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Simtel MSDOS 1993 May
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savscr.doc
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1986-02-11
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4KB
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75 lines
SAVSCR.COM - A Documentation Aid
--------------------------------
A common documentation task is to describe the appearance of the computer's
display screen as it appears in the midst of running a program. SAVSCR is a
utility that makes that job easy by saving any text-mode display screen in a
disk file when the Shift-PrtSc keys are pressed at the same time. An editor or
word processing program may be used to incorporate the saved screen image(s)
into your documentation, or the screen image(s) could be sent to a printer at
a later time (which means that you can make slides for an overhead projector,
even on a PC which doesn't have a printer directly attached to it).
SAVSCR is started by typing
SAVSCR [[d:]\path\]filename.ext
to the PC/MS-DOS command line interpreter (COMMAND.COM). As indicated, the
disk device and the pathname specifications are optional, however SAVSCR will
automatically default them to the current disk and current directory if you do
not specify them.
The first time that SAVSCR is invoked it will make itself resident in memory
and, if the specified output file does not already exist, will create an empty
file by that name. Thereafter, SAVSCR "traps" the PrtSc interrupts (IBM PC
BIOS interrupt 5), and each time Shift-PrtSc is pressed the text contents of
the display screen will be appended to the specified output file (each display
screen image is separated from previous screen images by a form-feed
character).
It is not possible to remove memory resident programs such as SAVSCR without
rebooting PC/MS-DOS, but if SAVSCR is run after it is installed, then you will
have the opportunity to make it inactive and restore the normal PC/MS-DOS
function of the PrtSc key (i.e., the screen image is sent directly to a
printer), and you will also have the opportunity to request instructions for
running SAVSCR.
SAVSCR is quite different from the public domain program on which it was
based, SAVSC.COM. SAVSCR uses DOS V2.0 features to support a path
specification in a filename, works correctly with any of the eight display
pages allowed on IBM graphics adapters (Color Graphics Adapter, Professional
Graphics Adapter, and the Enhanced Graphics Adapter), dynamically supports the
Enhanced Graphics Adapter in 43-line mode or 25-line mode, dynamically
supports 40- and 80-column video modes, and has changed the activation key
sequence from Shift-Scroll Lock-PrtSc to Shift-PrtSc because some third-party
keyboards will not transmit the former key sequence and it could also be
difficult for certain handicapped people to enter a 3-keystroke sequence at
once (software developers should be careful about that sort of thing...).
The full assembly source code, SAVSCR.ASM, has also been placed in the public
domain. It is unfortunate that so many public domain utilities do not include
source code; we can all learn from useful programs, and including the source
code also allows people to improve or customize programs for their own use.
-------------------------------------------------------------
V1.1 12/31/85 - Vince Cuomo, Chino Hills CA
V1.0 09/27/85 - Ted Shapin, Orange CA
- And, of course, thanks to the unknown
author of the original SAVSC.COM
program.
Note: If anyone makes changes to SAVSCR and would like to
place them in the public domain, or if anyone has
suggestions or comments concerning SAVSCR, then the
above-named authors may be contacted by writing to
them at the following address:
c/o North American Software, Inc.
P.O. Box 3309
Tustin, CA 92680