Topic       : The GFA-Basic Compendium
Author      : GFA Systemtechnik GmbH
Version     : GFABasic.HYP v2.98 (12/31/2023)
Subject     : Documentation/Programming
Nodes       : 899
Index Size  : 28056
HCP-Version : 3
Compiled on : Atari
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@default    : Document not found
@help       : Help
@options    : +g -i -s +z
@width      : 75
@hostname   : STRNGSRV
@hostname   : CAB     
@hostname   : HIGHWIRE
@hostname   : THING   
View Ref-FileIn the following section, instructions related to file organisation are
explained.

First, however, it is important to know the structure of a file specification
and the rules of the hierarchical filing system. A file specification consists
of three parts: the drive specification, the file name and the filename
extension. The drive specification contains the disk drive identification in
the range A to P, followed by a colon. The file name is up to 8 characters in
length, with, optionally, an extension comprising a period and up to 3
characters. Groups of files may be gathered into directories (also called
folders), which may themselves be gathered into different sub-directories (or
folders) and so on. The lowest level of grouping (which contains all the files
on the disk in their respective directories and sub-directories) is known as
the root directory. Starting from this root directory, directories may be
accessed, followed by sub-directories, etc. Therefore, for a file to be
accessed, the following information must be given:

    - Drive specification
    - Name of directory if any, sub-directory if any, etc.
    - The actual name of the file and its extension, if any

These parts are separated by reverse diagonal strokes "\" (backslashes). Names
for directories have the same format as filenames. The access path for a file
is a combination of these elements.

Example:

    A:\TEXT.DOC\MANUAL\CHAPTER1.DOC

This means that the file to be accessed, named CHAPTER1, has the extension .DOC
and is in a sub-directory called MANUAL, which it self is in a sub-directory
called TEXT.DOC. TEXT.DOC is in the root directory of disk drive A:.

Two special symbols are available to make file selection easier, which can be
used within file names and their extensions. These are the question mark ('?')
and the asterisk ('*'). The question mark acts like a 'wildcard' and will be
accepted as any character whose ASCII value is greater than 32. The asterisk is
similar, except that it can be taken as any sequence of characters in the file
specification.

The command DIR will be explained in a moment, but for now, from the Direct
Mode of GFA BASIC (reached by pressing ESCape), you can type in 'DIR', which
will cause all the files on drive A: to be displayed.

Typing 'DIR *.GFA' lists those files which have the extension '.GFA'.

Typing 'DIR ?AB?.*A' lists those files which have four-letter file names with
the middle two letters 'AB', and an extension ending in 'A'.

Typing 'DIR *.*' lists all files.

The TOS File System+