This article is taken from Z*MAG online newsletter, issue 204.¢-----------------------------------¢¢=================================== * BOOT-UP MENUS FOR ATARI 8-BITs¢ by S.G. Wallace¢=================================== ¢¢It's apparent from reading through the "pages" of ZMAG that some Atari 8-bit owners have very sophisticated systems. Hard drives, large memory upgrades, special operating systems, and high speed modems can evidently bring surprising power to an 8-bit.¢¢Still, the 8-bit community is a diverse group with varying interests, expertise, and financial status. For those opting to use their computers "stock", there is no shortage of fine features and software.¢¢One of the most useful capabilities of a floppy disk based Atari 8-bit computer is "booting" a program from a cold start. One of the most user friendly programs to boot is a MENU program.¢¢Picture this: Say you want to run an application, utility, or game from a disk that has many programs stored on it. You turn on your monitor and disk drive, and insert the disk. Next you flip the power switch of your Atari XE, XL, 800, or 400 ON. After a few seconds you're presented with a screen full of filenames contained on the disk, and an invitation to select one for loading and execution. Depending on the menu you're using, all you have to do to start the desired program is type a number or letter for the file you want to run, or highlight the name by moving a cursor. As you make your selection, the menu program in memory will have served its purpose until next time, and will sacrifice itself by running your chosen file.¢¢This scenario can be reality with any Atari 8-bit computer and disk drive. What makes it all possible is an AUTORUN.SYS file that either CALLS or IS a menu program on the disk. Saved Basic menu programs may be invoked at power-up by an appropriate AUTORUN.SYS file. Machine language (ML) menu programs are simply named AUTORUN.SYS on the disk. Either type will be started at boot-up.¢¢Menu programs have been written...¢¢ 1) in Basic that will load and run only Basic programs.¢¢ 2) in ML that will load and run only Ml programs.¢¢ 3) in Basic with ML routines that will load and run Basic OR ML programs, AND print text files to the screen. An opportunity to disable Basic when calling ML programs is offered.¢¢ 4) Other menu programs are available with additional features like deleting or adding files to the disk.¢¢Of the types described above, #3 is my favorite. This type of menu works best on XE, 800XL, or 600XL Ataris because Basic is built into the computer. Even though the menu itself is a Basic program, the user has the opportunity to turn Basic off if a ML program is called from the menu. Basic files may be invoked from a Basic menu on 1200XL and 400/800 models with cartridge Basic installed. ML files may be run with cartridge Basic if the file doesn't load into memory used by Basic (Basic can't be disabled except by removing the cartridge on these systems).¢¢ Public domain (PD) software suppliers such as Software Infinity, Vulcan Software, or Phantom's 8-Bit PDS often produce disks with menu programs and self booting AUTORUN.SYS files on them. The menu programs themselves are usually PD, so it's ok to copy them onto other disks in your disk library or even modify them to your liking. Naturally, to make other disks bootable, they'll have to have DOS.SYS and the appropriate AUTORUN.SYS file on them.¢¢A number of AUTORUN.SYS boot file makers have been available over the years. Atari DOS 2.5 owners can create AUTORUN.SYS files that will load and run any saved Basic program at power-up. Just use your SETUP.COM utility which came with your DOS. Another AUTORUN.SYS maker was described in two articles titled AUTORUN.SYS SECRETS and AUTORUN.SYS SECRETS IN BASIC published by the now defunct ANALOG COMPUTING magazine (Nov. 1988-issue 66, Jul. 1989-issue 74). The AUTORUN.SYS SECRETS program files are still available for download on Delphi's Atari 8-bit Utilities database.¢¢Whether you write your own menu program, or obtain a PD version, it'll bring a useful convenience to your computer system. You'll wonder how you ever got along without it.¢¢------¢The News-Disk has a menu which will load both Basic and M/L programs. It's on every issue and is called MENU.BAS. Just use SETUP.COM on your DOS 2.5 disk to create an AUTORUN.SYS file and specify MENU.BAS as the filename to load. This will boot up the menu automatically.¢
