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- COMMAND: HELP DOCUMENTATION : On-line
-
- FUNCTION: Provides an on-line description of all the commands and utilities
- available on the system as well as brief descriptions of various
- features of the system.
-
- FORMAT: HELP [keyword]
-
- TYPE: Public domain software (D.N. Ikle,1671 Newport,Denver,CO 80220)
-
- REMARKS: keyword is the 1-8 character feature for which help is desired.
- The optional keyword can be ?, to display a summary HELP screen, the
- name of a DOS or other system command or utility, or the name of
- certain system features. The first 8 non-blank characters after
- HELP become the keyword. Entering the keyword HELP provides a
- detailed description of the HELP facility and a list of the keywords
- that describe certain system features. Entering the keyword
- COMMANDS provides a list and brief description of all the commands
- and utilities available on the system. Omitting the keyword on the
- command line causes a menu to be displayed that prompts for entry of
- a keyword. If an invalid keyword is entered the speaker beeps and
- the HELP menu is displayed.
-
- Following entry of a valid keyword, 1 to 8 screens of text are
- displayed from the text file that describes the command, utility, or
- feature. From any individual HELP screen, press Enter to return to
- the HELP menu, or Escape to return to DOS. If Escape is pressed,
- all but the first line of the current screen remains on the display
- to allow the user to enter the command at the bottom of the display
- while viewing most of the instructions. The cursor control keys Up,
- Dn, PgUp, PgDn, Home and End can be used to move backward or forward
- a line or a screen at a time or to display the first or last HELP
- screen in the current file. These options are summarized on line 25
- of the display, which also indicates whether the file is continued
- on another screen or the end of file has been reached.
-
- A notation indicates if a public domain utility has a document
- file On-Line in \utility\doclib, Off-Line in a manual, or has no
- documentation at all. HELP support files are in \help, and the HELP
- screens for the system commands and utilities are in \help\pcdos,
- \help\private, and \help\public.
-
- The following keywords can be used to obtain descriptions of
- various special features of the system:
-
- ANSI
-
- ANSI.SYS is a DOS installable device driver that provides
- enhanced keyboard and display capabilities.
-
- AUTOEXEC
-
- An AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the root directory of the boot disk is
- executed on system start-up. Commands installed therein are
- executed immediately and initialize the system with whatever
- features are included.
-
- BATCH
-
- Batch files have the extension .BAT and are executed from DOS. They
- can contain special DOS sub-commands that control their execution,
- regular DOS or public domain system commands, and elements of the
- Extended Batch Language.
-
- COMMANDS
-
- This feature provides an alphabetic list of all commands available
- on the system and a one line description of each.
-
- CONFIG(uration)
-
- Various configuration commands can be included in a CONFIG.SYS file
- in the root directory of the boot disk. These commands define
- system characteristics including the definition of installable
- device drivers.
-
- FILTERS
-
- This advanced DOS 2.+ feature provides several commands that read
- data from a standard input device, modify the data, and then write
- the data to a standard output device.
-
- NOTATION
-
- This feature describes the notation used in the displays of the
- On-Line HELP facility.
-
- PIPES
-
- This advanced DOS 2.+ feature allows the screen output of one
- program to be used as the keyboard input of another program.
-
- REDIRECT(ion)
-
- This advanced DOS 2.+ feature allows a program to receive its
- input from a source other than the keyboard or to direct its output
- to a device other than the display screen.
-
- SYSTEM
-
- This feature describes the system enhancements that are defined in
- the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files at system start-up.