Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/015a/fkeys.zip/FKEYS.DOC

Text File | 1990-10-21 | 7KB | 149 lines

                                     F KEYS
                             (C) 1990 Ray Dittmeier

     F KEYS is a program that allows you to redefine what your function keys
do at the DOS prompt.  With F KEYS, you can run your favorite programs at the
touch of a single key, redefine other keys on the keyboard, or change your
screen colors.
     The program has you create text files, called configuration files, that
store your new F Key definitions.  After a configuration file is created, you
may use the new definitions by typing  FKEYS  followed by the name of your
configuration file, at the DOS prompt.  You can create as many configuration
files as you wish, and you can "re-redefine" the F Keys as many times as you
want during a single computing session.

     First, you must create a configuration file.  Simply type FKEYS (without
a file name after it) at the DOS prompt.  The program will display an opening
screen and ask you for the name of a configuration file.  At this point, you
have three choices:

1.  Press return without typing anything.  You can then begin entering
    your new definitions and name the configuration file when you have
    finished.
2.  Type the name of an existing configuration file.  F KEYS will load
    that file, and you can edit it and save the changes.
3.  Type the name for a new configuration file.  You can then enter new
    definitions for a file that will be created with this name.

After you press return, the definition screen will appear.  You will see F Key
numbers on every other line down the left side of the screen.  The definition
for each key will appear on the line immediately under the number.  For
example, if a configuration file contains the definition of DIR/W for F1, the
first two lines of the screen will look like this:

F1:
DIR/W

You can move around the definition screen with the Cursor Arrow keys, Tab,
Shift-Tab, Home, and End.

Delete deletes the character at the cursor's position.  Backspace deletes the
character to the immediate right of the cursor.

Insert toggles Insert Mode on and off.  This works the same way as Insert and
Typeover Mode in word processors.  The current Insert Mode setting is
indicated at the bottom of the screen.

If you press Enter while on an F Key definition line, the computer will
display a solid rectangle █ (ASCII 219) at the cursor position.  This is to
allow you to put a carriage return at the end of the line.  With the return,
your F Key definition will execute immediately after you press the key.
Without it, you must press return yourself after hitting the F Key.  You might
want to leave the return out if, for example, you redefine F2 as COPY.  You
could hit F2 to get the word COPY, then add the file name yourself.  You can
also use the █ to chain commands, such as

FORMAT A:█COPY B:*.* A:█DIR A:█

This will format the floppy disk in drive A, copy all the files from drive B
to your newly formatted disk in drive A, then give you a directory for drive
A.
     Chaining commands like this is also how you can use F KEYS to issue ANSI
codes to change screen colors and redefine other keys:

SET PROMPT = $E[0;32;44m█SET PROMPT = $P$G█CLS█

This will set your prompt to the ANSI code that gives you green characters on
a blue background.  Then it will reset your prompt to display the path and
the "greater than" symbol and clear the screen.  (It is admittedly a rather
roundabout technique when you should be able to redefine the F Key with the
ANSI code by itself, but it won't work.  If you try it, hitting the F Key
will cause DOS to treat the escape character at the beginning as if you had
hit the escape key on the keyboard, making the rest of the ANSI code worthless.
If you're interested in ANSI codes, the DOS manual that came with your
computer should have a bit of information.  Even better, I highly recommend
PC Magazine's book "DOS Power Tools."  Not only does it provide more
information useful to both beginners and experienced users than any other
single book I've seen, but it comes with a disk packed full of utilities.)

     After typing in the definitions you want (You don't have to redefine
every F Key), move the cursor down to the Configuration File Name space.  Make
sure the file name is as you want it and press Enter.  F KEYS will save your
new definitions in a text file with the name you specify, but with the .FCG
extension (Any time the program asks for a file name, just type in the
primary name--that is, the part before the period.  The program itself will
automatically add the .FCG).

     To redefine your F Keys, run the program by typing FKEYS followed by a
space, then the name of the configuration file that contains the definitions
you want.  For example,

FKEYS ONE

would reassign the F Keys as defined in the file ONE.FCG.  The program will
display onscreen the numbers of the keys begin redefined, along with their
new definitions, then return you to the DOS prompt.  Remember that your new
definitions are good only in DOS itself.  In other programs, the F Keys will
behave as they should within the program.

     The program looks for the configuration files only in the current
directory.  Therefore, keep the configuration files in the same directory as
the program itself.  Also, you can run F KEYS from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file,
but if you don't have it in your root directory, don't use a line like

C:\UTIL\FKEYS ONE

Instead, change directories if you need to:

CD UTIL
FKEYS ONE
CD\

                           ***** IMPORTANT! *****

     F KEYS performs its redefinitions by building ANSI escape codes from the
data in your configuration file and then writing the codes to the screen.
Therefore, you must have ANSI.SYS installed on your system for the program to
work (You can create the configuration files on the definition screen without
ANSI.SYS, however.).  If you're not sure if you have ANSI.SYS installed, go
to the root directory of your hard drive (or of the floppy disk you boot up
your computer with) and type

TYPE CONFIG.SYS

You're okay if you get a display containing the line

DEVICE = ANSI.SYS

Otherwise, you'll have to add that line to your CONFIG.SYS file, or if you
don't have a CONFIG.SYS file, you'll have to create it (Also, make sure the
file ANSI.SYS is there, too).  Since CONFIG.SYS is merely a text file, any
pure-ASCII text editor will do, including EDLIN, which comes with DOS (The
COPY CON command will work if you're careful enough with your typing).
DEVICE = ANSI.SYS can be the only line in the CONFIG.SYS file, or if you're
curious enough, I'll again send you to your DOS manual or the PC Magazine
book.


     **************************************************************


     F KEYS is distributed as shareware.  Copy it and give it to your friends.
Upload it to bulletin boards.  Spread it around any way you want.  In exchange
for a registration fee of $7.00, I'll send you a disk with more programs.  I
would also be happy to receive any comments, suggestions, or criticisms, or to
answer questions.  Send all correspondence to:

     Ray Dittmeier
     P.O. Box 4724
     Louisville, Ky.  40204