
                    The Star Commander, Version 0.71 beta

                          written by Joe Forster/STA


  This is still only a beta release of The Star Commander. Look out for further
releases. Please, report bugs and ideas to me as I want to release Version  1.0
as soon as possible. Sorry for all kinds of bugs that appear in  the  Commander
but I'm in a hurry - as always.



  INTRODUCTION:

  This is a program similar to The Norton Commander  designed  to  copy  binary
files and whole disks between the PC and a Commodore drive and  to  handle  the
disk and tape images of the C64 Software Emulator (C64S, (C) by  Miha  Peternel
and Seattle Lab, 1994-1995). If  you  know  The  Norton  Commander  well,  this
program will surely be easy to use.  But  first  before  you  start  using  it,
please, read this documentation and the online  help  carefully  for  features,
differences from the other Commanders, the description of the  X1541  interface
and other details.



  COPYRIGHT AND LEGAL ISSUES:

  The Commander is freeware which means you can copy and spread it as you  like
provided that it is in the unmodified archive. You must not  distribute  single
files only the whole package and no money can be charged above the  normal  fee
of the distribution media. The Commander may not be included in any compilation
or sold on disk or CD-ROM without my prior permission.

  The Commander is copyrighted software.  You  must  not  disassemble,  reverse
engineer, hack the program and the related files or modify them in any way.

  The author is not liable for any damage or data loss caused by the  Commander
(especially now, that the Commander is still under development).



  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

  You must have an IBM or compatible PC with a 80286 processor or  higher  with
MS-DOS 3.20 or above installed on it and about 500 KBytes of free  conventional
memory. You may try running the Commander under the DOS emulator of OS/2  after
enabling the HW_TIMER option in the DOS settings - it has been reported to work
although I could not make it access an external Commodore drive.  I  have  also
tried to run the Commander under the DOS  emulator  of  Linux  but  the  kernel
steals too much time making the data transfer from and to the  Commodore  drive
impossible. Remember that although the Commander may  run  under  multi-tasking
systems it does not officially support them.



  INSTALLATION:

  You can install the  Commander  simply   by  uncompressing  the  distribution
package into an empty directory using PKZIP 2.xx. You don't need all the  files
to run the Commander - most of them are only for your comfort:

- for an absolute minimum installation you need SCMAIN.EXE (required)

- if you want to have much more memory in the DOS shell, keep SC.EXE and launch
  that instead of main executable (recommended)

- you can find the online help in SC.HLP (recommended)

- SCSETUP.EXE to be able to set all the settings of the Commander (recommended)

- there are some sample menu, submenu and  extension  files:  *.MNU  and  *.EXT
  (optional)

- the archive SC_ARC.ZIP contains  the  following  external  archive  utilities
  (optional):

  - Star Zip creates  ZipCode  archives  out  of  disk  images,  tests  ZipCode
    archives and extracts them into disk images
  - Star Lynx creates Lynx archives out of multiple DOS files or  the  contents
    of a disk image, lists the contents Lynx archives and  extracts  them  into
    multiple DOS files or into a disk image
  - Star Tape collects multiple file images (files with the  extension  '.P00'/
    '.S00'/'.U00' created and used by PC64) into tape images



  ADVANTAGES OF THE COMMANDER:

- it is comfortable to use the well known environment of The Norton  Commander,
  isn't it? You don't have to press a sequence of weird key combinations only a
  familiar one and you can always clearly see what is happening on the screen

- I hope you  remember  Disk-Demon,  the  great  C64  disk  editor  written  by
  G. Brandt and A. Wellie in 1986/87. A similar disk editor is built  into  the
  Commander so that you can change the data of  disk  images  and  disks  in  a
  connected Commodore drive directly

- many configuration options make the use of the Commander easy and comfortable

- the Commander can optionally display everything with the  C64  character  set
  (only on EGA/VGA video cards)

- most of the image file handling routines are faster than those of  the  other
  similar utilities

- here is a benchmark of the Commander using my original 1541C drive and a disk
  containing a single 210 block file stored below track #18 with the normal  10
  sector interleave:

    ͻ
       Whole disk copy     Read from the 1541     Write to the 1541   
    Ķ
         Normal mode              7:50                  9:55          
    Ķ
         Turbo mode               2:25                  2:25          
    Ķ
         Warp mode                1:15                  1:20          
    ͹
     210 block file copy   Read from the 1541     Write to the 1541   
    Ķ
         Normal mode              2:20                  2:25          
    Ķ
         Turbo mode               1:00                  1:00          
    Ķ
         Warp mode                0:25           not yet implemented  
    ͼ



  CONNECTING A COMMODORE DRIVE TO YOUR PC:

  The connection is done using the well known X1541 interface. You can find the
interface description in the online help.

  The Commander has a machine independent synchronization method that uses  the
hardware system timers and therefore no automatic  calibration  is  inside  the
Commander. If your PC has a 80386 or 80486 CPU, the default delay value  of  12
will probably be fine and you will be able to  access  the  external  Commodore
drive without adjusting it. However, a 80286 CPU might be too slow and you  may
have to lower the delay value. Similarly, Pentium  users  should  raise  it.  I
admit that it is a bit annoying but don't forget that you have  to  go  through
this tiring procedure only once with every new release, if at all.

  The Commander is equipped with turbo transfer mode which means  it  transfers
data from and to the connected Commodore drive about 2-3 times faster.  It  has
turbo command routines, as well, which speed up deleting files  and  validating
disks to 2-10 times the original speed (it depends on the number and length  of
the files on the disk) and  disk  format  takes  only  about  12  seconds.  The
Commander has another turbo, the warp transfer mode, which is about  5.5  times
faster than the original speed.

  I had the opportunity to try the Commander with the 1571 drive of  a  friend.
Although I haven't changed anything in the setup of  the  Commander,  it  could
execute every 1541 function properly for the first try, even in  warp  transfer
mode. However, native 1571 mode (double sided disks) is not supported. I looked
into a 1581 ROM image, and it made clear to me that the  Commander  won't  work
with it in turbo modes, if at all - it is not software compatible with the 1541
drive. I would have to get a 1581 drive to implement the  appropriate  transfer
routines.



  TROUBLESHOOTING:

  If you encounter problems in the part of the program that does not  access  a
connected Commodore drive you  should  contact  me  at  once  with  a  detailed
description of the bug. However, if you can't access  the  connected  Commodore
drive properly here are some ideas that you should try first.

  First of all, bare boot your computer, disable  all  the  resident  programs,
memory managers and device drivers  and  exit  multi-tasking  systems  such  as
OS/2, Linux, Windows or Windows '95 since these circumstances  may  affect  the
data transfer.

  You should also switch the Commander into normal transfer mode since this  is
the most stable mode and it is not as sensible to the change of the delay value
as the turbo modes are. Furthermore, don't plug anything other than  the  X1541
interface into your PC and your Commodore drive. Connecting a printer  to  your
PC or a C64/C128/other drives to your Commodore drive will probably mess up the
data transfer or even lock up the connection. This means that  C128D  and  SX64
owners can't use the Commander with the built-in drive of their computers.

  If the connection with the Commodore drive locks up then pull  the  interface
out of the drive, wait for the "Device not present" error, plug  the  interface
back, reset your drive and try the following:

- raise (or lower) the delay value

- make sure that the X1541 interface is  assembled  well  (try  it  with  other
  machines and/or other transfer programs) and that it is not too long

- it is possible that your Commodore drive went dead in all those years  -  try
  it with a C64 or C128 to see if it works at all or  borrow  a  working  drive
  from your friends

- you might be the unlucky owner of an I/O card that  makes  fine  synchronized
  bidirectional data transfer  via  the  LPT  printer  port  impossible  -  try
  exchanging it with an I/O card of a friend or buy a new one

- as a last resort you can try switching the turbo button of your machine on or
  off or disable/enable shadow RAM's - these changes might slow down  or  speed
  up your machine so that data transfer then becomes possible on a too slow  or
  a too fast computer



  BETA TESTING:

  As I do not have the possibility to test the program on many kinds of PC's  I
ask you to be my beta tester and contact me if you

- found a bug in the program (you will possibly find some as it is still  under
  development)

- have an idea what improvements I should make in the future

- saw a grammatical error, misspelling, wrong punctuation, wrong  justification
  or something misunderstandable in the online help or this documentation

- know good FTP sites with C64 areas to which I should upload this program

- are just interested in this program or you simply like it and  want  to  have
  the final version as soon as possible

  Please, E-Mail your detailed bug reports along with the version number of the
Commander you use, the configuration of your PC (CPU type and  speed)  and  the
configuration of the Commander when the  bug  occurred  (especially  the  delay
value and the transfer mode if you used a connected Commodore  drive).  If  the
bug occurred only with a certain file you can send it to me uuencoded, as well.



  BUGS FIXED SINCE VERSION 0.70 BETA:

- when copying a file or disk from a connected Commodore drive  to  the  PC  in
  normal transfer mode the last byte in some of the sectors or the last byte of
  the file could sometimes get lost

- you couldn't copy sequential and user files from a connected Commodore drive

- if you started SCMAIN.EXE and launched a standard viewer or editor while  the
  C64 character set was enabled then garbage would be displayed at the original
  DOS output screen after returning from the external program

- if you started the Commander through SC.EXE and executed a DOS  command  when
  one of the panels was an external panel then a strange path would be  offered
  when you tried to copy a file to the external drive and the  manual  filename
  conversion box would give you a blank filename

- when both panels were off and you tried to re-read  a  panel  with  Control-R
  then nothing happened but the clock disappeared

- user menu entries without any commands and commands prepended with  '@'  were
  handled incorrectly

- if you typed anything on the command line after  returing  from  an  external
  viewer or editor then the previous contents of the command line disappeared



  OTHER CHANGES SINCE VERSION 0.70 BETA:

- introducing a new synchronization that uses the hardware  system  timers  and
  therefore is not machine dependent

- the infamous problem that made the Commander unable to work in turbo modes on
  certain PC's has at last been eliminated

- introducing an external setup program that allows you to set all the settings
  of the Commander - only the important settings  can  be  changed  inside  the
  Commander and so the configuration menus are not as stuffed as before

- from now on the external setup program and the Commander itself will be  able
  to read the setup file created by the previous version - no need to  set  the
  options that were unchanged in the new version

- introducing an external Lynx/unLynx program that can build  archives  out  of
  multiple DOS files or the contents of disk images and extract  archives  into
  DOS files or disk images

- introducing an external program that collects  multiple  file  images  (files
  with the extension '.P00'/'.S00'/'.U00' created by PC64) into tape images

- from now on I will maintain a mailing list for those who would  like  to  get
  the future releases of the Commander as soon as possible (you just send me an
  E-Mail and you'll get a uuencoded package on the release day)

- a World Wide Web home page of the Commander is being under construction - you
  will be able to download the latest release and read  about  changes  in  the
  upcoming version

- the type of column mode (brief or full) and the mini status box  (off,  brief
  or full) can be set separately for the left and right  panel  and  separately
  for DOS and CBM panel mode - however, the original options 'Brief' and 'Full'
  in the 'Left' and 'Right' menus and 'Mini status' in the 'Options' menu  were
  kept for comfort and compatibility

- critical errors are reported in a nice dialog box instead of  that  ugly  red
  message overlaying the last line of the screen

- standard viewers and editors are informed about the screen  mode  (black  and
  white, color or laptop) and the mouse mode (present or  not,  right  or  left
  handed) the Commander is using and they work with these parameters  (provided
  that they support the way of passing parameters used by The Norton Commander)

- Star Zip asks you for overwrite confirmation if the destination file  already
  exists

- you can overwrite an already existing disk image when copying a disk from  an
  external drive to a disk image

- if the inactive panel is off then the command "Rename or Move"  will  default
  to renaming the file under the cursor bar

- emergency exit is assigned to Ctrl-Alt-Ins and external Commodore drives  can
  be reset with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (no dangerous Ctrl-Alt-Del anymore)

- only 16 commands are stored in the history since a  history  of  19  commands
  could not be displayed aesthetically on a 25 line screen anyway - this lowers
  the amount of memory used by the loader program, too

- the menu of available commands in the disk editor pops up when you  press  F2
  instead of 'M'



  KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS:

- you must not let the Commander search for a connected Commodore drive if  the
  X1541 interface is not plugged into the  appropriate  LPT  port  or  all  the
  connected Commodore drives are switched off

- timeouts are not handled - as all PC interrupts are disabled while  accessing
  the Commodore drive, errors during data transfer might lock up your PC

- you must not try to delete any file from a write protected  DOS  floppy  disk
  otherwise you will get very strange results (possibly an internal BP7 bug)



  COMING SOON:

  Please, tell me if I should start working on the items marked  with  (?),  as
well. However, unmarked items are of higher priority than marked ones:

- bug fixes, of course...

- warp file copy in both directions with full error handling

- built-in viewer and editor also for Commodore files (it is possible that  due
  to memory constraints this program will physically be a stand  alone  program
  used by the Commander as if it were built in)

- clipboard, text search in the disk editor

- full color configuration for all screen color modes (in the external setup)

- recursive deletion of directory trees (?)

- a separate C64 character set for the 80x25 screen mode since the current  one
  (which is global to all modes) is a bit ugly in that particular mode (?)

  There are many ideas that I will not put inside the Commander since  I  don't
think that they are closely related to such a shell and copy program  like  the
Commander but to a multi purpose utility instead. If you still insist on  these
ideas, I may implement them, but only in external programs.



  THANKS TO:

  I would like to thank my alpha testers for their valuable help:

  Clarence/CHORUS
  Darrin Smith
  Edhellon/RESOURCE
  Gustavo Ayala
  Halsz Csaba
  Jrgen Bullinger
  Lion/RESOURCE
  Mathias Beilstein
  Matthias Hartung
  Michael J. Darschewski
  Sorex/WOW
  Suba Pter
  Sven Goldt
  Tamsi Gyrgy
  Todd A. Aiken
  Vic/COMA
  Wojtek Wasilewski

  Special thanks go to:

  Bernhard Schwall              the author of Trans64
  Borland International         for Turbo and Borland Pascal 7.0
  Marko Mkel                  the author of ZipCode and unLynx for DOS
  Miha Peternel                 for the C64S emulator
  Peter Schepers                the author of 64COPY
  Wolfgang Lorenz               the author of PC64



  WHERE TO FIND THE COMMANDER:

  I always send the newest releases of the Commander to:

  arch.kiae.su                  /msdos/emulator/c64
  bbs.cc.uniud.it               /pub/c64/tools/other_machines/pc/dos
  caramba.cs.tu-berlin.de       /pub/c64/tools/transfer/pc
  ccnga.uwaterloo.ca            /pub/cbm/emulation
  eris.giga.or.at               /pub/c64/transfer/1541-pc
  frey.inf.bme.hu               /pub/cbm/c64/Tools/MSDOS
  frodo.hiof.no                 /pub/c64/utils
  ftp.seattlelab.com            /UTILS
  nic.funet.fi                  /pub/cbm/c64/emulation/c64s
  utopia.hacktic.nl             /pub/c64/Convert

  Usenet NEWS                   comp.emulators.cbm

  Wildfire BBS, Hungary         (36)-1-156-3770 (22:30-07:00), SysOp: Dino
  (FidoNet: 2:371/41)           USR Sportster 14.4, FREQ Magic Name: SC

  You can also E-Mail me at any time to ask for a uuencoded copy. Finger me  at
the address "sta@ludens.elte.hu" to find out the version number of  the  newest
release.

  I'm also maintaining a World Wide Web home page for the Commander at the  URL
"http://ludens.elte.hu/~sta/sc.html" from which you  can  always  download  the
latest public release and see some facts (bug  fixes,  new  options  and  other
enhancements) about the internal alpha versions being developed and tested.

  If you want to have the newest versions of the Commander in the  future,  you
can subscribe to a mailing list by sending an E-Mail to me. When a new  version
is out, you will get it on the release day in a uuencoded E-Mail. If  you  have
troubles with large  E-Mails  (about  300-400  KBytes),  please,  indicate  the
maximum mail size your mail program can handle.



  THE AUTHOR:

  Please, do not hesitate and send an E-Mail to "sta@ludens.elte.hu".  Use  the
address "sta@dtalk.inf.elte.hu" for and only for sending E-Mails  that  contain
large files. You can also send snail mails to me at this address:

  Kovcs Balzs

  Budapest, XX.,
  Orsolya utca 5. IV/12.
  1204, Hungary



  4th March, 1996                               Joe Forster/STA
