NEWDOS9O UPDATE — Page 1 DIFFERENCES IN NEWDOS9O TO NEWDOS86 Why the name change to NewDos90? This is primarily because some changes have been made to the SYSTEM file usage. PDRIVE and SYSTEM, which use to occupy their individual /SYS files, now share a single /SYS file. This frees up a directory entry which is now used for a shell program. This does mean that the DOS is now bigger and this may cause problems for those users who are still running single density systems. For this reason I will still be supporting NewDos86 to a limited extent. Where possible future utility files will try to support both DOS’s. This is why you will see that some of the utilities are for NewDos86, while others are for NewDos90. All utilities for NewDos86 will run as designed under NewDos90, but the converse may not be true. There have been some changes to the DOS and your manual may need updating. New commands added:- @ is an abbreviation for MDRET * invokes the shell. A drive number may optionally follow the ’*’. If you don’t want to use the supplied shell, copy your preferred shell to SYS16/SYS. If you don’t want any shell, issue the following command:- DUMP sys16/sys 4CFFH,4CFFH,402DH This creates a dummy file which passes control straight back to DOS. SYS16/SYS is loaded if is pressed on return to DOS ready or if bit 2 of byte 428CH (436CH model 1) is set. The key aborts the load. The shell program sets this bit to force an automatic reload of SYS16/SYS after executing DOS commands. See SHELL/TXT on ND9OPD#2 for more details. HELP filespec] invokes the helpdriver. The optional filespec is the file to view. now causes a CHR$(12) (a formfeed) to be sent to the printer. DOS now supports a POKE command (this is legal under Mini-DOS). Syntax is:- POKE,[W] exp1,exp2 The optional W indicates a WORD poke, while expl is the memory location poked. Expl and Exp2 can be anything that is legal in the ? command. ::::::::::::::: NEWDOS9O (C) 1990 W,S, & D,S, SANDS :::::::::::::::: Page 2 — NEWDOS9O UPDATE The ? command has been changed slightly. Opening and closing brackets are now permissible. NOTE that the Peek address must now be surrounded by brackets. Examples:- ? p(52OOH) displays contents of location 52OOH ? pw(52OOH) displays WORD stored at 52OOH POKE W 52OOH+l,12 Stores 12 at 520lH, and OOH at 5202H POKE 52OOH.p(52OOH)!2 Sets bit l of 52OOH POKE 52OOH,p(52OOH)&253 Resets bit 1 of 52OOH DOS now ignores leading and trailing whitespace when executing commands. If the first non-blank character of a command is an ’=’, then the DOS editor is invoked before the command is executed. This can be very handy within /JCL files. Lowercase is now preserved when surrounded by double quotes. If you wish to strip the quotes from the command line. ( E.g. while using forms to print lower case text), put a double quote as the first character on the line. If you then desire a double quote, use two of them. An example PROT,O,RUF,NAME="Shell" will cause the disk name to be "Shell“, including the quotes. "PROT,O,RUF,NAME="Shell will cause the disk name to be Shell without the quotes. "PROT,O,RUF,NAME=""Shell“! will cause the disk name to be "Shell“, including the quotes. You can change the default quote character, for the current command only, to any of the following characters !"#$%&’(> by having it as the first character in the command. Leading and trailing white-space characters are stripped from the command line before it is executed and white-space characters within the line are converted to spaces. What is white space? Any character less than an I mark. So down arrows, spaces etc are removed. Obviously still terminates the line. If the first character of the command is an ’=’ then the ’=’ is replaced with a blank and the DOS edit routine is invoked. This is particularly useful inside JCL files when some parameters may need to be edited at run time. Multiple commands are now allowed on the DOS command line. Separate DOS commands with a ~ (tilde). As each command is executed, it is removed from the DOS buffer. If an error occurs and DOS edit is invoked, the remaining commands can be edited. Since the line is stored in the DOS buffer, if Mini—DOS is entered then the remaining commands will be either be overwritten or executed. ::::::::::::::: NEWDOS9O (C) 1990 W,S, & D,S, SANDS ::::::::::::::::