OpenEuphoria

Re: Floppy_Is_Blank Function Request

• Posted by "Hawke'" <mikedeland at NETZERO.NET> Aug 30, 2000
• 460 views

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
hidden and system are attributes of files, yes...
that is a simple fact, and unfortunately, windows and
dos wont care if you opine that in a different manner..
if your opinion is that hidden and system are NOT
attributes, windows and dos will simply ignore your
opine and continue onwards ....

the problem lies in the fact that windows is nothing more
then a multitasking shell for DOS...

if u open a dos prompt window, or reboot into dos mode,
and u navigate to the root of your C drive, and at the
prompt you type "dir" (or dir /p for pausing if it is long)...
take a GOOD look, i'll wager you do NOT see io.sys
listed in that listing...explorer is nothing more then a fancy
front end GUI for examining files and directories on your system...

my worries were how the dir() function in EU was implemented
as there are little nuances that could be in the implementation
of that function by rob...did he call the bios directly? did he
just do a shortcut like:
function dir(object param)
 return system("dir" & param)
end function
(warning, that code wont work cuz system() needs another argument
and im too lazy to look up that argument)
(u get the idea im sure)

so the issue of dir() looking for hidden/system files is valid as there
could be many different ways that rob could have implemented it...

in another post, someone mentioned that dir() used as proposed was
tested and seemed to find hidden/system files, which is good thing...

in another post, someone mentioned using chkdsk and comparing
the max bytes to the used bytes....that may not work either because
when u have bad sectors on the floppy, those values will not be the
same even when the disk is for sure empty....you would have to
grep the bad sectors line and how many bytes were used in bad
sectors and apply that to your calculations...

hope this helps--Hawke'
----- Original Message -----
From: Ad Rienks <kwibus at ZONNET.NL>
To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: Floppy_Is_Blank Function Request


> Hello Hawke',
>
> I think I tested all the possibilities you mentioned, and the statement
> seems to behave as expected. BTW, 'system' and 'hidden' are only
attributes
> of files, in my opinion. Windows can fool you, as these kind of files are
> not displayed in Windows Explorer, unless you set some checkboxes.
>
> Cheers,    Ad
>
> ----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
> Van: Hawke' <mikedeland at NETZERO.NET>
> Aan: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
> Verzonden: woensdag 30 augustus 2000 11:25
> Onderwerp: Re: Floppy_Is_Blank Function Request
>
>
> > errrrr.............
> > will that take into account, assuredly, hidden/system files being
> > present on that floppy????
> > im thinking it won't actually :/
> > --Hawke'
> >
> > > Hello ck,
> > > Use the function
> > > if atom(dir("a:*.*")) then
> > > If the disk is empty, even if there is no disk in the 'a' drive, dir()
> > > returns -1. This is an atom; otherwise the dir() function returns a
> > > sequence.
> > >
> > > Hope this helps,    Ad
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>

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