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XTAPLS01.ZIP: EXTRAPLUS VERSION 1, Dated 4 V 96
"EXTRAPLUS: CW beyond 20 WPM"
I. INTRODUCTION
EXTRAPLUS is intended primarily for amateurs who have
passed all the code exams and want to improve their CW
operating skills. The executable and text files in EXTRAPLUS
are used to create files for input to code training software
similar to GGTE's Morse Tutor Gold (MTG). For those who lack
this type of software, a very unsophisticated program has been
provided to transmit these files through the computer speaker.
Amateurs who have not reached the 20 WPM level and have access
to MTG-like software will find EXTRAPLUS a useful tool in their
efforts to upgrade. EXTRAPLUS is Freeware by Art Sadler, KC7IG.
The types of files which may be created are:
- "fixed" text. Conventional text files like the one you
are reading are converted to files more suitable for use
with code training software. These are especially useful
for improving sending skills; just "play" them and key or
type along in step.
- random character groups. The length of the groups are
random within limits set by the user. Optionally, the user
may specify characters that are to appear more frequently
than others.
- QSO words. The real enjoyment of Morse begins with the
ability to copy without writing down every character heard.
The most common words are included.
- calls. Life is hard. Either copy the call correctly or it's
no QSO! The user can create files of calls extracted
automatically from files which contain calls intermixed
with other text. Other programs scramble calls, or QSO
words, in a file to prevent the user from memorizing their
order.
- pseudo-calls. These are random character groups that
conform to the formats of calls. Don't even think about
trying these unless conventional calls become boring.
Pseudo-calls have been known to humble the mighty.
Earlier I mentioned a simple program to transmit text files as
Morse through the computer speaker. It is named BB, as in
beep-beep. This program allows the user to specify the tone
frequency in Hertz and speed in terms of dit duration. The longer
the dit, the slower the speed. Recognition of prosign substitution
characters has been implemented with the protocols used in GGTE's
Morse Tutor Gold: AR is "+", SK is "[", BT is "=", and KN is "(".
Farnsworth timing is not supported. Using BB to prepare for
taking or administering a code exam would be a very bad idea. The
code produced just isn't good enough for those purposes. BB, and
its cousin BB2, were written one evening when I had nothing better
to do. They are included here to permit the user to experience
the benefits of computer-aided code practice. Investing in a
quality commercial or shareware product is well worth the expense.
Having taken the trouble to code a Morse engine, it was impossible
to overcome the temptation to put it to other uses. The code
practice game CALLGAME is the result.
The second section of this README.1ST file is devoted to an
alphabetized list of all the files in XTAPLS01.ZIP. The
syntax of the command lines is self-explanatory in most
cases; examples have been included for the more complex
ones. Command line arguments are positional and mandatory.
Failure to provide the necessary arguments will result in a
series of prompts to request the needed information. File
names are assumed to be in the current directory unless a
path is specified. CWTXTFIX.EXE, CWTXTFX2.EXE, the GEN*.EXE
series, and the *SCRAM*.EXE series prepare files that will be
used as input to the Morse software. The other utilities
provide the means of creating resources that can be used by
the programs named above. Also included are files of calls
(SUMCALLS.LCL) and words used in QSOs (QSOWORDS.LWD) to get
you started.
It will be found that the easiest way to put EXTRAPLUS to
work, once you're familiar with the utilities, is to use
.BAT files. An example, MAKCALLS.BAT, is included. BAT file
gurus will be happy to learn that all EXTRAPLUS programs
provide return codes for branching purposes.
The programs were written in the C language and compiled
using Borland C++ Version 2.0. The design goal was to write
programs to run under DOS on any computer that accommodates
the target Morse software. Some Morse software packages
perform better if characters come from the file in a stream
without CR-LF characters, i.e., 0D 0A hexadecimal. Other
packages demand a CR-LF after each "line" and become
confused and unhappy if they aren't detected. Both modes are
supported by EXTRAPLUS.
To keep things straight, I use the following extensions to
classify the various type of text files. In these
definitions, the word "scrambled" means a set or subset of
items from another file in a random order.
.TXT - a text file of unknown characteristics.
.LCL - "line" calls or pseudo-calls separated by CR-LFs. See
SUMCALLS.LCL for an example.
.LWD - "line" words or random groups separated by CR-LFs.
See QSOWORDS.LWD for an example.
.CAL - calls or pseudo-calls separated by spaces.
.WRD - words or random groups separated by spaces.
.SLC - scrambled "line" calls or pseudo-calls.
.SLW - scrambled "line" words or random groups.
.SSC - scrambled calls or pseudo-calls separated by spaces.
.SSW - scrambled words or random groups separated by spaces.
.FTX - a "fixed" .TXT file produced by CWTXTFIX.EXE which
contains no CR-LFs.
.FX2 - a "fixed" .TXT file produced by CWTXTFX2.EXE which
does contain CR-LFs.
The use of these extensions is not enforced by the
utilities. You may use any system you desire or no system at
all. These extensions will, however, be used in the utility
descriptions in the next section of this README.1ST.
Let me offer a suggestion on finding a ready source of calls
when you've grown tired of those in SUMCALLS.LCL. If you
browse the Amateur Radio pages and FTP sites on the
Internet, you will find plenty of text to copy and files to
download that contain calls. The utility GETCALLS.EXE reads
.TXT files and creates a .LCL file of the calls it finds.
If that source runs dry, you can use GENPCALS.EXE to create
pseudo-calls. I seldom run this utility without generating at
least one call that is currently assigned. Some day I expect
to see my own!
II. FILE DESCRIPTIONS
****** BB ****** BB ****** BB ******
BB.EXE: a program that reads a text file and sends Morse
code through the speaker. Depressing Esc ends execution.
The syntax is:
[path]bb [path]input_file
BB returns a code of 1 if the input file can not be read;
otherwise the return code is 0. GGTE conventions are used
for the prosigns.
****** BB2 ****** BB2 ****** BB2 ******
BB2.EXE: a program that reads a text file and sends Morse
code through the speaker. Depressing Esc ends execution.
The syntax is:
[path]bb2 [path]input_file
BB2 returns a code of 1 if the input file can not be read;
otherwise the return code is 0. BB2 is identical to BB
except that the entire file (max. 3K chars.) is read into
RAM before code transmission begins. The intent is that
this will eliminate pauses that occur when a physical disk
read takes place. The size of input_file and your hardware
will determine whether BB2 has any advantage over BB.
****** CALLGAME ****** CALLGAME ****** CALLGAME ******
CALLGAME.EXE: a program that allows the user to assume the
role of DXpedition operator. A second user is required to
run the keyboard while "the Op" runs the pileup! A .LCL file
is the source of the pileup calls. See CGHOWTO.TXT for
details.
The syntax is:
[path]callgame [path]call_file
A non-zero return code indicate the input file could not be
opened (code 1), or an error occurred during read of the
input file (code 2).
****** CGHOWTO ****** CGHOWTO ****** CGHOWTO ******
CGHOWTO.TXT: how to play CALLGAME
****** CWTXTFIX ****** CWTXTFIX ****** CWTXTFIX ******
CWTXTFIX.EXE: a program to filter a .TXT file for use with
CW practice software. The output, a .FTX file, will be free
of most of the garbage that makes the typical text file
(like the one you're reading) unsuitable for use as input to
Morse software. For optimum results, use a text editor to
remove any tables of contents, indexes, charts, and diagrams
present in the text file before invoking CWTXTFIX. See also
CWTXTFX2.
The syntax is:
[path]cwtxtfix [path]input_file [path]output_file
Non-zero return codes indicate a problem opening the read
(code 1) or write (code 2) file, an error during read
(code 3), or during write (code 4).
****** CWTXTFX2 ****** CWTXTFX2 ****** CWTXTFX2 ******
CWTXTFX2.EXE: a program identical to CWTXTFIX except that it
creates .FX2 files for Morse software that requires the CR-LF
pair at the end of each line.
The syntax is:
[path]cwtxtfx2 [path]input_file [path]output_file
Non-zero return codes indicate a problem opening the read
(code 1) or write (code 2) file, an error during read
(code 3), or during write (code 4).
****** GENPCALS ****** GENPCALS ****** GENPCALS ******
GENPCALS.EXE: a program to generate a .CAL file of pseudo-
calls. The user specifies the number of spaces to follow
each call.
The syntax is:
[path]genpcals [path]output_file nbr_of_calls
nbr_of_trailing_spaces.
Non-zero return codes indicate a problem opening the write
file(code 1) or an error during write (code 2).
Example:
To create the file OUT.CAL containing 200 pseudo-calls with
2 trailing spaces, enter:
genpcals out.cal 200 2
****** GENRRGPS ****** GENRRGPS ****** GENRRGPS ******
GENRRGPS.EXE: a program to generate a .WRD file of random
length, random character groups. Each group will be followed
by a single space.
The syntax is:
[path]genrrgps [path]output_file nbr_of_groups
min_nbr_of_chars_per_grp max_nbr_chars_per_grp
Non-zero return codes indicate a problem opening the write
file (code 1) or an error during write (code 2).
Example:
To create the file OUT.WRD containing 100 random groups
varying in size from 4 to 7 characters, enter:
genrrgps out.wrd 100 4 7
****** GENSPGPS ****** GENSPGPS ****** GENSPGPS ******
GENSPGPS.EXE: a program to generate a .WRD file of random
length, random character groups. The user specifies a list
of up to 20 characters to appear more frequently than a true
random selection would provide. Each group is followed by a
single space.
The syntax is:
[path]genspgps [path]output_file nbr_of_groups
min_nbr_of_chars_per_grp max_nbr_chars_per_grp
char_list
Non-zero return codes indicate a problem opening the write
file (code 1) or an error during write (code 2).
Example:
To create the file OUT.WRD containing 150 random groups
varying in length from 3 to 8 characters with S, H, 5, 6,
and B predominating, enter:
genspgps out.lwd 150 3 8 sh56b
****** GETCALLS ****** GETCALLS ****** GETCALLS ******
GETCALLS.EXE: a program to extract any calls or pseudo-calls
present in a file and write them to a .LCL or .CAL file. If
the user specifies zero as the number of spaces to follow
each call, a .LCL file will be produced containing no
trailing spaces.
The syntax is:
[path]getcalls [path]input_file [path]output_file
nbr_spaces_after_each_call
Non-zero return codes indicate a problem opening the read
(code 1) or write (code 2) file, an error during read
(code 3), or during write (code 4).
****** LINECNT ****** LINECNT ****** LINECNT ******
LINECNT.EXE: a program to count the lines in a file, display
the longest and shortest lines, and compute the average line
length.
The syntax is:
[path]linecnt [path]input_file
Non-zero indicate the following conditions: 1 = couldn't
open file; 2 = error while reading file.
****** LSCRAM ****** LSCRAM ****** LSCRAM ******
LSCRAM.EXE: a program that reads a .LCL or .LWD file and
writes up to 300 lines out to a .SLC or .SLW file in random
order. Each line read may contain up to 20 characters.
Duplicate output lines may occur.
The syntax is:
[path]lscram [path]input_file [path]output_file
Non-zero return code indicate the input (code 1) or output
(code 2) file could not be opened, or an error occurred
during read of the input file (code 3).
****** LSCRAMND ****** LSCRAMND ****** LSCRAMND ******
LSCRAMND.EXE: a program that reads a .LCL or .LWD file and
writes up to 300 lines out to a .SLC or .SLW file in a non-
repeating, random order. Each line read may contain up to 20
characters.
The syntax is:
[path]lscramnd [path]input_file [path]output_file
Non-zero return code indicate the input (code 1) or output
(code 2) file could not be opened, or an error occurred
during read of the input file (code 3).
****** MAKCALLS ****** MAKCALLS ****** MAKCALLS ******
MAKCALLS.BAT: a sample .BAT to illustrate how to use
EXTRAPLUS programs in combination. For additional ideas,
see Figure 1 at the end of this Section.
****** NODUPS ****** NODUPS ****** NODUPS ******
NODUPS.EXE: a program that reads a sorted .LCL or .LWD file,
eliminates blank or duplicate lines, and writes the
remaining lines to a .LCL or .LWD file. An activity summary
is displayed on the screen at the end of the operation.
The syntax is:
[path]nodups [path]input_file [path]output_file
Non-zero return codes indicate the input (code 1) or output
(code 2) file could not be opened, or an error occurred
during read of the input file (code 3).
****** QSOWORDS ****** QSOWORDS ****** QSOWORDS ******
QSOWORDS.LWD: a starter set of 200-odd words often heard in
QSOs. Add or delete words as you wish. Words are in
alphabetical order only to make maintenance easier.
****** README ****** README ****** README ******
README.1ST: this file
****** SPC2LN ****** SPC2LN ****** SPC2LN ******
SPC2LN.EXE: a program to read a .CAL or .WRD file and write
its contents to a .LCL or .LWD file. Trailing spaces in the
input file do not appear in the output file. The primary
purpose of this program is the conversion of files built
by the GEN*.EXE series to make them usable with Morse
software that demands CR-LF pairs.
The syntax is:
[path]spc2ln [path]input_file [path]output_file
Non-zero return codes indicate a problem opening the read
(code 1) or write (code 2) file, an error during read
(code 3), or during write (code 4).
****** SSCRAM ****** SSCRAM ****** SSCRAM ******
SSCRAM.EXE: a program that reads a .LCL or .LWD file and
writes up to 300 lines out to a .SSC or .SSW file in random
order with one or more trailing spaces. Each line read may
consist of up to 20 characters. Duplicates may occur in the
output file.
The syntax is:
[path]sscram [path]input_file [path]output_file
nbr_spaces
Non-zero return codes indicate the input (code 1) or output
(code 2) file could not be opened, or an error occurred
during read of the input file (code 3).
****** SSCRAMND ****** SSCRAMND ****** SSCRAMND ******
SSCRAMND.EXE: a program that reads a .LCL or .LWD file and
writes up to 300 lines out to a .SSC or .SSW file in a non-
repeating, random order with one or more trailing spaces.
Each line read may consist of up to 20 characters.
The syntax is:
[path]sscramnd [path]input_file [path]output_file
nbr_spaces
Non-zero return codes indicate the input (code 1) or output
(code 2) file could not be opened, or an error occurred
during read of the input file (code 3).
****** SUMCALLS ****** SUMCALLS ****** SUMCALLS ******
SUMCALLS.LCL: a starter set of 500-odd calls for
CALLGAME.EXE. Add or delete calls as you wish.
*****************************************************************************
RAW TEXT (README FILES, ETC>)--->CWTXTFIX / CWTXTFX2--->MORSE S/W (1)
|->LSCRAM---|
GETCALLS-->DOS SORT (2)-->NODUPS-->TEXT EDIT (3)-->|->LSCRAMND-|-->MORSE S/W
QSOWORDS.LWD / SUMCALLS.LCL-->|->SSCRAM---|
|->SSCRAMND-|
GENPCALS->|
GENRRGPS->|--->SPC2LN (4)--->MORSE S/W
GENSPGPS->|
(1) A Morse software program that accepts file input.
(2) The DOS SORT command: sort < input_file_name > output_file name
(3) Cut and paste by a text editor to create a new file containing a
subset of data items from a larger file.
(4) Necessary only if a "line" file is required.
Figure 1: Typical EXTRAPLUS Usage
*****************************************************************************
III. COMMENTS, PROBLEMS, AND SUGGESTIONS.
Please don't hesitate to share your ideas on EXTRAPLUS with
me. Suggestions will be given careful consideration. If you
have a problem to report, please be as specific as possible.
Some information about the computer, DOS version, and Morse
software you are using would be helpful. Please include the
full name of the compressed file in which you received
EXTRAPLUS; otherwise I may not be able to assist you. An SASE
or valid IRC is requested if you require a response. You may
copy and distribute EXTRAPLUS freely. All I ask is that you
keep all the files together, preferably in the compressed
file XTAPLS01.ZIP.
73 ES GL,
Art Sadler, KC7IG
2721 West Acoma Drive
Phoenix, AZ 85023-5809 USA