[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Converting CPM file -> DOS

ccoombs@pilot.njin.net (Cliff Coombs) (05/04/90)

Here was my question of the week:

	A Faculty person's Osborne computer died on it was her
doctoral disertation (approx 300 pages) it was done on wordstar but
the Osborne used CPM OS.  Can we convert her files to a DOS format?

My answer was "I think so".  So how do I do it?  Ideas? Suggestions?

Thanks, Cliff
  
-- 

  Cliff Coombs                                          ccoombs@pilot.njin.net
  Campus Network Coordinator 	 	 		ccoombs@turbo.kean.edu
  Kean College of New Jersey, Union.NJ.USA.Earth            Fax (201) 355-5143
  Disclaimer: I plead the Fifth.                          Voice (201) 527-2729 

broy@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Barbara Roy) (05/05/90)

From article <May.4.11.23.54.1990.25958@pilot.njin.net>, by ccoombs@pilot.njin.net (Cliff Coombs):
> 

> 	A Faculty person's Osborne computer died on it was her
> doctoral disertation (approx 300 pages) it was done on wordstar but
> the Osborne used CPM OS.  Can we convert her files to a DOS format?
> 
> My answer was "I think so".  So how do I do it?  Ideas? Suggestions?
> 


We started out with CPM machines and migrated to MS-DOS at my last job.
We used a package called UNIFORM that converted in either direction. The
company you should contact is Micro Solutions, 125 South 4th St, Dekalb,
Illinois 60115. Their phone number is 815-756-3411.

ridenour@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Will Ridenour) (05/05/90)

In article <May.4.11.23.54.1990.25958@pilot.njin.net> ccoombs@pilot.njin.net (Cliff Coombs) writes:
>
>Here was my question of the week:
>
>	A Faculty person's Osborne computer died on it was her
>doctoral disertation (approx 300 pages) it was done on wordstar but
>the Osborne used CPM OS.  Can we convert her files to a DOS format?
>
>My answer was "I think so".  So how do I do it?  Ideas? Suggestions?
>
>Thanks, Cliff
>  

If you have WordStar under DOS then no file conversion is necessary. Dos
WordStar uses the same file format as CP/M WordStar. If this is the case
then your only problem is reading the Osborne disk. There products available
to read CP/M disks... the ones I have used are UNIFORM (commercial) and
22disk (shareware I believe, freely available from simtel20 and most any
where else that handles DOS public domain and shareware software. UNIFORM
will read osbourne disks, I know. I don't remember whether 22disk does but
I'd be surprised if it didn't.

If you don't have WS under DOS, you'll need to run the file through a filter
that sets the high bit of each character to 0. There are utilities available
to do this or it is a fairly trivial c or assembly language program.

In C, just read in character c and then do

	c = c | 0x7f 

and then output the character.

In assembly, read the character into al and then do

	or al,07fh

and then output...

hope this helps

will ridenour
national center for supercomputing applications
University of Illinois
champaign, Ill.

only problem is reading the Osborne disk.