Two Chores At Once

In the April 1986 issue of COMPUTE!, you printed a batch file for moving AmigaDOS commands to a ramdisk. In another issue, you told how to set the date using the DATE? command. Since it takes such a long time to move the commands to a ramdisk, couldn't you just take advantage of the multitasking environment of the Amiga to get the date while the commands are being moved to RAM?

Darcy Otto

Yes, there is a way to do this.

First, if you don't already have a backup of your Workbench disk, make a copy of it and store the original in a safe place. (Whenever you experiment, be sure to use a copy of the disk.)

Create a new file in the subdirectory by typing (from a CLI window) EDS/SET-DATE. Type in the following two lines:

ECHO"Please enter the time and date in DD-MMM-YY HH : MM : SS format"
DATE < *?

Then, exit the editor by typing ESC-e.

Now edit the startup-sequence file (also found in the s subdirectory of the Workbench disk) and insert the following line at the top:

RUN EXECUTE SYS : S/Set-Date

The next time you boot from this disk, your Amiga will ask for the date and time while the ramdisk fills with AmigaDOS commands.