Software of the Month Club 1996 October

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BRUCE607.DOC 1 Revised: 07-28-96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact information For the following routines: AV, BFIND, COPSINCE, DATES, DIRCOMP, DIRTOTAL, EUMAIL, FILL, FIXTEXT, FORTUNE, HTMSTRIP, PAGINATE, READINIT, READMAKE-created files, and TXTABLE: Bruce Guthrie Wayne Software 113 Sheffield St. Silver Spring, MD 20910 fax: (301) 588-8986 e-mail: bguthrie@nmaa.org http://hjs.geol.uib.no/guthrie/ For the following routines: CHANGE, CONVERT, FILUPDAT, READ, and READY: Bruce Guthrie Room H-4885 U.S. Dept of Commerce/ESA/STAT-USA Washington, DC 20230 fax: (202) 482-2164 voice: (202) 482-3234 e-mail: bguthrie@doc.gov Please provide an Internet e-mail address on all correspondence. Since these programs are typically "freeware" (with the exception of people trying to make money from them instead of me), they generate maybe $100/year in revenue for me. As such, my ability to afford wonderful customer support is somewhat restricted. Please do not leave messages saying "Call me long distance". Also, please be specific about what problems you encounter and include command-line inputs as well as any control or INI files that you're using. Standard disclaimer in this society: Wayne Software disclaims all warranties as to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, functionality, data integrity or protection. BRUCE607.DOC 2 Revised: 07-28-96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction This documentation provides some overview information on a number of utilities. All programs described herein were written by Bruce Guthrie. Most are distributed with a Wayne Software copyright. Others were written for the U.S. Department of Commerce. All are free for use provided relevant documentation is kept with the programs, no changes are made to the programs or documentation, and they are not bundled with commercial programs or charged for separately. CHANGE, CONVERT, FILUPDAT, READ, and READY are excluded from the commercial-packaging restriction. These programs are owned by the U.S. Department of Commerce and may be re-distributed without restriction. People who need to bundle AV, BFIND, COPSINCE, DATES, DIRCOMP, DIRTOTAL, EUMAIL, FILL, FIXTEXT, FORTUNE, HTMSTRIP, PAGINATE, READINIT, or TXTABLE in commercial packages other than shareware/freeware collections must pay a $50 registration fee to "Wayne Software" at the following address. READMAKE-created files are also subject to this limitation. I don't expect to make any money from these utilities but I don't want others to sell them instead. This collection of utilities were compiled using Microsoft's Visual BASIC for DOS 1.0 compiler. Thomas G. Hanlin III's excellent PBClone routines, release 2.3, provided additional functionality. Since Tom has dropped support for his PBClone routines, some things will are simply not possible for me to do so don't push! The basic routines should be able to be maintained indefinitely as long as DOS continues to exist; we'll see. Keep in mind that they are DOS-based routines so forget long Win95 file names and such. I keep thinking that I should be doing Windows programming but it's hard to get psyched up for that when you think of Windows as a computer virus. Documentation provided in appropriate ZIP files: * routine.DOC: Each utility is separately described in a like-named *.DOC file. * FILE_ID.DIZ: Standard Description In Zip file. * BRUCEymm.DOC: This file serves to summarize all of the various utilities. The "ymm" indicates the release date in year/month format. "601" means 1996, first month (Jan 1996). * BRUCEINI.DOC: Most of the routines have defaults that can altered by using initialization files (inifiles). These are referenced in the regular documentation and further described here. (One thing about *.INI files; if you don't have one, it's in your interests to specify the "/-I" parameter. Otherwise, the program searches your entire DOS path looking for the file.) * BRUCEHEX.DOC: Many of the routines allow you to enter parameters as either hexadecimal or decimal strings. This is referenced in the regular documentation and further described here. All program documentation was created using a text editor (PE2). The PAGINATE command (see below) was used to justify the text and create titles, page breaks, and (where provided) indexes. Beta testers and suggestions are always appreciated. Contact me at bguthrie@nmaa.org Note that all beta releases are done via e-mail so if your gateway can't handle some pretty big mail attachments, you definitely do NOT want to be a beta tester for me! Modifications that are not of mainstream use can be contracted for. BRUCE607.DOC 3 Revised: 07-28-96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finding the programs--Current version is 607 The utilities are uploaded with a ZIP name that includes the year and month of the release in a "ymm" format ("607" is the July 1996 version). The files are posted directly by the author to two places. The following Web site, provided by Hans Schrader, has the current versions of *all* programs: http://hjs.geol.uib.no/guthrie/ Major revisions are directly posted by the author to the following: * Simtel (Coast-To-Coast): ftp.coast.net (http://www.coast.net/Simtel) * Simtel (Keith Petersen): ftp.simtel.net (http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net) * ZDI Software Library: No idea where that is! Simtel locations and versions http://www.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/ ftp://ftp.simtel.net/simtelnet/msdos/ ..arcutil/ ..arcutils/ av607.zip Archive View: Free ZIP etc directory viewer ..batutil/ ..batchutl/ dates607.zip Warns you in advance of birthdays etc fortn607.zip Fine-tunes DOS FOR command w/options ..dirutil/ ..dirutl/ cops607.zip Copies files modified since given date dirco607.zip Updates files based on source directory dirto607.zip Directory lister and totaller filup607.zip Copy updated files based on a control list ..diskutil/ ..diskutil/ fill607.zip Stuffs as many files as possible on disk ..offline/ ..mailnews/ eumal607.zip Eudora utility for nicknames, boxes ..spredsht/ ..spredsht/ convr607.zip Convert dBase, ASCII-delim, fixed, 1-2-3 ..textutil/ ..txtutl/ bfind607.zip Boolean FIND command (BFIND BEGIN & END) chang607.zip Change strings in text files fixtx607.zip Translate text file characters en masse htmst607.zip Reprocesses HTML pages for humans to read pagin607.zip Paginates text (indexes, sorts, tables) read607.zip Free viewer, also make any text self-viewing txtab607.zip Generates text tables If you're using a version of the programs that's more than a year old, it's almost always the case that there's a newer version. Please check for an update. If you can receive binary attachments, contact me at bguthrie@nmaa.org for free updates. Alternatively, send $10 made out to "Wayne Software" to the Wayne Software address above and I'll send you everything on diskette. (If you need anything other than 3.5" high density, specify that too please.) The versions of each program posted on SimTel are documented below along with the directory information for this site. The *current* versions of *all* programs are posted on the Web site in Norway. BRUCE607.DOC 4 Revised: 07-28-96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Short program descriptions AV.EXE: Archive directory viewer. Presents list of files in archive (ZIP, ARC, etc) and lets you sort as desired. Also allows resetting of the file date based on the archive's contents. BFIND.EXE: Allows Boolean-type FIND requests. For example, find any line with one string AND another one, or any line with one string OR another. Also allows wildcarded input file names. CHANGE.EXE: Processes change commands in files. Files can be of any size and type (e.g. binary or text) and are processed quickly. Up to thirty change commands can be processed in a single pass. Also provides ability to remove trailing spaces from text files. CONVERT.EXE: Converts between data formats: FROM dBase, ASCII-delimited (typically commas between fields and quotes around strings), and fixed field TO Lotus WKS, ASCII-delimited, dBase, and fixed field. COPSINCE.EXE: Copies all files modified since a given date. Primarily used for making sure you have a back-up of files and also to copy updated programs to another place. Lets you define your own groupings of files if desired. DATES.EXE: Program that warns you in advance when an event like a birthday, anniversary, or holiday is coming up. The idea is to give you advance warning so you can send a card or get out of town in time. DIRCOMP.EXE: Similar in some ways to DOS's REPLACE command but adds ability to delete extra files in the destination subdirectory, copy hidden and system files, and prepare a report showing inconsistencies. Is frequently used by network administrators to update workstation files. DIRTOTAL.EXE: Prepares report showing files in subdirectory or drive. Allows restricting search based on date, size, attributes, etc. Works on networked and CD-ROM drives. Produces more formalized report than some utilities do. Also allows you to look for duplicate file names. EUMAIL.EXE: Eudora mail summarizer. Dumps your Qualcomm Eudora mailbook as well as summarizing the contents of all of your Eudora boxes and folders. FILL.EXE: Program designed to move files off to floppy diskettes, taking the biggest files first and skipping those that won't fit. Also provides option of splitting large files, creating a status report, and other features. FILUPDAT.EXE: Program which compares a selected list of files in a source path against those in another path and copies those that have been updated. Similar to DOS' REPLACE command but works from a stored list of files (controlled updates) and can handle any number of directories. FIXTEXT.EXE: Program which applies a user-definable character-translation table to a text file. Can allow you to convert graphics characters to their text equivalents, lowercase letters to uppercase letter, etc. Can also be used to translate DOS text files to Mac or Unix text files and vice versa. Can also expand tabs, remove trailing spaces, and remove backspaces. BRUCE607.DOC 5 Revised: 07-28-96 FORTUNE.EXE: A tuner-upper for the DOS FOR command. Generates a batch file which does all those wildcard things you wished FOR could do (like "FORTUNE IN (*.BAS) DO RENAME %A %2*.*" to remove parts of file names). Lets you do all sorts of things including distinguishing file name roots from their extensions as well as incrementing file names by specified values. HTMSTRIP.EXE: Goes through downloaded pages from the Web and removes embedded HTML commands. Reflows paragraphs and tries to make it basically readable. Awarded a "Best" rating by "PC Computing" in their July 1996 issue. Includes MOZ.EXE which renames the files in your Web cache subdirectory so you can identify them more easily. PAGINATE.EXE: Reformats text files with embedded formatting codes. Handles things like titles, footers, indexes, alignment, justification, multicolumn listings, etc. Also provides support for embedding tabular data in ASCII-delimited or dBase formats which can be embedded and/or sorted in your reports. READ.EXE, READY.EXE, READINIT.EXE, and READMAKE.EXE: Text file browsing utilities. READ--Supports marking, copying text, reading Unix and Mac text files, etc. Handles files of 16,000 lines or less (approx 800,000 bytes). READY--truncates or wraps lines over 255 characters in length but handles files of an unlimited number of lines. READMAKE--Takes an ASCII-text file and makes it self-viewable (using a READ clone). TXTABLE.EXE: Program to generate text tables. Allows inputs to be HTML-based as well as one-record per cell. BRUCE607.DOC 6 Revised: 07-28-96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revision history Detailed revision histories for the programs are only maintained for the last three releases. After that, you get the major revision summaries only for the next three releases or so. In any case, if your version of any of these programs is more than a year old, your version is definitely obsolete. Hop onto the Web or e-mail me or something and get the new version! -------------- (full detail; revisions made 1 to 3 releases ago) Release 96/07: Most routines: Added support for /MONO setting. AV: Revised ERRORLEVEL codes. Added /Tpath parameter. Added support for /MONO and related settings. Added support non-US date formats (program reads the system configuration settings). Modified Yes/No options so first letter hotkeys could be used. Now prompts for infile spec if not provided. [Replaces av605.zip] BFIND: Added support for /MONO and related settings. Added support for /LINES specification. Added column ranges (vs column start requirement) for the search parameter. Revised some ERRORLEVEL codes. [Replaces bfind605.zip] CHANGE: Added support for /MONO and related settings. If you escape during the verify option, the program no longer overwrites the input file. Added column ranges (vs column start requirement) in the /IN search parameter. [Replaces chang604.zip] CONVERT: Added handling for two-digit years in date fields. Revised ERRORLEVEL codes, adding several and checking more thoroughly for them. Fixed a problem some people were having running the program from some networks. Added support for /MONO setting. [Replaces convr605.zip] COPSINCE: Added support for /MONO setting. Added support for internatioanl date formats in the passed-in parameters. Dropped /Q parameter. Dropped /REPLACE parameter and replaced with /A, /R, and /CLONE parameters. Added ERRORLEVEL codes. [Replaces cops605.zip] DATES: Added /FUTURE and /-FUTURE parameters. By default, now skips events which are to take place in the future beyond your normal /days window. Also now respects four-digit years. Added /MONO and related parameters. [Replaces dates605.zip] DIRCOMP: As far as I can tell, /Iinitfile wasn't being read at all; fixed that. Added ERRORLEVEL codes. Switched program to use /MONO instead of /-COLOR. Cleaned up some of the coding around the temporary output files; now uses TEMP environmental variable if specified. Added support non-US date formats (program reads the system configuration settings). Added /A and /R parameters. [Replaces dirco605.zip] DIRTOTAL: Cleaned up some of the coding around the temporary output files; now uses TEMP environmental variable if specified. Revised ERRORLEVEL return codes. Added support non-US date formats (program reads the system configuration settings). Added ability to specify both a size and a date restriction to the files selected. [Replaces dirto604.zip] EUMAIL: Added /FORMAT=n handling for header information when you dump the BRUCE607.DOC 7 Revised: 07-28-96 message files; /FORMAT=1 is the new default whereas the old default used to be roughly akin to /FORMAT=2's output. /FORMAT=3 gives one line per message but dumps the sender and date/time. Added support non-US date formats (program reads the system configuration settings). Fixed a bug regarding e-mail address entries in the form "email (name)". Added /MONO and related parameters. Added ERRORLEVEL return codes. Added /Tpath parameter. [Replaces eumal605.zip] FILL: Added /MONO and related parameters. Modified Yes/No options so first letter hotkeys could be used. Changed the default to /COPY if no parameters are passed in, and /MOVE if any are. [Replaces fill605.zip] FILUPDAT: Added /MONO and related parameters. Added ERRORLEVEL return codes. Dropped /ALL parameter and replaced with /A, /R, and /CLONE parameters. Replaced /ERROR and /-ERROR parameters with /ABORT, /SKIP, and /CREATE (new option which allows the program to try to create the output subdirectory if it doesn't exist already.) [Replaces filup605.zip] FIXTEXT: Added /MONO and related parameters. [Replaces fixtx605.zip] FORTUNE: Added /RUN and /PROMPT parameters. Added /MONO and related parameters. [Replaces fortn605.zip] HTMSTRIP: Heady times after an endorsement from PC Computing in their July and August 1996 issues! (When's the last time they endorsed a DOS product?) Added /MONO and related parameters. Bug fixes for embedded tables. Program now automatically dumps the table as straight text whenever the size of a given cell exceeds the maximum allowed for the program. Added /TABLE and /-TABLE parameters. Added /Tpath parameter. Now prompts for infile spec if not provided. Expanded the maximum number of columns for tables from 15 to 20; make sure you change the default page width though or they'll be teeny tiny. Added MOZ program to the ZIP file. [Replaces htmst605.zip] MOZ: New program. Is included in the HTMSTRIP ZIP file. PAGINATE: Added WRAP marker command. Added /MONO and related parameters. Added support for non-US date formats in the header variables. Added /Tpath parameter. Now prompts for infile spec if not provided. Fixed an error involving passing in marker commands. [Replaces pagin605.zip] READ, READINIT, READY, READMAKE: Added support for non-US date formats. READMAKE now prompts for an input file specification if none is provided. READ now accepts the /PROMPT parameter. READINIT and the others support /MONO setting. [Replaces read605.zip] TXTABLE: Dropped XWPTABLE.EXE (the temporary program that tried to handle WordPerfect 5.1 tables). Added /Tpath parameter. Now prompts for input file specification if none provided. [Replaces txtab605.zip] Release 96/06: No release. Vacation time! Get a life! :) Release 96/05: AV: Fixed up an error in paging through files which include non-archive files. Added ability to delete the archive as well as use the mouse to escape out of the program. [Replaces av602.zip] BRUCE607.DOC 8 Revised: 07-28-96 BFIND: Found a bug with retrieving some records at the end of 12000-byte blocks. Fixed this. May have also affected CONVERT, FIXTEXT, HTMSTRIP, and READY but no one reported any problems so maybe not! [Replaces bfind604.zip] CONVERT: Fixed a bug relating to empty input fields when a field definition file was requested. Allowed fixed-field input files to exceed 1000 characters in length (new limit is 4000 characters). Program did not guess input format if a non-text document as fed in (the /SCAN function); fixed this. Program skipped the first record in DBF files; fixed this. [Replaces convr604.zip] COPSINCE: Maintenance release. Dropped the bat logo from the /? screen. [Replaces cops601.zip] DATES: Added the ability to do weekly reminders. Reorganized the documentation a bit. Dropped bat logo from the /? screen. [Replaces dates601.zip] DIRCOMP: Maintenance release. [Replaces dirco601.zip] EUMAIL: Added /SPLIT and /SCAN options. [Replaces eumal604.zip] FILL: Fixed up weird error messages. Added a trap for write-protected disks. [Replaces fill603.zip] FILUPDAT: Maintenance release. [Replaces filup601.zip] FIXTEXT: Maintenance release. [Replaces fixtx602.zip] FORTUNE: Added %* and %? options. [Replaces fortn604.zip] HTMSTRIP: Reworked how <A...> and <IMG...> references were handled by introducing /A=spec, /IMG=spec, and /IMGALT=spec parameters. Allows you more choices including whether to show the full url address or not. Also kills off /ALT, /SITE, /FSITE, and /-SITE parameters. Fixed a bug related to incredibly long cells; people are using tables to get around all sorts of problems with HTML formatting and the tables were getting maxed out; if HTMSTRIP finds it's being hit with the condition, it now turns off table processing for this table and just dumps it out as text. Not a perfect solution but the best I could do. Added /BORDER=DV, /BORDER=SV, and /BORDER=TV parameters. More debugging for weird tables. Switched numeric columns to align left instead of right. Now skips Java script blocks on output. [Replaces htmst604.zip] PAGINATE: Maintenance release. [Replaces pagin601.zip] READ: Maintenance release. [Replaces read602.zip] TXTABLE: Added /BORDER=DV, /BORDER=SV, and /BORDER=TV parameters. [Replaces txtab604.zip] Release 96/04: This release comes up as Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown gets buried at Arlington. I work at the Department of Commerce and had the chance to meet him a couple of times. I thought he was a very special person. I'll miss him! Major updates are now being posted directly on both Simtel sites (ftp.coast.net and ftp.simtel.net). I'm not going to pass judgment on this feud but it's BRUCE607.DOC 9 Revised: 07-28-96 certainly tougher on authors now. BFIND: Maintenance release. Been awhile since it came out and some changes needed to be made in the documentation. Dropped the little bat logo from the /? screens. [Replaces bfind511.zip] CHANGE: Fixed up a bug with the @filelist parameter. [Replaces chang603.zip] CONVERT: Fixed up some bugs with /OUTDEF not always working. [Replaces convr601.zip] DIRTOTAL: Fixed up a bug with some directory totalling. Dropped the little bat logo from the /? screens. [Replaces dirto603.zip] EUMAIL: This program was actually introduced last month but I didn't add it to BRUCEymm.DOC file since it would have made it too long. I dropped ISAMMAKE/ISAMFIND so it fits now! Added /DUMP, /KILLDUMP, /HEADERS, and domain parameters which are related to allowing the entire mail file or its headers to be dumped as a text file. Added /REPEAT and /-REPEAT options which should be useful for people using FIND or BFIND on the resulting nickname file. Expanded most of the name and nickname maximum lengths (folks have some really amazing names!). [Replaces eumal603.zip] FORTUNE: Added /WIPE parameter. [Replaces fortn510.zip] HTMSTRIP: Added /ALT parameter. Fixed up a problem where <BR><BR> couldn't generate blank lines. More work on <PRE>...</PRE> blocks. If /SYMBOLS is specified, changed default representation for <A> to be "(link)" instead of "[Link]", and for <IMG> to be "(image)" instead of "[Image]". <INPUT> is still "[Input]" though. Expanded maximum columns per table from 10 to 15. [Replaces htmst603.zip] ISAMMAKE/ISAMFIND: Dropped to make room for EUMAIL. TXTABLE: Expanded maximum number of columns per table from 10 to 20. [Replaces txtab603.zip] -------------- (kind of terse; revisions made 4 to 6 releases ago) Release 96/03: EUMAIL: New program. HTMSTRIP: Added /SITE, /FSITE, and /-SITE options. Release 96/02: AV: Added help screen (F1) and the ability to Ctrl-PgUp or Ctrl-PgDn through up to 500 archives. FILL: Added an estimation of the number of diskettes left to go. HTMSTRIP: Tables are now handled by the program. TXTABLE: Added the ability to support imbedded pseudo-HTML code as well in addition to the original input format. Release 96/01: BRUCE607.DOC 10 Revised: 07-28-96 All routines: Finally dropped support for CONFIGWS.EXE from my programs. I'm now at bguthrie@nmaa.org CONVERT: Added cell filters. Added the ability to read Unix or Mac text files. READY: Allowed the program to handle files with lines of 132 or 255 characters. Added the various horizontal scrolling key options. TXTABLE: New program.