The Filer popdown

With extension RAM and EPROM cards fitted, you will have the ability to store many documents in your Cambridge Z88. The Filer (activated withF) provides everything you will need for organising these; in particular it allows you to:

Obtain a list (catalogue) of all your files, or the files in the optional EPROM card (Catalogue Files and Catalogue EPROM).
Move files to and from an EPROM, which provides permanent storage on a removable card in slot 3 of the Cambridge Z88 (Save to EPROM and Fetch from EPROM).
Change the names of files within the filing system (Rename).
Make additional copies of files (Copy), or remove files completely (Erase).

Other commands, for more advanced use of the Filer, are explained in the Filer Reference section.

When you have finished using the Filer, press

ESC

to return to the original application.

Hierarchical structure

The Cambridge Z88 filing system is a hierarchical filing system. This means that you can group files together within 'directories'. This facility is akin to keeping similar documents in a folder within a filing cabinet, and is of great assistance in keeping a large number of files orderly. However, for simple use of the filing system you will not need to use these facilities; see the Filer Reference section for a full description.

Note: With Operating Systems up to and including 3.0 it is important that you only exit the Filer by pressing

ESC

. In particular, if you are using Catalogue Files (

CF) or Catalogue EPROM (

CE) and you exit the Filer in the middle of the operation by using

INDEX

or

followed by a letter, then one of the files can become marked as 'IN USE', and you will not be able to access it without performing a soft reset.

Entering the Filer

The Filer display consists of two windows; a COMMANDS window, and a DIRECTORY window:

Selecting files

The Filer provides two ways of identifying the files you wish to operate on.

Either: Type the file name after the Filer prompt

Name :

Or: Select the file or files in the catalogue window, as described below.

Select First File -

ENTER

or

TAB

Select Extra File -

SHIFT

ENTER

or

TAB

Select the first file by highlighting the file name using the cursor keys, and press

ENTER

(or

TAB

). You can select further files, if required for an operation that can be performed on several files at once (eg Erase), using

SHIFT

ENTER

(or

TAB

again).

When selected, files are indicated by a marker to the left of the file name in the catalogue window, as shown in the Filer screenshot.

File names

Each file or directory in the filing system has a name of up to twelve letters or digits. This can be followed by a full stop and up to three further letters or digits called the extension, and is normally used to describe the type of the file. Thus a BASIC program could be saved as

game.bas

where bas is an extension used for all BASIC programs.

Upper- and lower-case letters are treated as equivalent in file names. In the catalogue window directories are displayed in a small typeface.

Specifying devices

When saving and loading files to and from applications, such as PipeDream, you will normally just give the file name and extension, if there is one. However, the Filer keeps a fuller description of where the file is in the system, including which RAM card it is on (the device), and several of the Filer commands will show this full form of the file name.

The full form of a file name is

:DEVICE/filename

The most useful options for DEVICE are:

`:RAM.0`	RAM in slot 0 (internal memory)
`:RAM.1 to :RAM.3`	RAM in slots 1 to 3 (external memory)

A full list is given in the Filer Reference section.

* can be used in any part of a file name to match any characters; thus

game*

represents any file name beginning with game, and

:RAM.*

represents all the RAM in the Cambridge Z88.

Giving Filer commands

You can give filer commands in one of three ways, depending which you find most convenient:

Select the command from the Filer COMMANDS list, using the and keys. The list of commands will scroll up if you move the cursor below the bottom of the screen. Then press
ENTER

to give the command.
Select the command from the COMMANDS menu with the cursor keys, and press
ENTER

to give the command.
Give the key sequence for the command, as listed below.

COMMANDS menu

Press

MENU

to see the COMMANDS menu:

Filer commands

The commands for simple use of the Filer are listed below; for full use of the hierarchical directory structure, see Section Seven - Filer Reference.

CF

Catalogue Files

Gives fuller information about a specified list of files. The subset of files to be catalogued is specified after the prompt

Name :

Reply as follows:

ENTER

catalogues all files (in the current directory)

fred* catalogues all files beginning with fred

*.bas catalogues all files with a bas extension

Each file will be listed as:

File name	Creation time & date		Last updated time & date		Size
`letter.txt`	`Today`	`17:42:54`	`Today`	`17:42:54`	`1254`
`novel.txt`	`01-Jun-1987`	`17:41:17`	`Today`	`14:32:58`	`13112`
`game.bas`	`02-Jun-1987`	`12:27:43`	`02-Jun-1987`	`12:27:43`	`827`

* in characters.

(The last updated time and date are only relevant if OPENUP is used from BASIC.) If the file is open at the time it is catalogued, the size will not be shown.

When you catalogue or save to a blank EPROM, the display will go blank for a few seconds while the EPROM is checked.

CE

Catalogue EPROM

Gives a list of information on all files in an EPROM card fitted in slot 3. The directories and file names will be given to show where the files originally came from.

ES

Save to EPROM

Copies files from the filing system to an EPROM card fitted in slot 3. The file or files to be saved can either be selected as already described, or specified after the prompt

Name :

Note that while a file is being saved to EPROM the screen will blank intermittently until saving is completed, when the Cambridge Z88 will bleep.

EF

Fetch from EPROM

Copies files from EPROM card in slot 3 back to the filing system. Gives the prompts

Source : Destination :

Source: specifies the name of the file in the EPROM.

Destination: gives the name it is to be saved as in the destination filing system. It is initially set to the same as the source name, but you can edit it if you want to save the file under a different name.

CO

Copy

Makes a second copy of a file. Gives the prompt

Name :

allowing you to specify the file name to be copied, followed by the prompt

New name :

for the name of the copy.

Multiple files (selected in the catalogue window) can be merged into a single file with the Copy command; they will be appended in the order in which they were selected.

RE

Rename

Allows the name of a file to be altered. Gives the prompts

Name : New name :

For example, to change the name of a file from game.bas to 0ldversion you would specify

Name : game.bas New name : oldversion

Note that you cannot use the Rename command to move a file from one directory or device to another. The new name must be a simple file name; devices and path names are not permitted.

ER

Erase

Allows one or more files to be removed from the filing system. Gives the prompt

Name :

followed by the prompt

Confirm each file ? Yes

Pressing

ENTER

will prompt for each file you have selected to be erased, so allowing you to change your decision for any particular file. Alternatively, changing the option to No by typing N will erase all the selected files without further prompting.

You will not be permitted to erase a file which is in use; for example, a directory containing other files, or an open BASIC file.

Files can only be erased from the EPROM with the ultra-violet EPROM eraser.

Note that because parts of an erased file may still be present, you should not rely on the Erase command for disposing of confidential information from the system.

Advanced Filer commands

The remaining Filer commands are for advanced use of the Filer, and the hierarchical directory structure; these are explained in the Section Seven - Filer Reference,