

                SETTING UP AND USING THE ATARI CP/M EMULATOR
                --------------------------------------------

(Copyright 1986 Robert J. Retelle  Permission to copy granted, as long as this
notice remains intact.  Originally written for members of the GEnie ST Roundtable.)


Before you can use the Atari CP/M 2.2 Emulator system, you'll have to do a
little preparation of the disks you'll be using, since CP/M uses a different
disk format from the normal TOS formatted disks.

First of all, FORMAT several SINGLE-SIDED disks (CP/M only recognizes SS disks!)
Then UnARC the CPM.ARC file using the normal ARC.TTP program. This will create
a disk filled with various files, most of which are CP/M files which will NOT
run for now.

Click on MAKE_CPM.TOS and follow the prompts when it says to insert one of your
blank, formatted disks. When the program is finished, you will have a CP/M
formatted disk with 2 important CP/M utilities on it.

It is important to understand that there are 2 *different* environments at work
here. When you want to use the CP/M Emulator, you will need at least 2 disks,
one normal ST disk with the program CPMZ80.TOS on it (the actual CP/M Emulator
which runs in your ST), and one or more CP/M formatted disks.

When you want to run CP/M, you FIRST put the ST disk in, and click on CPMZ80.TOS.
Then when promped, remove the ST disk and put in a CP/M disk. From then on,
you are effectively using a Z80 CPU machine, with 64K of memory. You CANNOT
use the GEM Desktop for directories or formatting new disks once you are in
CP/M. If you need to format another disk, you must type EXIT, and go back
to the normal ST environment.

When first setting up your CP/M Emulator system, there's some busywork you
have to go through to transfer the CP/M utilities and programs that you UnARCed
along with the main CPMZ80.TOS program.

While you're still in GEM, open a directory window on the disk containing
all the files that came out of the CPM.ARC file. WRITE DOWN the filenames
of all that have a .COM extender. These are the ones you'll want to transfer
to a CP/M disk, but once you're in CP/M, you CANNOT look at a TOS directory.

Then click on CPMZ80.TOS to go into CP/M. When prompted, insert the disk you
created with MAKE_CPM.TOS. You should see the CP/M prompt, A:

(If you have 2 disk drives, this will go much faster. If you have only one
disk drive, condolences to your patience and sanity.)

Now type TOSCPM <tosfilename> <cpmfilename>

What that means is that you're going to transfer files from your ST formatted
disk to a CP/M formatted disk. If you have 2 drives for example, put your
CP/M disk in A: and your TOS disk with the CP/M files on it into B: then
type (for instance), TOSCPM B:NULU.COM A:NULU.COM

This will transfer the program to the CP/M disk (note that you don't have to
type everything in Uppercase... that's just for clarity here).

If you have only one drive, type TOSCPM A:NULU.COM A:NULU.COM

Unfortunately, this utility does NOT allow you to use 'wildcards' to get it
all over with easily. You have to type the full command and filename set for
EACH file you want to transfer. If you EVER wanted an object lesson on how
much easier GEM is to work with than a 'command line' setup, this is IT!

Once you use TOSCPM to transfer all the .COM files to your CP/M disk, you're
ready to use your new CP/M emulator. The only use you'll have now for the
normal ST TOS disk will be to run the CPMZ80.TOS Emulator itself.

The other utility that was created by the MAKE_CPM.TOS process way back in
the beginning is INITDSK.COM which is used to convert a new formatted disk
to a CP/M formatted disk. Whenever you need a new disk, format it normally
from GEM (remember, Single Sided only!), then once you are in CP/M, type
at the A: prompt INITDSK and follow the prompts to change disks.


A few observations...

There is an excellent CP/M terminal program available on the CP/M Roundtable
here on GEnie, called MEXST.COM. If you decide to use this, be sure to also
get the MEX.HLP file, and perhaps the MEXCMDS file which will help you get
the most out of the program. This will allow you to download CP/M files and
programs directly to your CP/M formatted disks. However, what might actually
be easier for occasional use, is to download CP/M programs to a normal ST
disk using your regular ST terminal program, then transfer them to the CP/M
disk off-line using the TOSCPM.COM utility, as you did above with the CP/M
utilities.

You'll find many of the CP/M files in the GEnie CP/M Roundtable have been
SQUeezed, or LiBRaried, or BOTH... to restore these programs, you'll have to
download copies of LU310.COM and USQ120.COM from the CP/M Roundtable, and
run them under CP/M.

(I encountered a 'bug' when running LU310 to 'deLiBRary' some CP/M files, where
when I tried to exit from the program, I got an 'Emulator Error' and was
bounced back to the GEM Desktop. I finally managed to avoid this by OPENING
a new LBR file with 0 sectors. LU doesn't like this, and errors out back to
the A: prompt without crashing to GEM. If you don't understand what that
means, don't worry about it, re-loading CP/M isn't all that bad)

One other thing, files with a .ASM (or .AQM for the SQUeezed version) are
the SOURCE CODE files for the Z80 assembler, in case you want to take a look
at how the program works, or want to re-assemble it. Since the Atari CP/M
Emulator doesn't COME with an assembler, you might want to avoid 'deLiBRarying'
these .ASM files and cluttering up your Single Sided disks. DO be sure to
read all the .DOC files though!

Unfortunately, MANY, MANY of the programs in the GEnie CP/M Roundtable are
written in Microsoft BASIC (usually called MBASIC in the CP/M RT). Microsoft
BAISC is NOT Public Domain, and right now is NOT available for the ST (as far
as I know, it's not available on a 3 1/2 inch CP/M disk)... SO... unless you
already own a copy of Microsoft BASIC for a different computer, and can somehow
transfer it to an ST CP/M disk, you CAN'T use ANY of these MBASIC programs
that are available!! Don't waste you time downloading them in other words!

There ARE a couple of BASICs available in the CP/M RT, but so far, I haven't
had time to work with them and see if they are at all compatible with MBASIC.



This should get you up and running with CP/M on your ST. For help in actually
USING CP/M, be sure to drop into the GEnie CP/M Roundtable. They have an
Atari Category expecially for users of the Atari ST CP/M Emulator, and will
be happy to answer all your questions!

If you find any good CP/M programs on local 'RCPM' BBSs, please upload them
to the CP/M RT, as they can be shared by ALL users of CP/M...!

Questions about getting the CP/M Emulator running on your Atari ST can of
course be answered on the GEnie ST Roundtable!

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