BIOS CALL is a regular feature of the Metro-Orlando AUG
(MOAUG) newsletter and written by Jerome Hess.

Welcome to the second installment of BIOS CALL, your most
up-to-date (?) CP/M source! Before launching into yet
another action-packed column, I'd like to propose an idea
that may help us to expand our public domain libraries. Over
the past few weeks I've received several disks and DDPs in
trade for the starter pak.  First let me say - GREAT! I'm
glad that the interest has started to show.
 
Now here's my proposal.  For everyone who sends a disk of
DDP in for the pak, why not load it down with YOUR favorite
PD programs!  They don't have to be CP/M.  EOS, RLE, Clip
Art, maybe even just some information text files that you've
picked up somewhere.  Even if you're REAL SURE evrybody MUST
already have a copy of the program, send it anyway!  There
might be people out there who are looking for just that file
and haven't been able to find it! Chances are if you like
it, then someone else will, too.
 
Now back to your regularly scheduled column!
 
Last month we discussed (among other things) the file
compression technique known as crunching, which utilizes the
file extension .*Z*.  This month I'd like to tell you about
one of the most popular IBM file compression techniques that
is now available for the ADAM!  It's called ARCing.
 
The ARC or PKXARC operates in a very similar way as crunch,
but works 15 to 20% more efficiently.  The method that ARC
uses is much too involved to go into in an article as brief
as this, but I will say that the ARC format is used in
several files that have been ARCed into a single file with
an .ARC extension.  This method will allow the easy transfer
of several files at one time, and it will save file storage
space as well.
 
Before I go any further, let me point out that files from an
IBM that have been ARCed will still NOT OPERATE in CP/M. But
if the files are from an IBM that have been made to run
under CP/M, or if they are CP/M files, or if they are text
files that have been ARCed to save space, then yu can use
UNARC1.COM to decompress them and take a look at them!
 
On your starter pak, you'll find a program called
UNARC1.COM.  This is the utility that has been designed for
use in CP/M to "UNARC", or extract, the files in an archive.
 
There are two methods to unarc a file.  If you know the name
of the file that you'd like to extract then your format
would be:

^N   UNARC1 A:FILE.ARC B:FILE.EXT ^M

Where A: is the drive that the archive is on, and B: is the
drive that you want the extracted file to go to (they could
be the same drive.) FILE.ARC is the name of the file as it
exists in the archive; FILE.EXT is the name you want to give
the unarf it was a warm boot or a cold boot. To execute STAT.
COM in

the simplest form you will type this:





A>STAT   <CR>





The response might look something like this:





A: R/W, Space: 105K





     This  tells  us  that the disc on the A:Drive is a read


and write disk and  that  the  disc  has  105  Kilobytes  of


available  space  remaining  on  the  disc.  A  disc  can be


designated as a Read Only disc which means that you will  be


unable to write anything to that disc. This is the same kind


of  protection  afforded to a disc with a write protect tab.


STAT.COM is the utility program that enables you  to  change


the  status  of  a  disc to read only (and back again). This


information obtained above is not  especially  overwhelming.


It tells nothing about the files on the disc.



     You  can  use STAT.COM to give the status of a disc (or


DDP) on another drive by typing this kind of command:





A>STAT B:  <CR>





This  will  provide  somewhat  less  information  about  the


B:disc. The resthe first method          described.
 
Well, I think that should suffice for this month.  As
always, you can write or call me:

             Jerome Hess
             PO Box 678203
             Orlando, FL 32867

     Phone: (407) 380-0457


