[Coco] dw 3

[Robert Gault]

Aaron Wolfe wrote:

> The default behavior in DW4 is identical to DW3.  The specific
> scenario that the special "hdbdos" mode in DW4 was designed to allow
> is copying one .dsk file directly to/from one real floppy disk.  It's
> something people have asked me about doing fairly often, and unless I
> misunderstand, this is not easy with DW3 style operation.   If your
> only floppy disk is at position 0, then there seems no way to write or
> read the first part of a .dsk file in DW3, effectively preventing the
> desired operation.
>
> Is there a workaround that would allow simple copying of single disks
> back and forth using DW3, and I've missed it?  I would like to remove
> the special mode for this if it is not needed.
>
> -Aaron
>

Well, it depends what you consider an effective method. You can use a RAM disk 
and the COPY command to transfer single files. If the file on the floppy is to 
go to any drive other than drive0 in one of the DW slots, you just need to enter:
DRIVEOFF 0:COPY"filename.ext:0"to#
where # is 1-255. This will work for any DW slot. If you want the file to go to 
drive0, then an intermediate transfer via RAM disk or another drive# would be 
required.

The main point is that with 256 disks per drive#, copying from/to floppies 
should not present any real problems. It is copying from one DW slot to another 
which is the main problem which is easily solved with a RAM disk designed to 
work with HDBDOS.