GETTING STARTED Most of the software in the disc library is run from CP/M, not LocoScript, but a few discs may have programs that run under BASIC. The language discs are run from CP/M too. If you are a beginner and have only used your PCW for writing letters with LocoScript, as supplied free with the machine, then you have only used one program. Your PCW can run most CP/M software, and there are literally thousands of programs available. You will need to read the manual supplied with your PCW that deals with CP/M. Though it may seem complicated this gives a good guide for beginners on the various commands that CP/M plus uses. There is usually some documentation on the disc that you may need to read before getting started. This documentation may be in the form of 'READ.ME FILENAME.TXT FILENAME.DOC NOTES' or similar to indicate that this is a text file to be read. As the software is free, some authors haven't bothered to tell you how to use the program, they have left it up to you to experiment. In other cases the program is menu driven and self explanatory. There are notable exceptions to this, some of the programs have excellent manuals and are a credit to the authors. If there is demand for a full blown tutorial I will write one, and put it into the library. In the meantime I list the basics to get you going. CP/M Plus To use CP/M you will need to reset your PCW by pressing three keys at once: SHIFT, EXTRA & EXIT. FIRST MAKE SURE THAT THERE ARE NO DISCS IN YOUR DISC DRIVE(S). or if you are just starting to use the machine, switch it on. 1. Insert a copy of your system master disc into the 'A:' drive and the PCW will 'boot' CP/M. (BOOT=load). The file that is needed to boot CP/M is called 'J14CPM3.EMS' or something similar to this. 2. You will see the CP/M Plus sign on screen when CP/M is loaded. It says: 'CP/M PLUS Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc v 1.4, 61K TPA, 2 disc drives, 368K drive M:' or something similar. You will also see this on the next line: 'A>' and a square shaped cursor. This is called the CP/M A> prompt. 3. Now remove the CP/M system disc and place the disc with your program on into the A: drive. To see what is on the disc, you need to get a DIRectory, type this at the A> prompt: 'dir' and press return. This gives a list of the files, by name, on the disc. Somewhat like a table of contents in a book. If there is a file that you want to read you need to TYPE it to the screen by typing its name, preceded by 'type'. eg: 'type notes.doc' and press return. This will print the file to the screen, a page at a time. Press any key to get the next page, and so on. 4. To use any given CP/M program you simply type its name, and press return, when you are at CP/M's A> prompt. Files that are programs have '.COM' tails, or extensions, as they are called. EG. NSWP.COM is a program called NSWP and to use it on your computer you type its name at the A> prompt and press return. It will then load from the disc and start 'running'. eg. To run NSWP.COM type at CP/M A> prompt, this: 'nswp' and press return. and away you go. BASIC PROGRAMS If you haven't got the BASIC reference manual you should be able to buy one from LocoMotive Software, authors of LocoScript and Mallard BASIC. If you intend to use BASIC to any extent you will need this manual. To run the occasional BASIC program, you do as follows: 1. Load CP/M as described above. 2. Keep the same disc in the A: drive and at the CP/M A> prompt type: 'BASIC' and press return, you will see something like this appear on the screen when BASIC has loaded: 'Mallard-80 BASIC with Jetsam Version 1.29 (c) Copyright 1984 Locomotive Software Ltd All rights reserved 31597 free bytes Ok and a small square cursor' This is Mallard BASIC's sign on screen. 3. Remove the copy of your master disc and place the disc with the BASIC program on into the drive and type: 'run "filemane.bas"' and press return. (filename=program name as shown when you did a DIRectory of the disc) All BASIC programs have a '.bas' extension, or tail to their names. The program should now load from disc and run. GENERAL If you have problems refer to the documentation supplied with the program. If you still have problems and you have done everything you can possibly think of, drop me a line (include a stamped S.A.E. for reply) and I will try to help. As you can imagine, I do not use all the programs, let alone be able to advise everyone about them, but some I do use and can offer free advice. NEVER, NEVER USE THE ORIGINAL DISC FOR GENERAL USE. ALWAYS TAKE A COPY AND USE THIS. KEEP THE ORIGINAL AS A MASTER DISC IN A SAFE PLACE. Refer to manual to see how to copy discs with disckit or pip or NSWP (NSWP is on the utilities disc in the library, and is an excellent, all singing, dancing disc utility for copying, deleting, squeezing, unsqueezing, printing, tagging, viewing, checking disc space, changing file status, renaming etc etc). Everyone should have it. Never switch off the computer, or reset it, with a disc in the drive. A sure way to make it unreadable. PCW9512 Computers. CF2 discs may be read by this computer but because its drives are double sided, double density, and the PCW8256 A: drive is single sided and single density, they are not completely compatible. To use CF2 discs in a PCW9512 (or a second B drive on a PCW8512) you need to copy all the files from the CF2 disc, as supplied by me, onto your own CF2DD disc. (Ordinary CF2 discs become CF2DD discs when formatted by disckit in the PCW9512 A: drive or PCW8512 B drive). Refer to manual on how to use disckit. To copy files use pip.com, on system master disc. See manual on how to use pip. PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARY DISCS The discs supplied from the Public Domain Library have been specially formatted to 192K / side. Disckit.com formats 'A' drive discs to 173K / side. We use this special formatting program to squeeze more software onto many discs in the library. These discs may be used as normal with LocoScript, BASIC and CP/M Plus but there are two limitations that you should be aware of: 1. Library discs can NOT be copied with DISCKIT.COM . You will need to use PIP.COM or NSWP.COM to copy files individually from one disc to another. PIP.COM can be found on your master disc set and runs from CP/M Plus. NSWP.COM is a Public Domain program and is available from the library. We use it, it's a super file utility and works from CP/M Plus. 2. Library discs formatted to 192K / side can not be used for 'start of day' discs for loading CP/M Plus system or LocoScript 1 or 2. You must use a conventionally formatted disc for this purpose. The P.D. Library has an excellent disc utility called DU49. This will enable you to format your own discs to this extended CF2 format and even CPC6128 (data and system) compatible formats.