Informática Multimedia 1995 April

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Asc2Com (MorganSoft) | 1992-11-25 | 46.1 KB | 1,317 lines

Asc2Com Ver. 2.05 Shareware by MorganSoft All Rights Reserved Copyright 1989-1992 ASP Information Software License Information Trial Use License Limited Distribution License Site Licensing Warranty Information Trial Use Warranty Registered Version Warranty Getting Started Support Information What is Shareware? Registration Form November 1992 REVIEWERS: If you plan to review this software for publication, *please* contact me first to make sure you have the most recent update of the software and that the ordering information supplied to your readers will be accurate. We would appreciate receiving copies of anything you publish about this software. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A S P I N F O R M A T I O N Dear Shareware User: I want you to get the highest possible benefit from this software. If you believe you received an incomplete, outdated or damaged disk, please contact me. You do not have to be a registered user in order to write me a letter and receive a reply: MorganSoft 2170 Raynor St. SE Salem, OR 97302 For additional help, see "Support Information" below. If for any reason you are unable to reach me at the above address, please contact me through the ASP, as indicated below. FOR INFORMATION ON PRODUCT SUPPORT AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, PLEASE SEE THE ON-DISK DOCUMENTATION AND THE SUPPORT INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT. This software is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware- related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Rd., Muskegon MI 49442-9427, or send a Compuserve Mail message to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. ┌─────────┐ ┌─────┴───┐ │ (R) ──│ │o │────────────────── │ ┌─────┴╨──┐ │ Association of │ │ │─┘ Shareware └───│ o │ Professionals ──────│ ║ │──────────────────── └────╨────┘ MEMBER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ S O F T W A R E L I C E N S E I N F O R M A T I O N This file contains important license information regarding the use of the subject software. This information applies to individual users who wish to evaluate or use the software, or to pass copies out to friends and associates. Disk Vendors and Distributors, BBS Sysops, User Groups, Computer Clubs, Subscription Services, Disk-of-the-Month Clubs, etc., should refer to the VENDOR.DOC file for complete information relating to them. PLEASE! Show your support for Shareware by registering the programs you actually use. The authors depend upon and need your support. Thank you! Trial Use License: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This software is NOT a public domain program. It is copyrighted by Morgansoft as indicated in the program and its documentation. This software and accompanying documentation are protected by United States Copyright law and also by International Treaty provisions. Any use of this software in violation of Copyright law or the terms of this limited license will be prosecuted to the best of our ability. The conditions under which you may copy this software and documentation are clearly outlined below under "Limited Distribution License". Morgansoft hereby grants you a limited license to use this software for evaluation purposes for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days. If you intend to continue using this software (and/or its documentation) OR to use any programs produced with this software after the thirty (30) day evaluation period, you MUST make a registration payment to MorganSoft. Using this software after the thirty (30) day evaluation period, without registering the software is a violation of the terms of this limited license. Licensee shall not use, copy, rent, lease, sell, modify, decompile, disassemble, otherwise reverse engineer, or transfer the licensed program except as provided in this agreement. Any such unauthorized use will result in immediate and automatic termination of this license. All rights not expressly granted here are reserved to MorganSoft. Limited Distribution License: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As the copyright holder of the software, MorganSoft authorizes distribution by individuals only in accordance with the following restrictions. (Disk Vendors and Distributors, BBS Sysops, User Groups, Computer Clubs, Subscription Services, Disk-of-the-Month Clubs, etc., should refer to the VENDOR.DOC file for complete information relating to them.) Individuals are hereby granted permission by MorganSoft to copy the software diskette for their own use (for evaluation purposes) or for other individuals to evaluate, ONLY when the following conditions are met. The software package is defined as containing all the material listed in the PACKING.LST text file. The software package, including all related program files and documentation files, CANNOT be modified in any way and must be distributed as a complete package, without exception. If any files listed in the PACKING.LST text file, or the PACKING.LST file itself, are missing, then the package is not complete and distribution is forbidden. Please contact us to obtain a complete package suitable for distribution. No price or other compensation may be charged for the software package. If you charge ANY kind of fee for materials or services when you make or distribute copies of the package, you are considered a disk vendor and must comply with the terms outlined in VENDOR.DOC. The software package CANNOT be sold as part of some other inclusive package. Nor can it be included in any commercial software packaging offer, without a written agreement from MorganSoft. No part of the disk-based documentation may be distributed in PRINTED (hardcopy) form. The software package cannot be "rented" or "leased" to others. You may not use, copy, rent, lease, sell, modify, decompile, disassemble, otherwise reverse engineer, or transfer the licensed program except as provided in this agreement. Any such unauthorized use shall result in immediate and automatic termination of this license. U.S. Government Information: Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government of the computer software and documentation in this package shall be subject to the restricted rights applicable to commercial computer software as set forth in subdivision (b)(3)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at 252.227- 7013 (DFARS 52.227-7013). The Contractor/manufacturer is MorganSoft, 2170 Raynor St. SE, Salem, OR, 97302. All rights not expressly granted here are reserved to MorganSoft. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ S I T E L I C E N S E I N F O R M A T I O N What is a site license? A site license is an inexpensive way for more than one person to legally use one copy of a program on more than one computer at a time. Site licenses are designed for companies, offices or workgroups where more than one person in the organization needs to use a product, but does not need additional manuals or disks. Site licensing enables companies, departments, government agencies, etc., to equip their personnel with the tools they need at a minimal cost. Here's the gist of how it works: The company purchasing a site license (the licensee) provides a single point of contact for shipping, technical support, upgrades, etc., and we (the licensor) provide "golden masters" of the diskettes, manuals, and any other parts of the package. The following chart gives a breakdown of the cost of site licensing and how much you save per site licensed. For instance, if the normal registration fee for one copy of the software is $15.00, and you purchase a site license for 11 users (sites) your cost will be $259.50, which saves you $115.50 of the cost of 11 separate purchases. The more sites you license, the more you save. SAMPLE SITE LICENSING CHART FOR A PROGRAM WITH A $35.00 REGISTRATION PRICE: Discount Price Per Savings Quantity Percentage Unit Per Unit 5 - 10 25% $26.25 $ 8.75 11 - 15 30% $24.50 $10.50 16 - 20 33% $23.45 $11.55 21 - 25 36% $22.40 $12.60 26 - 30 39% $21.35 $13.65 31 - 40 42% $20.30 $14.70 41 - 50 45% $19.25 $15.75 51 - 60 48% $18.20 $16.80 61 - 70 51% $17.15 $17.85 71 - 80 54% $16.10 $18.90 81 - 90 57% $15.05 $19.95 91 - 100 60% $14.00 $21.00 101+ By special arrangement To receive a complete site licensing agreement, or to obtain further information, please contact MorganSoft, 2170 Raynor St. SE, Salem, OR, 97302. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ***************** IMPORTANT WARRANTY INFORMATION **************** *** PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION CAREFULLY *** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TRIAL USE (SHAREWARE EVALUATION VERSION) WARRANTY: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The shareware evaluation (trial use) version is provided AS IS. MORGANSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. REGISTERED VERSION ONLY WARRANTY: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MorganSoft warrants the physical diskette(s) provided with registered versions to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of ninety days from the date of registration. If MorganSoft receives notification within the warranty period of defects in materials or workmanship, and such notification is determined by MorganSoft to be correct, MorganSoft will replace the defective diskette(s). The entire and exclusive liability and remedy for breach of this Limited Warranty shall be limited to replacement of defective diskette(s) or documentation and shall not include or extend to any claim for or right to recover any other damages, including but not limited to, loss of profit, data, or use of the software, or special, incidental, or consequential damages or other similar claims, even if MorganSoft has been specifically advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event will MorganSoft's liability for any damages to you or any other person ever exceed the lower of suggested list price or actual price paid for the license to use the software, regardless of any form of the claim. MORGANSOFT SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. DOCUMENTATION AND INSTRUCTIONS: All of our instruction manuals are in special program files which allow you to view the manual on screen or print it. These files have the COM or the EXE extension, and have "DOC" somewhere in the filename. Simply enter the appropriate command. For example, if you have Asc2Com, the manual is ASC2CDOC.COM To view the manual, type ASC2CDOC press <ENTER>. You can page through the document on screen, or print it by pressing <ALT><P>. For a list of helpful commands, press <F1>. Files which have the DOC or TXT extension are ASCII format files (also called DOS Text files) which can be viewed or printed using DOS commands. For example, if you have a typical setup, you can print a document called INFO.DOC using this command: TYPE INFO.DOC > PRN CHANGES AND UPDATES: Sometimes changes are made in a program after the on-line manual is completed. Information about such changes will appear on disk in a com file called UPDATE.COM. If this file appears on your disk, you should run it to get the latest important information about the software. BE SMART! Before installing new versions of any software, make backups of all the old files. This protects you in case of an error during the installation/update process. Remember that power surges, hardware failure, and user errors can all lead to data loss or damage. Make backups of your data on a regular basis. If you wonder how often you need to back up your word processing documents, mailing lists, spreadsheets, etc., ask yourself, "How many days worth of work can I afford to lose?" We recommend that you use a system of three or more sets of backup disks which you rotate on a daily basis. That way, if something unfortunate happens to one set of backups, you will have another set available. A few minutes spent making daily backups can save you hours of heartbreaking work trying to recreate lost data. BAD DISK? It seems that in hot weather we are more likely to get complaints about "bad" or unreadable disks. Floppy disks are susceptible to heat, moisture and magnetism. A disk that sits all day in a hot mailbox or truck where temperatures exceed 100 degrees is likely to be damaged. Disks which have been exposed to magnetism may become unreadable. Before assuming a disk is bad, try it on another computer. It may be that your computer's drive heads are dirty or slightly misaligned. Suspect this if you often get disk error messages with different disks. An inexpensive head cleaning kit may help solve the problem. Sometimes the round disk gets trapped inside its square casing and generates an error because it can't rotate freely. Remove the disk from the drive and tap each of the four edges sharply on the surface of your desk. This may loosen the disk. Try reading the disk again. Norton Utilities and Mace Utilities both have features that can sometimes revive unreadable disks. Any serious computer user should have one of these or a similar utility package. In any case, if we sent you an unreadable disk, we will be happy to replace it with a fresh copy of the same program. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ S U P P O R T I N F O R M A T I O N NEED EXTRA HELP? Telephone support is offered to all registered users--or ANYONE WITH A BUG REPORT. I need to be aware of any and all bug reports as soon as possible so that I can get to work on any fixes that may be required. Support by mail is FREE. Mail support to registered users is generally unlimited.(However, I reserve the right to terminate support to users who in our judgment are unreasonable or abusive, or who have system problems which transcend the scope of this software.). Unregistered users: I appreciate receiving a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your inquiry. Free support to unregistered users will be limited to getting you up and running, or responding to error messages. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ W H A T I S S H A R E W A R E ? Shareware isn't a type of software; it's simply a form of marketing that allows the customer to try software before buying it. This ensures the customer is buying what he or she wants, and won't be stuck with a package that can't be returned once the shrink wrap has been opened. Most shareware is freely distributed with a limited trial period. If the program is right for you, you register with the author or publisher. If not, simply erase it from your disk. This way you get a fair trial to see exactly what you are buying before you spend a nickel. Q: Is shareware free? A: No it isn't. Programs marketed through shareware are copyrighted and protected by US Copyright law. Unregistered users who use shareware beyond a shareware author or publisher's stated trial period are in violation of US federal law. Q: What about the money I paid to a disk vendor? Didn't I pay for the program when I bought that disk? A: No. What you paid was a disk copying and distribution fee. That's why the disk cost so little. Most shareware vendors charge less than ten dollars for a shareware disk. This covers their costs in making the disk for you and sending it to you. Even so, you'll find that most shareware programs cost less than their conventionally marketed counterparts. You'll also find that many shareware programs are equal or better in quality. Q: How does the trial period work? A: You can use the shareware version of Asc2Com to see how you like the program and how well it will work for you. Our trial period is 30 days. This will give you ample time to use all the features of the software. And, of course, after thirty days you must either buy a registered copy from us, or erase your trial copy. Q: Does this really work? Do people ever pay? A: Yes, there are many successful companies that use shareware marketing. Shareware is based on trust. The authors/publishers trust the public to be honest and buy software they use. In return, users develop trust for the authors who write this useful software. Q: How do I remove "Unregistered Version" message on the screen? A: When you register, you will receive instructions and an ID # to remove the Unregistered Dialog Box. Q: OK, so what do I get when I register? A: When you pay your registration fee, you get the latest version of the software on disk and your ID number. The next update is free. All updates thereafter are at 50% of the normal fee. Q: What about technical support? A: Like most software companies we provide technical support to registered users. The best way to get support is by electronic mail on CompuServe, or by US Mail. This way we can provide fast, reasoned answers to your questions. Q: Where can I get a recent copy of your software to try? A: The most up to date copies of our shareware offerings can be found in the various forums on CompuServe. You can also obtain recent copies from ASP-approved disk vendors and BBS's. All prices are in U.S. dollars, checks drawn on and payable through a U.S. bank. You may register by credit card through Public (Software) Library. In the USA call 800-242-4775. Others, call 713-524-6394. These numbers are for orders only.) You can Fax a credit card order to PsL at 713-524-6398; or mail it to them at P.O. Box 35705, Houston TX 77235-5705; or send via CompuServe at 71355,470. Please do not mail credit card orders to MorganSoft (and do not mail checks to PsL). Minimum credit card order is $25.00. If you need more than 5 copies of this software, please contact us for a site license. British/UK orders: Please direct registrations to Survey Design Associates Limited, at the address below--they are MorganSoft's representatives in the UK and are authorized to make accept orders and provide technical support. If you have any site licence questions, however, please contact MorganSoft. Survey Design Associates Limited 5A Waldegrave Gardens Twickenham, Middlesex TWI 4PQ Tel: 081-744 2002 Fax: 081-891-0866 CompuServe 100013,2767 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tell us where you found this program! _______________________________ What type of computer do you have? ________________________________________ DOS Version______ Do you have a hard disk?_____ If yes, what size?_______ How many of each of the following floppy drives does your computer have? ___5.25" 360K ___5.25" 1.2M ___3.5" 720K ___3.5" 1.4M ___Other:_________ Which of the following types of printers do you use? ___Dot Matrix ___Laser ___Ink Jet ___Daisy Wheel ___Other:__________ Which of the following describes the kind of monitor/graphics setup you have? ___Hercules ___CGA ___EGA mono ___EGA color ___VGA mono ___VGA color ___Other: ________________________________ What are your comments about this software? (Use other side if needed) Licensing: Asc2Com and the Asc2Com package may not be distributed for profit without express, prior written approval from MorganSoft; the maximum copying charge that may be charged for copying Asc2Com iS $7.50. BBS'S and shareware libraries (such as the Public (software) Library) are encouraged to distribute the Asc2Com package (with thanks from MorganSoft). If you have an unregistered, evaluation copy, please feel free to try it out as you see fit. You may NOT, however, distribute the resulting files in any fashion whatsoever. You are allowed to evaluate Asc2Com for a reasonable period of time before registration becomes obligatory (For the purposes of this agreement, a reasonable evaluation period is to be not more than 30 days). A private registration costs $25.00 and licenses you to produce but not distribute programs. Commercial registrations begin at $35.00 and licenses you to produce and distribute any programs produced, in a commercial endeavor. All registrations entitle you to use Asc2Com on any computer that you have access to and to one update free (plus a $3.00 shipping & handling charge for domestic orders, $6.00 for international. Canadian orders will be handled as domestic rather than international) whenever you elect to update (and a newer version exists). European orders (except the U.K.) are accepted as follows: Checks will be accepted only if they are drawn on a European Bank that has an official correspondent bank here in the US. International Money Orders are accepted, as is European currency - with a surcharge of 5% added to the total for changing currency on this end. If currency is sent, I suggest that you wrap it in lightweight "airmail aluminum foil". U.K. orders should be sent to our U.K. agent: Survey Design Associates Associates Limited (Tel:081-744 2002) 5A Waldegrave Gardens, Twickenham, Middx., TW1 4PQ, U.K. THE ONLY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AN UNREGISTERED SHAREWARE COPY AND A REGISTERED ONE ARE AS FOLLOWS: Registered copies have your Registration ID Number in them. Unregistered version also always begin with a dialog box identifying the program. IF YOU DO ELECT TO UPLOAD ASC2COM TO A BBS, PLEASE KEEP THE ENTIRE PACKAGE TOGETHER. Purpose: Asc2Com is a general purpose documentation utility/help file generator that·makes documentation for programs and files easy to access for the user. Specifically, Asc2Com generates a self- listing Com program from an ASCII text file. You have your choice of six differing types of programs to generate: FileList: The entire package consists of the following files: Main Programs: Asc2Com.Exe Main Program. Sed.Com Editor supplied with Asc2Com. A2C.Exe Command Line version of Asc2Com. Aux. Files: Asc2Com.Brs Resource file containing menus. A2CHlp.Hlp On-Line Help File. Lzw.Exe Compression program. Asc2Com.Ico Windows 3.x Icon. Slns.Exe Line counter program. Lister Image Files: Comprss.Bin FL.Bin Page.Bin Lite.Bin Wide.Bin Prntr.Bin Documentation Files: Asc2CDoc.Com Main Doc File. This one. A2CDoc.Com Doc file for the command line compiler. SEDDoc.Com Doc file for editor. SEDEDIns.Exe Command Installation program for SED. Vendor.Doc ASP Document File. Configuration Files: A2C.Cfg Current Defaults for program. A2CTran.Stm Configuration of Transfer programs. A2CClr.Cfg Colors to be used with Asc2Com. (NOTE: are not included--will be generated) Setup: If you have an unarced copy of Asc2Com package, copy all the files to whatever directory that you decide will be the home directory for Asc2Com. (if you have the arced version, copy that to the directory and unarc.). Next, you may need to set one environmental variable. Do this if you are running a DOS version previous to DOS 3.0 (I STRONGLY SUGGEST UPGRADING TO 5.0 if you can!) For DOS earlier than 3.00 only: Edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file by adding the following line: set a2c=PATH where PATH is the full path name for the directory where Asc2Com will be. ASC2COM WILL NOT RUN WITHOUT THIS LINE in your autoexec.bat. The program needs to be able to locate several files at all times and will not be able to should the environment not be set correctly. Once you have done this, reboot your computer and you're ready to run. For DOS 3.0+. NO ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLE HAS TO BE SET. Do so if you will, or if for some reason or other you seem to be having problems (such as errors claiming "File Not Found"). Menu Options: The menu bar for the program consists of 3 options: Files Lister Options which have the following functions: Files: relates to opening and manipulating of files that you wish to view. Lister: allows you to change the Lister Type, the Colors used, the Hot Keys, and other parameters of the various listers. Options: provides a means of changing the default colors of Asc2Com itself, actually chose and process a file, or to run external programs. Individual Menu Options: Files: Open Open a file to browse Close Close the most topmost file window Tile Make all windows non-overlapping Cascade Overlap windows, leaving top visible Prev Make the previous window current. Next Make the next window the top window Zoom Either make the top window full screen, or shrink Resize Change the size of the current window Chg Drive Change the current drive or directory Shell Shell to DOS Register Fill out the form to Register Asc2Com. Exit Leave Asc2Com (return to DOS) Lister Type Chose the type of lister to produce Color Pick the colors that the lister will use Hot Keys Pick the Hot Keys that will be used by the listers (that support hot keys). Help Screen Configure the Help Screen Special Chars Pick which characters will mark colors or taglnes Filters Set various filter options Options Colors Pick the colors that Asc2Com uses Process Chose a file and then process it User Options Transfer control to an external program. Run Processed Run the most topmost file (if a .COM exists) Edit Source Edit the most topmost file Options of Lister Type Compressed: The compressed lister is new to the 2.00 version and is a complete rewrite of the original full lister. All of the options available under the full lister are available--except for the complete omission of BIOS screen writes. CGA Snow Checking is available through a toggle whilst in the program. Numeric paging is not supported. One command line switch only is supported: -l:# (where # is a line number) will start the display at line #, overriding the automatic resume feature. At the present time compressed listers will only Jump to Lines 1-999. The new options are as follows: Ten End User Bookmarks. More mouse support. The Status Line now allows clicking on the various options, allowing the user to page, scroll up or down, invoke Find/Repeat Find, and Help. Automatic Resume: if the user leaves the program, and then returns, he will be immediately placed on the same page. DOS Shell: Keys Reconfigurable: Most of the Keys are Primary User Reconfigurable. (Through the Main Program, Asc2Com). Pagination: Write to Printer now includes end user configurable pagination. Print Marked Blocks: Blocks may be marked and written to the printer. Help Screen Reconfigurable: The help screen is primary user configurable. (Again, through the Main Program, Asc2Com, rather than the 1.76 Version, HelpInst.Exe). Limits Expanded: In addition, the limits of Asc2Com have been expanded considerably, through the use of LZW data compression. Full Lister: Listing can be accomplished by single lines up and down, page, or by numerical choice. The output file can take a /h (Hard Copy), /c (CheckSnow), /p (Standard Output, Pause), and /s (Standard Output) switch. A Find option is available, 2 "TagLnes", user chosen, Write to File (Alt-F), Write to Printer (Alt-H), and a Help Screen (F1). A mouse is fully supported, as well as five colors: Main Screen Color, Bottom Line Color, Help Screen Color, Accent 1 Color, and Accent 2 Color. Page Lister: This lister is functionally the same as the full lister except it will NOT scroll line by line. The size is slightly smaller. Printer: The smallest and simplest of the Com file produced by Asc2Com (about 400 bytes of overhead) and lists the file to LPT1 only. No switches are allowed (or needed). Lite: The smallest of the 5 video listing Com files and it has many of the same listing abilities as the Full Lister. The only differences are that 3 switches are allowed by programs generated with this option: /c (CheckSnow), /f (Produce File), and /h (Print File). Use of a mouse is fully supported, as are all five colors available under the Full and Page lister--the help color will be used as a third Accent color in lieu of being used with a help screen. No find option has been incorporated at this time. Wide: This lister is based on the Lite, and has all of the same command lines options. However, as the name suggests, you're not limited to lines of 80 characters or less. Strings of up to 255 characters are allowed. The mouse is fully supported, as are all colors. Preparing the Text File: How you prepare your text file will depend on the type of lister you chose to use. Several of the listers have aspects in common and will require pretty much the same preparation. For the Full, Page and Compressed Listers, you will need to decide if you wish to use TagLnes and if so, where. You might wish to scroll through the file and see what natural breaks there are, or identify places where important topics are located. (For example, each topic of this help file is part of TagLne1. The second TagLne takes the user to either contacting MorganSoft, or Registration Information). With the Page Lister you need to set up the paging for the file carefully, so that each page is complete. Next, decide if you wish to highlight certain portions of the text with different colors. You have 4 colors available for this and you might need to process the file several times before you achieve the effect desired. If you are using the Lite or the Printer Lister, you have very little in the way of preparation to do--both of these produce a clean, tight stream of data with little embellishment. I suggest the use of these two listers for ordinary but important documentation. The preparation for the Wide Lister is the only lister that does NOT require that you truncate all lines at column 80. Lines can be as long as 255 characters. The Compressed Lister, since this lister has the most number of options, requires the most preparation, particularly so since how the file is prepared will directly affect how much compression is achieved. See the section on compression. Colors: The 1.75 version of Asc2Com added quite a bit to the available colors in the output lister. You will have a choice of five foreground and background combinations to use in your files. The five colors are used in the following manner: Screen Fore & Background: This is the foreground (FG) and background (BG) colors that will be used for the screen and general text the lister will display. Default is white FG and blue BG. Bottom Line FG & BG: This is the color that the prompt line at the bottom of the screen will have. Accent 1 & 2 FG & BG: The accent colors and their placement are determined by placing the corresponding accent character. To mark any section of text that you wish to highlight or "accent", place the corresponding accent character before the first position you wish to highlight and immediately behind the last portion - ALL ON THE SAME LINE. Very strange results will occur when you scroll if you do not pair characters on each line. When placed, the characters will NOT be shown on the screen. Note, however, that they will print out when the lister prints to a file. Help FG & BG: This is the color that will be used for the help screen when it pops up. Also used as a third Accent color. Filters: Filters are operations (with one exception) that will be performed on each line of the source text file before being written out to the COM file. You may perform the following operations: Make Upper Case, Make Lower Case, Pad the left margin with spaces, Strip the left margin of characters, or Strip ASCII control codes between 0 and 31 inclusive. In previous versions the option of expanding tabs was also available, but is no longer supported. All of the active filters are shown in the dialog box. If you elect to change one of them, simply mark the appropriate box and then fill in any other information required (suggest column increment for the Pad or the Strip Left options). Keys: This menu option is only for the Compressed Lister, The following keys can be changed by the Primary User : Find Find Again Begin Marking End Marking Jmp TagLne 1 & 2 Write File Print File Shell ToggleSnow Enter Mark Mode JmpToBK 1-0 SetBK 1-0 Help Disabling Hot Keys: All hot keys except help can be disabled if you so wish. To do so, simply set the hot key to the same as a proceeding hot key. (That's why you can't disable Help--it's the first hot key). Only certain characters or keystrokes are allowed to be hot keys: A-Z (= a-z) ShiftF1 - F10 AltF1 - F10 CntlF1 - F10 AltA - Z F1 - F10 HelpScreen: As mentioned above, the Help Screen in its entirety is configurable from this option. Simply type in the help screen you wish, using the up and down arrow keys to move between each line. Note: when you first move to a line, it should change color; if you wish to keep any of the line intact--PRESS AN ARROW KEY first. If you enter any character, the entire line will be wiped. Also note, if the cursor is a single line rather than a block cursor, you will need to present the INS Lock key (changing the mode to overwrite). The default help screen completely fills up the space allowed for the help screen and if in insert mode, no characters can be be inserted. The box drawing characters are available using the keys outlined to the right of the help input lines. Process: A Dialog Box will appear showing the current directory and those files available. The default extent is .TXT. Simply pick the file you wish and move the highlight to "Open" with the Tab Key or use the mouse to select that button. That file will then be processed with the current set of options. User Options: This dialog box allows you to Run, Delete, Edit, Add (New), and Cancel program transfers. These transfers are actually programs that you can run from within Asc2Com. Each entry is will consist of three lines of input: the first is the Title that will appear in the List Box (on the Left side of the dialog box). The second is the full path name of the program to run. It MUST include the drive, the directory, the name, and the extension if the program is to run correctly. The third line is used to provide the program with any command line parameters needed. Please note, some programs will "hang" when run from the User Options box --they need their own copy of COMSPEC invoked. If you encounter a program that "hangs", try the following: C:\COMMAND.COM In the line for Cmd Line Parameters, you need to place the name of the program you wish to run, PROCEEDED by a "/C ". For example: /C C:\UTILITY\MYPROG.EXE file1 file2 would run a program called Myprog.exe, found on the C drive, in the subdirectory Utility, with two command line parameters: file1 and file2. Run Processed: * New in 2.05 * This option will immediately run the last produced file--from the current session. You MUST have processed at least one file before using this option--Asc2Com will not remember between sessions. Edit Source: * New in 2.05 * This option must be "set up" before it can be used. Go to the User Options menu item and make an entry with the following: Program Title: (anything you wish) Program Path: (full path and program name of your preferred editor) Prg.Cmd Line: $ Only the last, Prg. Cmd Line is functionally different from the usual Options Program Cmd. Line. The "$" must be used so that Asc2Com will know that you wish to edit the file currently in the top window. This will be the source file for any processing done, unless you explicitly key in something else. Shell: This a typical DOS shell which allow you to do anything you could normally do from DOS, subject to memory constraints of course. To return to Asc2Com simply type "exit" at the DOS prompt. Exit: Does exactly what it says. Exits from Asc2Com. SED Editor: Run the program SEDDoc.Com for information about using this program. A2C Operator: Run the program A2CDoc.Com for information about differences between Asc2Com and A2C. A2C's main difference is that all options are controlled by command line switches, which, strangely enough is why it was included. ComFile Operation: Four of the Com Files produced accept command line switches, as follows: /c: Wait for retrace, used for CGA systems with snow. /p: Pause mode. Use the Standard BIOS Output and pause until key pressed, before going to the next page. /s: Use Standard BIOS Output, instead of direct screen writes. /h: Send output to printer. Lite Lister & Wide Lister: Switches: /h, /c, /f. /h: Sent output to printer. /c: Wait for retrace, used for CGA systems with snow. /f: Generate text file from Com file. Compressed Lister: No Command Line switches supported. In this section, Compressed Lister Default Commands will be framed in brackets {}. F1 {F1}: Help. This pops up a screen listing all available keys and what they do. See HelpInst for details of customizing. F2 & F3 {F2 & F3} : TagLne1 and TagLne2. Special "Find"commands, that only locate 1 of 2 non-displaying characters. Place the special TagLne characters where ever you wish the user to be able to jump to when they hit the appropriate key. You could, for example, place all TagLne1 characters at topic headings--thereby allowing the user to jump from topic to topic with a single keystroke. These characters will be invisible due to the fact that during processing they are converted to Hex 00 or Hex FF which appear as spaces. Alt-H {Alt-P}: Print (to LPT1) This option clears the screen and queries if you want to send the file to the printer. When the printing is completed, the screen will be cleared again, on the same page. Alt-F {Alt-W}: Write to File. This also clears the screen, but only the words "Writing File" will appear in the center of the screen. An ASCII copy of the original file, with the same file name will be created IN THE CURRENT ACTIVE DIRECTORY AND DRIVE. As with the Alt-H option, you will then be returned to the same position in the file when the action is completed. F/F7 {F}: Find. When pressed, a prompt will appear on the bottom line "Find:" and the user can then enter a maximum of 11 characters for the search. When the search string is found, the string will be highlighted in its entirely in reverse video. The search will be "Global" in that it will begin on the line directly below the top line on the screen, and "wrap around" back to that position. That is, if you have line 40 at the top of the screen, the search will commence with line 41, through the end of the file, and then re-start at line 1, and then ending at line 40. If not found, a bell will sound. Searches are CASE INSENSITIVE. If you make a mistake entering the "Find" string, use the backspace correct it. R/F8 {R}: Repeat Find/TagLne. This repeats the last search starting immediately below the last find. If another occurrence of the target string exists in the same file it will be highlighted in the same way as for "Find". Compression Pointers: The compression algorithm used in Asc2Com is the standard LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) one originally used in the Arc programs. If you understand a bit of HOW the algorithm works, you can make some changes to the structure of your text file, that will increase your compression, often by as much as 10 %. So here goes. The LZW algorithm is a dictionary approach that assumes NOTHING about the incoming data stream, and works on one single pass through the data. A set of tables are set up to hold codes and individual characters which are generated on the fly--making LZW one of the faster methods available. At the beginning, two bytes are taken from the incoming data, a number computed (peculiar to the two characters) and the first available char is written to the code table. This represents the combination of these two characters (say a "T" and an "h" from the word "The"). The second character is written to character table. Now the program places the first character into the output, moves the second character into the slot of the first, and grabs the third char. At this point, the programs tries to begin using the tables to compress the data--it computes the a number (as above--it's called a Hash Value) and looks it up in the table. If it finds it, it places the corresponding code in slot one, discards the second character, and grabs another, to repeat until done. The reason LZW works is that it uses numbers larger than can be held in a single byte for the code representations--in the case of Asc2Com, I use 9-Bit and 10-Bit values--thus saving some space by often coding three or four characters into, say, 9 bits. (Saving for 3 characters is 27 - 9 or 18 bits, or 2 bytes. (For heavy weight programmers out there--I know, a gross and slightly inaccurate representation of LZW. Forgive me). The main points to remember are that 1: There are only so many code values available using 9 and 10 bit values. 2: Letter combinations that are common throughout the file are a "plus". Now for suggestions. If you can avoid using graphics characters at the beginning of your file, do so. The combinations you get will "clog" the table and not give you much by way of compression. If you have a left margin, try to keep it close as possible to a multiple of 8--the size of a tab. Asc2Com will automatically substitute a tab for you, and you'll find that you'll get a better mix of codes in your table. A slight digression here: the basic logic of my implementation of LZW came from an article by Mark Nelson in Dr. Dobb's Journal, which was written in C--I never was able to get the original to work. I suspect a misprint in the source code, but in any event, I had a dickens of time translating it into Assembly Language. Due to the time it did take, I elected to freeze the Asam source when I finished the 9 and 10 bit implementation, rather than going on to adding 11 and 12 bit tables. Quite frankly, I was sick of it. Expect the next version of Asc2Com to implement that, plus table flushing and a couple of other tricks. I suspect the amount of compression will go up significantly. Limitations: For all of the Listers Except the Compressed Lister: Max file size that can be processed is variable--I wish I could give you a firmer answer that that. It depends entirely on how much of the file gets converted to tabs it to a tab, gaining 7 bytes back. The Full Lister and the Page Lister take up a bit more than 4 K now while the Wide Lister takes up a little over 2k. The Lite Lister takes less than 1.8 K. All in all, with normal margins, you should break even at something around 40 K in text file size. Compressed Lister: 80 columns maximum width with maximum files size (depending upon compression results) between 70 and 130 K. I would normally expect that you would get compression of about 50%, giving you 65K-10K=55K data space, 55 * 1.5 or about 82.5 K. I've had some files do much better (one came in with 150 K+ of text) but I certainly wouldn't count on it. NOTE: do NOT use LZEXE or PKLite on these files. I would expect problems should you do so. Misc. Credits, Reports, What-Not of Historical Nature. Version 2.05. This version. With this version, MorganSoft now has an official representative in the U.K.--Survey Design Associates Limited (5A Waldegrave Gardens, Twickenham, Middx., TW1 4PQ, U.K. PH: 081-744 2002) who will taking all U.K. orders and shipping from the U.K. directly. Technical support will also be offered by them. (Although Tony [Bryer] has not been given official credit for anything previous to this, he's had very good suggestions and ideas over the past couple of years. It's a pleasure to have him representing me). New options added: Run Processed and Edit Source (thanks to Tony Bryer for the idea). A2C has been refurbished and given back it's command line options at the insistence of Anthony Briggs (Hamsoft), New Zealand. Anthony was more than a little irate at the loss of command line switches (very politely so, though) and I stuck them back in because his points were all valid and besides, he sent stamps from New Zealand for my daughter (Thanks again, Anthony). Hot keys were reworked extensively to be more intuitive. (Tony Bryer). A work of caution: several people have had a run time error occur- -and there's really nothing I can do about it. The cause of it is TOO LITTLE MEMORY for Asc2Com to operate. Please, make sure that you run Asc2Com with over 300K of memory free. I DO NOT guarantee anything if there's not enough memory to function. So if you get a run time error 202 (Stack overflow) or 203 (Heap overflow), try freeing up some memory before contacting either Tony or myself. Version 2.01 Quick bug fix for the Compressed, Full, and Lite Listers. And there are, (LORD, this is embarrassing), TWO versions of this around. Beats the heck out of me how you can tell them apart at a glance. NOTE: One of them works as advertised and the other does NOT. And, I repeat, this is MY fault, not anybody else's. I was in such a rush to get a fix out that I inadvertently left a copy of the older .BIN files on my hard disk and managed to make up two different archive sets for distribution, one containing some other problems, one not. Also, please note that the 2.01 Version only says 2.01 INTERNALLY-- in the .BIN files. Documentation (except for an explanation file) all says Version 2.0. The bugs: Thanks go to Phillip Kramer for spotting the bug that panicked me. This bug causes a LOCK UP IN THE COMPRESSED LISTER if the mouse cursor is over the Line counter (lower right of status line) and the mouse is clicked. Bug two was reported by several people (list is long so this time I'll forgo). Briefly, the hot keys for the Full, Page, and Compressed Listers was case sensitive (IF you used an ordinary key-- such as "A" or "F"). That's been changed. New feature as added, on the Compressed Lister. A command line option was added to do the following: if the program was invoked as follows: C> myprog.com -l:20 the opening screen would start with line 20, top line. NOTE: the switch MUST be exact-- "-l:" must be used, not "/L:". Version 2.00 This version was a long time in the making--I think I learned more Assembly Language than I'd ever thought I would, plus quite a bit of C, To give credit, I'd like to thank the following people who gave me advice either directly or though Compuserve, or through demo programs and code they've released. Rosemary West for beta testing and encouragement (including finally talking me into joining ASP). Gary Elfring for originally finding the color/mono bug and beta testing. Bob Dodson for testing, and before that, listening to endless progress reports--gripes, and frustrations. Bud Rasumussen for assembly tips. Mark Nelson for writing the article on compression (and the book Data Compression. Excellent book, I recommend it.) Vern and Julie Buerg for advice and together with some others during a rather weird experience, reality checking. Bug reports came from in less frequently on the 1.76 release; to be specific, only one that I know of which dealt with Tandy Computers running a version DOS 2.2 (I believe it was the Tandy HX? HD? In any event, discontinued.) Ken Finto was the unfortunate who ran into the problem with his business--and by the time it came to my attention I was already deep into the rewrite. Gary Elfring's bug was as follows: on monochrome systems, if the file used highlighting at all, you ended up with a "mottled" screen. It took me a couple of hours to trace the bug down (I confess to stupid coding here) and it's been fixed in this version. Ver. 1.76: One of the caveats that applied to earlier versions of the program is no longer strictly true. IF the listers are used in the direct video mode, then the presence of ANSI.SYS (or equivalent) will not cause problems with "mottling" of the screen. The help screen will be in the ANSI/DOS colors, but that should be the only effect that you see. For those of you who use a rather nice product called FlickerFree [ (C) by Steve Gibson] FlickerFree had to be off when using Asc2Com generated programs. (By the way, I heartily recommend FlickerFree. Gibson is one Dynamite programmer and I salute him. I just wish I was half as good). Ver. 1.75: Ken Finto of Finto Software, Rosebud, TX, for finding the Find/First Key Escape bug. Bob Dodson for keeping me up to date on developments upon Compuserve. Bud Rasumussen, for as always being one heck of a source of information on the PC. Ver. 1.65: Bob Dodson, when he gets off the idea of me writing a mouse based COMM program is always a good person to bounce ideas off of. Bud Rasmussen has been very patient with a fumbling assembly language programmer, lending access to his huge library of source code, his own code included, and his large reference library. Peter Tiffany alerted me to a problem with DOS 4.01 of which I was unaware. Briefly, the following explanation: If a user has the Config.Sys file containing the command "BUFFERS = NN /X" where the nn is any number (and unimportant), programs generated by Asc2Com will lock up. I've reproduced the problem but can NOT get it to happen under Turbo Debugger. Version 3.3 of DOS works fine. The good news is that other changes I've made in the program (with the 1.75 version) that were designed to help Hercules card cursors, apparently fixes the conflict with buffers loaded into extended memory. I've no idea why. Anybody out there who has information about this please contact me. I'm curious as hell as to what is going on. Ver. 1.50: Three people deserve special thanks for this release. All three, Bob Dodson, Bob Hunter of CCC BBS, and Tony Bonillo of Modem XChange BBS have done yeoman duty in beta testing, suggesting, and prodding me to produce a better product. Let's face it, I'm lazy; they're not. Two users are mainly responsible for this edition of Asc2Com (and the changes). One is a gentleman who shall remain nameless (mainly because I can't find where I wrote his name down) who had a large need for the Wide lister--specifically, for use with large reports generated by DataBase applications (like Paradox-- (C) Borland Inter.) The Find Option was rather feverishly added at the request of Greg Hastings of Pinpoint Publishing. I am pleased to announce that Asc2Com is being used by these rather nice people for the Help File & Documentation for two of their products: Bon Appétit & Micro Cookbook. (C) by Pinpoint Publishing. While much more a hacker than a user, I can recommend these programs as being both useful (if you eat) and fun. I take credit for the help screen, but I only decided to add it due to two suggestions (from Nelson Ford) that I incorporated--the Alt-H and Alt-F suggestions. The Status Bar was getting cryptic to the point of a James Joyce passage--I wasn't even sure what everything meant. Ver. 1.25: To my beta testers en masse, with particular thanks to Mike Heggen again. Mike made several suggests that were incorporated into the interface (filter section). Bob Dodson pointed out some rather idiotic mistakes and some relatively subtle ones too. Chris Lafournaise was good enough to test out several different things as well. Ver. 1.10b: Thanks go to David Roper for suggestions as well as to Nelson Ford-- both had excellent suggestions and they've been incorporated: Reverse video for the command line and a printer option. I can truthfully say that I'd thought of them, but I'd elected not to implement them for reasons that escape me now. Hack fatigue no doubt. Ver. 1.10: Thanks go to Jim Radcliffe of ON AIR Software for suggestions. The addition of numeric paging came from a talk with him on the phone about the needs of his company. Thanks also go to Bob Dodson for file searches on CompuServe and putting the program up on same. As always, Bob's programming ideas, comments, and tongue lashings have been a big help. Ver. 1.00: Thanks go to two people who've helped by beta testing this program for me: Mike Heggen of Uff Dah Systems and Bud Rasmussen. Mike informs me that his monitor (a Herc clone) DOES NOT WORK on the default option. Weirdness reigns because he also informs me that using the "/c" option gives him a display. I'm at a complete loss to explain that. So, if you've got a Herc or Herc clone, be warned that you may be stuck with using either one of the command line switches. Contacting MorganSoft: If you have any questions, please contact me at the address below, or phone the number (no collect calls accepted) or leave me EMAIL on any of the three BBS's listed below. Since I live on the West Coast, adjust your phone call accordingly. I'm generally available between 5:00PM and 10:00PM Monday - Friday. You take your chances on the weekends cause I'm in and out all the time on those days. MorganSoft 2170 Raynor St. SE Salem, OR 97302 PH: 503-399-8389 Office/Fax: 503-364-2002 Compuserve 71167,2664 Salem Public Library (Co-Sysop, Pascal Base) 503-588-6086 503-588-6130 503-588-6081 If you wish to call, please call between 4:00 PM and 10:00 PM, Monday - Friday. On the weekends, 10:00AM to 10:00 PM. END-OF-FILE>>>