MAKEDIR MAKEDIR is a BASIC program to create and maintain disk directory database files for the Tandy 600 Portable Computer. MAKEDIR places disk directory information into FILE format files. These files may be searched and sorted using the Tandy 600's FILE firmware. MAKEDIR Version 1.0 maintains a separate database file for each individual disk. The FILE record format is as follows: Field ID Field Type Purpose --------------------------------------------- DISK AlphaNumeric Disk ID POSN Numeric Directory Position FILENAME AlphaNumeric File Specification RHA AlphaNumeric File Status DATE Date Creation Date SIZE Numeric File Size COMMENT AlphaNumeric File Description UPDATE Date MAKEDIR use date A sample FILE display follows: ID |DISK|POSN|FILENAME |RHA|DATE |SIZE |COMMENT |UPDAT FORM|AAAA|####|AAAAAAAAAAAA|AAA|MM/DD/YY HH:MM|#####|AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA|MM/DD SORT| | | | | | | | FIND| | | | | | | | 1 |TU0 | 1|!!TU0.WRD | |10/ 9/87 09:27| 0|Disk ID | 2/ 5 2 |TU0 | 2|!RICK.WRD | |10/ 9/87 09:27| 0|Disk Owner | 2/ 5 3 |TU0 | 3|FORMAT.!60 | | 5/10/85 19:08| 1536|Disk formatter | 2/ 5 4 |TU0 | 4|INSTALL.!70 | A| 6/14/85 15:17| 1024|Driver install | 2/ 5 5 |TU0 | 5|DISKCOPY.!90| A| 6/14/85 15:16| 1920|Disk imager | 2/ 5 6 |TU0 | 6|PRINTER.DVR | A| 1/ 1/85 19:21| 61|CRLF print dvr | 2/ 5 7 |TU0 | 7|DBCALLS.LIB | | 4/19/85 16:43| 3072|FILE BASIC call| 2/ 5 6 |TU0 | 6|BASIC.!55 | | 4/26/85 10:10|33997|BASIC | 2/ 5 In practice, I assign a 4-character Disk ID name to each of my disks, and this ID appears in the first field of the FILE record. These are arbitrary IDs, and you need not follow the same practice to use MAKEDIR. The POSN field contains the disk directory position in which the file appears on the disk. These appear to be assigned sequentially by HH/OS, much as they are under MSDOS. This is the sequence in which the LIST command displays files. The FILENAME field contains the filename and extension assigned to the file. These are described in the Owners Manual on page 34 (and probably lots of other places, too). The RHA field contains the flags which indicate file status. An "R" in this field indicates that a file is a read-only file. An "H" indicates that it is a hidden file which will not be displayed on the System Manager Screen. An "A" indicates that the "archive bit" is set -- whatever that means. I think its only affected by DISKCOPY. The DATE field contains the date and time of file creation. This is stored in date format, and may be sorted using the FILE command. COMMENT is a text field which is not affected by MAKEDIR. It may be used to contain a textual description of a particular file. UPDAT contains the date on which the MAKEDIR program was last used to update the directory database for a particular file. USING MAKEDIR To use MAKEDIR, a disk directory is LISTed to a text file using the LIST command from the System Manager. The text file MUST have the extension ".DIR". The filename which is given to this text file will become the Disk ID contained in each FILE record, as well as the name of the .FIL and .DAT files for the FILE database created by MAKEDIR. An example follows: Microsoft(R) Works V1.20, Copyright (1984, 1985) Microsoft Corp. LIST file: A: to: TU0.DIR Enter filename System Manager: WORD Bytes free: 110816 3/10/1988 12:56:35 PM Multiple LIST directory text files may be created -- I usually run all the disks which I've updated through MAKEDIR at the end of each day. After creating the directory text files, RUN MAKEDIR.BAS to generate or update FILE databases for each separate disk. You MUST have a copy of DBCALLS.LIB in memory or on a disk in order for the program to function. If it is NOT in memory, MAKEDIR will prompt you to insert a disk with a copy of DBCALLS.LIB before it continues. MAKEDIR will display a list of all files with the extension ".DIR". If no files with this extension are present in memory, MAKEDIR will end and return to the System Manager. If MAKEDIR finds one or more files with the extension ".DIR", you will be prompted to enter the name of the directory text file which you wish to convert to FILE format. The file extension, ".DIR", need not be entered. You may abort MAKEDIR at this point by pressing "ENTER" without entering a filename. If MAKEDIR does not locate a FILE ".DAT" file in memory with the same filename you've specified, the program will ask if this is a NEW file. If it is a new file (i.e. if you're creating a brand new database for this disk) respond "YES" to the prompt. If this is NOT a new file, MAKEDIR will prompt you to insert a disk containing a copy of the correct database file. MAKEDIR assumes that you DO NOT want to create a new file unless you specify otherwise. After the database file has been located, created or loaded, MAKEDIR will create or update the file entries in the database file. If updating an existing file, MAKEDIR will update the records for any previously existing filename with the proper directory position, date, time and size. Any new filenames will be added, and the entries for any deleted files will be removed from the database file. MAKEDIR will erase each directory text file once it has been used to create or update a FILE database file. Database files may be saved on disk after they have been created. CONCLUSION MAKEDIR has been fairly effective in helping me manage my collection of forty disks with God-only-knows how many files. It would obviously be more useful to write everything to a single database, and that was my original intent. I wasn't successful -- BASIC kept blowing up when I tried -- but I'll work on it some more when I get the time. Then again, maybe someone else will!