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1992-11-16
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DOS PHANTOM
V2.6
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
P2 Enterprises
P.O. Box 25
Ben Lomond, CA 95005-0025
VoiceMail (408) 336-8080 mailbox 9090
DOS Phantom V2.6
Copyright (c) 1992 P2 Enterprises All Rights Reserved
- 1 -
DOS PHANTOM V2.6 Page 2
20 September 92
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 WHAT IS DOS PHANTOM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
1.2 WHAT IS DOS PHANTOM GOOD FOR? . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
CHAPTER 2 NEW FEATURES ADDED IN VERSION 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, AND 2.6
CHAPTER 3 WHAT IS SHAREWARE?
CHAPTER 4 LICENSE, WARRANTY, REGISTRATION, AND SUPPORT
4.1 LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
4.2 REGISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
4.3 SUPPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
CHAPTER 5 USING DOS PHANTOM
5.1 BEFORE YOU BEGIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1
5.2 DOS PHANTOM'S COMMAND LINE . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2
5.3 RECORDING AND PLAYING BACK . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4
5.4 PAUSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6
5.5 QUICK PLAYBACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7
5.6 LOOPING PLAYBACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-8
5.7 THE DOS PHANTOM CONTROL PANEL . . . . . . . . . . 5-9
5.8 CHANGING THE HOT KEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-10
5.9 MAKING DOS PHANTOM MEMORY RESIDENT . . . . . . . 5-12
5.10 REMOVING DOS PHANTOM FROM MEMORY . . . . . . . . 5-13
5.11 USING THE /O SWITCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-14
CHAPTER 6 USING HOT KEYS TO START PLAYBACKS
- 2 -
DOS PHANTOM V2.6 Page 3
20 September 92
CHAPTER 7 SCHEDULING RECORDINGS FOR LATER PLAYBACK
CHAPTER 8 CONVERTING ASCII TEXT FILES FOR PLAYBACK
CHAPTER 9 EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS
9.1 ELIMINATING HELP TEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-4
9.2 DOS PHANTOM DIRECTIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5
9.3 $PAUSE AND $WAIT - PROGRAMMED PAUSES . . . . . . . 9-5
9.4 $1 - $9 - SUBSTITUTION PARAMETERS . . . . . . . . 9-7
9.5 COMPRESSED MODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8
9.6 POP-UP DISPLAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-9
9.7 LABELS AND THE $GOTO DIRECTIVE . . . . . . . . . 9-11
9.8 POP-UP MENUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-12
9.9 PROGRAMMED SCREEN CAPTURE . . . . . . . . . . . 9-15
9.10 PROGRAMMED PRINT CAPTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-16
9.11 PACING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-17
9.12 MATCHING SCREEN TEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-18
9.13 WAITING FOR PROGRAM EXIT . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-20
9.14 DETECTING EXIT STATUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-21
9.15 USING THE $SETMODE DIRECTIVES . . . . . . . . . 9-22
9.16 HINTS AND TIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-23
9.16.1 RECOVERING EDITING SESSIONS . . . . . . . . . 9-23
9.16.2 USING DOS PHANTOM IN BATCH FILES . . . . . . . 9-23
9.16.3 PLAYBACK CHAINING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-23
9.16.4 DON'T USE THE MOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-23
CHAPTER 10 DOS PHANTOM TECHNICAL INFORMATION
10.1 DOS VERSION REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
10.2 MEMORY USAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
CHAPTER 11 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DOS PHANTOM V1.4 AND V2.0
- 3 -
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 WHAT IS DOS PHANTOM?
DOS Phantom is a full-featured task automator which can perform a
large number of functions to make life with your computer easier and
more efficient.
DOS Phantom does the following:
o Records and plays back keystrokes either with the original
delays between keystrokes or at high speed,
o Provides unlimited recording length (actually limited by the
amount of available disk space).
o Allows the definition of up to 16 hot keys to start playback
of specific recordings with a single keystroke.
o Allows scheduling of playback on a daily, weekly, or
once-only basis.
o Provides the ability to edit recordings,
o Provides the ability to add pop-up displays and pop-up menus
to recordings,
o Provides the ability to wait during playback for a certain
character sequence to appear on the screen,
o Provides the ability to wait during playback for a program to
exit and detect whether a success or error status was
returned,
o Captures the screen contents and writes it to a file at the
press of a hot key or as directed by the contents of a
recording file,
- 4 -
INTRODUCTION Page 1-2
WHAT IS DOS PHANTOM? 20 September 92
o Captures output destined for the printer and writes it to a
file (can be turned on and off from within a recording file),
- 5 -
INTRODUCTION Page 1-3
WHAT IS DOS PHANTOM GOOD FOR? 20 September 92
1.2 WHAT IS DOS PHANTOM GOOD FOR?
o Recovery After System Crashes or Power Failures
Because DOS Phantom writes your recorded keystrokes to the
disk after every 32 keystrokes, if you were recording when
your system failed, you can just playback the recording file,
recovering everything except perhaps the last 31 keystrokes.
This can be tremendously useful during long editing sessions,
eliminating the need to periodically save your work to avoid
losing it in a system crash.
o A Batch Substitute
DOS Phantom can be used in place of simple batch files,
eliminating the need to prepare the batch files with an
editor -- You just show DOS Phantom what you want done, and
DOS Phantom can do it for you after that. You can even edit
your DOS Phantom recordings if you make a mistake during the
recording. You can also perform parameter substitution
similar to that available with MS-DOS batch files.
o Keystroke Macros
Using the HOTFILE program (included with DOS Phantom),
recording files can be assigned to hot keys, allowing the
entire recording to be played back with a single keystroke.
Up to 16 hotkeys can be defined. The hotkeys work even when
you're running a program.
o Program Startup
DOS Phantom can be used to automatically supply input to
programs which expect to receive keyboard input (programs
such as spreadsheets and others). It can thus be used to
perform a sequence of "startup" commands which you would
otherwise have to type each time you run the program.
o Automatic Execution
You might record the keystrokes to run your spreadsheet, load
current stock quotes, print a graph, and exit. You only have
to do it once; DOS Phantom can do it after that. And you can
start it all with a single keystroke!
DOS Phantom can be used to automate access to systems such as
Prodigy which normally require your presence at the keyboard.
Record the keystrokes that you use to dial Prodigy and print
headline news and current stock quotations. Then have your
computer wake up early and call Prodigy. You can have the
- 6 -
INTRODUCTION Page 1-4
WHAT IS DOS PHANTOM GOOD FOR? 20 September 92
latest information printed and waiting for you to peruse with
your morning coffee.
o Demos
DOS Phantom can be used create a quick demonstration of a
program which can then be played back at will for prospective
users or customers. DOS Phantom can be paused automatically
or manually during playback for discussion or manual entry of
data to the program being demonstrated. In addition, pop-up
windows can be displayed to explain what is happening in the
demo, and menus can be presented to allow the user to guide
the course of the demo.
Automatic timeouts when user response is required and a
looping feature allow DOS Phantom-based demos to run
continuously and unattended and yet allow users to interact
with the demonstration if they wish.
o Software Testing
DOS Phantom can be used to record tests of software which is
undergoing revision. Then, the tests can be run after the
revisions are complete to be sure what worked before the
revisions still works after the revisions. Screens contents
can be written to a file at strategic points during the
execution of the program and printer output can be captured
as well. This allows the output of the program to compared
with earlier test runs to detect differences.
o Applications Integration
DOS Phantom can be used as the "glue" to marry a collection
of disparate programs into a complete package to solve a
problem. For example, the shareware product QuickPro
Retriever uses DOS Phantom to automatically update investment
prices in Quicken (a finance management program from Intuit)
with information from Prodigy's on-line stock market quote
facility. DOS Phantom's ability to search out text on the
screen and verify termination status of programs gives it a
significant advantage over "blind playback" utilities which
blithely continue delivering keystrokes even when the
programs they are running have gone awry.
- 7 -
CHAPTER 2
NEW FEATURES ADDED IN VERSION 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, AND 2.6
Version 2.3 of DOS Phantom added support for the PHANTOMDIR
environment variable, hot files, and playback scheduling:
o Use of PHANTOMDIR Environment Variable
Starting with V2.3, if the DOS environment variable
PHANTOMDIR is set to define a disk and directory path, DOS
Phantom and the TXT2PTM and PTM2TXT translators will store
recording files in the PHANTOMDIR directory. You no longer
need to remember where a particular recording file is and you
no longer need to type in long pathnames when your default is
not the same as the location of the recording file.
If PHANTOMDIR is not set, DOS Phantom behaves as it did
before, searching the default directory for recording files
unless otherwise instructed.
To define PHANTOMDIR as C:\PHANTOM, you would place the
following line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
SET PHANTOMDIR=C:\PHANTOM
Should you wish to remove the environment variable, use the
following command:
SET PHANTOMDIR=
o Hot Files
Hot files are recording files whose playback is initiated by
the touch of a hot key. This eliminates the need to bring up
the DOS Phantom Control Panel and type in the filename or
type in the PHANTOM2 play command at the DOS prompt.
- 8 -
NEW FEATURES ADDED IN VERSION 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, AND 2.6 Page 2-2
20 September 92
The HOTFILE program, included in the DOS Phantom V2.4 kit,
allows you to define 16 hot files and associated hot keys.
HOTFILE also allows you to list the defined hot files and hot
keys, delete hot key assignments, and display a list of the
valid hot keys.
HOTFILE requires that the PHANTOMDIR environment variable be
defined.
o Playback Scheduling
Version 2.3 introduced the SCHEDULE program. SCHEDULE allows
you to schedule playback of up to 16 Phantom recordings.
Playback can be scheduled to occur on a daily basis, on a
weekly basis, or one time only. SCHEDULE also allows you to
list the current schedule and delete scheduled playbacks.
Only files placed in the directory defined by the PHANTOMDIR
environment variable may be scheduled.
Version 2.4 addressed the following bugs which were present in V2.2
but which were reported after V2.3 was released:
o Characters with keyboard scan codes under 10h were
erroneously given timings of zero by PTM2TXT.
o Characters were lost in some recordings when typematic repeat
rates of over 15 characters per second were used.
Version 2.4 also includes the MAKEPTM program which automatically
converts a text file so that it can be played back through DOS Phantom
as if it were being typed at the keyboard. MAKEPTM allows you to
specify delay between characters and delay between lines.
Version 2.5 corrects a problem with MAKEPTM which caused errors when
line delays of zero were specified and corrects a bug which caused
system hangs under certain circumstances when invalid file
specifications were entered for playback.
Version 2.5 also incorporates the capability to invoke Phantom from
within a playback to "chain" to another file. Note that invoking
Phantom to begin recording from within a playback session is not
supported.
Version 2.6 added support for the F11, F12, SHFT-F11, SHFT-F12,
CTRL-F11, CTRL-F12, ALT-F11, and ALT-F12 keys and fixed a bug which
caused corruption of the schedule file when recordings were made using
the default file RECORDNG.PTM.
- 9 -
CHAPTER 3
WHAT IS SHAREWARE?
Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before
buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you
are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details --
some request registration while others require it, some specify a
maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the
simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with
printed manual.
Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and
the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific
exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished
programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of
comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad
ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The
author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the
software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For
example, some authors require written permission before a commercial
disk vendor may copy their Shareware.
Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You
should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether
it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your
needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the
overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate
money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay
for it.
- 10 -
CHAPTER 4
LICENSE, WARRANTY, REGISTRATION, AND SUPPORT
4.1 LICENSE
DOS PHANTOM is not and has never been public domain software, nor is
it free software.
Non-licensed users are granted a limited license to use DOS PHANTOM on
a 21-day trial basis for the purpose of determining whether DOS
PHANTOM is suitable for their needs. The use of DOS PHANTOM, except
for the initial 21-day trial, requires registration. The use of
unlicensed copies of DOS PHANTOM by any person, business, corporation,
government agency or any other entity is strictly prohibited.
A single user license permits a user to use DOS PHANTOM only on a
single computer. Licensed users may use the program on different
computers, but may not use the program on more than one computer at
the same time.
No one may modify or patch the DOS PHANTOM executable files in any
way, including but not limited to decompiling, disassembling, or
otherwise reverse engineering the program.
A limited license is granted to copy and distribute DOS PHANTOM only
for the trial use of others, subject to the above limitations, and
also the following:
1. DOS PHANTOM must be copied in unmodified form, complete with
the provided license and registration information.
2. The full machine-readable DOS PHANTOM documentation must be
included with each copy.
3. DOS PHANTOM may not be distributed in conjunction with any
other product with out a specific license to do so from P2
Enterprises.
- 11 -
LICENSE, WARRANTY, REGISTRATION, AND SUPPORT Page 4-2
LICENSE 20 September 92
4. No fee, charge, or other compensation may be requested or
accepted, except as authorized below:
o Operators of electronic bulletin board systems (sysops)
may make DOS PHANTOM available for downloading only as
long as the above conditions are met. An overall or
time-dependent charge for the use of the bulletin board
system is permitted as long as there is not a specific
charge for the download of DOS PHANTOM.
o Vendors of user-supported or shareware software approved
by the ASP may distribute DOS PHANTOM, subject to the
above conditions, without specific permission. Non
approved vendors may distribute DOS PHANTOM only after
obtaining written permission from P2 Enterprises. Such
permission is usually granted. Please write for details
(enclose your catalog). Vendors may charge a disk
duplication and handling fee, which, when pro-rated to
the DOS PHANTOM product, may not exceed eight dollars.
LIMITED WARRANTY
THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ALL OF WHICH ARE EXPRESSLY
DISCLAIMED. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, THE PURCHASER ASSUMES
THE RISK OF PAYING THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR,
OR CORRECTION AND ANY INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. IN NO
EVENT WILL P2 ENTERPRISES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
(INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS,
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION AND THE LIKE)
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THIS PRODUCT EVEN IF P2
ENTERPRISES HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Use of this product for any period of time constitutes your acceptance
of this agreement and subjects you to its contents.
U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS
Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to
restrictions as set forth in subdivision (b)(3)(ii) of the Rights in
Technical Data and Computer Software clause at 252.227-7013.
Contractor/manufacturer is P2 Enterprises, P.O. Box 25, Ben Lomond,
CA 95005-0025
The information in this document is subject to change without notice
and does not represent a commitment on the part of P2 Enterprises.
- 12 -
LICENSE, WARRANTY, REGISTRATION, AND SUPPORT Page 4-3
REGISTRATION 20 September 92
4.2 REGISTRATION
This program is shareware. It is not free. If, after an evaluation
period of 21 days, you wish to continue using this program, you must
register by sending US$25.00 by check or postal money order to
DOS Phantom
P2 Enterprises
P.O. Box 25
Ben Lomond, CA 95005-0025
In response, P2 Enterprises will send you a personalized Product
Registration Key (PRK) which you can use with the P2 REGISTER program
to effect registration of this program.
Registration suppresses the display of the statements requesting that
you register.
Registration entitles you to three months of support from P2
Enterprises as described in the following section.
Your Product Registration Key can be used to register future versions
of this program at no additional cost.
Licenses for unlimited use on a single LAN and licenses for commercial
distribution of this product as part of another product are also
available. Contact P2 Enterprises for details.
- 13 -
LICENSE, WARRANTY, REGISTRATION, AND SUPPORT Page 4-4
SUPPORT 20 September 92
4.3 SUPPORT
Registered users receive three months of support from P2 Enterprises.
P2 Enterprises will answer questions and fix serious bugs during the
three month support period. P2 Enterprises may choose not to attempt
a fix to a problem involving a specific hardware or software
environment or feature. If this is the case, a full refund of the
registration fee will be made upon your request.
P2 Enterprises may be reached via a VoiceMail system at 408 336-8080
mailbox 9090, or via CompuServe ID 70621,2475, or by US Mail at PO Box
25, Ben Lomond CA 95005-0025 USA. The VoiceMail system is in
operation between the hours of 5AM and 5PM Pacific Time.
P2 Enterprises is a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware
principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member
directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you
resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide
technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP
Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe
message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.
- 14 -
CHAPTER 5
USING DOS PHANTOM
5.1 BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Before using DOS Phantom, we recommend that you create a directory for
your recording files and set the PHANTOMDIR environment variable to
point to it. Assuming that you want to store your recording files in
C:\PHANTOM, here is the command to create the directory and set the
PHANTOMDIR environment variable appropriately:
C:\> MKDIR PHANTOM
C:\> SET PHANTOMDIR=C:\PHANTOM
You should place the second command above in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so
that PHANTOMDIR gets set each time you boot your computer.
You may wish to place the DOS Phantom executable files (PHANTOM2.EXE,
TXT2PTM.EXE, PTM2TXT.PTM, HOTFILE.EXE, and SCHEDULE.EXE in the same
directory. If you do this, add the PHANTOMDIR directory to the PATH
definition in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. (You may change the names of
the .EXE files with the DOS REN command to eliminate conflicts with
the names of other products or just to make them easier to type.)
Once PHANTOMDIR is defined, DOS Phantom expects to place all recording
files there. You should not include disk or directory information in
the filenames you supply DOS Phantom for recordings.
- 15 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-2
DOS PHANTOM'S COMMAND LINE 20 September 92
5.2 DOS PHANTOM'S COMMAND LINE
DOS Phantom accepts the following basic command line switches:
/P Playback
/R Record
/Q Quick Playback
/L Looping Playback
/I Install as a Memory Resident Program
/U Un-install DOS Phantom from memory
In addition, the following command line switches are also available:
/K Attention Hot Key Selection
/A Abort Hot Key Selection
/D Screen Capture Hot Key
/S Toggle Sounds
/-S Disable Sounds
/M Toggle Mode Display
/-M Disable Mode Display
/C Disable use of Color
/O Include Screen Output Records in Recordings
/V Print Capture File
/F Screen Capture File Selection
/Z Suppresses all DOS Phantom-generated output (copyright
notices, etc.)
Here's an example of a DOS Phantom command to begin recording and
create the file RECORDNG.PTM:
C> PHANTOM2 /R RECORDNG.PTM
- 16 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-3
DOS PHANTOM'S COMMAND LINE 20 September 92
Here's the command to play back those keystrokes:
C> PHANTOM2 /P RECORDNG.PTM
- 17 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-4
RECORDING AND PLAYING BACK 20 September 92
5.3 RECORDING AND PLAYING BACK
DOS Phantom normally creates a new command shell when you start
recording. DOS Phantom will record everything you type until you exit
the shell by typing EXIT at the DOS command prompt. Here's an example
of recording a DIR command followed by a playback of the recording:
Record the keystrokes:
C> PHANTOM2 /R RECORDNG.PTM
DOS Phantom V2.6 123456 Copyright (c) 1992...blah...blah...
Press ALT-P to pause or resume recording.
Press ALT-P twice in succession to activate the control panel.
Type EXIT at the DOS prompt when done.
C> DIR
...blah blah blah...
C> EXIT
DOS Phantom terminated.
Now play them back:
C> PHANTOM2 /P RECORDING.PTM
DOS Phantom V2.6 123456 Copyright (c) 1992...blah...blah...
Press ALT-P to pause or resume playback.
Press ALT-P twice in succession to activate the control panel.
Type EXIT at the DOS prompt when done.
C> DIR
...blah blah blah...
C> EXIT
DOS Phantom terminated.
C>
While DOS Phantom was running, it placed a small display in the upper
right corner of the screen showing what it was doing. In the example
above, the display showed either "Record" or "Play". If you don't
want the mode display, just include the /M switch on the command line,
like this:
- 18 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-5
RECORDING AND PLAYING BACK 20 September 92
C> PHANTOM2 /P /M RECORDNG.PTM
Note that the /M switch is a "toggle", meaning that if the feature is
on it is turned off, and if it is off it is turned on. To
unconditionally set the mode display off, use /-M.
- 19 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-6
PAUSING 20 September 92
5.4 PAUSING
If you press the hot key (ALT-P unless you change it with /K) during
record or playback, after a brief delay, DOS Phantom will play a
series of tones falling in pitch to indicate its transition to PAUSE
mode. The mode display, if enabled, will change to "Pause". A second
depression of the hot key resumes the recording or playback,
accompanied by a series of rising tones indicating the transition out
of PAUSE mode.
If you are playing back, playback stops while you are in PAUSE mode.
If you are recording, the keys you press while paused are not
recorded, nor is the time which passes while in PAUSE mode recorded.
You can disable the sounds by including the /S switch on the DOS
Phantom command line, like this:
C> PHANTOM2 /R /S RECORDNG.PTM
Note that the /S switch is a "toggle", meaning that if the feature is
on it is turned off, and if it is off it is turned on. To
unconditionally set the sounds off, use /-S.
- 20 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-7
QUICK PLAYBACK 20 September 92
5.5 QUICK PLAYBACK
DOS Phantom normally plays back recordings at the same speed at which
they were recorded. The /Q switch forces DOS Phantom to playback as
quickly as possible. Note that some programs "eat" characters if they
are delivered too fast. DOS Phantom's "demand playback" feature,
introduced in V1.3, eliminates most problems in this area, but some
programs, notable Prodigy, may still eat characters occasionally. For
Prodigy and other programs which still appear to eat characters, edit
your recording to use the $SetMode Func6 and $SetMode Normal
directives as described later in the section on editing DOS Phantom
recordings if you want to use quick playback.
You can alter the intervals between individual keystrokes to speed up
some sections of a recording and slow down others by editing the
recording file. See the section below on editing DOS Phantom
recordings.
- 21 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-8
LOOPING PLAYBACK 20 September 92
5.6 LOOPING PLAYBACK
If you supply the /L switch on the command line, DOS Phantom will
rewind and play the same recording file over and over until you pause
it by pressing the hot key. If DOS Phantom is memory-resident (see
below), you must close the recording file to avoid the continuation of
looping when you press the hot key again. If DOS Phantom is not
memory-resident, then you must type EXIT at the DOS prompt.
Looping can be a valuable tool in continuously-running demonstrations
or in stress-testing software systems. Not that looping playback may
also be accomplished using the $Goto directive in the recording file.
See the section on editing recording files for more information.
- 22 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-9
THE DOS PHANTOM CONTROL PANEL 20 September 92
5.7 THE DOS PHANTOM CONTROL PANEL
If you hit the hot key twice within about a half second, the pop-up
control panel is triggered, and is displayed over whatever was already
on the screen.
Note that if your screen is in graphics mode, the screen may not be
restored to its original condition when you leave the control panel,
or the control panel may not appear at all.
Here is what the control panel looks like:
+----------------------------------------------------+
| DOS Phantom V2.6 |
+----------------------------------------------------+
| |
| +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ +--------+ |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | PLAY | | QPLAY | | RECORD | | CLOSE | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ +--------+ |
| |
| Sound On Mode Display On Loop Mode Off |
| |
| Filename: RECORDNG.PTM |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------+
You can highlight the selection of your choice using the arrow, tab,
or spacebar keys and press RETURN to execute it or you can press the
key corresponding to the first letter of your selection.
If you press R, P, or Q, the menu is immediately erased, and DOS
Phantom begins executing your command. CLOSE closes an open recording
file - This is the only way to close a recording file when DOS Phantom
is memory-resident. The Sound, Mode Display, and Loop Mode selections
toggle the sounds, mode display, and looping on and off.
Selecting Filename allows you to change the recording filename. When
you have finished entering the filename, press RETURN.
Pressing the ESC key erases the menu without starting a recording or
playback session.
- 23 -
USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-10
CHANGING THE HOT KEYS 20 September 92
5.8 CHANGING THE HOT KEYS
There are three hot keys used by DOS Phantom. By default, two of them
are disabled (set to the key NONE). The three hot keys are:
o The attention hot key
This is by default set to Alt-P and is used to pause and
resume recordings, and to cause display of the DOS Phantom
control panel as described earlier. The /K command line
switch is used to change the attention hot key to another key
or to disable it.
o The screen capture hot key
This key is by default disabled. When it is enabled with the
/D command, pressing it at any time causes DOS Phantom to
write a copy of the screen to the file specified with the /F
command line switch. If no file was specified with /F, the
default file SCREEN.TXT is used.
o The abort hot key
The abort hot key, when enabled with the /A command line
switch causes immediate termination of playback. In
addition, the abort key is passed on to the program which is
running (or the DOS command processor if no program is
running). This is not true of the other hot keys -- they are
"eaten" by DOS Phantom. The most common abort hot key is
Ctrl-C. This allows a single keystroke to both terminate
playback and the program running.
Here's how you would change the attention hot key to F10:
C> PHANTOM2 /K=F10 /R RECORDNG.PTM
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USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-11
CHANGING THE HOT KEYS 20 September 92
Here is a list of all the acceptable hot keys which you can specify
with /K, /D, and /A:
SHFT-TAB ALT-Q ALT-W ALT-E
ALT-R ALT-T ALT-Y ALT-U
ALT-I ALT-O ALT-P ALT-A
ALT-S ALT-D ALT-F ALT-G
ALT-H ALT-J ALT-K ALT-L
ALT-Z ALT-X ALT-C ALT-V
ALT-B ALT-N ALT-M F1
F2 F3 F4 F5
F6 F7 F8 F9
F10 HOME UP PGUP
LEFT RIGHT END DOWN
PGDWN INSERT DELETE SHFT-F1
SHFT-F2 SHFT-F3 SHFT-F4 SHFT-F5
SHFT-F6 SHFT-F7 SHFT-F8 SHFT-F9
SHFT-F10 CTRL-F1 CTRL-F2 CTRL-F3
CTRL-F4 CTRL-F5 CTRL-F6 CTRL-F7
CTRL-F8 CTRL-F9 CTRL-F10 ALT-F1
ALT-F2 ALT-F3 ALT-F4 ALT-F5
ALT-F6 ALT-F7 ALT-F8 ALT-F9
ALT-F10 CTRL-LEFT CTRL-RIGHT CTRL-END
CTRL-PGDWN CTRL-HOME ALT-1 ALT-2
ALT-3 ALT-4 ALT-5 ALT-6
ALT-7 ALT-8 ALT-9 ALT-0
ALT-- ALT-= CTRL-PGUP CTRL-A
CTRL-B CTRL-C CTRL-D CTRL-E
CTRL-F CTRL-G CTRL-H CTRL-I
CTRL-J CTRL-K CTRL-L CTRL-M
CTRL-N CTRL-O CTRL-P CTRL-Q
CTRL-R CTRL-S CTRL-T CTRL-U
CTRL-V CTRL-W CTRL-X CTRL-Y
CTRL-Z ESC F11 F12
SHFT-F11 SHFT-F12 CTRL-F11 CTRL-F12
ALT-F11 ALT-F12 NONE
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USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-12
MAKING DOS PHANTOM MEMORY RESIDENT 20 September 92
5.9 MAKING DOS PHANTOM MEMORY RESIDENT
If you include the /I switch on the command line, DOS Phantom installs
itself as a TSR (Terminate and Stay resident) program in memory. This
method of using DOS Phantom has a number of benefits. Among them are
lower memory utilization because no command shell is invoked, faster
execution because no loading of the DOS Phantom program is required,
and the ability to begin and end recording and playback sessions while
executing another program.
Once resident, you access DOS Phantom by pressing the hot key twice in
succession to trigger the pop-up menu, or by issuing DOS Phantom
commands at the DOS prompt.
You can install DOS Phantom in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file by including
this command:
PHANTOM2 /I
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USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-13
REMOVING DOS PHANTOM FROM MEMORY 20 September 92
5.10 REMOVING DOS PHANTOM FROM MEMORY
The /U switch un-installs DOS Phantom from memory. When you execute
the PHANTOM2/U command, one of two responses will be displayed:
1. DOS Phantom un-installed.
This means that DOS Phantom was successfully un-installed.
2. DOS Phantom disabled. Memory not reclaimed.
This means that DOS Phantom was only disabled, and is dormant
in memory. This is almost certainly because another TSR was
loaded after DOS Phantom which intercepts some of the same
interrupts used by DOS Phantom. To remove DOS Phantom, first
remove any TSR's loaded after DOS Phantom, and then re-issue
the /U command.
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USING DOS PHANTOM Page 5-14
USING THE /O SWITCH 20 September 92
5.11 USING THE /O SWITCH
The /O command line switch causes DOS Phantom to include snippets of
screen output in the recording file as comments. This is provided to
aid users of the $MatchWait directive in creating "interactive"
recordings. The use of /O significantly increases the size of the
recording file and causes many more disk writes to occur during
recording. Its use is discouraged except when you are creating a
recording which you intend to edit to include $MatchWait directives.
The only way to disable /O is to uninstall DOS Phantom with the /U
switch if it was installed as a TSR or the DOS EXIT command if it
wasn't.
See the chapter on editing DOS Phantom recordings for information on
the $MatchWait and related directives.
- 28 -
CHAPTER 6
USING HOT KEYS TO START PLAYBACKS
You can assign hot keys to recording files using the HOTFILE program.
Once a hot key is assigned to a recording file, pressing the hot key
starts playback of the file, even if you are running another program
at the time. Of course, DOS Phantom must be installed before you
press the hot key.
HOTFILE accepts four commands: ASSIGN, LIST, DELETE, and KEYS.
The ASSIGN command lets you assign a hot key to a file. The file must
reside in the directory defined by the environment variable
PHANTOMDIR. Here's an example assigning the hot key CTRL-B to the
recording file BACKUP.PTM:
C:\> HOTFILE ASSIGN CTRL-B BACKUP.PTM
Here's an example of the LIST command:
C:\> HOTFILE LIST
HOTFILE V2.6 123456 Copyright (c) blah, blah, blah...
No Hotkey Playback file
--------------------------------
1 ALT-F10 MAIL.PTM
1 CTRL-B BACKUP.PTM
1 ALT-D DIAL.PTM
You can delete a hot key assignment with the DELETE command like this:
C:\> HOTFILE DELETE CTRL-B
HOTFILE V2.6 123456 Copyright (c) blah, blah, blah...
Delete assignment of CTRL-B to file BACKUP.PTM (Y)? y
C:\>
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USING HOT KEYS TO START PLAYBACKS Page 6-2
20 September 92
The KEYS command displays a list of the hot keys you can use with
HOTFILE. If you type HOTFILE without a command, a help screen is
displayed.
After you make changes to the hot key assignments, you do not need to
unload and reload DOS Phantom in order for the hot keys to become
usable. If DOS Phantom is already installed in memory when HOTFILE is
run, HOTFILE communicates the changes to DOS Phantom.
A maximum of 16 hot key assignments may be made.
All of the commands may be abbreviated to a single character.
The hot key assignments are stored in a file called HOTKEYS.DAT in the
PHANTOMDIR directory. You should not attempt to modify this file
using any program other than HOTFILE. If you delete this file, all
your hot key assignments will be lost.
- 30 -
CHAPTER 7
SCHEDULING RECORDINGS FOR LATER PLAYBACK
The SCHEDULE program allows you to maintain a schedule of playbacks.
Up to 16 schedule items may be created. Playbacks may be scheduled on
a daily, weekly, or once-only basis. The SCHEDULE program accepts
commands similar to those of the HOTFILE program: ASSIGN, LIST, and
DELETE.
The ASSIGN command assigns a playback time to a recording file. (The
recording file must be present in the directory defined by the
environment variable PHANTOMDIR.) Here are some examples of the ASSIGN
command:
Play REMINDER.PTM every day at 11:30 am:
C:\> SCHEDULE ASSIGN 11:30 REMINDER.PTM
Play WKLYBKUP.PTM every Friday at 10:00 pm:
C:\> SCHEDULE ASSIGN Fri-22:00 WKLYBKUP.PTM
Play GETMAIL.PTM at 3:00pm on September 20, 1993:
C:\> SCHEDULE ASSIGN 9/20/93-15:00 GETMAIL.PTM
Note that the times use a 24-hour clock and that the dash is required
between the day of the week or the date and the time. Here are the
abbreviations for the days of the week which SCHEDULE recognizes:
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Here are the pm hours of the 24-hour clock:
noon 12 3pm 15 6pm 18 9pm 21 midnight 00
1pm 13 4pm 16 7pm 19 10pm 22 1am 1
2pm 14 5pm 17 8pm 20 11pm 23 2am 2
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SCHEDULING RECORDINGS FOR LATER PLAYBACK Page 7-2
20 September 92
Here is an example of the LIST command:
C:\> SCHEDULE LIST
SCHEDULE V2.6 922300 Copyright (c) 1992 blah, blah, blah...
No When Playback file
------------------------------------
1 11:30 REMINDER.PTM
2 Fri-22:00 WKLYBKUP.PTM
3 9/20/93-15:00 GETMAIL.PTM
To remove an item from the schedule, use SCHEDULE's DELETE command,
specifying the date and time of the item to remove, like this:
C:\> SCHEDULE DELETE Fri-22:00
After you make changes to the schedule, you do not need to unload and
reload DOS Phantom in order for the changes to become effective. If
DOS Phantom is already installed in memory when SCHEDULE is run,
SCHEDULE communicates the changes to DOS Phantom.
All of the commands may be abbreviated to a single character.
The schedule information is stored in a file called SCHEDULE.DAT in
the PHANTOMDIR directory. You should not attempt to modify this file
using any program other than SCHEDULE. If you delete this file, the
entire schedule will be lost.
- 32 -
CHAPTER 8
CONVERTING ASCII TEXT FILES FOR PLAYBACK
The program MAKEPTM accepts as input any ASCII text file and produces
as output a DOS Phantom recording file which, when played back, makes
it appear as if the contents of the ASCII text file were being typed
in at the keyboard.
MAKEPTM allows you to specify the delay in milliseconds between
successive characters and the delay in seconds between successive
lines of text. If you leave off the delay times, delays of zero are
used.
Here are some examples of MAKEPTM:
Convert LETTER.TXT to LETTER.PTM:
C:\>MAKEPTM LETTER.TXT LETTER.PTM
Convert LETTER.TXT to LETTER.PTM with 100 ms delay between
characters:
C:\>MAKEPTM LETTER.TXT LETTER.PTM 100
Convert LETTER.TXT to LETTER.PTM with 100 ms delay between
characters and 2 seconds between lines:
C:\>MAKEPTM LETTER.TXT LETTER.PTM 100 2
Convert LETTER.TXT to LETTER.PTM with no delay between
characters, but a 2 second delay between lines:
C:\>MAKEPTM LETTER.TXT LETTER.PTM 0 2
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CONVERTING ASCII TEXT FILES FOR PLAYBACK Page 8-2
20 September 92
The output file can be played back like any DOS Phantom recording.
Note that when a character delay has been specified, it is not
possible to interrupt the recording with the attention hot key.
MAKEPTM places its output file in the directory designated by the DOS
environment variable PHANTOMDIR if it is defined.
- 34 -
CHAPTER 9
EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS
The program PTM2TXT extracts information from a DOS Phantom recording
and places it in a text file for editing. Here is an example of
PTM2TXT:
C> PTM2TXT RECORDNG.PTM RECORDNG.TXT
The output text file looks like this:
!========================================================================
! DOS Phantom V1.0
!
! Text translation of recording file SAMPLE.KEY.
! Translated by PTM2TXT V2.6 999999.
!
! Line format:
! mm:ss.ttt keystroke eeaa ff
!
! mm:ss:ttt = time interval between the previous keystroke and
! this one.
! mm = minutes
! ss = seconds
! ttt = thousandths of seconds
! ee = extended keycode (optional)
! aa = ASCII code (optional)
! ff = keyboard status flags (optional)
!
! The optional fields need not be entered when editing this file.
! Values appropriate for most circumstances will be provided for
! you by TXT2PTM. If you include values for the optional fields,
! Your values will override those which TXT2PTM would provide.
! You should delete the optional fields when changing the keystroke.
!
! Comment lines (lines beginning with !) and empty lines are ignored
! by the TXT2PTM translator.
!
! Lines beginning with an asterisk (*) are processed by TXT2PTM
- 35 -
EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-2
20 September 92
! without timing information. This allows you to place entire
! commands on one line rather than one character per line. A
! carriage return is automatically placed at the end of * lines
! by TXT2PTM unless the last character on the line is a dollar
! sign. Special character expressions (e.g., <Ctrl-K>) are
! delimited with angle brackets (<,>).
!
! DOS Phantom directives begin with a dollar sign ($).
! Directives supported by DOS Phantom V2.6 are:
!
! $n Input parameters (n=1-9)
! $Pause [n] n=secs, default is no auto resume
! $Wait mm:ss.ttt mm=min, ss=secs, ttt=ms
!
! $BeginDisplay row col attr timo S|R
! $Title text Display title (optional)
! <text> Text for pop-up display
! <text> More text lines...
! $EndDisplay Display text between Begin and EndDisplay
!
! $BeginMenu row col attr timo S|R
! $Title text Menu title (optional)
! <lines of text> Static (non-selectable) menu text
! $<label> itemtext Go to <label> when item is selected.
! $<label> itemtext More menu items...
! $EndMenu Ends a menu definition
!
! $Goto <label> Continue execution at <label>
! $<label>: Goto, Menu, or If target
! $ExitWait [n] Wait n secs for program exit
! $IfSuccess <label> Go to <label> if exit status = 0
! $IfError Go to <label> if exit status <> 0
! $MatchWait n text Wait n secs for text to appear on screen
! $IfMatch <label> Go to <label> if match found
! $IfTimeout <label> Go to <label> if no match found
! $Screen "text" [file] Write screen to file prefixed with text
! $Printer C [file] Capture printer output in file
! $Printer N Return to normal printer output
!
! See the DOS Phantom Users Guide for details on using these directives.
!
! The special characters $, <, and > must be preceded by a
! dollar sign ($) when they are present in an asterisk line.
! Otherwise TXT2PTM will attempt to perform special processing
! erroneously.
!
!========================================================================
00:01.430 D 2044 60
00:00.165 I 1749 60
00:00.165 R 1352 60
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-3
20 September 92
00:00.605 / 352f 60
00:00.220 W 1157 60
$1
00:00.605 <CR> 1c0d 20
00:07.480 e 1265 20
00:00.000 x 2d78 20
00:00.000 i 1769 20
00:00.000 t 1474 20
00:00.000 <CR> 1c0d 20
$Pause
00:00.000 <CR> 1c0d 20
The above file depicts a recording of the commands "DIR/W" and "EXIT".
As you can see, the carriage return character is translated to <CR> in
the file. Spaces are translated as <SP>. Non-printing and special
characters such as CTRL-K are all translated in this manner. If you
are not sure what the translation of a character might be, it is best
to make a recording containing the character and then translate the
recording with PTM2TXT to find out what the correct translation is.
The line format is as described in the output file shown above. If
you change a line in the file, it is best, unless you clearly
understand the BIOS extended keycodes and keyboard status flags, to
remove the eeaa and ff fields. TXT2PTM will supply appropriate values
when you leave them out.
Note that if you edit a translated DOS Phantom recording files and
insert comments and labels, then translate the text file to a
recording file and back into a text file, the comments and labels will
be lost. PTM2TXT will create labels required by the menu and goto
directives in the recording, but they will not be the labels from your
original edited text file. Goto and menu directives are discussed
below.
When you have finished editing, you can create a recording file using
the TXT2PTM program like this:
C> TXT2PTM RECORDNG.TXT RECORDNG.PTM
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-4
ELIMINATING HELP TEXT 20 September 92
9.1 ELIMINATING HELP TEXT
If you don't want the detailed help header in the PTM2TXT output file,
you can specify the /H switch on the command line. This will cause a
brief header to be prefixed to the translation rather than the
detailed help text shown in the above example. For example:
C> PTM2TXT /H RECORDNG.PTM RECORDNG.TXT
Note that the switches to the PTM2TXT command must be separated from
the PTM2TXT command and other switches by spaces.
- 38 -
EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-5
DOS PHANTOM DIRECTIVES 20 September 92
9.2 DOS PHANTOM DIRECTIVES
DOS Phantom directives are directions to DOS Phantom that you insert
into a recording to have DOS Phantom perform some action during
playback. All directives begin with a $. With the exception of the
$1 - $9 directives, all directives must begin at the first character
position on a line. Each directive is discussed in detail below.
9.3 $PAUSE AND $WAIT - PROGRAMMED PAUSES
The example above contains a programmed pause directive after the
second <CR>. Note that programmed pauses (i.e., pauses which occur
automatically at predetermined points during playback) may only be
created by preparing an input file for TXT2PTM such as that shown
above. There is no way to create programmed pauses while recording.
The pause directive may be followed by a timeout value expressed in
seconds. If the timeout period passes without a key being depressed,
the pause is ended and playback resumes. Each time a key is pressed
during the pause, the pause timer is restarted.
The $Wait directive is also available. $Wait accepts the time to wait
in mm:ss.ttt format instead of in seconds like $Pause. $Wait cannot
be terminated by pressing a key as can $Pause, and unlike $Pause the
playback clock continues to run during a $Wait. This can cause the
characters following a $Wait to be played back as fast as possible
until the playback catches up (makes up for the time lost in the
$Wait). $Wait directives are most useful in recordings which are
meant to be played back at high speed (e.g., files in compressed mode,
described later), but where pauses without allowing keyboard input are
required.
To create the effect of a $Wait in a file with timed keystrokes
without losing time during the wait, just add time to the keystroke
which follows the wait.
Here is a $Wait which will cause a wait of 3 minutes and 10 seconds
(this will cause timed keystrokes following to be played back at high
speed until the 3 minutes and 10 seconds are made up for):
$Wait 03:10.000
Here is a keystroke which will not be played back until 3 minutes and
10 seconds have passed (no speedup of succeeding keystrokes occurs):
03:10.000 <CR>
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-6
$PAUSE AND $WAIT - PROGRAMMED PAUSES 20 September 92
In general, you use $Pause to pause for keyboard input, and $Wait in
compressed recordings to stall without keyboard input.
- 40 -
EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-7
$1 - $9 - SUBSTITUTION PARAMETERS 20 September 92
9.4 $1 - $9 - SUBSTITUTION PARAMETERS
The example also contains a substitution parameter directive: $1.
This directive causes the first parameter entered on the DOS Phantom
command line after the filename to be substituted for the $1 during
playback. Up to nine substitution parameters ($1, $2, $3, ..., $9)
may be used. If a corresponding command line parameter is not
supplied for playback, the parameter used on the previous playback is
used. If no parameter was used on the previous playback, or if this
is the first playback of this DOS Phantom session, nothing is
substituted for the substitution parameter (i.e., it is as if it was
not there).
Multiple substitution parameter directives may be placed in an
asterisk line. Otherwise, only a single directive is allowed per
line. Asterisk lines and compressed mode are discussed in the next
section.
If you have placed substitution parameter directives in your recording
file you may pass the values to be substituted for them on the command
line after the filename. Here is an example passing the parameters
A:, XYZ, and BOOBOO:
C> PHANTOM2/Q/I/K=F1 RECORDNG.PTM A: XYZ BOOBOO
A: is substituted for $1, XYZ for $2, and BOOBOO for $3.
- 41 -
EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-8
COMPRESSED MODE 20 September 92
9.5 COMPRESSED MODE
You may avoid typing in the time fields (mm:ss.ttt) by starting lines
with an asterisk. Lines starting with an asterisk are referred to as
being in "compressed" mode. When TXT2PTM processes lines beginning
with an asterisk, it behaves as if each character was on a separate
line and preceded with "00:00.000". TXT2PTM automatically inserts a
<CR> at the end of each * line. You can suppress the automatically
added <CR> by ending the asterisk line with a $.
Here is the previous example created using this technique:
!
! Example of the use of * lines.
!
* DIR/W $1
$Pause
* EXIT
*
!
! End of example
!
You can place substitution parameter directives anywhere in a asterisk
line. The characters "<", ">", and "$" must be preceded with a $ if
you don't want don't want DOS Phantom to handle them specially. For
example, if I wanted DOS Phantom to play "Hello, World" followed by an
Alt-F5 and then "The amount <is> $2.00." without a carriage return at
the end, I would use the following asterisk line:
* Hello, World<Alt-F5>The amount $<is$> $$2.00.$
You can mix compressed and non-compressed modes in the same text file.
You can cause PTM2TXT to produce compressed mode output from your
recordings by including the /C switch on the command line like this:
C> PTM2TXT /C RECORDNG.PTM RECORDNG.TXT
Note that the switches to the PTM2TXT command must be separated from
the PTM2TXT command and other switches by spaces.
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-9
POP-UP DISPLAYS 20 September 92
9.6 POP-UP DISPLAYS
You can cause windows containing text you provide to pop up during
playbacks of DOS Phantom recordings. These pop-up displays can
contain text explaining what the user is seeing in a demonstration,
announce a that a certain operation is about to take place, or
instruct the user to perform some action.
When a pop-up display is displayed, playback is halted until the user
presses any key or until a timeout period which you specify has
elapsed.
The text which you wish to appear in a pop-up display is placed
between two DOS Phantom directives: $BeginDisplay and $EndDisplay.
If you want a title to appear in the upper left border of the pop-up
display, you may include a $Title directive on the line following the
$BeginDisplay directive.
The $BeginDisplay directive takes the following form:
$BeginDisplay row col attr timo sr
The parameters following the directive are interpreted as follows:
row - the screen row on which the top pop-up display is to be
written.
col - the screen column on which the left edge of the pop-up
display is to be written.
attr - The display attributes to be used for display of your
text:
Attribute Monochrome Display Color Display
--------- ------------------ -----------------------
0 Normal Gray on Blue
1 Bold White on Blue
2 Reverse Video Dark Gray on Light Gray
3 Reverse Bold Black on Light Gray
8 Normal Normal
9 Bold Bold
timo - A timeout value in seconds. If the timeout period
passes without keyboard input, the display is erased and
playback resumes. The maximum timeout value is 3600 seconds
(1 hour).
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-10
POP-UP DISPLAYS 20 September 92
sr - The character S or R indicating whether you wish other
DOS Phantom displays and menus which may be present on the
screen to be erased before this window is displayed. R
restores the screen to what it was before any DOS Phantom
displays or menus were popped-up. S saves the screen as it
is and causes the new display to be painted over anything
currently shown on the screen.
DOS Phantom pop-up displays are automatically erased when
playback is resumed.
The text you wish to appear in the pop-up display is placed between
the $BeginDisplay and $EndDisplay directives.
Here is an example of the directives used to create a pop-up display:
!
! Create a display at row 5, column 20, reverse video, 2-minute
! timeout and erase any currently displayed pop-ups.
!
$BeginDisplay 5 20 2 120 R
$Title Sample Pop-Up Display
This is just a simple example of a
DOS Phantom pop-up display.
(Press any key to continue.)
$EndDisplay
Here's how the above pop-up display would appear on the screen (at row
5, column 20):
+--Sample Pop-Up Display---------------+
| |
| This is just a simple example of a |
| DOS Phantom pop-up display. |
| |
| (Press any key to continue. |
+--------------------------------------+
Note that when you specify the row and column for the display you
should take into account that DOS Phantom will add 3 columns-worth of
border to each line and an extra line at the top and bottom for the
border.
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-11
LABELS AND THE $GOTO DIRECTIVE 20 September 92
9.7 LABELS AND THE $GOTO DIRECTIVE
You can cause playback to transfer from one place in a recording file
to another by using the $Goto directive. The $Goto directive has a
single parameter: the label of the location from which playback is to
continue. Labels in DOS Phantom recording files take the form
$<text>:
where <test> is any printable text string not starting with a digit
and not containing spaces or tabs.
Here is an example of a recording which continually clears the screen
and the displays the current directory:
!
! Endless loop directory
!
$Loop:
* CLS
* DIR /W
$Goto Loop
Note that the colon following the label is not included when the label
is the parameter of the $Goto directive.
The $Goto is most useful for returning to a pop-up menu after the
actions requested by the user have been carried out. (Pop-up menus
are described in the next section.)
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-12
POP-UP MENUS 20 September 92
9.8 POP-UP MENUS
You can cause menus to pop up during playbacks of DOS Phantom
recordings. These pop-up menus can contain text and items from which
the user may choose. Once an item is selected, playback resumes at
the place in the recording file which is associated with that menu
selection.
When a pop-up menu is displayed, playback is halted until the user
selects an item or until a timeout period which you specify has
elapsed.
The text and selection items which you wish to appear in a pop-up menu
are placed between two DOS Phantom directives: $BeginMenu and
$EndMenu. If you want a title to appear in the upper left border of
the pop-up menu, you may include a $Title directive on the line
following the $BeginMenu directive.
The $BeginMenu directive takes the following form:
$BeginMenu row col attr timo sr
The parameters following the directive are interpreted as follows:
row - the screen row on which the top pop-up menu is to be
written.
col - the screen column on which the left edge of the pop-up
menu is to be written.
attr - The display attributes to be used for display of your
text:
Attribute Monochrome Display Color Display
--------- ------------------ -----------------------
0 Normal Gray on Blue
1 Bold White on Blue
2 Reverse Video Dark Gray on Light Gray
3 Reverse Bold Black on Light Gray
8 Normal Normal
9 Bold Bold
timo - A timeout value in seconds. If the timeout period
passes without keyboard input, the display is erased and
playback resumes. The maximum timeout value is 3600 seconds
(1 hour).
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-13
POP-UP MENUS 20 September 92
sr - The character S or R indicating whether you wish other
DOS Phantom displays and menus which may be present on the
screen to be erased before this window is displayed. R
restores the screen to what it was before any DOS Phantom
displays or menus were popped-up. S saves the screen as it
is and causes the new display to be painted over anything
currently shown on the screen.
DOS Phantom pop-up menus are automatically erased when
playback is resumed.
Menu selection items are placed after the $BeginMenu and the optional
$Title directives and after any introductory text you wish to appear
above the selection items in the menu window. Menu selection items
are prefixed by $<label> where <label> is the label at which playback
is to be resumed (or at which another display or menu is defined) if
that menu item is chosen. Labels are described in the section on the
$Goto directive.
Here is an example of the directives used to create a pop-up menu:
!
! Create a menu at row 5, column 20, reverse video, 10-second
! timeout and retain any currently displayed pop-ups.
!
$START:
$BeginMenu 5 20 2 10 S
$Title Sample Pop-Up Menu
Choose one of the items below
by moving the highlight bar
with the arrow keys and pressing
RETURN when the item you want
is highlighted.
$DIR Directory
$CLEAR Clear Screen
$QUIT Quit
$EndMenu
$DIR:
* dir/w
$Goto start
$CLEAR:
* cls
$Goto start
$QUIT:
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-14
POP-UP MENUS 20 September 92
* exit
Here's how the above pop-up menu would appear on the screen (at row 5,
column 20):
+--Sample Pop-Up Menu----------------+
| |
| Choose one of the items below |
| by moving the highlight bar |
| with the arrow keys and pressing |
| RETURN when the item you want |
| is highlighted. |
| |
| Directory |
| Clear Screen |
| Quit |
+------------------------------------+
Note that when you specify the row and column for the menu you should
take into account that DOS Phantom will add 3 columns-worth of border
to each line and an extra line at the top and bottom for the border.
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-15
PROGRAMMED SCREEN CAPTURE 20 September 92
9.9 PROGRAMMED SCREEN CAPTURE
The $Screen directive can be included in a recording file to cause the
contents of the screen to be written to a file. You may specify a
line of text to appear before each screen in the file, and the name of
the file.
The $Screen directive takes the following form:
$Screen "text" file
The text must be placed between quotation marks. It is used to
separate a series of screens written to the same file. The file
parameter is optional. If it is not present, the file SCREEN.TXT in
the current default directory is used. If the file, whether specified
or defaulted, is not present, it is created. If it is present, the
current contents of the screen are appended to the file prefixed by
the specified text line.
Note that screen capture can also be controlled using the /D and /F
command line switches described earlier.
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-16
PROGRAMMED PRINT CAPTURE 20 September 92
9.10 PROGRAMMED PRINT CAPTURE
The $Printer directive allows you to direct output which would
normally go to a printer to a file. You can turn the print capture on
and off and specify the file to which printer output is to be
directed.
The $Printer directive takes the following form:
$Printer C file
or
$Printer N
The $Printer C (for Capture) directive enables print capture. If a
file is specified, printer output is directed to that file. If no
file is specified, the default is PRINTER.TXT. The $Printer N (for
Normal) command disables print capture and printer output once again
is sent to the printer.
Note that print capture can also be enabled with the /V command line
switch.
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-17
PACING 20 September 92
9.11 PACING
The $SetPace directive allows you to specify the number of
milliseconds which are to elapse between successive keystrokes during
playback. This can be useful if you find a compressed or /Q-invoked
playback is overrunning a programs capability of accepting input.
The $SetPace directive takes the following form:
$SetPace ms
Where ms is the number of milliseconds between keystrokes. The actual
delay is rounded to the nearest 55-millisecond boundary as that is the
default resolution of the PC's clock. You can disable pacing with
$SetPace 0.
NOTE
Playback of recordings using the $SetPace directive
can not be interrupted using the attention hot key.
Once started, they must play to completion.
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-18
MATCHING SCREEN TEXT 20 September 92
9.12 MATCHING SCREEN TEXT
The directive $MatchWait is used to cause a playback to pause until a
text string you specify appears on the screen or until a timeout
period you specify has passed. The $IfMatch and $IfTimeout directives
allow you to determine whether a preceding $MatchWait directive ended
with a timeout or a match and goto a label in your recording file
depending on which occurred.
The $MatchWait directive takes the following form:
$MatchWait timo text
Where timo is the timeout period in seconds and text is the text
string to look for on the screen. The text string may contain spaces,
and the special characters <, >, and $ need not be prefixed with a $
as is the case elsewhere in recording files.
The $IfMatch and $IfTimeout take a single parameter: the label to go
to if a match or timeout occurred, respectively.
Here is an example of a recording file segment which executes a DOS
DIR command and then waits 10 seconds for the DOS prompt to appear
before continuing and issuing an EXIT command.
* DIR
$MatchWait 10 C:\>
* EXIT
Here is a more complex example using $IfTimeout. This example issues
<CR> characters until the word "Username:" appears on the screen. It
then issues the name BILLSMITH and waits for the word "Password:" to
appear. If "Password:" does not appear within 5 seconds, it goes back
to sending <CR>'s and waiting for "Username:"
$LOOP:
* <CR>$
$MatchWait 3 "Username:"
$IfMatch CONTINUE
$Goto LOOP
$CONTINUE:
* BILLSMITH
$MatchWait 5 "Password:"
$IfTimeout RETRY
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-19
MATCHING SCREEN TEXT 20 September 92
The above is overly complex -- in particular, the $IfMatch followed by
the $Goto and the CONTINUE label could all be replaced with just
$IfTimeout LOOP. It is shown the way it is so that all the directives
described in this section could be used.
Note that $MatchWait searches the entire screen for a match, not just
what was output since the last keystroke. You need to make sure that
the text string you are waiting for isn't already on the screen, or
your $MatchWait will appear to terminate prematurely.
Also note that $MatchWait is case-sensitive. That is, $MatchWait does
not treat "Username" and "username" as a match. The letters must the
same case (upper or lower) for a match to occur.
The /O switch is provided to assist you in creating recording files
using the $MatchWait directive. /O causes recent screen output to be
included in recording files as comments. You can edit these comments
into $MatchWait directives without having to remember what was on the
screen when you recorded the session. The /O-captured output is far
from perfect, and frequently may not be what is really needed in the
$MatchWaits. Alternatively, you can use the /D command line switch to
enable a screen capture hot key and capture the important screens
during recording and then refer to them when inserting your $MatchWait
directives. Remember that the /O switch creates significant overhead
and should only be used when needed.
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-20
WAITING FOR PROGRAM EXIT 20 September 92
9.13 WAITING FOR PROGRAM EXIT
The $ExitWait directive causes a playback to pause until the next DOS
program exits. This allows you to run a program, turn control over to
the keyboard, and resume playback as soon as the program ends. An
optional timeout value allows you to resume playback after a number of
seconds without keystrokes has passed.
The form of the $ExitWait directive is as follows:
$ExitWait n
Where n is the number of seconds to wait before continuing with
playback if no keystrokes are detected.
You can use the $IfTimeout directive to determine whether a $ExitWait
directive terminated because it timed out or because of program exit.
Here is an example of running a program called TROJAN and waiting for
program exit or 1 minute without keystrokes. If a timeout occurs, a
CTRL-C character is delivered to the program to terminate it before
continuing.
* TROJAN
$ExitWait 60
$IfTimeout TERMINATE
$CONTINUE:
.
.
.
$TERMINATE:
* <Ctrl-C>$
$Goto CONTINUE
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-21
DETECTING EXIT STATUS 20 September 92
9.14 DETECTING EXIT STATUS
Many, if not most, DOS programs return an "exit status" when they
terminate indicating whether they were successful in performing
whatever function they were supposed to perform. The $IfError and
$IfSuccess directives enable you to go to a label depending on the
exit status of the last program you ran.
Here is the example from the previous section re-coded to take
advantage of these directives:
$LOOP:
* TROJAN
$ExitWait 60
$IfTimeout TERMINATE
$IfSuccess CONTINUE
$IfError LOOP
$CONTINUE:
.
.
.
$TERMINATE:
* <Ctrl-C>$
$Goto CONTINUE
Note that the $IfSuccess CONTINUE is actually superfluous, since
execution would continue at the CONTINUE label anyway. It was
included to demonstrate the use of the directive.
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-22
USING THE $SETMODE DIRECTIVES 20 September 92
9.15 USING THE $SETMODE DIRECTIVES
The $SetMode directives could have been called the "Prodigy
directives" since their usefulness appears to be limited to fast
playback into the Prodigy on-line service. Prodigy uses what may be a
unique method of obtaining characters from the keyboard which can
cause loss of characters during high-speed playback. To ensure
against this, the $SetMode Func6 directive should be placed after the
command which invokes Prodigy, and the $SetMode Normal command placed
just after the command terminating Prodigy.
You may not experience difficulties playing back into Prodigy without
these directives. If that is the case, ignore this section. If you
do experience character loss playing into Prodigy, these directives
should solve the problem.
Here is an example of the use of the $SetMode directives where Prodigy
is invoked, the stock price for IBM is displayed, and Prodigy is
terminated.
* Prodigy
$SetMode Func6
!
! Prodigy user ID and password
!
* HDCK21B<Tab>PASSWORD
!
! Jump to quote check
!
* <F6>Quote Check
!
! Display IBM's current price
!
* IBM
!
! Give us a chance to read it
!
$Wait 00:30.000
!
! Leave prodigy
!
* <Shft-Tab><Shft-Tab>
* E
$SetMode Normal
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EDITING DOS PHANTOM RECORDINGS Page 9-23
HINTS AND TIPS 20 September 92
9.16 HINTS AND TIPS
9.16.1 RECOVERING EDITING SESSIONS
To recover an aborted editing session with DOS Phantom, for example,
you should make sure that everything is as it was when you started the
recording: the same files with the same contents, the same default
disk and directory, and so on.
9.16.2 USING DOS PHANTOM IN BATCH FILES
To use DOS Phantom from a batch file, don't use the /I command line
switch and end your recordings with the DOS EXIT command.
9.16.3 PLAYBACK CHAINING
Beginning with version 2.5, during playback you can chain to another
file by invoking Phantom at the DOS command line from within the first
file. Note that invoking Phantom for recording from within a playback
file is *not* supported.
9.16.4 DON'T USE THE MOUSE
DOS Phantom doesn't record mouse activity, so you have to do
everything you want recorded on the keyboard.
- 57 -
CHAPTER 10
DOS PHANTOM TECHNICAL INFORMATION
10.1 DOS VERSION REQUIREMENTS
DOS Phantom uses features first made available in MS-DOS V3.0, and
will probably not execute properly on prior versions of MS-DOS.
10.2 MEMORY USAGE
DOS Phantom V2.6, when installed as a TSR, uses approximately 32K of
memory.
- 58 -
CHAPTER 11
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DOS PHANTOM V1.4 AND V2.0
o Program Termination Awareness
The new $ExitWait directive allows you to pause DOS Phantom's
playback until the currently executing program exits. You
may optionally provide a timeout value after which playback
will continue event if the program hasn't exited yet.
The new $IfSuccess, $IfError, and $IfTimeout directives allow
you to branch to a label in your recording file based on the
termination status of the program or on an $ExitWait timeout.
o Screen Awareness
The new $MatchWait directive allows you to pause your DOS
Phantom playback until a text string you specify appears on
the screen. An optional timeout value causes playback to
continue if the text string doesn't appear on the screen
within the timeout period.
The new $IfMatch and $IfTimeout directives allow you to
direct playback based on whether the text string was matched
or not.
The new /O command line switch causes DOS Phantom to write
text from the screen to the recording file during recording.
When the recording file is processed with PTM2TXT, the screen
text is placed within comments. This feature is intended to
aid you in developing $MatchWait directives.
o Special High Speed Playback Mode
The new $SetMode directive allows the highest possible
playback speed into programs such as Prodigy which use DOS
function 6 for input. $SetMode Func6 allows playback into
Prodigy at high speed with no loss of characters due to
prodigy's "eating" of input. $SetMode Normal sets the
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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DOS PHANTOM V1.4 AND V2.0 Page 11-2
20 September 92
playback mode back to normal. This is the required setting
for most programs. The new $SetPace directive allows you to
set a constant delay between keystrokes as they are played
back.
o Special Abort Hotkey
A second hotkey for aborting playback sequences may now be
specified on the command line using the /A switch. The abort
key defaults to none. The abort key, when pressed, is passed
on to the program executing after aborting DOS Phantom's
playback. Ctrl-C is the most commonly used abort key.
o Disabling of Hotkey
Using the command line switch /K=NONE results is disabling
the hotkey used for pauses and displaying the DOS Phantom
control panel. This allows DOS Phantom recordings to be used
by users unfamiliar with DOS Phantom without the danger of
their inadvertently pausing the playback.
o Changes to /S and /M
In addition to the pre-V2.0 toggle functions of the /S and /M
command line switches, prefixing them with a minus sign
disables the sound or mode display regardless of its current
setting. Thus, /-S turns sound off, and /-M turns the mode
display off whether or not they were already off.
o Major Change to Record/Playback Functions
DOS Phantom V2.0 uses an entirely new method of obtaining
keystrokes during record and providing keystrokes during
playback. The new method will work with a greater number of
programs than the older method, and actually resulted in a
savings in memory utilization.
o Screen Capture
The /F command line option and the $Screen directive allow a
snapshot of the screen to be written to a file. This is
useful when testing software and when creating complex
recording files which depend on the screen contents to
determine different paths of execution.
o Print Capture
The /V command and $Printer directives allow output which
would normally go to the printer to be re-directed to a file.
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