PC Direkt 1998 November

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Text File | 1998-04-15 | 10.5 KB | 227 lines

Bill Reid's Command Line Frequently Asked Questions --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Program Operation --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What is this program? A: It's a tool for helping folks who still enjoy controlling their computers from a command prompt, but need the applications and goodies only available in the Win32 GUI. Q: How does it work? A: Typing a command and pressing "Enter" executes it. Q: How do I get DOS commands to run? A: To launch a DOS command from within Win32, you have to preface it with "command /c". To get a "dir" to work, you'd enter command /c dir Q: Isn't there another way? A: Not in Win32. But within this application, you can substitute the symbol % to achieve the same effect, as %dir Q: How are long filenames handled? A: The same way the 'Run' command does. You need to enclose long filenames in double quotes in order for the program to properly recognize them. Ie., if you want to refer to Wordpad in your Program Files\ Accessories folder, you'll need to specify it with the quotes "C:\Program Files\Accessories\Wordpad" Q: What about under DOS? A: The same way. Quotes around the long filenames, exactly as you'd type it at the DOS prompt. Everything after the "command /c" or "%" is passed verbatim to the OS's DOS interpreter. Q: What are aliases? A: Aliases are keywords that serve to represent a command line in shortened or more conveniently typed form. By associating a command line with an alias, you can more easily execute those long commands. For example, I might wish to associate 'pad' with the bulky line "C:\Program Files\Accessories\Wordpad.exe". From that point on, typing 'pad' would essentially be the same as typing the longer alternative. Q: Can I use partial aliases? Like alias a directory and add things on the end to run different things? A: No. Aliases are not links or anything like that. If you alias the word 'pad' and enter 'pad mydoc.doc' you're going to get an error. If enough people desire this feature, I'll look at adding it in. Q: Should I limit my aliases for better performance/less registry bloat? A: Aliases are stored in a text file in the same directory as the app. Of course, the more you load in memory, the more memory is required, but the effect is pretty minimal. You can keep an eye on the file aliases.cfg to make sure it's not taking up more disk space than you wish it to engulf. Q: How does the history support work? A: Anything that appears in your command history (the items that recyle when you use the up and down arrows or that appear in the block below the command line if you have the window sized large enough) appears there again on the next load of the program. Q: What if I don't want those items reloaded? A: Tough nuggies :) Actually, you can set a registry key by hand. Just add a string value named "History" and enter the value "1" (without the quotes). No more history actions. Q: What's a "permanent history" option? A: Basically, these items will appear in your history list no matter what. Even if you "Clear History" and close the app with no entries in the app history, these entries will come back. Guaranteed to be there. Q: How do I make some permanent history items? A: In the application's directory, create a text file named "permhist.cfg". Put any entries you wish in the file, seperating each with a carriage return. Like so: calc.exe win.ini %runmyapp /a /b If you're worried about your syntax being off, copy entries from the history.cfg file (the other history listing, auto-generated by app) to make sure it's workable. Q: What if I don't want permanent history items? A: Do as mentioned for the "no history items" above, but name the string value "PHistory". Setting these options according to your desires should give you the most flexible history saving plan possible. Q: What if I set those registry entries and changed my mind? A: Either delete the keys you created or set their value to "0" (without the quotes). Q: What is the registry? A: IF YOU HAVE TO ASK, YOU NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM IT! The Registry is a database that stores all sorts of configuration information about your computer. You can _seriously_ mess up your computer software with this if you don't know what you're doing. If you're not familiar with the process of editing the registry, either learn or just be satisfied with the default options. I won't be responsible for what happens if you go poking around in there changing values. Q: Uhhh, where is the program's registry entry? A: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\BRCmdLine\Defaults. At least on Win95, anyway. Q: Arrggh! I was cleaning up and deleted those .cfg files! A: If it was history.cfg, no problem. It gets created from your app's actions. You'll get one session with no history, but no big deal otherwise. If you deleted permhist.cfg, you just need to recreate it if you want those items. If it was aliases.cfg - sorry, you'll need to redefine them through the program again. I use these text files to keep the registry entries down. That's an often accessed point, so I want to be a good Windows citizen and keep the clutter out of there so I don't slow your system down unnecessarily. The load time on the text files isn't really significant unless you have loads of history items - and I think you'd rather have the slower load time than a bloated registry, anyway. Q: Why don't you include hotkey support? A: Because I prefer to leave that up to you! This is all about choices, remember? Assign a hotkey to the shortcut to this application and it will respect it by activating any running instances. This also means that you can't load 2 copies of the app simultaneously. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Work-arounds --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: How can I specify a working directory? A: Within the application, you can't. However, you can reference Win32 shortcut files from the command line, so you could configure a Win32 shortcut and run that from the command line. You'll find the exact name of the shortcut if you do a "Properties" on it. Q: My DOS command windows pop up and off before I can read them. A: That's because they're configured that way in a default Win95 setup. You can change this by modifying your DOS prompt shortcut properties to not "Close Window on Exit". It's probably labeled "Command" and in your Windows install directory. Q: Isn't this a lot of typing to be doing? Where's the icons, menus, etc? A: You're getting the idea. Some of us still feel we're more productive when we type. You can "GUI out" and use the Browse menu option (or enter 'browse' as a keyword) to click your way to a file, if necessary. But I won't be adding any toolbars anytime soon. Q: You hypocrite! Then why the big button on the left side of the box?! A: Because you need a mousable spot in order to get the thing in your preferred position and a spot to launch the popup config menu from. The only other option would be to replace the default "edit" right click menu on the text area, but I assume people would like to keep that functionality open for themselves. I don't want to cripple good Windows features, after all - just add what I feel like the designers left out. But in keeping with its philosophy, you can use the tab key to get over to that button without diving into mouseland. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Problems --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: I get a "Run time error" or something like that when I try to launch the program or access a feature. A: It's a problem with your runtime libraries. The app requires the VB 5.0 runtime libraries and the common dialog control (COMDLG32.OCX). Try to install a reputable set of libraries from a software distribution site on the Internet. It's quite easy for some beta versions to get mixed in with another developers' stuff and get a version on your hard drive that's buggy. Q: Something ape-weird happened and the app isn't appearing when I run it Q: The thing just won't start up right! Help! A: Probably the registry is not agreeing with your current setup. Maybe you changed screen size or color depth or something to that effect. Or maybe you just found a bug I didn't. The best thing to do in these situations is to remove the application's registry entries - it's programmed to find suitable defaults when there aren't any in the registry. You won't lose your aliases - they're in a text file in the same directory as the application. It will default up in a suitable location and you can reposition/recolor it again. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Miscellany --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Who wrote this? A: Me :) Q: How can I contact you? A: Via email, currently at breid@ebicom.net. You can also reference my wares at http://billreid.home.ml.org/ in the freeware section. Q: Uhhh. I can't seem to browse/mail there. A: The Internet is a changing media, and it's very possible I may have moved on by then. If you need to keep up with me, keep an eye on the shareware/freeware sites - I'll attempt to post any moves to those locations. But in the meantime, you'll save yourself time by bookmarking my page. Q: What's the deal with naming the program after yourself? A: Just a bit of copyright protection. I attach my name to the title of any title that sounds like it probably was thought of before in order to avoid any trademark infringement. In real life, I'm actually very humble. Q: Then why the big bitmaps of you in the app? A: OK, so humility isn't everything :) Basically, I do this to help other people with stuff and to feel accomplishment in seeing my works flourish. So the ego factor ticks in a little bit after all. At least it's just my mug instead of another advertisement or a "You have 30 days left..." sentence :)