8+1 Entertainment Pack: Game Pack 2

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Text File | 1993-12-01 | 10.0 KB | 359 lines

ADVANCED DOS HINTS & TIPS --------------------------------------------- DRIVE Z This tip allows you to have up to 26 virtual disk drives ranging from A: to Z:. These can use actual space on your hard disk, on a RAM disk or on a floppy. 1. In your CONFIG.SYS file, add the line: LASTDRIVE=Z 2. Make sure SUBST.EXE (comes with MS-DOS) is in your root directory 3. In your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, or from the DOS prompt, type: SUBST Z: C:\SUB-DIRECTORY\SUB-SUB-DIRECTORY where z: is any letter between A and Z which is not an actual drive. C: is the drive which contains the files and the sub-directory(ies) is the current path. 4. Simply use the new drive as if it were another disk drive. --------------------------------------------- SHORTCUT This tip speeds up file operations at the DOS prompt with MS-DOS 3.0 or newer. Instead of the wildcard specifier *.* which means "all files" simply type a period. The following statements work on all files within a directory: DEL . - Deletes all files in directory COPY . A: - Copies all files in directory to A: DIR ./W - Lists all files in directory in wide format. --------------------------------------------- FORCE FORMAT Do you want to format a 1.44 meg floppy as 720k, or format a 1.2 meg disk as 360k? Here are the commands: format /f:720 or format /f:360 --------------------------------------------- PRINTING GRAPHICS MS-DOS comes with a small TSR program called GRAPHICS.COM which allows you to print a graphic mode screen image to paper. Simply type GRAPHICS and press [Enter] from within your root or DOS directory, then run your graphics program. When you have something on the screen which you want to print, hold a [Shift] key and simultaneously press the [Print Screen] key. On older versions of MS-DOS this only works in CGA graphics. --------------------------------------------- MIXED VERSIONS You can use programs which came with older versions of MS-DOS with Version 5 or greater by using SETVER.EXE first. See your MS-DOS manual. An example is the KEYBDV.COM which came only with MS-DOS version 3.20. This changed the positions of the characters on the keyboard to the more efficient (but hard to learn) Dvorak configuration. Now you can use it with Ver 5.0 or greater. --------------------------------------------- XCOPY If you have a 3.5" drive and a 5.25" drive, you may wish for a more efficient way to copy all files from one to the other than COPY *.*. This is especially annoying if the floppies have sub-directories. Use XCOPY.EXE which comes with MS-DOS. XCOPY will copy all files on one disk onto another even if the disks are of different type. With the most recent version you even sub-directories are faithfully preserved. Here are some examples of XCOPY: XCOPY A: B: - Will copy everything in root directory of disk in A: to the disk in B: XCOPY C:\STUFF A: - Will copy everything in STUFF sub-directory to A: XCOPY B: A:/S - Recent version only - will copy entire B: disk, complete with sub-directories onto A: disk, and replicate the sub-directories. --------------------------------------------- MAKE YOUR OWN MENU SYSTEM Writing circular batch files is quite easy and makes fancy "menu maker" programs look silly. With this technique, your computer will automatically show a menu, then allow the you to pick a program simply by pressing a number. For this example, we'll pretend that you use a word processor called WORDX.EXE, a game called AQUALUNG.EXE, and The 21st Century Almanac. We'll put these programs in their own fictitious sub-directories. 1. Make a menu with any editor or word processor which produces standard ASCII files. The menu is a text file with less than 25 lines of text. Let's call the menu "MENU.TXT." Our example looks like this: MY MAIN MENU ^^^^^^^^^^^^ (Type 1, 2 or 3, then press [Enter].) 1. WORDX 2. AQUALUNG 3. WHAT'S IN THAT BOX? 2. Put these lines at the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: CLS TYPE MENU.TXT The first line, CLS, simply CLears the Screen. The second line uses the DOS command TYPE to present the menu. 3. Make a batch file called 1.BAT with your word processor (in ASCII mode). It will contain these lines: CD \WORDPROC WORDX CLS TYPE MENU.TXT The first line Changes the Directory to the one containing your word processing program. The second line actually runs the WORDX program. When you are done with word processing, the next line is executed, which Clears the Screen and again displays the menu. 4. Make another batch file, this one called 2.BAT, which will run AQUALUNG if the user types 2. It will contain these lines: CD \GAMES AQUALUNG CLS TYPE MENU.TXT 5. And make 3.BAT, which will look like this: CD \WBOX WBOX CLS TYPE MENU.TXT As you can guess, this third batch file will run the Universal Converter when you type 3 at the DOS prompt. And your menu system is all finished. When the computer starts, the menu is displayed on the screen. It contains three choices. At the bottom of the menu is the DOS prompt. You can type anything (as usual) at the prompt, but are invited to type 1, 2 or 3. Doing so will start one of the three batch files, and the program of your choice will run. When done with that program, the menu reappears. --------------------------------------------- RENAME A FILE There are many ways to rename a file, but the easiest at the DOS prompt is to use the DOS command REN like this: REN LIZARDS.TXT TOADS.DOC'; This renames the file called LIZARDS.TXT so it will now be known as TOADS.DOC. This works equally well with .EXE and .COM files, but they must have the same extension when renamed or they won't run. --------------------------------------------- EASY PRINTING What's the fastest way to print a text file to paper? At the DOS prompt type: COPY FILENAME.EXT PRN To print text displayed on your monitor at any time, if your printer is ready, simply hold a [Shift] key and simultaneously press the [Print Screen] key. --------------------------------------------- CLEAR THE SCREEN If you've been fooling around at the command line on company time, when the boss comes around type CLS and press [Enter]. This blanks the screen. --------------------------------------------- FOR TOUCH TYPISTS If you are a touch-typist, you may not like the long stretch the the [Esc] key or other non-alphanumeric keys. Here are some substitutions which work in most programs: [Pause] = [Ctrl] + [S] [Esc] = [Ctrl] + [/] [Break] = [Ctrl] + [C] [Bksp] = [Ctrl] + [H] and [Ctrl] + [P] at the DOS prompt will turn on the printer to faithfully reproduce everything you do at the DOS prompt until you press [Ctrl] + [P] again. --------------------------------------------- VARIATIONS OF DIR You probably know the DOS DIR command to display files. Here are some variations: DIR *.* /P - Shows everything in the current directory, but waits for you to press a key, if there are more files than will fit on the screen at one time. DIR A: /W - Similar to above, but shows all files in current directory of A: drive, and displays files in columns so many more can fit on the screen. DIR FILENAME.EXE - Shows only one file, the one you have specified, and it's size, date, etc. DIR *.DOC - Shows all files in current directory which have extension of .DOC. DIR /? - Only available in MS-DOS version 5.0 and later. This lists several more DIR options. Notice in particular /O which will display files in a sorted order. --------------------------------------------- EDIT THE DOS PROMPT You can do neat things with the DOS prompt itself. To edit the prompt, type PROMPT followed by a space, then one or more of the following codes: $P Current drive and path $T Current time $D Current date $N Current drive $G > $L < Type these lines at your DOS prompt or within your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and get the following effects: PROMPT $P$G - This is the most common variation. It shows the current directory as well as the current drive. PROMPT $T$G$G$G$G - Tells time of day followed by >>>> PROMPT YES! $P$G - As you can see, text can be inserted verbatim. PROMPT - followed by no parameters restores default prompt. --------------------------------------------- CHANGE TEXT COLOR You can change the color of text at the DOS prompt and in many programs on CGA, EGA and VGA systems with the PROMPT command. For this to work, ANSI.SYS, NANSI.SYS, TANSI.SYS or something similar must be installed in your CONFIG.SYS file. Type this command (make sure not to use capital letters): prompt $e[35m$p$g'; but you can substitute 35 for one of these numbers: 33 for amber, 34 for blue, 36 for gray, 32 for green, 35 for purple, 31 for red, or 37 for white. For example, to type in amber text, type this at your DOS prompt before you start a program: prompt $e[33m$p$g This will not work for all programs, because some take over screen colors when they start. _____________________________________________ end of file.