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Wandering Horse Software Presents... ▄█████▄ ██ ██ ▐██▌ ██████▄ ▄██████ ██ ▄▄▄ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄▄ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▀▀▀▀ ▀█████▀ ▀█████▀ ▐██▌ ██████▀ ▀██████ Generic Universal Integrated Developement Environment Version 1.01 February, 1994 An IDE for command-line compilers of all types. Copyright(c) 1994 Stephan Beal This software is provided as-is. There are no warranties, expressed or implied. Are you tired of having to type in the name of your editor to load your file, exit it, type in the name of your compiler, along with it's options, then getting a list of errors, running your editor again... ad nauseum... to complete a program using your command line compiler? The Generic Universal IDE simplifies program development by keeping everything down to a few keystrokes. GUIDE can run any command line compiler, linker, editor, file viewer and (in the complete version) up to three other external programs (like your favorite debugger, cross-referencer or other programming utility). You can also have two different sets of command line options for your compiler and linker ("linker" meaning any program that you set up as the "Linker" in GUIDE. It could very well be a debugger or any other program). You can have up to 3 programs available for compilation at once, and the "wildcard" system for passing filename parameters to your compiler, linker, editor and viewer allows you great flexibility in the placement of the filename in the parameter lists. Files Included in the Package: GUIDE.EXE - The freeware program (GUIDE Complete is called GC.EXE SAMPLE.CFG - a sample configuration file. GUIDE will make one called GUIDE.CFG when it is run. Use this is an example of how to edit your CFG file (see Part VII, below). SAMPLE.CFG has some comment lines in it, so do not use it as your CFG file, as the comments will be read in by GUIDE. GUIDE.DOC - This manual About GUIDE: This version of the "Generic Universal Integrated Development Environment" (GUIDE) is the copyrighted work of Stephan Beal, but may be distributed and used free of cost. There is no evaluation period and no registration cost, per se, but a version with more options (called "GUIDE Complete") is available for $15. The freeware version (but not "GUIDE Complete") may be distributed freely as long as no payment of any kind is given/received for the program and as long as the distributed program is NOT MODIFIED IN ANY WAY. If you have any suggestions for changing GUIDE, contact me at the phone/address listed at the end of this document and at the end of the online help in GUIDE. Bundling GUIDE (the freeware or Complete version) with any commercial software requires written permission from me. Bundling with shareware, freeware or public domain software is completely permissable and encouraged. GUIDE is written entirely in MIX Software's Power C version 2.2.0 using a slightly modified version of their VTEXT library and one function from their C/Windows Toolchest library. It was debugged using the Power C Trace debugger (could not have done without it). After the second day of programming, it was also developed using itself. I figured the only way to really develop an IDE that I like was to use the one I was working on and make changes as I went along. GUIDE was inspired by the Power C Shell (an IDE for Power C specifically) by Chuck Steenburgh of Tay-Jee Software (the clock in the upper-right hand corner of GUIDE came from a public domain library put out by him) and by the TurboPower Editor (a freeware text editor and IDE) by TurboPower Software. I have kept few options from each and combined them in a (I feel) more coherent way. The "!.!" wilcard passing was inspired by the Norton Commander, which served as an IDE for my Power C compiler until I had gotten 1 1/2 days into this program, at which point GUIDE took over as my IDE. GUIDE to dedicated to Rob: maybe now he'll learn to program in C. And to the Johnson's: who taught me Pascal and a bit about living in high school and to their belated son, John, who inspired me as well (and who's tennis shoes I still wear). Requirements: A command line compiler of some sort. Your favorite text editor. A disk drive (any will do). An 8088 or better (it's hard to get much worse) computer. A recent version of DOS. If you're running DOS 2.0, you probably shouldn't be programming ANYTHING. Free memory (just under 90k is my best guess). A monitor (the default colors are for a color monitor, but they can be changed for use with a monochrome system. See "Changing the Colors", below). IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have problems with GUIDE starting up in black and grey and unreadable text, or the information in if your config file is not saved when you exit used GUIDE, suspect your cache software. It appears that "sometimes it does what it's supposed to and sometimes it doesn't." Try unloading your cache software or turning delayed writes off and see what happens. _Sometimes_ the GUIDE.CFG and GC.CFG cannot be opened when cacheing is on. This bug is being looked into, as caches are very important in that they speed up disk-based compilation emmensely. This problem (along with many others) has also been seen when using a SuperStor compressed disk. Then again, it could just be this damned little PS/2 Model 55 (blech). GUIDE is an easy-to-use, small Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with the following features: Can use any command-line driven compiler. Use any editor and file viewer. Stores 2 sets of options each for your compiler and your linker. Easy changing of parameters and flexible filename passing. Up to 5 work files can be open at once. Run any of your work files at any time. Easy-to-use pull-down menus and context-sensitive help. Look at your program's last output screen at any time by pressing F4. The Freeware version is absolutely free. No evaluation period. no nag screens. No delays. "GUIDE Complete", the mail-order version ($15) allows up to 3 other external programs (each with it's own list of parameters), for use with a debugger, cross-referencer, or whatever other utilities you use while programming. Features to be implemented in future releases: Better file selection menu (one that allows changing of directory) More files open at once. Multiple configuration files. (See below). MAYBE online color configuration. (See "Changing the Colors", below). Better error checking and reporting (I keep it to a minimum so editors, compilers and debuggers will have more free memory. I could free up even more by taking away the 8 or 10k of online help, but I feel that is pretty important for most users). I have the stuff needed to put mouse support and a built-in editor in GUIDE, but the memory requirements disuade me from doing it. I want to keep GUIDE as small as possible. Anyways, the editor could only handle files up to 32k. Power C is a trademark of MIX Software. Norton Commander is a trademark of Peter Norton Computing Revision History: Feb. 10, 1994 1.0 Released via modem in Houston, Texas Feb. 11, 1994 1.01 Minor bug believed to be fixed when returning from running compiled program. Sometimes it would not accept ALT keys after returning, but would accept F# keys. It just HAD to wait until I had released version 1.0 to show up! Changed the way Alt-A and Alt-S activates/closes a file. The selection bar is now right beside the file name rather than in the middle of the screen. Added optional shadows throughout program. Added Alt-V to activate viewer and Shift-9 to activate External files in GUIDE Complete. The Run-Down: A Basic Manual on How To Use GUIDE When you run GUIDE, you will see a set of windows pop up. If you have not run GUIDE before in that directory, some of the windows will have lines running through them. That simply means that they need information in them (like a compiler name or parameters). The following list of commands will tell you how to open, compile, link and run your files. Part I The FILES MENU Select the Files Menu by pressing Alt-F. OPEN: (Alt-O) This gives you a list of files in the current directory after prompting you for a file mask (defaults to *.*). Pick a file and press Enter or hit ESC to cancel. The open file will be added to the Files list at the first open slot. If you have 5 files open already, you will not be allowed to open any more until you close one. The file you open will be made the active file (See ACTIVE, below). EDIT: (F3) This loads your editor and passes any parameters to it, including the active file name (by placing a "!.!" on the editor's command line). See EDITOR, under CONFIGURATION MENU, below, for information on setting up the editor and its parameters. CLOSE: (Alt-S) This removes one of the files from the Files list. You will select the file to close with a popup menu or hit ESC to cancel. If it is the active (See ACTIVE, below) file, then the first open file will be made the active file. ACTIVE: (Alt-A) You may have up to 5 files ready to use at once, but only one will be the "active" file. It has a red and white '' beside it on the files list. This is the filename that will be passed to your compiler, linker, editor and viewer any place that they have a "!.!" in their parameter lists. A "!.!" passes the whole filename, including extension. A single "!" passes only the first part of the filename. This can be used for your linker (to pass "!.OBJ", for example). VIEWER: This runs the program set up as your viewer. Filenames may or may not be passed to your file viewer. See VIEWER, under CONFIGURATION MENU, below, for information on setting up the viewer and its parameters. SHELL: This temporarily shells you to DOS, running whatever command processor your system is using. GUIDE does not change the DOS prompt, so be careful not to forget that you are in a shell. You available memory will be reduced by slightly less than 90k while in a DOS shell. Type EXIT to return to GUIDE. EXIT: (Alt-Q) Exits you from GUIDE and saves the configuration file, including your current working files and colors. HELP: Gives you help on the File Menu. Part II The COMPILER Menu COMPILE: (F5) This runs the compiler, passing it the first set of options. The active file's name may be passed in either set of options or as part of the filename. 2ND OPTIONS: (Shift-F5) Runs the compiler and passes it the second set of options defined for the compiler. NO OPTIONS: (Alt-F5) Runs the compiler, but does not pass the first or second set of options. Any parameters declared as part of the compiler's name will be passed, however. Running the compiler with no parameters will usually give you a list of parameters available for your compiler. OTHER FILE: (Ctrl-F5) Prompts you for a file name and parameters and passes these to the compiler. Again, any parameters included in the compiler's name will also be passed. RUN: (F9) This executes the file "!.EXT", where EXT is defined in the next option as the extension for the executable file created by your compiler. When your program is finished running, the last output screen will be saved by GUIDE so you can review it later by hitting F4. If your program clears the screen after it finishes, GUIDE will capture te cleared screen, which may not do you any good. EXTENSION: This sets the executable file's extension. It defaults to !.EXE, but may be !.COM, !.BAT (if you want to run a batch file), or any other executable extension (like BTM in 4Dos and NDos). The single "!" in the filename means just insert the first part of the file's name and add on the executable extension. If you are compiling several different types of files in the same programming session and you don't want to keep changing the extension, change it to just a single "!". When the program is run that way, DOS will go through it's own selection process in determining which file to run. If you have three files with the same name but the different extensions EXE, BAT and COM, DOS will execute a COM file instead of executing an EXE file with the same name. SET OPTIONS: Selecting this will put you next to the compiler's name, allowing you to edit it. Insert mode can be toggled with the INS key. It is off by default. After you edit the compiler's name (or press ENTER to skip it, if you don't want to change it), you will have a chance to edit both sets of parameters for the compiler. If you do not have enough room on the options lines, you can declare some of the parameters as part of the compiler's name. For example, since you will probably always want to pass the active filename to the compiler, go ahead and put it on the same line as the compiler's name. The only drawback is this: If you compiler requires that any options relating to a file be in front of the file's name, then the "!.!" for the files name must go after the options. These options can be part of the compiler's name, but they will be passed to the command line no matter whether you select compiling with the 1st, 2nd or NO options. Part III The LINKER Menu LINK: (F8) This runs the linker, passing it the first set of options. The active file's name may be passed in either set of options or as part of the filename. Usually you will want to pass "!.OBJ" (if OBJ is your object file extension, MIX Power C users would pass "!.MIX") to your linker, along with the names of any other files you want linked. If you are compiling with a C compiler and want to pass an S, M or L (for example) with your filename to represent the memory model, simply pass "!S.OBJ","!M.OBJ" or "!L.OBJ". Be careful that your filename is not longert han 7 characters if you are going to add this letter to the end. Also, to do this you should have redirected your compiler's output to a file with an S, M, L, C or T at the end (use "/o!L.MIX" option for redirecting the compilation of MYFILE.C to an object file called MYFILEL.MIX in Power C, for example). 2ND OPTIONS: (Shift-F8) Runs the linker and passes it the second set of options defined for the linker. NO OPTIONS: (Alt-F8) Runs the linker, but does not pass the first or second set of options. Any parameters declared as part of the linker's name will be passed, however. Running the linker with no parameters will usually give you a list of parameters available for your linker or will prompt you for any input files and other options. OTHER FILE: (Ctrl-F8) Prompts you for a file name and parameters and passes these to the linker. Again, any parameters included in the linker's name will also be passed. SET OPTIONS: Selecting this will put you next to the linker's name, allowing you to edit it. Insert mode can be toggled with the INS key. It is off by default. After you edit the linker's name (or press ENTER to skip it, if you don't want to change it), you will have a chance to edit both sets of parameters for the linker. If you do not have enough room on the options lines, you can declare some of the parameters as part of the linker's name. For example, since you will probably always want to pass the active filename to the linker, go ahead and put it on the same line as the linker's name. The only drawback is this: If you linker requires that any options relating to a file be in front of the file's name, then the "!.!" for the files name must go after the options. These options can be part of the linker's name, but they will be passed to the command line no matter whether you select compiling with the 1st, 2nd or NO options. Part IV The EXTERNAL Menu The External Menu is available only in GUIDE Complete, the mail-order version. It is for launching a debugger, seconday compiler, a cross-referencer or any other program you may need while programming. If you do not need (or want) the ability to use external programs from within GUIDE, then the freeware version should suit you just fine. GUIDE Complete will allow you up to three external programs (set up like the editor or viewer, rather than like the compiler or linker). In future versions, this number may be extended to 5, depending on the requests I get from people. RUN: (Shift-F9) This will list your external programs and allows you to pick one to run. EDIT: This lets your external programs and their parameters. They are edited the same way as the editor and viewer are. Part VI The MISCELLANEOUS Menu EDITOR: Allows you to change the name of your editor or its parameters. If your compiler generates a file listing the error of the last compilation and if your editor can handle more than one file at a time, you may want to pass the error file name along with "!.!" (the active file's name). For example, if you are using Power C (which generates a list of errors in the file C.ERR), your editor line may look like this: "C:\C\Q.EXE !.! C.ERR". Case does not matter. You also don't need the extension for your editor or the complete path if the editor lies in DOS's PATH. VIEWER: Lets you edit your viewer's name and any parameters. It is usually advantageous not to pass a filename to your viewer if it is one that will list the whole directory (like LIST.COM). If you are using 4Dos's or NDos's internal LIST command as your viewer, you must pass a filename. OUTPUT: (F4) If your program is a text-based program, pressing this will show you the last output screen from your program. What it does in graphics mode can only be guessed (probably locks up the computer). REFRESH: (Alt-R) Sometimes a screen may become garbled because of TSR's or a bug in GUIDE. This will redraw the screen. Other options may be added to this menu in later versions of GUIDE. Part VII Changing the Colors and Editing the Configuration File in GUIDE IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have problems with GUIDE starting up in black and grey and unreadable text, or the information in if your config file is not saved when you exit used GUIDE, suspect your cache software. It appears that "sometimes it does what it's supposed to and sometimes it doesn't." Try unloading your cache software or turning delayed writes off and see what happens. _Sometimes_ the GUIDE.CFG and GC.CFG cannot be opened when cacheing is on. This bug is being looked into, as caches are very important in that they speed up disk-based compilation emmensely. This problem (along with many others) has also been seen when using a SuperStor compressed disk. Then again, it could just be this damned little PS/2 Model 55 (blech). To conserve memory, online color configuration has been ommited from GUIDE. The colors used in the program are stored in the file "GUIDE.CFG" or "GC.CGF", depending on whether you have the freeware version of GUIDE or GUIDE Complete. The CFG file will be created in the current directory if one does not exist. It is a good idea to keep your projects in different directories so GUIDE can keep a seperate CFG file for each. The configuration file is editable with any ASCII text editor. Do not edit it from within GUIDE, as GUIDE will overwrite it when you exit GUIDE or when you run your prgram from within GUIDE (it saves it then just in case your program locks up the computer). To edit it, load it into your favorite text editor. Normally, you will not need to edit your CFG file. This information is given for those who really want to. This list gives you the line numbers and what is stored on each line: Version: Free Complete Item 1 1 work file 1 2 2 work file 1 3 3 work file 1 4 4 work file 1 5 5 work file 1 6 6 number of active file (0-4) Use the number of your active file -1. 7 7 name of executable file (default to !.EXE) 8 8 parameters for your executable file (or blank if none) 9 9 Compiler name 10 10 compiler options #1 11 11 compiler options #2 12 12 Linker name 13 13 link options #1 14 14 link options #2 15 15 editor name and parameters 16 16 viewer name and parameters 17 External program #1 18 External program #2 19 External program #3 17 20 Color of popup menus 18 21 Color of menu hotkeys 19 22 Color of menu selection bar 20 23 Color for online help 21 24 Color for big boxes on main screen 22 25 Color for prompts and labels (like "Compiler:" and "Files: ") 23 26 Color for user-defined fields (like compiler's name and editor) 24 27 Menu border type (1=regular border. 2=add shadows) Default is 2. Some people don't like the way the shadows look. Normally, you will not need to edit your CFG file. This information is given for those who really want to. To change the colors, pick a forground color and background color from the list below and add their values together. Background: Foreground: 0 = Black 0 = Black 8 = Grey 16 = Blue 1 = Blue 9 = Light Blue 32 = Green 2 = Green 10 = Light Green 48 = Cyan 3 = Cyan 11 = Light Cyan 64 = Red 4 = Red 12 = Light Red 80 = Magenta 5 = Magenta 13 = Light Magenta 96 = Brown 6 = Brown 14 = Yellow 112= White 7 = White 15 = Bright White Blinking attributes have been omited because they tend to strain one's eyes after a few minutes. For example, if you want the big boxes on the main screen to have a bright white foreground and a blue background, then change line 21 (In the Freeware version) or line 24 (in GUIDE Complete) to 15 (bright white) + 16 (blue background)=31. Part VIII Extra Information and Hints GUIDE can be compressed using PKLite (from PKWare) or the freeware program LZEXE. If you are using a compressed disk, do not do this, as the compressed disk will not be able to compress it any further. Be sure to make the correct file the active file (by using Alt-A) before you try to compile, link or edit. Trying to compile my header files is a common mistake. Oops. Tips, tricks and neato things you can do with GUIDE: 1) if you want the ability to print files from within GUIDE, simple set up DOS's PRINT.EXE as an external program and !.! (the active filename) as a parameter to it. You can even set up an external program something like this: Name: Copy !.! LPT1 to print the active file to lpt1 when you run that external "program." Note that setting up and using external programs requires the complete mail-order version. 2) If you don't use a linker as part of your compilation process, put any external program that you want in that slot or put your compiler in that slot as well as the compiler slot and put different command-line options there, giving you 4 sets of options. 3) Shell to DOS. Try it. You might like it. This runs your command interpreter and lets you do any DOS options from DOS (like running your debugger or any other program, as long as you have enough memory). 4) Make suggestions and report bugs. Send me a letter telling me what you'd like to see or don't like to see in GUIDE and I'll see what I can do to fix it. Please report any typos, too. I hate typos. My mailing address is: Stephan Beal 4726 Cairnlomond Houston, TX 77084 I can be reached during the day at (713) 271-0077. If I'm not in, leave a message on my voice mail and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 5) Order GUIDE Complete! $15 entitles you to the complete version, the next revision for free and 1/2 price on any releases after that. You also get free technical support over the phone (from the person who wrote the program) for as long as you own the product and a printed manual. I'll cover the sales tax for Texas residents and the shipping/handling costs. I can arrange to distribute the C source code as part of the complete package for those who want it, but it requires two other libraries whose source I cannot distribute (but they can be ordered from MIX software, if you are interested). I will also include a "no help" version with GUIDE Complete that will not have the online help so it will take up 8-10k less RAM. Please specify disk format and include your phone number in case I have any questions. I will accept checks and money orders made out to me.