DCMR REVIEW

by Dick Estel

There are probably a dozen or more usable programs for organizing disks. One that has been around
for a long time is still one of the best: Disk Cataloguer/Manager/Reporter, commonly known as DCMR. 
It's simple, easy-to-use and flexible.

If you're like most computerists, you have a pile of disks on your computer desk, and several boxes
containing some excellent programs you just might need and use, if you could only find them.

DCMR allows the cataloguing of up to 2100 files, which can be sorted by ID number or alphabetically. 
A sort by ID number places the files for each disk in alphabetical order in their grouping.  

The file can be printed out in several formats.  The most compact is six columns of condensed type (if
your printer supports this).  The entire catalog for the Disk of the Month from 9/88 to 8/90 takes up a
little less than two pages in this format.

Data can be entered from the keyboard, or read from the directory.  The normal way of starting a
catalog would be to read in the file names from disk.  Once this is accomplished, there are a number of
editing capabilities.  Many programs are made up of several files.  You would want to include only the
main program name in your catalog, so you can remove the unwanted names simply by pressing
[CONTROL] D.  [CONTROL] S selects a whole screen.  You can also make any desired changes
from the keyboard.

The system uses a four character ID (not the disk ID), which allows from some additional coding.  For
example, I catalogued the Disks of the Month by date, using the format 9004 for April, 1990, 8909 for
September, 1989, etc.  You could use a mnemonic beginning letter such as G for graphics, which
would allow up to a thousand different ID numbers (G000 through G999).  Obviously you need to note
this number on the disk label and file the disks in some sort of organized way for this system to be of
any value.

The program reads the directory very quickly, and unless you are doing a lot of editing, you can catalog
a half dozen disks in five or ten minutes.

My philosophy is that all Commodore programs should work with the 1581 disk drive.  DCMR was
created well before the 1581 was released, but it works fine.  I file copied the program to a 1581, and
have been able to load from it, save to it, and catalog 1581 disks. (1999 note: It also works perfectly
with the CMD hard drive.)

The 2100 file limit can be a drawback if you are trying to catalog a set of programs with a lot of file
names.  For example, Lloyd Warren catalogued the new 64UM graphics collection, which has over
6,000 graphics.  Since many of these were repetitions with only a number designator (i.e., Dog 1
through Dog 88), he was able to get around this by listing Dog only once (all Dogs are on the same
disk).  It would be a problem if your 88 Dog graphics were scattered over a dozen different disks.

Another drawback is the fact that saving a file does not automatically scratch the old version, so you
must either give the file a new name each time you update it, or use the DOS command option to
scratch it.

I thought this program was easier to use than the commercial program Supercat, which retails for about
$25 (the author of DCMR requests a $5 shareware contribution).  Although there is a lot of disk
swapping if you are cataloguing many disks, it works well with a two-drive system, in any combination
of 1541, 1571, 1581 and/or hard drive.

Overall I found this program to be an excellent one and as soon as I can find the disk it is on I am going
to start cataloguing those piles and boxes of disks.

From "The Interface," newsletter of Fresno Commodore User Group 

POSTSCRIPT: After this article appeared in a 1999 Interface, the editor of the Louisville KY club
newsletter got in touch with program author Ray Martin, who is a former member of that club and still
lives in the area. Mr. Martin was pleased that his program is still in use, and released it to the public
domain.