Fritz: All Fritz/All Fritz.zip/All Fritz/FILES/WORDMISC/FLYDEMON.LZH/FLY_UTIL.DOC

Text File | 2001-01-01 | 16KB | 334 lines

Introduction (and a little rattling of the cup...)

     st/exp represents a new level of performance for text data compression,
typically compressing text files to about 30% of their original size.
However, high throughput is not sacrificed in the process; it is competitive
in speed with the best programs based upon the vastly simpler Limpel-Ziv
algorithm.

     I believe it recognizes a point seemingly passed over in all the other
attempts at text data compression that I know of.  Namely, that the pursuit
of ever higher storage capacities without, at the same time, addressing more
convenient information ACCESS, is ultimately a pursuit that will end in
chaos.  The word-orientation of st/exp's compression technique provides the
"hooks" to address exactly this issue of convenient information access.

     But, st/exp is not all there is to this package.  There's also what I
consider to be a great little utility, albeit a DIFFERENT little utility,
that takes a lot of the busywork out of word-processing.  I'm using it right
now, along with Microsoft Word, to write this.  It's called Typing Demon.

     If you take a little time to understand what it does, I suspect that
you'll like it, too.  If you just jump into it, it will probably beep at you
a lot, and you'll probably find it weird and frustrating.  It's really not
that difficult to get used to.  Getting used to not having it, if someone
shoves you onto a VAX or something, would be more difficult.

     There's also a nice directory program, as well as a number of other
programs which, likely as not, duplicate programs you already have.

     If you find these programs useful, a contribution of $25 will be
greatly appreciated.  For $50, you will be registered and will receive the
next program update, with manual, at no additional cost.  Quantity discounts
and site licensing can be worked out for anyone that gets really serious
about it.

     st/exp was definitely NOT a hobbyist effort.  I'm trying to do this for
a living.  With your support, Bartles and James has been able to bring you
an ever-expanding array of different-flavored wine coolers.  Also with your
support, I will be able to continue to develop this basic technology into
something that will be even more useful and interesting, which will
ultimately save YOU money!  You can send your INVESTMENT to:

     MicroComputer Square
     126 Hancock Avenue
     Spartanburg, SC  29302

and THANKS!!!


     PLEASE NOTE that your contribution entitles you to ALL of the programs
listed below, even though the package may be broken up in archives named
fly_util.arc, flydemon.arc, and flystexp.arc, to allow downloading in smaller
"bytes".


Now the Manual

The following programs and files should be found on the distribution disks:

ask_demo.bat  -- provides a demonstration of the ask program
ask.exe       -- a UNIX-style utility for use in batch files
d.exe         -- a directory program you'll like
hide.exe      -- changes the attribute of the specified file to "hidden"
hunt.exe      -- a file-name finder utility
look4.exe     -- searches for any file containing a specified text string
mc2sp.exe     -- Installs MicroComputer Square's sexy prompt
newdate.exe   -- changes the file date/time of the specified files
unhide.exe    -- changes the attribute of the specified file to "normal"
volname.exe   -- allows you to name/rename a disk (hard or floppy) volume

All of the above programs provide at least minimal instruction as to how to
run them, simply by typing their program name (followed by return).  One
exception is mc2sp, which simply does its thing (which is to write a prompt
command to your autoexec file).  The other exception is d, our directory
program.  d will provide rather complete help, by typing "d h", or "d ?".

These files are in the directory "DEMON"

demon.exe     -- the Typing Demon program
linguist.exe  -- a vocabulary-analysis program for use with Typing Demon
mk_demon.exe  -- a "compiler" program to generate your own list of demons
                   and abbreviations for use with Typing Demon
setdemon.exe  -- configures Typing Demon according to its options

demons.fly    -- the compiled distribution "demons file" for fanatics
template.fly  -- the ASCII source file for the above
demons.qwe    -- the compiled demons file for the QWERTY keyboard
template.qwe  -- the ASCII source file for the above

As above, most of these programs provide some minimal help by typing their
program name.  The Typing Demon program, however, simply installs itself in
memory when its name is typed.

These files are in the directory "STEXP"

st.exe        -- the FlySpeed compression program
exp.exe       --  "     "     expansion program
flyspeed.mc2  -- FlySpeed's dictionary data file

st/exp will tell you that you need to specify a file-specification, if you
simply type their program name, followed by return.


The Utility Programs

ask_demo
ask

     The "ask" program simply regurgitates its argument when it is run,
then, it waits for you to type a number.  It then sets DOS's ERRORLEVEL to
this number.  The batch file ask_demo, which may be run simply by typing
"ask_demo", illustrates its use in batch files (I can't think of any other
use for "ask").

The Directory Program (d.exe)

     d, our directory program, is the result of an intense, two-week pro-
gramming effort, undertaken so as to preserve this writer's own personal
sanity, as files written during the development of st/exp proliferated
beyond the control of the DOS "dir" command.  It actually reads the
directory directly, rather than going through DOS, so as to circumvent a
bug, in DOS 2.0 at least, which prevents the complete reading of volume
names which include a space.

     It will work best on systems with a monochrome display, since, in that
case, it writes directly to video memory.  With other display cards, it uses
the BIOS display driver, which is much slower.  If we can manage to make
money selling our software on the mass market, before long we'll get around
to writing direct-memory video drivers for other common displays as well.

     d provides a number of friendly features not to be had with the DOS
"dir" command, such as providing the directory sorted in order of file
extension (the default), file name, file date, file time, or file size.
And, unlike the DOS directory command, or the directory program provided in
the Norton Utilities, for example, which simply scroll off the screen as
they go along, it allows you to page back and forth through a large direc-
tory as long as you feel like looking at it.

     The directory program also performs some data reduction (not data
compression- that's the job of st/exp) on the file date and time fields.
This is valuable in reducing the visual clutter of the directory listing,
particularly when you sort by the date and time.  It makes it possible to
see, at a glance, what files were created or modified on a certain day,
month, etc.  And, again in contrast with the DOS directory command, the date
and time fields immediately follow the file name field, since creation date
is generally of more interest than the file size.

     One common reason for sorting by file date is when you're trying to
find some file you were recently working on, but whose name you can't quite
remember!  By sorting according to file date, you can see immediately which
files have been recently modified.  Sorting by file date may also be of
value when it's time to do your "Spring cleaning".

     The directory program is basically self-explanatory, by means of its
built-in help, which is accessed by typing:

     "d h" or "d ?".

     One thing that Help doesn't explain is the first field of the directory
listing, which indicates the file attribute (if any).  The most common file
attribute is the "file dirty" attribute, indicated by a little tick mark.
This indicates that the file has been modified since last being backed up to
floppy disk with the DOS backup utility, or some other backup program.

     Occasionally, you may see an "h" in this field, indicating a "hidden"
file.  The copy-protection used by Lotus 123, which allows you to run 123 on
a hard-disk without booting from a floppy, writes some files with the hidden
attribute, which d nonetheless will display.  Conceivably, you may also see
an "r" for "read-only" file, or an "s", for "system" file.

     At the end of the listing of normal files, you may also see a
backslash, "\", in the attribute field.  This is used to indicate
subdirectories.

hide

     hide will simply change the attribute of a file to "hidden".  If you
can't think of what to use it for, you probably don't greatly need it.

hunt

     hunt is a very useful program for people with hard-disks, and imperfect
memories.  You specify a file-specification (i.e., hunt invoices.*), and
hunt will tell you where on your hard-disk (what directories) all the files
are that match that file-specification.

look4

     look4 can also be a useful program.  However, in contrast to hunt,
look4 actually looks for specific text (hunt, also, will search your entire
disk volume, whereas look4 only searches the file-specifications you give
it).  If you remember writing a letter to your town council about their
proposal to raise the sewer tax, but you can't remember the name you gave
that file, you can simply type:

     look4 "sewer tax" *.doc \susan\*.doc

and look4 will search all the files in the current directory, as well as the
directory "susan", having the extension "doc", for text having the phrase
"sewer tax" in it.  The phrase may even include a quotation mark, i.e.,

     look4 "Mark said, "Well, gee" *.*

The text to be searched for is defined by what's between the first and last
quotation marks.

mc2sp

     mc2sp installs MicroComputer Square's sexy prompt in your autoexec
file.  With the mc2sp, the time of day, the date, and the current directory
are all displayed, and the DOS cursor is on the line below.

     It is reasonably common to see someone using the prompt command to
display the current directory.  My objection to the way it's usually done,
is that the DOS cursor will vary its column position on the screen, de-
pending upon how many letters are in the subdirectory name.  I find that a
little disconcerting.  By putting the cursor on the next line, however, the
DOS cursor will always be at the same column position on the screen, just
like the "glass TTY" C> prompt (which is a vestige left over from CP/M days,
for those of you who may have heard of CP/M).

     You need to run mc2sp only once in order to install the prompt command,
unless you accidentally delete your autoexec file sometime later.  Each time
your computer boots up thereafter, you will get the time, date, and current
subdirectory displayed as part of the DOS prompt.

     You may use your editor or word-processor program to modify the prompt
command.  The "standard" version displays a prompt such as:

     11:38\   Sun  3-27   \lattice\c

You may wish to change this to

      2:15\   Sat  6-15   Current directory is \honolulu\hawaii

by editing the prompt command in your autoexec file, or, better yet, kissing
it off for awhile.

     If you decide you don't want a prompt which displays the time, date,
and current directory, use your text editor, or word-processing program, to
delete the prompt command from your autoexec file.

A Programmer's Tip

     A good, cheap way to accurately time the execution of a program is to
set the system prompt with the following:

     prompt $t\

     Then you create a simple batch file to invoke your program, with
whatever arguments are appropriate.  When you run the batch file, it will
rapidly invoke your program, displaying the system time (accurate to a
hundredth of a second) before and after running the program.

     It can take a fraction of a second for DOS to do the prompt, and a few,
to several, seconds for DOS to load your program, so, if you're interested
in extreme accuracy, you can temporarily modify your program to immediately
terminate, and thus measure the "DOS overhead".

     The Norton Utilities has a program for performing this timing function,
but it operates not nearly so directly, neatly, or accurately.

newdate

     newdate allows you to change the file date and time of the specified
files.  The primary reason someone would want to do this is if their com-
puter clock battery ran down, and they ended up with a number of files with
a January 1, 1980, file date, which may be annoying to see in a directory
listing.

     newdate was used to set the file times of the FlySpeed distribution
files to Jan. 1, 2001, by typing

     newdate *.exe ask_demo.bat

newdate then asks you if you want to use the current system time, or if you
want to specify the time to use.

unhide

     unhide is somewhat the counterpart of hide: it changes the attribute of
the specified file to "normal".  This is occasionally useful if you have a
hidden file in a subdirectory that you want to delete from your disk.  DOS
will not allow to remove a subdirectory which is not empty, nor will it
allow you to delete, copy, etc., a file which is hidden.  Unhide will turn
the file into a normal file which can then be deleted.  Then, once the sub-
directory is empty, you can remove it.

Example:    unhide 123.scr

     Be CAREFUL however!  Hidden files are used by Lotus 123, as one exam-
ple, for their hard-disk copy protection technique.  If you delete it from
your disk, you may be without your Lotus program for awhile.

volname

     volname allows you to name/rename a hard or floppy-disk volume.  You
simply type

     volname a:MegaCorp

in order to label the floppy disk in the a: drive as volume "MegaCorp".  Any
characters, up to 11, may be used for a volume name.  You may even include
IBM "extended" ASCII characters in the name, by holding down the Alt-key,
and typing the base-10 numerical value of the code on the number key-pad.


Installation

     Most FlySpeed programs are programs you will want to run without
actually having to be in the directory in which they are located.  I have
two subdirectories, one named "dos" and the other named "batch", which I
have made "globally visible" (I can invoke the programs and batch files in
them no matter what the current subdirectory may be) by means of a path
command (see your DOS manual if you don't know what that is).  I think it
would be just as good to lump them all together in a directory named
"global", for that matter.  Listed below is the recommended place to put the
various programs, where "global" means some directory which is normally
included in a path command (which you will probably have in your
autoexec.bat file).

ask_demo.bat  -- Since this is for demonstration purposes, you don't really
                   need it on your disk.
ask           -- global (if you intend to use the program)
d             -- global
hide          -- global
hunt          -- global
look4         -- global
mc2sp         -- Since you only need to run this program once, just copy it
                   to your hard-disk, run it, then delete it.
newdate       -- global
unhide        -- global
volname       -- global