Give the operating system a job!

Subj !
This is an appeal to all programmers writing on the Spectrum.
Please use disk #3D13 to work with.

At the same time, of course, many questions arise with error handling and protection
of programs from copying.
Nothing with protection you can do it. I agree, you can’t do without non-standard
formats and I’m not against it.

But, if you are making a program for everyone, without copy protection, then you just
need to use standard access in TR-DOS, at addresses #3D00,
#3D03 and #3D13. Many spektrumists now have hard drives, RAM-disks, etc.
I believe that network drives will appear soon. When working with such
devices, many problems arise when the program goes to TR-DOS via a non-standard input.

In the end, it would not be bad if the user had the ability to select
the mode of working with the disk. If you are working with a real disk, you can
use all TR-DOS entry points, but if the program is launched from a hard drive
or RAM-Disk, then standard entry points are used.
If the program has such a choice, then it retains all the advantages of programs
with turboloaders and at the same time can work with other external memory devices.
A hard drive and RAM-Disk will in any case work faster than a regular floppy disk with turbo loading and, for example, the same POWER_UP would work withoutbrakes from
RAM-Disk using #3D13.

Question: How to select the operating mode?
Answer: Ask the user. In a cooler program, you can make an appropriate note in the program so that you don’t have to ask again and again. You can have something like Setup to select the mode for working with disks.
I consider it undesirable to have a fully automatic selection of the mode for working with disk
because... More and more new devices are appearing that use override
#3D13 inside TR-DOS and this may not be detected by the program.

And one more note. Very often it turns out that a program with a turboloader does not work normally if it is not launched from disk A. Imho,
it is not at all difficult, when starting the program, take a variable, a copy of the #FF
TR-DOS port, save it with yourself if TR-DOS data is killed, and use your
copy everywhere in the turboloader.

Ivan

Fri Mar 20 1998 23:41, Ivan Mak wrote to All coders:

IM> Hello All.
IM> Subj !
[..sent to the galaxy of rectals..]
Has anyone seen this letter? Or did it not hurt anyone?

Ivan

IM> [..sent to the rectal galaxy..]
IM> Has anyone seen this letter? Or did it not hurt anyone?
I don’t know about the others, but I didn’t see it.

With respect, Roman aka Megus of BrainWave association.

[Team ZX-Spectrum] [Team Agatha Christie] [Team Metallica] [Team Iron Maiden]

Subj !
This is an appeal to all programmers writing on the Spectrum.
Please use to work with disk #3D13.

At the same time, of course, many questions arise with error handling and with protection
of programs from copying.
Nothing can be done about the protection. I agree, you can’t do without non-standard
formats and I’m not against it.

But, if you are making a program for everyone, without copy protection, then you just
need to use standard access in TR-DOS, at addresses #3D00,
#3D03 and #3D13. Many spektrumists now have hard drives, RAM-disks, etc.
I believe that network drives will appear soon. When working with such
devices, many problems arise when the program goes to TR-DOS via a non-standard input.

In the end, it would not be bad if the user had the ability to select
the mode of working with the disk. If you are working with a real disk, you can
use all TR-DOS entry points, but if the program is launched from a hard drive
or RAM-Disk, then standard entry points are used.
If the program has such a choice, then it retains all the advantages of programs
with turboloaders and the same time can work with other external memory devices.
A hard drive and RAM-Disk will in any case work faster than a regular floppy disk with turbo loading and, for example, the same POWER_UP would work without brakesfrom
RAM-Disk, using #3D13.

Question: How to select the operating mode?
Answer: Ask the user. In a cooler program, you can make an appropriate note in the program so that you don’t have to ask again and again. You can have something like Setup to select the mode for working with disks.
I consider it undesirable to have a fully automatic selection of the mode for working with disk
because... More and more new devices are appearing that use override
#3D13 inside TR-DOS and this may not be detected by the program.

And one more note. Very often it turns out that a program with a turboloader does not work normally if it is not launched from disk A. Imho,
it is not at all difficult, when starting the program, take a variable, a copy of the #FF
TR-DOS port, save it with yourself if TR-DOS data is killed, and use your
copy everywhere in the turboloader.

Ivan