¢¢¢¢¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ SDVert¢ The Ultimate Atari 8-Bit Text Converter¢ ¢ Version 4.0¢ February 1991¢ ¢ Presented By¢ MAX Systems¢ ¢ Written By¢ Marty Albert¢ ¢ ¢¢ SDVert 4.0 is NOT in the Public Domain. It is¢ copyright 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991 by MAX Systems and¢ Marty Albert.¢¢ SDVert 4.0 is being released as "Free Ware" and may¢ be distributed to all in an unchanged form but it MAY NOT¢ BE SOLD except as noted below.¢¢ Permission is granted for SDVert 4.0 to be¢ distributed via the various online data services such as¢ GEnie and CompuServe and via "pay BBSs" at their normal¢ connect fees.¢¢ Permission is granted to Atari Computer User Groups¢ to place SDVert on disks sold by the Group to raise funds¢ for Group activities.¢¢ The selling of SDVert 4.0 by the several companies in¢ the business of selling Public Domain software is expressly¢ forbidden.¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ SDVert Version 4.0 Copyright 1991 MAX Systems¢ Page 1 of 5¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ ¢ ¢ In The Beginning...¢ ¢¢ As hard as it is for me to believe, it has been over¢ three years since the first release of SDVert (version 2.0)¢ way back in 1988. Since then, there have been versions 2.1,¢ 3.0, 3.1, and now 4.0. Each update fixed a couple of minor,¢ but irritating, bugs and improved the speed of the program.¢ Version 4.0 is no different.¢¢ Bugs fixed include all those known. Specifically, on¢ some conversions, when the last character of the source¢ file is an EOL, that last character was dropped from the¢ destination. Also, the irritating bug of the file names has¢ been corrected. The only limit to the file names now is the¢ SpartaDOS command line length of 64 characters. While some¢ called it a bug, the sounds used in prior versions have¢ been removed. Frankly, I got tired of hearing them while¢ testing.¢¢ In terms of speed, I was able to squeeze another few¢ seconds out of SDVert by further optimization of the code.¢ In tests with both reads and writes to a hard disk, I was¢ able to convert over 550K of ATASCII text (in 45 files) to¢ ASCII text in just over 5 minutes for a through-put of over¢ 1850 bytes per second. This time is actually a little¢ slower than what was the absolute maximum, but one major¢ feature was added that slowed things down just a bit. More¢ on that later.¢ ¢ ¢ Another Text Converter??¢ ¢¢ There are at least several dozen, if not hundreds, of¢ text file converters for the Atari 8-Bit Computers. What¢ sets SDVert apart is that while all of these others will¢ convert between ASCII and ATASCII (some only in one¢ direction), SDVert will convert freely between *5*¢ different text formats!¢¢ The formats supported are: ASCII, ATASCII, Amiga¢ text, Macintosh text, and PETASCII (Commodore 64/128). This¢ flexibility is great for BBS SysOps that support several¢ machine types. You may get a text file that is in one¢ format and you can easily convert it to any or all of the¢ others so your callers won't have to do it on their own.¢¢ It should be noted that SDVert does NOT convert¢ "special" characters like form feeds and ATASCII graphics.¢ This was done for two reasons: (1) Text files, for ANY¢ machine, should not contain graphics characters; (2)¢¢ SDVert Version 4.0 Copyright 1991 MAX Systems¢ Page 2 of 5¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ Various control codes, like form feeds, are recognized by¢ the vast majority of printers.¢ ¢ ¢ What You Need¢ ¢¢ Of course, you need the SDV_40.COM program. You will¢ also need an Atari 8-Bit with at least 48K of RAM and at¢ least one disk drive. If you have only one drive, both the¢ original and new files must be able to fit on the same disk¢ since disk swaps are not supported.¢¢ Most important, you MUST have SpartaDOS version 3.2¢ or higher. SDVert works just fine with the SpartaDOS X¢ cartridge DOS.¢ ¢ ¢ Making It Go¢ ¢¢ SDVert is totally command line driven and so it is¢ ideal for use with batch files. You may also invoke SDVert¢ directly from the command line of SpartaDOS.¢¢ The general command line format is:¢ ¢ SDV Dx:source Dx:destination /?¢ ¢¢ The "Dx:source" and "Dx:destination" are the COMPLETE¢ drive ID, path, file name, and extension for the source¢ file and destination file. If the drive ID is omitted, the¢ default drive is assumed. The use of wild cards is not¢ supported. Incomplete or incorrect file names, extenders,¢ or paths will result in DOS errors and aborting of the¢ program.¢¢ The "/?" is the actual command that tells SDVert what¢ to do. The slash (/) character is REQUIRED. The "?" is the¢ text file format that you wish the destination file to end¢ up being and may have the following values:¢ ¢ A - ASCII Text¢ T - ATASCII Text¢ M - Macintosh Text¢ G - Amiga Text¢ P - PETASCII Text¢ I - Information (see below)¢ ¢¢ When the "/I" command is used, you need not give a¢ destination file. This command simply reads part of the¢ source file, identifies the text format used, and exits to¢¢ SDVert Version 4.0 Copyright 1991 MAX Systems¢ Page 3 of 5¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ DOS.¢¢ All other commands will read the source file,¢ identify the text format, and then proceed with the¢ conversion. While the actual conversion is taking place,¢ the screen will blank.¢¢ Old users of SDVert will note that the automatic¢ source file format is new. This is the feature added that¢ slows things down a tad, but I feel it is worth it. Because¢ of this new auto-detect feature, you need not know what¢ format your source file is in as SDVert will figure it out¢ for you. In other words, the command:¢ ¢ SDV MYFILE.TXT MYFILE.ATA /T¢ ¢ will convert MYFILE.TXT to ATASCII format, no matter what¢ text format it is to start with!¢¢ The "/I" command was left in since there may be times¢ that it will be needed.¢¢ If the command line is incomplete, you will be told¢ and a short summary of the SDVert command line structure¢ will be shown.¢ ¢ ¢ Possible Errors¢ ¢¢ All "normal" DOS errors may occur. Error numbers are¢ returned in hex format. Refer to your DOS manual for¢ explanations and corrections of errors.¢ ¢ ¢ Credits¢ ¢¢ SDVert 4.0 was written in the Action! language and¢ compiled with the Action! Runtime System both by ICD, Inc..¢ Portions copyright by Action Computer Service, OSS, Inc.,¢ and ICD, Inc., various years.¢¢ The MAX Systems development system consists of: Atari¢ 800XL with 256K RAM by RAMbo XL made by ICD, Inc.;¢ SpartaDOS X v4.20 by ICD, Inc.; 256K MIO by ICD, Inc.;¢ Atari 1050 disk drive with US Doubler chips by ICD, Inc.;¢ Seagate 30Mb RLL hard drive; Adaptec 4070 hard disk¢ controller; Star NX1000 printer; R-Time 8 real time clock¢ by ICD, Inc.; Commodore 1702 color monitor; Smart One 2400X¢ modem by Best Data; all hard drive, modem, and printer¢ cables by ICD, Inc.; Hard drive power supply by Solon; Hard¢ drive case by Rubber Maid.¢ ¢¢ SDVert Version 4.0 Copyright 1991 MAX Systems¢ Page 4 of 5¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ ¢¢ Conclusion¢ ¢¢ This will be the last version of SDVert. I know I¢ have said this before, but this time I *really* mean it!¢¢ Even if there are un-dead bugs, it simply is not¢ worth the time any longer to update the program. I am¢ certain that there are no major bugs left, but if there¢ are, too bad.¢¢ As noted above, SDVert is released as "Free Ware".¢ PLEASE! Do NOT send donations, payments, what-have-you.¢ They are neither solicited or required in any way.¢¢ Finally, if there are programmers of other computers¢ that are interested in the source code for SDVert, please¢ feel free to contact me. I may be willing to give you the¢ source code in order to facilitate versions of SDVert for¢ other machine types. As noted, SDVert is written in Action!¢ which is close enough to both C and Pascal to make¢ conversion fairly easy.¢ ¢ ¢ Have Fun!¢ ¢ ¢ Marty Albert¢ GEnie: MARTY.A¢ ¢ ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ SDVert Version 4.0 Copyright 1991 MAX Systems¢ Page 5 of 5¢¢¢¢¢
