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PDD.TXT
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1995-07-25
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PDD.OPA
~~~~~~~
A Psion Series 3a program to access the Tandy Portable Disk Drive 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PDD.OPA is a program for the Psion Series 3a that allows it to make use of
the Tandy Portable Disk Drive 2 (PDD2). The PDD2 was a small battery powered
disk drive that Tandy once sold for use with their model 100, model 102 and
model 200 laptop computers. It could store only 200k and 80 files. The 80
files were divided between two directories that you have to access separately.
It's not made anymore but you can still find them for
sale if you check around. Prices are usually around $150.
Here's some places to look:
CompuServe:
~~~~~~~~~~
model 100 (M100SIG)
Atari Portfolio section of the Palmtop forum
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also you could try contacting:
Club 100: A Model 100 User Group
P.O. Box 23438
Pleasant Hill, Ca. 94523
510-932-8856 voice
510-939-1246 bbs
510-937-5039 fax
I was just on the Club 100 bbs tonight and there was 3 or 4 PDD2's for sale.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this zip file should be the following files:
pdd.opa
pdd.hlp
pdd.txt
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHANGES WITH VERSION 1.2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. PDD is now an OPA. Install as you would any other app. It doesn't matter
what directory you put it in as long as you keep PDD.OPA and PDD.HLP
together.
2. Fixed a couple of stupid bugs in some dialogs where hitting the escape
key instead of "N" was sometimes seen as a "Y".
3. Will no longer hang up if you put a unformatted disk in the disk drive.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHANGES WITH VERSION 1.1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Now if you try to save or load a file that already exists you're given a
chance to replace it. You no longer have to manual delete the file.
2. You no longer have to change to the directory a file is in before saving
it. You can hit 's', manuver around the directories and select the file
you want to save. The program will change to that directory and save the
file. Any files you load will now go to that directory, so be careful.
3. If you save or load a file over 5000 bytes the program will beep to let
you know it's done.
4. With this version one beep is just to get your attention, two beeps always
means an error has occurred.
5. Replaced some OPL code with Machine Language to improve speed when saving
files. Saves are now about 36% faster. Loads are the same since the time
it takes to load a file depends on the PDD and not on the Psion.
6. Program will no longer hang up if the PDD is off or not connected. You'll
get a "Drive not responding!" error.
7. Added pull down menus
8. Added help.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now on to some notes about the program.
There is no build in help or pull down menus. Hitting the help key or the
menu key will cause absolutely nothing to happen. The reason there aren't
any is that everything you can do is listed across the bottom of the screen
There's only three keys that have a function that aren't listed and they are:
'A' which will just show you my name and email addresses
'Psion-X' which exits the program
'space-bar' reads the files on the disk. 'M' also works because when I added
pull down menus I couldn't figure out how to put 'Space-bar' on
it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commands: (case does not matter)
'S'ave Writes a file to the PDD2. Will open a file selector for you
to select the file to save. You can press 'TAB' to call up a
full screen file selector and maneuver around till you find
the file you want. The path listed at the top left of the
screen will update to match your selection.
'L'oad Loads the file under the cursor from the PDD2. The file will be
place in the directory listed at the top left of the screen.
You can change this with the 'C' command.
'D'elete Deletes the file under the cursor from the PDD2. You have to
answer 'Y' to a query before it will proceed.
'R'ename Renames the file under the cursor. You're prompted for the new
name.
'C'hange Changes the directory where files loaded from the PDD2 will be
Dir placed. A file selector window opens to allow you to select
the directory. You can also press 'TAB' to call up a full
screen file selector. The current directory is shown at the top
left of the screen.
'B'ank Switches from Bank 0 to Bank 1 and back. When you save a file
to the PDD2 it goes into whatever bank you're looking at. The
banks are totally separate. You can have the same file in both
banks with no conflict. The current bank is shown at the top
right of the screen.
'F'ormat Formats a PDD2 disk. You're given two chances to back out before
the format proceeds. The PDD2 can only use 720k disks, 1.44k
disks confuse it and the format will fail. Because it uses a
proprietary disk format it can only put 200k on each disk. The
disks are not readable by anything else but there are programs
for DOS computers that will allow them to access the PDD. Look
in the Palmtop forum section 9 or the M100SIG.
End of Commands
When you start the program you'll see a 40 cell grid on the screen and a
couple of other things. In the top left corner will be "LOC::M:\". This is
the place any files you load in from the PDD2 will go. You change this by
typeing a 'C'. You'll get a file selector window that will only allow you to
select a directory name. You can change drives or hit TAB to see all the
directories.
On the upper right will "Bank 0"
The PDD2 is old technology. It stores a max of 80 files divided between two
directory banks. Each bank can hold only 40 files. Also each PDD2 disk can
hold only 200k. That's not much I know, but it's better then nothing. To
look at the other bank hit a 'B'. Any files you save to the PDD goes into
whatever bank you're looking at.
In the middle will be the list of files on the PDD2. There's 40 slots
because each directory can only hold 40 files. This display make it easy to
see if you have any slots left.
Under the file list on the left will be "202000 Bytes Free". This is the
remaining space on the disk. These numbers were obtained by a professional
programmer on a closed course, your actual numbers will be different.
On the right will be "0 Files". This is the number of files in the current
directory bank. It's here in case you don't feel like counting the files on
the screen. I don't.
On the bottom line of the screen is the available commands. See above for
a explanation of what each does.
---------------------------------------------
Notes on the PDD2:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You'll need a null modem to connect the PDD2 to your 3link cable. You can
pick one up at any Radio Shack.
There are several PDD access programs for DOS computers in the Palmtop forum
section 9 and the M100SIG forum.
---------------------------------------------
That's it, hope you get some use out this program. I also hope you don't
have too much trouble finding a PDD2 drive. Be careful, Tandy also sold a
PDD1 that will not work with this program. The PDD1 could only store 100k
on each disk and only had one directory bank. If a PDD1 is all you have and
you really want this program to work then