Introducing AmigaDOS AmigaDOS is the commodore Amigas Disk Operating System, this Disk Operating System is the software which is used to control the basic functions and operations of the computer. This article starts a series of tutorials designed to help you get to grips with using the Amiga's disk operating system. Remember that no matter what application software you are using, you could be using a Spreadsheet, Word Processor or Communications program, at all times the AmigaDos is in total control in managing all your computers resources. So, How do you as a User Communicate with the Operating System? We communicate with the AmigaDOS by using AmigaDOS commands, these commands are given to the Disk Operating system by entering them into your computer using a special window from your workbench, called the Shell. If you have a 1.3 Amiga you access this window by double clicking on the Shell Icon from your workbench. If you have a 2.0 Amiga then you can access the shell by either following the above procedure or by entering NEWSHELL in your Execute Command Requester, to get this requester just select it using your pull down Menu called Workbench. The keyboard short-cut for this is the Right Amiga key pressed with the E key. Before I start to explain the various AmigaDOS commands and how to use them you need to know some information on how the operating system stores information. A DEVICE is the main unit which AmigaDOS uses to store. A device can be any of the following:- A Floppy Disk A hard Disk Random Access Memory (RAM) Each of the above is assigned a name by the system, the names assigned to each of the above by the system are as follows:- DF0: ) DF1: ) ----> Disk Floppy 0,1,2 (0 being the internal drive) DF2: ) DH0: ) DH1: ) ----> Disk Hard 0,1,1 DH2: ) RAM: ) ----> Ram Disk (Random Access Memory) All the above devices are all permanent storage devices which store data when the computer is switched off except the RAM disk which because it uses the computers memory, loses all its data when the computer is switched off. You can also access a device by using its Volume name. A volume name is the name given to a given device. for example if you have a disk in your internal disk drive which is called "WORKDISK" instead of typing DF0: to access it you could actually type WORKDISK: Please note that all device names and Volume names must always be followed by : character (Colon). Also if you have two or more devices with the same volume name you must always access the one wanted by its device name so that the computer does not get confused. AmigaDos has also given standard names to devices that are attached to the Amiga's ports as well as those which appear on the screen as windows, these devices are PERIPHERAL DEVICES and are mainly used for output, for example when you want to create a hard copy of a file by sending it to a printer. To help you I have listed the standard device names below:- PAR: Represents a device attached to the Parallel port (usually a printer). SER: Represents a device attached to the Serial port (usually a Modem). PRT: Represents the printer selected with the printer editor in the Prefs Drawer. CON: Represents a console which accepts typed inputs and displays an output through a window. An example of a console type window is the SHELL. NIL: Represents a pseudo-device, which is mainly used to prevent output from appearing. All outputs sent to NIL: are not used. within a storage device you will find areas called directories. These directories are very similar to folders found in a filing cabinet, the computers filing cabinet being the storage device. Directories allow us to store related files together making it easier for us to find and work with a particular group of files. The main directory on a storage device is the ROOT directory, and then we have our directories and subdirectories. Remember a directory can contain both files and other directories (sub). see example:- Root | __________________|________________ | | | | file1 | directory1 directory2 | | __|______________ file2 | | directory3 file3 | file4 Files are the Basic unit of storage on the Amiga which is a collection of information referred to by it's name. All programs which you use are all files. Some programs you run will also produce files. When we use AmigaDos through our SHELL window you are required to type the name of the files you wish to access, but you must also stress where the file is located, i.e. which directory/subdirectory it is to be found, by specifying the Files PATH. The form which we use is as follows: Device:Directory/SubDirectory/File so lets have a look at our example above, lets say that it represents a disk in DF0 and that we want to access file4, we would type the following into the SHELL window: DF0:Directory1/Directory3/File4 to run file4 you would just type the above in and press the enter key. When giving a file or a Directory a name, as long as you follow these simple steps, it can be called anything you wish. a) You use no more than 30 characters. b) the following Characters are not used : / ? ' # * % ; you may have files with the same names as long as they are located within different directories. It doesn't matter whether you use lower-case or upper-case letters as AmigaDos treats them as the same i.e. 'a' is the same as 'A'. To make life easier for yourself it is good practice not to use spaces within your names as the computer recognises this as a character so when accessing files etc. you must include all spaces. If you wish to sperate letters within your names its a good idea to use the underscore "-" character. Most of all do not put a space at the start or end of a name as AmigaDos will require you to type it but it may not be visible to you that it's there. You should now understand the basic structure of the Amiga filing system, next issue I will give you some AmigaDos commands and tutorials on how to use them...