ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/WINDOWS/UTIL/PSHELL22.ZIP/PSHELL.TXT

Text File | 1991-09-19 | 14.3 KB | 415 lines

OTHER NAME

23 augustus 1991

There suddenly exists a very similar program, which on Bulletin Boards
has the name 4WIN110.ZIP. It has a 4WIN.EXE executable and does more
or less same as my PSHELL, but I think mine is better ;-). Aw, that guy
does not even have a DESCRIBE-function!

I used the name 4WIN for the compressed files, 'cause it was rather
meaningful (4dos for WINdows). To avoid confusion I'll ship
my program in the future as PSHELLxx.LZH, where xx is the version number.


9 september 1991

The makers of 4DOS, JP Software, also communicated with me over the
name 4WIN. As I was not using it any more, it should not be a
problem. It should be clear that I am not in any way affiliated with
JP Software other than as a very satisfied 4DOS user.  4DOS is a
trademarks of JP software (or is it the other way around? - that
American folklore of quoting and claiming certainly keeps me
confused).

Hans Paijmans.


DISCLAIMER

All the usual disclaimers go here: use PSHELL at your own risk and
don't come wailing to me if bugs in the program eat your disk, your
computer and your pet canary. As far as I know there are no dangerous
bugs in PSHELL and I certainly did not put a virus in it. Please read
the copyright notice: althoug not too many strings are attached (pun
not intended), this program is not public domain.

I will now stop development of this version (1.): it was only meant to
give  me the first 'feel' of Turbo pascal for Windows.
Version (2) will be around later this year. I will use it to delve into
the niceties of the OWL development kit, which comes with TPW, but
looks, sounds and smells VERY complicated! PSHELL version 2 will
have some new tricks, which I also miss in WINDOWS.

 (as you see version 1 developed into version 2 without the benefit of OWL.
  So much for good intentions!)

Comments and suggestions are always welcome as are bottles with beer!
See address below. (Must see the first dutchman yet who sends a
bottle of beer for what he can have for free!).



DIRECTIONS OF USE

Put PSHELL.EXE and PSHELL.HLP somewhere in your path. There is an
Icon in PSHELL, but it does not seem to come out if the program is
minimized.

If you like PSHELL, add a line like

      RUN = E:\BIN\PSHELL.EXE

in WIN.INI and it will be around when WINDOWS awakens.

Use the HELP-command to learn about the commands. A synopsis is given
below, but I keep adding things and forgetting about them later.


PSHELL does not cover all 4DOS-commands, switches and parameters.  It
reflects those functions that I use regularly, but there are many
very sensible functions that are not in PSHELL, because I do not
happen to need them. Tell you what: send me a bottle of Belgian beer
and I'll add them in for you.


DEVELOPMENT HISTORY.


PSHELL version 1.0

copyright Hans Paijmans 1991.


PSHELL was born from the conviction that ten fingers and a keyboard
are better tools to perform typical housekeeping-tasks on the PC than
mice and other pointing devices.

Also I am addicted to 4DOS, the well-known alternative for
COMMAND.COM from JP Software and many of my directories have
4DOS-descriptions attached. Alas!  none of the command-line shells
for WINDOWS, that I have seen, seems to support them.

So I wrote another command-line shell for MS-WINDOWS, but one that
should be able to read the 4DOS DESCRIPT.ION-files.


How to use it:

------> Refer to 4DOS help if the following is not clear.

COPY, REN, DEL and DIR may be used and changes will be reflected in
   the descriptions. Parameters not supported at the moment.

TYPE and LIST are identical. They support wildcards. Press ESC to
   cancel the typing of the current file, ctrl_C to quit.
   S to stop scrolling, any key to start again.

CHDIR, RMDIR, MKDIR work as expected (by me, that is).

CDD changes both path and disk.

DESCRIBE filenaam: will enable the user to add 4DOS descriptions to
   files in the directory.

DOS and MS-WINDOWS commands may be typed on the commandline to start
   execution. This works for BAT-files and PIF-files too. The DOS
   path-environment is copied to PSHELL and expanded when searching
   for an executable file.  If one is found, first a CHDIR to that
   directory is executed. This might cause some unexpected 'where-is-that-
   darned-file-I-see-it-right-here-but-he-doesnt!' feelings, but you'll
   get over it.

EXIT. To kill the 4PSHELL just type EXIT on the command-line.

==============================================================================

 PSHELL version 1.01

 Bug removed, which prevented execution of external commends, if not
 in path.

 CD, RD and MD now also work as MKDIR, CHDIR etc.

 PUSHD dirname, DIRS and POPD added, with stack of twenty
    directory-names.

 MEMORY and FREE added (RAM and default disk).

 MOVE added (deletes files after copying them).

 HISTORY added.

==============================================================================

 PSHELL version 1.02 -- 12 juni 1991


 Scrollbar activated. Virtual PSHELL-window now is 256 lines and may
 be scrolled back and forth.

 CLS added (guess what).

 TREE added (displays directory-tree).

 ^E is now automatically followed by ^F when editing the command-
    history.

 /w - switch added to DIR (for wide display).

 Bug removed, which impeded DELETE and COPY after a number of times.

 Bug removed, which prevented loading programs if path was set.  Bug
 removed, which sometimes did not update the descriptions after REN.

 =============================================================================

 PSHELL version 1.03

 /a - switch added to DIR (displays attributes in stead of comments);
 /c - switch added to TYPE to add CR to lines, which don't have one.

 GLOBAL added for executing an internal command over several
      directories.  Try GLOBAL DEL *.* to get the general idea. (NO!
      Don't take me serious!).

 STOP added, to quit WINDOWS without first having to discuss it with
      the progam manager. You have to enter 'Y' in uppercase to
      confirm.

 HELP added, which was a major pain in the ass. But thanks to God,
      Phillipe Kahn and my own gigantic intelligence, I finally
      figured how to write MS-WINDOWS help-files.

 DOS  a command, which starts the COMMAND-interpreter that is in the
      COMSPEC-variable (either DOS or 4DOS).

 command line editor added; ^E, ^X, ^S and ^D function as Uparrow,
   downarrow, left and right. ^A and ^F as HOME and END.  As I said,
   I am waiting for a trick to read the scancodes.  You 'll remember
   that in 4DOS the up-arrow cycled back through the command-history,
   and the down-arrow forward. ^E and ^X do it now in 4PSHELL. Don't
   forget to use HOME (^A) and END (^F) to finish the edited
   command-line.
   NB. this is fixed in version 1.04. Arrows now work like expected.

 =============================================================================

 PSHELL version 1.04

 My thanks to Martin Fridael who tested the previous versions.

 Backslash and point may be placed behind commands without
 intervening space.  N.B. spaces before the slash of a switch are
 obligatory!

 The caret (^) now may be used to combine several commands on the
 command line.

 DIR now displays the correct free space (in stead of the space of
     the defaultdisk).

 DOS-command removed in favour of 4DOS or COMMAND. Try them to see
     which one works on your system.

 STOP! quits Windows without confirmation

 ARROW-keys and Home/End now work too! Finally got my fingers between
     the keys.

 The close-box left-up now works without letting an accidental
     CTRL-C clobber the window.

=====================================================================

 PSHELL version 1.05

 DIR Displays sum of files in a directory.

 DEL Now you can stop a DEL *.* by pressing ctrl-c. I did find out the hard
     way that ctrl-c did not work here.

 EXCEPT (one of that 4DOS-goodies) works too! Just put filespecs
     inside parenthesis and give a disk-command.
     e.g.
     EXCEPT (*.EXE *.COM) COPY *.* B:
     It works by first setting the attributes of the files
     between the parenthesis on HIDDEN and READONLY, executing
     the command and setting the HIDDEN and READONLY off again.
     NOTE: files of that filespec, which were hidden or read-only
     to begin with, are changed to NOT hidden and NOT readonly!

 SET may be used to examine DOS environment variables (not to SET them!)

==============================================================================

 PSHELL version 1.06

 Although I considered version 1.05 as the final version, they kept
 pestering me for refinements like storing the window-dimensions in
 an INI-file. I consider it rot, but here goes...

 EXIT /S causes the current parameters to be saved in a PSHELL.INI.

==============================================================================

 PSHELL version 1.07

 Some germans asked for umlauts etc in the descriptions... They got it.
 But I did not find out how to enter them in PSHELL, so they will have to
 do this kind of descriptions in the 4DOS-shell, although they may read
 them in PSHELL. If they know how to make WINDOWS recognize that
 horrible german keyboards, they may tell me about it.

 /S added to TYPE and LIST. It suppresses weird characters and
    adds CR/LF's, so that you may TYPE executables and other
    non-ASCII-files.

 /W trims bit 8 (useful for some wordprocessor-files).



 Support added for the excellent WINBATCH batchprocessor for Windows
 from Morris Wilson. A shareware version can be downloaded from any
 well-equipped BBS. Just put WINBATCH and the batchfile (extension WBT)
 somewhere in your path. Of course WINBATCH will nag you for registration
 every first time you use it in a session. I will nag you for a bottle
 of beer, every time you read this.

 INDES. The command INDES has been added, which enables the selection
     of files which have a certain string in their description-part (not case-
     sensitive).
     So

     INDES "foobar" DEL *.BAK

     means "delete all *.bak-files with 'foobar' somewhere in the description.
     and

     INDES NOT "foobar" DEL *.bak

     means "delete all *.bak-files, except those with 'foobar' somewhere
     in the description...
 Try it! It effectively makes the filenames 40 characters longer!
 I might go and implement it as an addition to 4DOS, it works that well!

 DESCRIBE now accepts a stringargument, which lets you add descriptions
     to a lot of files in one command. like:

     DESCRIBE PSHELL*.* "That beautiful shell of Paijmans

 F1 may be used to start HELP now. And I finally got that bloody Icon
     nailed!

 It is not necessary anymore to give the drive explicitly when starting a
 BAT-file in the default-directory.

 Some minor bugs squashed, notably in Type, the file-comments and
 rename, thanks to Petri Hartoma, who also suggested the ICON-fix.
 Also a bug, wich prohibited executing external commands, which were preceded
 by a disk and colon.

==============================================================================

 PSHELL version 1.09   23 August 1991
 PSHELL version 2.01

 BAC added, which works like COPY, but only copies new files and
     files, which are younger than the files on the destination drive

 UPDATE added, which copies only younger files over older files,
     but does not add new files.

 BEEP added. Look, you're not gonna believe this, but it beeps.

 LOAD added, which loads and minimizes a task as an Icon.

 INDES is split in INDES and INDESI. INDES now is case-sensitive and
 INDESI is not.

 WHERE filenaam. Searches default disk for file(s)

 BATCH-files. It had to come: PSHELL now has batchfiles of its own.
 Just use ASCII-files with the extension .PBT.
 Currently supported are:

   ECHO on|off|messagestring
   REM
   PAUSE message
   9 parameters (%1 .. %9)
   IF parameter == string .... (mind the spaces around the == !)
              also eq, ne, gt, lt, le, ge
   EXISTS filename
   GOTO label
   :label

 NOTA BENE: PSHELL searches PBT before the BAT-extension. Therefore
 you may use identical names, e.g. SEARCH.PBT and SEARCH.BAT as below
 for the same tasks under WINDOWS and DOS

   PUSHD C:\
   WHERE %1
   CDD D:\
   WHERE %1
   POPD

 Which (assuming 4DOS and the renaming of FF.COM to WHERE.COM) would
 either use PSHELL-commands under WINDOWS and 4DOS-commands under 4DOS,
 but execute transparent.

==================================================================
 PSHELL 2.02

 An 'autoexec' added, which executes automatically whenever a new copy
 of pshell is started. It is called '4PSHELL.PBT' and may be anywhere in
 the path.

 KD added which means 'KillDir'. KD recursively deletes all files
 and directories under and inclusive the given directory.

 PROMPT added, which behaves more or less as the DOS prompt-command.
 The prompt is saved to PSHELL.INI when quitting PSHELL with EXIT /S

 VER added, which displays the version numbers of PSHELL, MS-DOS and
 MS-WINDOWS.

 Pseudo-device CON added, so 'COPY CON Filename' works too.

 Redirection-signs > and >> added.

 Move: if moving between directories on the same drive, a RENAME
 is done in stead of the rather slow COPY and DELETE. (Jarvi asked for
 that one too. Finnish beer will do nicely, thank you).

 I think that I now really will quit messing around with this shell.
 The next version will be downward compatible, but far more intelligent.

==================================================================

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Although everybody is invited to copy PSHELL for private use, the
program is NOT public domain. I want to keep all options open to
prohibit criminal, racist, zionist and fascist organizations to
profit from my work.

Giving this program away for free in a package deal, in which
other products are sold, is considered commercial use and is explicitly
prohibited without written permission from me. Just keep thinking
"OK, so this dutch guy made something. How would I like to be treated
if I was in his shoes?"
If somebody wants to use my program commercially, just contact me.
We will work out something.

Suggestions and donations of bottles with Belgian beer are welcome
at

Hans Paijmans
Elzenstraat 1
5183 VS Waalre
Holland

[e-mail] (bitnet).