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PLATOCAT.TXT
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2006-10-19
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN LIMA NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 1988.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PUBLIC DOMAIN AND AVAILABLE FROM THE LIMA USER GROUP.
^^^^^^^^ PLATO^CATALOG^XB^ROUTINE^DOCUMENTATION
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^by Mike Richardson
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Lima Ohio User Group
GENERAL COMMENTS: Trying to catalog a Plato disk by conventional techniques is
futile since the file descriptor index is at sector >0167. You can copy this
sector to sector >0001, and then catalog the disk. However, the file names
returned are not very meaningful. (If anyone knows what the names mean I would
appreciate a note.) I wrote an a/l routine that actually catalogs the Plato
disk by reading the information in the TIMENU and DISKMENU files. To use my
routine you need extended basic, 32K, and a disk system with TWO drives or one
drive and a ramdisk.
LOADING: This program is a combination of XBASIC and assembly language, and
loads directly from XBASIC with OLD DSK1.PLATO. Before you RUN the program,
you need to put an initialized disk in Drive #2. The program expects to find
the Plato disk in drive #1 and you are prompted to insert the PLATO disk.
Press <ENTER> rather than "N" at the flashing "N" prompt. Don't attempt to
edit the XBASIC protion of the program. If you do, things probably won't work
properly. Once loaded, you can invoke the routine from XB command mode with
^^^^^Call Link("PLATO",TIMENU$(),TI,DISKMENU$(),DSK).^^^^^^^^ After invoking
the routine the TIMENU$ string array contains information on the curriculum,
subject, and program while the TI numeric variable tells us how many strings
were passed back in the string array. Likewise the DISKMENU$ array has
information on the specific titles of the Plato programs and DSK specifies the
number of string variables passed back.
PROGRAM EXECUTION: The program creates a file D/V80 file called PLATOCAT on
the data disk in DSK2. You are asked to give each plato disk your own code
name. You might, for example, give them consecutive numbers. For each disk,
PLATOCAT gives your special name, CURRICULUM name (such as High School Skills),
SUBJECT name (such as Biology), PROGRAM PACKAGE (such as Biology 4), and the
names of the files that appear on the disk's table of contents (such as Health
tutorial, Health drill). PLATOCAT is added to as you catalog subsequent PLATO
disks, and can be read and printed with Funnelweb or TI Writer. This plato
catalog routine does not itself read PLATOCAT to the screen. Remember to press
<ENTER> every time the flashing "N" prompt appears.
ERRORS: If the a/l routine encounters an error, it traps the error code and
passes the code back to XB.
LIMITATIONS: Not all Plato disk have TIMENU and DISKMENU files. Consequently
this program cannot catalog these disk. It will seach all 359 sectors looking
for these file names. This was a compromise on my part as I didn't feel it was
necessary to step the drive heads out to sector >0167 to read the file
descriptor index each and every time.
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS: I used Barry Boones Systex program to hybridize the a/l
routine and a DSRLNK routine from John Clulow.
Mike Richardson 12/12/87
927 N. Canal St.
Delphos, Ohio 45833
216-456-0478
EDITOR'S NOTE: User Groups (not individuals) may obtain a copy of this program
by sending a disk and mailer to the Lima User Group, P.O. Box 647, Venedocia OH
45894.
Below is a sample printout of a small PLATOCAT file.
.PL 1