
              Frequently Asked Questions about The Star Commander

Here are some questions I was asked many times and my answers to  them.  First,
I'd like to mention that the Commander was not  meant  to  be  a  multi-purpose
utility with lots of goodies and that the executable file SCMAIN.EXE is already
too big. And to advertize my favorite Commander, The Volkov Commander:  one  of
the things I just love in it is that there are no redundant functions in it. It
is as simple as possible. In brain order:

Q: Does the Commander support non-1541 drives?
A: No, only the 1541 drive family, 1541 compatible drives and the 1541 mode  of
   the 1571 drive since the only drive I have is a 1541C drive.

Q: Does the Commander support 40 track disks and disk images?
A: Not yet. I have no enhancements on my 1541 drive therefore  it  is  hard  to
   implement the necessary changes in my copy routines. I've  never  seen  such
   disks in my life but I'll do my best.

Q: The benchmark in the documentation says that copying a whole  disk  in  warp
   transfer mode takes not more than a minute and a half. How  is  it  possible
   then that it's even slower than turbo transfer mode on my machine?
A: Perhaps, you are using the delay value computed by the  internal  calibrator
   of an earlier release. The synchronization method  has  been  changed  since
   then and you should not use the old delay value. If you have a 386 or a  486
   you should try the default delay value of 12. If you have a 286  then  lower
   it; if you have a Pentium then raise it.

Q: Anyway, why do I have to change the delay value every time a new version  is
   released?
A: I'm constantly playing with the transfer routines so that they  become  more
   and more stable and as fast as possible. When I change the timing  then  the
   delay value is not valid anymore. Now the timing is done with  the  hardware
   system timers which is machine independent. To tell you the truth,  I  still
   have no idea why you have to change the default delay value of 12 at all and
   why doesn't the Commander work for everyone at last...

Q: And what about the other options? Do I have to set all  of  them  again  and
   again?
A: Not anymore. From Version 0.71 beta on the Commander and its external  setup
   program are able to read the setup file created by the previous  version  so
   that you only have to set the new options and those having been changed.

Q: Does the Commander support file images (files  with  the  extension  '.P00'/
   '.S00'/'.U00' created and used by PC64)?
A: Not yet. There is a technical problem: how can you tell the  Commander  that
   you want the file under the cursor bar to  be  copied  into  a  file  image?
   Create an empty file image and then copy that file into it  like  with  tape
   images? That's not possible because there's no file image without  a  binary
   file inside it. I have an idea which might help: there could  be  an  option
   'Into file image' in the copy/move dialog box. By checking it the  Commander
   would copy/move that file into a  file  image  (creating  it  on  the  fly),
   provided that the destination is a DOS directory. What do you think?

Q: There are some minor but annoying differences  between  your  Commander  and
   The Norton Commander. Why?
A: A personal opinion: when I started using The Volkov Commander,  I  began  to
   hate The Norton Commander. Consider that The Volkov Commander  is  a  single
   64KB COM file, still it can do what The Norton Commander 3.0 can.  It's  not
   that overgrown fatware like The Norton Commander has become (not to  mention
   that now it has nothing to do with Peter Norton - the best progammer ever  -
   and should be called The Socha Commander or The Symantec Commander). I  make
   my Commander to be similar to the The Volkov Commander and not to The Norton
   Commander. Admit it that after some hours you got used to the  new  features
   like pressing Escape turns the panels off, maybe, now you like them...

Q: Will there be a directory editor inside the Commander?
A: No. However, it's possible that I code a stand alone  directory  editor  for
   disk images.

Q: I hate the colors the Commander uses. Can I change them?
A: Yes, you can. There is a full color configuration menu in the external setup
   for all screen modes (black & white, color, laptop and monochrome). You  can
   also try the prepared palette files that make the Commander look  much  more
   similar to 'Color 2' of the The Norton Commander and Dos Navigator.

Q: Why doesn't the Commander work under my OS/2, Linux, Windows or Windows'95?
A: Because it's technically impossible to achieve correct  timing  under  these
   multi-tasking environments: the kernel (the control program of the operating
   system) steals time for monitoring the system messing up the synchronization
   between the PC and the external CBM drive.

Q: Will you do an OS/2, Linux, Windows or Windows'95 version of the Commander?
A: No, I won't. See above for the reason why the Commander wouldn't be able  to
   access a connected Commodore drive under these multi-tasking  systems.  It's
   no use to run the Commander under them because you would  lose  one  of  the
   main features.

Q: I would like an OS/2 version of the Commander for another reason. Running on
   HPFS, it could use the original long CBM filenames and I  could  forget  the
   8.3 filename limitation of DOS. What do you think?
A: Such a version of the Commander  wouldn't  help  much  with  long  filenames
   because CBM filenames need to be converted into ASCII. During that many  CBM
   characters would be lost because they have no equivalent in ASCII or are not
   allowed in a HPFS filename. Not to mention that  I'm  not  sure  if  Borland
   Pascal can compile the Commander to run under OS/2... But I'll try it.

Q: I've edited the directory of a disk and then copied it onto my PC  with  the
   option 'BAM disk copy' checked. The end of the directory was lost. Why?
Q: I've edited the directory of a disk image  and  then  cleaned  it  with  the
   'Clean' option in the user menu of disk image panels. Why  did  I  lose  the
   end of the directory?
A: There's a serious problem with Dir Master by Wim Taymans, which is the  best
   and most wide-spread directory editor around. When you insert  some  phantom
   files into the directory (e.g. deleted files whose names make up the logo of
   your group) the size of the directory will grow. When you save it back  onto
   your disk or disk image then some new sectors will be filled  with  the  new
   data. But the program forgets to allocate those new  sectors  therefore  the
   disk copier won't copy those blocks and the disk image cleaner will  destroy
   all data in them. Validate your BAM with the 'Validate' option in  the  user
   menu or manually in the disk editor before copying or cleaning. You can also
   switch the option 'Copy full track 18' on and track #18 will be fully copied
   even during BAM disk copy, and for cleaning the disk image use  'Safe clean'
   which does not harm a single byte on track #18.

Q: May I know what language the Commander is written in?
A: I started coding it in Turbo Pascal 7.0 with Turbo Vision 2.0 but changed to
   Borland Pascal 7.0 a bit later since it had a better IDE  and  online  help.
   When I got the sources of the run-time libraries I began rewriting the  user
   interface so that it looks absolutely like The Norton Commander. Many of the
   original Turbo Vision routines were deleted or changed during this  process.
   The source of the Commander, the external setup and the internal  viewer  is
   now at about 850 KBytes - not counting  the  little  utilities  I  made  for
   compiling the online help and other purposes. There are also  many  assembly
   routines in the source, mainly for data transfer and conversion where  speed
   is very important.

Q: Why can't I copy all the files on the disk of my favorite demo?
A: Probably some files on that disk are phantom files (directory  entries  with
   no real file data) or have non-standard characters in their name  (graphical
   characters or characters that are not even allowed in filenames, like colon,
   asterisk, question mark etc.). The Commander uses the original 1541  DOS  to
   open files so it does not support such  files  either.  Rename  those  files
   using the disk editor or copy the whole disk instead.

Q: Why is it that although I have defined several standard viewers in the  file
   SCVIEW.EXT, the Commander still can't use them like The Norton Commander?
A: Perhaps, you are using the  viewers  of  The  Norton  Commander  5.0,  which
   require data to be passed in a special file instead of a  special  parameter
   block on the command line. The Commander can only use the  parameter  block,
   therefore you should use the viewers that came with an earlier version (3.0,
   4.0 or 4.5) of The Norton Commander.
