The original Toolkit from Clares was one of the first pieces of Archimedes software to be released, and has therefore been around for nearly two years. Toolkit Plus is the long promised, enhanced version of Toolkit, and it is this which I will look at here.
In common with most Toolbox-type packages, Toolkit Plus is based around a full screen editor that can edit either memory or disc contents. The editor can be invoked directly using the *MEDIT and *AEDIT commands, or indirectly via the search commands described below. The editor display can be switched between binary, hex, word, text or mnemonic format, and the display freely scrolled. One very nice feature is the single-line assembler that allows ARM mnemonics to be assembled directly into memory from within the editor.
In addition to the interactive editor display, blocks of memory can also be dumped in any of the available display formats. This is mainly used when dumping memory to a printer.
Toolkit Plus includes a large number of search and find commands that can be used to search either memory or disc for a given sequence of bytes, words, characters or mnemonics. When a match is found, the editor is entered, enabling changes to be made before the search continues.
There are a number of commands which don't fit into any obvious category. These include commands to move and swap blocks of memory, and to list out various important system addresses, such as that of the current error handler.
Also in this group are commands to list all the SWI calls available in the machine, and to convert a SWI name to its corresponding number, and vice-versa. These can all be very useful, but in some cases only reproduce what the operating system already offers.
As well as the disc editor and disc searches, Toolkit Plus also provides some general file-specific commands.
*CATALL, *EXALL and *DIRALL all perform a cataloguing type function. *CATALL lists all the files and sub-directories starting from a given place, while *EXALL also lists full information on those files. *DIRALL on the other hand only lists directory names.
*APUT and *AGET are used to read and write disc sectors directory. They can be useful when recovering lost files, or writing a disc protection system, though these calls really only provide a star command equivalent to an SWI call provided by the ADFS.
There is a command to compact an ADFS disc repeatedly until only one chunk of free space remains, and another command to verify the contents of a file against a block of memory. Finally in this category, is a very useful command to dump to screen (or printer) the contents of a file in any of binary, hex, word, text or mnemonic format.
The last set of commands is connected with screen handling. The first two of these are *FASTSAVE and *FASTLOAD for saving and loading screens. These commands are much faster than *SCREENSAVE and *SCREENLOAD, but only work for whole screens. This seems more limiting than necessary, because the method used by these commands will in fact work with any window that is the full screen width, rather than just full screens. The commands *LOADPALETTE and *SAVEPALETTE save and load the current palette setting.
This is a utility for backing up hard discs, which is effectively separate from the main commands, although it is invoked using Toolkit Plus commands. The archiver is in fact a Basic program which copies the contents of a hard disc onto a set of floppies (as many as 27 of them for a full hard disc). The copy is done as a series of disc sectors, rather than on a file by file basis, and this removes the restriction of not being able to back up files longer than 800K. The resultant backup consists of two parts: the actual data that makes up the files, and a backup log showing where the data belongs on the hard disc. This log is written twice to separate floppies for extra protection.
Various configuration options can be used to determine which files will be archived. It is possible to archive only files before a certain date/time, or after a certain date/time, or inside or outside a particular period of time. You can also choose to archive files of just one particular filetype.
The opposite of *Archive is *Restore, which restores all the archived files back to the hard disc after any disaster. All files must be restored at once, it is not possible to restore just selected files.
Toolkit Plus makes extensive use of the *CONFIGURE command to customise its operation. For example, default pathnames and starting addresses can be set up. Unlike the normal configuration options, Toolkit Plus doesn't save them in CMOS RAM. Instead, the options modify the program directly, with an option to save them to disc as permanent changes.
The Toolkit Plus manual is very similar to that of Toolkit, and indeed any other of Clares' products. It is A5 in size, 64 pages long, and bound with a plastic comb. The manual starts off with details of making a backup copy, followed by a summary of the available commands, and the syntax of any parameters.
The next section details all the *CONFIGURE options, followed by a list of the editor control keys. Then comes the description of the commands. For each command, the syntax is given followed by a plain language description of what the command does, and then an example, a list of possible errors, and any extra notes.
The appendices consist of notes on the single line assembler, an explanation of the possible error messages, and instructions for using the hard disc archiver. Finally, there is a fairly comprehensive index.
One omission from the manual is a list of the SWI calls implemented by Toolkit Plus. I discovered by pure chance that there are twenty-five of these, and I am sure that at least some of them could prove useful in your own code. Hopefully, Clares will produce some form of technical note covering these.
The actual packaging of our copy of Toolkit Plus was in fact a standard Toolkit box with a Toolkit Plus sticker over the name. I suspect that this is only a temporary measure.
I was rather disappointed with Toolkit Plus. I had been led to believe that the new module would be a great enhancement over the original Toolkit. Instead, the changes are largely extensions to the existing features, though the hard disc archiver is a new and useful feature. Toolkit Plus costs £49.95 inc. VAT, which, considering current trends in Archimedes software prices, is reasonable. However, users of the existing Toolkit, will have to pay £24.95 to upgrade to Toolkit Plus - a figure that I find excessive.
If you need a Toolkit package, then Toolkit Plus is really the only commercial one available, although you could always use our very own RISC User Toolbox. I find the features of Toolkit Plus useful, and I would not resent having to pay £50 for it. But if I had already bought Toolkit, I would be very reluctant to part with another £25 for an enhanced version which many companies would offer at a nominal cost to registered users.
Product Toolkit Plus Supplier Clares Micro Systems 98 Middlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich, Cheshire CW9 7DA. Tel. (0606) 48511 Price £49.95 inc. VAT.