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Thrifty Applications Simple DOS Version 2.1 Copyright (c) 1990-92 by Thrifty Applications All Rights Reserved. This documentation and program software protected by copyright. Thrifty Applications reserves all rights to its contents. This program is distributed as a shareware program. Feel free to share it with your friends, but don't give it away altered or as part of another system. If you find this program useful, you should register the product. Register Simple DOS for $25.00, or save $15.00 and get Simple DOS and Simple Backup, a backup and restore program for $35.00. Registered users receive the latest reminder-free version, printed documentation and six months phone support. Send your check or credit card information to: Thrifty Applications P.O Box 5603 Hopkins, MN 55343 USA LIMITED WARRANTY Simple DOS is provided "as-is" and without warranty of any kind. We disclaim any and all other warranties, express or implied, oral or written, including any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY In no event shall Thrifty Applications be liable for any incidental, consequential, or punitive damages whatsoever arising out of use of the program or your relationship with us, including without limitation any or all damages for loss of profits, business interruption, loss of information or any pecuniary loss. This statement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota, U.S.A.. PROBLEM RESOLUTION Thrifty Applications is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. Table of Contents ----------------- Introduction 1 Overview 1 Control Keys 2 Alt Keys 5 Function Keys 6 Sort Keys 6 Error Handling 6 Help System 10 Technical Support 11 Overview --------------- Simple DOS has an easy to use interface and allows for a quick way to maneuver around drive and directory structures when performing file maintenance operations. It has a built in help system activated by pressing F1. FEATURES - Six Different Directory Sort Sequences - File Tagging and Untagging For Operations - Copy, Delete, Move, View and Print Files - External Program Execution - View and Edit File Attributes - Edit File Time and Date Stamps - Rename Files DISTRIBUTION FILES SIMPDOS.EXE - Main Program SIMPDOS.HLP - Help File SIMPDOS.DOC - Documentation File ORDER.DOC - Registration Form DIRECTORY OPERATIONS -------------------- When Simple DOS is first called, it reads and displays the current drive and directory. Memory is allocated for as many as 1,000 files. If not enough memory is available, a message notifies you that the display has been truncated. All of the possible drives on the system are listed at the top of the directory window. If the current directory is a subdirectory, <PARENT> will be the first entry. The remainder of the window contains the files in the directory according to the sort sequence. Directories are sorted before files. The default is not to sort the directory. The statistics window contains the following information about the current drive and directory: 1) Total capacity of the current drive in bytes. 2) Amount of space now used on the default drive. 3) Amount of free space available on the drive. 4) Number of files in the current directory and the total number of bytes for the files. 5) Number of files marked for batch operations and the total number of bytes marked. 6) The sort order. The path row, just above the directory display shows the current drive and path. If the current drive and path contains more than 44 characters, the last 44 characters are displayed. Page 1 The key definition window defaults to display the control key combinations. The display is toggled with the 'F4' key. The highlighted cursor bar is at the top of the directory window on the parent directory. The 'Up Arrow' and 'Down Arrow' move the highlighted bar and scroll as necessary. The 'PgUp' and 'PgDn' keys move first to the top and bottom of the window respectively, then scroll the window as necessary. The 'Ctrl-PgUp' and 'Ctrl-PgDn' keys move to the top and bottom of the display respectively. Control Keys ------------------ All control functions are performed on marked files in the order in which they appear in the current sort selection. If no files are marked, the operation is performed on the file selected by the highlighted cursor bar. This simplifies performing a function on a single file. When the operation of a function is aborted with the 'Esc' or 'Ctrl-Esc' key, all files that have not been processed remain marked. This provides a record of the files not yet processed. A beep tone is produced if an illegal control key function is attempted. For instance, a drive cannot be deleted, copied or moved. Error messages are issued if the function is unable to complete the operation. The user is then asked to select a response to the message. These are various combinations of abort, retry, and continue. A detailed discussion of error handling is found in the section on error messages. 'Ctrl-A' - Attribute editing Changes attributes of files. The four possible attributes are: 1) Hidden - a file with the hidden attribute set will not be included in the display when listed from DOS with the "dir" command. Hidden files are displayed by Simple DOS. 2) System - usually reserved for DOS system files such as IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. These files are found on your boot drive in the root directory. Director will list these files but does not delete them. They are required for DOS system operation. The hidden attribute is also set on these files. 3) Read Only - means that a file can be read but not written to or deleted. This is usually done to protect a file from accidental deletion or editing by unauthorized users. 4) Archive - This attribute is set when a file has been rewritten to disk. The DOS backup command will back up a file only if this attribute is set. Many other software programs toggle this attribute. You should check the condition of these attributes before using the DOS backup command. This archive attribute has no other effect on files and they are listed normally. Pressing the 'H','R', 'S' or 'A' toggles the attribute on or off. Page 2 When listed, the attribute is on. Pressing 'Enter' accepts and writes the attribute to the file. Pressing 'Esc' aborts the change and continues to any next file. Pressing 'Ctrl-Esc' aborts batch attribute editing and unprocessed files remain marked. 'Ctrl-C' - Copy Copies marked files or the current file to the drive and directory specified. When the function is called, the user is asked to enter a target or "copied to" drive and path. If the drive is not entered, it is assumed to be the current drive. If the drive only is specified, the files are copied to the default directory on that drive. The conditions for the target path are the same as for DOS. Do not specify filenames in this entry. Files are copied to the target drive/directory with the same name. As in DOS, files cannot be copied to the current drive/directory with the same name. Copy can be aborted by pressing 'Esc'. 'Ctrl-D' - Delete Deletes all marked files, current file, or directory under highlighted cursor bar. To prevent accidental deletions, confirmation is required to delete files or directories. The user is asked to press 'Enter' to continue with the function. 'Esc' aborts the function and files remain marked. Drives, read only files, and directories containing files cannot be deleted. The statistics window is updated. 'Ctrl-E' - Execute DOS command When the 'Ctrl-E' function is selected, the path row is replaced by an entry field and a window prompts for a DOS command. Standard DOS commands may be executed such as changing drive and directory or executing batch files. Upon completing the DOS command, Simple DOS uses the default directory, file specifications, sort criteria and verification. You can press Enter to spawn a new DOS environment. 'Ctrl-F' - File specification When this function is run, the statistics window is replaced with a prompt and entry window. You may type any legitimate search file specification including wild cards. For instance, to list only files with a .COM extension, enter *.COM. The entry field accepts either a return character or a period to end entry. When the entry is completed, the directory is reordered, listing only files specified in the new file search specification. Drives and parent directories are always listed. The file search specification defaults to *.* when different drives or directories are selected. Page 3 'Ctrl-G' - Go to new drive or directory This function selects a new drive or directory for display. The selected drive or directory is displayed and the statistics window is rewritten for the new selection. Pressing 'Ctrl-G' on a file produces an error tone. 'Ctrl-L' - List Directory This function lists the current directory to the printer. Files marked are not affected. 'Ctrl-M' - Mark Marks files for batch operations. 'Ctrl-M' marks a file with a √ and includes that file in the next function selected. Drives and directories cannot be marked. The highlighted cursor bar moves to the next file. Pressing 'Ctrl-M' on a marked file has no effect, press 'Ctrl-U' to unmark. 'Ctrl-O' - mOve Move all marked or current files to the drive or directory specified. Operating this function is the same as copy, except that it deletes the selected files after copying. Enter the target drive, directory, optional file extension and press 'Enter'. Abort file moves by pressing 'Esc'. 'Ctrl-P' - Print Prints all marked or current files to LPT1. This is a generic print operation. The file name, date, time and page number are printed at the top of each page. A page width of 80 and a page length of 66 is assumed. 65 lines are printed and a form feed is sent for each page and at the end of each file. Operation can be aborted by pressing 'Esc'. Page 4 'Ctrl-R' - Rename Renames all marked files or the current file. You input the new file names directly on the scrolling table entry. The table is scrolled as needed to process additional marked files. 'Enter' ends the entry. Pressing 'Enter' on the extension entry accepts and writes the new filename to disk. Pressing aborts the change and continues with any next file. Pressing 'Esc' aborts batch renaming and unprocessed files remain marked. 'Ctrl-T' - Time Changes the date and time stamp for marked files or the file under the cursor. You input the new date(s) and time(s) directly on the scrolling table entry. The table is scrolled as needed to process additional marked files. 'Ctrl-U' - Unmark Unmarks file under cursor bar. 'Ctrl-U' removes the √ from a marked file, excluding it from batch operations. Pressing 'Ctrl-U' on an unmarked file has no effect. 'Ctrl-V' - View Views all marked files or the current file. 'Ctrl-V' views text files for purposes such as reading documentation files, notes, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, or to determine which files are to be copied, moved, or deleted. The viewer displays up to 300 pages (23 lines each) by 256 columns of text. The viewed file can be scrolled page up, page down, top of file, bottom of file, left, or right. Valid keys are listed at the bottom of the viewing screen. Press 'Esc' to exit the viewer or 'Ctrl-Esc' to abort batch view operations. Alt Keys ------------ 'Atl M' - Mark all Marks all files for batch operations and updates the statistics window. 'Atl U' - Unmark all Unmarks all marked files and updates the statistics window. Page 5 Function Keys --------------- 'F1' - Activates the help system. 'F2' - Toggles write verify for copy and move operations. Verify on improves file integrity, but slow performance. Verify on is the default. 'F4' - Toggles display of function key definitions. Sort Function Keys -------------------- Key Primary Sort Secondary Sort --- ------------ -------------- F5 File size File name F6 File extension File name F7 File time File name F8 File date Time, File name F9 File name None F10 As is None Error Handling -------------------- Disk Errors Simple DOS handles all critical and non-critical errors likely to occur during the performance of a function. A routine replaces the DOS critical error handler interrupt. This tells DOS to ignore the error so the program can handle it without the need to abort to DOS and re-execute the program. A critical error is usually a hardware problem that prevents the completion of a function. These can range from trying to access a floppy drive with the drive door open to trying to write to a write protected disk. A non-critical error is less serious, but may still prevent the completion of a function. Non-critical errors include attempting to delete a read only file and trying to remove a directory containing files. Both critical and non-critical errors are reported in the same manner. You are asked to select an action based on the severity and ability to recover from the error. In the case of the open drive door, closing the door and selecting retry corrects the error. Page 6 The user may choose to retry, abort, or continue in most cases. The continue option is used if the operation is a batch operation and you choose to continue performing the function on the remaining files. For instance, if you ran a batch delete operation and one of the files was a read only file, the error handler would report that it could not delete the read only file and you would have the option to continue. If the operation is aborted, the files not processed remain marked. Some cases involve an error with no correction. In this case, the user is informed of the error and asked to press a key to continue. In this case the key response is used only to end the error message display since no correction is possible. The following section has common disk error messages, their probable causes, and possible actions. FILE NOT FOUND This error should not occur in Simple DOS since files are selected for processing from a listing of the directory. It may occur if a floppy disk is changed during processing. PATH NOT FOUND This can occur during copy or move operations if the drive or path entered is an invalid drive/path specification, or if the drive or directory does not exist. Responses: Select retry if the error can be corrected. Enter a new, valid drive/path specification or for floppy disks, insert the disk with the specified path and press 'R'. If the error cannot be corrected, select abort. Continue would not be a valid response for this error since the invalid drive or path error would apply to all marked files. TOO MANY FILES OPEN This error is caused by an improper system configuration. If this error occurs: 1) Exit the application. 2) Edit your CONFIG.SYS file. Increase the number of files that can be opened at one time. This command is "files=nnn" where nnn is the maximum number of open files. 3) Re-boot your computer. Page 7 ACCESS DENIED This error can occur for a number of reasons: A try to delete a read only file, a try to remove a directory that is not empty, or a try to overwrite a read only file with the copy or move functions. Responses: Repeated attempts to perform an illegal DOS operation will not be successful. The continue response, if the file is one of a batch, is usually the only valid response. INSUFFICIENT MEMORY You do not have enough system memory to complete the function and probably not enough memory to continue with Simple DOS. Responses: Select abort and attempt to perform other functions. If they also fail, exit the program entirely and check your system memory. You may have drivers or TSR's (terminate and stay resident) programs in memory that do not leave enough memory to run Simple DOS. The general action is to free up memory by running Simple DOS in a different manner or uninstalling some TSR's or device drivers. For example, if you run Simple DOS from inside some programs, you do not have as much free memory to start work with as if you started the program from the DOS prompt. The possible causes are too many and corrections are too system specific to address here. Consult your computer users manual or your dealer for more information. DISK WRITE PROTECTED This is caused by attempting to write to a write protected disk. Responses: Remove the write protection from the disk and select retry. Be sure that you know why the disk was write protected before removing the protection. You may be defeating the purpose of the write protection. Choose abort if you do not want to remove write protection. The continue response is not valid in this case. DRIVE NOT READY This is probably the most common critical error. It can be caused by any attempt to read or write to a floppy drive with the drive door open. It can also be caused by an attempt to read or write disk media not consistent with the drive type such as trying to read a 1.2M disk in a 360K floppy drive. An unformatted disk will produce the same error. A less common cause would be attempting to read or write to a floppy disk that has been inserted upside down in the drive. If this error occurs while reading from or writing to a hard drive, the drive may be in need of service. Page 8 Responses: This error, while serious to DOS, is usually easily corrected by closing the drive door or replacing the disk with one consistent with the drive type. If the cause can be corrected, do so, select retry, otherwise select abort. DATA ERROR (CRC) This error means that there is an error in the file header and that the file is probably not recoverable, at least not in it's entirety. This can be caused by an error while writing the file, or by physical damage to a floppy disk. Responses: You may select continue if this error occurs during a batch operation, or abort. Retrying will not usually recover the file. There are specialty programs that attempt to recover damaged files and such a function is not within the scope of Simple DOS. UNKNOWN ERROR DOS has no explanation for the error. If DOS has no explanation, we cannot provide one here. Response: It is probably best to abort the operation and start over. SEEK ERROR This error is similar to a Data error (CRC) except that it is usually hardware oriented. Responses: If this error occurs on a hard drive, the drive may be in need of service. If the drive is a floppy drive, try another disk. In most cases, abort is the only possible response. UNKNOWN MEDIA TYPE The function attempted to read or write to a disk with a media type inconsistent with the drive type. Responses: If the unknown media can be replaced with media of the proper type, select retry. If not, select abort. Continue would not be a valid response in this case. SECTOR NOT FOUND The causes and responses for this error would be the same as the Data error (CRC). Page 9 READ FAULT OR WRITE FAULT These errors can be caused by any or all of the above and it is more ambiguous in nature. The most likely cause is the media, but there are many other possibilities. Responses: Try another disk or drive. Repeated failure could suggest that the drive requires service. Printer Errors -------------- Printer errors are handled in a completely different manner than disk errors by Simple DOS. The condition of the printer is monitored by the BIOS print routines and DOS is not involved. There are also fewer errors to be concerned with. PRINTER NOT READY There are at least three possible causes for this error. Either the printer power is not on, the printer is not "on-line", or the cable is not connected properly to the right port. Response: If the error condition can be corrected, do so and select retry, otherwise select abort. If the error condition cannot be corrected, the continue option is invalid. PRINTER OUT OF PAPER Causes: This is the most descriptive of all error messages. Most printers have an electronic paper sensor that is depressed by the paper itself. When there is no paper in the path, the sensor sends the out of paper signal. Responses: If the supply of paper can be restored, do so and select retry, otherwise select abort. Continue is not valid if the error condition cannot be corrected. Help System --------------- SIMPDOS.HLP is an ASCII file read by Simple DOS and paged in the help window. The help files should be in the same directory as the program. However, we give you the option to search available drives for the help file when it is not found in the default directory. This option uses a "where is" type of search for the help file, starting with the first hard drive. When the file is found, help is displayed. The directory of the help file is recorded for later calls to the help system. Page 10 Technical Support Registered users obtain technical support for six months after registration. Unregistered users may obtain addition product information, but will not be provided advanced technical support. Thrifty Applications can be reached at: Thrifty Applications P.O. Box 5603 Hopkins, MN 55343 or CompuServe ID 72371,2444 BBS (612) 593-1050 Voice (612) 593-5019 Fax (612) 593-5028 Page 11