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VIEW.DOC
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1991-09-26
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5KB
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106 lines
Monte Ward
623 S. 7th St.
Terre Haute, In
47807 - U.S.A.
January 27, 1991
THE VIEW UTILITY:
View is a program designed to allow browsing and printing of text files. It
will operate with ascii, wordstar or binary files. The hex display leaves
something to be desired, namely the cursor and the offset of the cursor in the
file. This is not the real purpose of the program. I just threw it in.
PROGRAM STARTED WITH NO COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS:
If you just type VIEW from your DOS command line you have bypassed file
selection. In this case the program will respond by reading the files in the
default directory and presenting them in a window. You may select a file by
pressing your up/down arrow keys, the page up/down keys or the home/end keys.
When you have your file highlighted in the window, hit return/enter.
When you have finished your viewing/printing of the file press escape. You
will return to the window, and you may select another file. Or, you can press
escape again. If you do, you will be prompted for the pathname for another
window full of files. If you wish to terminate the program press return/enter.
Let's say you start VIEW from your C:\WS directory, containing your Wordstar
and it's text files. You then select a file and, using character filtration
mode two (for Wordstar files), you quickly browse a Wordstar file.
Then you hit escape to end your access of that file. The screen with the file
selection window re-appears. Now, you want to read a DATAMAGE documentation
file. By pressing escape a second time you get a prompt for the pathname of
the files you want to access. DATAMAGE docs are in the C:\MAGE\DOCS directory.
So, you enter C:\MAGE\DOCS. The program reads your disk and displays a window
filled with the DATAMAGE docs. You select one of these files, then the ascii
character filtration mode. You read and/or print this file.
Now, you wish to terminate the VIEW program, as you have finished browsing
files. Press escape to end the access to the DATAMAGE doc file, press escape
to bypass selection of another file in the current window, and then press
return/enter to end the VIEW program and return to the MS-DOS command level.
COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS:
You may specify the target file, the character filtration mode or both from the
command line. If you do the program will load the file and display it.
Let's say your default directory is now C:\WS, and you start VIEW by entering
VIEW C:\MAGE\DOCS\MAIN.DOC. The program opens the file, then prompts you for
the character filtration mode. The file is then displayed, and when you hit
escape the program displays the files window to select another file. You may
access a file from the menu or press escape. If you press escape you may enter
the pathname for another file, or hit return/enter to exit VIEW.
If you enter VIEW C:\MAGE\DOCS\MAIN.DOC 1 the program loads the file with the
ascii character filtration mode and displays it. When you hit escape, the
program ends without displaying the files window, etc.
PRINTING FILES:
VIEW will print any file it loads. But it is a bit more useful than that as it
starts printing at the top of the current screen. If you wish to print an
entire file be certain that you press your HOME key first. That will move the
display to the first of the file, and you will get the whole file.
When you print a file the screen will display what is being printed. The text
will scroll by you on the screen. If you wish to print only part of a file you
may hit a key at any time during the printing process. This will stop the
printout. At least one full screen will print.
HOW IT WORKS:
Unlike the TYPE (FILENAME)|MORE utility offered by MS-DOS, VIEW does NOT make a
copy of the file. It can be used on full or write-protected disks.
When VIEW loads a file the file is read and the lines in the file are stored as
offsets into the file in the computer's memory. As you browse the file it is
read in off disk, piece by piece, and displayed.
LIMITATIONS:
The program is limited to files having eight thousand lines or less. That
includes most all files. If the file is longer than eight thousand lines only
the first eight thousand lines can be displayed/printed.
REGISTRATION:
If you feel that VIEW offers facility to you and if you are the (rare) kind of
person who would like to pay for what you have I will accept registrations in
any amount. Five dollars is suggested.
For those of you who send in ten dollars or more I will send you, by return
mail, a shareware copy of DATAMAGE, my database. I will also send you a
receipt good for the amount you sent off the registration price of DATAMAGE.
SOURCE CODE:
The code for VIEW is available for $25. I used quick c 2.5 to do it. There is
not so much as a single byte of code or object that was bought, borrowed copied
or stolen. There is no "toolkit" involved.
The $25, however, is NOT refundable towards DATAMAGE registration. But I will
also send you a shareware DATAMAGE.