I must put the record straight over a few of the points raised in your otherwise excellent review of our DDI-1 disk drive.

Details of CP/M, will be covered in a manual currently in preparation. We felt it best to provide a single source for all the definitive information, while covering the essential points in the user manual. This policy has been universally applauded as it applies to the CPC464 User Instructions and Firmware Manual.

The 'unlikely event' of distributors making software available on 3in Amstrad format has already happened. Since last year Timatic Systems of Fareham has offered its whole catalogue of classic CP/M software; three specialist software houses offer their wares on the format and Amsoft itself has published around ten low-cost business applications, including the famous Quest (Padmede) accounts packages.

Although AMSDOS is fundamentally a sequentially filing system, (the serious user must surely turn to CP/M), the ability to have both an output and an input file open at once means that a single data file can be updated even though it is bigger than the available RAM, contrary to your statement in the review. This is, however, as you correctly point out, a trifle tedious.

Luckily it is very easy to split one large data file into many small sections (2K to 4K) and open, close, read, update and even sort these small sections individually at a reasonable speed, hiding the splitting process from the programmer, who thinks he is dealing with one long, random access, file.

If any of your readers are interested in the Basic to do this, Amsoft has an applications note available.

R. Perry
Technical Manager, Amsoft, 169 Kings Road, Brentwood, Essex