This section is about the utility CONVERT, which can convert some of the Spectrum's own format into each other, and also converts some of the emulator's formats into others. It is not about converting files from other emulators; read section 2.8 if you want to know about that.
CONVERT was useful when the emulator could only communicate with snapshot files and the RS232 link. It has become less useful now, with .TAP files, but it still has some useful features.
It can read three types of input files: pure ASCII, pure bytes (for
instance a .SCR screen dump), and files produced by a SAVE *"b"
command.
Output is pure bytes, ASCII with either CR (Spectrum standard) or CR/LF
(PC standard) for line breaks, SAVE *"b" files containing a Basic or
code file, a .PCX or a .GIF file.
So what can you do? Main uses are adding LF (10 hex) bytes to a text
file produced by the Spectrum; converting a code block into a SAVE *"b"
to load it into the Spectrum using LOAD *"b"
(and the reverse of course: converting a
SAVE *"b" file to pure bytes), and converting a screen dump
to .PCX or .GIF graphics files.
Less useful, but possible: LISTing a program (SAVE *"b" file)
to produce readable ASCII, and the reverse: converting an ASCII listing to
executable Basic again.
If you want to make a .PCX or a .GIF file, input should be a
SAVE *"b"
file of a screen (length 6921 bytes exactly) or a bare .SCR screendump
(length 6912 bytes). You can make screendumps by selecting the X-Extra
functions menu from the main menu.