Shareware Grab Bag/Shareware Grab Bag.iso/014/go.arc/GO.DOC

Text File | 1986-08-28 | 5.9 KB | 187 lines

                                   GO

           A program to change disk drives and subdirectories
                        PC/MS-DOS V2.x and later
                  (c) 1986 DeVoney, Leslie, Stegemoller
                            Indianapolis, IN

    This program is place in the public domain with the restriction that
    the program is not to be sold. Any other commercial (or private use, for
    that matter) is welcome.


    Introduction
    ------------
    GO.EXE is a program to quickly change disk drives and subdirectories.
    Go was written by Chris DeVoney (Que Corporation) and appeared in /c,
    the Journal for C Users by Que Corp. It has since been modified by
    DeVoney, Tim Leslie (Ecosoft, Inc.), and Alan Stegemoller (Carmel
    Valley Associates). The purpose of the program was to provide a quick
    method to change subdirectories without typing long path names. The
    program shines with hard disk systems, and is generally worthless on
    floppy-based systems.

    Installing GO
    -------------
    To use GO, copy GO.EXE to a subdirectory specified by the PATH
    command. (If you have a hard disk system and are not using the DOS PATH
    command, look in your DOS manual or buy a book on PC/MS-DOS NOW!).
    The customary directory is \BIN.

    Creating GO.DAT
    ---------------
    You must create (or copy) a file called GO.DAT. This file should be
    placed in a subdirectory on your PATH. The file can be created
    and maintained using any ASCII text editor. Each line of the file
    contains the name and the drive/subdirectory information for GO. The
    format of a line is:

         keyword drive:\path
         ...
         keyword drive:\path

    The keyword is any name you wish. Make it memorable and short.  The
    drive and path name is the drive and subdirectory you wish to change
    to when invoking GO. You may use a comma, space, tab or semicolon
    between the keyword and the drive/pathname. Upper and lower case
    characters may be freely intermixed.

    Be forewarned that GO does not check the format of the lines in the
    data file. This keeps GO small and tight, but means you might get into
    trouble if you do not enter a line correctly.

    You can make changes in GO.DAT at any time. GO rereads GO.DAT every time     the
    the program is invoked.


                                    1




    For efficiency, put your most frequently used keywords at the top of
    the file. GO reads the lines from GO.DAT in sequential order. The
    further the line is in the file, the more GO must read before it

    finds the keyword.

    Using GO
    --------
    To use GO, type

            GO                      or
            GO keyword              or
            GO d:\path

    The first form (no parameters) prints a paginated list of the
    keywords and associated drive and path names. When --MORE-- is
    displayed, pressing Esc or Ctrl-C ends the display or any other key
    press displays the next screenful of information.

    The second form causes GO to move the drive/subdirectory
    associated with keyword. keyword is one of the keywords in the
    GO.DAT file.

    The third form is similiar to DOS's CD. If a disk drive is specified
    (disk drive name is optional for this form), GO makes the specified
    disk drive the current disk drive.


    For example, given this GO.DAT

    c c:\lang\c
    basic c:\lang\basic
    cobol c:\lang\cobol
    scr d:\scratch
    tmp d:\scratch\tmp

    the command

            go scr

    would make drive d: the current disk drive and \scratch the current
    directory. This line

            GO c:\bin

    would make c: the current disk drive and \bin the current
    subdirectory.

    Diagnostics
    ----------

    If GO is successful, no message is given.

    If go cannot match the keyword, or GO cannot change to a named
    drive, subdirectory, the message


                                    2




            go: where is pathname?

    is displayed. pathname is either the path you gave to GO (if using it
    like CD) or the keyword you typed. Most likely you misspelled the
    keyword when invoking GO.

    If GO cannot change to the drive and subdirectory specified by a
    keyword, the message

            go: cannot change to pathname!

    is displayed. pathname is the drive and subdirectory associated with
    the keyword. Most likely the line with the keyword you typed has an
    incorrect path or you have renamed or deleted a directory and did not
    update the GO data file.

    GO environmental variable
    -------------------------
    If you wish to place GO.DAT in a different subdirectory, or use a
    different name for the data file, GO searches the environment for a
    variable called GO. This variable should have the complete drive,
    path, and file name of the data file. For example, if you wished to
    place the data file in a directory called TEST on drive C, you would
    use the command

            set go=c:\test\go.dat

    Notice when using the GO variable, you must specify the file name.
    When the GO environmental variable is used, GO makes no assumption
    about the name of the data file.

    To use a GO data file called MYDATA in C:\TEST, you would use

            set go=c:\test\mydata


    GO.C
    ----
    The source code for GO is in a file called GO.C. The program has been
    compiled with the Ecosoft C88 V3.xx compiler. If you wish to modify GO
    for a different compiler, good luck and don't-call-me-because-I-ain't-
    never-going-to-call-you.














                                    3