Date   : Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:29:38 +0100
From   : mfirth@... (Michael Firth)
Subject: Question about 1770 DFS interface testing it on a B

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jonathan Graham Harston" <jgh@...>
To: <bbc-micro@...>
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2008 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Question about 1770 DFS interface testing it on a B


>> Message-ID: <18FD0346D52E4F63AF33DFF6DFBAF698@...>
>
> "Mark Haysman" wrote:
>> *DUMP isn't in the OS1.20, as on a standard machine it reports Bad 
>> Command.
>> It may be in the UTILS section of the 1770 DFS, but if the DFS doesn't
>> initialise, then you just get the same Bad Command. Just like SRAM, if
>
> Yes, I've just checked and you're right. If DFS is disabled, then
> UTILS are disabled as well. A right pain - in a machine without
> disk hardware, but using another filing system (eg, NFS or TAPE),
> you lose the non-DFS-specific generic filing-system independant
> utility commands.
>
> I'm tempted to look into it and see if DNFS can be patched to
> uncouple UTILS from DFS.
>
I guess that would help for probably one common case where it is required, 
namely a BBC B that is Econet only.

The solution for an ADFS only machine is probably not as simple, and there 
may be cases where the disk hardware isn't present, and ADFS is used hard 
disk only (e.g. I once built an Econet Level 3 server from an Econet only 
BBC B with external 6502 processor and hard drive)

If burning a ROM slot isn't a problem then there is either the option of 
something like ACP ADT, or the aforementiong utilities ROM. Either of these 
will work generically for any file system, and not require additional work 
to modify the DNFS ROM, and probably provide other useful utilities too 
(SRAM tools in the case of the utilities ROM, and a wider suite of tools 
with ADT)

Is there any call these days for being able to do *TYPE, *BUILD or *DUMP 
from tape?

Michael