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3]SPEEDY3: SUPERCHARGING TRANSFORMER
By Norman Campbell, Huntington Beach, CA
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   Speedy3, a program that speeds up the operation (display) of the
Amiga Transformer was provided on the May issue of Jumpdisk. It's also on
this issue, so I can tell how to transfer an MS-DOS file on an AmigaDOS
disk to an MS-DOS disk so that it can be used with Transformer.
     If you have the Amiga Enhancer Software upgrade package, Version 1.2,
it won't be difficult. And I'll cover some points on using Speedy3.

3]WHAT YOU NEED
1]     -- This October 1987 issue of JUMPDISK.
     -- Workbench 1.2 without "Mount" command in s/startup-sequence.
     -- V1.2 Amiga Extras disk.
     -- A bit of patience.

3]INFORMATION, PLEASE
1]     After the Kickstart 1.2 boot, insert the Workbench 1.2 disk in drive
DF0:, then the V1.2 Amiga Extras disk. Double-click on the the Extras disk
icon and you will be led to the Extras window containing a PCUtil Drawer
and ReadMe Icon. Lets explore the Readme icon. Click this on and be told:
"The programs in this directory are preliminary versions," and Commodore
promises to provide something later to be available on a forthcoming
"Software Toolkit Disk."
     There is not too much here on what to do to use the PCUtil routines to
transfer an MS-DOS file on an Amiga disk to an MS-DOS disk. It does note,
"The PCUtil Drawer contains programs to support the 5.25 external disk
drive. Please look in the Read Me note in that drawer for more information."
Seeing as how there is not much here to satisfy our search, how do we go
forward? There is something at the bottom of the page that says "<NEXT PAGE
FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS>".
     Now what do we do? Not being experts on what the documentation doesn't
say, let's experiment. Try clicking on the lower left hand corner box. Wow,
it works. This must be the "next page gadget. "
     If the lower left hand gadget is to go to
the next page, maybe the upper right hand gadget will go to the previous
page. Try it. It does. Click on the upper right hand gadget (the 1,2,3
and the like) and you go back to the previous page. We've conquered another
mystery of the Amiga.
     Now let's exit this Notebook window and look for the "PCUtil" drawer by
clicking on the upper left hand "quit" or "window close" box (gadget). Let"s
look for the "ReadMe" note in that drawer.
     Double-click the "PCUtil" drawer. Ah, ha, we find the ReadMe file we
seek. Double-click on this ReadMe file and we get a new "NotePad" that
consists of seven lines for PCUtilities in general, five specifically
for PCFormat and fourteen lines dedicated to PCCopy.
     Now that we have read this file and know all about PCUtilities,
PCFormat, PCCopy, (Text Filters?), the only thing to do is to click on the
"quit" gadget (upper left hand corner) and go see if we can trade our Amiga
in for an Atari or MacIntosh. (Excuse the vulgarisms).
     Again, don't be too discouraged. We only want to copy an MS-DOS file
called J:speedy3.com from an AmigaDOS disk (J:) to an MS-DOS compatible file
on our 5.25 inch drive. What we have read so far says we can do this.
Unfortunately, it didn't say how. Why don't we at least try something?

3]WHEN IN DOUBT, FORMAT A DISK
1]     First, lets format a 5-1/4 inch MS-DOS disk. Insert a 5 1/4" disk in
the appropriate drive. Do I sound like the Commodore instructions? Of course
I do. Put the disk in the drive it fits. This is the "appropriate drive".
Now double-click on the PCFormat Icon. The PCFormat window opens and tells
us what the appropriate drive is. This is the number of the first and/or
only 5-1/4" drive. Now we must select between "DOS Version Defaults, Sides,
Sectors/Track, Volume, and Name." The highlighted drive indicates the
appropriate 5-1/4" drive, no selection required. For DOS Version, select
2.0. For Sides, select 2. Sectors per Track, select 9.
Volume Name is that of your choice. Now click on the Format selector.
Lo, you are now formatting the 5-1/4" disk for MS-DOS.
     Now that we have an MS-DOS formatted disk, the goal is to copy
speedy3.com onto it from the J: disk.

3]MOVING BRISKLY FORWARD
1]     Click off PCFormat (upper left corner, "quit gadget") and
double-click on the "To PCCopy" icon. Another window related to the act of
transferring data from Amiga To PC format appears.
     On examination, the To PCCopy page/window looks something like a
utility used to manipulate Amiga disk files. It has an Amiga thing at the
top that lists EXTRAS:PCUtil/ToPCCopy. This is exactly the drive name,
directory name and file name that we occupy on the Extras disk. The To:PC
line lists the drive name of the 5-1/4" drive. The Filter gadget has
choices like 7 or 8 high bits and Off. Off, the default, seems to work in
our case.
     The line above the big box at the bottom indicates the source is
"Amiga-- disk name: and directory."
     Inside the lower box is the list of the contents of the directory
indicated above. A file with a "name /" is a directory. Other names are
those of files on the disk.
     This leads me to believe that if you select the name/number of a disk
in the "From Amiga" box at the top of the window, you will prompt the
generation of the directory and file names in the lower disk contents box.
     To test this, let's insert this issue of Jumpdisk in any 3-1/2" drive,
click in the "From Amiga" box and replace the contents with either the
Delete or Back Space keys, with "J:". Note what happens. The line above the
lower box will indicate "Amiga - - J:". The lower box lists the contents of
the Jumpdisk. Directory names will be followed with a " /." As a final test,
click on Programs/ from the lower box. The box at the top of the page will
change to J:programs/, the listing above the lower box will change to
"Amiga--Programs" and the lower box will list the contents of the programs
directory. Then, click on any file in the programs directory listed in the
lower box and the upper Amiga source box will reflect that file following
the "/" symbol. Thus, a complete file path to the Amiga source to be
transferred to an MS-DOS File.
     There is one more item we need to know to properly transfer
Speedy3.com to an MS-DOS disk. That is the task of indicating a file name
on the 5-1/4" disk to which we want the file transferred. We do this by
clicking in the PC box and typing the file name after the drive name.
     Now that we know how, let's do it from the top.

3]FROM THE TOP
1]     Insert the Workbench 1.2 disk in drive DF0: Depress the
Control-Amiga-Amiga keys to reboot the system. When the Workbench screen
appears, insert the V1.2 Amiga Extras disk.
     Put the disk you formatted for MS-DOS in the 5-1/4" drive. Using the
1.2 EXTRAS disk, click on the EXTRAS disk, click on the PCUTil drawer,
click on the "To PCCopy" Icon, and insert this Jumpdisk in one of the
3-1/2" disk drives. Next, enter/ replace the text in the upper "From
Amiga" box with "J:" and press Return. When the lower box is activated with
the contents of this Jumpdisk (j:), use either the scan bars or the up and
down gadgets on the right side to locate the file speedy3.com. Click on
this file and note that it now becomes part of the "From Amiga" source box
which should now read: "J:speedy3.com." Next, click in the PC destination
box and revise it read "df(n):speedy3.com." (n is the name of the 5-1/4"
disk drive). In most cases, where there are one 3-1/2" and one 5-1/4"
drive, this will be "df2:speedy3.com."
     To make the whole thing happen, click on the copy gadget. The screen
will do sort of a fade in and out and list the size of the file to be
copied and indicate the size of the file actually copied. When complete, it
will indicate the size of the files copied, and the disk activity lights
will go out.
     Congratulations, you have just successfully copied an MS-DOS file from
an AmigaDOS disk to an MS-DOS disk. Test the disk by using the Transformer
disk and MS-DOS Dir command to make sure the file is really there. The
directions for speedy3 on the May Jumpdisk tell how to install speedy3 on
the DOS disk. My preference is to use the Autoexec file on either the DOS
start-up disk or on the self-boot program disk to initialize Speedy3. Make
sure you use "Speedy3.com /h" to activate it on either the DOS or program
Autoexec file. Happy Transformer. A modified Transformer program that works
with Kickstart/Workbench 1.2 is available as public domain software. Most
Amiga user groups should have it. If you can't find it, drop me a line. I've
been known to swap disks with friends. I'm Norman Campbell, 7022 Moonlight
Circle, Huntington Beach, CA 92647 (U.S.A.)

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