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Currently the disk is built from dos_20s.atr, with the "axe" utility.
See the script mkdisk.sh to see how it's done.
In case you're wondering about fujitest.atr, it's fujichat.atr plus the
author's personal config file and serial driver, so I don't keep having
to answer the config prompts every time I test a new build. The rest of
this file describes only fujichat.atr.
Reasons for distributing FujiChat as a bootable disk image:
- It's "boot and go" for users who use real floppy drives or emulate
them with SIO2PC + software.
- The setup process is automated and guides the user through. First
boot it asks what serial driver to use (then reboots). Next boot it
loads the menu with the Setup option as the default. Further boots,
the config file exists so Chat is the default menu option.
- Since there's not enough memory to combine the menu, about, setup and
chat programs, they have to be separate files. Which means FujiChat
has to be distributed as a multi-file archive... I could have used
e.g. ZIP or ARC instead of ATR, but then floppy users would have to
create their own ATR image and copy the files to it.
The only disadvantage is that hard disk users might want to "install"
FujiChat to their drive. This can be done just by copying the contents
of the ATR to a directory on the drive, then running FUJICONF.COM to
create a config file and FUJICHAT.COM to actually use IRC (if the hard
disk boot process already loaded an R: driver).
Disk Contents
-------------
fujichat.atr is built from a DOS 2.0S floppy image containing only
DOS.SYS and DUP.SYS. These are the files that go on the disk:
ABOUT.COM
ABOUT.TXT
ATARI850.SER
AUTORUN.SYS
BOBVERT.SER
FUJICHAT.COM
FUJICONF.COM
FUJIMENU.COM
LOADMENU.COM
MAKEAUTO.COM
PRCONN.SER
One thing missing from the disk is the config file, FUJICHAT.CFG. This
is created by FUJICONF.COM (see below). If you load FUJICHAT.COM without
creating the config file first, it uses compiled-in defaults (which
might not work for you).
File Descriptions
-----------------
The initial AUTORUN.SYS is aexec.xex and loadmkau.xex concatenated.
The code in aexec.xex is the atari_exec() function, loaded to $600.
loadmkau.xex uses atari_exec() to load & run MAKEAUTO.COM. This
AUTORUN.SYS is *overwritten* by MAKEAUTO.COM (see below).
NOTE: All the *.COM files contain the aexec.xex code, so atari_exec()
can be called from any of them, even if they're loaded out of the usual
order. aexec.xex (atari_exec()) is necessary because standard Atari DOS
doesn't provide a way to load and run an executable programmatically (only
interactively from the DOS menu). Third party DOSes (notably SpartaDOS)
provide a function (an XIO call) to do this, but FujiChat is intended
to work with all DOSes.
MAKEAUTO.COM asks for the serial port driver to use (the *.SER files are
the choices). It creates a new AUTORUN.SYS which is a concatenation of
the chosen serial driver and LOADMENU.COM. After it's done, it prompts
the user to reboot (to boot with the new AUTORUN.SYS). Note: this means
FujiChat must be run from a writable disk.
LOADMENU.COM simply runs FUJIMENU.COM. It's never run standalone; it's
incorporated in AUTORUN.SYS (along with the serial driver). The reason
for this indirection is to keep FUJIMENU.COM as a standalone executable,
not containing the serial port driver (and not named AUTORUN.SYS).
FUJIMENU.COM is the main menu, with the choices About, Setup, and Chat.
It runs ABOUT.COM, FUJICONF.COM, or FUJICHAT.COM based on the user's
choise.
ABOUT.COM is basically the Unix "more" command for the Atari. It reads and
displays ABOUT.TXT with a ---more--- prompt at the end of each screens'
worth. When it's done, it reloads FUJIMENU.COM.
FUJICONF.COM is the config menu (Setup), which asks for IP addresses, IRC
nick, etc. It can be run either from FUJIMENU.COM or from FUJICHAT.COM
(while not connected to the server). Note that the config is persistent
in memory between runs of FUJICONF.COM and FUJICHAT.COM, meaning you can
temporarily change settings (in memory only) by *not* saving the config
(answer N to "Save this config?"). Also, the first question it asks
(Change serial driver?) will run MAKEAUTO.COM (see above).
FUJICHAT.COM is the main executable. It's loaded by FUJIMENU.COM, and
expects a serial port (R:) driver to already be loaded. If you wanted
to "install" FujiChat to a hard disk or otherwise run it directly from
e.g. a SpartaDOS command line, you could load this by itself (without
booting the FujiChat disk), *provided* you already have an R: driver
loaded *and* that you've created a FUJICHAT.CFG (by running FUJICONF.COM).
The *.SER files are just the various R: device drivers. These are
the standard drivers, I just gave them a .SER extension to make them
stand out.
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