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ESCAPE.DOC
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1993-01-24
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ESCAPE.COM
(TSR, may be loaded high)
This program allows free use of the escape character in command
lines or in batch file lines.
This is very handy for driving ANSI sequences and ECHOing
printer command codes, etc.
This program requires DOS 3.3 or above. It will not function
correctly with NDOS or 4DOS Ver 3.x. It works correctly with
4DOS Ver 4.x.
I got used to having the escape character available on command
lines early in DOS computing with some machines that had deviant
DOS versions. Then IBM decided to make the Esc character the
"line cancel" character, even though there were still unused
function keys. How crippling this seemed! I'd gotten used to
being able to simply echo an ANSI sequence or printer control
code. So for many years I used a variation of the old "DOSEDIT"
command-history utility that I modified to liberate the escape
key and make it just another character like any other. This
worked, and still works, on every DOS machine and variant since.
With DOS 5, however, the very nice DOSKEY utility is provided,
which does command history and macros. And, magically, does
this without hooking any interrupts! Unfortunately DOSKEY, in
line with an ugly old tradition, again steals that valuable
escape key! So this different approach was worked out, and it
seems quite acceptable.
With ESCAPE resident, just put "$e" in your command line
wherever you want an ESCAPE character. This is the same syntax
you'd use in a PROMPT command, which is the normal, but awkward,
way of doing an escape in a command line or batch file line.
ESCAPE.COM may not work on some hardware or DOS versions; in
particular it needs DOS 3.3 or above.