#: 23989 S15/GEOS Programming 26-Jun-90 21:41:28 Sb: #23981-#Convert-Geos Fm: Ed Flinn 76703,4032 To: Will Carroll 71507,656 (X) Will, CONVRT.BIN and CONVRT.IMG, which live in CBMART LIB 13, are old, "official" versions of the CONVERT program. CONVERT 2.5 is a user-written version, which offers a number of advantages, and one detriment. The CONVERT program was first written by BSW programmers for use by QLINK members, when BSW began supporting GEOS on that system. Shortly thereafter, Betty Knight, the chief SYSOP of CBMART, contacted BSW, and obtained their permission to use that CONVERT program, so that CBMART forum could support GEOS. One quirk of that version of CONVERT was that it converts GEOS files to SEQ format, and can convert back to GEOS only those files that have been converted to SEQ. Historically, that SEQ format presented a big problem to CBMART downloaders. Because many terminal programs default (or force) a ASCII-to-PETASCII translation for SEQ files, many downloading users wound up with files that they could not make use of. Recognizing the problem, I personally downloaded all such files in the CBMART GEOS areas, ARC'd them, and reuploaded. This meant that the files would be downloaded as PRG, and the problems avoided. Sometime after Betty's contact with BSW, Deb Christensen, of the GEnie Commodore RT, apparently contacted BSW, and was able to have them code a version of CONVERT that used PRG files. These two versions of CONVERT were not compatible. Bill Coleman wrote CONVERT 2.5, which can handle (and create) either version. In working with 2.5, I have noted some problems when working with GEOS "shadowed" disks. I'm not aware of anyone else reporting these problems, sothey apparently are not a major concern. #: 24038 S15/GEOS Programming 29-Jun-90 20:01:47 Sb: #24029-Convert-Geos Fm: Ed Flinn 76703,4032 To: Will Carroll 71507,656 Will, The only apparent bug I've seen in Bill Coleman's CONVERT programs occurs when using a "shadowed" disk. I haven't tried to dig into the code, but it acts as though some of the disk writes are being made to the real disk, but not the REU. If you've got an REU, here's a little experiment: Copy a geoPaint file onto a 1541 disk, along with geoPaint and the Desktop and Configure. Convert it. Open Configure, and make that disk a shadowed disk. Convert it back to geoPaint, and immediately open it. What I've seen is that the file, which will be read from the REU, will be damaged. If, instead of opening it immediately, you GEOS Validate the disk, or just close the disk and re-open it (both actions will act to resynch the REU with the real disk,) no such problem occurs. As I say, I'm not aware of anyone else experiencing this.
Amiga7878