Evaluation of LAPDOS -- An Early Look ------------------------------------- Phil Wheeler -- 71266,125 Price: o $89.95 stand-alone o $69.95 for current or new owners of Ultimate ROM II LAPDOS, sold by Traveling Software, is a Tandy Portable Disk Drive (TDD or PDD) file manager which runs on the IBM-PC and compatibles. It comes with an adapter (really a sex changer) which allows you to plug your TDD cable into an RS-232 port on the PC. PC System requirements are an RS-232 port and at least 128K of RAM. LAPDOS lets you transfer all types of files between your PC disks and your TDD, a real asset to those of us who use a PC for "power" applications and big documents and a laptop for travel (and downright convenience). You can back-up TDD disks to your PC with ease; and you can load up a TDD disk from the PC with equal facility. To install LAPDOS on your PC is easy. Just copy it on to your root directory (with a hard disk) or onto a "system disk" with a floppy-based system. Since it can operate as a resident program, you can load it at boot-up and call it up with a "hot key" later, a real boon for non-HD systems. You really do not need a manual with LAPDOS. To run it from the DOS prompt simply type 'LAP' (or 'LAP/2' for PC com2: operation). After a very short wait, you see a directory screen with PC files on the left and TDD files on the right. There is a small help menu at the bottom of the screen and a full-page help screen which can be called up by pressing 'H'. Files, and the drive you are operating on, are selected by moving a widebar cursor (sound familiar?). Commands are as follows: C)opy - Copies the file selected by the cursor from the disk it's on to the other disk. You have the opportunity to change the name of the new file; and you can choose to overwrite existing files with a newer version. For multiple file copies see W)ildcopy below. E)rase - Erases the file under the cursor, on the selected disk. Asks for confirmation. F)ormat - Formats TDD disks (only). H)elp - Gives a full-screen help menu (which will seldom be needed); press any key to return to the LAPDOS main screen. L)og - Logs in a new TDD disk if the cursor is on the TDD side of the screen; otherwise can change PC drives, log in a different disk or change subdirectories. Q)uit - Exits LAPDOS, asking for confirmation. R)ename - Renames the file under the cursor, on either drive. S)now - Filters the snow seen on some PC's with color monitors. U)nload - Removes LAPDOS from background if it has been installed as a RAM-resident program. V)iew - Scrolls the contents of ASCII files selected with the cursor; scrolling is paused/resumed by hitting any key, aborted by CTRL-Q (the standard abort keystrokes in LAPDOS). W)ildcopy - Permits selective mass copies using the MS-DOS (and CP/M) '*' and '?' conventions (e.g., *.* will copy all files, B*.BA will copy all BA files beginning in B, etc.). This is the easy way to back-up to the PC, or copy a group of files to the TDD. G)oto - Moves the cursor to the file(s) which are specified on the command line. Wildcard conventions can be used. X)change - Does file conversions, including: o ThinkTank <---> Idea! o ThinkTank <---> ASCII o ASCII <---> Idea! o Wordstar <---> ASCII (may work with other than WS) o SideKick <---> Idea! This feature looks very useful for some users; but I have not tested it. ----------- I've used a lot of commercial PC software and the aesthetics of this program are right up there with the best! True, it is aimed at a narrow market (laptop users who own the TDD and have access to, or use, an IBM-PC or compatible). But it does its intended task well, and in a friendly fashion. Unfortunately, there is a lot of very expensive PC software out there which falls far short of this test. Finally, I will note that the current version (1.20) has several imprvements over the original. One is the G)oto command described above. Another is the capability to page through the MS-DOS directories using PgUp and PgDn. And the really big one to many users is use with a TDD operating at either 9600 baud or 19200 baud; NO need to change any DIP switches -- the program automatically sets its baud rate. LAPDOS is not for everyone -- but it sure fits into my approach to laptop computing! Phil Wheeler -- 9/11/86