Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/progbas/gwbsu106.arj/FILE-MAN.DOC

Text File | 1992-05-22 | 10.0 KB | 202 lines

                          NOTES ON FILE-MAN.BAS 1.06

                                 Matt Roberts
                               5 Cedar St., # 8
                           Montpelier, Vt 05602-3006
                                 [phone]


                                   03-19-92
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
FILE-MAN is, more or less, a mental exercise.  It does (or will), however,
have some useful features.  Essentially, it's my attempt at creating a DOS
shell.  The idea is to have a menu-driven system which can do anything DOS can
do, but a bit friendlier.  In reality, there are severe limitations at the
moment.  There are a lot of plans for enhancing the program, and eventually I
think it'll be quite useful in some ways.  For now, though, I would recommend
against throwing out your DOS manual.

Please feel free to copy and distribute the files on this disk to anyone who
will have them.  If you find the files useful, a donation of $5.00 would be
greatly appreciated.  Thanks.


                         SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND NOTES

This file manager was written on an Amstrad PC1512.  This system has an 8086
processor, composite black and white CGA monitor, and 640K RAM plus 2Mb EMS.
There are two 5.25" 360K floppy drives, one external 3.5" 1.44M drive, and a
49Mb hard drive card.  The operating system is MS-DOS 5.00.

At this time, you'll need about 95K to run the file manager.

You'll also need GW-BASIC.  The file manager was written with GW-BASIC 3.22
and, if you want to use that, you'll want MS- or PC-DOS 3.20 or higher.
However, it's quite possible that FILE-MAN will run on lower versions of
BASICA/GW-BASIC, in which case you can probably get by with a lower version of
DOS.


                              RUNNING THE PROGRAM

First, you get an intro screen.  You press any key to continue.  Now you're at
the menu.  You'll press the number corresponding to your choice, and press
Enter (Return).  You are now on your way.  Are you excited as I am?


                                 LISTING FILES

You type in the name of the directory which contains the files and/or
subdirectories you want to view, and press Enter.  You get a list of the files
and/or subdirectories, and are invited to fritter away more precious time
doing it all over again.  Should you accept, you'll get to do the above again;
elsewise, you'll go back to the menu.


                            WORKING WITH CONFIG.SYS

The first thing you'll want to provide is the drive your CONFIG.SYS file is
on.  This is handy if you want to experiment without messing up your original.
You can, for instance, copy CONFIG.SYS to drive B and then mess around with it
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there; you don't have to worry about what happens if you goof.  Should you be
inclined to be adventurous and mess around with the CONFIG.SYS your computer
will actually be looking at, the original will be renamed CONFIG.BAS, but only
if you choose to create a whole new file.  You'll need to type the colon as
well.  If, for example, your CONFIG.SYS is on drive A, you would type a: (or
A:).  If you just type "a" or "A" you'll get an error message and the program
will stop.

OK, now you'll be confronted with the following options: Just look at the
CONFIG.SYS file, add lines to the end of the file, create a whole new mess, or
quit and return to the main menu.

If you choose to look at the file, it'll appear on your screen.  You press a
key, and return to the four options.  Try to stay awake.

Adding lines to the end of your file is just about as exciting.  You're
prompted for the line to add.  When you've added all the lines you want, press
q (or Q) and Enter to return to the four options.

Creating a new file, on the other foot, is a bit more involved.  Your original
is saved as CONFIG.BAS, and you are informed of the deed.  Please don't delete
CONFIG.BAS until you've tested your new CONFIG.SYS for at least a week, since
little problems like not having enough files or buffers specified may not
surface for a while, but can cause a real hassle.  If you have your original,
you can look at the differences, and possibly see what you need to change.
Without it, you'll have no recourse but to open your DOS manual, which I
advise against except as a last resort.

Anyway, you'll be prompted for how many files you want, and then how many
buffers.  Next, FILE-MAN will look at the root directory of the drive you
specified, and try to list any .SYS files it runs into.  Next, you'll be asked
which devices you want.  If you want none, type n (or N).  Otherwise, type in
the name of the device driver you want included.  You're then asked if you
want to include more devices.  If you want to, type Y (or y) otherwise type n
(or N).  I haven't included any limits for the number of devices you can
include; as far as I know, you can keep on until your little fingers wear out.

Once you're done with the device drivers, though, you'll be asked if you want
BREAK on or off.  BREAK controls how often DOS looks to see if Ctrl-Break or
Ctrl-C have been pressed.  Having it on makes it easier to leave a program if
you want to, but probably slows down the operation of the system by a bit.

At this point, you have a new CONFIG.SYS file.  You now get to decide whether
to keep it, start over with a new file, or restore your old file.  You'll
press C, R, or OK to make your decision, and then press Enter.


                           WORKING WITH AUTOEXEC.BAT

This option runs just about the same as the option for working with
CONFIG.SYS, so I'm not going to get into it here.  If you have trouble with
it, and wish one of your questions was answered in this section, let me know
and I'll do what I can.  You can also call, just like it says in the program,
and I'll try to help you out on an immediate basis.


                                DELETING FILES

You're first warned about the difficulty of undeleting files, and of my
inability to help you undelete.  You then get to quit or continue.  Should you
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continue, you type in the name (including drive and path) of the file you want
destroyed.  You are warned again (ain't I the little fussbudget?) and given
yet another opportunity to back out.  If you're the brave sort, the file is
erased, and you are given the opportunity to make the same mistake twice.


                              MAKING A DIRECTORY

Here you get to type in the name of the directory you want created, including
drive and path if any.  The deed is done, you're invited to do it again, and
that's all there is to it.


                             REMOVING A DIRECTORY

Removing a directory, on the other hand, is a bit more involved.  After you've
typed in the name of the directory you want to get rid of, you're given a look
at what's in that directory.  You then get the options of deleting any files
that might be in the directory, remove any subdirectories that might also be
in there, or continuing.  If you continue, FILE-MAN tries to remove the
directory you've specified.  If it can't, there are probably either files or
subdirectories you haven't gotten rid of yet.  Because I haven't yet written
the error-handling routines, the program will throw up its hands and you'll
have to type RUN again to get back into things.  Sorry about any inconvenience
that may cause, and I'll have those routines written soon.


                                RENAMING FILES

You type in the name of the file you want to rename.  You type in the new name
for the file.  You avoid specifying a different disk drive than the one you
started with.  You get the chance to do it again.  You are getting very
sleepy.....


                             VIEWING FILE CONTENTS

This option is useless for anything but text files.  You type in the name of
the file you want displayed, and told to press Ctrl-NumLock to pause the
display.  You can't, unfortunately, scroll backward at this time.
Essentially, you're just dealing with the GW-BASIC version of the DOS TYPE
command, although I may add some minor enhancements at some point.


                                COPYING A FILE

Again, you can only copy text files.  Also, the date and time are changed to
reflect when you copied it.  Otherwise, everything should go smoothly.  Type
in the name of the file you want copied, then the destination, then sit back
and wait.  The copying process is slower than with the DOS COPY command, but
not so much slower that you'll have the time to make that cup of coffee you so
desperately need.

                         GETTING THE LENGTH OF A FILE

This one is quite simple.  You type in the name of the file, including the
drive and path as usual, and FILE-MAN tells you how many bytes the file
contains.


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                                 IN CONCLUSION

That about covers what I've done so far, but it's by no means the end of this
program.  I've got about a ton of stuff to do, so you might want to check in
on this file from time to time to see if I've included anything you might be
able to make use of.  If there's an option you'd like to see, give me a
holler.  I can't guarantee I have the skill to do anything about your request,
but I'll certainly do what I can.  If I can't write the necessary code, I'll
see if I know of any shareware or public domain utilities that'll do what you
need.  One way or another, I'll get back to you.

I'm constantly running into glitches in my programs that I could have sworn
weren't there the last time I worked on them.  Since I haven't seen any
evidence of Gremlins, I'm assuming you'll run into a few from time to time as
well.  If you do, let me know about them.  If there's anything I can do about
them, I'll do it.  You can't possibly offend me by pointing out the
shortcomings in my work.  I can't improve my programs unless I know what's
wrong with them, so please help me squash bugs!  Thanks.