Microdrive Catalogue

Microdrive catalogue





Per Arne Jenseen[sic],


Aalesund, Norway.





The program for the ZX 16/48K Spectrum generates a list of


programs on a Microdrive cartridge together with the usual


information from the CAT command. It also helps you to


load and erase programs on your cartridge plus some more


functions.





Saved on Microdrive cartridge





The program should be saved on a cartridge like this:


SAVE *"m";1;"run" LINE 1: OPEN #4;"m";1;


CHR$ 0+"cat": CAT #4: CLOSE #4


[This has already been done on the .mdr on which this


program is supplied, but must be done again for every other


.mdr you want to use it on.] Type NEW and then RUN. The


program will then autoload and give you the opportunity to


use your Microdrive with a minimum of effort. You will be


presented with a list of programs on the cartridge.


Pressing the symbol in front of each program name will


automatically load it. If the name ends with a full stop,


the program will believe it's a block of code, and will ask


you for a CLEAR address. This can be skipped by pressing


the ENTER key. The program will then not NEW itself, thus


preserving the code block.


If you want to delete a program, press delete and the


program symbol on the list. The program will then be


erased.


You can operate more than one Microdrive by pressing


ENTER. A prompt will appear at the bottom of the screen to


tell you when you can do this. Caps+6 will bring you back


to drive 1.


To add a program to the cartridge, save the program as


normal. Then type NEW and RUN. Press EDIT and the new


program will be handled by the program. You can also use


the EDIT after doing a normal ERASE from Basic, as the


program will believe the other program is still on the


cartridge.





You can scroll the list





If the cartridge is very full and the list is long, then


you can scroll the list by using ENTER and Caps+7.


The program must be held in Microdrive 1. To use other


drives you must create a cat file on the other cartridge.


This is done by the same procedure described, but canceling


the SAVEing. Use drive 1 when doing this. If you do this


you can have my program on one cartridge only and cat files


on all the others.





[ This program includes a small machine code routine in a


REM statement. The listing instructs the user to first


load the machine code into the REM, and then to delete


the loader lines. On the .mdr, the program with the


machine code not loaded and the loader lines present


has been provided as "catclean"; the working version,


with machine code in place and those lines removed,


has been saved both as "Catalogue" and, as described


above, as "run". I've also provided a few trivial


sample files, so that there is something to load from


the catalogue beside the catalogue itself.


RLB, September 2012 ]