PETSCII News · THE MACHINES
The DOS wedge, BASIC 7's disk words and CP/M on the 128
The shortcuts disk users swore by, the commands BASIC 3.5 and 7.0 brought, and the 128's other brain.
The Wedge
On the 64, LOAD "DOS 5.1",8,1 and SYS 52224 start the DOS wedge from the drive's demo disk, as owners did in 1982. Then @$ lists the disk without wiping your program, /HELLO loads, ^HELLO loads and runs, and @ on its own reads the drive's status.
Basic That Knows About Disks
The Plus/4 and the 128 didn't need a wedge. Their BASIC has the disk words built in: DIRECTORY, DLOAD, DSAVE, SCRATCH, RENAME, COPY, HEADER, COLLECT and DS$. SCRATCH asks ARE YOU SURE? first, as it should. On the 128, F3 lists the disk.
Cp/m On The 128
The 128 carried a second processor, a Z80, for CP/M. Type BOOT and it starts CP/M Plus: the A> prompt, DIR, TYPE, ERA, REN, PIP and SHOW. RESET brings BASIC back. GO 64 turns the 128 into a 64, once you answer yes.