Changes in SpartaDOS X 4.49 (relative to 4.48) ============================================== KERNEL ------ * Fixed the bug that caused the SDX to crash on systems with the 65C816 CPU and no additional 'linear' memory. * Added five new builds: Ultimate 192k, Ultimate 320k, Incognito 192k, Incognito 256k, Incognito 320k. * External cartridge will now be initialized and run at SDX startup only when OPTION+ESC is depressed. The proper way to run a cartridge is now to wait for the SDX startup, then use the CAR command at the command prompt. * Changed the boot procedure (and QMEG-OS likes us more now!). DRIVERS AND RESIDENT PROGRAMS ----------------------------- * PBI.SYS definitely moved to the Toolkit disk. * IDEPTIME.SYS will now not verify if the NV-RAM address specified for the NV-RAM read/write function is within the allowed range: this is not necessary as these values are validated by the IDE+ BIOS. * Action! monitor now correctly echoes the commands typed in by the user at the monitor prompt, when QUICKED.SYS was loaded. * QUICKED.SYS: now faster and using less memory. * ATARIDOS.SYS will now reject 512-BPS disks out of hand, without attempting to load the VTOC. * Z.SYS will now occupy 18 bytes less RAM over MEMLO at the expense of the Ext RAM. * ENV.SYS will now check if it had not been previously loaded (thanks, pirx, for pointing this out!). * SPARTA.SYS: fixed an old ICD bug in the error handler. * RAMDISK.SYS: fixed bad bug which caused a crash when loading the default CONFIG.SYS on an Atari 800 equipped with an Axlon RAM extension. * SIO.SYS: 1) fixed same (this time potential) problem as above 2) avoiding fooling the 850 interface when querying for HS index. * SIO0.OVL: increased the delay between asserting the command signal and sending the actual command out. * IDEPTIME.SYS: now searching for the clock firmware ROM even if no PBI devices were initialized by the OS. * RS232.SYS: 1) new options: /R - sending up to 850 POLLF deletion procedure, so you don't have to turn the interface off and on again when rebooting your computer /F - force loading the R driver, even when there is one registered in HATABS /E - use of previously registered R: in HATABS (only COM :) 2) COM support: for SDX, e.g. DIR >> COM :, TYPE COM: 3) characters with codes 3,4,26 mean the end of the transmission (Atari/Unix/DOS terminal compatibility). * DOSKEY.SYS: eliminated a conflict on the zero page between this program and other system components. LIBRARY ------- * Due to a missing branch instruction, FGETS was not able to detect the EOF reliably. * Error 170 (File not found) will now display the name of the file which has not been found. * U_GETKEY could get stuck returning EOL instead of the code of the key that was pressed, fixed now. * Fixed the old ICD bug where ending the pathname with an apostrophe caused the file name terminated so to be interpreted as a directory name. Same fix in the SPARTA.SYS. * Lowercase pathnames caused problems, e.g. RENAME did not work, if the source pathname was typed in lowercase characters. * The formatter will now preserve the step rate parameter it has read along with the other PERCOM data, and send it back to the drive when configuring it before formatting. UTILITIES --------- * FORMAT /QQ d: will now perform soft-formatting on disk d: without asking the user for confirmation. * X.COM: 1) do not attempt to relocate screen memory if it is already at the correct place. 2) when a program quits to DOS with any other screen mode enabled than GR.0, force the display to GR.0 3) added an extra check if the display should get reset to GR.0; it will now get also reset when it is in GR.0, but not located at the expected default place in the memory. * COMMAND.COM: same as above, when no GR.0, enable it. * TD: the TD Line display synchronisation with NTSC was only half- working, should be fixed now. * The 'string-type' FOR (FOR var IN *.* etc.), when the given mask matches no file, will now skip the loop instead of doing one faulty iteration. * SWAP will now affect disk devices only (DDEVIC=$31). * DUMP.COM: corrected slight formatting error in the 80-column display output. * APT FDISK (by FJC) now placed by default in the SIDE, SIDE2, MyIDE-2-ROM, IDE+, Ultimate and Incognito builds. * COMMAND.COM and X.COM: fixed the problem with superfluous screen clearing when CON64.SYS was active. * BAT files: IF did not check if the strings to compare are of the same size. * BAT files: IF var=="" (to detect EOL) did not work, fixed. * BAT files: in constructions such as IF FILE fname1.ext NT fname2.ext the non-existing file will always be considered older, shorter etc. than the existing one. * CAR.COM will now automatically initialize cartridges (including BASIC), if it was not done before and if no SAV file was loaded. The /I switch can still be used to force this manually, when needed. * COMMAND.COM currently allows you to type comments starting from any column (previously the ";" character had to be positioned at the beginning of the line). TOOLKIT ------- * SC 1.0.3: 1) two bugfixes, especially the "Error 202" error; 2) BAT files: during interpretation of a BAT file the "ECHO ON" command was ignored. 3) BAT files: fixed a problem with parsing environment variables which start with a '%'. 4) BAT files: worked around a major problem often leading to crashes when a "LOAD" command (without parameters, i.e. unload) was executed in a batch file. 5) BAT files: the Headache (the BAT file game by pirx & co.) seems to work now when started under SC. 6) when copying/moving/deleting tagged files the program will take into account these directory entries only which match the file mask defined for the source panel. * MKATR.COM: added a parameter allowing to specify the volume name during building the file system on the target ATR. * MAN_DRIV.ARC: PBI.MAN removed. * DRIVERS>PBI.ARC: PBI.MAN added. * BAT>MAKE.ARC: MAKE.TXT made prettier. * BAT>UNPACK.BAT: updated. * BAT>RUNPACK.BAT: new script by Fujidude. * NVWGL now switched into "E:" mode. * added a copy of the CON64.SYS, for use with those builds where it has been removed from CAR: * KTRACE: added a possibility to trace calls directed at a specific device/unit (e.g. drive 6 only), and to stop recording on the specified type of error. * Added RAMD816N.SYS - a ramdisk for the 65C816 high RAM, like the L version, but twice as fast. * Added CIODEV: a command which displays information about the installed OS CIO devices. * FATFS: fixed to cooperate properly with SDX 4.48 and later. * XLESS: new command, a clone of LESS.COM using the Ext RAM to load the file to be viewed (thus allowing much larger files than the stock LESS.COM does). * BAT>RSORT.BAT: new script by Fujidude. * BAT>TKUPDATE.BAT: new script by Fujidude. * SHUFFLE: a new tool. * CLX 1.9e: 1) fixed buggy code dealing with data found past the end of a directory. 2) the program is now less insisting when it comes to trust the PERCOM data returned by the drive. * HIMEM: a new tool. * CON.SYS: 1) hitting Break was sometimes ignored (thanks, dely, for pointing this out!). 2) fixes in handling the local color (relevant for VBXE only). * INDUSX.SYS: a new driver with RAMCharger track buffering. * PERCONF: a new tool to setup floppy's density via PERCOM commands. FLASHER ------- * The flasher will now optionally use the SDX (instead of the built-in minidos) to load the ROM data to flash.