------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING!!!  THIS IS A BETA RELEASE OF THE STAR COMMANDER!!!  YOU MAY SPREAD IT
TO ANYONE BUT YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE IT ON FTP SITES, WWW PAGES OR CD-ROM'S!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                        The Star Commander, Version 0.82

  This is still not the final release  of  The Star Commander.  Look  out  for
further releases. Please, report bugs and ideas to me because I  want  Version
1.0 to be the final release. Sorry for all kinds of bugs in the Commander  but
I'm in a hurry, as always.



  0.  Table of contents

  1.  Introduction
  2.  Copyright and legal issues
  3.  System requirements
  4.  Installation
  5.  Advantages of the Commander
  6.  Connecting a Commodore drive to your PC
  7.  The X1541-series interfaces
  8.  Technical background information
  9.  Troubleshooting
  10. Reporting problems, ideas and wishes
  11. Bugs fixed since Version 0.81
  12. Other changes since Version 0.81
  13. Known problems and limitations
  14. Coming soon
  15. Thanks to
  16. Where to find the Commander
  17. The author



  1.  Introduction

  This program handles the image files  of  the  C64 Software Emulator  (C64S,
(C) by Miha Peternel and Seattle Lab, 1994-1997), the CCS64 emulator  ((C)  by
Per Hkan Sundell, 1996-2000), Personal C64  (PC64,  (C)  by  Wolfgang Lorenz,
1994-1997) and VICE ((C) by  Ettore Perazzoli,  Andr Fachat,  Teemu Rantanen,
Daniel Sladic, Andreas Boose, Dag Lem, Tibor Biczo,  Jouko  Valta  and  Jarkko
Sonninen, 1993-2000). It copies files and disks between the  PC  and  external
Commodore 1541, 1570, 1571 and 1581  drives  and  converts  several  Commodore
archive formats. It is similar to The Norton Commander (NC,  (C)  by  Symantec
Inc., 1986-1995) and  The Volkov Commander  (VC,  (C)  by  Vsevolod V. Volkov,
1991-2000) so it will surely be easy to use. However, before you  start  using
it, please, read this documentation and the online  help  carefully,  for  the
differences from the other Commanders, the  description  of  the  X1541-series
interfaces and other details.



  2.  Copyright and legal issues

  The Commander is giftware. You may use the unregistered version as  long  as
you wish and you may spread it to anyone, provided that it's in the  original,
unmodified archive. Don't distribute single files,  only  the  whole  package.
To avoid  confusion,  you  should  download  distribution  packages  from  the
official homepage or other official distribution sites. If you get  a  package
from somewhere else then make sure that the package has the author's authentic
verification stamped on it.

  The unregistered version is in no way crippled, there are no nag screens  or
delays in it. However, if you are frequently using the Commander and  you  are
satisfied with it then you are encouraged to register. Please, read  the  file
REGISTER.TXT for more details. You must not distribute  the  personal  keyfile
you receive when you register.

  The source of the Commander is distributed under a public license similar to
the GNU Public License. However, it still is  copyrighted  software.  You  may
distribute only those modified versions that satisfy all restrictions  in  the
license and you may not ask for money above the normal fee of the distribution
media itself. Furthermore, you may not publish the program or  its  source  on
floppy disk, CD-ROM or any other distribution media without  prior  permission
from the author.

  The Commander is provided "as is", without a warranty of any kind.  You  are
using it at your own risk. The author is not liable for  any  damage  or  data
loss caused by the program (especially now, that the Commander is still  under
development).



  3.  System requirements

  You must have an IBM or compatible PC with an 80286 processor or higher with
MS-DOS 3.20 or above installed on it and about 470 KBytes of free conventional
memory. You may also try running the Commander under the DOS emulator of  OS/2
after enabling the HW_TIMER option in the DOS settings. Some versions  of  the
Linux dosemu don't like the the OverXMS unit of the  Commander  for  some  yet
unknown reason. If you want  to  try  accessing  a  Commodore  drive  under  a
multi-tasking system then switch the transfer mode to  Async.  Remember  that,
although some extra functions were implemented in the Commander to make it run
better under multi-tasking systems, you are supposed to run it under real DOS.



  4.  Installation

  You can install the Commander  simply   by  decompressing  the  distribution
package using PKZIP 2.xx. You don't need all the files to run  the  Commander,
most of them are only for your comfort.

  For an absolute minimum installation, you need SCMAIN.EXE. (required)

  If you want to have much more memory in  the  DOS  shell,  keep  SC.EXE  and
launch that instead of the main executable. (highly recommended)

  You can enable the online help by extracting SC.HLP. SCVIEW.EXE displays and
SCEDIT.EXE edits  DOS  files  and  Commodore  files  inside  image  files  and
uncompressed archive files. (recommended)

  With SCSETUP.EXE, you can change the settings of the Commander  outside  the
program. (optional)

  There are some sample menu (*.MNU) and extension files (*.EXT) to  help  you
with handling PC and Commodore archives and formatting PC disks.  The  archive
PALETTES.ZIP contains some predefined color palettes. You can run PRINTHLP.EXE
to extract the online help into a text file or to print it out. If you want to
use the Commander under OS/2, Windows, Windows '95 or Windows NT  then  SC.ICO
and SC.PIF are just for you. (optional)

  The archive SC_ARC.ZIP contains the external utilities that  help  you  with
mass-converting Commodore archive formats. The Star Utilities consists of  the
following programs:

  - Star ARC lists the contents of Commodore ARC archives and  Self-Dissolving
    Archives (SDA) and extracts them into disk images

  - Star Arkive creates Arkive  archives  out  of  disk  images,  lists  their
    contents and extracts them into disk images

  - Star LHA creates Commodore LHA archives and Self-Extracting (SFX) archives
    out of disk images, lists their  contents  and  extracts  them  into  disk
    images

  - Star Library creates Library archives out  of  disk  images,  lists  their
    contents and extracts them into disk images

  - Star List lists the contents of image and archive files into a  text  file
    or onto the screen

  - Star Lynx creates Lynx archives out of multiple DOS files or the  contents
    of disk images, lists the contents of Lynx archives and extracts them into
    multiple DOS files or into disk images

  - Star Tape collects multiple PC64 file images into tape images

  - Star Zip creates diskpacked or filepacked  ZipCode archives  out  of  disk
    images, lists filepacked archives, tests diskpacked archives and  extracts
    both types into disk images

  You can find  the  complete  distribution  package  of  the  Star Utilities,
including documentation, at the homepage.



  5.  Advantages of the Commander

  It is comfortable to use the well-known environment of The Norton Commander.
There is no need to learn sequences of weird key combinations, only press some
familiar ones. You can always clearly see what's happening on the screen.

  Hopefully you remember Disk-Demon, the great C64  disk  editor,  written  by
G. Brandt and A. Wellie in 1986/87. A similar disk editor is  built  into  the
Commander so that you can modify data in disk images and  disks  on  Commodore
drives directly.

  Several configuration options make the use of the Commander easy  and  quite
comfortable.

  The Commander can optionally display everything with the C64  character  set
(only on EGA/VGA video cards).

  Most of the image file handling routines are faster than those of the  other
similar utilities.

  The Commander has built-in support for  several  Commodore  archive  formats
(Lynx, filepacked ZipCode, LHA, Arkive and TAR). The external  utilities  also
help you with mass-converting them.

  Following is a benchmark of the  Commander  under  plain  DOS.  An  original
1541-II drive was used with a 35 track disk. The disk contained  a  210  block
file, stored below track #18. The interleave used to  save  the  file  was  10
sectors, the head movement speed was set to 16. In the charts, transfer  modes
marked with (*) are equipped with manual  retry  on  disk  errors,  (+)  means
optional verify.

    ͻ
       Whole disk copy     Read from the 1541     Write to the 1541   
    ͹
         Normal mode              7:50 (*)              9:55 (*)      
    Ķ
         Turbo mode               2:25 (*)              2:25 (*)      
    Ķ
          Warp mode               1:16 (*)              1:19 (*+)     
    Ķ
      Hybrid turbo mode           1:09 (*)              0:48 (*)      
    Ķ
      Hybrid warp mode            0:50 (*)              0:29 (*+)     
    Ķ
     Parallel turbo mode          0:48 (*)              0:48 (*)      
    Ķ
     Parallel warp mode           0:23 (*)              0:29 (*+)     
    ͼ

    ͻ
     210 block file copy   Read from the 1541     Write to the 1541   
    ͹
         Normal mode              2:20                  2:25          
    Ķ
         Turbo mode               1:00                  1:01          
    Ķ
          Warp mode               0:26 (*)              0:26 (*)      
    Ķ
      Hybrid turbo mode           0:22                  0:24          
    Ķ
      Hybrid warp mode            0:18 (*)              0:10 (*)      
    Ķ
     Parallel turbo mode          0:22                  0:24          
    Ķ
     Parallel warp mode           0:10 (*)              0:10 (*)      
    ͼ



  6.  Connecting a Commodore drive to your PC

  The serial connection is done using the well-known X1541 interface.  If  you
want to achieve a much higher transfer speed and you're willing to modify your
1541 drive and you have a bidirectional parallel port then you can make use of
the XP1541 or XP1571 parallel interface. If you  only  have  a  unidirectional
parallel port then the XH1541 or XH1571 hybrid interface gives  you  the  best
performance. If you only have an EPP or ECP port then you have  to  substitute
the X1541 interface with the XE1541, XM1541 or XA1541 interface.  You can find
the description of all interfaces in the following section.

  Unless you're using the XH1541 or XH1571  hybrid  cable  or  the  XP1541  or
XP1571 parallel cable, don't try to access  external  drives  under  a  multi-
tasking system. You may also try the async transfer mode along with the X1541,
XE1541, XM1541 and XA1541 cables under  multi-tasking  systems  but  it's  not
guaranteed to work absolutely  error  free.  Remove  memory  managers,  device
drivers and other resident programs, if having problems.

  The Commander has a machine independent synchronization method that uses the
hardware system timers. The automatic calibrator inside the Commander tries to
find a delay value that makes your PC communicate with the Commodore drive  at
the exact speed of the drive. However, if you encounter transfer  problems  or
you want to fine tune the transfer speed then you may raise or lower the delay
value in the 'Transfer options' menu manually.

  The Commander is equipped with optional fast transfer modes. In  turbo  mode
it transfers data from and to the external Commodore  drive  about  2-3  times
faster and in warp mode 5-6 times faster. If you also connect  your  Commodore
drive with the XH1541 or XH1571 hybrid cable to the PC, using turbo mode,  the
data transfer will be 6-12, with warp mode 6-20 times faster.  The  XP1541  or
XP1571 parallel cable gives you 6-12 times the original speed  in  turbo  mode
and is 10-20 times faster in warp mode.  The  Commander  has  turbo  and  warp
command routines, as well. These speed up deleting files and validating  disks
to 2-10 times the original speed (depending on the number and  length  of  the
files on the disk) and disk format takes only about 12 seconds.

  Besides 1541 drives, the Commander supports  1570,  1571  and  1581  drives.
Currently, the disk turbos for 1570 and 1571 drives are finished and  you  can
also copy double-sided disks with 1571 drives but  1581  drives  can  only  be
accessed at normal speed.



  7.  The X1541-series interfaces

  Here is the description of the X1541-series interfaces, with which  you  can
connect a Commodore drive to your PC to use with the Commander.

  If you don't want to read through this complete chapter then you should,  at
least, read the most important facts about the cables and their  compatibility
with parallel ports of different modes:

  - The X1541 cable works on older type SPP and PS/2 parallel ports, ones that
    have bidirectional control lines. The  parallel  port  on  I/O  controller
    cards for 286, 386 and 486 machines and on Hercules video  cards  and  the
    integrated parallel port of most newer 486 motherboards support the  X1541
    cable but only  certain  Pentium  motherboards  have  compatible  parallel
    ports. On motherboards with an integrated parallel port, you have  to  set
    the mode of the parallel port to SPP because the X1541  cable  won't  work
    with EPP and ECP parallel ports.  However,  on  many  newer  motherboards,
    there's absolutely no way to make the X1541 cable work because the control
    lines are not bidirectional in any mode of the parallel port. You need the
    XE1541 extended or the XA1541 active cable on such machines.

  - The XE1541 extended cable is a  substitution  for  the  X1541  cable.  Its
    advantage is that works in all modes of all parallel ports. Its  drawbacks
    are that you need special diodes to build it and that only a few  programs
    support it. Please, note that even this cable has problems with ASUS P5A-B
    motherboards and certain laptops. On these machines, use the XA1541 active
    cable instead.

  - The XM1541 multitask cable differs from the XE1541 extended cable  in  two
    wires swapped at the Commodore end. This enables other  transfer  programs
    to use interrupts rather than polling  for  handshake  with  the  external
    Commodore drive. Its drawbacks are similar to the XE1541  extended  cable.
    However, it works under Linux, as well.

  - The XA1541 active cable is similar to the XM1541 multitask  cable  but  it
    uses transistors and resistors  instead  of  diodes.  This  makes  it  the
    ultimate transfer cable because it works with all kinds of parallel ports,
    including the ones the XE1541 extended cable has problems with. This cable
    also works under Linux.

  - The XH1541 hybrid cable speeds up  communication  with  a  Commodore  1541
    drive in all modes of all parallel ports. Its advantage  is  that  sending
    data to the drive becomes 3 times, receiving data 1.5  times  faster.  Its
    disadvantage is that you have to modify your drive internally so that  you
    can connect this cable to a parallel plug on the drive. You can't use this
    cable alone, only together with the X1541 cable. You can't use this  cable
    together with the XE1541 extended,  XM1541  multitask  and  XA1541  active
    cables on the same port, because of the conflict between the pins used  by
    the two cables on the PC parallel port.

  - The XH1571 hybrid cable is a modified version of the XH1541 hybrid  cable,
    designed for 1570 and 1571 drives. Except  for  the  periphery  chip  used
    in the Commodore drive, it is completely the same cable as the XH1541.

  - The XP1541 parallel cable speeds up communication with  a  Commodore  1541
    drive via a PS/2, EPP or ECP  parallel  port  where  the  data  lines  are
    bidirectional. Its advantage is that both sending data  to  and  receiving
    data from the drive becomes 3 times faster. Its disadvantages are that you
    have to modify your drive internally so that you can connect this cable to
    a parallel plug on the drive and that its need for  a  bidirectional  port
    excludes the possibility to use the X1541 cable, except on PS/2 ports. You
    can't use this cable alone, only together with a serial  cable.

  - The XP1571 parallel cable is a modified version  of  the  XP1541  parallel
    cable, designed for 1570 and 1571 drives. Except for  the  periphery  chip
    used in the Commodore drive, it  is  completely  the  same  cable  as  the
    XP1541.

  - If you only have one parallel port but want to use the  XH1541  or  XH1571
    hybrid cable or the XP1541 or XP1571 parallel cable then you can create  a
    Y-shaped cable. One end plugs into the PC parallel port and the two  other
    ends plug into the serial and parallel ports on the drive. You can use the
    X1541 cable together with the XH1541 or XH1571  hybrid  cable  on  an  SPP
    parallel port, the X1541 cable together with the XP1541 or XP1571 parallel
    cable on a PS/2 parallel port and the XE1541  extended,  XM1541  multitask
    and XA1541 active cable together with the XP1541 or XP1571 parallel  cable
    on a PS/2, EPP or ECP port. You can't use the XE1541,  XM1541  and  XA1541
    cables together with the XH1541 or XH1571 hybrid cable on the  same  port,
    because of the conflict between the pins used by the two cables on the  PC
    parallel port.

  If you'd like to build cables yourself then you can  find  a  more  detailed
description of them at "http://sta.c64.org/xcables.html". If you're  not  good
at soldering then visit The X1541 Shop at  "http://sta.c64.org/x1541shop.html"
and buy cheap but good quality cables there.

  The mode of your parallel port is  a vital  feature  that  determines  which
cables you can use with your machine so try to find out all the modes of  your
parallel port. Older I/O and parallel port cards only have the  unidirectional
SPP mode, most Pentium and newer 486  motherboards  have  integrated  parallel
ports and allow you to set the port mode in the BIOS  setup,  with  the  usual
choices of SPP, EPP and ECP.

  It's possible that, when changing the mode of the integrated  parallel  port
in your BIOS setup, you won't find the necessary modes as they are  called  in
this documentation. Some BIOS setups have different names for the port  modes.
Compatible, Normal and Standard usually refer to SPP, Extended  possibly means
PS/2 or EPP and Enhanced stands for EPP or ECP.

  Below you find some advices about which cables to use with a given  parallel
port mode and vice versa. They are based on the fact that most  SPP  and  PS/2
parallel ports support the X1541 cable and most EPP  and  ECP  parallel  ports
don't. However, because of the lack of strict standards, there are  exceptions
to these rules. There exist SPP and PS/2 parallel ports that don't support the
X1541 cable. It's also possible that certain EPP and  ECP  parallel  ports  do
support it. You have to determine the true capabilities of your parallel  port
yourself before choosing the cables to use.

  If you have a unidirectional SPP parallel port then you can  use  the  X1541
cable and, optionally, the XH1541 or XH1571  hybrid  cable,  for  the  highest
speed possible on SPP ports. If you have a bidirectional  PS/2  parallel  port
then you can use any of the cables. For maximum speed, you're advised  to  use
the X1541 cable and the XP1541 or XP1571 parallel cable  together.  The  X1541
cable doesn't work with most parallel ports in EPP and ECP mode. You will have
to configure them to SPP mode with the BIOS setup program or with jumpers.  If
the Commander still doesn't work then you can  use  one  of  the  other  three
serial cables that substitute the X1541 cable.

  The X1541 interface is the easiest of all. You only have to connect  certain
pins of the serial port of the Commodore drive and pins of the  parallel  port
of the PC. You need some plugs, some wires  and  some  soldering  skills.  The
XE1541 and XM1541 interfaces are not much harder, they only needs some diodes.
Also, the XA1541 interface needs a couple of resistors and  transistors  only.
The  XH1541, XH1571, XP1541 and XP1571 interfaces are a lot  harder  to  build
because you need to do some modifications  inside  your  Commodore  drive.  If
you're not experienced at soldering then don't even  think  about  doing  them
yourself. In addition, the XH1541 and XH1571 interfaces also need some diodes.

  The following tables may help you to decide which  cables  suit  your  needs
best. Depending on your parallel port hardware, your soldering skills and your
patience, you may choose the cables that will work best for you.

  This table is a compatibility chart between different  parallel  port  modes
and different interfaces.

        ͻ
                 Compatibility            SPP     PS/2    EPP/ECP 
        ͹
                 Normal (X1541)           yes      yes      no    
        Ķ
               Extended (XE1541)          yes      yes      yes   
        Ķ
              Multitask (XM1541)          yes      yes      yes   
        Ķ
                Active (XA1541)           yes      yes      yes   
        Ķ
           Hybrid (XH1541 or XH1571)      yes      yes      yes   
        Ķ
          Parallel (XP1541 or XP1571)     no       yes      yes   
        ͼ

  This table shows the ways to achieve different speeds on a  single  parallel
port in different modes.

            ͻ
               Single port       SPP       PS/2      EPP/ECP  
            ͹
              Minimum speed    Normal     Normal    Extended/ 
                                 (1)        (1)    Multitask/ 
                                                     Active   
            Ķ
              Medium speed     Normal+    Normal+             
                               Hybrid     Hybrid              
                                            (1)               
            Ķ
              Maximum speed               Normal+   Extended/ 
                                         Parallel  Multitask/ 
                                                     Active+  
                                                    Parallel  
            ͼ

  Notes:
    (1) This is not the maximum performance for your parallel  port,  you  may
        want to use another cable configuration.

  These tables show the ways to achieve different speeds on two parallel ports
of different modes. The first cable refers to the primary parallel port, whose
mode is indicated by the table title.  The  second  refers  to  the  secondary
parallel port, whose mode is indicated by the column  title.  Note  that  when
you're advised to swap your parallel ports then it's meant  to  be  a  logical
swap, not a physical one.

          ͻ
               Two ports,          SPP       PS/2      EPP/ECP  
             primary is SPP                                     
          ͹
              Minimum speed      Normal     Normal     Normal   
                                  (1,2)     (1,2,3)     (1,2)   
          Ķ
              Medium speed       Normal+    Normal+    Normal+  
                                 Hybrid     Hybrid     Hybrid   
                                   (2)      (1,2,3)     (1,2)   
          Ķ
              Maximum speed                 Normal+    Normal+  
                                           Parallel   Parallel  
          ͼ

  Notes:
    (1) This is not the maximum performance for your parallel ports,  you  may
        want to use another cable configuration.
    (2) You don't need two parallel ports for this  cable  configuration,  you
        can hook the indicated cables up to the primary parallel port.
    (3) This is not the maximum performance for your parallel ports. Swap your
        parallel ports and try again.

          ͻ
               Two ports,          SPP       PS/2      EPP/ECP  
             primary is PS/2                                    
          ͹
              Minimum speed      Normal     Normal     Normal   
                                  (1,2)      (1,2)      (1,2)   
          Ķ
              Medium speed       Normal+    Normal+    Normal+  
                                 Hybrid     Hybrid     Hybrid   
                                  (1,2)      (1,2)      (1,2)   
          Ķ
              Maximum speed      Normal+    Normal+    Normal+  
                                Parallel   Paralell   Parallel  
                                   (2)        (2)        (2)    
          ͼ

  Notes:
    (1) This is not the maximum performance for your parallel ports,  you  may
        want to use another cable configuration.
    (2) You don't need two parallel ports for this  cable  configuration,  you
        can hook the indicated cables up to the primary parallel port.

          ͻ
               Two ports,          SPP       PS/2      EPP/ECP  
           primary is EPP/ECP                                   
          ͹
              Minimum speed        (1)        (1)     Extended/ 
                                                     Multitask/ 
                                                       Active   
                                                         (2)    
          Ķ
              Medium speed         (1)        (1)     Extended/ 
                                                     Multitask/ 
                                                       Active+  
                                                       Hybrid   
          Ķ
              Maximum speed        (1)        (1)     Extended/ 
                                                     Multitask/ 
                                                       Active+  
                                                      Parallel  
                                                         (2)    
          ͼ

  Notes:
    (1) You shouldn't have an EPP/ECP parallel port as your primary port. Swap
        your parallel ports and try again.
    (2) You don't need two parallel ports for this  cable  configuration,  you
        can hook the indicated cables up to the primary parallel port.

  The following diagrams are pictured as viewed  from  the  solder  end  (back
side) of the plug. It may be of help to you that the numbers are often printed
in small letters onto the plug itself. When wiring the interface cables,  make
sure that they are not too long. A cable longer than  about  two  meters  will
possibly not work, especially if it isn't shielded at all.

  The PC parallel plug (male DB-25 connector):

            PaperEnd   Busy
        SelectIn         Ack        Data 7 - Data 0       Strobe
                           Ŀ   
               V   V   V   V                                 V
            ͻ
             13  12  11  10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   
              o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   
            ͻ                                                  ͼ
                o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   
               25  24  23  22  21  20  19  18  17  16  15  14   
              ͼ
                                               ^   ^   ^   ^
                             
                            Ground          Select         AutoFeed
                                                  Init   Error

  The Commodore drive serial bus plug (male 6-pin DIN connector):

                                     Reset
                                       
                                       V
                              ͻ ͻ
                            ͼ       ͼ       ͻ
                                 5         1     
                   Data >      o    6    o      < SrqIn
                                      o          
                                 4         2     
                    Clk >      o    3    o      < Gnd
                                      o          
                            ͻ                 ͼ
                              ͼ
                                       ^
                                       
                                      Atn

  Commodore drive periphery chips are displayed  as  viewed  from  above.  The
small semicircular cut may help you with finding the correct orientation.

  The Commodore 1541 drive VIA#1 periphery chip:

                                        
                   ͻ
                    40                                   21 
                   )                                        
                    1 2             9                    20 
                   ͼ
                                        

                                    
                       
                          PA0 - PA7

  The Commodore 1570/1571 drive CIA periphery chip:

                                        
                   ͻ
                    40                                   21 
                   )                                        
                    1                 10           17    20 
                   ͼ
                                        

                                                    
                                       
                                          PB0 - PB7

  You can find the VIA#1 by searching for a chip on the motherboard  that  has
the type number 6522 on it and none of its pins 2-9 are connected to any other
chip. The CIA chip has the type number 6526, 8520 or 8521 on it.

  The X1541 interface connects the following pins:

                  CBM drive serial port   PC parallel port

                         2  Gnd  18-25  Ground
                         3  Atn  1  Strobe
                         4  Clk  14  AutoFeed
                         5  Data  17  Select
                         6  Reset  16  Init

  The original  specification  of  the  X1541  interface  requires  the  short
connection of pins 2 and 15 on the parallel port plug. The X1541 program  uses
it for autodetection, the Commander doesn't make use of it. If you  intend  to
use other transfer programs with your interface then you might want to do this
alteration, as well.

  You have to connect the X1541 interface to an SPP  or  PS/2  parallel  port.
The lines used by this cable are not necessarily bidirectional on EPP and  ECP
parallel ports. This interface works with all kinds of  Commodore  drives  and
their clones.

  The XE1541 extended interface connects the following pins:

                  CBM drive serial port   PC parallel port

                         2  Gnd  18-25  Ground
                         3  Atn  13  SelectIn
                                        >| 1  Strobe
                         4  Clk  12  PaperEnd
                                        >| 14  AutoFeed
                         5  Data  11  Busy
                                        >| 17  Select
                         6  Reset  10  Ack
                                        >| 16  Init

  This interface, unlike the X1541 interface, needs  electronical  components,
namely diodes. These decouple the control lines of the PC parallel port  while
data is coming from the Commodore drive. You have to solder them right  before
each of pins 1, 14, 16 and 17, their cathodes - the end marked  with  a  small
band - pointing towards the pins. Note that  you  don't  really  have  to  use
diodes on the Atn-SelectIn-Strobe and the  Reset-Ack-Init  lines  because  the
Commander never uses them for input. However, if other programs in the  future
will support this cable then they may need a diode for these lines,  as  well.
It is highly recommended to use 1N5819 or BAT85 diodes only, other diodes  may
make the cable inoperable on some hardware configurations.

  The XM1541 multitask interface connects the following pins:

                  CBM drive serial port   PC parallel port

                         2  Gnd  18-25  Ground
                         3  Atn  13  SelectIn
                                        >| 1  Strobe
                         4  Clk  12  PaperEnd
                                        >| 14  AutoFeed
                         5  Data  10  Ack
                                        >| 16  Init
                         6  Reset  11  Busy
                                        >| 17  Select

  Please, read the chapter of the XE1541 extended cable for more  details.  As
you can see, the only difference is that the multitask cable has pins 5 (Data)
and 6 (Reset) swapped in the Commodore plug.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING!!!  THE SPECIFICATIONS OF THE XA1541 ACTIVE CABLE ARE NOT FINAL YET!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The XA1541 active interface connects the following pins:

                  CBM drive serial port   PC parallel port

                         2  Gnd  18-25  Ground
                         3  Atn  13  SelectIn
                                        () 1  Strobe
                         4  Clk  12  PaperEnd
                                        () 14  AutoFeed
                         5  Data  10  Ack
                                        () 16  Init
                         6  Reset  11  Busy
                                        () 17  Select

  This interface needs electronical  components,  transistors  and  resistors.
These enhance signals while data is going to the Commodore drive and  decouple
the control lines of the PC parallel  port  while  data  is  coming  from  the
Commodore drive. You have to solder the enhancers right before each of pins 1,
14, 16 and 17; see the "zoomed" circuit diagram below.  Note  that  you  don't
really have to use enhancers on the Atn-SelectIn-Strobe and the Reset-Ack-Init
lines because the Commander never uses  them  for  input.  However,  if  other
programs in the future will support this cable then they  may  need  enhancers
for these lines, as well. It is highly recommended to use  2N3904  transistors
and 4.7 kOhm resistors only, other transistors or resistors may make the cable
inoperable on some hardware configurations.

  The enhancers are constructed the following way:

        Commodore pin  PC input pin
                                 
                              ------
                            /   C \   \
                           /       \B \
               transistor |         [////] PC output pin
                           \       /  /    resistor
                            \   E /   /
                              ------
                                 
                                  GND

  The 2N3904 transistor has its legs laid out the following way:

                             +------
                             | o C   \
                             |        \
                             | o B     |
                             |        /
                             | o E   /
                             +------

  This picture displays the transistor as viewed from below,  where  its  legs
are. Note that this leg layout belongs to the 2N3904  transistor,  others  may
have their collector (marked with C) and emitter (marked with E) legs swapped.
In the enhancer, you should connect the emitter leg to any or, preferably, all
of pins 18-25 on the parallel port.

  The XH1541 hybrid interface connects the following pins:

                    CBM 1541 VIA#1        PC parallel port

                         2  PA0  13  SelectIn
                                        >| 2  Data 0
                         3  PA1  12  PaperEnd
                                        >| 3  Data 1
                         4  PA2  10  Ack
                                        >| 4  Data 2
                         5  PA3  11  Busy
                                        >| 5  Data 3
                         6  PA4 >| 6  Data 4
                         7  PA5 >| 7  Data 5
                         8  PA6 >| 8  Data 6
                         9  PA7 >| 9  Data 7

  The XH1571 hybrid interface connects the following pins:

                   CBM 1570/1571 CIA      PC parallel port

                        10  PB0  13  SelectIn
                                        >| 2  Data 0
                        11  PB1  12  PaperEnd
                                        >| 3  Data 1
                        12  PB2  10  Ack
                                        >| 4  Data 2
                        13  PB3  11  Busy
                                        >| 5  Data 3
                        14  PB4 >| 6  Data 4
                        15  PB5 >| 7  Data 5
                        16  PB6 >| 8  Data 6
                        17  PB7 >| 9  Data 7

  These interfaces need diodes. You have to solder them right before  each  of
pins 2-9 of the PC parallel port, their cathodes - the end marked with a small
band - pointing towards the parallel  port  pins.  The  best  diode  for  this
interface is the usual 1N4148 or equivalent.

  You can connect the XH1541 and XH1571 interfaces to  any  type  of  parallel
port. They have no common lines with the X1541  interface  therefore  you  can
connect them, along with the X1541 interface, to the same SPP or PS/2 parallel
port, using a Y-shaped cable. The XH1541 interface only works  with  Commodore
1541 drives and compatible  clones.  The  XH1571  interface  only  works  with
Commodore 1570 and 1571 drives and compatible clones.

  The XP1541 parallel interface connects the following pins:

                    CBM 1541 VIA#1        PC parallel port

                         2  PA0  2  Data 0
                         3  PA1  3  Data 1
                         4  PA2  4  Data 2
                         5  PA3  5  Data 3
                         6  PA4  6  Data 4
                         7  PA5  7  Data 5
                         8  PA6  8  Data 6
                         9  PA7  9  Data 7

  The XP1571 parallel interface connects the following pins:

                   CBM 1570/1571 CIA     PC parallel port

                        10  PB0  2  Data 0
                        11  PB1  3  Data 1
                        12  PB2  4  Data 2
                        13  PB3  5  Data 3
                        14  PB4  6  Data 4
                        15  PB5  7  Data 5
                        16  PB6  8  Data 6
                        17  PB7  9  Data 7

  You have to connect the XP1541 and XP1571 interfaces to a PS/2, EPP  or  ECP
parallel port. On SPP parallel ports, the data lines  are  unidirectional.  If
you have a PS/2 parallel port then you can connect the X1541 and XP1541 or the
X1541 and XP1571 interfaces to the same parallel port, using a Y-shaped cable.
If you have an EPP or ECP parallel port then you should use the XE1541, XM1541
or XA1541 interface rather than the X1541 interface.  Alternatively,  you  can
build two separate cables and buy a secondary old SPP parallel port  card  for
the X1541 interface. The XP1541  interface  only  works  with  Commodore  1541
drives and compatible clones. The XP1571 interface only works  with  Commodore
1570 and 1571 drives and compatible clones.

  Please, note that none of the XH1541, XP1541, XH1571, or  XP1571  interfaces
is a substitute for the serial cables. You have to connect two cables  to  the
Commodore drive and the PC at the same time to acquire the  enhanced  transfer
capabilities. Don't connect the XH1541, XP1541, XH1571 or XP1571  cable  alone
to the Commodore drive. None of them contain  a  GND  line  so  plugging  them
without a serial cable may short circuit your machines and,  possibly,  damage
the periphery chips. Always connect  the  XH1541,  XP1541,  XH1571  or  XP1571
interface to your Commodore drive and your PC before switching either of  them
on and switch both machines off before pulling the cables out.

  In 1541 drives, nothing is defined to any of the bits  of  Port A.  You  can
connect the XH1541 interface and the XP1541 interface without any  problem. In
1541C drives, bit 0 of Port A is used for the detection of the head being over
track 1. After stripping this connection off of the chip,  you  will  have  to
replace the DOS ROM with that of the 1541 or the 1541-II. Otherwise you'll get
strange results when the drive is seeking:  the  DOS  tries  to  rely  on  the
detector line which doesn't exist anymore. In 1541-II drives, bit 0 of  Port A
is grounded, strip this connection off of the chip.

  In 1570 and 1571 drives, there are several lines connected to  the  bits  of
Port A of VIA#1. You can't use the XH1541 interface or  the  XP1541  interface
with them. However, you can use the XH1571 or XP1571 interfaces, cables of the
same design as the XH1541 and XH1571 interfaces, to a different  chip,  namely
the CIA, most of whose pins are unused in these drives.

  1581 drives are completely different from the aforementioned members of  the
Commodore drive family. You can't use the XH1541,  XP1541,  XH1571  or  XP1571
interfaces with  them. Because of their  extremely  high  transfer  speed,  no
hybrid or parallel cable will be implemented for them.

  If you already have a floppy speeder like Speed DOS or Dolphin DOS  in  your
1541, 1570 or 1571 drive then you probably have a parallel plug at  its  rear.
In this case, you have many options of implementing the XH1541, XP1541, XH1571
and XP1571 interface. You can create another cable to connect the drive to the
PC with. You can also split the cable between the drive and  the  C64  into  a
Y-shaped cable, one end plugging into the drive, another into the C64 and  the
third one into the PC. In this case, remember not to plug the cable  into  the
C64 and the PC at the same time. However, your best choice is creating a small
adaptor that imitates the C64 user port on one side  and  plugs  into  the  PC
parallel port on the other side.

  If your 1541 or 1571 drive has no parallel capabilities then you might still
want to create a plug at its rear. This way there  will  be  no  cable  always
hanging out of the drive. With another cable, you'll be able to  use  parallel
transfer with the C64, too. Please, note that parallel copy programs  for  the
C64 may require some additional connections on the VIA  or  CIA  chip  of  the
drive. Read their documentation before soldering so that you can  connect  the
additional pins to the parallel plug, if needed.



  8. Technical background information

  There are three types of lines on PC parallel ports. Data lines are used  to
transfer data bytes between the PC and the external device; control lines  are
used by the PC to send control signals to the external  device;  status  lines
are used by the external device to send status signals to the PC.

  From the PC side, logically, data lines should be used for  both  input  and
output, control lines for output only, and status lines for  input  only.  But
this is not exactly the case. On the early SPP parallel ports, data lines  can
only be used for output; this is what we call a unidirectional parallel  port.
Note that this expression is mainly used for the  usage  of  the  data  lines.
Furthermore, with a little trick, the control lines can be used not  only  for
output but for input, as well.

  On these early SPP parallel ports, the port  pins  are  connected  via  open
collectors to the chipset on the I/O controller  card:  there  is  a  resistor
between 5.0 V and the pin and a  transistor  between  GND  and  the  pin.  The
transistor is  controlled  by  the  chipset  which  is,  on  the  other  hand,
controlled by the software. When the corresponding port bit is set to one, the
transistor opens and the resistor pulls the signal level on the pin  to  high,
a voltage level of between 3.5 V and 4.5 V. When the port bit  is  cleared  to
zero, the transistor closes and pulls the signal level to low,  between  0.0 V
and 0.4 V. The reason for this is that the transistor can pull  stronger  than
the resistor.

  On Commodore drives, the pins of the serial port are also connected via open
collectors to the periphery chip. When there are open collectors  on  the  two
ends of the same cable then three possibilities exist. If both ends  pull  the
line low then the actual signal level, that can be read by both parties,  will
be low. If both ends pull the line high then the result will be a high signal.
However, if one end pulls the line high and the other one pulls it  low  then,
again, because of the strength of the transistor, the signal level will become
low. The PC or the Commodore machine can pull the line high and  low  and  the
drive will be able to read this signal. However, if  the  machine  pulled  the
line high then the drive will also be able to signal back, by pulling the line
low. This is the only way to input data from the drive and this is exactly how
Commodore machines and PC's, using an X1541 interface, work.

  It is still a mystery why the original parallel port, designed by IBM, is  a
unidirectional parallel port. The port wouldn't have been more expensive if it
allowed the software to switch the data lines into input mode. Actually,  many
parallel port cards are designed to be bidirectional but are crippled down  to
unidirectional mode. The way to enable bidirectional mode on  these  cards  is
described at the end of this chapter. Such bidirectional SPP ports  are  often
called PS/2 parallel ports.

  However, with the introduction of high-speed  peripherals,  open  collectors
started to be replaced by totem poles: there are two transistors, one  between
5.0 V and the pin, the other between GND and the pin. The two transistors  are
controlled in an inverted way: at a time, exactly one of them is open and  the
other is closed. When the port bit is cleared to zero  then,  as  before,  the
transistor on the GND side closes and pulls the line low.  However,  when  the
port bit is set to one then it is also a transistor that pulls the line  high.
This way, the high signal level is a voltage of 5.0 V, as opposed  to  between
3.5 V and 4.5 V in the open collector, and  the  speed  of  switching  between
signal  levels  is  also  significantly  higher,  allowing  more  data  to  be
transferred in a given interval of time.

  On certain Pentium and newer 486 motherboards, the pins  of  the  integrated
parallel port are connected via totem poles to the chipset. When a totem  pole
in the PC pulls the line high then it does that  with  a  transistor.  If  the
drive tries to pull the line low, to send a signal, then  it  also  does  that
with a transistor. The two transistors will be fighting against each other and
the outcome is unknown: the signal level may remain at high, if the transistor
on the PC side is stronger, or become low, if the transistor in the  drive  is
the stronger one. Most of the time, the transistors  in  the  PC  seem  to  be
stronger and, therefore, no data can be input from the Commodore drive. And it
is not only totem poles that can render transfer programs unable to work.  The
chipset on some other motherboards doesn't even contain the  circuitry  needed
to read the signal level on lines other than the status lines.

  The new enhanced parallel ports, EPP and ECP ports, have bidirectional  data
lines so that data can be read from a hard disk or a scanner connected to  the
PC. However, as described above, their control  lines  are  not  bidirectional
anymore. Additionally, on some motherboards, control lines are  unidirectional
even when the port is switched to SPP mode via the BIOS setup. The X1541 cable
won't work on these parallel ports. If you can't make transfer  programs  work
with your motherboard then you should stop testing  immediately,  because  the
fights between transistors put stress on the chips on both sides.  You  should
rather build an XE1541 or XM1541 which are slightly different from  the  X1541
cable and work on more parallel ports.

  The X1541 cable is of the simplest design. It connects pins of the Commodore
serial port and the PC parallel port without any conversion or wire split.  So
that the PC is able to also input data from the Commodore, not only output  to
it, it definitely needs the lines, it uses, to be bi-directional. If they  are
not then the cable doesn't work at all, no matter what software  you're  using
with it.

  The XE1541 cable connects wires, coming from the Commodore end, to two  pins
on the parallel port. One of these pins belongs to a control line and there is
a Schottky-diode in front of it. This is line via which  data is sent  to  the
Commodore. The other pin belongs to a status line which  is  used  to  receive
data. Because control lines can be used for output and status lines for  input
on any parallel port, this solves the problem with the X1541 cable.  When  the
PC expects the Commodore to send to data, it sets the control line to  a  high
level and listens to the signal level on the status line. The  diode  prevents
current from flowing from the PC end, therefore, the Commodore is free to  set
the line to whatever level it wants to. Without the diode, the output lines of
the PC and the Commodore would be fighting with each other.

  The XM1541 cable has only two wires  swapped  at  the  Commodore  end.  This
results in the DATA line of the Commodore being connected to the ACK  line  of
the PC parallel port. This latter line is the only  one  that  is  capable  of
generating interrupts on the PC. This way, when the PC is waiting for the next
handshake arriving from the Commodore, it can do that  by  enabling  the  "ACK
generates interrupt" feature and halting its  execution.  When  the  interrupt
occurs, the PC can also continue with the next handshake. Until this  happens,
the program uses no CPU time because its not running at  all.  This  interrupt
method uses significantly less CPU time than polling, that is, running  in  an
endless loop that checks the signal level again and again. This  is  important
for multi-tasking systems such as Linux.

  The XA1541 cable is derived from the XM1541 cable. It also has the two wires
swapped at the Commodore end, therefore, it also improves overall  performance
under a multi-tasking system like Linux. However, it corrects a  problem  with
the XE1541 and XM1541 cables that occurs with certain parallel ports that  are
on the edge of the original IBM specification. According to the specification,
the low level of a line means that the voltage is  between  0.0 V  and  0.4 V.
When a Schottky-diode is applied onto this line then the voltage may go up  to
even 0.8 V because the typical voltage raise of such diodes  is  about  0.4 V.
Unfortunately, this 0.8 V is also just the edge of the low level recognized by
a Commodore. For a Commodore, voltages between 0.0 V and 0.8 V are low,  3.5 V
to 4.5 are high and 0.8 V to 3.5 V are unknown. In the latter case, it is also
unknown what the software running in the Commodore will see. If you have  such
a parallel port then it is quite possible  that  the  PC  outputs  so  high  a
voltage, via the diode, that the Commodore finds it a non-recognizable signal.
It is worth mentioning that exactly this is why  Schottky-diodes  were  chosen
for the XE1541 and XM1541 cables: other diodes raise  the  voltage even  more.

  Instead of diodes, the XA1541 cable uses transistors and resistors.  If  the
PC needs to pull the signal level to low on the wire then it sends out a  high
level on the parallel port. This closes the transistor between  the  wire  and
the ground. Because the transistor is strong, it can pull the signal level  to
typically about 0.2 V which is accepted as a low level by  the  Commodore,  as
well. This voltage depends on the transistor but not  on  the  voltage  coming
from the parallel port. Therefore, whatever parallel port you have,  including
the ones that are not compatible  with  the  XE1541  and  XM1541  cables,  the
resulting voltage will be enhanced to an acceptable level by  the  transistor.
QUESTION: Why do you need a resistor in front of the transistor?

  You can convert unidirectional SPP parallel port cards into a  bidirectional
PS/2 port by disconnecting pin 1 of the data latch  74LS374  from  ground  and
connecting it to one of the output pins on the control latch 74LS174. This pin
can be any of pins 2, 5, 7, 10, 12 or 15 and must  not  be  connected  to  any
other chip on the board. The corresponding input pin (3, 4, 6, 11, 13  or  14)
must be connected to bit 5 of the data bus. If this is not the  case  on  your
card then you can access this bit from the data latch. Find out which  one  of
its output pins (2, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16 or 19) is connected to pin  7  of  the
parallel port connector and get bit 5 from the corresponding input pin (3,  4,
7, 8, 13, 14, 17 or 18).



  9.  Troubleshooting

  If you encounter problems in the part of the program that does not access an
external Commodore drive then you should contact me at once  with  a  detailed
description of the bug. However, if you can't access  the  external  Commodore
drive properly, here are some ideas for you to try first.

  First of all, bare boot your computer, disable all  the  resident  programs,
memory managers and device drivers. Exit multi-tasking systems such  as  OS/2,
Linux, Windows or Windows '95. These circumstances may affect  data  transfer.
Boot plain DOS on your machine and strip everything you don't  need  off  your
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. You may create a boot menu or a boot  disk,
too. Please, note that accessing the Commodore drive is not supposed  to  work
at all under Windows NT.

  During your test, don't plug anything other than the serial  interface  into
your PC and your Commodore drive.

  If the connection with the Commodore drive locks up then  switch  the  drive
off and pull the serial interface out of it. Wait for the error message "Drive
not present", plug the interface back and turn the drive back on.  Optionally,
you can reset  the  drive,  e.g.  with  Control-Alt-Backspace.  Then  try  the
following.

  Raise or lower the delay value.

  Check if you have set correctly  the  type  of  the  serial  cable  and  the
parallel port it is connected to. Do the same with the parallel cable. If  you
have no additional cable, besides the serial  cable,  then  set  the  parallel
cable to 'None'.

  If you really want to access the Commodore drive via a serial cable under  a
multi-tasking system then enable the 'Prefer async transfer'  option.  Without
that, you would most probably experience frequent lockups.

  If you have a Pentium or newer 486 motherboard, with an integrated  parallel
port and you're using the X1541 interface then enter the  BIOS  setup.  Change
the mode of the parallel port to  SPP  or  PS/2  (usual  aliases  are  Normal,
Standard, Compatible or Extended). In case you also use the  XP1541 or  XP1571
parallel cable, you must set its parallel port to  PS/2,  EPP  or  ECP  (usual
aliases are Extended or Enhanced) mode.

  If you have a Pentium TX, Pentium-II or Pentium-III motherboard then  you're
most probably the unlucky owner of an integrated I/O controller whose parallel
port is incompatible with the X1541 cable. Try using an older  I/O  controller
card, a parallel port card or Hercules video card  with  a  built-in  parallel
port. Alternatively, you can also use the XE1541, XM1541 or XA1541 cable.

  If you use the built-in drive of a C128D or an SX64 then execute the command
'POKE 56576, 199' on the Commodore machine before accessing its  drive.  Every
time you also access the drive from the  Commodore  machine,  you'll  have  to
execute this command again afterwards.

  Make sure that the serial  interface  is  assembled  well,  it  is  shielded
correctly and it is not too long. If you built the cable yourself  then  check
it against the diagrams; you might have a mirrored cable.  You  can  also  try
your cable with other machines and other transfer programs.

  Plug your Commodore drive to a Commodore machine to see if it works  at  all
after all those years. You may want to borrow a working drive from someone.

  If you have an integrated parallel port then check  the  connection  between
the parallel port and the motherboard. It's possible that  the  cable  of  the
port is plugged onto the motherboard in a mirrored way. You can also check  it
with a PC printer.

  If your network uses parallel port redirection then logout. Remove  dongles,
parallel port switches and other devices that may filter data transfer via the
parallel port.



  10. Reporting problems, ideas and wishes

  I do not have the possibility to test the program on many kinds  of  PC's. I
ask you to contact me if you found bugs in the program (you will possibly find
some as it is still under development) or have an idea of what improvements  I
should do in the future. Please, send me a  note  if  you  saw  a  grammatical
error, misspelling, typo or something misunderstandable in the online help  or
this documentation.

  If you know good FTP sites or WWW pages with C64 areas  to  which  I  should
upload this program or are just interested in  this  program  then  an  E-mail
would be appreciated.

  Please, E-mail your detailed bug reports along with the  version  number  of
the Commander you use, the configuration of your PC (CPU and motherboard type)
and the SC.INI file you used when the bug occurred. If the bug  occurred  only
with a certain file you can send it to me uuencoded or attached, as well.



  11. Bugs fixed since Version 0.81

- the EOI detection problem, that caused the loss of the  last  byte  of  some
  sectors during disk copy and the loss of the last  directory  sector  during
  reading the directory in normal transfer mode, has been finally fixed

- when the header of sectors are not found during warp disk copy, you  get  an
  error message instead of the transfer stopping, with the disk  spinning  but
  apparently no data being read

- false timeout errors were reported at the end of file copies in  normal  and
  turbo mode

- no files could be processed in directories inside archive files

- the Commander, the viewer and the editor don't lock up under the  long  file
  name support program of Caldera OpenDOS anymore

- the Commander doesn't lock up when reading a looping directory

- if you were using the hybrid or parallel cable on an ECP parallel  port  and
  saved the setup with one of the panels being  an  external  panel  then  the
  Commander didn't recognize external drives upon startups anymore

- you get a warning when you leave the 'Transfer options' menu if one  of  the
  LPT ports is set to a non-existant port

- if there is an error while preformatting the destination disk, the disk copy
  is aborted

- the warp disk copy locked up when it tried to verify certain block contents

- wiping phantom files does not erase the directory anymore

- the Commander and Star Ark computed the start offset of  the  data  area  of
  Arkive archives incorrectly so they sometimes extracted corrupted files

- deleting files from filepacked ZipCode archives went crazy most of the time

- no dialog box remains on the screen when a directory is copied

- if you switched back to normal mode from either fast mode,  only  the  first
  block of the directory was read from the Commodore drive

- the GEOS file converter routines chopped off the last byte of VLIR records

- GEOS files are now saved exactly the same way into disk images as under GEOS
  itself

- when copying files out of file images automatically, using the 'Extract PC64
  file images' option, the  original  Commodore  name  of  the  file  is  also
  extracted

- LHA archives with entries of invalid Commodore file types or  with  trailing
  garbage are now considered to be valid

- when extracting files from LHA archives, you are not asked twice for  manual
  filename conversion anymore

- turbo delete and validate work correctly on extended disks, too

- when copying DOS files or files in LHA or TAR archives  from  or  into  GEOS
  disk images, no ASCII-PETSCII filename conversion takes place

- Commodore file  names,  that  contain  too  many  decimal  digits,  are  now
  correctly converted into a PC64 file image name

- the critical error boxes display device errors correctly

- the bug that makes C64S refuse paths  given  on  the  command  line  with  a
  trailing backslash has been circumvented in the emulator launch file

- if you entered an invalid image or archive then, after  the  error  message,
  you got an empty DOS panel

- if you pressed Enter on 'Cancel'  buttons  then  the  current  function  was
  continued as if you had pressed the 'OK' button

- Control-PgDn enters directories, image and  archive  files  only  and  never
  launches DOS files

- the undocumented hotkeys Control-PgDn and Control-PgUp are now mentioned  in
  the online help

- the Commander locked up if you  pressed  Control+Backslash  in  an  external
  panel

- when sorting DOS directories by date, directories whose name starts  with  a
  dot won't we sorted before '..' anymore

- when renaming files with long filenames, asterisk wildcards are handled in a
  Unix-like way, e.g. 'a*' changes the first character of the filename to  'a'
  but keeps all other characters unchanged, including the extension

- very long paths are truncated in the command line

- long filenames containing the characters ",",  ";",  "="  or  "+"  are  also
  enclosed into quotes when inserted into the command line

- file time stamps are displayed with the correct  country-specific  separator
  in the 'File attributes' dialog box

- the bottom frame of Wide DOS panels  with  no  mini  status  now  joins  the
  vertical separator line correctly

- when copying multiple disks, destination disk images don't inherit the error
  info block of the previous one

- automatically skipped bad sectors don't inherit the error code of the sector
  where 'Skip auto' was selected

- if an error occurs during copying a disk to a disk image, the first  one  or
  two sectors of the current track are not overwritten with the  code  of  the
  turbo loader

- when changing one of the panels to an external panel, the command line  path
  automatically changes to the path of the opposite panel

- GEOS disks in external Commodore drives are also  displayed  with  the  GEOS
  character set

- you couldn't move files between images or archives with the same filename

- when copying files inside PC64 file images into PC64 file images,  the  file
  type of the source file is preserved

- when copying into PC64 file images, the progress indicator  filled  up  with
  half speed and only reached the middle of the bar

- if you copied files from Commodore drives with  typing  a  filename  pattern
  then the Commander tried to copy files in the second, third  etc.  directory
  sector again and again and the attribute of the destination files  was  also
  changed to DEL

- by pressing 'Cancel' in the filename conversion confirmation dialog box, now
  you can abort the file copy process immediately

- when you renamed or deleted files by entering a wildcard pattern, the cursor
  was placed onto an inappropriate file afterwards

- directories containing files with  dot  as  the  first  character  of  their
  filename couldn't be deleted

- you are not allowed to copy multiple files with the same name into  LHA  and
  TAR archives anymore

- there were several problems if you tried to compress files into LHA archives
  from disk images containing phantom files

- you couldn't extract files from LHA archives with a long filename

- when copying, moving or  renaming  files,  filenames  are  truncated  to  16
  characters, except for DOS, TAR and LHA panels

- in Brief mode, filenames in LHA and TAR  directories  are  truncated  to  16
  characters

- sometimes false errors were reported about trying to copy a file onto itself

- you're not allowed to select relative files with Grey * anymore.

- frozen files copied into tape images were given invalid  attributes  so  the
  emulator wouldn't load them

- when saving files, the GEOS soft interleave is used if the source file is  a
  GEOS file, not if the destination disk is a GEOS disk

- while copying files into disk images, Convert  archives  are  not  converted
  into GEOS files if GEOS support is disabled

- if you moved files and appended them to an already existing file  then  only
  every second source file was processed

- you couldn't delete files in image and archive files with typing a  filename
  pattern

- if the destination file already existed then you were asked for confirmation
  about overwriting it, even if you pressed Escape  while  reading  the  first
  chunk of data from the source file

- the Commander didn't recognize the standard Commodore file types in DOS file
  extensions

- if you delete a file image which is opened in the inactive  panel  then  the
  panel will fall back to DOS mode

- if you enter a year less than 80 in the 'Attributes' dialog box then it will
  be assumed to be a date after 2000

- even when 'Auto unselect files' is  unchecked,  'File attributes'  unselects
  processed files

- File info didn't recognize frozen files

- files extracted from images or archives do not keep the date stamp if  'Keep
  file date stamps' is unchecked

- the attributes of multiple files couldn't be changed in image  and  archives
  file, only one by one

- no volume label was displayed for CD-ROM drives and a false volume label was
  reported for Windows'95 partitions where there was a long  file  name  entry
  before the entry of the real label

- there are no more lockups if you forget the colon at the end of the filename
  pattern in extension files

- the 'Owner' function does not lockup anymore  for  crosslinked  and  looping
  files

- inserting data in the text half of the sector editor works now

- several problems related to Quick view panels have been fixed

- the sample Commander screens in the external setup have been updated

- the viewer and editor now also display the symbols for control characters in
  screen code view mode

- search strings were truncated at 21 characters both in the  viewer  and  the
  editor

- the editor couldn't backup files in shared environments

- the editor didn't recognize when a file inside an image or archive file  was
  too big and, while trying to load it fully into memory, locked up

- when in the ASCII half of the hexa mode of the editor, Alt-key  combinations
  won't write a zero byte into a file anymore

- the 'Save as' function of the editor now reads in the attribute of the  file
  specified and warns you about it being a  read-only,  hidden  and/or  system
  file correctly

- the Star Utilities had several problems with phantom files

- Star ARC didn't stop  displaying  some  archive  titles  because  it  didn't
  recognize their end

- in Star LHA, you can use a dash before the command 'S'

- Star List does not fall into an endless loop when  listing  messed  up  disk
  images and stops execution if you press Escape

- Star List didn't display graphical  characters  correctly  in  LHA  and  TAR
  archives

- Star List doesn't recurse into subdirectories unless you explicitly tell  it
  to

- Star Zip warns you if the destination disk is full



  12. Other changes since Version 0.81

- the Commander main executable has been restructured to an overlaid  program,
  now it needs about 100 KBytes less conventional memory

- the documentation contains some technical background  information  about  PC
  parallel ports

- the extension of the documentation files of the Star Utilities  was  changed
  to '.txt' because they are plain DOS text files

- introducing support for 1571 and 1581 disk images and Prologic DOS  extended
  disk images

- introducing support for Commodore 1570 and 1571 drives

- introducing support for the XM1541 multitask and the XA1541 active cables

- introducing support for the XH1571 hybrid and  XP1571  parallel  cables  for
  Commodore 1570 and 1571 drives

- introducing a new cable mode called 'Async' that uses a serial cable but, at
  the cost of a slightly lower transfer speed, allows you to access  Commodore
  drives under a multi-tasking system, as well

- the complete external setup has  been  integrated  into  the  main  program,
  Control-F9 now opens the menu of configuration screens

- introducing a new menu for the manual selection of the type of the  external
  drive, with Control-F10 assigned to it

- now you can change the address of the parallel ports to any value using  the
  two custom port address slots

- introducing support for relative files

- the warp disk copier now recognizes 27 and 29 READ ERROR's

- introducing support for GEOS disk images in Star List

- introducing a "printf"-style way to format the output of Star List

- just  like  in  the  other  Commanders,  Shift+F10  positions  to  the  item
  previously executed in the menu tree

- introducing the warp delete and validate routines that read through the disk
  only once instead of tracking through the files on it one by one

- the configuration menus have been rearranged in the external setup

- the online help pages now list all configuration  options  related  to  that
  particular function rather than only the important ones

- introducing a smart drive presence detection routine

- you should now be able to use your Commodore drive from a Commodore  machine
  and a PC simultaneously

- pressing Escape or F10, while messages or  code  fragments  are  transferred
  between the PC and the external drive, aborts the operation with  a  timeout
  error; with 'Manual timeouts', you can  control  whether  you  can  generate
  timeouts manually or not

- introducing clipboard support, buffering data  on  disk  or  in  the  common
  Windows clipboard, when available

- upon startup, the CLK line is pulled high  so  that  you  can  connect  your
  Commodore drive to a Commodore machine and a PC at the same time

- the mode of parallel ports is not checked upon  returning  from  DOS  shells
  anymore

- now you can access tracks 36-40 on 1541 disks on any 1541 drive

- you can again use Control+Shift to toggle the C64 character set

- 'Quality C64 charset' lets you switch between the  two  VGA  modes  used  to
  display the C64 character set on the screen

- 'Prefer long names' lets you use long file names more comfortably

- you can also select files by holding Shift when moving the cursor

- you can use Control-N to toggle long file names

- Control+Tab now completes DOS commands and filenames on the command line and
  in filename input lines

- 'Convert invalid chars' makes the Commander convert those PETSCII characters
  to hexadecimal codes, that have no  ASCII  equivalent,  and  converts  these
  codes back to PETSCII characters during file copies  and  any  other  inputs
  where Commodore strings are used

- now you can rename and delete files inside PC64 file images

- you can use Alt-Up and Alt-Down to change the height of the  panels  row  by
  row

- the cursor moves in a smarter way between items in dialog boxes

- when Tab or Shift+Tab is pressed in a group of  radio  buttons,  the  cursor
  jumps to the next or previous group of items

- introducing the Wide panel mode for CBM panels

- there are some new panel filters for PC archives and CBM files (image  files
  plus CBM archives)

- introducing the 'Restore selection' feature

- you can sort the display of disk images, as well

- there is a new configuration menu for soft and hard interleaves

- to save memory, the disk editor discards the contents of  temporary  buffers
  upon exit

- now you can also enter Commodore drive device numbers in  the  error  dialog
  box that comes up if there's no disk in the PC drive you tried to  change  a
  panel to

- DOS files are first opened in sharing mode and,  if  unsuccessful,  then  in
  compatibility mode

- the checkbox 'Fast command exec' has been changed to a group of radiobuttons
  called 'Command execution' with the possible values of 'Normal', 'Turbo' and
  'Warp'

- the default value for the option 'Into PC64 file images' of the  'Copy'  and
  'Rename or move' dialog boxes can be specified in a configuration option  of
  the same name

- now you can move the contents of PC64 file images  by  checking  the  option
  'Extract PC64 file images' in the 'Rename or move' box

- you are warned if the destination tape image grows above 64 entries  because
  C64S can only handle the first 64 of them

- instead of an error message that you have to confirm, you only hear  a  beep
  if there's not enough memory to read in the directory

- if there are no more entries in destination tape image during file copy then
  you're asked about expanding it

- under 4DOS and NDOS, files with the extension '.btm' are also recognized  as
  executable files

- you can now  set  the  real  number  of  retries,  the  search  on  adjacent
  halftracks and the head bump on retry separately

- the progress indicator boxes don't flicker anymore

- you can make the Commander  save  files  into  the  unused  sectors  of  the
  directory track, if there's no more space in the destination disk image,  by
  checking 'Copy onto dir track'

- when saving files onto disks or into disk images, the fill pattern  for  the
  unused part of their last block is determined by  the  'Orig format pattern'
  option

- the deletion of cross-linked files ends when arriving  at  the  BAM  or  the
  first directory sector

- 'Make directory' now creates directory structure of any depth in one go

- by checking the new item 'Keep lowercase chars', under Windows'95,  you  can
  create directories with lowercase filenames

- now there are separate soft interleave configurations  for  external  drives
  and all types of disk images

- the maximum value of interleaves has been raised to 21

- the hotkey Control+F7 is now assigned to 'File attributes'

- you can disable the head bump before disk format

- both parallel ports assigned to the Commander are initialized to input  mode
  and ECP ports are set to byte mode, upon startup and before every access  of
  the Commodore drive

- a lot more ASCII characters are converted to  PETSCII  in  filenames  during
  file copy from a DOS panel to a CBM panel

- now all PETSCII characters are converted to  some  similar  ASCII  character
  when displaying filenames or copying files from CBM to DOS panels

- the user menu displays the first 16 items only

- the user menu item 'Minimize' deletes unused entries from tape images

- if the first line of a menu or extension file is a comment starting with the
  word "title" then the rest of the line is taken as the title of the menu  to
  be displayed on the screen

- the user menu for external drives is expanded with an item which changes the
  head used by the 1571 drive in 1541 mode

- you can protect and unprotect 1541 disk images from the user menu

- with a new item in the user menu for disk images, you can select files  that
  contain at least one bad sector

- now the 'Clean' and 'Safe clean' functions don't touch at all  sectors  that
  are used but don't belong to a file

- when cleaning disk images, the BAM, the first directory sector and the  GEOS
  border sector are cleaned  with  their  default  contents  rather  than  the
  current format pattern, if they're marked free

- if no setup file is present, the parallel port assignments default  to  LPT1
  both

- critical error dialog boxes contain  an  additional  'Ignore'  button,  when
  allowed

- you can enter wildcards into the speed-search dialog box

- in sort modes other than Unsorted,  directories  are  sorted  before  normal
  files in LHA and TAR archives, too

- the 'File sizes' warning now takes the actual  amount  of  free  space  into
  account and works with DOS drives, as well

- some steps were taken  to  better  display  file  and  disk  sizes  above  2
  Gigabytes

- when a bad sector is read from a disk image that has  an  error  info  block
  attached then an error message is displayed and the error code is cleared if
  a sector is overwritten; you can disable this by unchecking the  new  option
  'Show read errors'

- the menu of available commands in the disk  editor  has  been  moved  to  F9
  because now several other commands are assigned to the other function keys

- the disk editor asks for confirmation every time you read in  a  new  sector
  and the current one had been modified

- the confirmations in the disk editor now have three choices that  allow  you
  to save and proceed, discard and proceed or cancel

- with several hotkeys in the disk editor you can jump to different  important
  sectors of the disk or disk image

- Shift-Home in the sector editor takes 'Orig format pattern' into account

- in the BAM editor, free sectors are marked with a dot and used ones with  an
  asterisk

- you can jump to any sector directly from the BAM and error info editor

- Ctrl-Gray Plus/Minus/Star select/unselect/invert the complete BAM in the BAM
  editor

- using Shift-F1 to Shift-F8 and Alt-F1 to Alt-F8, you can jump to  the  first
  block and the info block of files directly from directory sectors

- a new function in the disk editor lets you see  the  owner  of  the  current
  block and you can move around the blocks that belong to the same file

- with a new feature, you can make the disk editor display the sector contents
  in ASCII, as well

- you can use Enter to enter and exit the sector editor

- the sector editor remembers the last position of the cursor when you exit

- you can pick up two bytes under the cursor in the sector editor and jump  to
  the block on that track and sector

- the disk copier has been extended with the ability to  duplicate  and  merge
  disk images

- it is now possible to manually select the sectors to be copied by  the  disk
  copier

- if you leave the file name part of the destination blank in the disk  copier
  then the source file name will be duplicated there; except  when  copying  a
  Commodore disk into a disk image, in which case the file name 'disk0001'  is
  added automatically

- when copying multiple disks  into  disk  images  and  the  destination  file
  already exists, the index is increased until a non-existant file is found

- 'Fetch format label from source'  has  been  removed  from  the  'Copy disk'
  dialog box, destination disks are always formatted with  the  label  of  the
  source disk image

- you can make the disk copier check the BAM ID against the sector  header  ID
  and correct the BAM ID, if needed

- with a new option in the disk copier, you can have the source disk directory
  displayed in the active panel before you'd actually copy it

- to speed up the disk copy of multiple disk  images,  you're  not  asked  for
  confirmation when preformatting the destination disks

- the disk copier can also generate indices containing disk side letters, when
  copying multiple disks from a Commodore drive

- the disk copy now always ends with seeking the head back  to  the  directory
  track

- you can switch disk copy modes  in  the  'Copy disk'  dialog  box  with  the
  function keys, too

- if you're copying an extended 1541 disk or disk image and, for  any  reason,
  no data was copied from the extra tracks then you're  asked  about  removing
  them completely from the resulting disk image

- by checking a new option,  'Detect disk changes',  you  can  make  the  disk
  copier continue copying the next disk or disk image as soon  as  you  change
  the disk in the external Commodore drive

- if you check a new  option,  'Endless retry',  the  disk  copier  will  keep
  reading bad sectors until it succeeds or  you  exit  the  loop  by  pressing
  Escape or F10

- when specifying source files for copy, move, rename  or  deletion,  you  can
  enter a list of filename patterns, delimited with commas or semicolons

- the file copy is a bit faster when you copy selected files from a  Commodore
  drive

- in GEOS disk images, non-GEOS files are also saved  the  same  way  as  GEOS
  files

- you can format multiple disks in one session  by  checking  'Format multiple
  disks' in the 'Format' dialog box

- when formatting Commodore  disks,  the  characters  '*',  '='  and  '?'  are
  replaced with spaces so that the drive doesn't reply with an error message

- files with the extension '.sfx' are now handled as LHA archives

- files starting on the dirst directory sector or on any BAM sector  are  also
  considered to be phantom files

- sizes in Info panels are now displayed in a single form,  depending  on  the
  current status of 'DOS sizes in blocks'

- the 'File info' dialog box shows the description of GEOS files

- for BASIC programs, 'File info' now also displays the computer the file  was
  created on

- when changing the attributes of a single Commodore file, the new default for
  the file type is 'Do not change'

- the disk image maker is back to its original speed

- the speed-search dialog boxes are now wider, allowing you to  type  more  of
  long filenames

- when long filenames are available, file name input lines allow  data  to  be
  entered up to 255 characters

- if you create a new file in the current directory with Shift-F4  then,  upon
  returning from the editor, the cursor will jump onto the file

- if a command being executed already exists in the history then it  is  moved
  to the end of the list instead of being duplicated

- command lines containing spaces only are discarded

- in input lines, Control-Del has the same function as Control-T

- when inputting filenames, Alt-24 and Alt-27 are converted to the up and left
  arrows of the PETSCII character set

- good sectors are marked with a dash instead of a number  one  in  the  error
  info editor

- the function that strips the error info block off  the  disk  image  is  now
  assigned to F8 in the error info editor

- the maximum length of a line remaining  unwrapped  in  the  viewer  and  the
  editor has been raised to 2048 characters

- the viewer and editor  now  accept  filenames  containing  spaces,  even  if
  they're not enclosed into quotation marks on the command line

- when the load address is  displayed  in  the  viewer  or  editor,  the  Goto
  function inputs and goes to a memory address rather than a file offset

- in the viewer and editor, you can also use the mouse to select the  file  to
  view or edit in an image or archive file

- the viewer and the editor now  also  display  special  symbols  and  do  Tab
  translation in PETSCII mode

- the viewer can also display file offsets based on the load address

- the viewer now displays a warning about the  current  file  being  corrupted
  only once

- if a long filename is specified in the command line and the  file  does  not
  exist then the viewer truncates the  filename  to  short  form  and  retries
  opening the file

- in the editor, there are separate Insert/Overwrite modes, indicated  by  the
  cursor shape and a marker in the title bar, for the  text  and  hexa  modes;
  when Insert is active in hexa mode, you can insert  and  delete  bytes  just
  like in text mode

- in the editor, Ctrl-Del  deletes  the  selected  block,  if  there  is  one;
  otherwise deletes the word to the right of the cursor, as before

- the Replace function of the editor can now, in  both  text  and  hexa  mode,
  either delete the old string and insert the new one in its  place  or  patch
  the old string with the new.

- if you answer 'All' to the confirmation  of  the  Replace  function  of  the
  editor then the screen won't follow instances being replaced which speeds up
  the process to several times the original speed

- you can select blocks with Shift-arrow keys as well in the editor

- you can fetch a maximum of 64 characters from the  selected  block  of  text
  into the search input lines of the editor

- you can use wildcards in the 'Insert file' box of the editor

- the Star Utilities can now handle long filenames

- the Star Utilities now have two more options that tell  whether  to  display
  Commodore filenames with the lowercase/uppercase or  the  uppercase/graphics
  character set

- a new option in the Star Utilities lets you  delete  successfully  processed
  source files

- the Star Utilities can now extract data into 1571 and 1581 disk images, too

- the format descriptions in the Star Utilities now mention relative files

- Star ARC now displays archive comments upon extraction

- Star Zip, by default, stores the cosmetical ID in the BAM of the source disk
  image as the sector header ID stored into diskpacked ZipCode archives



  13. Known problems and limitations

  Timeouts are not handled. As all PC interrupts are disabled while  accessing
the Commodore drive, errors during data transfer may lock up your PC. In  this
case, you have to generate a timeout manually by pressing Escape or F10.

  You can't copy GEOS files from and to and relative files to Commodore disks.
You have to use the disk copier to copy such files as part of a disk  or  disk
image instead.

  Very long file and path names, those over 254 characters, get truncated.

  Instead of the usual extract command of LHA, the print command  is  used  by
both the Commander and Star LHA which only works  correctly  in  LHA 2.14  and
newer.

  The common clipboard of Windows pads text data with zero bytes to a multiple
of 32 bytes, therefore, you may experience the loss of some  zero  bytes  from
the end of blocks when pasting them into input lines or in the editor.



  14. Coming soon

  I'm planning the following changes for the next version. Please, tell me  if
I should start working on  the  items  marked  with  (?),  as  well.  However,
unmarked items are of higher priority than marked ones:

- bug fixes, of course...

- support for GCR-coded disk images

- support for 1581 drives, including disk turbos for copying files and disks

- ability to setup different parameters for the  different  drives  you  have,
  even if you still won't be able to use them all at the same time

- restructure the disk copier so that  it  can  copy  data  between  disks  in
  external Commodore drives, normal and GCR-coded disk images, diskpacked  and
  sixpacked ZipCode archives

- support for ZIP archives

- ability to create custom C128-style boot sectors,  either  with  precompiled
  code or with the command to load a program off the disk

- make it possible to change the attributes of a whole directory structure  of
  DOS files

- speed up the editor with a line buffer

- allow associating menu files to different file name  patterns  in  extension
  files

- expand Quick view with the ability of showing the total size of files in the
  directory structure under the cursor of the opposite panel

- make the editor allocate new blocks in the disk  image  if  the  file  being
  edited grows beyond its original size and, similarly, free  unneeded  blocks
  if the file shrinks (?)

- allow copying directory structures into LHA and TAR archives (?)

  There are many ideas that I will not put  inside  the  Commander.  They  are
related to a multi-purpose utility, not to a DOS shell like the Commander.



  15. Thanks to

  I would like to thank my development team for their valuable help:

  Nicolas Welte
  Wolfgang Moser

  Bacchus/Fairlight
  Clarence/Graffity
  Credo/SCS*TRC
  Darrin Smith
  Dohos dm
  Edhellon/Resource
  Gunther Richter
  Gustavo Ayala
  Halsz Csaba
  Jrgen Bullinger
  Lion/Chromance
  Mathias Beilstein
  Mathias Schroeder
  Matthias Hartung
  Michael J. Darschewski
  Olav Morkrid/Panoramic Designs
  Piret Endre
  Sorex/WOW
  Stephen Lloyd
  Suba Pter
  Sven Goldt
  Szigetvri Jzsef
  Tamsi Gyrgy
  Todd A. Aiken
  Vic/COMA
  Wojtek Wasilewski

  Special thanks go to:

  BBT/Breeze                    for his 1571 drive
  Berkeley Softworks            the authors of GEOS
  Bernhard Schwall              the author of Trans64
  Borland International         for Turbo Pascal and Borland Pascal
  Chris Smeets                  the author of the ARC and LHA extractors
  Commodore Business Machines   for the Commodore computers
  Hans Pieters                  for his 1581 drive and other Commodore stuff
  John Socha                    for The Norton Commander
  Marko Mkel                  for the original ZipCode and UnLynx for DOS
  Miha Peternel                 for the C64 Software Emulator
  Leopoldo Ghielmetti           for X1541 and the X1541 cable
  Per Hkan Sundell             for the CCS64 emulator
  Peter Schepers                the author of 64COPY
  Ralf Brown                    for the x86/MSDOS Interrupt List
  Turczi Ferenc                for the original warp validate program
  VICE Team                     for the VICE emulator package
  Vsevolod V. Volkov            for The Volkov Commander
  Wilbert van Leijen            for the OverXMS unit
  Wolfgang Lorenz               for Personal C64

  The following people have also contributed to the development:

  Andreas Boose                 discussion about the 1581 track cache
  Andres Valloud                general Pascal code optimization ideas
  Bigfoot                       the XH1541 hybrid cable and other ideas
  Chris Link                    many good ideas concerning the development
  Ettore Perazzoli              discussion about the GNU Public License
  Frank Kontros                 help with parallel cables and disk verify
  Hrsfalvi Levente             the idea of supporting TAR archives
  Joe Votour                    help with the way GEOS saves files
  Markus Gebhard                several sample 1571 disk images
  Pasi Ojala                    help with the layout of 1581 disks
  Slaygon/Censor                permanent WWW and E-mail address



  16. Where to find the Commander

  I always upload the newest releases to the following Web sites:

  Official homepage:
    http://sta.c64.org/sc.html

  Albion mirror site:
    http://biotop.umcs.lublin.pl/~ptracz/sc_site.htm
  The C64 tools list, MS-DOS section:
    http://www.fairlight.to/tools/pc.html
  Zak's C64 Download Area:
    http://fanthom.irc.pl/~zak/c64/download.htm

  ...the following FTP sites:

  ADE BBS:
    ftp://bbs.cc.uniud.it/pub/c64/tools/other_machines/pc/dos
  Arnold, home of the Commodore games:
    ftp://arnold.c64.org/pub/utils/transfer
  Computer Workshops FTP site:
    ftp://ftp.armory.com/pub/user/spectre/EMUL-UTIL
  The Digital Dungeon:
    ftp://utopia.hacktic.nl/pub/c64/Tools/Convert
  Funet archive:
    ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/transfer/1541-to-PC
  Gangsta's Paradise:
    ftp://c64.rulez.org/pub/c64/other-OS/Dos
  Kiarchive FTP server:
    ftp://ftp.kiae.su/msdos/emulator/c64-128
  Padua FTP site:
    ftp://ftp.padua.org/pub/c64/Tools/transfer/pc
  Spockie's FTP site:
    ftp://ftp.giga.or.at/pub/c64/transfer/1541-pc
  Triad FTP site:
    ftp://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/c64/PC_Tools

  ...and the following BBS:

  Wildfire BBS, Hungary         (36-)1-156-3770 (22:30-07:00), SysOp: Dino
  (FidoNet: 2:371/41)           USR Sportster 14.4, FREQ Magic Name: SC

  You can also E-mail me at any time to ask for a uuencoded or attached  copy.
Finger me at the address "sta@c64.rulez.org" to find out the version number of
the latest release.

  The first address in the above list is the  World Wide Web homepage  of  the
Commander. There you can always download the latest public release, along with
the full source, have a look at the documentation and the description  of  the
X1541-series interfaces and see some  facts  (bug  fixes,  modifications,  new
features) about the beta versions being developed and tested and even download
these betas. You can  also  buy  X1541-series  cables  and  other  cables  and
adaptors there for unusually low prices.

  If you would like to subscribe to The Star Commander mailing list,  so  that
you will be notified about new versions having been  released,  then,  please,
visit the official homepage for more information. If  you  would  like  to  be
notified about releases but don't want to subscribe to the mailing list  then,
simply, send your request in an E-mail to me.



  17. The author

  Please, don't hesitate, send an E-mail to the address "sta@c64.org"  if  you
have any questions, problems, ideas or wishes concerning  the  Commander.  You
can call the phone number (36-)1-285-3881 to contact me and you can also  send
snail-mails to me at this address:

  Kovcs Balzs
  Orsolya utca 5. IV/12.
  1204 Budapest
  Hungary

  Please, use English or Hungarian. If you really have to, you can use German,
as well, but be warned, I can only understand it, I don't  speak  it.  If  you
wish to send some files to me, either by E-mail or snail-mail,  then,  please,
ask me before you do it. I don't like being flooded with large E-mails or lots
of disks without having been warned.



  6th August, 2000                              Joe Forster/STA
