Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!Ordania-DM
From: Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: DIRT - a new DIR command
Message-ID: <36169@cup.portal.com>
Date: 23 Nov 90 00:21:20 GMT
References: <9011221746.AA10656@cwns11.INS.CWRU.Edu>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 48

Doug Wokoun writes:
>
>
>>  Ok, now the good news...I've figured out a way to convert a 3 byte binary
>>number to an 8 byte ASCII decimal number.  Not very impressive eh?  Well,
>>my way is fast and doesn't use any division.  It does, unfortunately,
>>require a 1200 byte table.  I'm working on this method right now, so if
>>it shows a significant improvement, I'll actually use it in DIRT 2.0.
>>  Also in DIRT 2.0, I will include the /M and /C switches (paged output
>>and count files respectively), and perhaps even support for the erased,
>>in use, and open for write bits.
>
>	Suggestion: instead of /M, use /P, so that it is the same as
>the rest of SDX (I don't know how 3.2d works with respect to this)

  Oops. :)  I didn't look in the SDX manual before typing, I would have
caught the mistake when I did the update.  Any programs I create for 
SpartaDOS will generally follow the SDX formats.

  Off on a tangent... :)  I wrote up the new routine for 3 byte binary to 8
byte ascii decimal and calculated the difference between the new routine 
and the old.  The new routine should be about 5 times as fast as the old one
take up about 3 times as much memory (100 bytes total - max :) but will
require a 650 byte table - this table will be generated dynamically rather 
than being included in the code.  This makes the DIRT command slower if it 
doesn't find any files to display, but much faster if it displays even 1 
file.

>
>>  Is anybody interested in a directory compactor?  It would remove all the 
>>deleted & open for write files from a directory, and then deallocate
>>any extra sectors the directory is using.  Interested?
>
>	That's a nice idea!
>
>	Another idea that I wish someone would implement is a 'MOVE' command
>on the CLI (not an interactive type thing, but something on the command line)
>to move files from one directory to another by moving only the directory
>entry.  (Like COPY/DELETE, but much faster)

  Me too...of course, that also happens to be another utility that I need for
the disk compactor, so you'll see it eventually.

>
>--
>Doug Wokoun - (aa384)

Charles_K_Hughes@cup.portal.com