PsL Monthly 1993 December

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U1-03: Batch File Utilities ----------------------- 1033 Batch File Editors Small Programs Disk ----------------------- Batch File Editor 1.4 (BATCH) Tisdell, Mike $0 is a small, simple editor for editing batch files. BatMaker creates batch files for you. Boxes Oedware $? allows you to draw four different types of boxes and inter-sections with cursor keys. Use any ASCII character to paint or line a box. CopyCon 3.12 Data Acquisition Inc. $10 is a clever name for an editor for working on batch files. Although it can be used for any small text file, it has many features to make creating batch files easier, such as macros to enter GOTO, ECHO and other common batch command, plus line drawing capabilities. A help screen is also included. The program even uses F6 to save and exit, just like DOS's COPY CON command. ED (OEDLIN) Oedware $? is a screen/text editor designed with many features specifically for creating and modifying Batch Files. SCR1 "Try-It-You'll-Like-It" Software $24 is a processing system that was created to assist in creating menus and help screens. The SCREDIT.COM program provides a method of retrieving, editing and saving screen images that can be used in a batch file. SCRBATCH.COM was created to display the screen image and optionally accept a response from the keyboard and set the ERRORLEVEL (so it can be tested using the IF batch subcommand). WISP 3.0 Sitting Duck Software $15-$45 is a programming language specifically designed for creating menuing systems, interactive tutorials, demos, batch files, etc. It does not create executable files, but the WISP.EXE file needed to run the programs is just 8k and fast, Making it a reasonable alternative to compiling. An editor/debugger and several sample files are included. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1033 -------------------------------- ------------------------------- 1008 Batch File Input Utilities Small Programs Disk ------------------------------- Press Any Key 3.0 (ANYKEY) Smith, Dave $5 (formerly Accele-Press) displays a "press any key" message in 18 different ways including a shake screen, squish screen, flash, fade out, zoom, and more. Adds style to your batch files. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #18068.) Answer 3.00 Schweiger, Frank $0 unlike utilities limited to getting a single keypress, allows you to get a whole string of text from the user or via redirection from a text file. Ask Y/N input by user (in response to question in the batch file). AT Command Scheduler (AT) Frolik, Bill $? will issue a command in DOS at a specified time. If you are not in DOS at that time, the command will be postponed. BatKit 5.2d Mississippi Data Equipment Company, Inc. $25 started out as a nice way to get a keypress from a user in a batch file. Now it has grown into a powerful batch file utility that lets you control the cursor position, screen colors, tones, get multi-letter responses rather than just a single letter, and more. You can make quite an impressive batch file menu with BATKIT, as the accompanying sample batch files will show you. Batch Control 1.2 (BC-WW) Woodward & Woodward $5 is for prompting users for input from within batch files. Among the controls are the ability to limit response to the number pad keys, to the function keys, to a list of alphanumeric characters, to require a password, to disable Ctrl-Break, to use a special character in place of the cursor, to have a time limit for response, and more. Batch Query 2.25 (BQUERY) MorganSoft $? lets you get input from a user in a batch file, restricting such input to a specified list of characters, such as menu items. For example, if you say "Press 1-4 or Q to Quit", and specify the list of acceptable characters as "1,2,3,4,qQ", BQ will set errorlevel according to the position in the list, as determined by the commas. In this example, both "q" and "Q" are in position 5, so if "Q" is pressed, errorlevel will be set to 5. To allow alternatives for each position, such as pressing a number or the first letter of a command, the list could be given something like this: "1Mm, 2Rr, 3Cc, 4Qq", in which case pressing "1", "M" or "m" would be equivalent. The program also will allow a mouse to be used to make a selection and will set errorlevel the same as with the keyboard selection. This is the first simple batch file input utility we have seen that supports a mouse. Chkey is another batch file utility that checks for a keypress, but unlike others that wait for a key to be pressed, this one checks to see if a key has already been pressed and if so, which one. If no key has been pressed before this utility executes, that will be indicated also. EPShell WeeBee Software $? Extended Pause lets you prompt users for input and take action according to the input from within a batch file. While there are other utilities that do this, the set of EP*.* files are also a good lesson in using batch files, creating menus and using ANSI.SYS control commands. Funckey Humenny, Mike $0 is another batch file utility which lets you get a keypress from a user. The twist to this one is that while it is waiting for the key, it displays the time (to seconds) in a box anywhere on the screen that you specify. (Note that contrary to common practice, FUNCKEY expects the column number to be entered first, then the row, when entering the screen location for the clock.) GetDigit (GETDIGI) Rhea, Tony Alan $0 accepts a prompt from the command line and accepts a one digit response to that prompt. On exit, the DOS ERRORLEVEL is set to the digit. Non-numeric keys are ignored and Ctrl-Break will not exit. Hit is a unique way to ask a user (in a batch file) to "hit any key to continue". The animated graphics show a duck hitting the keyboard of a computer with a sledge hammer. IfCRC 1.0 Bennett, David $0 allows you to execute commands within a batch file based on whether or not a certain file matches a given CRC value. Although primarily written to execute a certain command based on whether a file has been altered or not, It could also be used to check a daily transfer from a remote site or even used to check for computer viruses. IFF 5.0a Knauer, John Jr. $25-$45 combines the functions of several other small utilities into one package. IFF lets you ask simple Y/N questions, check to see if a disk is formatted, search for a file and change to its directory, test for amount of free space on a disk, multi-character responses can be taken from the keyboard and acted upon and more. A Prompt option lets you create a menu in the batch file and get a selection from the user. Insist Wisan, Richard $0 is a batch file utility that prints out specified text and beeps insistently until it gets input from the keyboard. INSIST2 is similar, but gives up on beeping after about 10 minutes. Assembler source is included. Pause2 Pakin, Scott $? is an improved version of DOS's pause command. The problems with DOS's command are that, when ECHO is off, it only displays one message ("Strike a key when ready . . ."), and it doesn't alert the user when it appears. This program allows users to display any message they want, which could include beeps. Pausex Witriol, Robert M. D. $0 is a variation of DOS's PAUSE command. It provides a secret way out of a batch file by pressing X instead of Enter. PCMenu Slone, J. Eric $5 is a windowed menuing system which may be easily used in batch files and in applications development (i.e. dBase) for professional looking pop-up menus. SEV Staelens, John H., Jr. $0 will allow keyboard input, or the output of a program, to be captured into a DOS environment variable. It afects all environments, not just the current or master. Requires DOS 3+. C source included. (Not on this disk. Order by name.) SuperSET 1.61 (SUPRSET) Linley, Richard $0 makes it easy to manipulate and use the DOS environment. It will read and store in variables the date, time, current drive and directory and keyboard input. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #8684.) Task is a timed prompt for batch files. If you don't enter anything for the specified number of seconds, execution of the batch files resumes. TimedGet is a batch file utility that allows you to use the IF ERRORLEVEL command of the batch processor to choose between two actions during the execution of a batch file. Unlike similar utilities TIMEDGET will set a default ERRORLEVEL value if no keyboard entry is made within a given time, the timeout is approximatly 12 seconds. Run TGDEMO for an example. Wait-JR 1.0 Radel, Jon $0 is a general purpose replacement for all the PAUSE and keystroke query programs used in BATCH files. It can wait until a given time, wait a given amount of time, wait until any key is hit, or wait until a specific answer is typed in. It will then either run a command or simply return, doing nothing except returning a useful return code. (We added the author's initials to the file name to differentiate it from other WAIT programs in the PSL.) Pascal source code is included. Waitex & Wait Jordan, Ed $? works like utilities already on our Batch File Utilities disk in that it will cause the computer to pause execution of commands in a batch file until the specified time. However, WAITEX is a new idea. It causes a program to run UNTIL a specified time at which point it exits back to DOS where it could, for example, continue executing a batch file or simply return to a DOS prompt. Could be useful for unattended backups or transmission of files. (Note: Waitex seems to work erratically - mainly with large programs. Test before using. Also see My-Desk 2-UT-1406.) Waitn Goosens, Ken $? idles machine for specified number of seconds in batch processing. You often want a specified amount of time to elapse between events. For example, you want a display to be on the screen for 5 second, then move on. WaitUntl Software Research $? can be used in batch files to simply wait until a certain time passes. The program continually displays the current time, which makes it easy to compare to the time set in WAITUNTL. WAITUNTL makes it easy to trigger a series of events based on time, such as downloading data at 6am and running a series of reports at 6:15 to have ready when you get in. YN Wooten, Emery D. Jr. $0 is a batch file utility that prompts the user for a Yes or No response and sets ERRORLEVEL accordingly. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1008 -------------------------------- ---------------------------- 1146 Batch System Control #1 Small Programs Disk ---------------------------- 1146 Speaker ------------ Phasers Wenzel, Scott $0 displays the message "Firing phasers, Captain" and produces some spacey sound effects. Just the thing to put in your batch files in place of a nondescript "beep". Rebeep beeps the computer until key is pressed. Sound Goosens, Ken $? is a utility to control the IBM PC speaker. Three options are available: BEEP - A short beep. Signifies a noteworthy event, such as error, or end of processing. ALERT - Series of pulsing, insistent sounds patterned after Star Trek red alert. Use for serious warnings of major dangers. TAKEOFF - Long, rising pitch, like a falling bomb or rocket takeoff. Signifies build to a climactic event. Sounder 3.1 [SOUNDER] 09-93 CD Steenburgh, Chuck $5 produces from 1-3 random tones for use in batch files. 1,110 different tone combinations are possible. You can also specify the frequency and duration of a single tone to be produced, rather than the random tone sequence. Sound Off! (SOUNDOF) Ralin Enterprises $12 generates sound patterns from the command line or batch file. It has two alarm calls, and will read script files for producing general sounds, and music. A script for the William Tell Overture is included. Requires DOS 3.0+. Squeak simply gives a specified number of "squeaks" when called from DOS. It's intended use is within batch files to get the user's attention. Tune plays one of 5 tunes as an attention-getter. Wheep is a batch file utility for getting the attention of users. To use, enter WHEEP n where n is some number. Example: WHEEP 3. 1146 Speech ----------- AutoTalk (AUTOTAL) Genovese, Ray $0 offers several examples of digitized speech that you could put in a batch file or just play to impress your friends. We think it's a nice touch for the computer to say "Good morning" at the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Computer Voice Clock (CVOICE) Forben Software $25 lets the computer tell you the time. The voice quality is very good and it can be speeded up or slowed down. All 38 words used by the clock program are available individually from the command line, primarily for use in batch files. It will pronounce any number up to 999,999 or reply yes-no from your program. (Warning: it will crash big-time under DESQview.) DigiGreet 2.1 (DGREET) Reznick, Josh $7 gives you a digitized voice greeting. Depending on the time of day, it will say Good Morning, Good Afternoon, or Good Evening, followed by Thank You for turning me on, I was getting bored. GoodDay brings PC artificial intelligence one small step closer. With this utility, your computer will greet you (on screen, not speech) with "Good morning", "...afternoon", or "...evening", as appropriate. See AUTOTALK for verbal greetings. Operation Complete (OPCOMP) Leithauser, David $0 says "Operation complete" through your PC's speaker. This is a neat way to end batch file tasks. SAY (SAY-TH) Henderson, Thom $? passes its command line arguments to the SPEECH function, thus allowing batch files to generate speech. You must install SPEECH before SAY will work. Saytime (SAYTIM) Farjo, Laith $? is a resident utility that will tell you the time when you press Alt-F10. (You must first load T-SPEECH before loading SAYTIME.) At slower cpu speeds (4 mhz), it does a respectable job. At higher cpu speeds, it sounds like James Cagney doing Donald Duck doing a Chipmunk song. In other words, this works best on an unmodified 8088 PC. Saytime Campbell, George $0 is a speaking clock for your PC. It will not work on all machines. Unlike SAYDAY (on another Additions Disk), you do not have to listen to any clever sayings, so SAYTIME could be useful, particularly for vision impaired people. Speech McGuire, Andy $? generates speech when run, it performs a "terminate and stay resident", becoming available as a background function, usable by other programs. Strike Cravener, William $0 speaks the words "Strike a key when ready" through your PC's speaker. Use it to spice up your batch files. An animated ANSI drawing of a face is also included. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1146 -------------------------------- ---------------------------- 2162 Batch System Control #2 Small Programs Disk ---------------------------- Ansi-Esc (ANSI-ES) Feldmann, Peter F. $0 consists of a small utility for controlling screen colors and cursor position through ANSI.SYS. A demo batch file shows how to use it. Batch Enhancer By Elmer 1.0 (BEBE) Robinson, Elmer $5 is a somewhat typical batch file enhancer that lets you draw boxes on the screen, position the cursor, get input, etc. We would not have added it but for one new, interesting feature: the ability to do math (add, subtract, multiply, divide, modulus, absolute value) and store the result in the DOS environment for other use. One use of this is for simple looping within the batch file for a specified number of times. A more complex example is using another feature of BEBE to get file sizes and total them. Unfortunately, this feature does not work under DESQview or when shelled to DOS because BEBE does not know how to locate the working environment. BigEcho 2 Simon, Barry and Wilson, Richard $0 sends big text to the screen from batch files for doing title screens, etc. The new fonts include BigSerif, Broadway, Computer, Future, Hollow, LCD, Medieval, Script, Small and Super. Up to four lines of nine characters each will fit on one screen. Assembler source code is included. Cecho is a batch file utility that lets you ECHO messages to the screen in different colors. QB4 source code is included. (Note: the file CsLECHO2.BAT is for the use of QB4 programmers only. Run BATCOLOR.BAT for a demo and read that batch file to see how to select colors.) CleanBat (CLEANBT) shows how to use ANSI.SYS control codes to keep a batch file from echoing to the screen without having to do things like redirecting output to NUL. Display 1.0 Sawada, Dr. Masaaki $5-$10 lets you temporarily turn screen display on and off, and more. This allows batch files to turn off text sent to your screen. It also tells the video mode of the screen, clear the screen and relocates the cursor or make it disappear. Unlike ECHO OFF, which will display some text such as DOS error messages, DISPLAY OFF cuts all screen writing which goes through the BIOS. EAJ 2.2 Costello, Peter $10 is an amusing message display utility. It has several options, but the basic premise is that your message will scroll across the screen from right to left. You can specify window size and location, delays, number of times to repeat, colors, centering, and more. Echo-N Lynx Robotics $0 works like DOS's ECHO command, except that it does not advance the cursor to the next line. This means that you could, for example, branch to other parts of a batch file and print additional text on the same line, etc. Commented assembler source is included. EchoPlus 1.0 (ECHOPLS) Venter, C & Seaman, J. $? lets you Echo system information to the screen from within batch files (or at the DOS prompt). The info that can be displayed (or redirected to a file) includes the current directory, the current drive, DOS version, disk size, disk space available, time and date, time of day, hour of day, minutes, day of month, day of week, month, year. For example, the following batch file would log a program's usage: ECHOPLUS "Program began at " TIME >> PROGRAM.LOG {commands to load and run program} ECHOPLUS "Program ended at " TIME >> PROGRAM.LOG MSG is as batch file utility that lets you print text on the screen. With DOS's Echo command that you would normally use, you are limited to simple one-line messages. MSG allows you to insert carriage returns, vertical and horizontal tabs and other formatting codes. PScreen 1.03 D.D.G. $5 lets you print a screen from within a batch file. This is such a simple, yet useful utility, that we were surprised when we could not find a similar utility already in the library. It supports all printer ports and will optionally add a header with date and time stamps. (The authors are no longer at the address listed in the documentation.) Send Rumsey, Howard $? is a substitute for the batch file ECHO command that works with ANSI.SYS (or similar console driver) to allow positioning of the cursor, changing colors, etc., from within batch files. ShowLogo (SHOWLOG) Renner, Rod L. $? lets you create a self-displaying graphics screen that will display until any non-alpha (eg: Ctrl or Shift) key is pressed. Good for use with batch files if you are sure your users will have the necessary color graphics card. You do have to use DEBUG to create your own file, but it is extremely easy to do by following the example in the documentation file. Tyme displays the time in a more readable format. Vidtype 1.8 Deegan, Vince $5 sets up a DOS environment variable that indicates the type of video you have. Before running some application, this variable can be accessed with the IF statement in a batch file to automatically add the program's command line parameter or video driver file to select the appropriate video type. This is most useful in a network environment where different kinds of video may be used with the same program. The program has options for detecting the current row/col mode, the system type, DOS version, free environment space, and keyboard type. user-prompt for monitor type with CGA adapters, detecting the CPU type and changed numbering sequence for errorlevels. Another option allows enabling or disabling row and column variables when more environment space is needed. The address included in the documentation is no longer current. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #2162 -------------------------------- ---------------------------- 1993 Batch System Control #3 Small Programs Disk ---------------------------- 1993 Reboot ----------- Boot is a simple utility to let you call for a cold or warm system re-start from within a batch file after, say, reconfiguring your CONFIG.SYS. 1993 Keyboard ------------- CR pushes (Return) into the keyboard buffer. This is useful for putting default responses to programs run in BAT file processing. Flip (FLIP-TF) Foth, Thomas J. $? lets you change -Lock keys or monitors from within a batch file. Kbstak Kyle, Jim $? lets you start up another program by taking keystrokes from a specified text file which you can easily create with a text editor. This is similar to stuffing keystrokes into the key buffer, but you can store more keystrokes in a file. It is also similar to using DOS's redirection (example: 123 < STARTKYS.TXT) with the important difference that after using up the keystrokes in the file, Kbstak reverts to taking input from the keyboard and DOS's redirection does not. Kflush Angel, Dave $? is a little utility to flush the keyboard after running a program in which the user may have activated a long keyboard macro. It can be used in a batch file that executes's the program, and then KFLUSH after leaving the program. 1993 Subdirectory ----------------- DinDout Richwell, Gunner $15 is like PUSHDIR/POPDIR but more useful. DIN will store the current directory in a ring buffer that can hold three directory names. DOUT will change from the current directory to the next one in the buffer, making it easy to move among several directories. FD Telfer, Martin $? is a utility to check for existence of directories or files. Lastdir Hipple, Ken $? places the current directory path into the environment using the variable name LAST. PPPD 3.01 Wisan, Richard $0 lets you save the current drive and path for later recall. This is particularly useful in batch files in which you may not be able to anticipate what directory the user will be in. PPPD lets you save that information, change to another drive and directory to run a program, and then change back to the original drive and directory when done. Unlike similar utilities, it saves data to a temporary disk file rather than being a TSR or relying on space being available in the DOS environment. 1993 Date/Time -------------- DateChk 1.0 Schroder, William B. MD $? forces the user to enter a valid system date and time, to the extent that the program requires the year to be 1989 or later and the timer to have an hour greater than "00". Fdate 8.2a (FDATESF) 09-93 CD Ferg, Stephen $0 lets you do date and time arithmetic in batch files. Qtod 1.21 Harold, Thomas G. $0 outputs the date and time along with any comment that you put on the command line in a form that can be added to a text file with redirection. This can be used as a quick and easy way to create a time log either from the DOS command line or from a batch file. UDate Kerber, George $5 displays the date and time in many possible formats. Among the display format options are the time zone, day of the week and Julian date. It can also be used to set your system time and date, including automatic adjusting for Daylight Savings Time. Output can be redirected to a file. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1993 -------------------------------- --------------------------- 0271 Get System Information Small Programs Disk --------------------------- SKactive, TLactive (ACTIVE) Sapphire Software $? can be used in batch files to determine if SideKick or Turbo Lightning are active so that you can take appropriate action. Cdtest Casterline, Leroy $? checks for the existence of specified Path. CFree 1.0 Crouch, John $10 will check the free space of all disks specified on the command line. It will set ERRORLEVEL to indicate the percentage of free space remaining, for use in batch files. Check day of month, month, free disk space, free memory, file size, specified text within a file, key pressed, machine ID code, time of day, video mode and card, DOS version, presence of math coprocessor. Check File Size (CHKFSIZ) Appleman, Harron K. $0 can be used in a batch file to determine if a file is of a specified size. DOS errorlevel will be set to 0 or 1, accordingly. One example usage would be to redirect compiler output to a file and check the file size to see if any error messages have been added to the normal compiler output. Pascal source is included. Checking (CHECKIN) checks if previous program executed successfully. ChkDate Gordon, Guy $? checks if date is still 01/01/80. ChkSys v1.0 (CHKSYS) Tay-Jee Software, ASP $20 sets errorlevel to indicate the presence of specified system elements: ANSI, Append, Assign, Doskey, Files setting, Graftabl, Himem, Keyb, NLSfunc, Print, Share, and Windows. CT-CUR Terrapin Software $10 CT (ChkTime) is a batch file utility that lets you check to see if a specified time or day has passed, and it lets you wait for a given time or day. Daycheck 1.00 (DAYCHEC) Rosenberger, Rob J. ASP $0 is a batch file utility that will let you determine from within a batch file the day of the week, the hour, the minute, the date, the month, or the year and branch within the batch file accordingly. DOSVer Steenburgh, Chuck $0 sets errorlevel in a batch file to indicate what version of DOS is being used. Dsize (DSIZEDW) Whitman, David $? allows determining the format of a diskette from within a batch file. DskChk 2.0 Wisan, Richard $0 lets you check from within a batch file to see if a drive is available, if the drive door is closed, and optionally, if the disk in the drive can be written to (ie: not write-protected or full). Emsver Dunford, Christopher J. $0 is a batch file utility which sets errorlevel to indicate the type of EMS, if any, that is present in a system, allowing the batch file to branch as appropriate. ErrLevel (ERRLEVE) Sittler, Paul M. $? will let you determine the date, Julian date, day of week or hour of the day from within a batch file and take action accordingly. Fastbat is a text file that contains a very interesting discussion on how to speed up the execution of batch files. Free (FREE-VB) Bly, Vince $? is a small utility that displays the free space on the current or specified disk drive or free RAM memory. It can also set the DOS errorlevel if the amount of free space/memory is less than a specified amount. Hutils Hughes, Charles $0 is a collection of utilities: check whether an ansi driver is properly installed; current time and date can be directed to a file; check for a particular environment variable from within batch files; reset color card to 80-column text when video scrambled (this sometimes left us with a misplaced cursor); check total memory available after loading programs; type into any `pipe': to file, printer, remotely; computer `sleeps' for ssss.nn seconds, for delayed actions. Input prompts for 1-digit or 1-letter input by user. Lptchk VanderKinter, R. $0 is a new batch file utility for checking on the status of a printer. Instead of just telling you if the printer is on or off, this one sets ERRORLEVEL as follows: 4+ -general error; 3 -cable not connected; 2 -paper out; 1 -printer off line; 0 -printer is ready. Remember to start checking ERRORLEVEL in your batch files by checking for the highest number first. See BATCH in your DOS manual for more information. Matchvol (MATCHVO) Anderson, Pat $0 lets you verify that the volume label of a specified disk drive is the same as the name you specified on the DOS command line. Typically, the purpose will be to make sure that the user has the correct floppy disk in a certain drive before proceeding to the next step in a batch file. Pascal source code is included. Memavail (MEMAVAI) Anderson, Pat $0 allows you to check, from a batch file, your available system memory and compare it against a parameter you supply in the command which runs the program. A typical use in a batch file would be to make sure that there is enough free memory before invoking some program, and take appropriate corrective steps if not rather than just letting the program bomb out. While we already have similar utilities in the library, we are adding this one too because it comes with Pascal source code. PRTStat Graham, Keith P. $0 is a handy utility for checking the printer status in a batch file. Returns a non-zero errorlevel if printer is not ready. Rtncode Allen, R. D. $? is a little program that you can place in a Batch file to control ERRORLEVEL values as seen by the Batch file processor. Sizer Rhea, Tony $? indicates if there has been a successful completion of the previous program in a batch file. WaitDisk (WAIT-D) Rice, Larry B. $5 prompts a user for a specific disk and waits for it to be placed into a specific drive. A disk is identified by volume label and/or serial number. WaitDisk can be used in batch files, scripts or from other programs. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #0271 -------------------------------- ----------------------- 2394 Get System Info #2 Small Programs Disk ----------------------- Age-Of 1.6 Killeen, Walter $10 is a batch file utility that returns errorlevel=1 if a specified file is over a specified number of days old. DOS wildcards can be used, and it can display the first "n" lines of any file that it finds. The primary purpose is for use in doing backups. CheckEL 5 Snow, Glenn $0 displays the current errorlevel value in both the master environment and any shelled environment. The documentation is scant, and we could not figure any way to act on that information in a batch file. It appears that it is meant only to be read from the screen, which could be useful when building batch files. ChkDrv Dunford, Christopher J. $0 sets errorlevel to indicate if a specified drive is ready. It avoids the "Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail" message for use in batch files for unattended operation. DirChk 1.1 Hollis, Daniel K. $0 can be used in a batch file to test for the existence of a directory. DrvChk 1.0 Hollis, Daniel K. $0 sets errorlevel to indicate what drive you are on. DrvDir 3.00 Wisan, Richard $0 returns the current drive and directory specs in environment variables, and sets errorlevel to show the number of files in the current directory. ECO sets errorlevel to indicate how many parameters were given when the batch file was called. For example, if you have a batch file named FOO and you call it from DOS by entering FOO BAR CIRCLE LINE, then ECO will tell you that three parameters were entered. `C' source code is included. ERR_RET Fischkoff, Steven M.D. $0 tells you what a program sets ERRORLEVEL to, if anything. If you have a utility that sets errorlevel and want to be able to act upon that setting in a batch file, you can use this program to find out what value the program is assigning to errorlevel. ErrLevel 1.0 (ERRLEVL) Sawada, Dr. Masaaki $5 The DOS "errorlevel" function is used in batch file to branch to specific commands within the batch file. (See ERRORLEVEL under BATCH FILES in your DOS manual.) If you are in a program that has been loaded by such a batch file (and you can create your own batch files to take advantage of this), you can pop up this utility and manually set the errorlevel from 0 to 9. Note that if you try to set errorlevel with this utility while stopped at a batch file's PAUSE command, the errorlevel will not be set if the next line in the batch file is IF ERRORLEVEL... (res:1k) Get 2.5 Stephan, Bob $15 adds many useful commands to batch files. It will display a prompt and get any keypress, a yes or no response only, a string of characters, the DOS version, the amount of environment space left, file size, amount of free disk space, amount of free memory, and the name of the current directory. It will check for a printer, for a math coprocessor, for ANSI.SYS, and get/set video mode. It can also display a line of scrolling text. Also included is support for DR DOS and 4DOS, and support for extended keys on the enhanced keyboard. IfTime Hughes, John M. $0 sets errorlevel to reflect if the current time is less than, equal to, or greater than a specified time. C++ source code is included. IS Byte_Magic Software $0 lets you test for various system conditions or for literal strings and sets errorlevel accordingly. IS lets you check on user input, system date and time, file date and time and size, disk size, and disk free space. Operators allowed in checking these include Equal To, Greater Than, Less Than, Less Than Or Equal To, Not Equal To, etc. An example of its usage is "IS SYSTIME GT 16:00" where errorlevel is set to 1 if false, 0 if true. `C' source code is included. IsADrive 3.0 (ISADRIV) McNamara, Tony $0 will let you change drives without getting an "Abort, Retry, Fail" or other error message if the drive is not ready or available. In a batch file, you can check errorlevel to see what the result was, but even in DOS, this utility can save you a lot of aggravation. Instead of typing a drive letter to change drives, use this utility (preferably, renamed to something shorter). IsADrive will also let you hide and unhide a drive. When hidden, it cannot be accessed. There seems to be a minor bug in this version: even without specifying the Silent Mode, we never received error messages. PC-Ctrl is a collection of commonly used utilities in one program: ALARM, a series of beeps until a key is pressed; BEEP, a single beep; BORDER, sets border color; CAP & NUM, toggle the CapsLock and NumLock keys; CUR, changes cursor size; DR, returns disk drive statistics; MEM, returns memory statistics; SWP, swaps printer ports; SWS, swaps serial ports; and ADD, displays addresses of parallel and serial ports. Written by Jeffrey Ellis. Texflag creates a DOS prompt that displays the national flag of Texas. We're still working on one that will display an armadillo. You must have ANSI.SYS (or another console device driver) in your CONFIG.SYS file. Veal0688 (VEAL068) Veal, Craig D. $0 is a collection of little utilities. The two most interesting ones are CALL, which can be used in .BAT files to run other .BAT files without have to load a secondary copy of COMMAND.COM, and CDIR, which will allow you to change subdirectories without exiting a program. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #2394 -------------------------------- --------------------------- 2910 Internal Batch Control Small Programs Disk --------------------------- Bat-Nest Chow, Peter $? lets you nest batch files. Batch Menu System 5.41 (BMENUMS) Strong, Mark ASP $10-$15 provides pop-up menus within a batch file of any size or position on the screen, as specified on the command line. Color, title and choices can be listed on a single line to produce a complete menu on the screen. BatLoop 1.0 Renner, Rod L. $0 lets you loop through a batch file a specified number of times. This could be useful for formatting a specific number of disks, for example. Bazic 0.1 Sawada, Dr. Masaaki & Assoc. $10 adds functions to batch files, such as ON ERRORLEVEL GOSUB/GOTO... To try the features, you can run BAZC.BAT, but we found the use of REM in place of ECHO to prompt the user created a confusing display, so we created a modified version of the batch file as BAZC-PSL.BAT. res:3k Call (CALL-GP) Palecek, George $0 permits the users of MS-DOS 2.0 through 3.21 to write nested batch files using the MS-DOS 3.3 syntax. C source code is included. Do-For 2.1 Snow, Glenn $0 is a powerful replacement for the DOS batch file command FOR. Part of its power comes in allowing you to specify parts of a path or filename. For example, say you wanted to archive a set of text files such that each one would be compressed into an archive file with the same first part of the name (but different extension, naturally). As an example of what you would like to have done to each file, say that one is named SAMP.TXT. You would like to archive it with LHARC using the command "LHARC A SAMP.LZH SAMP.TXT". The closest you could come with DOS's FOR command is as follows: FOR %%F IN (C:\WP\*.TXT) DO lharc a %%F %%F which would result in the command "LHARC A SAMP.TXT SAMP.TXT". (If you do not understand this, please read about the FOR command under Batch File Commands in your DOS manual, or see the lead article in the 09/89 PSL NEWS.) With Do-For, you can specify parts of a filename: "`f" specifies the filename minus the extension; "`e" selects the extension; "`d" selects the drive; "`p" selects the path; and so on. The DO-FOR command would look like this: DO-FOR C:\WP\*.TXT lharc a `F.lzh `F.txt This is a powerful capability that until now, we were only able to get from an unreleased beta-test version of another program. And this is only one of Do-For's features. Elstr Pakin, Scott $0 takes the ERRORLEVEL generated by one program, creates a string containing that number, and passes the string to DOS as if it were typed by the user. This allows the ERRORLEVEL set by one program to be used as input by another program. ENV 1.5w (ENV-KE) Eikland, Kjell $15 is an extensive system for manipulating data via the DOS environment. Features of ENV include the ability to do math calculations, date and time functions, logical operations, text manipulation, editing of environment variables and much more. Loop Shapiro, Charles $5 lets you loop through a set of commands in a batch file a specified number of times. For example, you could use this utility in a batch file to format or copy a specified number of disks. RadioBox (RADBOX) Nicholson, Dave $0 lets you display a mouse-aware, shadow-dropped menu box with a one line command. This is a classy way to get users to select options in batch files. Errorlevel is set to reflect the user's choice. Unfortunately, the 46k file size of RadioBox probably makes this unsuitable for distribution to others, but it is a nice way to jazz up the batch files on your own system. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #2910 -------------------------------- ------------------------------- 3058 Other Batch File Utilities Small Programs Disk ------------------------------- BatchLst (BATCHLS) Haynes, Stephen L. $0 saves hard disk space by combining many batch files into a single text file. On boot-up, the program splits the file into the individual batch files and puts them on a RAM disk. (The program requires the use of a RAM disk.) Pascal source code is included. For more information about the reason for this program, see the article in the April 1990 PsL News about cleaning up your UTIL subdirectory. One reader suggested that we tell people how to combine many small batch files into one from which each batch file can be run with being split out first. We have tried this technique before and were annoyed by the extra time it takes to run something in the "master batch file" and by the extra keystrokes required. This program seems like a good compromise, when CED synonyms won't do. Bill's Unique Batch Arsenal 2.0 (BUBA) Reamy, Bill $0 is a group of utilities designed to extend the capabilities of batch files. There is a program that will determine the actual size of a floppy (or hard) disk; a utility that reports file size in ErrorLevel; a utility that allows user input in batch programs; a point and shoot file picker for batch programs; and more. Break 1.2 (BREAKCT) Computer Tyme $25 keeps people from breaking out of batch files. Programs can still see Ctrl-Break and Ctrl-C. It can be turned on and off with BREAK ON and BREAK OFF, and only uses about 400 bytes of RAM. ChkWin Clark, Tom $0 can be used in a batch file to detect the presence and operating mode of Windows. CLKTimer 2.03s (CLKTIME) Brook, Roger $10 is a (5k) TSR to perform tasks at designated times. It can display current time/date in the upper right hand corner of the screen, sound/display an alarm in the upper left hand corner of the screen, reboot the computer, and force keystrokes into the keystroke buffer to start or terminate a program. Keystroke tasks can be performed at a set time, each hour at a specified number of minutes after the hour, or after the computer has been idle for a specified number of seconds. So the arguments in the documentation in favor of this program are not valid and the registration fee for it seems pretty stiff for what is really a fairly trivial program. Nevertheless, we repeat that it is a very handy, well put together package and for a LAN manager (or anyone else) without the time to mess with setting up his own batch files, probably worth the registration fee. DO Alteasoft $0 is the ultimate batch file batcher. Many people have had the idea of combining many small batch files into one to save disk space. (On a hard disk, a 10-byte batch file still uses the Minimum Allocation Unit of at least 2,000 bytes.) DO is the first to automate the idea with the use of a tiny TSR that automatically searches the combined batch file for the batch file to execute if DOS cannot find it as a stand-alone. DTC Spencer, Mike $0 is a set of batch file utilities. One compares the date and time of two files. Another will Echo with no carriage return, save/revive a directory to/from a file, set Errorlevel, and return Error-level based on time in increments of ten minutes. Fortune will give you words of wisdom when run. Put it in your AUTOEXEC file to start each day wise. PC-ID 1.01 Jones, Winston Scott $5 displays a "floating box" in the middle of the screen with your message on it. Use it to add a little class to batch files. Read Screen (READSCR) Ning, Jimmy $0 compares text on the screen to specified text and sets errorlevel according to whether or not they match. This can be used in batch files for such things as seeing if a compile was successful or not. C source included. RemDot removes dots from the start of lines in batch files. Tail (TAIL-CT) Teasley, Charles $0 By calling a program with TAIL in your batch files ("TAIL MYEDITOR", for example), TAIL will prompt you for command line parameters and pass them to the specified program. This will allow you to have complex batch files or menu batch files in which you can easily change program parameters, even when you loop through the batch file more than once. (Assembler source is included.) VDIR Arendt, Bill $0 will read directory listings and text files through the Covox Speech Thing. VDIR is somewhat difficult to understand at first, but the longer we worked with it, the easier it became to understand it. It will also read text files a line at a time. When VDIR starts, it reads some information from the directory and waits for you to press a key. By using the cursor keys, you can have it read on directory entry at a time. WaitDisk (WAITDSK) Rice, Larry B. $5 prompts the user to place a specified disk into a specific drive and does not continue until it can identify the disk by Volume Label and/or Serial Number.This is useful for doing partial backups, verifying that the proper data disk has been entered, creating installation batch files, etc.. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #3058 -------------------------------- ----------------------------------- 12164 Other Batch File Utilities #2 Small Programs Disk ----------------------------------- Batcmdr 7.0 Castlesoft Boston $5 lets you combine numerous small batch files into a single .COM file in order to save disk space. While this is a very good idea, our number one recommendation is to replace small batch files with CED Synonyms whenever possible to save even more disk space and get much faster execution too. For those batch files that cannot be duplicated by CED Syn's, BatCmdr is the next best thing. BatMouse 1.1 (BATMOUS) (11/93 CD) Startech Systems $11 lets you add mouse support to your batch files. This is a slick utility, and will work from within Windows. BatTools 1.1 (BATTOOL) Nicholson Consulting Services $25 is a dialogue box enhancement tool for batch files. These dialogue boxes permit interactive batch file operation, custom menu creation, environment variable manipulation, and more. Other features include mouse support, color customization, and time and date tools. Requires DOS 3.3+. FPick 2.3a Ferg, Stephen $0 lets you display a pop-up picklist of filenames in a batch file. The filename picked by the user is available for use as an environment variable. Filenames can be returned in a variety of formats, and names displayed in the picklist can be controlled through a filemask and wildcard characters. TurboBat 3.16 (TRBOBAT) 09-93 CD Foley Hi-Tech Systems $19 allows you to compile regular DOS batch files into COM programs. This lets them run faster and helps protect them against modification by others. Also included is TrboTXT 1.11 which allows you to convert text files into self-displaying COM files. Ultimate ToolBox 2.0 (ULTBOX) Smith, David $0 contains over 85 functions mainly for increasing the power of batch files. Utilities are provided to encrypt files, change attributes, make sounds, change the cursor, calculate the wind chill, scroll the screen, control the keyboard, binary conversion, and more. --------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #12164 --------------------------------- ----------------------- 4224 Screen Enhancement Small Programs Disk ----------------------- BatMan 1.2 GS Communication $1 is a tool for adding pizazz to batch files. Batman will make the speaker beep in various ways, play songs and sound effects, switch to any video mode, get input from users, set screen colors, write text anywhere on the screen, draw boxes with borders, and more. CL (CL-RE) Eaton, Richard $0 clears the screen in 16 different ways, including dissolve, close curtain, explode, and shake. A screen capture utility is included. BatBox Raff, Mel $0 allows you to display text files in colorful, shadowed boxes automatically sized to the length of the longest line in the file. Drscroll 1.4 (DRSCROL) Roper, David $0 allows you to scroll a text message across the screen. You can adjust the row and column where you want the message to appear, the size of the message window, the scrolling speed, and more. Another option lets you choose the frequency of the beep that plays during the message. MicroMacroBat (MM-BAT) Sitting Duck Software $35 lets you add many screen controls to your batch files. The DEMO.BAT that comes with it gives quite an impressive demonstration. When you examine the list of functions that make up the program, you can understand why. The most surprising part is that the EXE file is only 7k, meaning that you can afford to add this anywhere you want to use it. Functions include drawing a box anywhere on the screen, clearing any part of the screen to a specified color, Bloading a screen from a file into video memory (eg: for "slide shows"), filling any part of the screen with a specified ASCII character, painting the screen without disturbing the existing text, a slow printing effect, a regular fast screen write to any place on the screen, waiting for a keypress, making a chime tone from a selection of 10 tones. It gives you the ability to turn the cursor on/off and to move the cursor to any point, to suspend operation until a specified number of seconds elapse, to stuff keystrokes into the key buffer, to scroll any part of the screen up, down, left or right a specified number of times, to dissolve the screen to a specified color, to print in large block characters, to recolor all occurrences of one color to another, and to print text vertically. Press Kerber, George $0 is a replacement for the DOS pause command. It dims whatever text is already on the screen and displays your prompt message in a colorful box in the center of the screen. Colors and frame styles are user selectable. It will optionally pause for a specified period in addition to requiring a keypress. Sparkle & Menu Magic 3.0 (SPARKLE) Smetana, Rob W. $33 lets you create fancy batch files. It has over 250 frame styles, over 35 sound effects, mouse support and more. Split and is another clever way to end the batch process and clear the screen. Screen Wizard 4.5b (SW-WS) [10/93 CD] Small, Warren $15 is a windowing, screen color, and text placement utility for batch files. It also allows getting user input and has timing controls. Other features include custom screen backgrounds, pause, query and input windows popup, exploding windows and a disk information utility. ThatsAll ends your batch file with graphics and a hearty "That's all, folks!" VGA Clear Screen (VGACLR) 08-93 CD Smith, David $0 is a set of 28 VGA designs for clearing the screen with a graphics display. Designs include shadows, doors, stars, an exploding ball, and more. Requires EGA/VGA. (Not on this disk. Ask for disk #18105.) -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #4224 -------------------------------- Extended Batch Language-Plus Seaware Corp. ASP $82 #7381/243 is a powerful program for creating your own DOS menus and other specialized batch files. It's like having a simple programming language for DOS. It has over 100 built-in commands and functions. Features of EBL include error handling and recovery, string and arithmetic expressions and operations, easy custom DOS menu creation, windowing, "bouncing bar" menus, fill-in-the-blank menus, buttons, sound and more. PCExec LPTS Software Systems Inc. $45 #7381/1740 is a sort of programming language for DOS. "Command Files", which with the aid of PCEXEC, replace DOS batch files, are straight text files that can be created with any word processor. From within the command files, you can run other programs or DOS commands, do math and string (text) functions, read and write files, use subroutines, and more. Additional commands include WHILE, DO...END, and complex IF statements. Several example command files are included, as well as an 80k doc file. PowerBatch Computing Systems Design, Inc. ASP $30 #7381/2833 is a programming language and compiler for DOS. It does NOT compile existing batch files, as does TurboBat (disk 3058). It is instead a compiler that supports batch file "type commands," but which will not compile existing batch files without modification. Our impression is that PowerBatch is a little too complex for someone wanting to crank out an occasional "compiled batch file" or for someone not already familiar with programming concepts. On the positive side, PowerBatch adds about 40 new commands, and for the determined novice, PB is easier to learn than, say, QuickBASIC or Turbo Pascal, but then, it has a much narrower range of use as well. Other features include a box drawing command; a demo file that shows how to create professional pop-up type menus; and some additional utilities. Scr MorganSoft $30 #7381/3190 is a batch file "programming language". It supports over 80 commands, including complete screen control (colors, location, boxes, etc), sounds, and more. A batch file editor is included. BTX KASE $15 #3124 is a utility for creating and executing complex batch files for purposes such as customized menus, installation programs, etc. It offers mouse support, up to 15 items per menu, message windows, passwords, and more. Batch File Tutorial - $0 #7382/242 informs the user of the beginning to advanced uses of batch files. BatMaster Newlin, John J. $25 #7382/2739 is a powerful, full-featured text editor designed primarily to support creation and maintenance of DOS batch files. It provides a full range of text editing commands and functions, and provides rapid access to the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files and to the DOS master environment. Extensive on-line, context sensitive help provides fast access to help information on CONFIG.SYS, DOS, and batch commands. Mouse support is included. Eissinger Utilities Eissinger, Michael A. $25 #7382/2027 is a set of about 30 DOS utilities, mostly for use in batch files. Functions include clearing part of the screen (above or below row "x"); positioning the cursor on the screen in batch files; prompting for and using user input; and several non-batch file utilities such as displaying hardware configuration; pasting or melding two files together; and more. SEBFU Scanlon Enterprises $20 #7382/2299 is a set of batch file utilities. This program has over 100 commands and contains functions for testing keyboard status and getting keyboard input, checking disk drive status and availability, checking printer availability, checking and setting the video mode, checking the date and time, testing the cursor position, setting the screen colors (without disturbing the current screen text), and much more. CronJR 2.36E Software Shorts $45-$75 #4576 is a batch computer job schedular. It is intended for LAN managers or others who need to set up different jobs to run at specific times at night to print, run long calculations, etc. While this is a very nice, efficient, integrated package for this particular job, it does not do anything that could not be done just about as easily with some free utilities already on our batch files disks, such as CALL-GP, for nesting batch files, even with earlier versions of DOS, CHECK (and others), for checking the date, time of day, day of week, etc. Internal Commands 2.1 08-93 CD Friesen, Geoff $25 #12424 is an 18k TSR that adds many additional commands to DOS, most of which are mainly of use in batch files: clear screen with color settings, toggle -Lock key status, change the cursor shape, hide files, rename directories, position the cursor on screen, play music in the background, swap printer ports, sum the sizes of specified files, suspend execution until a specified time, and more. Specifications are included to allow programmers to add commands of their own. Steenburgh's Stuff Steenburgh, Chuck $20 #3952 contains many useful utilities for batch files, including a menu creation, input system; clock display; disk space checker; file selection, execution system; a program that plays transcribed sheet music on the PC; random number generator; wide range of noise making options; and more. Sound Effects 6 Smith, Dave $0 #4498 lets you quickly and easily generate small tunes or sound effects for your batch files. An advanced random tone generator and a frequency player with delay options and musical note capabilities is included. Sounds can be paused and controlled, and keyboard/sound frequency interactions are provided. A help screen shell allows you to conrol all sounds from one main file. Utility_Belt Herne Data Systems Ltd. ASP $12-$27 #4118 is a collection of 18 utilities for creating professional looking DOS batch files. There are six interactive utilities allowing user input during a batch file execution, nine video utilities with screen sculpting tools and special effects, and three security-oriented utilities. An interactive demo and extensive documentation are also provided. Ultra Toolbox 5.0 [ULTRA] 09-93 CD Smith, Dave $10 #12468 contains 200+ functions, primarily for use in batch files. Functions are related to keyboard, video, disks, files, and DOS. For example, there are functions to count words in a file, to detect archive type, to print the screen, and to make sounds. ]]]]]]]]]]