
                    The Star Commander, Version 0.70 beta

                          written by Joe Forster/STA


  This is still only a beta release of The Star Commander. Look out for further
releases. Please, report bugs and ideas to me as I want to release Version  1.0
as soon as possible. Sorry for all kinds of bugs that appear in  the  Commander
but I'm in a hurry - as always.



  INTRODUCTION:

  This is a program similar to The Norton Commander  designed  to  copy  binary
files and whole disks between the PC and a Commodore drive and  to  handle  the
disk and tape images of the C64 Software Emulator (C64S, (C) by  Miha  Peternel
and Seattle Lab, 1994). If you know The Norton  Commander  well,  this  program
will surely be easy to use. But first 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 interface and other details.



  COPYRIGHT AND LEGAL ISSUES:

  The Commander is freeware which means you can copy and spread it as you  like
provided that it's in the unmodified archive with no comments added to it.  You
mustn't distribute single files only the whole package  and  no  money  can  be
charged above the normal fee of the distribution media. The Commander  may  not
be included in any compilation, sold on disk or CD-ROM without my permission.

  The Commander is  copyrighted  software.  You  mustn't  disassemble,  reverse
engineer, hack the program and the related files or modify them in any way.

  The author is not liable for any damage or data loss caused by the  Commander
(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 500 KBytes of free  conventional
memory. You may run the Commander under the DOS emulator of OS/2 - it will work
fine provided you enable the HW_TIMER option in the  DOS  settings.  I've  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  connected  CBM
drive impossible.



  INSTALLATION:

  You can install the  Commander  simply   by  uncompressing  the  distribution
package into an empty directory using PKZIP 2.xx. You should see the  following
list when using the '-v' option (the CRC checksum for the file SC.TXT  is  left
out intentionally):

 Length  Method   Size  Ratio   Date    Time    CRC-32  Attr  Name
 ------  ------   ----- -----   ----    ----   -------- ----  ----
    223  DeflatX    154  31%  10-29-95  00:07  9dddeb43 --w-  ARCHIVES.MNU
    417  DeflatX    271  36%  10-29-95  00:07  a484efd4 --w-  FILE_ID.DIZ
    168  DeflatX     91  46%  10-29-95  00:07  e1305555 --w-  FORMAT.MNU
   5885  DeflatX   5755   3%  10-29-95  00:07  24ca68df --w-  SC.EXE
     94  DeflatX     79  16%  10-29-95  00:07  b58e8209 --w-  SC.EXT
  61465  DeflatX  20116  68%  10-29-95  00:07  830ad6b5 --w-  SC.HLP
     95  DeflatX     75  22%  10-29-95  00:07  91798276 --w-  SC.MNU
  20084  DeflatX   8112  60%  10-29-95  00:07  ???????? --w-  SC.TXT
     13  Stored      13   0%  10-29-95  00:07  77c19a2b --w-  SCEDIT.EXT
 113552  DeflatX 112603   1%  10-29-95  00:07  56f9b36a --w-  SCMAIN.EXE
    409  DeflatX    126  70%  10-29-95  00:07  6bb132c4 --w-  SCVIEW.EXT
  11038  DeflatX  10936   1%  10-29-95  00:07  d8f468a2 --w-  SC_ARC.ZIP
 ------          ------  ---                                  -------
 213443          158331  26%                                       12

  If the package you have is different, please, contact me to get a clean copy.
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 more memory in the DOS shell, keep SC.EXE and launch that
  instead of main executable (recommended)

- you can find the online help in SC.HLP (recommended)

- there are some sample menu, submenu and  extension  files:  *.MNU  and  *.EXT
  (optional)

- the archive SC_ARC.ZIP contains some external  archive  utilities:  currently
  only a ZipCoder (optional)



  ADVANTAGES OF THE COMMANDER:

- it is comfortable to use the well known environment of The Norton  Commander,
  isn't it? You don't have to press a sequence of weird key combinations only a
  familiar one and you can always clearly see what's happening on the screen

- I hope you also remember Disk-Demon, the great C64  disk  editor  written  by
  G. Brandt and A. Wellie in 1986/87. A similar disk editor is built  into  the
  Commander so that you can change the data of  disk  images  and  disks  in  a
  connected CBM drive directly

- many configuration options make the use of the Commander easy and comfortable

- all functions of  the  Commander - including  the  connection  with  the  CBM
  drive - work properly under the DOS emulator of OS/2 3.00 Warp

- 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

- here's a benchmark of the Commander using my original 1541C drive and a  disk
  containing a single 210 block file stored below track #18 with the normal  10
  sector interleave:

    ͻ
       Whole disk copy     Read from the 1541     Write to the 1541   
    Ķ
         Normal mode              7:50                  9:55          
    Ķ
         Turbo mode               2:25                  2:25          
    Ķ
         Warp mode                1:15                  1:20          
    ͹
     210 block file copy   Read from the 1541     Write to the 1541   
    Ķ
         Normal mode              2:20                  2:25          
    Ķ
         Turbo mode               1:00                  1:00          
    Ķ
         Warp mode                0:25           not yet implemented  
    ͼ



  CONNECTING A COMMODORE DRIVE TO YOUR PC:

  The connection is done using the well known X1541 interface. You can find the
interface description in the online help.

  Since different kinds of PC's run with different speed you have to slow  them
down differently to keep up with the strict  timing  requirements  of  the  CBM
drive. The calibrator routine inside the Commander will activate if  the  setup
file does not exist - probably when you have just installed the Commander.  The
value computed by this routine is displayed in the "Delay value" option of  the
"Advanced options..." menu.

  The Commander is equipped with turbo transfer mode which means  it  transfers
data from and to the connected CBM drive about 2-3 times faster. It  has  turbo
command routines, as well, which speed up deleting files and  validating  disks
to 2-10 times the original speed (it depends on the number and  length  of  the
files on the disk) and disk format takes only about 12 seconds.  The  Commander
has another turbo, the warp transfer mode, which is about 5.5 times faster than
the original speed.

  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. I looked into a 1581 ROM  image,  and  it  made  clear  to  me  that  the
Commander won't work with it in turbo modes, if  at  all -  it's  not  software
compatible with the 1541. I'll have to  get  a  1581  drive  to  implement  the
appropriate transfer routines.



  TROUBLESHOOTING:

  If you encounter problems in the part of the program that  doesn't  access  a
connected CBM drive you should contact me at once with a  detailed  description
of the bug. However, if you can't access the connected CBM drive properly  here
are some ideas that you should 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
Windows. These circumstances may affect the data transfer and can cause a wrong
delay value to be computed by the automatic calibrator, as well.  Remember  not
to touch the mouse or  the  keyboard  and  disable  disk  activity  during  the
calibration as it might change the result.
  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 turbo modes are.
  Furthermore, don't plug anything other than the X1541 interface into your  PC
and your CBM drive. Connecting a printer to your PC or a C64/C128/other  drives
to your CBM drive will probably mess up the data transfer or even lock  up  the
connection. This means that C128D and SX64 owners can't use the Commander  with
the built-in drive of their computers.

  If the connection with the CBM drive locks up pull the interface out of  your
CBM drive, wait for the "Device not present" error,  then  plug  the  interface
back, reset your drive and try one of the following:

- raise (or lower) the delay value; alternatively, you can  try  re-calibration
  by using the "Recalibration" option in the "Advanced options..." menu

- check whether the X1541 interface is assembled  well  -  try  it  with  other
  machines and/or other transfer programs

- it's possible that your CBM drive went dead in all those years - try it  with
  a C64 or C128 to see if it works at all or borrow a working drive  from  your
  friends

- you might be the unlucky owner of an I/O card that  makes  fine  synchronized
  bidirectional data transfer  via  the  LPT  printer  port  impossible  -  try
  exchanging it with an I/O card of a friend or buy a new one

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

  I admit that the calibrator and  the  connection  with  CBM  drives  are  not
working well on all kinds of PC's and I'm trying to make up  new  methods  that
will. But don't forget that you have to go through this tiring  procedure  only
once with every new release, if at all.



  BETA TESTING:

  As I do not have the possibility to test the program on many kinds of PC's  I
ask you to be my beta tester and write to me if you

- found a bug in the program (you will possibly find some as it is still  under
  development)

- have an idea what improvements I should make in the future

- saw a grammatical error, misspelling, wrong punctuation, wrong  justification
  or something misunderstandable in the online help or this documentation

- know good FTP sites with C64 areas to which I should upload this program

- are just interested in this program or you simply like it and  want  to  have
  the final version as soon as possible

  Please E-Mail your detailed bug reports along with 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  a
connected CBM drive). If the bug occurred only with a certain file you can send
it to me uuencoded, as well.



  BUGS FIXED SINCE VERSION 0.61 BETA:

- the Commander didn't separate double clicks

- I've mixed up the Hidden and System attributes in the "Attributes" dialog box



  OTHER CHANGES SINCE VERSION 0.61 BETA:

- the calibrator is now inside the Commander and is semi-automatic  -  it  will
  activate if there is no setup file or it is corrupted;  you  can  re-run  the
  calibration by selecting "Recalibrate" in the "Advanced options..." menu

- the file copy, rename and deletion system has been  rewritten  from  scratch;
  you can specify the source files and the destination path or image file - now
  you are not limited to copying files from the active panel  to  the  inactive
  one but are able to copy or move practically anything anywhere

- the enhanced "Rename" command, "Rename or move"  allows  you  to  delete  the
  source files at the instant they were successfully copied

- introducing the command line with history capable of storing a maximum of  19
  recent commands

- introducing warp transfer for file copy  (only  the  CBM -> PC  direction  is
  implemented with no error handling yet)

- introducing disk editor for disk images and disks in a  connected  CBM  drive
  also in turbo mode

- introducing a new smart shelling system that allocates less  than  25  KBytes
  for the Commander while executing DOS commands (that  is  if  you  start  the
  Commander through the loader SC.EXE)

- introducing the Brief mode which displays twice or three times more files  in
  the panel than the Full mode

- the Commander can optionally run with the C64 character set (only on  EGA/VGA
  video cards) - you can change it in the  "Advanced options..."  menu  and  by
  pressing Shift+Control and Shift+Alt when no dialog box is on the screen

- the "Configurations..." menu is split into two parts because there  were  too
  many options to stuff into it; now there is a "Configuration..." menu (mostly
  PC related options; assigned  to  Control+F9)  and  an  "Advanced options..."
  menu (rather C64 and CBM drive related options; assigned to Control+F10)

- an external ZipCoder is inside the Commander distribution package

- with the "Filter" menu you can disable the display of Hidden and System files
  and you can also make the Commander show you only executable or image files

- you can create your own user menus for DOS panels

- you can view and edit DOS files with external viewers and  editors  -  you'll
  have to create extension files first (read the online help on how to do that)

- you can associate commands with file extensions (e.g. start a word  processor
  if you press Enter or double click on a file with the extension .DOC)

- the Commander can now handle tape images with more (or less) than 30 entries

- the Commander now has a screen saver with adjustable screen blank delay

- you can start typing a file name to make the cursor bar jump  to  a  matching
  file in the panel (you have to press the Alt key with the first letter)

- the scroller bars of the panels and the online help are removed -  they  were
  the ugly remnants of the original Turbo Vision routines and had nothing to do
  with the environment of the other Commanders

- you can retry or skip reading or writing bad sectors during disk copy

- the disk copy CBM -> PC direction has been sped up by 10 seconds

- you can stop the reading of the directory and the validation of  disk  images
  by pressing Esc (it can help if there's a loop in the sector  chain  although
  you should fix that as soon as possible)

- all the four possible device numbers of connected CBM  drives  are  displayed
  in the "Change drive" dialog box; if you have a single floppy drive  in  your
  PC, it will not be displayed as a phantom second drive

- you can change the soft sector interleave for disk  images  and  disks  in  a
  connected CBM drive

- the "Volume label" command is moved from Alt+F4 to Control+F4 - Alt+F4 is now
  reserved for the internal editor (in one of the next releases)

- the Insert key now repeats just like any other key

- you can press Control+Alt+Insert  to  reset  all  connected  CBM  drives  and
  Control+Alt+Delete to exit the Commander immediately (emergency exit - use it
  only as a last resort)



  KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS:

- you must not let the Commander search for a connected CBM drive if the  X1541
  interface isn't plugged into the appropriate LPT port or  all  the  connected
  CBM drives are switched off

- timeouts are not handled - as all PC  interrupts  are  disabled  during  data
  transfer the connection with the CBM drive might lock up

- when copying a file or disk from a connected CBM drive to the  PC  in  normal
  transfer mode the last byte in some of the sectors or the last  byte  of  the
  file can sometimes get lost (I'm working on it)

- you mustn't try to delete any file from a write  protected  DOS  floppy  disk
  otherwise you will get very strange results (possibly an internal BP7 bug)



  COMING SOON:

  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...

- warp file copy in both directions with full error handling

- built-in viewer and editor also for CBM files

- clipboard, text search in the disk editor

- critical error dialog box instead of the awful red  line  that  overlays  the
  last line of the screen (it's partly done but there are problems with it)

- external Lynx/UnLynx and P00->T64 utilities

- 'Clean' for disks in a connected 1541 drive (?)

- possibility to append the directory list of the panels to a certain file  (in
  order to help maintaining a "database" about your programs) (?)



  THANKS TO:

  I'd like to thank to my alpha testers for their valuable help:

  Clarence/Chorus
  Darrin Smith
  Gustavo Ayala
  Jrgen Bullinger
  Mathias Beilstein
  Matthias Hartung
  Michael J. Darschewski
  Sorex/WOW
  Suba Pter
  Sven Goldt
  Tamsi Gyrgy
  Todd A. Aiken
  Vic/COMA

  Special thanks go to:

  Miha Peternel (for the C64S emulator)
  Peter Schepers (the author of 64COPY)
  Bernhard Schwall (the author of Trans64)
  Halsz Csaba (for lending me his 1571 drive)



  WHERE TO FIND THE COMMANDER:

  I always send the newest releases of the Commander to:

  arch.kiae.su                  /msdos/emulator/c64
  bbs.cc.uniud.it               /pub/c64/tools/other_machines/pc/dos
  caramba.cs.tu-berlin.de       /pub/c64/tools/transfer/pc
  ccnga.uwaterloo.ca            /pub/cbm/emulation
  eris.giga.or.at               /pub/c64/transfer/1541-pc
  frodo.hiof.no                 /pub/c64/utils
  ftp.seattlelab.com            /UTILS
  nic.funet.fi                  /pub/cbm/c64/emulation/c64s
  pitel_lnx.ibk.fnt.hvu.nl      /pub/c64/Tools/pc/utils

  Usenet NEWS                   comp.emulators.cbm

  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 AUTHOR:

  Please, do not hesitate and send an E-Mail to "sta@ludens.elte.hu".  Use  the
address "sta@dtalk.inf.elte.hu" for and only for sending E-Mails  that  contain
large files. You can also send snail-mails to me at this address:

  Kovcs Balzs

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



  29th October, 1995                            Joe Forster/STA
