Dictionaries & Language

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

/ Dictionaries & Language / Dictionaries and Language (Chestnut CD-ROM) (1993).iso / utils / helpdos / help.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1987-12-22 | 23.4 KB | 859 lines

H E L P A DOS Help Function Version B R E F E R E N C E M A N U A L Focused Magic Software, Inc. P.O. Box 1069 Washington Grove, MD 20880 Copyright (c) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved This Manual was completely updated to reflect the current state of the help programs as of release B. Specifications subject to change without notice HELP 2.1, HELP 3.1, HELP 3.2, and HELP 3.3 software copyright (C) 1987 FM Software, Inc. All rights reserved. The Software names in this manual are trademarks or trade names of specific manufacturers. Printed in the United States of America HELP Version B - 3 - TABLE OF CONTENTS License .............................................. 4 Warranty ............................................. 5 Ordering Information ................................. 6 Preface .............................................. 7 Introduction ......................................... 8 Installation ......................................... 9 Getting Started ...................................... 10 Personalizing HELP ................................... 12 Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 4 - LICENSE All versions of Help, including version B, are distributed under the "ShareWare" concept. They are neither Public Domain nor FreeWare. HELP is copyright (C) 1987 by FM Software, Inc. Non-registered users are granted a limited license to use any version of HELP on a 30 day trial basis for the purpose of determining whether it is useful to them. Use of any version of HELP, besides on this trial basis, requires registration. Use of non-registered copies of any version of Help by any person, business, corporation, government agency, or any other institution is strictly prohibited. Registration permits a user the license to use the version of Help registered on a single computer; a registered user may use the program on a different computer, only if the program is not run on more than one computer at the same time. No registered or non-registered user may modify any version of HELP in any way, including decompiling or reverse engineering of the program. All users are granted a limited license to make copies of a version of HELP only for the trial basis of others and subject to the following conditions: HELP must be copied in unmodified form, including the file which contains this license information. The full HELP documentation which is provided with the executable of the HELP program must be included with the copy. The user may not collect or request any fee, charge or other compensation for the copy provided. HELP may not be distributed in conjunction with any other product without the express written consent of FM Custom Software, Inc. Operators of electronic bulletin board systems may post any version of HELP for downloading by their users only as long as the above conditions are followed. Distributors of public domain or user supported software may distribute copies of any version of HELP subject to the above conditions and after obtaining written permission from FM Software, Inc. Permission is usually given; write for details. Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 5 - WARRANTY FM Software, Inc. makes no warranty of any kind, expressed or otherwise any warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. FM Custom Software, Inc. shall not be liable for any damages, whether direct, or indirect arising from the failure of any HELP program to operate in the manner desired by a user. FM Software, Inc. shall not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly from the use or misuse of any version of the HELP program. IN NO EVENT WILL FM Software, Inc. BE LIABLE TO ANY USER FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE, MISUSE, OR INABILITY TO USE ANY VERSION OF HELP, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. In the event of permanent failure of a registered user's version of HELP, FM Custom Software will replace the version at a cost not to exceed the cost of a floppy disk and the shipping and handling associated with the mailing of the disk to the registered user. Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 6 - ORDERING INFORMATION A HELP registration license allows the use of the product on a regular basis. Registration includes notification of updates and a printed manual. Users need to register only one version of HELP; registration includes licensed use of all upgrades. Individual registrations cost $35. All upgrades of HELP are available to registered users at a reduced cost of $8. This cost is to cover the disk, printing, shipping and handling. All corporate, business, government or other commercial users of any version of HELP must be registered. An individual registration of HELP for a corporation or business does not grant the business the right to make unlimited copies of HELP for their employees. A registered copy of HELP is required for each user of the program. FM Software does sell this product at a discount for quantity orders and will engage in site licensing. Please send a written request for information about quantity ordering, and include in the request the number of copies which you are interested in purchasing. For use outside the US: Send checks drawn on US Banks in US dollars. We can accept non-US currency, however, include an additional $5 to cover conversion and collection costs. Send all requests for registration to: FM Software, Inc. P.O. Box 1069 Washington Grove, MD 20880 Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 7 - PREFACE TO HELP VERSION B The B versions of Help 2.1, Help 3.1, Help 3.2, Help 3.3 have a new look. In a effort to save on code size, the Help programs now contain a data file with all the DOS command information. In addition, the program comes in two versions which are included with the documentation. The first is a version similar to version A in that it is called from the DOS command line. The second is a "Terminate and Stay Resident" (TSR) which can be loaded at any time and subsequently accessed by typing Alt-H, or a user defined "Hot Key". The B version of Help also will leave your screen in the condition from which you called it with the addition of a up to 5 lines containing the format of the command on which help was requested (this does not apply to the TSR version, which will not alter the screen). All of the improvements and changes to the Help Versions are explained within the Reference Manual. Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 8 - INTRODUCTION Help has designed to provide a quick reference for the DOS commands and programs which are used frequently. It is available for DOS versions 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3. The program consists of the executable code as well as a data file containing the information about the various commands. In addition to the data about commands, programs and features of DOS, the Help program has been designed to allow the user to add his own text files containing information about programs and utilities which he uses regularly. These files can be any Ascii text file up to 69 lines in length. Help comes in two versions. One is a version which is called by typing in "help" at the DOS Command Line. The second is memory resident and is installed by typing "tsrhelp" at the DOS Command Line. Thereafter, the memory resident version is typically invoked by typing "Alt-H". Help Files: In order to run any version of help the following files are required: HELP.COM, the help executable file; TSRHELP.COM, the resident version of help; COMMANDS.HLP, the help data file. In addition, any text files, which are created by the user, should be located in the directory with the above files. These files should be named "<command>.hlp", where <command> is the name of the function which is requested from the help command line. It should be noted that the user created help files will not be included in the index of DOS commands and functions which are supported by HELP (the display which is invoked by typing "help<cr>"). HELP Environment Variables: Version B of HELP supports the use of DOS Environment Variables. These variables are used to set the filename of the main help file, if other than the default; to designate the path where all the help files exist; the colors which the help screens will be displayed in; and the Hot Key which is to be used to invoke the resident version of HELP. The exact description and use of the HELP environment variables are contained in the Personalizing HELP section of this manual. Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 9 - INSTALLING HELP Once the files have been dearchived, they need to be properly located on the disk. HELP assumes that it will be used on a hard disk with the drive letter c:. These defaults can be changed by use of environment variables, if the default configuration is particularly unpalatable to the user. The first step is to create a subdirectory "\help". This subdirectory must be one level below the root directory on the drive c:. The file "commands.hlp" must then be placed into this subdirectory. Additionally, all user created help files must also be placed in this directory. The files "help.com" and "tsrhelp.com" may be placed anywhere on the disk, and ideally should be placed within the DOS PATH. Usually, this file is placed either in the directory "\help", or in the directory where external DOS command files are kept (such as "format.com"). Note that if the file is placed in the "\help" directory, then a path should be created to allow DOS to find the file. Usually this is accomplished by placing the command "PATH C:\HELP" in the "autoexec.bat" file. At this point help is ready to run. Simply type "help <command>" at the command line to get help about the DOS command you specified. Not everyone will want to use this particular directory configuration. Some may wish to use a different directory name, and others may wish to put the information file on another disk, such as a RAM disk. HELP will be happy to look elsewhere for the information requested, but must be told where to look. This is accomplished by the used of an environment variable. HELP looks in the environment for the string "HELPPATH" (among others) to determine if it should be looking elsewhere for its information file(s). To set this environment variable, simple type "SET HELPPATH=<path>" at the DOS prompt, where <path> is a full DOS path, including a drive specification (e.g. d:\tools\hfiles). One warning, DO NOT follow the <path> with a backslash, this will lead to unpredictable results. Best results are obtained by putting this DOS command in you "autoexec.bat" file. For more information about the environment variables, see the section Personalizing HELP. Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 10 - GETTING STARTED WITH HELP Command Line Version: To use HELP, type the following command: HELP <command name> [/F] where <command name> is the name of the command on which help is wanted and /F indicates that only the format of the command is desired. The <command name> and /F parameters are both optional. If HELP is invoked with no parameters, a list of DOS commands which are supported by the HELP version being used is displayed. When HELP is called with a command name, the information about that command is displayed to the screen. If the /F parameter is used, only the format of the command is written to the screen. To exit HELP, type ESC. It is possible for the information about a command to require multiple screens. To page through the screens use Pg-Up and Pg-Dn. In addition, when there are more than two screens worth of information, the Home and End keys are also active. The Home key will display the first page of information and the End key will display the last page of information. It should be noted that when only two pages of information about a command exist, the Pg-Up and Pg-Dn keys function identically to the Home and End keys, respectively. Memory Resident Version: If the Memory Resident version of HELP is being used, installation of the program is required before it can be used. To install the program, type "TSRHELP" at any DOS command line. After the initialization of the program, the user can gain access to it by typing ALT-H. The <command name> parameter is requested in a small window. To get help on a specific subject, enter the subject and press carriage return. If the index of subjects is desired, then simply hit carriage return at the prompt. The /F parameter is meaningless in this version. As in the Command line version, multiple screens of data are manipulated using the Pg-Up, Pg-Dn, Home and End keys. User Created HELP Files: The user can create his own HELP files easily, greatly enhancing the utility of HELP. The files are simply Ascii text files which are no longer than 69 lines in length. Once the text file has been created, store in the same directory where the file "commands.hlp" was stored. The file MUST have Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 11 - the extension ".hlp". From then on, entering "help <file>" will display the text file "file.hlp" within the HELP environment. Note that the extension ".hlp" is NOT entered when requesting the display of a User Defined Help File. As an example, if the user had an address list that he wished to be able to easily access, he could put the list into an Ascii file called "address.hlp", and store it in the directory "\help". From then on, when he wished to reference the list he would simply type "help address" from the command line, or enter "address" in the window of the resident version. The file that he developed would then be displayed. Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 12 - PERSONALIZING HELP HELP Environment: Version B of HELP defaults to the following: * The command file for HELP is "commands.hlp". * The directory which contains the help files is "c:\help". * The default colors are high intensity white on black for the help text and high intensity white on blue for the status information. * The Hot Key for the resident version of HELP is Alt-H. To change the defaults, the environment variables are used. The environment variables can be entered at any DOS command line or placed in the system initialization batch file, "autoexec.bat". The environment variables required by help are as follows: * helpfile -- changes the default help filename * helppath -- changes default directory for the help text files * helpcolo -- changes the default colors for the help text and status information * helphkey -- changes the Hot Key for the resident version Each of these variables are initialized within the "autoexec.bat" file using the DOS "set" command as follows: set helpfile=[filename.ext] where : filename.ext is the filename you wish to use for the main information file. Note that you will have rename the file "commands.hlp", and that the file can not be modified without affecting the operation of HELP. set helppath=[d:][path] where : d is the drive letter, and path is a full DOS directory path where the HELP information files will be located. Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc. HELP Version B - 13 - set helpcolo=TF,TB,SF,SB where : TF is the text foreground color, TB is the text background color, SF is the status line foreground color, and SB is the status line background color. The following codes are used for the colors : 00 - Black 01 - Blue 02 - Green 03 - Cyan 04 - Red 05 - Magenta 06 - Brown 07 - Grey 08 - High Intensity Black 09 - High Intensity Blue 10 - High Intensity Green 11 - High Intensity Cyan 12 - High Intensity Red 13 - High Intensity Magenta 14 - Yellow 15 - White Please note that leading zeros are expected. set helphkey=alt-<key> where : key can be any alphabetic key (a-z), any numeric key (0-9), or any function key (F1-F10) The key specified will be the hot key used for HELP. For example, the command "set helphkey=alt-F7" will make the keystroke "alt-F7" the hot key for bringing up HELP. Notes : * Both helpcolo and helphkey must be specified before installing TSRHELP. TSRHELP will look for these specifications at installation time, and will not look for them again. * When using the environment variables, you may run out of environment space. Later versions of DOS allow you to increase the size of the environment by including the command "shell=command.com /e:xxxxx" in your "config.sys" file, where xxxxx is the number of bytes to use for the environment. Please see your DOS manual for more information. Copyright (C) 1987 Focused Magic Software, Inc.