CFOG's PIP, March 1987, Volume 5 No. 5, Whole No. 53, page 11

Submit With Your Exec

by Benjamin H. Cohen

One of the neat things about CP/M+ is that a lot of the problems that are associated with CP/M 2.2 have been eliminated. One that I never fussed much with before is the problem of changing user areas with SUBmit files. On the Exec <and other CP/M+ machines> this simply isn't a problem. With my new (used) 384K Drive C: I have set up a lot of SUBmit routines.

Submit resides in the RAM disk as a system file. SETDEF allows me to specify that if there's no COM file with the name of the command that I've typed the system will check for a SUB file with that name. If it finds one it automatically runs SUBmit and the file. No more typing submit <filename><cr>.

And one of the things I discovered -- I couldn't find a word on it in the manuals -- was that you can simply change user areas with impunity. CP/M+ never loses track.

Here's a neat little Sub file that I use when I run SuperCalc2 on the Executive. I call the file Sc.sub, so I just hit SC<cr> and let 'er rip:

c0:
keyboard sc
a6:
fk sc
sc2
<
fk normal
c0:
keyboard dvorak
a:

First, this routine logs onto drive C in user area 0. This is my top floppy drive, where I keep my utility disk nearly all the time. Eric Meyer's keyboard changer program loads my special keyboard for SuperCalc2. Then runs Eric Meyer's function key changer program to load my function keys for SuperCalc2, then logs on user area 6 of the RAM disk, then loads SuperCalc2 <supplying the first carriage return to get past the opening screen to the spreadsheet>.

When I exit from SuperCalc2 the function keys are restored to 'normal', we go back to user area 0 on drive C:, switch the keyboard back to my usual layout, and log back onto the RAM disk.

If Submit and your Sub file are in A0: and are system files, using CCP+103 would make it run from any user area! With CP/M+ you need to be in the user area with Submit.com and the Sub file to make it run, but once it's up and running changing user areas is a snap!