
                        The Star Commander, Version 0.81

                           written by Joe Forster/STA


  This is still not the final release  of  The Star Commander,  look  out  for
further releases. Please, report bugs and ideas to me because I  want  Version
1.0 to be the final release. Since I finish my university studies in  mid-1998
and will probably lose my Internet access, I'm  going to  release  Version 1.0
then but after that I'm not sure if I can still remain online. Sorry  for  all
kinds of bugs in the Commander but I'm in a hurry, as always.



  INTRODUCTION:

  This program is designed to handle the disk, tape and  file  images  of  the
C64 Software Emulator (C64S, (C) by Miha Peternel and Seattle Lab, 1994-1997),
the CCS64 emulator ((C)  by  Per Hkan Sundell,  1996-1997)  and  Personal C64
(PC64, (C) by Wolfgang Lorenz, 1994-1997), to copy files and disks between the
PC and a Commodore drive and to convert several Commodore archive formats.  It
is very similar to The Norton Commander (NC, (C) by Symantec Inc.,  1986-1995)
and The Volkov Commander (VC, (C) by Vsevolod V. Volkov, 1991-1996) so it will
surely be easy to use. However, 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 interfaces and other details.



  COPYRIGHT AND LEGAL ISSUES:

  The Commander is giftware. You may use the unregistered version as  long  as
you wish and you may spread it as you like provided that it's in the original,
unmodified archive. Don't distribute single files, only the whole package  and
don't ask for money above the normal fee of the distribution media itself. The
Commander may not be included in any compilation or sold  on  disk  or  CD-ROM
without the prior permission of the author.

  The unregistered version is in no way crippled, there are no nag screens  or
delays in it. However, if you are frequently using the Commander and  you  are
satisfied with it then you are encouraged to register. Please, read  the  file
REGISTER.TXT for more details. You must not distribute  the  personal  keyfile
you receive when you register.

  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 Commander is provided "as is", without a warranty of  any  kind.  You  are
using it at your own risk, the author is not liable for  any  damage  or  data
loss caused by the program (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 550 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 is not supposed to. However, if you use the XH1541 hybrid cable or
the XP1541 parallel cable then you have a higher  chance  under  multi-tasking
systems since data is transferred asynchronously via these interfaces.



  INSTALLATION:

  You can install the Commander  simply   by  decompressing  the  distribution
package 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 the main executable (highly recommended)

- you can enable the online help by extracting SC.HLP (recommended)

- with SCSETUP.EXE you can change all settings of the Commander (recommended)

- SCVIEW.EXE displays and SCEDIT.EXE  edits  DOS  files  and  Commodore  files
  inside image files and uncompressed archive files (recommended)

- you can run SCHELP.EXE to extract the online help into a  text  file  or  to
  print it out (optional)

- if you want to  use  the  Commander  under  OS/2,  Windows,  Windows '95  or
  Windows NT then SC.ICO and SC.PIF are just for you (optional)

- there are some sample menu and extension files to help you with handling  PC
  and Commodore archives and formatting PC disks: *.EXT, *.MNU (optional)

- the archive PALETTES.ZIP contains some predefined color palettes (optional)

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

  - Star ARC lists the contents of Commodore ARC archives and  Self-Dissolving
    (SDA) archives and extracts them into disk images
  - Star Arkive creates Arkive  archives  out  of  disk  images,  lists  their
    contents and extracts them into disk images
  - Star LHA creates Commodore LHA archives and Self-Extracting (SFX) archives
    out of disk images, lists their  contents  and  extracts  them  into  disk
    images
  - Star Library creates Library archives out  of  disk  images,  lists  their
    contents and extracts them into disk images
  - Star List lists the contents of image and archive files into a  text  file
    or onto the screen
  - Star Lynx creates Lynx archives out of multiple DOS files or the  contents
    of disk images, lists the contents of Lynx archives and extracts them into
    multiple DOS files or into disk images
  - Star Tape collects multiple PC64 file images into tape images
  - Star Zip creates diskpacked or filepacked  ZipCode archives  out  of  disk
    images, lists filepacked archives, tests diskpacked archives and  extracts
    both types into disk images



  ADVANTAGES OF THE COMMANDER:

- it is comfortable to use the well-known environment of The Norton Commander:
  no need to press a sequence of weird key combinations, only a  familiar  one
  and you can always clearly see what's happening on the screen

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

- several 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

- the Commander has built-in support for  several  Commodore  archive  formats
  (Lynx, filepacked ZipCode, LHA, Arkive and TAR archives)  and  the  external
  utilities also help you with mass-converting them

- here is a benchmark of the Commander using an original 1541-II drive  and  a
  normal 35 track disk containing a single 210 block file stored  below  track
  #18 with the normal interleave of 10 sectors (transfer modes marked with (*)
  are equipped with manual retry on disk errors, (+) means optional verify):

    ͻ
       Whole disk copy     Read from the 1541     Write to the 1541   
    ͹
         Normal mode              7:50 (*)              9:55 (*)      
    Ķ
         Turbo mode               2:25 (*)              2:25 (*)      
    Ķ
          Warp mode               1:16 (*)              1:19 (*+)     
    Ķ
      Hybrid turbo mode           1:09 (*)              0:48 (*)      
    Ķ
      Hybrid warp mode            0:50 (*)              0:29 (*+)     
    Ķ
     Parallel turbo mode          0:48 (*)              0:48 (*)      
    Ķ
     Parallel warp mode           0:23 (*)              0:29 (*+)     
    ͼ

    ͻ
     210 block file copy   Read from the 1541     Write to the 1541   
    ͹
         Normal mode              2:20                  2:25          
    Ķ
         Turbo mode               1:00                  1:01          
    Ķ
          Warp mode               0:26 (*)              0:26 (*)      
    Ķ
      Hybrid turbo mode           0:22                  0:24          
    Ķ
      Hybrid warp mode            0:18 (*)              0:10 (*)      
    Ķ
     Parallel turbo mode          0:22                  0:24          
    Ķ
     Parallel warp mode           0:10 (*)              0:10 (*)      
    ͼ



  CONNECTING A COMMODORE DRIVE TO YOUR PC:

  The serial connection is done using the well-known X1541 interface.  If  you
want to achieve a much higher transfer speed, you're willing  to  modify  your
1541 drive and you have a bidirectional parallel port then you can make use of
the XP1541 parallel interface. If you only have a unidirectional parallel port
then the XH1541 hybrid interface gives you the best performance. If  you  only
have an EPP or ECP port then you have to substitute the X1541  interface  with
the XE1541 interface. You can find the description of all four  interfaces  in
the following section.

  Unless you're using the XH1541 hybrid cable or the  XP1541  parallel  cable,
don't try to access external drives under a multi-tasking  system  and  remove
memory managers, device drivers and other resident programs, if possible.

  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  48
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 in the 'Drive options...' menu. Similarly, users
having a Pentium or above should raise it, to about 80. I admit that this 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 optional fast transfer modes: in  turbo  mode
it transfers data from and to the external Commodore  drive  about  2-3  times
faster and in warp mode 5-6 times faster. If you also connect  your  Commodore
drive with the XH1541 hybrid cable to the  PC,  using  turbo  mode,  the  data
transfer will be 6-12, with warp mode 6-20 times faster. The  XP1541  parallel
cable gives you 6-12 times the original speed in turbo mode and is 10-20 times
faster in warp mode. The Commander has turbo command routines, as well,  which
speed up deleting files and validating disks to 2-10 times the original  speed
(depending on the number and length of the files on the disk) and disk  format
takes only about 12 seconds.

  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 or MFM-coded disks) is  not  yet
supported. I looked into a 1581 ROM dump, and it made clear  to  me  that  the
Commander won't work with it in turbo and warp mode, if at all since it's  not
software compatible with the 1541 drive. I will have to get a  1581  drive  to
implement the necessary transfer routines.



  THE X1541 INTERFACES:

  Here is the description of the X1541 interfaces, with which you can  connect
a Commodore drive to your PC to use with the Commander.

  The mode of your parallel port is  a vital  feature  that  determines  which
cables you can use with your machine so try to find out all the modes of  your
parallel port. Older I/O and parallel port cards only have the  unidirectional
SPP mode, most Pentium and newer 486  motherboards  have  integrated  parallel
ports and allow you to set the port mode in the BIOS  setup,  with  the  usual
choices of SPP, EPP and ECP.

  You can convert unidirectional SPP parallel port cards into a  bidirectional
PS/2 port by disconnecting pin 1 of the data latch  74LS374  from  ground  and
connecting it to one of the output pins on the control latch 74LS174. This pin
can be any of pins 2, 5, 7, 10, 12 or 15 and must  not  be  connected  to  any
other chip on the board. The corresponding input pin (3, 4, 6, 11, 13  or  14)
must be connected to bit 5 of the data bus. If this is not the  case  on  your
card then you can access this bit from the data latch. Find out which  one  of
its output pins (2, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16 or 19) is connected to pin  7  of  the
parallel port connector and get bit 5 from the corresponding input pin (3,  4,
7, 8, 13, 14, 17 or 18).

  It's possible that, when changing the mode of the integrated  parallel  port
in your BIOS setup, you won't find the necessary modes as they are  called  in
this documentation. Some BIOS setups have different names for the port  modes:
Compatible, Normal and Standard usually refer to SPP, Extended  possibly means
PS/2 or EPP and Enhanced stands for EPP or ECP. Please, note that the EPP mode
cannot be reliably detected by SCSETUP on some machines: PS/2 is reported even
if the port is not really in  PS/2  mode.  Use  PS/2,  if  available,  or  ECP
instead.

  The advices below, telling you which cables to use  with  a  given  parallel
port mode and vice versa, are based  on  the  fact  that  most  SPP  and  PS/2
parallel ports support the X1541 cable and most EPP  and  ECP  parallel  ports
don't. However, because of the lack of strict standards, there are  exceptions
to these rules. There exist SPP and PS/2 parallel ports that don't support the
X1541 cable and it's also possible that certain EPP and ECP parallel ports  do
support it. You have to determine the true capabilities of your parallel  port
before choosing the cables to use.

  If you have a unidirectional SPP parallel port then you can  use  the  X1541
cable and, optionally, the XH1541 hybrid cable, for the highest speed possible
on SPP ports. If you have a bidirectional PS/2 parallel port then you can  use
any of the cables but, for maximum speed, you're  advised  to  use  the  X1541
cable and the XP1541 parallel cable together. Unfortunately, since  the  X1541
cable doesn't work with most parallel ports in EPP and ECP mode, you will have
to configure them to SPP mode with the BIOS setup program or with jumpers.  If
the Commander still doesn't work then you have two possibilities:  you  either
use the XE1541 cable, a substitute for the X1541 cable,  or  buy  a  secondary
parallel port card, plug the X1541 cable to it and optionally use  the  XP1541
parallel cable on the EPP or ECP port.

  The X1541 interface is the easiest of all, you only need to connect  certain
pins of the serial port of the Commodore drive and pins of the  parallel  port
of the PC. You need some plugs, some wires  and  some  soldering  skills.  The
XE1541 interface is not much harder, it only needs some additional diodes. The
XH1541 and XP1541 interfaces are a lot harder to build because you need to  do
some modifications inside the Commodore drive. If you're  not  experienced  at
soldering then don't even think about doing them yourself.  In  addition,  the
XH1541 interface also needs some diodes.

  The following tables may help you to decide which  cables  suit  your  needs
best. Depending on your parallel port hardware, your soldering skills and your
patience, you may choose the cables that will work best for you.

  This table is a compatibility chart between different  parallel  port  modes
and different interfaces:

                ͻ
                 Compatibility    SPP     PS/2    EPP/ECP 
                ͹
                     X1541        yes      yes      no    
                Ķ
                    XE1541        yes      yes      yes   
                Ķ
                    XH1541        yes      yes      yes   
                Ķ
                    XP1541        no       yes      yes   
                ͼ

  This table shows the ways to achieve different speeds on a  single  parallel
ports in different modes:

            ͻ
               Single port       SPP       PS/2      EPP/ECP  
            ͹
              Minimum speed     X1541      X1541     XE1541   
                                 (1)        (1)        (2)    
            Ķ
              Medium speed     X1541+     X1541+              
                               XH1541     XH1541              
                                            (1)               
            Ķ
              Maximum speed               X1541+     XE1541+  
                                          XP1541     XP1541   
                                                       (2)    
            ͼ

  Notes:
    (1) This is not the maximum performance for your parallel  port,  you  may
        want to use another cable configuration.

  These tables show the ways to achieve different speeds on two parallel ports
of different modes. The first cable refers to the primary parallel port, whose
mode is indicated by the table title, and the second refers to  the  secondary
parallel port, whose mode is indicated by the column  title.  Note  that  when
you're advised to swap your parallel ports then it's meant  to  be  a  logical
swap, not a physical one:

          ͻ
               Two ports,          SPP       PS/2      EPP/ECP  
             primary is SPP                                     
          ͹
              Minimum speed       X1541      X1541      X1541   
                                  (1,2)     (1,2,3)     (1,2)   
          Ķ
              Medium speed       X1541+     X1541+     X1541+   
                                 XH1541     XH1541     XH1541   
                                   (2)      (1,2,3)     (1,2)   
          Ķ
              Maximum speed                 X1541 +    X1541+   
                                            XP1541     XP1541   
          ͼ

  Notes:
    (1) This is not the maximum performance for your parallel ports,  you  may
        want to use another cable configuration.
    (2) You don't need two parallel ports for this  cable  configuration,  you
        can hook the indicated cables up to the primary parallel port.
    (3) This is not the maximum performance for your parallel ports. Swap your
        parallel ports and try again.

          ͻ
               Two ports,          SPP       PS/2      EPP/ECP  
             primary is PS/2                                    
          ͹
              Minimum speed       X1541      X1541      X1541   
                                  (1,2)      (1,2)      (1,2)   
          Ķ
              Medium speed       X1541+     X1541+     X1541+   
                                 XH1541     XH1541     XH1541   
                                  (1,2)      (1,2)      (1,2)   
          Ķ
              Maximum speed      X1541+     X1541 +    X1541+   
                                 XP1541     XP1541     XP1541   
                                   (2)        (2)        (2)    
          ͼ

  Notes:
    (1) This is not the maximum performance for your parallel ports,  you  may
        want to use another cable configuration.
    (2) You don't need two parallel ports for this  cable  configuration,  you
        can hook the indicated cables up to the primary parallel port.

          ͻ
               Two ports,          SPP       PS/2      EPP/ECP  
           primary is EPP/ECP                                   
          ͹
              Minimum speed        (1)        (1)      XE1541   
                                                        (2,3)   
          Ķ
              Medium speed         (1)        (1)      XE1541+  
                                                       XH1541   
                                                         (3)    
          Ķ
              Maximum speed        (1)        (1)      XE1541+  
                                                       XP1541   
                                                        (2,3)   
          ͼ

  Notes:
    (1) You shouldn't have an EPP/ECP parallel port as your primary port. Swap
        your parallel ports and try again.
    (2) You don't need two parallel ports for this  cable  configuration,  you
        can hook the indicated cables up to the primary parallel port.

  The following diagrams are pictured as viewed  from  the  solder  end  (back
side) of the plug. It may be of help to you that the numbers are often printed
in small letters onto the plug itself. When wiring the interface cables,  make
sure that they are not too long: a cable longer than  about  two  meters  will
possibly not work, especially if it isn't shielded at all.

  The PC parallel port (male DB-25 connector):

            PaperEnd   Busy
        SelectIn         Ack        Data 7 - Data 0       Strobe
                           Ŀ   
               V   V   V   V                                 V
            ͻ
             13  12  11  10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   
              o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   
            ͻ                                                  ͼ
                o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   
               25  24  23  22  21  20  19  18  17  16  15  14   
              ͼ
                                               ^   ^   ^   ^
                             
                            Ground          Select         AutoFeed
                                                  Init   Error

  The Commodore drive serial bus port (male 6 pin DIN connector):

                                     Reset
                                       
                                       V
                              ͻ ͻ
                            ͼ       ͼ       ͻ
                                 5         1     
                   Data >      o    6    o      < SrqIn
                                      o          
                                 4         2     
                    Clk >      o    3    o      < Gnd
                                      o          
                            ͻ                 ͼ
                              ͼ
                                       ^
                                       
                                      Atn

  The Commodore 1541 drive VIA#1 periphery chip:

                                        
                   ͻ
                    40                                   21 
                   )                                        
                    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9                    20 
                   ͼ
                                        

                                    
                       
                          PA0 - PA7

  You can find the VIA#1 by searching for a chip on the motherboard  that  has
the type number 6522 on it and none of its pins 2-9 are connected to any other
chip.

  The X1541 interface connects the following pins:

                 CBM drive serial port   PC parallel port

                       2    Gnd  18-25 Ground
                       3    Atn  1    Strobe
                       4    Clk  14    AutoFeed
                       5    Data  17    Select
                       6    Reset  16    Init

  Although the Commander doesn't make use of it, the original specification of
the X1541 interface requires the short connection of pins  2  and  15  on  the
parallel port plug, since X1541 uses it for autodetection. If  you  intend  to
use other transfer  programs  with  the  interface  or  want  to  access  your
Commodore drive under the emulators, you might want to do this alteration,  as
well.

  You have to connect the X1541 interface to an  SPP  or  PS/2  parallel  port
because the lines used by this cable are not necessarily bidirectional on  EPP
and ECP parallel ports. This interface should work with all kinds of Commodore
drives and their clones.

  The XE1541 extended interface connects the following pins:

      CBM drive serial port   PC parallel port      PC parallel port

            2    Gnd  18-25 Ground
            3    Atn  13    SelectIn >| 1    Strobe
            4    Clk  12    PaperEnd >| 14    AutoFeed
            5    Data  11    Busy >| 17    SelectIn
            6    Reset  10    Ack >| 16    Init

  This interface, unlike the X1541 interface, needs  electronical  components,
namely diodes, to decouple the data lines of the PC parallel port while the PC
receives data from the Commodore drive. You have to solder them  right  before
each of pins 1, 14, 16 and 17, their cathodes pointing towards the pins.  Note
that you should primarily use BAT85 diodes or other Schottky-diodes, like  the
1N5819. If you can only get 1N4148 diodes then you can try them but be warned,
they may make the cable inoperable on certain parallel ports.

  You can connect the XE1541 interface to any type of parallel port and it has
no common lines with the XP1541 interface therefore you can connect them  both
to the same PS/2, EPP or ECP parallel  port,  using  a  Y-shaped  cable.  This
interface should work with all kinds of Commodore drives and their clones.

  The XH1541 hybrid interface connects the following pins:

          CBM 1541 VIA#1      PC parallel port      PC parallel port

            2    PA0  13    SelectIn >| 2    Data 0
            3    PA1  12    PaperEnd >| 3    Data 1
            4    PA2  10    Ack >| 4    Data 2
            5    PA3  11    Busy >| 5    Data 3
            6    PA4 >| 6    Data 4
            7    PA5 >| 7    Data 5
            8    PA6 >| 8    Data 6
            9    PA7 >| 9    Data 7

  This interface also needs diodes, you have to solder them right before  each
of pins 2-9, their cathodes pointing towards the pins. The best diode for this
interface is the 1N4148 or equivalent.

  You can connect the XH1541 interface to any type of parallel port and it has
no common lines with the X1541 interface therefore you can connect  them  both
to the same SPP or PS/2 parallel port, using a Y-shaped cable. This  interface
works with 1541 drives and compatible clones only.

  The XP1541 parallel interface connects the following pins:

                     CBM 1541 VIA#1      PC parallel port

                       2    PA0  2    Data 0
                       3    PA1  3    Data 1
                       4    PA2  4    Data 2
                       5    PA3  5    Data 3
                       6    PA4  6    Data 4
                       7    PA5  7    Data 5
                       8    PA6  8    Data 6
                       9    PA7  9    Data 7

  You have to connect the XP1541 interface to a PS/2, EPP or ECP parallel port
because the data lines are unidirectional on SPP parallel ports. If you have a
PS/2 parallel port then  you  can  connect  both  the  X1541  and  the  XP1541
interface to the same parallel port, using a Y-shaped cable. If  you  have  an
EPP or ECP parallel port then you can either use the XE1541 cable or build two
separate cables and buy a secondary, cheap, old SPP parallel port card for the
X1541 interface. This interface works with 1541 drives and  compatible  clones
only.

  Please, note that neither the XH1541 interface or the XP1541 interface is  a
substitute for the original X1541 interface or the XE1541 interface, you  have
to connect two cables to the Commodore drive and the PC at the  same  time  to
acquire the extended transfer capabilities. Don't connect the XH1541 cable  or
the XP1541 cable alone to the Commodore drive because neither of them  contain
a GND line: plugging them without the X1541 cable  or  the  XE1541  cable  may
short circuit your machines and damage the periphery chips. Always connect the
XH1541 interface or the XP1541 interface to your Commodore drive and  your  PC
before switching either of them on and switch both  machines  off  before  you
pull them out.

  In 1541 drives nothing is defined to any of the  bits  of  Port A,  you  can
connect the XH1541 interface and the XP1541 interface without any  problem. In
1541C drives, bit 0 of Port A is used for the detection of the head being over
track 1. After stripping this connection off of the chip,  you  will  have  to
change the DOS ROM to that of the 1541 or the 1541-II;  otherwise  you'll  get
strange results when the drive is seeking because the DOS tries to rely on the
detector line which doesn't exist anymore. In 1541-II drives bit 0  of  Port A
is grounded, strip this connection off of the chip. In 1571 drives  there  are
several lines connected to the bits of Port A therefore you  can  use  neither
the XH1541 interface or the XP1541 interface with them.

  If you already have a floppy speeder like Speed DOS or Dolphin DOS  in  your
1541 drive then you probably have a parallel plug at its rear. In   this  case
you have many options of implementing the XP1541  interface.  You  can  create
another cable to connect the drive to the PC with.  You  can  also  split  the
cable between the drive and the C64 into a Y-shaped cable,  one  end  plugging
into the drive, another into the C64 and the third one into the PC,  in  which
case remember not to plug the cable into the C64 and the PC at the same  time.
However, your best choice is creating a small converter imitating the C64 user
port on one side and plugging into the PC parallel port on the other side.

  If your 1541 drive has no parallel capabilities then you might still want to
create a plug at its rear. This way there will be no cable always hanging  out
of the drive and with another cable you'll be able to  use  parallel  transfer
with the C64, too. Please, note that the parallel copy programs  for  the  C64
may require some  additional  connections.  Read  their  documentation  before
soldering so that you can connect the additional pins to the plug, if needed.



  TROUBLESHOOTING:

  If you encounter problems in the part of the program that does not access an
external Commodore drive then you should contact me at once  with  a  detailed
description of the bug. However, if you can't access  the  external  Commodore
drive properly, here are some ideas for you to 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, Windows '95 or Windows NT since these circumstances  may
affect the data transfer. Boot plain DOS on your machine and strip  everything
you don't need off your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. You  may  create  a
boot configuration menu or a boot disk, too.

  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 fast modes are. Furthermore, don't plug anything other  than  the
X1541 or XE1541 interface into your PC and your Commodore drive: connecting  a
printer to your PC or other Commodore machines or  drives  to  your  Commodore
drive will probably mess up the data transfer, lock up the connection  or  may
even damage the periphery chips in your Commodore  machine.  This  also  means
that C128D and SX64 owners can't use the Commander with the built-in drive.

  If the connection with the Commodore drive locks  up  then  pull  the  X1541
or XE1541 interface out of the drive, wait for the "Device not present" error,
plug the interface back, reset your drive  (e.g.  with  Control-Alt-Backspace)
and try the following:

- raise or lower the delay value

- make sure that the X1541 or XE1541 interface is assembled well (try it  with
  other machines and other transfer programs), it is correctly shielded and it
  is not too long

- plug your Commodore drive to a Commodore machine to see if it works  at  all
  after all those years or borrow a tested drive from a friend

- if you have a Pentium or a newer 486 motherboard  and  only  use  the  X1541
  cable then enter the BIOS setup and change the mode of the parallel port  to
  SPP or PS/2; in case you also use the XP1541 parallel cable  then  you  must
  set its parallel port to PS/2, EPP or ECP

- if your network uses  parallel  port  redirection  then  logout  and  remove
  dongles and other devices that may filter data  transfer  via  the  parallel
  port

- you might be the unlucky owner of an (integrated) I/O  card  whose  parallel
  port is incompatible with the X1541 cable; try swapping it with an I/O  card
  of a friend or buy an old parallel port card or a Hercules video card with a
  built-in parallel port or use the XE1541 cable instead

- the port mode autodetection routines might confuse your parallel port  which
  then enters into an incompatible mode; switch the option 'Transfer warnings'
  off in the external setup, disabling the  port  mode  autodetection  in  the
  Commander completely, and reset your machine always  after  having  run  the
  external setup because it always autodetects the mode of the ports

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



  REPORTING PROBLEMS, IDEAS AND WISHES:

  As I do not have the possibility to test the program on many kinds of PC's I
ask you to contact me if you found bugs in the program (you will possibly find
some as it is still under development) or have an idea of what improvements  I
should do in the future. Please, send me a  note  if  you  saw  a  grammatical
error, misspelling, typos or something misunderstandable in the online help or
this documentation.

  If you know good FTP sites or WWW pages with C64 areas  to  which  I  should
upload this program or are just interested in this program or you simply  like
it and want to have the final version as soon as possible then an E-mail  from
you would be appreciated.

  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 an external Commodore drive).  If  the
bug occurred only with a certain file you can send  it  to  me  uuencoded,  as
well.



  BUGS FIXED SINCE VERSION 0.80:

- the pin assignment of the VIA#1 chip was incorrect in the documentation

- verify is working in warp BAM disk copy PC->1541 direction

- you can again copy files in turbo mode onto a Commodore disk

- turbo and warp mode is again working on 1571 drives

- the parallel turbo file copy to the PC lost the last bytes of  many  of  the
  sectors

- the parallel warp file copy from the PC often damaged the last byte  of  the
  BAM sector and the directory sector holding the file entry

- if a new directory sector was opened for the entry  of  the  file  currently
  being copied in warp mode, PC->1541 direction, then it was left unallocated

- you can again skip the whole track during warp disk copy 1541->PC

- the turbo disk copy continues properly if you press 'Retry' on a bad sector

- there are no strange problems anymore when you  try  to  delete  files  from
  write-protected PC floppy disks

- the X1541 and the XP1541 cables can be connected to the same port,  if  it's
  in PS/2 mode

- only parallel ports between the addresses $0200-$0400 are  accepted  by  the
  Commander and the external setup

- when copying a disk into a disk image in normal mode, you won't get a  false
  alarm about errors during the disk copy

- when copying a disk into a disk image with BAM disk copy, the  BAM  is  read
  from the disk prior to the actual disk copy

- the fast transfer routines have been modified to be able to seek back to the
  extra tracks after a head rattle

- you are warned if there are more entries in the current directory  than  the
  Commander can handle

- very long directories are sorted correctly

- files are created on Novell network drives properly

- when deleting phantom files, the directory blocks remain allocated

- when deleting the first file in an LHA or TAR archive,  the  archive  itself
  won't be deleted

- there are a lot less error messages when you want  to  process  files  on  a
  floppy disk but the drive is empty

- the Commander won't  lock  up  when  trying  to  read  the  directory  of  a
  disconnected network drive, it will change to the path of the opposite panel
  instead

- when a directory sector is damaged on the disk  or  becomes  damaged  during
  warp directory read, you are warned with a read error

- the Commander finishes reading the directory in turbo and warp  mode  if  it
  encounters an invalid sector link

- the floppy drive is accessed properly  for  both  letters  on  single  drive
  systems

- the Commander returns to 80 column text mode from any graphical screen  mode
  upon startup and when finishing DOS shell

- there is really no snowing on CGA video cards if you switch 'Snow check' on

- the annoying screen flickers upon entering and exiting DOS shell are gone

- 'Make disk' and 'Make tape' gives you an error if there's no room to  create
  the image

- when copying a file into a disk image is aborted,  no  splat  file  remains;
  leaving splat files in disk images and copying other files over  them  later
  can cause crosslinks to appear

- the file copy will not lock up when copying a file from  an  external  drive
  into a disk image with an invalid BAM

- the file copy is aborted automatically when the directory of the destination
  disk image is full and the last entry is not corrupted either

- files with the names "." and ".." are properly handled in image and  archive
  files but, in change, you have to specify ".\" and  "..\"  if  you  want  to
  extract files, as DOS files, into the current or the parent directory

- when deleting a subdirectory of the current directory, the cursor won't jump
  to the top of the panel

- the keyboard buffer is not flushed during the copy, rename, move  or  delete
  process

- Alt-Shift toggles the lowercase/uppercase and  uppercase/graphics  character
  set on all video cards

- if you click on a disabled menu item, the menu will cancel itself

- when in the menu, only those commands displayed  in  the  current  pull-down
  menu will work

- Control+letter codes are working with national keyboard drivers

- pressing Control+Backspace or Control+W at the beginning of  an  input  line
  won't press the first button in the file name input box

- the panels don't flicker when copying files into LHA archives

- the sample Commander screens in the external setup have again  been  updated
  to show the same display as in the Commander

- the viewer doesn't display a length of -1 and the  editor  doesn't  lock  up
  with files whose first block is completely empty

- the viewer and the editor displayed incorrect load addresses  in  image  and
  archive directories

- the editor doesn't scroll the screen far to the right sometimes when copying
  text blocks

- the text cursor of the editor follows the mouse cursor correctly

- binary replace in  the  editor  works  in  PETSCII  and  screen  code  modes
  correctly

- the item "--- Next ---" is not displayed in the "Convert" dialog box of  the
  editor

- the LHA conversion routines in the Commander and Star LHA  are  now  working
  under Novell DOS and Norton DOS and they still suppress  messages  from  LHA
  under Windows '95

- Star Tape is working again

- the Star Utilities recognize bad track or sector links while  reading  input
  files inside disk images

- Star LHA converts ASCII underscores to  PETSCII  spaces  instead  of  Shift-
  spaces

- renaming a file inside a Lynx archive to a name longer  than  16  characters
  will not cause archive corruption

- the option P in Star List is working properly again

- Star List couldn't list Lynx and Library archives and it displayed incorrect
  file sizes in tape images



  OTHER CHANGES SINCE VERSION 0.80:

- the documentation, being a plain text and no formatted  document,  has  been
  renamed back to SC.TXT, as it has been in Version 0.71 and before

- the file README.1ST had been deleted

- all text files in the Commander package have been changed to a 78  character
  per line format

- there is a lot more information about different  cables  and  parallel  port
  modes in the documentation, helping you with selecting cables easily

- the transfer routines have been restructured, all delay values below 80  are
  automatically raised by 8

- introducing support  for  Windows '95-style  long  file  names:  the  panels
  display long file names and paths under  Windows '95  and,  when  processing
  files and directories, long file names are used

- introducing a new panel mode besides Brief and Full to show as much of  long
  file names as possible

- you can select, copy and move DOS directories

- introducing the XH1541 hybrid cable that gives the best performance  on  SPP
  parallel ports

- introducing the XE1541 extended cable that substitutes the  X1541  interface
  on all kinds of parallel ports

- introducing an auxiliary utility that extracts the online help into  a  file
  or prints it out

- added detection for PS/2 (bidirectional) parallel ports

- you can launch programs in emulators right from the  Commander  by  pressing
  Enter on a file inside an image and selecting the emulator from a menu

- introducing full support for directories in LHA and TAR archives

- introducing full GEOS support for disk images: disks are validated and files
  are scratched properly and files are converted to and from  sequential files
  using the Convert file format - however, you can't view or edit VLIR files

- introducing Star ARC, an external utility that lists and extracts  Commodore
  ARC archives and Self-Dissolving (SDA) archives

- there is a new panel mode similar to 'Quick view'  in  The Norton Commander,
  assigned to Control-Q: the contents of the image or archive file  under  the
  cursor are displayed in the opposite panel

- the Commander now always deletes the file under  the  cursor  in  image  and
  archive files rather than the first file with the same name

- the menu 'Advanced options' has been renamed to 'Drive options'

- 'Wipe scratched files' has been renamed to 'Wipe deleted files'

- the configuration items 'Alternative charset' and 'All PRG's in a tape' have
  been deleted, both defaulting to checked

- you can switch GEOS support off with the option 'GEOS file support' so  that
  GEOS file types are not displayed in the panels and Convert  files  are  not
  created or processed during file copy

- 'Win'95 long names' allows  you  to  switch  support  for  Windows '95-style
  file names off so that you can work the same way as under plain DOS

- in connection with the Windows '95-support, there are new symbols to  insert
  the long form of file names into the command line and into list files

- you can associate several DOS  command  sequences  to  the  same  file  name
  pattern

- you can insert the path of both panels and the  current  file  name  of  the
  active panel into file name input lines, too

- the destination file is only opened after having read  the  first  block  of
  data from the source file during file copy

- you can copy several phantom files of the same name into disk images,  Lynx,
  filepacked ZipCode and Arkive archives

- you cannot specify the file type while copying or moving files into image or
  archive files but, in change, you can copy files whose names contain commas

- you can now append the source files to existing DOS files during file copy

- empty files copied into disk images become phantom files

- when copying files from  a  CD-ROM,  the  read-only  flag  is  stripped  off
  automatically

- the Commander will recognize when a file is being copied  or  moved  from  a
  SUBST'ed drive to its real location and will abort the file copy

- when copying or moving files into image files or native Commodore  archives,
  the manual file name conversion box limits your input to 16 characters

- DOS file names are turned into lowercase while being converted to  Commodore
  format; you can switch this off with the option 'Keep uppercase chars'

- you can make the Commander extract files inside PC64 file images during file
  copy by checking 'Extract PC64 file images'

- the PC->1541 direction part of the warp disk and  file  copy  routines  have
  been modified to run near full speed on 286 and 386 machines

- you can copy multiple  disks  into  disk  images  with  an  automatic  index
  generation in the destination file names

- the fast transfer routines now support the disabling of  the  retry  on  the
  adjacent halftracks and the head bumping

- by pressing Control+Enter in the History you can copy  the  current  command
  into the command line without executing it

- when in images and archives, Control-Enter pressed in the  file  name  input
  line inserts the name of the image or archive

- because of new functions using Control+Shift+key combinations, Control+Shift
  alone doesn't toggle the C64 character set anymore, use Control+Tab instead

- Shift+Gray plus/minus now (un)select files and directories and  Control+Gray
  plus/minus are the ones to (un)select all the files in a panel,  furthermore
  Shift+Gray star inverts all the files and directories in a panel

- you can  enter  multiple  file  name  patterns,  delimited  with  commas  or
  semicolons, into the 'Select' and 'Unselect' dialog boxes

- the asterisk wildcard now works a Unix-like way under Windows'95,  e.g.  you
  can select all files containing the letter 'a' with "*a*"

- external and disk image panels are not sorted anymore

- the panel display can be sorted in reverse order

- the panel contents are not reread when you change the sort order

- if you eject the media from a removable drive and then reread the panel then
  you'll get an error message

- you get an error message if there was not enough memory  to  execute  a  DOS
  command

- you can swap the clipboard with the block in the disk editor, too

- the 'Format disk' dialog has  an  option  'Extended disk'  to  override  the
  original setting

- the 'Make disk' and 'Make tape' functions don't offer  you  a  default  file
  name

- system and/or hidden files are not displayed with a capital first letter

- load address is displayed for all file types, not only programs

- you can no longer even select files with invalid file  types  in  image  and
  archive files

- if you change the directory in the DOS shell with the active panel being  an
  image or archive panel then it will  change  to  a  DOS  panel  showing  the
  directory you changed to

- switching 'Detect extra tracks' on makes the Commander detect  the  presence
  of extra tracks on disks

- a new option, 'Head movement speed' allows you to change the  speed  of  the
  stepper motor in the external Commodore drive

- you can pop up the menu bar by tapping Alt; you can switch this off  in  the
  setup

- there is an option to control the 'Escape toggles panels' feature

- the option of 'Number of retries' behaves a bit  differently,  now  you  can
  switch retry on the adjacent halftracks and the head bumping on and off

- if you press Ctrl-BackSlash in an Info panel, it will be redirected  to  the
  opposite panel

- when run under the Commander, the external setup only changes those settings
  in the setup file that can be set in the external setup, settings  that  can
  only be set inside the Commander are left alone

- the Commander remembers all options of the viewer and the editor,  that  are
  not set automatically, throughout sessions

- the viewer and the editor don't even display an error message  when  loading
  an empty image or archive directory

- if the viewer or the editor cannot open the file selected from the directory
  list of an image or archive file then they return to the file selector

- when symbols are on, the viewer and the editor mark the end of the file, too

- all non-alphanumerical characters in the lower half of the  ASCII  character
  set are considered as word separators in the editor

- when finding a string or byte sequence in the editor, the  cursor  jumps  to
  its beginning

- you can press F3 twice in the editor to select the whole line the cursor  is
  standing in

- the editor allows you to enter wildcards in the 'Save as...' box

- when replacing byte sequences in the editor, the length of the file  doesn't
  change

- a new option in the Star Utilities makes them assume 'Yes' to  all  queries,
  good for running them from batch files.

- by specifying another  option  you  can  have  the  Star Utilities  ask  for
  confirmation about extracting each file

- similarly to the Commander, the Star Utilities also  allow  you  to  add  or
  extract files whose names contain commas

- Star Arkive, Star LHA and Star Library now accept archives  with  extensions
  other than the default, too

- Star List can list directory structures recursively

- Star List can list Commodore ARC and SDA archives, too

- the DOS file handling routines have been deleted from Star Lynx

- Star Zip ran endlessly when extracting filepacked ZipCode  archives  and  it
  created DEL files



  KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS:

- you must not try to access an external  Commodore  drive  if  the  X1541  or
  XE1541 interface is not plugged into the appropriate parallel  port  or  all
  the external 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

- instead of the usual extract command of LHA the print  command  is  used  by
  both Commander and Star LHA which only works correctly in LHA 2.14 and newer

- it is possible to create PC64 file images with the Commander that  will  not
  be recognized by Personal C64 because of  some  invalid  characters  in  the
  original C64 file name - if you encounter such files then, please, send some
  samples to me

- timezone settings are not standardized in DOS therefore there  may  be  some
  unwanted changes in the time stamps of files  inside  TAR  archives  if  you
  exchange the archives between the Commander and a real Unix system



  COMING SOON:

  I'm planning the following changes for the next version. 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...

- something must be done about the memory requirements of the Commander,  it's
  getting unacceptable

- a smarter routine to detect the presence of Commodore drives correctly

- autodetection of the type of drives connected to the Commander

- native support for non-1541 drives, mainly 1571 and 1581 drives

- full support for 1571 and 1581 disk images

- a configuration menu to allow you to change the  interleaves  for  different
  transfer modes and directions

- make it possible to change the attributes of a whole directory structure  of
  DOS files

- speed up the editor with a line buffer

- allow associating menu files to different file name  patterns  in  extension
  files

- expand Quick view with the ability of showing the total size of files in the
  directory structure under the cursor of the opposite panel

- add new switches into the Star Utilities that would delete the source  files
  as soon as they have been processed successfully

- full GEOS support for Commodore disks, as well (copy  GEOS  files  from  and
  onto disks, scratch GEOS files on disks, validate and format GEOS disks) (?)

- make the editor allocate new blocks in the disk  image  if  the  file  being
  edited grows beyond its original size and, similarly, free  unneeded  blocks
  if the file shrinks (?)

- automatic rereading of panels showing PC floppy drives  if  you  select  the
  panel after having changed the disk in the drive (?)

- allow copying directory structures into LHA and TAR archives (?)

- a much faster validate routine for  external  disks  that  does  not  track
  through files one by one but first reads all sector chains on the disk  and
  only then starts working on the BAM (?)

  There are many ideas that I will not put inside the Commander since I  don't
think that they are closely related to a DOS shell 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 development team for their valuable help:

  Bacchus/Fairlight
  Clarence/Graffity
  Darrin Smith
  Dohos dm
  Edhellon/Resource
  Gustavo Ayala
  Halsz Csaba
  Jrgen Bullinger
  Lion/Chromance
  Mathias Beilstein
  Matthias Hartung
  Michael J. Darschewski
  Nicolas Welte
  Sorex/WOW
  Stephen Lloyd
  Suba Pter
  Sven Goldt
  Szigetvri Jzsef
  Tamsi Gyrgy
  Todd A. Aiken
  Vic/COMA
  Wojtek Wasilewski
  Wolfgang Moser

  Special thanks go to:

  Berkeley Softworks            the authors of GEOS
  Bernhard Schwall              the author of Trans64
  Borland International         for Turbo Pascal and Borland Pascal
  Commodore Business Machines   for the Commodore computers
  Chris Smeets                  the author of the ARC and LHA extractors
  Marko Mkel                  for the original ZipCode and UnLynx for DOS
  Miha Peternel                 for the C64 Software Emulator
  Leopoldo Ghielmetti           for X1541 and the X1541 cable
  Per Hkan Sundell             for the CCS64 emulator
  Peter Norton                  for The Norton Commander
  Peter Schepers                the author of 64COPY
  Ralf Brown                    for the x86/MSDOS Interrupt List
  Vsevolod V. Volkov            for The Volkov Commander
  Wolfgang Lorenz               for Personal C64

  The following people have also contributed to the development:

  Bigfoot                       for the XH1541 hybrid cable and other ideas
  Chris Link                    for many good ideas concerning the development
  Frank Kontros                 for help with parallel cables and disk verify
  Hrsfalvi Levente             for the idea of supporting TAR archives
  Joe Votour                    for help with the way GEOS saves files



  WHERE TO FIND THE COMMANDER:

  I always upload the newest releases to the following platforms:

  http://ludens.elte.hu/~sta/sc.html
  http://hem.passagen.se/bacchus/tools/pc.html

  ftp://bbs.cc.uniud.it/pub/c64/tools/other_machines/pc/dos
  ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/utils
  ftp://ftp.armory.com/pub/user/spectre/EMUL-UTIL
  ftp://ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/c64/tools/transfer/pc
  ftp://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/c64/PC_Tools
  ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/transfer/1541-to-PC
  ftp://ftp.giga.or.at/pub/c64/transfer/1541-pc
  ftp://ftp.inf.bme.hu/pub/c64/Tools/MSDOS
  ftp://ftp.kiae.su/msdos/emulator/c64-128
  ftp://ftp.seattlelab.com/UTILS
  ftp://ftp.vekoll.vein.hu/pub/c64/tools
  ftp://rsls6.sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de/pub/c64/transfer/sc
  ftp://utopia.hacktic.nl/pub/c64/Tools/Convert
  ftp://woland.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/pub/c64/MSDOS

  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.

  The first address in the above list is the  World Wide Web homepage  of  the
Commander. There you can always download the latest  public  release,  have  a
look at the documentation and the description of the X1541 interfaces and  see
some facts (bug fixes, modifications and new features) about the internal beta
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 800-900 KBytes) then, please, indicate  the
maximum mail size your mailer program can handle.



  THE AUTHOR:

  Please, don't hesitate, send an E-mail to the  address  "sta@ludens.elte.hu"
if you have any questions, problems, ideas or wishes concerning the Commander.
Use the address "sta@dtalk.inf.elte.hu" for and only for sending E-mails  that
contain large files. You can call the phone number (36-)1-285-3881 to  contact
me and you can also send snail-mails to me at this address:

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

  If you wish to send some files to me, either by E-mail or snail-mail,  then,
please, ask me before you do it; I don't like being flooded with large E-mails
or lots of disks without having been warned. I prefer getting binary files  in
uuencoded E-mails, but if you can only attach files then, please, send them in
a separate mail instead of attaching them to the letter itself. Note that  all
my accounts will probably  cease  to  exist  in  mid-1998  when  I  finish  my
university studies.



  30th November, 1997                           Joe Forster/STA
