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Text File | 1993-09-25 | 16.5 KB | 395 lines

Program Package: S3 Tools Package Version: 1.0 Date: 09/25/93 Author: George Spafford Copyright 1993 All Rights Reserved Purpose: To enhance the usefulness of batch files and the command command line. Install: Create a directory and then copy these files to it. I recommed that the directory be included in your PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Programs: -------- BEEP.EXE -------- BEEP is a program to allow you to generate a userr defined tone in DOS or from a batch file. The TSTBEEP.BAT file demonstrates a very loud tone that easily gets users immediate attention. This utility is geared towards getting users, sysops, or administrators to a PC that is having problems. USAGE: BEEP Hertz Duration Hertz defines the tone in terms of cycles per second. Duration defines the length of the sound in 1/18ths of seconds. BEEP /? Displays the help screen. -------- CA10.DOC -------- This is the documentation file for the COMAID.EXE utility. You can read this file by using the included SDV viewer utility: SDV CA10.DOC --------- CLSCR.EXE --------- This program clears the screen and can optionally beep a certain number of times. The TSTCLSCR.BAT batch file demonstrates this utility. Essecntially, the screen is cleared to either blue, green, red, yellow or white and a beep can sound. USAGE: CLSCR [blue][green][red][yellow][white] {Beep Count} You must select one color. Examples: CLSCR Blue Displays a blue screen. CLSCR Green Displays a green screen. CLSCR G Displays a green screen. As you can see, you can either spell out the color or just use the first letter of the color: G=Green, B=Blue, R=Red, etc. To have the program beep, specify the color, add a space and then the number of times you want the program to beep. Examples: CLSCR R 5 Red screen and 5 beeps CLSCR G 1 Green screen and 1 beep CLSCR B 3 Blue screen and 3 beeps CLSCR /? Displays the help screen. ---------- COMAID.EXE ---------- COMAID is a utility that you can use to update your BIOS equipment table located at 0000H:0400H. The first 8 bytes of this table is used to declare the I/O addresses of COM ports one through four. Not all systems automatically map in the addresses of COM3 and COM4. COMAID can do this. COMAID will NOT modify the interrupt table. CHANGES WILL ONLY LAST UNTIL THE PC IS REBOOTED! Addresses used: COM1: 03F8 Hex COM2: 02F8 COM3: 03E8 COM4: 02E8 USAGE: COMAID [/1][/2][/3][/4][/R1][/R2][/R3][/R4] Switches /1 /2 /3 /4 add the I/O addresses for COM ports switches /R1 through /R4 remove the addresses Example: COMAID /1 Adds COM1 COMAID /3 /4 Adds COM3 and COM4 COMAID /3 /R2 Adds COM3 and removes COM2 COMAID /? Displays the help screen ----------- DUMPMEM.EXE ----------- DUMPMEM displays 64 bytes of memory starting at a user defined segment and offset. The segment and offset can be declared either as integers or as hex values. To enter hex values, prefix your hex value with &H. For example, 400 hex is entered as &H400. USAGE: DUMPMEM segment:offset To display the 0000:0400H equipment table, we enter: DUMPMEM &H0:&H400 Of course Hex 0 and Dec 0 are the same thing, but I used the &H to demonstrate how it is used. The 400 Hex MUST be entered as &H400. DUMPMEM /? Displays the help screen. ------- KEY.EXE ------- S3 KEY is used to manipulate the capital letter lock (Caps Lock), the number lock (Num Lock) and the keyboard buffer. KEY can be used to turn either lock on or off and to clear the keyboard buffer. USAGE: KEY [/C+][/C-][/N+][/N-][/B-] /C+ Turns cap lock on /C- Turns cap lock off /N+ Turns num lock on /N- Turns num lock off /B- Clears the keyboard buffer KEY /? Displays the help screen. ------ LC.EXE ------ The S3 Line Calculator provides a way to do math equations on the command line. The usage of the calculator can be as simple as: LC 2+2 to get an answer of 4 or as complex as you want. The LC10.DOC file gives full information on using this utility. LC /? Displays the help screen. -------- LC10.DOC -------- This is the document file for the S3 Line Calculator program. You can use the included SDV file viewer to read it by typing: SDV LC10.DOC --------- LOG30.DOC --------- This is the document file for the S3 LOGIT program. You can use the included SDV file viewer to read it by typing SDV LOG30.DOC --------- LOGIT.EXE --------- S3 LOGIT is a program designed to write date, time and notes to a specified log file in order to track use of a system, program, etc. USAGE: LOGIT /C:comments_are_here /L:LOGFILE.LOG /C: This specifies the comment that you want stored. /L: This defines the name of the log file. Logit will automatically add the current system date and time to the entry when it appends it to the log file. LOGIT /? Displays the help screen. -------- PORT.EXE -------- PORT is an interactive utility that allows a user to modify the BIOS equipment table COM and LPT ports. Ports can be added, swapped, deleted or edited. The changes will only last until the PC is rebooted. BE CAREFUL IF YOU EDIT!!! If nothing else, the program can be used to simply display the current table. PORT can not be run from the command line alone. Thus, there are no command line parameters. --------- QUERY.EXE --------- S3 QUERY is a utility geared for making batch (.BAT) files interactive. QUERY waits for a single key to be pressed and then it returns the ASCII value of that key to DOS as the ERRORLEVEL where the DOS IF statement can be used. (I apologize to purists who argue that the COMMAND.COM commands are shell commands rather than DOS operating commands. I agree that they are not DOS commands but I use the term here for others. If you are reading this saying, "Whaaaat?" Let me digress for a moment. You see, DOS is really comprised of the boot record that the loads the IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS system files. These are all hidden from the user but they define the machine interface. COMMAND.COM is a shell, just like the shells in UNIX. COMMAND.COM provides the internal commands for users like COPY, DIR, DEL, IF and so forth. Thus, this is why a user can swap shells for added commands. Alternative shells are 4DOS and Norton's NDOS. They sit on top of the machine layer and provide enhanced user interfaces. Here endeth the lesson. Anyways, look at TSTQUERY.BAT for a demonstration of QUERY and an example of batch file programming. Remember one important point: QUERY IS CASE SENSITIVE!!!!! USAGE: QUERY [LB-UB] [VALUE] [S] QUERY UB-LB Used to define lower and upper bounds of acceptable answers. For example: QUERY 97-100 This will only continue the batch file if a key with an ASCII code greater than or equal to 97 and less than or equal to 100 is pressed. QUERY VALUE VALUE can be used if there is only one legal value. Example: QUERY 97 Only a lower case "a" is valid. QUERY Alone will return an ASCII code for any key pressed. QUERY S This will display ASCII codes for you while you press keys in order to save you from looking them up. QUERY /? Displays the help screen ----------- READMEM.EXE ----------- READMEM is an interactive memory browse utility. When you run the program, it will ask you for the segment, offset and number of bytes that you want to see. If you want to enter hex values, remember to prefix the value with &H. Thus, 400H is entered as &H400. There are no command line parameters. ----- S.EXE ----- S3 Software's Sloppy DIR Replacement. S is a simple directory list utility that sorts the files by file name in ascending order, shows directories first, then file names with their associated file sizes and attribiutes. USAGE: S [filespec] S Alone displays the current directory S Spec Spec defines a file specification to look for. Example: S C:\DOS\ will show the files in the DOS directory. To look at a directory, you must put either a "\" after a dir name or the full \*.*. To view C:\DOS you need to do one of the following: S C:\DOS\ S C:\DOS\*.* Play around with it. The program will accept partial names and will tell you if it doesn't find a match. ------- S11.DOC ------- This is the document file for the S3 Sloppy DIR program. You can use the included SDV file viewer to read the file by typing: SDV S11.DOC -------- SASK.EXE -------- S3 ASK is a unique utility in that it asks a user a question and then places the answer in an environment variable. SASK probably has no use outside of a batch file. The TSTSASK.BAT file is a good example of how SASK works. SASK asks a question and then writes a batch file called SETSASK.BAT. The environment variable is NOT set until you either run or CALL the SETSASK.BAT file. I recommend that you look at TSTSASK.BAT. If you get an out of environment space error message, then you will need to increase the size of your environment table. This is done by using the SHELL command in the CONFIG.SYS file. SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /E:512 /P ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ Shell Name to run | | |- Make Change permanent | |------ Environment size = 512 bytes |------------- COMSPEC setting [optional] If you still have questions, hopefully you have a good DOS manual that can describe the reason the SHELL command exists (a partial answer exists in the explanation of the QUERY program above). USAGE: SASK VaribleName Question_to_Ask? VariableName The name of the environment variable that you want to write. Question This is the question that you want to ask. It must have underscores "_" in place of spaces. SASK will replace the underscores with spaces when it runs. SPECIAL: Help is displayed by typing SASK alone. /? does not work. ------- SDV.EXE ------- S3 DOC View is a file browse utility. SDV by itself lists file names in the current directory. Use the arrows to highlight the file that you want to read and press enter to view the file. If you know the file that you want to read, type SDV followed by the file name. For example, SDV S3TOOLS.DOC will display this file. This is how the README.BAT file allows you to view this file. --------- SDV21.DOC --------- This is the document file for SDV. SDV SDV21.DOC will let you read the .DOC file. ------- SSV.CFG ------- This is the sample configuration file for SSV. ------- SSV.EXE ------- S3 SmartViewer looks at a selected file name's extension and runs a viewer or another utility based on the extension. Read the SSV10.DOC file to learn more about the program. SSVCFG.EXE creates the SSV.CFG file that SSV uses as a configuration file. USAGE: SSV [FileSpec] [FileSpec] is the file name that you want to look at. --------- SSV10.DOC --------- This is the documentation for the S3 Smart View utility (SSV). Use SDV SSV10.DOC to read the file. ---------- SSVCFG.EXE ---------- This is the program that creates the SSV.CFG file for the Smart View (SSV) program. SSV10.DOC explains it use. ------------ TESTSASK.BAT ------------ This is the test/demonstration batch file for SASK. ----------- TSTBEEP.BAT ----------- This is the test/demonstration batch file for BEEP. ------------ TSTCLSCR.BAT ------------ This is the test/demonstration batch file for CLSCR. ------------ TSTQUERY.BAT ------------ This is the test/demonstration batch file for QUERY. ******************************************************************************* HISTORY: v1.0 09/25/93 Initial Release DISTRIBUTORS: This package may be distributed via catalogs, CD ROMs, shows, BBSes, swap meets, etc., as long as it is clearly identified as shareware. The package may NOT be identified as freeware, cheap ware, etc. The distributor can NOT claim to be a representative of S3 Software. A distributor can NOT break apart this package but a custom install program may be added as long as the install is clearly identified as the property of the distributor. REGISTER: The S3 Tools package represents a lot of time and effort. The S3 Tools package refers to all files contained in an archive file or placed on a disk by S3 Software. It does NOT pertain to any files added to an archive or disk by other parties. The package may not be parsed apart. If you elect to use any of the programs in the package, you must register the package. This package's registration fee is $20. If you want a disk mailed to you with the program package on it, and additional $5 is required to cover postage and handling. European and Asian customers need to add $10 to cover transaction processing fees. All amounts stated are in U.S. dollars. Please only make payment in the form of checks, money orders or postal orders to: George Spafford 3003 Lakeshore Drive, #216 St. Joseph, MI 49085 I can be contacted on the EXEC-PC and CHANNEL-ONE BBS systems. THE S3 TOOLS PACKAGE AND ALL OF ITS ASSOCIATED FILES ARE DISTRIBUTED AS IS. THE AUTHOR (GEORGE SPAFFORD) MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF APPROPRIATENESS, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES (INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, WAGES OR ANY OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES) ARISING OUT OF THE MISUSE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PRODUCT.