[Coco] Dumb way to write 3.5" floppy in Coco RSBASIC?

[David]

On Sun, Dec 07, 2003 at 12:24:36AM -0500, Robert Gault wrote:
> KnudsenMJ at aol.com wrote:
> >
> >>The best means for transfer is still null modem if you have an RS-232 pak.
> >
> >Pretty sure I still do.  Now I just need a terminal program that runs 
> >under RSDOS (maybe the VidText ROM in the RS232 Pak will do), and a PC 
> >term program that will run a Baud rate as low as the Coco's.  Will good 
> >old Hyperterm or whatever that stock DOS thing is, go that slow? 120 Baud 
> >or whatever?
> >
> HyperTerminal is perfect but get the latest version 6.1. Both Ultimaterm 
> and OSTerm work nicely on the Coco. There is a limit on the baud rate 
> for successful transfers but that not much of a problem.
> 
> There is also a limit to the size of files that can be sent from the 
> Coco. You can't make an .lzh file of your entire hard drive and expect 
> it to transfer. Coco programs were not written with files of that size 
> in mind and will overflow the maximum values of their pointers.
> 
> There is a minor problem with x and ymodem format compatibility. The 
> Coco formats are not current, so some experimentation is needed to get a 
> match. Ultimaterm's xmodem seems OK with HyperTerminal's xmodem and 
> OSTerm's batch ymodem matches HT's ymodem. I have not gotten ymodem to 
> work with Ultimaterm.

Although Mike was asking about transferring under RSBasic, another
option for OS9 is to set up login to monitor the serial port and then
simply log in from the PC using Hyperterm or whatever.

Dunno about how compatible with modem zmodems the coco rz/sz is, but
hopefully it is adequately up-to-date.

You should be able to use the rsdos program under OS9 to read the disks,
or even using merge /d0@ >image.dsk create a .dsk image from os9 and
transfer the .dsk image.  You'd probably need to create a device
descriptor using the geometry of the rsdos disk, and call it something
like /rs0 or some such, so that it would read the disk correctly.

I _think_ it's very dangerous to "copy /d0@ somefile"  I tried that on
my OSK box (had forgotten how to do a raw copy), and the process kept
reading.. writing.. reading.. writing.. till my hard drive was
completely borked.