[Coco] Dragon Disk Basic commands/syntax

[Phill Harvey-Smith]

Robert Gault wrote:
> I was asked to write a program to transfer files from Dragon disks to 
> Coco disks. I think I now have one ready for use even though all it does 
> is move the files while making no other changes. Obviously any Dragon 
> file needs to be altered to some extent to make it usable on a coco.

Remember also that Dragon Basic and machine code files have a 9 byte 
header with things like filetype, load & exec address etc.

> It is the last statement that I'd like clarified. Is there any Dragon 
> file type usable on the Coco with essentially no changes? I had assumed 
> the Dragon could save Basic files in ASCII format but have been unable 
> to verify this in any of the specs I've found on the Dragon.
> 
> Is there the equivalent of SAVE"filename.BAS",A on the DRAGON? Is it 
> possible to create Dragon Basic files in ASCII format by any method?

It would appear that save"filename",a does not work, and indeed is not 
documented in the DragonDos manual :) I guess you'd have to write it to 
the CoCo disk and then re-tokenize it. If you wanted to get cleaver you 
could always check for the filetype when doing the transfer and 
retokenize as you copy.

The other method that may work, is to open a disk file and list the 
program to it, this however would probably have to be done in machine 
code / assembler.

Cheers.

Phill.

-- 
Phill Harvey-Smith, Programmer, Hardware hacker, and general eccentric !

"You can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge" -- Rush.