FAQ and answers
---------------

  Most of the problems that you might encounter are  problems  I  have  not
been able to duplicate, but I hope I have fixed. Here are the  most  common
questions I have been asked, or most common problems I have had to fix.


Q. How can I contact the author?

A. You can send me EMAIL at the address:

     schepers@uwaterloo.ca

   or by regular snail-mail post at:

     Peter Schepers
     317 Knightsbridge Road
     Woodstock, Ontario,
     Canada
     N4S 7C3



Q. How can I  pay  you  for  your  efforts,  or  donate  to  the  continued
   development of 64Copy, and how much should I send?

A. I would very much like to see people register the program with me, as it
   shows some appreciation for the work which goes into  writing  extensive
   utilities such as this.  The  amount  of  US  $20  (CAD  $25)  would  be
   appreciated. It's not  too  high  and,  after  exchange  (from  US)  and
   possible PayPal transaction or transfer fees, presents me with something
   tangible. There are multiple ways to send me the funds:

   Money Order: It does cost you extra to get one. but doesn't cost  me  to
                cash it.

   PayPal: This is a convenient method for some. Simply transfer the  funds
           into my PayPal account, schepers@uwaterloo.ca.

   Cheque: Old fashioned, and possibly problematic for myself when I try to
           cash it.



Q. What does registering the program get me?

A. Physically,  in  your  hands,  nothing.  The  program  has  no  crippled
   features, and contains no registration  routine  or  serial  numbers.  I
   would not send you a "registered" version as it doesn't exist.  It  just
   gives you peace of mind and some satisfaction that  you've  invested  in
   some small way in the development of 64Copy.



Q. How do I get the latest version of the program?

A. There are two ways:

   * Go to my web site http://www.64copy.com  and  look  for  the  DOWNLOAD
     page. The newest release will always be there.

   * Download it from Pontus Berg's site http://www.fairlight.to. This site
     usually has the latest public release.



Q. Some keys intermittently don't seem to work. How can I fix it?

A. I've had reports that  key  combinations  intermittently  stop  working,
   typically the ones modified with ALT or SHIFT. Although I haven't  found
   one, there might have a bug in the  keypress  detect  code  because  the
   author has seen this behavior as well.



Q. Are you planning on releasing the source code, just in case the  program
   becomes abandonware?

A. No, I would be too embarrased for anyone to see what my code has evolved
   into over the many years that I've been  writing  64COPY.  I  am  not  a
   programmer by training, and have been learning C programming through the
   entire development of 64Copy. Since I've had to work with  the  original
   core code that I wrote back in 1994, and have had to  re-adapt  it  many
   times over for newer features and fixes, what  I've  ended  up  with  is
   almost unreadable but functional stew.

   The source files (not including the HELP files) already total  over  250
   thousand lines and to try to convert this would be a huge task. The only
   time I would ever consider releasing the source would be if DOS became a
   completely unsupported platform, no longer available under Windows. Then
   I would have to choose between porting it to Windows,  or  walking  away
   from the project.



Q. I have some suggestions for 64COPY, but I don't think they are important
   enough to send them to you. Should I send them?

A. By all means, send your ideas to me. I may not always agree  with  them,
   or it may not be feasible, possible or practical to add them in,  but  I
   always appreciate  the  effort  of  at  least  telling  me  about  them!
   Sometimes I  surprise  myself  by  adding  in  a  feature  months  after
   receiving it, and originally thinking the idea was unworkable.



Q. How does the HELP work (and where is it)?

A. The main source for HELP in 64COPY is contained in the 64COPY.HLP  file,
   and is only available by running the program first and press the F1  key
   to bring up the HELP window. Help will start either in a  topic  or  the
   main index. If you are in a function (converting  files,  text  editor),
   calling HELP will bring up help for that topic. If you  are  sitting  at
   the command-line, then HELP will come up with  the  index  of  all  main
   topics. Either way, you can still get the index and look  for  what  you
   want from there.

   If the HELP file doesn't exist (64COPY.HLP) then you will get a  warning
   that help cannot be found as well as where the help file should  be.  If
   the HELP file version is wrong, you will also get a warning.

   The second source for  HELP  is  the  64COPY.HTM  file,  a  web  browser
   compatible HTML file. I have setup an extension definition (Ctrl-F4) for
   HTML files so it will display in Internet  Explorer.  If  the  extension
   doesn't work then you will have to find some way to  get  your  favorite
   browser to display this file.

   If you can't get the program to run to display the HELP  and  can't  get
   the HTML file to work either then there is very little I can do. I would
   request that you mail me with the details in this event as I would  like
   to know about it, and try to fix it.



Q. I ran my virus scanner, and it reported the "xxxx" virus in one  of  the
   executables.

A. Unless you verify that  the  virus  really  exists  by  using  a  second
   scanner, I will take no action.  I  highly  trust  and  recommend  using
   F-Prot. Earlier versions of Mcafee and Norton Antivirus  were  producing
   many false positives on my executable



Q. When I start up 64COPY, the screen saver starts up  almost  immediately.
   What can I do to stop this?

A. This was due to a bug in the "inactive time" calculation  for  when  the
   screen saver will  activate.  If  this  happens  (and  it  shouldn't  in
   versions past 3.00 beta 10), there are several ways to prevent this...

   * Goto the configuration page (ALT-F6) called "Screen Saver" and disable
     the saver (the best method).

   * Move the mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen. This  is  the
     "save never" corner, and will disable the saver, but that is  not  too
     useful if you want to use the mouse.



Q. When I am doing XXX operation, the program hangs. Why?

A. This is most difficult to answer as a number of factors are coming  into
   play. It may be that there is a bug that you have found, and I will have
   to track down. It would be best if you can duplicate the  problem  as  I
   will not be able to easily fix it if I cannot see it happen.

   If you can duplicate the problem, mail me  with  the  all  the  details,
   order of operation, etc. If you don't have the latest version,  I  would
   recommend getting that first, as I may have fixed it already and not  be
   aware of it!



Q. When I am doing  XXX  operation,  I  see  garbage  on  the  screen,  but
   everything seems to work ok. Why?

A. Once again, like  the  previous  question,  this  requires  that  it  be
   duplicatable. If it is, mail me with  what  you  were  doing,  where  on
   screen the corruption starts and ends, etc. Even if I  cannot  duplicate
   it, I can likely attempt to fix it.

   When this bug was originally reported, it was usually due to the newness
   of the windowing code changes I was making. Once  the  code  was  shaken
   down, I have never had these problems reported again.



Q. Are you going to support  the  new  GCR  formats  coming  out  for  C64S
   (NewD64) and CCS64 (GCR/G64)?

A. As of version 4, I support the CCS64 G64 format on  a  whole-file  basis
   only, no copying of individual files is allowed.  You  can  convert  the
   entire file to/from the various other disk formats (ZipCode 4 & 6, D64).

   No support for the C64s NewD64 format is planned as it never  seemed  to
   materialize.



Q. What will happen if I delete any of the  external  support  files  (like
   64COPY.INI) when 64COPY is active?

A. Nothing bad will occur at any point. Once the program  is  running,  all
   the support files have been read, the settings are in  memory,  and  the
   files are no longer in use. When you quit,  the  files  will  simply  be
   written out as if they never existed. When you execute  a  command  from
   the command-line in 64COPY, all the settings are still stored in memory,
   until the program reloads.

   If you delete any support file when not in 64COPY, and start the program
   up again, it will detect the missing file and use default values.



Q. How come if I change the screen  height  (ALT-F9),  and  then  quit  and
   restart the program, the screen height is not what I changed it to?

A. When 64COPY is started for the first time  (i.e.  no  "64COPY.INI"  file
   exists), the screen height is recorded, and 64COPY will always start  up
   in that mode, unless you change the height setting in the  Configuration
   window (ALT-F6), Visual options page, Screen Height section.



Q. 64COPY won't recognize the F11/F12 keys on the keyboard. Why?

A. It seems that there are some rare BIOS's that are  not  100%  compatible
   with the method I use for scanning for the extended keys, and  therefore
   I can't fix this. However, there are ways around this. Since 64COPY  has
   a working MENU system (using the F9 key, or with the mouse), you can use
   the menus to accomplish nearly all that would normally need to  be  done
   with the keyboard.



Q. I can't get the long filename functions to work under Windows NT, but it
   works in all other Microsoft OS's.

A. It would appear that the way  Windows  NT  implemented  LFN  is  totally
   different from the way Windows 9x/2000/XP does. The DOS INTerrupt  calls
   make no mention of being supported  by  the  Windows  NT  DOS  box,  and
   therefore I assume they will not work.

   There are several Windows NT LFN emulator drivers available  to  try  on
   Joe Forster/STA web site http://sta.c64.org/lfnemu.html  that  claim  to
   provide the standard access for long filenames. Joe has tested them with
   both 64Copy and Star Commander, and says that  they  work.  I  have  not
   verified these drivers but if you feel  adventurous  go  ahead  and  try
   them.



Q. What compiler and language do you use?

A. I really only know C, and have always used one version or another of the
   Watcom C compiler. I have used  v6,  v8  and  v10,  and  now  work  with
   OpenWatcom v1.9. The change to OpenWatcom required some compiler  option
   changes and code tweaking but things appear to be working and stable.

   As a point of interest, 64COPY is being compiled  as  a  386  or  higher
   application. No more XT and 286 support.



Q. Does 64COPY require booting to real DOS to function?

A. No. 64COPY was written with full DOS compatibility in mind, so  it  will
   work under Windows XP/2000 DOS VDM's, Windows 95/98/ME, real  DOS,  etc.
   Booting to a real DOS environment just to use 64COPY  would  only  cause
   you grief as it takes you out of your normal environment for no benefit.
   In fact, you would lose long filename support!



Q. Why is 64COPY a DOS application, and not Windows?

A. Mostly due to the history of its development.  64COPY  was  started  way
   back in ~1993, with the first release (v1.0) sometime in 1994. Back then
   the only major OS's on the PC platform were DOS, Windows 3.1  and  OS/2,
   with DOS providing the best compatibility across those platforms.  Since
   I am a self-taught programmer with limited spare time, I don't have  the
   time or inclination to learn to program for another OS. Not  only  that,
   but trying to make this  beast  cross-platform  compatible  would  be  a
   formidable task!



Q. When I try double-clicking 64COPY.EXE or 64MAIN.EXE under Windows XP,  I
   get the following error:  "C:\Windows\system32\autoexec.nt.  The  system
   file  is  not  suitable  for  running  MS-DOS  and   Microsoft   Windows
   Application. Choose 'close' to terminate the application."

A. This is not a 64COPY problem, but a  Windows  one.  See  this  Microsoft
   bulletin:

   http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767&Product=winxp

   It describes the solutions to fixing the DOS subsystem  when  the  above
   error (or variants) occur. Basically, one of the files  needed  for  DOS
   support (autoexec.nt, config.nt or command.com) is corrupt or missing.

   Another possible solution (if you don't  have  the  Windows  install  CD
   around) is to look for the support files under c:\windows\repair as  the
   real filenames, or under c:\windows\system32 as filename.TMP files.

