AALevy@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (10/01/85)
There is a program that modified WSTAR and similar programs to find overlays even if they were on another disk or user area. I believe it was called SETDRU (I could be wrong). I do not know if it was PD or not. Any help would be appreciated. Regards, Allan
bridger@RAND-UNIX.ARPA (Bridger Mitchell) (10/01/85)
SETDRU is one method. PUBlic files are another, one that requires no patches to the program and uses no tpa, but does patch the bdos. PUBPATCH, in the simtel20 directory of that name, is a z80 patch to an UNMODIFIED cp/m 2.2 bdos that makes a file PUBlic when attrribute bit 2 is set in the directory. A PUBlic file is accessible from all user numbers on the disk. See our article in Dr. Dobbs' Jrnl. Oct (or Nov) 1984 for further description. --bridger mitchell
rbloom@apg-1.ARPA (Robert Bloom AMSTE-TOI 3775) (10/01/85)
<cpm.dirutl>setdru.lbr is the file name of the program you asked for to let WordStar find its overlays files in other user areas. However, I don't think that is what you *really* want. For that, look to <cpm.pubpatch>pubpat.lbr. That is a BDOS patch that allows *any* program to cross user lines for overlays. (I use it for WordStar, dBase and SuperCalc with no problems.) One activatives a file to be accessable in any area by setting the high-bit of second character of the file-name. I use NSWP for this, the pubpat libarary has it's own program for it. There are some side effects but none as bad as those in setdru. As Jerry says, recommended. -bob bloom
ABN.ISCAMS@USC-ISID.ARPA (10/02/85)
Re PUBPATCH in finding WS overlays.. PUBPATCH will look to "root" disk same user, then "root" disk user 0, for .COM files but will NOT find overlays! (Had this problem with WS, Turbo Pascal, others.) Also, while within WS, you can't RUN programs not in your immediate user area because WS doesn't seem to use the BDOS calls to find files. So PUBPATCH won't be of much help in this case. I ended up keeping one copy of WS.COM in my "root" disk, A0, along with "original" copies of the required overlays. Then used DUPUSR (another public domain program .. copies a directory entry to another user area but NOT the program, saving MUCH disk space) to copy overlay file names to all required user areas. STATed them protected and invisible so the names wouldn't be in the way. Could then run WS from any disk any user, with NO increased disk usage. Worked fine, did the same with Turbo Pascal and a couple other programs that had associated data files. Yep, there is a WS patch program in the SIMTEL20 archives, and I think it IS named SETDRU.COM. Patches WS directly, as I recall, so WS is then smart enough to find its overlays at a selected "root" disk/user. A little more elegant than my DUPUSR kludge, but then I'd used DUPUSR for other things and kind of got in a rut. Regards, David Kirschbaum Toad Hall ABN.ISCAMS@USC-ISID
rbloom@apg-1.ARPA (Robert Bloom AMSTE-TOI 3775) (10/02/85)
David, Maybe your BDOS is not standard .... i.e. I do exactly what you say doesn't work - I have WS.COM, WSOVLY.COM and WSMSGS.ORVR in user 0 disk A. Now, any disk, any user can type 'WS' and expect to get WordStar (running the ZCPR2 patches also.) The 'r' command of WordStar doesn't work as you stated unless the target program is also marked public. Note that the WS internal search for overlay must have the proper drive where the overlays are located (label DEFDSK) I used to use the DUPUSR kludge but got burned by it from (my) carelessness. pubpatch is more 'elegant'. (All of this on a NorthStar Horizon w/352k running TSS/C, a multi-user CP/M system using one Z80 and bankswitching. [yes, it *is* slow at times!]) -bob