★ APPLICATIONS ★ DISQUE ★ DISCOLOGY|WACCI) ★ |
| Discology v6 Plus / Discology v6+ / Discology Plus v6 | Applications Disque |
We all have our favourite copying program whether it be Disckit or PIP on the CP/M Master disc or one of the many programs available from the PD Libraries. There are also some excellent commercial programs that are still available from some stockists. One of these is a French program called DISCOLOGY. This program will copy anything, from PD program to multi-load commercial prograim. In fact, I have yet to find a program that DISCOLOGY couldn't copy. INTRODUCTION The producers of the program, Meridien, are so confident of its capabilities that they include a warning on the copying screen that copies should only be lade for your own use because of the copyright laws. However, there is one drawback. All the instructions and on screen prompts are in French but lost of them are self evident and soon become familiar. DISCOLOGY runs under CP/M so you will need to copy your CP/M tracks from your CP/M Master Disc.
GENERAL DISCOLOGY is a disc utility made up of three parts that can be selected from the main menu. These are: Editor, Explorer and Copier. Editor. This function allows you to view and to modify the contents of all discs, whether they are protected or not. Explorer. This function allows you to explore the structure of a disc either track by track or by individually selected sectors. Both these functions require considerable expertise and are not for beginners. The final part of DISCOLOGY is the copier and this is the part that forms the basis of this article. COPIER When DISCOLOGY is loaded you are presented with a choice of options as shown in Fig.1. Select Copieur by means of the left and right arrow keys and press [COPY]. The copying program will load and you will be presented with a new set of options in the Header Band. OPTIONS With the aid of the cursor keys select "Options' and press [COPY]. A drop-down menu will appear (Fig.2). The option can be selected by use of the up and down arrow keys and modified by use of the left and right arrow keys. The options available are: Annulation................Cancel Cancel: All the drop down menus have this as the first option. Selecting this and pressing [COPY] will return you to your main selection. The next two options are self-evident and should be matched to your own setup requirements. Print info: During disc copying or mapping YES will echo the information to your printer. Choose colours: This allows you to select the colours that you prefer for normal working. Select this option and press [COPY]. To change the paper press "P\ the pen press "S" and for the border press "B". Press [COPY] to end. Standard param: This function resets all the parameters to the following standard: Source drive...........: A Having set the screen and drive to your requirements you now have a choice of copying the complete disc (Disquette), or of copying, renaming or erasing selected files (Fichier). DISQUETTE With the aid of the left and right arrow keys select "Disquette" and press [COPY]. A drop-down nenu will appear as shown at Fig.3. The option can be selected by leans of the up and down arrow keys and modified by means of the left and right arrow keys. The options available are: Annulation .................. Cancel Cancel: As previously stated. Copy complete: Will copy the complete disc whether it is protected or not. During copying, information about each sector and any error messages are displayed on the left of the screen. Also displayed is the following information: Drive source and destination. This option should be used when copying commercial discs or any other disc that has been produced using a non-standard format. Quick copy: For fast copying of nonprotected discs (eg PD discs). Mapping: Gives a visual representation of the contents of the disc with the physical characteristics of the sectors and displays any errors found during loading. Fomat: Bill format a disc in 17 seconds in either DATA or VENDOR format. To interrupt or cancel any of these functions press [ESC]. During copying or mapping you can "Pause" between each track by pressing "P". Press "P" again to continue. The following options can be modified by use of the left and right arrow keys. Start track and End track: Will limit the actions of copying, mapping and formatting to the tracks between the selected first and last track. The following variables are effective when the complete copying option is in use: Check density: The option YES will monitor the density of the recorded information. Some tape programs are recorded with different levels of density. Read GAP#3: The option YES will check the format of each track of the source disc as the disc is loaded and will reformat the tracks on the destination disc to match those on the source disc. Recheck length: The option YES will verify the structure of the tracks when successive looks at the same track gives a different number of sectors. (Occurs sometimes where there is a corrupt sector). Erase track: The option YES will deformat tracks on the destination disc where the corresponding track on the source disc is not formatted. Track length: This parameter varies the physical clipping of the track expressed in "Bits". The default value is 6176 but is variable between 6050 and 6305. Gain: This parameter represents the gain per sector and is variable between 0 and 80. Verification: This parameter has three values and affects the verification of the source disc as it is loaded. 0 - signifies that DISCOLOGY will not effect any verification. 1 - DISCOLOGY will verify those tracks which might pose a problem with copying. 2 - DISCOLOGY will verify the integrity of all the sectors and all the tracks. Standard parameters: This option will return all the variable parameters to the following default settings: First track ............ : 00 When you have decided on Complete copy or Fast copy select the appropriate option using the up and down arrow keys and press [COPY]. An on-screen proipt will then tell you to insert the source disc in Drive A and to press any key. DISCOLOGY uses an 83K Memory Buffer when copying and will copy lost discs in two operations. On-screen prompts will then tell you when to change the source and destination discs and when copying is complete. FICHIER Using the left and right arm keys select "Fichier" and press the [COPY] key afterwords. The drop-down aenu which is shown at Fig.4 will appear and, as with the "disquette" menu, options are selected by means of the up and down arrow keys and modified by using the left and right arrow keys. The selection of options available through this menu are: Annulation ............ Cancel Cancel: is before. Copier: Allows copying of selected files. All the files are displayed on the screen (Fig.8) and are selected with the arrow keys. Selected files are then validated by pressing [SPACE]. When validated a "<" symbol appears in front of the selected file. This can be cancelled by pressing [SPACE] again. Erase: Will erase selected files and is similar in operation to copier. Rename: Allows renaming of selected files. Files can also be rendered "invisible", protected against loading and have their "User" number changed. Catalogue: Effects a complete catalogue of the disc including "invisible" files and displays their name, type (BAS, BIN etc), length and "User" number. The following options can be varied by use of the left and right arrow keys. Destination & Source: These can be either disc or tape but copying tape to tape is not possible. Erase protected files: Protected files can be erased if "Ignorer" is selected. If "Tester" is selected protected files will not be erased. List protected files: Some files are encrypted and protected against "Listing" after loading. During copying this protection will be maintained (Laisser), removed (Enlever) or initiated (Mettre). Write speed: This variable modifies the speed of tape saving. You can choose between the 1000 and 2000 Baud standard speeds or you can select 3600 Baud, which is very fast. Change name: During transfer of files from disc to tape the option YES allows the renaming of the files. The option 10 will automatically transfer the current name. Tape message: During the transfer of files from tape to disc the option YES will show on-screen messages informing you of the operation in progress. Reset parametres: Returns all the variable parameters to the following default settings: Source ............. Disc Once copier, erase, rename or catalogue has been selected press [COPY] and an on-screen prompt will tell you to insert the work disc in the drive and to press any key. When the disc is catalogued each file is represented in the following manner: Example: 0:PROG2 .BAS [SP] 0......: This is the "User" number (between 0 and 15). The letters enclosed in the brackets are the optional attributes. "S" signifies that the file is invisible to the commands CAT and DIR. "P" signifies that the file is protected against erasure by the command ERA. The final two options on the copier main heading are "Aide" and "Menu". AIDE This is the documentation for copier written in French. It contains all the instructions for using the copy programs. I have included most of this information in this article which should enable you to use, effectively, both the disc and file copying programs. MENU Selecting this function and pressing [COPY] will return you to the main program and the display shown at Fig.1. There is one final option on this heading that is of interest. This is "Sortie" or "Exit". SORTIE This is the exit function that allows you to return to CP/M or Basic without resetting the computer. It also allows you to change the working colours as described under OPTIONS and to catalogue a disc as described under the FICHIER heading. The final function will print out the complete documentation for DISCOLOGY which comprises some 30 pages. FINALLY DISCOLOGY is compatible with all CPCs and CPC Plusses. It is extremely easy to use once you get used to the French language prompts and is one of the most powerful commercial copiers available. It can be purchased from "O J Software" at a cost of £8.99(less WACCI discount) and is well worth considering if you want one copier to fulfill all your requirements. « I was planning on splitting this article over two issues, since WACCI policy seems to be three pages max, per issue, per article. However, since it only over ran by a single column and because I enjoyed it so such, it's all here at once - Philip »
|
