Almathera Ten Pack 3: CDPD 3/Almathera Ten on Ten - Disc 3: CDPD3.iso/scope/151-175/scopedisk174/xaread/xaread.doc

Text File | 1995-03-19 | 16KB | 333 lines

      XARead - Batch files to assist Amiga-Bridgeboard File Transfer.


I.        Background.

When I got my bridgeboard, I became frustrated early on with the limitations
in transferring files from the Amiga side  to the Bridgeboard side, and vice
versa.  Most frustrating  was  the  lack  of  support  for wild cards.  When
sending something from the IBM  side  to  the  Amiga side, it wasn't so bad,
because at least the AWRITE command understood MS-DOS wild cards.  But using
AREAD, you had to spell out the entire file name for each file you wanted to
transfer.  For example, when I had twenty  GIF files I wanted to move to the
IBM side, I would have liked to have a command like this:

     AREAD #?.GIF /b   or,
     AREAD *.GIF  /b

Unfortunately, no such  facility  exists.   Nope,  you  have to enter twenty
AREAD commands, with the full  filename  on  each one.  A desire to overcome
this obstacle is what led me to write  XAREAD  (eXtended AREAD), a short and
deceptively simple set  of  batch  files  that  allows  me to get around the
problem.


II.       What is XAREAD?

XAREAD is two batch files - one for the  Amiga side and one for the IBM side
- that work together to  allow  a  user  to  specify  AmigaDOS wild cards to
transfer files from the  Amiga  side  to  the  IBM  side.  The solution is a
little cheesy, but it does work, and once you've used it for mass transfers,
you'll love it despite its dairy heritage.

Basically, I cheat.  The way it works  is  that XAREAD, an Amiga batch file,
runs on the Amiga side, and uses the  wild  cards you specify to look up the
files that that spec includes.   It  invokes  the  AmigaDOS  LIST command to
build an MS-DOS syntax batch file named  T:ZZZAREAD.BAT.  Then you go to the
MS-DOS side of the BridgeBoard and execute XAREAD.BAT, an MS-DOS batch file.
This batch file AREADs over the ZZZAREAD.BAT file, and then executes it.  In
turn, ZZZAREAD.BAT moves over all those files you specified.  So in the end,
you run one command on each side.  Nice, huh?


III.      Requirements.

I really wrote this for my own use and,  while I tried to keep it open-ended
enough to work for everyone,  there  are  no  guarantees.   I'm running with
MS-DOS 3.2, AmigaDOS 1.3, with Janus 2.0  on an A2000 equipped with an A2088
BridgeBoard.  I suspect it should  work  with  lower levels of MS-DOS, and I
hope it   would be upward compatible  to  higher  levels (in fact, there's a
cleaner way of invoking  ZZZAREAD.BAT  from  XAREAD.BAT  in MS-DOS 3.3 - the
CALL command - but the 3.2 way should also  continue to work).  On the Amiga
side, XAREAD uses the LFORMAT option of LIST, which only became available in
1.3.  I don't think Janus level  or  the  type  of  bridgeboard should be an
issue, as long as the AREAD command works properly.


IV.       Syntax.

The general syntax for invoking XAREAD on the Amiga side is:

     XAREAD <amigafile-spec> <msdos-directory> [optional flags]

On the IBM side, there are no operands.  Just invoke it like this:

     XAREAD

Remember, the intelligence of  AmigaDOS  is  doing all the behind the scenes
work, and the IBM XAREAD command is just to consummate the transfer.

The  "<amigafile-spec>"   can   technically   be  any  valid  AmigaDOS  file
specification, with or  without  wildcards.   However,  there's an important
consideration to take into  account.   First,  I'll  give the Long Drawn Out
Explanation for those of you who  really  care,  and then for those who just
want the silly thing to work,  I'll  give  a  Good  Rule Of Thumb to make it
work.

LDOE:  Because of the way the Bridgeboard is set up, when an AREAD is issued
on the MS-DOS side, if the AmigaDOS file  name is relatively specified (e.g.
"mydir/file1.txt"  or  just  "file1.txt"),  the  filename  will  be resolved
against whatever was the current  directory  at the time the Bridgeboard was
activated (when you clicked on  the  "PC  Color"  or  "PC Mono" icon).  This
directory is the one in which  the  icons  exist.   For  me (and I think the
standard), that's SYS:PC.  So when  you  do an AREAD for "file1.txt", XAREAD
will look for "SYS:PC/file1.txt".  When  you  AREAD "mydir/file1.txt", it'll
look for  "SYS:PC/mydir/file1.txt".   This  presents  no problems as long as
your  current  directory  is  SYS:PC  when  you  invoke  XAREAD;  Amiga  and
BridgeBoard are on the same page, as it were.  The problem is if you're CDed
to the directory SYS:GIFPics and try  the  command XAREAD #?.GIF.  This will
generate a lot of AREAD commands to get FILE1.GIF, FILE2.GIF, etc.  The only
problem is that when  the  AREADs  eventually  execute  on  the MS-DOS side,
they'll be looking for SYS:PC/FILE1.GIF, etc. and the AREADs will fail.  The
best way to avoid this problem is to  always  use  an absolute reference for
the  Amiga filespec when using XAREAD.

GROT:  As long as you include a colon  (:)  in the Amiga file specification,
the specification will be  an  absolute  one,  and XAREAD on the MS-DOS side
will have no trouble finding  the  files  to  be received.  The colon can be
part of a device name (e.g.  DF2:,  JH0:,  RAM:),  a  disk volume name (e.g.
GIFPics01:, LotusFiles-17:), or  ASSIGNed  name (WHAP:, TEMP:, S:).  The one
exception is  starting  with  the  colon  (which  would  indicate  the  root
directory of the  disk  you're  currently  CDed  to).   That'll only work if
you're CDed to the same disk device that contained the directory that the PC
session was launched from.   By  the  way,    XAREAD  cannot  check that you
included a colon.  I  could  have  written  it  in  ARexx and checked, but I
wanted to make sure anyone could use it, not just ARexx owners.

As far as the IBM destination directory is concerned, you can use   whatever
directory specification you  want.   Just  remember  that the directory must
already exist.  If you specify a directory that doesn't exist, the XAREAD on
the IBM side will fail.

I'm assuming you're more or less familiar  with the MS-DOS directory scheme,
but there are some subtleties you ought to be aware of.  First, to reference
the current directory,  you  could  normally  just  leave  off any directory
specification on most MS-DOS commands  (AREAD  included).  Unfortunately, if
you leave out the destination directory  on XAREAD, it isn't smart enough to
realize that any flags  you've  specified  are  flags, and not the name of a
directory on the MS-DOS side,  so  you  MUST  specify  an MS-DOS destination
directory.

However, the MS-DOS directory CAN be relative.   The easiest is to  just use
a period (.)  to  indicate  the  current  directory.   Or  you  can  use the
backslash (\) to indicate the  root,  or  a  directory relative to the root.
Just to round things out, the double-period  (..) can be used to specify the
directory that is the immediate parent of the current MS-DOS directory.  I'm
sorry if this all sounds complicated.   It's really not.  It'll all be clear
when you look at the examples.

The "optional flags" are any flags  allowed  by the AREAD command.  The only
one I ever use  is  "/b"  (binary),  to  transfer  non-text  files  with  no
character translation.


V.        Installation.

I'm assuming you've  already  got  the  Bridgeboard  hardware  and  software
installed and  working.   The  Janus-supplied  AREAD  command  must  be in a
directory that is in your MS-DOS execution path.

Put the file XAREAD  in  your  AmigaDOS  S:  directory.   You can either use
EXECUTE to execute it, or else  designate  it  as an executable script file,
and forget the hassle of typing EXECUTE  each time you use it.  The examples
in this document file assume you've  done  this.  Just issue the CLI command
PROTECT S:XAREAD +S, and it'll be  marked  as executable.  I'm also assuming
that S: is in your PATH list.  For  more  information on this stuff, see the
description of the  WorkBench  1.2  or  1.3  PATH  command,  the 1.3 PROTECT
command, and the description of  scripts  in  the 1.3 book, pages 1-4 though
1-5.

Put the file  XAREAD.BAT  in  any  directory  on  your  MS-DOS  system  disk
(probably the C: drive) that you have in your PATH.  You'll need to transfer
it over with AREAD; this could be the last time you use AREAD directly.

AmigaDOS has a convention of storing  temporary  files  in the T: directory.
XARead follows that convention.  If you  already have a T: directory, you're
in good shape; otherwise,  you'll  have  to  create one.  To find out if you
have one, try the AmigaDOS command  "DIR  T:".   If you get a file requestor
asking you to mount volume T:, you don't have one, and must create one prior
to using XAREAD (or  the  Amiga  supplied  SPAT  or  DPAT commands, for that
matter).

To allocate a T:  directory,  first  issue  the  AmigaDOS  command  "MAKEDIR
SYS:T".  You might get an  error  message  "SYS:T  already  exists".  That's
okay.  Next, issue the command  "ASSIGN  T: SYS:T".  You'll be all set.  You
probably want to put that  ASSIGN  command  in  your startup-sequence so you
have it from now on.

Finally,  since  XAREAD  makes  use   of  the  WorkBench  1.3  environmental
variables, you also need an ENV: directory.  The most straightforward way to
do this is to just put the following commands in your startup sequence:

     MAKEDIR RAM:ENV
     ASSIGN ENV: RAM:ENV


VI.       Other Notes.

Unlike the more enlightened AmigaDOS, MS-DOS  limits its file names to a one
to eight-character filename plus a  one  to  three character file extension.
You really should only transfer  files  between  the two that conform to the
MS-DOS restrictions.  If you have  a  file  on  the Amiga side that does not
conform to these restrictions,  you  can't  transfer  it to the IBM side and
retain the same name.  For example, if  you had a file named ROUGHDRAFT.TEXT
on DF0:, and wanted to transfer  it  to  the  A:  drive using AREAD directly
(without XAREAD), you'd probably do something like this:

     AREAD DF0:ROUGHDRAFT.TEXT A:RUFDRAFT.TXT

because you know the about the MS-DOS filename limitations.  However XAREAD,
not having anywhere near  your  intelligence,  will  generate  the following
AREAD command for execution:

     AREAD DF0:ROUGHDRAFT.TEXT A:ROUGHDRAFT.TEXT

The "A:ROUGHDRAFT.TEXT" is an illegal MS-DOS  filename.  No big deal; MS-DOS
conventions truncate too-long filenames and extensions, and it will treat it
as if you entered it this way:

     AREAD DF0:ROUGHDRAFT.TEXT A:ROUGHDRA.TEX

dropping the "FT" and "T"  off  the  ends  of  the  filename parts.  No real
problem here.    However, what if you  have  two files on DF0: that you want
to transfer to A:, with the names TERMPAPER1.TEXT and TERMPAPER2.TEXT?  With
straight AREAD, you'd be smart enough to do this:

     AREAD DF0:TERMPAPER1.TEXT A:TERMPAP1.TXT
     AREAD DF0:TERMPAPER2.TEXT A:TERMPAP2.TXT

No problem.  But using XAREAD, you'd probably do this:

     XAREAD DF0:TERMPAPER#? A:

Which would generate this:

     AREAD DF0:TERMPAPER1.TEXT A:TERMPAPER1.TEXT
     AREAD DF0:TERMPAPER2.TEXT A:TERMPAPER2.TEXT

Which would be treated as if the AREAD commands were:

     AREAD DF0:TERMPAPER1.TEXT A:TERMPAPE.TEX
     AREAD DF0:TERMPAPER2.TEXT A:TERMPAPE.TEX

In other words, the  first  AREAD  would  copy  over  TERMPAPER1.TEXT to the
MS-DOS  file   TERMPAP.TEX.    Then   the   second  AREAD  would  copy  over
TERMPAPER2.TEXT, also to MS-DOS file TERMPAP.TEX, overwriting and destroying
what the first AREAD brought over  (without  warning,  by the way).  I don't
know what to tell you about  this  except  to  be  careful.  On the positive
side, the original  files  on  the  Amiga  side  are  still  intact; you can
retransmit them manually, or rename them to MS-DOS compliant names and reuse
XAREAD.


VII.      Examples.

On each of these examples, unless otherwise  specified, I'm only showing the
syntax on the Amiga side.   The  IBM  side,  you  just  type  XAREAD with no
options (after you did the XAREAD on the Amiga side).

1) Transfer all files from Amiga's DF0: to IBM's A: drive, translating Amiga
character  set  to  IBM-compatible  (i.e.,  the  files  are  assumed  to  be
non-binary text files).  Note that if DF0:  is full, you'll run out of space
on the A: drive, since an Amiga 3.5 inch disk holds 880K, while the IBM 5.25
inch disks (at least the ones that work with my setup) only hold 360K:

     XAREAD DF0:#? A:

2) Transfer all GIF files on the RAM: disk to the directory named GIF on the
IBM side, suppressing translation (GIFs are binary files):

     XAREAD RAM:#?.GIF \GIF /b

3) Another way of doing the same thing:

     XAREAD RAM:#?.GIF . /b

then, on the MSDOS side:

     CD \GIF
     XAREAD

In ex. 2, we specify that the  destination  directory is \GIF.  In ex. 3, we
specify that the destination directory  is the current MS-DOS directory (.),
and make the \GIF directory  the  current  directory  before  commencing the
transfer.

4) Copy all the .COM and .EXE files (binary) from the TEMP: assigned name to
the MS-DOS directory named \TEMP\COMMANDS:

     XAREAD TEMP:#?.((COM)|(EXE)) \TEMP\COMMANDS /b

5) Copy all the .TXT files that begin with a "J" from the TEMP: directory to
the "TEXT" directory on the A: disk,  translating  them  from Amiga ASCII to
IBM ASCII:

     XAREAD TEMP:B#?.TXT A:\TEXT

6)  Copy all the files from an IBM 720K 3.25 disk in DF2: to the MS-DOS root
directory, using the Consultron product  CrossDos (you have to have at least
the CrossDos demo program for this to work), as binary files:

     XAREAD DI2:#? \ /b

Incidentally, if you ever have a need to  read IBM 720K 3.25 inch diskettes,
get the CrossDos demo.  It's worth  the  download  time wherever you get it.
The  demo  allows  read-only  access  to  IBM  disks  in  the  Amiga  drives
(low-density only, because the drives  themselves  can't handle the 1.44 meg
format).  If you need read-write access, go buy the real thing.


VIII.     Acknowledgements.

I got the idea for this from the way IBM  does their multiple file transfers
on their IBMLink  service.   They,  too,  create  a  batch  file that can be
downloaded to the PC, and which  contains  all  the commands to download the
other files.  It doesn't work, but  at  least  they were headed in the right
direction.

If you look at the XAREAD AmigaDOS batch  file, you'll see some similarities
to the SPAT batch file that came with WorkBench 1.3.  That also helped.


IX.       Warranty.

Are you kidding?  Use at your own risk.


X.        Status, contacts, etc.

These files are Public Domain.  You  can  distribute them anywhere you like,
but I ask that you keep the files in  the  .LZH file together and unaltered.
If you have any questions, comments,  or  suggestions  I'd love to hear from
you.  I'd also like to hear from you  if  you make any improvements.  Like I
noted above, there're a lot of areas that  XAREAD is a little dumb, allowing
you  to  do  things  wrong,  and   there   are  probably  opportunities  for
improvement.  If you make any, please let me know.

Again, this is Public Domain, not ShareWare, but if you like this and use it
a lot, and want to express your appreciation in a financial way, please make
a contribution to the American Cancer Society, and drop me a line and let me
know you did.  That would make my day.


     Terry Carroll
     CAAUG BBS ((216)-642-3344) User ID Terry Carroll
     PC-Ohio  ((216)-381-3320) User ID Terry Carroll
     CompuServe User ID 71550,133

     23 November 1990