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READ 1.15b - by Robert E. May Read Page 1 This product is ShareWare. If you find it useful, please consider registering. The Read product may not be sold or packaged, either individually, or as part of any other product without the express written consent of the author. Read may not be changed or altered and then distributed without the express written consent of the author. READ.DOC and READ.REG files must accompany READ.EXE whenever READ is distributed. Use Read, give it to your friends and upload it to bulletin boards. If you use Read for more than a 15 day "trial" period, please register it. Remember that Registration will be appreciated and will help the author fund future versions of Read. If Read is used for business purposes site licenses are available on request. Read is not cripple ware. It is fully functional in all ways as you have received it. REGISTRATION: Please send your $15.00 registration fee for Registering: A seperate form with the file name READ.REG has been provided for your Registration. If you like Read and want to use it, send the $15 in with the READ.REG form filled out.Please add $3 for Shipping and handling. By Registering Read, you will receive: * a disk with the latest versions of the READ files * notification of new versions * technical support via phone, 9am thru 10pm CENTRAL Monday thru Friday. Please submit your name and address, so I may notify you of new releases. Give disk size you want, 5-1/4 360k or 3-1/2 720k. By Registering you will be helping keep the ShareWare concept growing and be PROUD of yourself. DISCLAIMER: READ is offered to you on an as-is-basis without any guarantee as to the correct functioning or fitness for specific purposes. The author believes this program to work as described but you use the program entirely at your own risk. The author will not be responsible for any hardware or software damage, loss of data, or incidental or consequential damage that may result from its use, whether or not such use is in accordance with the instructions. Read Page 2 OTHER SOFTWARE -NOTICE- -NOTICE- Entries involving the following CopyRighted materials are associated with the mark (***). Any, or all are supported by Read, if present. (***)FV.COM is supported and is copyrighted by Vernon D. Buerg (***)PKUNZIP is supported and is copyrighted by PkWare. (***)ARJ is supported and is copyrighted by Robert K. Jung (***)LHA is supported and is copyrighted by Haruyasu Yoshizaki (***)Q.EXE(Quick Edit) is supported and is copyrighted by SemWare. (***)VPIC.EXE is supported and copyrighted by Bob Montgomery. Read will use one or all of the foregoing programs if they are in your DOS path. Otherwise, Read will ignore the commands for using these programs. The foregoing are excellent programs and are obtainable from bulletin boards or ShareWare distributors such as Public Brand SoftWare. GETTING STARTED: COPYING READ: In the following examples, **DO NOT** include (Enter) in your commands. (Enter) has been included to indicate that you should press the Enter key at that time. Copy the .EXE file to your working disk, or into a subdirectory on your hard disk. Select a subdirectory that is in your DOS PATH and you will be able to use READ from anywhere on your system. You may rename READ.EXE any convenient name, such as R.EXE, RD.EXE, or just leave it as READ.EXE. For example, place the READ disk in drive A: and enter the commands: A: (Enter) COPY READ.EXE C:\ (Enter) to copy READ to the root directory of your C: drive. Start Read by typing READ (Enter) Another approach would be to make READ it's own subdirectory. Place the READ disk in drive A: From, hard drive C: CD\ (Enter) MD READ (Enter) CD READ (Enter) COPY A:READ.EXE (Enter) Read Page 3 Then modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file as follows. Add this line. SET PATH = C:\READ; With this approach you would, once again, be able to run READ from anywhere in your system. PRINTING READ.DOC: To print the READ.DOC, set your printer for six lines per inch, and 10 characters per inch.(the usual default setting) Then, use redirection. example, TYPE READ.DOC > PRN (Enter) You may also use redirection in another way. example, COPY READ.DOC PRN (Enter) CONFIG.SYS: You should have a config.sys file in the root directory of drive C: The config.sys file should have the following entries: FILES=20 BUFFERS=10 You may create the config.sys file with EDLIN or DOS 5 EDIT. Be sure the file is a pure ASCII file such as the foregoing editors create. For further instruction on AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files see your DOS manual. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Read Some notes on printing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the following documentation all non printable characters have been changed. Hopefully, with not too much loss of instruction. Most printers will not print hex 10 thru 20 so: ^ means up arrow, v means down arrow and >> is a pointer, < left arrow and > right arrow. Shading is used for selections in Read. I have used > , since the shading will not print. Also, lines have been changed to --- (dash) Read Page 4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Read The following illustrates the root directory of drive C: in a computer where Read was tested. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Entries: 47 Volume Label DISK_C Mon Dec 21, 1992 Directory of C:\*.* Entry Number: 15 Files have 428118 Bytes Time: 06:02:11 PM [AP] [FD] [EDOS] [WALT] [ARC] [FDNODE] [QEMM] AUTOEXEC.BAT [DATA] >[FOX] [RA] COMMAND.COM [BAT] [GAMES] [READ] CONFIG.SYS [BOB] [GIF] [READS] IO.SYS [C] [LAN] [SCAN] MIRORSAV.FIL [CDROM] [LASER] [SCIENCE] MIRROR.BAK [COM] [MISC] [SDOS] MIRROR.FIL [COPY] [NA] [COMPRESS] MSDOS.SYS [MENU] [PCM] [TC] QDOS.LOG [DOS] [PCT] [TEL] WINA20.386 [ED] [QA] [TURBOC] Total Disk Space 130279424 bytes *** 55613440 bytes Free -------------------------------------------------------------------- | Keys: > < ^v PgDn PgUp Enter(Chg Dir or Read File) Q)uit-F1 Help | | || Enter to Change Directory to C:\FOX | --------------------------- Unregistered ---------------------------- || |down arrow up arrow In the entries [ ] indicates a directory. Just highlight it and press the Enter key to change to that directory. In the example above we are in 5 column mode. Press 2 for a 2 column mode which will reveal File size, Date and Time. Read Page 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Read The following shows the files in the BAT(batch) directory of drive C: in a machine Read was tested on. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Entries: 78 Volume Label DISK_C Mon Dec 21, 1992 Directory of C:\BAT\*.* Entry Number: 19 Files have 1668095 Bytes Time: 06:02:48 PM [..] BNU.COM DR.COM GIF.BAT PARK.EXE 172B.BAT BNU.SYS DUPEA.BAT KEYCFG.SET PAY.BAT 2D.COM CLEAN.EXE DUPEB.BAT L.COM PCSHELL.BAT 4D.COM COLDBOOT.COM E.BAT L.DOC PRUNE.COM 720A.BAT CONFIG.SYS FDFORMAT.DOC LTMOUSE.BAT Q.BAT 720B.BAT D.EXE FDFORMAT.EXE MOUSE.COM CONFIG.DAT 800A.BAT >DELAY.EXE FDREAD.EXE MSD.EXE CONFIG.EXE 820A.BAT DELE.BAT FILL.EXE MSMOUSE.BAT DOS.BAT AUTOEXEC.BAT DIRMATCH.COM FIND.EXE MTEST.COM EDIT.DOC BBS.BAT DISK.EXE FLIP.COM MUV.EXE EDIT.TXT BE.COM DOSINP.DOC FLIP.DOC NO.COM QM.BAT BE.EXE DOSINP.EXE FRONT.BAT PAN.EXE R.EXE Total Disk Space 130279424 bytes *** 55613440 bytes Free ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | Keys: > < ^v PgDn PgUp Enter(Chg Dir or Read File) Q)uit-F1 Help | | READ >> (DELAY.EXE) 29776 Bytes Date 11/24/89 Time 16:35 | --------------------------- Unregistered ---------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Note in the above example: Number of entries and entry you are at is shown. Location on the hard drive (path) is shown. Date and running time are also shown. Disk space and space free are shown above the status bar. In the status bar note the information. File name, File size, date and time of last file change. Just highlight the file you want to Read and press Enter. A summary of keys for mainpulation follows. _________________________________________________________________ Move with Home, End, PgUp, PgDn - Up, Down, Left and Right Arrow keys Quit and save a screen by pressing Escape, X, or Q Quit with a clear screen by pressing the F10 key Highlight and press Enter to Change Directories or Read Files Rename a File with the R key. B changes back from subdirectories to the root Delete a file with the D key. Press 2 for two columns, 5 for five Copy a file with the C key. Alt-T Test a ZIP file's integrity (***) Move a file with the M key. SortDir with the S key. Alt R, Rename a Directory. Ctl-M, Make a Directory. Ctl-R, Remove a Directory. Highlight a zip file and press U to Pkunzip it. Read Page 6 Change Drive and Path by pressing the N key Tab or U Extract ARJ, LZH or ZIP archive contents to a specified path Shift-Tab Read the Directory of an ARJ, LZH or ZIP file and Extract files and Read them. (***) Alt-D Go to DOS, E Execute(Run) a File, Alt-S ScanDir, Alt-F10 Color Help Alt-A DOS commands, Alt-G view PICS, V view ZIP, ARC Etc Dir's (***) (***) A Highlight a file and press A. The files Attributes will be displayed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Read Color configuration while in the directory portion ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Use Alt-F1 to toggle Text Foreground Use Alt-F2 to toggle Text Background Use Alt-F3 to toggle Pointer High Light Colors Use Alt-F4 to toggle Status window Foreground Use Alt-F5 to toggle Status window Background Use Alt-P to Save your color changes to READ.CFG. Read will use them next time. Read Page 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Read The following shows a few lines from the Fido Nodelist for illustrative purposes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17,Fido_V12_Software_Help,Centreville_VA,Tim_Jasionowski,1-703-222-0180,240 18,Qtach2/QNX_Help,Jamison_PA,Thomas_Lynch,1-215-491-0919,9600,CM,HST,XA 19,Maximus_Help,Orleans_ON,Chris_Grainger,1-613-830-2802,9600,CM,XA,HST,V32 20,RemoteAccess_Help_USA,Tulsa_OK,Bruce_Bodger,1-918-254-6618,9600,CM,XA,HS 22,TIMS_Help,Littleton_CO,G_W_Funk,1-303-973-9454,9600,CM,XA,HST 24,GSBBS_Help,Holcomb_NY,Michelangelo_Jones,1-716-657-7443,9600,CM,XA,V32,V 25,ProFlex_Help,San_Diego_CA,Joe_Pasquarello,1-619-587-9825,9600,CM,XX,HST, 28,Star-Net/Paragon_Help,N_Grafton_MA,Eric_Drewry,1-508-839-4597,9600,CM,XW ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Keys: >< ^v PgDn PgUp End Home M)ark F)ind Q)uit-F1 Help [NODELIST.353] | | T 450 H 0 File Date 12/21/92 @ 06:03:46 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note that that the top line is 450.(T 450). Horizontal position is H 0. You may scroll left or right by using the left and right arrow keys. Ctrl Right arrow will go to H 0 again. The following is a summary of key strokes. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Use PgUp, PgDn, Home, End - Up, Down, Left and Right Arrow keys Quit with a clear screen by pressing the Escape, X or Q key Quit and save the screen by pressing the F10 key F or / to Find text(non-case sensitive), S for case sensetive search F3 to Find again Go to DOS by using the Alt-D key combination Press M to MARK a screen starting at the top of the screen Press DN Arrow, Up Arrow, Ctl End or PgDn to MARK the section you want Press U to Unmark text at any time Press M after MARKING and you will be prompted for a F)ile, P)rinter, S)ame File or N)othing. Choose F, P, S or N. Your MARKED screen will be sent to a File, the Printer or cleared Ctl-T toggles Tab expansion off and one. The default is expand Tabs. Ctl-LF Arrow, all the way left. Ctl-RT Arrow, all the way right. Alt-E invokes Editor. Alt-R toggles ruler. Alt-L goes to a line. (***) Grey + moves active Ruler down, Grey - moves active Ruler up. T means Top line #, H means Horizontal Pos, and L means last line # -------------------------------------------------------------------- Read Page 8 EXTENDED DETAILS: Read is primarily for viewing ASCII files. It will read binary file...ie com, exe Etc. but will do no searches or mark and copy segments. CAPACITY: Read will Read ASCII files that have 50,000 lines. Read has been tested on a text file with 48,671 lines and had no problems. The file was over 6 megabytes long. The max number of entries in a given directory is 512. Of course, Scandir should still work on a CD-Rom. RENAME: Hilite the desired file and press the R key. You will be prompted for a new name for the file. Type in the new DOS name and press Enter and the file will be renamed. DELETE: Hilite the desired file and press the D key. You will be prompted "Delete (Y/n)". If you press N the prompt disappears. If Y, the file will be deleted from disk. MOVE: Hilite the desired file and press the M key. You will be prompted for a new path for the file. Type in the new DOS path and press Enter and the file will be copied to that location. You will then be prompted as to whether to delete the file or not - (Y/n). Y and it is deleted. N and it is not. NEW PATH: Press the N key and a prompt will appear. Type in a new drive and path and you will be changed to that path on the new drive. DIRECTORY SORT: Directory Sort is invoked with the S Key F)ile, Sorts by Filename ( the default ) E)xtension, Sorts by Extension. All files with say an extension of DOC will be Grouped together. So will BAT, COM, EXE..Etc. D)ate, Sorts by date and time (Oldest first, Newest last ). S)ize, Sorts by number of bytes in files (Smallest first, Largest last) N)one, Sorts and leaves the directory very much the same as DOS does. Read Page 9 GO TO DOS: Press the Alt-D combination and you will go into DOS shell mode. Do what you want in DOS and type "EXIT" to return to Read. DOS COMMANDS: Alt-A makes it possible for the user to issue their own complete DOS command. COLORS: Alt-F10 actuates the color help screen. Read can be configured for colors on a more permanent basis. Wherever, you put Read on your Hard Drive a small file named READ.CFG will be created, if you choose to make colors permanent. (Come up same every time. ) Read may be renamed R.EXE or what you like..the READ.CFG will be created anyway. You may update colors any time you wish and READ.CFG will change. Configure for the colors you want and then use Alt-P to write your selections to READ.CFG GO TO A LINE: Read will go to the line in text you specify. (Doesn't work for Binary files ) Use the Alt-L key combination and you will be prompted for the Line Number you want to go to. FV.COM(***) Read incorporates viewing ARCHIVE Directories such as ZIP, LZH and Etc. Requirement: You MUST have Vernon Buerg's FV.COM in your DOS path. Viewing is brought on with the Alt-V key combination. Obtaining FV.COM is the Read user's responsibility. VPIC.EXE(***) Read Page 10 Read incorporates viewing PICs such as GIF, PCX Etc. Requirement: You MUST have Bob Montgomery's VPIC.EXE in your DOS path and VPIC must be configured for your monitor and card. Montgomery's vpic viewer must also be named VPIC.EXE Viewing is brought on with the Alt-G key combination. You may view every PIC in a directory. You'll be returned to Read when you exit VPIC. VPIC is available on most BBS's as VPICxxx.ZIP. Obtaining that program is the Read user's responsibility. ATTRIBUTES: High Light a Directory or a file in directory mode and press A. The file or directory's attributes will be shown. (ie Hidden, System and Etc.) Q.EXE(***) Read incorporates Editing the file you are Reading. Quick Edit must be in your DOS path as Q.EXE The Editing will begin at the Bottom line appearing on the Read screen. After Editing your ASCII file you may see changes by using the down arrow key. Editing is brought on by the Alt-E key combination. ( Doesn't work with Binary files such as COM and EXE. ) Requirement: You must have Q.EXE. This file is contained in QEDITxxx.ZIP, which is available on bulletin boards. Quick Edit is a fast, award winning ShareWare Editor and is in very wide use. I reccommend it to anyone wanting a good fast editor. Note: Read should be swell for revising text items. Items may be found quickly with Read and then use Quick Edit from within Read to edit. Should make editing fast since Read delivers one to the right place in the text for Q.EXE to edit. Make changes with Quick Edit and use Alt-Y to save them. Then use Alt-X to exit Quick Edit back to Read. SCANDIR: Read Scans Directories and gives a report containing total directories, total files, clusters occupied by files, disk space occupied by files and Etc.(Hidden, system, read-only files not included) Example: I have FoxPro installed on drive C: in a directory I named FOX just off the root of C:. FoxPro has a multitude of Sub-directories. With ScanDir in Read, all I have to do is change directory with Read to C:\FOX and use the Alt-S Key. ScanDir, scans the C:\FOX dir and all it's Sub-directories, and I can find out how much disc space FoxPro is actually using. Read Page 11 PKUNZIP(***) Read will test the integrity of a ZIP file or Pkunzip a ZIP file. PkWare's PKUNZIP.EXE is required in the DOS path and must be named PKUNZIP.EXE The Test is brought on by the Alt-T key combination. Pkunzip a file by using the U key. A prompt for path will appear. leave the path blank for present directory or enter path. DIRECTORY COLUMNS: The directory has a two column or five column display (default) Press 2 for a two column directory display or 5 for 5 columns. Two columns is handy for comparing file dates, sizes and time. SCREEN BLANKER: Read has a screen blanker. The Directory screen blanks after one minute with no keys pressed. The blanking is done with "Press any Key" showing. From all I can find out myself, this sort of blank is the easiest on monitors. MONO MODE: The use of /M is supported on the command line. READ /M brings Read up in Mono mode. Try mono mode if you have color difficulty. RULER: The ruler is toggled on and off by using Alt-R The ruler position is at 10 from the top of the screen enabling one to measure the number of spaces in a given line you are viewing. Grey + moves active Ruler down, Grey - moves active Ruler up. TEXT SEARCH: Read will do a case sensitive search of ASCII files. The case sensitive search is brought on by pressing the S key while reading an ASCII file. Example: / or F would prompt for input. Type in JOHN DOE and if John Doe exists, Read will find it.(non-case sensitive) S would prompt for input, but JOHN DOE would be found only if the text has JOHN DOE in it.(case sensitive) PRINT A WHOLE FILE: Press Shift-P to print a whole file (ASCII only). If you make a mistake and need to stop printing press Q. Printing is done to LPT1. Read Page 12 MARKING TEXT: Press M to MARK a screen starting at the top of the screen Use the Dn Arrow, Up Arrow, Ctl End or PgDn keys to MARK the section you want. Ctl End will mark the remainder of the file. Hit any Key to STOP! The marked area will appear in inverse video. (Light Gray) and the area may be revised with the Up and Down Arrow Keys. You may press U to Unmark text at any time. Use M after MARKING the text you want and you will be prompted for a F)ile, P)rinter , S)ame File or N)othing. Press F and you will be prompted for a DOS file name. Type in the file name and press enter. The marked text will be copied to the file you chose. This sort of marking may be done repeatedly as the text will be appended to the end of the file if it already exists. You may use Same File if you want to use the same file name you entered previously wit the F option. Use P and your marked text will be sent to the printer. (LPT1 is the printer port used) Press N and the screen will be unmarked. N is just a feature in the event you change your mind. EXECUTE (Run) A FILE: Hilite the desired file and press the E key. You may enter command line parameters, if any. Also if you change your mind about running the file press Escape in command parameters. The file will be Run(invoked). Of course the file must be a BAT, COM or EXE file. RENAME A DIRECTORY Hilite the desired directory and use Alt-R. You will be prompted for a new name for the given directory. Type in up to 8 characters and press Enter and the directory will be renamed. CREATE A DIRECTORY Use the Ctl-M and you will be prompted for a new directory name. Type in up to 8 character and press Enter. The directory name you entered will be created. Of course, the directory name you chose must not duplicate a directory that already exists. Read Page 13 REMOVE A DIRECTORY Hilite the directory you wish to remove and use the Ctl-R key combination. The directory will be removed. In this instance, the direcory you are removing must not have any files in it and must have no subdirectories. If files or a subdirecory exist, you will be notified of that fact and then returned to the Read directory. GO BACK TO ROOT DIRECTORY. If you are in a directory or subdirectory, just press the B key and you will be moved to the root diectory immediately. WILDCARDS Read will now accept command line wildcards as long as * is included. Example: Read C:\NEW\*.DOC Will cause Read to open all files in the C:\NEW directory with the extension DOC. Each file will be opened in turn. Move to the next file by pressing X or Escape. Break up the procedure by pressing F10. Read C:\NEW\L*.DOC Should filter so that only files beginning with L and ending with DOC are included. WRAP TEXT Read will read text lines longer than 80 characters by wrapping them so the screen is full. The W key toggles the wrapping on and off. No marking may be done with wrap on. Also, the left and right arrow keys are not active with wrap on, since there is no need to scroll to the right. With WRAP ON the line count shown is not accurate! TOGGLE TAB EXPANSION Ctl-T Toggles Tab Expansion. The default for Tab Expansion is Expand Tabs. EXTRACT ARCHIVE ARJ(***) LZH(***) ZIP(***) Highlight the archive you wish to extract and Press the Tab key. You will be prompted for a path for extraction of the files in the archive. ARJ.EXE, LHA.EXE and/or PKUNZIP.EXE must be in your DOS path for the extraction to take place. Otherwise, the commands will be ignored. Read Page 14 EXTRACT or VIEW File ARJ(***) LZH(***) ZIP(***) Highlight the archive you wish to view or extract from and Press Shift-Tab key combination. A directory of the Archive will be presented on the screen. Align the arrow with the file you wish to Extract and Read and press Enter to Read the file. ARJ.EXE, LHA.EXE and/or PKUNZIP.EXE must be in your DOS path for the extraction to take place. Otherwise, the commands will be ignored. WARNING: Read creates temporary files in the directory you are in. If you are unsure of space available, copy the Archive to be acted on to a directory on your Hard Drive. Needless to say, this feature was not meant for floppies and NO write protects as Read will crash. NOTES ON UNCOMPRESSION To Uncompress a file, hilite the file and press the Tab key. You will be prompted for the Path to uncompress the file to. If the file chosen does not have an ARJ, LZH or ZIP extension, you will be prompted for the compression used. Example: Suppose you hilite the file SOMETHING.EXE and press the Tab key, you will be prompted as follows: Is SOMETHING.EXE (A)RJ, (L)ZH ,(Z)IP or (Q)uit If you are uncertain just Press Q and the process is over. Otherwise choose the Compression technique used. Read Page 15 READ.EXE was written and compiled with Turbo C++ version 3.0 READ.EXE was compressed with LZEXE v0.91, compliments of Fabrice BELLARD from GRABELS(FRANCE). The program has been tested with machines using the 8088, 80286 80386 and 80486 processors. Read will run under DOS versions 3.3, 4.01, 5.0, 6.0 and 6.2. Older versions have not been tested. The program has been tested with Mono, CGA, EGA and VGA monitors. The program uses conventional DOS memory and has been tested on machines with 512 and 640k DOS memory.