CPM Plus and large disc formats

[darkhalf]

I'm running WinApe at the moment with ParaDos 1.2, Silicon Disk 1.3 and running CPM plus
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I've made a copy of CPM plus and have modified this using the DK'Tronics Silicon disk to add C: drive to the image. 
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WACCI PD has some EXTDISC.COM which allows usage and FORMAT.COM of extended discs within CPM
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=9972
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The main issue is getting files > 180K into CPM. I'm using CPCXP to transfer the files to DSK images, and loading those into CPM at the moment

I've also tried ROMDOS 716K formats, PARADOS80 and VORTEX formats from WinApe/CPCXP. However those are not visible from CPM. So looks like the best way forward is a modified CPM. I've read a few threads on here about modified versions. 

I'm just looking to access > 700K from drive B: to install and uncompress software such as from here:
http://cpmarchives.classiccmp.org/cpm/mirrors/www.triton.vg/TesseractRCPM+Catalog.html

Is there anything easily available I can use to achieve this? Thanks

[poulette73]

Hello

Have you take a look to HDCPM from @d_kef ?
With it, you can have 4 virtual disk drives with 8MB each (so a total of 32MB).

Example on my CPC :



https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/HDCPM
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/hdcpm-boot-and-run-cpm-plus-from-hard-disk/

[darkhalf]

@poulette73 thanks. yes I did see this, and looks like a great project
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/hdcpm-boot-and-run-cpm-plus-from-hard-disk/

However was looking for something a bit more lightweight (just using Parados disks without needing M4 etc). I found something gunshed posted:

https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/cpm-2-2-with-b-drive-of-720ko-and-c-virtual-disk/msg201875

Dobbertin CP/M Plus. It has 0,7 MB Vortex format on B: and provides 444KB RAM disc on C:

Might give this a shot, but looks like I still need to configure in the X-DDOS ROM based on my reading of the HDCPM+ document on the Dobbertin DSKs

[darkhalf]

Okay I've managed to build the CPM+ DSK and run that via XDOS 1.1

So we have the RAM disk showing, but drive B: is not showing (in XDOS or CPM) VORTEX format contents (written from CPCDiskXP) as ROMDOS D1. Any ideas?

(Contents are Hitech C for testing)

[darkhalf]

SHOW gives incorrect space (Drive B) and DIR [FULL] shows corrupt directory contents. So VORTEX format isn't compatible with XDOS? 

[HAL6128]

You can also use Ramdos+.bin to get access on drive b with 716k discs.
The Trailing Edge of Technology (cantrell.org.uk)

[darkhalf]

Thanks that worked! 

CPC_CPM1_Plus_Main_SilDisc_RAMDOS.dsk contains CPM (DK'Tronics RAM disk patch) with the RAMDOS+.COM file to run

Also did the instructions for the D20 patch into C10CPM3.EMS on the standard CPM file and that worked (but no RAM disk). DK'Tronics patched the same addresses

[darkhalf]

Here I will leave my notes on CP/M during my weekend of trying to use it (!) on WinAPE. 

Side notes: I can see why MSDOS took this over (as far as usability anyway) and why there were replacements such as QP/M. Not to mention crappy line editors like ED. It makes me want to go back to VI. MIKEDIT was quite easy to grasp

One annoying thing is that changing user is persistent between drive swaps (A > B > C will keep user 1). It would have been great to have user 'folders' per disk. Currently only PIP/copy programs allow coping from User A to User B on different discs. Using a large disc system would result in a bunch of many unrelated files in the same user folder

The XDOS / PARADOS drive B for larger discs is great, but unfortunately does not extend to Drive A. The EXTDISC program I started with seemed to work well (on Drive A too), but the formats were not externally exportable

Dr Draw and Dr Graph were quite tedious to use, compared to say the excellent Advanced Art Studio

Boot Disk
Make a copy of CPM DISC1: CPC_CPM1_Plus_Main_SilDisc_RAMDOS.dsk

Remove unnecessary files. Add:
QTEXT21  COM - Speed up screen handling, faster VDU updates
SILCOPY  SUB - Copy files from this disc to C: RAMDISC
MIKEDIT  COM - Easy to use line & text editor (replace ED)
RAMDOS+  COM - RAMDOS configured to use D20 from profile.sub
http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david/tech/cpc/ramdos/index.html
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/ROMDOS
PROFILE  SUB - Modified to setup keys to WordStar, English language and run RAMDOS for drive B: (note that not all CPM programs like RAMDOS or they will want to run only from drive A)
CPM3SEMI EMS - Modified by DK'Tronics PATCHER.COM to implmeent a 444KB RAM disc on C:
NSWP    COM - Disc and file management utility

Use CPCDiskXP for transferring files to/from DSK files
Note : DSK Editor - Add files to DSK without AMSDOS header enabled (!)

CPM Archives main  index:
http://cpmarchives.classiccmp.org/

Related sites:
http://cpmarchives.classiccmp.org/cpm/mirrors/www.triton.vg/TesseractRCPM+Catalog.html
http://www.retroarchive.org/cpm/

CPM Commercial programs
https://cpcrulez.fr/search-engine.php?m=cpm&g=Wouu

WACCI DSKs available on CPC Rulez / CPC Power (See disc notes). I've pulled the useful apps into the utils DSK file attached

Extensions:
COM - Executable http://www.seasip.info/Cpm/rsxrec.html
PRL - Binary module http://www.seasip.info/Cpm/prl.html
LBR - Library file format http://www.seasip.info/Cpm/ludef5.html
Can be extracted in windows using https://github.com/ogdenpm/mlbr
Or using MS.COM (Maxisweep updated version of NSWP) inside CPM which can open and extract libaries
Or using NULU.COM (LBR handler) https://www.microcodeconsulting.com/z80/z80pd.htm#Z80
ZIP - Not used often in CPM https://github.com/agn453/UNZIP-CPM-Z80 or UNZIP.COM (WACCI#7)
ARC - ARChive format. Replaced by ZIP http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/PKARC

Note: Files with ?Q? are squeezed. Unsqueze with NWSP or NS
Files with ?Z? are crunched: UNCR28.COM (UN-CRunches WACCI#7)

Useful utils (CPMUtils_ROMDOS_D20.dsk)

DISKINFO COM - Disk info
3DIR    COM - Useful directory program
DPRINT  COM - Direct print program
DSHOW    COM - Direct screen TYPE program
FILESIZE COM - Prints exact file sizes
UNERA    COM - Unerase
LOOK    COM - Views and edits ASCII and binary files
SDUMP    COM - Screen dump
COPY    COM - PPIP 1.9 CPM/3 improved copy program
MSODBALL COM - View and export MSDOS disks

DISCKITA COM - Drive formatting utility (40/80/PCW)
CPM2    COM - Provide CPM2.2 compatibility
TELL    COM - Indicates BDOS locations
BYTELEN  COM - Provides exact file byte length
EXTDISC  COM - Provide extended DSK format (not compatible outside CPM, use Parados/ROMDOS+ instead)
FORMAT  COM - Format standard/extended disc formats
DISCTOOL COM - Not running okay on CPM plus (DiscKit3)

UNARC    COM - Unarchive ARC
ARC      COM - ARChive
ARC24    COM
ARK11    COM
LBRDISK3 COM - Extract LBR to other drive
NULU151  COM - LBR explorer and extractor
UNZIP    COM - Unzip ZIPs
UNREDUCE OVR
UNSHRINK OVR
CREATE  COM - Create LBR/ARC

IZ      COM - Intel /Z80 source translator

KERMIT  COM - Kermit v4.11 CPM/80 VT100 terminal program
GATE    DAT
GATE    COM - General terminal emulator 0.85

AUXMSG  COM - Terminal test programs
CHAT    COM
ECHO    COM
TEXTIN  COM

NSWP    COM - NSweep (file manager, unsqueezer)
MS      COM - Maxisweep (file manager, unsqueezer, library extractor etc)
MS      DOC
MS      HIS
MS      MAN
MSGLOB  MAC
ZX3      COM - Super disk utility

EDTKEY  COM - Nevada edit
NVEDIT  ERR
NVEDIT  PRN
READ-ME  TXT
NVEDIT  COM