UWAGA uzytkownicy polscy: dokumentacja po polsku jest w pliku 300BM.POL ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Documentation for programs 300BM.COM and 300BM2.COM =================================================== Last revision: February 17, 1994 300BM.COM (300BM2.COM is identical except of using COM2: port instead of COM1:) is a simple file transfer program using the RS-232 interface. It is intended mainly for transferring files between Atari Portfolio and a desktop PC, although it may be used to transfer files between any two PC's. The basic usage of the program is as follows: on first computer 300bm filename /o - to receive, and then on another computer 300bm filename /n - to send. The filenames in both commands need not be the same, although usually they are. However, you may receive the file under another name than the original file had. Files have to be in current directory. The program does not recognize pathnames. The transferred files cannot be larger than 64KB (in fact, a little less: 64KB minus length of file 300BM.COM minus 320 bytes). They cannot also - which may be important on the Portfolio - be larger than the amount of free RAM (file is held in RAM during the transfer). The program DOES NOT CHECK THIS so you have to be careful when transferring large files, to avoid system hangup. The 300BM.COM program uses COM1: port. To use COM2: for transfers you have to run 300BM2.COM instead of 300BM.COM. It is identical except of using another port number. Of course, you may use 300BM.COM on one computer and 300BM2.COM on another. Before using the program, you should set RS-232 communications parameters on both computers (for example with DOS's MODE command), because the program doesn't initialize the interface by itself. There are no particular requirements for the parameters, except that they should be identical on both computers. You should not use too high baudrates (transfer speeds), because the program is very little error-proof. The recommended maximum is 2400 bps. --------------------------- If you want to use this program on Atari Portfolio, the basic problem is of course how to initially put the 300BM.COM program onto it. For this, we use DOS's COPY command. Because this command cannot check the RS-232 status and reads the transferred bytes at unpredictable moments, the transfer must be very slow. For initial transfer of the 300BM.COM program to the Portfolio you have to set the following communications parameters on both computers: baudrate - 300 bps parity - Even data bits - 8 stop bits - 2 You can do this on a desktop PC with the DOS command mode com1:300,e,8,2 (or mode com2:300,e,8,2 if you are using COM2:) The enclosed batch file 300.BAT does this for COM2: (of course, it is easy to change it to COM1:). On the Portfolio, you set the communications parameters in the "RS-232 port" option from the Setup menu (called by pressing [Atari+S]). After choosing the appropriate parameters, select the "Initialize!" option to initialize the RS-232 interface with chosen parameters. To begin the transfer, first type on the Portfolio: copy com1: 300bm.com and then on the desktop PC type (quickly, before Portfolio displays a "Not ready error" message): 300bm 300bm.com /b (or 300bm2 300bm.com /b if you are using COM2:) Regardless of whether you are using 300BM.COM or 300BM2.COM on the desktop PC, you should always transfer the file 300BM.COM to Portfolio, because Portfolio has only COM1: port ! After transferring 300BM.COM to Portfolio verify whether the transfer was correct. The file you received with the COPY command should be exactly 765 bytes long - one byte less than the original file 300BM.COM has. This missing byte is the end-of-file character (Ctrl-Z, ASCII code 26), that has been appended to the file to allow the COPY COM1: ... command to work correctly. It has no significance to the program operation. After starting 300BM.COM without any parameters it should display the message: Usage: 300bm filename [/n|/b|/o] If these both "tests" succeeded, we may assume that the program has been verified and begin regular file transfers with it, as described before. Remember now to set higher transfer speed than the initial 300 bps. Transfers at 2400 bps are reasonably safe. On the desktop PC you may use the file 2400.BAT to set this speed (again, on COM2: port). You cannot use this file on the Portfolio because the MODE command that this file uses does not exist there (it would be quite easy to write an equivalent program, but I have no time now - sorry). Parameters in the 2400.BAT file (2400,e,8,2) are chosen so that you only have to change the baudrate in Portfolio's menu. However, you can give up parity and use only one stop bit (2400,n,8,1) which should give an additionall little increase of the transfer speed. If the file 300BM.COM transmitted to the Portfolio has other length, or behaves not as described above when called, it has been transferred incorrectly. This can mean that a baudrate of 300 bps is still too high for this particular computer, and you should transfer again at a lower speed. After the file 300BM.COM is placed on the Portfolio, it is wise to protect it against an accidental deletion by setting the read-only attribute. You can do it with the enclosed program AT.COM (see below): at 300bm.com ra If you have enough space on the Portfolio's disk, you can of course transfer with 300BM.COM a better communications program (like ACOM.EXE) and perform further file transfers with it. It is surely much more comfortable and faster, but all these programs are much larger than the 300BM.COM. This one has the advantage of fitting even on almost full Portfolio's disk. --------------------------- Contents of this package: 300BM.COM - file transfer program for COM1: 300BM2.COM - file transfer program for COM2: 300BM.DOC - documentation (in English) 300BM.POL - documentation (in Polish) 300.BAT - a batch file to set the communications parameters on COM2: for the initial transfer of 300BM.COM to the Portfolio 2400.BAT - a batch file to set the "working" communications parameters on COM2: AT.COM - program for setting file attributes. Usage: at filename [rhsan] The attributes of specified file will be set according to specified combination of letters: r - read only h - hidden s - system a - archive Specifying 'n' clears all attributes. --------------------------- These programs are "public domain". Send questions and comments to: Jan Czaplinski, peczapli@lfs.cyf-kr.edu.pl Jaroslaw Rafa, sfrafa@lfs.cyf-kr.edu.pl