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1994-09-13
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346 lines
USERS GUIDE
RPR Version 1.0
A File Viewing Utility
Red Paint Read (C) Copyright 1994
RPR (C) Copyright 1994
All Rights Reserved by Bruce Henry
INTRODUCTION
This program is a file viewer for ASCII text files. It's features
are similar to other file viewing utilities available, with the
hope that the best features of the others have been included and
the worst features discarded. The interface is intended to be
easy to use and understand. Full mouse support is provided as
well as hot keys and drop-down menus.
GENERAL FEATURES
Rpr will read any file either named as a command line parameter
or chosen via the scrollable directory display. It has both
Hexadecimal and ASCII display modes as well as 25x80, 43x80(EGA)
and 50x80(VGA) options. Blocks of text can be marked and sent to
the printer or a file. Searches can be done for strings of text
or the viewer can jump to any byte or line in the file. Screen
colours can be customized to the user's preference. Piping is
also supported.
FAST START
==========
RPR can be started without any parameters in which case a
scrollable directory listing will be presented from which a file
can be selected.
RPR COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
The command line supports 3 parameters described with examples as
follows:
rpr [[path]filename] - where [path][filename] is the path and/or
name of the file to be viewed.
eg. rpr rpr.doc
rpr /? - where /? will display a description of
these parameters.
rpr /s - where /s enables piping and could be used
like this:
dir|rpr /s
which would display the current
directory inside rpr.
Use the Home, End, PgUp, PgDown, and Up-Down cursor keys to move
within the file. Full Mouse support is also provided and also
menu hot keys for drop-down menus. A Help screen is displayed by
pressing F1 or "h". Menu options are selected by pressing the
highlighted menu letter in the name on the top line or by
positioning the mouse cursor anywhere on the menu name and
pressing the left mouse button.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
RPR will run in about 60K of memory with any version of DOS above
Version 3.0.
LIMITATIONS:
RPR will now handle files of any length. Lines over 80 characters
are wrapped into the next line.
MOUSE USAGE
===========
Items selected by the mouse must be clicked on once with the left
mouse button. If a menu is being used, clicking the mouse
anywhere outside of the menu box is equivalent to pressing the
escape key.
COMMAND KEYS
============
PgUp - Moves display up one screen in the file.
PgDn - Moves display down one screen in the file.
Up - Moves the cursor up one line in the file.
Down - Moves the cursor down one line in the file.
-> - Moves the cursor to the right in Mark Block mode.
<- - Moves the cursor to the left in Mark Block mode.
Home - Moves the cursor to the beginning of the file.
End - Moves the cursor to the end of the file.
Esc - Remove the menu or quit the program.
Space Bar - Moves the display down one screen in the file.
Enter - Selects the highlighted menu choice or accepts user input
for the Goto Line or Byte and Ascii Search functions.
F1 - Pops up the Help Screen.
F2 - Prompts user for anycase text search string.
F3 - Prompts user for exact case text search string.
F4 - Repeats last search.
F5 - Switches to Hexadecimal mode or back to Text mode.
F6 - Prompts user for a byte number to go to.
F7 - Prompts user for a line number to go to.
F8 - Set start and end points for marking a block of text.
F9 - Unmarks highlighted block.
F10 - Sends current marked block to the printer.
F11 - Requests for a file name to write a marked block to.
Block will be APPENDED to the file if it exists.
F12 - Switches display between 43/50 and 25 line mode.
CONVENIENCE KEYS
----------------
The space bar acts like the pagedown key, moving the display down
one screen at a time.
The left mouse button, when held down on a key name (PageUp,
Home,CursorDn, etc.), will repeat the key until the mouse button
is released.
The right mouse button will scroll the screen down through the
file a line at a time at high speed.
MENUS AND HOT KEYS
==================
There are five menu items available on the Menu line (top line),
all of which can be accessed either by a hot key (the highlighted
letter in the menu name) or by selecting it with the mouse. If
the menu is an action menu, the file movement and cursor keys
will move a scrollbar through the menu until an action is
selected. If the menu is a passive one (the Help menu), the file
movement and cursor keys move through the menu the same as they
do while reading a file. If the menu has more information or
display lines than can be shown on the screen at one time, an
arrow will appear on the top line of the menu to indicate the
direction to move in the file to see the rest of the selections
or information. These arrow blocks (an up and down arrow can be
present at the same time) are also used as mouse keys by
positioning the mouse cursor on the arrow block and clicking the
left mouse button.
Files Menu
----------
Another file can be selected to read by using the files menu.
Press the "f" key or click anywhere on the "Files" name to access
a sorted directory listing for the current working directory.
Files or other directories can be selected with the scrollbar or
the mouse. The parent directory can be selected by choosing the
".." entry which will be the first entry shown unless the current
working directory is the root directory.
Drives Menu
-----------
As the program is loaded, a survey is made of available drives
which then appear in the drives menu. Selecting a different drive
letter will switch the Files menu to the new drive's current
working directory. In the case of floppies or CD Rom drives, be
sure that the drive is loaded and that the media contains Dos
compatible files.
Colours Menu
------------
The colours menu allows customization of the screens colours.
These will be saved in a small configuration file that is read
each time the program is loaded. This insures that colour changes
made in one session will still be in effect in subsequent
sessions. To restore the default colours, just erase the file
named "rpr.cfg" in the root directory of C: drive.
Options Menu
------------
The Options menu provides another way to access the commands that
are tied to the function keys (F1 to F12).
Help
----
A short description of the keys, menus and available features are
found in the "Help" menu.
Esc
---
The Escape function allows the user to remove the current menu or
to quit the program. It duplicates the action of the "Esc" key.
DETAILED PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
============================
When RPR gets a filename from the command line or the Files menu
it opens the file and begins to read it into a buffer. This
buffer is of a constant size and so RPR never grows in memory
regardless of the size of the file being read. As it is read, the
file is scanned for linefeeds and carriage returns as well as tab
symbols so that RPR can count the lines that pass through the
buffer. During this scanning, a "loading" message will be seen on
the second line (status line) of the screen. Indices are also
set up at this time to allow for easy movement within the file
later. This process continues until the entire file has passed
through the buffer. When this process is complete, the "loading"
message stops flashing and the file is ready for viewing. With
files under 100Kb in size this processing occurs very fast,
however the larger the file, the longer this can be expected to
take.
RPR can also accept piping with the use of the '/s'
parameter. Piping enables RPR to view text that is output from
another program by use of temporary files and is normally
channelled through Dos with the use of the piping symbol "|". For
more information on piping consult your DOS manual.
Searches for text are allowed for up to 30 characters which
can include spaces or punctuation. These searches always begin at
the top of the current screen and proceed forward through the
file. A search can be for an exact match of the text (case
sensitive), or it can be for any occurrence of the text
regardless of case. Each search can be repeated with the F4 key
until the end of the file is reached. Search can be used in both
ASCII and hex modes.
The Hexadecimal display is presented in three fields. The
first field is a six character hex byte index on the left of the
screen. The middle part of the screen is a display of the hex
value of the bytes in a sixteen byte range starting at the
index in the first column. The values are separated by spaces
and a double space divides the sixteen bytes into two eight byte
areas. Finally, a column on the right of the screen displays an
ASCII representation of the sixteen bytes for that line.
Both text and hex modes can display in 43/50 line mode unless a
Hercules type display is being used.
The Goto Byte command can also be used in either hex or text
modes and can move the display to any position in the file or
locate a previously displayed area of the file.
The Goto Line command, however, is only available in text
mode since in hex mode the lines are all sixteen bytes long and
do not correspond to the line count in text mode.
These commands allow movement through the file as well as the
more common means provided by Page Up, Page Down, Home (moves to
the start of the file), End (moves to the end of the file), and
Cursor Up, Cursor Down (move the display up and down a line,
respectively). The Space Bar also can be used as a Page Down key
for fast and easy progress through the file. Full mouse support
is also provided with movement through the file accomplished by
clicking on the movement labels highlighted on the top line, with
the left mouse button. If the button is held down, the operation
repeats until the button is released. Holding down the right
mouse button provides a continuous forward scrolling action
through the file. When the end of a file is reached, an "End of
File" message will overwrite the copyright string in the top
right corner.
Marking blocks of text to be sent to the printer or saved as
a file is done much like moving around the file. However, when
the Mark Block command is given, a visible cursor appears and
will remain on the screen until the process is finished. The
ENTER key will anchor one end of the block by highlighting the
character under the cursor in reverse video and then allow
movement of the cursor to the ending position of the block which
may be either forward or backward in the file. Again, the ending
position is anchored with the ENTER key and the block marking is
complete. The visible cursor now disappears and the block will
remain highlighted until the block is unmarked with the F9 key or
the block has been written to a file. If the block is sent to a
printer with the F10 key, the highlight will remain in place
until the block is in the printer buffer and a key is pressed.
Marking blocks is available only in text mode. Marking blocks may
also be done with the mouse by moving the mouse cursor to the
desired beginning and ending points and clicking the left mouse
button.
If a block is being written to a file, a file name is
entered at the prompt and the file will be APPENDED to the named
file if it exists, or the file will be created. This filename
will be remembered for following Block Write operations. All
editing keys (insert, delete, home, end etc.) are available when
input is required from the keyboard.
All of the screen colours can be set with a scrollable drop-
down menu that has a line for every area of the screen that has a
separate color attribute. All areas of the screen can be set and
both the background and the foreground colours can be set.
The first line of the screen and the second line are separately
addressable as are the text display portion of the screen and the
help screen and other menu boxes. The colours will change each
time an area is selected and the colours will rotate through in a
continuous loop. After these colours are set to new values, a
small configuration file named "rpr.cfg" is written to the root
directory of the hard drive when the program is exited.
The colours stored in this file will then be reloaded each time
the program is executed. If the configuration file is removed,
the colours will revert to the start-up defaults.
Monochrome displays can also be adjusted to a much more
limited extent.
| Text | Hex |
| Mode | Mode |
------------------|------|------|-
Search for Text | X | X |
------------------|------|------|-
Goto Byte | X | X |
FEATURE ------------------|------|------|-
SUMMARY Goto Line | X | |
------------------|------|------|-
Mark Block | X | |
------------------|------|------|-
43/50 Lines | X | X |
------------------|------|------|-
DISCLAIMER
----------
All warranties and liabilities are disclaimed except those
described in the Guarantee conditional upon registration of this
program.
GUARANTEE
---------
Upon registration of this program the registered user receives a
money-back guarantee of the registration fee should this program
not perform in the manner indicated in the documentation.
LICENCE
-------
Red Paint Read is distributed as a Shareware program with the
understanding that it may be evaluated on a trial basis 10 times
without fee. After the trial period, the user is required to
register the program for the fee indicated on the order form.
The licence will provide the user with a registration number and
exclusive rights to the use of or transfer of that licensed copy.
TO ORDER
--------
Simply print out the order form in the file "rprorder.frm" and
mail it along with the registration fee.
The registration fee is US $5.00 or CAN $6.00. See the order form
"rprorder.frm" for more details.
ABOUT RPR
---------
Red Paint Read was written and compiled using Borland C++ 3.1
under the compact memory model. It follows most of the C++
conventions of data hiding and encapsulation and the use of
objects.
Separate versions of RPR compiled for 80286 machines
(RPR286.COM) and 80386 machines (RPR.COM) are included.
This zip should contain these files:
rpr.exe - Red Paint Read executable
rpr286.exe - executable version for 80286 machines
rpr.doc - this file
rprorder.frm - RPR order form
rprhelp.bat - a batch file to display this file
file_id.diz - program description file
Bruce Henry,
Red Paint Software
Internet: bruce.henry@canrem.com