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CMDEDIT.DOC Documentation for CMDEDIT.COM Command editor Version 2.0 with extensions at version 6. June, 1992 CONTENTS * AUTHORS * DISCLAIMER * NOTE * PURPOSE * SYNTAX * SUMMARY OF OPTIONAL PARAMETERS * SUMMARY OF EDITING COMMANDS * DESCRIPTION OF OPTIONAL PARAMETERS * DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED EDITING COMMANDS * INTERNAL COMMANDS * INITIALIZATION FILE * WINDOWS 3.x * MISCELLANEOUS * UPGRADING * COMPILING THE SOURCE CODE * VERSION HISTORY * ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS * BUGS AUTHORS The original "CMDEDIT V2.0" by Ashok P. Nadkarni appeared in PC Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 16 Extensions by: David Abbott dfa@muon.ph.unimelb.edu.au Wayne Davison davison@borland.com DISCLAIMER Although the authors of the extensions to this program and its documentation have spent time testing their modifications, they make no warranties either expressed or implied regarding the modifications made, their suitability for any purpose, or even that they will function as expected. In no event shall these authors be liable for any damage caused by the use of, or any defects within, the software. NOTE This version of CMDEDIT supersedes both of the following versions: CMDEDIT 2.0 with extensions by D. Abbott at version 5, and CMDEDIT 2.1wd (an extension of CMDEDIT 2.0 by W. Davison). See also the UPGRADING and VERSION HISTORY sections of this document. PURPOSE A TSR (terminate & stay resident) utility that supplies full editing features to the dos interface; stacks commands and drive/directory pairs for recall; supports definable symbols and variables, and programmable function-key definitions and macros; provides optional autocompletion of commands and filenames; and enables changing drives and directories simultaneously. SYNTAX CMDEDIT [/a] [/c] [/g] [/i] [/k] [/n] [/o] [/r] [/t] [/u] [/w] [/x] [/y] [/z] [/p X] [/l N0] [/d N1] [/m N2] [/b N3] [/s N4] [/ffilename] Remark: CMDEDIT can be entered at the DOS prompt, but is normally installed through the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. SUMMARY OF OPTIONAL PARAMETERS /a Disable appending backslash when completing directory name /c Swap cursor type used in insert and over-type modes /g Use silent mode (default beeps on error) /i Use insert mode (default over-type) /k Use ESC key for filename completion (in addition to TAB & ^\) /n No existence check (default checks for previous install) /o Do not install (default will install if not already) /r Auto recall mode (default off) /t Disable all macro and symbol translation (default enabled) /u uninstall CMDEDIT from memory if possible /w Use alternate error message display /x Keystrokes are read in via a raw read /y Tab cycles through ambiguous matches rather than listing them /z Disable CMDEDIT (default enabled) /p Set the ignore macro character (default X is ;) /l Minimum command length to store in buffer (default N0 is 1) /d DOS history (command stack) buffer size (default N1 is 512 bytes) /m Macro buffer size (default N2 is 512 bytes) /b Symbol buffer size (default N3 is 512 bytes) /s Directory Stack size (default N4 is 256 bytes) /f Initialization file to read at start-up (default none) SUMMARY OF EDITING COMMANDS ^U or Up-Arrow Recall previous command in history buffer ^N or Down-Arrow Recall next command in history buffer ^F or Right-Arrow Cursor forward (character). ^B or Left-Arrow Cursor backward (character) ^Right-Arrow Cursor forward (word) ^LeftArrow Cursor backward (word) ^E or End Cursor to end of line. ^A or Home Cursor to start of line. ^D or Del Delete character at the cursor. ^H or Backspace Delete previous character ^T Swap character under cursor with previous char. ^W Delete word at right of cursor. ^L Deletes word at left of cursor. ^[ or ESC Erase entire command line (unless /k option specified on start-up). ^C Cancel entire command line ^BREAK Terminates a running macro ^K Delete from cursor to end of line ^X Delete from cursor to start of line ^O Delete from cursor to EOL and execute line. ^G Erase entire line but keep in stack. ^^ (CTRL-6) Execute line, but do not store or display (for passwords). INS Toggle insert/over-type modes. ^I or TAB and ^\ Expand partial filename or directory name ^J Replace variables with values. ^Q Place succeeding CTRL-key on line as literal instead of command ^R Recall matching command from hist. buffer ^V Same as ^R but searches forward through history ^Y Toggles auto-recall mode on/off ^Z Put end-of-file marker on line. ^_ (CTRL-underscore) Toggles macro and symbol translation off/on DESCRIPTION OF OPTIONAL PARAMETERS Option /a Append backslash toggle This toggle disables/enables the appending of a backslash to directory names when using filename completion. If backslash appending is disabled, nothing at all is appended to directory names but a space is still appended to regular filenames. Default: CMDEDIT normally appends a trailing backslash to a directory name. Option /c Cursor type exchange Swap cursor types usually used in insert and over-type modes. The default over-type mode cursor is an underscore, whilst the default insert mode cursor is a block. Option /g Go silent This will suppress the error beep when an error occurs. Option /i Insert mode for editing Use insert mode when editing. The default editing mode is over-type. Option /k ESC Key usage This option enables the ESC key to be used for filename completion in addition to the TAB key. The actual behaviour depends on whether or not /y has also been specified (see /y for more details). Normally, ESC functions as a clear-line command. If you use this option, you can always type CTRL-C to cancel a line you've typed. Option /n New installation This will install CMDEDIT without checking for a previous installation. This option forces the current invocation to remain resident - even if CMDEDIT is already resident. The option should only be used if CMDEDIT incorrectly detects the presence of a resident incarnation. WARNING: PROBLEMS MAY OCCUR IF CMDEDIT IS RUN AGAIN TO CHANGE INSTALLED OPTIONS, AS THE INCARNATION CHANGED MAY IN FACT BE THE SPURIOUS DETECTION. See also BUGS. Default: Before CMDEDIT makes itself resident it will do a somewhat primitive check to see whether it has already been installed. If it is installed already then it will not install itself again. Option /o Option change only mode This prevents the current invocation of CMDEDIT becoming resident even if it cannot detect a resident incarnation. This may be useful when changing CMDEDIT options from a batch file. If CMDEDIT had not previously been installed, the new invocation would normally make itself resident which may not be desired; /o prevents this. Default: CMDEDIT installs itself as a TSR if it does not detect an already resident incarnation. Option /r Auto-Recall mode enable A history buffer search is made as each letter is typed in. Note that command lines shorter than the minimum number of characters specified with the /l switch are not stored on the stack. This option can also be toggled using ^Y after CMDEDIT has been loaded. For a more complete description, see the ^Y command later in this document. Option /t Translation disable toggle Disables all macro and symbol translation. Default: Translation is enabled. This option can also be toggled by typing ^_ (CTRL-underscore) while CMDEDIT is running. Option /u Uninstall CMDEDIT from memory Disables CMDEDIT and removes it from memory if possible (i.e. if no other TSR's have been loaded after CMDEDIT). Option /w Write alternate error message This will yield a different error message display. Usually, an error message is displayed like this: "*** CMDEDIT : <error message> Any ongoing macro aborted! ***" The alternate display only shows the <error message> and the command line which caused the error is left displayed on the screen. Option /x Use a raw getkey function Modifies the getkey function to read raw keystrokes. This allows the entry of ^P, which functions the same as the ^U key. To toggle printer logging, type ^C ^P. To type a ^C while at the command prompt, press ^C ^C. During program execution ^P and ^C are not changed from their normal behaviour. Option /y cYcle through filename matches Along with /k, this switch selects which keys should be used for the two possible filename completion modes as follows: Default (no /k or /y): TAB lists, ^\ cycles /y only: TAB cycles, ^\ lists /k only: TAB lists, ESC and ^\ cycles /k and /y: TAB cycles, ESC and ^\ lists See the description of the TAB key for more information about the filename completion modes. Option /z Zero interference This toggle disables CMDEDIT completely, but leaves it resident. To re-enable CMDEDIT, call with /z a second time. Option /p <char> Prefix character for translation ignoring This sets the ignore macro character. If this character is the first character on the input line (thus prefixing the input) then no macro substitution will be performed. You can define the macro ignore character to be a space. To do this, however, you must put it in quotes. i.e. use CMDEDIT /p" " Default: ";" Option /l <length> Length of command to store in history buffer Sets the minimum length for command lines which are to be stored in the DOS history buffer (command stack) to <length>. Thus command lines with less than <length> characters are not stored. Default: 1 (i.e. all commands are stored). Option /d <size> DOS history buffer size Sets the size of the DOS history buffer (command stack) to <size> bytes. Default: 512 Option /m <size> Macro buffer size Sets the size of the macro buffer to <size> bytes. Default: 512 Option /b <size> Symbol Buffer size Sets the size of the symbol buffer to <size> bytes. Default: 512 Option /s <size> Stack for directories Set the directory stack size to <size> bytes. Default: 128 Option /f<filename> File for initialization Initialization file to read at start-up. Note that there is no space between the /f switch and the filename itself. See the INITIALIZATION FILE section later in this document. Default: <none> DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED EDITING COMMANDS ^U or Up-Arrow Puts the previous command from the DOS history buffer (relative to the current pointer in the buffer) onto the command line. If there is no previous command in the buffer then an error beep is issued and the buffer pointer is returned to the last command executed (i.e. the stack behaves in a cyclic manner). The beep can be avoided by starting CMDEDIT with the /g silent mode toggle. ^N or Down-Arrow Analogous to above, but steps forward in the history buffer. INS toggle mode type Toggles the command line editing mode between insert mode and over-type mode. Inserting a character in insert mode will push all characters including the one under the cursor one place to the right and then insert the typed character. ^[ or ESC erase line This erases the command line. Useful for erasing all rubbish on the command line and starting anew. Note: If you start CMDEDIT with the /k option then ESC will instead be used to perform filename completion. In that case ^C or ^X are good alternatives. ^C and ^BREAK ^C will cancel a line, or terminate the current command in a running macro. In the latter case, macro execution will continue with the next command. ^BREAK will completely terminate a running macro. Note that the /x switch modifies this default ^C behaviour. ^G copy line & erase line This copies the current line into the history buffer and then erases it. This is useful when you do not want to execute what you've just typed but still want to remember it for later use. ^^ execute line & erase line This will execute your input but will erase the line and not copy it into the history buffer. Useful if you do not want CMDEDIT to remember a typed password for others. On a PC, this keystroke is equivalent to CTRL-6. ^I or TAB filename completion CMDEDIT examines the word to the left of the cursor and tries to complete its filename. The word may contain a full disk and path specification. If several files match, only the common part of their names will be placed on the command line. If no further characters can unambiguously be added to the line and TAB is struck, CMDEDIT behaves in one of two ways depending on the mode selected with the /y and /k switches. In list mode, a list of all possible matching filenames is displayed. In cycle mode, CMDEDIT will complete as much as it can on the first TAB or if no more characters can be added will leave the line unchanged. On subsequent consecutive TAB's, CMDEDIT will then cycle through all possible matches. If the matching name is a directory, a \ or / is appended, making it easier to enter a complete path specification (unless this has been disabled with the /a command line option, in which case nothing is appended). If the matching name is not a directory, then a space is placed after the name. Note that if you are using the DOS cd command to change directories, the trailing backslash will cause an error. You can either delete the added slash, use CMDEDIT's own directory commands which permit a trailing slash, or make use of the dosify function (see the @ internal command). Remember you can also define a symbol string if you would like to replace or modify DOS's cd command as follows: defs cd chd or defs cd @cd ^J replace variables with values Causes CMDEDIT to look in the command line for any CMDEDIT or DOS environment variables and to replace them with their string values. Environment variables should be enclosed in % signs as they would be in batch files. CMDEDIT automatically expands such environment variables when executing commands even if the ^J command is not used. ^J is useful however to see exactly how a command line is expanded before executing it. ^Q quote next character If you intend to put any of the characters onto the command line which are usually interpreted as commands by CMDEDIT (for example most control key combinations) then you should precede them immediately with ^Q. For example: To put ^T as a character on the command line you should type ^Q^T. ^R recall matching command (backward search) Commands beginning with one or more user-typed letters can be recalled with this command. CMDEDIT searches backwards through the history buffer, successively placing each matching older command on the command line with each ^R issued. ^V recall matching command (forward search) Similar to ^R, but searches forward through the history buffer ^Y auto-recall mode toggle CMDEDIT continuously tries to match the current line with the most recent match from the history buffer. As you keep typing, CMDEDIT will keep replacing the line with the most recent line from the history buffer that matches the characters you have typed up to that point. When the line displayed matches the one you want to execute, simply hit Enter. If as you type on there is no longer any possible match in the history buffer, the remainder of the line is cleared from the cursor (possibly erasing a previous partial match). The easiest way to learn how this works in practice is to try it out. Auto-recall can also be toggled using the /r command line switch. ^_ toggle macro translation This toggles macro and symbol translation on/off in a manner similar to the /t command line toggle. On a PC this keystroke is equivalent to CTRL-minus. ^\ Alternative filename completion Filename completion in the mode not being used by TAB See also TAB, and /y INTERNAL COMMANDS Internal CMDEDIT commands are given on the command line after the DOS prompt. A command is always the first word on the command line. All words following a command are called parameters. DEFS <symbol> <string> The DEFS command allows abbreviating a long command (the string) with one or more characters (the symbol). Some people may be more familiar with the term alias in this context. By using F1...F0 (for F10) and SF1...SF0 as the symbol values, the function and shifted function keys can be programmed to output strings on the command line. If these strings end in the @ character they will be executed, as well. To be expanded into its defined string, a symbol must be the first word on the command line. Before being passed to DOS or to an application the command line is scanned recursively, so one symbol can define another. Example: DEFS dw dir /w Here, "dw" is the <symbol> and "dir /w" the <string>. Example: DEFS F1 c:\dos\help.com Hitting F1 will now put "c:\dos\help.com" on the command line. If an @ character appeared after the definition, the line would also be executed without the need to hit Enter. DEFM ... ENDM Multi-line command macros are created by issuing the DEFM macro-name command. Each line is terminated by hitting Enter, and the macro is terminated with the ENDM command. Macro command lines may contain parameters, which are designated by %n (n is a numeral from 1-9). Parameters are processed much as in DOS batch files. Up to nine parameters can be defined in this way. If you don't want a %n sequence in a macro to be treated as a parameter, simply indicate the % character as %%. Macros and symbols also support the use of string variables, which must be enclosed within % signs. Macros support many DOS batch file commands such as ECHO, PAUSE, IF, and FOR (but not GOTO or SHIFT). Embedded spaces and tabs in macro command line arguments must be enclosed in pairs of quotes ("). Macros cannot be nested, and one macro can call another only from the last line before ENDM. Macros and symbols may be deleted by name with the DELM and DELS commands, respectively, and the respective CMDEDIT buffers can be cleared and reset with the RSTHIST, RSTSYM, RSTDIR, and RSTMAC commands. BACK Changes to the previous directory entered via one of CMDEDIT's other directory changing commands (e.g. CHD or even BACK itself). The directory does not need to be on the directory stack (i.e. you do not need to use PUSHD). CHD [d:][path] The CHD command allows changing to a drive and directory simultaneously without affecting the directory stack. It also accepts a trailing backslash on directory names. PUSHD [d:][path] POPD [d:][path] The PUSHD command changes to the specified directory and stacks the previous drive/path name on the directory stack. If at least one path has been pushed into this buffer, entering PUSHD without parameters toggles between the current and the last stored pair. POPD changes to the last drive/directory pair and removes it from the stack. See also the BACK command. DELM, DELS RSTHIST, RSTSYM, RSTDIR, RSTMAC HISTORY, CMDSTAT, DIRS Macros and symbols may be deleted by name with the commands DELM and DELS, respectively, and the respective CMDEDIT buffers can be cleared and reset with the RSTHIST, RSTSYM, RSTDIR, and RSTMAC commands. The contents or the buffers can be listed with the HISTORY, CMDSTAT and DIRS commands. @ When used at the start of a line, @ is a special command line modifier which asks CMDEDIT to "dosify" the line. CMDEDIT will replace / by \, leading -'s by / and remove trailing backslashes from the line. This can be useful if you are used to UNIX conventions, or to avoid trailing backslash errors. It is possible to use @ in symbol definitions to automatically dosify lines when particular commands are used, for example: defs rd @rd Be careful if you do this for commands that have switches however. If you then use / as the switch character, it will be changed to \ which is probably not what you wanted. You are safe only if you always use '-' as the switch character. INITIALIZATION FILE An initialization file can be used to load regularly-used macros and symbols via the /f command line option. In initialization files, lines beginning with a minus (-) are comment lines. Blank lines are ignored unless they are part of a macro definition. The file can contain macro and symbol definitions. It may also contain the CMDEDIT commands PUSHD, POPD and CHD, but must not contain any other commands, or CMDEDIT will exit with an error message. The format of the commands in the file is the same as if you typed them from the command prompt. Note that the ENDM command is followed by the macro name it terminates. This is optional, as CMDEDIT ignores all following characters on a line whose first word is ENDM. When defining macros and symbols, keep in mind the important differences in the way command line arguments are handled. With a symbol, the rest of the command line is appended to the definition string when it is executed. A macro on the other hand uses the %n parameters like DOS batch files. Thus the following are essentially equivalent: defs d dir/w and defm d dir/w %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 endm But without the %n's, the macro definition would ignore any command line arguments. Note also that CMDEDIT will abort with an error if a CTRL-Z end of file character is at the end of a command file, unless that line is a comment. Since most editors put an EOF character at the end of a file, you should always make the first character on the very last line of a command file a minus sign. Make sure you don't hit return at the end of the last line! See also the example initialization file CMDEDIT.CFG. WINDOWS 3.x If loaded prior to starting Windows 3.x, CMDEDIT becomes unstable when running more than one DOS session. This can sometimes result in Windows terminating a DOS session with a system integrity violation message as soon as a key is struck! There is a work around to this bug, the trick being to un-install CMDEDIT prior to loading Windows, and then install it when you open each DOS shell. This can be done from batch files as follows: First, start Windows using two batch files similar to the example below. WIN.BAT: @echo off cmdedit /u win2 %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 WIN2.BAT: @echo off c:\windows\win %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 cmdedit These batch files assume CMDEDIT was the last TSR loaded into conventional memory. Two batch files are used to ensure the memory used by CMDEDIT is actually made available to Windows when it loads. Now when you open a DOS session do not just load COMMAND.COM. Instead change the properties of your DOS icon to run the following batch file: WINAUTO.BAT: @echo off cmdedit /n c:\command /e:1024 You can customise this as you please. I actually call a batch file to start CMDEDIT with a number of switches and an initialization file. The /n switch is used here because I have found when running Windows 3.0 that on some occasions when closing a DOS session and immediately opening another, CMDEDIT incorrectly reports that it is already installed. You should however read the notes regarding /n before using this switch. The last line of WINAUTO.BAT prevents the session terminating and returning to the program manager at the end of the batch file (the /e:1024 is simply my preferred environment size). Note that in WINAUTO.BAT it is quite OK to load CMDEDIT into high memory using DOS 5 or QEMM or some other loadhi utility (assuming you will not be changing the CMDEDIT installed options in the DOS session). You should not load CMDEDIT into high memory before starting Windows, however, since then it cannot be un-installed (unless you use one of the more advanced Mark and Release programs). As an aside, notice that the procedure documented above can be extended to include disabling/enabling of a DOS screen saver if you use one. You should not have a DOS screen saver running prior to starting Windows, but it is fine to start one in a DOS session (so long as the session does not run in the background). At the time of writing, CMDEDIT has been tested under Windows 3.0 and 3.1 using the technique described above, and no problems have been encountered. MISCELLANEOUS - Option toggling after installation The following switches can be used to toggle or change options after CMDEDIT has been installed: /a /c /g /i /l /o /p /r /t /w and /z. Any other switches will cause an error if used after CMDEDIT has already been installed. For example, to turn the beep off/on, use CMDEDIT /g. - Customising CMDEDIT control keys The CMDEDIT control keys may be customised using the CMDCFG program. See CMDCFG.DOC for more details. - Avoiding conflict in other programs The /t and /z switches were added for the benefit of some programs which have an interactive command input mode in which CMDEDIT is still active. In these cases, symbol expansion is probably not desired as it could conflict with the other program's own commands. Auto-recall mode can also lead to similar problems. In some cases, the regular history facility may also interfere, in which case you should use the option /z to disable CMDEDIT completely. When these problems are known to occur it is probably a good idea to call the application from a batch file. Here is an example: MYEDITOR.BAT : CMDEDIT /o /t REM or CMDEDIT /o /z REM REM Run application here, e.g.: myeditor myfile.txt REM REM call CMDEDIT with your favourite option now, e.g. : CMDEDIT /p" " UPGRADING If you are upgrading from CMDEDIT 2.0 with extensions at v5 (or earlier) or CMDEDIT 2.1wd, you should note the following changes: Upgrading from CMDEDIT2e5: All command line switches behave as before, however the old ^T macro disable toggle has been moved to ^_ (CTRL-underscore) to accommodate the new ^T swap character command. ^\ (CTRL-backslash) is also new. The /a, /y and /x switches are new, as are the internal commands BACK, HISTORY, DIRS and @. The command stack is now cyclic, and command completion will by default list possible matches if more than one. The documentation has been further expanded and re-formatted. Upgrading from CMDEDIT21wd: All command line switches behave as before except the old /n which has been moved to /l. The following switches are new: /a, /k, /n, /o, /t, /x, /y, /w, and /z. The ^_ (CTRL-underscore) command is new, as is ^\ (CTRL-backslash). The @ dosify line command is new. Bugs in the installation code have been partially fixed (see also BUGS). The documentation, as you will by now have noticed, is also much more comprehensive. COMPILING THE SOURCE CODE The complete source code for CMDEDIT is included in this package (unless you have obtained an incomplete version from an "unofficial" source). It is not necessary to be able to compile the source code to use this program, as an executable CMDEDIT.COM is already included in the package. To compile you will require a Microsoft compatible assembler. Three different "make files" are included: MAKE.BAT - for use with Borland's Turbo Assembler MAKECMD.BAT - for use with Microsoft's Macro Assembler CMDEDIT.MAK - for use with Microsoft's Quick Assembler The CMDEDIT.COM included with this release was compiled with TASM, which produces slightly smaller code than the Microsoft Quick Assembler due to nop squishing. If you are thinking of modifying the source, take a look at the to-do.doc file. VERSION HISTORY Extensions by D. Abbott - v1 and v2 Never released Extensions by D. Abbott - v3 (Jan 14, 1991) This version is identical to that published as CMDEDIT v2.0, with the exception of the options /c, /l, /w, /o, /t and /z added by David Abbott, Nov/Dec 1990. A bug in the installation code that resulted in false reports of an already resident version has also been partially fixed. See also BUGS. Extensions by D. Abbott - v4 (May 11, 1991) Added the /k switch for the benefit of those used to the Unix C-shell 'filec' filename completion (which uses the ESC key rather than TAB). Extensions by D. Abbott - v5 (July 14, 1991) Added the /n switch to counter installation problems in some situations where CMDEDIT incorrectly detects that it is already installed. Added instructions for running CMDEDIT with Windows 3.0 CMDEDIT 2.1wd (an extension of CMDEDIT 2.0 by W. Davison) This version, like D. Abbott's extended version, was an independently developed extension of the original CMDEDIT 2.0. It included the additional internal commands BACK, DIRS, and HISTORY, as well as the listing of matching filenames when multiple possibilities exist. The command stack was made cyclic, and this version also included command options /c and /n which functioned in a similar way to D. Abbott's /c an /l respectively. A ^T command to swap characters under the cursor was also added. Extensions by D. Abbott and W. Davison - v6 (June 1992) This version is a complete merger by David Abbott, with the co-operation of Wayne Davison, of the two versions described above. All the features of both versions are included, and some additional enhancements and bug fixes have also been made by Wayne and me. If you are upgrading from either of these versions, make sure you read the UPGRADING section of this document, which details some minor but important changes. Note also that a control-key customisation program, CMDCFG.EXE is also included with this release. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Sven Guckes from Berlin who helped with the documentation. BUGS 1) Initialization file. CMDEDIT /f<filename> If the file <filename> ends with a ^Z (ASCII 026) then CMDEDIT will abort with an error. This error however will not occur if the last line is a comment line. See also INITIALIZATION FILE 2) Detection of previous installations. If CMDEDIT is un-installed with /u, and then run again, it sometimes reports that it is already installed. The original version was worse than this, in that on some machines it would report that it had already been installed even when run for the first time. If you encounter either of these problems, use the /n switch to force an initial installation, but be aware that later changing installed options is then dangerous as the first incarnation in memory is always detected and hence changed, and this may be the spurious detection. 3) High memory. CMDEDIT cannot detect that it has already been loaded if it was loaded into high memory by a utility such as QEMM-386. This means calling CMDEDIT again to alter an option will instead result in a new copy being installed. (You can prevent this by using the option /o, in which case nothing at all will happen). Please note, that some options have a control key equivalent such as /r and /t. These can be used instead. If you want the ability to change other options after CMDEDIT is loaded, don't put it in high memory. It is possible to uninstall CMDEDIT after loading it in high memory, but not by its own /u command. Instead you must use one of the more recent Mark & Release programs which support marking and releasing of TSRs in high memory. 4) Working with other programs with command input mode. CMDEDIT can sometimes upset the behaviour of programs which have a command input mode in which DOS editing keys, and therefore CMDEDIT, are still active. I have seen such a program which takes one or two letter commands, and normally won't let you type any more. CMDEDIT does let you type more, but then gives a "line too long" error. This could potentially corrupt the display of a program not expecting it. If this occurs, use the /z toggle to disable CMDEDIT before starting your program. 5) Windows 3.x - see section on using CMDEDIT with Microsoft Windows in the body of this document. -- Last document change: June 30, 1992 -- EOF --