★ APPLICATIONS ★ DISQUE ★ DISC DEMON ROM|The Amstrad User) ★ |
| Beebug Soft - Disc Demon ROM | Beebug Soft - Disc Demon |
Disc Demon is another one of the many disc utility programs that are now available for the Amstrad range. It has the usual commands that all the others have, plus it also has a few of its own. Another difference is the way in which they are implemented. This will be explained more clearly as this review continues. Disc Demon is available in two forms. It is one of only two programs of this type, that I know of, that come in a ROM as well as on disc. These comments apply to the disc version, although I believe that there are no differences between the two. The manual does mention one point regarding the ROM version. If at any time you find that Disc Demon's commands clash with the command set of another ROM in your board, it is possible to precede the Disc DERror. command with a 'b' for BEEBUGSOFT. Theref: re a command such as I helped would become |bhelped. I would think that this should cure any possible problem. Disc Demon is rather unusual for the reason that can operate as a normal utility from a menu, or you can use any of the commands that are available on the menu as RSX commands. To those of you not quite sure what I mean by this, a RSX is a command preceded by a |, as in |demon. On the disc version of this program are four files. These are called disc, discx, Version1.0, and demon. There are two ways of loading Disc Demon, although the manual only lists one. The manual says to RUN"disc. This is similar to the method used in LOCKSMITH, as it loads the program into memory as an RSX file and then waits there until you call it to the foreground with the command I demon. I find it easier to use method two. The choice is yours.
The commands that arc available from the opening menu include helped, access, cats, catb, copy, dedit, direct, dis, dmap, disccopy, dsearch, dump,enable, fedit, fmap, form info, load, mdump, medit, msearch, recover, tdisc, verify and wipe. As you can see, there are a lot of commands in there. However, if you look closely you will find that some of them seem very similar to the normal commands that your computer uses. There is very good reason for this. They do exactly the same job as you could do under AMSDOS, using the exact same command. Why these have been included in this package, I do not know. I suppose that the programmer had a good reason. When called into being, Disc Demon sets up the function keys on your keypad to emulate some of the commands that you would use most commonly. These include selecting modes, cata, printer on/off, recalling Disc Demon, and 3 help commands. All of these are listed in the documentation. To recall Disc Demon at any time after leaving it, simply press 9 on the keypad and you will be back at the main menu. Now to the list of new commands that are listed on that almighty main menu.
Almost all the above commands require different parameters to work. If not supplied when the command is called, they will be asked for. Also, as is stated in the manual, three of these commands will destroy any program that resides in memory when they are called. Read your manual! Two further commands are available that are not listed on the menu. These are demon and demon off. The first is used to call Disc Demon into being if loaded as an RSX file. The second is used to clear Disc Demon from memory if you require the space for bas programs. On the ROM version, this completely disables the ROM. The compu ter will need to be reset if you require Disc Demon again. Also asks you if you are sure that you want to clear it. If like me you keep an auto-loader on your games discs, Disc Demon will also help us even further. When run, it resets the CONTROL/Small ENTER combination to give RUN'DISC instead of just RUN" Just rename your auto-loader to DISC.BAS. Much simpler. After all that, what do I really think of DISC DEMON? I am afraid that I am not quite sure. It seems to offer a few extras on top of the other disc utilities that are available, but it would greatly depend on whether you require those extras as to whether it will be useful to you. As far as 1 personally am concerned, it offers little more than some other disc utilities that I could name apart from two major attractions: The first would have to be the resetting of the function keys, which I could do under BASIC any ws and the second and most important is the ability to remain co-resident w ith other basic programs while work on them. This sewnd ability is the best reason that I could think of for buying Disc Demon. If you already ha ve a disc utility program, keep it and learn ho w to get the best out of it. However, if you don't, then by all moans have a look at DISC DEMON.
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