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This article also appeared in the April 2002 issue of the UCUGA Commodore Digest.

GeoSpecific - Indispensable - Part 1
by Bruce Thomas

The Commodore 64 arrived on the computing scene boasting built-in DOS commands and intelligent peripherals. This meant that you could turn on your computer and disk drive and immediately type an instruction that would cause the disk drive to perform a certain function.

DOS, of course, stands for Disk Operating System and is known as a Command Line Interface (CLI). Typing DOS commands is how we all used to load programs and format disks in the years before we had a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to work with. A CLI is the opposite of a GUI in its text-based information presentation to the user but generally accomplishes feats much quicker without the overhead of redrawing the screen.

Something old is new again

Knowing that users would soon tire of entering long cryptic commands to perform simple tasks, Commodore shipped a DOS Wedge with its Disk Drives. This little program was loaded into memory and would remain there until it was overwritten by another program or the computer was turned off. The Wedge provided a shortcut method of sending commands to the disk drives.

Once GEOS arrived we tended to forget about entering commands at all and just made a choice from a menu or clicked on a button to perform the tasks that we needed to. DOS was never far away though. It had just been given a prettier face by the folks at Berkeley SoftWorks.

Since the native 64 is a slow machine many people did not like using the GEOS GUI with its added graphical processing overhead. Maurice Randall developed geoShell, which is a CLI for GEOS, allowing the user to enter commands just like before while having full access to the entire family of GEOS Applications. geoShell is a slick system that allows the user to get around the GEOS system faster than using the Desktop.

Every now and then, however, a user comes across a program that they may have heard about (or maybe not); a program that is so elegant and functional and full of neat new features and so many useful options that it becomes part of their regular routine. Sometimes, these programs are so innovative that they make the user wonder how they managed to get along without them.

Lately, for me, the program that I have discovered to be indispensable has been geoDOS. The timing of the arrival of geoDOS was perfect as it answered a number of pressing needs and desires while providing functions previously not available under GEOS.

Needs and desires

One thing I had wanted to do for a number of years was to write a GEOS program to let me set the clocks in my CMD devices. I had programmed the screen and done some other preliminary coding but did not get much further. GeoDOS has an option to set the time in your CMD devices or the GEOS System time so my own efforts will not go any further. The SmartMouse Clock is supported here under GEOS / Wheels 64 but not under the 128 versions.

Another thing I have a need to do is to move files between my Commodore and the PC world. Nowadays PCs come with 3.5" disk drives that read and write 1.44 MBs of data on High Density disks. Lucky for me my FD-2000 will recognize this format but I previously had no way to access a PC formatted disk from within GEOS.

Not only will geoDOS let me read and write to a PC formatted High-Density floppy it will also let me format a 3.5" disk in the proper format to be read by a PC. Utilities such as Big Blue Reader will let you read and write to a PC 5.25" disk using a 1571 drive. GeoDOS does not support this format which is just as well since modern PCs don't have these 5.25" drives installed.

As with any DOS system we have options to do everything we could possibly want to with a disk drive. We can format, copy, duplicate, move files, rename files, backup disks, etc. GeoDOS also lets us transfer from one disk format to another, transfer files from geoWrite format to Text format and vice-versa, launch Applications or Desk Accessories and operate as a Desktop Replacement.

GeoDOS also provides functions to change our printer and input drivers. We can change disk names, delete and undelete files, change the file info block, and customize the color scheme.

Four choices

The geoDOS system is made up of a number of files. By running "GeoDOS 64 V2.95" you start the system and its power is obvious right away as it identifies the hardware on your system - including if you have an active SuperCPU present or not. When the system is loaded you are presented with a toolbox down the left side of the screen, a Status Line across the bottom, four icons down the left beside the toolbox and a lot of open space in the middle.

Clicking on one of the four Icons opens up a window in the middle open space containing the commands specific to the menu. The C64/128 System Icon (Figure 1) opens a window that contains two separate areas - one is Disk Commands and one is File Commands. As a user would expect, these commands are similar to what is found in the Desktop menus but they go further by offering Undelete and Sort in the File Menu and Swap Partition in the Disk Menu.

The PC-DOS System Icon (Figure 2) opens up with Disk and File menus as well but these function on a PC formatted disk (or will format a PC Disk) if you have a drive that supports that format. As I said, my FD-2000 works beautifully with geoDOS but I can't comment on other drives (like the 1581) because I don't have other models. Choosing 'format' in the PC-DOS disk menu presents me with FD-2000 options of formatting in 720 KB or 1.44 KB size along with a simple Clear Directory option if the disk is already formatted. Either selection creates a disk that works perfectly in a PC.

The Copy Icon (Figure 3) brings up some very powerful features when you select it. The CBM > CBM menu offers the options to copy Commodore files to the same format on any drive (or to the same drive which prompts you for a new filename at the appropriate time). You can also copy text files into geoWrite files and vice-versa. GeoWrite files can be copied as well as program files and the last option is to make a disk backup. The middle two menus allow you to copy PC-DOS files to Commodore files, copy files with no translation and also to copy text files to geoWrite format and vice-versa for all three options.

Finally we arrive at the Tools Icon (Figure 4). The window that this Icon opens contains Hardware and System Menus. The HardWare menu lets you swap drives, change your Printer or Input Drivers and Park or Unpark your CMD HD Drive head. The System menu provides options to set the clock (the Get Time button cycles through the clocks on your system. Use the Cursor up/down keys to change the Day), change colors, View Bubbles, activate your middle mouse button and update the Toolbox.

Next time we will take a closer look at some of the menu items as well as some of the neat new features and options available in geoDOS.

Until then, enGEOy your Commodore!