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Instructions for 1541-READS-DOS+ (February 22, 1996 by Richard Hable)
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1541-READS-DOS+ is an improved version of the C64 program 1541-READS-DOS
from the 1541-DOS package.  Like its predecessor, it requires a modified
1541 disk drive.  The 1541-DOS package with its instructions and 
additional software should be downloaded first.  1541-READS-DOS+ is
stored as 1541-RDP in order to avoid problems with MS-DOS restrictions.


CHANGES

* reads MS-DOS files almost three times faster than before

* allows printing MS-DOS files to the screen or serial-bus printers

  Printing to the screen can be selected by choosing destination device
  number 3.  For correct appearance of text on the screen, CBM character 
  conversion (conversion code 1) has to be selected on MS-DOS text files.

  Printing MS-DOS text files on serial-bus printers is possible by
  choosing devices 4 to 7.  An appropriate secondary address has to 
  be entered then.  With Commodore printers, secondary address 7 and
  CBM character conversion should be used.  With ASCII printers, a
  secondary address has to be used that tells the printer interface to
  send characters to the printer without conversion.  Similarly, no text
  conversion (conversion code 0) should be chosen during file selection
  then.  Auto-LF should be switched off too, because MS-DOS text files 
  already contain LF characters.


CRC32

  crc32b = 8ed96eba for "1541-reads-dos+"
 

COPYRIGHT  

  1541-READS-DOS+ was written by Richard Hable and may be distributed 
  freely.  Everybody uses it at their own risk.


THE FUTURE

  Do not expect further updates of the 1541-DOS package very soon. 
  I mainly improved 1541-READS-DOS this time, because I wanted to make 
  use of a clever C1541 -> C64 transfer routine I had written before.
  Sometime, I will completely rewrite the 1541-DOS programs.
  

KNOWN PROBLEMS WITH THE 1541-DOS PACKAGE

- Nobody seems to have found a way to apply the MFM modification on
  1541II drives yet.

- There is a bug in READ90K.COM which sometimes leads to a wrong
  file length when transfering files *from* CBM disks *to* MS-DOS
  disks.  To be on the save side, check the correct transfer with
  something like the CRC32 utilities. 


Richard
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E-mail: Richard.Hable@jk.uni-linz.ac.at


