Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ecsvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!calway From: calway@ecsvax.UUCP (James Calloway) Newsgroups: net.micro.cbm Subject: Re: Question: I/O to 1541 and BASIC tokens Message-ID: <349@ecsvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 13-Dec-84 00:09:40 EST Article-I.D.: ecsvax.349 Posted: Thu Dec 13 00:09:40 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 14-Dec-84 07:29:02 EST References: <1222@hou4b.UUCP> Organization: The News and Observer Lines: 29 I'll take a crack at the first two questions: 1. Where to find list of BASIC tokens. See page 120 and 122 of the January 1985 issue of Compute!'s Gazette. 2. When and why to initialize the disk drive. The initialize command ("i") forces the disk drive to re-read the Block Allocation Map, which tells the drive which parts of the disk are in use and which are free. It is always a good idea to initialize whenever you switch disks, because the BAM the drive holds in its memory will be that of the previous disk, and the drive may unwittingly screw up the current disk because it thinks it still has the previous one. Normally the drive will automatically initialize itself if it detects that the disk has a different ID code (the two-character identification you give the disk when you NEW it for the first time) from that of the previous disk. If you switch disks and the two have the same ID, you probably will get a "directory error" when you call the directory because it won't match the BAM that the machine has in memory. Also, failing to close the channels to the drive before switching disks may cause problems, although I am not sure of that. -- James Calloway The News and Observer Box 191 Raleigh, N.C. 27602 (919) 829-4570 {akgua,decvax}!mcnc!ecsvax!calway