 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Members' Tips 'n' Tricks Ron Taylor |
During the past few weeks I have spent some spare time investigating a few more shareware programs. There are some excellent new ones out now, many of which rival the perennial classics - even dare I say, the sacred commercial stalwarts that we are familiar with. While we all seem to adopt our favourites, it does pay to keep an open mind and try out the "competitors" offerings once in a while. A small collection of astutely selected shareware and freeware can make your PC usage highly productive and a lot of fun.
It's worth remembering that the Melb PC BBS and our vast Shareware library has always had the very latest versions available, some reaching the BBS literally within minutes of worldwide release. As well, there is an almost limitless collection of extremely handy little utilities, many of them years old yet still unbeatable in getting that special job done.
Scanning the BBS messages I noticed one from the "artisan of the alphabet" John Talbot, recommending QuickDir, a fast, easy-to-use file manager that also makes archiving and unarchiving so simple. After grabbing a copy off the board I now find it so easy to look after my Hard Disks and CDs. Yes, I will register this one-it's a bargain, and does not eat up megabytes of HD space. Thanks JT! By the way, don't forget to keep an eye out for the special deals being offered through your club, currently organised by our regular contributor to TnT, "Bluewave" Youngy. On with the action...
The Greater Path
by Alistair Lloyd
Greetings Command Line computing fans. Oh, ye who have forsaken Windows, DOS Menus, and even, dare I say it, OS/2-you have not been forgotten!
MS-DOS Paths can be a bit of a worry, especially for new PC Users. Put simply the Path is a way of telling the computer the best places to go looking for a program, if it can't be found in the directory you are in at the moment. For example, if I was in the C:\WINDOWS directory, and wanted to run a program called QFIND.BAT, I would simply type QFIND and press Enter.
The first place searched will be the C:\WINDOWS directory. If it can't be found there, the system will go through your PATH directories one at a time, looking fo it. If it isn't found, you will get a "Bad command or filename" message.
Paths are normally set from your AUTOEXEC.BAT Batch file. To see what your current path is, simply type PATH from DOS, and it will be revealed. To speed things up, I gather my collection o Batch files together into a directory calle C:\BATCH. This I have included into my path, by including this line in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file: (note the semicolons)
PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\BATCH;C:\WINDOWS; ...etc
In this manner, I can call a DOS application from anywhere on the disk, a long as there is a batch file in my C:\BATCH directory that points to it. This will save time and memory when runni from DOS. For example, I keep my Lotus programs in a directory called C:\LOTUSI23. I have a batch file called LOTUS.BAT, that lives in my C:\BATCH directory. It contains:
rem LOTUS.BAT
rem by Alistair Lloyd
@ECHO OFF
C:
CD C:\LOTUS123
123.EXE
CD C:\
The reason I have the line "C:" before the change directory command is for when I am using a floppy drive, and want to run an application on the C: drive. If this is not included, and you are currently browsing through the A: drive, then the system will go looking for 123.EXE on the A: drive. Hmm...! If you want to store your Path to a Batch file, and call it later on, try:
Reprinted from the July 1994 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
PATH > C:\OLDPATH.BAT
This will create a file in your root directory called OLDPATH.BAT, which will change your Path back to what is was when this command was entered. Do this before experimenting, and you will have a fall-back without having to rerun AUTOEXEC.
A:\NEAT\DOS\PROMPT>
by Ron Taylor
It can get a bit boring watching the DOS prompt pop up, same old thing-day after day. The cursor is like a little puppy dog wagging it's tail, begging "Come on, let's do something interesting!"
Here is a sample for you to try. Type it in from the listing and save as a batch file.
Note: Replace all "x" characters in the listing with a vertical line graphics symbol, you create this by holding down the Alt key and typing the numerals 179 on the numeric keypad. Do not use the pipe symbol (above the \ on the keyboard) as this will give you many errors.
All the characters starting with PROMPT= and ending with $P$G must be on one line and don't forget to get the spaces right. It doesn't really matter, as you can always change it if it's not correct. Also you need to have ANSLSYS or equivalent loaded when you run it.
rem ** BART.BAT **
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT=$e[1;33mx\/\/\/x$ x $e[6Cx$ x $e[;5;36m0 O$e [;1;33m)$ C$e[6C_)$_ x $e[ ;31m, -$e[1;33mx Hey, dude!$_ x / $e[m$P$G
rem Thats it! END.
Don't like it? OK then, see if you can think up some really creative prompts, you can post them up to the Melb PC BBS for us all to enjoy.
Logging Telemate Sessions
by Peter Young
Here are the three possible methods of capturing your BBS session to a disk file using
Telemate.
You can mark lines within the buffer and save them to a text file. Press Alt+B to see your backscroll buffer. (If it is just a small window, press Alt+Z to zoom the window). Move your curser to the line you want to start saving from and press F10. Then move your cursor down to where you want to end your save from. Press Alt+B to bring up your backscroll menu and select [W]rite to write your saved text to a disk file.
In the dialing entry, you can place a filename in the LOG slot and Telemate will then create a complete log file of your calls to that number. You will also have to check the AutoLog switch on the second page of your directory entry to tell Telemate to start recording whenever you connect and stop recording upon no carrier. The filename you place in the LOG slot will
be saved with the extension .LOG. You can view and edit this file with your text editor.
While logged on, press Alt+L, and Telemate will prompt you for a capture file name to log to, and it will then begin logging everything that happens during that session. This way you can manually choose when you start logging a session, e.g. just before going into chat, press Alt+L to record whatever happens from then on. Then when you want to stop recording just press Alt+L again.
Telemate has a backscroll buffer which allows you to see a certain number of the previous lines of your session in Telemate. Note this is not started upon connection to a BBS. It is active from the moment you start Telemate. You can set up to a maximum of 9999 lines in your
Options/General/Scroll Back setting.
No Warm Boots for the Kids
by Ron Taylor
Kids take to computers like ducks to water, once they learn something they never forget it. Those little fingers just skitter over the keyboard like a spider, very quickly they find what the Alt+Ctrl+Del key combination does. Of course there are the obvious solutions, you could try keeping them away from the PC, although I don't like your chances...
Seriously, as we know it's usually accidental, they don't really mean to do it. It's sure no fun to watch dumb BIOS reports and EMM386 loading messages, especially when you were in the middle of an interesting game. But of course, we adults would never do anything as silly as press the wrong
keys - Now would we?
There is a very easy solution to this, just key in the listing exactly as shown, save it as a plain text file, filename DISABLE.DBG To relieve some boredom I have shown the listing as an alternative method to input code into DEBUG, by entering directly as Hexadecimal bytes instead of assembling as instructions. Once you have it checked over and saved, go back to DOS and just enter:
DEBUG < DISABLE.DBG
You will have created a handy little file to use when the occasion demands. Hah, now that should fix the little debuggers.
;Disables Ctrl+Alt+Del
:Creates DISABLE.COM
N disable.com
E 0100 EB 37 90 00 00 00 00 FB
E 0108 50 E4 60 3C 53 75 24 1E
E 0110 B8 40 00 8E D8 A0 17 00
E 0118 1F 24 OC 3C OC 75 14 FA
E 0120 E4 61 8A EO OC 80 E6 61
E 0128 8A C4 E6 61 BO 20 E6 20
E 0130 FB 58 CF 58 2E FF 2E 03
E 0138 01 B8 09 35 CD 21 89 1E
E 0140 03 01 8C 06 05 01 B8 09
E 0148 25 BA 07 01 CD 21 BA 39
E 0150 01 CD 27
RCX
53
W
Q
;END - 17 lines total,
;(include the blank line)
Monochrome SVGA Monitors?
by Ron Taylor
If for no other benefit, starting to regularly use GUIs some time ago had led me consider just how pleasant the screen looked in its more logical state of black text on white background-the very same as books, newspapers, etc. have always been. Have you ever tried reading something printed on black paper? Better still, try setting your Windows background colour to black. Not very nice at all!
This led to changing the colours, where possible, in all of the DOS programs I use to "dark on light". Yes, even the DOS prompt screen! Plain old black text, with the dark blues and dark reds etc. available for the "highlighted" texts on a background of plain
white (actually light grey), is much more pleasant to read compared to the usual that we are given, let alone the eye straining and garish bright yellows, etc. that some programmers present us with for defaults.
Of course, what you use is entirely up to you. While I don't intend to delve into the many and varied medical aspects of the subject (that's for the professionals), it could be worth considering some change just for personal comfort reasons let alone any possible long term advantages.
Three Free Screen Lines
by Ron Taylor
It must annoy some readers to see all these seemingly cryptic DEBUG tips that we print here. DEBUG is certainly not the most popular of the DOS external commands, it can be intimidating, especially for new users. Thankfully it is not a program that we need to learn in order to use DOS, but let us be grateful it is there. It can be a very powerful utility in the right hands but definitely not for the faint hearted. The best way to experiment with DEBUG is with small listings like we show here, generally called "scripts" in "PCglish" (now that's a word you have never seen before!) I have added some comments (all preceded with semicolons), to this script to describe what some of the instructions actually do. When you type it in do not include the comments, check it over for correct syntax and save as filename 28.DBG. Then enter
DEBUG < 28.DBG
This command loads DEBUG and "redirects" the file 28.DBG "into" it, 28.DBG tells DEBUG to create 28.COM and exit. Simple! But what does 28.COM do? It's a program that changes VGA screens to 28 line mode, it can be very handy. Will work in DOS or any program that doesn't mess with your text mode. I use the popular Terminate comms software, loading both via a batch file gives me a 28 line terminal screen.
;Set VGA to 28 lines
N 28.com ;name the file
A 100
MOV AX.1202 ;400 scan lines
MOV BL,30
INT 10
MOV AX,003 ;set text mode
INT 10
MOV AX,1111 ;use ega chars
MOV BL,00
INT 10
INT 20 ;back
to DOS
;must be blank!
RCX
15
;21(dec) bytes
W
;save to disk
Q
;quit debug
;END - 28.dbg
That's about it for another month, I'll let you get back to the rest of the magazine. There have been some great reviews by Bob Burt and many others lately, but how do they get those fantastic screen shots? Yes, we might look into that in the future. Maybe some of you have got some good tips for us on the subject. Bye for now, Enjoy!
