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┌──────────────────────────┐ │ View -*- Version 3.2 │ ╞══════════════════════════╡ │ From ConsulTech │ │ Programmed by Jim Wilson │ ├──────────────────────────┤ │ Copyright (c) 1990-95 │ │ All Rights Reserved │ └──────────────────────────┘ ┌───────────────────┐ │ TABLE OF CONTENTS │ └───────────────────┘ Forward ........................................ 1 General Information ............................ 2 Program Information ............................ 3 Command Line Options ........................... 4 Keyboard Usage ................................. 6 Overview ..................................... 7 F1 - Help ................................... 7 A - Text Anchor, Setting ................... 7 a - Text Anchor, Retrieving ................ 8 B,b - Brightness ............................. 8 G,g - Goto Line .............................. 8 P,p - Printing ............................... 8 R,r - Read a New File ........................ 10 S,s - Searching for Text ..................... 10 Status Line .................................... 11 Ram Usage ...................................... 12 What's Next? ................................... 13 Version History ................................ 13 Upgrading View to ReadIt ....................... 15 Final Ramblings ................................ 16 Registration ................................... 17 ┌─────────┐ │ FORWARD │ └─────────┘ Welcome to View version 3.2! View is a small, fast, FREE text file viewer which you can use to your hearts content, totally unrestricted (well, almost - read the Registration section contained at the very end of this document for complete details). With View you have all of the necessary viewing features implemented in a workable fashion; there's not too many frills, but every vital function is present and accounted for (this type of design became necessary if I was to adhere to my main operative; make the program as small and fast as possible *without* sacrificing any major features). What's new since version 3.0? Well, I gave the program an entirely new look by making all keyboard input and screen prompts appear in pop windows. I also added automatic TAB expansion, NetBIOS network compatibility, a function to read a new file into memory without having to exit and restart View, along with changes to the screen scrolling; the Left and Right arrows move the display 1 column while the Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right arrows move the display 20 columns now. I enhanced the printing abilities by allowing you to select the starting line, ending line, page size, and whether or not View acknowledges or ignores embedded FormFeeds. And now, I've even incorporated the FastWrite video technology found in ReadIt. With FastWrite you get the absolute fastest video displaying technology currently available. Additionally, a tremendous amount of tweaking was done to the internal structure to tighten loops, remove dead code, and consolidate multiple functions into more generic routines. This equates into a tighter, faster EXE file - two things that are becoming extremely rare in these days of fat, slow, and sloppy WinDOGS programs! View is a fully functional FreeWare program - it is not 'crippled' in any way. However, it is only a subset of another file viewer I've written called ReadIt. You see, I've actually produced two programs that are very similar, something which I did deliberately. ReadIt has every conceivable option implemented and is at least 5 times as powerful and friendly as View, but it is more then twice the size. Don't get me wrong; View is no joke, but it isn't nearly as capable as ReadIt is. Now, if this program contains all the text file viewing power that you need then your set - you can keep using View for free as long as you'd like. But, if your a power user or someone who just has to have the best of everything then contact me and I'll get a copy of ReadIt off to you (see the section titled Upgrading View to ReadIt for more details). Page 1 ┌─────────────────────┐ │ GENERAL INFORMATION │ └─────────────────────┘ View is a text and ASCII file viewer. You can use View to read just about any BAT, DOC, TXT, or Read.Me type of file. It allows you to read a file with up to 7,500 lines, or as many as will fit into RAM. Each line can contain up to 250 characters. What's so special about that? I'm glad you asked! There are a million text file viewers floating around. Hell, you may have even written one yourself. I've written three or four different, but somewhat specialized, viewers over the years. If you have spent more than 2 seconds with any ShareWare or Public Domain software you know that the manual is usually a DOC file included on the diskette, just like this one. There is almost always a Read.Me file with last minute changes that didn't make the manual on time - most commercial software even contains these little gems. Some of these files can grow quite large (I saw a ShareWare programmer's editor that had a DOC file that was 357K - too big to be loaded by the editor it came with!). Your only available choices for reading files of this type have been either a file viewer that could only read one 64K block of text at a time (one memory segment, which View was in all versions prior to 2.0), one that tried to read the entire file into RAM (which meant you usually had a viewer with a big EXE file or one that took a lot of RAM itself, unlike View), your word processor (what a lousy choice that is), or your text editor. If your file was real big most viewers or word processors would not be able to load the entire thing so they wouldn't load ANY of it. If your lucky the text editor you use is able to 'unload' the text that couldn't fit into memory on your hard drive (called VM - Virtual Memory) like the one I use, Aurora. Now, just because you have about 550K of available RAM doesn't mean that your viewer or editor could load a file that big - it needs space to work in too. Enter View. With View you can read virtually any ASCII text file that your likely to encounter. And if the file is too large for RAM View doesn't just say "sorry pal, it's too big for me so I'm going to exit to DOS" (which a lot of programs do!), it will display what it could read, which in most instances is better then nothing. In short, Views combination of speed, features, and small size make it the ideal choice for almost anybody. Because the EXE file is only 14,147 bytes you can carry it anywhere. And, since all the major movement commands are present (Arrows, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, etc.) you're not sacrificing features for portability or speed. Remember, this program has been carefully hand crafted to use as little of your precious RAM as possible, so there's more available for your file. Page 2 ┌─────────────────────┐ │ PROGRAM INFORMATION │ └─────────────────────┘ View uses less than 75K of RAM for itself. This means that you can use it on virtually any PC (If you don't have that much RAM available your in the wrong business!). Essentially what this means is that all the remaining conventional (base) memory in your system can be used for file storage. For example; if, after having loaded all your device drivers and TSR's you have 575K of RAM free (as reported by Mem or some similar program), then you would be able to load and read any ASCII text file up to about 500K, or 7,500 lines (and yes, I *have* actually read a 500K file in only 575K of RAM so that's not BS). Not too bad from an EXE file of only 14,147 bytes, wouldn't you say? View starts by verifying that the file you want to read exists. If it does View then verifies that the file actually contains data (some programs will attempt to read a file with 0 bytes of data and risk a crash, but View won't). View then checks to see that you have at least 75K of free RAM. If everything is good up to this point View then loads itself into memory. Once loaded, it proceeds to set up 7,500 5 byte pointers for the data structure. Each one will contain a line number and the string length for the data it is about to read. After the pointers have been set up View then starts reading until it reaches the end of the file, runs out of RAM, or until it has read 7,500 lines (this "limit" will be explained later). Once the file has been loaded you can use the Up, Down, Left, Right, Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right arrows, along with the PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End keys to move around. If you hit a wrong key or if you hit a limit, like hitting PgDn when your on the last page already, View will produce a very gentle beep (not that annoying kind!) to make you aware of that fact. View will work with ANY type of monitor, be it monochrome, CGA, EGA, VGA, LCD, Gas Plasma, or whatever you happen to have. As a matter of fact, the procedure which determines what type of monitor you have, and whether or not it can truly display color, is so accurate that you will probably never have to use the /M command line option (which is discussed a little later in this document). The video writes, text searching and the keyboard handler were written in assembler for the fastest possible performance on any computer. I've spent a considerable amount of time fine tuning the RAM requirements for View. With all the tweaking that was done I probably gave it the ability to read a file that was 25K - 30K bigger then when I first wrote the new memory scheme (implemented in version 2.0). That may not seem like a lot in today's world of multi-megabyte systems, but when you only have 640K of RAM for DOS before you load all your "toys" into memory then all of the sudden 30K seems like a lot. Page 3 Even with that I was able to give the program a few extra features, like a status line at the bottom of the screen which contains the name of the file you're viewing, the current line number, the last line number in the file, and the right column position. I've also incorporated direct video writes, pretty good error checking, the afore mentioned popup windowing interface, a search feature, a configurable printing option, and even a brightness control for laptops or PC's with crappy contrast. (Does your present file viewer have a brightness control as a feature? I'll be willing to bet it doesn't.) ┌──────────────────────┐ │ COMMAND LINE OPTIONS │ └──────────────────────┘ View supports 7 command line options, which are: /?, /H - A small [H]elp window /C - Forced [C]olor mode /F - Disable [F]astWrites /M - Forced [M]onochrome mode /N - Disable [N]etwork printing mode /T - Disable automatic [T]AB expansion Filename - Path & name of the file to view Options can be entered in any order, are not case sensitive, and may be preceded by either a / or a - character (yes, they can be intermixed if so desired) but you must leave a space between each option selected. All unrecognized commands are ignored. There is one option which causes an immediate response; /? (or /H). This instructs View to print the help screen and then return to DOS. This option will be acted upon REGARDLESS of where it's placed on the command line. If you don't specify a file name you will get the popup file selection window as the first thing you see. The definition of the available command line options is: /? or /H - Use this option to get the command line option help screen. /C - Forced color mode. If, by some technical fluke, View does not recognize your monitor as having the ability to display information in color you can use this option to "force" it to do so. You will most likely never use this - it was added merely for completeness. Page 4 /F - Disables the FastWrite video display. Under virtually every situation you will want to employ this technology (try planting your finger on the PgUp or PgDn keys with FastWrites enabled and watch the display fly!). It is possible, although highly unlikely, that this particular feature might conflict with some TSR, video adapter, display driver, etc. By default FastWrites are on. /M - By default View displays white text on a blue background. On most systems this doesn't present a problem. However, on certain laptops, portables, and monochrome EGA or VGA monitors this can be difficult to read. Use this option to instruct View to display white characters on a black background. The Brightness command will recognize your selected color choice and will work accordingly. This does not change the location of the video buffer that View uses for direct video writes - this merely alters the colors of the displayed text. The algorithm that View utilizes to find the video memory is infallible (famous last words!). /N - Disables automatic network print que access. If a NetBIOS compatible network is detected View will attempt to configure itself to use those services appropriately. If, for instance, you have network drivers installed but you don't have a network printer as part of your available resources (if you have a printer on your desk, for example) you may wish to use this option so View does not attempt to interface with a non-existing print que. Note that View will only install these services if a network is detected, if you use your PC as a standalone or home computer you do not need to use this option. Also, this option does NOT turn off View's network file permission's subsystem. If a NetBIOS network is detected View will automatically use your individual file permission(s) as a basis for it's own working knowledge of what files are available to you and what files are not. /T - Disables automatic TAB expansion. By default, View will expand TABS into the appropriate number of spaces. The only drawback to this is that the TAB character requires less buffer memory then does an expanded TAB (unless the TAB would only equate to a single space, in which case they both require the same amount of memory - one byte). Page 5 There may be times of low memory that might require you to disable this automatic TAB expansion in order to be able to load some or all of a file into memory (although I don't envision this ever being necessary). However, this option was included for completeness. Filename - The name of the file you would like to view. Drive letters and paths are fully supported. If no path is specified then the current directory is used. Since View can only read a single file at a time wildcards are not support (but in ReadIt they are!!). Okay, one final plug for ReadIt. All of these command line options are only recognized when View loads - this is the case with EVERY program that uses such options. However, with ReadIt you can configure all these options from within the program itself! Forget to add something to the command line? Want to change the type of TABS that are displayed? Decide that you really didn't want to print to your network printer after all? Well, with ReadIt you don't have to leave the program to make those changes! (hint, hint) ┌────────────────┐ │ KEYBOARD USAGE │ └────────────────┘ The keys that View uses are all pretty self-explanatory (hey, if you made it this far in the documentation you figured out how to use most of them already). Here's a listing anyway, just to be complete. <- - Move the text on the screen 1 column to the left -> - Move the text on the screen 1 column to the right - Move up one line of text - Move down one line of text PgUp - Move back to the previous 24 lines of text (1 page) PgDn - Move down to the next 24 lines of text (1 page) Home - Go to the first line of the file End - Go to the last line of the file ^<- - Move the text 20 columns to the left ^-> - Move the text 20 columns to the right a - Retrieve text anchor (case sensitive) A - Set/Reset the text anchor (case sensitive) B or b - Toggle: turns the brightness of the text up or down G or g - Go to a specific line number P or p - Print the current file to LPT1 R or r - Read a new file into memory S or s - Search for a string of text F1,H,h - Display the popup help screen ESC,X,x - Exits View Page 6 All cursor movement keys perform as expected, so the key listing above should be sufficient explanation to enable you to navigate around in a file. The functions associated to the keys listed below may be somewhat less obvious so they're explained in more detail. Note that during virtually any function, process, or procedure hitting the ESC key will abort your present action and return you to the viewing screen. Also, if you have entered something in error hitting the BackSpace key will erase it. View will NOT allow you to enter an invalid response to any prompt, like entering letters if you're asked for a number. A beep will sound should you try to do so and the incorrect text will be ignored. This same pattern is also exhibited if you answer a question incorrectly, like trying to Goto a line number that doesn't exist in the file your viewing or if you try to exceed a limit, like hitting PgUp when your already at the first page of the file. And finally, note that the only key that is case sensitive is the A - all others will work equally well using either upper or lower case. [F1 or H] There are two different help screens - one for command HELP line options and one for keys and their respective meanings. To obtain command line help type View /? or View /H from the DOS prompt. To obtain help information about the various keys that View uses you must first load a file. After you have a file loaded in the buffer hit the F1 or the H key and a popup window will appear. This is a rather moot point considering the intuitive nature of the key sequences that View uses but I figured it would be a nice reference to have available. [A] When a capital A (yes, this one IS case sensitive!) is ANCHOR typed the current Row/Col location is stored to memory. At this point you may move freely around the file without reservations. When you want to return to your marked spot simply type a lowercase a (see the next key description for additional information). This setting will remain at the same Row/Col location until you change it or read a new file into the buffer. You can also check the Toggle Key Indicator on the Status Line. A capital A indicates that an anchor has been set while a lowercase a means it has not. To reset the stored location to a new setting simply move to the new location and hit a capital A again. Page 7 [a] To "retrieve" your text anchor - return to it - simply ANCHOR type a lowercase a (yes, this one IS case sensitive!). No matter where you are in the file you will be instantly brought back to your saved location. If no location has been set then you will get a small speaker beep to remind you of that fact. You can also check the Toggle Key Indicator on the Status Line. A capital A indicates that an anchor has been set while a lowercase a means it has not. [B or b] To turn the brightness of the text display up or down BRIGHTNESS hit the B key. This is a 'toggle' key; every time you hit it the current state is reversed (i.e. if it was set to normal then it will be set to high the first time you select it and then back to normal the second time). If the letter B on the status line is in lower case then the brightness level is low, while an upper case B signifies that it has been turned up to the high setting. [G or g] Allows you to type in a line number and have the GOTO program jump directly to that line. When using the Goto function the line number you specified will be placed directly above the Status Line, or as close to it as possible. [P or p] Prints the current file to LPT1. When selected, a PRINTING window will appear asking you these three questions: Starting Line #: Ending Line #: Lines Per Page: Starting Line #: This number represents the first line number in the file where you would like to start printing. The default, displayed at the bottom of the window, will be line number 1. To automatically select the default simply hit the ENTER key. Acceptable range is anything from the first line of the file to the last line. Attempting to enter an invalid number will result in a speaker beep. Ending Line #: This number represents the last line number in the file that you would like to print. The default, displayed at the bottom of the window, will be the last line in the file. To automatically select the default simply hit the ENTER key. Acceptable range is anything from the Starting Line number selected above to the last line of the file. Attempting to enter an invalid number will result in a speaker beep. Page 8 Lines Per Page: This number is the total number of lines per page you would like printed. The acceptable range is 0 to 250. A setting of 1 to 250 will print that corresponding number of lines on a page. If embedded FormFeed (ASCII 12) or LineFeed (ASCII 10) characters are encountered they are stripped out. A setting of 0 will force View to just send a stream of data to the printer EXACTLY as it appears in the file, including all embedded FormFeeds and LineFeeds, forcing it to rely solely on the formatting hard coded in the document itself. This is quite handy when a document already has been paginated, like this one, and you wish it to remain as such when printed. Attempting to enter an invalid number will result in a speaker beep. While data is being sent to the printer a status of the current line being printed will be displayed. The speed at which the printing occurs is directly related to a few factors. Obviously, a 486 will print faster that a 286, as will a laser printer compared to a dot matrix. An additional factor is the version of DOS being used. View utilizes the DOS print services to direct output to the parallel port. This made it easier for me to develop one generic printing routine that can capably handle networks, odd printers, custom print drivers, etc. Another item that slows down the printing slightly is that I perform a check after each line of data has been sent to verify that it actually was successful - something most software doesn't do. Since this check is also a DOS service it too is a little slower than if the hardware was being accessed directly. Quite naturally, that means the error checking being performed is also a DOS service, warts and all. So what exactly does all this mean? Basically, that in order for View to be as compatible and as accurate as it is the printing speed might be just a touch slower than some programs you may have used in the past. But that doesn't mean that it's a slug, just that it probably isn't the fastest. Also note that from time to time you may see the line number counter on the screen pause for a second or so and then continue. This is usually due to one of two reasons. Either the data buffer on the printer is full and it has requested that you don't send anything for a second or two or that a FormFeed was sent to the printer. View will automatically pause for approximately 2 or 3 seconds every time it sends a FormFeed to the printer, regardless of whether or not it was embedded in the document or if it was at a user defined page break. Page 9 This pause was deliberately programmed in by me to allow the printer some additional time to catch up before more data was sent (it takes far longer for a printer to eject a piece of paper than it does to actually do any printing). [R or r] This allows you to read a new file into the buffer. READ FILE When selected, a window will appear asking you for the name of the file you wish to read. If it's in the current directory, which will be listed in the window, merely typing it's name will load it. If not, then you must precede the file name with a drive/path and then the file name. All normal DOS and network (if one is active) paths are supported. Note that this replaces the current file in memory. [S or s] Searches for any character, number or string of text, SEARCHING including "extended" and "special" characters (those accessible only by holding down the Alt key and typing a number on the numeric keypad). When selected, a window will appear asking the following question: Search For: You have a total of 25 characters that can be included in the Search string - a sufficient number for most jobs. (ReadIt allows up to 40. Ooops, I did it again!) The search is not case sensitive so the way you type in the data is of no concern. You can search for virtually anything, including the afore mentioned "extended" characters. To access these types of characters you must hold down the Alt key and type it's corresponding decimal number on the numeric keypad. View will start from the first line of the file and read each line until it finds a 'hit' or it gets to the end of the file. If a match is found the whole line will be highlighted, the search string will be capitalized and the data will be placed as close to the middle of the screen as possible, all for easier viewing. Note that View will only find the FIRST occurrence of a match on any given line (another limitation that ReadIt doesn't have!) so it is indeed possible that View will not "find" every occurrence of the Search string contained in the buffer. Page 10 If a match is found, and it is past the 80th column of the file (essentially off of the visible screen, but still within the buffer itself) View will shift the display accordingly to put the match as close to the right most column of the screen as possible while displaying the full Search string. NOTE: Even though the Search string is capitalized when a match is found and displayed the file is NOT altered in any fashion - only the copy in memory has been changed. Also, if the file your reading has data that is already capitalized the search string will not really stand out. Since most of the files people read contain either lower or mixed case letters this should rarely be a problem. [X or x] Same as hitting the ESC key. From the main viewing EXIT TO DOS window hitting the X key will cause you to exit to DOS, with confirmation of course. ┌─────────────┐ │ STATUS LINE │ └─────────────┘ The 25th line of the display (the last line on the screen) is the Status Line where you'll find information such as the name of the file your viewing, your current line and column number, the last line number in the file and the keys that View uses. The layout goes like this: Last Line in the File ───────────────────┐ Last Line Displayed ────────────┐ │ Right Most Column ────┐ │ │ Toggle Key Indicators ──────┐ │ │ │ "Action" Keys ──┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ FILENAME.EXT║F1 <--> PgUp PgDn Home End Esc║GPRS║ABFN║Col: Line: End: └─────┬────┘ └──────────────┬───────────────┘ └─ File in Buffer └─ Keys Used by View Note that the Text [A]nchor, [B]rightness, [F]astWrite and [N]etwork toggle indicators - the letters A, B, F and N on the Status Line - will change, depending upon the current state of that setting. Anchor: A capital A indicates that you have set a text anchor while a lowercase a indicates you have not. Brightness: A capital B indicates that you are in high intensity mode while a lower case b indicates that you are in normal intensity mode. Page 11 FastWrites: A capital F indicates that you are employing the FastWrite video display technology while a lower case f indicates that you are not. Network: A capital N indicates that you are connected to a NetBIOS network while a lower case n indicates that you are not. The letters G, P, R and S (the "Action" keys) stand for the various functions that View can perform: G=GotoLineNumber, P=PrintFile, R=ReadNewFile, and S=SearchForText. These keys are not toggles, will always be capitalized, and will perform an immediate function. Other then that the Status Line is all fairly obvious and should really need no further explanation. To help clarify the Col and Line numbers and how they're displayed: the Col:## is the right most column currently being viewed while the Line:## is the last line displayed on the screen. This makes the numbers you see always the extremes - the last line and the last column of that particular screen. And finally, the F1 key gives you a help screen (what a surprise!) explaining what all those other keys do. ┌───────────┐ │ RAM USAGE │ └───────────┘ Alright let's get serious, shall we? The RAM that View uses is broken down as follows: 37.5K - 7,500 5 byte data pointers. 12K - Error checking and all status information 25K - Video writes, keyboard routines, associated housekeeping ===== 75K - Total RAM used by View.Exe (approximately) Not too bad, huh? This amount of memory reflects the TOTAL usage. This completely eliminates the worry one has with other programs that require more and more memory the deeper into a file they get. View will NEVER request anything other then what is listed here REGARDLESS of the number of lines or bytes read into it's internal buffer. Page 12 ┌──────────────┐ │ WHAT'S NEXT? │ └──────────────┘ What's next for View? Well, I'm not really sure. My main objective is to keep the program small and fast - that design goal will NEVER change. However, I'm not going to ignore a good suggestion for an enhancement if you've got one. Want a neat new feature added? Then drop me a line at the address below and I'll check into it. ┌─────────────────┐ │ VERSION HISTORY │ └─────────────────┘ 1.0 - Initial release to the general public. Only used by myself 6/90 prior to that. Could only read files that were 64K or less in size (one memory segment). 1.1 - Added the /I option to ignore blank lines, so more "real" data 1/91 could be stored in the buffer. Added the /S option to check the file size in lines, primarily for use with the /##### (start at line number) option. Fixed a bug with the error checking routine. Fixed a bug when you had a file with less than 24 lines (1 full page) of text. Fixed a bug with the monitor checking procedure. 1.1a- Fixed a bug with file names that started with a number, like 10/91 4Dos.Doc. View mistook that for a 'start at line number' command (similar to the /##### option). 2.0 - Major rewrite! Removed the /##### (start at line number), /I 2/92 (ignore blank lines), and the /S (show size of file) options because they were no longer necessary - they existed strictly to make the 64K file size limit a little more bearable. Added support for the Left and Right arrow keys, the Brightness and the Goto line number functions as well as being able to load files up to 7,500 lines long. All this and the EXE file is only 1.1K larger! 2.1 - Added the Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right arrow keys to scroll the 5/92 screen 40 columns to the left/right, respectively. Fixed a memory allocation error where View was loading 1 line less then it said it was if your file was either 7,500 lines long or it used up all the RAM in your system before the end of the file. Added some color to the display, for those of us with color monitors. Fixed a bug with the Goto command if a user entered a number larger then the total number of lines in the file. Page 13 Performed some general "housekeeping" on the source code for the sake of speed and/or size. All this and the EXE file is now 148 bytes smaller than version 2.0! Yeah I know, 148 bytes ain't much - but how many times have you seen a program updated with new features and bug fixes that actually got smaller in size? 2.1a- Fixed a keyboard handler problem where the keyboard would 6/92 respond sluggishly, if at all, when the file you loaded took all available RAM and you had the TSR SuperKey loaded. 2.2 - Added the ability to search for text, print the contents of the 1/93 file to LPT1, and also a popup help window. Rewrote approximately half of the internal procedures to increase their speed and reduce their size. This version may not appear to contain as much new functionality as previous upgrades but the capabilities that these new features do add is quite substantial. These enhancements increased the size of the EXE file by less then 2K. 3.0 - Changed the entire look of the program by making all keyboard 12/93 input and screen prompts appear in pop windows. Added automatic TAB expansion, NetBIOS network compatibility, the ability to read a new file into memory without having to exit the program and restart it, and changed the screen scrolling to move 1 column with the Left and Right arrows and 20 column with the Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right arrows. Enhanced the printing abilities by allowing you to select the starting line, ending line, page size, and whether or not View acknowledges or ignores embedded FormFeeds. These updates and fixes increased the size of the EXE file by only 1.5K! 3.0a- Minor bug fix with the way View displayed files with less than 1/94 24 lines (one full screen) of text when you performed a search and the found text was past the 80th column of the display. 3.0b- Fixed a bug that caused View to attempt to read file names that 2/94 began with a NULL character. (Like hitting a function key when asked for a file name. Why anybody would do this in the first place is beyond me, but they did. You can thank Borland, and the bugs in their libraries, for that little "feature"!) 3.0c- Increased the data transfer rate of LPT1 to improve printing 3/94 performance. 3.0d- Fixed a minor bug that caused the End key to work in an erratic 4/94 way if the file you were viewing contained only one line AND that line was the maximum width of 250 characters. Page 14 3.1 - Added a text "anchor", also called a bookmark, to allow you to 6/94 instantly return to any location in the file. Updated the network printing routines to reflect changes in the NetBIOS specification that NOS's like LanManager, 10 Net, Lantastic, etc. are now using (these changes should not effect the workings of older versions of these operating systems). Displays the current directory in the Read a New File window so you know where your located. Added the ability to exit the program with the X key (as well as the typical ESC key). These updates added a measly 393 bytes to the size of the EXE file! Not too bad, if I do say so myself. 3.1a- Changed the way the search string was displayed when it was 9/94 found. Previously, the entire line was highlighted, centered on the screen (if possible), and every letter was capitalized. I found this made it difficult to determine what my search string was from what the rest of the text was. Now, only the search string will be capitalized - the rest of the line remains intact. While I was at it I increased the speed of the searching algorithm slightly. Also did some extensive documentation changes and rewrites. 3.1b- Added error checking for bad sectors and corrupted files. This 11/94 prevents View from attempting to load/read a file that could cause it to be stuck in an endless loop or possibly corrupt memory with a bogus data pointer. 3.2 - Rewrote the video display and keyboard handling sub-sections to 5/95 incorporate the FastWrite technology from ReadIt. Changed the appearance of the On-Line help window. As usual, these updates added to the size of the EXE file a very paltry amount; a measly 142 bytes! 3.2a- Added the ability to place the Text Anchor while performing a 6/95 search. ┌──────────────────────────┐ │ UPGRADING VIEW TO READIT │ └──────────────────────────┘ And now, for the part you've all been waiting for: View has a big brother called ReadIt (as if you didn't know that by now!). Yup, that's right - if you like View but want something a lot more powerful I can certainly help you out. You see, View is kinda like my test bed for new ideas. It's also something I happen to give away for free because I'm a nice guy! ReadIt is my ShareWare program, the one you have to pay for. Both View and ReadIt share the same basic 'engine' (file access, error checking, keyboard handling, and video writes). Page 15 ReadIt, however, includes three pages of online help, a much faster text search (case sensitive or not), a file/buffer information window, monochrome or color palette selection, user selectable TAB expansion from within the program, completely customizable printing with automatic or manual form feeding, 'point and shoot' file selection and access, an internal data buffer twice the size of Views (employing a buffering technique allowing you to read files with up to 100,000 lines!), automatic or manual line feed expansion, 9 text 'anchors' allowing you to easily return to a marked spot, and much, much more. This is all wrapped up in an interface featuring popup windows with an EXE file size of only about 27K! And, unlike View, EVERY option is configurable "on the fly" meaning that you can custom tailor the entire environment from within the program itself. No more command line options, unless that's what you want (command line options are, quite naturally, fully supported by ReadIt). If this sounds good to you then send just $10.00 dollars to me at the address at the end of this DOC file, along with a letter containing your name, address and diskette size, and I'll rush a copy of ReadIt out to you. This is one very nice program that easily rivals the best ShareWare file viewers written. ┌─────────────────┐ │ FINAL RAMBLINGS │ └─────────────────┘ Some last words of wisdom (or at least as close as I can come). As with all FreeWare programs I take absolutely no responsibility for View. If it blows up in your face then it's your fault, not mine. It if melts your hard drive, then so be it. If it makes you wish you were a Vulcan (for all you Star Trek fans) then "live long and prosper". Actually, I get pretty fed up with the legal crappola that's necessary in today's world. Of course my program won't blow up in your face or melt your hard drive - I'm being sarcastic and ridiculing the legal establishment! I use View every day and I have yet to see a Vulcan (prior to consuming larger quantities of Killians Red, that is). The EXE file is only 14,147 bytes, which is 1213 bytes LESS then my target of 15,360 (exactly 15k). A 14K file viewer of this power is certainly nothing to sneeze at. You may feel that I harp on the file size issue too much but it is, in my opinion, completely unprofessional to distribute a program that has grown to such proportions as to be unweilding just so you can say that it does everything. This "disease" has even acquired a name: Featureitis. Small, tight, and fast DOS programs still have a place in this business, contrary to what MicroSoft and their Windows juggernaut would have you believe! Page 16 View works exclusively in read only mode. What exactly does that mean? Well, it means you can read ANY file, regardless of its attributes (hidden, system, readonly) or its type (DOC, TXT, HLP, etc). View doesn't create any temporary files for data storage nor does it alter the original so you can use it without concern. That also means it's safe to use on/over your network too. You've probably noticed that I have given View a 7,500 line limit. This file size "limit" is because I'm trying to get you to buy ReadIt, a program whose abilities far exceed Views in virtually every respect. Realistically, the 7,500 line "limit" is not much of a limit at all. If you use a typical DOC or TXT file as a yardstick you can successfully load approximately 320K to 350K before you reach 7,500 lines (I even loaded a file one time that was 500K!). There's probably no document you will ever encounter that exceeds that size so this limit is just for posterities sake and doesn't really inhibit you. If you happen to be one of the few unfortunate souls who still have a CGA monitor you had better be prepared for a "blizzard" of snow. View writes directly to video RAM and I didn't feel like programming the necessary routines to perform the synchronization of the video retrace signal. On all other types of monitors there will be no problems. From time to time you might see some strange symbols appear on the screen. This is the way View prints the LineFeed (ASCII 10) and a few other "difficult" characters, generally those whose ASCII value is less than 32. They serve only to inform you of their presence - you need not do anything special about them and they are not a hindrance at all. The three areas I've concentrated on the most when writing View were text searching, video writes, and memory allocation. These three functions were tweaked and tweaked till they screamed. Subsequently, they are the areas that work the fastest and consume the least amount of memory (as it should be). ┌──────────────┐ │ REGISTRATION │ └──────────────┘ Why is this part of View.Doc last? Because I don't believe in a lot of legal rhetoric, that's why! VIEW IS A FREEWARE PROGRAM. YOU ARE FREE TO USE IT FOR YOUR OWN *PERSONAL* USE. YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO GIVE IT AWAY TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT (except as noted below). Page 17 The only real restrictions I impose are: 1. Whomever you give this program to, whether you copy it onto a diskette, a hard drive, or you upload it to a BBS, *MUST* be given the complete set of files (at this writing they are View.Exe, View.Doc and Read.Me). 2. None of the files (View.Exe, View.Doc or Read.Me) may be altered in ANY fashion and must remain in their ORIGINAL form. NO EXCEPTIONS! 3. You CANNOT, under ANY circumstance, use this program in a commercial, retail, promotional, or other similar fashion without the expressed written consent of the author. 4. You CANNOT, under ANY circumstance, use this program to make a profit. This includes distributing it with your own software, selling it, "renting" it, or any other such arrangement that you obtain reimbursement for. The ONLY exception to this rule is if you have a diskette duplication or ShareWare distribution company and you charge a nominal fee to reproduce media (diskettes) for sale. If you do desire to distribute View with your ShareWare catalog, your commercial software, or for any other non-personal endeavor, please write to me at the address below. I would be more then happy to license View to just about anybody. But remember, it's entirely free for personal use! If you would like to be kept abreast of any new developments concerning View then send me a buck (one thin dollar!) and I'll add your name to the mailing list. Make sure you tell me what version your using. If you would like me to automatically send you the next upgrade then send me five bucks. Even if you don't send a buck (you cheap skate!) feel free to drop me a note and let me know what you think about View, especially if you've found a bug (God forbid!). But remember, you can upgrade to ReadIt for only $10.00 by sending a check to me today. So, what are you waiting for? ╓───────────────────────╖ ║ ConsulTech ║ ║ Jim Wilson ║ ║ 4 Scranton Pkwy ║ ║ Oxford, NJ 07863 ║ ╙───────────────────────╜ Page 18