Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/455.lha/Pcopy_2.12/Pcopy.doc

Text File | 1990-12-10 | 13.5 KB | 342 lines

                              PCOPY

        Pcopy was made to produce large amounts of different copies in
        busy environs.  Like:  People are talking to you and you are
        searching programs for them in databases.  Others want
        information how to install some driver.  You divert people to
        others you know to be an authority on their problems.  You are
        copying PD and you have an arrears of two hours.  People ask
        whether their disks are ready yet.
        What are you copying at the moment?  What have you already
        done?  When to insert the next set?

        Pcopy shows the actual situation conveniently arranged, starts
        upon disk insertion, and produces reliable copies, because it
        can verify the written data.

        Pcopy does not copy copy-protected disks.  At least not that I
        know.  Its working is similar to that of Trackdisk (The software
        that normally controls the drives).  If Trackdisk cannot read a
        disk, than Pcopy probably will not be able too.

        If your source disk is failing, you can let Pcopy try to produce
        a copy with the original data recovered.

        Although Pcopy displays a lot of information, I think it is a
        rather dangerous copier (on behalf of its autostart
        capabilities) and its application lies in the production area.


                              START

        Pcopy can be executed from either the CLI or the Workbench.
        Two Trackdisk-drives must be available.  That is, ie., the
        internal and a normal external drive.  Selection is done by
        clicking on/off gadgets in a window.  When ready, one can
        proceed by clicking "DONE". If more than two (or less than
        two!) drives are selected, then clicking "DONE" has no effect.
        It is also possible to give the drivenames on the commandline.
        Pcopy will check for drive presence and type.  If the selected
        drives are available, DOS is asked to stay away from them.
        Pcopy takes control of the drives (as does diskcopy) and sets
        up the user interface.


                             WINDOWS

        There are two small windows (marked "Now in DFx:") which show
        at any moment the drive's contents.  An empty window means an
        empty drive.  Normally the disknames appear in these windows.
        If the disk cannot produce a name, a classification is
        displayed.  All text different from <VolumeName> is printed in
        another color. (black)

        In the window "Copy history" appear the names of all
        successfully copied disks.  If you want a name to disappear,
        double click on it.

        In the progression window the progress of the copy process is
        graphical presented.  Although the depth gadgets are invisible
        during the copy, they still exist and work.  The graph shows
        first where pcopy HAS written.  Another color displays verify.
        If the same track is to be written more than once, the color
        will change again.  The number tells on which cylinder Pcopy
        has written last.

        Further there is the control panel with the gadgets in it.


                             GADGETS


        -- Verify  ON/OFF

        The destination disk is read back and compared with the write
        buffer.  It can be turned on and off during the copy process.


        -- DFx: --> DFy:

        Defines which drive is source and which is destination.
        Clicking the arrow reverses the direction.


        -- Adapt Date

        DOS can distinguish the copy from the original if the creation
        and last altered date and time are different on both disks.
        If there are two disks present with the same volumename and
        date/time, DOS will crash.  To prevent this, the standard
        Diskcopy changes these fields.  Also if the BMFLAG is -1, it
        changes it to +1. Pcopy can do this too, thus preventing to
        create an exact copy.  Also if some read error could not be
        repaired, Pcopy can set this flag to zero.  This all happens
        with this gadget set to "ON".  Set to "OFF", the copy will be
        exact (if possible).


        -- Start Copy

        To be used to start the copy process manually.  The command is
        hold until it is possible to start the copy process (two disks
        inserted). A second click before the process is started will
        nullify the start command.  This gadget changes into a
        "Stop Copy" gadget during copying.  A confirmation is required.
        Disk removal, source as well as destination, is handled as a
        confirmed "Stop Copy".


        -- Auto Start Condition

        This whole area is a gadget.  Click in it to cycle the four
        stages.  See auto start for details.


        -- Triangle gadget

        In the topborder there is a gadget with a triangle.  This
        gadget affects the way Pcopy behaves to other disk users.  Its
        usage of the drive hardware it so intensive, that normally
        (triangle pointing up) other users do not get access to their
        drives.  You can let Pcopy be a little more modest by letting
        this gadget point down.  This costs from 3 to 70 seconds or
        more copy time.


                           AUTO START

        When a disk is inserted, it is classified.  To do so, the root
        track is read and analyzed.  If an error is detected while
        reading this track, Pcopy tries to repair the track to make
        this classification safe.  Four different types are
        distinguished and its classification appears in the "Now in .."
        window:


        -- New, Unformatted

        No data is detected.


        -- Non DOS

        Some data is found.  But its format is not the normal Amiga
        format.


        -- DOS, no root

        The track can be read, but the root sector was not found.


        -- <VolumeName>

        The root is found and the name of the disk is displayed.


        Now that Pcopy knows what kind of disk its dealing with, it can
        let the copy start depending on a user selected condition.
        These are listed:


        -- Off: Manual Start

        Pcopy does not start copy until the Start gadget is clicked.


        -- Dest must be New

        Pcopy starts only when a disk is classified as "New, Unformatted".
        The formats that are known to be detected are MS-DOS, MSX,
        Archimedes, Atari and Mac.  Probably most other formats are
        detected too, but you must check it for yourself.

        -- Dest may not be DOS

        Pcopy starts only when a disk is classified as "New, Unformatted"
        OR "Non DOS". By other systems already formatted disks are
        overwritten.

        -- Unconditional Start

        Starts always upon insertion.  If the disk is not write
        protected, it is simply overwritten.  This is a dangerous
        selection and is emphasized by changing the gadget's color.
        If an Amiga-DOS disk is to be overwritten, some sound is heard
        and a three second delay will elapse before the copy process
        starts.  When you remove the disk within this delay or click
        the "Stop Copy" gadget, no writing has taken place.  You can
        look at the Progression window, and if no graph or number is
        visible, you were in time.  I can only say:  Do not use this
        selection.


                            REQUESTERS

        If an error is detected, a requester will appear.  If abort is
        chosen, then the copy process will be terminated.  The actions
        following upon retry are listed below:

           Source read error # xx
           On cylinder # yy, head z.
           <Short error description>

        Retry tries to read again.
        Salve tries to repair the faulting track by multiple reads and
        analysis.  Copy continues after this action.

           Destination write error # xx
           On cylinder # yy, head z.
           <Short error description>

        Retry tries to write again.

           Verify error # xx
           On cylinder # yy, head z.

        Retry rewrites the track and checks again.

        If you do not know what the errors mean, ignore them.  Do a few
        retries and abort if no success.

        Some actions produce confirmation requesters, like Stop Copy and
        the standard stop gadget.  These are straightforward.  But
        perhaps the system is too low on memory to honor the memory
        requests to build the requester.  Then some defaults become
        active:  "Abort" and "User was serious".

        The requester is not a true requester but a window with gadgets.
        So if you use DMouse in a certain way, you have to place the
        mouse pointer in this requester to use the standard keyboard
        shortcuts.


                           TRACK SALVAGE

        Pcopy has capabilities to recover data from a damaged track.  The
        history window changes into a report window.  Each salved track
        produces two lines.  The line starting with 'L' reports the not
        recovered labels.  The 'S' reports not recovered sectors.  Behind
        the 'S' and 'L' the tracknumber is displayed.  If the line
        remains empty, you are lucky.  Otherwise the numbers of the not
        recovered labels or sectors will appear.  Normally labels are not
        used, and diskcopy does not copy them at all.  So ignore the
        label report.  The not recovered sectors are more important.  A
        disk that has been completely copied, but with one or more not
        recovered sectors, appears Italic in the history window.  The
        report remains visible as long as the destination disk stays in
        the drive.  A special Pcopy pattern ('Pcopy2',X,0) is written
        into not recovered sectors.  In that case if "Adapt Date" is ON,
        the BMFLAG is made 0.


                           PERFORMANCE

        Pcopy is fast (The fastest).  The best times: 100/68 seconds,
        verify ON/OFF.

        Pcopy tries to be friendly to other tasks, it leaves them a lot
        of time.  But in its disk use it is truly unfriendly.
        Therefore you can force Pcopy to give way to other tasks which
        want to use the disk hardware (other drives than those
        controlled by (this) Pcopy, of course).

        It is recommended to install TrackSalve when Pcopy is used on a
        system with more than two drives.  In the Trackdisk.device is a
        nasty bug which can interfere with Pcopy.  Nevertheless pcopy
        will deliver good copies.


                            HISTORY

        Pcopy 2.0 is a rewrite of Pcopy 1.0.(Fish 151).  The copier
        mostly in assembly and the user interface in C.  The user
        interface became a separate task.  Pcopy uses ONLY code and data
        derived from the original .i and .h files.  Therefore I think it
        will be compatible with future releases of the OS.

        Pcopy 2.01.  The audio.device is not to be accessed in the
        standard way, as I read recently in a publication of Commodore.
        Pcopy used the standard method and sometimes the audio.device
        died.  Pcopy waited for a reply.. forever...
        The algorithms of the size of the requester and its gadgets used
        the default font instead of the font of the screen on which
        Pcopy executes.  The requesters now are perhaps a little nicer
        when other fonts are used.
        The salve routine has been made a little more efficient without
        changing its functionality.  This results into a quicker login
        of non-Dos disks and a slightly shorter track salvage.

    Pcopy 2.02.  The progression graph now reflects write, verify and
    rewrite.

        Pcopy 2.1.  Better salve routines.  The routines in TrackSalve
        are far superior to the old ones in Pcopy.  These routine are
        now replaced.

        Pcopy 2.11. If just a sync was found, Pcopy classified the disk as
        "Amiga format, no root" instead of "No Amiga format".

        Pcopy 2.12.  Stupid.  Both release versions 2.1 and 2.11 were by
        a compile time flag actually debug versions with the salve
        function partial disabled.


                            FUTURE

        The way the drives are snached away from the system while
        remainingg disk-multitasking, prevents an easy adaption of
        dynamic drive allocation.  That would be the most obvious
        improvement of the program at the moment.
        Multi-destination is out of the question, because it is not a
        design aim.  Turbobackup has it implemented.  Besides that, the
        autostart logic is already dreadful.
        Because Intuition is not that friendly in its cpu usage, it
        should be better to have less windows open.  Therefore the graph
        could be displayed in the control window and the other windows
        could be made removable (recoverable).
        A configfile.
        Available drives investigation.
        And single drive operation.
        And multiple copy.
        Etc. etc.
        Guess who is silly.  First some money now with this machine.


                            COPYRIGHT

        Copyright 1989, 1990 D.W.Reisig.  Pcopy is freely distributable
        (FreeWare).  All you may charge for is medium costs.  You must
        include this file (Pcopy.doc) with the program (Pcopy).  You are
        not allowed to pass these files if changed.


        If you have any suggestions or remarks:

        Dirk W. Reisig
        Woudweeren 10
        1151 AV  Broek in Waterland
        The Netherlands (Holland)

        25-Oct-90