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                    GUIDE TO USING THE "FE" DEVICE


                           FILE: USEFE.RND


                         AUTHOR: TOM PORCHER


                            DATE: 4-JAN-75

GUIDE TO USING THE "FE" DEVICE                                  Page 2


OVERVIEW

THE "FE" DEVICE IS USED FROM THE -11 TO TRANSFER FILES TO AND FROM THE
TOPS-20  FILE  SYSTEM.   USUALLY IT IS ACCESSED THROUGH THE USE OF -11
PIP.

FILE CONVERSION

THE "FE"  DEVICE  CAN  ONLY  TRANSFER  16-BIT  BINARY  FILES  SO  THAT
CONVERSION  FROM  TOPS-20 FORMAT IS REQUIRED TO MAKE THE FILES USEABLE
BY THE -11.  THE STANDARD FORMATS FOR FILES ON THE -11  ARE  FORMATTED
ASCII  (ALL  TEXT  FILES),  FORMATTED  BINARY (.OBJ, .STB, .SML, .BIN,
.OLB), AND IMAGE (UNFORMATTED BINARY).  A PROGRAM CALLED "RSXFMT"  WAS
DEVELOPED  TO  DO THE NECESSARY CONVERSIONS.  RSXFMT PROMPTS BY TYPING
"FILE:  ", TO WHICH THE USER SHOULD RESPOND WILL THE NAME OF THE  FILE
TO  BE CONVERTED.  THE CONVERSION MODE FOR THE FILE IS DETERMINED FROM
THE FILE TYPE AND THE FIRST DATA WORD IN THE FILE.  THE OUTPUT FILE IS
ALWAYS  A FILE OF THE SAME NAME, NEXT HIGHEST GENERATION.  IN THE CASE
OF FILES BEING CONVERTED TO RSX FORMAT, THE OUTPUT FILE IS A TEMPORARY
FILE  SUCH  THAT  IT  CAN  BE DELETED EASILY USING "EXPUNGE", SINCE AN
RSX-FORMAT FILE IS RATHER USELESS TO  ALL  PROGRAMS  ON  TOPS-20.   AN
EXAMPLE:

          @R RSXFMT
          FILE: T20ACP.*
          T20ACP.MAC.4  [7-BIT ASCII]
          ==> T20ACP.MAC.100008;T  [RSX FORMATTED ASCII]
          T20ACP.OBJ.7  [DOS FORMATTED BINARY]
          ==> T20ACP.OBJ.100008;T  [RSX FORMATTED BINARY]
          @

ASCII IMAGE FILES

ANY FILE WHICH IS IN ASCII AND MUST RETAIN THE END-OF-LINE SEQUENCE ON
THE  -11  CANNOT BE CONVERTED TO RSX FORMATTED ASCII.  THESE FILES CAN
BE PROCESSED DIRECTLY BY THE "FE" DEVICE IF THEY ARE  IN  7-BIT  ASCII
FORMAT AND HAVE A BYTE-SIZE OF 7 BITS.  NOTABLY THE "ASCII-IZED" FILES
(.A10 AND .RAM) FOR THE KL INITIALIZATION TASK (KLINIT)  ARE  REQUIRED
TO BE IN ASCII IMAGE FORMAT.

GETTING THE SYSTEM STARTED

THE PROGRAM "FE" MUST BE RUNNING ON THE TOPS-20 SYSTEM.  IF IT IS  NOT
ALREADY  RUNNING,  IT CAN BE STARTED BY TYPING THE FOLLOWING UNDER THE
OPERATOR ACCOUNT (PROBABLY UNDER PTYCON):

          @ENABLE (CAPABILITES)
          $R FE

THE "FE" PROGRAM SHOULD NOW BE RUNNING AND IS WAITING  FOR  A  REQUEST
FROM THE "FE" DEVICE FROM THE -11.  THE NEXT STEP IS TO MOUNT THE "FE"
DEVICE ON THE -11 SUCH THAT FILES CAN  BE  ACCESSED  USING  IT.   THIS

GUIDE TO USING THE "FE" DEVICE                                  Page 3


REQUIRES THAT THE FILE "T20ACP.TSK" BE PRESENT ON THE -11 FILE SYSTEM.
"FE" CAN BE MOUNTED USING THE CONSOLE COMMAND PARSER  AT  THE  CONSOLE
TERMINAL BY TYPING:

          ^\ (CONTROL-BACKSLASH)
          PAR>MCR MOU
          MOU>FE:
          MOU -- MOUNT COMPLETE
          MOU>^Z (CONTROL-Z)

ADDRESSING TOPS-20 FILES

ALL FILES ON THE TOPS-20 FILE SYSTEM MAY BE ACCESSED FROM THE -11 WITH
THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS:

          FILES WITH FILE NAMES LONGER THAN 9 CHARACTERS.
          FILES WITH FILE TYPES LONGER THAN 3 CHARACTERS.
          FILES WITH FILE NAMES CONTAINING CHARACTERS OTHER THAN  A-Z,
          0-9.
          FILES WITH GENERATION NUMBERS NOT IN THE RANGE 1.-8191.   OR
          100000.-108191..
          FILES IN DIRECTORY NUMBER 20000 OR GREATER.

DIRECTORIES ARE MAPPED TO  UIC'S  ON  THE  -11  IN  TWO  WAYS:   FIXED
DIRECTORIES AND BY DIRECTORY NUMBER.  THE FIXED DIRECTORIES ARE:

          [1,1]     <SYSTEM>
          [1,2]     <OPERATOR>
          [1,4]     <SUBSYS>
          [5,5]     <FRONT-END>

ALL UIC'S GREATER THAN [340,0] MAP DIRECTLY TO DIRECTORY NUMBERS.  THE
FORMULA TO FIND THE UIC FOR A GIVEN DIRECTORY NUMBER "D" IS [ 340 + (D
/  400)  ,  REMDR(D,400)  ]  WHERE  /  REPRESENTS  INTEGER   DIVISION,
REMDR(X,Y) IS THE REMAINDER OF DIVIDING X BY Y.  SOME EXAMPLES:

     DIRECTORY NUMBER 502:
          502 / 400 = 1
          REMDR(502,400) = 102
          ==> DIRECTORY 502 MAPS TO UIC [341,102]

     DIRECTORY NUMBER 2745:
          2745 / 400 = 5
          REMDR(2745,400) = 345
          ==> DIRECTORY 2745 MAPS TO UIC [345,345]

FILES ARE MERELY REFERENCED BY FILE NAME, FILE  TYPE  AND  GE