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 with

F) 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 

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 

. 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 

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:

 

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 - 

or  

Select Extra File - 

or  

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

(or 

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

(or 

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:

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:

1. 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  

   to give the command.

2. Select the command from the COMMANDS menu with the cursor keys, and press  

   to give the command.

3. Give the

    key sequence for the command, as listed below.

COMMANDS menu