LOADSCRN/SAVESCRN-- This pair of programs makes it possible to build screens ahead of time and to display them in a flash. This is especially helpful if you're operating your batch files from a floppy disk. Creating a screen with lots of boxes and text might take several lines of programming and that would take several seconds to display. To use these utilities, write a batch file that creates your screen and then, as the last line in the batch file, issue the command SAVESCRN <filename>. The screen display will be recorded as a file on your disk using the filename you provided. Then, when you want to display that screen as part of a batch file, issue the command LOADSCRN <filename> and all the boxes and text will be loaded quickly with a single command. If your screen is of a program menu, the next command in your batch program might be GETKEY to determine where the user wants to go from there.
GETKEY-- This program is an important one for setting up interactive batch files. First display a menu of choices, then enter the command GETKEY. The batch program pauses until a key is pressed. GETKEY returns an exit code which can be tested with the IF-ERRORLEVEL command to determine which key is pressed. The exit code returned is the ASCII value of the character pressed.
