Simtel MSDOS 1992 June

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DDI╥ (DOUBL┼ DIR) Purpose: Displays all (or selected) directory entries in double columns, sorted in alphabetical order. Format: DDIR [d:][path][filename[.ext]] Remarks: If no parameters are specified, DDIR will list all files in the current directory. Use of the global characters ? and * in the filename and extension parameters is supported. If more than one screenful (50 entries) is required, the display pauses at the bottom, showing the message, "Press any key to continue." Notes║ 1. Because DDIR.COM loads a secondary command processor, it will not operate under the Run option of WordStar and possibly with some other programs that normally allow calling up external programs. For the same reason, it cannot be automatically reinvoked using the F3 key when at the DOS command level. DOORS John Dickinson Purpose║ Permit≤ switchinτ betweeε tw∩ simultaneously connecteΣ display≤ withou⌠ leavinτ an applicatioε prograφ anΣ thereb∙ losinτ the content≤ oµ thσ alternatσ screen. Format║ DOOR╙ (load≤ memor∙-residen⌠ program) <Alt-Right Shift> (toggles between screens) Remarks: When the second screen display is invoked by pressing Alt-Right Shift, DOORS begins by copying the first screen to the second. The first screen display remains resident on that monitor, for reference, but the focus of your work shifts to the second screen, on which you may continue working. If you then subsequently switch back to the first monitor (by pressing Alt-Right Shift again), the second monitor's current contents will remain on its display but will initially be copied to the first monitor. Since the monochrome display cannot support 40-column text or color graphics modes, DOORS can only be used with your color monitor set for 80-column text mode. In addition toè switching between monochrome and color text modes, however, DOORS permits you to store a screen from either a monochrome or a high- resolution EGA text display to the other monitor, though you must toggle back to re- sume your work on the display from which you started. Notes║ 1. DOORS.COM may not work with "compatibles" that do not use the same keyboard interrupt structure as the PC. Further, as with all memory-resident software, it may not be compatible with all programs. KEEPER Steven Holzner Purpose: Stores and displays the last ten commands entered for immediate reexecution without retyping. Format: KEEPER (loads memory-resident program) <Ctrl-N> (toggles window display) Remarks: KEEPER can store command lines of up to 50 characters each in length. After loading, normally via your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and pressing Ctrl-N (the default trigger key; see Option 1), the last 10 command lines are shown in a window in the upper right-hand corner of the display. If you wish to execute one of the commands shown, move to its line with the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys; the line currently selected blinks. Pressing Ctrl-N again will reissue a blinking command or, if no stored command line has been selected, will return the display to normal. Notes║ 1. KEEPER is not compatible with a number of application programs (e.g., XyWrite) that take over the keyboard interrupts. Option 1: The default trigger key is Ctrl-N. Should this be inconvenient, you can use the KEEPER.BAS program to recreate KEEPER.COM with a different trigger key. From the DOS prompt simply enter BASIC KEEPER and the program will prompt you for your choice of trigger key. After the KEEPER.COM file is created in this way, it is a regular DOS command and is not run under BASIC.èKEY-FAKE Charles Petzold Purpose: Supplies the series of keystrokes needed to initialize an application program on boot-up. Format: KEY-FAKE ["xyz"] [nn] [0] [@F] Programname Characters typed within a pair of single or double quotes ("xyz") are normal ASCII- character keystrokes. Numbers (nn) not in quote marks are ASCII decimal codes, e.g., 13 (Enter), 26 (Ctrl-Z), or 27 (Esc). Numbers preceded by @ are the extended ASCII decimal codes (128 through 255) generated by the Alt keys, cursor keys, Ins and Del keys, and the Function keys (e.g., @61 is the F3 keystroke). The 0 is used with programs that check the keyboard buffer (it tells such programs the buffer is clear, so the programs will treat the succeeding keystroke separately). Remarks: KEY-FAKE is of greatest use in batch files used to call up application programs. For example, to enter Lotus's 1-2-3 and set it for File Retrieve, the following .BAT file would be appropriate: CD \LOTUS KEY-FAKE 0 13 0 13 0 13 0 13 0 13 "/FR" LOTUS This takes you past the necessary initial carriage returns and /FR command without having to type them in each time. Similarly, if each time you enter BASICA you want to have a blue border, blue background, and yellow letters, you would create a batch file, B.BAT, containing the lines KEY-FAKE "COLOR 14,1,1" 13 "CLS" 13 BASICA Notes║ 1. The keystroke sequence stored by KEY- FAKE is limited to 124 characters and must be on one continuous command line. Keystrokes not supported by PC BIOS (e.g., Alt-Home) cannot be stored. 2. Programs such as XyWrite II that get keyboard information directly from the hardware keyboard interrupt will bypass KEY-FAKE. KEY-FAKE will also not work well when you are on-line using aè communications program. 3. KEY-FAKE is memory resident, but can be executed multiple times in the same session without reloading. However, if nested batch files cause it to be re- invoked before its initially stored keystroke sequence has been exhausted, the remaining initial keystrokes will be lost. LOCK (and UNLOCK) Steven Holzner Purpose: Encrypts a file, rendering it unreadable to anyone who does not know the user-chosen passphrase. Complementarily, using the same passphrase, de-encrypts the file. Format: LOCK [d:][path]filename[.ext] [d:][path] [filename][.ext] or UNLOCK [d:][path]filename[.ext] [d:][path] [filename][.ext] Remarks: The user-selected passphrase can be up to 64 characters in length; the programs prompt you to supply it. Files to be LOCKed and UNLOCKed must be less than 62K in length. If you do not supply new filenames for the locked and unlocked files, the programs use the default filename FILE.LOC. Example: You have a file of student course evaluations named CONFY on drive C: that you wish to mail to a colleague in encrypted form. You put a formatted floppy disk in drive A:, and at the C> prompt you enter LOCK CONFY A:CRIMSON When the program asks for a passphrase, you enter VERITAS. The CRIMSON file on the disk will be unreadable. When your colleague--who must, of course, be told the passphrase you have used--puts the disk in his machine, he types UNLOCK CRIMSON GUIDEè When prompted, he supplies the passphrase VERITAS, and his file GUIDE will be identical to your original file CONFY. Notes║ 1. LOCK and UNLOCK do not delete any files, original or encoded. 2. Requires DOS version 2.0 or later. NO Charles Petzold Purpose: Excludes specified files in a subdirectory from the action of a command. Format: NO filespec Command [parameter] Remarks: NO.COM is designed for situations in which you want to apply a command such as DELete or COPY to all the files in a directory except one or two (or a class of) files. For example, NO *.BAS COPY *.* A: copies all the files in your current subdirectory to drive A: except for those that have a .BAS extension. To exclude more than one file (or category) you must use a separate NO command for each on the command line. Thus, NO *.ASM NO *.COM DEL *.* deletes all files in the current directory except those with .ASM or .COM extensions. Notes║ 1. NO.COM should not be used in conjunction with the PC-DOS BACKUP and RESTORE commands. This is because NO operates by temporarily setting the "hidden" file attribute bit on the files to be excluded from the main command, then unhiding the files after the main command has been executed. Since the DOS BACKUP/RESTORE operation acts on hidden and unhidden files alike, NO.COM cannot be used to exclude files from BACKUP/RESTORE. RESTORE, indeed, will restore the supposedly excluded files as hidden, overwriting the originals. è 2. While NO.COM provides full path support (and so requires the use of DOS 2.0 or later), it is a good policy when using NO to use CHDIR to make the directory that contains the files on which you wish to operate the current directory. For example, suppose you are in your root directory, one of whose subdirec- tories is \BASIC. If you were to enter the command NO *.BAS DEL \BASIC\*.* you would not delete all the files in the \BASIC subdirectory except those with a .BAS extension, as you might have intended to do. To do this from the root directory you would have had to enter NO \BASIC\*.BAS DEL \BASIC\*.* This complete filespec would tell NO that it had to protect files in the \BASIC, not in the current (i.e., root) directory. If you follow our recommendation and enter CD \BASIC NO *.BAS DEL *.* thus making \BASIC your current directory before you start deleting, you will then clean out all but the .BAS files, just as you intended. 3. Should a parity check error, power outage, or system crash occur during the brief period between the times NO hides and subsequently unhides the protected files, those files will subsequently seem to have disappeared. They are not lost; only hidden from a DIR listing. Use ATTR.COM (included in this set of utilities) to change their hidden status. è ONEKEY Steven Holzner Command (after running .BAS version) No. 20 Purpose: Reassigns a designated series of keystrokes to a user-selected keystroke. Format: ONEKEY Remarks: ONEKEY is a memory-resident keyboard macro program. While written in assembly language, it is presented here with a BASIC interface that need be run only once, but which facilitates entering the trigger keys you want to use and the sequences of keystrokes they will replace. ONEKEY will accept up to 30 different trigger keys, each of which will replace up to 50 keystrokes. When you load and run ONEKEY.BAS in BASIC, you will prompted to "Type the key to be replaced." This will be a key you use as a trigger: Ctrl-N, Alt-Z, F1, or the like. When you enter this key, you will be prompted, "The command that replaces this key is." Here you enter the string of keystrokes the selected trigger key will execute. Remember to include all necessary carriage returns, spaces, and control characters, just as you would enter them at the keyboard. When you type Ctrl-End (not a carriage return) to terminate this sequence, you'll be prompted for the next trigger key, and so on. When you have typed in as many macros as you want, type Ctrl-End when asked for a trigger key. It takes BASIC about half a minute to create the ONEKEY.COM file. Once created, ONEKEY is a regular DOS command; you enter it at the DOS prompt (or as a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file), not from BASIC. Notes║ 1. Memory-resident utilities such as ONEKEY are often incompatible with programs (XyWrite is one) that themselves take over the keyboard interrupts. You must simply experiment to see if ONEKEY can be used with your software. 2. Requires DOS 2.0 or later. èPR (Print) John Dickinson Purpose: Prints the standard ASCII files of program listings according to a standard formatted style. Format: PR [d:][path]filename[.ext] Remarks: PR.COM formats the program listing into 80 columns, expands ASCII tabs, adds a seven- line header and a blank footer, and prints 55 lines of the listing on each 66-line page. The header contains the filename, page number, and date and time the program was last saved. Notes║ 1. The listings photoreproduced in PC Magazine's Programming/Utilities column are printed using PR.COM. PRSWAP John Dickinson Purpose: Converts IBM text-graphics characters into ASCII characters that can be printed by non- graphics printers. Format: PRSWAP Remarks: The IBM text-graphics characters (non- standard ASCII 176-223 and 254) programmers often use to make their screen displays look more attractive cannot be handled by many printers. PRSWAP.COM is a memory-resident program that translates these characters into presentable-looking ASCII substitutes. PRSWAP should be loaded only once until you power down or hit Ctrl-Alt-Del. If you intend to use it regularly, the best place to put it is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. SNAPSHOT Steven Holzner Purpose: Saves your current screen and up to three additional prefabricated screens for immediate display without leaving an application program. Format: SNAPSHOT (loads memory-resident program) <Ctrl-N> (stores current screen) <Ctrl-F> (displays stored screen) <Ctrl-A> (displays screen A.DAT) <Ctrl-B> (displays screen B.DAT) <Ctrl-C> (displays screen C.DAT)è Remarks: SNAPSHOT is a memory-resident utility that is incompatible with programs (such as XyWrite) that take control of the keyboard interrupts. While written in assembly languge, it is presented here with a BASIC interface that need be run only once, but which facilitates entering the trigger keys you will use to store the current screen, recall it, and to recall up to three screens you can prepare with an ASCII word processor and store under the filenames A.DAT, B.DAT, and C.DAT. When you load and run SNAPSHOT.BAS under BASIC you will be prompted for the required key selections. Thereafter the program will create SNAPSHOT.COM (it takes about two minutes), which is a regular DOS command. Option 1: If your regular word processor is WordStar, before running SNAPSHOT.BAS you should edit it as follows: 1. In line 30, change the checksum shown from 51461 to 51462. 2. In line 430, change the third number (just to the left of the -2) from 0 to 1. The purpose of these changes is to provide a "stripper" function so that WordStar files will be readable from other applications. STATLINE John Socha Purpose: Displays 26th-line status indicators for the NumLock, CapsLock, and ScrollLock toggle keys on IBM monochrome, CGA, and Compaq monitors. Format: STATLINE (loads memory-resident program) Remarks: STATLINE converts the normal 25-line text mode display into 26 lines, using the additional line to show a # sign for NumLock, an up arrow for CapsLock, and a double- pointed arrow for ScrollLock. On a monochrome display, where insufficient memory is available for a full 26th line, two-thirds of that line is used by STATLINE; the remainder echoes the first portion of the top line of the regular display. è This utility is not compatible with the IBM enhanced graphics adapter (EGA) and is best suited for use with the color graphics adapter (CGA) and with Compaq displays. Notes║ 1. STATLINE is a memory-resident utility and is known to be incompatible with a number of keyboard macro programs. Assembly language programmers will be particularly interested in the extensive discussion of the problems of co- residency contained in the original article (PC Magazine, Volume 5 Number 13), and in the .ASM listing that shows how to reprogram the 6845 video controller.