Rockford Magazine/Rockford_Magazine_040_19xx_-_de_Disk_1_of_5_Side_A.d64/browser.doc

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 21KB | 527 lines

                  +++++++++++ Browser V2 +++++++++++

                            by Rod Gasson

            90 Hilliers Rd.  Reynella 5161,  Sth.Australia
                            June 29th  1995
   -----------------------------------------------------------------

   This program is FREEWARE. It may be freely copied, distributed and used.
It must NOT be sold or distributed within the archives of any other program
without written consent of the author, Rod Gasson.

It must NOT be distributed without this text file intact.
It must NOT be altered in any way other than for personal use.
It must NOT be distributed in any form other than the original .SFX
(Self Extracting Archive) format, or a UUencode (or similar) of same.

This program comes with no guarantees, express or implied.

In case you aren't sure exactly what FREEWARE is, here are the means by which
an author can release his/her software, with a description of each:

Public domain:  The author has relinquished all rights to the program.
                PD programs can be freely modified and distributed as the
                user sees fit.  Don't expect any support or bug fixes.

Freeware     :  The author maintains all rights to the program. It may be
                freely used and distributed but only as long as any
                distribution clauses are adhered to. (See above for an
                example of such clauses).

                Freeware is essentially the same as shareware but no payment
                is required, hence the name FREEware. Don't expect any
                support or bug fixes.

Donorware#1  :  Similar to Freeware, but the author gratefully accepts
                voluntary donations.

Donorware#2  :  Similar to Shareware but the author asks that voluntary
                monetary contributions be sent to a charity.

Shareware    :  Similar to Freeware. The author maintains all rights to
                the program, it may be freely distributed in accordance to
                any shareware agreements. Payment for continued use of the
                program is a legal requirement. Generally, shareware
                programs are well supported by the author.

Commercial   :  This is where you have to pay your money before you even see
                the program. If it isn't what you expect that's tough luck.
                If it has bugs and you are lucky enough that the program is
                still supported then expect to pay more to get it fixed. You
                usually pay more than the program is actually worth because
                you are also paying for advertising and distribution costs.

IMPORTANT:
      Shareware, Freeware, PD, and Commercial are METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION. It
      does not in any way reflect the quality of the software itself, nor
      does the method of distribution relieve the end user of any legal
      responsibilities. It is just as much of a theft to use shareware (or
      required donorware) software beyond the evaluation period, as it is to
      keep a car that you have taken for a test drive and not paying for it.

I have elected to release this program as FREEware. Whilst I won't reject any
donations sent to me for this program, I will not class it as donorware
because I am not actively asking for or expecting anything for it.


                  +++++++++++ Browser V2 +++++++++++


What is Browser ?
-----------------

Browser, in its simplest form, can be considered little more than a text
reader.  However, it does have several features that makes it stand
apart from all other CBM text readers, including:

 * The ability to read HUGE text files and BASIC listings (up to
   about 16meg) with paging and backscrolling facilities.

                >>>>>   REU is NOT required.  <<<<

 * Handles QWK mail packets and Fidonet compliant .PKT files of almost
   any length for both the entire packet AND the individual messages
   they contain.

 * Views ANSI graphic files, both single screens and multiple page
   types (with paging and backscrolling)

 * ANSI debug mode that displays the ANSI escape sequences as they are
   being performed.

 * Displays character sets from almost all CBM programs (Desterm,
   Dialogue, BASIC8, etc)

 * Program files can be RUN.  (C128 files only)

 * Screen blanking.

 * Fully compatible with 1541/71/81, FDxx, CMD Hard Drives and
   CMD's Ramlink.

*  Supports 1581 and CMD sub-directories.

 * User configurable screen size.

 * 100% machine code for maximum speed.

 * Inbuilt DOS wedge.

 * Small in size (Just over 10k including the 2k used for the internal
   ANSI capable character set).

 * Easy to use.

 * Cheap.  (costs nothing)


Requirements
------------
The Minimum requirements for Browser are:

 * The best 8 byte computer ever made. (The C128 you fool).
 * An 80 column monitor.
 * A disk drive.  (would you wanna read a 16meg file from datasette?)

A CMD RAMLink is *HIGHLY RECOMMENDED* not only for its speed, but
because Browser will work your physical drives like they've never been
worked before!

                                                                       Page 2


                  +++++++++++ Browser V2 +++++++++++

Browser doesn't really need much in the way of documentation 'cos almost
all options are shown onscreen.  If you haven't already run the program
(you can use it to read this file), it really is little more than an
enhanced text reader.

Browser selects drives, files, etc on a 'tree' type structure, starting
with the drive selection, followed by partition selection, directories,
subdirectories, and finally, files. Each 'level' being selected by using
the cursor keys and return.  You can go back one 'level' at a time by
pressing the backarrow key. At the top level (drive selection) pressing
this key will exit the program. An alternate exit is to press the
backarrow key from the options menu, this will leave the currently
selected partition/directory 'active' on exit and is often a quicker
and more desirable way to exit. (Aren't you glad you read this now?) <grin>

When you first run the program, a blue box is drawn on the screen, and a
list of your disk drives will appear in numeric order. Cursor to the disk
drive of choice and press return.  On CBM drives (1541, 1571, 1581), you
will see a list of the files for the disk in the drive.

CMD owners will see "System" and a list of partitions. The "System"
partition is the current active partition and subdirectory of the CMD drive.
If you select a partition, the files and/or subdirectories in this partition
will be displayed.

1581 directories (CBM directories) ARE recognised by Browser and files can be
read in these directories. Although it will recognise a CP/M partition on CMD
hard drives, it can't actually access these. FDxx owners will note that 1581
disks formatted with the FD drive will also have a CMD "System" partition and
a 1581 partition/directory. You can select either and the contents of the
disk will be displayed.

The files (as well as partitions and subdirectories) are colour coded in the
following manner:

Green  - PRG       Lt Purple - CBM Directories
Yellow - SEQ       Yellow    - CMD "System" dir
Grey   - USR       Dk Purple - CMD Partitions
Red    - REL       Cyan      - CMD Subdirectories

* See customising notes at the end of this file if you wish to alter these.

About the only file types which Browser will not display are REL, USR, GEOS
and Screen Code files.  However, it WILL read QWKRR's USR files.

Cursor to the file of choice and press return.  A new menu will appear at the
bottom of the screen:

      <A>scii  <P>etscii  a<N>si  <B>asic  <D>at  P<KT>  <R>un

Choose the type of file by pressing the appropriate key (lower case), or by
moving the cursor and pressing <RETURN>, and the text will appear on the
screen.

Note: <R>un will appear only if you've selected a PRG file.

If you selected the wrong type for the file (ie, selected "b" for BASIC
instead of "p" for Petscii, the text will be displayed in the format
selected. To view the file again properly, just press the stop key twice
(to stop the text display and exit the file). Reselect the file and chose
the the proper file type.
                                                                       Page 3


Viewing & Paging
----------------

Text is displayed within the window a 'page' at a time.


 *  A 'page' is what is on screen at any given page break. *


In the bottom right corner you will see "Page 1 of 1", which will be
incremented as you continue to read the text.

You can use the spacebar and RETURN keys to page through text, or use
Cursor down to scroll any subsequent text on a line by line basis. The
DOWN Arrow key functions the same as the cursor down key. When scrolling
text by line, you will note the page number changes to the next page when
you you've reached the actual "page break" for the screen height and width
you are using.

Browser V2 has reverse scrolling for all modes. The UP Arrow key (the one to
the right of the "No Scroll" key) is the "page back" key. If you have been
scrolling text (ie line by line), Browser will move you to the top of the
page you are currently on and wait for the next keypress. Continuing to
press this key will page the text in reverse order until you reach the first
page of the file.

Page numbers are selectable in all modes. Simply type the number of the page
you wish to move to at any page break. If you haven't already read that page
number, Browser will move to the highest page that it has read.

Note : The drive error light might flash if you select the very last page
       of a file. Ignore it. It will stop flashing when you read a lower
       page number.

<STOP>
In all modes, this will stop the reading of text. If you hit this key twice,
it will return you to the files listing.


<A>gain
Pressing the "a" key at the end of a file will take you to to the beginning
of the file.

A "semi-undocumented" keypress is the uparrow key next to the RESTORE key.
It functions the same as if you had hit the "a" key. This key may or may not
be in future versions, so remember, you didn't read about it here.  ;-)



Browsing Modes
--------------

<A>SCII.
Text produced by non CBM computers (and some CBM word processors).


<P>ETSCII.
CBM text files (doc files etc).
Note: CBM colour graphics files are NOT supported at this time, nor are
      they planned.



                                                                       Page 4


A<N>SI
IBM style colour graphics files (BBS logon screens etc).

Often, one of the first commands in an ANSI file is to clear the screen.
Browser treats this as the first "page" but doesn't display it the first time
(who needs to see a blank screen?). If you have an ANSI file which has more
than one screen clear, these are considered as "pages" and you can browse
them forward or back as you would any other file.

Note: Holding the shift key whilst selecting the 'n' for a<N>si file type
will display ANSI files in 'debug' mode. The output will pause for a keypress
prior to acting on the next ANSI escape sequence. The ANSI sequence about to
be performed is displayed on the menu line.


<B>ASIC.
Colourised listings of BASIC programs.

When paging through a BASIC file sometimes the first line will appear
corrupted. This is something which can not be easily corrected as Browser
expects this to be a new BASIC line (therefore a line number). However, due
to wrapping, this is not always going to be the case, so whatever is there
gets converted to a number instead of being detokenised. This doesn't occur
when scrolling forward because the file is being read in a sequential manner
and the preceding carriage return signifies a new line. Most of the CBM
graphics characters aren't displayed correctly in this mode either.


<R>un
Browser has the ability to RUN C128 programs. This will appear as an option
for any PRG type file. It is up to you to only use this option for C128
runable files. Trying to run a C64 program or other non runable programs
will almost certain cause a lockup.

Almost all C128 programs are 'runable'. :-)


<D>AT.
QWK formatted files (as used by Offline mail readers for BBS usage)


P<K>T
The standard FidoNet compliant files used to move Fidonet mail.

Except where differences are noted, DAT and PKT files are treated the same
and have the same options.

The message "header" field is displayed when viewing. The MSG (message)
number is displayed in the top left corner, followed by the date, time and
Conference field.

When viewing a DAT file, the Conference field will show a number which
corresponds with the conference number and name in the control.dat file.
In PKT mode, the actual Fidonet conference name is displayed.

Fidonet addresses may appear in the To and From fields. The appearance of
these addresses depends on whether specific "kludgelines" are included in
the message. Browser uses the MSGID and REPLY kludgelines for addressing.

Both modes show a "Flags" field, but these are not yet being used by Browser.



                                                                       Page 5


You can return to a message you've previously read by typing in its number
when at the *END of a message*.  It's easy at first to confuse this with
paging (ie, typing in a message number at a page break) but with a little
experience you'll see this is a very easy method to move to a specific
message.

If you stop reading a file then start again (providing you haven't read any
other file or changed directories) Browser will keep the "index" of how far
you have read. Although you will be at MSG #1 again you can return to the
highest read message (or any other message) by entering its number.

Note that as with paging, if you type in a message number higher than what
Browser has read, it will tell you and move you to the highest message number
that it has read.


<N>ext
The "n" key can be used at the page prompts (or the end of a message) to move
to the next message. Please note that the data still needs to be read by the
program at least once, so there may be a slight pause on long messages the
first time reading through.


<P>revious
The "p" key can be used at any page prompt (or at the end of a message) to
return to the previous message.


The RIGHT Arrow (Next) and the LEFT Arrow (Previous) keys can be used at the
end of messages. The UP Arrow (backpage) and DOWN Arrow (Cursor/line down)
keys are available when reading DAT or PKT files.

Note: these are the directional keys to the right of the "No Scroll" key.


Colours used when reading in DAT and PKT modes:

Grey      - Kludgelines
White     - Plain text
Cyan      - Quoted text.  Note that quotes are white. Only the actual quoted
            material will appear as cyan. The logic was to show what the
            person writing the message has added, even when quoting.
Red       - Taglines (any line which begins with "...")
Purple    - QWKRR braglines (any line which has a space, Q and W in the 4th,
            5th, and 6th positions on a line).
Lt Purple - Origin lines (any line which begins with a space and "*").

 * See customising notes at the end of this file.


When reading DAT files, if you find that Browser has suddenly started seeing
several messages as one long one, it is out of "sync".  Press the stop key
ONCE, enter a message number lower than the current one (preferably 2 or 3
lower) and then read the next message(s). The program will re-sync with the
DAT file and carry on.  Note, if it doesn't re-sync there maybe be a problem
with the DAT file itself. This is almost certainly the case if it loses sync
at the same place each time.

Browser can read (as DATs) QWKRR's SMALL.DAT file and MSG/REP files which
have been ZIPped using QWKRR (since these are only stored). Naturally
Browser can't read a compressed REP or DAT file. It will display the file,
but reading what you see may prove difficult. :-)

                                                                       Page 6


<O>ptions Menu
--------------

<F>iles
Returns you to the files listing.

<C>harset
Browser has its own character set inbuilt (in fact this takes up 25% of the
program), but user defined character sets can be loaded from the options
menu.  Although *ANY* character set can be loaded and viewed, only those
sets with the alpha-numeric characters in the same order as those used by
Desterm will give meaningful output. It is recommended that the internal (or
compatible) character set be used when viewing ANSI files.

All character sets MUST be named (or renamed) with ".chr" as an extension.
eg, filename.chr.

Browser will NOT display ".chr" files during normal directory listings but
will ONLY display them from the Charset menu. The internal character set can
be reloaded at any time from this menu by pressing the backarrow key.

All 'system' text, directory listings, etc will use the internal set.
User loaded character sets are only used when viewing files.

Two additional character sets are provided with this release of Browser:
STD-IBM.CHR and STD-CBM.CHR.

STD-CBM.CHR may be more suitable for viewing some text files which have
CBM graphics included. Please note you do NOT have to use this set to read
Petscii files. The full CBM set (with reversed characters) was not
implemented for technical reasons.

STD-IBM.CHR was included for those who use QWKRR and wish to read text
using the same alpha-numerics as QWKC.STD.  This set includes the same IBM
graphics set used as Browser's internal set and is suitable for viewing ANSI
files.


<T>all  <S>hort  <W>ide  <N>arrow
These let you select your preferred screen size for text output height and
width, and will only come into effect when reading files. The two exceptions
to this are with ANSI output - the maximum height/width is always used, and
with DAT or PKT modes - the minimum output width is limited to 38 characters,
the minimum height is limited to 2 text lines, plus the headers.

Although Browser has been tested on an NTSC system with no problems, even at
maximum screen sizes, I strongly suspect that due to the extended screen size
there will be some NTSC setups that will have problems with it. At worse this
will simply mean that some of you will not be able to use the ANSI options.
If you do have problems, let me know.  I don't know if I'll be able to do
anything about it or not, but I would like to be aware of the problem.

<@> DOS commands
DOS commands are sent to the current disk/directory.


<L>F's - (or +)    Linefeed on/off
Linefeeds are not acted on by Browser, but will either display or hide the LF
character as specified by this option:

  - (Default) Does not display the LF character.
  + Displays all linefeeds in a text file as a character.

                                                                       Page 7


TA<B>s + (or -)    TABs on/off
TABS are either acted on or displayed as a character:

  - (Default) TABS are on, text is formated as it was intended.
    TAB character(s) are not shown.
  + Displays the TAB character(s) but doesn't act on them.


Customising:
------------

 For those that are interested there are several pokes that can be used to
customise Browser to your liking.


 poke 7238, x             Sets time for screen blanking.
                          x = 0-255
                          Approx 4 seconds for each value of 'x'


Colours:

 poke 7360,x              Border colour

 poke 7361,x              Header text               (PKT/DAT)
                          System menu
                          Line numbers              (BASIC)

 poke 7362,x              Header data               (PKT/DAT)
                          System menu highlight
                          Variables                 (BASIC)
                          CMD "System" Dir          (Files)

 poke 7363,x              Text                      (normal view)
                          Tokens                    (BASIC)

 poke 7364,x              Kludgelines               (PKT/DAT)
                          Literals                  (BASIC)

 poke 7365,x              Quoted text               (PKT/DAT)
                          Page numbers

 poke 7366,x              Taglines                  (PKT/DAT)
 poke 7367,x              ORIGIN lines              (PKT/DAT)
 poke 7368,x              QWKRR ID                  (PKT/DAT)

 poke 7369,x              PRG type files
 poke 7370,x              SEQ type files
 poke 7371,x              USR type files
 poke 7372,x              DIR type files
 poke 7373,x              REL type files
 poke 7374,x              CBM/CPM type files
 poke 7375,x              CMD partitions and any other types


* colours
* 128 black     132 dk green   136 dk red     140 brown
* 129 dk grey   133 lt green   137 lt red     141 yellow
* 130 dk blue   134 dk cyan    138 dk purple  142 lt grey
* 131 lt blue   135 lt cyan    139 lt purple  143 white
*-------------------------------

                                                                       Page 8