64Copy Central

FAQ

This is a list of the most common questions I've been asked over the years:

  1. How can I contact the author?
  2. How can I pay you for your efforts, or donate to the continued development of 64Copy, and how much should I send?
  3. What would registering the program get me?
  4. How do I get the latest version of the program?
  5. Some keys intermittently don't seem to work. How can I fix it?
  6. Are you planning on releasing the source code, just in case the program becomes abandonware?
  7. I have some suggestions for 64COPY, but I don't think they are important enough to send them to you. Should I send them?
  8. How does the HELP work (and where is it)?
  9. I ran my virus scanner, and it reported the "xxxx" virus in one of the executables.
  10. When I start the program, the screen saver starts up almost immediately. What can I do to stop this?
  11. When I am doing XXX operation, the program hangs. Why?
  12. When I am doing XXX operation, I see garbage on the screen, but everything seems to work ok. Why?
  13. Are you going to support the new GCR formats coming out for C64S and CCS64?
  14. What will happen if I delete any of the external support files (like "64COPY.INI") when 64COPY is active?
  15. How come if I change the screen height (ALT-F9), and then quit and restart the program, the screen height is not what I changed it to?
  16. 64COPY won't recognize the F11/F12 keys on the keyboard. Why?
  17. I can't get the long filename functions to work under Windows NT, but it works in all other Microsoft OS's
  18. What language and compiler do you use?
  19. Does 64COPY require booting to real DOS to function?
  20. Why is 64COPY a DOS application, and not Windows?
  21. When I try double-clicking 64COPY.EXE or 64MAIN.EXE under Windows XP, I get the following error: "C:\Windows\system32\autoexec.nt. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows Application. Choose 'close' to terminate the application."

Q. How can I contact the author?

A. You can send me e-mail at the address:

schepers@uwaterloo.ca

or by regular snail-mail post at:

Peter Schepers
317 Knightsbridge Road
Woodstock, Ontario,
Canada
N4S 7C3

Q. How can I pay you for your efforts, or donate to the continued development of 64Copy, and how much should I send?

A. I would very much like to see people register the program with me, as it shows some appreciation for the work which goes into writing extensive utilities such as this. Even simple donations constitute registration. The amount of US $20 (CAD $25) would be appreciated as it's not too high and, after exchange (from US) and possible transaction or transfer fees, presents me with something tangible. There are multiple ways to send me the funds:

Q. What would registering the program get me?

A. Physically, in your hands, nothing. The program has no crippled features, and contains no registration routine or serial numbers. I would not send you a "registered" version as it doesn't exist. It just gives you peace of mind and some satisfaction that you've invested in some small way in the development of 64Copy.

Q. How do I get the latest version of the program?

A. There are two ways:

Q. Some keys intermittently don't seem to work. How can I fix it?

A. I've had reports that key combinations intermittently stop working, typically the ones modified with ALT or SHIFT. Although I haven't found one, there might have a bug in the keypress detect code because the author has seen this behavior as well.

Q. Are you planning on releasing the source code?

A. No, I would be too embarrased for anyone to see what my code has evolved into over the many years that I've been writing 64COPY. I am not a programmer by training, and have been learning C programming through the entire development of 64Copy. Since I've had to work with the original core code that I wrote back in 1994, and have had to re-adapt it many times over for newer features and fixes, what I've ended up with is almost unreadable but functional stew.

The source files (not including the HELP files) already total over 250 thousand lines and to try to convert this would be a huge task. The only time I would ever consider releasing the source would be if DOS became a completely unsupported platform, no longer available under Windows. Then I would have to choose between porting it to Windows, or walking away from the project.

Q. I have some suggestions for 64COPY, but I don't think they are important enough to send them to you. Should I?

A. By all means, send your ideas to me. I may not always agree with them, or it may not be feasible, possible or practical to add them in, but I always appreciate the effort of at least telling me about them! Sometimes I surprise myself by adding in a feature months after receiving it because I originally thinking the idea was unworkable.

Q. How does the HELP work (and where is it)?

A. All of the help for 64COPY is contained in the 64COPY.HLP file, and is only available by running the program first, and press the F1 key to bring up the HELP window. Help will start either in a topic or the main index. If you are in a function (converting files, text editor), calling HELP will bring up help for that topic. If you are sitting at the command-line, then HELP will come up with the index of all main topics. Either way, you can still get the index, and look for what you want from there.

If the HELP file doesn't exist (64COPY.HLP) then help will not be available, and you will get a warning that help cannot be found as well as there the help file should be. If the HELP file version is wrong, you will also get a warning.

If you can't get the program to run, so as to display the HELP, then there is very little I can do. I would request that you mail me with the details in this event as I would like to know about it, and try to fix it.

Q. I ran my virus scanner, and it reported the "xxxx" virus in one of the executables.

A. Unless you verify that the virus really exists by using a second scanner, I will take no action. I highly trust and recommend using F-Prot. Earlier versions of Mcafee and Norton Antivirus were producing many false positives on my executable.

Q. When I start the program, the screen saver starts up almost immediately. What can I do to stop this?

A. This was due to a bug in the "inactive time" calculation for when the screen saver will activate. If this happens (and it shouldn't in versions past 3.00 beta 10), there are several ways to prevent this...

Q. When I am doing XXX operation, the program hangs. Why?

A. This is most difficult to answer as a number of factors are coming into play. It may be that there is a bug that you have found, and I will have to track down. It would be best if you can duplicate the problem as I will not be able to easily fix it if I cannot see it happen.

If you can duplicate the problem, mail me with the all the details, order of operation, etc. If you don't have the latest version, I would recommend getting that first, as I may have fixed it already and not be aware of it!

Q. When I am doing XXX operation, I see garbage on the screen, but everything seems to work ok. Why?

A. Once again, like the previous question, this requires that it be duplicatable. If it is, mail me with what you were doing, where on screen the corruption starts and ends, etc. Even if I cannot duplicate it, I can likely attempt to fix it.

When this bug was originally reported, it was usually due to the newness of the windowing code changes I was making. Once the code was shaken down, I have never had these problems reported again.

Q. Are you going to support the new GCR formats coming out for C64S and CCS64?

A. As of version 4, I support the CCS64 G64 format on a whole-file basis only, no copying of individual files is allowed. You can convert the entire file to/from the various other disk formats (ZipCode 4 & 6, D64).

No support for the new C64s format is planned as it never seemed to materialize.

Q. What will happen if I delete any of the external support files (like "64COPY.INI") when 64COPY is active?

A. Nothing bad will occur at any point. Once the program is running, all the support files have been read, the settings are in memory, and the files are no longer used. When you quit, the files will simply be written out as if they never existed. When you execute a command from the command-line in 64COPY, all the settings are still stored in memory, until the program reloads.

If you delete any support file when not in 64COPY, and start the program up again, it will detect the missing file and use default values.

Q. How come if I change the screen height (ALT-F9), and then quit and restart the program, the screen height is not what I changed it to?

A. When 64COPY is started for the first time (i.e. no "64COPY.INI" file exists), the screen height is recorded, and 64COPY will always start up in that mode, unless you change the height setting in the Configuration window (ALT-F6), Visual options page, Screen Height section.

Q. 64COPY won't recognize the F11/F12 keys on the keyboard. Why?

A. It seems that there are some rare BIOS's that are not 100% compatible with the method I use for scanning for the extended keys, and therefore I can't fix this. However, there are ways around this. Since 64COPY has a working MENU system (using the F9 key, or with the mouse), you can use the menus to accomplish nearly all that would normally need to be done with the keyboard.

Q. I can't get the long filename functions to work under Windows NT, but it works in all other Microsoft OS's.

A. It would appear that the way Windows NT implements its LFN is totally different from the way Windows 9x/2000/XP does. The DOS INTerrupt calls make no mention of being supported by the Windows NT DOS box, and therefore I assume they will not work.

There are several Windows NT LFN emulator drivers available to try on Joe Forster/STA web site http://sta.c64.org/lfnemu.html that claim to provide the standard access for long filenames. Joe has tested them with both 64Copy and Star Commander, and says that they work. I have not verified these drivers, but if you feel adventurous go ahead and try them.

Q. What language and compiler do you use?

A. I really only know C, and have always used one version or another of the Watcom C compiler. I have used v6, v8 and v10, and now work with OpenWatcom v1.7. The change to OpenWatcom required some compiler option changes and code tweaking but things appear to be working and stable.

As a point of interest, 64COPY is being compiled as a 386 or higher application. No more XT and 286 support.

Q. Does 64COPY require booting to real DOS to function?

A. No. 64COPY was written with full DOS compatibility in mind, so it will work under Windows XP/2000 DOS VDM's, Windows 95/98/ME, real DOS, etc. Booting to a real DOS environment just to use 64COPY would only cause you grief as it takes you out of your normal environment for no benefit, and you lose the benefit of long filename support!

Q. Why is 64COPY a DOS application, and not Windows?

A. Mostly due to the history of its development. 64COPY was started way back in ~1993, with the first release (v1.0) sometime in 1994. Back then the only major OS's on the PC platform were DOS, Windows 3.1 and OS/2, with DOS providing the best compatibility across those platforms. Since I am a self-taugh programmer with limited spare time, I don't have the time or inclination to learn to program for another OS. Not only that, but trying to make this beast cross-platform compatible would be a formidable task!

Q. When I try double-clicking 64COPY.EXE or 64MAIN.EXE under Windows XP, I get the following error: "C:\Windows\system32\autoexec.nt. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows Application. Choose 'close' to terminate the application."

A. This is not a 64COPY problem, but a Windows one. See this Microsoft bulletin: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767&Product=winxp. It describes the solutions to fixing the DOS subsystem when the above error (or variants) occur. Basically, one of the files needed for DOS support (autoexec.nt, config.nt or command.com) is corrupt or missing.

Another possible solution (if you don't have the Windows install CD around) is to look for the support files under c:\windows\repair as the real filenames, or under c:\windows\system32 as filename.TMP files.

Email the author: Peter Schepers | Last updated: Oct 4, 2007