Program: Rotronics Toolkit
Computer: TS2068 with Wafadrive
This fine little wafer, courtesy of Rotronics Ltd., the makers of our useful Wafadrives, has got to be the sleeper of the year. When someone tells me he has a computer toolkit the first thing I usually think of is a program to re-number, kill REM lines, block delete, etc. Such was not the case with the Rotronics Toolkit wafer.
What this series of programs, available all on one wafer, does offer is a variety of useful tools. To quote the manual, “The routines are a compilation of the most popular programs available via the ROTRONICS Information Service.” All of these programs self-initialize upon loading and most are then called with one simple command. Now let us take a look at these programs that have me so enthusiastic.
The first offers us Wafadrivers copy on Epson compatible printers. As COPY was one of the commands not available to us via the Wafadrive Operating System this was a nice routine to have at last. Instead of having the keyword COPY it is replaced with DRAW* with three additions not available with COPY. You may do your copying in three different image sizes, give the paper a left hand margin, or change the graphics mode.
The second of the printer routines available on this wafer is one for printing graphics from BASIC. This allows you to use the “bit image” mode, which will allow you to print high resolution graphics with most dot matrix printers. The routine is set up for the Centronics port, but the manual tells you how to easily modify this for the RS232 port. The third routine is a printer channel driver, which also offers the benefit of correcting the TAB command which is not normally interpretted by the Spectrum or Spectrum-converted TS2068.
There is even a routine to de-initialize the Wafadrive operating system so that you can re-claim the reserved RAM. One thing to note when using this one is that it performs the function of CLEAR* before it de-initializes, which means it closes any channels that happen to be open. Make sure this is what you want to happen before you use this routine.
The next routine is a file utility which offers such goodies as file re-naming, file positioning to allow easier chain loading of programs along with moving exactly to where you want to be on the wafer tape, extraction of all the file attributes (this is more than just a header reader), change file type, list free sectors and recover lost or corrupted directories.
The rest of the routines on this wafer concern transfer utilities. These include header reader, stopping auto-run, display of the memory of a program (a monitor program), a routine to count bytes, last of all a Kempston search. I have not said a lot about these last routines but believe me they will be of great use to those wanting to back-up their programs or transfer them from tape to wafer. I even used this section to make up a back-up copy of my TRANS-EXPRESS wafer, which is one of the best protected British programs I have yet encountered.
You will find this program, which I do recommend, available from DAMCO Enterprises, 67 Bradlet Ct., Fall River, MA 02720, or call 617-278-2110.