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CleanZ Control-Z Strip or Replace Utility Version 1.3 Released 04-08-91 Herron Software P.O. Box 1288 Battle Ground, Washington 98604 COPYRIGHT 1988-1991 Phil Herron. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. _________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Section _________________________________________________________________ Preface.................................................. 0 New in this version...................................... 1 Introduction............................................. 1.1 Explanation.............................................. 1.2 System Requirements...................................... 1.3 Installing............................................. 1.3.1 Help..................................................... 1.4 Syntax................................................... 1.5 Replacement character.................................... 1.6 Examples................................................. 1.7 File Attributes.......................................... 1.8 Applications............................................. 1.9 Error Messages........................................... 2 DOS ErrorLevel........................................... 3 Version History.......................................... 4 Support.................................................... 9 Problem Resolution....................................... 9.1 Reporting the problem.................................... 9.1.1 Custom Modifications..................................... 9.2 Correspondence........................................... 9.3 Shareware Product Catalog................................. 10 __________________________________________ DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY __________________________________________ THIS PRODUCT IS PROVIDED FOR EVALUATION, AS IS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE AUTHOR MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGE ARISING FROM EITHER THE USE OF OR THE INABILITY TO USE THIS PRODUCT. ________________________________________________________________ 0 EVALUATION PREFACE ________________________________________________________________ Section: 0.1 Shareware 0.1.1 License Terms 0.1.2 Registration Benefits, Forms, Fees, Quantity discounts 0.2 Evaluation Version 0.2.1 Evaluation Menu 0.2.2 Virus Prevention 0.1 SHAREWARE _______________ "Shareware" is a software distribution method which enables the potential user to obtain software at very low initial cost, for evaluation on a trial basis. You can evaluate the software in your own environment, on your own machine, with the programs and data that you normally use. You're not required to become a registered user unless the software meets your needs. Another benefit of Shareware is lower pricing. By minimizing the marketing and advertising expenses associated with more traditional software distribution methods, Shareware products can be priced lower. You don't pay for what you don't need or use. You are encouraged to share the evaluation version of this software with others, so long as you follow the limitations set forth in the LICENSE TERMS section below. 0.1.1 LICENSE TERMS _____________________ This product and its documentation are copyrighted and owned solely by the author, who reserves all rights to any benefits derived from it. It is distinctly separate from, and should not be confused with, those categories of software known as "public domain" or "freeware." You are granted the right to use the evaluation version of this software on a trial basis for a limited amount of time, to decide whether to continue using (and therefore whether to register) the product. You can transmit this evaluation version to associates by copying on diskette or uploading to electronic bulletin board or other online services, so long as the program, documentation and any associated files are distributed together, and not altered in any way. 0.1.2 REGISTRATION ____________________ When you send in the registration form and fee, you'll receive by return mail a diskette containing the latest REGISTERED version of the program and documentation. BENEFITS OF REGISTRATION The registered version DOES NOT include the Evaluation Menu front end of this version. Thus it will be more convenient to use, from either the DOS prompt or from batch files. It will also be 12K-15K bytes smaller, for more efficient disk storage and faster loading. The registered version WILL include any new functions or enhancements made to date. You will receive notification of future updates and new products, and will be able to upgrade to newer versions at a reduced cost. REGISTRATION FORM The registration form and a pre-addressed mailing cover can be printed from the "Forms Printing" selection of the Evaluation menu, discussed below. FEES The single-quantity registration fee is displayed on the initial Evaluation Menu screen. Higher quantities are discussed below. QUANTITY DISCOUNTS Each registered copy of this software will be licensed for operation at a single location (on a single terminal or computer) at any one time. If you need to run the software on more than one terminal or computer at the same time, the appropriate number of registrations must be made. Multiple-quantity registration fees are displayed in the "QUANTITY DISCOUNT" section of the Evaluation menu. You can take advantage of quantity discounts by ordering multiple registrations of one program or single registrations of several different programs at the same time. You also save on shipping and handling charges by registering several products together. 0.2 EVALUATION VERSION ________________________ This software contains the complete and fully functional version of the program, the latest available at the time of this release. The program itself is identical to the REGISTERED version. For evaluation, a front end menu containing a documentation file viewer and forms printer have been added to ensure that: (a) Registration information and forms will not become separated from the program file. (b) Users who might be unfamiliar with the process of displaying a file's contents on the screen or printer will have no difficulty learning about, evaluating or registering this product. 0.2.1 EVALUATION MENU _______________________ The program is invoked from the DOS prompt by typing its name and pressing the RETURN or ENTER key. The initial screen displays warranty and program information, then the Shareware Product EVALUATION MENU, containing the following functions: ESC - EXIT to DOS without evaluating this program R - READ the documentation (THIS file) x - EVALUATE this program Q - QUANTITY Discount information F - FORMS printing menu - registration & mailer When you press "R" to READ the documentation, this file will be displayed one screen at a time. The display pauses whenever the screen becomes full, and prompts... or Esc "" indicates that more is available, like the "MORE" prompt in other DOS utilities. Press the ESCape key to return to the Evaluation Menu, or any normal typing key such as the spacebar to continue. 0.2.2 VIRUS PREVENTION ________________________ If you'd like to evaluate this software but you're not sure where it's been, you can order a copy directly from the source. See the SHAREWARE PRODUCT CATALOG at the end of this file. ________________________________________________________________ 1 NEW IN THIS VERSION _________________________ Ctrl-C, Ctrl-Break key combinations disabled. Improved error handling for ReadOnly files (see File Attributes section). 1.1 INTRODUCTION __________________ The personal computer is a convenient note-keeper and organizer. Using a pop-up notepad utility or text editor, you can save ideas, research notes and lists of things in small text files, and have them immediately available. You can separate different subjects into different filenames and, like George Carlin, "keep track of your stuff." Another related use for small text files is in saving selected messages extracted from BBS (bulletin board system) capture files. After you've built up a collection of small files, you may discover that some of them contain related subjects and should be combined. You might want to consolidate some files into larger ones, to gather related notes or to save disk space. A convenient way to combine files is to use the DOS TYPE command, with the special characters >> to redirect output and append it to an existing file. For example, to add the contents of fileTwo.Doc to the end of fileOne.Doc, issue TYPE fileTwo.Doc >>fileOne.Doc from the DOS prompt. The need for a utility such as CleanZ arises when you load the combined file into your text editor; you see the text from the first file, but the second file is missing! Yet, if you look at the file in a DIR listing, its size indicates that it does indeed contain the text from both files. 1.2 EXPLANATION _________________ Many text editors and word processors, including the DOS EDLIN utility, mark the end of a text file with one or more control-Z characters (variously known as ^Z, decimal 26, or hex 1A). The control-Z character is also known as EOF, since it indicates "End Of File." If the file is later appended to by some means other than the editor, the added text will appear after the ^Z character. Then when the file is edited, you won't find the appended text; the editor does not look beyond the "End-Of-File" character. A way around this limitation is to delete the ^Z character, or change it to some other character, so your editor will read beyond it to the appended text. CleanZ performs this function by reading the specified file, then writing a new file without the ^Z characters (or optionally changing them to another selected character). It saves the original file with the extension .BAK. 1.3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS _________________________ PC, XT, AT or compatible. DOS version 2.1 or later. 80K free memory. 1.3.1 INSTALLING __________________ The program can be run from diskette or from hard disk. No installation is necessary, other than copying the files to a drive and directory of your choosing. 1.4 HELP __________ Can't remember the command line syntax? Issue the program's name without any parameters; it will display a help screen, then return to the DOS prompt. 1.5 SYNTAX ____________ optional replacement character / CleanZ [filespec] [-replChar] \ Switch delimiter either "/" or "-" Where [filespec] is the file specification needed to reference a file; it can also be shown as [d:][\path\][filename.ext]. The minimum filespec needed is filename.ext. If the file is in another directory and/or on another drive, the drive name and/or pathname must also be given. The complete filespec for a file named ThisFile.Doc residing in drive A: in a subdirectory named ThisSub is A:\ThisSub\ThisFile.Doc For further information on filespecs, see your DOS manual. 1.6 REPLACEMENT CHARACTER ___________________________ The replacement character is optional, and serves as a place marker in the cleaned file. You might use a replacement character if you want to later find the position in the text where a particular file began or ended. If no replacement character is entered on the command line, all control-Z characters found in the file will be simply stripped out. A replacement character, if used, must be preceded by either a dash or a slash character. The replacement character should not be any of these three: < > | which are used by DOS for redirection and piping. Nothing catastrophic will occur if you do use one of them, but the program terminates with an error message: | produces "Syntax Error" > produces "File creation error" < produces "File not found" Aside from the above restrictions, any other standard displayable character can be used, including special characters entered with the ALT key, in ALT-nnn format. 1.7 EXAMPLES ______________ CleanZ a:\docSub\myfile.doc Reads myfile.doc on drive A: in subdirectory docSub; strips all ^Z characters from the file, then stores the cleaned version in the same subdirectory. CleanZ a:\docSub\myfile.doc -~ Same as above, except that ^Z characters are replaced by the tilde (~) character. 1.8 FILE ATTRIBUTES _____________________ CleanZ will process files having attributes of Ordinary, Archive, Hidden and System. Files having a ReadOnly attribute cannot be opened. To process such a file, either clear its ReadOnly attribute using one of the file attribute utilities available, or first copy the file to another filename. Files with Directory or Volume label attributes are ignored. 1.9 APPLICATIONS __________________ This sample application, Combine.Bat, can be used to consolidate two to five files each time it is run. The resulting file is stored in the first filename specified on the command line. Command-line syntax: Combine [File1 File2] [File3] [File4] [File5] Example: Combine Full.Txt 2.doc 3.doc 4.doc 5.doc appends in order the files 2, 3, 4 and 5.doc to the file Full.Txt, then runs CleanZ on the result to convert all control-Z characters to tilde (~) characters. Usage: If the first filespec does not already exist on the disk, it will be created. Then the other files will be added to it. If any of the other filespecs do not exist, they will be ignored; the screen will display the DOS error message, "file not found". Finally, CLEANZ is applied to the first filespec. Its invocation includes the "/~" option, to replace each control-Z with a tilde character; this is included for later editing, to indicate where each file ends and the next begins. Listing of Combine.Bat: ::::---File combining utility - uses CleanZ.Exe echo off If "%2"=="" goto NoSpec If "%1"=="" goto NoSpec echo Will combine specified files into file %1 . . . echo Ctrl-Break to terminate now, or Pause Type %2 >>%1 If "%3"=="" goto CLEANIT Type %3 >>%1 If "%4"=="" goto CLEANIT Type %4 >>%1 If "%5"=="" goto CLEANIT Type %5 >>%1 :CLEANIT CleanZ %1 /~ :::: DIR %1 could be added here to list the finished file goto End :NoSpec echo Syntax: %0 [file1 file2] [file3] [file4] [file5] echo Appends files in this order: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5. At echo lease two files must be specified; 3, 4, 5 are optional. echo Calls CleanZ.exe to convert any embedded ^Z EOF marks echo to ~ to indicate where each file ends & next begins. :END Notes: 1 - There are several ways to convert the above listing into batch file form. One is to copy this entire file to another named "Combine.Bat", delete everything except the listing, then delete the leading spaces on the left side so each line begins in column one. Another is to display the listing on screen and use a memory-resident notepad to "cut and paste" it into a batch file. 2 - Single colons in the listing mark labels needed for proper operation. Multiple colons denote nonoperational comment lines which could be deleted. 2 ERROR MESSAGES __________________ <filespec> - file not found. <filespec> - has ReadOnly attribute - cannot open. The file's ReadOnly attribute is set. To process the file, either clear its ReadOnly attribute using one of the file attribute utilities available, or first copy the file to another filename. Cannot create output file. <filespec> - cannot process file with BAK extension - rename. The file's extension must be changed before it can be processed. CLEANZ renames the input file's extension to .BAK, then creates a new output file using the original filename and extension. Switch delimiter must be "-" or "/". Missing replacement character. 3 DOS ERRORLEVEL __________________ Upon termination, the program returns a DOS ErrorLevel value which indicates how the program ended, and which can be used for subsequent operations in a batch file. For further information, see the "IF ERRORLEVEL" batch command in your DOS manual. ErrorLevel list: 0 - Successful completion. 1 - No parameters specified on command line. 2 - Input file not found. 3 - Missing replacement character 4 - Illegal switch delimiter (must be "-" or "/"). 5 - Input file with .BAK extension cannot be processed. 6 - Cannot open input file (has ReadOnly attribute set). 7 - Cannot create output file. 4 VERSION HISTORY ___________________ 1.00 Initial release. 1.07 Command line switch character "-" added; now either "/" or "-" is legal to delimit the replacement char. 1.12 DOS ErrorLevels added. 1.2 "z" activity indicator is now written to screen each time a control-Z is found in the file being cleaned. 1.3 Ctrl-C, Ctrl-Break key combinations are temporarily disabled to prevent open files after a run. Improved error handling for ReadOnly files. When processing a file having its ReadOnly attribute set, prior versions terminated with a runtime error message. This version terminates with "<filespec> - has ReadOnly attribute - cannot open". ________________________________________________________________ 9 SUPPORT ________________________________________________________________ The first user to document and report a problem that we agree needs attention, will receive a free upgrade with the correction when it's been made. Registered users get the upgraded registered version; unregistered evaluators get the upgraded evaluation version. 9.1 PROBLEM RESOLUTION ________________________ Things to try prior to reporting a problem: 1 - Reread the documentation to make sure you understand what we thought we understood when we wrote it. 2 - If the system reports "Bad command or file name" when you attempt to run the program, its executable file (or at least the file name you specified) was not found. First, make sure no typos or misspellings have crept into your command line; next, try changing your PATH setting, or make the drive & directory where the program resides the "current" drive & directory. 3 - If the program is being run from a batch file, try deleting lines previous to the line that actually invokes the program, to see if some prior activity is causing the problem. 4 - If you have any memory-resident or "TSR" utilities installed (pop-up calculators/note pads, keyboard enhancements, etc.), try removing them from memory and running the program again to see if the problem reoccurs. 9.1.1 REPORTING THE PROBLEM _____________________________ If the problem persists, please document it as completely and accurately as possible; we have to be able to duplicate it before we can begin to resolve it. Include at least the following: 1 - Version of DOS you are using. 2 - Machine type, drives, memory, etc. 3 - Programs executed prior to the problem. 4 - Problem program's name and version number. 5 - Where and how you obtained the problem program. 6 - Address and/or phone number where you can be contacted. 7 - Anything you can think of that might relate to the problem; for example, listings of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, or any batch files used to run the program. 8 - Any relevant printouts. NOTE: Registered users will find the utility UserResp.Exe on the distribution diskette; it can be used to print a pre-addressed mailer and a problem report. 9.2 CUSTOM MODIFICATIONS __________________________ If custom modifications to this software are needed for your particular application, please write to the below address with complete details of your requirements. 9.3 CORRESPONDENCE ____________________ We welcome any comments or suggestions you might have concerning improvements and future enhancements to this product. Send all correspondence and orders to: Phil Herron P.O. Box 1288 Battle Ground, Washington USA 98604 ________________________________________________________________ 10 SHAREWARE PRODUCT CATALOG ________________________________________________________________ If our other Shareware products aren't available locally, evaluation disks can be ordered directly from the source: Each disk (5.25" DSDD 360K) holds up to five programs and associated documentation files. Include $4.00 for the first disk, shipping and handling. Add $1 for each additional disk of programs you want to evaluate (Example: $4 for 1-5 programs, $5 for 6-10, $6 for 11-15, etc.). Make all payments in U.S. funds; Washington State residents must add 7.6% of the total for sales tax. For addresses outside the U.S. and Canada, include $6.50 additional for shipping. The latest versions of most products can also be downloaded from the CompuServe Information Service. ____________________________________________ PROGRAM SPECIFICATIONS AND REGISTRATION FEES MAY CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE ____________________________________________ 1099 Series - IRS forms preparation 1099M - 1099-MISC Miscellaneous income statement 1099i - 1099-INT Interest income statement 1099S - 1099-S Real Estate Transactions statement 1098 - 1098 Mortgage Interest statement ChkD - Check_Disk_space reports disk drive space usage. It reports drive cluster size, then drive space TOTAL, FREE and USED by actual value and by percentage. Faster and more convenient than the DOS "dir" or "chkdsk" utilities for displaying drive information. ChkM - Check_Memory_space reports standard system memory (RAM) space usage. It reports memory space TOTAL, FREE and USED by actual value and by percentage. Faster and more convenient than the DOS "chkdsk" utility for displaying system memory information. CleanOut - searches all directories of the default drive for file(s) specified on command line. Each time a matching file is found, the user is prompted for disposition: Delete or Save. File contents, either text or binary, can be VIEWED before deciding. A single press of the "S" key saves a file; a double press of the "D" key deletes it. An optional mode allows deletions without confirmation. Useful for cleaning out .BAK file leftovers, among others. CleanTxt - Clean_Text converts WordStar text files to straight ASCII. It strips out certain control characters, and will optionally expand tab characters to the appropriate number of spaces. CleanZ - Most text editors won't read files beyond the first control-Z end-of-file character. Control-Z's can become embedded in a text file when several files are combined using the DOS "type" command. CleanZ will strip out each control-Z, or it will optionally replace each with a seldom-used character, to ease the task of locating the former boundaries in combined files. DiskInit - Diskette_Initialize erases all files and subdirectories on a 5.25 inch 362k DSDD diskette in about two seconds. It does not initialize marked bad sectors, but tells you to reformat instead. ErrLev - ErrLev is a utility for testing batch file "if errorlevel" statements. During testing, executable program calls are commented out and replaced with "ErrLev nn", where nn is the DOS errorlevel to be simulated. The simulated errorlevel then exercises branching commands in the batch file under test. FindD - Find_Directory searches the default drive for specified subdirectory names, and lists the complete path to those found. FindF - Find_File searches the default drive for specified files, and writes the file information to screen or disk. Useful for locating misplaced files or for generating a listing of all files and subdirectories on the default drive. FreqCh - Letter-frequency analysis of text or binary files; handles the full 256-character extended Ascii set; display is sorted in order of Ascii code or frequency of occurrence. Gen - Generate_file replaces several trial-and-error methods of building specific-sized files for printer, storage or timing tests. It generates files of any size from zero to twenty million bytes, much faster than typing random characters into a text editor. Besides generating files on disk, it can send characters directly to the console screen, printer or other DOS device. Index - Text file INDEX word list utility. Strips punctuation, digits, whitespace, trivial words and words shorter than a specified minimum, then writes remainder to disk file, one word per line. KeyCode - KeyCode responds to each press of a key or combination of keys by displaying the key or combination pressed, its associated Ascii character (if any), key type (normal or extended), Ascii code and Scan code. KeySet - KeySet's interactive mode displays the current settings of the CapsLock, NumLock, ScrollLock and PrtSc (Print Screen) keys, and allows them to be changed. The command line mode directly sets the keys to specified states, allowing use of a batch file for presetting at system boot-up or between applications. PhLBL - Label/Rotary filecard/Postcard Printer; loads, displays and prints labels stored in easily-maintained ASCII files. Labels can contain embedded commands for date, time, margin, selectable printer attributes; 5, 8.5, 10, 12, 17 or 20 characters per inch pitch, normal/bold/underlined on Epson compatible dot-matrix printers. PrinTest - PrinTest repetitively displays the status of ports assigned to parallel printer interfaces. It can be used to isolate problems to the printer interface card, the cable or the printer itself. It reports printer and port number, status byte and status condition. Qscr - QuickScreen converts a single text screen to an executable file for more rapid display. The resulting .COM file will write a screen of text much faster than batch file ECHO statements. Useful for setting up compact menu systems, demos and tutorials. ScanF - Scan_File speeds up the search for ASCII text strings within executable files. It filters out the unintelligible control and extended characters, and allows user definition of minimum string length for display. ScanM - Scan_Memory speeds up the search for ASCII text such as ROM copyright statements and machine identification, anywhere within standard system memory space. It filters out the unintelligible control and extended characters, and displays each string longer than three characters. Split - Split_file breaks huge text files down into smaller ones that will fit into a text editor or onto a diskette. Useful for working on large files with a limited filesize memory-resident notepad utility. StoRm - STOrage_RooM reports the amount of disk space required for storage of a specified file or group of files on any disk, using any version of DOS. It takes into account all of the factors involved in determining file storage size. It locates files specified on the command line and determines their actual total size and the amount of room needed to store them. Useful for determining the number of files that will fit on a disk. AcctSort - Fast entry of dollar amounts & assignment to user-designed charts of accounts; user-selected limit checking of $ and account numbers. SSN - Social Security Number Prefix/Location Lookup ZCODE - Postal Zip Code Number Prefix/Location Lookup ______________________________________________________________ | | | COPYRIGHT 1991 Phil Herron. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | |______________________________________________________________|