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Asc2Com (MorganSoft) | 1991-09-04 | 27.1 KB | 793 lines

Page 1 Slyce.Com V1.10 File Utility Copyright 1989-1991 by MorganSoft All rights reserved. Shareware. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ MorganSoft assumes no liability for any damages incurred │ │ through the use of Slyce, and does not guarantee the │ │ fitness of Slyce for any particular use. │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Next Page for Table of Contents Page 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE 1. Table of Contents 2 2. Introduction 3 3. General Operations Notes 2 - 6 4. Text Switches 7 - 18 5. Data Base Switch 18 - 24 6. Registration Information 25 7. Error Messages 26 - 30 8. Support 31 9. Revision History 32 - 33 /o: Page 7 /f: Page 14, 15 /i: Page 8 /t: Page 15, 16 /u: Page 9 /s: Page 17 /p: Page 10 -o: Page 19 /l: Page 11 -i: Page 20 /w: Page 11, 12 -u: Page 21 /e: Page 12 -l: Page 21, 22 /r: Page 13 -e: Page 22 /d: Page 13 -r: Page 23 /c: Page 14 -d: Page 23, 24 /h#: Page 14 /z: Page Page 3 Introduction: Slyce is a general purpose file utility for text and database files. You can overwrite fields, delete them, insert them, encrypt and decrypt them, make upper or lower case, or even lower case except for sentence starts. You can convert WordStar programs. You can strip ASCII control codes (excepting carriage return [CR] and line feeds [LF]) from files--very useful if you keep any modem logs. You can expand tabs, filter out any range of characters you wish, or substitute one character for another or a range of characters. All of this, written in Assembler for speed and compactness, is in a shareware product costing only $19.95. Page 4 General Operation. Slyce works from the command line only. For a quick, full screen synopsis of all available options and syntax, type at the command line: C> slyce ? or C> slyce To actually invoke the program for full, operation you'll need more arguments for slyce to work. If you keep in mind the sort of operation you'll be doing, the number of operands needed will be easy to remember. For ALL Database work, you must have 5 arguments. For Text work, 3 or 5 arguments are required depending upon whether you desire slyce to work on an entire file ( 3 arguments required) or on a "Slyce" of a file (5 arguments). For example, to make a file called speech.txt entirely upper case, with a file name of speech.upr, you would need to type the following: Page 5 C> slyce /u speech.txt speech.upr To insert an extra wide margin in speech.upr, you would need to type: C> slyce /i speech.upr speech.mar 1 5 where speech.mar is the output file name, a " " is the desired character to insert, 1 is the beginning column to insert at, and 5 is the ending column for the insertion. For some options, you will be prompted to provide further information such as width of field or a string. Slyce uses the Standard input handle so if you desire, you may use redirected input (say, from a previously prepared file.) Such a command line should resemble the following: C> slyce -i myfile.dbf newfile.dbf 3 204 <insert.lne Where the insert.lne is a file previously prepared, containing the field to be inserted. The actual length of the string contained in the one line file WILL BE the string Page 6 inserted, and any leading or trailing spaces will be used. To be safe, make darn sure the length is correct. General syntax is as follows. For text files: C> slyce [switch] [input file] [output file] [from col] [to col] or C> slyce [switch] [input file] [output file] or C> slyce [switch] [input file] [output file] [from char] [to char] For data files: C> slyce [switch] [input] [output] [col pointer] [record length] Page 7 Text Switches: All Text switches require a "/", rather than a "-". /oC: Overwrite. Works only in "Column Mode". "C" is the character to be used for overwriting; this can be omitted, in which case a space will be used. No spaces are allowed between the /o and the character. Uses for this switch would be to expunge a section of a file, in preparation for extensive rewriting (such as in columnar reports). An example invocation is: C> slyce /o* myfile.txt myfile.$tx 30 30 This would overwrite any characters occurring in column 30. Please note that there MUST BE a character in column 30 of the file (in text files, this means that each CR/LF combination must be at least 30 characters apart--they must be padded with spaces for an overwrite to occur.). Page 8 /iC: Insert. Works only in "Column Mode". "C" is the character to be used for overwriting; this can be omitted, in which case a space again will be used. No spaces are allowed between the /o and the character. Uses for this switch could be for adding a wider margin, or widening the gaps between columns. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /i│ myfile.txt myfile.$tx 1 1 This would place a single line "frame" in column 1, moving anything in column 1 to column 2. Again, if the above example had been for column 31, there would have had to be characters on each line out to column 31 for an insertion to be made. Page 9 /u: Upper Case. Works in either "Column" or "Whole File" mode. Uses for this would be for any document that requires all upper case (perhaps speeches) or for assembler language programs that require upper case (why I don't know--but most of the listings you see for assembler have all of the code in all caps). For an entire file, an example invocation would be: C> slyce /u myfile.txt myfile.$tx For a column mode: C> slyce /u myfile.txt myfile.$tx 1 40 The latter would produce a file that had all caps from column 1 to column 40, inclusive. Page 10 /p: Lower Case, Sentence Format. Works in "Whole File" mode only. Uses for this would be to treat letters and other document files where the majority of the file is comprised of regular sentences, with few proper names. This option uses only two rules for determining if a word should be capitalized: 1/. Any letter following a period with no other characters between the letter and period, excepting a CR, a LF, space, a tab or a 0FFH character. 2/. Any letter following a colon (:) with the same restrictions as in number 1. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /p myfile.txt myfile.$tx This will produce a file with only the beginning letter of a sentence capitalized. Page 11 /l: Lower Case. Works in either "Column" or "Whole File" mode. Uses for this could be for C programmers or Assembler programmers (like myself) who prefer lower case. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /l myfile.txt myfile.$tx or C> slyce /l myfile.txt myfile.$tx 30 33 Where in the latter case, only columns 30 through 33 would be made into lower case. /w: Convert Wordstar files to ASCII. Works in "Whole File" mode only. Uses for this are obvious. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /w myfile.wrd myfile.asc Page 12 This produces a straight ASCII format file with no characters above 127, CR/LF delimited. /e#: Encrypt with key number. Works in "Whole File" mode only. Uses for this would be for data security of medium level. This does not meet Department of Defense requirements, but should frustrate most attempts to decipher a file. The number used to key the file must be an integer between 1 and 32767 and must be used with the /r option to decrypt the file. No spaces are allowed between the /e and the number. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /e3019 myfile.txt myfile.enc This will produce a file called myfile.enc with will be "scrambled" and unreadable by browse programs. Page 13 /r#: Decrypt with key number. Works (strangely enough) in "Whole File" mode only. Uses for this are fairly obvious--decipher a file encrypted previously by slyce, using the key number #. All of the comments under encrypt apply, and an example invocation is: C> slyce /r3019 myfile.enc myfile.txt Which would recreate the original example file cited in Encrypt. /d: Delete. Works only in "Column Mode" (5 parameters). Uses for this switch would be to delete excess margins, or columns. An example invocation is: C> slyce /d myfile.txt myfile.$tx 1 5 This would delete the current columns 1 through 5 inclusive. Page 14 /c: Strip ASCII < 32. Works in "Whole File" mode only. Uses would be for modem logs (if you type like I do, they're full of backspaces), and word processing files (that contain embedded control chars) such as PC-Write. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /c myfile.txt myfile.$tx This would produce a file called myfile.$tx with no ASCII characters below 32, except for CR or LF. /h#: Replace given Char with CR/LF (ála Mike Heggen). Works in "Whole File" mode only. Uses would be to break up files that are not CR/LF delimited into ASCII files. /z: Replace CR/LF with an ASCII Null (0). Works in "Whole File" mode only. Uses would be to convert ascii format files for use with C programs directly (takes up one less byte per string). Page 15 based BBS apparently generate files that are LF delimited and this option can ease handling them. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /h10 uffda.txt uffda.msg This would produce a file that would replace all ASCII 10's (a Line Feed) with a CR/LF. /f: Filter file. Works in "Whole File" mode only. Uses for this would be general clean up of a file that has been corrupted (a file, perhaps, mangled while extraction from an archive), or as a general word processor convertor. If you have the documentation for a word processor or can figure out from browsing the file what range of characters are used as control codes, you can filter them out using this switch. The switch is fairly flexible in that ANY range of characters is allowable. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /f myfile.ext newfile.ext 128 150 Page 16 This would produce a file where all characters with an ASCII code greater than or equal to 128 AND less than or equal to 150 have been omitted. Note that the character range is inclusive. /t: Expand tabs. Works in "Whole File" mode only. Uses for this switch are fairly obvious. To allow as much flexibility as possible, I elected to use a smaller buffer sizes when using this switch, so you might notice a slight degradation in speed. The input buffer has been reduced to ensure that the output (with all tabs expanded to spaces) will not collide with the stack. This shouldn't be noticeable unless you're dealing with extremely large files. An example invocation would be: C> slyce /t myfile.Ext myfile.ntb This would produce a file called myfile.ntb what would have all tabs expanded (filled with spaces). Remember, classic tabs are 8 spaces long. After a tab, the first character will be at (8*n)+1. Page 17 /sC: Substitute character C for range. Works on an entire file, only, BUT REQUIRES 5 parameters. The two parameters that follow the output file name are used to determine the RANGE of characters to be substituted for. The range is inclusive. Uses for this switch would be much the same as filter, but relative character position is maintained. For example, if you have a modem log that contains nice charts or boxes made up of the IBM graphics characters, you can get rid of them and not mess up the relative positions of the text. With several runs through the program you could even replace an IBM text graphic box with appropriate characters, such as, for a single line box: C> slyce /s- myfile.txt myfile.tmp 196 196 {replace the top and bottom lines with a '-'} C> slyce /s! myfile.tmp myfile.tm2 179 179 {replace the sides with a '!'} C> slyce /s+ myfile.tm2 myfile.tm3 217 218 {replace the lower right & upper left corner with '+'} C> slyce /s+ myfile.tm3 myfile. 191 192 {replace the upper right & lower left corner with '+'} Page 18 The preceding would change a single line box in myfile.txt to a box made out of characters "!","-", & "+". As you can tell from the first and second example invocations, single character "ranges" are allowed. Data Base Switches: All data base switches use a "-" instead of a "/". All data base switches work in "Column Mode" only. If you don't know the exact record length, it is more than likely that you'll scramble the database, so be advised. Then again, most of the people who would try to use slyce for this purpose, should know that already, so forget that I even mentioned that. With the data base switches, you will be prompted for further input, after you press return. The input required will be either a string (for "-i", "-o"), or a number ("-d", "-e", & "-r"). String length is limited to 100 bytes. Numbers should be below 32767. Page 19 -o: Overwrite, using prompted string. Uses for this would be to blank out a field of a database entirely, leaving space internally for the field. A second use would be to pre-initialize "default" field contents. An example invocation would be: C> slyce -o address.dat address.$da 123 432 This will overwrite a field beginning at column 123 of a 432 byte long record. That is to say, the record length is taken to be 432 bytes long--and that the field to be overwritten starts at the 123rd byte of the record. The overwriting string can include any characters available from the keyboard and in actual fact--any character you can "deliver" to the program through the use of TSR's like ProKey or DKey will be accepted. Page 20 -i: Insert, using prompted string. Uses for this are to expand an existing database, placing a field in each record, using the prompted string as a template. Conversions of database files from one database application to another could use this, as well as for conversions between Database programs. An example invocation would be: C> slyce -i myfile.dbf newmyfl.dbf 100 143 This option will prompt you for the field to insert and the width of your entry will define the width of the field. This would produce a file called newmyfl.dbf, with a new field uniformly inserted, containing the contents of your response to the prompt. Page 21 -u: Upper Case field. Uses for this would be to "normalize" a field so that sorts can more easily be done on them. A sample invocation would be: C> slyce -u address.dbf newaddr.dbf 30 503 and you would be prompted for the field width. This would make the field beginning at byte 30 and extending for the template length, all upper case. Record length would be 503 bytes long. -l: Lower Case field. Uses for this would be the same as upper case field. A sample invocation would be: C> slyce -l address.dbf newaddress.dbf 20 601 Page 22 and you would again be prompted for the width. Slyce would begin working at byte 20 of a 601 byte record and would make all alphabetic characters lower case for the width you would have entered. -e#: Encrypt field. You will be prompted for the encryption field width. Uses for this would be for sensitive fields, such as taxable income, passwords, or perhaps addresses. An example invocation would be: C> slyce -e106 myfile.dbf protectd.dbf 21 979 This would encrypt a field beginning at byte 21 of a 979 byte record. Again, you would be queried for the length of the field to encrypt. Page 23 -r#: Decrypt field. You will be prompted for the decryption field width. Uses for this option are again obvious. An example invocation would be: C> slyce -r106 protectd.dbf myfile.dbf 21 979 This would reproduce the original file (see Encrypt field) and as before, you would be prompted for the width of the field to decrypt. -d: Delete field. Uses for this would be to generate a "trimmed" database, with unneeded fields no longer taking up space. Again, database conversions could use this option. An example invocation would be: C> slyce -d myfile.dbf newmyfl.dbf 10 242 Page 24 You would be prompted for the width of field to delete. This would produce a file called newmyfil.dbf, with one field deleted. The deleted field would start at byte 10, and extend for the width you would enter at the prompt. Record length would be taken to be 242 Page 25 Registration: A registration form is provided with the archive, in Regist.Com and is simple to generate: At the command line, simply type: C> regist And then look the form over. Press alt-h to get the form sent to the printer. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the shareware concept, it's quite simple. You have the complete package of Slyce already in your hands (hopefully, see the packing list with the archive to be sure) and are urged to evaluate it fully. If you believe the program fills your needs, you send me the registration fee. If you do not have a use for Slyce, then either destroy the archive or pass it on to a friend. I sincerely hope that you do find Slyce useful and register it. Page 26 Error Messages. Source File Not Found!. Check spelling. You'll get this message if the source file is not found, regardless of whether or not the file exists. Slyce only searches the current directory, not files found in the path. DOS read error. You'll get this message if there is any sort of problem with simply reading the file. Most often a device error, or disk media error. DOS write error. You'll get this error for much the same reasons that you'll get with a DOS read error. Generally a device fault of some sort. Page 27 DOS file creation error. This could be from a number of things. An illegal DOS file name is the most likely, but it could be that the file already exists and is tagged as a system, hidden, or read only file. In that case, try a different name, or do change the file attribute on the file that already exists. Slyce WILL overwrite files, given half a chance. A less common reason for this error message would be if you're in the root directory of a disk and too many files already exist. Delete some files or move to a different disk. Unrecognized parameter or no switch. You'll get this one if for some reason Slyce can't recognize the switch you have given it. Remember, all text switches MUST have a '/' preceding them. All data base switches MUST have a '-'. Case doesn't matter on the switches. Switches like /e & /r must have a number "butted" right up to the switch. Page 28 Not enough parameters. Well, I never said Slyce was all that bright, now did I. You MUST have 5 parameters for all data base switches. All files that are "Column Mode" switches, must have 5 switches. In any event, you MUST have either 3 or 5 parms for Slyce to run. Too many parameters. Well, in this case, more is too much. You'll get this one if you include all the normal parms you need, and leave a space between the switch and the number or character required by the switch, viz. C> slyce -e 201 myfile.ext myfile. 20 104. Here, although the intent was to encrypt with the number 201, Slyce thought it was another parameter entirely. Beginning Column Less than Ending Column. You'll get this one for character ranges too. All "Ranges" must be in ascending order, since all of the conditional tests are performed that way. Page 29 Bad encryption switch. Numbers between 1 and 32767. Pretty self-explanatory except you'll also get this if the number you've typed for the encryption/decrytion key contains alphabetic characters or a decimal point. Integers only, please. Illegal or unrecognized DBase switch. Pretty self-explanatory. Slyce couldn't recognize the switch as one of the allowed ones for Data Base operations. You'll get this one if you accidentally use a '-' instead of a '/', and there's no equivalent switch on the Data Base side. DataBase field deletion overshoots record length. Well, in this case the width given to Slyce, added to the start position for the field, extends beyond the end of the record. Ignore the deletion portion of the message, you'll get this for any operation that can be done on a field, leaving it intact (encrypt, decrypt, upper case, lower case, and overwrite). Page 30 Non-numeric byte in numeric field. Integers only, please! Slyce detected a character that was not 0-9 inclusive in what it expected to be an integer. Page 31 Support: If you have any complaints, suggestions, or want any support for Slyce, I can be reached in the following ways: Mail: MorganSoft Phone: 503-364-2002 2170 Raynor St SE I do NOT accept collect Salem, OR calls 97302-2138 BBS: CompuServe 71167,2664 Salem Public Library Pascal Sysop: 503-588-6081 503-588-6130 503-588-6086 Errata Note: Slyce was written using PC-Write (from QuickSoft), Turbo Assembler 2.5 & TLink 4.0 (from Borland International). Ancillary files (of the .Com variety) were either written by myself, or generated by using Asc2Com, also available from MorganSoft. T. G. Browning September 4, 1991 Page 32 Revision History: Ver. 1.10 Aug. 25, 1991 Cleaned up the code and added the /z option. Lowered registration fee to $15.00. Ver. 1.04 June 10, 1989 Added /h option by request of Mike Heggen. Ver. 1.03 May 26, 1989 Fixed expansion bug in the tab switch. Multiple tabs not correctly expanded in earlier versions. Ver. 1.02 May 17, 1989 Page 33 Fixed bug in column switches, where characters were lost during buffer refill. Ver. 1.01 May 10, 1989 Fixed tab expansion bug, where DOS blew up on a division overflow. Ver. 1.00 May 6, 1989 Original release.