TPUG - Toronto PET Users Group/TPUG Users Group CD/TPUG Users Group CD.iso/MSDOS/(m)aan/BROWSE.DOC

Text File | 1988-12-28 | 5KB | 301 lines

              Browse                                 Charles Petzold
              Command
              _______________________________________________________

              Purpose   Permits scrolling forward and backward
                        throughout a file without use of a word
                        processing program.

              Format:   BROWSE [d:][path]filename[.ext] [/W]

              Remarks:  The DOS TYPE command does not permit you to
                        scroll ahead or go back to previously
                        displayed material in a file.  It also exits
                        at the first instance of Ctrl-Z (ASCII 26,
                        conventionally used as an End-of-File
                        marker), making it impossible to scan binary
                        (e.g. .COM) files for error messages,
                        copyright notices, and the like.

                        BROWSE.COM overcomes these shortcomings,
                        giving you the chance to go immediately to
                        the top or to the end of a file (the Home and
                        End keys, respectively), to the succeeding or
                        previous screen (PgUp and PgDn), or to move
                        up or down a line at a time (Up Arrow or Down
                        Arrow).  To return to DOS, simply press the
                        Escape key or Ctrl-Break.

                        Wide displays, e.g. a spreadsheet file, are
                        not broken at 80 columns, as with TYPE.
                        BROWSE ignores carriage returns (ASCII 13),
                        breaking lines only on line feeds (ASCII 10).
                        The Right Arrow key scrolls the display to
                        the right in eight-character increments (see
                        Note 3 below) to view wide displays; the Left
                        Arrow key returns you immediately to column zero.

                        BROWSE expands tab characters (ASCII 9) to
                        the next eight-character boundary, but does
                        no other character processing unless the /W
                        parameter is specified.  Use of the /W option
                        permits using BROWSE with WordStar files.

                        Notes:

                        1.   BROWSE can run under TopView or Windows;
                             specify "writes directly to screen" in
                             the .PIF and use the default 52K memory
                             requirement.  (The program actually
                             requires only approximately 33K to run.)
                             For the TopView PIF, specify that the
                             program intercepts Interrupt 23h.

                        2.   BROWSE is compatible with the IBM
                             monochrome, CGA, and EGA displays, and














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                             will even run in the EGA 43-line mode.
                             Files prepared with word-processors that
                             employ a one-line-per-paragraph format
                             (such as Microsoft Word and XyWrite) may
                             to require excessive right scrolling,
                             however.

                        3.   BROWSE.COM can be patched with DEBUG so
                             that its right-scroll jumps by more than
                             the default eight characters.  The
                             address to patch is 10F in the .COM
                             file.  After entering DEBUG BROWSE.COM
                             type

                                  E 10F

                             and the default value (08h) will appear.
                             Type the desired hexadecimal number (28
                             for a 40-column increment; 50 for an 80-
                             column increment) and press <Enter>.
                             Then type W<Enter> to write to the disk
                             and Q<Enter> to quit DEBUG.

                        4.   Requires DOS 2.0 or later.