POWR-DOS Information For The Online Version Of POWR-DOS Before you start to use, or for that matter, download any of the POWR-DOS files, it is very important that you read the following information. The online manual (POWR-D.DOC) is a direct translation of the commercial manual and as such, contains information that is only applicable if you have a copy of the original distribution disk. Also, there are references to a Tandy 200 version of the program. At this time it is not known if there ever was such a version. If anyone has a T200 running with POWR-DOS, please let us know - we'd be very interested! Below is information that will hopefully get you up and running with this version of the system. Files The following are the files included in the system: POWR.DOS The actual program in HXFER format. (Plain ASCII TEXT file) Checksum = 475,641 POWR-D.DOC ASCII version of the manual - ready for echo to printer. (Plain ASCII TEXT File) POWR-D.ARC ARC'd version of the manual for those who wish to download to their PC for printing. (Binary file - protocol download only to IBM type computers) PWR-01.DOC thru PWR-14.DOC Split-up version of the manual for printing from RAM in the M100. (Plain ASCII TEXT File) COPY.PWR Copy disk <-> disk. (Binary file - see Special Downloading Considerations below) Checksum = 157,368 COPY-C.PWR Copy disk <-> cassette. (Binary file - see below) Checksum = 177,113 D-TEXT.PWR Disk-based text editor for large-file editing. (Binary file - see below) Checksum 488,726 DMENU.PWR POWR-DOS menu program. (Binary file - see below) Checksum = 222,679 FORMAT.PWR Formatting program. (Binary file - see below) Checksum = 95,326 PRFORM.PWR Printer setup program for D-TEXT. (Binary file - see below) Checksum = 40,457 RECOVR.PWR Damaged disk recovery program. (Binary file - see below) Checksum = 315,029 TINY.PWR Itty-bitty DOS for saving and loading files only; in HXFER format. (Plain ASCII TEXT file) Checksum = 88,786 Echoing the POWR-DOS manual to printer It is very important, if you intend to echo the POWR-DOS manual to printer, to make sure that your terminal settings are correct (Form FEEDS = REAL) to ensure proper page breaks. If you don't change your profile, pages will have random spacing at the page breaks and will look pretty awful. If you have skip-over-perf enabled on your printer, you must disable it. As of the date-stamp of this INF file, the PROFILE area has been changed, so below is a step-by-step that should help: GO PROFILE [select]: 1 Terminal Settings [select]: 2 Change permanent settings [or]: (your choice) 5 Change current session settings [select]: 4 Terminal type/parameters [select]: 4 Form FEEDS [REAL] [and]: (Only for downloading program files without XMODEM): 8 PARITY [ZERO] Special Downloading Considerations Since the applications programs are stored as binary files, there are only two ways you can download the file properly. If you try to READ the files without following the instructions below, you are assured of corrupted copies. 1. Download with XMODEM protocol. Select one of the XMODEM programs in LIB 3. SXM.100, XMODEM.312, XMDPW5.100 and XMDM26.100 are all good programs, take your choice. 2. Log on with your STATs set for 8 bit, no parity (x8N1E). Doing so, you can safely download the file without protocol and still transfer the graphics characters with the [R]ead command. To make sure that CompuServe understands that you are logging on with 8 bit, you must change your PROFILE setting to PARITY = [ZERO]. See the PROFILE session above to accomplish this. I know that doesn't seem very intuitive, but it's the only way that CompuServe enables 8 bit transmission. When you first log-on with the new settings, you will see a few graphics characters intermixed with the "User ID" prompt - this is normal, and when you either enter your UID manually, or your autolog-on string sends your UID, all text from then on will be normal. Since CompuServe assumes that you will be logging on with 7 bit, it doesn't understand until you type some characters. Loading POWR.DOS Most of the information in chapter 1 of the manual concerning loading of the program can be ignored. There is no PL.BA program for this version, and you can't load the program via the standard IPL.BA program that comes with the TDD. Only if you have the original POWR-DOS distribution disk can you follow those instructions. Once you have converted POWR.DOS to a .CO file with HXFER (LIB 7, do not specify a load address, use default [ENTER]), you can load the program as any other M/L program. An easy way to load the program is by typing in the following loader: 10 CLEAR 256,58904:RUNM"POWR.CO" Run that one-liner and you will be presented with prompts described at the top of page 3 of the manual. For TINY.PWR, use 62200 in the CLEAR statement. Once that POWR-DOS tells you that it is active, it automatically clears out the area it uses in HIMEM and doesn't use that area again until you have to reload. At this point, you are at the BASIC OK prompt and can use any of the commands that take a "0:" or ":" prefix. For example, the first thing I'd do is run DMENU.BA from disk. To do so, just type: RUN ":DMENU [Enter] TINY.PWR loads the same way as POWR.DOS, but remember that once you exit TINY, the only way to re-enter the program is to load the .CO file again. It does not stay active once you leave its command prompt. Miscellaneous Notes 1. Ultimate ROM II and Sardine ROM users can rename POWR-DOS to DOS100.CO and then be able to boot the program from disk just as you would with TS-DOS. 2. For pertinent information, see the PWRTIP.nnn files as well as the large quantity of other related files that can be found by using the command: BRO KEY:POWR-DOS. 3. Killing POWR-DOS: The time will probably come that POWR-DOS will not load, and you can't use LFILES OFF to disable it. At that point, it is possible to recover without a cold start by making the DOS visible with one of the utilities in LIB 7 that do that sort of thing (CHANGE.BA, for example), and then rename the file to all upper-case with an extension that is normal for the M100. (.BA, etc.) The DOS's filename is "powrd.os" which can't be killed as is. The program listed on page 8 of the manual is designed to accomplish this, but it really isn't clear what is happening just by looking at the program. Knowing the theories involved can help you be better equipped to handle this situation, should it arise. 4. An undocumented feature has been found in DMENU that turns out to be quite handy. [F7] appears on the menu as "All", but no reference is made in the manual as to what this does. Simply, when depressed, it shows all files of one particular type. (.BA, .CO, .DO) When pressed again, it shows files of the next type, and so on. From this point you should be able to move to the POWR-DOS manual starting with chapter 2 for the rest of the system. ENJOY! Denny Thomas [76701,40]