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┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ╔══════════════════════════════╗ │▒▒
│ ║ ║ │▒▒
│ ║ BATMNU ║ │▒▒
│ ║ Batch File Menu System ║ │▒▒
│ ║ Version 2.3 ║ │▒▒
│ ║ ║ │▒▒
│ ╚══════════════════════════════╝ │▒▒
└────────────────────────────────────┘▒▒
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
October 29, 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2.0 MENU FORMAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2.1 General Format Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2.2 Window Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.3 Window Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.4 Other Window Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.5 Option Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.6 Option Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.7 Headers and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.0 WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BATCH FILE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.0 MENUS WITH PARAMETERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.0 MOUSE SUPPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.0 SCREEN SAVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.0 SHAREWARE INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.1 New Security Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.2 New Utility Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.3 Bonus Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
8.0 BATMNU History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
BATMNU v2.3
Warren Small
(c) 1993
1.0 INTRODUCTION
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
This program is a menuing system for use with your batch files. It is not
intended to be a shell, although with some very ambitious batch file
programming, it could be used as one. Even nested menus are possible. Its
purpose is to provide sophisticated flow control and give batch files a
professional appearance by creating a point-and-shoot menu with up to 26
options per menu. The cursor keys and the HOME and END keys can then be
used to make the selection. Each option can be selected by a 'hotkey'
defined by your menu. A mouse is also supported if detected and there is a
Screen Saver feature to protect your display.
1.1 Syntax
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BATMNU [d:][path]filename [label] [default]
The program defaults to a filename extension of "mnu" if none is provided.
The filename can indicate a separate file or, if you prefer, the menu can
be within the calling batch file. You will have to code the batch file so
those lines are never executed, of course. If a separate file is used, it
can be 'hidden' making it more secure from tapering.
The optional label parameter can be used if you wish to put more than one
menu within the file. Bracket your menu lines with ":label" and
":end_label". BATMNU will search your path for the file if it's not in the
current directory. The label can be up to 15 characters long.
The default parameter on the command line is used if you want an option
other than the first one to be highlighted when the menu starts. e.g.
"BATMNU NORTON.BAT 3" will highlight the third option.
2.0 MENU FORMAT
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
:menu {keyword to mark where the program should start reading}
header,header text
h_format,fYEL,bred,t1,d1 {header colors, time, date}
window,tRED,hWHI,... {colors and window appearance definition}
title,title text
option,option text,[#] {# indicates hotkey position in option text}
help,help text {must follow option help refers to}
option,option text,[#][,[drive],[directory],program] {optional format}
option...
.
.
.
footer,footer text
f_format,fYEL,bred,t1,d1 {footer colors, time, date}
:end_menu {Program stops reading and closes the file}
2.1 General Format Rules
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The definition can be organized in almost any order as long as it is placed
between the ':menu' and ':end_menu' keywords (or other label if provided on
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Warren Small
(c) 1993
the command line). The window line should appear before the options if you
use the 'l', 'n' or 'a' parameter. Maximum title length is 54 characters.
Headers and footers can be 70 characters long if the time and/or date are
not used. If you leave the title out, your menu will contain only your
defined options. Header and footer are optional. Maximum option length is
50 characters for single column menus and 25 characters for double
column.(See "no_margin" description on page 4 for longer title and option
lines.) Maximum help length is 70 characters.
All parameters on the window, h_format and f_format lines are separated by
a comma. Spaces are ignored. The keywords can be indented for clarity, if
desired, using spaces or TABs.
Environment variables can be used within the header, footer, options, help
lines or title. The variables are indicated by surrounding the name with
the percent (%) sign, just as you would on a batch file command line. The
variable's value is inserted when the menu is displayed. If the variable is
not found, the variable name is used as it appears in the menu with %
signs.
2.2 Window Options
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The "window" line in your menu will define the colors, appearance and
actions of your menu. Each switch of keyword should be separated by a
comma. The color options are:
f# - foreground color of window (0-15)
b# - background color of window, (0-7)
t# - title color (0-15)
o# - option color (0-15)
h# - hotkey color (0-15)
k# - screen color (clears screen), foreground (0-15), background (0-7)
e# - screen border color (0-15)
Color options should be followed by one of the color values shown in the
chart below. Hotkeys can be made invisible by using "hinv" on the window
line. The hotkeys will still select the options but the menu will not
indicate them. This gives you the look of a simpler "light bar" style menu.
COLOR VALUES
0 or bla = Black 8 or BLA = Grey
1 or blu = Blue 9 or BLU = Bright Blue
2 or gre = Green 10 or GRE = Bright Green
3 or cya = Cyan 11 or CYA = Bright Cyan
4 or red = Red 12 or RED = Bright Red
5 or mag = Magenta 13 or MAG = Bright Magenta
6 or yel = Brown 14 or YEL = Yellow
7 or whi = White 15 or WHI = Bright White
The 'k' option fills double duty setting the foreground and background
color for the screen. The first k parameter will set the background, the
second the foreground (Foreground default is "whi" if not specified). The
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Warren Small
(c) 1993
foreground color is used with the fill character. The fill character can
appear after the color of either to give the screen background more
interest than a flat color. Use of the drop shadow is more dramatic too.
If you prefer, a string could be used to fill the screen background. Either
words or special characters could be used. Put the string after the color
as above. If you want to add spaces, use the underscore (_) character. It
will be treated as a space when displayed. (e.g. kred_Main_Menu)
The 'e' option sets the screen border color which is outside the normal
text area. An 'e' used alone will reset the border to its normal black.
Default colors are provided (fYEL, bblu, tWHI, oCYA, hRED) and the options
will be left-justified. The menu will be in single column format unless it
exceeds 12 options. It will have a double line frame (m2). Default colors
for headers/footers are fWHI, bred.
2.3 Window Appearance
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The window appearance options are:
s# - shadow on, 1-4 to position shadow relative to menu
c - center each option individually
w - display menu in wide, 2 column format, default for > 13 options
l - default to letter selection of options
n - default to number selection of options, maximum of 10 options
a[n] - automatic selection of hotkeys. [optional no case favoring]
m# - menu frame type, 1 - ┌─, 2 - ╔═, 3 - ╒═, 4 - ╓─, 5 - █▀
r# - top row for menu window
c# - left column for menu window
no_margin - display menu without wide margin around the frame
popup - save entire screen and restore when menu closes
The shadow position is set with the 's' option. 1 is below and to the
right. 2 is below and the to left. 3 is above and to the right. 4 is above
and to the left. The 's' option alone defaults to 1.
Menu options are normally left justified. If you want your options centered
in the menu, use the 'c' switch.
If you want a 2 column menu, the 'w' switch will force BATMNU into this
mode. As a default, menus with more than 13 options are always displayed
this way.
The 'l' option can be useful when you have a large number of options or if
you just prefer it that way. The 'n' option is for those who prefer
numbered menus. Naturally, only 10 options are possible with numbers as
hotkeys. The 'c' option is overridden if you use 'l' or 'n'. With these
options, your maximum option length is reduced by 3 characters and the
hotkey position will be set to 1. If you follow the 'l' or 'n' with another
character such as a dash, period or parenthesis, this will be used as a
separator. (e.g. 'l-' will produce 'A-', 'B-', etc for the menu.)
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Warren Small
(c) 1993
It is not necessary to specify the hotkeys for your options. If you leave
this information out, BATMNU defaults to the first character. By using the
'a' switch, BATMNU will make sure you don't end up with duplicates. It
makes a one-pass search to find unique letters for all the options. You can
override the selection by indicating the hotkey on the option line. The
search favors uppercase letters unless the no-case modifier is used, 'an'.
To place the menu at a position other than centered on the screen, the 'r'
and 'c' switches will define the position of the upper left hand corner.
BATMNU will make adjustments to ensure the menu and shadow, if used, will
remain within the screen boundaries. BATMNU will not confuse 'c' (centered)
with 'c#', column #.
If you prefer that the menu does not have the large margin around the menu,
use the "no_margin" keyword to eliminate it. This will increase the Title
and Option line maximum length to 60 and 56 respectively. It the menu is in
2 column format, the max option length is 28.
You have the option to save the entire screen before BATMNU displays the
menu, and restore the saved contents after the menu closes. Include the
keyword "popup" on the "window" line to make this happen. Cursor position
is saved as well.
2.4 Other Window Options
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
There are four other options for the window line:
x - disables the mouse. No search is performed.
p - Screen Saver Pause
v - Option Return Value
~ - Allows use of the Escape key to exit menu, returns errorlevel 0
Use 'x' if you do not want to use the mouse. The mouse check is skipped
when the program starts and there is no delay in activating the menu. This
option has no effect on systems without a mouse.
'p' controls the pause time before the Screen Saver activates. The default
is 5 minutes. The Screen Saver can be disabled with 'p0' and the maximum
setting is 30 minutes (p30).
Information about the option chosen can be returned through the environment
by using the 'v' option. It extracts a portion or all of the option's text
and can be used for a number of things. Its format is "v#var" where #
controls the number of characters to return (1-60) and var is the variable
name to use. If the variable name is not specified, BATMNU will use "VAL".
In retrieving the text, if # is larger than the option's length, the entire
option text is returned. If you use the letter or number option, the label
is skipped so that just the option's text is placed in the environment. See
the example batch file, NORTONV.BAT, to see how this feature can be used to
eliminate "if errorlevel" statements and simplify the batch file. NOTE: DOS
3.3 or higher is needed to use this feature.
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Normally, ESCape is not a valid key for a menu. If you wish ESCape to be
active, place a '~' on the window line. Errorlevel 0 will be returned. If
the 'v' option is used, the environment variable will be set to "ESC".
2.5 Option Lines
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
As stated above, the format for the option line is:
option,Option Text,hotkey[,drive letter,directory,program params]
Hotkey position starts at 1 and will default to that position if omitted or
the number is longer than the text. Alternately, the hotkey can be defined
with a character. BATMNU will first search the option text for an uppercase
letter that matches. If there is no uppercase match, the program will do a
lowercase search for the first character that matches. (e.g. "Disk Info,i"
will highlight the I of "Info". "Disk Filer,i" will highlight the i in
"Disk".) Use a number if you want a specific character as your hotkey.
If a hotkey character is duplicated, the menu will return the value
associated with the first option with that hotkey if the hotkey is pressed.
If the highlight bar is used to select an option with a duplicate hotkey
value, the highlighted option value will be returned.
You can let BATMNU select the hotkeys, if you wish, with the 'a' window
parameter. The choices can be overridden by the option line selection. The
menu will default to letter choices if it runs out of characters to pick
from. This procedure will also favor uppercase characters before lowercase.
To override this, use 'an' (auto hotkey, no case).
If the program cannot find any options in the file, a Menu Format Error
message will be displayed.
Refer to the section, Menus With Parameters (page 7), to see a description
of the drive, directory and program options.
2.6 Option Help
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The Help line specifies text which will appear in the footer (See below.)
when the option is highlighted. It can be up to 70 characters long and can
appear with the time and date. This will restrict the help line length
some, depending on the time/date format used. The help must follow the
option it refers to creating option/help pairs in the menu. e.g.
"option,Norton Commander" could be followed by "help,File Utility".
2.7 Headers and Footers
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Header and Format format lines have the following options:
f# - Text Foreground color (0-15)
b# - Text Background color (0-7)
t# - Display time of day (0-4)
d# - display today's date (0-5)
popup - show text while menu is displayed only
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(c) 1993
The header and footer items define a line of text to appear at the top and
bottom of the screen. The entire row will be colored with the background
color. Colors are defined on the h_format and f_format lines using the f#
(foreground) and b# (background) parameters as shown above. Refer to Window
Options on page 2 for more information on colors.
Another option for the f_format and h_format lines is the keyword "popup".
Normally, the header and footer lines remain after the menu selection is
made. If you want either or both of these lines to disappear with the menu,
include the keyword "popup" on the appropriate format line. Their
appearance will be the same when the menu is displayed, however, they will
disappear, restoring the original lines, or the menu background if k# was
used (p. 2), when the menu closes.
The time and date can appear in the header and / or footer. On the format
line(s) include a 't' for time and 'd' for date followed by a number
indicating the format to use. They are as follows:
TIME DATE
0 - HH:MM:SS (default) 0 - MM/DD/YY (default)
1 - HH:MM:SS am 1 - MM/DD/YYYY
2 - HH:MM am 2 - DDD MMM DD, YYYY
3 - HH.MM.SS 3 - DD/MM/YY
4 - HH.MM 4 - DD/MM/YYYY
5 - DDD DD MMM YYYY
The date will appear to the left of the header or footer and the time will
appear to the right. If the header/footer is too long, the time and date
information could overwrite it. A footer can be combined with help (See
above.) with the help line given precedence. If an option has no help line,
the footer is displayed. Use of the "pop_help" keyword in the window (page
6) line will cause the footer to disappear with the menu when a selection
is made.
3.0 WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BATCH FILE?
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
If you execute the sample batch file, NORTON.BAT, you will see a menu
displaying several choices. If you choose one of the options, you will
probably see a lot of DOS error messages as the chance of your computer
being set up the same way is negligible. When you view the batch file, you
can get a good idea how BATMNU operates.
The menu is near the beginning of the batch file mainly for speed. You will
notice a "GOTO START" statement which causes the batch to branch around the
menu. After the ":START" label is the command line that calls BATMNU and
tells it what file the menu is in. If this file is not in your PATH or in
the current directory when started, you would need to specify the full path
name. .e.g BATMNU D:\UTIL\NORTON.BAT
DOS ERRORLEVEL is set on exit from BATMNU with EL 1 corresponding to the
first option, etc. A series of "if errorlevel x goto ..." statements after
the line calling BATMNU will allow the batch file to determine which option
was selected and branch to the appropriate label. EL 127 is set whenever
Page 6
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Warren Small
(c) 1993
the program encounters an error (file not found or parameter error) so you
should plan your batch file accordingly. If the Escape key option is used,
this will always return an EL 0. Be sure to order your errorlevel
statements from largest to smallest since "if errorlevel 3" will be true
for EL=3 or greater. See your DOS manual for more information.
Executing BATMNU with no parameter will display a help screen and example
menu if the file BATMNU.HLP, included in the original archive file, can be
found (See the Appendix for more info on this file). If you type the
command "BATMNU NORTON.BAT" from the DOS prompt, the menu will be displayed
as before but nothing will happen when you make a choice. You need to run
the batch file itself to get anything to start. Several example files are
contained in this archive, including one showing a separate menu file,
another a menu within a batch file, and a third detailing a menu with
parameter passing.
4.0 MENUS WITH PARAMETERS
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Optionally, a program can be started directly from BATMNU. This will result
in shorter batch files as minimal ERRORLEVEL checking is necessary. You
will also find the programs will start faster since there is no batch file
processing. The option line contains additional information relating to the
drive, directory and program name is this form:
option,Word Perfect,w,c:,\wp51,wp
In this example, BATMNU will change the drive and directory and start WP
when this option is selected. When WP is finished, you are returned
directly to your batch file. BATMNU sets an environment variable, ERRLEV,
to identify the program run. You may wish to do further processing based on
the program run or you can check for an ERRORLEVEL code returned from that
program. The ERRLEV variable will equal the number of the option picked. If
WP was the third option, ERRLEV=3 would be in the environment. You could
then run an automatic backup procedure for WP with the line "if
%ERRLEV%!==3! goto wpbackup".
Additional parameters can be passed to your program. Simply include them
after the program name as you normally would.
option,Paradox - Phones,11,e:,\paradox\phones,paradox3 phone.scr
This line would start Paradox which would then run the script phone.scr. It
is recommended that your batch file clear the ERRLEV variable at the
beginning and end to preserve space and prevent your batch file from acting
on old information in the environment. The statement "SET ERRLEV=" will do
this.
If there are no parameters on a line, you can use BATMNU the same way as
earlier versions and the ERRLEV variable will not be set. If you want to
leave out the drive and/or directory parameters, leave a comma to mark it.
BATMNU will assume the program can be found in your PATH. If you don't use
any parameters for an option, the placeholders are not necessary. See the
files NORTONP.BAT and NORTON.BAT in this archive for a comparison.
Page 7
BATMNU v2.3
Warren Small
(c) 1993
If you want the highlight bar to be on the option you just selected after
returning, the ERRLEV variable can be used on the command line to set the
default option. The command:
BATMNU NORTONP.BAT %ERRLEV%
will do this. Refer to the example file NORTONP.BAT to see how this is set
up.
IMPORTANT NOTE: DOS 3.3 or higher is required if you want to use parameters
on the option lines. This is necessary so that BATMNU can use the
environment to relay information back to the batch file. BATMNU will
display an error message and return an EL=0 if you are not using the proper
DOS version.
5.0 MOUSE SUPPORT
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
When BATMNU is run, it checks for a mouse unless the 'x' parameter is found
on the "window" line. This switch will cause BATMNU to skip the check for,
and not use, the mouse. Once the mouse is detected, the mouse cursor will
be set next to the first option. The delay you will observe after the menu
is displayed and before the highlight bar appears is the mouse initializing
and is normal.
Options can be selected with the mouse by moving the cursor to the option
line and clicking the left button. If the option is currently highlighted,
BATMNU acts as if the hotkey was pressed. If not, only the highlight bar is
moved. A second click will then select that option.
The right mouse button acts like the ESCape key if the ~ option is used.
6.0 SCREEN SAVER
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
If you use BATMNU for a shell, you will appreciate this feature. As a
default, if the program does not see any key presses or mouse clicks in a 5
minute period, the screen will blank to protect your display. Only the
cursor will show in the upper left hand corner. Press any key or mouse
button to restore the screen.
The pause time before blanking is set on the Window line with the 'p'
parameter. 'p0' will disable this feature and the maximum pause before
blanking is 30 minutes.
7.0 SHAREWARE INFORMATION
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
This program is provided as "shareware". You are allowed to use it, free of
charge, for a reasonable amount of time. If you find BATMNU to be useful,
and continue to use it, a registration fee of $15 plus $2.50 postage and
handling is required. A form is supplied with the archive file to register
with (BATMNU23.REG). Paying this fee will encourage me to make improvements
and/or correct problems for future versions. Registered users will receive
notification of future releases and information on how the new version can
be obtained. It will also give their ideas for improvements more value.
Page 8
BATMNU v2.3
Warren Small
(c) 1993
7.1 New Security Version
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
If you have trouble with people messing with your menu files, BATMNU is now
available in a version which will read specially encrypted files. The
encryption scheme will not fool the CIA, but it should keep curious people
from playing with your screen definition files.
This new version, called BATMNU-E, has all of the features of the regular
program and is completely compatible with it. It will read straight text
files as well as the encypted ones. The program which does the encrypting
(and decrypting for editing) is included with BATMNU-E and is very simple
to use.
If you want to receive BATMNU-E and the companion encypting program, the
cost is $15. Use the form provided to register either or both.
7.2 New Utility Available
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
WHY DO USERS LIKE A MENU?
Because it makes their life easier. Now there is something to make the menu
designer's life easier! Now creation of the menu is taken out of your hands
and onto the screen!
The BatMnu Menu Utility makes creating menus fast and painless. It gives
instant feedback on what your new menus will look like. Debugging the most
sophisticated menu is now a chore of the past. Seasoned BATMNU users
quickly find they wouldn't be without this utility.
It's out of beta testing now, and available to all registered BATMNU users.
Why do you need this? LOOK!
- See your menu as you are creating it. Instant feedback on changes and
additions. The menu has the same look and feel it will have with
BATMNU.
- No need to remember which switch does what.
- Menus are created just by filling in forms, answering a few Yes/No
questions or selecting values from a list.
- Automatic formatting of the menu file.
- Menus can be edited even if they are inside batch files.
- Up to 16 menus from the same file can be edited at one time.
- Rearranging options is as easy as highlighting the option and
pressing a key.
I know you will want the easiest way to create and edit menus for BATMNU.
The BatMnu Menu Utility will make menu maintenance as easy as filling in a
form. Use the registration form (BATMNU23.REG) to order BMU with your
registered version of BATMNU. It's just $10 if you order with BATMNU. If
you decide to order later you will have to pay an additional $2.50 for
postage and handling. Get your copy today!
Page 9
BATMNU v2.3
Warren Small
(c) 1993
7.3 Bonus Program!
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Upon receipt of the registration fee, a disk will be sent with the current
version plus the program SW-DIR.EXE. This program provides a scrolling file
directory which can be used to choose a file and pass that filename to an
application or use it in your batch file. Appearance options are similar to
BATMNU. The program includes a QuickSearch feature which can quickly locate
a file by name. DOS 3.3 or higher is required to use this program.
Site licenses for BATMNU can be negotiated. Registered 1.X users can
upgrade to 2.3 for $5 plus $2.50 for postage and handling. Feel free to
give it to friends or upload the original archive file to other BBS's
provided that no fee is charged for distribution and it is not modified in
any way. Note to BBS Sysops: Please post this archive file as is, with all
files included, and without changing the filename.
Ver. 2.3 October 29, 1993
Warren Small CIS 71076,407
35 Benjamin Street GEnie W.SMALL
Manchester, NH 03109 Prodigy RSJW31A
Page 10
BATMNU v2.3
Warren Small
(c) 1993
8.0 BATMNU History
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1.1 2/02/90 First general release.
1.2 3/15/90 Options increased to 26. Added automatic hotkeys (A, p. 4)
and hotkey choice by letter (p. 5).
1.3 4/22/91 Added numbered options (N, p. 3), menu frame choices (M#, p.
3), invisible hotkeys (INV, p. 2).
2.0 9/30/91 New option line format to start programs directly (p. 7).
Added mouse support (p. 8), screen border color control (E#, p. 3),
screen foreground color control (K#, p. 2), header and footer option
(p. 5), shadow position control (S#, p. 3), letter and number
separator (L, N, p. 3).
2.0a 1/31/92 Maintenance release fixing several bugs. Parameters now
passed properly to programs started by BATMNU. Border color set
properly. Default colors provided for header and footer. Header and
footer documentation provided.
2.1 6/30/92 Added time/date options to header and footer (T#, D#, p. 6).
Header and footer string length increased to 70 (p. 5). Default menu
choice can be specified on command line (p. 1). Corrected action of
menu with duplicate hotkeys (p. 5). Hotkey selection by letter favors
uppercase match in option text (p. 4). Option string length increased
to 50 for single column menus. Help line option added (p. 5).
Background string fill added (K#string, p. 3).
2.1a 9/22/92 Environment variables can be used in title, header, footer,
options and help (p. 2). ESC now clears help line (p. 5).
2.2 1/11/93 Right mouse button used as ESC (p. 8). Screen Saver added
(P#, p. 8). Help now in external file (p. 12).
2.3 10/29/93 Added row/col positioning for menu (R#, C#, p. 4), option to
remove wide margin around menu frame which increases title and option
maximum length (p. 4), popup style header and footer (popup, p. 6),
popup mode for the entire screen (popup, p. 4), and option value
return through environment (V#[var], p. 4). Default 2 column menu now
occurs at 14 instead of 12. Menu errors now return EL 127 instead of
EL 0. Encryption version now available (p. 9). BatMnu Menu Utility now
available (p. 9).
Page 11
BATMNU v2.3
Warren Small
(c) 1993
APPENDIX
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BATMNU 2.2 and higher uses an external file for help information. The
advantage to this is that it makes the program file smaller and it also
allows a certain amount of customizing by the end user. The following is a
guide to the structure of the help file, BATMNU.HLP.
Each section begins with a header which contains a keyword, the window
size, and the number of strings that will be placed in the window, enclosed
in {}'s.
{Keyword; top row; left col; bottom row; right col; # of strings}
Example: {W_Colors; 12; 16; 18; 63; 4}
The upper left corner for this window is at row 12, column 16, and the
lower right is on row 18, at column 63. There are 4 strings of information
that follow in this format:
c or s; row; col; string
Example:
c; 12; 40;┤ WINDOW COLORS ├
s; 14; 19;f - Foreground Color b - Background Color
s; 15; 19;t - Text Color o - Option Color
s; 16; 19;h - Hotkey Color k - Screen Colors
The letter beginning the line indicates whether it should be centered (c)
at the position indicated or printed right at the position (s). The row and
column position follows and then the string itself.
If you decide you want to alter or add to the information in the file, here
are a few things to remember.
- The window should start at row 8 or more and end at row 22 or less
unless you don't care if it covers the other text on the screen. In
that instance, it can extend from row 1 to 25. The background text is
not disturbed in any case.
- The keyword cannot be altered. These are hard coded into BATMNU at
present. If changed, the program would not be able to find the help
section.
- If the window position values are 0, as is the case for the 'Main'
section, there is no window drawn and the program does not wait for
the user to press a key.
- Make sure that, if you add strings to a section, you adjust the
window size accordingly. Likewise, position the strings so that they
fit in the window.
- Each parameter is separated by a semi-colon. A space is used only
for readability. Leading spaces in a string are used.
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