When FDOS public domain was operating it sent out an “introduction leaflet” about the FDOS disks. It told you how to use the disks and what was on them, here is that information.
INTRODUCTION
It has been a long while since the first FDOS list of Public Domain & Shareware programs. I am sorry to say that I have been rather badly let down by some of my sources in the USA, but have (Hopefully) found more reliable ones, which I hope will enable me to get the next list out much quicker than this one.
As before some disks are not complete, but will still be made available to you at the full price, with a very favourable update policy. Pricing is very simple, being 2 pounds per disk (Unless stated otherwise) inclusive of postage and packaging. Updates to disks whose status is described as NOT COMPLETE are FREE if submitted with an order, otherwise return postage should be sent with the original disk.
If you are unsure of the Status of your own disks, please take a look at the file ‘-FDOSnnn.DIR’ (Where nnn is the disk number). This file is always the first file on the disk. The contents of the file consists of the descriptions of the programs as in the FDOS lists. but may be more up to date. Comparing these files with the contents of the latest printed lists should give you a good idea on how up to date your own collection is.
As before the CP/M LiBRary (Extension is LBR) format is used to store each software package into a single file on disk. It would have been easier to store each file on the disk as it was, but this can lead to some confusion over what program each file belongs to, which in a lot of cases is not very obvious.
Extracting the member files from a LiBRary requires just a single command line to be typed. There are various options available, but you will probably only need to use two of them.
LT30 exactdir .
Will type all text files from the file EXACTDIR.LBR to your console, and NOT extract any files.
LT30 exactdir b:.
Will extract all files from the file EXACTDIR.LBR to the disk in drive B0: decompressing them also. You should ensure that you have sufficient space on the media you wish to extract to. As a guide the LBR file length + 40% should be available.
I have now created a HELP program on each disk shipped, if you are still unsure of how to extract files, just type HELP followed by RETURN to run it.
