In article <3936B723.CE75C99C@apple2.com>, Gabriel Morales wrote: > I recently recieved an e-Mail from a new IIgs user asking me about what > characters/numbers coming before the program name mean in CATALOG > listings. I believe some denote format, or the mode the Apple II is in, > however I am not certain. Could someone please clarify this for me? I am > also interested in identifying the significance of these characters. > > The examples he gave me: > >> A 002 SPACE INVADERS >> >> and some have *'s infront of them like >> >> *B 034 LILY PAD >> >> and what does the I infront mean?? >> >> I 056 MICROGAMMON *I 056 MICROGAMMON || | | || | +--------------- File name (max 30 chars) || +---------------------- File length (modulo 256) in 256-byte sectors |+------------------------- File type: I,A,B,T,R or S +-------------------------- FIle locked indicator: '*'=locked, ' '=not File types I and A are tokenized Basic files, starting with a 2-byte length indicator, followed by the tokens of the Basic program. I is for Integer Basic, and A for Applesoft Basic - they use different tokenization schemes. Files of type I and A can be LOAD'ed as well as RUN. Note 1 on file type I: many Integer Basic programs embedded machine code in their I type files: such files look like garbage when listed, but runs find. Note 2 on file type I: the S-C Assembler used files of type 'I' to store its assembly source files: such files cannot be listed in Integer Basic. As a matter of fact, the S-C Assembler can be made to replace Integer Basic on your RAM ("language") card, if you have one: Apple DOS will then belive the S-C- Assembler is Integer Basic, and will switch to the S-C assembler, if needed, whenever an 'I' type file is LOAD'ed. File type B are binary files: they contain a 4-byte header (2-byte start address and 2-byte length), followed by the binary image. FIles of type B can be BLOAD'ed and BRUN. File type T are text files (ASCII with hi bit set): line ends with a single CR ($8D), text ends when a $00 byte is encountered. Text files may be sequential (contiguous text until first $00) or random access ($00 bytes may be interleaved between "records"). Text files can be "sparse", i.e. the 33'rd sector may be allocated even the 1'st to 32'nd sectors aren't. File type R was rarely used, but Apple's DOS Tool Kit used 'R' type files to store relocatable object files. Files of type S had no official use; some assemblers used them to store their assembly source files. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Schlyter, Swedish Amateur Astronomer's Society (SAAF) Grev Turegatan 40, S-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN e-mail: pausch at saaf dot se or paul.schlyter at ausys dot se WWW: http://hotel04.ausys.se/pausch http://welcome.to/pausch