HP 95LX - Page 12

Using the Filer
The Filer is the “home base” of the System Manager operating system. Not only
does it help you organize your files into directories, it also lets you:
* Transfer files to/from a PC (via the Connectivity Pack—see pages 91-93);
¢ Run DOS-based programs on a plug-in RAM card (see page 120);
¢ Access the DOS Command line (see pages 114-115).
Disk Drives and the HP 95LX
File organization begins with the disk. On most desktop PCs, the drive designated
as A: is a floppy drive for removable diskettes; the C: drive is a fixed (or “hard”)
disk. To find its “boot up” information, the MS-DOS operating system checks the
A: disk first (if it exists), then the B: disk, then the C: disk.
Likewise, the HP 95LX comes with a plug-in drive into which you can insert RAM
or ROM cards. This drive is the A® drive. The internal combination RAM/ROM
card is the C3 drive. And, as usual, DOS looks at the A# drive (the plug-in port)
first upon boot-up—to see if it’s got a card plugged into it.
Pathnames and Directories
You denote each directory in DOS with abackslash (*). Each disk’s main directory
is called the root directory, whose name is only a backslash (nothing more). For
example, the root directory on the C= disk is denoted by C= ™..
The pathname of a file is a sequential list of the directories and subdirectories the
computer needs to follow (the “path”) to find the file. For example, the pathname
of a file called hiding .t xt, located in the worddocC directory of the
personal directory of project Sdirectory of the C: root directory would be:
c:sprojectshpersonal sworddocshiding.t xt
Notice how each subdirectory is separated by a *; the filename comes at the end.
12 1. ORGANIZING INFORMATION