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1989-09-24
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ANARKEY
Quick-Start Tutorial
--------------------
ANARKEY offers many powerful features that you will find extremely
helpful when entering DOS command lines. However, it is not necessary to
understand all of ANARKEY's powers before you begin to use it. This
introductory tutorial will get you started using the basic ANARKEY features
immediately. As you become familiar with them, additional information can
be found in the "ANARKEY User Manual."
First, simply execute the ANARKEY.COM program file from the DOS command
prompt as you would any other program. A sign-on message will appear and
you will be sitting at a new command prompt. Everything will appear normal
except now the ANARKEY features are available for your use.
One of ANARKEY's most useful features is its editing facility. To
demonstrate this, enter the following line at the command prompt:
>echo This is an ANARCHY test_
The underscore in the above line shows the current cursor position at the
end of the line. In the sample, the word ANARKEY is misspelled (sort of).
We wish to change ANARCHY to ANARKEY.
To accomplish this, the <Left-Arrow> key can be pressed to move the
cursor left until it is under the first character we wish to modify. Go
ahead and do this now. Notice that moving the cursor does not delete
characters as it backtracks through the line.
The line, with its cursor position now under the 'C', should look like
this:
>echo This is an ANARCHY test
-
In addition to the <Left-Arrow> key moving the cursor left one character,
the <Right-Arrow> key will move the cursor right one character. Also, the
<Home> key will move the cursor to the beginning of the line and pressing
the <End> key will send the cursor to the end of the line. Experiment
moving the cursor with the <Left> and <Right> arrow keys and the <Home> and
<End> keys. Positioning the cursor in this way has no effect on the
contents of the command line, so you can play with them all you like.
After you have a feel for positioning the cursor, reset the cursor so it
is under the 'C' character in ANARCHY. We'll now complete the editing
operation we originally started out doing - changing ANARCHY to ANARKEY.
When characters are typed on a line, they are either "inserted" into
the line or they "overwrite" the current character. When a character is
inserted, any characters to the right of the cursor are shifted over to make
room for the new character. When a character is overwritten, the new
character replaces the character at the cursor position; no shift occurs.
Whether a character will be inserted or overwritten is determined by the
"mode" ANARKEY is in, either insert mode or overwrite mode. When first
installed, ANARKEY is in insert mode. Thus any characters typed will be
inserted into the line and the remainder of the line will be shifted to make
room for them.
Verify this on the sample line by entering the single character 'K'. The
command line and cursor position should now look like this:
>echo This is an ANARKCHY test
-
ANARKEY can be placed in overwrite mode by pressing the <Ins> key. Do so
now.
When in overwrite mode, the cursor shape changes from an underscore to a
block shape. That is how you can tell which mode you are in; insert mode
has an underscore cursor and overwrite mode has a block cursor.
You can return to insert mode by pressing the <Ins> key again. The <Ins>
key toggles the editing mode between insert and overwrite. The cursor shape
will always remind you which mode you're in.
Set the editing mode back to overwrite (block cursor) and type an 'E'
character. The 'E' will overwrite the 'C' under the cursor and advance the
cursor to the next character. The command line should now look like this:
>echo This is an ANARKEHY test
-
The cursor shown above is an underscore, but your screen cursor will be a
block. Press the <Ins> key to toggle back into insert mode so that the
screen display will match our example.
In addition to being inserted, characters may also be deleted by pressing
the <Del> key. When the <Del> key is pressed, the character under the
cursor is removed from the line and any characters to the right are shifted
over to fill the vacated space.
Press the <Del> key with the cursor under the character 'H'. The 'H'
will be deleted and the remaining characters shifted over one space. The
line will look like this:
>echo This is an ANARKEY test
-
The <Backspace> key can also be used to delete characters from the line.
<Backspace> differs from the <Del> key in that it will remove the character
TO THE LEFT of the cursor position and move the cursor left one space.
Experiment with the editing keys you've learned so far. They are:
<Left-Arrow> Move cursor left one character
<Right-Arrow> Move cursor right one character
<Home> Move cursor to beginning of line
<End> Move cursor to end of line
<Ins> Toggle between insert and overwrite modes
<Del> Delete character under cursor
<Backspace> Delete character to left of cursor
When you are comfortable with the editing keys, enter the original
example line above and press <Enter>. The cursor may be positioned anywhere
on the line when <Enter> is pressed; the entire line will be accepted. The
ECHO command we just entered will be executed and the cursor will be sitting
at a new command prompt. You should see the following on your screen:
>echo This is an ANARKEY test
This is an ANARKEY test
>_
ANARKEY "saves" all the commands you enter. A list of the saved commands
can be displayed onscreen by pressing the <F4> key. Do so now to show that
ANARKEY has saved the command we just entered. Your screen should look like
this:
>
echo This is an ANARKEY test
>_
Enter and execute the following commands:
>dir *.*
>type read.me
>dir \*.bat
Now press the <F4> key to verify that ANARKEY has saved each of the
commands. Your screen should look like this:
>
echo This is an ANARKEY test
dir *.*
type read.me
dir \*.bat
>_
In addition to saving your commands, ANARKEY allows you to retrieve them
for editing and re-execution. Often retrieving a command will be much
easier than retyping it.
Commands can be retrieved by pressing the <Up-Arrow> and <Down-Arrow>
keys. These keys retrieve commands from the saved list sequentially.
Press the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys a few times and you will see how
this is done.
An easier way to retrieve commands is available by using ANARKEY's
command completion feature. Start with a blank command line and enter the
first character of the command you wish to retrieve. For example, say you
wish to retrieve the ECHO command we started this tutorial with. Simply
enter the character 'e' on the command line (case does not matter). The
command line should look like this:
>e_
To "complete" the command, hit the <Tab> key. ANARKEY will start from
the bottom of the saved-command list and search for the first command that
begins with the character 'e'. When it finds one, it retrieves the command
and enters it on the command line, thereby completing the command for you.
Given our example, the command line would now contain:
>echo This is an ANARKEY test
-
The completion operation required only two keystrokes ('e' and <Tab>)
while a comparable <Up-Arrow> retrieval would have required four keypresses.
If the desired line was further up in the saved-command list, the completion
operation would have saved even more keystrokes.
If the retrieved command was not the command you wanted, pressing <Tab>
again will instruct ANARKEY to find and retrieve another command that begins
with an 'e'. If another command exists in the list, it will be retrieved
and entered on the command line. <Tab> can be pressed any number of times
to cycle through all the commands that match.
You can also specify more than one character of the desired command. Any
number of characters can be specified, although one or two will usually be
enough.
Once a command has been retrieved, it can be modified using the editing
facilities described earlier. When the command is ready for execution,
simply press <Enter>.
Commands are not the only thing ANARKEY will complete. Directory and
file names can also be completed. This is done by pressing the <Tab> key,
same as when completing commands. ANARKEY is smart enough to know what type
of completion you want and will go ahead and do it automatically.
As an example, say you wish to move to a directory called \GLOBAL. Enter
the following command line:
>cd\g_
Only the first character of the directory is needed (you can enter more
if you want, but there is no need). Then press the <Tab> key. ANARKEY will
determine that you want to complete the name of a directory and go ahead and
do it, entering the name on the command line. The line will now look like
this:
>cd\global
-
If there were several directories that began with 'G', ANARKEY may choose
one of them for its completion. If ANARKEY completes the name with an
undesired name, simply continue pressing <Tab>. ANARKEY will cycle through
all the directories beginning with the letter 'G'. Eventually, it will
complete the one you're looking for.
Notice that the cursor position does not change after a name completion.
You can now press <Enter> to execute the command.
To continue this example, say you really want to go to the directory
called \GLOBAL\PROGS. Assume we have just completed the \GLOBAL portion and
the cursor is sitting under the first 'l' in 'global' as shown above. Now
press the '\' key. The command will become:
>cd\global\_
Notice that the cursor position automatically moved to the end of the
directory name before entering the backslash(\) character. This automatic
cursor positioning will occur whenever you are completing directory or file
names and you press a key that cannot be a part of the name, such as the
backslash, space or slash(/) characters. The character will be appended to
the end of the completed name automatically.
We can now complete the PROGS portion of the command line by entering a
'p' and pressing <Tab>. The final command line is:
>cd\global\progs
-
The command can be executed by pressing <Enter>.
File names can be completed in the same manner. For example, say you
wish to copy a file called LETTER.TXT to drive A:. Enter the following line
and press <Tab>:
>copy l_
ANARKEY knows you want to complete a file name and does so automatically
so that the command line will now look like this:
>copy letter.txt
-
To specify drive A:, simply press <Space>. This will cause the cursor
position to automatically move to the end of the completed file name and
enter a space on the line. Then type in the 'a:' portion. Pressing <Enter>
will execute the command. The final line will look like:
>copy letter.txt a:_
Not only will the <Tab> key complete directory and file names, but it
will complete program names, too. To do so, the program file must be in the
current directory. For example, say you wish to execute a program called
EDIT which is stored in the current directory. At a fresh command prompt,
enter an 'e' and press <Tab>. ANARKEY is smart enough to know that a
program name completion is called for and will perform the appropriate
completion.
There are occasions when it is necessary to modify an environment
variable's value. This often occurs when a slightly different PATH value is
required. The painstaking method of re-entering the entire value is not
necessary with ANARKEY. ANARKEY will enter any environment variable's value
on the command line for you. You can then edit it to the desired value
before executing/saving it.
As an example, say you want to modify the value of the PATH environment
variable. Simply enter the following portion of the line and press (what
else?) the <Tab> key:
>set p_
ANARKEY will determine that you wish to complete an environment variable
automatically. It will enter the name of the variable and its current value
on the command line. The cursor will be positioned under the first
character of the variable's value. Thus, the command line may look like
this:
>set path=c:\;c:\dos;c:\global;c:\bin\programs
-
If more than one environment variable began with a 'p', each could be
retrieved and entered on the command line by repeated pressings of <Tab>.
The PATH and PROMPT environment variables are special in that they do not
require that they be defined with a SET command. If SET is not specified on
the command line then the entire environment variable's name must be spelled
out before pressing the <Tab> key. Thus, the following would have to be
entered:
>path_
The <Tab> key can now be pressed to retrieve the value of the PATH
variable.
You have probably noticed that the <Tab> key does a lot of things. It
will complete commands, names of directories, files and programs and even
environment variables. Since one key does all this, ANARKEY is extremely
easy to learn and use.
ANARKEY will correctly determine the appropriate completion type 75% to
90% of the time. Occasionally, ANARKEY will make a mistake and think that
you want to complete something, say a command, when what you really want to
complete is a program name. This is not a problem. Simply continue to
press the <Tab> key. Once ANARKEY has finished completing all matching
command lines, it will stop and think "Gee, I've cycled through all the
command completions and he or she still wants more. They must want to
complete something other than a command." It will then determine what the
most-likely type of completion is and perform it. In the few cases when a
second choice such as this is needed, ANARKEY will make the correct
decision.
You are now able to use the basic features of ANARKEY. With this
knowledge, you can start using ANARKEY productively right now.
However, this tutorial was meant to get you started quickly and only
touches the surface of ANARKEY's full capabilities. Much more is available.
If you are interested in learning about the other powerful ANARKEY features,
read the "ANARKEY User Manual."
Steven Calwas
Moderne Software
P.O. Box 3638
Santa Clara, CA 95055-3638
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