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Text File | 1984-07-11 | 16.5 KB | 364 lines

Installation Copy config.sys and globals.sys onto your boot disk or if you already have a configure system created add the line device=globals.sys to it. Now reboot and the Universal Globals device driver will load. Now copy Univ.exe onto the diskette. Here is a simple example for Wordstar that allows you to operate this program from any drive and any subdirectory. Load this into your autoexec.bat or have the autoexec.bat call the file ws.bat ws.bat set .ovl=#d:\path set 'ws =#d:\path univ on Now "ws" will run WORDSTAR from any drive or subdirectory. Note: d: designates the drive: fill in your own \path designates the path name : fill in your own This text describes the use and operation of the Universal Globals System Utilities which enhance PC-DOS 2.xx to take full advantage of multiple directories and devices. The user is able to invisibly access files outside the current default directory. Applications programs can then run from any directory on the system without modification.Path names are not required for the master programs to find their supporting files once the Universal Globals have been set in operation. PC-DOS 2.xx provides a tree structured file system which permits effective organization of data and programs in the file system. However problems arise with multiple directories since each new directory must contain data on where certain programs and files are located or contain the files themselves. With DOS 2.xx the user may tell the operating system to look for programs in a specified path of directories or devices. This is the program search path set by using the DOS path comand. PATH =F:\;B\SUBDIR\SUBSUB However any files used by the main operation progams such as overlays,or support files are looked for on the current directory unless a full pathname is provided.The output files are also created in the default directory. The Universal Global System eliminates this problem by creating the idea of a global system. 1) A single filename may be explicitly applied to a full path name and then every occurrence of the filename will be replaced by the the corresponding path name. 2) A set of filenames may be grouped by either a filename or extension and thus may be implicitly applied and set to a common directory. For both forms of application search rules are permitted for which a list of filenames or directories are searched until an appropriate match occurs. Wildcards of * and ? extend the search. Thus disk usage is much more efficient since only a single copy of the program need be kept in the system. New directories and disks can be used immediately without having to copy any files onto them and the full potential of the ram disk is now much improved. Universal Global System also provides a convienent way of accessing files in widely separated areas of the file system, in a way similar to the Berkeley Unix Shell but yet not the same. There are several other useful commands available on the disk if you registerThis text describes the use and operation of the Universal Globals System Utilities which enhance PC-DOS 2.xx to take full advantage of multiple directories and devices. The user is able to invisibly access files outside the current default directory. Applications programs can then run from any directory on the system without modification.Path names are not required for the master programs to find their supporting files once the Universal Globals have been set in operation. PC-DOS 2.xx provides a tree structured file system which permits effective organization of data and programs in the file system. However problems arise with multiple directories since each new directory must contain data on where certain programs and files are located or contain the files themselves. With DOS 2.xx the user may tell the operating system to look for programs in a specified path of directories or devices. This is the program search path set by using the DOS path comand. PATH =F:\;B\SUBDIR\SUBSUB However any files used by the main operation progams such as overlays,or support files are looked for on the current directory unless a full pathname is provided.The output files are also created in the default directory. The Universal Global System eliminates this problem by creating the idea of a global system. 1) A single filename may be explicitly applied to a full path name and then every occurrence of the filename will be replaced by the the corresponding path name. 2) A set of filenames may be grouped by either a filename or extension and thus may be implicitly applied and set to a common directory. For both forms of application search rules are permitted for which a list of filenames or directories are searched until an appropriate match occurs. Wildcards of * and ? extend the search. Thus disk usage is much more efficient since only a single copy of the program need be kept in the system. New directories and disks can be used immediately without having to copy any files onto them and the full potential of the ram disk is now much improved. Universal Global System also provides a convienent way of accessing files in widely separated areas of the file system, in a way similar to the Berkeley Unix Shell but yet not the same. There are several other useful commands available on the disk if you register. DESCRIPTION "IT WOULD BE DESIRABLE TO HAVE THE BASIC CAPABILITY PROVIDED TO THE USER OF DIRECTING FILE SYSTEM REQUESTS TO SPECIFIC DIRECTORIES ACCORDING TO THE FILENAME OR ITS EXTENSION IN A MANNER WHICH IS INVISIBLE TO BOTH THE USER AND THE APPLICATIONS PROGRAM." Universal Globals System now is capable of doing this with ease. This program developed by Goldensoft Software places the appropriate equations in the environment using the suppled DOS "set" command and then activating or deactivating them with the Univ.com. From that point on thea commands are invisible but the environment can be changed at any time with the further addition or alteration or SET commands. THEORY The environment maintained by the DOS 'shell' or command line interpreter "COMMAND.COM" is a series of equations between character strings. In the simplest instance,the global.system takes the filename presented to DOS and searches for it in the environment, and if found replaces the filename with the path to the right of the equal (=) sign and then continues with the DOS request. Thus if the set is as follows: Wordat=d:\wordproc\ws\wordat which is placed in the environment by typing: SET wordat=#d:\wordproc\ws\wordat and the user types: type wordat this is equivilent to typing : type d:\wordpro\ws\wordat Some programs require specific overlay files to run and these may be kept in separate directory. Then explicitly set to the appropriate program. Message.ovl=c:\editor\message.ovl The message.ovl file is set to the the editor directory and the message.ovl file will be found regardless of the default directory, when the editor is activated.(the set command would be used for above). This example is explicit command. Two forms of implicit setting are supported which provide the ability to set filenames by extensions or catagories as related to the first part of the filename. All listing files could be for example set to the ram disk to improve speed. .lst=r:\ where r: is the ramdisk. Then any file with the extension of .lst will be created and searched for on the ramdisk. The period (.) prefix indicates an extension implicit to the filenames. Filenames may be implicitly set as well. If everything concerning a certain database is located in a given directory then 'dbas*=d:\dbase.dir would set all filenames beginning with dbase to that directory reguardless of the extension. The single quote prefix (') indicates a file implicit name. DOS ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT Three other command files are provided to help control the environment. One is provided by DOS called set which is used to set the paths into the environment. See chapter 10 of the DOS 2.xx manual. The clean.com removes broken strings from the environment which occur if the space is the command.com runs out. This command is also used to clear the environment otherwise previously set paths would still be in effect when not wanted. These are set as temporary paths. If DOS runs out of environment space it will tell you and thus the alter.com comes into use which patches DOS to allocate more room for the environment. SET SET name=[path];[path2] ... where any number of paths may be specified up to 64 characters long. Paths may be relative or absolute from the root. A null path indicates the current default directory.The path specification can have several prefixes: " indicates that this directory in the path may not be appended to. No files may be created in this directory.However files may be renamed,deleted or attribute changed. ! indicates that this directory in the path may not be modified in any way. Therefore no file may be deleted, renamed or have an attribute change. ' indicates that the equation specifies an implicit file set. . indicates that the equation specifies an implicit extension set. ? * The name may have wildcards which will match any character. A ? replaces a match for each character and a * will match any number of characters and must immediately precede the equal sign. # indicates a temporary set and would cause the path to be ignored unless the 'T' operand is set in Univ. A # immediately following the equal sign is ignored as part of the path but indicates a temporary set by clean.com. clean -# If the -# is omitted in clean.com then only broken strings are removed from the environment. A limitation of the DOS supplied command.com is that the size of the environment is limted by the memory resident programs and temporarily by batch files. See section 10 of dos manual. The alter.com will change the command.com to accommodate this extra space as needed. Use: alter [-size][title] where size is the initial allocation in 16 byte paragraphs which must be greater than 10 (default) and not be between 45 and 69 (to not overlay the command.com initialization code). Title is a 29 character title of choice which replaces the first line of the sign on message of comman.com. Note: you must reboot to activate this altered command.com. A temporary set is added to the environment to indicate the number of paragrphs of the environment size. ESIZE=#size E stands for environment This can be checked with the set command using no arguments and can be removed with the clean -#. Suggested sizes are 20,30,40 Alter command.com at your own risk. No bugs have been found but you never know. UNIVERSAL MODES univ.exe USE: UNIV [-modes][on][off] on or off activates the universal global system modes are one or more of a string of the following SEARCH MODES F filename implicit mode (use of the ') E extension implicit mode(use of the .) X explicit mode on(use of filename.ext) MODIFIER MODES D device specification is as indicated.Filenames including a device specification will be set only if this mode is activated. O overide the device specification.The device can be overidden by a device in the environment. If not set then environment paths with devices are skipped and environment paths without devices use the user's device. Only relevent if the user specified a device and the D mode is active. P paths accepted with no restrictions.Entire paths may be set. Occasionally DOS may parse a path. Q accept paths only with the F and X modes. S filenames with an @ prefix cannot be set. Filenames beginning with an @ sign may be excluded from a search path. T temporary sets are usable (use of the #).These paths will only be interpreted if the T mode is set. * all modes are on . a period before any mode letter turns OFF that mode The all modes on setting (*) is a reliable default setting. univ -* on turns on all the modes univ -.*FEX turns on the filename,extension implicit modes turns on the explicit modes all other modifier modes are off univ on turns on whatever modes were previously set univ -.* equivilent to -* off /turns everything off univ -* equivilent to -* on /turns everything on OTHER COMMANDS for registered owners ATTRIB.COM: USE: ATTRIB [-attributes][filename] sets the attributes to those specified and displays the resultant current attributes.The atributes are: S system H hidden A archive R read-only D directory (may be displayed but not set) You can hide directories and thus create some file security. attrib -H private.dir This directory would now not be displayed in a dir command from the root but cd private.dir would allow you access to this directory if you new it existed. SXDIR: will display all the files and all the attributes and with the given device and path. SYSDATE: if you do not have a hardware clock then when DOS comes up it is always Jan 1 1980. I have unfortunately created more files in Jan than necessary. The program sysdate allows you to draw the last saved date from command.com when the system is loaded. SAVDATE: saves the new time and date in command.com for next load. Place these files in the autoexec.bat file as follows: SYSDATE TIME DATE SAVDATE Now no more Jan 1, 1980 EXAMPLES If you would like your prompt to display the time and path then place the following command in your autoexec.bat file. prompt=$t$_$p_$n0$g or play with it as you like. set '123=a:\ set .prn=a:\prn set .ovr=a:\ set .obj=#f:\obj.dir;a:\ set .lib="!a:\ univ -* on A diskette in b: would find its files on a: and f: and need not contain any] files. Note that any lib file extensions are now set to a:. Thus any program that requires the use of .lib files would now look to a:. The same with any program that uses .ovr files etc. However if you had a .prn file on c: and attempted to type it you would receive a file not found message as the environment looks to a: for this extension. Turn univ -* off in order to operate on this file. Or use the clean -# command and use # in front of the drives and paths in the set command as in .obj=#f:\ this would be cleared and .obj extension files would then be sought anywhere. Universal Globals should be turned off when the precise location of a file is important. Do not overuse the wildcards as undesired files may be set in the environment. Use temporary sets where feasible clearing them after use with clean -#. This avoids duplicate names and keeps the size of the environment manageable.