NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/comp/archives/msdos/d/75

Text File | 1992-12-21 | 5.2 KB | 125 lines

Newsgroups: comp.archives.msdos.d
Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!uwasa.fi!ts
From: [e-mail] (Timo Salmi)
Subject: Review of TSBAT40.ZIP
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: University of Vaasa, Finland
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 08:14:21 GMT
Lines: 115

First a comment.  Hopefully this helps to revive the trend of the
users' reviews of programs at the MsDos archive sites.  We had some
in comp.binaries.ibm.pc.archives before it started to dwindle.  I
have stored the reviews as I will announce in CAM.announce.  My best
thanks to Ed for his review.

   All the best, Timo

-From: [e-mail] (ed grether)
-Subject: Review of TSBAT40.ZIP
-To: [e-mail] (Timo Salmi)
-Date: Sat, 19 Dec 92 18:03:03 PST

Hi, I'm getting back to you at long last.  I'm sorry to have taken so long,
unfortunately we had exams here, and it was a hectic time for all.  I hope
that this will still be of some use to you.  I noticed that TSBAT40 came out
in the interim, so I got a copy of that to use for the review.  I'll include
the text of the review at the end of this message.  If you feel I have mis-
represented something here, I'm open to your input, and may certainly
revise my comments if need be.

Also, I'd like to thank you for your efforts in putting together this
collection.  It will allow me to make a better menu system here and also
make some of my routine tasks easier.  I'm sure that this is true of many
other people as well.  Further, I'm sure that many people also appreciate
your time in moderating comp.archives.msdos.announce as well as
maintaining garbo.

So, I big thank you from all of us here in my department and best wishes.

Ed

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
             A Review of TSBAT40.ZIP by Ed Grether

     TSBAT40.ZIP is an extensive collection of utilities written by
Prof. Timo Salmi.  While many of the utilities are useful in and
of themselves, this collection also includes many comments and
can serve as an instructional tool as well.  Further, a file
called BATRICKS.TXT contains many useful ideas on how to squeeze
additional use out of the batch language.  Also, the additions of
ASK.EXE, ASKENV.EXE and ISANSI.EXE allow the batch programmer to
write batch files which go beyond what is possible solely with the
batch language.  Below are some comments on a few of files
included in the package:

ADDPATH.BAT - A utility which facilitates adding directories to
the PATH as needed.  It also demonstrates several generally
useful techniques in batch programming.

ASK.EXE - This utility makes it possible to do many otherwise
impossible things in making a batch file respond interactively.
It is especially useful for confirmation or menu purposes.

BATRICKS.TXT - A collection of useful tricks/tips on ways to work
around some of the batch language's restrictions.

COLOR.BAT - Allows one to customize the colors of their DOS text
screen (with the ANSI.SYS driver loaded).

DELPATH.BAT - The companion to ADDPATH.BAT, these utilities allows
you to selectively add and remove directories from the PATH as
necessary.

PUSHDIRE.BAT - This utility allows you to save the current
directory so that it may be restored after an operation which
changes the directory.  This is also very useful is designing a
batch language menu system.

POPDIRE.BAT - This utility is the companion to PUSHDIRE.BAT and
allows the saved directory to be restored.

SAFEDEL.BAT - This is for those of us who sometimes type faster
than we think.  It asks us if we really do want to delete the
specified files.

WHERE.BAT - A very useful utility (see Caveats though) which
helps one to find a file whose location is unknown.  A must for
those of us who have too many directories for our own good.

WILD.BAT - A very powerful (yet simple) batch file which allows
one to use wild-cards for commands which normally don't take
them.  This is not only a useful utility, but it demonstrates the
hidden power of the batch language.

Additional files:  In addition to a number of other utilities
there are batch files which facilitate the use of several common
utilities like virus checkers and compression/archival programs.

     Conclusion - The TSBAT40.ZIP collection is a large number of
useful utilities and batch programming examples as well as a few
extensions to the batch language.  In addition, it has a number
of informational files with more tips and batch programming
information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Caveats - This section is noticeably sparse, and for good reason
I'm sure -- a lot of hard work on Prof. Timo Salmi's part.
However, due to the limitations of DOS and PCs, some of these
utilities are somewhat limited as well.  The limitations I found
are:

 1) A number of the utilities in the package require temporary
environment space.  If that space is not available, the utility
is unable to function.  This, of course, is easy to remedy with a
modification of the CONFIG.SYS file.

 2) DELPATH.BAT seems to have trouble with larger PATHs?  Perhaps
I'm doing something wrong with this, or it could be an artifact
of the Novell network our workstations are on.

 3) WHERE.BAT is unable to work on network drives as it
relies on CHKDSK.EXE which doesn't work on network (at
least Novell network) drives.