DOS Wares/doswares.zip/doswares/UTILS/TOOLS/AS-ENVED.ZIP/EE.DOC

Text File | 1994-03-12 | 12.4 KB | 267 lines

DISCLAIMER -

This program is provided "as is", with no expressed or implied warranty for
suitability to a particular purpose. While every effort has been made to
assure it will function properly, the user assumes all risk, and the authors
and distributors will not be liable for any loss due to the use of the
program. No promise is made to support this program, or to update it in any
future release.

DISTRIBUTION -

This program is distributed as freeware. As such, the author retains
copyright on the program and all materials distributed with it, and no person
or persons may sell or distribute all or part of the package without the the
author's express written permission. Permission is given to distribute this
program intact, unaltered and with all associated materials. This program may
NOT be sold, regardless of profitable intent.

DESCRIPTION -

EE is an environment editor. It allows the user to edit the entries in the
active environment, changing things like search path, command interpreter
specification, TEMP and/or TMP directory settings and any other assignments
in the table. EE supports the use of a mouse, cut and paste operations, write
to or read from a file, search and replace and many other functions.

OPERATION -

EE has no command line parameters. When started, EE searches for and locates
the master environment table. It converts the table into editable text, and
displays it in a text window which can be resized and moved with the mouse.
Each entry is terminated with a large dot. EE supports the following
functions:

ESC   -
ALT-X - Exit; leave EE. EE will ask if you wish to update the environment
    with the displayed information. Use the "Y" or "N" keys to select an
    answer, or press the space bar to toggle. If you select "Yes" and the
    displayed environment exceeds the maximum space available in the
    table, EE will beep and refuse to exit. The program may still be
    terminated by selecting "No". EE will remove all leading and trailing
    blanks and blank lines from the edited environment before updating
    the master table.

ALT-M - Toggle marking mode; turn the highlight on or off. See also the OTHER
    KEYS and MOUSE FUNCTIONS sections below.

ALT-U - Cut; removes the marked region from the environment, moving the text
    into the cut buffer. Stops marking mode.

ALT-O - Copy; moves the marked region into the cut buffer, but does not
    remove it from the environment.

INS   - Paste; moves the contents of the cut buffer into the environment at
    the location of the cursor.

DEL   - Delete; if the anchor is set, removes the marked region from the
    environment, but does not move the text into the cut buffer. If the
    anchor is not set, deletes the character at the current cursor
    location.

CTL-Y - Delete line; removes the line where the cursor is currently
    positioned. The cut line is placed in the cut buffer, and can be
    pasted with the INSert key.

ALT-H - Help; pops up a small help window which contains a command synopsis.
    Selecting a command from this window causes it to execute. Commands
    can be selected with the mouse or the Enter key.

ALT-L - Load; loads the environment from a file. The current contents of the
    environment are replaced by the file contents. Files must be in a
    format consistent with that created by the Write function (ALT-W).

ALT-W - Write; writes the environment to a file. The current contents of the
    environment are not changed. Files are written with carriage return/
    line feed terminators separating each entry.

ALT-S - Search; searches for the specified string. Searches forward through
    the environment from the current cursor location, and places the
    cursor at the beginning of the first occurence of the search string.

ALT-R - Replace; replaces the search string with the replacement string.
    Searches forward through the environment from the current cursor
    location. When the first occurence is located, EE will place the
    "Replace? Yes, No, Global : " prompt in the window border. Pressing
    "Y" will replace the string, "N" will skip the occurence, and "G"
    will cause al further occurences to be replaced without prompting.
    The function will search through the end of the environment.

OTHER KEYS -

The left and right arrow keys move the cursor to the left or right one
character. The up and down arrow keys move the cursor up and down one line.
The HOME key moves to the beginning of the current line, and the END key
moves to the end of the current line. The PgUp and PgDn keys move up and down
one entire page of text. The Num Lock key will toggle the marking mode when
using these keys from the key pad.

The Backspace key removes the character immediately preceeding the cursor.
The Ctrl-HOME and Ctrl-END keys move to the top and bottom of the environment.
The Enter key inserts a carriage return into the environment at the current
cursor location. Tabs, of course, are illegal.

MOUSE FUNCTIONS -

When clicked inside the window, the left mouse button moves the cursor (and,
if marking mode is on, the highlight) to the current mouse location. The
cursor will not move outside the displayed text. If clicked and held on the
border corners, the window can be resized. If clicked and held on the border
anywhere else, the window can be moved. EE maintains the original DOS screen
below the window.

The right mouse key performs the same function as Alt-M, i.e., toggles
marking mode, but it moves the cursor to the mouse location before doing so.

SCROLLING -

The window will scroll automatically to the left or right with the cursor to
display entries greater than 78 characters in length. The window may be
scrolled up and down by clicking on the scroll lights at either end of the
scroll bar in the right hand edge of the border, or with the PgUp and PgDn
keys. Typically, the environment table can be displayed in a single screen.
If there is no additional information to be displayed, the scroll lights will
not appear.

MAXIMUM ENVIRONMENT SIZE -

When not in search mode, EE displays the current and maximum number of
characters in the environment in the lower, left-hand corner of the window
border. EE will not exit with the ALT-X key if the current number of
characters in the environment exceeds the maximum allowed. (The program may
still be terminated by selecting "No" when asked if the environment should be
updated.) Blank lines and leading or trailing spaces do not count against the
final total, though EE does include them in the count displayed in the
border. Remove all blank lines and leading or trailing spaces in the
environment to get an acurrate count and to determine if EE can update the
master environment table.

Do to some overhead in storing the table the count is actually one greater
than the actual number of characters, and entry terminators count, too.

EE will allow the addition of text to a value twice the maximum size of the
master environment, up to 64k. This additional room is provided for editing
puroses only, and EE will not expand the size of the master environment table
to accomdate this additional information.

OPERATION IN A MICROSOFT WINDOWS DOS SESSION -

When run in a DOS session under Windows, EE will edit the master environment
table for that session only. This allows multiple DOS sessions to have unique
environments. If you experience trouble while running EE in a Windows DOS
session under 386Enh mode, set the "UniqueDOSPSP" parameter in the SYSTEM.INI
file to "TRUE", and restart Windows. EE cannot edit the master environment in
use by Windows itself, unless it is used before Windows is started.

OPERATION IN A DOS SHELL SESSION -

Some programs allow the user to load an additional instance of the command
interpreter and transfer control there for DOS operations without unloading
the program. Others transfer control back to the original instance of the
command interpreter to provide this service. In the first type, any changes
to the environment will be lost when the command interpreter is EXITed and
control returns to the "shelling" program. In the second type, changes made
to the environment with EE will be present in the environment table used by
the program and may cause erratic behavour and data lost. Caution should be
used when altering the environment with EE in a DOS shell created by an
application program.

THE COMSPEC ENTRY -

The COMSPEC entry in the environment is created by DOS during the boot
process. Removing or altering the value of this variable can cause erratic
behavour or system lock-up. In general, this entry should not be altered or
removed. Specifically, you should not change the value to point to a location
where a copy of the command interpreter cannot be found.

THE PROMPT ENTRY -

Changes to the PROMPT entry will take effect immediately upon EE's
termination. Caution should be used in modifying this value, as erroneous
values can cause system lock-up. Consult the DOS Manual for valid forms of
this entry.

PATH AND OTHER DIRECTORY SPECIFYING ENTRIES -

Modification of entries in the environment which specify locations on disk
such as the PATH variable, will take effect immediately on EE's termination.
If DOS or application programs are unable to successfully parse the modified
entries, erratic behaviour, data loss and system lock-up may result.

DOS VERSIONS SUPPORTED -

PC- and MS-DOS versions 2.0 and later, up to MS-DOS 6.2, including IBM-DOS
5.0 and 5.02. EE should also work on other versions of DOS which support a
master environment, such as DR-DOS and 4DOS, though this has not been tested.
Window DOS sessions have been tested under Windows 3.0 and 3.1 in both
standard and enhanced modes, with PC-DOS 3.3 and IBM-DOS 5.0 and 5.02. EE
should function properly in all versions of Windows from version 2.0 and in
all modes.

EE does not use any DOS stacks, and has been successfully tested when
STACKS=0,0.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS -

EE has been tested successfully with programs that move the master
environment table into a UMB. EE has NOT been tested with Desqview,
Desqview/X or OS/2 DOS services. EE has been tested in the presence of IBM PC
LAN versions 1.2 and 1.3, Banyan VINES versions 4.10 through 4.11(5) and
Novell Netware shells from version 3.02 to 3.21. EE can successfully edit the
environment of the Novell Netware non-dedicated DOS process on a version 2.2
server.

EE is a large program, and requires at least 160K of conventional memory to
execute. If the user has extended the size of the standard environment beyond
the default size, EE will require slightly more memory. If the memory pool is
exausted while EE is executing, it will restore the original environment and
terminate. EE does not use EMS, XMS or UMB memory, nor does it create
temporary scratch files on disk.

EE has been successfully tested on 8088, 8086, NEC V-20, 80286, 80386 and
80486 processors, both 83 and 101 key keyboards, and with CGA, EGA, VGA and
SVGA (up to 1024x768) video types. EE will only enable mouse operations if it
detects a Microsoft compatible mouse.

PLANNED ENHANCEMENTS -

Future versions of EE may include some or all of the following enhancements:

* Access to environment tables other than that of the current instance of
  the command interpreter.

* The ability to alter the maximum size of the environment table.

* Syntacic checking of environment entries upon demand and/or program exit.

* Programmable mouse functions.

* Support for color and graphics operation.

* Optional AUTOEXEC.BAT file update/modification.

* Extended help.

CONTACTING THE AUTHOR -

The author has found EE to be useful and powerful, though its tough to get
used to the idea of altering your environment without a reboot. Even though
future updates, releases, "bug fixes" and support are not promised with EE,
the author would still very much like to hear your impressions on the
strength and/or shortcomings of the program, and any ideas you might have
for additional features beyond those listed above. The author can be reached
at the following E-Mail addresses:

Compuserve: 70751,3127
BIX:        mfisher

Compuserve is the preferred method of contact, the author checks his E-Mail
on that system daily. Remember, no support is promised, and no warranty or
guarantee is extended; users assume all risks.

THANKS -

to the Microsoft Systems Journal, who, after a two year drought, finally
published something the author of EE found of use. Thanks also to Paul Reid
for his help and suggestions.