Commodore 1541-II - Chapter 3: Directories; What Is a Directory; Viewing a Directory; What a Directory Shows

CHAPTER 3
DIRECTORIES
WHAT IS A DIRECTORY?
One of the primary advantages of a disk drive is that it can, with nearly equal ease
and speed, access any part of a diskette's surface, and jump quickly from one spot to
another. A DATASSETTE™, on the other hand, usually reads a cassette file from the
beginning to the end, without skipping around. To see what's on a cassette, it is necessary
to look at its entire length, which could take as long as an hour. On a disk drive, by way of
contrast, it is a quick and simple matter to view a list of the programs and data files on a
diskette. This list is called the directory.
VIEWING THE DIRECTORY: BASIC 2
To view the directory in Basic 2, it is usually necessary to load it, like a program. As
when you load other programs, this erases anything already in Basic memory, so be sure
to save any work you don't want to lose before loading the directory in Basic 2. (Chapter 4
describes how to Save a program.)
For example, to load the entire directory from disk device 8, type:
LOAD'T',8
Then, to display*the directory on your screen after it loads into computer memory,
type LIST. You may slow the listing by pressing the CONTROL key on the VIC 20 and
Commodore 64, and halt it entirely by pressing the STOP key.
You can also use this command to limit the directory to desired files by using pattern-
matching characters described later in this chapter.
VIEWING THE DIRECTORY: BASIC 3.5
To view the directory in Basic 3.5, simply type the word DIRECTORY on a blank
line, and press the RETURN key. Unlike Basic 2's method of loading a directory, this
does not erase anything already in Basic memory, so you can safely ask for a directory at
almost any time, even from within another program.
Again, you may slow a directory listing on the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 by holding
down the COMMODORE key ( Ql ), or halt it entirely by pressing the STOP key. You
may also pause it with CONTROL-S (by holding down the CONTROL key while pressing
the. "S" key), and resume by pressing any other key.
WHAT A DIRECTORY SHOWS
Now let's look at atypical directory on your 1541 Test/Demo Diskette.
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