Getting Started... ------------------ 64COPY is an all-in-one file converter and DOS maintainenance package. Its intended use is to convert the various files that exist for the C64 emulators. Files like D64, D71, D81, T64, X64, LNX, ARK, ARC, SDA, LBR, SPY, CPK and all the ZipCodes (Diskpacked, Sixpacked and Filepacked) can be converted to whatever format you need for your favorite emulator, or for use on the real C64. You still need to get whatever emulator package you want in order to use the files you have as 64COPY does not provide *any* emulator functionality. Now, seeing as you have already unpacked the archive that 64COPY comes in, all you have to do is either execute "64COPY" or "64MAIN" to get the program started. The small executable "64COPY.EXE" is a loader, which will execute the main program "64MAIN.EXE". The benefit to using the loader is that when you execute operations from the 64COPY command-line, the program will be un-loaded from memory before the operation begins, thus freeing up most of the memory. Using "64MAIN.EXE", you are using the program in "resident" mode, where it will stay in memory all the time, making executing command-line operations much more difficult due to memory restrictions. The only really necessary file is "64MAIN.EXE". All the other support files will be created when either the program needs them (.EXT), or they will be created when you exit the program (.INI, .CLR etc). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I also don't want to forget the volunteer "testers" and others whom have been helpful with ideas, sample files and as sounding boards. They are in no particular order, and not all of those that have reported bugs are included because I don't have an official tester group. Many people do take the time to send me ideas and notify me about different emulator image files, and to these people I say "thank you muchly!" Pontus Berg ------ General testing, ideas, WWW promotion, sounding board. Quite a lot actually! Kai Lewinski ----- Testing and bug reporting, especially on lower-end machines (DOS only, 286/386/486, no math-coprocessors, no Win95). Wolfgang Stoeggl - More ideas, especially PETASCII text conversion, testing Paul Doherty ----- Many more ideas, testing. Matthias Walther - All-around beta-testing and great program thrashing. If there's a bug, he'll find it! Noam Ravid ------- More testing. Adam Lorentzon --- More testing. Arndt Dettke ----- More ideas, testing. Markus Brenner --- Testing, bug reports, CRT samples and assignments. Joe Forster/STA -- All-around knowledgable guy. My wife, Pat ----- For someone who doesn't really know computers, and doesn't program, I'm always amazed at her suggestions and ideas. She knows how things *should* look and feel from a user perspective, something I lose sight of now and then. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are some of the functions that 64COPY handles internally... * Windows 95 (and later versions) long filename compliant * Convert D64, D71, D81, T64, LNX, SDA, ARK, ARC, LBR, SPY, X64, CPK and the ZipCode family to other formats (F11) * Create & format image files (D64, X64, T64, LNX, D71, D81) * CheckDisk (D64, X64, D71, D71), CheckTape (T64), CheckZip (4 & 6-pack ZipCode), CheckCRT (Cartridges) and CheckG64 (GCR disks) to verify and correct errors in these archives (on ALT-F3) * Very flexible 6502 disassembler (on SHIFT-F4) * Disk HEX Editor (on ALT-F4, when in a D/X64) * An extensive Disk (D64/D71/D81/X64) directory customizer (on SHIFT-F2) * Disk BAM and error-byte editor * PETASCII to ASCII text file conversion (on SHIFT-F9) * View the ICON and other info on GEOS files * DOS Text file editor (on F4) * DOS file viewer (on F3) * HEX editor (on ALT-F4) * DOS copy/move/delete/attribute commands * Decode simple UU and HQX files * Fully user configurable (colors, settings) * Fully editable panel layouts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAQ and answers --------------- Most of the problems that you might encounter are problems I have not been able to duplicate, but I hope I have fixed. Here are the most common questions I have been asked, or most common problems I have had to fix. Q. How can I contact the author? A. You can send me EMAIL at the address: "schepers@ist.uwaterloo.ca" or by regular snail-mail post at: Peter Schepers 317 Knightsbridge Road Woodstock, Ontario, Canada N4S 7C3 Q. What would registering the program get me? A. Physically, in your hands, nothing. The program has no crippled features, and contains no registration routine or serial numbers. I would not send you a "registered" version as it doesn't exist, but I will send you the latest version if you don't already have it. However, I would very much like to see people register the program with me, as it shows some appreciation for the work which goes into writing extensive utilities such as this. If you do decide to send something, please make it a money order, as cashing out-of-country (and possibly off-continent) personal cheques might present problems for both of us. Q. How do I get the latest version of the program? A. There are two ways: 1. EMAIL me with a request for a new version. Assuming I am available to send it, I will. If you're lucky, I might even send a newer version than whats available on the 'net!. 2. Download it from Pontus Berg's site WWW.FAIRLIGHT.TO. This site should have the latest public release. Q. I have some suggestions for 64COPY, but I don't think they are important enough to send them to you. Should I? A. By all means, send your ideas to me. I may not always agree with them, or it may not be feasible/possible/practical to add them in, but I always appreciate the effort of at least telling me about them! Sometimes I surprise myself by adding in a feature months after receiving it, and originally thinking the idea was unworkable. Q. How does the HELP work (and where is it)? A. Virtually all the HELP for 64COPY is online. Run the program first, and press the F1 key to bring up the HELP window. You will either be in a topic or the main index. If you are in a function (converting files, text editor), calling HELP will bring up help for that topic. If you are sitting at the command-line, then HELP will come up with the index of topics. Either way, you can still get the index, and look for what you want from there. If the HELP file doesn't exist (64COPY.HLP) then help will not be available, and you will get a warning that help cannot be found as well as where the help file should be. If the HELP file version is wrong, you will also get a warning. If you can't get the program to run, so as to display the HELP, then there is very little I can do. I would request that you mail me with the details in this event as I would like to know about it, and try to fix it. Q. I ran my virus scanner, and it reported the "xxxx" virus in one of the executables. A. Unless you use the virus scanner F-PROT to make your reports, I will take no action towards checking or verifying that the virus exists. I have had several virus reports sent to me, all of which were false positives (virus reported where no virus exists). All were using either McAfee Scan or Norton Anti-Virus to do the virus checking, both of which I do not trust for accurate reporting of viruses due to too many false positives. I always have the latest release of F-PROT, and I trust it much more than *any* other scanner on the market, including the retail ones. If you want action taken, use F-PROT and then send the report to me. Q. When I start the program, the screen saver starts up almost immediately. What can I do to stop this? A. This was due to a bug in the "inactive time" calculation for when the screen saver will activate. If this happens (and it shouldn't in versions past 3.00 beta 10), there are several ways to prevent this... 1. Goto the configuration page (ALT-F6) called "Screen Saver" and disable the saver (the best method). 2. Move the mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen. This is the "save never" corner, and will disable the saver, but that is not too useful if you want to use the mouse. Q. When I am doing XXX operation, the program hangs. Why? A. This is most difficult to answer as a number of factors are coming into play. It may be that there is a bug that you have found, and I will have to track down. It would be best if you can duplicate the problem as I will not be able to easily fix it if I cannot see it happen. If you can duplicate the problem, mail me with the all the details, order of operation, etc. If you don't have the latest version, I would recommend getting that first, as I may have fixed it already and not be aware of it! Q. When I am doing XXX operation, I see garbage on the screen, but everything seems to work ok. Why? A. Once again, like the previous question, this requires that it be duplicatable. If it is, mail me with what you were doing, where on screen the corruption starts and ends, etc. Even if I cannot duplicate it, I can likely attempt to fix it. When this bug was originally reported, it was usually due to the newness of the windowing code changes I was making. Once the changes were shaken down, I have never had these problems reported again. Q. Are you going to support the new GCR formats coming out for C64S and CCS64? A. Put simply, not likely. Even though I have the specs for the CCS64 version (Miha has not released the layout of his GCR format) it would not be worth the effort. After lengthy discussions with other users and utility authors, I have come to the conclusion it is not worth supporting. Any program that requires a G64 in order to run means it cannot exist in any other format. I cannot imagine a reason to have to see the contents or edit the image, as modifying the image will likely cause corruption. At the absolute most, I might allow "read-only" support (like I do for 4-Pack Zipcode), just so files can be copied out, but this is contingent on my receiving enough user requests for this. In actual fact, the layout of this format consists of a "bit image" of each individual track, and it would require a lot of coding to interpret this bit stream into something coherent, like individual sectors. Q. What will happen if I delete any of the external support files (like "64COPY.INI") when 64COPY is active? A. Nothing bad will occur at any point. Once the program is running, all the support files have been read, the settings are in memory, and the files are no longer used. When you quit, the files will simply be written out as if they never existed. When you execute a command from the command-line in 64COPY, all the settings are still stored in memory, until the program reloads. If you delete any support file when not in 64COPY, and start the program up again, it will detect the missing file and use default values. Q. How come if I change the screen height (ALT-F9), and then quit and restart the program, the screen height is not what I changed it to? A. When 64COPY is started for the *first* time (i.e. no "64COPY.INI" file exists), the screen height is recorded, and 64COPY will always start up in that mode, unless you change the height setting in the Configuration window (ALT-F6), Visual options page, Screen Height section. Q. 64COPY won't recognize the F11/F12 keys on the keyboard. Why? A. It seems that there are some rare BIOS's that are not 100% compatible with the method I use for scanning for the extended keys, and therefore I can't fix this. However, there are ways around this. Since 64COPY has a working MENU system (using the F9 key, or with the mouse), you can use the menus to accomplish nearly all that would normally need to be done with the keyboard. Q. I can't get the long filename functions to work under Windows NT. A. It would appear that the way Windows 95 does it's long filename calls is not compatible with the Windows NT way. The DOS INTterupt calls make no mention of being supported by the Windows NT DOS box, and therefore I assume they will not work. If the NT DOS box *does* support long filenames, then I will need some time to try to find out how it does this. However, Windows 2000 does allow the Win95 way of LFN's, so 64COPY does work there. Go figure.