PutriDOS Commands

Q. 
     I was trying to do a disk backup when PutriDos asked if I wanted 
to format the source disk first.  I answered N for "No" but it went 
ahead and did it anyway.  How come?

A. 
     In order to compete on the world market your version of PutriDos 
recognizes foreign-language input.  Since the Greek word for "yes" 
starts with "N" it took that for an affirmative.  "S" for "Si" or "O"  
for "Oui" or any other letter that stands for Yes in any language will 
also do this.  The safest thing to do is to drop into the debugger, 
trace through to the conditional branch where this is tested, and 
restart execution on the "no" path.


Q. 
     Sometimes when I'm typing in a command the system just up and 
does something I didn't really want it to do, right in the middle of 
while I'm typing.  It's almost like some people I know who are 
constantly jumping to conclusions.  What should I do?

A. 
     I can't really help you on your choice of friends except to 
recommend hanging out at chess matches and other places where people 
are accustomed to thinking things through before acting, but your 
problem with PutriDos sounds like you have the Guess-Ahead feature on.  
The system constantly scans the console input buffer until it sees 
something that has a reasonably high probability of being the 
beginning of a command line, then goes ahead and does the most likely 
thing.  Guess-Ahead is intended for those people who always do the 
same things in the same way and are too lazy or impatient to want to 
type the entire command line.  If you tend to use options other than 
the defaults or to specify long lists of input files it is not for you 
and you should turn it off.  

     Guess-Ahead can be turned off by entering "GUESAHED OFF<cr>" 
except that if it is already on it will not expect to be turned off.  
It will assume you want to turn it on (sort of like artificial ego) 
and will interrupt you halfway through the turnoff attempt with an 
error message stating that it is already on.  There are some simple 
hex patches you can make to fix this but if you don't care for that 
sort of thing the easiest thing to do may be to take your system disk 
to the next PutriDos Users' Group meeting, put it in Drive B of a 
system already booted up with it off, and then type in 
"GUESAHED OFF B:<cr>".  This will set your disk to boot up with Guess-
Ahead off.


Q. 
     I tried the REMANE command to erase-protect a file, then 
formatted the disk.  The file disappeared.  Then I found I needed a 
haircut again even though I'd just had one the day before.  How come?

A. 
     On your version of PutriDos the REMANE command is not the same as 
REMAIN (which does format-protect files).  It is instead, as the name 
suggests, a hair restorer.  Be careful about using UNREMANE as a 
substitute for haircuts, as it may not agree with your style 
preferences.  Also, avoid UNMANE as it can lead to total baldness and 
is also too easily typoed to UNMAN, especially if some versions of 
GuessAhead are on.


                         Tom Digby
                         bubbles@well.sf.ca.us 
                         for Putri-DOS Users' Group