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Quick Utils 3.2 (C) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp I) Disclaimer: -------------- While every effort has been made to make this package bug-free, the author assumes no responsibility for any incidental or consequential damages resulting from the use or misuse of this package in whole or in part. There are also no implied or expressed warranties regarding this package in whole or in part. II) Status: ----------- This package is shareware. If you find it useful in whole or in part, please send the registration fee ($10 US by check or money order) to the following address: Henning Vahlenkamp 216 Spring Hill Road Matawan, NJ 07747 If you send a 3.5" disk and a SASE along with the registration, you'll receive the next update free. Registered users of previous versions of Quick Utils needn't send the registration fee. III) What is it?: ----------------- Quick Utils is a group of 14 small, tightly written and optimized utilities that perform various useful functions (see below). They work with any PC using at least DOS 3.3. I couldn't find any programs that quickly and easily perform these tasks to my liking, so I decided to write my own. IV) History: ------------ 2.0 - first public release includes BIOSDATE, CONTEXT, CRYPT, EVAL, TEXTAN 3.0 - added CAT, DTSET, FINDER, INFO, MOVE, RENDIR, SPIN, SPLIT incorporated BIOSDATE into INFO fixed bug in square root function of EVAL enhanced previous programs 3.1 - added CALENDAR, PASSLOCK replaced EVAL with CALC, a greatly enhanced version renamed RENDIR to QREN fixed bug in disk id display of INFO enhanced previous programs 3.2 - added extended/standard ASCII option to CALENDAR rewrote SPIN for much greater accuracy various minor enhancements V) Documentation: ----------------- With the exception of INFO, typing any of the commands without parameters, as well as with incorrect parameters, will display a copyright message/usage guide for that command. The parameters shown in the guide contain symbols whose meanings are as follows: <parameter> a required parameter [parameter] an optional parameter parameter1|parameter2 use only one of the two parameters parameter1+parameter2 use one or both of the parameters In this section, each command's message/usage guide is shown followed by a more detailed discussion of that command. A)******************************************************************** »Calc 3.2« ∞ the command line calculator (C) 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: CALC <expression|?> constants: e pi operators: + - * / \ ^ & | ~ < > <= >= <> () functions: sin(x) cos(x) tan(x) csc(x) sec(x) cot(x) : arcsin(x) arccos(x) arctan(x) arccsc(x) arcsec(x) arccot(x) : sinh(x) cosh(x) tanh(x) csch(x) sech(x) coth(x) : arcsinh(x) arccosh(x) arctanh(x) arcscsh(x) arcsech(x) arccoth(x) : ln(x) log(base,exponent) sign(x) sqrt(x) note : \ {mod}, ^ {power}, & {and}, | {or}, ~ {not}, x {argument} : sign(x) returns -1 (x<0), 0 (x=0), 1 (x>0) : ? {use interactive mode} CALC performs quick calculations when you don't have a calculator handy. Simply give it an arbitrary mathematical expression consisting of any combination of the above constants, operators, and functions. It also supports parentheses nesting subexpressions. Standard arithmetic conventions apply, meaning operators separated by operands, multiplication takes precedence over addition, etc. For example, (3+(4-5)*6/7+sqrt(4)+3.8^2) yields an answer of 18.58285714300 If you type a ? instead of an expression, CALC starts in interactive mode, so you can do multiple calculations without rerunning the program each time. Pressing Enter by itself at the expression prompt quits CALC. By the way, CALC is accurate to 11 decimal places regardless of whether you have a math coprocessor. B)******************************************************************** »Calendar 3.2« ∞ the calendar generator (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: CALENDAR <year> <style> [[path]filename] year : 1800<=year<=9999 style: /e {use extended ASCII for borders} /s {use standard ASCII for borders} note : without a filename, output goes to the screen CALENDAR generates attractive, full year calendars that fit onto standard 8.5"x11" sheets of paper. Simply give it a year and a border style, and it will send the resulting calendar to the screen or to a text file if a filename is specified. You can then copy the file to your printer. It uses CALENDAR.DT1 (extended ASCII borders) and CALENDAR.DT2 (standard ASCII borders) as templates. You can customize these templates to your liking, but make sure that the positions for each month and space for the title remain the same, as the program expects them where they are. C)******************************************************************** »Cat 3.2« ∞ the file displayer (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: CAT <switch> [path]<filename> [search_string] switches: /p {printable chars ■ASCII#10,13,32->255} : /d {standard printables ■ASCII#10,13,32->127} : /h {hexadecimal} : /s {search, search_string can be anything} CAT works like TYPE, but allows filtering of the file to be displayed. For example, you can filter out unprintable (control) characters and the nonstandard IBM graphics characters. CAT is especially useful for displaying all the text in binary files. Plus, CAT can display files in hexadecimal format. Each line of the hex dump begins with the offset of the first of the 16 bytes on the line, followed by the bytes (two hex digits each), followed by an ASCII representation of the bytes; unprintable characters are replaced by periods. There's also a searching mode whereby you specify a string of characters, and CAT returns all the locations (offsets) in the file containing that string. D)******************************************************************** »ConText 3.2« ∞ the textfile converter (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: CONTEXT <switch> [path]<sourcefile> [path]<targetfile> switches: /up {UNIX|Amiga->PC} | /pm {PC->Mac} : /um {UNIX|Amiga->Mac} | /mu {Mac->UNIX|Amiga} : /pu {PC->UNIX|Amiga} | /mp {Mac->PC} : /ul {uppercase->lowercase} | /lu {lowercase->uppercase} : /s {strip ASCII #s>127} | /c {strip all control chars} : /e {strip all line endings} note : source & target must be different files or paths CONTEXT is a conversion program which converts text files among UNIX/ Amiga, PC, and Macintosh platforms in any direction. This is necessary since each platform uses different end-of-line markers. platform marker(s) ---------- --------- UNIX/Amiga lf PC cr,lf Macintosh cr (lf=line feed, ASCII#10; cr=carriage return, ASCII#13) In addition, CONTEXT can convert all the letters in a file between upper and lower case, remove nonstandard ASCII characters (128..255), remove all control characters (except for line endings), and remove all the line endings. Giving it anything other than an ASCII text file will produce meaningless results. E)******************************************************************** »Crypt 3.2« ∞ the file en/decrypter (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: CRYPT <switch> <password> [path]<sourcefile> [path]<targetfile> switches: /e {encrypt} | /d {decrypt} password: any # of characters, no spaces note : source & target must be different files or paths CRYPT protects files from prying eyes by scrambling their contents according to a password you supply. It also decrypts encrypted files if you supply the same password you used to encrypt. Don't forget your password, since files can't be restored otherwise. In addition to documents, CRYPT is useful for executables, as encrypted files can't be run successfully. CRYPT attaches a tiny message to the beginning of encrypted files so you can easily recognize them. Just type a file you're uncertain about and look for "Crypt3.0!" This version uses the same en/decryption algorithm as 3.0, which was improved from 2.0. Files encrypted with 2.0 can't be decrypted with later versions and vice versa. F)******************************************************************** »DTSet 3.2« ∞ the file date/time modifier (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: DTSET [path]<filename> <[date]+[time]> date: MM-DD-YY {MM 1..12, DD 1..31, YY 80..99 time: HH:NN {HH 0..23, NN 0..59} Inspired by the AmigaDOS SetDate command, DTSET permits you to change the date and/or time of one or more files. Using it is very simple; just follow the above template (MM=month,DD=day,YY=year,HH=hour,NN=minute). Remember to specify the time with the 24-hour clock (e.g. 3:00PM is 15:00). Error checking is limited, so if you enter numbers outside the acceptable ranges, the resulting dates and/or times will be unpredictable. G)******************************************************************** »Finder 3.2« ∞ the file finder (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: FINDER [switch] [path]<filename> switch: /n {no searching lower directories} note : searching starts downward from path (or current dir) FINDER is a file finding utility. Give it a file specification, and it will search the specified (or current) directory plus all lower subdirectories for all matches. You can also choose to search the one directory only. Matches are displayed in a format similar to that of DIR, except FINDER also shows all attributes (even hidden files) and each file's path. attributes: rhsvda r=read only ─┐ ──┬─── h=hidden │ │ s=system file │ letter in one of these positions means bit is set v=volume label │ dash " " " " " " " " clear d=directory │ a=archive ─┘ H)******************************************************************** »Info 3.2« ∞ the information displayer (c) Copyright 1994 Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: INFO [drive] drive: A: .. Z: INFO without any parameters reports some general information about your system. For example: DOS version : 5.0 ROM BIOS date : 12/01/88 ctrl-break flag : FALSE (off) verify flag : FALSE (off) free memory : 288960 bytes largest block : 288960 bytes date : Monday July 11, 1994 time : 3:20:0.0pm environment strings: -------------------- COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\NORTON;C:\PROWRITE;C:\TURBO PROMPT=TIME = $T$H$H$H$H$H$H$_DATE = $D$_$P$G$ Giving INFO a drive letter makes it print a lot of disk-related information. For example, INFO C: would print: Information for drive->c: unit->2 type->fixed disk --------------------------------------------------- total bytes : 42844160 bytes per sector : 512 bytes used : 22683648 (53%) bytes per cluster : 2048 bytes free : 20160512 (47%) sectors per cluster : 4 sectors : 83680 sectors per FAT : 82 clusters : 20920 sectors per track : 40 cylinders(tracks) : 523 reserved sectors : 1 FATs : 2 hidden sectors : 40 max root dir entries: 512 media descriptor byte: 248 disk sides : 4 disk id : MSDOS5.0 sector: 0 boot record 1-164 FAT 165-196 root dir 197-83639 data You can view the message/usage guide by giving INFO a question mark as a parameter. Explanations of all the things reported by INFO are beyond the scope of this documentation. I)******************************************************************** »Move 3.2« ∞ the file mover (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: uses COPY command syntax MOVE simply copies files from a source to a destination and deletes the source. It's the equivalent of using a DEL after a COPY - only more convenient. MOVE works just like COPY. J)******************************************************************** »PassLock 3.2« ∞ a system access protection utility (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: PASSLOCK <switch> <sourcefile> [targetfile] switches: /c {create encoded config file} {targetfile required} /p {do security check} note : source & target must be different files or paths PassLock is a handy utility to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer. It uses a configuration file consisting of login names and passwords for up to 50 users. In order to gain access, one would need to know a valid login/password combination. The first step in installing PassLock is to create a configuration file. You start with a simple ASCII text file such as this (LOGFILE.TXT): vahlenkamp,testpass1 security,check Each line of the file should contain a login name, followed by a single comma, followed by a password, followed by a line ending (CR,LF). For simplicity, try to limit each line to 80 characters. Don't put commas anywhere else, since PassLock uses them as separators. The last character of the file should be an EOF. Most word processors and text editors should be able to create correct files for you. Now run PassLock with the "/c" switch, a sourcefile name (the file you just created), and a targetfile name (the resulting configuration file). PassLock will write an encoded version of the sourcefile. The configuration file is encoded for an extra measure of security. Just be sure to keep a copy of the unencoded sourcefile in a safe place in case you forget your login name or password. The included sample configuration file, PASSLOCK.CFG, was derived from LOGFILE.TXT. Once a configuration file is created, you need to add PassLock to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that it runs every time you start up your computer. Add the following line before anything else in AUTOEXEC.BAT: passlock /p <sourcefile> where <sourcefile> is now the name of your configuration file. You can also type this from the command line to protect your computer if it is left on and unattended temporarily. Upon running PassLock, you'll be prompted for your login name, followed by your password. Press Enter after each. Using unassociated login names and passwords won't work. Moreover, you have only three chances to enter each. After the third incorrect input, the program will freeze, completely locking out the keyboard, forcing you to turn the computer off and reboot. The same thing happens by trying to bypass the program with CTRL-BREAK. This will frustrate those attempting to guess your login name or password. PassLock should provide adequate protection against casual users, but the more determined may still get in by booting off a floppy instead of the hard disk. Unfortunately, there is really no way to prevent this via software alone. For total security, you would need some kind of hardware device, or perhaps you could remove the floppy drives from your computer. K)******************************************************************** »QRen 3.2« ∞ the file/directory renamer (c) Copyright 1994 Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: QREN [path]<oldname> <newname> QREN performs another simple function - renaming directories. It works just like REN, accepting files as well. L)******************************************************************** »Spin 3.2« ∞ the disk spinner (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: SPIN <drive> <time> drive: A: .. Z: time : /3 {30 sec.} | /6 {60 sec.} note : without time parameter, disk spins until a keypress SPIN makes it easy to clean the read/write heads of a floppy drive by spinning a (user-supplied) cleaning disk in the drive. While spinning, it also moves the heads randomly so that no part of the cleaning disk is overused. You can choose either a short spin (30 sec.) or a long one (60 sec.). SPIN automatically detects invalid drives and fixed disks, aborting in both cases. Omitting the time parameter spins the disk and displays the elapsed time until you press a key. M)******************************************************************** »Split 3.2« ∞ the file splitter (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: SPLIT <# parts> [path]<sourcefile> [[path]targetfile] # parts: 2..255 note : source extension cannot be in 1..255 : resulting file extension is part # : rejoin files w. COPY /B ... I wrote SPLIT in order to transfer files too large to fit on a single floppy disk from one computer to another. You may find it equally useful. This utility cuts up any file into a user-specified number of parts. The resulting files' extensions are the numbers of the parts. There's no need for an UNSPLIT command since parts can be rejoined with COPY. Just remember to rejoin them in the correct order (xxxxxxxx.1 followed by xxxxxxxx.2 etc.). N)******************************************************************** »TextAn 3.2« ∞ the textfile analyzer (c) Copyright 1994 by Henning Vahlenkamp Usage: TEXTAN [path]<filename> TEXTAN analyzes text files, calculating a lot of statistics about them. Here's a sample analysis of this file: Analyzing (QUTILS32.DOC)...done ------------------------------------------------------------ file size :19146 paragraphs :431 nonprintable chars:863 lines :431 printable chars :18283 pages (66 lines each) :7 alphanumerics :12643 avg word length :4.57 letters :12191 avg words/sentence :15.19 digits :452 avg words/paragraph :6.42 symbols :5640 avg words/page :395.00 words :2765 avg sentences/paragraph:0.42 sentences :182 avg sentences/page :26.00 exclamatory(!) :2 avg paragraphs/page :61.57 interrogative(?) :5 declarative(.) :175 Giving it anything other than an ASCII text file will produce meaningless results. VI) Notes: ---------- CAT, CONTEXT, CRYPT, SPLIT, and TEXTAN can process files of any size, since they all have reusable input/output buffers. DTSET, FINDER, and MOVE are the only commands supporting DOS wild cards. The functions of MOVE and QREN are now part of DOS as of version 6.0. I decided to keep them in Quick Utils since they were developed prior to the release of DOS 6. Questions, comments, bug reports, and suggestions for improvements are welcome by mail or e-mail (vahlenka@trenton.edu). That's all for now. I hope you find Quick Utils as useful as I do.