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1991-10-26
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╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ FKEY.COM VERSION 1.3 ║
║ Copyright (c) OCTOBER,1991 ║
║ DARRELL HENSLEY ║
║ ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Provided by:
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║ SOFTWARE
║ ┌─── ┐ ║ O S
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║ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├──┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ ║ R o U
║ ┴ └──┘ └──┘ ┴ ┴ └──┘ ┴ ┴ ┴ ┴ └──┘ ┴ ┴ ║ C █ R
║ ║ E ▀ C
║ Remote Bulletin Board System (RBBS) (215) 693-6780 ║ SOFTWARE
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WRRANTIES AND LIMITATIONS
YOU ARE GRANTED PERMISSION TO FREELY DISTRIBUTE FKEY13 IN ITS ORIGINAL
FORM, WITHOUT ALTERATION, AS LONG AS THIS DOCUMENTATION IS DISTRIBUTED
ALONG WITH IT AND NO FEE IS CHARGED EXCEPT FOR A REASONABLE FEE FOR
MEDIA AND SHIPPING COSTS.
I REQUEST THAT YOU DISTRIBUTE IN THE ORIGINAL ZIPPED FORMAT.
I DO NOT WARRANT THAT FKEY13 IS FIT FOR ANY PARTICULAR USE OR IS
MERCHANTABLE. THIS PROGRAM IS NOT WARRANTED TO BE FREE OF BUGS, NOR
IS IT PROVIDED WITH ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DETERMINE WHETHER FKEY13
IS SUITABLE FOR YOU.
IN NO EVENT SHALL I BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR LOST DATA OR PROFITS TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY
THAT MAY ARISE OUT OF THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM.
THIS PROGRAM IN NO WAY IS INTENDED TO INFRINGE ON ANOTHERS COPYRIGHTED
MATERIAL. IF A CLAIM CAN BE JUSTIFIED THAT ANY PORTION OF THE CODE OR
FILENAME EXISTED BEFORE, I AM WILLING TO CHANGE IT.
██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
INTRODUCTION
FKEY is a utility for DOS based systems. With FKEY, you will be
able to assign various character strings MACROS to your function keys.
These assignments will greatly enhance the use of your PC to it's fullest
potential. The assignments can be made from within your autoexec.bat file
or from the DOS command prompt.
A LITTLE THEORY
DOS assigns some default items to the function keys. These are as follows.
F1 Copies one character from the template to the command line.
F2 Copies characters up to the character specified in the template
and puts these characters on the command line.
F3 Copies all remaining characters in the template to the command line.
F4 Skips over (does not copy) the characters in the template up to the
character specified.
F5 Makes the new line the new template.
F6 Types a Ctrl-Z (end-of-file character)
F7 Input a NULL (ASCII 00) into a DOS command. (Dont ask me ?)
For an in depth discussion of these keys and their uses refer to your DOS
manual. You are free to re-assign any of these keys if you do not find
them to be of any use to you.
F8 thru F12 are not assigned any values by any versions of DOS that I am
aware of. Although space is saved in your environment so that these
assignments can be made. The amount of space put aside by DOS varies from
version to version. At a minimum you should have room for 128 characters
to a maximum of 512 characters.
GETTING STARTED
FKEY requires ANSI.SYS to be installed as a device driver. It will
not function properly if ANSI.SYS is not available.
Now that you know a little about the function keys, it is time to
decide what MACROS you need and how to install them automatically every
time you start your computer.
For example, suppose you want to install a MACRO that changes to your
telecommunications directory and then starts your program instantly with
just one key stroke. The syntax would be something like this:
FKEY [NUMBER] [OPTION] [MACRO]
You will have to insert a number from 1 to 10, (Or to 12 if you have
an extended keyboard) in place of the NUMBER switch. Insert an @ symbol
in the position of the OPTION switch to turn off normal FKEY screen output.
Of course this is optional and can be omitted to recieve a status message,
displaying your accomplishments. In place of the MACRO switch you will have
to enter the command that you want performed. This command must be enclosed
in quotes. One special character, the ^ character signifies to FKEY that you
would like a carriage return inserted in the MACRO definition at that
particular spot. More on special characters later.
To continue with the communications example above, you would need to
create something similar to this:
FKEY 12 "C:^CD COMM^COMMPGM^" NOTE: Case is not significant.
This assigns a MACRO to function key 12. The assignment can be
made from DOS, or from any batch file. From this point on, pressing key
F12 will cause your computer to:
1) C:[C/R] Switch to drive C:
2) CD COMM[C/R] Then change to the COMM directory
3) COMMPGM[C/R] Then start your COMMPGM (communications program).
All this from one key strike !!
SPECIAL KEYS
FKEY prints a status message to the screen whenever an assignment is
made. If you do not want the output of FKEY to be printed to the screen,
you may insert a @ symbol between the function key NUMBER and the MACRO.
This will only turn off the normal output of FKEY. Error messages will
still be shown. This can be extremely helpful at bootup or during other
batch files where you dont want items cluttering the screen.
One other special character is the ^ symbol. As described earlier
the ^ symbol inserts a carriage return in the MACRO at that specific
location. More than one ^ symbol may appear in any MACRO assignment.
LIMITATIONS
Again, FKEY requires ANSI.SYS to be installed as a device driver.
These MACROS are stored in your computers memory in an area that was
set aside by your DOS when it first loaded command com. By assigning values
to the function keys you are using memory that has already been reserved for
you. You are not taking away from your total memory available. Each
version of DOS reserves different amounts of space for it's function keys.
FKEY will not allow you to assign more MACROS than you have space for. You
will have to experiment to find your maximum limits. Earlier versions of
DOS supported up to 128 bytes and later versions up to 512 bytes.
No single MACRO definition can exceed 112 characters.
Since the special character ^, was choosen to symbolize a [C/R] you
will not be able to use it in the literal sense. In other words you will
not be able use an FKEY MACRO to operate on a file that has a ^ character
in it's filename.
Also since the " symbol is being used to mark the MACRO, you cannot
use them in the middle of your MACRO. All MACRO's must start with a "
and end with a ". Using quotes in this manner gives FKEY the ability to
support re-direction > and more |.
A TAD BIT TECHNICAL
FKEY was specificlly written to be called from batch files. FKEY
fully supports sophisticated batch files that interact with its users.
If you are prompting a user to enter the MACRO or the function key from
within a batch file then you will need to add a test after the call to
FKEY to see that everything went as planned. When an assignment was made
as planned FKEY will return a 0 to your batch file. If the assignment did
not go as planned it will print an error message and return a 1 to your
batch file. Be forwarned, because it may be benificial to some users to
assign a non DOS command, (There Name for example). FKEY will return a 0
to any MACRO assignment that went as requested.
Normal users will not have to be worried about this return value, it
will be transparent to you, and it will be disregarded by DOS since it is
not needed.
FKEY actually replaces the key code of the function key you specify,
with the MACRO you specify. This is a valid option given to you by DOS,
and in most instances it will cause no problems. It is conceivable though
that other programs might test the function keys for various reasons. I
only know of one program (not to be mentioned) that checks to be sure your
function keys are at the DOS defaults, and it will fail if they are not !!
Since changing key codes is supported by DOS, and heavily documented in the
manual, I feel a programmer should not force the defaults on you. In any
event if you find another program that does not support this DOS given rite,
you may type FKEY R to reset your function keys to the DOS defaults.
IN CLOSING
FKEY was written using the C language. You may obtain the latest
release by calling the Foundation RBBS at (215)693-6780. Comments,
suggestions, ideas for improvements, or CONTRIBUTIONS would be greatly
appreciated !! Watch for other utilities from the Foundation in the near
future.
If you experience any difficulty or find any bugs in the program,
please contact me so that I can correct the matter. Thanks!
Author:
Darrell Hensley
RD #1 Box 320
Robesonia, Pa. 19551
Last Doc Revision 10/26/91 09:00am