Romlt is an exciting new Rom for the BBC micro which provides the user with a brand new filing system - the Ram Filing System or RaFS for short. This allows you to save and load programs and data to sideways Ram acting like a so-called silicon disc; whether this be in Basic, machine code, or from commercially available software such as Wordwise Plus. This is particularly useful for cassette users because its speed of operation is comparable to that of a disc drive.
But more than just offering a speed advantage over cassette, the RaFS has many useful features which will appeal to disc and cassette users alike. These are further enhanced with the addition of battery back-up for its Ram workspace, so allowing permanent storage, and with it, the full benefits of a silicon disc system.
Romlt allows you to save programs and data on to the silicon disc, and then a special feature enables this to be put into eprom. This means that your favourite, and most frequently used programs may be rommed so that they are always resident in your machine; and if you do not have access to an eprom programmer, Beebugsoft provide a special blowing service for registered users of Romlt. See your Romlt registration card, or telephone Beebugsoft on 0727 40303 for further details.
Moreover, once your software is rommed, you no longer need Romlt to run it, so you can distribute your own Rom software among friends and colleagues, or even market it commercially.
A special "Snapshot" facility allows you to take 'snapshots' of any screen (modes 4-7) at the press of a key, and store them to the RaFS for later retrieval.
Romlt also allows you to autoboot Ram or Roms that you have created - you can even make them produce a start-up message when BREAK is pressed, and respond to the *HELP command.
A further feature allows your sideways Ram to be used as a massive 16K printer buffer, so releasing the computer during printing sessions.
In short Romlt is a fascinating product - and one that is extraordinarily easy to use, as you will see when you work through this manual.
The first 5 sections of this manual deal with the various features of Romlt with step-by-step instructions on their use. Section 6 treats each of Romlt's star commands in an alphabetical sequence, and will form a useful reference section as you get to grips with the product. As an additional aid, a command summary appears as the last appendix.
In this manual specific keystrokes required (such as the 'RETURN', 'SHIFT', and cursor keys) are indicated : RETURN, SHIFT and ? ? ? ?. All parameters are shown in this manual enclosed in angled brackets. Single sets of brackets <> are used to indicate essential parameters, while double brackets <<>> indicate optional parameters.
Romlt is supplied on a sideways Rom and can be fitted either in the main circuit board of your BBC micro or in any kind of sideways Rom board. Please refer to appendix (i) for instructions on how to fit Romlt.
Once Romlt is installed in your machine you may use your computer as normal, but the added commands of Romlt are now available whenever needed.
To get the most out of Romlt you will need to have sideways Ram fitted to your machine. This can be purchased (in the form of a pair of 8K static Rams) for a relatively small sum. Sideways Ram cannot however be plugged directly into your machine. It must be used with a carrier board such as the ATPL Rom board; and we thoroughly recommend this particular board.
The ATPL and other boards also provide a facility known as battery backup. This means that the sideways Ram containing your programs and data will not be cleared whenever your micro is turned off. This makes Romlt an even more powerful tool, as controller of a true silicon disc system.
If you do not have sideways Ram fitted, you may still use Romlt effectively. This is because Romlt can designate part of the Beeb's own user Ram as RaFS workspace (see the commands *RAM+ and *RAM- in section 6 of this manual for further details). If you do use this option you will of course lose the use of either 8 or 16K of user Ram; though if you keep in Mode 7, there is still a good deal of room for your programs. To find out how much room you have at your disposal at any time, either use *FREE if you have Beebugsoft's TOOLKIT or type:
P. HIMEM - PAGE RETURN
All the facilities of Romlt are accessed using 'star' commands. Each facility has one or more command words associated with it.
If you type the following:
*HELP RAFS RETURN
you will see a list of the commands available in Romlt.
Command words may be entered in either upper or lower case letters or even a mixture of both. All of the following commands are legal with Romlt.
*RAM RETURN
*ram RETURN
*RAm RETURN
The Romlt commands may also be entered in an abbreviated form. The shortest abbreviation that you can use will depend on the types and priorities of other Roms fitted in your computer. Each command has a minimum abbreviation that will allow Romlt to recognise it. In this manual the minimum abbreviation given is the command that will call the Romlt routine when Romlt is the highest priority Rom, apart from Basic and the DFS. For the command, *RAM this minimum abbreviation is *RA. so *RAM could also be entered by typing:
*RA. RETURN
or even:
*ra. RETURN
though in this particular case the abbreviation is no shorter than the original command!
Although each Romlt command has its own unique command word, you may find that some of these clash with the command words of other Roms which you may have fitted to your machine. Romlt has a special feature to avoid command name clashes. If any command name clashes, when the Romlt command is required, simply preface the command name with a "B" (for Beebugsoft) eg type:
*BRAM RETURN
instead of just:
*RAM RETURN
This will ensure that the command is intercepted by Romlt rather than any other Rom. There are no clashes of command words with any other Beebugsoft Roms.
If by contrast there is a conflict of command names, and Romlt intercepts (and executes) a command destined for some other Rom, this may be prevented as follows. A "B" is again used to preface the command name, but this time the "B" must be in a different case to that of the first letter of the command name following it. When Romlt detects this case change, it strips off the "B" (or "b") and passes on the rest of the command to other Roms down the line.
To clarify these conventions by way of example, the following commands are all legal with Romlt and have differing effects. The example presupposes that two Roms, Romlt and some other, both use the command name *RAM.
|
*RAM |
will execute the Romlt routine, if Romlt is in a higher priority to the clashing Rom. |
|
*ram |
will execute the Romlt routine if Romlt is in a higher priority to the clashing Rom. |
|
*BRAM |
will execute the Romlt command regardless of priority. |
|
*bram |
will execute the Romlt command regardless of priority. |
|
*bRAM |
will execute the routine of the clashing Rom if it is in a lower priority to Romlt. |
|
*Bram |
will execute the routine of the clashing Rom if it is in a lower priority to Romlt. |
Some of the Romlt commands require parameters to control their action. When parameters are being entered with a command, they should follow the command directly, but may each be preceded by a space for clarity.
For example, the Romlt command to copy a file from the RaFS to disc is:
*FILE R DISC <filename>
Thus to copy the file "PROG" from Ram to disc you would type:
*FILE R DISC RETURN
Some parameters, such as that used with the "BUFFER command, are optional. Optional parameters are indicated in this manual with a double angle bracket thus:
*BUFFER <<number>>
With Romlt fitted to your machine the RaFS can be initialised by simply issuing the command *RAM thus:
*RAM RETURN
If you do not have sideways Ram fitted to your machine this will come back with the error message No RAM. To overcome this enter:
*RAM+ RETURN
and then do as prompted. This selects user Ram rather than sideways Ram for RaFS use.
Whenever you call *RAM (or any of its variants), Romlt will display the free space available in the RaFS in both hexadecimal and decimal.
Once you have called *RAM (or *RAM+ or *RAM-), each time you save a program it will be saved to Ram, used as a silicon disc. You can catalogue the silicon disc with *CAT or (*.) and load in programs with the LOAD command; and to return to your disc or cassette filing system simply type:
*Disc RETURN
or
*TAPE RETURN
as appropriate. A more detailed discussion of the RaFS is given in the next section.
You should note that pressing BREAK will always take you out of the RaFS, and leave your machine in its default filing system, which will probably be disc or cassette. The following command will however put you back into the RaFS each time that BREAK is pressed; though it will not work after CTRL BREAK:
*KEY10*RAM¦M RETURN
Note that the ¦ character used above is on the key to the left of the CURSOR LEFT key.