[Coco] question (copying files to a virtual disk)

[Roger Taylor]

At 06:28 PM 3/16/2008, you wrote:
>how do you load a program into that has this file name disk.bas into
>coco3 emulator
>
>i guess i need to convert it into a .dsk file so how do you do it or
>what do i need to do.  I have lots of .bas files i would like to check
>out for the coco3


wimgtool.exe bundled with the M.E.S.S. emulator, or decb.exe in 
Boisy's ToolShed suite

If you want a nice front-end to those tools,... you can also use my 
Rainbow IDE to make it a better experience. The whole session is 
saved as a project that you can load back later, add or remove files 
from, etc. to build new similar disks.  Once you set up the first 
project, the work is over.

Once:

Create a new project - name it
In the left sidebar, click the "+" button.
Pull down the "virtual disk names" menu and click on "Disk1"
* will it be an OS-9 disk? click on "os9.exe" under Disk Imaging Program
* will it be a Disk BASIC disk? choose "decb.exe" or "imgtool.exe" 
under Disk Imaging Program
** Important: got ASCII BASIC programs you want tokenized on the 
disk? choose "decb.exe"
** using imgtool.exe? select "coco_jvc_rsdos" or "coco_jvc_os9" under 
Virtual Disk Type

For each file you want on the disk:

1) Open/Load each file into the IDE using one of the Add Existing FIle buttons
2) If you want the filename to be different on your built disk, name 
it under Output Filename
3) Select "copy" under Output Object.
4) select "binary basic" or "ASCII BASIC" under File Type On Disk
** decb.exe can compress ASCII BASIC programs into 
binary/compressed/tokenized BASIC programs during the copy process.

Take a breath, click the GO button in the right sidebar, and exhale. 
:)  That's how long it takes to build your disk full of files..  a few seconds.

Your virtual floppy disk (OS-9 or BASIC) is now sitting in the Files 
subfolder of your projects folder.
c:\Program Files\Rainbow IDE\Projects\CoCo\My Favorites Disk\Files\myfaves.dsk

Make a mistake?  Make any changes then click GO again.