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DICE.EXE - DOS Interactive Command Editor version 3.72 Page 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2.1 Display And Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2.2 Command Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2.3 Command Line And Buffer Editing . . . . . . . . . 3 2.4 Tag And Buffer Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.5 Technical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3 PROGRAM USE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . 8 APPENDIX A SUMMARY OF UPDATES A.1 VERSION 3.72 UPDATED FROM 3.71 . . . . . . . . . . A-1 A.2 VERSION 3.71 UPDATED FROM 3.70 . . . . . . . . . . A-1 A.3 VERSION 3.70 UPDATED FROM 3.60 . . . . . . . . . . A-2 Copyright (C) 1986,87 Eric S. Adams 1 INTRODUCTION DICE.EXE (DOS Interactive Command Editor) is a DOS command editor which enables more efficient entry of DOS commands. It features: 1. Enhanced editing capability of DOS command line. 2. Stacks previously entered DOS commands which can be recalled to the command line. 3. Supports tag, save and recall of command strings and/or argument strings. 4. Display of tagged arguments, commands and stacked commands. 5. Help function that shows a summary of DICE.EXE commands and startup command line arguments. 2 OPERATION After DICE.EXE is invoked, command entry is much like that of DOS with the the added features listed above. At startup time it attempts to read a file containing the contents of the argument buffers, command buffers and command stack previously created by using the buffer save function (<Alt>S). The default name for the data file is "DICE370.DAT" and the default directory is the current directory at the time DICE is started. The name and directory can also be specified by defining the environment variable DICEDAT. If the file does not exist, the buffers are left empty. A specified command can be executed at startup if desired. See a $Cxxxx command line argument. DICE.EXE - DOS Interactive Command Editor version 3.72 Page 2 If DICE.EXE waits for a key for about 15 minutes or so, it will clear the screen. It does this by clearing display page 3 and selecting it. When a key is pressed, then the display is restored. Note, the screen is not cleared from within applications run from DICE. The screen blank feature can be disabled or the idle time can be changed by using a $bnn command line argument when dice is invoked, (see the section on command prompt). 2.1 Display And Help The buffers and command stack display is selected by pressing either F2 or <Alt>B and help is selected by pressing either the F1 key or <Alt>H. 2.2 Command Arguments DICE.EXE generates it's own command prompt which is configured by specifying command arguments when the program is invoked. The DICE.EXE command arguments are as follows: 1. $nnn - display attribute of the prompt, command line and DICE.EXE displays. 2. $$ - puts a dollar sign in the prompt string. 3. $_ - does a carriage return/line feed (NOTE, more than one return/line feed in a prompt will cause the top of the buffers display to be scrolled off the screen). 4. $Axy - sets the command delimiter and command line comment character. The defaults for these characters are a comma and semicolon. 5. $Bnn - sets the idle time in minutes before screen blanking, nn = idle time in minutes. If nn = 0, screen blanking is disabled. 6. $Cttt - executes saved command buffer with tag "ttt" upon startup of DICE.EXE, the tag must be terminated by any non-alphanumeric character. 7. $d - puts the current date in the prompt string. 8. $g - puts in the ">" character. 9. $l - puts in the "<" character. 10. $n - puts in the drive letter. 11. $p - puts the current drive and directory into the prompt. 12. $t - puts the time of day into the prompt. 13. $v - inserts the DOS version number into the prompt. 14. ASCII characters go into the prompt string unaltered. DICE.EXE - DOS Interactive Command Editor version 3.72 Page 3 For example, if DICE.EXE is invoked as follows: EXAMPLE: DICE.EXE $10$Cpon $d $t $p $_Ready$g$s30 The display will be in light green (CGA color 10) and the command buffer with the tag "pon" will be executed at start up. The command stack size will be 30 commands and the prompt for command entry format will be as follows: Wed, Oct 1,1986 2:00:30.01pm C:\COM Ready>_ 2.3 Command Line And Buffer Editing The following list summarizes the editing functions for the command buffers: 1. Left arrow - moves cursor left one character. 2. <Ctrl> Left arrow - moves cursor left one word. 3. Right arrow - moves cursor right one character. 4. <Ctrl> Right arrow - moves cursor right one word. 5. Home - moves to the start of the command line. 6. End - moves to the end of the command line. 7. Up arrow - moves command/argument pointer up one position. 8. PgUp - moves pointer up to the command or argument buffers section. 9. Down arrow - moves command/argument pointer down one position. 10. PgDn - moves the command pointer down to the command stack or command buffers. 11. <Ctrl>PgUp - scrolls arguments or commands up 5. 12. <Ctrl>PgDn - scrolls arguments or commands down 5. 13. <Esc><Esc> - exits from DICE.EXE and returns to normal DOS operation. 14. Del - deletes the character at the cursor. 15. Backspace - deletes the character in front of the cursor. 16. Ins or <Alt>I - toggles the edit mode between insert mode and overstrike mode. 17. Toggle command - F3 or <Alt>T alternately clears the command line and moves the command or argument at the pointer to the command line. 18. <Alt>K - Deletes from the cursor to the end of the command. 19. A Semicolon is a command line delimiter and can be used to include comments in the saved command buffers (with the expense of using more memory). For example: CD C:\MYDIR ; Change to my directory DICE.EXE - DOS Interactive Command Editor version 3.72 Page 4 20. A comma is a command delimiter and can be used to put multiple commands on a single command line or command buffer. For example: C:,CD C:\MYDIR ; go to drive c and change to my directory The comment character can be changed at startup with the $A command line argument. See the section on command arguments. The comment character can be overridden by entering two of them, if it is required as an argument to a command. For example, msc myfile.c ;; This command will result in a single semicolon at the end of the command. In other words, the command sent to DOS will be: msc myfile.c ; 21. A comma is a command delimiter and can be used to put multiple commands on a single command line or command buffer. For example: C:,CD C:\MYDIR ; go to drive c and change to my directory The command delimiter character can be changed at startup with the $A command line argument. See the section on command arguments. This character can also be entered as an argument to a command by entering two of them. For example, msc myfile.c ,, ;; This command will put a single comma followed by a single semicolon in the command line passed to DOS. 2.4 Tag And Buffer Operations The following describes the command and argument buffer operations. The buffers and command stack can be displayed by pressing <Alt>b or by pressing the F2 key. The pointer can be moved by using the PgUp, PgDn, Up arrow and Down arrow keys. DICE.EXE - DOS Interactive Command Editor version 3.72 Page 5 Command buffers and tags are added to the command buffers list by entering a 1 to 4 alphanumeric character tag followed by an equal sign and the command, then press <Alt>c. For example: ps = cd c:\project\source <Alt>C Will enter the command "cd c:\project\source" into the command buffers list. Typing "ps<Enter>" will now execute a change directory (cd) to the directory c:\project\source. The buffer contents can be saved to the data file on disk by pressing <Alt>S. You can search the command buffers list by entering a tag followed by an equal sign and then pressing the <Alt>C for example, if the above command tag was entered, then entering the following: ps =<Alt>C Will change the command line to: ps = cd c:\project\source Argument buffers and tags are added to the argument list in the same way that command buffers are added except that an <Alt>a is pressed. For example: ps = c:\project\source <Alt>a Will enter the argument "c:\project\source" into the argument buffers list. Typing "<space>ps<Alt>L" will cause the tag "ps" to be replaced by the literal "c:\project\source" on the command line. When an argument tag is typed on the command line, it must be preceded by an non-alphanumeric character (normally a space). This is so that the program can figure out where the tag begins. You can search the argument buffers list by entering a tag followed by an equal sign and then pressing the <Alt>A for example, if the above command tag was entered, then entering the following: ps =<Alt>A Will change the command line to: ps = c:\project\source Command buffer tags must be terminated by a space, comma or <Return>. When a tagged command is processed, the remaining command line is appended to it. For example if the tag "d" has been added to the command buffers list as follows: d=dir<Alt>c DICE.EXE - DOS Interactive Command Editor version 3.72 Page 6 Then the following command will perform a directory of all the *.asm files: d *.asm<Enter> Command buffers will also process arguments. For example, if a command is saved as: cs = msc %1 ;;<Alt>C Then entering "cs myfile" will be translated as the following command: msc myfile ; Command buffers can be nested. For example, if the following command has been added to the command buffers list as follows: pur=del *.bak, del *.lst<Alt>c Then the following command buffer and tag could be created (using the "ps" tag created in an earlier example): psp = ps,pur <Alt>C ;purge source directory. Typing "psp" <Enter> will change the current directory to c:\project\source and delete the files *.bak and *.lst. Command strings can be echoed to the screen prior to execution by pressing <Alt>E. Pressing <Alt>E again turns off the command echo. For example, if <Alt>E is pressed before the command psp (from the previous example) is executed, the following command strings will be shown on the screen as they are executed: cd c:\project\source del *.bak del *.lst A command or argument buffer can be deleted as follows: press F2 or <Alt>B to select the buffers display, move the pointer to the command or argument and tag you wish to delete by using PgUp, PgDn, <Ctrl>PgUp, <Ctrl>PgDn and the up and down arrow keys. Now press <Alt>D. To update the buffers file, you can press <Alt>S. The command stack and buffers are saved in the file defined by the environment variable DICEDAT. If this variable is not defined, the the file "DICE370.DAT" in the default directory at the time DICE.EXE was invoked is used. The buffers and command stack can be written to the file by pressing <Alt>S or the buffers and command stack can be filled from the file by pressing <Alt>F. DICE.EXE - DOS Interactive Command Editor version 3.72 Page 7 For example, if the following line is in the autoexec.bat file, DICE can then be started from any subdirectory and it will use the the file "c:\dice.dat" for storing the command and argument buffers. SET DICEDAT=c:\dice.dat 2.5 Technical DICE.EXE uses the DOS int 21 EXEC function to execute DOS commands, batch jobs or run executable files. This function brings in part of the DOS file command.com from disk and uses the current environment including the path. This has the following affects: 1. The set and path commands will only set the environment or path until the command is finished, after which the environment returns to what it was before the command. If you use the set or path functions in a batch job, it will remain until the batch job is complete. If you want to use set or path to permanently change the environment, you must exit the DICE first. 2. Executing commands is slower. This isn't too bad on systems with a bootable hard disc, but can be annoying on floppy based systems. A possible solution to this is to create RAM disk, copy command.com to it and set the environment variable COMSPEC so that command.com will be read from the RAM disk. DICE.EXE is not a TSR (terminate and stay resident), therefore if it is executed from your autoexec.bat file, it should be the last command. Maximum command tag nesting is limited to 10 levels or until an internal buffer used for processing commands overflows. In either case, an error message is displayed and the command processing is terminated. Depending on the number of command and argument buffers in use, DICE.EXE will use about 23k of memory and another 3k or so is used by Command.com each time a command is executed. DICE.EXE - DOS Interactive Command Editor version 3.72 Page 8 3 PROGRAM USE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The DICE.EXE program and DICE.DOC manual are intended to be copied and/or distributed for non-commercial use only. If you're using the DICE.EXE program and find it useful, your contribution ($10 suggested) would be greatly appreciated. Also if you have comments or suggestions for the program, please mail them to the following address and they will be reviewed and considered for future revisions. Eric Adams 29284 Willow Lane Wickliffe, Ohio 44092 I thank all users and contributors to this program, most especially the engineering people at Gould RSD in Cleveland for their encouragement and support in it's development. I also give special thanks to my Creator and God, Jesus Christ for the capability to develop programs such as this. APPENDIX A SUMMARY OF UPDATES The following an update summary since version 3.60. A.1 VERSION 3.72 UPDATED FROM 3.71 1. Added command echo toggle ( <alt>E command ). 2. Added save buffers on exit prompt when program is exited. 3. Added command arguments (%1 through %0) capability to tagged commands. 4. Added environment variable support to define the command/argument buffer path and file. 5. Added an override for the command delimiter and comment characters. 6. Added set character capability for the command delimiter and comment characters. 7. Added user configurable command stack size. 8. Changed to skip leading white space in front of commands or tags. 9. Fixed bug in calculating screen idle time before blank. A.2 VERSION 3.71 UPDATED FROM 3.70 1. Fixed bug in nested command tags. 2. Fixed bug in prompt when current directory is displayed at the root. 3. <Alt>C and <Alt>D if only a tag and equal sign are displayed, do a search for the tag and put the command or argument string on command line. 4. Improved the help. 5. $Bnn Command line argument to DICE to turn off screen blanking after time of onus, also provide time for screen blanking. SUMMARY OF UPDATES Page A-2 A.3 VERSION 3.70 UPDATED FROM 3.60 1. The command buffers are now in dynamically allocated memory and no longer limited to 10. 2. The "undelete buffers" have been changed to "argument buffers" and also put into allocated memory and therefore no longer limited to just 3. 3. The command buffers are no longer selected with the <shift> function keys, instead they are selected using an alpha-numeric character tag which you assign. 4. Argument buffers are also given an alpha-numeric character tag. 5. Most functions are now invoked by pressing the Alt key and a letter rather than a function key. The letter keys are easier to remember and are less likely to get moved around on future keyboards. 6. The pop garbage functions have been taken out to save on code space, since they didn't seem to get used much.