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1990-11-25
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PowerBatch v1.4 Computing Systems Registration $ 30.00
UTIL NOV90 POWERBATCH BATCH COMPILER
FILES: pwrbat14.sdn
New to SDN
PowerBatch is a compiler for batch file "type" commands. At
the present time there are 35 PowerBatch commands which will
work only in a PowerBatch source file (they will not execute
in a standard DOS batch file). Any valid executable command
(.EXE & .COM) as well as any of the DOS intrinsic commands
are valid within a PowerBatch source file and will be
"compiled". These .EXE, .COM and DOS intrinsic commands will
be executed via a shell and the PowerBatch .EXE program will
continue execution with the next compiled statement following
the shelled command. There are two main modules supplied
with PowerBatch; 1)POWERMAK.EXE and 2)SMLMODEL.MDL. PowerMak
reads, parses the source file, and compiles the source
extracting routines from SmlModel. The result is a
completely standalone .EXE file that executes without
SmlModel or PowerMak. The increase in speed comes from the
use of the PowerBatch commands as the DOS and executable
modules will not be executed any faster. Most notable is the
increase in speed dealing with screen writes. Many
capabilities are provided in PowerBatch commands that simply
are not available with standard DOS commands.
Why Use PowerBatch
There are four major reasons for using a compiled PowerBatch
program:
1) The resulting program will almost certainly execute
considerably faster. While it might be possible to
construct a compiled PowerBatch program that does not
execute faster, it would have to consist entirely of
pre- existing executable modules.
2) PowerBatch commands provide a considerable increase
in flexibility and power over conventional batch
files.
3) PowerBatch programs cannot be changed without making
machine code modifications. This means additional
security for distributed batch files.
4) PowerBatch programs can be created quickly for the
PowerBatch command set is a very high level language.
PowerBatch commands fall into 5 classes of commands;
1) Commands which provide systems information. These
commands provide the current color settings, the
current date, the current time, check for the
existance of a valid drive letter, and commands which
check for the existance of a directory or a file.
2) Commands which control the flow of the batch
program. Execute different portions of the batch
program based on existance or non-existance of
directories or files. Compare the contents of one
variable with the contents of another variable or a
constant and execute different portions of the batch
program based on the results of the compare.
3) Commands which control the way text is printed on the
screen. Change any portion of the screen to any
valid screen color, cause a message to blink on the
screen, or highlight a message in reverse video.
4) Commands which provide string manipulation. Change a
string to all upper case characters, or all lower case
characters. Extract a portion of a string such as the
first three characters or the last four characters.
Build a new string from two existing strings by
concatenation of the two strings.
5) Commands which deal with screen writing and input from
the keyboard. These commands are the main power in
the PowerBatch system. Directly address any position
on the screen and move the cursor to that position to
read or write text. Automatically center a message or
title on any line. Draw boxes around portions of the
screen to enhance screen appearance. Read a single
key from the keyboard, read the response to a query
that only accepts a yes or no response, read a string
of characters from the keyboard with a specified
maximum length, and read keys from the keyboard
automatically changing the characters to upper case.
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(SDA format (c)Copyright 1990 The SDN Project - SDNet/Works!)
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