PsL Monthly 1993 November/PSL Monthly Shareware CD-ROM (November 1993).iso/reviews/u2_04

Text File | 1993-09-06 | 55KB | 1,421 lines

U2-04:  Operating System Utilities


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1346 DOS Command Editors          Small Programs Disk
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For an understanding of what DOS Command Editors do, read the CED writeup
first. CED (and the others) are similar in some ways to key macro programs and
"shorthand" utilities which allow you to type in just part of a word and the
computer fills in the rest. For more on these utilities, see the Keyboard
section.

Note: Many BBS's and libraries still carry DOS-EDIT even though it is a
pirated program and not public domain. DOS-EDIT was sold by IBM in its
Personally Developed Software series under the name RETRIEVE. Besides DOS-EDIT
not being public domain, CED is much better anyway. To further confuse things,
PC Magazine also came out with a similar utility with the name DOSEDIT. CED is
still better.

Command EDitor (CED)
   Dunford, Christopher J.
   $0
is a TSR that improves command line editing in DOS, lets you scroll back
through previous commands to edit and/or re-execute them, lets you create the
equivalent of in-memory batch files,

     -command scrolling:  you can use the up and down cursor keys to scroll
back through previously entered commands in DOS.  If you are doing repetitive
tasks while in DOS, this keeps you from having to retype the same lines over
and over.

     -use of the cursor keys: now if you make a mistake while typing in DOS,
you can use the cursor keys to go back and correct it instead of having to
erase what you have already typed.  This feature combines nicely with command
scrolling.  For example, if you want copy the file DATABASE from drive C:  to
drive A:  and then to drive B:, at the C> prompt you would enter COPY DATABASE
A:  and when it was done, press the up cursor.  This redisplays the last
command and leaves the cursor at the end of the command so that all you have
to do is press the left cursor key twice change the A to B and press Enter.

     -recall of program parameters (PCALL): after you have run a program once,
the next time you call the program, CED will insert the same parameters for
you. For example, if you enter

         link myprog+module1+module2+module3+module4+module5+module6

the next time you run LINK, all the rest of the line will be entered for you
automatically.

     -synonyms:  have you ever typed in DUR or DRI instead of DIR? No sweat.
Just tell CED that when it sees those popular typo's, to treat them as DIR.
DOS-Edit referred to these as Aliases.

     A simple CED synonym definition is set up like this:  CED SYN DUR DIR.
This tells CED that if you type in DUR, to substitute the word DIR in its
place before passing it along to DOS to act on.  Nice, but where the power of
synonyms comes into play is that you can use variables the way you would in
batch files, and you can chain a series of commands to be assigned to one
synonym.  Example:

                   CED SYN EDIT CD \WP^WS %1^COPY %1 A:^CD\

     Now if you enter EDIT LETTER.TXT, the current directory will be changed
to WP, your word processing subdirectory, WordStar will be called and told to
edit the file LETTER.TXT.  When you finally exit WS, the file LETTER.TXT will
be copied to a backup disk in drive A:, and you will be returned to the root
directory again.

     -MANY OF YOUR BATCH FILES ARE NO LONGER NEEDED. On a hard disk, a small
batch file to do the job that the synonym above is doing would take up the
drive's minimum allocation of space, which may be as much as 8,000 characters.
If you have many of these little batch files, they can use up and enormous
amount of disk space.  Now you can make them into synonyms and free up that
disk space.

     -SYNONYMS RESIDE IN MEMORY and execute at RAM speed instead of disk
speed.  If you have a floppy based system, you no longer have to switch disks
to use a batch file, and the speed increase is remarkable.

Cedsyn 1.02
   Modak, Anand
   $?
creates CED Synonyms for changing directories.  (See write-up of CED, above.)
CEDSYN reads your hard disk and creates a SYN of a "2" followed by the
directory name for each directory.  Then when you want to change directories
(say, for example, to C:\WP\LET), you would just enter "2LET" and the CED SYN
will execute the command CD\WP\LET.  After CEDSYN has added the synonyms to
your CED file, it does not have to be run again.

AI 2.1
   Toft, George
   $24
is an artificially intelligent command line interface that corrects your typing
errors in DOS by learning what you really meant based on your previous mistakes
and corrections. It also allows the use of cursor keys on the DOS command line.

CShell
   is a COMMAND.COM replacement.  It implements unix-like shell commands such
as ls, mv, fgrep, rm, chdir, chmod,etc.  It also allows recalling and editing
previous commands.

DOSinp 1.0
   Mercie, Kenneth J.
   $10
is another one of those memory resident programs that provide DOS command line
editing.  Along with the editing features, DOSINP will let you recall the
previous 20 command line entries; display a window with the available previous
commands; delete unwanted commands from the command window; program the 10
Function keys; flush the typeahead keyboard buffer, at any time; remove TSR's
from memory.  At only 8k of DOS RAM used for DOSINP, this is a very attractive
alternative to similar utilities.  (res:8k)

Edicom-12 (EDC)
   Edicom Systems
   $26
is a DOS command processor and more.  It will recall up to 12 previous
commands entered in DOS for easy changing and re-execution.  It lets you
execute commands with a single keystroke, find files, page through text files,
and prevent accidental overwriting of files - all without slowing you down
while working in DOS.

History
   Rubenstein, Michael M.
   $?
is a DOS command recall and editing utility with a nice touch - the ability to
recall a previous DOS command line without scrolling back through them all by
entering the first few letters and pressing Ctrl-L.  History is interesting in
that most of the command and editing function keys are also executable as
control key combinations, for those who don't like to pick up their hands from
the keyboard.  Another interesting feature is the History's ability to search
the command buffer for a line that matches the first few characters entered.
(res:5.5k)

LogOut 1.71
   Messer, Greg
   $0
is a 1k TSR that will send keystrokes to the keyboard after a specified period
of system inactivity has passed. The result is the same as if you manually typed
the keystrokes. You may specify that "system inactivity" be determined by
monitoring any combination of the keyboard, disk, printer or screen.

LogOut could be used to save work, close files, exit a program, log off a
network, etc, when a system is not used for a period of time. Up to 127
keystrokes can be stored in a file for passing to the keyboard.

Recall 2.1
   g.r.a.m.  Associates
   $?
permits the user to retrieve any one of up to 50 unique DOS commands
previously issued by the user. Once retrieved, the command may be executed as
is or modified by the user via the normal DOS line editing keys.

Show (SHOW-DT)
   Toedt, D. C.
   $0
is a batch file that allows beginning users to easily execute many common DOS
commands without having to remember the syntax.

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END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1346
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12014 DOS Command Editors #2          Small Programs Disk
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PC-Shell
   is a command processor for IBM-PC's and compatibles that emulates some of
the more desirable functions of the Berkeley UNIX* C-shell.  In addition, it
implements PC-DOS versions of some of the common UNIX* commands such as ls,
mv, cp, etc.  It also allows "history substitution" which saves retyping of
long command lines.

It allows you to do things like re-execute the last command, re-execute the
last command but redirect output to a file, or execute a new command with
arguments from previous command l