Simtel MSDOS 1992 June/SIMTEL_0692.cdr/msdos/txtutl/note.arc/NOTE.DOC

Text File | 1988-10-09 | 8.6 KB | 161 lines

                                   NOTE.COM
                                  Version 1.0
                                      by Bob Kaye 73047,2422

NOTE is a resident program that is sort of a poor man's LIST.  It will pop up
from within a program and display a file you choose, a specified directory or
make a screen copy.  You can scroll through a file by line, by page and in 3
page chunks.  There's no limit on file size.

NOTE's resident coding is about 3100 bytes*; not very much considering what it
does.  It accomplishes this by using the video RAM (VRAM) above the normal
display both as a DTA for the file reads and for display purposes.  This
approach has its pluses and minuses; the big plus being it keeps normal RAM
consumption to a minimum.  The big minus is that some applications (not many
from what I,ve seen) also use this piece of VRAM.  Thus, there are occasionally
conflicts in which NOTE is generally the loser; that is, a screen you may have
copied with NOTE for reference while using a program, will get wiped out
because that program clears all video memory when invoked.  Similarly, a
screen copy from within a program will get wiped out when the program
terminates because it clears all video memory before doing so.  In either
case, there are no crashes, upsets, etc. and life goes on.

NOTE has been written for the text modes of an EGA card.  An orderly change
to monochrome mode will be trapped by NOTE and the display parameters will be
changed to reflect this.  The current NOTE display will be lost and you'll
start again from scratch.  NOTE should also function with a VGA card, though
its not been tested with one.

NOTE has been coded to pop up only when video page 0 is the active page and the
display is set for 25 lines.

SYNTAX: Note [ - ] | [ * ]<CR>

The only recognized arguments are the hyphen (-) and the asterisk (*); the
hyphen will toggle the resident copy of NOTE on or off.  The asterisk will
allow you to change the Hot Key.  The error messages, both during installation
and when popped up, are more or less self explanatory.

NOTE is popped up by hitting <CTL><TAB>.  It will only install itself once.
Hit <ESC> to return to the underlying program or DOS prompt.  When you call
for NOTE to pop up again, the display will be the same.

NEW FILE*
At any time NOTE is popped up, hitting F4 will get you to a prompt asking for
a new filename.  Enter the full filespec, including drive and path if neither
is the current one, hit <CR>, and voila!,..its there.  Assuming you are using
a hard disk, its advisable to always enter a path, even if it is the current
directory.  By so doing, NOTE will always find the file, even if you change
directories.  The same logic applies to specifying a drive in the filespec.
However if you have a single partition hard disk, there's probably no need to
specify one.

SCROLLING
Due to the nature of the beast, scrolling within NOTE is a little different
than from within a word processor.  A maximum of 4000 bytes are read from a
file at one time.  These 4000 bytes, depending on how they format, generally
represent 10-14000 bytes of VRAM usage (4000 attribute bytes, plus line
feeds, tabs, etc.).  A file read is formatted, written to high VRAM and the
first page (25 lines) is displayed.  Scrolling through a single 4000 byte read
is just the same as in a word processor... until you reach the end.  Then,
another 4000 byte file read has to be made and the process is repeated;  the
difference being that the next line now appears at the top of the screen, not
at the bottom.  It's a little annoying, but you get accustomed to it.  It
probably could have been programmed differently, but in the interest of speed
and size, hardware scrolling was used rather than moving bytes around.

HOME and END relate to any 4000 byte read, not to the entire file.  F3 goes
back to the beginning of the file from wherever you are. There is no quick and
dirty way to get to the end of a file.  You have to scroll through it.  No
beep is sounded or message displayed when you do reach the end.  The display
just doesn't change, despite your best efforts to make it do so.

I always seem to scroll past what I'm looking for.  With NOTE its possible to
overshoot and end up in the next 4000 byte read.  To cover that contingency,
hitting F2 will back up and re-display the prior 4000 byte read.  (Once you've
done that however, F2 will not do anything until another file read is made.)
After hitting F2, the display will be at the beginning of the re-read, so you
can scroll through again and find what you missed.  The ability to back up one
read is lost if you exit and then re-enter NOTE - at least until you scroll
through to the next file read.

If you know what you're looking for is near the end of a large file, you can
scroll through in bigger chunks using F1.  It will move you ahead 4000 bytes
at a time.

The majority of my text files are only 80 columns wide, with the widest being
around 100 columns.  These are the limits I designed into the NOTE display.  A
text file up to 100 columns wide will be displayed in proper format; only 80
columns will be displayed at any time, but you can scroll using RIGHT to see
the last 20 columns.  Using LEFT, you can scroll back the same 20 columns.
Any file greater than 100 columns will end up being formatted to 100 columns
with the balance being displayed on the next line (like DOS TYPE).

NOTE will handle binary files pretty much as TYPE does; it will not display
them in hex format.  It may be useful if you want to see the ASCII contents of
a binary file.

                         KEY SUMMARY

        F1 - read and display the next 4000 bytes from the file.
        F2 - re-display the previous 4000 byte read
        F3 - start over from the beginning of the file
        F4 - load and display a new file
        F5 - make a copy of the screen (from the underlying program or DOS)
        F9 - display a small help screen*
        F10 - display a directory*
        UP - scroll the display up one line
        DOWN - scroll the display down one line
        HOME - display the first page of the current 4000 byte read
        END - display the last page of the current 4000 byte read
        PGUP - scroll the display up 25 lines
        PGDN - scroll the display down 25 lines
        RIGHT - scroll right 20 columns if display is >80 columns (only once)
        LEFT - scroll left 20 columns (only once)
        ESC - return to underlying program

SCREEN COPY
Screen Copy is straight forward; pop up NOTE, and hit F5.  The underlying
screen will be copied and displayed at that time, as well as when NOTE is
popped up again.  Anything that was being displayed by NOTE prior to the
screen copy will be lost.

DIRECTORY
Essentially the same as screen copy except after hitting F10, you'll be
prompted for a path.  Enter it, hit the <CR> and the desired directory,
filenames only, will appear.  Only one video page of filenames - 125 - will
be displayed.  Anything being displayed by NOTE at the time you call for a
directory is lost.

HELP*
Hit F9 at any time to get non-context sensitive help.

CHANGING THE HOT KEY
If the default, <CTL><TAB>, causes a conflict, NOTE will let you change the
base key (TAB, not CTL).  It patches the copy of NOTE.COM in the current
directory; it does not change the resident coding if NOTE is already loaded.
When loaded in the future, this file will use the new Hot Key.

To patch in a new Hot Key, use the asterisk as a command line argument.
Instructions will be provided as you proceed.  NOTE will not accept any
extended or toggle key - CTL, ALT, INS, SHIFT, F1 - F10, HOME, etc.
With the patch argument, NOTE will not be loaded.

To change the resident Hot Key without re-booting, but after patching, invoke
NOTE from the command line again.  You will get an 'Already Installed'
message, and the new Hot Key will be written into the resident code.  When you
are going to patch the resident code, make sure its the patched copy of NOTE
that is being run.

On my keyboard, F11 and F12 are acceptable Hot Keys.  Since no other program I
have uses those keys, my version of NOTE was patched to remove the <CTL>
requirement and use only F12.  If you're as lazy as I am, let me know and I'll
upload that version.

SOURCE CODE
Available on request.

*As an afterthought, SM_NOTE.COM was added to the archive.  This is a smaller
version, occupying only 2.5K, with the Help and Directory options removed.