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DOS File System for HP BASIC/WS.

The DOS File System (DFS) binary is a language extension / driver that can be added to HP BASIC/WS 6.2 or later to provide the capability of reading and writing floppy and hard disks formatted on a PC with the standard FAT format.

The DFS binary is loaded in HP BASIC the same way other binaries are, e.g.

LOAD BIN “DFS”

Although the DFS binary is capable of reading and writing to FAT formatted hard disks,

these are probably rare cases, because these would have to be PC external hard disks with a HPIB interface.   Therefore, the most common use of the DFS binary is to read or write

to floppy disks, that is disks with the format:

Capacity:            3.5”, 1.44 MB, 512 bytes/sector

File system:            FAT

Allocation ..:            Default allocation size

Syntax

Most, if not all, of the HP BASIC mass storage commands were modified to accept a DOS file system as one of the supported formats, just like LIF, HFS, SRMUX, etc.   For example, the command that specifies a mass storage device was expanded as follows: 

MASS STORAGE IS  directory_specifier 

directory_specifier := “ [directory_path] directory_name [volume_specifier] “

directory_path := [ / | \ ] [directory_name | . | .. ] [ / | \ ]

volume_specifier := “:DOS [, DOS_drive_designator] “

If one interprets the items in square brackets ([ ]) as optional, and the character “|” as

OR, then the following are valid DOS mass storage specifications,

MASS STORAGE IS “\mydata\set_one:DOS,A”

MSI “/mydata/set_one:DOS”

Examples

The commands that support DFS, such as CAT, COPY, SAVE, PURGE, etc can be used in combination with different floppy drives, like 9121, 9122, and 362/382 built in drives, however given that nowadays most PC floppies are high density (1.44 Mb) and some drives (9121 and some 9122) cannot read those floppies, it’s recommended to use the 362/382 drives as the destination of the disk operations.  

For example, lets copy the ordinary text file from a LIF floppy in a 9133 drive at address 702,1 to a DOS floppy in a 382 internal floppy drive at SCSI address 1400…

<insert DOS formatted disk in 362/382 drive>

MSI “:,1400”

COPY “ordfile:,702,1” TO “ordfile”

Now show a directory listing…

CAT  [Enter]

:SCSI,1400

LABEL: NO NAME

FORMAT: DOS

AVAILABLE SPACE:         5688

                         FILE                 NUM          REC           MODIFIED

ordfile                 DOS                10                    1            …              ….            ….