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Text File | 1990-06-22 | 13.6 KB | 288 lines

HDM IV - Version 2 (HDM420) The following features and functions have been added to the Hard Disk Menu IV version 2: HDM IV now works with DR-DOS, EZ-DOS, and 4DOS. The CALL command is no longer automatically added to the beginning of each command in X.BAT for users of DOS 3.3 and above. Instead you can use the CALL command to run batch files by putting the CALL right in the menu action like this: C:~CD\DSPLYWRT~CALL DW5~ or you can use the @@ in front of batch file names: C:~CD\DSPLYWRT~@@DW5~ The @@ has the advantage of working with all versions of DOS, @@ is replaced by COMMAND /C if your running DOS 3.2 or under, else it will be replaced by CALL. This was done because of compatibility problems with DOS clones. CALL did not work with 4DOS aliases, nor did it work with EZ-DOS/DR-DOS internal commands. New alternate user interfaces using the Local Switch <F8> menu entry. The new screen is more consistent with the opening logo screen. You can switch back to the HDM IV version 1 screen any time. <F8> also switches the Page Index and the Main Menu windows. The customized logo screen available using the -H startup switch and the HDM.HDR file now affect both boxes on the screen. A sample HDM.HDR file is included on the HDM disk. 1000 menu files now available, named HDM.000 through HDM.999. Use the UPDATE.BAT file to retain your current menu entries. New startup switches, -0 through -9 tell HDM where to find each set of 100 menu files. If you use the -T startup switch it will still tell where the rest of the HDM.000 - HDM.999 and the HDM.CFG (formally HDMENU.TGL) files reside. The default path for the files is the HDM startup directory. EXAMPLE: HDM -0C:\MYMENUS -1H:\NETMENUS -9D:\UTILMENU HDM.000 - HDM.099 files are located on C:\MYMENUS directory. HDM.100 - HDM.199 files are located on H:\NETMENUS directory. HDM.900 - HDM.999 files are located on D:\UTILMENU directory. The macro parameters %1 through %9 can now be put in braces so they are executed immediately instead of waiting until all other functions in braces are evaluated. EXAMPLE: {&0 {?Dir Name}}{run! dir {%1}}type {?File Name}~ The help text has been separated from the HDMENU.EXE file so it won't be loaded if you don't press F1. The help text is in the file HDM.HLP and the executable program is HDM4.EXE. The program must still be started with HDM.BAT. New date and time formats have been added to the Global pull down menu for European date and Military (24 hour) clock. A log file is written to the HDM directory if a user is logged on (using an entry from the User ID table in the Security pull down window) and HDM is started with the -L switch like this: HDM -L or it can be written to a different directory if you add that path to the -L switch: HDM -LC:\LOGDIR The log file has the following format: YYYYMMDDHR:MNX[???]=description YYYYMMDD is the year, month, and day (19890728). HR:MN is the hour and minute of the 24 hour clock (14:25). X is the day of the week (1=Sunday,7=Saturday). [???]=description is: [LOG]=Name of person who logged on. [OFF]=Name of person who logged off. [RUN]=Description of what is being run. [END]=End of run. The three digit menu file number has been added to the User ID table so that each user can start at a different menu file when they log on. You can create your own individual help screen for each menu entry. A file that is named P#.###, where P# is the page letter and menu entry number and ### is the menu file number, is display if the cursor is on that entry and the F1 key is pressed. The help screen is 21 lines by 76 characters for each line. A sample file, A1.000, is included as an example. You can now password protect one page. The security levels for the main menu entries are now: Individual password overrides a page password which overrides the password for all entries. Free disk space can now be displayed at the bottom of the screen. If you want to see available space for a disk drive use the -D startup switch. Example: -DD will display available disk space on the D: drive. If -D is used without a drive letter, then the drive that HDM was started on will be used. New menu action function: {COLOR Fg Bg} sets DOS color. Fg is a foreground color numbered from 0 to 15, Bg is a background color numbered from 0 to 7. This will set the DOS screen color for the current menu entry only. It will not work if ANSI.SYS is loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file. 0=Black, 1=Blue, 2=Green, 3=Cyan, 4=Red, 5=Magenta, 6=Yellow, 7=White, 8-15 are the bright versions of these colors. Example: {Color 15 1} is bright white on blue. New menu action function: {REBOOT} Used to re-boot your computer. This can be used to change the setup of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and then restart your system for another application like Windows, Desqview, etc. with HDM automatically starting it with the -A switch. Example: COPY C:\CONFIG.NEW C:\CONFIG.SYS~COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.NEW C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT~{REBOOT} New menu action function: {SELECT prompt~choice1~choice2~...choice9} This will display a menu of choices in a window with the "prompt" used as a title. The users choice from the list will replace everything in the braces in the menu action. Use the tilde (~) to separate the prompt and the choices. A choice can be selected with the mouse or keyboard arrow keys and the <Enter> key. You can also select a choice by pressing the first letter, if two or more choices have the same first letter, the last one with that letter will be selected. Example: DIR {SELECT Pick a directory~C:\DIR1~C:\DIR2~C:\DIR3~C:\DIR4~C:\DIR5} HDM no longer automatically adds the directory that contains X.BAT to the path if it isn't already there. This has caused problems for some network users. You must insure that the DOS path includes the directory that X.BAT will be written to. It will be either the HDM default directory or the one pointed to by -W if that startup switch is used. Example: PATH C:\;C:\HDM;C:\DOS If you don't include this directory in the path, you will probably get a "Bad command or file name" message from DOS when you key in X to return to HDM. (HDM421) -P is a new HDM startup switch that can be used in the command line or the DOS environment to stop the cursor from wrapping to the previous page or to the next page when you try to go past the top or bottom of a page. This also causes the cursor to stop at all menu entries, even the empty ones. This is probably most useful for people who use a mouse, moving up and down will go to menu entries in the same page while moving side to side will move through the pages. Command line: HDM -P DOS environment: SET HDM=-P Alt-1 through Alt-0 are new alternate keys for A - J to go directly to a page. You can now protect a menu file from being changed while still allowing the entries to be run without a password. Use the "File change password" in the Security menu to protect Menu, Page, Security, and Local menus for the current menu file only. (HDM422) The number of users available in the USER ID TABLE has been increased to 99. A new entry has been added to the MENU pull-down menu, SAVE MENU (Alt-F5). This entry will save all changes to disk. You will normally not need to use this because HDM IV automatically saves changes to disk when you run a menu entry, when you display the logo screen, when you exit to DOS, use the DOS window, or after one minute of keyboard/mouse inactivity. The reason for this new command is if you make a change and want to turn your system off or reboot immediately, you should save the changes you made first by pressing Alt-F5 or choose "Save menu". A new starup switch, -K, causes the Key lock status to not be displayed, and does not update the on-screen date & time. This is needed if you run another program with HDM in the background and the Key status, date, and time bleed through to that screen. Put HDM -K or Set HDM=-K in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. When you create a new menu file with the {menu ###} action function the new menu file will take on the attributes of the menu file it was created from. That is the colors, borders, user interface, titles, and macros will be the same. The number of entries in the Timed Execution Facility has been increased to 99. (HDM423) You can now pass an initialization string to your modem using the {DIAL} function. This can be done with or without dialing a number. You can now use the curly braces {} and the tilde ~ characters in a menu action by using substitute characters for them. The braces are used to identify a menu function and the tilde is used as the command separator so they cannot be entered directly to be used in a command or program. Use <Ctrl-Q> for {, <Ctrl-P> for }, and <Ctrl-Z> for ~. A new parameter has been added to the menu action. %0 will always contain the complete reply to a {?} prompt function so it can be used later in the same menu action. %1 through %9 will still contain the first nine parameters of a macro. You can now log all usage through the menu without having to log on as a user in the ID table. The -L switch by itself controls whether logging is done to the HDM.LOG file. (HDM424) A screen border is displayed on color monitors. It will be the same color as the status line. You can use the -I startup switch to Inactivate the border if you don't want one. There is also one more set of screen interfaces available by pressing the F6 key. Each set of interfaces include the Page Index and Main Menu on opposite sides of the screen. The original HDM IV version 1 interface does not show screen borders at any time. A bug was fixed that showed up if you had a Hidden Top Menu. The F4 key didn't work when adding or changing a menu entry. F4 is used to display the menu action Build screen. It always worked if the Top Menu was not hidden, now it also works if it is hidden. New user defined help screens can now be displayed for an entire menu file. These work just like the individual help screens for each menu entry, but are only displayed if there is no individual help file for the current menu entry. These new generic help files must be named HELP.000 through HELP.999, while the individual help files are named for the menu entry and the menu file number: A1.000 through J0.999. The priority for help screens displayed when F1 is pressed is now: 1. The individual help screen if a matching file exists; H4.500 if you are in menu file 500 (HDM.500) and the cursor is on entry H4. 2. The generic menu file help screen if a matching file exist; HELP.500 if you are in menu file 500 and the cursor is on a menu entry that does not have a matching individual help file. 3. The default HDM help screen, if neither of the above files exist. Pressing F1 a second time still gives you the HDM help menu & screens. The layout is the same for all help files; an ASCII text file with 21 lines and 76 characters per line. (HDM425) A new function, {BEEP!}, was added to sound the speaker to alert a user to an HDM event, like a prompt needs to be answered or a {SELECT} menu entry needs to be chosen. The difference between the current {BEEP} function and new the {BEEP!} is that {BEEP} gets replaced by a Ctrl-G so that DOS will sound the speaker when it gets to it in the temporary work file, X.BAT. {BEEP!} will sound immediately at the time that HDM is evaluating funtions. EXAMPLE: C:~CD\EDIT~{BEEP}~EDIT {?ENTER FILE NAME}~ In this example, {BEEP} is replaced by Ctrl-G before the prompt shows, but you won't hear it until DOS reads the X.BAT file, which is after all functions are resolved and the batch file is turned over to DOS for execution. Use {BEEP!} in this case to sound the speaker before the prompt is displayed. Use {BEEP} to signal the end of a long running program. An * now displays in the lower right hand corner of the screen when the menu file has been changed, but the changes have not been recorded to disk yet. The changes are automatically written to disk when your run a menu entry, when you go to the logo screen or another menu file, or after one minute of keyboard and mouse inactivity. A new menu action function, {VSELECT}, has been added to HDM. It works exactly like the current {SELECT} function, but displays the menu entries vertically. Also, the menu entry picked from {SELECT} or {VSELECT} is kept in the %0 parameter, just like the answer to a {?prompt} function is. If you need the menu pick in additional locations in the menu action, just put %0 in all those places. (HDM426) The video routines in HDM now automatically recognize the type of video card install and will clean up the snow or static on older CGA monitors. The -S startup switch is no longer needed. The {RUN} and {RUN!} functions only accepted the first twelve characters of the program name and any parameters. This has now been expanded to 64 characters. The choice of background colors now include all 16 colors for all systems except monochrome and CGA monitors Because of problems with some PC hardware, the screen borders and the 16 background colors are not automatically available. Setting these has caused some screens to quiver, colors to fade at one end of the screen, static, and other mysterious happenings. Use the -I startup switch to access the last eight high intensity background colors (except CGA and Mono) and to display the screen border.