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MENU PROGRAM C Version 1. INTRODUCTION This program was designed to make IBM-compatible computers friendlier by allowing you to run programs from a simple menu -- without having to type lengthy DOS commands. This program essentially allows you to enter DOS instructions once and they will be stored in a file for future menu selection. This version has been placed in the public domain by its author, John Queern. Thanks to Bob Sutter for providing user documentation and an enhanced Pascal version (which is available as shareware). 1.1 System Requirements. Operation requires an IBM-compatible computer with at least 256K of memory and DOS 2.1 or higher. The program is especially helpful with fixed-disk systems. 1.2 Basic Operation. The systems uses the DOS Batch facility extensively. The program is started by entering "MENU" which starts a batch file which will in turn execute the main program, "MENUDRV," then execute the batch file that is created -- "MENULOAD." As long as the last entry in "MENULOAD" is another call to the batch file "MENU," the sequence will continue until a file is called that does not chain back to MENU. The main menu may also contain "submenus" as desired. As indicated in the tree structure below, the menus and programs can be intermixed and "stacked" to allow for a more structured system operation. ┌─────────────┐ │ Main Menu │ │ │ └──────┬──────┘ ┌────────────────┴───────────────┐ ┌────────┴────────┐ ┌────┴────┐ │ Individual │ │ Other │ │ Programs │ │ Menus │ │ │ └────┬────┘ │ 1 - Program 1 │ ┌───────────┴─────────┐ │ A - Program A │ ┌───┴────┐ ┌─────────┴─────────┐ │ B - Menu B │ │ Other │ │ Individual Menu B │ │ C - Program C │ │ Menus │ │ Programs │ │ X - Exit to DOS │ └───┬────┘ │ │ └─────────────────┘ │ │ B - Program B1 │ ┌──────────────┴───┐ │ D - Program D1 │ ┌────────┴──────────┐ ┌─────┴────┐ │ X - Return to Main│ │ Other Individual │ │ Menus │ └───────────────────┘ │ Programs, etc. │ │ Etc. │ └───────────────────┘ └──────────┘ 2.0 PROGRAM OPERATION 2.1 Program Initiation. The menu program is started by typing "MENU" which invokes the batch file "MENU.BAT." This file should be created as listed in one of the samples in Appendix B. As a minimum, it should call the main program MENUDRV and then call the batch file MENULOAD. Additionally, if the menu programs are all loaded on a different subdirectory, there should also be instructions to change to that directory first (e.g. CD\UTILITY\MENU). Once the program is started, the main menu that was selected by the parameter will appear on the screen. A sample screen is in Appendix D. The calendar will have the current day highlighted, and any days in the current month that are located in the holiday or special files will be highlighted in different colors or shades (if video card is capable). 2.2 Adding or Editing Menu Items. At the bottom of each menu, the F1 key indicates that you may add or edit an item. This applies to the items on the current menu only. To adjust an item on another menu, select that menu first. If adding a new item, you will first be asked if the item is another menu. Your response should be "N" (unless you plan to create a submenu--see section 2.3). Then a work window will appear, allowing you to give the item a name, and list the instructions to be executed. 2.2.1 Batch-executed Programs. Batch files can be created by entering the lines exactly as they would be if you were creating a batch file that would run from DOS. See appendix C for a list of the editing commands. Options can be substituted in the batch file at selection time by use of square brackets ([]s). Anything you place inside of the brackets will be displayed on the screen, and the response typed in will replace all that is enclosed by the brackets when the batch file is written. For example, if the menu line contains: EDLIN [File to Edit?] The menu program will first prompt the user with "File to Edit?" If you respond with "ABC.DOC" then the actual line in the batch file will become "EDLIN ABC.DOC" -- giving you quite a bit of versatility. The last line in the list should normally be "MENU x" where "x" is the submenu you want to display upon returning to the menu after the program selected is complete. You should also note that other batch files should not appear in the list, since they will then have control, and a return to MENU will not occur "automatically." When you have completed your changes or additions, press Ctrl- W, and the data will be updated in memory and control returned to the menu. Now when that item letter is selected from the menu, the related batch lines will be written to the file "MENULOAD.BAT," and the program will exit. By exiting, the "old" batch file "MENU.BAT" resumes control, which will then invoke the new batch file "MENULOAD.BAT." Under DOS, starting another batch file will terminate the current batch file, even if there are instructions not yet executed. 2.2.2 Programs Executed While Menu Program Stays Resident. MENUDRV has the capability to "terminate and stay resident" while your selected program is executed. This speeds up the execution of the menu, since the program must save files and restart from the beginning each time when called from the batch files. Several restrictions apply when using this option. Each command line must start with an ampersand ("&"). Also, the entire executable file string must be listed, including the drive and path, if appropriate. (Example: C:\UTIL\MAP.COM). Only "com" and "exe" files may be executed with this option. However, you can call "command.com" to execute .BAT files or DOS internal commands like this: &C:\COMMAND.COM /C CD \MYDIR The "/C" argument tells COMMAND.COM to "execute the command which follow, then return." Which means it can be anything you would type in at the DOS prompt. Upon termination of the selected program, control will be immediately returned to MENUDRV, speeding up the menu process. Note that this option should only by used for programs that will fit in the memory which remains after the menu is loaded. If all available memory is needed (such as in LOTUS 123), you should not use this option, but use the option in 2.2.1 above. 2.3 Adding or Editing Menus. The F1 option also allows you to edit or add another menu selection (the description of the menu and the menu's "letter.") Initially, the same questions as above will be asked, except you should respond "Y" if asked if it is another menu. Then a window will appear allowing you to add/edit the description of the menu and the menu letter to transfer to. You must also assign a menu letter. It is easiest to have the item letter the same as the menu letter, but since you can have many items on different menus with the same selection letter, it may not be possible to have another menu with the same letter, since each menu must have a letter unique letter. (NOTE: The main menu is referred to as menu "M"). When creating a new menu, one item will automatically be created for you - "X - Exit to DOS." After selecting the new menu, this item can also be edited and changed if desired. Note that the last line in that selection will not contain a call to MENU, which causes control to return to DOS. Also note that the same letters may be used to refer to items in different menus, but each menu itself must have a unique letter for reference, which effectively limits the total number of menus in the system to 36 ("A" through "Z" and "0" through "9"), although some punctuation may also be used if necessary. 2.4 Deleting Items and Menus. The F2 option at the bottom of the screen allows deletion of a menu item on the displayed menu. After asking for the item letter, you will be asked for confirmation that you want to delete that item. CAUTION: If deleting a menu item that selects another menu, be sure that you first go to the sub menu and delete all of the items on that menu before deleting the menu itself. Otherwise, all of the sub-items will remain in the data base, assuming you are going to use them on another menu of the same code option. NOTE: This deletion occurs only in the memory table until you exit the program by running a batch job or select exit. At that time all the changes you have made to the options will be saved to the default directory in file MENU.DAT. 2.5 Setting Colors. The F4 option on the menu selects another window that allows you to select different color options for the program. Simply typing one of the colors listed at the bottom of the window will reset the parameters. NOTE: On EGA cards (e.g. Zenith 248), the bright colors will cause the screen to blink where that color is selected. The parameters will be saved automatically as the program is exited. 2.6 (alarm and chime features are not present in the C version) 2.7 Help Screens. Help screens are available for most of the functions. Once you have a basic understanding of the menu system, the help menus should be all that you need. The key that will invoke the help screen is displayed on each screen that has help available. 2.8 Exiting Program. Exiting the program is normally done in two ways -- by selecting an item on the menu that uses a batch file that does not contain a return call to menu, or by typing the "END" key. During the exit process, all the information on the items, menus, and parameters that had been in memory and were changed, will now be written to the appropriate disk files on the default drive. NOTE: If you are running the menu system from a ramdisk, ensure you have a routine that copies all the changes that you make to the "DAT" files are copied to the disk for permanent storage (e.g. use XCOPY, etc.) 2.9 Executing/Running Programs. Selecting a menu option from the menu being displayed simply creates a batch file named MENULOAD.BAT containing the DOS instructions you gave it when creating/editing it. Once this batch file is created, the MENUDRV program terminates. This in turn returns control to DOS, which realizes that the original batch file MENU.BAT is still in control. The next instruction in that batch file should be MENULOAD, which then transfers control of the batch mechanism to MENULOAD, effectively terminating the MENU.BAT file. Then the instructions contained in MENULOAD are executed sequentially, with the last instruction being a call to MENU.BAT, restarting the program. Programs that are in the data file preceded with an ampersand ("&") are not written to a batch file. Instead, MENUDRV executes a "terminate and stay resident" instruction and transfers control to the requested program. 4 SETTING YEARLY DATES The calendar on the menu program screen will not only highlight the current day, but can also be configured to highlight two other sets of dates in two different colors/shades. These sets are contained in the files "YEAR.HOL" and "YEAR.SPC". Although the names indicate "holiday" and "special," they can be used for any purpose. The data is entered using any ASCII line editor (EDLIN may be the simplest.) If using word processors such as Wordstar or Wordperfect, be sure you save the files as DOS text files, not in the programs' unique format. 4.1 Holiday File. This file (YEAR.HOL) contains a chronological list of the months and days for the current year's holidays. It must be updated each year as the dates change. The format is mm dd xxxxxx where mm is the numeric value of the month, dd is the day, and xxxxxx reflects any comments that you may have to make the entry more readable for the next person who reviews it. The comments are not reflected anywhere else except in the file, and are therefore optional. Sample entries may be as follows (note at least one space between each entry): 1 1 New Years 7 4 July Fourth 12 25 Christmas 4.2 Special File. The special file (YEAR.SPC) can also contain dates to be highlighted on the calendar. Such events as birthdays or anniversaries may be listed. The format is the same as above, except they will show up as a different color/shade on the calendar. 4.3 Program Operation. There is a special program "YEAR.COM" (in the Pascal section) which will display an entire year's calendar, highlighting the current day, and any days contained in the above two files. The dates will be highlighted only if the year selected is the current year. This program is a simple, handy way of looking at an annual calendar, and may also be selected from the menu program, if desired. Since this program does not update any files, it may be executed using the "terminate and stay resident" option of the menu program, speeding up the return to the menu. APPENDIX A - Program Files MENU.BAT - The batch file controlling the execution of the menu program. See Appendix B for examples for setting up this file. MENUDRV.EXE - The main menu program. It requires up to 80K of memory to operate. The program accepts one parameter -- the letter of the menu to initially display on the screen. If no parameters are specified, it will load menu "M" (the main menu.) MENU.DAT - The listing of all the menu options the user has specified. The format is in the form: m,s,i Descrip,batch [,batch] where the "m" indicates the name of the menu, the "s" indicates the submenu this item will invoke ("*" means none), and the "i" indicates the item letter to appear on the screen. "Descrip" is the description that appears after the item letter on the screen. The DOS batch commands that are to be executed are then listed, separated by commas. "Continuation records" start with an "&". Updating this file is most easily done by the "F1" option in the program itself, or for the brave and confident, can be created/updated with any text wordprocessor. YEAR.EXE - This program displays an annual calendar of the year selected. YEAR.HOL·····-·This file contains dates to be interpreted by the menu program and YEAR program as holidays. YEAR.SPC·····-·This file contains dates to be interpreted by the menu program and YEAR program as special dates. APPENDIX B - Sample MENU.BAT Files The most basic MENU.BAT must contain the following three entries: echo off MENUDRV %1 MENULOAD Another sample for executing from a hard disk subdirectory: echo off C: CD\util\menu MENUDRV %1 MENULOAD A sample of executing from a RAMDISK subdirectory, ensuring any changes to the data files are copied to the fixed disk (adjust parameters for your version of DOS): echo off if exist D:\MENU\MENUDRV.COM goto ok md D:\MENU copy C:\UTIL\MENU\*.* D:\MENU>NUL :OK d: cd\menu attrib -a *.dat MENUDRV %1 xcopy d:\menu\*.dat c:\util\menu /a MENULOAD APPENDIX C - Basic Editing Commands There is an attempt to use "standard" editing commands while on the screen to input the changes to the batch file listings when using option "F1". The commands generally follow Wordstar-type commands. A "^" before the key indicates that the "CTRL" key should be held down while depressing the following key. See the on-screen help screens for additional information. Home Goto line 1 column 1 PgUp, ^r Goto top of screen PgDn, ^c Goto bottom of screen End, ^w Save changes and exit Ins, ^v Toggle the insert/overwrite mode Del, ^g Delete one character ^y Delete one line ^z Blank screen ^t Delete word right ^a/^f Advance word left/right ^qs/^qd Goto beginning/end of line ^n Insert a line