Re: Need to print a text file from dsk --> DSK_OUT

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Michael C Voorhis writes ...
> 
> Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> writes:
> >      Suppose the Dsk is named Work.dsk. One try is, under Windows, to
> > copy the Work.dsk file to another folder on your PC. Then, rename the
> > copy to Work.txt. Now you can view the file under WordPad.
> 
> This doesn't work out too well if the file is large, and distributed
> across multiple sectors on a disk.  It might be really painful if the
> DSK is highly fragmented... then the person hoping to do extraction
> will have to understand where the pointer to the next track/sector is
> stored on the current sector, and go off to the new location...
> 
> and that's only if the thing is a DOS disk.  I don't know how ProDOS
> works, or how (for instance) a UCSD PASCAL disk works.  I have a
> corrups PFS:Write disk that I'd love to get some info off of...

     
     You're right; it's a lemon idea. I tried it with a Dsk having
several text files and the result is garbage. Most A2 text is going to
have the high bit set and this looks like Greek on the PC.

     While rumaging around on Asimov, I came across a likely-looking
group of .zip files named DSK_CAT.zip, DSK_IN.zip, and DSK_OUT.zip.
After downloading and unZipping, each gives you a PC DOS .exe file and
Docs. The programs are shareware by Tom Baker.

     It turns out that dsk_out.exe will do the job. It even converts the
text to PC form (clears the high bit and changes the line ender from CR
to CRLF)! Limitations are that it works on DOS 3.3 DSKs and that it must
be run from DOS or a Windows DOS window.

     To give it a try, I started AppleWin and booted Copy II+ 7.2 and
copied some text files from a ProDOS Dsk to a DOS 3.3 Dsk. 

Example: Suppose the text file HELP80 is on a DOS 3.3 Dsk named
Open.dsk. Open.dsk and dsk_out.exe are in the main directory of C:\. The
following entry extracts the file from Open.dsk and places it in a PC
text file named help80.txt:

dsk_out mt open.dsk HELP80 help80.txt

Viola! you have your text from the Dsk in a PC text file.

     There are several examples in the docs. One thing, the name of the
DOS 3.3 file does, evidently, need to be in capital letters. (I tried
dsk_cat; it always crashed DOS on our system. I did not try dsk_in.)

     You can find DSK_OUT.zip and the other DSK utils on Asimov at ...  
   
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/utility/




Rubywand