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EXC USER'S GUIDE Copyright 1993 by Gary C. Crider and Parity Solutions TABLE OF CONTENTS: What is EXC? ..................................... 1.0 The EXC command line ............................. 2.0 Parameters that contain quotes ................. 2.1 Operational notes ................................ 3.0 General notes .................................. 3.1 Interrupt keys ................................. 3.2 Memory usage ................................... 3.3 Timing considerations .......................... 3.4 When EXC may not function or cause problems .... 3.5 Error handling ................................. 3.6 Scripts .......................................... 4.0 Script Commands ................................ 4.1 BEEP ......................................... 4.1.1 CASE ......................................... 4.1.2 CLEAR ........................................ 4.1.3 CURSOR ....................................... 4.1.4 DELAY ........................................ 4.1.5 GOTO ......................................... 4.1.6 HIDEWIN ...................................... 4.1.7 IFN .......................................... 4.1.8 IFY .......................................... 4.1.9 KEY .......................................... 4.1.10 LOCATE ....................................... 4.1.11 LOOK ......................................... 4.1.12 ON ........................................... 4.1.13 PAUSE ........................................ 4.1.14 QUIT ......................................... 4.1.15 READ ......................................... 4.1.16 SCRMAX ....................................... 4.1.17 SEARCH ....................................... 4.1.18 SETWAIT ...................................... 4.1.19 SHOW ......................................... 4.1.20 SHOWAT ....................................... 4.1.21 SHOWWIN ...................................... 4.1.22 TICK ......................................... 4.1.23 TIME ......................................... 4.1.24 TIMEOUT ...................................... 4.1.25 TYPE ......................................... 4.1.26 TYPFILE ...................................... 4.1.27 WAITFOR ...................................... 4.1.28 WAITSCR ...................................... 4.1.29 WINCOLS ...................................... 4.1.30 WINMAX ....................................... 4.1.31 WINROWS ...................................... 4.1.32 Labels ......................................... 4.2 Remarks ........................................ 4.3 Environment variable substitution .............. 4.4 Example script ................................. 4.5 Installation ..................................... Appendix A Keycode table .................................... Appendix B Disclaimer ....................................... Appendix C Support .......................................... Appendix D Registration ..................................... Appendix E 1.0 What Is EXC? As administrator of a large local area network, I believe whole- heartedly in automating every task that can be automated. Even though many tasks are computerized, that does not make them automated. By automated I mean that you enter one command or batch file name on the DOS command line and forget about it until the task is performed. Unfor- tunately many, if not most, programs require an operator to fill in blanks, select choices or otherwise interact with the PC to accomplish a task in which all of these parameters and choices were known to the user beforehand. I, for one, do not want to have to sit and watch my backups take place. In fact, I want them done while I am away from the office. After backups, what better time to defragment a hard disk? Do I want to have to chase menus to achieve this after the backup completes? One of the worst offenders of this I have seen is Stacker's SDEFRAG program. You can automate just about everything until the defrag has finished, then a stupid dialogue box pops up and asks you if you want to exit the program. No way to just move on back to the batch file and begin defragmenting the next drive. I first experimented with various keyboard stuffers such as PC Magazine's KEY-FAKE by Charles Petzold and STACKEY by Barry Simon and Richard Wilson. These programs take pre-programmed key sequences and stuff them into the keyboard buffer as if you had typed them at the keyboard. The trouble is that many programs rudely clear the keyboard buffer before requesting you to enter something or they allow you to interrupt the processing by pressing any key. Since you have already simulated pressing the key, oops!. In either case, you can't simply preprogram your reply and go. Stacker's SDEFRAG exit prompt is an example. Stuffers usually offer a way to get around this by programming a delay into the keystrokes that causes so many seconds to elapse before the key code is stuffed into the keyboard buffer. This is a help, but what if the time for a task (backup and defrag, for example) to complete varies greatly from one execution to another? You have to program for the longest possible execution time and the task then takes way too long to run in most cases. Another problem I have with stuffers is that they are almost always terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs. I hate to stuff another program in my 640k when I don't have to. Although most allow you to unload them, you will forget more often than not. I then came across a program called AUTOMATE by Geoff Friesen that was a better approach. You built a script, compiled it and executed it. No TSR remained in memory. The trouble is, the only commands in the script were execute a program, wait, and insert keys in the buffer. Also, you couldn't pass parameters to the program. AUTOMATE served as my inspiration to take it further. What I wanted was a program that had the intelligence to monitor the screen and detect when an event occurred that required me to insert more keycodes in the buffer. I would also like to see logical branching in the script and the ability to plan for exception processing as well as when everything performs normally. I want to be able to enter keyboard input when a certain string appears on the screen or when a string such as "Please wait..." disappears from the screen. There are times I just want to wait until any change at all occurs on the screen. EXC then, is more than just a buffer stuffer. It is a script (a.k.a. macro) processor that has a very simple script language that allows very complex scripts to execute much faster than you could execute them in attended mode. There are only slightly over thirty commands in the entire script language! Only about a dozen of these will be used often. The script language is interpretive, so no compile is needed. It is not a TSR, so nothing remains to eat up your precious RAM. EXC can even be used with your favorite DOS communications program to process online scripts. Send CIS mail, download files, etc. You simply execute EXC specifying the script file to use and the program to be executed. You include all command line parameters for the program as usual. By combining EXC executions in batch files, extremely complex processing can be reduced to a single DOS command. EXC even returns the same DOS ERRORLEVEL that your program returned upon completion. All you need to know now is the format of the EXC command line and how to write a script. 2.0 The EXC Command Line Format: EXC [path]scriptfile [[path]program] [command-line parameters] The scriptfile is the filename of the script to be processed. The extension, if specified, must be .SCR, but is not required to be specified. the script file is assumed to be in the current directory if a path is not specified. The program does not require an extension, but it must be a .EXE or .COM executable program file. .BAT files cannot be executed with EXC. If the path is not specified, the environment PATH= directories are searched. If the program is omitted from the command line, COMMAND.COM is assumed. The command-line parameters are any parameters that you would specify on the DOS command line if you were executing the program external to EXC. 2.1 Parameters that contain quotes If you try to pass command-line parameters to the spawned program that contain imbedded quotes, you must use \q in place of the quotes to be imbedded within the parameter. Parameters that contain spaces, |, < or > must be enclosed in quotes in order to be treated as a single parameter. If you want the spawned program to receive a parameter that looks like: Help "Me" Out, you would include it on the EXC command line as "Help \qMe\q Out" Confusing? You bet! But I have to work within the rules of DOS and the parameter passing rules of different languages and compilers. Amazingly, they do not all handle quoted strings in the same manner. I learned this the hard way by publishing a release (v2.2) that did not work when spawning most PASCAL and assembler programs. 3.0 Operational notes 3.1 General notes If you want EXC scripts to execute multiple programs and/or enter intrinsic DOS commands on the DOS command line, omit the program from the EXC command line or specify COMMAND.COM which is the default. Your script will begin executing on an empty DOS command line. When using COMMAND.COM as the object of an EXC script, you must terminate the script with: QUIT -or- TYPE "EXIT" KEY <ENTER> in order to terminate the second copy of COMMAND.COM that you have loaded and allow EXC to complete. If you don't, you could end up eating up your conventional memory with copies of EXC and COMMAND.COM. QUIT automatically issues the EXIT if COMMAND.COM was invoked. The same occurs when EXC encounters end-of-file on your script file. If you terminate the script with LEFT SHIFT-RIGHT SHIFT, you need to type EXIT at the DOS prompt to terminate the COMMAND.COM that you started and remove EXC from memory. Don't get cute and try to execute EXC as the object program of an EXC command. While it might logically work, I can see no possible need for such action and you and your system are at your own risk. EXC creates an extended keyboard buffer that will hold 256 keycodes. The DOS keyboard buffer will hold 16 keycodes. Thus you may stuff up to 528 keycodes with TYPE and KEY before the program requests keyboard input. If you overflow this buffer (very unlikely), a runtime error occurs and script processing is halted. EXC is written in Borland C++, a product of Borland International. 3.2 Interrupt keys You can pause execution of a script by pressing the Scroll Lock key. If your keyboard has a Scroll Lock indicator light, the light will be on while the script is paused. Pressing Scroll Lock again resumes execution of the script exactly where it left off. Any unexpired wait time must elapse before another command is processed. You can terminate execution of a script by holding down both the LEFT and RIGHT SHIFT keys. A beep will indicate that the script is being terminated. Execution of any spawned program will continue. The Pause key on your keyboard pauses all execution at the time the next screen write occurs. Timer interrupts continue. EXC detects the pause state and suspends itself. When you strike any key, both EXC and the spawned task will resume processing. Any unexpired wait time must elapse before another command is processed. While paused, the spawned program remains active. Since EXC is executing as a timer interrupt with your program operating as a spawned subtask, cycle-stealing multitasking is occurring. This can cause a few problems. If you must interrupt execution of your program, your best bet may actually be pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot the computer. If you hit CTRL-BREAK, you will normally interrupt just one task while the other continues. Pressing CTRL-BREAK again then interrupts the remaining task. This can confuse the remaining task to no end and lead to a system lock-up or other undesirable result. If you are lucky, you may actually get by with it, but I don't recommend it. Even if you terminate EXC with LEFT SHIFT- RIGHT SHIFT, the timer interrupt is still active until your program terminates, so the same problem can occur. 3.3 Memory usage EXC requires approximately 40K of conventional memory overhead. After loading, it then allocates a buffer to hold your script file and a buffer for reading the screen contents. If your application program's requirements are pushing the limits of available RAM, you may not be able to execute it under EXC control. If COMMAND.COM is spawned, an additional 3K (DOS 5) is used. The screen buffer varies according to the screen size active at startup or the value specified in a SCRMAX command. It will require one byte for every character position on the screen, plus 4 bytes. Thus an 80 x 25 text mode will require a buffer of 2004 bytes. If SCRMAX is present, that buffer size is always allocated, regardless of the initial text mode. The script buffer is the size required to hold all script commands strung end-to-end with 1 byte between each command. Leading and trailing spaces are not counted. If you use TYPFILE, the contents of the specified file are added to the script buffer. Thus, your script buffer will increase by the size of all files specified in TYPFILE commands. If you specify the same file in two different TYPFILE commands, the file will be loaded into memory twice. If the TYPFILE is executed multiple times within a loop, it only requires buffer space for a single copy of the file. With 604k of available memory, I am able to load a simple script with 35,000 fairly short commands. Versions prior to 2.0 were limited to a total memory allocation of 64k for all buffers. If your script is too large, you may encounter an error allocating script memory, allocating screen buffer memory or you will encounter an error that says you do not have enough memory to spawn your program. 3.4 Timing considerations EXC installs itself as a timer interrupt that is invoked 18.2 times per second. If it has no work to do, it simply executes the system timer interrupt and any other chained timer interrupts and returns. During waits (DELAY, WAITFOR, etc.) the frequency of invocation is reduced to twice per second. This minimizes the impact of the interrupt on the performance of your program. A half-second is forever to most computers. This also means that if you are searching for a string with WAITFOR, and the string flashes on the screen for less than 1/2 second, it will not be detected. Needless to say, EXC does not have but 1/18th of a second to retrieve and execute a command. This is a long time in a fast computer and a short time to a slow system. I try to break commands down into logical parts that are executed in consecutive interrupts. Obviously, there are some commands that will probably take longer than 1/18th of a second, especially on slower systems. EXC is a handler for interrupt 1C. No new 1C interrupts are initiated by the system until the active one is complete. While missing a few interrupts does not hurt EXC or DOS, it could effect a spawned task or TSR that is also servicing 1C interrupts. 3.5 When EXC may not function or cause problems GRAPHICS MODES do not store text characters in video memory, only pixels of differing colors. EXC cannot interpret these pixels into characters, thus commands that are based on screen reads will not work in graphics modes. In order to execute screen reads an writes rapidly due to timing restraints, EXC reads and writes (SHOW, SHOWIN, READ, WAITFOR, WAITSCR, etc.) directly to and from video memory at pages B000-B7FF. If you use DESQVIEW or a special graphics mode that relocates the active video page outside this area, screen reads and writes will not function properly. This also prevents these commands from working properly in CGA modes. All VGA text modes and most SVGA text modes should work properly. If you use programs that change to a different text resolution during processing, please be sure to read about the SCRMAX command. If the program you are executing or a TSR that is loaded in memory moves or otherwise messes with the DOS keyboard buffer, it could cause EXC to malfunction. The most likely symptom would be keys that you TYPE or KEY not showing up or not appearing to have been pressed. EXC uses BIOS interrupt 16h, service 5 to insert the keys into the keyboard buffer. It does not reallocate or move the buffer. It merely creates a new extended buffer that only EXC is aware of. As the timer interrupts occur, EXC always checks to see if anything is in the extended buffer, if so it will move as many keycodes as the PC keyboard buffer will hold into the keyboard buffer, or until the extended buffer is empty. BIOS interrupt 16h is not available until later XT BIOSes. As a general rule, EXC should not be used except on AT models or later. Other factors that could cause EXC to malfunction include programs and TSRs that have timer and keyboard interrupt handlers. Customary usage of these interrupts provides for allowing other installed handlers to perform their function, but you cannot count on all programmers to abide by these conventions. If a TSR or spawned task is using timer interrupt 1C for timing (music, communications, etc.) the timing could be thrown off slightly by EXC, especially in slower systems. In most cases, the effect will be negligible. DOS 5.0's EDIT program, in the pull-down menus, accepts keyboard input from the keyboard buffer, but will not process that key press until it receives an interrupt from the keyboard. EXC cannot simulate hardware interrupts. This is the only program I have seen that does this, but since EDIT is the editor used by QuickBASIC I suppose it will also have the same problem. Other Microsoft products may also use this technique. If you spot another program, video mode or anything else that causes EXC to malfunction, send me a CIS mail or U.S. mail note and I will check it out if I can. I will include a note in this section on those reported problems. 3.6 Error handling If an error occurs that prevents EXC from initiating the program, a message will appear and a DOS ERRORLEVEL of 255 will be returned. If the program is successfully initiated, EXC will return the DOS ERRORLEVEL that the program returned when it completed. There is an RC = nnn message after EXC terminates that displays the DOS ERRORLEVEL returned by your program and by EXC. When COMMAND.COM is executed, the ERRORLEVEL will not reflect what was returned from one of the programs you executed and will always be zero. If EXC encounters an error while processing the script (i.e. an invalid script statement) it will sound two short beeps on the PC speaker and terminate processing any more script commands. When the spawned program completes or is exited, a message will appear specifying the error EXC encountered. If the spawned program terminates before EXC has finished processing the script, all script processing terminates at that point. Keycodes that have been stuffed into the buffer remain there. This allows you to enter a new command on the DOS command line from within your script. You can actually chain EXC processing without the use of a batch file. 4.0 Scripts Scripts can be written with any ASCII text file editor. There is one command per line. Leading and trailing blanks and tabs, lines beginning with a semicolon (;) and blank lines are ignored by the script processor. You may have more than one blank between the command and its parameter(s). All window coordinates specified in some commands are based on the full screen currently displayed. The upper right corner is column 1, row 1. All "string" parameters can accept quotes within the string by placing the characters \q (lower case) in the string where you want a quote to occur. 4.1 Script Commands Note: Brackets ([]) indicate an optional parameter and should not be included as part of the command. Quotes (""), where specified, are required to be entered as part of the parameter. BEEP Sound a short beep on speaker. Useful in debugging scripts. CASE ON The CASE commands enable case-sensitive (ON) or case- CASE OFF insensitive (OFF) compares by WAITFOR and SEARCH. The initial mode is CASE ON. CLEAR Clear the screen. CURSOR col row Move the cursor to the specified coordinates. DELAY n Wait n seconds GOTO label Unconditional branch to label. IFN label If condition set to N, go to label. IFY label If condition set to Y, go to label. HIDEWIN Restore a window displayed with SHOWIN to it's original color attributes. KEY mnemonic [n] Push the key onto the keyboard stack. 'n' is the number of times you want the keycode inserted. LOCATE "string" Reads the screen until the string appears, then moves the cursor to the start of the string. LOOK "string" Test to see if the string was on the screen at the time the screen was last read. Screen reads occur during execution of READ, SEARCH, WAITSCR and WAITFOR commands. Sets "Y/N" condition. ON n label Command will do nothing n times and on pass n+1, it will branch to label. PAUSE Causes the script to be paused as if Scroll Lock were pressed. QUIT Halt processing the script file. End-of-file on the script file issues an automatic QUIT. READ Read the current screen contents. SCRMAX cols rows Specifies the largest screen size that will be used during execution. Used to allocate screen buffer. SEARCH "string" Read screen and test to see if the string is on the screen. Sets "Y/N" condition. SETWAIT nnn Wait nnn seconds before a WAITFOR or WAITSCR times out. SHOW attr "string" Display the string using the specified attribute. Displays at the location specified in SHOWAT. SHOWAT col row Specifies location for subsequent SHOW command strings to be displayed. SHOWIN attr Rewrite the current window text in the specified attribute. TICK n Same as DELAY except n represents 1/18th of a second instead of a second. TIME hhmmss Pause execution of subsequent commands until the specified time of day. TIMEOUT label Branch to label when the next WAITFOR or WAITSCR timeout occurs. TYPE "string" Type the ASCII string. TYPFILE filespec [mnemonic] Type the contents of the specified file. Replace CR/LFs with specified mnemonic. WAITFOR [NOT] "string" Wait until the string appears on the screen. If NOT specified, wait until string is not on screen. WAITSCR Wait until anything changes on the screen. WINCOLS start end Limit screen reads and SHOWIN to the screen columns specified. WINMAX Remove row and column restraints imposed by WINCOLS and WINROWS. Subsequent reads read the full screen. WINROWS start end Limit screen reads and SHOWIN to the screen rows specified. :label Define a label. 4.1.1 BEEP Sounds a short BEEP on the PC speaker. Since there is no visual feedback for many of the operations and branches performed while processing a script, debugging a script can be tough if it is complex. Inserting a BEEP at a strategic location in the script will tell you if processing ever reached that point in the script. NOTE: BEEP does not extend the duration of the timer interrupt. It actually is turned on, then turned off a few ticks later. 4.1.2 CASE ON / CASE OFF The CASE commands determine case sensitivity during SEARCH, LOOK and WAITFOR string searches. If CASE is ON, the search string and screen contents are unchanged during the search, and must match in upper and lower case. If CASE is OFF, the search string and all characters read from the screen are converted to upper-case before the search begins so that case does not influence the result of the compare. The initial CASE mode is ON. NOTE - You must reread the screen after changing the CASE mode before the new CASE mode will take effect. See TIMEOUT for example. 4.1.3 CLEAR The CLEAR command clears the entire screen, not just the active window. It also homes the cursor. Use with caution, this could cause problems within many applications. 4.1.4 CURSOR col row The cursor is moved to the location on the screen (not just within the active window) specified by col and row. Col and row are the screen column and row. CURSOR is designed primarily to be used in a full screen editor or similar applications where the cursor can be moved with the arrow keys. The destination must be in an area of the screen where the active application allows typing. In order for your application to recognize that the cursor has been moved, a series of <LEFT> <RIGHT> <UP> and <DOWN> keys are stuffed into the buffer and executed until the cursor is at the desired location. If you send the cursor to a location that is not in an acceptable input area of the active application, the cursor will jump around the destination, but never get there. You will have to terminate the script with LEFT SHIFT- RIGHT SHIFT. Example: CURSOR 17 41 4.1.5 DELAY n Pauses execution of subsequent script commands until the specified number of seconds has elapsed. Example: DELAY 3 4.1.6 GOTO label Executes an unconditional branch to the command following the specified label. See ON for example. 4.1.7 HIDEWIN Restore the active window to its original attributes after a SHOWIN command has be executed. If no SHOWIN has been executed, the results will not be pleasing to the eye. Also, screen reading commands must not be executed between a SHOWIN and its corresponding HIDEWIN. See SHOWIN for reasons for using SHOWIN and HIDEWIN. See SHOWIN for example. 4.1.8 IFN label This tests the results of a previous SEARCH or LOOK command. If the search string was not located on the screen, processing resumes at the command following the specified label. If the string was found on the screen, processing resumes with the next command after the IFY command. If no previous SEARCH or LOOK has been issued, processing continues after branching to the specified label. Thus, without a preceding SEARCH or LOOK command, the IFN command becomes an unconditional branch equivalent to a GOTO command. The IFN statement does not have to be the next command after the SEARCH or LOOK. Example: :Loop READ LOOK "XYZ" IFN LoopEnd . . . GOTO Loop :LoopEnd . . . 4.1.9 IFY label This tests the results of a previous SEARCH or LOOK command. If the search string was located on the screen, processing resumes at the command following the specified label. If the string was not found on the screen, processing resumes with the next command after the IFY command. If no previous SEARCH or LOOK has been issued, the result is negative and processing continues without branching. Thus, without a preceding SEARCH or LOOK command, the IFY statement appears as a null or nonexistent command. The IFY statement does not have to be the next command after the SEARCH or LOOK. See ON for example. 4.1.10 KEY <mnemonic> [n] KEY is used to enter special keys that require mnemonics (special names enclosed in <> that represent their function) in order to input them to the keyboard buffer. If n is specified, it is the number of times <mnemonic> will be inserted into the keyboard buffer. For instance, if you wanted three TABs, you would type "KEY <TAB> 3". If n is not specified, it is assumed to be 1. The following key mnemonics are recognized: Single keys mnemonics: <BKSP> <DEL> <DOWN> <END> <ENTER> <F1>-<F12> <ESC> <HOME> <INS> <LEFT> <PGDN> <PGUP> <PRTSC> <RIGHT> <TAB> <UP> <GRAY5> <GRAY+> <GRAY-> <GRAY*> <x> <SPACE> Two key mnemonics: Shift key combinations: <SHF+s> or <SHF+x> CTL key combinations: <CTL+s> or <CTL+x> ALT key combinations: <ALT+s> or <ALT+x> x = any ASCII value that can be entered from the keyboard with a single key, or SHIFT + a single key. s = any of the single key mnemonic keywords or character except <PRTSC>. NOTE: Some SHF, CTL and ALT key combinations are undefined. See the keycode table in Appendix A. There are no mnemonics for entering 3-or-more-key combinations. To detect these, a program must interrogate the keyboard flags to see if CTL, ALT or SHIFT are being held down. This can only be done in real time as the keys are being pressed, therefore they cannot be simulated by placing these non- existent key codes into the keyboard buffer. Examples: KEY <ESC> 3 KEY <CTL+F10> KEY <ENTER> 4.1.11 LOCATE "string" The LOCATE command is mostly a combination of WAITFOR and CURSOR. You provide a string. Processing will be suspended until that string appears in the active window or a timeout occurs. Once the string is located, the cursor is moved, via a sequence of arrow keys stuffed in the keyboard buffer, to the location of the first character of the string. LOCATE is designed primarily to be used in a full screen editor or similar application where the cursor can be moved with the arrow keys. The located string must be in an area of the screen where the active application allows typing. 4.1.12 LOOK "string" Look at the last screen that was read to see if it contains the value in "string". The entire active window contents will be searched to see if "string" was being displayed when the last screen read occurred. The string may be any valid screen characters. There is no wait involved as with WAITFOR. The screen contents are read each time a READ, SEARCH, WAITSCR, WAITFOR or LOCATE command is executed. In the case of WAITFOR and WAITSCR, multiple reads occur until a search string or change is detected. The contents of the screen buffer remain as they were when the last read was executed at the time the search string or change was detected or a timeout occurred. Once it has been determined whether or not "string" was being displayed, an internal variable is set to "Y" or "N". IFY and IFN can then be used to test the result of the search and then branch accordingly. 4.1.13 ON n label For the first n executions of the ON command, execution simply passes to the next command. On the next pass through the ON command, a branch occurs to label. Example: :LOOP ON 5 ENDLOOP SEARCH "ERROR:" IFY EXIT TYPE "xyz" - These two instructions are executed five KEY <DOWN> - times unless an error message pops up. GOTO LOOP :ENDLOOP KEY <ENTER> :EXIT QUIT 4.1.14 PAUSE PAUSE simulates pressing the Scroll Lock key to pause the script execution. See the section on interrupt keys for a description of pause processing. 4.1.15 QUIT [n] QUIT stops processing a script at the point where it is encountered during script execution. The same result is obtained when there are no more script commands to process. Normally on exit, EXC returns the return code of the executed program. If a number (0-255) is specified with the QUIT command, that value is returned as the DOS ERRORLEVEL return code instead of what was passed from the spawned program. An example of why you would want to set a return code: I use EXC to control PROCOMM PLUS to execute a script that synchro- nizes my clock with the Naval Observatory. I need to know if it fails. I can detect the error with my EXC script, but when I exit PCPLUS, PCPLUS always returns a return code of 255. Using the QUIT nn format, I can set a return code of 1 on error and 0 when there is no error. If COMMAND.COM was invoked by the EXC command line, QUIT types EXIT and keys <ENTER> in order for EXC to be able to complete. If you issue the QUIT while another program is active, you will not obtain the desired results. See TIMEOUT for example. 4.1.16 READ Reads the active window for subsequent testing with the LOOK command. Using a READ followed by several LOOKs that examine the same screen contents can be much more efficient than issuing several SEARCHes, each of which reads the entire screen contents. 4.1.17 SCRMAX cols rows I hate including technical parameters in my commands, but this one is a must for successful operation of EXC in larger screen modes. Specify SCRMAX if you expect a spawned application to change to a text screen mode larger than the text mode in use when EXC is initiated. For instance, if you are in DOS with 25 rows of 80 column text and you initiate an editor with EXC and the editor places the screen in 80x50 text mode, specify "SCRMAX 80 50" in your script (no quotes). Since this command is processed when the script is being loaded into memory and not after the script processing begins, it may be placed anywhere within your script. Logically, it should occur at the start. If multiple SCRMAX commands are encountered, only the last one input will be used. If your application will use multiple screen sizes, specify the largest (in area: cols times rows) that will be used. If you do not include SCRMAX in your script, it is assumed that the screen size in effect when EXC is loaded and before the spawned program is loaded will be the maximum size needed. The range of text mode screen sizes supported by EXC includes from 40x20 to 200x100 characters. SCRMAX can have a major impact in the amount of memory occupied by EXC. It would seem that the logical thing for EXC to do would be to examine the screen size before each read and allocate the screen memory buffer accordingly at that time. However, since EXC spawns another program which can, and often does, allocate all of the remaining memory, EXC must pre- allocate the largest buffer that will be required before spawning the program. A screen buffer requires the same number of bytes as the rows times the columns, plus 4 bytes. Thus, an 80x25 VGA text screen will require a 2,004 byte buffer. I actually had a user contact me who uses a 132x66 display (great eyes or a huge monitor!). This would require 132 * 66 or 8,712 bytes of memory. If you do not specify SCRMAX and your program bumps up the screen size, the effective area of the larger screen is the upper left quadrant corresponding to the size of the screen when EXC was loaded. This is also true if you specify an SCRMAX smaller than the largest screen. In other words, if you specify SCRMAX 80 25 and your program changes to a 132x44 screen, Only the first 80 columns and 25 rows are read by EXC's READ, WAITFOR, WAITSCR, LOCATE and SEARCH commands. If all of the strings you search for and changes you wish to detect are in the upper left of the screen, you can save memory by specifying a smaller SCRMAX size. You would really have to be in a memory crunch to bother with this approach, I suspect. Examples: SCRMAX 80 50 SCRMAX 132 25 4.1.18 SEARCH "string" At any point in processing the script, you may check to see if certain information is on the screen. The entire active window will be read and searched to see if "string" is being displayed. The string may be any valid screen characters. There is no wait involved as with WAITFOR. Once it has been determined whether or not the string is being displayed, an internal variable is set to "Y" or "N". IFY and IFN can then be used to test the result of the search and then branch accordingly. SEARCH is basically a READ followed immediately by a LOOK. See ON for example. 4.1.19 SETWAIT seconds This sets the timeout limit for WAITSCR, WAITFOR and LOCATE commands. If processing is waiting after invoking any of these commands and the specified number of seconds elapses, TIMEOUT processing, described under TIMEOUT, will be invoked. You may change the SETWAIT timeout limit at any point while processing the script. If SETWAIT is set to zero, no timeout ever takes place and EXC will wait indefinitely during WAITFOR, WAITSCR and LOCATE. The initial value of the SETWAIT timer is zero. See TIMEOUT for example. 4.1.20 SHOW attr "string" SHOW displays a string at a given location on the screen. This command is mostly useful for debugging scripts by displaying information about the progress of the script during execution. While mostly harmless, it can cause problems if a spawned program reads screen memory. Use it cautiously. The string is displayed at the location specified in the last executed SHOWAT command. The screen attribute is the sum of a background value plus a foreground value from the table below. Add 128 if you want it to blink. Background colors: Foreground colors: 0 Black 0 Black 16 Blue 1 Blue 32 Green 2 Green 48 Cyan 3 Cyan 64 Red 4 Red 80 Magenta 5 Magenta 96 Brown 6 Brown 112 Light Gray 7 Light Gray 8 Dark Gray 9 Light Blue 10 Light Green 11 Light Cyan 12 Light Red 13 Light Magenta 14 Yellow 15 White See TIMEOUT for example. 4.1.21 SHOWAT col row Specifies the location on the screen where subsequent SHOW commands will display their strings. The location does not have to be within the active window set via WINROWS and WINCOLS. See TIMEOUT for example. 4.1.22 SHOWIN attr SHOWIN is designed as an aid to script writing. Sometimes you will want to restrict the active window to certain rows and columns, thus creating a smaller active window for processing commands that read the screen. To make sure you have calculated the correct area for the active window, you can use SHOWWIN to show you where the active window is located on the screen. SHOWIN will change the attribute of all characters and spaces within the active window to that specified. See the SHOW command for attribute values. HIDEWIN can then be used to restore the window to its normal attributes. There must never be any screen reading commands (WAITFOR, WAITSCR, SEARCH, READ and LOCATE) executed between the SHOWIN and its associated HIDEWIN. Example: WINCOLS 10 30 WINROWS 12 22 SHOWIN PAUSE HIDEWIN 4.1.23 TICK n Pauses execution of subsequent script commands until the specified number of system clock ticks (18.2 per second) have elapsed. Example: TICK 12 4.1.24 TIME hhmmss Pauses execution of subsequent script commands until the specified time of day. The time must be specified in 24-hour format. If the time has already passed when the TIME command is processed, processing is suspended until the next time the specified time of day occurs. Leading zeros are required if the hour, minute or second is less that two digits. For instance two minutes after one in the morning is entered as 010200. Note- The real time clock (set by the DOS TIME command in AT and later machines using DOS 3.x or later) and the system timer (which EXC uses) are not always in synch to the second. There may be a few seconds variation. Example: ; At 1:15 PM, set off an alarm that can be shut off with LEFT SHIFT-RIGHT ; SHIFT TIME 131500 :Loop BEEP GOTO Loop 4.1.25 TIMEOUT label When the timeout limit specified by SETWAIT expires while waiting for a WAITSCR, WAITFOR or LOCATE, TIMEOUT processing is invoked. Timeout processing is as follows: If no TIMEOUT command has yet been issued in the script, processing of the script is halted at this point. Otherwise, the control will pass to the command following the label specified in the last TIMEOUT command encountered. Example: SETWAIT 20 TIMEOUT TimedOut SHOWAT 17 25 WINCOLS 20 40 WINROWS 15 22 CASE ON WAITFOR "XYZ" SH0W 79 "Found XYZ in window." QUIT :TimedOut SH0W 79 "Timed out waiting for XYZ to appear in window." WINMAX CASE OFF . . . 4.1.26 TYPE "string" The string following the TYPE command contains ASCII characters to be placed in the keyboard buffer. ASCII character are those with a decimal equivalent of 0-127. Do not use high-bit characters (graphics characters, foreign language characters and most symbols) that range from 128-255 in their decimal equivalents. These characters hove no valid keycode associated with them. To enter special keys such as function keys, ENTER, ESC, etc., use the KEY command followed by the required mnemonic. You cannot enter these mnemonics with the TYPE command. The string must be enclosed in quotes. See ON for example. 4.1.27 TYPFILE filespec [mnemonic] TYPFILE allows you to type the contents of a file into the keyboard buffer. The filespec is the filename with optional path information. A possible use for this would be to feed an electronic mail message to a communications program. Each line of the file is entered as is (no deletion of leading or trailing spaces, conversion of quotes, etc.). If no mnemonic is specified, the carriage return/line feed characters at the end of each line are ignored by EXC, and nothing is entered in their place. If a mnemonic is specified, carriage return/line feed pairs are converted to the key mnemonic specified. For instance, if the file is being copied into a word processor or editor that uses the ENTER key to move to the next line, you may want to convert CR/LFs to <ENTER>. If you want the word processor to split the lines according to its margins, you would not specify a mnemonic or you would specify <SPACE>. Specifying <SPACE> for the mnemonic will keep the last word on a line from running into the first word on the next line when the CR/LF is removed. All other key mnemonics are described under the KEY command. Since EXC only has a 256 byte extended keyboard buffer, it feeds a maximum of 80 bytes every clock tick into the extended buffer. This should give time for the spawned program to read characters from the buffer and will usually prevent the buffer from overflowing. Please see the notes in section 3 regarding memory usage to determine the effects on memory of using TYPFILE. 4.1.28 WAITFOR [NOT] "string" No further script file command will be processed until "string" appears on the screen. The entire screen will be searched for "string". The string may be any valid screen characters. If the string does not appear before the SETWAIT limit expires, TIMEOUT processing will be invoked. If NOT is specified, processing will be halted until "string" is not on the screen. This is handy for waiting on a "Please wait.." type message to disappear. Since WAITFOR reads the screen each 1/2 second, values that flash on the screen for less than 1/2 second may not be detected. See TIMEOUT for example. WAITFOR NOT example: WAITFOR NOT "XYZ" 4.1.29 WAITSCR Wait until there is any change to the screen before executing the next script command. If there is no screen change before the SETWAIT limit expires, TIMEOUT processing will be invoked. 4.1.30 WINCOLS start end Sometimes you may want to restrict your screen searches to a certain area of the screen. WINCOLS allows you to specify what columns (far left = 1) you want read by all commands that read the screen (READ, SEARCH, WAITFOR, WAITSCR and LOCATE). Specify the starting and ending columns inclusively. By combining WINCOLS with WINROWS, you can restrict reads to a selected box within the screen. This is referred to as the active window. Use WINMAX to return the active window to the full screen. See TIMEOUT and SHOWIN for examples. 4.1.31 WINMAX If you have restricted the active window with WINCOLS and/or WINROWS, you can return the active window to the full screen area by issuing a WINMAX command. The size of the new active window will be determined by the currently displayed columns and rows, but never exceeding the values specified in SCRMAX. See TIMEOUT for example. 4.1.32 WINROWS start end Sometimes you may want to restrict your screen searches to a certain area of the screen. WINROWS allows you to specify what rows (top = 1) you want read by all commands that read the screen (READ, SEARCH, WAITFOR, WAITSCR and LOCATE). Specify the starting and ending rows inclusively. By combining WINCOLS with WINROWS, you can restrict reads to a selected box within the screen. This is referred to as the active window. Use WINMAX to return the active window to the full screen. See TIMEOUT and SHOWIN for examples. 4.2 Labels Labels can be up to 15 characters long and may contain letters, numbers, special characters or spaces. They are treated as upper case regardless of how they are coded. Duplicate labels are not allowed in the same script. END, end and End would all be considered duplicate labels. If duplicate labels exist, all branches to the duplicate labels will go to the first one in the script. Labels must be immediately preceded by a colon (:) and placed on a line which does not contain any commands. labels are used as destinations for branching commands (TIMEOUT, GOTO, ON, IFY and IFN). It doesn't hurt a thing if you want to use labels for comments, but the semicolon (;) remark is a better approach since there is no length limitation on remarks and they will not be confused with labels that are actual destinations. See TIMEOUT and ON for examples. 4.3 Remarks Anything on a line for which the first non-blank character is a semicolon (;) is treated as a comment line and is ignored by the script processor. 4.4 Environment variable substituion You may use envionment strings in any command parameter by typing %VAR% where you want the environmentstring labeled VAR to be substituted. Here are some examples: Given these environment varables: SET ATTR=15 SET ME=Gary SET LAST=Crider SET FULL="Gary Crider" SET FULL2=Gary Crider SHOW %ATTR% "I am %ME%" would equate to SHOW 15 "I am Gary" TYPE "%ME% %LAST%" would equate to TYPE "Gary Crider" TYPE %FULL% would equate to TYPE "Gary Crider" TYPE "%FULL2%" would equate to TYPE "Gary Crider" DELAY %ATTR% would equate to DELAY 15 SHOW %ATTR% "%FULL%" would equate to SHOW 15 "\qGary Crider\q" TYPE "%LAST%, %ME%" would equate to TYPE "Crider, Gary" The substitution is made before EXC begins to evaluate the parameters. This could be handy on networks where the values keyed or searched might vary with the user's network ID, which could be stored in an environment variable. Many other uses also come to mind. 4.5 Example Script The following example demonstrates the use of most of the more commonly used commands. Please note that the QUIT statement after the End label is not needed since the same action takes place when there are no more commands to execute. Also please note that the SEARCH and IFN statements after the Loop label could more easily be accomplished with a WAITFOR command. This just demonstrates that looping logic is supported in scripts. SETWAIT 30 TIMEOUT End CASE OFF WAITFOR "Entries" CASE ON TYPE "FO" WAITFOR "OPEN CATALOG" TYPE "E:\NOVLIB\" KEY <TAB> KEY <ESC> TYPE "NOVLIB.L11" KEY <CTL+ENTER> WAITSCR :Loop SEARCH "NOVLIB.L11" IFN Loop TYPE "SLADDNAEA" KEY <CTL+ENTER> DELAY 2; WAITFOR NOT "Sorting Index" TYPE "FS" KEY <CTL+ENTER> DELAY 2 WAITFOR NOT "Please wait." :End BEEP KEY <ALT+X> QUIT For a more comprehensive example, see the script file, TESTEXC.SCR. Please read the comments before and after that script. APPENDIX A Installation EXC is distributed in a ZIP file called EXC.ZIP. It contains the following files: EXC.EXE The executable file for EXC. EXC.DOC The documentation file. HELP.TXT Script command quick reference. It is formatted as script file comments so that it can be included in you script for quick referencing.z TESTEXC.SCR Example script used to test EXC functionality. TESTEXC.TXT Text file for testing TYPFILE with TESTEXC.SCR. EXC.Vnn Text description of updates in version nn. PRODUCTS.DOC Description of other Parity Solutions products. For best results, unzip the file into a directory on your PATH. If you don't use a directory in your path, you will have to designate the directory containing EXC.EXE when executing the program. If you have a utility directory that is on your PATH, this is an excellent location for EXC. An example installation would be: C: CD \UNTIL COPY [path]EXC.ZIP PKUNZIP EXC DEL EXC.ZIP The PKUNZIP program is by PKWARE, Inc. and is available in many CompuServe forums under the file name of PKZ110.EXE. Since you are reading this doc files, you have obviously already managed to unZIP the distribution file. If it is not currently in your path, simply copy all of the files to a directory in your path. Keep the EXC.ZIP file anywhere you like, but give plenty of copies, as is, to your friends. If you register EXC, you are not licensed to give your serial number to anybody without first removing the serialization from your copy. APPENDIX B Keycode Table Although you do not need to know these codes to write EXC scripts, the following table does show you which combinations are defined and available by using the appropriate mnemonics. Do not try to use combinations which indicate N/A in the table. Key Norm Shift Ctrl Alt ---- ---- ----- ---- --- A 1E61 1E41 1E01 1E00 B 3062 3042 3002 3000 C 2E63 2E42 2E03 2E00 D 2064 2044 2004 2000 E 1265 1245 1205 1200 F 2166 2146 2106 2100 G 2267 2247 2207 2200 H 2368 2348 2308 2300 I 1769 1749 1709 1700 J 246A 244A 240A 2400 K 256B 254B 250B 2500 L 266C 264C 260C 2600 M 326D 324D 320D 3200 N 316E 314E 310E 3100 O 186F 184F 180F 1800 P 1970 1950 1910 1900 Q 1071 1051 1011 1000 R 1372 1352 1312 1300 S 1F73 1F53 1F13 1F00 T 1474 1454 1414 1400 U 1675 1655 1615 1600 V 2F76 2F56 2F16 2F00 W 1177 1157 1117 1100 X 2D78 2D58 2D18 2D00 Y 1579 1559 1519 1500 Z 2C7A 2C5A 2C1A 2C00 1 0231 0221 N/A 7800 2 0332 0340 0300 7900 3 0433 0423 N/A 7A00 4 0534 0524 N/A 7B00 5 0635 0625 N/A 7C00 6 0736 075E 071E 7D00 7 0837 0826 N/A 7E00 8 0938 092A N/A 7F00 9 0A39 0A28 N/A 8000 0 0B30 0B29 N/A 8100 , 332C 333C N/A N/A . 342E 343E N/A N/A / 352F 353F N/A N/A ; 273B 273A N/A N/A ' 2827 2822 N/A N/A [ 1A5B 1A7B 1A1B N/A ] 1B5D 1B7D 1B1D N/A ` 2960 297E N/A N/A - 0C2D 0C5F 0C1F 8200 = 0D3D 0D2B N/A 8300 \ 2B5C 2B7C 2B1C N/A F1 3B00 5400 5E00 6800 F2 3C00 5500 5F00 6900 F3 3D00 5600 6000 6A00 F4 3E00 5700 6100 6B00 F5 3F00 5800 6200 6C00 F6 4000 5900 6300 6D00 F7 4100 5A00 6400 6E00 F8 4200 5B00 6500 6F00 F9 4300 5C00 6600 7000 F10 4400 5D00 6700 7100 Enter 1C0D 1C0D 1C0A N/A Ins 5200 5230 N/A N/A Del 5300 532E N/A N/A Esc 011B 011B 011B N/A Home 4700 4737 7700 N/A End 4F00 4F31 7500 N/A PgUp 4900 4939 8400 N/A PgDn 5100 5133 7600 N/A <Tab> 0F09 0F00 N/A N/A <BackSpace> 0E08 0E08 0E7F N/A <LeftArrow> 4B00 4B34 7300 N/A <RightArrow> 4D00 4D36 7400 N/A <UpArrow> 4800 4838 N/A N/A <DownArrow> 5000 5032 N/A N/A <Gray 5> N/A 4C35 N/A N/A <Gray *> 372A N/A 7200 N/A <Gray -> 4A2D 4A2D N/A N/A <Gray +> 4E2B 4E2B N/A N/A <Space> 3920 N/A N/A N/A <F11> 8500 8700 8900 8B00 <F12> 8600 8800 8A00 8C00 In addition, the <PRTSC> (print screen) mnemonic can be used in EXC to cause a screen print. The <PRTSC> cannot be placed in the keyboard buffer since it does not have a key code. KEY <PRTSC> is executed immediately. APPENDIX C Disclaimer BECAUSE OF THE DIVERSE NATURE OF COMPUTER EQUIPMENT AND EXPERTISE OF USERS, PARITY SOLUTIONS AND GARY C. CRIDER MAKE NO WARRANTY ON THE EXC PROGRAM WHATSOEVER, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. THE USER ASSUMES ALL RISK OF DAMAGE TO DATA OR EQUIPMENT RESULTING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FROM THE USE OR MISUSE OF THIS PROGRAM PRODUCT. USERS ARE ADVISED TO TEST PROGRAMS AND SCRIPTS THOROUGHLY ON DATA FOR WHICH A BACKUP EXITS. ANY LIABILITY OF THE AUTHOR OR PARITY SOLUTIONS IS LIMITED TO REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF THE REGISTRATION FEE. APPENDIX D Support I have tried to test the program to the fullest, but I am limited as to systems and configurations with which to test. I have been programming for 18 years and the one thing I know for sure is that bug free programs are very few and far between. I can only promise to support the program to the best of my ability and provide fixes as expeditiously as possible. Anyone can report problems and suggest changes. Registered users get top priority in resolving their problems. There are three ways you can report problems. The preferred method is to contact me through CIS mail (not forum messages). My CIS ID is 71760,3413. You can also write me at: Gary C. Crider Parity Solutions 1105 Burgess Court Arlington, TX 76015 The last method is to phone (817) 467-7818. Since I am the sole technical support and the line is also used for my network consulting business, it is often hard to get through to me. Please call and leave a message between 7:30 am and 5:30 pm Central time. No matter which method you use, please give a brief description of your problem, your registration serial number if you are registered, and your phone number. If I need more information, I will contact you as soon as I can. When I have a solution, I will contact you however you prefer. Never post your serial number on forum messages. CIS mail is OK. I seldom read forum messages and they are not private. I work full time, have a consulting business to run in my spare time and write programs instead of sleeping. So please be a little patient with me. To keep prices this low, new releases are posted on CompuServe in the NOVLIB, IBMSYS and ZENITH forums, and on ZiffNet in the PBS forum. APPENDIX E Registration I begin with an apology. I hate programs that in any way inhibit func- tionality or performance for the shareware version. But when it came down to feeding the family and paying the bills, I had a change of heart and inserted a pesky notice that pops up at the beginning and gets on your nerves. I chose this approach above that of limited functionality. The program's full capabilities are available for you to evaluate before you invest your hard- earned money. Registered users will receive a unique serial number and instructions on how to serialize the program. Serialization can be re-applied to updated versions and in no way hinders your use of the program. You can compress or decompress the program with no effect (LZEXE or PKLITE). I use Fabrice Bellard's LZEXE program on EXC.EXE before distribution. As a registered user, you will be able to update without re-registration or additional fees. You will also be kept on my PRIVATE mailing list to receive additional information on other Parity Solutions products. Registered users will be entitled to a discount on any present or future Parity Solutions software. To register your copy, please send $20 US ($80 per file server on LANS) check or money order (sorry, no credit cards yet) to: Gary C. Crider Parity Solutions 1105 Burgess Court Arlington, TX 76015 Or, you can register online quickly and simply in Compuserve. Simply GO SWREG and register ID #753. Your registration will be added to your Compuserve bill. International exchange was never easier. If you send your CIS id or register via CIS:SWREG, your registration will be sent to you via CIS mail, along with instructions on how to serialize your copy of EXC. This usually involves one day or less turnaround. Each license gives you or your company a single use permit for EXC. It is not restricted to a single machine as long as no two users can be simul- taneously using the program. As Borland says, "treat it like a book." As an example, if you register EXC for your home computer, but during the day you use a portable or a computer at work, you may keep EXC on both machines as long as no one is at home using it on your home computer. LAN licenses grant rights to all workstations on the same physical LAN. If internetworking, a license must exist for each file server that contains a copy of EXC.EXE. If two or more file servers exist on a single LAN strictly for mirroring data and fault-tolerance, these will be counted as a single file server for licensing purposes. If in doubt, contact me. We can work out an agreement. Site licensing is also available on a negotiated price basis. I guarantee it will be an economical alternative to buying licenses for each user. You may freely distribute the original EXC.ZIP file in any way you see fit other than selling it. Users' groups and shareware distribution services may charge a reasonable fee for the medium and duplication costs. Bulletin boards may not charge additional fees for downloading this specific program, other than normal connect-time and/or membership charges. You are NOT licensed to give anyone your serial number unless you first remove all serialization from your computer. You may then no longer use that serial number. Only Parity Solutions has the authority to issue serial numbers.