Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/015a/xset20.zip/XSET.DOC

Text File | 1992-01-29 | 11KB | 333 lines

    ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │   ENHANCED  SET  INSTRUCTION 2.0  -  (C) 1992 STERN Marc   │
    └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘


    All you always wanted to put in an environment variable and
 never dare to ask DOS for...

        XSET: The way to easily write efficient batch files.


    XSET allows you to put EVERYTHING you want in a variable of
 the current environment and use it as if you gave it the value with
 the standard DOS command 'SET'. You will be able to write very efficient
 batch files including string manipulation, calculation,...

    XSET is the more powerful environment variable manipulation
 program you never saw. It also has the easiest and most intuitive
 user interface it is possible to write.


 XSET is fully compatible with MS-DOS 5.0, DR-DOS 6.0, NDOS & 4DOS 4.0 .



 XSET has five major features:
 ════════════════════════════

  - XSET permits to catch the output of any command (internal or external)
    or program and put it into an environment variable.

  - XSET has several built-in commands to modify the output of a program
    or a string given on the command-line (extract a part of a string,...)

  - XSET has a built-in full floating-point calculation functionalitie:
                        ──────────────────────────────────────────────
    You can make incremental loops, input a calculation string and
    output a number,...

  - XSET can manage variable contents of more than 128 characters
    (your path can now be as long as you want)

  - XSET has some other built-in commands to give you access to some
    system datas (date, time, ...)



  * type XSET with no parameters to have the full description
    of all functionalities (parameters and effects).



 Example of use:
 ══════════════

  Rem: in all the examples, the command XSET and the its built-in commands
       are typed in uppercase and the environment variables names are
       in lowercase. This is only for readability; when you type it,
       you may mix lowercases and uppercase as you want.
       The case is only significant for arguments strings you enter on the
       command-line.
       The 'C:>' represents your prompt, do not type it!


  1)      C:> XSET datvar DATE
  Puts the date into the variable 'datvar'

  Type the command SET and you will see all the environment variables:
          ...
          COMSPEC=...
          DATVAR=dd-mm-yy    (where dd,mm,yy are replaced by current
                           day, month and year)
          ...

  You can now use the variable 'datvar' in a batch file:
          ECHO the date is %datvar%

  2)      C:> XSET name INPUT "Enter your name: "
  Inputs a string from the keyboard (usual answer terminated by <Enter>)
  and puts it into the variable 'name'.

  You can now use the variable 'name' in a batch file to enter
  personal environment for each user:
          ECHO Hello %name%, beginning the work
          CD \%name%


  3)      C:> CD | XSET dirname
  Puts the output of the command 'CD' (i.e. the current directory name)
  into the variable 'dirname'.

  You can write a batch file to go to another directory, execute
  a program and come back into the current one

    rem ------------------

    CD | XSET dirname
    CD \otherdir
    myprog ...
       cd %dirname%
       set dirname=

       rem ------------------



  4)  You can write a batch file with automatic loops


      rem ------------------

      set loop=1

        :next
              if %loop% == 20 goto end

              .......
              anything you want
              .......

              XSET loop MATH %loop% + 1

              goto next

        :end

       rem ------------------


  5)  You can write a batch file where the user may enter
      a calculation and use it as a number


      rem ------------------

      XSET calc INPUT "Enter your calculation: "

        XSET result MATH %calc%

        echo %calc% = %result%

       rem ------------------




  6)  More complex example of a login procedure

          rem ---------------------- LOGIN.BAT --------------------------------

          echo off
          cls

          rem    Ask login name from keyboard
          rem    ----------------------------
          XSET login INPUT "Enter login name : "

          rem    Test if directory corresponding to login name already exist
          rem    -----------------------------------------------------------
          if exist c:\%login%\nul goto LOGIN

          rem    Directory does not exist, ask to create it
          rem    ------------------------------------------
          echo:
          echo Login '%login%' does not exist.
          echo Do you want to create it? (Y/N)

          rem    Only "yYnN" keys are allowed
          rem    ----------------------------
          XSET ask KEY "yYnN"
          XSET ask UPPER %ask%
          if "%ask%" == "N" goto INPUT

          rem    Create directory
          rem    ----------------
          md c:\%login%

          :LOGIN
          set ask=

          cd \%login%
          if exist autouser.bat autouser.bat

          rem -----------------------------------------------------------------

  7)  And much more ...


  Installation:
  ════════════

     - XSET.EXE is ready to use; no installation,
       but it is a SHAREWARE version.

     - To get a registered version of XSET, print the XSET.REG file,
       fill it and send it to me; you will then receive the password
       mandatory to use the program REGISTER.

     - if a registered people gave you the program (the shareware version
       obviously), put his name to the registration formular; he will
       so receive each new upgrade for free!!!


  Problems:
  ════════

     - If the size of your environment space is not big enough,
       you will receive an error message

             'XSET : not enough environment space.'

       This is not a bug, it is because the environment space
       reserved for the variables is too small.
       You must increase it by modifying the line 'SHELL=...'
       in your CONFIG.SYS. By default, DOS reserves 256 bytes
       environment space; this is generally insufficient.
       Try 640 bytes (or more if you need it) by adding '/e:640'
       at the line 'SHELL=...'

       ex:    SHELL=COMMAND.COM /E:640 /P



  Additional information:     32.2.427.98.52 (after 19h)
  ══════════════════════   or 32.2.465.01.19

                  E-mail:     [e-mail]



        ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │   ENHANCED  SET  INSTRUCTION 2.0  -  (C) 1991 STERN Marc   │
        └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

             Syntax:     XSET  <dosvar>  COMMAND  [args..]

Commands    Arguments    Action and value assigned to <dosvar>
--------    ---------    -------------------------------------

INPUT       [prompt]     echo <prompt> and read input from standard input
                         ex:  XSET name INPUT Enter your name:

PASSWD      [prompt]     same as INPUT without echoing

APPEND      {string}     old value + <string>
                         ex:  XSET path APPEND ;c:\msc600\bin;c:\msc600\binb
                         Rem: this allow you to bypass the 128 characters
                              limit of DOS

KEY         string       key pressed (must be in <string> if not empty)
                         ex:  XSET k KEY 123aAbB
                              only keys 123aAbB are allowed
                         ex:  XSET k KEY
                              all are allowed

LENGTH      {string}     number of characters in <string>

LEFT        n {string}   the leftmost <n> characters of <string>
                         ex: XSET var LEFT 3 abcdef
                             puts 'abc' in variable 'var'

MID         m n {string} the <n> characters in <string> starting from the <m>th

RIGHT       n {string}   the rightmost <n> characters of <string>

UPPER       {string}     uppercase <string>

LOWER       {string}     lowercase <string>

COUNT       {string}     the number of words in <string>

WORD        n {string}   pick the <n>-th word in <string>

LINE        n            read the <n>-th line from standard input

STDERR      n            read the <n>-th line from standard error

MATH        {expr}       result of calculation of expression <expr>
                         valid operators: + - * / ()   on floats
                                          + - * / () %% on integers
                         ex: XSET var MATH 3+(2*5) + %new%

MIN      ┌{str1...strn}    minimum or maximum of numbers or strings list
MAX      └{num1...numn}    (one string may not contain <space> or <tab>)
                           ex: XSET var MIN 3.6 4 9.02
                           ex: XSET var MAX 3.6 4 abc 3.9j

DATE                     system date (dd-mm-yy)

DAY                      day of the month (1-31)

MONTH                    month number (1-12)

YEAR                     system year (4 digits)

TIME                     system time (hh:mm:ss - 24h format)

HOUR                     system hour (0-24)

MINUTE                   system minutes (0-59)

SEC                      system seconds (0-59)

DENSITY     drive        drive density (360, 720, 1200, 1440 or 0)

DIR         [drive]      current directory of <drive> or current drive

FPATH       {file}       full pathname of a filename

FDRIVE      {file}       drive of a filename

FDIR        {file}       drive & directory of a filename

FEXT        {file}       extension of a file name (no period included)

FNAME       {file}       name of a file without extension

FXNAME      {file}       name & extension of a file

FSIZE       {file}       size of a file

TRUENAME    {file}       full truename of a file


  [...] are optional arguments.

  If arguments {...} are missing, they are read from the standard input.
  Non quoted arguments on command-line will be separated by 1 blank.

  Rem:    'XSET var'   is equivalent to  'XSET var INPUT'
                                     or  'XSET var LINE 1'
                   and is more performant.