OS/2 Shareware BBS: 11 Util/11-Util.zip/dhg_106a.zip/DHGREPPM.DOC

Text File | 1998-03-06 | 7KB | 170 lines

I. Overview

This document contains some basic getting started information,
general information, and registration information.

Most of the usage information is available as online context
sensitive help.  Pressing the F1 key will bring up the help
information about the current menu selection.

Grep stands for "Get Regular Expression and Print" and is a
text searching tool that was first developed for unix systems and has
been ported to most operating systems.

This PM version of grep is designed as a user friendly application.
It is designed for a multitasking environment and the search takes place
on a separate thread to minimize the time that the wait icon
is displayed. It will also run in a low priority idle mode to
reduce the impact the search has on the other active programs.

The often cryptic command line options have been replaced with easy to
use menu selections.  The output of the search is sent to a PM window
and the user has easy access to all of the information that was found
by the program.

To reduce the overhead, the results are buffered until the search is
completed and then written to the results window.  To indicate that
the search is still active, the small icon at the left of the
title bar will change color as an activity indicator. The color change
depends on the search results, so it does not change at a fixed rate.

This version of grep does not support the full set of
"regular expressions" that most of the command line versions of grep
support.  It does support two wild-card characters.  The '*' character
represents multiple characters and the character '?' represents one
character. Thus a search pattern of "h*e"  would match both "house" and
"horse". A search pattern of "ho?se" would also match both words. The
wildcard action of the '*' character is not limited to a single
character or word, it can represent multiple words. The limit in the
search is that the search pattern must found in a single line.  The
program reads one line at a time from the source file, with a line being
terminated by a newline character or characters.

DH-Grep-PM is a shareware program and if you continue to use the
program you should register it.  DH-Grep-PM  does not have any
code to check on how long the program has been in use, so it is
up to the user to determine a reasonable trial period.

The shareware version of DH-Grep-PM is fully functional, but a
registration prompt will be displayed when the program is started
and when it is closed.

II.  Installation

A REXX CMD file (install.cmd) is provided to install DH-Grep-PM.

The install file will prompt the user for the destination
directory and will copy the files to that directory and will
create a desktop object for DH-Grep-PM.

The registered version of DH-Grep-PM comes with three versions
of DH-Grep-PM. The three versions were compiled with the different
CPU optimizations enabled and the user should select the appropriate
installation option for his/her PC. A 386 CPU PC will be able to run
all three versions, but the 386 version will give the best
performance on a 386 CPU.

The installation routine will copy the desired executable and create
a program object on the desktop.

If the user wants to use an editor other than the system editor
E.EXE, the editor CMD file (edit_cmd.cmd) must be modified.  This
file must be located in the working directory and the editor must be
in the search path or the path must be included with the editor name.
The default edit_cmd.cmd file consists of the line shown below.

e %1


III.  Uninstalling DH-Grep-PM

If you find it necessary to remove DH-Grep-PM, simply delete the
unzipped files, program object, and directory. DH-Grep-PM makes no
entries in the OS/2 System INI files.


IV.  Getting Started

DH-Grep-PM was designed to be easy to use and there is context
sensitive help available for most if not all of the menu selections.
Pressing the F1 key will bring up the help information.

The user must enter the search parameters before the search can be
started.  The Enter Search Parameters selection is located under the
Configure Search selection on the menu bar.  Once the user has entered
the search parameters, the search may be started. The Start selection
on the menu bar is disabled until the search parameters are entered.

The Stop selection on the menu bar is disabled until the search has
been started.  Selection Stop will bring up a dialog box that prompts
the user to verify the stop request.  If a file is opened for
searching when the stop request is made, the search will terminate
after the file has been processed.  Then the results of the search
will be displayed in the results window.

If the user places the cursor (not the mouse pointer) on a file name
in the results window and then double clicks with the right mouse
button, that file will be loaded into the editor specified in the
edit_cmd.cmd file.  The easiest way to move the cursor to the desired
line or file name is to double click on the line or file name with
the left mouse button.

The number of files that may be opened is not limited by DH-Grep-PM,
but may have a practical limit due to the memory used by each
instance of the editor.

This utility will only run on OS/2 Warp and later releases.


V. Why & How to Register

Registered users feel good about supporting OS/2 developers and enjoy
these additional benefits:

Registered users of DH-Grep-PM will have access to two additional
executable files that were compiled with the 486 and 586 compiler
options.  These versions will offer some performance improvement
for users with 468, Pentium, or equivalent CPUs.

Registered users are supported via e-mail.  Send help requests and
good ideas to me at [e-mail].

There are two places to register DH-Grep-PM.  Through BMT Micro and
directly with the author.

Registration through BMT Micro:

BMT Micro will accept credit cards and will be more convenient for
OS/2 users outside the United States.  BMT Micro's price to register
DH-Grep-PM is $10.00 (US Dollars).  BMT Micro also has an FTP area
where the registered version can be obtained after registration.

BMT Micro is also setup to distribute DH-Grep-PM on floppy disk for
those users who do not have internet access.  There will be an
additional fee for shipping and handling of floppy disk requests.

Direct registration:

Stuff small bills, gold coins, diamonds or even checks (US banks
only, please) valued at $10.00 (US dollars) into an envelope and mail
to:

Don Hawkinson
4555 N Hillcrest
Wichita KS, 67220-3832
USA

Please don't send $100 bills (or larger) in the mail without
purchasing full postal insurance.  Also, no change will be
returned because it is absolutely unsafe, and unwise, to send cash
through the mail.

The registered version of DH-Grep-PM will distributed via a download
link on my web page, so make certain that your e-mail address is included
with your registration fee. I will need it to send you the user name and
password required for the download.

Registered users will be notified of updates via e-mail.

Registration covers all 1.xx versions of DH-Grep-PM.