PASCAL
for formatting disks in Appendix C of this manual. Unless you supply a different volume name, the formatting program will name it BLANK:.
If you have a hard disk, you should know that files are stored on disks in segments called blocks. Each block can hold about 500 characters, or about eight typed lines. Hard disk users can reserve a certain number of blocks for each ThinkTank outline they create.
Disks are read by disk drives which are either built into your computer or connected to it. PASCAL thinks of your disk drives, as it thinks of your console (screen and keyboard) and printer, as devices. PASCAL assigns a device number, which also ends in a colon, to each device. It assigns the device numbers #4:, #5:, #9:, #10:, #11:, and #12 to as many disk drives as you have.
Which drive gets which number? It depends on how they are connected or configured. There is generally a “pecking order” of your disk drives, and device numbers are assigned in this order. Drive I is device #4:, Drive 2 is device #5:, and so on. If you aren’t sure what the order is for your system, consult your dealer.
You can refer to disks either by their volume name or by the device number of the drive that contains them. For exam- ple, suppose the file TASKPLAN.DB is stored on a disk called PROJECT: which is inserted in Drive 2 (device #5:). You can refer to this file as either PROJECT:TASKPLAN or #5:TASKPLAN; the two names are equivalent.
If you have a hard disk drive, the list of files stored on it can get very long. You can avoid having to wade through it by partitioning the disk into several volumes or devices. Once partitioned, you can treat these segments as separate drives or disks.
PASCAL COMMANDS AND PROGRAMS
The PASCAL operating system is supplied on a set of floppy disks. Part of it is also included on the THINKTANK PROGRAM DISK so that you won't need to use the system disks while running ThinkTank.