Any CP/M 2.2 Enhancement that offers Folders ala MS-DOS ?

[wutzi...@gmail.com]

Hi Folks,

A while ago I added an MicroSD interface to my system and updated my CP/M 2.2 Bios accordingly.

Now that I have all the space I have a pile of files on one super floppy.

I didn't keep up with all the CP/M enhancements so hence this post.

Is there any enhancement that offers sub-directories and folders ?

If not do you have suggestions for me on how I can make thing neater and keep my Assembly stuff separate from COM, etc.

Thanks

[Larry Kraemer]

How about using user{0..15}

Default is user 0


Larry

[Udo Munk]

There have been such extensions, but more academical than useful.
Programs need to be re-compiled against the new filesystem because
no command would work with 'cmd /home/xxx/some.file'

Try Cromix, has a UNIX filesystem, also can run CP/M programs,
but this needs several ugly workarounds, see manuals.

[Floppy Software]

You could divide your physical drive into 16 logical drives A: to P:, and use the 16 user areas in each drive 0 to 15.

In this way, you could have 16 x 16 = 256 "directories".

[Jeff Albrecht]

On Monday, September 24, 2018 at 3:21:45 AM UTC-7, wutzi...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> A while ago I added an MicroSD interface to my system and updated my CP/M 2.2 Bios accordingly.

[...]

Did you perchance publish an article on this adding an SD card? Hardware and software? I'd read it! :-)

- Jeff

[wutzi...@gmail.com]

Hi Folks, thanks for the feedback.

I thought about the "User" capability but I don't know if it can be used as syntax in a command line. Does CP/M 2.2 support something like this as a command line: Type A:[User #]cbios22.prn ?

Jeff: I did not publish an article. I did look at a lot of prior work and commented some on what I was doing in my post of 3/8/18 "Looking to contact Chris B (Brock). Interested in his 24b CPM port for EZ80".

I have added an IDE interface & deblocking bios to one of my Z80 boards and I'm working on a CompactFlash interface for another one as I have many CF cards from the early digital camera days.

Thank you all, Wutz

[Jeff Albrecht]

Have you seen this project?

http://www.s100computers.com/My%20System%20Pages/IDE%20Board/My%20IDE%20Card.htm

URL shortened;

https://rodaw.me/2Id5TFX

- jeff

[jdhadd...@gmail.com]

I recall coming across an enhancement called C-Tree. The details escape me, but it somehow simulated subdirectories on CP/M. It would re-map the user areas into folder names that you could reference them by. I think you were allowed to go 3 subfolders deep. I never actually used it, just saw it while browsing.

[Jack Fenton]

On Monday, September 24, 2018 at 3:21:45 AM UTC-7, wutzi...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi NZ.COM, ZPR3, or Z3Plus all have named directories. If you want to check it do a search on MAXZ80 online and run it under DOSBOX,

[Fritz Chwolka]

I like NZCOM and ZCPR.
The named directory are only to remember where you are and truly they use user areas.
But .. with the 'Z System' user areas are full usable in the command line and they have a lot of more usable enhancement against CP/M.

At http://www.classiccmp.org/cpmarchives/live.php you can take a look onto Z-System like NZCOM and ZCPR.


Some manuals are at http://www.gaby.de/emanuals.htm
--

[Steven Hirsch]

On 09/24/2018 08:18 PM, wutzi...@gmail.com wrote:

> I thought about the "User" capability but I don't know if it can be used as
> syntax in a command line. Does CP/M 2.2 support something like this as a
> command line: Type A:[User #]cbios22.prn ?

Vanilla CP/M does not, but Z-System (ZRDOS, ZSDOS) and a few other extensions do.

[Steven Hirsch]

That would be CP-Tree. I have a copy here somewhere. The scheme was clumsy
enough that I never used it.

[Jack Fenton]

On Monday, September 24, 2018 at 3:21:45 AM UTC-7, wutzi...@gmail.com wrote:

Another thought is to run 22NICE. It runs under DOS (and DosBox). It doesn't have it's own CP/M shell. You actually work within the Dos Command prompt and it has normal DOS directory structures. C/PM programs are modified by a program called "GENCOM" which basically puts it's own startup wrapper around the CP/M COM file. You actually rename the CP/M COM file from ".COM" to ".CPM". Then running GENCOM on it creats a DOS compatible .COM wrapper. From within CP/M each program is unaware that it is running under MSDOS and just thinks it has a large CP/M system to itself.

I think there is a 22NICE trial version out ther you can get for free. For me, I actually sent a note to Sydex (yes they are still in business) and once I convinced them I would not ask for support (that I'm just using as a hobby). They agree to sell me a license. The shareware version (if you can find it) has a "nag" message on every command.

I actually loaded 4-DOS on top of DOSBOX then run 22NICE from there. 4-DOS has a lot of DOS enhancements that make the DOS world much more powerful.

22NICE allows creation of USER areas by mapping to a directory/folder struture and also allows you to have a CPMPATH environment which is used to help 22NICE find your .COM wrapper files that it created. Quite fun!

Back to NEWZ.COM. I was actually able to load and get it working under YAZE, on Windows 10 under CYGWIN64 (The CP/M 2.2 version). It also can run under SIMH and there are some pre-built systems out there already.

Lot's of options. YAZE seems to be the fastest but once in a while I get a crash. DOSBox is pretty stable.

Finally 22NICE will run under vDOS (which is OK for most CP/M programs since most have no graphics). vDOS is non-graphical.

[Richard Deane]

Also worth a look at gitgub runcpm, also uses folders on disk
I use it on teensy 3.6, Windows and Mac but of course it's not real cp/m, just a good flavour of emulation
Richard

[siewe...@gmail.com]

Hi,

I am using Z80MU version 5.2b.
It uses 'normal' MS-DOS dir and filename system.
It even runs on Windows 10 - 32 bits. No 64 bits :-(.
It is not an 'extension', but maybe it can be useful...

Greetings,
Henk Siewert

[wutzi...@gmail.com]

Hi Folks,

Thank you for all the suggestions.

From a Z80 (or EZ80) environment perspective, is there a replacement CCP or CCP/BDOS for CP/M 2.2 that will support folders?

If not I gather one should move to CPM 3. If I go that route where can I find it? Is there Z80 source code for it?

What do you suggest is the best CCP enhancement that offers folders and more?

Thank you.

[retrosys...@gmail.com]

TDOS (A CPM 2.2 upgrade for the Coleco Adam) has a CD command that lets you name the user areas. So instead of USER 1 you could name it "games" with CD GAMES /n then you can get to that area by just typing "cd games". Not exactly what you are looking at but it is an idea - still limited to the the 32 user areas it has.

Bill