[Coco] Copying a data/binary file from disk to cassette

[Jean-Paul Samson]

> What's the best way of copying a non-BASIC file, like a .bin, from 
> disk to cassette?  I tried COPY but setting a value of -1 returns a 
> function error (COPY "FILE.BIN:0" TO "FILE.BIN:-1")...and I was never 
> very good at GET, PUT, DSKI$, and all that.
> 
> I've got some data files on floppy, associated with various programs, 
> that I'd like to transfer to my laptop (via cassette adapter).  And 
> going in the other direction, I'd like to turn some .bins I have on 
> disk images into WAVs so that, again going via the cassette adapter, 
> I can try out some games and such on real hardware.
> 
> So, what's the best route?  I feel like I'm missing something 
> obvious, so forgive me if I'm being slow here...

Since no one has mentioned this and if you are willing to spend some money, Cloud-9's DriveWire product might make your life a whole bunch easier.  It allows you to hook you CoCo up to a Mac (or PC), using the latter as a file server.  You can then copy files from real floppy discs on your CoCo into disk files onto your Mac via a serial-to-USB cable.  These disk files can then be used directly in an emulator, I believe.

Here's a link to the product:  http://www.frontiernet.net/~mmarlette/Cloud-9/Software/DriveWire.html

Just a word of warning:  I've never been able to get the Mac version of DriveWire functional for CoCo-to-Mac transfers, although vice versa works fine.  The PC version of DriveWire works great, however, using the built-in serial ports or an FTDI-chipset based USB-to-serial converter.

JP


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