Shareware Grab Bag

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Shareware Grab Bag / Shareware Grab Bag.iso / list.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1987-05-07 | 40.5 KB | 1,021 lines

LIST Version 6.2a (c) Copyright Vernon D. Buerg 1987 All rights reserved May 7, 1987 Table of Contents ----------------- Description of use ............... 1 Keys and commands ................ 3 Function keys .................. 4 Alt- keys ...................... 5 Positioning to lines ............. 6 Displaying multiple files ........ 6 Extracting/marking lines ......... 7 Display format ................... 8 Status line .................... 8 Command line ................... 9 Screen colors .................... 10 Cloning procedure ................ 11 DEBUG information .............. 12 Searching for text................ 13 Filtering ........................ 14 Exotic functions ................. 15 File sharing ................... 15 Invoking DOS commands .......... 15 Screen saving .................. 15 Restrictions ..................... 16 LIST Page 1 Description of Use ------------------ Command LIST ------------- Purpose: You use LIST to display files on your monitor, line by line with the aid of scrolling, positioning and filtering commands. Format: LIST [d:][path]filename[.ext] Remarks: You may rename the program file to any convenient name, such as L.COM, READ.COM, or LIST.COM. Using LIST is fairly straight forward. You type the command LIST at the DOS prompt, followed by the name of the file that you want to see. For example: LIST CONFIG.SYS would display the file CONFIG.SYS. Once the file is displayed on your screen, you may use the cursor positioning keys to move around and see different parts of the file. For example, when LIST first starts, you see the first 23 lines of the file. To see the next 23 lines, or page, press the PgDn key. The PgUp key moves you back one page and shows you the previous 23 lines. The up-arrow and down-arrow keys move it one line at a time. When you are finished, press the ESCape key and you are returned to the DOS prompt. The "filename" is optional. If omitted, you are prompted to enter a filename. You may include drive, path, and wild cards in the file name. The first file which matches that name is displayed. After the file is displayed, the next file which matches the "filename" may be displayed, too. You may also use LIST to display piped or redirected files. If you are unfamiliar with these, you may skip to the next page. To display a redirected file, use a < (less than symbol) before the name of the file and add the /S parameter to the LIST command. For example: dir a: >xyz list <xyz /s To display a piped file, omit the filename, but supply the /S. dir a: | list /s Or, to LIST a file within an ARC archive: arc /p arcname.arc filename.ext | list /s - or - arce arcname filename.ext /p | list /S LIST Page 2 Description of Use (cont'd) ------------------ Because files contain different kinds of data, there are several commands to tell LIST how to display the data. The process that LIST uses to make the file data readable is called filtering. The filters in LIST can: o replace non-text and control characters with blanks o expand TAB characters o display line drawing characters o change 8-bit (W*) data to readable 7-bit text o display the hexidecimal values for each character o remove "junk", such as control codes and backspaces LIST was designed to display ASCII files. That is, files which contain text, and not binary or control codes. Text characters usually range from a value of 32 to 127. To view binary files (COM, EXE, etc), the alt-H (hex dump display) command is available. Characters below 32 (a blank) are replaced with a funny character to indicate that a non-displayable character has been encountered. This character is an upside-down question mark. Characters above 127 may be valid graphic characters, and may be displayed if the '8' command is in effect. To insure that characters above ASCII value 127 are not displayed, use the '7' command. The top line of the display gives the file name, current right scroll offset, and the FILE's creation date and time. Optionally, a ruler may be displayed on the top line by using the alt-R keys. The file is displayed with one logical record on each 80-column display line. A logical record ends in a linefeed. The maximum logical record may be 256 characters long. If the record exceeds 80 characters, you may view the portion beyond the 80 columns by using the scroll right command, or by using the Wrap feature. The Wrap command toggles ON or OFF the wrapping of lines longer than 80 characters. With Wrap on, lines are displayed in their entirety, 80 characters per display line. The scroll -left and -right functions are disabled when Wrap is ON. The file may be PRINTed as it it displayed. The P command toggles the printer on or off. When first entered, the P command causes the current screen to be printed. As new lines are displayed, they too are printed. Printing may be stopped by entering another P command. The PrtSc key may also be used, but the title and prompt lines will be printed with the lines of the file. Empty lines cause a line to be skipped on the printer. | The letter P is displayed on the bottom command line while | printing. See the section on extracting lines for other methods. LIST Page 3 Commands and Keys ----------------- Control key Function ----------- ----------------------------------------------- | left arrow scroll left 10 columns | right arrow scroll right 10 columns up arrow up one (previous) line down arrow down one (next) line Enter continue to next page END position to end of file (bottom) | ESCape Exit program unconditionally HOME restart from first line (top) PgUp scroll up one page, 23 lines PgDn scroll down one page, 23 lines Letter(s) Default Function --------- ------- ---------------------------------------- A find next occurance of 'text' (Again) B skip to end of file (Bottom) C off toggles Closing of files, also alt-S D scroll Down one page F Find 'text' regardless of case G Get new filename/filespec (also alt-F) H or ? Help, show command list K off toggle Keyboard flush; if on, commands may be queued up by holding a key down | L scroll Left 10 columns M on toggle test for display retrace, if on the display is faster but may flicker; not applicable to monochrome monitors N down one (Next) line P off toggle Printer on or off | Q Quit, display next file, or exit if only | one file is being viewed | R scroll Right 10 columns S Scan for exact text match, case dependent T restart from first line (Top) U scroll Up one page (23 lines) W off toggle Wrap of lines over 80 chars X terminate, clear screen and eXit to DOS 7 off turn off high bit (non-graphics only) 8 on leave high bit on (graphics) * off toggles special * document filtering + position a given number of lines forwards - position a given number of lines backwards \text Find any case 'text' going forwards /text Scan exact case 'text' going forwards | ` Find any case 'text' going backwards | ' Find exact case 'text' going backwards LIST Page 4 Commands and Keys (cont'd) ----------------- Control key Function ----------- --------------------------------------------------- ctl-HOME positions to a specific line number | ctl-PgUp display previous file (review) | ctl-PgDn display next file (or exit if only one file) ctl-left-arrow reset horizontal scroll position to column 1 Function key Function ------------ --------------------------------------------------- F1 Help - display summary of commands F3 Find next occurrance of text after Scan or Find F9 Find previous occurrance of text after Scan or Find F10 Exit to DOS with clear screen and cursor last line F2 change background color for Find/Scan text F4 change foreground color for Find/Scan text F5 change background color for main body of display F6 change foreground color for main body of display F7 change background color for top and bottom lines F8 change foreground color for top and bottom lines LIST Page 5 Commands and Keys (cont'd) ----------------- alt- letter Function ----------- --------------------------------------------------- alt-A toggle Apxcore(on), DesqView/DoubleDos(off-default) use alt-B mark bottom line alt-C clone LIST.COM, change colors or options permanently, in a new copy of the LIST.COM program file | alt-D toggle dump mode: if no lines are marked, the current | screen only is written to the specified file; if lines | are marked, they are written to the dump file. alt-E toggle 25/43 line display (does test for EGA). If the actual EGA lines is not 25 or 43, don't use alt-E alt-F prompt for new Filespec or filename to display entering a leading asterisk (*) may be obscured by some console enhancers or utilities, so enter two asterisks, e.g. **.doc alt-G Shell to DOS, invoke COMMAND.COM, requires 96k or more. Use the DOS EXIT comand to return to LIST. alt-H toggles hex dump formatted display alt-J toggle adding line feed to lone carriage returns and remove backspaces, overlaying previous characters alt-L toggle preloading of files, default is OFF When the file is pre-loaded, the ending line line number becomes known. | alt-M mark top line; marked lines may be printed or written | to the alt-D dump file. alt-R toggles display of a ruler on the top line alt-S toggles file Sharing option, when off files remain open until program termination alt-T toggles expansion of TAB control characters, the tab columns are a multiple of 8, i.e. 1,9,17, etc. | The default is to expand TABs. See DEBUG section. | alt-U unmark lines; line marks are removed alt-W toggles split screen; when ON, the top half of the screen is frozen. Further scrolling occurs only in the bottom half of the screen (window) until the alt-W keys are used again. alt-X exits to DOS and displays the original screen (unless screen saving has been disabled) LIST Page 6 Positioning to Lines -------------------- Each displayable line of the file is assigned a line number. The first line is assigned line number 1. The highest allowable line number is 65535. In order to determine the last line number, the entire file must be read. For this reason, the first time that the END (bottom) command is issued, it will take longer to process. This is not necessary if the file is preloaded using the alt-L installation option. If the Wrap option is in effect, there is one line number required for each 80 bytes of the file's records. If the hex dump option is in effect, there is one line number required for each 16 bytes of the file. You may position to a specific line number by using the c-Home, Ctrl key and Home key, or the # key. When c-Home is entered, you are prompted for the line number. Enter the 1 to 5 digit line number. The display will now begin with that line number at the top of the screen. To position forward or backward, you may use the + (plus), or - (minus) keys. You are prompted to enter the number of lines to be skipped. The display resumes at the line number shown on the top (status) line, plus or minus the number of lines that you specified. When you change a filter option, such as Wrap, the line numbering changes. An attempt is made to retain the same file position. Displaying multiple files ------------------------- You can display more than one file by supplying wildcards in the file name. For example, LIST *.DOC will display all files with an extension of DOC. | To display the next file, you use the Q or ctrl-PgDn command. When the last file has been displayed, you can exit LIST by using the X, F10, ESCape, or alt-X commands, depending on how you want the screen to look when LIST ends. To display the previous file, you use the ctrl-PgUp (control | and PgUp keys together). LIST can keep track of up to 20 files at once. Another way to LIST more than one file is to use the alt-F command. Alt-F asks you for a new file name, and you may enter a simple file name, or one that includes wild cards. These new file names are added to the table of filenames that LIST keeps. Thus, you can use alt-F for several different filenames, and use | the ctrl-PgDn and ctrl-PgUp commands to move among them. LIST Page 7 Marking and Extracting Lines ---------------------------- There are two ways that lines can be extracted from a file: o with the P (print) command, and o with the alt-D (dump data) command. The lines to be extracted are either the current lines on the screen, or lines that you have marked with the alt-M and alt-B commands. To mark lines, you use either the alt-M or alt-B commands. The alt-M command marks the top line on the screen, and alt-B marks the bottom line on the screen. You can use either or both commands to mark the starting and ending lines (in the range of lines to be extracted). The marked lines are displayed in reverse video. After you have marked a range of lines, you use the P (print) command to print all of the marked lines. Or, you can use the alt-D (dump data) command to write those lines to a file. The alt-D command asks you for a file name. If the file does not exist, a new one is created. If the files already exists, the extracted lines are added (appended) to the file. For example, you would like to have LIST filter out all of the junk in a file, and then write a new file. To do this, you might enter the following sequence of commands: list TESTDATA ... display your TESTDATA file alt-J ... filters out the junk alt-M ... marks line 1 (top line) END ... positions to end of file alt-B ... marks the bottom line (last line) alt-D ... dumps data to a file TESTDATE.NEW ... you enter the new file name alt-X ... quit and return to DOS | Once you have marked a range of lines, use of alt-M or alt-B | does not reset the entire line range. The first or last marked | line may change, but both do not change. Use the alt-U command | to unmark lines, especially after alt-D (dump) to be sure. LIST Page 8 Display Format -------------- The monitor display is defined in terms of lines and columns. A typical monitor can display 25 lines of 80 columns each. LIST attempts to use the number of lines and columns for the monitor mode in use. For example, if the monitor is in 40 column mode, LIST displays only 40 characters per line. And, if the monitor is set for other than 25 lines, such as 35 or 43, LIST uses that number of lines. | If you use the alt-E command to change EGA modes, the EGA | pallette, cursor, and other settings are set to DOS default | values. LIST does not preserve fonts or pallettes. The top line of the display is called the Status line. The bottom line is called the Command line. The remaining lines are called the primary display window, and are usually lines two through 24. Status Line Format ------------------ The Status line has the following format: LIST lllll nnnnnnn +sss mm/dd/yy hh:mm - filename where, 'LIST' is the name of this program 'lllllll' is the line number of the first line in the display window (usually on line 2) 'nnnnnnn' is the line number of the last record, if known '+sss' if displayed, this is the Scroll amount, in | multiples of 10, corresponding to the number of columns that the display has been shifted to the right to view records longer than 80 'mm/dd/yy' is the file's creation date (not today's date) 'hh:mm' is the file's creation time (not today's time) Note: The date and time shown on the top line is NOT the current date. It is the date and time that the file was created. LIST Page 9 Command Line Format ------------------- The Command line has the following format: command message _________ Options: hbkmpswtalj Keys: X=exit ?=Help ----------- where, 'command' indicates the current process: 'Command' you are being asked to enter a command enter the letter, or press the keys for the action to perform 'Reading ' the file data is being read 'Filter ' the file data is being formatted for display | 'Looking ' the Scan/Find text is being searched for 'Scan ' you are being asked to enter text to locate 'Find ' in the file, up to 31 characters may be entered '# lines?' you are being asked to enter a 1 to 5 digit number that is the amount of lines to skip 'Line #? ' you are being asked to enter a 1 to 5 digit line number to which the display is to be positioned 'message' may be one of: '*** Text not found ***' the Scan/Text was not found in the file ' *** Top of file ***' the first line of the file is being displayed ' *** End-of-file ***' the last line of the file is being displayed St: indicate status of toggles, lower case means off: 'H' indicates that the hex Dump display option is in use 'b' indicates whether the 7-bit, 8-bit, or *-option is in use 'K' indicates that the Keyboard flush option is in use 'M' indicates that tests for monitor retrace are not made 'P' indicates that Print is in use 'S' indicates that file closing (for sharing) is in use 'W' indicates that the Wrap mode is in effect 'T' indicates that TAB characters are expanded 'A' indicates APXCORE interface, 'a' for TV/DV/DD 'L' indicates that the pre-loading option is on 'J' indicates that line feeds are added to lone carriage return control characters, and backspaces are handled LIST Page 10 Screen Colors ------------- The screen's lines may be in any of three different colors: o the 'special' color for the top status line and the bottom command line o the 'normal' color for the file's text windows o the 'bright' color for lines with Find/Scan text, and for the upside-down question mark in 7-bit mode There is a pair of function keys assigned to each color. You may use these function keys to change the background and foreground colors temporarily. To make the color changes permanent, you may use the cloning command (alt-C), or use DEBUG to modify the program file. The colors used for displaying the titles and main body of text may be changed temporarily or permanently. To make a permanent change, the cloning command alt-C is used. It requires that the LIST.COM program file be on the current drive and in the current directory. The border is not changed. The foreground color applies to the characters displayed. The color attributes may be changed by using these function keys: For the main body of text: F5 - background color F6 - foreground color For the top and bottom lines: F7 - background color F8 - foreground color For the line with Find/Scan text: F2 - background color F4 - foreground Once you have decided upon the colors, use the alt-C key combination to change the LIST.COM program file. LIST Page 11 Cloning Procedure ----------------- The screen colors, the display retrace testing (M), the file closing (C) and ruler (alt-R) options may be permanently set in the program by using the alt-C cloning function. For cloning to take effect, the program must be called LIST.COM and it must be on the current drive and in the current directory. There are two versions of the LIST COM file. One is the normal program. The other, which contains an 'S' as the last letter of the file name, is a slightly smaller file that excludes the Help screen. You may use either COM file for cloning. The clonable options (command toggles) are: M = Mono monitor, affects retrace testing, C = file(s) are shared, W = Wrap long lines 8/7/* = display all 256 values, or 7-bit, or special case K = flush Keyboard each time a command is read alt-A = set on if using Apxcore, off if using Double Dos or TopView, or DesqView alt-H = hex dump display, like the DEBUG format alt-J = toggle "junk" filter, add LF to CR, fix backspaces alt-L = set on to force preloading (reading) of the entire file before any lines are displayed, Default is OFF. alt-R = toggle columnar ruler on top line alt-T = toggle expansion of TAB characters Note: Be sure you have no other copies of LIST.COM which are accessible (because of a filepath type of utility). LIST Page 12 DEBUG Information ----------------- An alternative to cloning is to use DEBUG to make permanent changes. Here is a list of key items and their addresses: | 0124 - special lines 1 and 25 colors, default is 01 (blue) Refer to a technical reference guide for the attribute values for the colors that you want. | 0126 - normal lines 2 thru 24 colors, default is 02 (green) | 0128 - bright color for Find/Scan, default is 0C (bright red) | 012A - clonable options; | MRSJ WHK* M = mono, retrace testing if off, x'01' R = ruler, x'02' S = shared, x'04' | J = add LF to lone CR, process backspaces, | if on, x'08'; default is off W = wrap mode, x'10' H = hi-bit on, x'20' K = kybd flush, x'40' * = special document filtering, x'80' | 012B - more clonable options, not all are indicated: | .PAT DGV. P = Preload file if on, x'02', default is off A = Apxcore if on, TV/DD/DV if off, x'04, default is for Topview/Double DOS use T = if on (default), expand TABs, x'08' | D = hex display mode if on, x'10' G = if on, alt-G goto DOS is Disabled, x'20' V = if on, screen save/restore is Disabled and 9K less memory is used/required, x'40' By specifying the bit value, the option is enabled. For example, to enable Shared and Retrace, specify a hex value of the sum, or 01+04 = 05. | 012C - row less one at which found text is displayed, 1 byte | the default is 08 which displays found text on line 9 | 012E - scroll offset value, default is 10 (x'0A'), one byte | 0130 - scroll starting value, default is 0 (x'00'), one byte | 0132 - tab increment, must be power of 2, default is 8 | 0134 - tab mask, subtract tab incr from FFFFh,default is FFF8 When the Find/Scan command is used, the next line which contains that text is highlighted using the 'bright' color, and is placed in row 9 of the screen. You can change the row by | altering the byte at location 12C which is normally '08', one less than the row. The letters and command keys may also be changed. There are two tables involved: WHAT and WHERE. The WHAT table contains a list of one-byte keyboard codes. The WHERE table contains a list of two-byte matching addresses. If you really want to change the codes, here are the DEBUG addresses: | 035E - WHAT eye catcher | 0362 - table of key codes, ASCII 0-127, then extended 0-132 | 0467 - WHERE eye catcher | 046C - list of two byte addresses of processing routines LIST Page 13 Scanning for text ----------------- You may use Find (\) to search for text regardless of the | case, or you may use Scan (/) to find an exact match. The search | begins at the top line displayed and proceeds in a forward | direction until the end of file. You may start a search that | goes backwards rather than forwards by using the ` (left quote) | key instead of Find (\), or by using ' (right quote) instead of | Scan (/). To scan for a character string, type a slash (/) followed by one or more (up to 31) characters. The Scan text, but not the slash, is displayed on the command line. The Scan is case sensitive. That is, lower case Scan text will only match lower case file text. While the program is searching for the text, the bottom display line is changed to say "Scanning". Pressing ANY key while the search is in progress will terminate the search and display the message 'Text not found' on the bottom line. If the text is found, the line containing it is displayed as | a high-intensity line (bright color) in the middle of the screen | depending on the value of the Find Row (see cloning section). If the text is NOT found, the command line (25) is changed to say '*** text not found ***', and the display remains unchanged. To find the next occurrance of the same text, use the A)gain command, or press the F3 key. To find the previous occurance, press the F9 key. If the PCED keyboard enhancement program is installed, the up/down cursor keys may be used to recall and edit previously entered Scan/Find text. In a shared file environment, if the file changes while being listed, the file position may become invalid. Use the HOME command to insure proper file synchronization, or use the C or alt-S command again. | If the display has been scrolled right or left so that the | "found" text is not visible, you will see a funny symbol in the | first column. This is the same symbol that is displayed on a | blank line while changing the Find/Scan colors. It is there so | that you can tell that the line is marked. LIST Page 14 Filtering --------- Filtering is the term used to describe the process that LIST uses to format file data for displaying on a monitor. After data is read from a file, it is filtered. The method of filtering depends upon the options in effect. For a typical ASCII text file, the filter removes carriage return and line feed characters, and expands TAB characters. Hi-bit Filter ------------- The 7, 8, and * (asterisk) commands determine whether characters above ASCII-127 are displayed. If the hi-bit option is off (7 command), the filter strips the high order bit from each character. If the hi-bit option is on (8 command), all characters, including graphic characters above ASCII-127, are displayed. Star Filter ----------- The star (* or asterisk) command displays only ASCII characters below 128 (x'80'), but treats the special characters x'8A' and x'8D' as line-feed and carriage-return control characters. Any other characters above 127 are treated as spaces, and control codes below ASCII-26 are replaced by blanks. The Wrap option causes the filtering to insure that no line exceeds the width of the monitor, e.g. 80 characters. Junk Filter ----------- The alt-J command toggles the "junk" filter which insures that carriage returns in the file also result in a new line. Also, backspace characters result in "backing up" the display by one position. This allows more readability of files that use backspacing to emphasize, or over-write, characters. Hex Format Filter ----------------- The hex dump option (alt-H) causes the filtering to reformat the file data into a DEBUG-like display format. The largest file that can be displayed in Hex is 1 million bytes. An attempt is made to retain the file position when switching from normal to hex-dump display, but due to filtering changing record lengths, the hex display may begin before the current record. NOTE: The EOF control character is ignored in this version. LIST Page 15 File Sharing ------------ LIST uses two techniques for allowing you to share files with other processes. The first technique is called file closing and is enabled by the C or alt-S commands. This forces LIST to close the viewed file unless it needs to read from the file. If enough memory is available, the entire file may be loaded once and thus leave the file free for exclusive access by other processes. The second technique is called file sharing. It is a function of DOS and requires DOS version 3.0 or later. LIST opens the viewed files with a DENY NONE request. This allows other processes to read and write to the file if they do not request exclusive use of the file. If a file is not available to LIST because it is locked by another process, you will receive the error message "File not found" or "Acccess denied". There is no command to enable or disable this method of file sharing. It is implicit with the use of DOS version 3. Invoking DOS Commands --------------------- If the "goto DOS" option is enabled, you may invoke DOS | commands by using the alt-G command. LIST reserves about 66k of | memory for its own use. This increases LIST's memory require- | ments to approximately 96k when using alt-G. The remaining mem- | ory is available to the DOS commands. After you have finished entering DOS commands, use the DOS EXIT command to return to LIST. To disable the "goto DOS" function, you must use DEBUG to alter the option byte described in the section about cloning. With it disabled, LIST requires less memory, about 66K. Screen Saving ------------- If the screen saving option is enabled, LIST saves the contents of the current display screen when it starts. You can restore the original screen by exiting LIST with the alt-X command. Screen saving requires approximately 10k more memory. This is sufficient to save 60 lines of 80 characters (EGA 8x6 mode). See the section about cloning for information about enabling and disabling the screen saving feature. LIST Page 16 Restrictions ------------ o The program requires 66K bytes of memory. If more memory is available, it is used to store more of the file in memory. At least 96K is required to use the DOS shell. Add 9K if the screen saving option is enabled (default). o The line number is currently limited to 65535. o The file size is limited to 16 million bytes for ASCII | files, and to 1 million bytes for hex-dump files, but only | the first 65535 records are processed. o PC DOS Version 2.0 or later is required. DOS version 3.0 or later is required for file sharing. o ANSI.SYS is NOT required. APX Core, DesqView, TopView, and Double DOS, IBM, Sigma are all copyrighted, trademarked, and all that. Written by Vernon Buerg for the IBM PC using DOS 2.0 or later, through DOS 3.2. Not for sale or hire. LIST is supplied for personal, private use. Feel free to distribute LIST given these restrictions: o the program shall be supplied in its original, unmodified form, which includes this documentation; o no fee is charged; o for-profit use without a license is prohibited; o the program may not be included - or bundled - with other goods or services. Exceptions may be granted upon written request only. This applies to clubs and distributors, too. If you are using LIST and find it of value, your gift in any amount ($15 suggested) will be greatly appreciated. Please make checks payable in U.S. dollars to Vernon D. Buerg. For use by corporations and other institutions, please contact me for a licensing arrangement. Customizing, licensing of the source, and other special licensing are available upon request. Purchase orders and invoicing are acceptable. Vernon D. Buerg 456 Lakeshire Drive Daly City, CA 94015 Data: (415) 994-2944 VOR 24-hour bulletin board Compuserve: 70007,1212 or 74375,500