Changes in SpartaDOS X 4.46 (relative to 4.45)
==============================================

KERNEL
------

* CONFIG's keyword MERGE now allows merging portions of CONFIG.SYS
  from arbitrary drive/path. Details:

The merged config file will be read using SDX device drivers, not OS 
routines (as before). This allows drives/partitions that are accessible 
only via SDX drivers (SIDE, MyIDE etc.) to hold the merged configuration 
part for easy change. The main config should contain USE command (memory 
configuration), device drivers (such as DEVICE SIO, DEVICE SIDE) and then 
"MERGE filename.cfg" to attach the device-resident part of the 
configuration.

Additionally, in case the filename contains either a device name, a drive 
number or a path, the merged config will be loaded using SDX filesystem 
drivers (such as SPARTA.SYS). This way a file from a different 
directory/filesystem can be merged (for example MERGE 
D2:>CONFIG>XTRA.CFG). Note that this requires SDX filesystem driver to be 
loaded earlier (DEVICE SPARTA). Also beware that the merged files cannot 
exceed 1KB.

If just the filename is given (like in previous SDX versions), the 
filesystem drivers are not used to get the merged config. In such case the 
merged file must be located in the same directory as the file that merges. 
If the file is merged from the default config (CAR:CONFIG.SYS), it should 
be stored in the root directory of the boot drive.

If no file name is given (MERGE without a parameter), SDX config selector
is invoked to let you choose from multitple CFG files stored in SPARTA.DOS
directory (see the manual for details). Note that in case of OS-compliant
boot drive, the config selector is shown regardless of MERGE command. 

If a user hold OPTION key during system startup, no files are merged.

* Expanded support for standard RAM extensions: internal variables now
  not only hold the current number of free extended banks, but also the
  default one. Thanks to that, MEM can now display the information how
  much ext RAM is there in general (not only, what is free, as before).

* Added support for 65C816 high RAM: when 65C816 is detected, the DOS
  will now do a non-destructive sizing of that memory at reset time and
  store the following information on that: the starting segment number
  (such as $01 when the high RAM starts at $010000), and the number of
  extra segments besides the segment 0 (i.e. besides the 6502 conventional
  64k space). Both numbers are 0 when nothing is detected. Again, MEM
  will now use this information, if applicable.

* Added experimental support for an Axlon-type extension on XL/XE
  computers. The controlling register should be at $CFFF (write-only), and 
  should only be active when PB0=1. Unlike on Atari 800, there is no shadow
  assumed at $0FC0. The extension is only tested for when the test for a 
  standard type extension returns 0 banks. Up to 127 extra banks (2032 KB)
  can be detected. When Axlon is detected, only two memory configurations
  are possible: USE NONE or USE BANKED. USE OSRAM is ignored.

* MEMLO somewhat (around ~40 bytes) lowered.

* 16kbyte cartridges (Microsoft Basic II, Logo, etc.) will occupy memory
  from $8000 only when they are active, i.e. when CAR command is invoked.
  Such cartridges caused a lock in SDX 4.4x or reserved the area upon bootup
  even when they were inactive (SDX 4.2x).
    

DRIVERS AND RESIDENT PROGRAMS
-----------------------------

* the serial I/O driver will now always have the lowest possible priority
  among all the other SIO-like drivers (ramdisks, SIDE/MyIDE drivers and
  such), regardless of the order of loading.

* directory formatting routines, when writing the final "FREE SECTORS"
  line to the output buffer, will now zero out the status byte in the
  directory buffer. This enables programs which read the formatted
  directory byte by byte to detect the final line of the directory listing
  before its is completely read out.

* INDUS.SYS did not work, fixed. Also, in default CONFIG.SYS, the number
  of drives to scan for the INDUS.SYS has been limited to 4 (D1:-D4:).
  If you want it to act on higher drives, edit the CAR:CONFIG.SYS and
  change or remove the parameter digit in DEVICE INDUS line.

* File system drivers modified to return DOS 2.0 "status $03". The effect
  is that Turbo BASIC XL "BLOAD" command now works.

* RAMDISK.SYS fixed to work with Axlon extension (this was broken, apologies).

* RAMDISK.SYS has a new switch: /S forces loading the "standard" 6502
  RAM driver module even on 65816 machines. The 6502 module is much slower,
  but has an advantage of occupying much less memory than 65816 mods.

* CON64.SYS now works on computers with Axlon extension.

* ENV.SYS now works on computers with Axlon extension.

* ATARIDOS.SYS will now mark zero-length files in the directory as occupying
  1 sector, not 0 sectors as before.

LIBRARY
-------

* S_NEXT, new symbol to walk through symbol list.

* S_ADD now does not add a symbol, if there is not enough memory left to
  create one.

* U_LOAD (and its equivalent located inside X.COM) will now store an 
  absolute path in 'path' ($07a0) to the directory where the executable is 
  residing. Therefore a program will be able to easily retrieve its path
  upon execution (provided that no other I/O was done in meantime).

  This seems to fix the problem with MyDUP requiring COMEXE.SYS to be
  resident: it should not require that anymore.

* SLEEP, new symbol to make precise delays.

* BLDDIR_P, new symbol to build directories overriding the device-returned
  PERCOM block.

* BUILDDIR will now correctly mark double sided disks as double sided.

UTILITIES
---------

* COPY: when a file being copied has no timestamp, current time and date
  gets assigned to it.

* MEM /X will now display the total amount of extended RAM in banks and
  kilobytes, besides the free amount.

* MEM /X also displays the amount of 65C816 high RAM, if applicable.

* ED will not quit after Esc/Return, if saving the file fails.
  Also Shift+Delete will set modification flag.

* X.COM experimentally shortened by moving a portion of code to the cart.

* CHKDSK /X display blurp underwent some cosmetic changes. Plus some
  bugs fixed related to correct distinctions between physical sectors
  and logical clusters.

* DF: changes similar to the ones made to CHKDSK, internal changes of
  code which deals with logical and physical sector size calculations.

* DATE and TIME syntax is now "DATE [/T|dd-mm-yy]" and "TIME 
  [/T|hh:mm:ss]", respectively. When used with /T parameter, will now only 
  display current date or time and will not prompt for entering new 
  values. When fed with a valid date/time value in the command line, it 
  will set the specified value as current.

* PAUSE now optionally accepts a number of seconds to wait, ranged from 0
  to 65535.

* TYPE /P and MORE should work better when displaying text files 
  containing long lines.

* ARC will now no longer ask if to overwrite a file when unpacking an 
  archive to NUL:

* ARC is now able to fetch files to be archivized from any file-oriented 
  device, not only from regular disks (DSK:) as before.

* DELTREE has now more MS-like syntax: DELTREE [/YV] [d:]path. The /V switch
  enables a "verbose" mode, which allows to watch what files are currently
  being deleted.

* DELTREE now displays complete pathnames of the directories being deleted,
  and files too, if asked to (see above).

* MENU should no longer accept random garbage it finds in the directory 
  buffer, when it fails to load the directory selected.

* LESS has a new function: when you press the 'G' key, you'll be prompted
  for a line number the viewer should jump to.

* LESS now expands TABs rather than converting each one to a single space.

* LESS now automatically detects MS-DOS (CP/M) and Unix line endings and
  converts the text accordingly on the fly. Therefore, you now may use the
  command to convert MS-DOS and Unix text files to Atari format, in this
  manner: LESS FOO.TXT >> BAR.TXT will convert a PC-like text file FOO.TXT
  into Atari-like BAR.TXT. Only EOL and TAB characters will be converted,
  but that's enough most of the time.

TOOLKIT
-------

* SL utility updated, please replace.

* STAT, new utility to display detailed information on a directory entry.

* FATFS, new driver to read MS-DOS FAT12 and FAT16 formatted media
  (read only and limited to 32 MB, consider it a demo version ;))

* CPMFS, new driver to read Indus CP/M formatted floppies (read only)

* SC utility updated, please replace once upgraded to new SDX version

* S_VBXE driver updated for new FX core release (1.26)

* RC_GR8 driver updated: added basic terminal functions such as display
  scrolling.

* Eddy updated to version 2.01, with improved support for Indus CP/M and
  MS-DOS formats.

* MKATR, a new utility to create ATR images.

* DELDUP made much faster.

* CLX updated to version 1.9.

* FSTRUCT, when run on an 80-column display, will now display offsets at
  which segments start.

ADD-ONS
-------
