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README.TXT
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1993-05-06
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30KB
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674 lines
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(freeware)
Contents
--------
1 Introduction
2 Legal stuff
3 What is available?
4 Technical notes
5 The user interface
6 Source code availability
7 Credits
8 Revision history
9 How to contact me
1 Introduction
---------------
This software is a part of version 4 of Rickis little useful (?) DOS utilities.
After version 3 I decided to split them up and distribute the stuff in smaller
packages (mainly because the file became too big). If you have comments or
suggestions, please contact me. You find my address at the end of this
document.
All programs were programmed with Turbo Pascal 6.0 on a 286 AT compatible
machine using Norbert Juffas TURBO.TPL replacement, version TPL60N19. Each of
them is tested to a reasonable level of stability (I use them myself :-) ). If
you have problems, please contact me. I suppose you need at least DOS 3.x to
run everything successfully. RUTILS ran without problems on the following
platforms:
Original IBM AT 286, MS-DOS 3.3
AT 286-20 NEAT, AMI Bios, MS-DOS 3.3
AT 286-20 NEAT, AMI Bios, MS-DOS 5.0
AT 286-20 NEAT, AMI Bios, DR-DOS 6.0
AT 386 NEAT, AMI Bios (10/89), MS-DOS 5.0
AT 486, AMI Bios, MS-DOS 5.0
After RUTILS3 was out, several people kindly reported some bugs to me. There
were some which could be fixed immediately. One bug, however, was a bit harder
to find. Some debug sessions later I found that DR-DOS and MS-DOS are not as
compatible as they should be. This version has been tested with both MS-DOS and
DR-DOS. None of my TSRs caused any problems.
On PCs with a 80486 chip, it may happen that one of the programs crashes. This
has nothing to do with my software (at least I hope so :-)). The effect is that
the PC hangs and must be rebooted. If you start the program in a Windows DOS
box, a weird error message is displayed and the computer must be rebooted. If
you use the DOS DEBUG command to start the program, everything runs fine. What
makes me think that the problem has nothing to do with my software is the fact
that (a) I can fix the bug by simply adding some few bytes to the executable
(eg. by placing some additional spaces in a help screen) and (b) it occured
that a program crashed if it had been DIETed, and ran without being compressed
and for another program this behaviour could be observed in the opposite way.
If anyone has more information about that strange matter, please contact me.
The RUTILS package is intended for people who already have the basic knowledge
about DOS. You should know how to view and modify text files (if you read this,
you appearently know how to view them :-) ), how to redirect a programs output
to a file (and how to append it to the target file) and how to use the pipe
symbol '|'. I did not include a complete introduction to DOS in every DOC file.
For DCAT you must know how to put labels on diskettes, for ASET you must know
what shell variables are (and how to view and modify them), GENOUT will only be
useful if you program in a shell or in a programming language, and CHMOD
requires some knowledge about file attributes.
All the programs are a result of my hobby, not my profession.
2 Legal stuff
--------------
You are free to use this software if it is not modified in any way and if you
give it away for free. You may only charge a minimal fee to cover distribution
or diskette costs. The author disclaims all warranties as to this software,
whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties
of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, functionality or data
integrity or protection. Phew.
For magazines, software distributors, sysops, ftp site administrators...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you spread the RUTILS4 software by placing it on a ftp site for public
access, or putting it on a diskette for a computer magazine, or making it
available in any other way for a large user group, you *must* inform me by
email (preferred) or mail. This will allow me to inform you if any substantial
modifications have been made since you got the package, and let me have an
overview on how the software has been spread. You don't have to register. You
don't have to pay. You only have to tell me.
3 What is available?
---------------------
The following table gives an overview over what's available and into which
categories it falls. Some of the programs are marked with (unix) to show that
they are (at least) similar to Unix commands.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Text file utilities |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1 | CUT | Remove selected fields from each line of a file (unix) |
| 1 | DETAB | Change tabs to spaces in several files (unix: expand) |
| 1 | ENTAB | Change spaces to tabs in several files (unix: unexpand) |
| 1 | FMT | ASCII text formatter (unix) |
| 1 | HEAD | Show the first lines of a file (unix) |
| 1 | LOCASE | Change chars in several files from upper to lower case |
| 1 | MCOL | Arrange text in multiple columns |
| 1 | NODUP | Remove successive equal lines from files |
| 1 | TAIL | Show the last lines of a file (unix) |
| 1 | UPCASE | Change chars in several files from lower to upper case |
| 1 | WC | Count words, lines, and chars of several text files (unix) |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Arbitrary file utilities |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2 | CAT | Append several outputs to stdout (unix) |
| 3 | FILE | File type guesser (unix) |
| 2 | HD | Display hex dumps of several files |
| 2 | STRINGS | Find printable strings in an object file or binary (unix) |
| 2 | TEE | Duplicate textual output to a file (unix) |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Directory utilities |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| 4 | L | Display information about files and directories |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Programming utilities |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| 5 | GENOUT | Generate program fragments for textual output |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Batch file utilities |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| 6 | ASET | Enhanced SET command |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Miscellanous utilities |
+---+---------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| 5 | BANNER | Display strings in huge letters (unix) |
| 5 | CAL | Display a calendar (unix) |
| 5 |