The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-385-Vol-1of3.iso/m/mastlkt.zip/BUFFIT.DOC

Text File | 1988-04-10 | 6KB | 93 lines

           BUFFIT a screen text capturing program by: D.T.Hamilton.

How many times have you done a 'dir' and had the top few filenames scroll
off the top of your screen and wished you could get them back?  Or you are
working in debug and you have just traced 10 more instructions and wished
you could see what the registers were before you traced the 10 instructions?
How about when you 'type' a long text file and want to re-read one of the
first lines after they are gone?

To solve these and other problems I have written a program called BUFFIT.
BUFFIT becomes memory resident and can be invoked whenever a program is
awaiting keyboard input by typing BUFFIT'S 'Hot Key' (the 'Hot Key' is user
definable and defaults to Alt-F9). BUFFIT will capture all text output through
DOS but not text output directly to the video buffer or through Interupt 10H.
Once BUFFIT has been invoked you may move through the captured text a single
line at a time or a page at a time. You can also go directly to the top or
bottom of the capture buffer. There is also a Control Panel which has options
to clear the capture buffer, toggle the capture state on or off and two other
special features. First is Keep Buffer Position which will allow you to exit
BUFFIT and then re-invoke it and still be at the same position in the buffer
you were at before you left (BUFFIT normally positions you at the bottom of
the buffer whenever you invoke it). Second is Text Line Terminator which will
cause BUFFIT to treat either a carriage-return (CR) or a line-feed (LF)
character as the end of a line (some programs don't output line-feeds with
their text, you will see this as a bunch of lines writing over the top of each
other when you use BUFFIT to review them). Help for the keys that perform
BUFFIT'S functions may be obtained by typing an H whenever BUFFIT is invoked.
To return to your application where you left off ESC will leave BUFFIT. Note
that BUFFIT will not allow you to invoke it if your screen is in a graphics
mode, if this happens BUFFIT will give a couple of strange tones in your
speaker when you press the 'Hot Key'.

BUFFIT will also allow you to dump its capture buffer to a printer attached
to port LPT1 or you may dump it to a disk file. You will be prompted for the
name of the file you wish to dump into and it may include a drive and/or path.

BUFFIT will run on any IBM or compatible with either a CGA, EGA or monochrome
monitor. BUFFIT will use about 11K of resident memory plus the size of the
capture buffer (buffer size is user definable and defaults to 20000 bytes,
which is enough to capture about 15 - 25 pages of screen text). To load BUFFIT
type the command BUFFIT from your DOS prompt or put BUFFIT in your
autoexec.bat file if you have one. Note that BUFFIT must be in your current
directory or in your DOS search path to load succesfully. You need only load
BUFFIT once and it will remain in memory until the next time you re-boot. Note
that if you are using a memory resident command line capture/edit program like
DOSEDIT, CED or SUPERKEY that these programs should be loaded BEFORE you load
BUFFIT for the best performance. If for some reason you forget which key you
had selected as the 'Hot Key' just type BUFFIT from your command line and
BUFFIT will remind you that it is already loaded into memory and show you the
current 'Hot Key' setting.

BUFFIT may be loaded with several command line parameters to customize its
performance. The valid parameters are;

  /R  This parameter will cause BUFFIT to wait for video retrace when writing
        to the video screen. This will eliminate 'snow' during BUFFIT displays
    if your video controller is subject to snow. Only use this parameter
    if you have snow as it slows down BUFFITS display rate.
  /B  This parameter must be followed by a decimal number which represents
        the size of the capture buffer that BUFFIT will allocate. This value
    must be between 1024 and 40000 and will be adjusted automatically if
    not divisible by 4.
  /K  This parameter must be followed by a 3 digit decimal number which
        represents the extended key code of the 'Hot Key' you wish to use
    to invoke buffit. Valid extended key codes are;
         016 - 025 = Q W E R T Y U I O P (Alternate)
           030 - 038 = A S D F G H J K L (Alternate)
         044 - 050 = Z X C V B N M (Alternate)
         059 - 068 = F1 - F10 (Normal)
            084 - 093 = F1 - F10 (Shifted)
         094 - 103 = F1 - F10 (Control)
         104 - 113 = F1 - F10 (Alternate)
         120 - 129 = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 (Alternate)
  /C  This parameter will cause BUFFIT to use black and white attributes for
        video displays even if you have a color monitor.
  /H  This parameter will cause BUFFIT to display a help message giving a
        brief explanation of all command line parameters.

The above parameters may also be entered using a '-' in place of the '/'.
You may also string parameters together, for example the command:
       BUFFIT -RK044
This command would cause BUFFIT to load with the default capture buffer size
of 20000 bytes, wait for video retrace on displays and use 'Alt Z' as the
'Hot Key' for invoking it.

I hope you enjoy this program and find it as usefull as I do. If you find
that you do please send a $10 or $15 or so donation. Also feel free to drop
me a line if you have any problems or suggestions.

                                           David T. Hamilton
                                           8149 Hesperia Ave.
                                           Reseda, CA. 91335