Sparta DOS 4.47

[fujidude]

Is the source code somewhere available?

 

For my program, AAC? Yes it is. Go to here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/240128-aac-ascii-atascii-converter/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3298557

[sanny]

 

For my program, AAC? Yes it is.

 

No, sorry, I meant for SpartaDOS.

[flashjazzcat]

Original disassembly is (IIRC) somewhere on pigwa.net, but the modern versions of SpartaDOS X are closed source.

[drac030]

That disassembly was only for the library of the SDX 4.20, and the lib is only 8k out of the 64k total.

[flashjazzcat]

Oh yes: I should have remembered, since I thought it rather brief.

[fujidude]

Hello everyone. I have what is hopefully a pretty simple question. How acceptable is it to setup a RAM disk via the AUTOEXEC.BAT vs. the CONFIG.SYS method? Any gotchas? What I currently do is use this as the last device in my CONFIG.SYS:

 

DEVICE RAMDISK H

 

for 8-bit 65 series or

 

DEVICE >DRIVERS>RAMD816L H

 

for when I have a 65C816 going.

 

Right now the reason I am interested in this is because I wish to make use of the batch language conditionals to load the regular RAM disk driver if the special 816 one fails to install. CONFIG.SYS processing doesn't seem to offer that like batch processing does. But it is of general interest anyway too for future tinkering.

Edited September 4, 2015 by fujidude

[fujidude]

I took out the driver from CONFIG.SYS and put this in my AUTOEXEC.BAT but no luck:

SETERRNO 0
>DRIVERS>RAMD816L.SYS H
IF ERROR
  RAMDISK.SYS H
FI

[drac030]

Every ramdisk driver sets the variable $RAMDISK in the environment, so this should work for you:

>DRIVERS>RAMD816L.SYS H
IF NOT RAMDISK
  RAMDISK.SYS H
FI

Edited September 5, 2015 by drac030

[fujidude]

 

Every ramdisk driver sets the variable $RAMDISK in the environment, so this should work for you:

>DRIVERS>RAMD816L.SYS H
IF NOT RAMDISK
  RAMDISK.SYS H
FI

Doh! I should have thought of that. Especially so since I have used that very same kind of logic for setting up a temp folder and the BASIC and CAR .SAV files:

IF RAMDISK
  IF NOT EXISTS $RAMDISK$TEMP
    MKDIR $RAMDISK$TEMP
  FI
  SET TEMP=$RAMDISK$TEMP>
ELSE
  IF NOT EXISTS $BOOT$TEMP
    MKDIR $BOOT$TEMP
  FI
  SET TEMP=$BOOT$TEMP>
FI

SET BASIC=$TEMP$BASIC.SAV
SET CAR=$TEMP$CAR.SAV

Edited September 5, 2015 by fujidude

[fujidude]

So yes, I'm loading either RAM disk driver from the batch file (instead of DEVICE statements in config file) and it seems to work fine. Am I right to assume that it is the same functionality as doing it as a DEVICE? Seems okay but if there are known functional differences that I am as yet unaware of I would appreciate knowing.

[drac030]

There are no functional differences, the DEVICE keyword in the config.sys file just loads regular (i.e. relocatable) binaries using the same library calls the CP is using. The config.sys parser is faster, that is about all.

[fujidude]

Tanks for the fill in on that. Now I can run it from CP and know I'm not giving anything up to do it that way.

[bugbiter]

Where can I find the con64.sys driver? It's not on the SDX toolkit disk..

[+Stephen]

Where can I find the con64.sys driver? It's not on the SDX toolkit disk..

Here ya go.

CON64.zip

[bugbiter]

perfect!

[bugbiter]

I am still trying my first steps with sdx. Seems it is really a very powerful tool.

I have the side2 cartridge. I understand all the core stuff is on the car: drive but if I change to car: I end up with D1: which is my normal disk drive. The manual is quite advanced and doesnt explain any further. Does my side2 cart have a car: drive at all?

[flashjazzcat]

You can't use car as the default logged drive. Just reference the CAR: device with copy, type, dir, etc. For example: DIR CAR:.

[bugbiter]

Oh! Ok. Thanks!

[fujidude]

Don't forget to take advantage of multiple config selection. Just create a directory called "SPARTA.DOS" (yes, do put an extension on that). Inside that folderany files that end with a .CFG will show up in a menu at boot time to let you pick which config you want.

[GoodByteXL]

I am still trying my first steps with sdx. Seems it is really a very powerful tool.

Then it is strongly recommended to read the introductionary parts of the manual first to get an idea how it is working.

-> http://sdx.atari8.info/

[fujidude]

And forgot to mention, within those different config files you can have a:

 

SET BATCH=>SPARTA.DOS>USUAL.BAT

 

to indicate which file should be executed as if it were a AUTORUN.BAT.

 

For example I have some config files named:

• CLX.CFG
• PRIMARY.CFG
• XEP80.CFG

I also have some batch files named:

• CLX.BAT
• PRIMARY.BAT
• XEP80.BAT

Within each config file I have a line to set the BATCH variable to the name of the batch file I want to run. So in my PRIMARY.CFG, I have a line like SET BATCH=>SPARTA.DOS>PRIMARY.BAT

 

Works great. Also, in the config selection menu, the system will add another option called DEFAULT. That choice configures your system as if you had no special config files and just plugged int the SDX cart on a new system.

Edited October 1, 2015 by fujidude