hamilton@brahms.udel.edu (Andrew W Hamilton) (03/30/91)
I have downloaded several GEOS files for my C64. When I try to run them from the desktop, they either won't load in at all, or GEOS does not realize they are applications, and loads them in like a normal BASIC program (which of course makes the program inoperable). How do you make a GEOS file recognized as an application, printer driver, Geowrite document, etc. ? And what is the file type (PRG, USR, SEQ) of these programs? Thanks. J. P. Grenert hamilton@brahms.udel.edu
cs4344af@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Fuzzy Fox) (03/30/91)
In article <20097@brahms.udel.edu> hamilton@brahms.udel.edu (Andrew W Hamilton) writes: >I have downloaded several GEOS files for my C64. When I try to run them from >the desktop, they either won't load in at all, or GEOS does not realize they >are applications, and loads them in like a normal BASIC program (which of >course makes the program inoperable). How do you make a GEOS file recognized >as an application, printer driver, Geowrite document, etc. ? And what is the >file type (PRG, USR, SEQ) of these programs? GEOS files are supposed to be type USR, because they are formatted in a way that is rather alien to Commodore DOS. This is why you should never validate a GEOS disk unless you are in GEOS. To make uploading and downloading possible, you need a program that can do what is called Geo-Conversion. Berkeley made such a program some time ago, and a couple of programs by William Coleman will do this (a bit better than Berkeley's program). If you have GeoTerm, from the Compute! disk, you can convert files with that. The converters (as well as just about ALL of the GEOS software ever made) are on Quantum Link. This is reason alone for joining Q-Link. -- David DeSimone, aka "Fuzzy Fox" on some networks. /!/! INET: an207@cleveland.freenet.edu / .. Q-Link: Fuzzy Fox / --* Quote: "Foxes are people too! And vice versa." / ---
cinf07@vlsi.polymtl.ca (Miguel Pedro et Louis Sabbat) (03/30/91)
In article <20097@brahms.udel.edu> hamilton@brahms.udel.edu (Andrew W Hamilton) writes: >I have downloaded several GEOS files for my C64. When I try to run them from >the desktop, they either won't load in at all, or GEOS does not realize they >are applications, and loads them in like a normal BASIC program (which of >course makes the program inoperable). How do you make a GEOS file recognized >as an application, printer driver, Geowrite document, etc. ? And what is the >file type (PRG, USR, SEQ) of these programs? You must convert the files to GEOS format using CONVERT 3.1 . Download the files as SEQ, and use Convert to transfer them to GEOS format. The file types will then be USR. Converting the SEQ files to GEOS format separates the header block from the code itself. The icon in the desktop should be different after conversion. Convert 3.1 (or 2.5 ?) is available at the Miton site. Actually, v2.5 is a newer version than v3.1 . It supports multi-file conversion. Someone on the net can probably give you more info on the structure of GEOS files. I don't have any book on GEOS, mostly because I don't use GeoProgrammer. Hope this helps! -- Miguel Pedro (Send any E-mail to cinf07@info.polymtl.ca)
rknop@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Robert Andrew Knop) (03/31/91)
cinf07@vlsi.polymtl.ca (Miguel Pedro et Louis Sabbat) writes: >Convert 3.1 (or 2.5 ?) is available at the Miton site. Actually, v2.5 is >a newer version than v3.1 . It supports multi-file conversion. Convert2.5 is indeed a newer version than 3.1, and is a lot nicer to use. I think the discrepancy in version numbers comes from the fact that several people wrote upgrades of the original Convert in parallel. 2.5 uses a dialog box to select files, whereas 3.1 stuffs them in a menu. 2.5 also knows if a file is GEOS or not, so knows which way to convert it. Finally, 2.5 can convert to/from both PRG and SEQ files, whereas 3.1 can only do SEQ files (or maybe that was 3.0, I can't remember). 2.5 is at milton in the (I believe) c64current directory. Note that to avoid a Catch-22, this file can unconvert itself. Just load it and run it like a normal non-GEOS c64 program, and it'll create a GEOS readable Convert on the disk in drive 8. >Someone on the net can probably give you more info on the structure of >GEOS files. I don't have any book on GEOS, mostly because I don't use >GeoProgrammer. The diectory entry on a normal Commodore file has a pointer to the position on the disk of the first block in the file; each block then points to the next block, so only the one pointer is needed in the directory entry. For GEOS "sequential" files, this pointer serves the same purpose, but there is a second pointer that points to the "header" block, which contains the picture for the icon, and all the other stuff you can see by looking at the "INFO" on a file. For GEOS VLIR files, both pointers are also used; the header pointer is the same as with sequential files, but the other pointe, instead of ponting to the beginning of actual data for the file, points to an "index block," which is a collection of up to 127 pointers to strings of data blocks. Note that both GEOS sequential and VLIR files are USR files in Commodore DOS. GEOS sequential files should not be confused with SEQ files. -Rob Knop rknop@tybalt.caltech.edu