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Text File | 1991-08-12 | 111.8 KB | 1,969 lines

|Tby Kari M. Jackson|T |TDDDDDD OOOO SSSS |T |TDD DD OO OO SS SS|T |TDD DD OO OO SS |T |TDD DD OO OO SS |T |TDD DD OO OO SSS |T |TDD DD OO OO SS |T |TDD DD OO OO SS|T |TDD DD OO OO SS SS |T |TDDDDDD OOOO SSSS |T (Disk) (Operating) (System) |TSimply Said,|T |TSimply Done,|T |TSIMPLY EASY!|T |TVersion 1.0|T |T(c)1991|T <page down> for menu Main Menu -=|sWhat Is DOS?|s=- -=|sAbout This Program|s=- ╔═════════╗ APPEND |sDATE|s/|sTIME|s FDISK MKDIR » SHARE ║ DOS 5.0 ║ ASSIGN DEBUG FILES MODE » SHELL ╚═════════╝ ATTRIB » |sDEL|s/|sERASE|s FIND MORE SHIFT DEVICEHIGH » BACKUP DEVIC|1E FOR NLSFUNC SORT DO|1S BREAK » DIR FORMAT » PATH STACKS » DOSKEY BUFFERS DISKCOMP GOTO PAUSE SUBST EDIT CALL DISKCOPY GRAFTABL PRINT SWITCHAR EMM386 CHCP DOSSHELL GRAPHICS PROMPT SWITCHES EXPAND CHDIR DRIVPARM GWBASIC » RECOVER SYS HELP CHKDSK ECHO IF REM TREE LOADFIX CLS EDLIN INSTALL RENAME TRUENAME LOADHIGH COMMAN|1D EXE2BIN JOIN REPLACE » TYPE MIRROR COMP EXIT KEYB RESTORE VER QBASIC » COPY FASTOPEN LABEL RMDIR VERIFY SETVER COUNTRY FC LASTDRIVE SELECT VOL UNDELETE CTTY FCBS MEM SET » XCOPY UNFORMAT <page down> for more subjects » ASCII Floppy » Memory » Device|1s » Attributes Fragmented ══════ ═══════ BIOS Hidden Files » CMOS AUX » |sBoot|s/|sReboot|s » Keyboard Conventional CLOCK$ » Boo|1t Disk Logical Drives EMS COM1 Bytes Macros Expanded CON Cache Multitasker Extended LPT1 COMSPEC NOT High NUL Concatenation Overlay LIM PRN Current Parameters Protected Mode Default Parent RAM » Directory POST Real Mode » Disks RAMdisk ROM CPU » Editing Keys » Redirection Shadow ═══ Environment Replaceable » TSR 8088 ERRORLEVEL Root Upper 286 » Executable » Shelling Out XMS 386 EXIST Virtual Disk AT FAT » Wildcards XT <page down> for more subjects Error Messages Files ══════════════ ═════ Abort, Retry, Fail, Ignore *.* HIMEM.SYS Access denied » ". and .." IBMBIO.COM Bad command or filename ANSI.SYS IBMDOS.COM Disk full » AUTOEXEC.BAT IO.SYS File creation error » Batch File MSDOS.SYS Invalid COMMAND.COM » COMMAND.COM RAMDRIVE.SYS Non system disk » CONFIG.SYS SMARTDRV.SYS Out of environment space Device Driver VDISK.SYS DRIVER.SYS » Caution! Numbering Systems ════════ ═════════════════ » Software Distribution Methods Cleaning Binary ═════════════════════════════ Low-Level Decimal BBS Freeware Magnetism Hexadecimal Commercial Public Domain Park Demo Shareware Power Downloading Write-protect -=|sTrademarks|s=- The |TSHELL|T and |tCOMSPEC|t Commands Many experts say that it is just good sense to have a "clean" root direc- tory. That means you want to have the smallest possible number of files in the |nroot|n directory. Many people will try to tell you that COMMAND.COM is one of the files that must remain in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n, but this is just not true. When you boot your computer, the first files loaded into memory are the Hidden files, which are named |tIO.SYS|t and |tMSDOS.SYS|t if you use MS-DOS, or |tIBMBIO.COM|t and |tIBMDOS.COM|t if you use PC-DOS. (These two |nHidden files|n must be in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n of the boo|1t disk, and in most versions of DOS they must be the first two files stored on the disk, or they will not be found and you will receive the "|tNon system disk|t replace and strike any key" message.) Next, a file called CONFIG.SYS (which must always be in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n in order to be located by DOS) is read, then COMMAND .COM is loaded. DOS looks in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n to find |nCOMMAND.COM|n. However, if there was a |nSHELL|n statement in |nCONFIG.SYS|n, then DOS will in- <page down> for more SHELL and COMSPEC continued stead search the directory indicated there! Next, COMMAND.COM reads and executes each line of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, if one is present in your root |ndirectory|n. After this process is complete, you are greeted by a DOS prompt. Now if you run a program which requires a great deal of memory, the tran- sient portion of |nCOMMAND.COM|n will drop out of |nmemory|n, to leave room for this program. Therefore, the first thing that DOS needs to do when you exit from this program, is to reload |nCOMMAND.COM|n. However, this reload- ing cannot use the |nSHELL|n statement in CONFIG.SYS to find the |ndirectory|n where |nCOMMAND.COM|n resides. |nCONFIG.SYS|n can only be read by DOS during |sboot|sup. But DOS knows that it should check the environment for a vari- able called |nCOMSPEC|n. The |nCOMSPEC|n variable tells DOS where to look to re- load |nCOMMAND.COM|n, whereas the |nSHELL|n statement tells DOS where to look to find |nCOMMAND.COM|n during bootup. Therefore you need both of these items if you want to move |nCOMMAND.COM|n out of the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n. There are two ways to set this |nCOMSPEC|n |nenvironment|n variable: <page down> for more SHELL and COMSPEC continued 1. The |nCOMSPEC|n statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT. You could also enter this command from the command line if you ever want to. Here it is: |nSET|n |nCOMSPEC|n=C:\DOS\|nCOMMAND.COM|n (That is assuming that DOS is the name of the directory to which you have moved COMMAND.COM.) However, there's no sense cluttering up your AUTOEX- EC.BAT file with this line, when there is a much easier way to set this variable. 2. The |nSHELL|n statement in CONFIG.SYS. Most people will tell you that the |nSHELL|n statement should look like this: |nSHELL|n=C:\DOS\|nCOMMAND.COM|n /P However, this will not set the |nCOMSPEC|n variable in the environment. With just a slight change to the |nSHELL|n statement, though, like this: |nSHELL|n=C:\DOS\|nCOMMAND.COM|n C:\DOS /P the second occurrence of the name of the |ndirectory|n will tell DOS to set the |nCOMSPEC|n variable. It seems redundant, but it is necessary to do this, or when you exit a large program you will receive this message: "|tInvalid COMMAND.COM|t system halted", because if the |nCOMSPEC|n variable is set incorrectly, then DOS has no way of finding |nCOMMAND.COM|n. There is <page down> for more SHELL and COMSPEC continued nothing you can do about that except reboot. So remember, you can move COMMAND.COM out of the root directory and in- to a subdirectory, but only if you use the proper syntax for the |nSHELL|n statement in CONFIG.SYS, or else the |nCOMSPEC|n statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT along with the "popular" syntax of the |nSHELL|n statement. If you do not move |nCOMMAND.COM|n from the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n, you do not need the |nSHELL|n statement, unless you want to increase the size of your envir- onment. If you receive an "|tOut of environment space|t" message, you will need this line in your |nCONFIG.SYS|n file: |nSHELL|n=C:\|nCOMMAND.COM|n /E:nnn /P where nnn = the number of bytes (for DOS 3.2 or later) or the number of 16-byte paragraphs (for DOS 3.1) of environment space you would like to have. In this case, you do not need to specify the |ndirectory|n name where |nCOMMAND.COM|n is, twice, since |nCOMMAND.COM|n is in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n, so |nCOMSPEC|n will be set automatically. The purpose of this form of the |nSHELL|n line is only to enlarge the |nenvironment|n. <page down> for more SHELL and COMSPEC continued Of course, if you do have COMMAND.COM in a subdirectory, and you need more environment space also, you can combine those statements like this: |nSHELL|n=C:\DOS\|nCOMMAND.COM|n C:\DOS /E:nnn /P About the size of the |nenvironment|n you want to set: The default is 160 bytes (except for DOS version 5, where the |ndefault|n is 256 |nbytes|n), so if you've run out of space, obviously you need a higher number than that. The highest number you can use is 32,767. A good setting is 256 |nbytes|n. Don't increase it over that unless you run out of space with that set- ting. Also, the number of |nbytes|n in the |nenvironment|n must be a multiple of 16, or DOS will "round up" and give you a multiple of 16 anyway. And if you have DOS 3.1, remember to use the number of 16-byte paragraphs, rath- er than the number of |nbytes|n. By the way, the purpose of the /P is to cause |nCOMMAND.COM|n to be the pri- mary command interpreter, as opposed to being a secondary shell which can be exited from. (See shelling out.) The primary shell runs AUTOEXEC.BAT whenever it is done loading. If there is no shell statement, AUTOEXEC <page down> for more SHELL and COMSPEC continued .BAT will be called anyway. But if there is a shell statement, then AUTOEXEC.BAT will only be called if the /P switch is present. Now the fact that /P causes COMMAND.COM to be the primary shell, is quite important. If you left out the /P in the shell statement, and you accidentally typed EXIT at the DOS prompt, then |nCOMMAND.COM|n would drop out of memory and you wouldn't be able to do anything except re- boot. One more thing about the |nCOMSPEC|n environment variable. The default set- ting is the root directory of the disk you booted from, unless you tell DOS otherwise. So if you have a hard drive, but you sometimes |nboot|n from a floppy disk, then when you do, you'll probably want to issue a command such as |nSET|n COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM depending on where your COMMAND .COM file really is, so that DOS will use that copy instead of always asking you to "Place disk with |nCOMMAND.COM|n into drive A:" every time you exit from a large program after having booted from the |nfloppy|n drive. The |tEnvironment|t (See also SHELL.) The |nenvironment|n is a sort of a scratch pad that DOS and many applications programs know how to use for certain purposes. Certain functions of DOS know that if they need some information, this information can possibly be found in the |nenvironment|n, and memory is set up in such a way that these functions know where to look to find the |nenvironment|n. So, if you set these information variables in the |nenvironment|n, then the information will be there when it is needed. The variables that DOS can use are COMSPEC, PATH, and PROMPT. Also any batch file can use variables that have been placed into the |nenvironment|n using the SET command. Many programs are written so that they know to look for a certain variable in the |nenvironment|n. For example, many pro- grams need to use files other than the main executable program file while they're running. Programs will look for these files in the current dir- ectory, whatever directory you were in when you first loaded the program. Some programs though, know that if the files are not located in the cur- <page down> for more Environment continued rent directory, they may be located in a |ndirectory|n specified by a certain variable in the |nenvironment|n. So if you have previously set that particu- lar variable to be equal to the |ndirectory|n where these files are located, then the program will be able to find these overlay files. Suppose the manual to your word processor says that the program knows how to search for files in a |ndirectory|n specified by a WORD variable. And suppose all your word processing files are in a |ndirectory|n called WP. Then what you want to do is put this line into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: |nSET|n WORD=C:\WP Now your word processor will always be able to find its files, even if you do not change to the WP |ndirectory|n before you start the program. If a program uses |nenvironment|n variables in this way, it will be men- tioned in the installation chapter in that program's manual. DOS version 5 uses two more |nenvironment|n variables than previous versions. The DIRCMD variable which relates to the DIR command, and the TEMP vari- able which is for redirection and for the DOSSHELL. File |tAttributes|t A file can have any of four |nattributes|n, which can be turned on or off by the ATTRIB command. (DOS versions previous to 5.0 can only alter the R and A |nattributes|n. If you need to alter an H or S attribute and you have an older version of DOS, there are many utilities that can do it, such as PC Tools, Norton, and several public domain or freeware ones such as HIDE .COM from PC Magazine.) The |nattributes|n for each file are stored in the directory. The possible |nattributes|n are Hidden, System, Archive, and Read-only. (The word "attributes" can also refer to screen colors.) |tHidden files|t can be executed, but they cannot be deleted, updated, cop- ied, or even seen in a |ndirectory|n listing. Many programs give a Hidden attribute to their most important files, on the assumption that since you can't see them in a |ndirectory|n listing, you won't know they're there, and you won't try to mess with them. DOS has two |nHidden files|n named IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS for MS-DOS, or IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM for PC-DOS. The System attribute is quite similar to the Hidden one. <page down> for more Attributes continued The Archive attribute is turned on every time a file is created, copied into a directory, or updated in any way. The main purpose of this is so that a backup program can tell which files need to be backed up. Most |nbackup|n programs turn the Archive attribute off each time they |nbackup|n a file, so the program knows that if the Archive attribute is on, the file has been changed since the last |nbackup|n was done. A file which has its Read-only attribute set can be executed, read, re- named, or copied, but can't be deleted or updated. Setting the R attrib- ute is a good way to save your files from accidental deletion. If you try to delete a file that has an R attribute, you'll get "|tAccess denied|t". However, some programs will search for certain companion files that they need in order to run, and if the companion file has its R attribute set to on, the program might think the file is missing. So if you ever run a program which says, "I cannot find my |toverlay|t file named ABCDEF.OVL, I am aborting myself", even though you can see that the file is in the current |ndirectory|n, just turn the R attribute for that file off, and the program should run just fine. The |tATTRIB|t Command The syntax for this command is as follows: |nATTRIB|n +a FILENAME.EXT where "a" can be the initial of any one of the four file attributes, and the + is for turning the attribute on. To turn one off, use - instead. But DOS versions previous to 5 can only work with the R and A |nattributes|n. A very little-known use for the |nATTRIB|n command, is to search your hard drive for a file. If you use the |nATTRIB|n command without any +a or -a, it will just show you the names of the specified files, with their at- tributes displayed next to each. An extra benefit of this is that the file's entire |spath|sname is included! So now you know in which directory that file resides! For example, suppose you have a file named ABCDEF .EXE, and you can't remember where it is. Go to the root |ndirectory|n and use this command: |nATTRIB|n ABCDEF.EXE /S The /S tells |nATTRIB|n to search not only the current |ndirectory|n, but also every subdirectory below the |ncurrent|n one, so if you start from the |nroot|n, <page down> for more ATTRIB continued the whole drive will be searched. The result may be this: A R C:\DOS\ABCDEF.EXE Now you see that the file is in the \DOS directory. The |nATTRIB|n command also fully supports wildcards. For example, you can set the R attribute of every .EXE file on the drive with the command AT- TRIB +R *.EXE /S, if you do it from the root |ndirectory|n. Or, if you want to find every .BAT file you have on the drive, |nATTRIB|n \*.BAT /S will show you their full file specifications, even if you're not in the |nroot|n direc- tory because the backslash (\) tells DOS to start the search in the |nroot|n. In DOS version 5, this command works on H and S attributes as well as A and R ones. But you can't do anything with a file that has H and/or S until those two |nattributes|n are gone. If you have a file with all four |nattributes|n, and you want to remove the A, for example, you can't do it while the file has H and S, so |nATTRIB|n -H -S -A FILE.EXT will do it. If you wanted that file to keep its H and S, then put them back with |nATTRIB|n +H +S FILE.EXT. Yes, it is ok to change more than one attribute on one command line like that. The |t". and .."|t Directory Entries What on earth are these things? They appear at the top of every direc- tory on my hard drive, except the root |ndirectory|n! What are they? The . stands for the current |ndirectory|n, and the .. stands for the parent direc- tory. You can use them as a form of shorthand. If you want to delete every file in the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n, you can type: |nDEL|n |n*.*|n or you can save typing those bothersome asterisks by typing: |nDEL|n . with the same results. Suppose you're in a subdirectory of a subdirectory of (etc.) named C:\WP\LETTERS\OCT1990\JOHN and you want to change to the |ndirectory|n C:\WP\LETTERS\OCT1990. You can either type CD C:\WP\LETTERS\OCT1990 or, since .. stands for the |nparent|n |ndirectory|n of the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n, you can just type: <page down> for more ". and .." continued CD .. with the same results! Won't that save a few thousand keystrokes per year? Actually you don't even need the space in there, you could type CD.. just as well. And remember, when the DOS manual says that you can't remove a directory until it is empty, it really means until it is empty of everything except the . <DIR> and .. <DIR> entries! Don't ever try this: |nDEL|n .. to empty your |ndirectory|n in preparation for the RMDIR command, since what that command will do is delete every file in the parent |ndirectory|n! The |tANSI.SYS|t Device Driver You can do really great things with this console driver, if you install it in your CONFIG.SYS file. Edit |nCONFIG.SYS|n to include this line: DEVICE=C:\DOS\|nANSI.SYS|n (That is assuming you have the |nANSI.SYS|n file in your DOS directory.) And reboot your computer. Now you're ready to use |nANSI.SYS|n, but what is it? It's a |ndevice driver|n that allows you much more control over your |sCON|ssole, or monitor-and-keyboard. You can change the colors on your screen, or make your own keyboard macros. This involves using a thing called the ESCape character. The easiest way to get this character to the screen, where the ANSI |ndevice driver|n can see it and interpret it, is with the PROMPT command. One of the metacharacters which are used as parameters to this command is $e, which will put an ESCape character into your |nprompt|n. Well this is what it's for. To change the color of your screen from the dull drab gray-on-black of normal DOS, here is the |nPROMPT|n command you'll need: |nPROMPT|n $e[3x;4ym <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued where 3x is the foreground (text) color, and 4y is the background color. The color codes, that take the place of the x and the y, are as follows: 0 black 1 red 2 green 3 yellow 4 blue 5 magenta 6 cyan 7 white Notice that the m at the end of that command must be in lowercase or the command will not work. It's that simple to make your screen whatever color you choose. Remember, though, that this changes the PROMPT vari- able in the environment, so you lose the |nPROMPT|n statement you had already set up. It will look like you don't have a |nprompt|n at all anymore. So what you might want to do is add your normal |nPROMPT|n statement to the end of that one, like this: |nPROMPT|n $e[3x;4ym$p$g Now you have both your new color scheme and your old |nprompt|n! Another way is to use two separate commands, the color changing command, followed by the regular |nPROMPT|n command to get your normal |nprompt|n back. This would save space in the |nenvironment|n, because the longer color command would be replaced by the shorter normal |nPROMPT|n command. If you use this method in a batch file though, you need to observe the rules mentioned under macros <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued about the use of multiple PROMPT statements in a batch file. Now when ANSI changes your screen colors, it will only change what is written on the screen from that time on. It will not automatically make your whole screen change. In order to get the whole screen filled with your new colors, all you need to do is clear the screen with the CLS command. Another way to clear the screen is to use the ANSI ESCape sequence 2J. Just add it to the end of your color-changing command: |nPROMPT|n $e[32;40m$e[2J This time the J ANSI command must be in uppercase, as opposed to the m and p ANSI commands which must be in lowercase. Now remember, if you use this method of clearing the screen, don't add your normal |nprompt|n to the end of it. You must give a normal |nPROMPT|n command separately, and after that one that includes 2J, or else the screen will be cleared every time you hit <Enter>, before you get a chance to see the result of the command you just entered. Using ANSI to set up keyboard |tmacros|t is just as easy! A |nPROMPT|n command <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued for that purpose would look like this: |nPROMPT|n $e[0;68;"DIR";13p Notice that the p at the end of that command must be in lowercase or the command will not work. The number combination 0;68 stands for the <F10> key, and the 13 stands for the <Enter> key. (See the ASCII subject for the codes for all the function keys.) Therefore, the above PROMPT would cause the <F10> key to be reassigned as |nDIR|n <Enter>, so every time you hit the <F10> key, you would automatically get a directory listing. You can put any command you want into one of these macros, even more than one command into the same macro. Suppose that you like to clear your screen before you look at a DIR listing. The following command would set up the <F10> key to do that for you: |nPROMPT|n $e[0;68;"CLS";13;"DIR";13p ANSI will write the parts in quotes exactly the way they are entered. The parts that are not in quotes are interpreted as decimal |nASCII|n codes. The quoted strings and the |ndecimal|n |nASCII|n strings must be separated by semicolons (;). <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued Another useful code for ANSI macros is 32 which means the <Space> bar. You might want to reassign a function key to "DIR";32. Notice that one has a <Space> (32) instead of an <Enter> (13). That way, what it puts on your screen at the command line, is "DIR " (without the quotes) so that if you want to add /W or *.EXE or any other parameters to the DIR com- mand, you can, or if not, just hit <Enter>. Actually, it would be just as good to assign "DIR " to the key, as to assign "DIR";32, but that was just to show that 13 for <Enter> is not the only key code that's worth anything. Another type of "macro" you can use ANSI for, is rearranging the way your keyboard is set up. Do you need to use the " a lot more often than the ' and you're tired of hitting the <Shift> key to get to the "? Well, since the ASCII code for " is 34 and the code for ' is 39, you can do this: |nPROMPT|n $e[34;39p |nPROMPT|n $e[39;34p Now whenever you hit the ' key you'll get " and then to make a ' you'll have to use the <Shift> key. <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued This is not a perfect solution, however, because not all applications recognize ANSI key reassignments. Some programs will still give you ' whenever you hit ' even though you have " assigned to the ' key. But it can't hurt to try. Maybe your favorite word processor will let you do these reassignments. At any rate, the changes will work in DOS for sure. You can put all your keyboard redefinition |sPROMPT|ss, and your color change |nPROMPT|n into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file or any other batch file. There is one problem with this, however. Most people like to have ECHO off in their |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n file, so the screen stays as clean as possible during |sboot|s- up. But when |nECHO|n is off, the |nPROMPT|n sequence is not sent to the screen. So the ANSI ESCape character is not seen by the ANSI driver, so it will not be acted upon, until the end of the |nbatch file|n, when DOS automatical- ly turns |nECHO|n back on. But by then it's too late for all but the last of the |nPROMPT|n strings to be interpreted by the ANSI driver, since each new |nPROMPT|n statement replaces the old |nPROMPT|n statement in the environment. The last |nPROMPT|n statement executed is the only one which will be seen by the ANSI driver, unless |nECHO|n is on while these |nPROMPT|n statements are be- <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued ing sent to the environment. You don't need to leave ECHO on for the entire batch file, however, just from the line immediately following the first PROMPT statement, until the line immediately preceding the last |nPROMPT|n statement. There's an easy way to get around this problem, though, if you have DOS version 3.3 or later. This version added the @ symbol to the list of |nbatch file|n commands, to suppress the display of any line in a |nbatch file|n. You still need to have |nECHO|n on for this, but the ugly old |nPROMPT|n lines will not show on the screen. You just precede each |nPROMPT|n command with the @ symbol, and then leave a blank line right after that, then the next @PROMPT line, another blank line, etc. After all your @PROMPT lines and blank lines, then turn |nECHO|n off for the rest of the |nbatch file|n. And do not forget to issue a normal |nPROMPT|n command afterward, or else it will look like you don't have a |nprompt|n at all, since any ESCape sequences sent to the screen are intercepted and interpreted by the ANSI driver before they get there. <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued There are other ways to get the ESCape character to the screen, besides using the PROMPT command, but they aren't really used so much by begin- ners. The ESC character can be represented by the ^[ keystroke combin- ation, but in most text editors or word processors, if you enter ^[, the same thing will occur as what would happen if you hit the <Esc> key. (A symbol like ^[ always means to hold down the <Ctrl> key while typing [.) But most text editors and word processors do have a way to enter control characters into the text. The DOS command EDLIN uses ^V. If you enter ^V followed immediately by the [ character, then the ^[ (ESC) character will be inserted into the text. When you enter this into |nEDLIN|n it's go- ing to look like this on the screen at first: ^V[[31;40m. But if you later list the file, or save it and edit it again later, you will see ^[[31;40m. The V has disappeared! But that's ok, it's supposed to do that. The ^V was just there to tell |nEDLIN|n that the [ was supposed to mean a ^[, and that's what it did, because now it says ^[. But don't forget, the ^[ represents only the ESCape character, and the combination that ANSI will recognize as one of its commands, is ESC + [. The [ needs to follow the ^[ which stands for ESC. <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued If you have DOS version 5.0, you can use the EDIT command instead of the EDLIN line editor, because it's easier to use. If you do, ^P + ESC will do the same thing as ^V + [ does in |nEDLIN|n--give you an ESC character. Different editors use different methods, however, so if you're not using |nEDLIN|n or |nEDIT|n, you'll have to check the manual for your editor. Once you know the method your editor uses to get control characters into the text, the possibilities are endless. You could create a text file called HELLO .TXT which looks kind of like this: ESC[31;40mHi there! (red) ESC[37;40mHow are you? (white) ESC[34;40mI am fine. (blue) ESC[0m (back to normal) Now when you enter the command |nTYPE|n HELLO.TXT, your screen will show that text (not including the ugly part) in colors! You can also use a similar technique in a batch file. Just use the ECHO command, like this: |nECHO|n ESC[31;40mHi there! And remember, with |nTYPE|n and |nECHO|n, you do not need to have |nECHO|n on during <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued this part of the batch file like you do if you're using PROMPT $e to en- ter the ESCape character, because these commands will send the string to the screen even if DOS doesn't send the command to the screen. Of course you use the same techniques to get the ESC character into a file, whether for the purpose of color, or for the purpose of macros. To un-assign function keys that have been made into |nmacros|n using ANSI ESCape sequences, you just reassign them to their normal ASCII code. For example, if you had the <F10> key reassigned to "DIR";13, you just need to reassign it back to <F10>, like this: |nPROMPT|n $e[0;68;0;68p A few caveats about using ANSI to create |nmacros|n. First, remember that DOS has its own functions for the <F1> through <F7> keys, so you don't want to reassign those. But you can reassign <F8> through <F10>, as well as <Shift-F1> through <Shift-F10>, <Alt-F1> through <Alt-F10>, and <Ctrl- F1> through <Ctrl-F10>. (Although if you're using DOS version 5 with the <page down> for more ANSI.SYS continued DOSKEY command, you don't want to reassign any keys that it uses either.) But not all of them! The |nANSI.SYS|n device driver sets aside only a limit- ed amount of memory for holding these keystroke redefinitions. I can't tell you how many keys you can assign, because it'll depend on the length of each macro you're using. But if you have some keys assigned, and try to assign one more and it won't work, chances are that it's because that chunk of |nmemory|n is full. One last thing. Don't expect these macros to work anywhere except in DOS because most programs have their own uses for the function keys, and will take over control of them while you're in the program. But as soon as you exit back to DOS, the |nmacros|n will work again. Some programs will allow the ANSI reassignment to work though, and it can't hurt to try. There are also some other very useful ANSI commands, which are probably listed in your DOS manual, and now that you know more about the ESC char- acter, you can probably understand that chapter in the manual. And there are several shareware clones of |nANSI.SYS|n, such as NANSI.|nSYS|n, which work just the same way only much faster! So check them out and have some fun! The |tAUTOEXEC.BAT|t File The |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n is a very special batch file. As long as it is located in the root directory of the boo|1t disk, it will automatically be read by COMMAND.COM every time you restart your system. (Exception: If there is a SHELL statement in CONFIG.SYS, that does not have the /P switch, then |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n will not be run after all.) This file should contain any commands that you want to have executed with each reboot. If you load a TSR from |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n, it should always come earlier in the file than any PATH, SET, or PROMPT statements, if possible. This is because every program, including TSRs, that runs under DOS gets its own copy of the environment. The commands |nPATH|n, |nSET|n, and |nPROMPT|n put variable strings into the |nenvironment|n. Therefore, if any of these commands are used before the TSRs are loaded, the TSR's copy of the |nenvironment|n uses more RAM than is needed. This is not the case if the TSRs are loaded before any strings are placed into the |nenvironment|n. Also, if you have any real need to place a string <page down> for more AUTOEXEC.BAT continued into the environment before loading a TSR, then it would be best if you could also remove that |nenvironment|n string again before loading the |nTSR|n. The only trouble with placing the PATH statement near the end of AUTOEXEC .BAT, though, is that DOS won't be able to find the command files for the commands issued from the |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n unless the full file specification for each command is listed on the command line of the batch file. For example, to load a screen saver called EXPLOSIV into memory, the command would usually be simply EXPLOSIV if the directory containing the EXPLOSIV .COM file is listed on the |nPATH|n variable in the |nenvironment|n. But since the |nPATH|n variable has not yet been set, the command must instead read as follows: C:\UTIL\EXPLOSIV That is providing the EXPLOSIV.COM file is located in the \UTIL |ndirectory|n of the C: drive. That way, DOS knows exactly where to find the command file, even without the |nPATH|n variable. Sure, it's a little more typing to do, but that is not a real problem, since you only need to type this com- mand once, when you first create your |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n file. <page down> for more AUTOEXEC.BAT continued If there is no |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n file located in the root directory of the boo|1t disk, then DOS will |nprompt|n you for the date and time during each bootup, just as if you did have an |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n file that contained just the DATE and TIME commands. One thing you do not want to do, if there are any |sTSR|ss loaded from your |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n, or if you're not sure, and there might possibly be any TSRs in there, is execute this file from the DOS prompt by entering AUTOEXEC as a command. The reason is that any TSRs that are listed in there have already been loaded into memory, while you booted the computer, and so executing |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n again without rebooting, would load a second copy of those TSRs into |nmemory|n. Well some TSRs realize when they're being loaded a second time, and just won't go for it. That's fine. Other TSRs just go ahead and load a second copy. That won't hurt anything, neces- sarily, but it sure would be a waste of |nmemory|n. But other TSRs, when you try to load them twice, will lock up the whole computer. Don't execute AUTOEXEC manually unless you're positive there are no TSRs in it. So if you make a change to this file and want to see what happens, just reboot the computer. But have a |nboot|n disk handy first, in case of trouble. The |tRMDIR|t Command This command can also be abbreviated as RD. What it does, is to ReMove any completely empty DIRectory. Before you can remove a |ndirectory|n, you must remove all subdirectories from it (except the ". and .." entries), as well as all the files. The main problem with removing directories is that sometimes a |ndirectory|n will contain files which have their Hidden, System, or Read-only attrib- utes turned on. These files must first be deleted, but in order to del- ete them, those attributes must be removed with the ATTRIB command. Another problem with removing directories is that you cannot remove the current |ndirectory|n. You must change to a different |ndirectory|n first, using the CHDIR command. See the section on the MKDIR command for the syntax of this one, since it's just the same. The |tDISKCOPY|t Command This command will make an exact duplicate of a floppy disk. It copies every single byte of data on the disk, including bad sector marks and the formatting codes. For this reason you don't have to FORMAT the tar- get disk first, but you should anyway because if you don't, then you won't know whether the disk has any bad sectors, and you could end up copying good data to a bad sector. If the target disk does have any bad sectors, you must not use it for a |nDISKCOPY|n purpose. Because although the |nFORMAT|n command will mark out the bad sectors, the |nDISKCOPY|n command will ignore that, and copy the data to the target disk in the exact same way the data was sitting on the source disk. If the target disk has been used before, it will be completely erased! Another problem with this command is that it can only be used to copy one disk to another disk of the exact same size and capacity. A whole lot of beginners get fooled by that. Since |nDISKCOPY|n makes a sector-by-sector mirror image of the source disk, the target disk has to have the exact <page down> for more DISKCOPY continued same number of sectors as the source disk. You can't |nDISKCOPY|n from a double-density to a high-density disk, or from a 3.5" disk to a 5.25" disk, or anything like that, or to or from a hard disk. Now, some good points about this command: For one, since it copies every byte on the source disk, it copies any System and/or Hidden files, which are otherwise impossible to copy without changing those attributes first. Second, this command will copy files from the source disk to the target disk in the same logical drives, with the command |nDISKCOPY|n A: A: or the |nDISKCOPY|n B: B: command. So you can copy files between disks of the same size even if you have both sizes of floppy drives, which is not possible with the COPY or XCOPY commands. DOS will tell you when to switch |ndisks|n, so you just need to be careful to remember which disk is which. It is a good idea to write-protect the source disk, so that even if you forget and put the source disk in when DOS asks for the target disk, the source disk will not get ruined. The |TSET|T Command This command is used to place variable strings into the environment. The syntax is: |nSET|n VARIABLE=VALUE The variable name will be changed to uppercase, but the value will be placed into the |nenvironment|n in the same form it is entered. The value and variable name can include any alphanumeric characters. You can also use the |nSET|n command, with no parameters, to see what strings are already in the |nenvironment|n. To remove a variable from the |nenvironment|n, just set it equal to nothing, like this: |nSET|n VARIABLE= If you use the |nSET|n command to set a variable that already exists in the |nenvironment|n, the new string replaces the old string. There is no way outside of a batch file, to add another string to the end of a string that's already there, without retyping the part that's already there. |tDirectory|t Structure A |ndirectory|n is like a Table of Contents that tells DOS where to find each file on the disk. But a directory's size is set at the time a disk is |sFORMAT|sted, and cannot be enlarged. A |ndirectory|n on a hard drive can only contain 512 entries. If you try to add another file to a |ndirectory|n that is already full, you'll get a "|sdisk full|s" message. Well surely a hard disk can hold more than 512 files? Yes, it can, by putting subdirectory names in place of some of the file- names in the |ndirectory|n. Subdirectories can have a number of files or other subdirectories in them that is limited only by the amount of disk space. A subdirectory listing is just like any other file; if the file or the listing gets larger, it simply gets more space allocated to it. Only the root |ndirectory|n is limited in size. There are also other reasons for breaking the files up into groups in subdirectories, rather than leaving them all in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n. For one thing, if you actually had 512 files in your |nroot|n |ndirectory|n, wouldn't <page down> for more Directory continued it be awfully hard to see what's there, with all those other filenames getting in the way? Well it's hard for DOS to find a file that way, too. DOS has to look through the entire |ndirectory|n listing, just like you do, to find a file that you tell it to find. So it's best to keep large pro- grams, that include many files, each in their own subdirectory, so that both you and DOS can find them more quickly. (See also MKDIR.) The easiest way to visualize a |ndirectory|n structure, is like a file room. The |troot|t |ndirectory|n (the main |ndirectory|n which covers the contents of the entire disk) is like the fileroom. There are a bunch of file cabinets, and a few separate file folders laying around that have not been placed into the cabinets. The file cabinets are like subdirectories. Each sub- |ndirectory|n can contain further subdirectories. These would be like the drawers in the file cabinets. The drawers contain the files, just like subdirectories contain files. The |tcurrent|t |ndirectory|n is like whichever file cabinet or drawer DOS is currently sitting in. To CHange the |ncurrent|n |nDIRectory|n, you use the <page down> for more Directory continued |tCHDIR|t command, which can be abbreviated as CD. The current |ndirectory|n is also called the |tdefault|t |ndirectory|n. A |ndefault|n just means whatever will be used as parameters if the |nparameters|n are not specified. The terms |ncurrent|n and |ndefault|n can also apply to drives, and have about the same meanings when they do. The |ncurrent|n drive is the one whose drive letter is shown in your prompt. But the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n is not always the same as the |ncurrent|n drive. Each drive on your system has a |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n at all times, even when that drive is not the |ncurrent|n one. The |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n, on a drive that is not |ncurrent|n, is the |ndirectory|n that would be |ncurrent|n if that drive were made |ncurrent|n. Unless you change the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n on a disk, it is the root |ndirectory|n. Each time you re- boot your system, the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n of each drive is the |ncurrent|n one. You can even use the |nCHDIR|n or CD command to change the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n on a drive other than the |ncurrent|n one. For example the CD C:\UTIL com- mand will change the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n on drive C: to \UTIL, whether C: is the |ncurrent|n drive or not. <page down> for more Directory continued The way to change the current drive is quite simple. To make C: the cur- rent drive, the command is just C:. To make A: the |ncurrent|n drive, the command A: would do it. There is no way in DOS to change the |ncurrent|n drive, and the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n on that drive, all in one step. It takes a C:, A:, etc. type of command as well as a CHDIR or CD command. Another way to visualize a |ndirectory|n structure is like an upside-down tree. The root |ndirectory|n is the trunk of the tree, the subdirectories are the main branches, which can be further divided into smaller bran- ches, and the leaves are the files. The |tparent|t of the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n is the one that's next closer to the |nroot|n. If the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n is a second-level subdirectory, then the |nparent|n is the first-level subdirectory immediately above it in the upside down tree. If the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n is a first-level subdirectory, then the |nparent|n is the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n. Referencing all these different drives and directories is not all that <page down> for more Directory continued difficult. To tell DOS what disk you're talking about, you use the drive letter followed by a colon, as in C:. Then you start out with a back- slash. A leading backslash always refers to the root |ndirectory|n of the disk in question. Then you tell the subdirectory names, in order, start- ing from the |nroot|n, that lead to the file. Each subdirectory name is sep- arated from the others by another backslash. Then you tell DOS the file- name, a period, and the filename extension. |nDirectory|n names can be from one to eight characters, and filenames are the same. The filename exten- sion can be from zero to three characters. So, a full filename specific- ation might look like this: C:\WORD\LETTERS\FILENAME.EXT Of course it's best if you use really short words or abbreviations for your |ndirectory|n names, because that will save you a whole lot of typing over the years. Also, the PATH variable in the environment can only be 127 characters long, so if your |ndirectory|n names are long, you'll only be able to fit a few of them into that variable. <page down> for more Directory continued DOS can tolerate a lot of shortcuts when dealing with file specifica- tions. Anything that is the default can be left out. Suppose your cur- rent drive is C: and the current |ndirectory|n on C: is \DOS. If you want to refer to the file C:\UTIL\FOO.BAR, you can just say \UTIL\FOO.BAR because if you leave out the drive letter, DOS will assume the |ncurrent|n drive, and in this case that's the drive you wanted anyway. If your |ncurrent|n drive is still C: and the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n on the A: drive is \GAMES and you want to reference the file A:\GAMES\PLAY.EXE, then all you need to tell DOS is A:PLAY.EXE because if you leave out the |ndirectory|n, DOS will assume the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n on the drive men- tioned, which is the right one. However, if you put a leading backslash in there, as in A:\PLAY.EXE, that wouldn't work because a leading back- slash always refers to the root |ndirectory|n, and PLAY.EXE is not in the |nroot|n, it's in the GAMES subdirectory which branches from the |nroot|n. Now suppose your |ncurrent|n drive is still C: and drive C:'s |ncurrent|n direc- tory is still \DOS, and you want to refer to the file C:\DOS\GO.EXE, then <page down> for more Directory continued all you have to say is GO.EXE because C: and \DOS\ are both the |sdefault|ss. Now let's say the current drive is C: and the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n is \ (the |sroot|s) and we want to tell DOS about that same file named C:\DOS\GO.EXE. This time we can still leave out the C: and also the leading \ because those are the defaults, and we can say DOS\GO.EXE. If the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n were \UTIL instead then we would have to include the \ to remind DOS to start back up in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n again, then look for the |ndirectory|n named DOS which is branching from a different spot in the |nroot|n. Now how about the ". and .." directories that show up in every |ndirectory|n listing except the |nroot|n? The .. entry stands for the parent |ndirectory|n. Well suppose that the |ncurrent|n drive is C: and the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n is \WORD\LETTERS\JOHN and we want to tell DOS to do something with a file in a |ndirectory|n called C:\WORD\LETTERS\BILL. How do we do that? Well, we have to first go up one level in the upside-down tree to LETTERS, and <page down> for more Directory continued then down one level to BILL. This will look pretty complicated at first, but believe me, when you get used to it, it will be easier than typing out the whole name, C:\WORD\LETTERS\BILL\FILENAME.EXT. Here's the short way: ..\BILL\FILENAME.EXT. If it weren't for the .. symbol that takes us up one level, then the shortest way to do it would have been \WORD\ LETTERS\BILL\FILENAME.EXT. So, even though the .. symbol will take a bit of getting used to, it's worth it! If you don't have a hard drive, you might think that you will never be interested in directories. Guess again! Remember that the root direc- tory of any disk is limited as to how many entries it can hold. For 360K and 720K disks, that limit is 112 files, and for 1.2M and 1.44M |ndisks|n, it is 224. If you want to have more files than that on a disk, you have to create a subdirectory on the disk to put the files into. Because al- though the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n is of a limited size, a subdirectory can con- tain an unlimited number of files. If you have more than 150 files in any |ndirectory|n, you should divide that <page down> for more Directory continued |ndirectory|n into subdirectories, so that DOS can find your files faster. Now remember that even though it's easier for you to think of directories in terms of file rooms, and upside-down trees, and stuff, in reality all they are is files. They're just files which contain information about other files. For example here's the |ndirectory|n entry for my |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n: 0192(0000) 41 55 54 4F 45 58 45 43 42 41 54 00 00 00 00 00 0208(00D0) 00 00 00 00 00 00 89 BE DC 16 6C 01 5D 03 00 00 Well the eleven bytes starting with 41, 55, 54, if you convert those hex numbers to decimal and then look them up in the ASCII chart, you'll find that they spell AUTOEXECBAT. (If the filename were less than eight let- ters long, there would be one or more 20s between the name and extension of the file.) The next number is the attribute byte, and since it says 00, you know that this file doesn't have any of its attributes turned on. The four |nbytes|n 89, BE, DC, 16, are the date and time of the most recent update to the file. Also in that |ndirectory|n entry somewhere are the size of the file (number of |nbytes|n in length) and the number of the first clus- ter of the file (where it's located on the disk). Well, a |ndirectory|n is just a file that holds an entry like that for each file in the |ndirectory|n. The |tBACKUP|t Command How important is it to |nbackup|n your hard disk? Well, how hard is it for you to get your files all organized the way you want them? How hard is it for you to create your data files in your word processor, spreadsheet, database, or whatever other type of programs you use? Do you want to take the very real chance that it could all be lost, and you'll be right back to square one, when there's something you can do to prevent it? Of course backing up is a pain! Most worthwhile things are. But once you have done it a couple times, it won't be confusing anymore. You'll get the hang of it in no time flat. Make it a habit, and just like all hab- its, it will become second nature. You have to be really careful to stick a label onto each disk as you're doing the |nbackup|n, because the RESTORE command, which is the only way to read |nbackup|n disks, has to have the |ndisks|n in the right order to be able to put your files back together later after your hard drive has crashed. Be really sure that you know the correct order of the |nbackup|n |ndisks|n. Include the date and time on the labels too! <page down> for more BACKUP continued Not too many people use the DOS |nBACKUP|n command, but it's fine for a while 'til you get something better. The syntax is |nCOMMAND|n SOURCE TARGET SWIT- CHES just like most any other DOS command. So let's take those parts one at a time. The command is |nBACKUP|n, or C:\DOS\BACKUP, or A:\BACKUP, depen- ding on where the executable file is located. The source is what files you want to |nbackup|n. If you want to |nbackup|n the whole disk, you must perform this command from the root directory of the disk, and the source would then be C:\*.*, which means everything in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n. Later we'll get to the part of the command that tells DOS to also include the subdirectories of the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n. Now the target is where you want the |nbackup|n files to end up. That's just a drive letter, like A:. Now for the harder part. Don't worry, it's not that hard. The |nBACKUP|n command has quite a few switches from which to choose. Here they are: /S /M /A /D:05-16-91 /T:10.02 /F /L:C:FILENAME.EXT <page down> for more BACKUP continued So, what on earth do all those things do? Well the /S switch is for subdirectories. That's what tells DOS to |nbackup|n not only the current or specified directory, but also all of the subdirectories anywhere under that |ndirectory|n. The /M switch checks the Archive attributes for all the files, and only backs up files that have been created or modified since the last |nbackup|n was done. You don't want to use this switch the first time you |nbackup|n, but only for incremental backups. (Incremental means just the files that have changed since the last time.) The /A switch tells DOS not to erase the files that are already on the target disk, the way it usually happens, but to leave them there, and just add the files now being backed up, to the space that is left on the disk from the previous |nbackup|n. So obviously this switch is only for in- cremental backups also. If your last incremental |nbackup|n took 5.2 disks, then you still have 80% of that last disk empty. Well the /A switch will allow you to fill up the empty space on that disk for this incremental <page down> for more BACKUP continued |nbackup|n, instead of making you start fresh on a new disk. The /D:05-16-91 switch tells DOS to only |nbackup|n files that were last mod- ified on or after that date. You don't want to use that switch with the /M switch because they'd both be trying to do the same thing in different ways. In fact, I'd never trust this switch, in case the system clock had been wrong at some point. Because then you'd end up backing up the wrong files all together! The /T:10.02 switch which didn't appear in DOS until version 3.3, allows you to be even more specific, about the time. It can tell DOS to only |nbackup|n files modified at or after that time of day. Do not forget to convert times to military format though, because if you en- ter 3.00 then you're going to get 3 am. If you want to say 3 pm then use 15.00. Don't even think about using the /T switch without using /D also. The /F switch tells DOS to FORMAT the disks before backing up files to them. If the |nFORMAT|n command file is located in a directory listed in the PATH variable in the environment, then the |nBACKUP|n command can |nFORMAT|n the |ndisks|n while it's backing up. <page down> for more BACKUP continued This switch didn't exist until DOS version 3.3, so before that, we had to FORMAT a whole stack of disks before we even started backing up. Then what would happen, is that we hadn't formatted enough |ndisks|n, and we would run out, and do you know what that used to mean to the |nBACKUP|n process? That would mean we would have to start over completely from the beginning after we went and formatted some more |ndisks|n. Because there isn't any way to tell the |nBACKUP|n command to pick up where we left off before we ran out of formatted |ndisks|n. Oh yes, the /F switch was welcomed by all DOS users! Ok, last one, the /L switch. This one also didn't exist until version 3.3 of DOS. What it does is it creates a log file of what the |nBACKUP|n command did. That way, after you've backed up your whole disk and you have a stack of 38 floppy |ndisks|n, you can tell which files are on which floppies. Because the |nBACKUP|n command concatenates all the files into one big file, which fills up the whole disk, so you can't tell from the dir- ectory listing which files are where! If you leave out the path and filename info in the /L switch, |nBACKUP|n will automatically use the default name of |nBACKUP|n.LOG and put it in the root directory of the source disk. <page down> for more BACKUP continued In my opinion, the worst thing about the DOS |nBACKUP|n command is that there are only two ways to do it. You can do a full |nbackup|n which backs up the whole drive, and each time after that you can do an incremental |nbackup|n of just the files that have changed since the last time you backed up. Know what that means? That means that when it comes time to RESTORE the files to the hard drive, you need to have that original full |nbackup|n's set of floppy disks, and you also need the |ndisks|n from each and every increm- ental |nbackup|n you've done since then. If you're backing up twice every week like you should be, then after a year you've got over a hundred sets of |nbackup|n floppies. True, each set after the first one, might have been only one or two |ndisks|n but still, that's a tremendous amount of |ndisks|n to mess with! You have to keep them all safe and secure until such time as you do another complete |nbackup|n. After that time, but not until then, you can re-use all of the |ndisks|n from the full |nbackup|n and the incremental backups. What a pain! <page down> for more BACKUP continued Some commercial |nbackup|n programs have another choice in |nbackup|n strategies, though, and PC Tools, for example, calls it Differential |nbackup|n. Here is what it does: The first full |nbackup|n you do backs up every file you have, right? And it also turns off the Archive attributes for all the files it backed up. Now you've probably only got a few dozen files that are ever going to change, if you don't go out and buy any more software. All these files that are ever going to change will probably fit on one or two disks. Well the Differential |nbackup|n method backs up all the files that have the Archive attribute set, but it doesn't turn it back off! That way, the next time you do a Differential |nbackup|n, it backs up everything that has changed since the original full |nbackup|n! That means you don't have to keep every single set of Differential |nbackup|n |ndisks|n you've made! So, on week one you do a full |nbackup|n. On week two you do a Differential |nbackup|n. On week three you do another Differential |nbackup|n. Now on week <page down> for more BACKUP continued four you can re-use the disks that you used for week two's |nbackup|n, and on week five you can re-use the week three |nbackup|n |ndisks|n! You only need to keep your original full |nbackup|n |ndisks|n, and the two most recent sets of Differentials! (The reason you want to keep last week's set as well as this week's set is not because there are any files on last week's that aren't on this week's, but only because in case you've made a big goof in data entry this week, you can RESTORE last week's copy of the file, from before you made the big goof.) So that's just one of the reasons you want to get some other |nbackup|n pro- gram besides the DOS |nBACKUP|n command, so you can do Differential backups instead of just incremental ones. One thing you really want to do whenever you're about to use the |nBACKUP|n or |nRESTORE|n commands, is to reboot the computer without loading any |sTSR|ss into memory, because they can seriously interfere with the operation of these two commands. That goes for the DOS commands, or any other |nbackup|n program. And in most cases, you can only restore a |nbackup|n using the RE- STORE command from the same version of DOS that made the |nbackup|n. |tMemory|t and Related Concepts First of all, when many beginners get their first "Out of |nmemory|n" error message, they think that deleting files from their hard drive will help. But |nmemory|n has nothing to do with hard drive space. |nMemory|n means the |tRAM|t (Random-Access |nMemory|n) chips inside the computer case, where the computer stores data while it's being processed. Disk space is where data is stored while it's not being used. It's like your file cabinet, where you keep your files, out of your way, while you're not working on them. The |nmemory|n is like the surface of your desk, where the computer keeps the files it's working on at the moment. The size of your file cabinet has nothing to do with the size of your desktop. There are several different kinds of |nRAM|n. The only kind DOS knows how to use for running programs, is |tconventional|t |nmemory|n. The most |nconventional|n |nmemory|n a computer can have, is 640K. (There is an exception to this just like there are exceptions to many rules when it comes to the subject of |nmemory|n. We'll get to that exception later.) DOS just doesn't know how to access any more than that. So even if you have 6 Megs of |nRAM|n in your <page down> for more Memory continued computer, DOS can still only use 640K of it. By the way, you can think of |tbytes|t as being about the same as characters of data. A text file that contains 3564 |nbytes|n of data has pretty close to 3564 characters in it. (You have to also count 2 extra |nbytes|n per line for the carriage return and linefeed characters, and there's also an End- of-File character, and maybe a few other things too. But it comes out pretty close to the same.) K means kilobyte, which is 1024 |nbytes|n. M or Meg means megabyte which is 1024K or 1,048,576 |nbytes|n. (See also Binary.) Part of the 640K is used up by DOS itself. DOS is in |nmemory|n at all times or else your computer just wouldn't know how to do anything. But that's ok, because when it says on a package of software that it requires 640K of RAM, it doesn't mean it needs the 640K all to itself. It means that it just needs for your computer to have that much installed. The soft- ware makers know that you have to have DOS loaded into |nmemory|n. Actually DOS does know how to access 1M of |nmemory|n, not just 640K. But <page down> for more Memory continued the |nmemory|n addresses from 640K to 1M are reserved for use by such things as the |nmemory|n on your video card, the |nmemory|n on your disk controller, the BIOS, |nROM|n, and other assorted things. These things are taking up some space in the 640-1024K area of |nmemory|n, but most of that space is empty. This space is called the |tupper|t |nmemory|n blocks. On most machines, there is no motherboard RAM in this area unless you have |nshadow|n |nRAM|n enabled. So since this area of |nmemory|n addresses is reserved for that other stuff, the motherboard |nmemory|n skips these addresses, and continues on above the one meg |nmemory|n address. Many people just don't understand this, even those who claim to be experts. But this is why a computer that only has 1M of |nRAM|n does have extended |nmemory|n above the 1M address--because the 384K of |nmemory|n above the first 640K does not use the 640-1024K area since that area is reserved (unless the 384K is configured as |nshadow|n |nRAM|n, that is). What on earth is |tshadow|t |nRAM|n, you say? Well you see, normally the video |nBIOS|n is in a very slow type of |nmemory|n called Read-Only |nMemory|n, which is also called |tROM|t. On many computers, you can enable |nshadow|n |nRAM|n which means that when you start the computer up, it will copy the video |nROM|n in- <page down> for more Memory continued to some RAM that it has re-mapped to addresses between 640K and 1M, and your screen writes will be faster, because |nRAM|n is faster than ROM. So when shadow |nRAM|n is enabled, some of the |nRAM|n above the 1M line will be re-mapped to the addresses between 640K and 1M so that DOS will be able to access it. Because DOS just can't access anything above 1M. But if |nshadow|n |nRAM|n is disabled, then all the motherboard |nRAM|n is either at 0-640K or else at 1M or above. The 640-1024K |nmemory|n area is "just there", on all computers, even if you only have 512K of motherboard |nRAM|n. If you have 1M of |nRAM|n on your motherboard, then most likely, that is, if |nshadow|n |nRAM|n is disabled or your computer doesn't do |nshadow|n |nRAM|n, then its addresses are 0-640K and 1024-1408K. That's right, even though you only have one meg, you have 384K of |nmemory|n above the one meg address mark. So when you read in the manual that a RAMdisk can use extended |nmemory|n above one meg that doesn't mean you can't use the |nRAMdisk|n because you only have one meg, because your 384K probably is above one meg. <page down> for more Memory continued Well actually, there are some programs that can make a little bit of the upper |nmemory|n blocks available for programs, but at the expense of graph- ics. These programs (Quarterdeck's VIDRAM is one) can take some of the RAM that's on your video board and remap it so that DOS can use it. That can give you over 700K of conventional |nmemory|n to run programs in, if you have a VGA board! Trouble is, when you have things set up that way, you can't use any graphics because your video board's |nmemory|n is being used for programs. You can only use text-based programs in this case. But this program can be temporarily disabled to give you back the graphics. There is also another way to use the |nupper|n |nmemory|n blocks. On any 386 or newer machine, and on a 286 that has a LIM 4 hardware-compatible expanded |nmemory|n, and on a |n286|n that has shadow |nRAM|n capability, all of which are ab- le to remap |nmemory|n, there are programs (like Quarterdeck's QRAM) that can move some of your |sTSR|ss into |nmemory|n that has been remapped into addresses in this area. This way you can free up as much of your |nconventional|n mem- ory as possible and still be able to run your favorite TSRs! <page down> for more Memory continued Uh-oh, here comes yet another contradiction. I said that there's no way for DOS to access any |nmemory|n above the one meg address for program use. That's mostly true, but not totally. DOS has a program called |tHIMEM.SYS|t which, when installed on a |n286|n or newer computer, can allow DOS to reach the first 64K block of |nextended|n |nmemory|n. This block of |nmemory|n is called |thigh|t |nmemory|n. It still can't be used as conventional |nmemory|n, but some programs can make good use of it. Some programs, including DOS version 5.0, can put part of their own code into |nhigh|n |nmemory|n to release the space they would otherwise have been using up in the |nconventional|n |nmemory|n area. Now here comes a really troublesome contradiction! Some people refer to |nhigh|n |nmemory|n as upper |nmemory|n blocks, and refer to the |nupper|n |nmemory|n blocks as |nhigh|n |nmemory|n. So if someone is talking about |nhigh|n |nmemory|n or |nupper|n mem- ory blocks, you won't ever know whether they're talking about what I've called |nhigh|n |nmemory|n, or what I've called |nupper|n |nmemory|n blocks, unless you ask them what they mean. Isn't that going to be fun? |tExtended|t |nmemory|n is RAM that's above the one meg mark. DOS can't use it <page down> for more Memory continued for anything. Because extended |nmemory|n can only be accessed through pro- tected mode, and DOS can't go into protected mode, ever. But there are a few programs that can use |nextended|n |nmemory|n. A RAMdisk, a print spooler, or a disk cache can access |nextended|n |nmemory|n without any assistance from any |nmemory|n management program. There are also programs which have been written especially to be able to use |nextended|n |nmemory|n, but they are few and far between, except for a type of thing called a |nmultitasker|n. A |tmultitasker|t is a very complicated sort of a program which does a very exciting thing on a 386 or newer computer. It can take advantage of a mode called Virtual 8086 mode. In V86 mode, a |nmultitasker|n can set aside 640K of |nextended|n |nmemory|n and run one copy of DOS there, and set aside an- other 640K chunk and run another copy of DOS there and set aside another 640K chunk and run yet another copy of DOS, and all of these copies of DOS each think that they're running in the bottom 640K of conventional |nmemory|n! Each copy of DOS is actually running in |treal mode|t, but the |nmultitasker|n <page down> for more Memory continued keeps each Virtual Machine protected from what the others might be doing, so that one Virtual Machine doesn't try to access some part of |nmemory|n that another program in another Virtual Machine is using. That's basic- ally what |tprotected mode|t means. The reason Virtual 8086 mode is named that, is because 8086 is the name of the CPU in the first personal computer, and in V86 mode the 386 is pretending to be a bunch of small processors instead of one big one. Well the multitasker is also in charge of dividing up the CPU's time. In multitasking, there really isn't more than one program running at the same time. A |nCPU|n can't possibly do more than one thing at a time. But since the |nCPU|n can do things so much faster than the rest of the hardware can, the |nmultitasker|n can give one slice of the |nCPU|n's time to one program while another program is waiting for data to be retrieved from the hard drive and a third program is waiting for you to finish typing a command, then the |nmultitasker|n gives the next timeslice to another program while the first one is waiting for the printer to finish what it's printing and <page down> for more Memory continued you're still typing at the keyboard on the third program, and on and on. The CPU is never doing more than one thing at a time, but since it swit- ches so rapidly among its chores, it just looks like it is. Some examples of really good |smultitasker|ss are VM/386, DESQview/386, and Windows/386, although personally I would never recommend Windows to any- one. Just my own opinion. I use VM/386 and I am very happy with it, al- though I must warn you that program is quite picky about what hardware it is used on. But if it will work on your system, it does a great job. Most anything that uses extended |nmemory|n needs an |neXtended|n |nMemory|n Specif- ication (|tXMS|t) driver to run. But on the other hand, most things that use |nextended|n |nmemory|n have their own driver built right in. So you don't hear too much about |nextended|n |nmemory|n managers. HIMEM.SYS is one. |tExpanded|t |nmemory|n, however, is another matter! Everybody's always talking about how to manage |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n. So what is it? Well, on a 8088 or 286 machine, it's a board full of |nmemory|n chips with special hardware that <page down> for more Memory continued can dynamically remap the |nmemory|n addresses. (This remapping capabili- ty is built into the 386 and higher CPU, so it can use expanded |nmemory|n without the special |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n board.) What do I mean by remap? Well, if you're looking out a window, you can see one small part of the world outside, right? But if you move to the other side of the room and look out the same window, you can see a slightly different part of the outside world. (The "window" is generally called a "page frame".) Ex- panded |nmemory|n is sort of like that. It puts the window into the upper |nmemory|n where DOS can access it, and then it does some "bank switching". You see, the |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n manager can see all of the |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n, even though DOS can't see any of it because it's not in a location that the |nCPU|n can address. So the |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n manager finds out what data DOS wants next, and it switches the bank of |nmemory|n that contains that data, into the window where DOS can get it. It just keeps doing that, whenever DOS wants some data it changes the angle through which DOS is looking out the window, so that DOS sees the data it's looking for. Examples of |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n managers are EMM386, which comes with recent <page down> for more Memory continued versions of DOS, and QEMM which comes from Quarterdeck. Each of these, as well as most any expanded |nmemory|n manager that's still alive these days supports what's called the |tEMS|t (|nExpanded|n |nMemory|n Specification) 4.0, also known as |tLIM|t (Lotus-Intel-Microsoft) 4.0. There are a lot more programs which have been designed to use |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n than those that can use extended |nmemory|n. Not only is |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n probably easier to write a program for, but also because it's not possible for an 8088 processor to use any |nextended|n |nmemory|n. There are still a lot of 8088s in use, and software publishers like to be compat- ible with as many computers as possible. So software companies don't like to use |nextended|n |nmemory|n, even though it is more efficient. |nExpanded|n |nmemory|n can be used on any computer, whereas |nextended|n can only be used on a 286 or higher CPU. Now how do you remember the difference between the words |nexpanded|n and |nextended|n? Well you know that the word |nexpanded|n means that something has gone from being narrow, to being wide. Well |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n is like <page down> for more Memory continued that, because DOS just sees this little window of |nmemory|n, and there is really a wide chunk of |nmemory|n being viewed through that window. The word extended means that something has gone from being short, to being long. Well |nextended|n |nmemory|n is like that, because without it, there is just a short list, from 0 to 1024K, of |nmemory|n locations that can be accessed. But with it, there is a long list, from 0K all the way up to 16 megs or more, in a row, that can be accessed. (Not by DOS, of course, but just by the computer.) Now DOS version 5 includes some great |nmemory|n management programs. First of all, it knows how to use the High |nMemory|n Area (HMA) to load its own kernel into, as long as you have HIMEM.SYS installed as the first line of CONFIG.SYS, and use the DOS=HIGH command to tell DOS to go |nhigh|n. That DOS kernel that goes |nhigh|n takes up about 45K of |nmemory|n so when it's |nhigh|n, that frees up 45K of conventional |nmemory|n, that DOS would otherwise have been using. Also, when DOS goes |nhigh|n the BUFFERS go |nhigh|n too, if you don't specify too many of them, so that frees up even more |nconventional|n |nmemory|n. This will work on any computer that has any |nextended|n |nmemory|n. <page down> for more Memory continued Now on a 386 or higher computer, which has built-in |nmemory|n mapping capa- bilities, DOS version 5 can do an even better job. First, the HIMEM.SYS device driver converts the extended |nmemory|n to XMS |nmemory|n (that just means |nextended|n |nmemory|n that's being managed by an |neXtended|n |nMemory|n Specification version 2.0 driver, which |nHIMEM.SYS|n is). Now the EMM386 |ndevice driver|n can take that |nXMS|n |nmemory|n, on a |n386|n, and make it pretend to be expanded |nmemory|n (which is called |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n emulation). So now that this |nmemory|n is doing the job of |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n, it can be remapped into some empty addresses between 640K and 1024K, where DOS can access it, and then |sTSR|ss and device drivers can be loaded into it, so that they aren't taking up any conventional |nmemory|n anymore. In order to make all this happen, if you have a |n386|n with |nextended|n |nmemory|n, you just use the |nHIMEM.SYS|n, |nEMM386|n, and DO|1S commands in CONFIG.SYS to make the Upper |nMemory|n Blocks available, and then use DEVICEHIGH commands instead of DEVIC|1E commands, and use the LOADHIGH command for TSRs. To make this work on a 286, you need the special shadow RAM capability, or a LIM 4 hardware-compatible |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n board, along with a program such as Quarterdeck's QRAM. What Is the |tCPU|t? The |nCPU|n is the computer's brain. It stands for Central Processing Unit. It is just a little square chip about an inch and a half on each side, if you can believe that, and that's where all the computing takes place. The |nCPU|n for the first set of personal computers was the 8086, which was put into an IBM computer model which was named the PC. Next came the |t8088|t processor, and that one went into a model called the |tXT|t. That one cannot in any way access memory above the one meg address, but it can use expanded |nmemory|n. After that came the 80286 |nCPU|n, which is usually abbrev- iated as |t286|t. This was the first computer that could take advantage of extended RAM. It went into a model of computer called the |TAT|T. After that, the |t386|t and 486, now even 586, came along. Who knows, by the time you read this, there could be an 80686 processor being developed! What Is a |tCache|t? There are two different kinds of |ncache|n. The most common one is a hard drive |ncache|n, and that is a piece of software which, when you install it into memory, sets aside a large chunk of extended or expanded |nmemory|n to do the caching. Now what it does, is every time you read something off the hard drive, it keeps it in this chunk of |nmemory|n, and then when you need that piece of info again, you get it from the |ncache|n which, since it is in RAM, is a lot faster than going back to the hard drive to get that piece of data again. The |ncache|n that comes with recent versions of DOS is called SMARTDRV.SYS. Most caches also do what's called look-ahead, which means that every time you get some data from the hard drive, it also gets the next one or two sectors of data, and puts that in the |ncache|n also. So if you're running a type of program that does a lot of sequential disk access, then the next time the program needs more data, it's probably already in the |ncache|n be- cause the next data it needs is what came right after the last data it needed, which the |ncache|n already looked ahead to get. <page down> for more Cache continued Another thing that most caches do, is pay attention to the frequency with which each piece of data is requested by the application. I mean when you've been running the computer for a while since the last time you re- |sboot|sed, then a whole lot of data has been read from the disk, and the |ncache|n gets filled up. Well instead of the |ncache|n just dumping the oldest data to make room for the next data that gets requested from the hard drive, the |ncache|n instead dumps the piece of data that has so far been asked for the smallest number of times. Now if your |ncache|n is all filled up with stuff that keeps getting requested over and over again, then the |ncache|n is not going to dump it for new info that's only been requested once. If that same piece of new info gets requested several times, so the |ncache|n figures it must be a pretty important piece of info, then and only then will the |ncache|n dump some older piece of often-requested info to let the new often-requested info in. So that's one reason why BUFFERS are still sort of important, even if you have a |ncache|n. Because buffers only keep the most recently accessed data, regardless of the frequency with which it is requested. So it's possible to have data in the buffers that isn't in the |ncache|n, so you can save an extra trip to the hard drive <page down> for more Cache continued by having some BUFFERS. Another reason you need to have a few buffers even if you have a |ncache|n, is that most caches don't pay any attention to floppy drives. They only work on hard drives. Well the buffers will do a little bit of caching with the |nfloppy|n drive info. And one more reason for buffers even with a |ncache|n, is that sometimes you need to disable the |ncache|n, like when you're about to optimize your hard drive (that means fix the fragmented files). If the |ncache|n is disabled for a while, you'll be glad that you have a few buffers loaded. But I do mean just a few, be- cause with a |ncache|n, which does basically pretty much the same thing as the buffers, the memory that having a lot of buffers takes up, is not worth it. Unless you've never had a shortage of conventional |nmemory|n in the first place, or if you have DOS version 5, where buffers go into the high |nmemory|n area and don't take up any |nconventional|n RAM anyway. Now one thing you need to remember. You'd think that if a large |ncache|n is good, then a huge |ncache|n would be even better, right? Wrong. A |ncache|n that's too large slows things down instead of speeding them up, because looking through all that data that's stored in the |ncache|n can take longer <page down> for more Cache continued than it would have taken to just get the data from the hard drive! So pay attention to the manual for your |ncache|n program, and if it says a cer- tain size is recommended, then use that size until you know more about the subject and have some spare time to go testing things with a bench- mark program. There is one thing to watch out for with a disk |ncache|n, though. Remember that the information in the |ncache|n is just a copy of what's on the disk. Just because the CHKDSK command tells you that your hard drive is trashed does not necessarily mean that it's true! Suppose you're playing around with trying to load a new TSR into upper memory. Something goes wrong and the |ncache|n in the extended |nmemory|n gets trashed, and then for some rea- son you use the |nCHKDSK|n command and it says your hard drive has no files on it, only a million lost chains in a zillion lost clusters. Well don't panic! It's quite likely that when |nCHKDSK|n went to check your directory structure for you, it found the information that it thought it was look- ing for, in the |ncache|n so it didn't even look at the hard drive. The copy of the |ndirectory|n structure that was sitting in the |ncache|n has been corrup- <page down> for more Cache continued ted so CHKDSK just thinks your disk is trashed, but there's really not a thing wrong with your hard drive at all. So remember, if |nCHKDSK|n ever tells you that your whole disk is trashed while you have a disk |ncache|n active, flush or disable the |ncache|n and then try again to read your hard drive. I'll bet you'll find that it's just fine. Just get rid of whatever it was that you were trying to load into your extended or upper memory that trashed your |ncache|n information. The other type of |ncache|n is a RAM |ncache|n, which is just a small chunk of super-fast |nmemory|n. It performs the same function for the |nmemory|n as what a hard drive |ncache|n does for the hard drive. By the way, it's pronounced "CASH", not "cash-AY". What Is |tCMOS|t? If you have a 286 or newer computer, you probably have |nCMOS|n. What is it? Complementary Metallic Oxide Semiconductor. Now don't be asking me what that is supposed to mean, I just thought you'd like to know what the in- itials stand for. What does it do? Well it's a little piece of memory that is backed up by a battery, that keeps track of the date and time, as well as what sort of hardware you have installed in your system. The amount of RAM, the num- ber and types of floppy drives, the number of hard drives and detailed information about each, the type of graphics adapter, the number of ser- ial and parallel ports, all this information is stored in |nCMOS|n. If your |nCMOS|n gets wiped out, your computer won't even know that you have a hard drive, so you'll have to boot from a |nfloppy|n. So may I suggest that you quickly get into your |nCMOS|n setup and write down every detail of what it says, because some day your battery is going to run down and the |nCMOS|n information will all be lost, so you'd better know <page down> for more CMOS continued what information is supposed to be there so you can put it back! The way to get into the |nCMOS|n is a little different for each type of BIOS, but for mine, a little message comes up on the screen every time I turn on the power, which says something like, "Press |nDEL|n to enter |nCMOS|n setup". If I press the <Delete> key while that message is on the screen, then af- ter a couple seconds I get the |nCMOS|n setup screen. I'm sure that if your screen doesn't give you any such message, then the manual that came with your computer will tell you what to do to get to your |nCMOS|n setup. Just write down whatever it says there, be sure not to change anything, and then exit. Keep that information that you wrote down in a very safe place, and whenever your battery dies, just get a new one, and you'll be able to put the correct information back into the |nCMOS|n. Shareware and Other Methods of Software Distribution The normal method for distribution of software is plain old |tcommercial|t software that you buy in a store or from a catalog, and it generally costs five or fifty times what it's worth. Sometimes you can get a |tdemo|t version of a |ncommercial|n program, which you can try out for free, but some of its best features will be disabled, so that it won't do you much good except for seeing whether you like the program or not. That way, if you like it, you'll buy a real copy. |tShareware|t is a method of distribution where you can also try the program out for free, and only buy it if you like it, but in most cases it is not crippled the way |ncommercial|n demos are. There are some exceptions to that and we generally refer to such programs as "crippleware", but for the most part, |nshareware|n is fully functional. The quality of a piece of |nshareware|n depends on the attitude of the au- thor. Some authors realize that the only way they're going to get paid <page down> for more Shareware continued for the program, is if it's really good, and so they put a lot of work into releasing an excellent product. Commercial software authors don't always do that, because they get their money before you get the software home and find out you don't like it! Unlike most any other type of prod- uct in the world there is rarely a money-back guarantee for any software. This is because, once the package is opened, it is possible that whoever opened it has made a copy of the disks to keep, or perhaps infected them with a virus, so most stores won't accept any opened software for return. So the author knows that once you buy the product, he gets his money re- gardless of whether you like the program or not! Why should he waste a bunch of time making a good program? |nShareware|n authors know better, because the only way they can possibly get any money at all is if you like the program well enough to send some mon- ey. So they put a lot of time into getting it right. Also, |ncommercial|n software programmers have time limits placed on them by the marketing de- partment of their company. |nShareware|n authors don't have to release their products until they're ready for market. Just a couple explanations for <page down> for more Shareware continued the fact that there are so many |nshareware|n products available that are even better than equivalent commercial programs! Some |nshareware|n authors, though, realize that very few people ever bother to register their |nshareware|n, so they don't try that hard, because they figure they're not going to make any money on it anyway. Those authors give |nshareware|n a bad name, but then again, that's only because so many |nshareware|n users don't pay for their |nshareware|n! So in a way, if you don't register the |nshareware|n you like, and you get some other |nshareware|n that isn't any good, that's just as much your fault as the fault of the author who didn't try hard because he knew you wouldn't register it anyway. If you like the concept of downloading software from a BBS, trying it out for a day or a week or a month, to make sure you like it, and then send- ing a reasonable amount of money to the program's author, then please do support the |nshareware|n industry by sending in a registration fee for what- ever programs you like. Because if |nshareware|n authors don't make any mon- ey, they're going to stop releasing their work in the |nshareware|n form, and <page down> for more Shareware continued it will no longer be possible for you, or for anyone to benefit from such an equitable arrangement as what |nshareware|n is. Besides, if you use a piece of |nshareware|n for more than a month or so, without paying for it, you're basically breaking the law! You're never going to get caught or go to jail for it, but that still doesn't make it right. Another reason to register your |nshareware|n, is that if you do, you might get free upgrades, free technical support, a nice neat typeset manual, or some special features like a new copy of the program that allows you to change its screen colors. There are also other software authors who are just so generous, and have written some program that they think is so necessary that everyone should be able to have it, that they release the program as |tfreeware|t. This type of software is just like it sounds, free! Totally and completely! <page down> for more Shareware continued Another type of free software is |tpublic domain|t. This is just like free- ware, only the author doesn't even care if anyone knows he wrote it. This stuff is not even copyrighted! A body could even use it as part of a program that they're writing, without worrying that they'll get sued or anything. So, what types of |nshareware|n, |nfreeware|n, and |npublic domain|n software are available? Just about every type that is available through |nconventional|n commercial outlets, and more! Because |ncommercial|n distributors are only interested in software that would appeal to large numbers of people. So there are fewer types. But if some programmer somewhere writes a little program for his own use, and then decides he may as well try to get a little money out of it, he releases it as |nshareware|n. Even if it is some- thing that so few people would be interested in, that no software house would take it, it is still available as |nshareware|n. I don't think there's any function possible on a computer, that some |nshareware|n author somewhere hasn't written a program to accomplish! <page down> for more Shareware continued Ok, so how do you get this stuff? Well there are a lot of mail order companies that advertise in the computer magazines, that distribute |nshareware|n. However, they charge anything from $1 to $5 per disk, for the copying and shipping fees. So that is in addition to the registra- tion fee that is due the author if you like the program. The other main way to get this sort of software, is by |ndownloading|n it over your modem, from national online services or from local BBSs. So, what is |tdownloading|t? Well that's when you use your modem to dial up a local |nBBS|n, or one of the national online services, and you have your software tell their software to send you a file. Then the file is sent from their hard drive straight to your hard drive, over the phone line. All, right, now what is a |tBBS|t? Well that stands for Bulletin Board |nSys|n- tem. What it means is that someone has a very expensive hobby! The Sysop (System Operator) of a |nBBS|n has a spare computer with a large hard drive, and a separate phone line, and some special |nBBS|n software, and you can just use your modem to call up his computer, and play some games, or <page down> for more Shareware continued write messages to other users, or download software! One thing that most people have to find out the hard way, that is, by having someone publicly ask them on the BBS to stop it, which is kind of embarrassing: It is considered rude to type in ALL CAPS on a |nBBS|n because it's kind of hard to read, and it's interpreted as shouting. Please turn off your <CapsLock> key when writing messages on any |nBBS|n. Now usually a program that you download is all packed together into one file with an extension like .ZIP, .ARC, .LZH, .ARJ, .ZOO, or .PAK. These are called archive files or compressed files. They've been compressed so that the compressed file is smaller than the sum of the files before com- pression, so that it won't take so long to download it, and so that it won't take up so much space on the hard drive of the |nBBS|n, and also so that you can get the whole program by downloading just one file, rather than |ndownloading|n each file of the program separately. So what do you do with a .ZIPped or .ARCed file when you get it? Well <page down> for more Shareware continued you need the compression program it was compressed with, to decompress it. There's a different compression program that works on each of those archive extensions. One of the most popular is PKZIP which makes the files with .ZIP extensions. All these compression programs are share- ware and they are available on the same BBS you downloaded the file from. You just need to download the file that contains the compression program. Now this file will have an .EXE extension, and it is called a Self-Ex- tracting compressed file. What that means, is that if you just type its name, like any other .EXE file, it will uncompress itself. That way you don't have to have the PKUNZIP.EXE file already, in order to unzip the PKZIP program. That wouldn't work at all, would it? So when you execute the self-extracting file, it will unzip itself into all of the files that make up the program. Like PKZIP.EXE, PKUNZIP.EXE, PKZIPFIX.EXE (in the case of the PKZIP program), and MANUAL.DOC which contains all the instructions on how to use the program. Now you can unzip any .ZIP file you might want to download. <page down> for more Shareware continued The next program you need to download after you get your decompression programs, is a virus detection utility. A really popular one is John McAfee's ViruScan. First use it to scan your hard drive, and also every floppy disk you have, and then from then on, just scan everything you download, and everything you buy, before you use it. And always keep the most recent version of ViruScan, because the program won't find any vi- ruses that weren't invented yet by the time it was written. If you have an old version of ViruScan, it will protect you from old viruses, but not from new ones! Just like a vaccination. So that's all there is, to get tons of software at minimal cost. Just download, decompress, scan for viruses, and take it for a test drive. But if it's |nshareware|n, and you like it, and you intend to use it, please send in the registration fee! The only thing that keeps |nshareware|n auth- ors writing more programs, is if they made some money on the last one they wrote. Well what do you do with the .ZIP or .ARC or whatever file that you down- <page down> for more Shareware continued loaded, after you've opened it up and gotten all of the files out of it? Well you erase it from your hard drive, because it takes up a lot of hard disk space for nothing. But wait! First, make sure to copy it to a disk for safe-keeping. Not only because maybe you deleted the program's docu- mentation file, and you might need it again later. Well if so, you just get it back out of the compressed file which you copied to a floppy disk. But the most important reason to save the compressed file on a |nfloppy|n, is that eventually you'll need to upload the file to somewhere. You see, a lot of BBSs keep an upload/download ratio. That means you're only allow- ed to download a certain number of files from each BBS, before you have to upload a file to them in exchange for what you got from them. Well if you kept the files you downloaded from another |nBBS|n, you can upload them to this |nBBS|n where your up/down ratio is no good. So if you kept the com- pressed files on a |nfloppy|n disk, then you've got them handy, ready to up- load whenever you need to. You must not ever just zip up a bunch of files from your hard drive and upload that. Because it is a copyright violation, to distribute part of <page down> for more Shareware continued a program without every single bit of it just the way its author wanted it distributed. And the only way to make sure you send all of the files in their original form, is if you still have the .ZIP or .ARC or whatever file in the form you downloaded it in. Because maybe there was a little README.TXT file or a batch file that you knew you wouldn't need, and you deleted it to save space. Or maybe the program has a little utility that allows you to customize the program to your own favorite colors or some- thing, and you did that. So if you were to compress the program back in- to a .ZIP or .ARC or whatever file, and upload it, that would be illegal because it's not in the original form anymore. Well all you have to do, to avoid such problems, is copy every file you download, to floppy disks before you delete them from your hard drive. It's not so bad, I have all the files I've ever downloaded, sitting on just twelve 720K |ndisks|n. Another thing that is a copyright violation, is to use one paid-for copy of a software program, on more than one computer. Some authors allow it, but most don't. If you want to use a program on two computers, you usu- ally have to pay for two copies. This is true for both |nshareware|n and commercial programs, and even for DOS itself. The |tCHKDSK|t Command This is a very useful command that performs many different functions. The main thing it is supposed to do is CHecK the directory structure of your DiSK. There are lots of things that can go wrong when the read/ write heads are writing to a disk. Any sort of disturbance can cause the heads to not write what they were supposed to write, and |nCHKDSK|n can find what problems may have been caused, and can also correct some of them. However, |nCHKDSK|n will only make corrections if the /F switch was specified on the command line. If the /F switch was not given, and |nCHKDSK|n finds any errors, it will say something like, "F parameter not specified, cor- rections will not be written to disk". |nCHKDSK|n will continue to act like it is making corrections, however, just to show you what corrections it would have made if the /F switch had been specified. So if you like the corrections, you can re-run the |nCHKDSK|n command with the /F switch and it will actually write the corrections to the disk. With DOS version 5, do not ever use the /F switch while any |sTSR|ss are in |smemory|s! <page down> for more CHKDSK continued The most common error that |nCHKDSK|n finds is something like "4 lost chains in 6 clusters". What that means is that there is some data on the disk that has space allocated to it in the FAT, but that has no entries in the directory. If you specify the /F switch, |nCHKDSK|n will convert those lost chains to files, and give the files names like FILE0000.CHK and put them into the root |ndirectory|n of the disk. Now what do you do with them? Well, first look at them with the TYPE command or some other file brow- ser. If they are nothing but strange symbols, then they must have been .COM or .EXE files, and there is no way you can |nrecover|n them. Because it is highly unlikely that the files are complete, and who knows what might happen if you try to run a command file that is not complete. Just del- ete those files. If there is some recognizable text inside though, you should be able to tell what application the lost chain was from. Just load it into that application, and do your best to put the file back to the way it used to be. It's usually better than losing the whole file. <page down> for more CHKDSK continued Most often, though, these FILE0000.CHK files that |nCHKDSK|n makes are not anything important at all. They're usually pieces of temp files that some application was using, which would have been deleted by that app if the app had been properly exited, but maybe your machine locked up and you had to reboot, so the app didn't get a chance to delete its temp files. Those will quite often end up as lost chains, and deleting them is no problem. Well as long as these lost clusters are sitting on your disk, they're just taking up disk space for no reason. So you want to run the |nCHKDSK|n command every week or so, to free up any space that might be in use by these silly things. Another error message that |nCHKDSK|n comes up with pretty often is "FILE1 is cross-linked on cluster ##, FILE2 is cross-linked on cluster ##". This means that both FILE1's and FILE2's FAT entries say that the two files are using the same cluster of disk space. This is a |nFAT|n error that CHK- DSK can't do anything about. You have to try to fix it yourself. You <page down> for more CHKDSK continued must not ever try to run an executable file that has been cross-linked! Just delete it. But if one or both of the files are non-executable, there is hope for recovery. Just COPY the files to a different disk or directory and delete them both from the original location. Now load the files into whatever application created them and see how much data you can save. One of the files will contain a cluster from the other file, and also one or both of them may have been truncated (cut off) at the point where the cross-linkage had occurred. But it's better than losing both files altogether. Of course if they were both |nexecutable|n files then it's a total loss. That's what |sbackup|ss are for. So, what else is the |nCHKDSK|n command good for? Well, it gives you a real nice summary of what's on your disk, as well as how much free RAM you have. It can also give you a list of every file on the disk, if you use the /V (verbose) switch. And that will include all the Hidden files too. If you pipe the output of |nCHKDSK|n /V to the FIND command, you can find the location of any file on your disk: |nCHKDSK|n C:\|n*.*|n /V || |nFIND|n ".BAT" <page down> for more CHKDSK continued would show you the full filespec for every .BAT file on the disk. But remember, the FIND command is case-sensitive, and filenames are always stored in all caps, so |nFIND|n ".bat" would not work at all. Another thing the |nCHKDSK|n command can do is tell you whether you have any |tfragmented|t files. What does that mean? Well, DOS stores files on a disk a cluster at a time. A cluster, depending on the version of DOS the disk was formatted with, and also the size of the disk, can be anywhere from 512 to 16384 bytes. Most hard disks have 2048-byte clusters. Well when DOS is writing a file to disk, it puts down one cluster's worth of data into the first available cluster on the disk, then it puts the second cluster of the file into the second available cluster on the disk, then it puts the third cluster of the file into the third available cluster on the disk, etc. These clusters aren't necessarily next to each other on the disk, and if they're not, then the file is said to be |nfragmented|n. Your hard drive will appear to work faster if all the pieces of a file are right next to each other, or in contiguous clusters. There are lots of disk defragmenters on the market, and it's a very good idea to get one <page down> for more CHKDSK continued and use it weekly. If you can't yet afford to buy a disk defragmenter (often called a disk optimizer) and you can't find a shareware one, another solution to frag- mentation is to BACKUP the disk, FORMAT it, and RESTORE the files. This is because any time you |nbackup|n or COPY a file to a blank disk, all the pieces of the file are placed into contiguous clusters. Then when you format that first disk, all the clusters become available again so when you restore the files, they also stay in contiguous clusters. It's only after you have deleted some file from the disk, that a space opens up in the middle of the disk space so the next file that's written to the disk, if it's longer than the file that got deleted, may become fragmented. In order to make the |nCHKDSK|n command tell you about fragmentation on a whole disk, you have to use the command on each directory separately. For example, |nCHKDSK|n C:\*.* and |nCHKDSK|n C:\DOS\*.* and |nCHKDSK|n C:\UTIL\*.*, et cetera. Please see the last couple pages of the Cache chapter! PLEASE IGNORE THIS PAGE! |TMain Menu|T |TEXIT|T|fSIMPLY2|f |TFORMAT|T|fSIMPLY2|f |TRAMDRIVE.SYS|T|fSIMPLY2|f |TRESTORE|T|fSIMPLY2|f |TSYS|T|fSIMPLY2|f |TVDISK.SYS|T|fSIMPLY2|f |tASCII|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tBoo|1t Disk|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tDisks|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tEDLIN|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tExecutable|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tLow-Level|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tMagnetism|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tParameters|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tPower|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tRAMdisk|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tReplaceable|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tShelling Out|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tVirtual Disk|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tdisk full|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tediting keys|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tfloppy|t|fSIMPLY2|f |TAPPEND|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TASSIGN|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TAUX|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TAbout This Program|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TBREAK|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TBUFFERS|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCALL|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCHCP|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCLOCK$|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCLS|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCOM1|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCOMP|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCON|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCOPY|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCOUNTRY|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TCTTY|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TDATE|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TDEBUG|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TDEL|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TDEVICEHIGH|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TDEVIC|1E|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TDIR|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TDISKCOMP|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TDO|1S|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TERASE|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TFOR|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TGRAFTABL|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TKEYB|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TLPT1|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TNLSFUNC|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TNUL|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TPRN|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TSHIFT|T|fSIMPLY3|f |TTIME|T|fSIMPLY3|f |tBad command or filename|t|fSIMPLY3|f |tDevice|1s|t|fSIMPLY3|f |tPATH|t|fSIMPLY3|f |tconcatenation|t|fSIMPLY3|f |TCOMMAN|1D|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TDOSKEY|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TDRIVPARM|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TECHO|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TEDIT|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TEMM386|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TEXE2BIN|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TEXPAND|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TFASTOPEN|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TFCBS|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TFC|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TFDISK|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TFILES|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TFIND|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TGOTO|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TGRAPHICS|T|fSIMPLY4|f |THELP|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TINSTALL|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TLABEL|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TLASTDRIVE|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TLOADFIX|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TLOADHIGH|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TMKDIR|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TMORE|T|fSIMPLY4|f |tBIOS|t|fSIMPLY4|f |tPark|t|fSIMPLY4|f |tWrite-protect|t|fSIMPLY4|f |TDOSSHELL|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TGWBASIC|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TJOIN|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TMEM|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TMIRROR|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TMODE|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TPAUSE|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TPOST|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TRECOVER|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TREM|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TRENAME|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TREPLACE|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TSELECT|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TSHARE|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TSTACKS|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TTRUENAME|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TUNDELETE|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TUNFORMAT|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TVERIFY|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TVER|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TVOL|T|fSIMPLY5|f |t*.*|t|fSIMPLY5|f |tBoot|t|fSIMPLY5|f |tCOMMAND.COM|t|fSIMPLY5|f |tReboot|t|fSIMPLY5|f |tWildcards|t|fSIMPLY5|f |TDRIVER.SYS|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TPRINT|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TQBASIC|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TSETVER|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TSORT|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TSUBST|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TSWITCHAR|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TSWITCHES|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TTREE|T|fSIMPLY6|f |TTYPE|T|fSIMPLY6|f |tAbort, Retry, Fail, Ignore|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tCONFIG.SYS|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tCleaning|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tFAT|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tKeyboard|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tLogical Drives|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tRedirection|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tTSR|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tbinary|t|fSIMPLY6|f |tdecimal|t|fSIMPLY6|f |thexadecimal|t|fSIMPLY6|f |TERRORLEVEL|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TEXIST|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TIF|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TNOT|T|fSIMPLY5|f |TSMARTDRV.SYS|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TXCOPY|T|fSIMPLY2|f |tBatch File|t|fSIMPLY7|f |tDevice Driver|t|fSIMPLY3|f |tFile Creation Error|t|fSIMPLY2|f |tPROMPT|t|fSIMPLY6|f |TWhat Is DOS?|T|fSIMPLY4|f |TTrademarks|T|fSIMPLY3|f