MICRODRIVIN'

Your Sinclair, June 1986



Showing at the Micro-Drive-in! Ian Hoare's amazing

microdrive catalogue program, Star Cat.



[WARNING! This routine only works with version one of the Shadow ROM. JimG]





Have you ever forgotten your vital statistics? Not a thing Sam Fox

would do. Lost the name of a favourite file? Wondered where a Basic

program autostarts? Or simply saved a file with CHR$0 and then

forgotten its name? Well, you haven't got a cat in hells chance ...

Unless, of course, you make full use of this program!



A STAR IS BORN

Star Cat is an all machine code routine that prints out a list of all

the files on a microdrive together with the file type, like Basic,

Code, Data or Print. Plus it also gives you a run down on the file's

vital statistics, such as autostart line, code address and length and

the variable name for Data files.



And if you've used CHR$0 at the start of the file name; or if it

contains unprintable characters so that the normal CAT won't work,

such as Trans Express files, don't worry. Star Cat simply prints out

the code number of each of the unprintable characters. Unfortunately

this program only works with series one Interface 1 ROM as it uses

several of the shadow ROM routines. If you're not sure which series

you've got carry out the following test. Enter CLOSE#0: PRINT PEEK

23729 and this should print 0 if you've got a series 1 ROM and 80 if

it's a later version.





PROGRAMMER'S HEALTH WARNING:

To save screen space, spaces within a file name are omitted. Thus

"Mega basic" would be printed out as "Megabasic".





PURRFECT CATS

This superb utility is very simple to use. Just type in the program

below. Once you've finished, Run it. The program has its own built-in

checksum so if you've made any mistakes you'll be immediately alerted.

The program even tells you the line the error occurs in and prompts

you to correct it. When you've done that, simply enter GOTO 15 as that

returns to POKEing the code into memory. Once the code has been

correctly POKEd in, you'll be asked to insert a cartridge into drive

1. Press a key and the code is automatically saved and verified.



SUPERSTAR TEST

Now you're ready to test the code. Enter RANDOMIZE USR 63744 as a

direct command. The computer now recognises a new Basic command - *CAT

n (where n is the drive number 1 to 8) either entered as a direct

command or as part of a program. Make sure you use the keyword CAT and

not the individual letters.



BASIC LOADER

If you want to use the code from new you'll need to use this Basic

Loader to Run the program. Remember that you must initialise the code

with RAND USR 63744 before you can use the extended Basic. As the code

is not relocatable you must use it at the address shown.





Line  5       Sets up the basic parameters.

Lines 10-30   POKE in the bytes at the appropriate address.

Lines 35-45   Check whether you've made any mistakes typing in the data.

Lines 50-70   Save the code onto cartridge and tell you what to do with it.

Lines 100-455 Contain the data to be POKEd in. Odd numbered lines contain

              the checksum.