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PC-SIG Diskette Library (Disk #109)
[PCjs Machine "ibm5150"]
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Information about “DOS UTILITIES NO 5”
A grabbag of utilities aimed mostly at the needs of the more advanced
programmer types among us. BREAKPT lets you do a breakpoint within any
program, FILEDUMP will do a hex dump to your screen. There are
routines to demonstrate structured macros and one on APL. One of the
most interesting programs here is UTIL. This is a DOS utility that
allows you to do things like: sort directories, do paged display of
text files, redefine your keyboard, and others. This could be quite
useful for anyone interested in a simple, effective way to enhance
their system.
How to Start: To run an EXE or COM program simply type its name and
press <ENTER>. WKS files are for use with LOTUS 1-2-3. For
instructions on ASM listings, refer to your Assembler manual. To read
DOC and read-me files simply enter TYPE filename.ext and press
<ENTER>.
Suggested Registration: UTIL $10.00, $15.00 includes latest
version and printed documentation.
File Descriptions:
BREAKPT COM Makes ctrl-esc do a breakpoint to trace any program
BREAKPT DOC Documentation for above
BREAKPT ASM Source for above
DATE PRG dBASE II program to validate dates
FEDTAX83 WKS 123 worksheet for 1040 form, schedules A, B, C, W
REGDISP ASM Source for program to display 8088 regs in real time
PV______ APL Present value functions in APL
MACTEST ASM Illustrates structured assembler macros in STRUCT.MAC
FILEDUMP COM Hex dump a file to screen
STRUCT MAC Assembler macros for structured programming
UTIL EXE Fantastic set of screen/file/directory, etc. functions
UTILREAD ME Introductory note about these utilities
UTIL DOC Documentation for UTIL.DOC
DATABASE Sample database
READ ME List of files on this diskette
BREAKPT.ASM
PAGE 60,132
; BREAKPT.ASM: A DEBUGGING UTILITY
; TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE DOS DEBUG UTILITY OR ANY DEBUGGER
; WHICH CAN INTERCEPT THE BREAKPOINT INTERRUPT.
; USAGE: RUN BREAKPT.COM ONCE UNDER DOS TO INSTALL.
; LOAD DEBUGGER WITH PROGRAM TO BE DEBUGGED.
; SET A BREAKPOINT (ANY BREAKPOINT) AND EXECUTE PROGRAM.
; WHILE PROGRAM RUNS, HITTING CTRL-ESC JUMPS TO THIS ROUTINE,
; WHICH HANDS CONTROL TO DEBUGGER.
; NOTE THIS METHOD CAN BE USED TO INTERRUPT BOTH ROM
; AND RAM EXECUTION.
; PROGRAM BY RICH WINKEL
BOTTOM SEGMENT AT 0H
ORG 024H
KBDIP DW ? ;IP FOR KBD INT
KBDCS DW ? ;CS FOR KBD INT
ORG 0417H
KB_FLAG DB ? ;ROM BIOS DATA
BOTTOM ENDS
;
BREAKPT SEGMENT
ASSUME CS:BREAKPT,DS:BOTTOM
ORG 100H
MAIN PROC NEAR
JMP INIT
;
; KEYBOARD INTERRUPT INTERCEPT ROUTINE
;
CATCH: STI ;INTERRUPTS BACK ON
PUSH AX
IN AL,60H ;CHECK SCAN CODE
CMP AL,01H ;IS IT ESC KEY?
JNZ L2 ;NO, ON TO KEYBOARD ROUTINE
PUSH DS ;OTHERWISE, CHECK FOR
XOR AX,AX ;CONTROL KEY SHIFT
MOV DS,AX ;GET DOWN TO THE BOTTOM
MOV AL,KB_FLAG ;GET KEYBOARD FLAG BYTE FROM ROM DATA
TEST AL,04H ;CTRL SHIFT?
JZ L1 ;NO, ON TO KEYBOARD ROUTINE
IN AL,61H ;OTHERWISE, WE TAKE IT FROM HERE
MOV AH,AL ;RESET
OR AL,80H ;THE
OUT 61H,AL ;KEYBOARD
MOV AL,AH ;CONTROL
OUT 61H,AL ;PORT
CLI ;TURN OFF INTERRUPTS
MOV AL,20H ;RESET INTERRUPT CONTROLLER (8259)
OUT 20H,AL
POP DS
POP AX
STI ;LET PENDING INTERRUPTS EXECUTE
NOP
INT 03H ;NOW GIVE DEBUG CONTROL
IRET ;SINGLE STEP BACK TO INTERRUPTED PGM
L1: POP DS ;ONWARD TO KBD ROUTINE
L2: POP AX
DB 0EAH ;PREFIX BYTE FOR FAR JUMP
JFARIP DW 0H ;IP FOR KBD ROUTINE
JFARCS DW 0H ;CS FOR KBD ROUTINE
INIT: XOR AX,AX ;GET INTO
MOV DS,AX ;BOTTOM SEGMENT
MOV AX,KBDIP ;GET IP FOR KBD INTERRUPT
MOV CS:JFARIP,AX ;PUT IN OUR FAR JUMP
MOV AX,KBDCS ;GET CS FOR KBD INTERRUPT
MOV CS:JFARCS,AX ;PUT IN OUR FAR JUMP
MOV AX,CS ;BACK TO
MOV DS,AX ;OUR SEGMENT
MOV DX,OFFSET CATCH ;USE DOS TO POINT KBD INT TO US
MOV AX,2509H ;'RESET INT 9H VECTOR TO DS:DX'
INT 21H ;DO IT
MOV AH,09H ;PRINT MESSAGE
MOV DX,OFFSET MSG ;POINT TO MESSAGE
INT 21H ;DO IT
MOV DX,OFFSET INIT ;GET LAST ADDRESS OF RESIDENT CODE
INT 27H ;TERMINATE AND STAY RESIDENT
;
MSG DB 'Breakpoint debugging utility.',0DH,0AH
DB 'Load a program under DEBUG, '
DB 'set a breakpoint, (any breakpoint) and go.',0DH,0AH
DB 'To stop the program for debugging, hit Ctrl-Esc, then type:',0DH,0AH
DB 09H,'RIP <enter> 12D <enter> T <enter>',0DH,0AH
DB 'to jump over the INT 3, execute an IRET, and',0DH,0AH
DB 'get back to where your program was executing.',0DH,0AH
DB "WARNING: Don't hit Ctrl-Esc except while under DEBUG!$"
;
MAIN ENDP
BREAKPT ENDS
END MAIN
CRC.TXT
PC-SIG Disk No. #109, version V1-1
The following is a list of the file checksums which should be produced by
the CRCK4 program on this disk. If the CRC numbers do not match the following
list you may have a bad file. To use type: CRCK4 <filespec>
CRCK4 output for this disk:
CRCK ver 4.2B (MS DOS VERSION )
CTL-S pauses, CTL-C aborts
--> FILE: BREAKPT .ASM CRC = 5B A5
--> FILE: BREAKPT .COM CRC = DC 1D
--> FILE: BREAKPT .DOC CRC = BF DB
--> FILE: READ .ME CRC = 86 F9
--> FILE: PV______.APL CRC = 89 14
--> FILE: FEDTAX83.WKS CRC = 96 8A
--> FILE: STRUCT .MAC CRC = C8 D8
--> FILE: UTIL .DOC CRC = E2 FC
--> FILE: UTIL .EXE CRC = F0 2F
--> FILE: MACTEST .ASM CRC = 48 16
--> FILE: REGDISP .ASM CRC = A9 96
--> FILE: FILEDUMP.COM CRC = 70 2D
--> FILE: DATE .PRG CRC = 22 9F
--> FILE: UTILREAD.ME CRC = 38 F0
--> FILE: DATABASE. CRC = BA 1B
---------------------> SUM OF CRCS = B1 BA
DONE
These and other Public Domain and user-supported programs from:
PC Software Interest Group (PC-SIG)
1125 Stewart Ct Suite G
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 730-9291
MACTEST.ASM
title MACRO Test Program
page 62,132
include struct.mac
data segment
num dd 1843200
assume cs:data
@save <ax,bx,si,di>
lab: mov ax,bx
.repeat
mov al,ah
.until loop
.repeat
mov al,cl
.until al l 34
.repeat
add al,1
.until al e 56 long
.dowhl si e 5 long
dec si
.enddo
.if pe
mov ax,1
.else
mov ax,2
.if z,long
mov ax,3
.else
mov ax,4
.endif
.endif
.dowhl ax e 1
dec ax
.enddo
.if <word ptr num> e 23h
mov word ptr num,40h
.endif
.if ax,e,bx
mov ax,4
.endif
.if ax l 1
mov ax,1
.else
mov ax,2
.endif
.if cx l 0
inc cx
.else
dec cx
.endif
.if ax l 0
.if bx l 0
.if cx l 0
dec cx
.else
inc cx
.endif
mov bx,1
.else
mov bx,2
.endif
mov ax,1
.else
mov ax,2
.endif
.if ax g cx long
add ax,1
.else long
add ax,2
.endif
@restore
check$
data ends
end
UTIL.DOC
Documentation - 1 - UTIL Version 1.3
_________________________________________________________________
UTIL Version 1.3
Copyright (c) 1983 Mutant Software
____ _________ ________
User Supported Software
If you use this program and like it, your contribution
of $10 would be greatly appreciated.
Mutant Software
Program UTIL
P.O. Box 765
Bellaire, TX 77401
Regardless of whether you make a contribution or not, you are
encouraged to copy and distribute this program to others, with
the stipulation that this notice not be removed. If you do not
have printed documentation, it resides on your distribution
diskette under the name UTIL.DOC. Merely print this file to your
printer.
System requirements : 128K and DOS 2.0 or higher
If you want to, you can order directly from me for $15. The extra
$5 covers the diskette, the mailing cost, and documentation
reproduction. By ordering direct, you are assured of getting the
latest version of UTIL with the fewest bugs, and the latest
enhancements.
New features are being added regularly to this program, either at
the suggestion of users, or as I see the need. I am open to
suggestions for the enhancement of this program or to reports of
any bugs. I would also like to hear of any ways that the documen-
tation for this program can be made clearer. Please write to me
at the above address.
Revision 11-22-83
Documentation - 2 - UTIL Version 1.3
_________________________________________________________________
1. Program UTIL
1.1 Introduction
UTIL is a general purpose collection of utilities for use under
DOS 2.0. A given utility is invoked either directly from the
command line (when invoking UTIL, or alternately from a screen
menu. The screen menu option is gotten when you invoke UTIL with
no options. The UTIL program should be kept in the root directory
on all disks which you will want it's facilities on. Often,
utility programs are written in assembler, and are very small (in
file size). Generally, they are have only one function.A collec-
tion of these utilities is difficult to haul around from disk to
disk. UTIL was designed to handle that problem. It is one program
with a variety of useful options.
UTIL was written in C, using the Ci86 compiler from Computer
Innovations. The C programming language generates very tight,
fast code. But the overhead for a single program is large (mainly
due to file I/O facilities). This makes C lack usefullness in
generating small utility routines. The advantage of using C is
that additional capabilities added to the original (large) core
program produces very little increase in code size. In addition,
C code is much easier to maintain than assembler. It is for this
reason that UTIL has many utilities built into it.
Some of the features of UTIL are much more useful than others.
The directory option is by far the most useful. Look at what it
can do carefully. This option also required the largest invest-
ment in code (and resultant .EXE file size).
1.2 Time Tests
In case you are worried about the time required to load UTIL, let
me show you some times I recorded for loading and executing UTIL
in the directory (SD) mode, compared to the DIR command.
1.2.1 Test Number 1.
UTIL on floppy getting directory of floppy.
DIR : 5.16 seconds, UTIL : 10.94 seconds
1.2.2 Test Number 2.
UTIL on hard disk getting directory of hard disk.
DIR : 4.12 seconds, UTIL : 6.78 seconds
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1.2.3 Test Number 3.
UTIL on floppy getting directory of floppy.
DIR : 4.6 seconds, UTIL : 7.47 seconds.
Note that DIR and UTIL were accessing exactly the same directory
information. The difference between Test 1 and Test 3 is that in
Test 3, UTIL was copied to a clean (freshly formatted) diskette.
In Test 1, the diskette already had had alot of activity with
alot of files. This points out the advantage of copying the UTIL
program (and any other programs you will use frequently) onto a
fresh diskette- it will always load faster.
In all cases, this is not a bad time, considering the con-
siderable increase in power you get from UTIL over DIR. By the
way, in Test 2, if you pipe DIR into SORT (DIR | SORT) to get a
sorted directory, as suggested in the DOS manual, DIR takes 7.25
seconds, which is actually slower than UTIL. And going the DIR |
SORT route, all you can do with the output is look at it.
Once you have used UTIL, it will probably reside on every disk
you own. It does not take up much disk space, and it is very easy
to move from disk to disk (after all, it is only one program).
And if you have a hard disk, you will never get tired of this
program.
As was mention previously, you must have DOS 2.0 to be able to
use this program. Intelligent programmers cannot afford to not
utilize DOS 2.0 features forever.
And the program overhead to support all versions of DOS is a
waste of energy. PC owners should consider new DOS revisions as
being like preventative maintenance on their cars- necessary.
2. Installing UTIL
The UTIL program is not copy protected. These installation in-
structions are meant to make UTIL work best for you.
a) Put DOS 2.0 diskette in drive A:
b) Put a blank diskette in drive B:
c) Enter the following:
FORMAT B:/S
Now, remove the DOS diskette from drive A:, and
replace with your UTIL diskette. Enter the follow-
ing:
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COPY A:UTIL.EXE B:
This installs the UTIL program on a fresh dis-
kette.
d) Remove the UTIL diskette from drive A: and replace
with the DOS 2.0 diskette again. Enter the follow-
ing commands:
COPY *.* B:
COPY CON: B:CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=ANSI.SYS
^Z
Every line typed in is followed by hitting the
ENTER key. The last line (^Z) is gotten either by
hitting F6 or CTRL-Z.
e) Copy any other DOS utilities or programs you may
require regularly onto drive B.
What you did in the above steps was to create a boot dis-
kette for your system. The important things done were:
* Put the file ANSI.SYS on the boot diskette. This file
was provided on your original DOS 2.0 distribution
diskette.
* Build a file called CONFIG.SYS on your boot diskette,
with one line in the file, saying DEVICE=ANSI.SYS. When
DOS 2.0 boots, it looks for a file by this name. If it
finds it, it loads any specified device drivers
(ANSI.SYS, in this case). This provides for extended
screen and keyboard handling, which UTIL uses.
Note: You needn't worry about the CONFIG.SYS or ANSI.SYS
files after you have booted your machine. They are only
required at machine boot.
2.1 RAM Disk
If you have enough memory to support a RAM disk, it would be
a good idea to copy UTIL.EXE to the RAM disk when you boot
up. The copy operation should be done from within your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file after creation of the RAM disk.
If you wish to utilize UTIL's crude database capability (for
often used phone numbers, addresses, etc.), you will also
want to copy this file into your RAM disk (the file is
called DATABASE; see discussion of the database option for
more details).
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_________________________________________________________________
2.2 The PC XT
Put the UTIL distribution diskette in drive A:, and type in
the following
C>A:
A>COPY UTIL.EXE C:\
or
C>COPY A:UTIL.EXE \
The idea is to load UTIL into the root directory on your hard
disk.
2.3 For both machines
On all the diskettes you will boot the machine up from, you need
to
* Have an AUTOEXEC.BAT file
* Have a file called CONFIG.SYS with a line in it which says
DEVICE=ANSI.SYS.
* Have the ANSI.SYS file (supplied on your DOS 2.0 diskette)
2.4 Changing .EXE Name
Many users find it convenient to rename UTIL to DO. This makes
for less to type in, and seems to read naturally when typed from
the command line. For example,
A>DO SD C:\ASM\SOURCE
reads "do sorted directory on C:\ASM\SOURCE"
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3. Summary of Utilities
Name Function
sd Sorted directory
br Screen listing of a text file. Uses PgUp and PgDn keys
kb Allows keyboard redefinition
db A crude data base routine
tf Causes printer to do a top-of-form
mo Switch to monochrome display
co Switch to color display
All commands may be entered in either upper or lower case. Most
of the commands listed above have additional options which can be
invoked. These are described under the detailed description of
each of the commands, which follow shortly.
UTIL was designed as a utility. It is meant to be easy to use and
fast. It is not sickeningly friendly. It does not say please
once. Errors are caught, but if the program cannot figure out
something to do, it will usually do something harmless (wrong,
but harmless). Many users are finding out that an overabundance
of menus and mushy friendliness really get in your way after you
have learned how to run the program. Not only that, but after you
are familiar with the program, they almost insult your intel-
ligence.
If you cannot remember what UTIL options are available, or the
order of entry of items on the command line, or if you want to
use several of UTIL's features in the same run, merely type
UTIL <ENTER>
from the command line. UTIL will then prompt you for what options
are available, and what to do each step of the way.
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_________________________________________________________________
4. Sorted Directory (sd)
4.1 Introduction to Sorted Directories
SD will probably be the most useful of all the utilities con-
tained in the UTIL program. You will find no end to the usefull-
ness of SD. After you have seen what it can do, you will probably
wonder how you ever got along without it.
SD will serve you most effectively when installed in a RAM
pseudo-disk. Installed this way, it will always be available, and
can be invoked almost instantly.
The reason the SD option was written into UTIL was that I often
felt that the directory listing programs normally available to
the user left a lot to be desired. When you consider what your
time is worth, the time you spend screwing around looking at the
contents of your disk costs a bundle (in time, headaches, and
mistakes).
SD is useful for full screen directory and file manipulation. By
default, it displays the current directory in alphabetical order.
Only 30 entries may be viewed on the screen at a time. But since
they are viewed full screen, hitting the RIGHT arrow key a couple
of times will bring in another 15 entries. This continues until
you don't have any more directory entries. The LEFT arrow key
does the same thing in the reverse direction. Try it.
Even if you do not use the subdirectory feature of DOS 2.0, you
will still enjoy the ease with which you can look at what is
contained on your diskettes. At the touch of a key, you can
resort the directory 3 different ways. You can also browse
whatever file the cursor is pointing to. Or print the file the
cursor is pointing to. Or (in the browse option), print any part
of a file. Or execute your favorite word processor or text editor
on it. Or run a program on it. The SD option of UTIL is invoked
by typing the following at the DOS command prompt:
UTIL SD [drive][path]
The [drive] and [path] are optional. If you are on drive B and
wish to view the directory of drive A, merely type
UTIL SD A:
The user has a Home directory. This is the directory he was in
when he entered UTIL (by default). The Home directory will be
listed at the top of the screen. In addition to this there will
be the Displayed directory. By default, this will also be the
Home directory. The Displayed directory will also be shown at the
top of the screen.
The Home directory will also be the directory to which any files
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_________________________________________________________________
are copied when the COPY command is invoked.
While a directory is displayed, the user can instantly resort the
displayed directory by alpha, extension, or date, all at the
touch of a key ( A for alpha, X for extension, or D for date).
The user can delete a file or files in whatever directory he is
currently viewing on the screen by moving the "cursor" next to an
entry and hitting alt-d. This will cause a DEL to appear next to
that entry.
In the directory list, all subdirectories of the Displayed direc-
tory are preceded by a "\". If the user positions the cursor over
a subdirectory name and hits <ENTER>, the Displayed directory
becomes the appropriate subdirectory.
Note: Deletes are done from within the program. COPIES are done
when you exit UTIL. I let DOS do the copying, since it is much
more efficient, especially on systems that don't have a bunch of
memory.
Letting DOS do the copying is no real handicap. You should know
that this is what is done so that after leaving UTIL, you don't
get confused as to where these COPY commands are appearing from.
In addition, you should not change diskettes until you exit UTIL,
since it expects the files you flagged for copying to be on
certain drives. If you have done no copying, changing diskettes
is no problem.
4.2 Resorting the Directory (A,X or D)
4.2.1 Alphabetic Sort (A). Hit A to sort the directroy al-
phabetically. Note that this is the default sort.
4.2.2 Extension Sort (X). Hit X to resort the viewed directory
by extension.
4.2.3 Date Sort (D). Hit D to resort the viewed directory by
date.
4.3 Going Through Subdirectories (.,L,V,I,!)
4.3.1 Up a Level (.). Hitting . (period) causes the program to
revert one level in the subdirectory heiarchy. The command will
be ignored if you are already in the root directory.
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_________________________________________________________________
4.3.2 Last Directory (L). Hit L to see the last subdirectory
(or drive, or whatever) that you were viewing previously. Let's
say you were viewing subdirectory C:\LANG\C and you went off and
viewed the contents of drive A:. Rather than having to respecify
C:\LANG\C if you want to review it, merely hit L.
Note: UTIL only maintains one previous directory information.
Because of this, hitting L twice is a waste of time.
4.3.3 A Different Drive (V). Hit V to see the directory of a
different disk drive than the one you are currently viewing. At
the bottom of the screen, you are prompted to enter the drive
letter. Respond appropriately. No <ENTER> is required.
4.3.4 Immediately View Another Directory (I). Hit I to im-
mediately view the directory of another drive, or merely another
subdirectory on the current drive.
As an example, let's say you are currently viewing a directory on
drive B, and you wish to see the directory of drive A. Hit I to
get into this option. When the prompt appears at the bottom of
the screen, respond with
A: <ENTER>
You will now be viewing the directory of drive A. Note that in
this simple case, you could have gotten the same effect with the
V option. Thus, a more complicated example is in order.
Suppose you are viewing a directory on drive B and wish to look
at directory A:\DBASE.
First, hit I to get into this option. When the prompt appears at
the bottom of the screen, respond with
A:\DBASE
As you did in puberty, experiment with this one.
4.3.5 Move into a Displayed Subdirectory (<ENTER>). As was
mentioned previously, any items in the directory list whose names
begin with a "\" are subdirectories.
Merely position the cursor over one of these and hit <ENTER>. The
subdirectory you were pointing do will be entered, and its direc-
tory read.
This command only has an effect if your cursor is positoned over
an entry in the directory list whose name begins with a "\".
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_________________________________________________________________
4.3.6 Reread Directory (!).
To reread a directory, hit !. Why would you ever want to reread a
directory?
This option is most useful when you have several diskettes upon
which you wish to find some files you need. You put the first
diskette in drive B, and do an SD on it. This disk does not have
what you wanted.
Load the second disk in drive B, and hit !. The directory of
drive B will be reread, which is exactly what you wanted.
4.4 Screen Copy (S)
If you are lucky enough to have both the monochrome and a
graphics screen, this command may prove useful. Hitting S will
copy the contents of the screen you are on to the screen you
aren't on. When you are comparing the contents of disks or sub-
directories, this can be very useful.
Note that you do not switch screens by hitting S. You merely copy
the contents of the screen you are working on to the other
screen.
4.5 Printing a File (P)
While the cursor is over the name of a file, hitting P will cause
that file to be printed to the line printer. This option works
well in conjunction with the B (BROWSE) option, wherein after
rummaging through several files on a diskette with BROWSE, you
finally find the one you want to print out. Hit <ESC> to leave
BROWSE, then hit P. The file you were just browsing will be
printed.
The PRINT option will properly expand tabs contained in the text.
If you have one of the many available print spoolers (many are
free), this command will work it's fastest. Otherwise, you must
wait for the file to finish printing before you can resume.
4.6 Browsing a File (B or alt-B)
While the cursor is over the name of a file, the user can hit B
to browse the file. It is assummed that the file being browsed is
a text file capable of being viewed. Don't bother trying to view
.COM files, for instance. Hitting <ESC> takes you back to the
directory you were viewing before you did the browse.
As a special feature for WORDSTAR fans, hitting alt-B will browse
your WORDSTAR files, making them suitable for screen display. The
display will not be perfect, but you will be able to read the
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_________________________________________________________________
file well enough to know what it contains.
The browse command is unique in that text is read and put to the
screen directly from disk. The reading is done one screen at a
time. Thus, browse will get your text to the screen much faster
than most editors can. And browse does not care how long your
file is. A 100Kb file will appear on the screen just as fast as a
2Kb file.
While in BROWSE, you will see instructions at the bottom of the
screen. They tell you that you can hit the PgUp key to go a page
backwards in the text, PgDn to go down a page, or <ESC> to leave
browse. While in the SD option of UTIL, <ESC> will get you back
to the directory which was being diplayed when you hit B to
invoke BROWSE.
What these instructions don't tell you is what else you can do.
After a page appears on the screen, notice the small right point-
ing arrow in the first column of the last line of displayed text.
This is the cursor. Use your UP and DOWN arrows to make the
cursor move. Notice how the cursor stops at the first and last
displayed line on the screen.
Moving the cursor does nothing in itself (except move the
cursor). If you hit M, you mark that line of text. Move to
another line and hit M again. Now, you have marked two lines. If
you now hit P, all lines between (and including) the marked lines
will be printed to the printer.
If you have made one mark, then hit *, this tells BROWSE to
consider the last line of the file as the second mark. Thus,
hitting P will print from the first mark to the end of the file.
If no marks are made, and you hit *, this tells BROWSE to mark
the text from the top of the current screen to the end of the
file. Following the * with a P will cause those lines to be
printed.
Note that your printing will go much faster if you have a print
spooler. If you do not, you will (unfortunately) have to wait
until the printing has completed.
Just as a reminder, every time a text line is marked using M, an
* appears to the right of the message at the bottom of the
screen. If you have marked text and decide you would like to mark
a different block of text, hit U. This will undo all existing
marks. When you see two *'s, this means you have marked two
points in the file for possible printing. Hitting P will cause
the marked area to be printed. If you were interrupted after
marking the text (or just forgot what you marked), you can always
hit U, then remark the text. If you try to mark more than two
points, you'll just here a lonely beep.
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4.7 Invoking Your Editor (E)
Often, after browsing a file, you decide that you would like to
edit that file. With the cursor over the file you wish to edit,
hit E. The program will call up your favorite text editor, and
cause it to begin editing that file. By default, the editor
invoked is the Personal Editor (sold by IBM). You can easily
change this, though.
In the back of the DOS 2.0 manual there is a section on Advanced
Commands. One of these is the SET command. This allows you to put
data into the environment. The environment is an area of memory
set aside when you start DOS, and it's contents are available to
all application programs. This is where you need to tell UTIL the
name of your favorite editor.
From the keyboard (at the DOS prompt), merely type
SET UT*ED=editor
where editor is the name of your favorite editor. For example, if
you use EDLIN as your editor, type in the following (at the DOS
prompt):
SET UT*ED=EDLIN
It is a good idea to put this SET command in your AUTOEXEC file.
This way, you will never forget to do it.
4.8 Invoking Your Wordprocessor (W)
This is similar to the EDIT option described above except this
command invokes your favorite word processor. As was discussed in
the EDIT command above, you must place the name of your word
processor in the environment. Do this as follows:
SET UT*WP=wordprocessor
where wordprocessor is the name of your favorite word processor.
For example, if you use WORDSTAR, you would type in the following
(at the DOS prompt):
SET UT*WP=WS
As was mentioned in EDIT, it is a good idea to place this line in
your AUTOEXEC file so you won't forget to do it.
Note: If either your word processor or text editor requires some
command line options, these can be specified via the SET command.
Merely put a $ where the file name is to be substituted. UTIL
will take care of the rest.
For instance, if you usually invoke your editor by specifying the
"a" and "p" options, you would specify this to UTIL by saying the
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following:
SET UT*ED=myeditor $/a/p
When you invoke your editor on a file by hitting the E option,
UTIL will replace the $ with the name of the file which your
cursor is on.
4.9 Global Operations (*)
While viewing a directory on the screen, hitting * invokes a
prompt at the bottom of the screen. The program will ask you if
you want to delete (alt-D), copy (alt-C), or do nothing (ESC).
Hit the <ESC> key if you hit the * key by mistake.
Otherwise, the current sort mode determines what following alt-D
or alt-C means.
If you are in the alphanumeric or extension sort and respond with
alt-D, all files with the same extension as the file your cursor
is pointing to are marked for deletion.
If you are in the date sort, hitting alt-C means copy all files
from (and including) the one pointed to by the cursor to the last
file in the date sorted list.
Hitting the <ENTER> key with the cursor over a name which begins
with a \ places you in that subdirectory, viewing it's contents.
4.10 Delete a File (alt-D)
With the cursor positioned over a file name, hitting alt-D marks
the file for deletion. I say mark because the file will not be
immediately deleted. You can cause the marked files to be deleted
by hitting alt-X (execute).
This gives you a chance to change your mind (see the alt-U
option). Files flagged for deletion are not remembered when you
move from directory to directory. Thus, if you try to change
directories, the program will remind you that there are files
flagged for deletion, and will ask it you wish to perform the
deletions. A simple Y or N is all that is required. No <ENTER> is
necessary.
4.11 Copy a File (alt-C)
With the cursor positioned over a file name, hitting alt-C will
mark the file for copying. That is copying the file from the
directory being viewed to the Home directory.
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4.12 Special Command, User Defined (alt-S)
While your cursor is positioned over a file name on the directory
listing, hitting alt-S invokes your 'special' command on the
file. As was done with the E and W options (see above), the
command which is 'special' is contained in the environment. It
goes under the name UT*SP. You must set it into the environment
either at boot time, or before executing UTIL. Once specified, it
needn't be reentered. The environment will remember what you have
specified until you turn your machine off or reboot.
Let's say you were into assembly language programming, and you
see several files in the directory listing that need to be
reassmebled. The assembler program is called MASM. You would do
the following (either at the DOS prompt, or in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file):
SET UT*SP=MASM
While the cursor is over a file name, hitting alt-S will cause
the following command to be generated:
MASM filename
where filename is the file your cursor was pointing to. Note
that, like the alt-C command, this command will not be executed
until you exit UTIL. The command is merely generated internally,
and held until you exit the program (it is actually put into a
BATCH file which will be executed when the program UTIL
terminates).
Because of an apparent oversight, a .BAT file cannot execute
another .BAT file (this is true in DOS 2.0, at least). If some-
where in the middle of .BAT file 1 you invoke .BAT file 2, DOS
will never return you to .BAT file 1 to finish it. Thus, if you
set UT*SP to be a .BAT file, you may not be too happy with the
results.
For this reason, UT*SP can specify more than one program to run.
Let's take, for example, the compiling of a program under the C86
compiler. The compiler is composed of 3 programs, named CC1, CC2
and CC3. I am looking at a directory and see 3 files I want to
compile. I move the cursor over each file name and hit ALT-S. I
then exit UTIL by hitting <ESC>.
In my environment, I have previously put the following:
SET UT*SP=.CC1 $ ^ .CC2 $ ^ .CC3 $ ^
The $ signs tell UTIL where the file name is to be placed. The ^
tells UTIL to do a carriage return. The "." in front of each
string instructs is optional, and tells UTIL to rip the extension
(if there is one) off of the file name. Not putting the "." would
have left the extension on the file name, and it would be sub-
stituted in it's entirety for the $ at all three occurances.
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Note that if you mark a file by hitting ALT-S, but have failed to
specify UT*SP, UTIL will not give you an error, but will instead
cause the following command to be executed:
ECHO filename
This will just print the file name on the screen, and won't hurt
anything. Remember: Any strings which needs to go in the environ-
ment should be specified via SET commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file!!
4.13 Undo (alt-U)
Deletes and copies are not done instantly. This is protection
against yourself. As you are viewing a directory, entries which
you have flagged for deletion, copying, or a special operation
are flagged by a DEL or CPY or SP* to the left of the name which
has been flagged. If you have the cursor over a file name which
is thus marked and hit alt-U, the flag will be removed.
The alt-U option is especially useful when used in conjunction
with the global (*) option. Let's say you have used * to mark 15
.BAK files for deltetion. But there are two of these files you
would like to keep.
Merely position the cursor over the two files you wish to keep
and hit alt-U. The DEL will disappear, assuring you that the file
will not be deleted.
4.14 Executing Deletions (alt-X)
When you are satisfied that files in the current directory have
been properly marked for either copying or deleting, hit alt-X.
All files marked for deletion will actually be deleted. If you
have marked any files for copying, UTIL will exit, and execute a
.BAT file it has been building with COPY commands in it. The COPY
operation could be done from within the UTIL program, but it
would be much, much slower than DOS. This is due to the fact that
UTIL is hogging somewhere around 96K of memory when it begins
executing. Thus, remaining memory is scarce on many systems. Once
UTIL is exited, however, 96K is freed back up, and DOS has this
entire area to use as a buffer for disk copying.
5. Browsing a File (br)
This facility lets you list any text file on the screen. When the
screen fills, you can use the PgUp or PgDn keys to browse through
the file. Browse is novel in that the scrolling is done directly
from disk. No text is stored in memory, so system memory require-
ments are kept low. Hit <ESC> to exit browse.
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Even though UTIL is probably close in size to your editor or word
processor, files can be viewed much faster using BROWSE than your
editor or word processor. This is due to the fact that the BROWSE
option does not attempt to load your entire file before it begins
showing it to you on the screen.
Instead, it lists lines of text to the screen as they are read
from disk. You are allowed full screen paging through the file as
it is being viewed. Note that this same option is available in
the SD option of UTIL (see below). Also see the decription of
browse contained within the SD documentation for some additional
features which are available under this browse too (especially
the printing of a part of the file you are browsing).
The BROWSE option of UTIL is exactly the same as the browse you
get under SD. All features available under that option are avail-
able here.
6. Keyboard Redefinition (kb)
Allows redefining the keys on the keyboard. DOS 2.0 provides for
keyboard redefinition, but only in a limited sense. The DOS
manual confuses many about how the keys on the keyboard can
actually be redefined. In order for key redefinition to occur,
you must have a file called CONFIG.SYS on your diskette when you
boot up. For key redefinition to occur, you need only one line in
the CONFIG.SYS file. This line is:
DEVICE = ANSI.SYS
ANSI.SYS is a file which was supplied to you when you bought DOS
2.0. In addition to the CONFIG.SYS file, you also need the
ANSI.SYS
I mentioned earlier that key redefinition was limited under DOS
2.0. This is because some crazy person thought that you didn't
need more than 190 bytes (for some strange reason) to redefine
all of the keys you wanted to. This isn't much, believe me. There
is a good, easy fix given by Ronald Parsons in the September '83
issue of PC Magazine on pp586-587. Do it, unless IBM comes out
with a new release of DOS which corrects this stupid limitation.
You will be propmted to hit the key to be redefined. Hit the key.
Next, you will be asked to type in what you want the key to be
defined to. If you want to reset they key back to what it was,
hit
<ESC> <ENTER>
(the ESC key and then the ENTER key). If you want to define the
key to a string, type in the string. An example follows.
Suppose you are constantly running a program which asks a lot of
stupid, redundant questions . Just to get into your program, you
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need to answer "Y" to 14 dumb questions. Use UTIL to redefine a
key. Say you want to turn F1 into 14 "Y" answers. When UTIL
prompts you to redefine the key you just hit, the in the follow-
ing :
YYYYYYYYYYYYYY <ENTER>
Now, when running your program, hitting F1 answers 14 stupid
questions for you. Now, let's say you have another frequently
used program which requires 3 responses upon initialization, the
answers to which rarely change. You might want to assign the
answers to F2. In response to the UTIL prompt, type the follow-
ing:
Y^BIGBOOBS^EASYTOLAY^
The ^ tells DOS to do an <ENTER>, by the way. At least it tells
UTIL to tell DOS to do an <ENTER>. Anyway, the ^ means <ENTER>.
When your program got to the point where it was asking you these
3 magic questions, you need only hit F2.
7. A Crude Database (db)
7.1 Description
The db option of UTIL provides for a very crude data base
capability. The db option functions in a retrieval mode only, and
does not allow the adding or deleting of items from the data
base.
7.2 Useage
The data base is created by you in the root directory. You must
name the file DATABASE, and the file must be in ASCII format.
Your data base entries each occupy one line in the file DATABASE.
Suppose you want to have a database with phone numbers in it for
handy access. Begin by putting the following in a file called
DATABASE.
Ralph Itup ^ 111-2222
I.M. Horny ^ 123-6969
I. Gaveattheoffice ^ 444-0000
Ben Dover ^ 553-9988
The ^'s you see tell UTIL to perform a carriage return. Thus,
when the first entry was printed to the screen by UTIL, you would
see
Ralph Itup
111-2222
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Thus, the imbedded ^ signs are used purely for neatness on output
display, and are put there at your discretion. To search for an
item in the data base, you must supply a group of characters to
search for. This can be done from the command line (when you
invoke UTIL), or UTIL will prompt you for it. To find the phone
number of Ralph Itup, you could do any of the following:
do db Ralph
do db ralph
do db alp
do db up
etc.
Whatever you provide to search for, UTIL will present you with
anything it finds that matches. Note that the search is case
insensitive, i.e. you needn't remember whether you entered an
upper or lower case letter in the data base.
As was alluded to earlier, UTIL presently only retrieves informa-
tion from the data base you created by hand. You must use your
text editor to modify, add or delete items from the data base
itself.
Nevertheless, the db option of UTIL is great for the information
you need quick access to all of the time (such as phone numbers
and addresses).
8. Switching Between Screens (mo and co)
Allows you to easily switch from one display to the other. If you
are using the monochrome monitor and wish to use the color
monitor, type in
A>UTIL CO
This will make your active display the color screen. Type in
A>UTIL MO
to switch back to the monochrome monitor.
As with all other commands in UTIL, this command may be entered
directly from the DOS prompt, or from the menu (gotten by inkok-
ing UTIL with no options).
Even though the DOS MODE command supports switching screens, it
was felt that this was still a useful option, since if you have
UTIL, you needn't haul MODE around too. Plus, UTIL does not
terminate and remain resident, as does MODE.
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9. Type Directly to Printer (ty)
This option provides a very raw interface between your computer
and your printer. It was meant to closely simulate using a
regular typewriter.
It is a useful option in situations where you want to bang a note
or memo out quickly, and would rather not call up a text editor
or wordprocessor.
No buffering is done in the computer. As a character is typed, it
is sent to the printer. Note that many dot matrix printers con-
tain their own storage, and will buffer characters typed until
you hit <ENTER>.
When you have typed all you need to type to the printer, hit F3
to exit.
pe to the printer, hit F3
to exit.
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #0109
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
BREAKPT ASM 4096 11-27-83 3:46a
BREAKPT COM 1024 11-27-83 3:51a
BREAKPT DOC 384 11-27-83 3:47a
CRC TXT 1289 12-17-84 12:35p
CRCK4 COM 1536 10-21-82 5:50p
DATABASE 150 11-13-83 12:34p
DATE PRG 2048 2-03-84 2:17a
FEDTAX83 WKS 37888 2-03-84 3:15a
FILEDUMP COM 1408 10-23-83 12:18a
MACTEST ASM 1024 2-03-84 2:21a
PV______ APL 6016 12-11-83 1:51a
READ ME 849 2-03-84 12:04a
REGDISP ASM 5376 2-03-84 2:23a
STRUCT MAC 3072 2-03-84 2:24a
UTIL DOC 49152 12-25-83 2:30a
UTIL EXE 46080 12-25-83 2:19a
UTILREAD ME 1241 1-11-84 12:34p
17 file(s) 162633 bytes
154624 bytes free