Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/dosutils/dosimp10.arj/SIMPLY4.HYP

Text File | 1991-08-12 | 102.0 KB | 1,997 lines

                            The |TDOSKEY|T Command

This command is new to DOS version 5.0 and you're going to love it!  You
know the editing keys that DOS has always used before?  Well they are
helpful up to a point, but they're nothing compared to |nDOSKEY|n!

It's a TSR, but it only takes 4.5K of RAM even if you enlarge its inter-
nal buffer size to 1024 bytes, and it's just about the most useful 4.5K
you ever spent!  Of course you can LOADHIGH it if you have a 386 with
some extended memory.

What does it do?  Well it's very much like 4DOS's command line editing
and aliasing, and it's very much like the third-party History and Alias
and CED utilities.  There are a lot of little utilities that have been
written over the years to perform these functions, but now DOS has its
own, and since it comes with DOS it's guaranteed to work with DOS.

It remembers all the commands you've issued for a while, and you can
recall them and edit and re-issue them, instead of just retyping some
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
fifty-character long command that you just issued five minutes ago.  You
can use the <Home> and <End> keys, <Insert> and <Delete> characters,
change whatever you want to change in a previous command, or just re-
enter it the way it was.

Another benefit of |nDOSKEY|n is that you can type more than one command on a
line, and execute them all at once, instead of typing one, waiting for it
to complete, typing the next, waiting, etc., whenever you know exactly
what commands you're going to execute next.  For example if you have a
large file that you want to move from the C: drive to the B: drive, in-
stead of typing |nCOPY|n C:FILE.EXT B: and then waiting for that to finish,
then typing DEL C:FILE.EXT, you can instead type |nCOPY|n C:FILE.EXT B:
<Ctrl-T> |nIF|n |nEXIST|n B:FILE.EXT DEL C:FILE.EXT and hit <Enter>, and it will
be done automatically.  (The reason for the IF EXIST command is in case
the COPY operation fails, then the source file won't get automatically
deleted, but if the |nCOPY|n is successful, then it will.)  Now whenever you
type <Ctrl-T> to separate the commands that you are typing all on one
command line, a  symbol will appear on the command line.  That's normal;
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
that's what it's supposed to do.  Of course with DOS we've always been
able to type the next command while the last command is still executing,
but only up to fifteen characters.  On the sixteenth character the key-
board buffer is full and the computer just beeps.  With |nDOSKEY|n you can
enter successive commands up to 128 characters instead of only fifteen.

Well as soon as you execute the |nDOSKEY|n command the first time after each
reboot, that loads it into memory and then it starts remembering every
command that you enter.  When its internal buffer gets full, it forgets
the oldest command so that there is room for the next command you type.
It always remembers the most recent commands, however many can fit in the
size of buffer you have chosen to use.

The <Up arrow> key will show you the previous commands that you have en-
tered, one at a time, starting with the most recent one.  The <Down ar-
row> key will show you the command that you entered right after you en-
tered the one you're looking at.  Of course if you're looking at the last
command you entered, the <Down arrow> key will show your |ncurrent|n command
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
line, which is blank.  Once you find a command that you would like to re-
issue, just hit the <Enter> key, or edit it first by using the <Home>,
<End>, <Insert>, <Delete>, and <Arrow> keys and then hit <Enter>.

The <F7> key will show you all the commands that |nDOSKEY|n has stored in its
buffer, in a numbered list.  To choose a command from the list, hit <F9>
and |nDOSKEY|n will ask you which numbered command you want to execute.  Type
its number and off you go!

My favorite is the <F8> key.  If you want to execute the last command
that started with "DI" but it was quite a while ago so you don't want to
go looking for it with the <Up arrow> key, just type DI and hit <F8> and
it will show you the last command you entered that started with "DI" and
if that's not the right one, hit <F8> again and it will show you the last
"DI" command before that.  When you find the one you want, hit <Enter>.

The <Page Up> key shows you the very oldest command that is still in DOS-
KEY's buffer, and <Page Down> shows you the most recent command.
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
Now here are all the keys that you can use to edit previous commands be-
fore you re-enter them, or to edit the command you're presently typing.
First of all, the regular DOS editing keys we've always used still work
for the |ncurrent|n command.  (They work a bit different though, than without
|nDOSKEY|n installed, especially if you use the /INSERT switch, so be careful
until you adjust.)  But |nDOSKEY|n adds all of the following:

The <Home> key takes the cursor to the leftmost character in the command.
<End> takes you to the space after the rightmost character.  The <Left>
and <Right> arrows move the cursor one space in the indicated direction.
<Ctrl-Left> and <Ctrl-Right> move the cursor to the first character past
the last space past the cursor's |ncurrent|n position.  That sentence needs
an example, huh?  Suppose the command line you're working on says this:
          ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO
Now if your cursor is on the J, <Ctrl-Left> will take you to the G.  But
if the cursor is on the K, L, space, or M, then it will take you to the
J.  If the cursor is on the D, E, F, or space, the <Ctrl-Right> will take
you to the G.
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
The <Backspace> key deletes the character to the left of the cursor.  The
<Delete> key deletes the character that the cursor it on.  <Ctrl-End>
deletes the character that the cursor is on, as well as all the rest of
the characters to the end of the line.  <Ctrl-Home> deletes all the char-
acters to the left of the cursor, making the character that the cursor is
on become the first character of the command.

The <Insert> key toggles insert mode on and off.  If insert mode is on,
any character you type will cause the character the cursor is on, and all
the characters to the right of it, to move to the right to make room for
the characters that you type.  If insert mode is off, then whatever you
type will replace the character that the cursor is on.  If you have DOS-
KEY set up so that insert mode is the default, then every time you hit
the <Enter> key to carry out a command, it goes back to insert mode even
if you were in replace mode when you finished editing that command.  The
same thing goes if your |ndefault|n is replace mode; hitting <Enter> takes
you back into your |ndefault|n mode even if you had used the <Insert> key to
temporarily change modes.
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
The <Esc> key erases the entire line that you're working on.

You can even use |nDOSKEY|n to create an actual batch file on disk, if you
want to execute the |nbatch file|n as you write it.  Just type the <Alt-F7>
keystroke combination, which erases the |nDOSKEY|n buffer, then execute the
commands that you want the |nbatch file|n to contain, then type this:
          |nDOSKEY|n /HISTORY > NAME.BAT
where NAME.BAT is the |nbatch file|n that you want to create.  The |nDOSKEY|n
/HISTORY switch displays a list of all the commands that are currently in
the buffer, and since you cleared the buffer before you started, "all the
commands" means just those commands you wanted in the |nbatch file|n.  Then
the > means that DOS should use redirection to send that list to a file
named NAME.BAT instead of sending it to the screen as it normally would.
The /HISTORY switch can also be abbreviated as /H.

Not only that, but you can also create what DOS calls "|smacros|s" with DOS-
KEY.  They're not really |nmacros|n though.  That term generally means using
one keystroke in the place of a whole bunch of keystrokes.  But |nmacros|n is
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
what DOS called these |nDOSKEY|n things, so we'll have to live with it.  DOS-
KEY's |nmacros|n are really more like |sbatch file|ss than anything else.  Just
really fast batch files though, since |nmacros|n are stored as part of DOS-
KEY's internal buffer so they're always in memory and never need to be
read off the disk except the first time you create the |nmacros|n during each
session.  Don't worry about the fact that the <Alt-F7> combination clears
|nDOSKEY|n's buffer.  It doesn't wipe out the |nmacros|n, just the |nmemory|n of the
most recent commands you've entered.

Another way in which |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n are better than batch files is that
the files in which they are stored on disk don't take up any disk space.
I mean if you put the |nDOSKEY|n macro-creating commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file, that won't take up any more disk space than the |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n file
without macro commands did, unless you put in so many macro commands that
the |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n file gets larger than 2048 bytes, because of the way DOS
deals with disks.  Any file, no matter how small, takes up a whole clus-
ter of disk space, so an |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n with a bunch of |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n that
is 1987 |nbytes|n long, doesn't take any more disk space than an |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
file with no |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n that is 38 bytes long.  For example, you could
put fifteen |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and delete fifteen of
the batch files you used to use, and that would free up fifteen clusters
which is 30K of disk space.

There are a few other ways in which a |nDOSKEY|n macro is different from a
batch file.  Since the |nmacros|n are stored in memory instead of on disk,
you don't have to have access to a disk-based .BAT file in order to exec-
ute a macro.  It's just like the macro were an internal DOS command.

A macro can only have a total length of 127 characters because the whole
macro goes on one line and DOS commands can only have 128 characters in-
cluding the carriage return (the <Enter> key), whereas there is no limit
to the length of a |nbatch file|n.

You can terminate a |nbatch file|n by pressing <Ctrl-C> or <Ctrl-Break>, but
pressing one of those combinations while a macro is executing will only
terminate the command that's running right now.  The next command in the
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
macro, and all the ones following it, will still get executed, just as if
you had used <Ctrl-Break> in a batch file and answered "N" when it asked
"Terminate batch job?"

In |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n you use $1 through $9 instead of the usual %1 through %9
for replaceable parameters.  You can also use the |nreplaceable|n parameter
$* in |nmacros|n, and what it means is "all parts of the command tail togeth-
er", even if it's more than nine |nparameters|n, instead of just one "word"
at a time as $1 through $9 mean.  For example, if you had a macro named
HELLO and you entered the command HELLO ABC DEF GHI at the prompt, $1 is
ABC, $2 would be DEF, and $3 gets GHI.  But $* would be ABC DEF GHI.

The redirection characters that can be used in |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n are quite
different from the normal ones.  $L is used in place of <, $G for >,
$G$G for >>, and $B for ||.

You cannot use the GOTO or SHIFT commands or turn ECHO off in a |nDOSKEY|n
macro, or even use the @ symbol to suppress the display of a command.
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
You cannot in any way execute a second macro from within one macro, as
you can do using the CALL command for batch files.  You can't run a macro
from within a batch file either, but that's not a big problem since the
purpose of a macro is to save keystrokes.  You don't need to save key-
strokes inside a |nbatch file|n, since you only need to create it once.

You can't access an environment variable from within a macro as you can
from within a |nbatch file|n, with a construction such as %PATH%.

To create one of these |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n, for example if you wanted to create
a macro that would clear the screen and give you a directory listing of
the current |ndirectory|n with the /W and /P switches, you'd just enter this
command:  |nDOSKEY|n MYDIR=CLS $T |nDIR|n /W /P and from that point on, until you
reboot the computer, every time you enter the command MYDIR, the commands
CLS and |nDIR|n /W /P will be executed for you.  Any |nmacros|n that you want to
have active every time you start your computer should have their macro-
creating commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
To create a |nDOSKEY|n macro that uses replaceable parameters, it's done just
the same way as it's done in a batch file, but $1 through $9 are used in-
stead of %1 through %9, and if your macro contains more than one command,
they are all placed on the same line with the $T symbol separating com-
mands.  For example,
          |nDOSKEY|n DIRTYPE=DIR $1 $T |nPAUSE|n $T |nTYPE|n $1 $B |nMORE|n
Now every time you execute the command DIRTYPE FILENAME, the following
commands will be executed:
          |nDIR|n FILENAME
          |nPAUSE|n
          |nTYPE|n FILENAME || |nMORE|n
Because $1 means the first "word" that's typed on the command line after
the name of the macro, and $B in |nmacros|n is the || symbol.

You can also make a macro that has the same name as a regular DOS com-
mand.  For example if you had a macro that cleared the screen and then
did a DIR command, you could name it |nDIR|n if you wanted to.  DOS would
execute the macro instead of the internal DOS |nDIR|n command whenever you
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
enter DIR as a command.  But if you need to execute the regular |nDIR|n com-
mand instead of your macro, you can just type a <Space> between the DOS
prompt and the |nDIR|n command, and that way DOS would not recognize it as a
macro, but would recognize it as an internal command or executable file.
Isn't that strange?

After you create some |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n and decide you want to use them
permanently, you can just type |nDOSKEY|n /|nMACROS|n > NAME.BAT to create a
batch file called NAME.BAT which will contain all the |nmacros|n that you
currently have stored in memory.  Now if you edit that file and put the
|nDOSKEY|n command and a <Space> in front of each line, you will have creat-
ed a |nbatch file|n that you can run each time you boot your computer, which
will load all of those |nmacros|n into |nmemory|n.  This is similar to the way
you use |nDOSKEY|n /HISTORY > NAME.BAT to create a |nbatch file|n as described
above, but that makes a file out of all the commands you have typed at
the DOS |nprompt|n.  The /|nMACROS|n switch calls up a list of all the |nmacros|n
you have created since you last rebooted your computer.  It can also be
abbreviated as /M.
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
If your |nDOSKEY|n internal buffer gets too full to store any more |nmacros|n,
you can delete one by setting it equal to nothing, as in |nDOSKEY|n DIRTYPE=
but that won't give the buffer space back to the part of the buffer that
stores every command you type.  It will only free it up for more |nmacros|n.
You can delete all the |nmacros|n from the |ncurrent|n |nDOSKEY|n buffer by typing
the <Alt-F10> keystroke combination.

Since the dollar sign ($) is used in |nDOSKEY|n |nmacros|n to represent a lot of
different things, if you want to use a dollar sign that does not have a
special meaning to |nDOSKEY|n, you use a double dollar sign.  For example, if
you have a file named FILE$ and you want to have a macro that backs up
that file to a different disk, then when you enter the command which cre-
ates that macro, the filename will have to be entered as FILE$$, like
this:  |nDOSKEY|n BAK=COPY FILE$$ B:.  |nDOSKEY|n will see the double dollar sign
in that macro definition and know that it's not supposed to do anything
special with that particular dollar sign, even though most dollar signs
are supposed to be interpreted in some way by the |nDOSKEY|n command.

                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
When you first load |nDOSKEY|n into memory, usually in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file, if you want its internal buffer to be anything other than 512 bytes
then you have to tell it so, since 512 is the default.  You can set the
size anywhere from 256 |nbytes|n on up.  |nDOSKEY|n /BUFSIZE=#### will do it.

You can also tell |nDOSKEY|n whether you want it to |ndefault|n to insert mode
or replace (overstrike) mode.  |nDOSKEY|n /INSERT or |nDOSKEY|n /OVERSTRIKE will
do that.  The |ndefault|n is overstrike so you only need to use that if you
(or your |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n file) had previously used the command |nDOSKEY|n /IN-
SERT since the last time you |sreboot|sed.

The |nDOSKEY|n command also has a switch called /REINSTALL but I can't imag-
ine why anyone would want to use it.  It loads another copy of |nDOSKEY|n
into |nmemory|n, taking up extra |nmemory|n.  It also clears the buffer, but you
can do that with the <Alt-F7> and <Alt-F10> combinations, so why would
you want to load a new copy of |nDOSKEY|n into |nmemory|n?  I don't know.  But
if you want to, you can, by entering |nDOSKEY|n /REINSTALL.

                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
Well there was a lot of information in that section, huh?  How about a
review?

Entering more than one command at a time:

<Ctrl-T>      separates commands on the command line

Finding a command to edit:

<Up arrow>    displays previous command
<Down arrow>  displays next command
<Enter>       executes command
<F7>          numbered list of all commands in buffer
<F8>          type TEXT, then it finds last command that began with TEXT
<F9>          executes a command from the numbered list displayed by <F7>
<Page Up>     earliest command in buffer
<Page Down>   most recent command

                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
Editing commands:

<Home>        moves cursor to first character of command
<End>         moves cursor to end of command
<Left arrow>  moves cursor to left
<Right arrow> moves cursor to right
<Ctrl-Left>   moves cursor to beginning of last word
<Ctrl-Right>  moves cursor to beginning of next word
<Backspace>   deletes character left of cursor
<Delete>      deletes character under cursor
<Ctrl-Home>   deletes all characters left of cursor
<Ctrl-End>    deletes all characters right of cursor
<Insert>      toggles between insert and replace (overstrike) modes
<Escape>      erases the |ncurrent|n command line

Naming macro with same name as a DOS command:

<Space>NAME   allows execution of command with same NAME as a macro
                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
Erasing the |nDOSKEY|n buffer:

<Alt-F7>      erases the command buffer
<Alt-F10>     erases the macro buffer

Writing macro definitions:

$1 -- $9      |nreplaceable|n |nparameters|n; same as %1 -- %9 in batch files
$*            a |nreplaceable|n parameter that means the entire command tail
$L            for |nredirection|n; the < symbol
$G            for |nredirection|n; the > symbol
$G$G          for |nredirection|n; the >> symbol
$B            for |nredirection|n; the || symbol
$T            to separate commands
$$            to represent a dollar sign inside a macro



                           <page down> for more
                             DOSKEY continued
Switches for the |nDOSKEY|n command:

/BUFSIZE=#### size of |nDOSKEY|n buffer for commands and |nmacros|n; |ndefault|n 512
/HISTORY (/H) display of all commands in buffer
/INSERT       makes insert mode the |ndefault|n
/|nMACROS|n (/M)  display of all |nmacros|n in buffer
/OVERSTRIKE   makes replace mode the |ndefault|n again if /INSERT was used
/REINSTALL    loads a new copy of |nDOSKEY|n into |nmemory|n, clears buffer

Here is an excerpt from my AUTOEXEC.BAT file which shows all the |nDOSKEY|n
parts.  Notice that you must load the |nDOSKEY|n TSR into memory before you
begin issuing any macro-making commands:
           C:\DOS\DOSKEY /BUFSIZE=1024 /INSERT
           C:\DOS\DOSKEY C=COMSAVER $*
           C:\DOS\DOSKEY PCS=C:\PCT\PCSHELL
           C:\DOS\DOSKEY THES=CD C:\AW\THES $t THESAUR $t CD\
           C:\DOS\DOSKEY CB=COMSAVER BROWSE $1
           C:\DOS\DOSKEY 4=CD C:\UTIL $t 4DOS $t CD\
           C:\DOS\DOSKEY HLP=C:\SIMPLY\HLPURSLF C:\SIMPLY\SIMPLY1
                             The |TECHO|T Command

This is a batch file command, but it does have some uses on the command
line.  It's used to display text on the screen, or to tell DOS not to
display text on the screen.

Whenever DOS loads a copy of the COMMAND.COM file into memory, whether it
be the first copy or another copy, the state of echo is on.  Whenever DOS
finishes executing a |nbatch file|n, and returns to the prompt, it turns echo
on.  What echo on means is that whatever commands are executed from with-
in a |nbatch file|n, will show on the screen as they are read from the batch
file.  If you don't want the commands to show on the screen as they are
executed, then you want to turn echo off.  Then later in the same batch
file if you want the commands to display again, you turn echo back on.
You can also use the |nECHO|n command to display your own text on the screen.
And the |nECHO|n command all by itself with no parameters, will make DOS tell
you whether the |ncurrent|n state of echo is off or on.

Suppose you have a |nbatch file|n named TEST.BAT which contains these lines:
                           <page down> for more
                              ECHO continued
          DATE
          TIME
          VER
          |nDIR|n
Now, you execute that batch file by typing TEST <Enter>.  Here's what
will happen to your screen (minus the blank lines):
          C:\>TEST
          C:\>DATE
          |nCurrent|n date is Mon 06-24-1991
          Enter new date (mm-dd-yy): _
          C:\>TIME
          |nCurrent|n time is 05:30:53.72p
          Enter new time: _
          C:\>VER
          MS-DOS Version 5.00
          C:\>DIR
           Volume in drive C is drive C
           Volume Serial Number is 16CB-74E4
                           <page down> for more
                              ECHO continued
           |nDirectory|n of C:\
          COMMAND  COM     47855 05-09-91   5:00a
          AUTOEXEC BAT       861 06-18-91   4:58p
          CONFIG   SYS       287 06-17-91   6:58p
                  3 file(s)      49003 |nbytes|n
                              69025792 |nbytes|n free
          C:\>
          C:\>
Now if you were to add |nECHO|n OFF as the first line of that batch file, and
leave the rest the same, here's what your screen would do instead:
          C:\>TEST
          C:\>ECHO OFF
          |nCurrent|n date is Mon 06-24-1991
          Enter new date (mm-dd-yy): _
          |nCurrent|n time is 05:30:53.72p
          Enter new time: _
          MS-DOS Version 5.00
           Volume in drive C is drive C
                           <page down> for more
                              ECHO continued
           Volume Serial Number is 16CB-74E4
           |nDirectory|n of C:\
          COMMAND  COM     47855 05-09-91   5:00a
          AUTOEXEC BAT       861 06-18-91   4:58p
          CONFIG   SYS       287 06-17-91   6:58p
                  3 file(s)      49003 |nbytes|n
                              69025792 |nbytes|n free
          C:\>
A lot less clutter on the screen this time, huh?  First of all, until af-
ter the first command has executed, echo is still on, so you see the |nECHO|n
OFF command.  (In DOS version 3.3 or later, you can use the @ symbol to
supress the display of any command even when echo is on so if you changed
that line to @ECHO OFF, then it wouldn't show on the screen either.)  But
after that, no more prompts get sent to the screen, and only the output
of each command shows, not the commands that cause the output.

Then at the end, notice that there is only one prompt this time.  You
see, when echo is on, DOS is displaying the |nprompt|n for each line, then
                           <page down> for more
                              ECHO continued
looking to see if there is another command in the batch file to be exec-
uted or not.  Well after the DIR command, DOS finds that there aren't any
commands left, so it closes up the |nbatch file|n interpreter and turns echo
on (which doesn't matter this time because echo was on the whole time)
and displays another prompt.  But when echo is off, DOS is not displaying
a |nprompt|n in between each command of the |nbatch file|n, so that last |nprompt|n
that would be showing while DOS looks to see if there are any commands
left in the |nbatch file|n, doesn't show on the screen.  No prompts show on
the screen until the batch interpreter is closed down and echo is turned
back on.

How about an example of using the |nECHO|n command to display text onscreen?
          |nECHO|n HELLO.
          |nECHO|n HOW ARE YOU?
Now if that |nbatch file|n were executed, the screen would be like this:
          C:\>ECHO HELLO.
          HELLO.
          C:\>ECHO HOW ARE YOU?
                           <page down> for more
                              ECHO continued
          HOW ARE YOU?
          C:\>
          C:\>
Not exactly what you had intended, right?  Well make the first line of
that batch file @ECHO OFF, leave the rest the same, and execute it:
          HELLO.
          HOW ARE YOU?
          C:\>

Well you can also use the |nECHO|n command at the DOS prompt instead of in a
|nbatch file|n, but that's only appropriate if you're using redirection to
send the output of the |nECHO|n command to some other device instead of to
the screen.  For example, |nECHO|n HELLO > PRN would make your printer type
the word HELLO.  (See the section on Device|1s.)

Another sort of a device that you can redirect output to, is a filename.
You could actually write a |nbatch file|n to disk by using the |nECHO|n command
with |nredirection|n.  Note that the > symbol creates a brand new file by the
                           <page down> for more
                              ECHO continued
name you specify, and if that file already existed at the time, it gets
erased.  A double >> sign means for DOS to add the text to the already
existing file, without deleting the file first.  So to create the above
TEST.BAT file, you could use these commands from the DOS prompt:
          |nECHO|n DATE > TEST.BAT
          |nECHO|n TIME >> TEST.BAT
          |nECHO|n VER >> TEST.BAT
          |nECHO|n |nDIR|n >> TEST.BAT

The |nECHO|n command always sends along a carriage return (the <Enter> key)
at the end of each thing that it sends, so that batch file you just cre-
ated does not say DATE TIME VER |nDIR|n.  It's got each command on a separate
line just like it's supposed to.

If you try to display instructions containing one of the redirection
characters using the |nECHO|n command, |nredirection|n will take place and the
results will not be what you expected.  For example, a command like:

                           <page down> for more
                              ECHO continued
          |nECHO|n Type |nTYPE|n FILENAME.EXT > PRN
          |nECHO|n to print out this file.
will send the words "Type |nTYPE|n FILENAME.EXT" to the printer.  In later
versions of DOS, though, you can get the results you wanted by using
          |nECHO|n Type "|nTYPE|n FILENAME.EXT > PRN"
The quotation marks keep DOS from performing the redirection.

If you execute the command |nECHO|n all by itself with no parameters, it will
say either "|nECHO|n is on" or "|nECHO|n is off".  So how do you get it to send a
blank line to the screen from within a |sbatch file|s?  Well in recent DOS
versions, it will work if you give |nECHO|n. as a command.  That's right,
|nECHO|n-period with no <Space> between.  If that doesn't work for your ver-
sion, you can try |nECHO|n<Space><F7> which will look like |nECHO|n ^@.  The ^@
is the ASCII 0 character which represents the null character, looks like
a <Space>, but isn't a <Space> and in most DOS versions will make |nECHO|n
display a blank line.  If you have DOS version 5 though, and you're run-
ning the DOSKEY program, or if you're running any other version and have
your <F7> key programmed via ANSI.SYS to stand for something else, then
                           <page down> for more
                              ECHO continued
<F7> won't give you ^@.  In that case, find out how your text editor goes
about accepting control characters in the text, and use |nECHO|n <Ctrl-H>
which is a <Backspace> character.  But if you're using a version of DOS
that's so old that |nECHO|n. doesn't work, especially now that Microsoft is
selling DOS 5.0 to the public instead of only to computer dealers, you
should go get version 5.0 and find out just what you've been missing!













                           The |TDRIVPARM|T Command

This command is used in the CONFIG.SYS file, but it's pretty rare that
it's needed.  It's only necessary if you replace an old floppy drive or
add a new one, that is not supported by the BIOS in your machine or by
your DOS version.  It sets the drive characteristics for existing physic-
al drives.  If you can read and write disks in your |nfloppy|n drive but you
can't properly FORMAT brand new |ndisks|n, then this is probably the command
that will help you.

If you think you need to try this command, check your DOS manual because
the syntax and |sdefault|ss are different for different DOS versions.  Also
some brands of DOS don't even support this command.  If you can't make
this work, then try DRIVER.SYS which is a device driver that sets up
logical drives inside of physical drives.

But if you do use the |nDRIVPARM|n command, for heaven's sake don't give it
any incorrect information.  Tell it the truth, the whole truth, and noth-
ing but the truth.

                             The |TEDIT|T Command

This command is new with DOS 5.0, and if you hate EDLIN then you're going
to love this one!  It's a full screen ASCII text editor, with pull-down
menus, mouse support, configurable colors, and on-line help.

You can't use this command if the |nQBASIC|n.EXE file is not in the same dir-
ectory with the |nEDIT|n.COM file, or else in a directory listed on your PATH
variable in the environment, or else in the current |ndirectory|n.

You can start the EDITor from within DOSSHELL, or at the command line.
From the shell, it's in the Main Group.  From the prompt, just type |nEDIT|n
and the name of the file you want to edit.  For example, |nEDIT|n |nCONFIG.SYS|n
or |nEDIT|n C:\WORD\LETTER.DOC or if you want to create a new file, just |nEDIT|n
will do.

To pull down a menu from within the EDITor, all you have to do is hit one
of the <Alt> keys, and the menu bar will light up.  Choose the letter of
the menu you want to see, and there it is.  Use the <Left> and <Right>
                           <page down> for more
                              EDIT continued
arrow keys to move to a different menu, or use <Up> and <Down> to move
to a different selection.  Hit <Enter> to make a selection.  To go back
to editing without selecting a menu option, use <Esc>.

The |nEDIT|n command depends on the code in the |nQBASIC|n.EXE file for its op-
eration, and since the PC-DOS QBASIC command depends on some code in the
ROM of a true IBM brand computer, this means that PC-DOS's |nEDIT|n command
won't work on anything but a true IBM computer.  So if you have a clone,
you'll have to have MS-DOS in order to use this command.

To get help, just put your cursor on the menu item for which you want
more information and press <F1>.  If you need help in general about how
the EDITor works, when you first start it up, don't give a filename, and
you will see a screen that offers you a Survival Guide.  Choose that.

Well, the chapter about the EDITor in the manual is so well done that be-
tween it and the online help, you won't need anything else from me about
it.  Have fun!

                            The |TEXE2BIN|T Command

This is a command you're not going to need for quite some time.  If you
don't already know what it is, then you may as well erase it from your
hard drive to save space.  It converts .EXE files to .BIN files, and that
is not anything you're ever going to want to do unless you're a software
developer.













                            The |TEXPAND|T Command

This command is new with DOS version 5.0, and if you install DOS properly
using its own SETUP program, you'll probably never need to use this com-
mand.  You may have noticed that most of the filenames on the disks in
the upgrade package are missing the last character of their extensions.
For example, all the .COM files have an extension of .CO_.  Well the
files are also compressed, so that they take up less disk space.  They
are not usable at all in this format.  The |nEXPAND|n command can put them
back to their normal usable form.

Here's an example of the syntax you use:
          |nEXPAND|n A:\HIMEM.SY_ C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
That will take the compressed HIMEM.SYS file from the disk in drive A:,
expand it to its usable form, and give it its proper name, and put it in
the \DOS directory on drive C:.  So if you accidentally deleted the HIMEM
.SYS file from your \DOS |ndirectory|n and you couldn't get it back with the
UNDELETE command, or if you had QEMM installed when you installed DOS 5.0
and the SETUP procedure didn't install the |nHIMEM.SYS|n file to begin with,
                           <page down> for more
                             EXPAND continued
that's how you can get it back.

If you need to expand more than one file from the original DOS disks,
you can do something like this:
          |nEXPAND|n A:\HIMEM.SY_ A:\EMM386.EX_ A:\ATTRIB.EX_ C:\DOS
That command will expand all three of those files from the original DOS
|ndisks|n, but it will put them into the C:\DOS directory with the same sil-
ly names they have now.  You'll have to use the RENAME command to make
them usable.  You can't specify the full filenames for the |nexpanded|n files
if you expand more than one file at at time.

You can't use wildcards with this command.  That's pretty rare, huh?







                           The |TFASTOPEN|T Command

I would not recommend this command to my worst enemy.  It's just like a
tiny disk cache, only not nearly as well-behaved.  Get yourself a disk
|ncache|n and get rid of this command.

Well, what it does is, it stores parts of the directory entries and FAT
that you have already accessed, in RAM which is fast, so that the next
time you need to access those same parts, you can get them from memory
instead of from the slow hard disk.  Yes, that's exactly what a |ncache|n
does, only the |ncache|n does |nFAT|n and |ndirectory|n entries, and all other types
of disk information as well.  And the |ncache|n does it less dangerously.

Well I guess it would be pretty silly of me to tell you the syntax for
this command after I just got done telling you not to use it, huh?  So I
guess I won't.




                             The |TFCBS|T Command

This command is used in the CONFIG.SYS file.  It tells DOS how many File
Control Blocks to keep available.  Only old applications are still using
FCBs.  Nowadays File Handles are used instead.  That's what the FILES
command in |nCONFIG.SYS|n is for.  These are the two methods that DOS has
used to keep track of open files, files that are in use at the moment by
some application.  |nFCBS|n is the old way, |nFILES|n is the new way.  DOS's
default setting for |nFCBS|n is 4, and valid values are 1 through 255.  You
really won't need to use this command unless you use some application
that tells you in its manual to use this command.  The syntax is FCBS=#
where # is the number you want to use, from 1 to 255.








                              The |TFC|T Command

This command is a lot like COMP, only better.  It compares one file to
another.  It's a good idea to use one of these commands after using the
COPY command, if you copy a file that's really important, and you want to
make absolutely sure that the |nCOPY|n command worked perfectly.  There's no
need to do this on a regular basis though, because DOS just doesn't make
mistakes all that often.  But any time you are tempted to use the /V
switch with the |nCOPY|n command, you're better off leaving out the /V and
using |nCOMP|n or |nFC|n after the copy is made, instead.

If your version of DOS has the |nFC|n command, use it.  Otherwise, use |nCOMP|n.
(However, if you're using a disk cache, none of these methods will do you
any good, since what will actually get compared is the destination copy
and the copy in the |ncache|n, rather than the source copy on the disk.)  Af-
ter the |nCOPY|n command is done type |nCOMP|n and press <F3> and <Enter>.  Since
|nCOMP|n has the same number of letters as |nCOPY|n, that will compare the source
file and the destination file.  (See editing keys.)  If you want to use
|nFC|n instead, then after the copy type |nFC|n and hit <Del> <Del> <F3> <Enter>.
                           <page down> for more
                               FC continued
That will delete the P and the Y from the template (DOS's |nmemory|n of the
last command you entered) and then copy the rest of it, the source and
destination filenames, to the |ncurrent|n command line.  This way, you make
sure you end up comparing the right files with each other, without making
any typos, and without even having to type the filenames over.

The output of this command is the last line that matches in both files
right before some lines that are different, followed by the lines that
don't match, and finally the first line that matches again.  If there is
another mismatch between the files, then you'll see the corresponding
sequence of lines for that difference, and then the next difference if
there is another one, etc.  If there aren't any differences, |nFC|n will tell
you that instead.

The syntax for the |nFC|n command is really easy:
          |nFC|n D:\DIR\FILE1.EXT D:\DIR\FILE2.EXT
where D: is the drive letter for each file, \DIR\ is the directory name
for each file, and FILE#.EXT are the names of the files you want to com-
                           <page down> for more
                               FC continued
pare.  Of course as usual, whatever parts of the file specifications are
the defaults, can be left out.  If one of the files is in the current
directory, you can leave out the D:\DIR\ part for that file and just say
|nFC|n FILE1.EXT D:\DIR\FILE2.EXT and of course if the second file has the
same name as the first, then you can use *.* for its filename, as in:
          |nFC|n FILE1.EXT D:\DIR\*.*

There are lots of switches with this command, that can make it do slight-
ly different things.  /A /B /C /L /LB# /N /T /W and /# are the possible
switches.  The /B switch causes a binary comparison rather than an ASCII
comparison, and if you use the /B switch then you don't want to use any
of the other switches with it.  If you are comparing files that have the
extension .BIN, .COM, .EXE, .LIB, .OBJ, or .SYS, then this is the default
so you don't need to specify the switch.  A |nbinary|n comparison means that
the output will be displayed like 00000015: B8 0F.  That's the offset ad-
dress of the mismatch (that means how many bytes past the first byte in
the file) and the hexadecimal codes for the byte in the first file, and
the hex code for the byte in the second file that didn't match it.  The
                           <page down> for more
                               FC continued
rest of the switches are for ASCII comparisons, which means the lines
that don't match are displayed in normal text form.

The /A switch gives an abbreviated output.  That means that if there is
more than one line in a row that don't match between the two files, all
the mismatched lines won't be displayed.  Just the last matching line
before the mismatch, then a ... symbol to show that other lines exist,
then the first matching line after the mismatch.  Of course if there's
only one line that doesn't match, that line will be displayed, since it
takes up as much room on your screen to show the line as it takes to show
the ... line that just stands for other lines.

The /C switch tells |nFC|n to ignore the case of the letters, so that HELLO
will not be regarded as a mismatch with hello.

/L is the default for |nASCII|n files, so it's only used when you want to
make an |nASCII|n comparison on a file that has the extension of .BIN, .COM,
.EXE, .LIB, .OBJ, or .SYS.
                           <page down> for more
                               FC continued
The /LB# switch tells DOS how many lines in a row are allowed to be dif-
ferent, without causing the |nFC|n command to abort.  The default is 100.
The /N switch makes |nFC|n display the line number along with each line.  The
/T switch causes |nFC|n to not expand tabs to spaces.  The /W switch causes
|nFC|n to treat a bunch of consecutive spaces like just one space.  The /#
switch tells |nFC|n how many lines after a mismatch have to match before |nFC|n
should consider that the files are matching again.  The |ndefault|n is 2.  I
can't think of any reason why a body would really want to worry about
that switch.  In fact most of the time you'll want to use no switches, or
maybe the /C or /N switch.  You can pretty much ignore the rest.

With one exception.  If all you're interested in is making sure that two
files are identical, and you're not expecting there to be any differences
so you don't care whether the display of the differences is friendly or
not, then either use the /B switch with this command, or use the COMP
command.  Either way is much much faster than doing an ASCII comparison
with the |nFC|n command.


                            The |TEMM386|T Command

Well previous to DOS version 5.0, |nEMM386|n.SYS was just a device driver
that could simulate LIM 4.0 expanded memory in the extended |nmemory|n on a
386 or higher computer.  But in DOS 5.0, we have |nEMM386|n.EXE instead of
the .SYS version.  It's both a |ndevice driver|n and a command.  Now isn't
that strange?

If you have a |n386|n or higher computer with |nextended|n RAM, and if you have
the command DOS=HIGH,UMB in your CONFIG.SYS file, and you have a DEVIC|1E
command for the HIMEM.SYS |nextended|n |nmemory|n manager, then you can use this
command in your |nCONFIG.SYS|n file:
          DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
and you will be able to use the DEVICEHIGH and LOADHIGH commands to put
your device drivers and |sTSR|ss into Upper |nMemory|n.

If you have enough |nextended|n |nmemory|n and you make that line like this:
          DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE |nRAM|n
then you can do the same thing, only you'll also get |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n.
                           <page down> for more
                             EMM386 continued
This will eat up some of your upper memory, for the expanded |nmemory|n page
frame, so don't use |nRAM|n in place of NOEMS unless you have an application
that uses |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n.

This line has to be placed into the CONFIG.SYS file after the HIMEM.SYS
line but before the lines for any DEVIC|1E commands that load a device that
uses |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n, and before any DEVICEHIGH commands.

There are a whole bunch of additional switches and parameters that can be
used with the |nEMM386|n device driver, but you probably won't need any of
them.  They're listed in the manual if you do.

The |nEMM386|n |ndevice driver|n without the NOEMS or |nRAM|n |nparameters|n only enables
|nexpanded|n |nmemory|n emulation (that means that the XMS |nmemory|n pretends to be
|nexpanded|n |nmemory|n), but in order to get |nUpper|n |nMemory|n support, you need one
of those |nparameters|n.

Now |nEMM386|n can also be used as a command from the DOS prompt if you need
to enable or disable the EMS after it has been created via |nCONFIG.SYS|n.
                             The |TFDISK|T Command

This command is used to create, delete, or change hard drive partitions
and to create, delete, or change logical drives within a partition.  Par-
titions and |nlogical drives|n on a hard drive just make it so that you can
have a C: drive and a D: drive and an E: drive, or whatever you want, in-
stead of having a great big C: drive by itself.  |nFDISK|n just divides the
hard drive into different sections, and DOS references each section with
a different drive letter, even though it's really still part of the same
physical hard drive.

If you have an MS-DOS or PC-DOS version earlier than 4.0, then you can't
have any hard drive partition larger than 32 mega|sbytes|s.  If you have ver-
sion 4 you can have a larger partition but you have to install the SHARE
TSR every time you boot your computer.  If you have version 5, you can
have whatever size partitions you want without using |nSHARE|n.

A partition that's smaller than 16 megs will have a 4K cluster size, and
that's not good.  Because every file on the disk, even a tiny batch file
                           <page down> for more
                              FDISK continued
that's only 27 bytes long, will use up a whole cluster of disk space.  A
partition larger than 16 meg will have only 2K in each cluster, so that
way you only waste half as much disk space with a tiny file.  Unless the
partition is too large, that is, like over 128 megs, because those par-
titions also have the 4K cluster size, or even larger!

Don't ever forget that if you change anything about a logical drive or
a partition, with the |nFDISK|n command, every single speck of data on that
logical drive or partition will be lost.  Make sure you have a perfectly
good backup before you do anything with |nFDISK|n other than just switching
the active partition or displaying partition information.  Anything under
the Create Partition or Delete Partition menu entries will remove all the
data from the partition involved and from the ones with higher letters.

Another thing that happens when you create or delete logical drives or
partitions, is that drive letters change.  For example, if you have a C:
drive and a D: drive, and you use a RAMdisk whose letter is E:, and then
you use |nFDISK|n to remove your D: partition and put the entire drive space
                           <page down> for more
                              FDISK continued
into C:, then the next time you boot up your RAMdisk will have the letter
D: instead of E:, because a |nRAMdisk|n just gets the next letter in order
after whatever real drives you have.  So you'll need to change all your
|sbatch file|ss that reference the |nRAMdisk|n to make them say D: instead of E:.

If your hard drive came with its own partitioning software, then use it
instead of the |nFDISK|n command.

After you've changed any partition on your hard drive, you must FORMAT it
before it can be used.  And if you're going to Low-Level Format your hard
drive, then that must be done before the |nFDISK|n procedure.

To enlarge a partition, you must delete it and then recreate it.

The |nFDISK|n command won't let you delete a partition without your entering
the correct volume label, so if there's something funky about your label
and |nFDISK|n won't accept the label as you type it, exit back to DOS and use
the LABEL command to change the label to something else that |nFDISK|n will
accept.
                             The |TFILES|T Command

This command is used in the CONFIG.SYS file, and it tells DOS how many
files can be open or in use at one time.  File handles is the new way
that DOS goes about keeping track of open files, whereas FCBS is the old
way.  If you have an application that tells you to have FILES=15 in your
|nCONFIG.SYS|n file, and another application that tells you to have FILES=30,
then use FILES=30.  Just use the highest number that any of your applica-
tions tells you to use.

The higher the number you give in your |nFILES|n command, the more memory
will be used by the table that DOS sets up to keep track of the file han-
dles, so don't use more than you need.  Then again, DOS only uses 39
bytes for each file handle above the default, so having 50 file handles
is only going to use up 1638 |nbytes|n and that's not very much, so if you
have an application that requires FILES=50, don't let it depress you.
You can have anywhere from 8 up to 255, and the |ndefault|n value that DOS
will use if you don't have a |nFILES|n command in your |nCONFIG.SYS|n file is 8.


                             The |TFIND|T Command

This is a highly useful command.  It will search any file for any string
of text.  Of course it's only likely to work on pure ASCII files, because
a file created by a word processor has control codes embedded in it, to
tell it where the margins go and where the words should be in italics,
and things like that.  So the word "little" with control codes embedded
in it might look like "littlΣ" so if you use the |nFIND|n command to look for
"little", it won't be found.  But for |nASCII|n files, the |nFIND|n command works
wonderfully.

Well here's how you use it.  Suppose you want to search for the word
"little" in the files named FILE1, FILE2, and FILE3:
          |nFIND|n "little" FILE1 FILE2 FILE3
will do it.  But it won't find the word "little" if it's capitalized at
the beginning of a sentence.  For that you need this command:
          |nFIND|n "Little" FILE1 FILE2 FILE3
But in DOS version 5.0, there's a new switch to the |nFIND|n command.  The /I
switch tells DOS to ignore the case of the letters so that |nFIND|n "little"
                           <page down> for more
                              FIND continued
will find "little" and "Little" and "LITTLE" and "liTtlE".
          |nFIND|n /I "little" FILE1 FILE2 FILE3
would do that if you have DOS version 5.0 or later.

If you're using the |nFIND|n command as a filter (explained later in this
section) to find a filename in your directory listings, be sure to type
the filename in capital letters (or else use the /I switch if you have
DOS version 5.0) because filenames are always stored in the |ndirectory|n
listings in all-caps, so |nFIND|n won't find the file HITHERE if you tell
it to search for "ither", but |nFIND|n "ITHER" would work.

The output of the find command would be like this:
          ---------- FILE1
          Mary had a little lamb,
          ---------- FILE2
          ---------- FILE3
          Little Red Riding Hood took a basket of fruit to her sick .....
          When Little Red Riding Hood got to her grandmother's house,....
                           <page down> for more
                              FIND continued
It shows the name of each file as it begins searching it, then it shows
each line that contains the word being searched for.  If the word is not
found in a particular file, it doesn't say anything, it just goes on to
search the next file.

If you're searching more than one file at a time, you have to type out
each filename separately.  Wildcards can't be used with the |nFIND|n command.
Of course you could get around that by using the FOR command, as in:
          |nFOR|n %a IN (FILE*) DO |nFIND|n /I "little" %a

Remember that the |nFIND|n command will search for exactly what you tell it
to search for, no more, and no less.  If you tell it to search for "and"
it will find "and" "hand" "land" and "grandmother".  If you tell it to
search for " and " that would make it leave out "hand" and "land" and all
that, but it will also leave out "and," because there is a comma after
"and" instead of a <Space>.  If you're searching for the word "renamed"
and the word does exist in the file but it's hyphenated at the end of a
line, so that it exists in the file in the form "re-" on one line and
                           <page down> for more
                              FIND continued
"named" on the next line, then |nFIND|n won't find it at all.  The same thing
if you're searching for a string that is more than one word long, such as
"my birthday".  If "my" is at the end of one line and "birthday" is at
the beginning of the next line, then |nFIND|n won't find "my birthday" be-
cause there's a carriage return instead of a <Space> between those words.

If the string you want to search for contains any quotation marks, you
have to type two quotation marks for each one in the string.  For exam-
ple, to find the string <He said, "Why don't we go to the mall?"> you
have to use this command:
          |nFIND|n "He said, ""Why don't we go to the mall?"""
Each quotation mark in the string you're looking for is replaced by two
quotation marks, and then the entire string is also enclosed in one more
set of quotation marks as usual.

If the file you're searching has a <Ctrl-Z> (End-of-File marker) in it,
the |nFIND|n command won't search any of the text past that point.

                           <page down> for more
                              FIND continued
The |nFIND|n command has other switches that change its output a little bit,
and these switches are for all DOS versions, not just 5.0.

The /V switch tells DOS to find all the lines in the file that do not
contain the string you're searching for.  Just the opposite of normal.
Suppose you want to use |nFIND|n as a filter (described below) to find all
the files in the current directory that were not updated today.
          |nDIR|n || |nFIND|n /V "6-27-91"
would do it.

The /C switch tells DOS to just count the number of lines that contain
the search string.  It won't display the lines, it will only count them.
For example, if you want to know how many lines are in the entire file,
          |nFIND|n /C /V "%$#@!" FILENAME.EXT
would do it, because the /V tells |nFIND|n to look for lines that do not con-
tain the string %$#@! and that's going to be all of them, right?  Then
the /C switch will count how many lines matched the search, and that's
the total number of lines in the file.
                           <page down> for more
                              FIND continued
The /N switch tells |nFIND|n to display line numbers with each line.  So the
output in this case will be the line that contains the search string, and
the line number for that line, for each line that contains the string.
It might look like this:
          [2]Little Red Riding Hood took a basket of fruit to her .......
          [16]When Little Red Riding Hood got to her grandmother's ......

Well that's all there is to the |nFIND|n command in its normal command form,
but that's definitely not the only way to use it.  It can also be used as
a filter.  (Go read the section on redirection and then come back here.)

A filter is a little command that takes STanDard INput from the keyboard,
performs some function on that input, and then sends STanDard OUTput to
the monitor.  The three filters that come with DOS are |nFIND|n, MORE, and
SORT.

When you don't supply a filename on the |nFIND|n command line, then you're
using it as a filter.  Well it doesn't do much good to take input from
                           <page down> for more
                              FIND continued
the keyboard and send output to the screen.  That's why I told you to go
read about redirection first.  If you redirect the input from somewhere
else, and/or redirect output to somewhere else, then a filter is very
useful.

          |nFIND|n "string" < FILE1 > FILE2
will create a file named FILE2 that contains only those lines from FILE1
that contain "string".

          |nTYPE|n FILE1 || |nFIND|n "string" || |nFIND|n /V "smaller string" > PRN
will print a list of all the lines in FILE1 that contain "string" but
do not contain "smaller string".

          |nDIR|n || |nFIND|n "AB"
will show you all the lines in your directory that contain the string AB
in either the filename or the extension.

          |nDIR|n || |nFIND|n /V "<DIR>"
                           <page down> for more
                              FIND continued
will show you all the lines in your directory that are not subdirectory
listings.

          |nDIR|n || |nFIND|n /V "e"
will show you a |ndirectory|n listing without the lines that say "Volume in
drive C is..." and "... |nbytes|n free".

(Of course if you have DOS version 5.0, you can get those last two dis-
plays by using the new switches to the DIR command instead of using
|nFIND|n.)

Well you see that the |nFIND|n command has about a million uses.  Play around
with it and see what you can do.






                           The |TGRAPHICS|T Command

This command loads a TSR into memory, that will allow you to use the
<PrtScrn> or <Shift-PrtScrn> key to print your screen even when you're
not looking at a plain old text screen.  You'll probably want to use the
/R switch which tells DOS to print black characters on white paper,
otherwise DOS will tell the printer to print the background in black and
leave white spaces in the shape of the letters.  Isn't that silly?  That
will take about a year to print, and about a ribbon and a half!

If you have DOS version 4 or later, you'll find a file named |nGRAPHICS|n.PRO
in your DOS directory.  That's the instruction profile that |nGRAPHICS|n will
use to talk to the printer.  If your printer is not closely enough com-
patible with an IBM printer, then hopefully your printer dealer supplied
you with your own .PRO file to use.  Just rename it to |nGRAPHICS|n.PRO and
the |nGRAPHICS|n command will use it automatically.  It must be in the same
|ndirectory|n with the |nGRAPHICS|n.COM file though.



                             The |THELP|T Command

This command is new to DOS version 5.  If you type just |nHELP|n, you'll get
a list of all the DOS commands and a very short description of what each
is for.  If you type this command followed by the name of another com-
mand, such as |nHELP|n |nATTRIB|n, then the |nHELP|n command will load a copy of the
ATTRIB command and feed it the /? switch.  So you'll get the exact same
result as if you'd typed |nATTRIB|n /?.  Because all the commands in DOS 5.0
have a little screen of syntax information inside them.

For an example, here's what you'll see if you type |nMD|n /? or |nHELP|n |nMD|n:
          Creates a |ndirectory|n.

          |nMKDIR|n [drive:]path
          |nMD|n [drive:]path

Not all that helpful, huh?  Only if you've temporarily forgotten how to
use the command, not if you didn't already know how to use it.


                            The |TINSTALL|T Command

This command is used in the CONFIG.SYS file, to load a TSR into memory.
It can only be used with TSRs that you don't hotkey into, and that don't
require any help from the command interpreter, because at the time CON-
FIG.SYS is read, COMMAND.COM (the command interpreter) hasn't been load-
ed into |nmemory|n yet.

You can use this command for FASTOPEN, GRAPHICS, KEYB, NLSFUNC, SHARE,
and many others, but not all TSRs.

The advantage of using the |nINSTALL|n command in |nCONFIG.SYS|n to load TSRs,
rather than loading them the normal way from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, is
that all TSRs loaded after |nCOMMAND.COM|n has been loaded, receive a copy of
the environment.  This wastes |nmemory|n.  If you load a |nTSR|n from |nCONFIG.SYS|n,
|nCOMMAND.COM|n is not in |nmemory|n yet so there is no |nenvironment|n, so obviously
the |nTSR|n can't get a copy of it to waste |nmemory|n like that.

The only disadvantages of the |nINSTALL|n command that I can think of, are
                           <page down> for more
                             INSTALL continued
that it doesn't work for all TSRs, and that if you're using DOS version
5, there is no INSTALLHIGH command, so you can't LOADHIGH any TSRs that
you load from CONFIG.SYS in this manner.  And the |nINSTALL|n command didn't
even exist until DOS version 4.

The syntax is quite simple.  Just |nINSTALL|n followed by an equals (=) sign
and then the full |spath|sname for the TSR you want to install:
          INSTALL=C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE /F:1024 /L:20
(The /F and /L switches are parameters for the SHARE command, not for the
|nINSTALL|n command.)  You do have to include the full pathname for the com-
mand file, unless it is in the root directory of the boo|1t disk, because
at the time the |nCONFIG.SYS|n file is read, AUTOEXEC.BAT hasn't been run yet
so the |nPATH|n variable in the environment does not exist, so DOS can't find
the file unless it's in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n of the |nboot|n disk, or unless
you specify the full |npath|n on the |nINSTALL|n command line.  And you don't
want to leave the command file in the |nroot|n |ndirectory|n, because that clut-
ters it up.  So go ahead and keep the file in a subdirectory and use the
full pathname as in that example above.

                             The |TLABEL|T Command

This command is used to put an internal label onto a disk.  You know,
when you do a DIR command and it comes up and says, "Volume in drive C
is Whatever"?  "Whatever" is the volume label.

You can use the /V switch with the FORMAT command to put the label on,
or you can use the |nLABEL|n command.  The syntax is incredibly simple:
          |nLABEL|n C:
          |nLABEL|n A:
Whatever drive's disk you want to label, you just put that letter and
a colon after the |nLABEL|n command.

Now DOS will come back and say what the |ncurrent|n volume label of the disk
is, and ask you what you want to change it to.  You type what you want,
anything up to eleven characters and it can include spaces, and hit the
<Enter> key.  If you want to leave the same label, or if you want to de-
lete the label, then you just hit <Enter> without typing anything.  It
will ask you if you want to delete the label, so just answer the question
                           <page down> for more
                              LABEL continued
with Y or N depending on what you want to do.

In recent DOS versions, you can also include the new label on the command
line, like this:
          |nLABEL|n C:NEW NAME
and then it won't ask you anything.  If that won't work for your version
of DOS, and you need to be able to do this without the command asking you
for further input, for example for use in a batch file, you can probably
use |nECHO|n NEW NAME || |nLABEL|n C: instead.  (See redirection.)

Volume labels are stored as directory entries, and they show up in your
CHKDSK readouts as Hidden files as well, even though they don't take up
any disk space like files do.






                           The |TLASTDRIVE|T Command

This command is used in the CONFIG.SYS file to tell DOS how many drives
you are going to need to be able to access.  The default is E so if you
have five or fewer drives, then you have no need for this command.  But
if you already have five drives and you add a RAMdisk or you use the
DRIVER.SYS device driver to create more logical drives, then you need to
use this command to tell DOS you need more drive letters.
          LASTDRIVE=F
is all there is to the syntax of this command.

It does take memory for DOS to keep track of all your drives (about 100
bytes each), so don't use the command LASTDRIVE=Z (the highest allowed)
unless you really do use 26 drives!

In DOS version 5, the |ndefault|n is not necessarily E.  It's one letter
higher than the actual number of physical drives you have.  For example,
if you only have two floppy drives and a drive C:, then the |ndefault|n will
be D:.  If you have four |nfloppy|n drives and two hard drive partitions,
then the |ndefault|n will be G.
                            The |TLOADFIX|T Command

This command is new to DOS version 5.  It is necessary for some programs
because since DOS can load its kernel into high memory, that means that
programs and applications that are used to loading in a certain general
area of |nmemory|n, end up loading a lot lower in |nmemory|n than they are used
to because DOS isn't sitting there in the way.  Well some programs just
don't deal with it very well, and give an error message such as "Packed
file corrupt".  If this happens to you, for example with a program named
HELLO.EXE that's in your C:\UTIL directory, then just issue this command
instead of HELLO:  |nLOADFIX|n C:\UTIL\HELLO.EXE

That will load the HELLO.EXE program above the first 64K of conventional
|nmemory|n, so that the program won't flip out over where it got loaded at.






                           The |TLOADHIGH|T Command

This command is new to version 5.0 of DOS.  If you have a 386 or higher
computer, with extended memory, and if you have the proper HIMEM, EMM386,
and DO|1S commands in your CONFIG.SYS file, then you can use this command
to load TSRs into the Upper |nMemory|n Blocks.

If you have a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file that loads a screen-saver
TSR that looks like this:
          C:\UTIL\EXPLOSIV M2
then you would change that line to look like this:
          |nLOADHIGH|n C:\UTIL\EXPLOSIV M2
and the next time you reboot the computer, the screen saver will be in
|nupper|n |nmemory|n instead of taking up space in your conventional RAM.

If you load too many TSRs with this command so that you run out of up-
per |nmemory|n space, nothing bad will happen.  The excess TSRs will just
get loaded into |nconventional|n |nmemory|n.

This command can be abbreviated as LH.  (See also |sDEVICEHIGH|s!)
                             The |TMKDIR|T Command

This command is used to MaKe a new DIRectory.  It can also be abbrevi-
ated as MD.  The syntax is just |nMKDIR|n D:\DIR\NAME where D: is the drive
you want to put the new |ndirectory|n on, and |nDIR|n is the |ndirectory|n you want
to put the new |ndirectory|n under.  Of course whatever parts of that command
are the |sdefault|ss, you can leave out.  Some examples:
          |nMKDIR|n C:\WORD\DOCS
would make a |ndirectory|n named DOCS underneath the WORD |ndirectory|n on the
C: drive.
          |nMKDIR|n \WORD\DOCS
would make a |ndirectory|n named DOCS under the WORD |ndirectory|n on whatever
drive is current at the time.
          |nMKDIR|n DOCS
would make a |ndirectory|n named DOCS under the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n of the cur-
rent drive.  If the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n of the |ncurrent|n drive were C:\WORD,
then the above three commands would all do the exact same thing.
          |nMKDIR|n \DOCS
makes a |ndirectory|n named DOCS in the root |ndirectory|n of the |ncurrent|n drive.
                           <page down> for more
                              MKDIR continued
The longest |spath|sname you're allowed to have is 63 characters, so keep the
names short.  For example, instead of a name like WORDPROC for your word
processor, use WP or WORD.  That way, if your subdirectories end up very
deeply nested, you won't exceed the 63-character limit.  Then again, you
probably won't want to make any subdirectories more than three or four
directories deep anyway.













                             The |TMORE|T Command

This command takes its input from the keyboard and sends its output to
the monitor, one screenful (23 lines) at a time.  What good does that do?
Not a whole lot.  But wait, this is a very useful command after all.  Be-
cause you can use it with input redirection, to make it take its input
from a file instead.  Have you ever used the TYPE command on a large file
and watched it scroll by on your screen about ten thousand times faster
than you could read it?  |nTYPE|n FILENAME || |nMORE|n or |nMORE|n < FILENAME would
make the file go to your screen just one screenful at a time, and at the
end of each page it would say "-- More --" and that tells you to hit any
key to make it continue.  When you hit a key, it will show you one more
screenful, etc.

Be very careful to make sure you understand the concept of |nredirection|n
before you go using the second method above, with the < symbol.  Because
if you accidentally use the > symbol instead, every byte of data in that
FILENAME file will be erased.  Permanently.  It won't be recoverable with
the UNDELETE command or anything else.  The first method above, with the
                           <page down> for more
                              MORE continued
|| symbol, is much safer although it does have its drawbacks.

The drawbacks of the || method are that it takes more keystrokes, because
you have to use the TYPE command, and that any time you use the || symbol
you create two temporary files on the current disk.  If the |ncurrent|n drive
is a floppy, that temp file is going to slow you down.  If the disk in
the |ncurrent|n drive is |swrite-protect|sed, you won't be able to use the || sym-
bol at all.  And if you use <Ctrl-C> to break out of the operation after
you hit the <Enter> key, the temp files will be left laying around on the
disk.  (Of course if you have version 5.0 or later, then the temp files
used by the operation of the || symbol will be created in whatever drive
and directory is pointed to by the TEMP environment variable, and it ap-
pears that breaking out with <Ctrl-C> no longer leaves the files sitting
there, so none of this is a problem.)  But despite these drawbacks of the
|| method, it's still worth it to use until you're absolutely sure you un-
derstand the difference between > and <, for the safety of the file you
want to display.

                           <page down> for more
                              MORE continued
You can also use this command to send the output of some other command
through it.  For example, |nCHKDSK|n |n*.*|n /V || |nMORE|n, so that you can see the
CHKDSK report before it all scrolls off the screen.  Just about any time
your screen tries to show you something faster that you can read it, the
|nMORE|n command will let you slow it down.  (Except for while your AUTOEXEC
.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files are executing.  For that, all you can do is use
your <Pause> key, which isn't all that good of an idea during bootup, or
put PAUSE as the first command in AUTOEXEC.BAT and put another |nPAUSE|n com-
mand every two or three lines, save this edited |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n file, reboot
and you'll be able to see all those messages that normally fly by.  Now
edit the file again to remove those |nPAUSE|n commands, and you're back to
normal.)

If any of this is confusing you, check out the section on redirection to
learn about the <, ||, and > symbols and what they do.




                    How Do You |tWrite-protect|t a |sFloppy|s?

That's easy!  On a 5.25-inch disk, there is a little notch near the |nupper|n
right corner, and if you cover that notch up with something that infrared
light can't pass through, the disk is write-protected.

On a 3.5-inch disk, there is a little hole in the |nupper|n right corner that
has a little slidey-gadget in it.  If the hole is closed by the slidey-
gadget, the disk is not write-protected.  If you slide the slidey-gadget
up so that light can go through the hole, then it is write-protected.

Notice that the situation is reversed between 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch
disks.  On the 5.25, if light can go through, it's not write-protected,
but on the 3.5, if light can go through, it is write-protected.  Goofy.

On a 3.5-inch |nHigh|n Density disk, you'll see that there is also another
hole, in the |nupper|n left corner, that doesn't have a slidey-gadget.  That
one has nothing to do with write-protection.  It is only there to tell
the drive that it's a HD disk instead of a Double Density disk.
                           <page down> for more
                          Write-protect continued
Now what does write-protecting a disk do?  Well it protects the disk from
having DOS write any information to it.  DOS can't delete or change any
file on a disk while it is write-protected, because the disk drive has
some sensor in it, that detects whether light will go through that spot
on the disk's cover or not, and if the disk is write-protected, the drive
won't let any write-|ncurrent|n through the read/write heads.

However, if there is a power surge that causes some |nhigh|n voltage to "ac-
cidentally" travel through the drive's heads, I don't think that write-
protection will protect the spot on the disk that the heads happen to be
sitting above.  But anything that deliberately tries to write to a disk
will be stopped by the write-protection.

Some disk drives have a little mechanical "pin" that checks for the hole,
rather than a beam of infrared light.  And maybe some drives have regular
light instead of infrared.  But as long as the notch on a 5.25" disk is
covered with some material that neither pin nor light can get through,
then the disk is write-protected.  And remember that 3.5" disks are back-
wards from 5.25" ones--if light goes through then it is write-protected.
                             The |TGOTO|T Command

This is a batch file command, which has no purpose at the DOS prompt.
But in a |nbatch file|n, it's a great command.  It sends the execution to
some other part of the |nbatch file|n, instead of continuing on with the
commands as they are listed in order.

Suppose that you want to perform a certain set of commands based on the
results of an IF test.  Like this, perhaps:
          @ECHO OFF
          |nIF|n |nEXIST|n |nAUTOEXEC.BAT|n |nGOTO|n YES
          (here go the commands that you want performed if the file AUTO-
          EXEC.BAT does not exist in the current |sdirectory|s)
          |nGOTO|n END
          :YES
          (here go the commands that you want performed if AUTOEXEC.BAT
          does exist in the |ncurrent|n |ndirectory|n)
          :END

                           <page down> for more
                              GOTO continued
The word that comes after the |nGOTO|n command is called a label, and when
the label is later repeated in the batch file, at the point where you
want the |nGOTO|n to jump to, the label must be preceded by a colon (:) as
shown in that example.  Also, don't forget the |nGOTO|n END statement after
the "no" commands, or else the "yes" commands will be executed after the
"no" commands are finished.  And if you have a |nGOTO|n END statement, then
you sure do have to remember to put the :END label in the |nbatch file|n
somewhere, or you'll get a nasty "Label not found" error message, and
the |nbatch file|n will just quit and leave you with a DOS prompt.

Another good use for the |nGOTO|n command is in conjunction with replaceable
parameters.  You can use |nGOTO|n %1 at the beginning of your |nbatch file|n, and
that way you could combine all of your little batch files into one great
big |nbatch file|n, to save disk space (since every file takes a whole clus-
ter of disk space even if the file is only 17 bytes long).  Let's say you
have batch files named 1.BAT, 2.BAT, and 3.BAT and you want to combine
them into one |nbatch file|n called GO.BAT.  Here's how:

                           <page down> for more
                              GOTO continued
          @ECHO OFF
          |nIF|n NOT '%1==' |nGOTO|n %1
          |nECHO|n The syntax of this command is %0 followed
          |nECHO|n by a label, where the available labels are
          |nECHO|n 1, 2, and 3.  For example, to perform the
          |nECHO|n tasks that used to be in 1.BAT, you enter
          |nECHO|n %0 1
          |nGOTO|n END
          :1
          (here go the commands that used to be in 1.BAT)
          |nGOTO|n END
          :2
          (here go the commands that used to be in 2.BAT)
          |nGOTO|n END
          :3
          (here go the commands that used to be in 3.BAT)
          |nGOTO|n END
          :END
                           <page down> for more
                              GOTO continued
(See the sections on ECHO, IF, and Replaceable Parameters for more infor-
mation.)

So now you can delete your 1.BAT, 2.BAT, and 3.BAT files (after you've
tested to make sure that your new GO.BAT file works right) and free up
two clusters of disk space.  Because GO.BAT is still small enough to fit
all in one cluster, so it's only taking up as much space as 1.BAT used to
take up by itself.

Notice that in a batch file, %0 always refers to the name of the batch
file that the %0 is inside of.  So in that example above, every place
that says "%0" in the |nbatch file|n will be replaced with "GO" when you
actually run the |nbatch file|n.  But if you change the name of the batch
file to MENU.BAT, then you won't have to change the inside of the batch
file, because now every place that says "%0" will say "MENU" instead.

Remember that only the first 8 characters of a label are noticed by DOS,
so |nGOTO|n REMEMBER1 is the same as |nGOTO|n REMEMBER2, as far as DOS is concer-
                           <page down> for more
                              GOTO continued
ned.  Having two different labels that are only different in their ninth
character does no good.  Also, every time DOS goes looking for a label
that a |nGOTO|n command pointed to, it starts at the very beginning of the
file, and glances at each line, so if you have a :HERE label near the
beginning of the file and a :HERE label near the end, the one at the be-
ginning is the only one DOS will ever |nGOTO|n.

You can also use labels as comments, just like the REM command, because
if there is no |nGOTO|n command that points to a particular label, DOS won't
mind, or even notice it.  DOS completely ignores any line that starts
with a colon (:), unless it's looking for a specific label because a |nGOTO|n
command told it to.  You can write anything you want in a batch file af-
ter a colon, as long as you have the correct label for every |nGOTO|n command
in the file, it doesn't matter if you also have seventy more labels if
you want to.  You can also add comments on the same line with a real la-
bel, because DOS is only going to pay attention to the first word follow-
ing the colon.  As long as there is a <Space> between the real label and
the comments, DOS won't care.

                             What Is the |tBIOS|t?

|nBIOS|n stands for Basic Input/Output System.  This is the instructions in
the ROM of the computer that tell it how to communicate with the peri-
pherals such as the drives, the keyboard, the comm ports, etc.  DOS talks
to the |nBIOS|n real often, because each computer is a little different from
every other computer, so DOS couldn't possibly know how to communicate
with every type of hardware.  So the |nBIOS|n is like the translator between
DOS and the hardware.  AMI and Phoenix are both very popular brands of
|nBIOS|n, and every make and model of computer has its very own version.










                   Why Do I Need to |tPark|t My Hard Drive?

A hard drive is sort of like a record player, in that it has some disks
that hold information, and heads that move on an arm to read that infor-
mation.  Only the read/write heads on the hard drive float a hair's
breadth above the surface of the |ndisks|n.

Now when someone bumps into the computer, the heads might get jarred and
crash into the surface of the disk, which would most likely destroy the
data in that spot of the disk, and even damage the disk itself.

If there's a power surge in the electric lines, a shock might go through
the computer, including the heads on the disk, and that would also damage
the data in whatever spot the heads happened to be above at that moment.

And every time you turn on the |npower|n to your computer, there is a sudden
shock of voltage moving through all parts of the computer's circuitry.
Again, whatever part of the disk the heads happen to be sitting above,
could very well lose its data.
                           <page down> for more
                              Park continued
Parking a hard drive means that the read/write heads are moved over to an
area of the disk called the landing zone, so that any of these events can
happen and no data will be damaged.  Only an unused portion of the disk
might be damaged.  No problem.

Most recent models of hard drives use voice coil rather than stepper mo-
tor actuators, and these are self-parking.  That means that whenever pow-
er is removed, the heads automatically retract to the parked position.

That means that turning on the power again is not a threat to your data,
but what about the whole time it's running?  Obviously you can't have the
heads parked the whole time, or you couldn't get any work done.  But if
you get up for a cup of coffee, or to answer the doorbell, what if the
dog rushes past and bumps into the computer?  What if there's a |npower|n
surge?

If you can call the manufacturer of your hard drive, and ask them if it's
ok for your particular brand and model, you should |npark|n your hard drive
                           <page down> for more
                              Park continued
every time you leave your desk for a second!

But be aware that I meant it when I said to ask the manufacturer of your
specific disk, because using a parking program that was made for one type
of disk, on another type of disk, can ruin the drive!

If you have an older hard drive which uses a stepper motor instead of
a voice coil actuator, you really need to use a parking program!  It's
likely that one came with your disk.  If so, use it every time you leave
your desk, and especially make it the last thing you do before each time
you turn off the |spower|s!

Some older parking programs can be really dangerous, as they were intend-
ed for only one particular type of hard drive, and as I said, using the
wrong parking program for the drive can ruin it!  But parking programs
written recently generally check the BIOS to see where is the safe area
to |npark|n on your particular drive, before doing anything else.  These pro-
grams are safe to use on any drive, if your |nBIOS|n is correct.
                           <page down> for more
                              Park continued
If you have a 286 or newer machine, do you know who entered your CMOS
setup?  Was it someone reliable, or was it the computer salesman?  (Those
are mutually exclusive categories.)  You might want to call the manufac-
turer of the drive and make sure you have the right numbers in |nCMOS|n for
the write precomp and landing zone especially, along with all the other
hard drive settings.

Many commercial disk utility packages such as PC Tools and SpinRite in-
clude a |nPARK|n.COM file.  There is even a public domain parking program
called TIMEPARK that is a TSR, that parks your hard drive every time it
hasn't been accessed for X minutes (you choose what the X number is).  If
your hard drive manufacturer says it's ok, then using a parker like that
is the ultimate in safety!

Now, how do you unpark your drive when you need to access it again?  Well
if you have a PC or XT, I think all of those had parking programs that
couldn't be unparked without a cold boot.  If that's the case with your
parking program, you will get a message on your screen every time you
                           <page down> for more
                              Park continued
|npark|n, that says something like "Turn |npower|n off now".  See if you can call
the manufacturer of your hard drive and ask them if there is a newer
parking program that's safe to use on your disk.

Otherwise, all parking programs allow the heads to unpark the second any
software requests a disk access, whether you've |sreboot|sed since you parked
or not.  For that reason you have to make sure that |nPARK|n is the last com-
mand you give before shutting off the computer.  If any other external
command is entered, the heads will unpark in order to read the command
file.









                            The |TCOMMAN|1D|T Command

COMMAND is the command that activates a secondary shell of COMMAND.COM.
Secondary shell, you ask?  Well yes, because if there were not already a
primary |nCOMMAND.COM|n shell, then your computer would just be sitting there
giving you a cold stare, not even a prompt.  A |nCOMMAND.COM|n shell is what
gives you a |nprompt|n and then interprets the commands that you enter at the
|nprompt|n.  That's why it's also called the Command Interpreter.  It might
be called a shell because it protects you from having to deal with the
actual binary language that the computer can understand.

Well if you do a lot of shelling out to DOS from inside some application,
what that application is doing is using the COMSPEC variable to find out
where your |nCOMMAND.COM|n file is, and loading another copy of that file in-
to memory right over top of the application you're working on.  When you
are done with what you wanted to do in DOS, you type EXIT and hit <Enter>
and the secondary |nCOMMAND.COM|n shell drops back out of |nmemory|n and leaves
you right where you were before, in that application.

                           <page down> for more
                             COMMAN|1D continued
Well you can also shell out to a secondary command interpreter right from
the primary command interpreter, without using some application that has
a shelling out option, as a middle man.  You probably won't need to do it
very often, but when you do, COMMAND is the command you use.

About the most common reason for a beginner to need to shell out to a
secondary COMMAND.COM is in order to call a second batch file from inside
another |nbatch file|n.  Of course if you have DOS version 3.3 or later, you
would want to use the CALL command.  But since that command didn't exist
until DOS version 3.3, some people still need to use the COMMAND command
to accomplish this.

You see, if you just enter the name of a second |nbatch file|n, as a command
in the first |nbatch file|n, then control will be passed permanently to that
second |nbatch file|n.  When the second |nbatch file|n is done, you'll just get a
DOS prompt, and whatever commands were still remaining to be executed in
the first |nbatch file|n, will never be seen by DOS.  So if you want DOS to
come back to the first |nbatch file|n after the second |nbatch file|n is done,
                           <page down> for more
                             COMMAN|1D continued
you need the CALL command if you have DOS 3.3 or later, or else you need
the COMMAND command with the /C switch.  Here is FIRST.BAT:
          |nECHO|n This is the first |nbatch file|n
          COMMAND /C SECOND
          |nECHO|n Back in the first |nbatch file|n again
And here is SECOND.BAT:
          |nECHO|n This is the second |nbatch file|n
Now when you run FIRST.BAT, the first ECHO command will be executed, then
a secondary command shell will be loaded and the /C switch tells that
secondary shell to execute the command following the /C.  So SECOND.BAT
will be called, and then as soon as it's done, since the /C switch was
used with the COMMAND command, the secondary shell will drop right out
of memory just as if you had issued the EXIT command, and then FIRST.BAT
will continue on with the next |nECHO|n command.

If you don't use the /C switch with the COMMAND command, then you can run
whatever commands or programs you want, and the secondary processor won't
drop out of |nmemory|n until you give the |nEXIT|n command.
                           <page down> for more
                             COMMAN|1D continued
Whenever you load a secondary command processor, it gets a copy of your
|ncurrent|n environment.  So it has the same PATH, PROMPT, and COMSPEC varia-
bles that you already had, plus whatever else you might have had in your
|nenvironment|n.  Then you can do whatever you want to do with the environ-
ment while you're in the secondary shell, and it will not affect the or-
iginal |nenvironment|n.  When you EXIT back to the primary shell, you will
still have the exact same |nenvironment|n you had before you loaded the sec-
ondary shell.

Also whenever you load a secondary command shell, it starts out with the
default |nECHO|n ON.  So if you use COMMAND /C to call a second batch file
from within another |nbatch file|n, it does not inherit the same ECHO state
that existed in the first |nbatch file|n, as happens with the CALL command.
Even if |nECHO|n was off in the first |nbatch file|n, you'll have to have the
command |nECHO|n OFF at the beginning of the second |nbatch file|n too if you
want it to have its |nECHO|n off as well.

If you ever run some other shell besides COMMAND.COM, such as the wonder-
                           <page down> for more
                             COMMAN|1D continued
ful shareware program from J. P. Software called 4DOS, that's another oc-
casion you might be interested in using the COMMAND command.  Suppose you
are running 4DOS as your primary command interpreter, and you're having
trouble getting some particular command to work.  You decide that you
would like to try the same command in regular DOS, to see if it's just a
quirk in 4DOS that's giving you trouble, or what.  Well you don't have to
edit your CONFIG.SYS file and reboot in order to load a copy of the regu-
lar COMMAND.COM to test your theory.  You just use the COMMAND command to
load a secondary shell, try out that command that's giving you trouble in
4DOS, and then use the EXIT command to remove the secondary shell.  (This
was not to imply that I think you will find any quirks in 4DOS.  It's a
fantastic program!  It does just about everything that you ever wished
DOS would do but didn't.  4DOS is about 99.99999% compatible with all the
applications you use under regular DOS, but it's so much better than reg-
ular DOS!  It's even better than DOS version 5!)

Here's another use for the COMMAND command.  Have you ever wanted to use
a nested FOR command, that is, a |nFOR|n command inside another |nFOR|n command?
                           <page down> for more
                             COMMAN|1D continued
Kinda the same as using COMMAND or CALL to run another batch file from
within a first |nbatch file|n.  Well in general it's not possible to nest FOR
commands.  But it can be done using the COMMAND /C command.  Want to copy
all the .BAT files from the BELFRY directory, and all the .BAT files from
the UTIL |ndirectory|n, to the disk in drive B:, all in one command?  |nFOR|n %%A
IN (\BELFRY \UTIL) DO COMMAND /C |nFOR|n %%B IN (%%A\*.BAT) DO |nCOPY|n %%B B:
would do it.  Not that you'll probably ever want to, but isn't it nice to
know that it can be done if you ever do?

The COMMAND command also has a /P switch, which you might recognize from
the SHELL command in your CONFIG.SYS file.  The switch doesn't belong to
the |nSHELL|n command, but to the COMMAND command.  It causes the command
processor being invoked, to become the primary command processor, even if
there already is a primary one loaded.  This means that it will run the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and that it cannot be exited with the EXIT command.
The only way to get rid of a command shell that was invoked with the /P
switch, is to reboot.  So you probably won't ever want to use the /P
switch except for with the |nSHELL|n command in |nCONFIG.SYS|n.
                           <page down> for more
                             COMMAN|1D continued
If you use the COMMAND command from within a batch file, it's a good idea
to use %COMSPEC% to reference it.  COMSPEC is an environment variable
that points to where your copy of COMMAND.COM is located.  And the per-
cent signs are a way that is used in batch files to reference |nenvironment|n
variables.  Whenever DOS's |nbatch file|n interpreter sees a word surrounded
by percent signs, it looks into the |nenvironment|n to see if there is a var-
iable by the name of the word that's inside the percent signs.  If there
is, then DOS temporarily replaces the word (for example %COMSPEC%) with
whatever the word is SET equal to in the |nenvironment|n (for example C:\DOS\
|nCOMMAND.COM|n).  So if you put %COMSPEC% into your |nbatch file|n in place of
the word COMMAND, then DOS will replace that with C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM (if
that's where your |nCOMMAND.COM|n file is) and the correct copy of COMMAND
.COM will be loaded as the secondary shell.  This is good for in case you
ever end up with some other copy of |nCOMMAND.COM|n on your disk in a direc-
tory that's closer to the beginning of your PATH variable than the copy
of |nCOMMAND.COM|n that is the one you really want to run.  Because DOS will
execute the first |nCOMMAND.COM|n it finds on the |npath|n if you just say COM-
MAND in the |nbatch file|n.  If you say %COMSPEC% instead, in the |nbatch file|n,
then you know for sure that the correct copy of |nCOMMAND.COM|n gets loaded.
                      The |TSMARTDRV.SYS|T Device Driver

This is the disk cache that comes with DOS versions 4 and up.  Ok, it's
not the greatest disk |ncache|n in the world, at all, but if it's the only
|ncache|n you've got, it's a good one.  You install it, like all device dri-
vers, with a DEVIC|1E or DEVICEHIGH command in your CONFIG.SYS file.  You
have to have a hard drive, and extended or expanded memory to use it.  If
you have both those types of |nmemory|n, use |nextended|n (unless you have a lot
more |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n to spare than you have of |nextended|n memory).  Because
it's more efficient.  But don't give it more than 2 mega|sbytes|s, because if
you do, DOS will spend more time looking in the |ncache|n for the data, than
it would have taken to go ahead and read the data from the hard drive.

Here's the syntax for this device:
          DEVICE=C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.SYS #### /A
And that assumes, of course, that your |nSMARTDRV.SYS|n file is in the DOS
directory on your C: drive.  The /A switch means that the |ncache|n will go
into |nexpanded|n |nmemory|n.  Without the /A, it will go into |nextended|n |nmemory|n.
The #### parameter is the size of the |ncache|n in kilobytes.  Legal values
                           <page down> for more
                          SMARTDRV.SYS continued
are from 128 to 8192, with the default being 256, and that's about as low
as you should go.  If you don't have as much memory as you specified, the
cache will load anyway, and just use whatever |nmemory|n you do have.  Of
course the DEVIC|1E command has to appear later in CONFIG.SYS than the
extended (|sHIMEM.SYS|s) or expanded |nmemory|n manager, or else the |ncache|n won't
have any usable |nmemory|n to go into!

Do not ever, ever, ever, use a disk optimizer (a program that fixes up
fragmented files) with a |ncache|n active!  That includes FASTOPEN, SMART-
Drive, or any other sort of |ncache|n.  If you do, you may as well get out
your set of BACKUP disks because your FAT is going to get trashed.

Keep your BUFFERS command at 20 or lower when you're using SMARTDrive.






                               |TWhat Is DOS?|T

DOS stands for Disk Operating System.  It's a bunch of files on a disk,
that tell the computer how to deal with such things as files, programs,
disks, and directories.  The main parts of DOS, meaning the Hidden files,
along with the file COMMAND.COM, have to be loaded into the computer's
memory each time you turn on the power, or else the computer won't know
how to do anything.  As long as you have a proper boo|1t disk, this loading
of DOS into |nmemory|n is handled for you automatically by a tiny software
program which is permanently stored in the computer on a ROM chip.  Un-
til DOS is loaded into |nmemory|n, the computer has no idea how to do any-
thing, other than load DOS into |nmemory|n.  Computers are totally stupid
until a software program tells them what to do.  Well DOS is the main
software program that the computer needs, in order to know how to deal
with any other software program.

Well that's what DOS is as far as the computer is concerned.  But what is
DOS to you?  DOS is what lets you organize your files, and optimize your
system to make it run the way you want it to run.
                           <page down> for more
                          What Is DOS? continued
A file is just the method that DOS uses to store information on a disk.
All of your programs are made up of files, and all the data you enter in-
to your programs is stored as files.  If you write a letter using your
word processor, and you save that letter to disk, you have to give it a
filename, and then your word processor will tell DOS to write your letter
to the disk, under that filename.

You see, DOS acts as an interpreter between you and the computer, and be-
tween your word processor or other applications and the computer.  DOS
will let you or your applications create files, move files, copy files,
rename files, organize files into a directory, and all sorts of great
things like that.  Most of the DOS commands are even pretty straightfor-
ward as to what they are named.  For example, the command you use to copy
a file to a different location is COPY.  The command to erase a file from
your disk is ERASE.  In order to move a file, you use those two commands
together.  First you copy the file to a different location, and then you
erase the original.  DOS doesn't give us a separate MOVE command, so that
in case something goes wrong with the |nCOPY|n command, the original file
                           <page down> for more
                          What Is DOS? continued
won't automatically get deleted.  If you receive an error message from
the COPY command, you can figure out what the problem was, correct the
problem, and make a good copy of the file, before you erase the original.

Now you have to be careful and always take a look at what you've typed,
before you hit the <Enter> key, because DOS will do what you say, not
what you mean.  There's a standing joke in the computer world about how
someone should put a DWIM (Do What I Mean) key onto a keyboard.  There's
another joke about an UNDO key.  But those keys don't exist.  DOS does
exactly what you tell it to do, even if that wasn't what you meant to
tell it, and in most cases you can't undo it after it's been done.

One thing that causes a lot of confusion among new computer users is mix-
ing up the / and \ keys.  They have separate uses, and if you hit / when
DOS wants to see \, that won't work.  The \ (backslash) is for separating
directory names, and the / (forward slash) is for switch parameters.

DOS lets you customize your system to your own taste, by using the files
                           <page down> for more
                          What Is DOS? continued
called CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.  These are just plain ASCII text
files that contain commands that you want to have performed every time
you turn on the computer.  There are tons of commands that you can use in
these two files, to make the computer run the way you want it to run.
You can also use DOSKEY macros, or a batch file, to make the computer do
things that you want it to do, for which separate commands don't already
exist.

There are just so many things that you can do with DOS, that you can't do
if you don't know how to work with DOS.  Lots of people think that it's
not necessary to know anything about DOS in order to make a computer go.
Well, that's true, up to a point, but when something goes wrong, those
people have to call someone else to fix it.  People who know DOS don't
have to do that.  In fact, people who know DOS are going to have fewer
things go wrong in the first place, because they know what to do in order
to keep things from going wrong.  Well, that's the whole point of this
"book", is that knowing how to use DOS is going to make your computer
life a whole lot easier, more enjoyable, and more productive.  So read
on!
                         PLEASE IGNORE THIS PAGE!
|TSET|T|fSIMPLY1|f
|TSHELL|T|fSIMPLY1|f
|t286|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|t386|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tANSI.SYS|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tATTRIB|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tAUTOEXEC.BAT|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tBACKUP|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tCHKDSK|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tCMOS|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tCOMSPEC|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tCache|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tDirectory|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tEMS|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tEnvironment|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tExpanded|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tExtended|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tHIMEM.SYS|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tHidden files|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tLIM|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tMemory|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tRAM|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tROM|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tShareware|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tXMS|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tXT|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tbytes|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tcommercial|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tconventional|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tcurrent|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tdefault|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|thigh|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tmacros|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tpublic domain|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|troot|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|tupper|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|TEXIT|T|fSIMPLY2|f
|TFORMAT|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
|tParameters|t|fSIMPLY2|f
|tPower|t|fSIMPLY2|f
|tRAMdisk|t|fSIMPLY2|f
|tReplaceable|t|fSIMPLY2|f
|tShelling Out|t|fSIMPLY2|f
|tediting keys|t|fSIMPLY2|f
|tfloppy|t|fSIMPLY2|f
|TCALL|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TCOMP|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TCOPY|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TDEVICEHIGH|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TDEVIC|1E|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TDIR|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TDO|1S|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TFOR|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TKEYB|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TNLSFUNC|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|TSHIFT|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|tDevice|1s|t|fSIMPLY3|f
|tPATH|t|fSIMPLY3|f
|TDOSSHELL|T|fSIMPLY5|f
|TPAUSE|T|fSIMPLY5|f
|TREM|T|fSIMPLY5|f
|TRENAME|T|fSIMPLY5|f
|TSHARE|T|fSIMPLY5|f
|TUNDELETE|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
|TSORT|T|fSIMPLY6|f
|TTYPE|T|fSIMPLY6|f
|tCONFIG.SYS|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
|thexadecimal|t|fSIMPLY6|f
|TEXIST|T|fSIMPLY5|f
|TIF|T|fSIMPLY5|f
|tBatch File|t|fSIMPLY7|f
|tDevice Driver|t|fSIMPLY3|f
|tPROMPT|t|fSIMPLY6|f
|TBUFFERS|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|tfragmented|t|fSIMPLY1|f
|TERASE|T|fSIMPLY3|f
|t*.*|t|fSIMPLY5|f
|TQBASIC|T|fSIMPLY6|f