VECTOR 4 USER'S
MANUAL
INTRODUCTION TO VECTOR 4 CP/M
How
vector
4
CP/M
Does
This
The
Vector
4 CP/M program is divided into four separate functional "areas",
all working together
to
accomplish the tasks described earlier:
• The Console Command Processor (or CCP)
•
The Transient Program Area (or TP A)
• The Basic Input/Output System (or
BIOS)
• The Basic Disk OperatiI)i System (or
BDOS)
When you
sit
down
to
type
at
the
keyboard (or console) of your computer, you
deal
with
the
operating system
at
a command level. That is,
there
are
several
commands, of a specified format and type, which you can give
the
computer
to
make
it
do what you want. (The two sections
of
the manual which follow this
Introduction will explain
the
uses
of
every command in detail.)
Briefly,
there
are
screen
handling comroands and program commands.
Screen.
handling
commands control
the
input and output
at
the
screen; they allow you
to
erase
characters
or
lines,
stop
the
scrolling
of
a
screen
display,
stop
a
program,
et
cetera.
Program commands call various programs,
either
a built-in
part
of
the
operating
system
or
additional
support
programs.
Most
screen
handling commands use the [CTRL] key
to
send them
to
processing; all program
commands consist
of
letters
and numbers, followed by a [RETURN].
The
keys you
enter
are
read
and "translated" into commands by
the
Console
Command Processor (CCP).
Some
commands you can enter
are
an integral pat.t
of
the
Console
Command
Processor;
since they "live" in
the
CCP, these
are
called
"resident
commands". You
can
also
command
the
computer
to
run
additional
programs
which
support
the
CP/M
operating
system. These
are
called
"transient
commands",
since
they
are
only
"visiting"
the
operating
system.
If
the
CCP
is
told
to
run
one
of these,
it
will "load"
or
copy the
program into
the
Transient Program Area.
The
Transient
Program Area is a section of
the
volatile memory (in
the
RAM
chips) used for
storing
and running programs.
It
occupies
the
"left
over"
memory from
loading
the
operating
system
to
the
RAM.
Except
for
the
resident commands mentioned earlier, all processing is done by the
instructions
. moved
to
the
TP
A.
When
processing
is
completed and you
call
another
set
of
instructions,
the
old instructions
are
erased
from
the
Transient
Program
Area
(which
is
why
it
is called transient).
Rev.
A
...;
9-01-82
7100-0001
Vll-7
To Next Page
Loading...