fseipel@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Frank E. Seipel) (11/06/90)
My description of UTIL.COM, also known as PCXfer by Anthony Ramos Have you ever dialed up a bulletin board using your 8-bit, seen IBM files, and wanted to download them to try on the PC at work? Charles Marslett, creator of MYDOS for the Atari 8-bit line, has come up with PCXfer, an amazing little IBM utility that makes an IBM disk drive format, read, and write disks that are compatible with our Atari double-density drives. Someone running a BBS on his IBM computer could load Atari files onto his hard drive directly from floppy disk, rather than receiving them over the phone. I use my 130XE to download IBM files onto disk, then use PCXfer to load them into the PC at work. PCXfer does not make an IBM run Atari software, nor will it make an Atari run PC programs. It simply provides an easier way to swap files between PCs and 8-bits. Execute PCXfer from the IBM's DOS prompt using these commands: UTIL /I d: Atari formats the disk in drive d UTIL /W d: [file1] [file2] etc. Writes files to Atari disk in drive d (converts IBM carriage return/ line-feed pairs to Atari RETURN character) UTIL /W /B d: [file1] [file2] etc. Writes files to Atari disk in drive d without converting IBM carriage-return/line-feed pairs UTIL /R d: Lists and optionally Reads all files on drive d (converts Atari RETURN characters to IBM carriage-return/line-feed pairs) UTIL /R d: Lists and optionally Reads all files on drive d without converting Atari RETURN characters UTIL /L d: Directory of files on Atari disk in drive d Make sure the disk is in the drive before entering these commands. Entering UTIL with no parameters displays this list. When PCXfer reads Atari files, it automatically replaces the Atari line-feed and carriage-return characters with IBM line-feeds and carriage-returns. This is perfect for moving text files from one computer to another. However, if you are reading a non-text file such as an IBM program, include the parameter /B to inhibit CR/LF translation. The /B parameter should also be used when writing an Atari non-text file to an Atari disk. One more caveat: IBM floppy drives aren't very good at reading Atari disks. Maybe Atari's disk format is too sophisticated for the PC (grin), but for whatever reason, after reading a few sectors the disk drive will grind and the message "5 Errors Reading Sector On Atari Disk" cascades down the screen. What to do? After you've put the files you want to transfer on your Atari disk, make an identical copy of it using a sector copier such as CopyMate or MyCopyr (Don't use DOS). When PCXfer says it can't read your first disk, pop it out and put the copy in; PCXfer will continue happily, thinking the same disk is in the drive! If the copy gives you trouble, just replace it with the original. Continue this way each time PCXfer displays an error, and eventually your files will be transferred. I have used PCXfer to transfer GIF picture files to PCs with no problem. But because an Atari 8-bit disk can only hold 180K on its front side, (the only side PCXfer can read), this is the largest file you can transfer. Sounds like a lot to an 8-bit, but many IBM files are larger than 180K. Sometimes you can get around this limitation by ARCing the file and storing the ARC on an Atari disk, then reading the file and unARCing it on the IBM. This will not work on GIFs since they don't shrink very much when ARCed. Files whose names end with .ZIP or .LZH are especially valuable for transferring. These files are compressed, same as our .ARC files. Even though your 8-bit can't decipher them, they will become much larger when uncompressed on a PC using UnZIP or UnLZH. Good luck using PCXfer, and I hope this program comes in handy for you.