USER AREA
by Barry Cole, WLA KUG, May 1987

(Tips on using user areas)

All Kaypro owners have access to 16 user areas, but many only
know of one!  Support for this partitioning of disk directories
is weak in standard CP/M but good in any of the extensions, such
as the public domain ZCPR.  Programs such as D and NS also help.

The purpose of user areas is to limit the number of files that
show up in the directory.  User areas also allow multiple copies
of the same filename such as archival versions of a document. 
The user number ranges from zero to fifteen and is stored as part
of the filename in the directory.  Therefore, the choice of user
number neither hurts nor improves the space or directory entries
consumed by a file.

Standard CP/M displays a prompt that looks like A> or B> when a
user command is requested.  Enhanced versions show AO>.  The zero
represents the current user area.  DIR will show only files in
the current user number.  USER 12 will shift the user into user
number 12.  Now a DIR or D will show only files in this area. 
This reduces the clutter of files to look through.  This is
essential on a machine with a hard disk; it can take a long time
to locate a file in a list of 1,000 names!  The extended system
will show A12 which helps in the navigation.

If you are running standard CP/M, you have used all the useful
capabilities, since you can only run programs in the current user
area!  Extended systems will automatically check user zero (the
default upon reset) if the .COM file is not located in the
current user area.  This works just fine until you try to run a
program in more than 1 piece (overlay) such as WordStar or dBase. 
These programs will look for their overlays in the wrong user
area.  Use the public domain SETDRU to install these programs and
then set them in user 0.  This allows access from all user areas
with a single copy on disk.

If you should receive a diskette that shows less programs than
you expect, they may be in other user areas.  This is often true
of distribution disks for the Kaypro 10.  Running D.COM will show
a smaller total of used and unused space than the total space! 
You can use STAT USR:  to list which areas are used.
Alternatively, use the suboptions of D.COM to show all files in
all user areas by D B: $UVS.  A convenient way to deal with these
files is by using newsweep (NS>COM).  Invoke it by NS A*: to show
files in all user areas.  Files can be Renamed to the same name
in a different user area.  They can also be tagged and mass
copied to another disk and/or user area.

Finally, let me suggest that a good usage of user areas is to
distribute several sets of related files in separate areas.  I
recently sent a disk with games in user 0, a Backgrounder demo in
user 1, utilities in user 2, and a simulation game in user 3. 
This allows the receiver to know which files correspond to which
application without the bother of un-librarying files or the
expense of creating four disks.