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1988-05-27
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QMAC 1.1
A utility for use with QEdit 2, the Quick Editor by SemWare
Copyright 1988 by Sammy Mitchell and Karl Brendel
All rights reserved
QMAC is a translator of QEdit 2 macro files. It translates
QEdit 2 macros from the binary file in which QEdit 2 saves macros
to a text file which allows easy macro editing, and translates
such text files to a QEdit 2 binary file. QMAC allows appending
to or overwriting existing files, making it easy to add new
macros to existing files. QMAC's text file format allows
comments, permitting documentation of the macros within their
"source file".
Altho QMAC is a copyrighted work, it may be freely distributed,
subject to the following conditions: QMAC must be distributed
with full documentation, and with no modification of the program
itself or the original documentation or any accompanying files,
such as sample macro files, otherwise than herein provided.
Users' groups and disk distributors may append brief documen-
tation of their own. Other than nominal charges for disk dupli-
cation services, no fee may be received for the distribution of
the QMAC files without the written permission of Sammy Mitchell
or Karl Brendel. Distributors who already have permission to
distribute QEdit 2 are exempt from this requirement.
No registration fee is required for the continuing use of QMAC.
Changes in the documentation since the last release are marked
with | in the right margin.
To run QMAC, at the DOS prompt type:
QMAC [?] [bfn] [tfn] [om] [am]
and press Enter. The items shown in [] are parameters which may
be entered at the DOS prompt. Do not type the []. QMAC will
prompt for any required parameters which are not supplied at the
DOS prompt. If parameters are provided at the DOS prompt, they
must be given in the order shown, except that the [?] should be
entered only if requesting help. If the [?] appears as the first
parameter, all other parameters at the DOS prompt are ignored.
Parameters which are not required may be omitted, and will be
ignored if given.
The parameters are:
? == request for a help summary
bfn == filespec of the compiled macro file
tfn == filespec of the text macro file
om == output mode : T(ext) or B(inary)
am == append mode : Y(es) or N(o)
[om] and [am] are required only if [bfn] and [tfn] both specify
existing files. If only one of the files is existing, [om] is
determined by the type of the existing file: if the existing file
is Text, [om] is Binary, and vice versa. If [am] is Y(es) then
output is appended to the existing file; if N(o), the existing
file is overwritten.
After processing any parameters from the DOS prompt, QMAC
itself will prompt for any further parameters needed. When all
such parameters have been provided, QMAC will process the macros
as required.
Answering any QMAC prompt by merely pressing Enter will halt
QMAC.
Answering the prompt for [bfn] with a ? will display the help
summary just as if [?] had been provided at the DOS prompt.
QMAC is crash-resistant, but does not make a lot of effort to
deal with missing files, open disk drives, etc. Encountering an
error it cannot deal with, QMAC will halt with a (hopefully
informative) message.
QMAC can deal with many errors in a macro text file by skipping
to the next macro. It will display the line where the error was
discovered.
The contents of a macro text file are blank lines, comment
lines, and macro lines. QMAC skips blank lines and comment lines.
Comment lines have a * in the first column:
* This is a comment line.
* This is not a comment line and QMAC will reject it.
The leading space in the second example line prevents it from
being a comment. Comment lines may be of any length. Note that
comments are not placed in the binary file, and so will not show
up in a text file which has been translated from a binary file.
The primary purpose of comments is to allow documentation of
macro source files.
The first line of a macro must start with the key designator,
followed by the command macro_begin, as shown in the QCONFIG.DAT
file distributed with QEdit 2. An example:
^i macro_begin cursor_up word_right cursor_down
The key designator does not have to be in the first column. The
commands may be written in any mixture of upper and lower case,
and do not require the _ character commonly used. This macro will
translate identically to the previous one:
^I MaCrObEgIn CuRsOrUp WoRdRiGhT cUrSoRdOwN
A macro line is limited to 255 characters, including all
spaces. If QMAC reads a line 255 characters long, it will issue a
warning that the macro may have been truncated. Macros may
continue to an arbitrary number of lines. (Note that no check is
made against QEdit 2's allocation of storage for macros because
that allocation may change from release to release.) A macro
line which is to be continued must have & as the last character.
Comment lines and/or blank lines may be inserted between the
lines of a continuing macro:
@p macrobegin markblockend wordleft markblockbegin endline & |
* This is a continuing macro. Documenting comments for this macro
* are in the accompanying file QMACROS.PAS.
return copyblock endline return copyblock & |
unmarkblock "end; {" endline
* Note that lines do not have to be 255 characters long
* to be continued. Length less than that is arbitrary.
"}" cursorup endline "}" wordleft "begin {" cursorup endline & |
";" wordleft "procedure " endline cursorleft
* That's all of that one, folks!
Revisions:
1.1--Adds support for new commands in QEdit 2.06. |
Corrects bug where Qmac would write 64K of junk to the |
binary file if a key designator stood alone on a line. |
The "&" character at the end of each line (except the last one) |
of a continuing macro is NOT optional. (It was omitted by error |
in the examples in the original documentation.) |
Notice that literal strings appear between " marks, so that "{"
means to insert { at the cursor. Literal strings which must
contain " marks (for whatever reason) should include two " to
display one:
"a ""-marked string"
will result in a binary macro containing:
a "-marked string
Requests for help, bug reports, etc., may be directed to Karl
Brendel on CompuServe (73307,3101), GEnie (K.BRENDEL), or at the
bbs shown below. To express your undying gratitude for QMAC,
please register QEdit 2 if you have not already, and pass it (and
QMAC) around for others.
Contact points for QMAC:
Sleepy Hollow 213 859 9334
Software Society 201 729 7410
Tamiami PC Board 813 793 2392