal disk 'V' command.
One command has been omitted
from the above list. This is the BAM
command. Upon selection of this a
further menu is selected that allows
you to Display and Print the disk
HAM. Allocate and free blocks and to
check specific blocks. In case you are
new to the term BAM the letters simply
stand for Block Availability Map. It is
from this area in the disk that the drive
is able to discover which areas on the
disk have been used. Setting blocks
yourself means that you prevent the
disk form using the specified area of
the disk.
As you can see the range of disk
related commands is quite
formidable, and we've only taken a
look at the first menu option.
Next on our list is the fi le
command. Selecting this command
brings up a menu of commands that
allow you to carry out operations on
specific files on the disk. Again a list of
functions is the best way to illustrate
this,
Find - reads the first sector of the
specified disk file into memory.
Chain - this command lists all sectors
belonging to a specific file. A program
is stored in more than one place on a
disk and this is your way of finding
where.
REVIEW
File Track Sector Read ite Edit Print kit Last Interpret hit - s
lye
-
tmnaltsmmitsta•mi
I 1 1 1 eS
44 4F 43 AO AI II 81 81 11 II II 18 88 12 11
II AI Al II Al 11 AINN 11 53 44 44 141 1 NNN 111 35 18
18 81 13 18 I 59 S2 i 43 i 41 42 28 40 4E 44 AO 43 53 il 41 14 MI 21
5 * S i l U U N N N N N N i j N
II 18 12 13 It 31 21 32 21 54 52 41 43 48 21 52
45 41 44 AO N N NW II 11 III II 0? II
18 11 82 13 12 41 52 21 4E 48 42 42 4C 45 01 Al
Al NM Al MWN NW II 00 NM II 21 II
NW 12 14 IS 53 55 5145 52 45 41 53 54 21 41
4F 52 41 41 54 18 II II II 81 IS 18 01 Of II 11
II II 12 IF 17 45 44 41 54 4F 52 21 4C 4F 41 44
45 52 ill ill Al II 11 11 II II 11 pp II II 11 11
AO II 12 IF 11 45 44 31 11 II AO MI i l AI III
Al AO II Al il II II N N N 1 1 13 II
Start - moves back to the start of the
file found with the Find option above.
Hunt - allows you to search through a
specified file for all occurrences of a
specified string of data.
Lock - Commodore disk drives allow
you to write protect a program on a
disk so that you can't scratch it,
rename it etc. Unfortunately protecting
a fi le is quite difficult. This
command makes it childs play.
Unlock - the opposite to the above.
Erase - deletes any unwanted files
from disk.
Recover - we have all deleted files from
a disk accidentally. This option tries to
recover any erased file from the disk.
Interpret - this allows you to display
disk data as Text. Basic, 6502
assembler code or as screen code.
Extremely useful if you are trying to
disassemble programs from disk.
Verify - checks that every file in the
disk directory has the same number of
blocks as shown in the directory, the
readability of the file is also checked.
Display - allows you to look at the
contents of any record stored in a REL
file.
Going back to the main menu we
have the commands Track and Sector
which allow you to specify which track
and sector you wish to look at. Read
simply reads the selected sector into
the buffer while 'write' writes the
buffer to the specified area on disk -
carefully with this one as you can cause
all sorts of damage if you don't know
what you are doing.
I have already mentioned that it is
possible to change the contents of the
buffer. The Edit function allows you to
do this. Data is entered by entering
either ASCII characters or hexadecimal
values. All operations are
carried out in a large editing area with
the cursor keys to help you move
around. Once you have made changes
(Or not) you can get a permanent
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record of the sector on your printer
with the print command.
Easy movement around the disk is
catered for by the 'next' and 'last'
commands. 'next' simply looks at the
sector you are working on to find out
where the next sector linked with it is
stored and moves you to it. Super
Diskdoc stores a lowest of the last 256
sectors that you have looked at. 'last'
simply looks up the last sector from the
list and moves you there.
The final option is similar to the file
interpret command. The only
difference being that this time the
program does not follow the file
through.
Verdict
Super Diskdoc contains within it the
widest range of disk orientated
commands that I have come across in
one place. Sure, there are programs
around that do similar things but the
sheer complexity and range given by
this program is unsurpassed. The
program is superbly presented and the
menu system makes it extremely easy
to use.
You probably have a stock of
elastoplast in your home just in case
you happen to cut your finger. If you
are serious about the use of your disk
drive and the data you store, it's
probably a good idea to buy a copy of
this program now, just in case you
corrupt your disk. You may not need it
now, but wouldn't it be nice to know
it's always there?
Touchline
Name: Super Diskdoc.
Machine: Plus/4, C64, C128, Commodore
4000,8000,700/B128 + most
disk drives. Supplier: Precision
Software Ltd, 6 Park Terrace,
Worcester Park, Surrey KT4 7.1Z. Tel:
01-330 7166.