TarGA Party

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

/ TarGA Party / TarGA Party.iso / pinnacle / see.inf < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-01-16 | 12.8 KB | 366 lines

╔══════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ WHAT IS "SEE"? ║ ║ ║ ╚══════════════════╝ SEE is a utility for viewing and printing text files. It can also display hex files in a format that makes it easy for you to visually scan the file. SEE's small size and low price (i.e. FREE!) makes it ideal for inclusion with other software, so that the user can read the documentation files. SEE also lets you extract portions of text from the listing. The extracted portion can be copied to the printer or to a text file. NEW FOR '93: SEE now comes with a configuration program (SEESETUP.EXE) which lets you customize SEE to work the way YOU want it to. SEE always looks in the logged (i.e. current) drive and directory before checking its primary configuration file, so you can create application-specific versions of SEE! For details, see the section entitled "Configuring SEE". ╔════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ HOW TO USE "SEE" ║ ║ ║ ╚════════════════════╝ ╒═══════════════╕ │ STARTING UP │ ╘═══════════════╛ At the DOS command prompt, enter SEE followed by the name of the file you want to read. For example, the command: SEE AMAZE.DOC would display the file named AMAZE.DOC. SEE automatically detects the type of file being viewed and selects the appropriate display mode (text or hex). ═════════ WILDCARDS ═════════ If you specify a "DOS Wildcard", you will see a menu of file names that match. You can move the cursor to the file you want by using your arrow keys. Then press Enter to see the file. For example: SEE *.INF would show you all files with the extension INF. If you omit any file specification, SEE assumes you mean *.* so that the following command would let you select from all files in the current directory: SEE ═══════════════════════ CROSS-DIRECTORY VIEWING ═══════════════════════ SEE normally looks for the files in your current drive and directory. However, you can have it look at another drive or directory by specifying the path name accordingly, as in this example: SEE D:\MYDIR\ACCOUNTS\PAYROLL.TXT ══════════ MONOCHROME ══════════ SEE can normally detect if you have a color display card or not, but no DOS program can detect if your monitor can actually display color. (Some people have color display cards with monochrome monitors) If SEE is displaying text in color and you want to force it to display in monochrome, add /M to the file specification. For example: SEE MYFILE.TXT /M This would display the file MYFILE.TXT in black and white. You can configure SEE (using the SEESETUP program) to always start up in monochrome mode. This will save you the bother of always having to specify the /M parameter. ══════════ QUICK HELP ══════════ For a quick summary of SEE's functions, enter the following command at the DOS prompt: SEE /? This will display several help screens. If you are already viewing a file, you can press the F1 key to see the same screens. At the end of each screen you can press the spacebar to continue to the next screen, or press Esc to return to what you were doing (i.e. DOS prompt or viewing). ╒════════════════╕ │ READING FILES │ ╘════════════════╛ ══════════════ SCROLLING KEYS ══════════════ Once you have selected the file you want to read, you can scroll back and forth in the file a line at a time, using the arrow keys. You can also jump back and forth a screen at a time, using the PgUp and PgDn keys. The Home and End keys position the file to the beginning and end, respectively. The spacebar key moves forward one screen each time it is pressed. When you reach the end of the file, you are returned to the previous operation (i.e. the file selection menu, if you started SEE with DOS wildcards, or the DOS prompt otherwise). The left and right-arrow keys scroll text left and right one character at a time. You can use these keys in conjunction with the Ctrl key to scroll five characters at a time. ═════════ THE L KEY ── Jump to a line ═════════ The L key will ask you for a line number. It will then jump to that line, positioning it at the first line of the viewing area. ═════════ THE F KEY ── Find text ═════════ The F key will ask you for a text string. If it finds that string in the file, it will jump there, highlighting the line the text is on. The line is positioned in the middle of the screen, if possible. To search for the same text again, press the F3 function key. For information about the function keys (sometimes called "The F Keys"), see the section entitled "The Function Keys", below. ═════════ THE C KEY ── Copy part or all of the file to printer or file ═════════ The C key sends a copy of the file (or part of it) to your printer, or to another file. See the section entitled "Copying" for details. While using the C feature, remember that the Esc key will always return you to your previous operation. If you were looking at the help screens, it returns you to the viewing window. If you were viewing text, it returns you to the file selection menu (if you started SEE with DOS wildcards) or the DOS prompt otherwise. The Copy command asks many questions in order to determine what you want to do. To save time, you can use the SEESETUP program to specify default values to these questions, or skip them altogether (using a preselected value). ═════════════════ THE FUNCTION KEYS ═════════════════ F 1 displays the help screens. See "Quick Help", above, for additional information about these screens. F 2 displays a "ruler" line, which lets you determine which column text starts and ends. F 3 repeats the last Find operation (see "The F Key", above). F 4 sends a page eject character (ASCII 12, Hex $0C) to the printer. You can select the printer number. By default it is printer LPT1 (or the default printer number specified by SEESETUP). F 5 switches the display to 25 lines, in monochrome. F 6 switches the display to 25 lines, in color. F 7 switches the display to smaller letters, in monochrome, if you have the appropriate display card. If you have a CGA, Hercules or MCGA card, nothing will happen. If you have an EGA card, you will see 43 lines on your screen. A VGA display card will display 50 lines. F 8 does what the F7 key does, but uses color instead of monochrome. F 9 is not used. F10 is not used. ╔═══════════╗ ║ ║ ║ COPYING ║ ║ ║ ╚═══════════╝ When you are viewing a file and you press the C (Copy) key, SEE will ask you a few questions, then copy part (or all) of the file to the printer, or to another file. The questions let you specify: PORTION: Which part of the file (some, or all) should be copied. DESTINATION: Which printer you want to print to (LPT1, LPT2 etc.) or which file you want to copy to (e.g. SAVE.TXT). If the file already exists, you can overwrite it, or add to the end. The following two questions apply to printing only: CONVERSION: Whether to convert extended characters or not. FORM-FEED: Whether the printer should "page eject" after printing. The printer questions are discussed in more detail, below. NOTE: Before you start printing, make sure your printer is turned on, is supplied with paper, and that the "Online" light is lit. (On some printers, the Online light may be labelled "Ready", or something similar. Refer to your printer manual if you are not sure.) If at any time you wish to exit from the copying process, you can press the Esc key. If you were printing, you may have to turn your printer OFF for a moment, then ON again, to reset it and clear its memory. The Copy command asks many questions in order to determine what you want to do. To save time, you can use the SEESETUP program to specify default values to these questions, or skip them altogether (using a preselected value). ═══════════════════ PRINTER DESTINATION ═══════════════════ When you are asked to select a printer destination, choose the address of the printer to which you are copying the text. You can choose any printer from LPT1 to LPT9. (It is somewhat unusual to have a printer with an address higher than LPT2.) If you are not sure, select LPT1. Most PC-compatible computers have their printer at that address. Exception: if your computer is sharing the printer with other computers on a network, check with your network manager before proceeding. ══════════ CONVERSION ══════════ Many documents (such as this one) make use of the special characters that are available on IBM-PC compatible computers. Some printers, though (particularly older printers and very high speed printers), can not print these characters properly. If when you print, many of the characters come out wrong, you may have to have them "converted". The conversion process replaces these characters with a "reasonable" substitution before printing them. (Note that this affects only the printing; the document you are viewing is NOT changed.) For example, accented letters can not be printed on all printers. So an accented "e" would be printed simply as "e", with no accent. Line-drawing characters (for boxes) are also a problem for some printers. So the vertical line character is replaced with the standard "split bar" character, which looks almost the same. ╔═════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ CONFIGURING "SEE" ║ ║ ║ ╚═════════════════════╝ The SEE program is set up to use reasonable values for all of its operations. For example, it will detect the kind of display card you have and choose color or monochrome mode according, using the same number of lines per screen that you had set before you called up SEE. However, you may wish to change some of the selections. You can create a configuration file (named SEE.CFG) using the SEESETUP configuration program (SEESETUP.EXE). When SEE starts up, it looks in the current (i.e. logged) drive and directory for a file named SEE.CFG. If it does not find it there, it looks in the SEE home directory (i.e. where the SEE.EXE file is located) for the file. If it finds the file, it uses the values it specifies. If it does NOT find it (in either the logged or home directory), SEE uses reasonable default values that are appropriate for virtually all machines. To start up SEESETUP, enter SEESETUP at the DOS prompt. Each configuration screen can provide you with detailed explanations of each configuration option -- press F1 whenever you need additional information. ╔═══════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ║ ║ ║ ╚═══════════════════════╝ The SEE program reads the entire file into memory before beginning. On a system with a moderately heavy overhead of TSR's (pop-ups), you may have around 475K of free memory. This would allow you to view documents of up to 225 pages (at 66 average lines per page). If the pages were packed extremely densely with long lines and very little blank space, this could be reduced to as little as 70 pages. In most cases, it is safe to assume that the typical user will have enough memory for at least 150 pages. NOTE TO PROGRAMMERS: Please remember that if you shell out from a program to call up SEE, the available memory may be much less than 475K. ╔═══════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ LICENSING "SEE" ║ ║ ║ ╚═══════════════════╝ SEE is a freeware program, which means you can use it free of charge. However, there are certain restrictions with respect to distribution. See the "Distribution" section of the introductory article (type START at the DOS prompt to browse the articles). You can distribute SEE.EXE by itself (subject to distribution terms). You do NOT have to include SEESETUP.EXE or the SEE.CFG file: SEE will work fine even if both files are missing. If disk space is limited, or if you are packaging your product as shareware (i.e. for download), this lets you reduce the size of your package. Please note that you MUST distribute the file AMAZE.TXT with SEE.EXE, unless you have purchased a source license or made other arrangements with Pinnacle Software.