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SELECT.DOC
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1991-02-04
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Select
Making your batch files more useful.
Here it is, a simple program that allows you to ask questions in
your batch files. This program was originally written for use in a
large batch file for external protocols for Qmodem. Since Qmodem
only supports 8 externals I wrote this program to allow one batch
file then do everthing from this batch file, also saves on disk
space and the constant hassle of changing the configuration of
Qmodem to use a different protocol. Oh well enough of that, here is
how to use Select........
The command line is as follows...
Select ABCDGER
Thats it. sounds simple, well there's more to it than that.
In your batch file you would echo or type a file that displayed to
the user the choices that they had, for example a menu system.
echo off
echo Welcome to my menu.
echo [A] Qmodem 4.2d
echo [B] Shez 5.7
echo [C] TheDraw
Select ABC
ok so far we have the first part of our batch file, we have echoed
or printed our choices to the screen, now comes the decision making
part of Select. The "ABC" after Select tells it that the only valid
choices for this menu are A,B, and C. Select will display the
prompt "Selection ? " and wait for a key to be pressed. If a wrong
key is pressed it will not accept it and display a message saying
so. If a valid key is pressed, Select will then exit and set the
DOS errorlevel corresponding to the placement in the list of valid
keys. So in our example, A would exit with an errorlevel of 1 and
B would exit with 2, and so on. But what if you don't want to use
A,B, or C in menu, then don't. Say our menu was changed to....
echo off
echo Welcome to my menu.
echo [Q] Qmodem 4.2d
echo [S] Shez 5.7
echo [T] TheDraw
Select QST
Then Q would be errorlevel 1, S would be 2, and T would be 3.
Select <letters, numbers, or any single keystroke>
exit codes run from left to right with the first one being 1.
Also, pressing the ESC key will exit with a errorlevel of 0, this
is to allow some escape from Select as Ctrl-C does not terminate
most EXE files.
Here is an example of a complete BAT file using Select.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
echo off │ Turn command echo off
:START │ This is where it will loop back
cls │ Clear the Screen
echo Welcome to my menu. │ Display the menu using echo
echo [Q] Qmodem 4.2d │ you could make a drawing in ANSI
echo [S] Shez 5.7 │ and use the TYPE command to
echo [T] TheDraw │ display it.
echo [ESC] goto DOS │
Select QST │ Call Select with Keys Q,S, T
if errorlevel 3 goto TDRAW │ Remember, Select will return 1
if errorlevel 2 goto SHEZ │ for Q, 2 for S, and 3 for T. And
if errorlevel 1 goto QMOD │ you must check for them in reverse
if errorlevel 0 goto END │ order beause of the way DOS looks
│ at errorlevels. The 0 is for ESC.
:TDRAW │ Here is the first label. We will
cd\thedraw │ change the current directory to
thedraw │ TheDraw and run this fantasic
cd\ │ ANSI drawing program. After your
goto START │ done it will loop back to START
│ and start all over. The rest of
:SHEZ │ the BAT is to run other programs
cd\shez │ or what ever you decide to do.
shez │
cd\ │ Here's SHEZ, a great ZIP, ARC, ZOO
goto START │ LZH shell. Makes thing easy on you.
│
:QMOD │
cd\qm │ And of course, here's my favorite
qmodem /stats │ communications program. Qmodem
cd\ │
goto START │
│
:END │ The last label is for the ESC key
CD\ │ so you can exit your batch menu
CLS │ and goto DOS
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Select can handle up to 50 different keys on the command line.
You can use $#@!^&*() if you like, just remember not to duplicate
keys because your batch will most likely do the wrong thing.
Since this is the first thing that I have ever released into the
public I will not ask for any registration fees. This one's FREE.
In the future I will update Select to do many more things, like
command line color selection and prompts, also a placement scheme
so you can put your prompt anywhere on the screen that you want.
Last but not least, If Select decides not to work or break let
me know. However I cannot be held responsible for any damage that
it does. Select has proven to work on my machine and a few others
and it does not contain any destructive code.
If you have any questions I can be reached at one of the
following BBS's.
The Brazorian BBS
Sysop James Kennemer
300/1200/2400
(409)798-0905
The Richwood BBS
Sysop Carl Henderson
300/1200/2400
(409)265-5958
Leave a message to Carl Henderson on any of the message boards
and I will try to respond to it within a couple of days. You
can also write to me at this address.
Carl Henderson
302 N. Mahan
Richwwod, TX 77531
That's it ... Have fun...............................................
THE END