This file contains notes and some useful hints for using UniForm- PC. Since UniForm is constantly being improved, make sure that you return your completed UniForm Registration Card so that we can send you update information. You are eligible for updates only if we have your registration card on file. UniForm-PC Installation is Now Even Easier! The UniForm-PC disk includes an automatic installation program for your convenience. This program will insert the UniForm-PC commands into the CONFIG.SYS file on your DOS system disk. To install UniForm-PC, follow the instructions in Section 2.1 of the manual. When you reach Step 2, ignore the manual and run the UINSTALL program instead. If you are installing UniForm-PC for the first time, the UINSTALL program will ask you a couple of questions about your computer. When the program is done, continue with Step 3. The UINSTALL program also has the capability to tailor UniForm-PC for many different hardware configurations. To fully understand UINSTALL's capabilities, you may want to read Appendix A in the manual which will describe the many configuration parameters which can be used with UniForm-PC. Disk Drive Letters and Physical Drive Addresses A couple things of interest when using UniForm are "drive letters" and "physical drive addresses." For the sake of clarity, let's define these two terms before we proceed; A "drive letter" is the letter you type to specify to DOS what disk drive to use. A typical PC will have two floppy disk drives that you refer to by using drive letters A and B. A "physical drive address" is a number between 0 and 3. This number is used internally by DOS to select, in hardware, which floppy drive to use. DOS keeps a table internally which correlates the drive letters you specify with the correct physical drive addresses. By convention, the first floppy disk drive is given the physical drive address of 0, the second is 1, etc. One of the most common questions asked about UniForm-PC is how it assigns disk drive letters. To be brief, DOS assigns the disk drive letters, starting with A and ascending in alphabetic order. The UniForm drive will be assigned the next letter available after your existing DOS disk drives. When using UniForm, one of the floppy disk drives is now accessed by either of two drive letters. In a two floppy drive system, DOS will assign UniForm the next available drive letter (which should be C). Now there are two drive letters (B and C) that will access the same disk drive. When you want to access a DOS diskette, use the drive letter B. If you want to use a CP/M diskette, use the drive letter C. The letter you use to refer to this floppy disk drive indicates to DOS whether you have a CP/M or a DOS diskette in your second floppy drive. When the drive letter you specify indicates to DOS that a CP/M diskette is being used, it gives UniForm-PC control of the disk drive. UniForm-PC, like DOS, must know the physical drive address to use. This is necessary because UniForm-PC, like DOS, deals directly with the hardware and the hardware needs a physical drive address to select a drive for use. There are two ways for UniForm-PC to determine the physical drive address to use. 1) Inside the computer is a DIP switch which should be set to indicate the number of floppy disk drives attached to your system. When DOS boots up, UniForm reads this switch and determines the physical drive address of the last floppy disk drive from the switch. If the DIP switch accurately reflects the number of floppy drives attached to your system, UniForm will have the correct physical drive address to use. (If the DIP switch is improperly set, UniForm may hang the system when you try to access a CP/M disk, requiring you to re-boot the system. If this happens to you, either set the DIP switch properly or use the "DR" parameter as described below to override the DIP switch setting.) 2) You can specify the physical drive address to UniForm by using the optional "DR" parameter in the CONFIG.SYS file. An example of this would look like: device=uniform.sys dr=0 By specifying the parameter "dr=0", UniForm will ignore the DIP switch setting and use the physical drive address 0 when accessing the floppy drive. In this example then, UniForm will use the first physical floppy drive which is drive letter A. Method 1 above is preferable since it's automatic and requires no additional work on your part. Using UniForm-PC from a Batch File When UniForm is executed from a batch file, it sets an ERRORLEVEL that can be tested within the batch file. For more information about ERRORLEVEL refer to the batch file section of your DOS manual. The ERRORLEVEL number will be set according to the following conditions: ERRORLEVEL Condition 0 The last diskette initialized did not have any permanent errors. This value will also be returned if no initialization operation was performed. 1 Either UNIFORM.SYS was not installed in your DOS system or the version numbers of UNIFORM.SYS and UNIFORM.EXE did not match. 2 The last diskette initialized contained at least 1 permanent error. The initialization operation failed and the diskette should not be used. The following is an example batch file which will initialize diskettes one after another and tell you if the diskette was good or not: echo off :start echo Put the diskette to initialize into your UniForm drive pause uniform /q /i y /r /r if errorlevel 2 goto baddisk if errorlevel 1 goto nodriver echo The diskette has been properly initialized. goto start :baddisk echo ***** That diskette had a bad spot; do not use it. ***** goto start :nodriver If this batch file is executed it will initialize the diskette in your UniForm drive to the current format. This example could be expanded to include some copying of files if the initialization operation was successful. This could be very useful for anyone needing to produce many diskettes with the same files on them.