CBM DOS Wedge

Issuing arbitrary Commodore DOS commands to a connected disk drive directly
from the BASIC command line
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Table of Contents

     * Installation
     * Command descriptions
     * Wedge activation signs
     * Setting the default device
     * Displaying the directory
     * Reading the disk drive error channel
     * Loading a program
     * Loading and running a program
     * Sending DOS commands
     * Downloads

Installation

   The wedge is compatible with Commodore BASIC 2 and BASIC 4 and consumes
   only 389 bytes RAM.

   Load and start the wedge installer just like any other program:

   BASIC 2:
          LOAD"WEDGE",8
          RUN

   BASIC 4:
          dL"wedge
          run

   The wedge installer is a "universal binary" containing a couple of
   resident wedge versions. The wedge installer tries to auto-detect your
   BASIC version first and installs the appropriate version of the
   resident wedge afterwards (if any).

   BASIC 2 and BASIC 4 are fully supported. The installer can detect BASIC
   1 (PET 2001), but this BASIC version is unsupported. The CBM-II series
   aren't supported at all, but you can use Michael Pleban's CBM-II DOS
   Wedge instead.

Command descriptions

   [ ] Square brackets are used to enclose information which is optional
   to the command syntax. The brackets themselves are not part of the
   command.

   < > Angle brackets act as a placeholder that will be replaced by an
   applicable value. The brackets themselves are not part of the command.

   ... Three dots indicate that the last parameter can given several
   times. Usually this applies for filenames where the operation can
   applied to a single file or multiple files.

   Device - usually a floppy disk drive connected to your PET using the
   IEEE bus. In this context, device means the unique device address that
   is used to communicate with the device. If you load a program by
   LOAD"PRG",8 your device has the address 8. A device may contain a
   single drive like the 2031, or two drives like the 8050.

   Drive - a dual floppy like the 8050 is a single device with two drives.

Wedge activation signs

   Wedge commands are only available in direct mode. You cannot use them
   in your programs. The wedge is a BASIC extension that is activated by
   one of the magic characters #@>/^ at the beginning of the line when
   you enter a command in direct mode. The greater than > has the same
   function as the at @, so e.g. @$ and >$ do the same. In the following
   text, only the @ is used to simplify things.

   Leading spaces are omitted.

   Here's an overview of each wedge activation sign's purpose that will be
   discussed later:

   @ and >
          Displaying the directory
          Reading the disk drive error channel
          Sending DOS commands

   #
          setting the default device

   /
          loading a program

   ^
          loading and running a program

Setting the default device

   #<unit number> sets the default drive,
   # without unit number shows the current default drive.

   The default device is initialized with 8.

   #9 sets the default drive to 9.

   # will show you the default drive was really set to 9.

   #8 sets the default drive back to 8.

Displaying the directory

   @$[ [drive] : filename ] displays the disk's directory.

   Typing @$ without filename displays the entire directory. @$ followed
   by a colon and a filename will display the specified file in the
   directory listing (if it exists). A selective listing can be displayed
   by using pattern patching or wild cards as part of the filename.

   Press  Space Bar  to pause the listing and any other key to continue
   it.

   Abort the listing with the STOP-key.

   @$ displays the entire directory.

   @$1: displays the directory of default's device drive 1 only. Do not
   confuse drive and device.

   @$:N* displays all files having a "N" as the first letter in their
   filename.

Reading the disk drive error channel

   @ without any parameters reads and displays the disk drive error
   message channel. If everything is okay, you'll get your DOS version at
   startup and 00, OK, 00, 00 afterwards.

Loading a program

   /filename loads a program.

   /GARY loads the program called GARY, but doesn't start it. So you can
   list and edit it afterwards.

Loading and running a program

   ^GAME loads and runs a game. Probably. But it wouldn't be very clever
   to save it on disk using this name.

   If you're using BASIC 2 and try to load a non-existent file, these load
   commands act just in the same way the normal BASIC-2-LOAD does: it
   hangs and tries to load forever. Use the STOP-key to get back to BASIC
   then.

Sending DOS commands

   @<DOS command string> sends your command to the device's command
   channel. This text is not interpreted by the wedge, so the result
   depends on what your drive understands.

   Usually this are the Commodore DOS commands:

   @C:newfile=existingfile Copy a file on the same diskette
   @I Initialize the disk drive. Rarely needed as the drive usually does
   this on its own if it has a door switch.
   @N:diskname New a disk that was already formatted
   @N:diskname,id Format (new) a diskette, giving it an index at your
   choice
   @R:newname=oldname Rename a file
   @S:file1[,file2 ...] Scratch a file (or files). Wild cards are allowed!
   Read the status channel with @ to see how many files were scratched.
   @UJ Reset the disk drive. Read the status channel with @ to get the DOS
   version string.
   @V Validate a disk: reconcile the BAM with the disk directory, allocate
   all used blocks and free all blocks not being used by files, and delete
   all unclosed files from the directory.
   @D1=0 Duplicate an entire disk. Only available in dual drive units. The
   target(!) drive number comes first, then the source drive number.



   http://petsd.net/wedge.php

