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PsL Monthly 1994 February
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PTM229.ZIP
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README.1ST
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1993-11-29
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DOS PHANTOM V2.9 from P2 Enterprises
**********************************************************************
** See the CHANGES IN V2.9 section of this file for new features. **
**********************************************************************
DOS Phantom is a keystroke record-and-playback utility. Recordings
can be of any length and can be edited after recording. Recordings
can be played back at high speed or with delays. Playback can be
scheduled for a time in the future or invoked with a hot key. A
powerful script language is provided which incorporates file I/O,
looping and branching, waiting for screen text, branching on program
exit status, pop-up windows and menus, and more.
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
INSTALLATION:
Create a directory and unzip the PTM229.ZIP file into it.
Example:
C:\> MKDIR PHANTOM
C:\> CD PHANTOM
C:\PHANTOM> PKUNZIP ..\PTM229
If you have the PTM.EXE self-extracting archive file, do this
instead:
C:\> MKDIR PHANTOM
C:\> CD PHANTOM
C:\PHANTOM> ..\PTM
DEMONSTRATION:
Make sure you are in the directory containing the PHANTOM2.EXE and
DEMO files. Then, type PHANTOM2 DEMO to run the demonstration.
Now read the section in the PHANTOM.DOC file entitled "Before You
Start" for more installation information.
REGISTRATION:
When you register, P2 Enterprises will send you a free DOS Phantom
Quick Reference booklet. This booklet contains just about every-
thing you need to use DOS Phantom without cracking the manual!
You can register using Visa or MasterCard if you wish.
See the file ORDER.FRM in this kit.
DOS Phantom is:
- A task automation tool
- A tool for application integration (the process of making a
group of different applications work together automatically)
- A tool for creating self-executing demos (with looping and
timeout features)
- A software testing tool (including screen and print capture)
- A substitute for .BAT files
- A keystroke macro utility
DOS Phantom recordings can be edited to include:
- Pop-up text windows
- Pop-up menus
- Pauses for user input
- Branching based on:
- menu selection
- program exit status
- appearance of a text string on the screen
- String variables
- Commands to find, read, and write text files
- Looping
- Play music
DOS Phantom recordings can be scheduled for playback
- daily
- weekly
- once only
DOS Phantom recordings can also be played back using hot keys.
The included Scraper utility allows you to take output displayed by
one program and play it into another program as if it were being typed
at the keyboard. And the use of Scraper can be recorded like any other
keyboard activity.
DOS Phantom provides facilities similar to the scripting languages of
popular communications programs such as Procomm and CrossTalk, but
applied instead to *your* computer rather than the one you are connected
to over the phone line. You can even use DOS Phantom to control a
Procomm session instead of using Procomm's scripting facility.
A demonstration recording and complete Users Guide are included.
DOS Phantom is shareware. The registration fee is $40.00. All features
are present and active in the shareware version.
CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS
Version 2.1 of DOS Phantom fixes a bug introduced in V2.0 which
prevented ALT and CTRL keys from playing back correctly into some
application programs, including CIM (CompuServe Information Manager).
Version 2.2 is a redistribution of V2.1 which corrects the fact that
obsolete versions of the TXT2PTM and PTM2TXT programs were included
in PTM221.ZIP.
Version 2.3 adds support for the PHANTOMDIR environment variable, and
support for scheduled playback and hot-key initiated playback with
the programs SCHEDULE and HOTFILE.
Version 2.4 fixes two bugs reported just after version 2.3 was released.
Version 2.4 of PTM2TXT fixed a bug which caused the timings of certain
keystrokes (those with scan codes under 10h) to be set to zero. Version
2.4 of PHANTOM2 fixes a problem where keystrokes were missed during
auto-repeat with typematic rates set above 15. Minor changes were made
to the documentation.
V2.4 also introduces the MAKEPTM program for producing DOS Phantom
recordings from plain ASCII text files.
V2.5 fixes a bug in MAKEPTM which prevented processing files without
at least a 1 second line delay and incorporates changes to allow chaining
to another recording during playback.
V2.6 adds support for the F11 and F12 keys and their SHFT, CTRL, and ALT
variants and fixes a bug which caused the schedule to be corrupted when
the default RECORDNG.PTM file was used for recording.
V2.8 replaces the keyboard NumLock, ScrollLock, CapsLock, and Insert
keys to their pre-playback state when recording terminates unless
the $RetainKybdFlags directive is contained in the playback file.
(The $RetainKybdFlags directive has no arguments and may be placed anywhere
in the playback file.) V2.8 also fixes a bug which caused scheduled
playbacks with days or dates specified other than the first in the list
to be ignored.
V2.8A of PHANTOM2.EXE correctly reports errors when invalid hot key
combinations are specified.
V2.8B of PHANTOM2.EXE correctly processes unused extended keyboard codes
(actually used by some products) which previously caused erroneous
directive processing to occur.
V2.8C fixes a bug in which the use of ALT and CTRL hot keys with HOTFILE
caused keyboard to appear dead when playback completed.
V2.8A of TXT2PTM.EXE correctly processes delays specified as MM:SS.CCC.
V2.8 incorrectly processed time delays of over approximately 5 minutes.
V2.8A PTM2TXT.EXE correctly processes unused extended key codes and
their translation as <?>.
CHANGES IN V2.9
V2.9 adds support for the $DisableCtrlAltDel, $EnableCtrlAltDel, and
$Reboot directives which allow you to reboot the computer from a
Phantom playback and prevent Ctrl-Alt-Del from rebooting the computer
during critical sections of a playback.
The $DisableKybd directive disables all keyboard input. $Enablekybd
re-enables keyboard input. An optional parameter of $DisableKybd is
a single key which, when depressed, will re-enable the keyboard. Valid
keys for the $DisableKybd parameter are letters and numbers only. This
is to allow $DisableKybd to be used in situations it is desired to
protect against inadvertant key depressions, but where it is necessary
to re-enable the keyboard manually.
The new $Sleep directive behaves just like the $Pause directive, except
that the timer is not reset after each keystroke as it is with $Pause.
$Sleep has one parameter, the number of seconds to sleep. The maximum
number of seconds for all directives which accept seconds is 3600 (1 hr).
The commands $MatchAt, $MatchTo, and $MatchFrom have been added.
The syntax of the new Match commands is:
$MatchAt r,c n text
$MatchTo r,c n text
$MatchFrom r,c n text
where r,c is the row and column number (1,1 is the upper left corner)
n is the timeout is seconds
text is text to match
$MatchAt only looks for the text at the row and column specified.
The text must begin at that screen position for the match to succeed.
$MatchAt accepts -1 as the timeout value. This results in a single
test of the screen location (effectively a timeout of zero). A
timeout of -1 may not be used with the other $Match directives.
$MatchTo searches for the text anywhere before (up