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KWIKHELP
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KWIKHELP.DOC
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1994-12-01
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243 lines
┌───┐ JIM TUCKER ■ SOFTWARE
┌─┴─┐ ├──┐ 4/635 Brighton Road
│ ┌┴─┴┐ │ Seacliff
└──┤ ├─┘ South AUSTRALIA 5049
└───┘ ═════════════════════════════════════════════════
Phone 61 8 377 1175
jtucker@adam.com.au
This documentation describes:
KWIKTEXT.COM
KWIKHELP.COM
KWIKGRAB.COM
KWIKVIEW.COM
BIN2TEXT.COM
BIN2ASM.COM, BIN2C.COM, BIN2PAS.COM
THIS is a complete version of these program and this is the only
nag message you will see. If you find them useful registration
is $10. Thank you. - JT.
PLEASE distribute this package. You may bundle these programs
with any software you sell. The A86 source code is included.
Copyright is retained for the assembled programs only. No
copyright is claimed on the source code and this may be used for
whatever purpose you like.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
KWIKTEXT.COM
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
KWIKTEXT.COM is a simple DOS utility which creates resident (TSR)
screens. These pop up to display anything you like... help or
cheat screens. It is very easy to use.
Write a plain ASCII text file of 25 lines or less. Call it
anything. We'll use simply SAMPLE.TXT. Now at the command line
enter: KWIKTEXT SAMPLE.TXT <enter>. Presto! You have a popup TSR
that will display whenever you hit the hotkey. Dead simple.
There are two optional switches.
SPECIFYING A HOTKEY
/K= You may change the default hotkey <CTRL-ALT-T> using /K=x
where "x" is the character you want with CTRL-ALT depressed. If
you use /K=# this provides plain F1 (with no CTRL-ALT) which is
often used for help.
You may load as many popup screen as you like, so long as you
have enough memory. Each screen uses approximately 4.5K. If you
do not specify a hotkey or use the same hotkey for each one you
may pop them up in succession using the same key. The last one
loaded will pop first.
You may use alternative hotkeys (/K=1 /K=2 /K=3 for example) if
you want to load several KWIKTEXT screens with individual
hotkeys. If you specify a shift character ("*" for example) use
<CTRL-ALT-LEFT SHIFT>.
SPECIFYING A COLOR
The second option is /C=nn where nn is the HEX number of the
color you want your text to display. For a display of the color
numbers simply enter KWIKTEXT /C at the system prompt.
Text files must be 2050 bytes or less (a screenful) and lines
after line 25 will be ignored (and may be used for comment).
KWIKTEXT may be loaded high (HL).
That's all there is to KWIKTEXT. Enjoy it.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
KWIKHELP.COM
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
KWIKHELP.COM is a simple DOS utility which loads resident (TSR)
screens. These pop up to display a binary screen in color.
KWIKHELP FILENAME.BIN [/K=Hotkey]
You may change the default hotkey <CTRL-ALT-H> using /K=x where
"x" is the character you want with CTRL-ALT depressed. /K=#
provides plain F1 (with no CTRL-ALT) which is often used for
help.
You may load as many popup screen as you like, so long as you
have enough memory. Each screen uses approximately 4.5K. If you
do not specify a hotkey or use the same hotkey for each one you
may pop them up in succession using the same key. The last one
loaded will popup first.
You may use alternative hotkeys (/K=1 /K=2 /K=3 for example) if
you want to load several KWIKHELP screens with individual
hotkeys. If you specify a shift character ("*" for example) use
<CTRL-ALT-LEFT SHIFT>.
BINARY FILES
The color file must be a screen binary file, exactly 4000 bytes.
It may be named anything. I use ".BIN" here for clarity. The file
may be created with an ANSI editor or a screen saved on disk with
a utility such as KWIGRAB (inluded in this package). KWIKHELP
will not load the file unless it is precisely 4000 bytes.
The standard PC screen is composed of 25x80 characters (2000).
Each character has a color "attribute" in memory with the
character. The attribute sets the foreground and background
colors as well as foreground brightness and a blinking attribute.
This means there are exactly 4000 bytes.
The public domain is littered with ANSI graphic displays which
you can convert into prompts. However, KWIKHELP does not
recognise an ANSI file and you must edit it and convert it to
binary. One of the best editors we have seen is the curiously
named LAUGHING DOG available as LDOG*.ZIP from many shareware
distributors and bulletin boards. (Currently LDOG114.ZIP).
This is the BEST program for use with KWIKHELP and all round
screen editing. It allows you to capture screens and turn them
into ".BIN" files, ANSI files and self-displaying ".COM" files.
As well, it can provide a screen as source code in several
programming languages including BASIC, ASM, C, and PASCAL. Truly
excellent.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
KWIKGRAB.COM
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
KWIKGRAB.COM is an effective yet small "text screen grabber". It
remains resident and uses about 5K of memory. Installation is
simple:
KWIKGRAB [/K=Hotkey] | [/U[nload]]
The default hotkey combination is <CTRL-ALT-G>. You may change
this each time you load using /K=x where "x" is the character
used with CTRL-ALT depressed.
If you specify a shift character ("*" for example) use <CTRL-ALT-
LEFT SHIFT>.
When the hotkey combination is pressed the contents of the
current screen will be saved to a file. This will be a 4000-byte
image of the screen with text and colors. The file will be
suitable for use in my other programs such as COLRBOOT, KWIKHELP
and KWIKVIEW.
You may change directories without having to keep track of the
files. KWIKGRAB saves files in the directory from which it is
loaded. KWIKGRAB may be stored in a directory in your path and
loaded from any drive or directory.
Filenames begin with SCREEN00.BIN and the number is incremented
with each screen. Existing files will not be overwritten. If the
number exists KWIKGRAB will find the next available high number.
If SCREEN99.BIN is reached KWIKGRAB increments the high digit
from A-Z (from A0 to Z9).
KWIKGRAB is careful not to crash into other programs (especially
DOS). For example, you cannot save a screen to disk while DOS is
formatting a disk!
When the hotkey combination is pressed the current screen is
stored in memory with a brief display (the display is only to
tell you something happened). When a time slice is available
(usually immediately) the memory is written to the disk file and
the "OK" message flashes.
KWIKGRAB may be loaded high (LH). If DOS does not have enough
space it will load it in conventional memory without telling you.
It uses the same amount of memory as its physical size on disk.
KWIKGRAB must be loaded before Windows.
KWIKGRAB can be unloaded from memory with the /U switch provided
no subsequent programs have taken taken over certain memory
locations.
If KWIKGRAB encounters a critical error such as a full disk or a
missing diskette for safety's sake it becomes disabled. You must
unload it then reload it.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
BIN2TEXT
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
BIN2TEXT converts ".BIN" files grabbed with KWIKGRAB (or any
other screen binary files) to plain text files. It strips the
color attributes and removes trailing spaces at the end of each
line.
BIN2TEXT FILE1 FILE2
FILE1 is the source (".BIN") file and FILE2 is the text file you
want to create. There are no switches. Screens saved with
KWIKGRAB can be converted to text, edited with any plain word
processor and used as help files with KWIKTEXT.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
BIN2ASM, BIN2C, BIN2PAS
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
BIN2ASM converts ".BIN" files grabbed with KWIKGRAB (or any other
screen binary files) to ASM data. This makes it easy to include a
screen in an assembler language program. If you are not a
programmer forget it. If you are a programmer it needs no more
explanation. The data is divided into blocks for each line so
clever folk can combine a portion of one screen with a portion of
another. The other two are obviously for C and Pascal conversion.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
KWIKVIEW
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
KWIKVIEW enable you to view ".BIN" screen image files. Usage is
simple: KWIKVIEW FILENAME [/F]
The optional /F switch will display the name of the file at the
bottom of the screen. This is useful if you are viewing a
sequence of saved screens using a batch file (see KV.BAT). The
batch file is simply:
FOR %%X IN (*.BIN) DO KWIKVIEW %%X /F
From the command line use only a single "%" before the dummy
argument "X".
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
ADDITIONAL NOTES
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────-
Some of the binary screen images with this collection are from my
program COLOR BOOT. This program allows you to put any binary
screen onto a non-system diskette. The screen will display if the
user tries to "boot" from the disk. This $10 shareware program is
available direct from me, on some BBS sites, or Internet:
ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/bootutil/colrboot.zip
*** END OF FILE ***