[Coco] File Transfer from CD to Coco Floppy Disk

[Robert Emery]

> I'm having trouble using PORT.EXE - any suggestions?  The interface
> doesn't seem user friendly.  
 
I know what you mean, PORT does take a little getting used to.
The basic procedure is this (and I'm going from memory here)... 
First thing after starting PORT is to select a CoCo disk. 
It can be a real floppy or a .DSK image (virtual floppy). 
For a real floppy you just put in the drive letter (usually A: or B:)
For a virtual floppy you navigate to the correct path, double-clicking directories
until you find the .DSK file you want to transfer files to/from.
 
Once the floppy is selected you use the Function keys to toggle the
options you want, following the guide on the left side. Since you're going
from PC to CoCo you set that option, then you have to worry about
the format of the file on the PC... whether it's Binary or Ascii, whether
you need to remove CRLFs or not. This varies and you may just have to
experiment with each file, especially Basic. If you've downloaded files
from RTSI, you'll probably find some saved in Ascii format, some are
tokenized Basic (which is pretty useless on the PC side).
 
For BAS files, open them in Notepad first. If you can read the Basic
code, it is in Ascii. If you see "garbage" it's tokenized Basic. 
BIN files are generally executables, but could also be data.
After moving from PC to CoCo and LOAD(M)ing the file, if you
get an FM? error, chances are you got one or more settings wrong.
 
Another gotcha is that Vavasour's PORT originally had a bug that
caused problems with 5.25" disks (or 3.5", I don't remember exactly.)
You should get John Collyer's version of PORT which fixes that bug.
 
Finally, you can take a standard 3.5" 1.4MB PC floppy drive and use it
as a second (or third) CoCo drive. Just need an adapter kit, still available
here and there, usually around $5. You can still buy new 3.5" 720K disks.
Avoid using 1.4M floppy disks with the HD hole covered up, but it is
possible.
 
Hope this helps, don't give up!
 
Cheers,
Bob