FUNCTION KEY EDITING KIT VERSION 1.0 How often do you find yourself doing much more pecking at the keyboard than desired? With this kit, a command such as \Util\Pkunzip \Temp\File.ext can be performed in 3 hits on keys (prior to entering the file name), rather than the 20 necessary keys to hit. This kit includes room for 20 different function key setups, some of which are basic, such as the key setup, and others which the user can designed with instructions from this text. An important note is that you need to call for the ANSI.SYS file in the CONFIG.SYS file. This is explained further in the file README.1ST. 1. Being able to define functions for your 10 F keys and 10 [Alt] F keys, and considering the 20 different sets of function keys, gives you 400 possibilities. This kit will give the user a choice of either using all batch files, or for those more ambitious, editing the sample .Com file submitted with this kit. You can place the key.bat in your autoexec.bat file and have the key (with basically embedded commands) functions already actuated. 2. One note is important; certain programs use the function keys and it may be necessary to reset the function keys back to their original settings. For that reason, the batch file Keyoff.bat is submitted in this package. This includes both com files needed to remove the redefinition functions. Another method of removing the functions is to Edit the autoexec to not include the key.bat command and reboot. Occasionally, the use of all these keys may produce an overload; rebooting will correct that. Hopefully, future versions of this will eliminate this. 3. The basic set of function keys used is called key.bat; this calls up the two .Com files key1 and key2 and prints the following full screen help HELP SCREEN WHEN KEY IS ACTIVATED F1 key: Help Screen for these special keys F2 key: Typ (Types out one screen at a time) F3 key: Copy F4 key: Changes Directory (User's Choice) F5 key: Changes to the root directory F6 key: Dir/w F7 key: Initiates Enable F8 key: Clears screen F9 key: Initiates the UTIL function keys setup F10 key: Redefinition command of function keys Alt F1 key: Smaller Help Screen Alt F2 key: Edlin command (to edit *.com and other ASCII files) Alt F3 key: *.* (wildcard function) Alt F4 key: Changes directory (Awaiting Choice) Alt F5 key: Invokes the Editor Program Alt F6 key: Dir (Directory of awaited selection) Alt F7 key: Initiates the Directory Function Keys Alt F8 key: Initiates the General Function Key Setup (supplements KEY) Alt F9 key: Shows the Small help screen for this key function Alt F10 key: Copy Con (Allows copying from the keyboard to a file) 4. Of note is that 10 of the above are embedded commands, 2 are help screens, and 5 interact with other function redefinition programs. That leaves 3 programs which either must be loaded by the user, changed by a user written batch file, or ignored by the user who will see Bad Command when the key is hit. These keys are [F2] to initiate an old Typing file called TYP (included in this package), [F7] for the EN batch file to initiate Enable, and [Alt][F5] to initiate a small quick Editor program (available on the Tandy Harbor BBS under Edit11.Zip). 5. Certain notes on the Key setup are as follows: The wildcard key (*.*) can be used with Dir or Delete (not recommended to be a function key due to the danger of hitting it by mistake). Also this does not self execute. You can hit the wildcard key [Alt][F3], then backspace twice, and then type in an extention to display or delete all files of that extention. The Dir key [Alt][F6] also does not self execute; you can hit Backspace once and then /p to show Dir/p, the directory by page. 6. The [F1] key will always be a full screen help guide for the current function setup, the [Alt][F1] key will always be a 4-5 line quick help index for the current setup that will not clear the screen, and the [F10] key will always set up the Redefinition setup, in which the user has the choice of 20 definition setups. Also, in all cases, the [Alt][F9] key will initiate the key setup (above) with the 4-5 line help guide, in which the user can use those functions, including when the key setup is already invoked to maintain continuity. The [Alt][F10] key will usually allow the Copy Con function; one note on this is that you have to hit [Ctrl] Z as the [F6] key, usually able to finish an ASCII file, is already redefined. One note on the smaller help screens is that anything in capital letters is a Function Redefinition, e.g. DIREC. 7. The [F10] Redefinition key is the door or gearshift clutch for other Redefinitions: Hitting it will get a screen as follow: F1 Key: Help Screen for Redefinition Commands F2 Key: General functions F3 Key: Color Changing F4 Key: Quick Change of Directories F5 Key: Utility Functions F6 Key: R6 (User Designed Redefinition Setup) F7 Key: R7 F8 Key: R8 F9 Key: Game directory F10 Key: Redefinition Command [Alt] F1 Key: Small help screen for the Redefinitions [Alt] F2 Key: General Function Setup [Alt] F3 Key: RA3 [Alt] F4 Key: RA4 [Alt] F5 Key: RA5 [Alt] F6 Key: RA6 [Alt] F7 Key: RA7 [Alt] F8 Key: RA8 [Alt] F9 Key: Changes back to the Key functions, w/ small hlp scr [Alt] F10 Key: Subdirectory Changing 8. The color changing function keys basically uses the Color.bat file to direct the prompts to do the actual color changing. The help screen is as follows: F1 key: Color Help Screen for these special keys F2 key: Color (command) F3 key: Back F4 key: Black F5 key: Red F6 key: Green F7 key: Brown F8 key: Blue F9 key: Magenta F10 key: Redefine batch command Alt F1 key: General Color Help Screen Alt F2 key: Cyan Alt F3 key: White Alt F4 key: Normal Alt F5 key: Bright Alt F6 key: Alt F7 key: Alt F8 key: Alt F9 key: Initiates the general func command without the help screen Alt F10 key: 9. The [F2] is not a self executing function key. This will produce the word Color. Hitting [Enter] will call up the Color help screen for the batch file that will explain what is necessary to change colors. Basically, this redefinition setup will use that Color Format, as an example is the command Color Normal Green BackBlue will give you a Green foreground with a Blue background. This is accomplished by Hitting [F2], then [Alt][F4], then [F6], then [F3], and then [F8]. 10. The Quick Directory Change setup can also be useful, especially when dealing with sub-directories. The key is to hit [F4] prior to hitting the desired directory key. The functions for this are as follows: F1 Key: Displays this help screen F2 Key: Displays CD\ (Awaiting directory) F3 Key: Changes to DOS directory (Used after F4 Key) F4 Key: Changes to BASICA directory (Used after F3 Key) F5 Key: Changes to the Root directory F6 Key: Dir/W F7 Key: Changes to UTIL directory F8 Key: Changes to LOTUS directory F9 Key: Changes to ENABLE directory F10 Key: Redefinition Command Alt F1 key: Smaller help screen Alt F2 key: Goes to your choice (D1) directory Alt F3 key: Changes to the TEMP directory Alt F4 key: Displays MD\ Alt F5 key: Changes to the BATCH directory Alt F6 key: Changes to the ZSTEM directory Alt F7 key: Changes to ENDATA directory Alt F8 key: Goes to your choice (D2) directory Alt F9 key: Initials the Key func command: no help screen; same direc Alt F10 key: Goes to the Subdirectory redefinition setup 11. The Game Directory Function setup will call up certain games of your choice. For obvious reasons, only the referenced numbers are set up in the .com files. For example, [F4] will call up game G4, while [Alt][F3] will call up game GA3. These need to be changed in the user directed batch file explained later. As usual, keys [F1], [F10], [Alt][F1], and [Alt][F9] have their normal functions. It also is necessary to use [F2] as a trigger key to call up the Batch File Gameplay.bat. For example [F2][F4] will execute the Batch file Gameplay G4, in which G4 is the parameter. 12. The subdirectory function setup uses [F2][F3],[F4], and [F5] as trigger keys, as these are the directories just below the root. The remaining keys will call up those subs and self execute. 13. This portion of this document will demonstrate how one can create his or her own function key redefinition. From the [F10] Redefinion command, this example will concentrate on redefinition R6, actuated from hitting the [F6] key. This example will show a redefinition setup in which the user can call out various text files, in this case being the listings of files available from the Tandy BBS, (40 separate categories). 14. A look at the batch file r6.bat (in the root directory) shows the following: echo off \func\r61.com \func\r62.com type \func\r60.hlp 15. The above batch file will run r61.com and r62.com from the func directory and also type r60.hlp, the small help screen from that directory. Also needed is the batch file r6help.bat in the root directory which will call for the r6help.hlp file (full screen help guide). Both batch files remain in the root directory, while the com and hlp files go into the func directory. Of note is that these R6 type files are copied to Blank type files (Blank.bat; Blank1.com; Blhelp.bat, etc.) for future reference. 16. It may be advisable to copy the 6 mentioned R6 type files into the desired name. In this case, we'll name that new function key Tandoc, and will use the [F6] key to initiate from the [F10] Redefinition setup. Thus from the root directory, you'd need to copy r6.bat to tandoc.bat; and copy r6help.bat to tdhelp.bat. From the func directory, you'd need to copy r61.com to tandoc1.com; r62.com to tandoc2.com; r60.hlp to tandoc0.hlp; and r6help.hlp to tdhelp.hlp. You would also need to change the two batch files from the root directory to call for the tandoc type files instead of the r6 types. Edlin from DOS, the Editor file or any ASCII editing word processing file will work. Thus the changes would be as follows: Old file New file r6.bat: Tandoc.bat: echo off echo off \func\r61.com \func\tandoc1.com \func\r62.com \func\tandoc2.com type \func\r60.hlp type \func\tandoc0.hlp r6help.bat: Tdhelp.bat echo off echo off type \func\r6help.hlp type \func\tdhelp.hlp 17. Now the [F6] key while in the redefinition setup will give the Tandoc setup. You probably would want to change the Redefin0.hlp and Redefine.hlp files to show the new definition for [F6]. You also will need a way to initiate the Tandoc setup from the [F10] Redefinition setup, as [F6] still shows setup R6. You can either change the .com file (explained later) or write a batch file in the root directory to call tandoc.bat as follows: r6.bat: tandoc (if you use Copy Con to write this, close with Ctrl Z) 18. Using all batch files to do your own redefining, you'd need a trigger file which will help direct what you need. In fact, Color.bat and Gameplay.bat are trigger files which requires parameters to make your selection. It is recommended that you use the [F2] key as the trigger key to maintain consistancy with the rest of these redefined setups. Therefore, the trigger file would be called R612.bat (since that is what the F2 key calls for). This file is also included with this package. 19. In general, that file looks something like this: echo off cls if %1.==. goto help goto %1 :R613 do something goto exit :R614 do something goto exit :R615 do something goto exit :R616 do something goto exit 20. To make your desired changes, replace the "do something" line with a command of your choice. To continue our example, we want the [F3] to show the Tandy directory (calls for R613 on the program). Therefore we would replace the do something with: Ty \Tandy\Adir. where ty is the typing program submitted with this program, \Tandy is the directory showing the Tandy files and Adir. is the file showing the general listing. If you want R614 (the F4 key) to show directory 1 of the bulletin board files, replace the do something under the :R614 line with: Ty \Tandy\Dir1. Note: For the Gameplay batch file, you need to insert a line under each :#; e.g. under line :G4, insert \Games\Pacman (if you have that game and in the Games directory) 21. While the above batch file may work fine, it does present some delays. For one thing, it ties up more memory as the file is larger. Another thing is that it will process slower than a com file. Therefore, you may want to consider modifying a com file. 22. In our example, we'll make [F2] the trigger key again, but this time we'll have it display: Ty \Tandy\ as it is awaiting further input. While in the func directory, entering Edlin R61.com and then a 1 next to the * would yield a display similar to: 1| | ^A-!-^[[0;59;"R6HELP";13p^[[0;60;"R612 "p^[[0;61; "R613";13p^[[0;62;"R614";13p^[[0;64;"R615";13p^[[0;65;"R616";13p^[[0;66;"R617" ;13p^[[0;67;"R618";13p^[[0;68;"REDEFINE";13p$#. +5[ZH L^Y.+HL 23. To modify this com file with the Edlin command, you will note that moving your right curser will advance you to the right while displaying the com text as you proceed. For this example, you want to proceed to "R612", and begin entering the new command after the first ". Hitting the [Ins] key will insert the new keys until you go right or left. My suggestion is to type over the R612 for 4 keys, then hit [Ins] and finish your typing. Thus you would enter Ty \, then hit [Ins], and finish with Tandy\ . Note that a suffix of "p will be a command awaiting further input, while a suffix of ";13p will self execute. To finish up, you need to keep the right curser pressed until all the lines are displayed. Hitting [Enter] will give you a * display in the left side. Hitting e and [Enter] will save this save and bring you back to DOS. You can also hit q to quit without making changes. My suggestion is that you change only 2-3 entries at a time, in case of errors. 24. That should do it for now. Any questions can be directed to Mark Rachow via mail at the Tandy Harbor BBS (313-455-3977).