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ANARKEY User Manual Version 4.0 Anarchy: A state of being without rulers Anarkey: A state of being without keystrokes Steven Calwas Moderne Software P.O. Box 3638 Santa Clara, CA 95055-3638 (408)247-0509 Copyright (C) 1988-1991 by Steven Calwas All rights reserved Anarkey User Manual Published by: Moderne Software P.O. Box 3638 Santa Clara, CA 95055-3638 (408)247-0509 Copyright (C) 1991 by Steven Calwas All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. WARRANTY THE ANARKEY PRODUCT IS LICENSED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, PERFORMANCE, OR OTHERWISE. ALL WARRANTIES ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. BY USING THE ANARKEY PRODUCT, YOU AGREE THAT NEITHER STEVEN CALWAS NOR MODERNE SOFTWARE NOR ANY OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, SHAREHOLDERS, AFFILIATES, OWNERS, OR ANY OTHER RELATED PARTIES WILL BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY USE OF (OR INABILITY TO USE) OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS PRODUCT, OR FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE EVEN IF WE ARE NOTIFIED OF SUCH POSSIBILITY IN ADVANCE. (SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.) Chapter 1 Introduction and Tutorial Anarkey is an intelligent command-line editor for DOS. With Anarkey, complete input lines can be entered with two or three keystrokes. Anarkey is intelligent because there is no need to tell it what you want to enter on the command line; simply press the <Tab> key and Anarkey figures out what you want and does it for you. Anarkey knows what you want and gives it to you! Here is a list of the main operations Anarkey provides. * Line-edit features comparable to those found in word processors * Ability to save input lines for later retrieval * Three methods to retrieve saved command lines 1) Sequentially walk through the list of saved commands 2) Line completion where you enter a portion of the line and Anarkey completes the remainder for you 3) Pop-up window which lists all saved commands. Supports a mouse. * A text substitution capability called an AKA (also referred to as an "alias" or "synonym"). The Convert program is included in the Anarkey package to translate the alias and synonym definitions of other editors to Anarkey's format. AKAs can even be executed from a batch file. * Enter multiple commands on a single input line * A 255-character input line * Comprehensive filename completion * Environment variable editing * Use expanded memory * Display a non-blinking cursor * Pop-up windows with built-in mouse support to retrieve saved commands, complete filenames and edit environment variables * Configurable key assignments * A MegaKey which analyzes the input line, determines the type of Anarkey operation you want and does it for you automatically. The MegaKey is what makes Anarkey an intelligent command-line editor. * Write the list of saved commands and AKAs to a disk file for future restoration * Comprehensive UNIX switchar support * Pop-up help window with configurable help text * Full-support for enhanced 101/102-key keyboards * Pop-up windows offer your choice between two mouse interfaces * Special support for the 386 Enhanced Mode of Microsoft Windows 3.0 * And much more! Anarkey is written entirely in assembly language for maximum efficiency in memory usage and execution speed. When installed in its default configuration, Anarkey uses about 11K of memory. If expanded memory is available, Anarkey requires only 1K of conventional memory. Installation To install Anarkey onto your system, copy all files from the distribution disk to your hard disk. If you do not have a hard disk, copy the ANARKEY.COM program onto your boot disk. Anarkey makes significant use of the Anarkmd program. To guarantee that Anarkey work properly at all times, place the ANARKMD.EXE file in a directory specified in the PATH environment variable. To run Anarkey, execute the ANARKEY.COM program from either the DOS prompt or your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Since you will probably want Anarkey active whenever you are using your computer, executing Anarkey from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file makes the most sense. When run, Anarkey installs itself into the DOS environment and terminates, but stays resident. A default configuration is used, but can be modified via command-line options. Anarkey options are described in Chapter 11. For the remainder of this tutorial, we assume the default configuration is in effect. Once resident, Anarkey handles all input requests for the following situations: * The DOS command line * Redirected input * DEBUG, SYMDEB, EDLIN and several third-party programs * All DOS sessions running under Windows 3.0 in 386 enhanced mode Notice that Anarkey does not process lines executed from a batch file. However, the Anarkmd program described in Chapter 16 provides an indirect method to support batch files. For now, we will postpone that topic. The remainder of this chapter is a tutorial on using Anarkey's basic features. It is intended for people who want to get started with Anarkey immediately. Subsequent chapters describe all of Anarkey's functions in complete detail. Quick-Start Tutorial Anarkey supplies a multitude of functions which transforms the dreary and tedious task of entering DOS commands into a quick and enjoyable process. It is not necessary to understand all of Anarkey's powers before using it. This tutorial gets you started using the basic Anarkey features immediately. As you become familiar with these functions, additional information can be found in subsequent chapters of the manual. First, install Anarkey by executing the ANARKEY.COM program. This causes a sign-on message to appear, after which Anarkey installs itself and terminates. You will be sitting at a new and empty command prompt where everything appears normal, however, Anarkey's features are now available for your use. The first Anarkey feature we will learn is its line-editing capability. Anarkey lets you place the cursor anywhere within the input line and enter or delete characters. If you have ever used a word processor, Anarkey's line-editing feature will already be familiar. To demonstrate, enter the following line at the command prompt. The underscore character represents the cursor position. echo Anarchy knows what you want_ The word "Anarchy" can be changed to "Anarkey" by pressing the <Left> arrow key to move the cursor until it is beneath the letter 'c' in "Anarchy." Notice that moving the cursor within the line does not modify the line in any way. Similar to the <Left> key, the <Right> arrow key moves the cursor toward the right, <Home> positions the cursor beneath the line's first character and <End> moves the cursor to the end of the line. The input line with the repositioned cursor now looks like this. echo Anarchy knows what you want When a character is typed, it is either inserted into the line or it overwrites the current character. When a character is inserted, any characters to the right of the cursor are shifted to make room for the new character. When a character is overwritten, the new character replaces the character at the cursor position; no shift occurs. Whether a character is inserted or overwritten depends upon Anarkey's input mode. When in insert mode, typed characters are inserted into the line; in overwrite mode, character are overwritten. When first installed, Anarkey is in insert mode. You can toggle between insert and overwrite modes by pressing <Ins>. Notice the cursor shape changes depending upon the current mode. The insert-mode cursor is an underscore while overwrite mode uses a block cursor. Get back into insert mode and type the two characters "ke." Anarkey inserts them into the line so that it now looks like that shown below. Notice the cursor has remained under the letter 'c'. echo Anarkechy knows what you want Characters are easily deleted from lines using any of several functions. The <Del> key removes the character above the cursor and shifts any trailing characters to fill the vacated space. The <Backspace> key deletes the character to the left of the cursor and moves the cursor left one space. The <Esc> key erases the entire line. Press the <Del> key twice to remove the unwanted characters in our sample line. The final edited line looks like this. echo Anarkey knows what you want Press the <Enter> key to accept the line and execute it. Anarkey saves all executed lines. You can view all the lines Anarkey has saved by pressing <F4>. Execute the following lines and press <F4> to verify that Anarkey has saved them. dir *.* type read.me dir \*.bat Once a line has been saved, it can be retrieved so you won't have to retype it. Pressing the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys "walks" you through the list of saved lines. Once retrieved, a line can be edited using the line-edit functions. You can display a full-screen window containing the list of the saved commands by pressing <Alt-F4>. (Make sure ANARKMD.EXE is stored somewhere along your PATH variable before doing this.) Notice that one line in the window is highlighted in reverse video. This line is called the current line. Pressing the <Up> and <Down> keys makes other lines in the window the current line. If the entire list cannot fit in the window, the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys scroll the window's contents. If a mouse is installed, it can also be used to change the current line and scroll the window's contents. Pressing the <Enter> key selects the current line. When a line is selected, the window closes and the chosen line is entered onto the input line. Perhaps the fastest way to retrieve a command is to use Anarkey's command completion feature. Start with an empty command line and enter the first character of the line you wish to retrieve. Then press the <Tab> key (also known as the MegaKey). Anarkey searches the list of saved commands until it finds one that starts with the same character you entered. The remainder of the line is then copied onto the input line. You can try this yourself by entering the 'e' from our sample input line and pressing <Tab>. Anarkey retrieves the remainder of the saved "echo" command and enters it on the input line. If by some chance Anarkey completed the line in some undesired manner (in other words, it did not retrieve the desired line), simply press the <Tab> key again. Besides completing commands, the <Tab> key can also complete directory and file names. When you press <Tab>, Anarkey is intelligent enough to know whether you want to retrieve a command, as previously described, or complete a file name and it acts appropriately. As an example of completing a directory name, say we wish to enter the command "cd\global." Type the following characters on the input line and press <Tab>. cd\g_ Assuming a directory named "global" existed, Anarkey completes it for us. Similar to command completion, Anarkey uses the first character of the name when searching for a completion. Thus, it would look for a directory starting with the letter 'g.' If more than one directory began with a 'g,' Anarkey may select the "wrong" name. If so, simply press <Tab> again to cycle through the list of possible completions. So far, all our examples show you entering only the first character of the item to complete. However, you can enter as many characters as you wish. Often a single character is all that will be needed for Anarkey to complete the rest. However, staying with our directory-completion example, say a large number of directories happened to begin with the letter 'g.' Cycling through them all may take more keystrokes than simply typing the name in manually. Instead, enter additional characters on the input line to narrow Anarkey's search to a smaller number of possible completions. For example, if "gl" is entered on the sample input line, Anarkey searches only for directories that begin with the letters "gl." This technique can also be used for command completions and all the other completion operations Anarkey provides. Besides completing directory names, Anarkey also completes the names of programs and other file types. When completing a program name which is to be executed, Anarkey does not enter the file extension (.BAT, .EXE or .COM) on the input line, just as you would not enter it if typing the name yourself. Anarkey can easily retrieve the setting of an environment variable for you. First type the "SET" command followed one or more characters of the variable's name. Then press <Tab>. Anarkey completes the name and enters the variable's setting on the input line. You can then edit the setting, for instance, by adding a new directory to the PATH. (You don't need to type the SET command to retrieve the PATH or PROMPT settings, but Anarkey cannot complete their names for you if you don't. Check Chapter 8 for further details on this topic.) You may have noticed that much of this tutorial kept repeating a single lesson. That lesson was: If you want to enter something on the input line, press the <Tab> key; Anarkey figures out what you want and does it automatically. In other words, Anarkey knows what you want and gives it to you. This capability is what makes Anarkey an intelligent command-line editor. Using the basic features outlined in this tutorial, you can begin to use Anarkey productively right now. But be aware this section barely touched the surface of Anarkey's full capabilities. Much more is available and is as easy to learn and use as the functions just described. If you are interested, complete details are provided in the forthcoming chapters. Chapter 2 The Pop-Up Help Window Anarkey adds many new features to the standard DOS command prompt. When you are first learning Anarkey, the provided functions and key assignments will not yet be committed to memory. Even after you become comfortable with Anarkey, there will probably be some operations that you will use only occasionally and whose keystrokes you will not immediately remember. To assist you during these times, Anarkey supports a pop-up help window which lists all of the supported functions and their respective key assignments. The help window can be popped-up by pressing <Alt-F1> or <Alt-H> whenever Anarkey is active, for example, at the DOS command prompt. Before you pop-up the window, make sure the Anarkmd program (in the file ANARKMD.EXE) is in either the current directory or a directory specified in the PATH environment variable. After pressing the help key, a full-screen window will be displayed containing a list of Anarkey functions and their current key assignments. Note: The reason Anarkmd must be in the current directory or along the PATH is because it actually performs the entire pop-up window operation. Anarkey simply executes Anarkmd, telling it to display the help window. But all this is performed automatically in the background and you do not need to worry about it. The information displayed in the window is actually read from a standard text file just before the window pops up. By reading and displaying a separate text file, Anarkey saves precious DOS memory by not keeping the help information resident. It also provides great flexibility in the content and format of the displayed help information. In other words, you can modify the help text file to your heart's desire, even include help information about other programs if you wish. The only restrictions that apply are: (1) the file cannot exceed 65,000 characters in size and (2) the file may not contain more than 1000 lines of text. Since a text file must be loaded to gather the help information, Anarkey must be informed of the help file's name. Anarkey first looks for the file name in an environment variable called "HELP@." If HELP@ is defined, it should specify the drive, directory and filename of the help file. For example, SET HELP@=c:\anarkey\anarkey.hlp If HELP@ is not defined, Anarkey assumes the helpfile's name is ANARKEY.SUM and will attempt to locate a file with that name. ANARKEY.SUM is a text file distributed with Anarkey which contains a list of Anarkey functions and their default key assignments. ANARKEY.SUM can also be updated by Anarked, the Anarkey Keystroke Editor, if you modify any of the default key assignments. Anarked is explained in Chapter 13. Depending upon which version of DOS you are running, Anarkey will search for the ANARKEY.SUM file in two locations. First, if running under DOS version 3.0 or later, Anarkey searches for ANARKEY.SUM in the same directory in which Anarkmd is located, also called the home directory. Under versions of DOS prior to 3.0, Anarkey does not check this location. If the ANARKEY.SUM file is still not found, Anarkey looks for it in the current directory. These search steps and the order in which they are performed are outlined below: 1) File specified in HELP@ environment variable 2) ANARKEY.SUM in Anarkmd home directory (DOS 3.0+ only) 3) ANARKEY.SUM in current directory If all attempts to locate the help file fail, Anarkey displays an error message ("Help file not found") and ends the help operation. Otherwise, the help file is loaded and displayed in the pop-up window. With the help window displayed, the following keystrokes are recognized and acted upon: <F1> -- Display help for pop-up window <Esc> -- Exit the help window <Enter> -- Same as <Esc> key <Up> -- Scroll the window contents up one line <Down> -- Scroll the window contents down one line <PgUp> -- Scroll the window contents up one page <PgDn> -- Scroll the window contents down one page <Home> -- View top of help file <End> -- View bottom of help file In addition to keystroke input, if a mouse is installed on the computer, it can be used to scroll through the help window. Anarkey supports the Microsoft and any Microsoft-compatible mouse. With the mouse installed, a separate mouse cursor is displayed in the middle of the window in the form of a solid block character. By moving the mouse, the mouse cursor can be moved anywhere on the screen. Scrolling operations are performed with the mouse by moving the mouse cursor to specific locations in the window and clicking (pressing and releasing) the left mouse button. For example, you can position the mouse cursor anywhere over the "Press F1 for help" message in the upper right corner of the window and click the left mouse button. This will have the same effect as pressing <F1> in that it will display an additional help screen. Pressing either mouse button will clear this secondary help window. On the far right edge of the help window is a scroll bar. The scroll bar is actually composed of four separate sections. At the very top of the bar is a single-character up-arrow. To scroll the window contents up one line, position the mouse cursor on this arrow and click the mouse button. A down-arrow is located at the very bottom of the scroll bar. Click on it to scroll the window contents down one line. The remainder of the scroll bar is divided into two equal halves. Click on the top half to scroll the window up one page; click on the bottom half to scroll down one page. You can also press and hold the mouse button with the mouse cursor positioned at any of these locations. Doing so is the same as repeatedly clicking on the item. To clear the help window, click the right mouse button. After exiting the help screen, you will be returned to the DOS command prompt. Any characters entered at the prompt when the help window was popped-up will still exist. The mouse movements described in this chapter are also applicable to the other pop-up windows that Anarkey supports. These other windows are discussed in future chapters. Anarkey also supports an alternative mouse interface in case you don't like the interface described in this chapter. The alternative mouse interface is described in Appendix I. Chapter 3 Editing the Command Line Anarkey provides line editing functions commonly found in word processing programs. These functions include general editing, cursor movement, character deletion and character retrieval features. One note of interest should be mentioned here. Most of the keystroke assignments listed in the remainder of this manual are configurable. If you don't like some default key assignment, Anarked, the Anarkey Keystroke Utility, can be used to reassign it to a key more to your liking. Anarked is described in detail in Chapter 13. Refer to it for complete details. In this manual, only the default key assignments will be mentioned. General Editing Pressing the <Enter> key accepts the input line. This usually means that the line is passed to the command processor for execution. The entire line is always accepted, regardless of the cursor's position in the line. Before Anarkey passes the line to the command processor, it performs some checks and optional processing on the line itself. For example, Anarkey will break the line into separate commands. (You will see shortly that Anarkey allows you to specify multiple commands on a single input line.) It also checks the length of each command to verify that its length is within the allowable range. If a command is too long, Anarkey does not accept the input line. Instead, it positions the cursor under the first character that extends beyond the length limit and allows you to modify the line further. After the line's length has been adjusted, you can press <Enter> to accept the line again. Anarkey supports two input modes: insert and overwrite. When editing in insert mode, typed characters are inserted into the input line; any characters to the right of the inserted character are shifted right to make room. In overwrite mode, typed characters write over any existing character at the cursor position; no shifting of characters occurs as in insert mode. The <Ins> key toggles Anarkey between these two input modes. By default, Anarkey begins in insert mode. If you prefer Anarkey to start in overwrite mode, you can specify the -I option on the Anarkey command line when it is installed. Refer to Chapter 11 for more information on Anarkey command-line options. The current input mode is indicated by the cursor's shape. The power-up input mode uses an underscore cursor; the alternate mode uses a block cursor. For example, if Anarkey begins in its default insert mode, the cursor is an underscore whenever insert mode is active. On the other hand, if you use the -I option to change the power-up mode to overwrite then an underscore cursor is used whenever Anarkey is in overwrite mode. The relationship between input mode and cursor shape is further illustrated in the following table: Power-up mode = Insert (default and -II option) Insert mode cursor = Underscore Overwrite mode cursor = Block Power-up mode = Overwrite (-IO option) Insert mode cursor = Block Overwrite mode cursor = Underscore If you prefer that Anarkey never alter the cursor's shape, install it with the -C option. Anarkey can also display a non-blinking cursor if the -CN option is used. And if the normal underscore cursor does not show up well on your monitor, use the -CT option to use a thick underscore cursor. Refer to Chapter 11 for details on these and other options. Anarkey remains in a particular input mode until it is explicitly told to toggle to the other mode via a press of the <Ins> key. However, you may prefer that Anarkey always begin a new input line in a particular mode. Anarkey can be forced into a particular input mode at the start of each new line by including the -I option on the installation command line. Again, refer to Chapter 11 for complete details. As you will quickly learn, Anarkey supports a lot of features. Many of these features are invoked by pressing a key. Situations may occur where you wish to enter a certain key onto the input line, but pressing the key instead executes an Anarkey function. For example, say you wish to enter an ANSI escape sequence onto the input line. As you may know, this would entail typing an <Esc> character followed by several other characters. However, pressing <Esc> normally instructs Anarkey to clear the entire input line (as will be described shortly). Is there a way to bypass Anarkey's key processing and enter a keystroke directly onto the input line? The answer to the above question is "yes" and you do it by immediately preceding the key by pressing <Ctrl-U>. The key pressed immediately after <Ctrl-U> is entered directly onto the input line. Therefore, to enter an <Esc> onto the input line, press <Ctrl-U><Esc>. The <Ctrl-U> keystroke tells Anarkey to enter the next keystroke "unmodified," in other words, to skip any interpretation it would normally perform on the key. If you want to enter a <Ctrl-U> on the line, simply press <Ctrl-U> twice in succession. In summary, the general editing keystrokes discussed in this section were: <Enter> Accept input line <Ins> Toggle input mode <Ctrl-U> Enter next keystroke unmodified Moving the Cursor Anarkey allows the cursor to be placed anywhere on the input line. Thus, you can move the cursor to the beginning or middle of a line and modify just a few characters without backspacing and deleting any trailing portion. The cursor is positioned within the line by cursor-movement keystrokes. Each cursor-movement keystroke is outlined and described in the following table. <Home> Move cursor to start of line <End> Move cursor to end of line <Right> Move cursor right one character <Left> Move cursor left one character <Ctrl-Right> Move cursor right one word <Ctrl-Left> Move cursor left one word None of the cursor-movement keys alter the contents of the input line. After the cursor is positioned to its desired location, additional modifications, such as inserting or deleting characters, can be performed. Deleting Characters Anarkey also supports functions to remove one or more characters from an input line. They are all listed in the table below. <Backspace> Delete character to left of cursor <Del> Delete character above cursor <Ctrl-T> Delete word to right of cursor <Ctrl-End> Delete to end of line <Esc> Delete line If Anarkey is in insert mode, removal of a character causes any trailing characters on the line to shift over to fill the vacated space. The cursor position moves whenever the <Backspace> or <Esc> keys are pressed. <Backspace> moves the cursor left one character and <Esc> places the cursor at the start of the empty line. All the other character-deletion keys have no effect on the cursor position. Retrieving Characters One of Anarkey's strongest features is its ability to retrieve command lines previously entered. That topic is discussed in detail in the next chapter. In addition to that powerful new feature, Anarkey also supports two of the original DOS functions that retrieve individual characters and an enhanced version of one of those functions. These three operations are listed in the following table. <F1> Retrieve character from previous line <F3> Retrieve remainder of previous line <Alt-F3> Retrieve remainder of previous line and accept line The <F1> and <F3> keys provide identical services to those offered in the original DOS editing functions. <Alt-F3> in an enhanced version of <F3> in that it immediately accepts the input line following the character retrieval operation. <Alt-F3> is the equivalent of typing <F3><Enter>. Summary The following line-editing functions were described in this chapter. <Enter> Accept input line <Ins> Toggle input mode <Ctrl-U> Enter next keystroke unmodified <Home> Move cursor to start of line <End> Move cursor to end of line <Right> Move cursor right one character <Left> Move cursor left one character <Ctrl-Right> Move cursor right one word <Ctrl-Left> Move cursor left one word <Backspace> Delete character to left of cursor <Del> Delete character above cursor <Ctrl-T> Delete word to right of cursor <Ctrl-End> Delete to end of line <Esc> Delete line <F1> Retrieve character from previous line <F3> Retrieve remainder of previous line <Alt-F3> Retrieve remainder of previous line and accept line Chapter 4 The History Buffer Anarkey saves all entered input lines in a storage area called the history buffer. Keystroke functions are provided to retrieve lines from the buffer, saving you from having to type them again. This is one of Anarkey's most powerful features. Also provided are functions to manuever through the buffer and control which lines get saved in it. Each of these operations are discussed in this chapter. When Anarkey is first installed, the history buffer is empty. When the first input line is accepted (i.e. you press <Enter>), it is stored at the very top of the buffer. Subsequent input lines are stored in the buffer, one after the other, from the top of the buffer to the bottom. Empty lines are not saved in the history buffer. Lines composed of multiple commands are stored in the history buffer as a single line. (Entering multiple commands on a line is discussed in Chapter 7.) A history buffer with several lines stored in it is depicted below. rem This is line one rem This is line two rem Here is the third line rem This is the last line in the buffer When the history buffer is full and you enter a new input line, the line stored at the top of the history buffer is removed to make room for the new line. You can think of this action as being similar to lines scrolling off the top of a display screen. The number of lines the history buffer can hold depends upon the line length and the buffer size. By default, the history buffer will hold 500 characters. However, this can be configured to any value from 255 to 50,000 via the -H command-line option. (Refer to Chapter 11 for details.) The lines stored in the history buffer can be viewed at any time by pressing <F4>. Lines are output to the screen starting with the first line in the buffer and proceeding down to the last line. When an entire screen's worth of lines has been displayed, output pauses. You can press any key to display the next screenful of lines. If you prefer to view the history buffer from the bottom to the top (that is, from the newest line to the oldest), press the <Alt-F4> key. This is identical to <F4> except the order in which lines are displayed is from the last line in the buffer up to the first. Line Retrieval At any given time, one line in the history buffer is designated as the current buffer line or CBL. The CBL is a very important concept for you to understand. By moving the CBL through the history buffer, in other words, by making a different buffer line the current line, is one method Anarkey provides to retrieve lines from the buffer. The following diagram depicts a sample history buffer with the CBL "pointing" to the last line in the buffer. The last line in the history buffer is always a blank line. When you begin entering a new line, the CBL is always set to the last, empty line in the buffer. copy *.* a: dir a: del *.txt md temp CBL -> You can move the CBL, in other words, make a different buffer line current, by pressing the <Up> or <Down> arrow keys. If the CBL is at the last line in the buffer and the <Down> key is press, the CBL circles back up to the top of the buffer. Similarly, with the CBL at the first line in the buffer, pressing <Up> will cycle you back to the last, empty buffer line. Moving the CBL is extremely useful. When you move the CBL, the new current buffer line is retrieved from the history buffer and entered onto the input line. Any characters that existed on the input line at the time of the <Up> or <Down> keypress are erased prior to retrieving the buffer line. For example, pressing the <Up> arrow key with the buffer status shown above, moves the CBL up to the previous line ("md temp"), retrieves that line from the buffer and places it on the input line. The new buffer status with updated CBL is shown in the following diagram. copy *.* a: dir a: del *.txt CBL -> md temp The <Up> and <Down> keys can be pressed repeatedly to sequentially walk through the entire buffer. Once the desired line is retrieved from the buffer, you can use any of Anarkey's line-editing functions to modify the line before accepting it. After retrieving a line, if you immediately accept it by pressing <Enter>, Anarkey moves the retrieved line from its location in the history buffer down to the end of the buffer. This action prevents the buffer from being filled with a bunch of duplicate lines. To demonstrate the move operation, assume the CBL has been positioned in the history buffer as shown in the following diagram. copy *.* a: CBL -> dir a: del *.txt md temp With the "dir a:" command retrieved, <Enter> is immediately pressed to accept the line unmodified. This causes the CBL to be moved to the end of the buffer. At the next input prompt, the new buffer status will be that shown below. copy *.* a: del *.txt md temp dir a: CBL -> Notice the "dir a:" command was moved from its old location in the buffer down to the end. If you prefer that Anarkey maintain a complete log of the commands you execute in the exact order in which they are entered, you can turn off this move operation by specifying the -F option when installing Anarkey. Refer to Chapter 12 for further details. Situations may occur where you wish to retrieve two or more lines stored consecutively in the history buffer. For example, after retrieving the "dir a:" command as we've just done, say we also want to retrieve the line that followed it in the buffer, "del *.txt." Of course, we can use the <Up> and <Down> keys again, but that is not necessary. Also, if there existed a large number of lines in the history buffer, it may take a long time to get to the line we want. There is an easier way. Anarkey maintains an internal record of the buffer position of the last retrieved line. The CBL can be moved to this saved position by pressing the <PgDn> key. Moving the CBL to the next line in the buffer also retrieves that line and enters it onto the input line. Thus, continuing with our previous example, after pressing <PgDn>, the buffer status will be that shown below. copy *.* a: CBL -> del *.txt md temp dir a: The effect is as though you had repeatedly pressed the <Up> key to move the CBL, however, by using <PgDn> instead you have entered far fewer keystrokes. The CBL can be restored to this saved position only one time per input line. Subsequent <PgDn> keystrokes are equivalent to pressing the <Down> key. Line Completion In actual practice, the number of lines stored in the history buffer can be quite large. Having to walk past each line sequentially in order to get to the desired one can be more work than retyping it. For such cases, Anarkey provides a command completion function. Simply type one or more characters on the input line and press the <F5> or <Ctrl-K> key. Anarkey will search the history buffer for a saved command that starts with the same character(s). When it finds one, Anarkey retrieves the line and enters it on the input line, in effect completing the command for you. If the completed command is not the one you want, press <F5> or <Ctrl-K> again and Anarkey will pick up where it left off and continue the search. When Anarkey searches for a command completion, it always begins the search at the CBL and works up toward the top of the buffer. When it finds a completion, it sets the CBL to the matching line and retrieves the line. If the top of the buffer is reached without finding a completion (or all the completions have been retrieved), Anarkey beeps the speaker and sets the CBL to the bottom of the buffer. Pressing <F5> at this point will begin the completion operation again, cycling through the history buffer another time. If the command completion operation is invoked with an empty input line, Anarkey will retrieve the previous buffer line. This is identical to pressing the <Up> key. As an example of how command completion works, assume the following history buffer: copy *.* a: del *.txt md temp cd temp dir a: xcopy a: b: mode mono CBL -> Say we wish to retrieve the "del *.txt" command using command completion. Enter into an empty input line the single character "d" and press <F5> or <Ctrl-K>. Anarkey will search from the CBL toward the top of the buffer until it discovers a line that starts with the letter "d." When it finds the line "dir a:" it will stop searching, set the CBL to the line and retrieve it by entering it on the input line. The buffer status is now that shown in the diagram below. copy *.* a: del *.txt md temp cd temp CBL -> dir a: xcopy a: b: mode mono However, we did not want the "dir a:" command. Therefore, press the <F5> key again to get Anarkey to continue its search. This time it finds the "del *.txt" command and retrieves it, completing the desired command for us. We can now edit the line further or simply accept it by pressing <Enter>. The final buffer status will be: copy *.* a: CBL -> del *.txt md temp cd temp dir a: xcopy a: b: mode mono Alternatively, we could have entered the first two characters of the desired command, "de," before beginning the search. If we had, Anarkey would never have matched the "dir a:" command and, instead would have gone right to the line we wanted. At any time during a command completion operation, you can add more characters to the input line to narrow the search. Assume that after entering the single character "d" in our example and found an undesired completion, we realized there were a large number of lines stored in the buffer that began with that letter. Rather than retrieve each one, simply enter one or more additional characters onto the input line. The command completion operation does not move the cursor position, therefore, the cursor will still be after the initial "d" we entered. Type one or more characters onto the line and continue the search by pressing <F5>. This will narrow down the number of matching completions and retrieve the desired line sooner. In most cases, entering from one to three characters will be enough to narrow the number of completions to a very small number, allowing quick retrieval. The command completion function has a close cousin. The <F6> and <Ctrl-L> keys perform the same completion operation as <F5> and <Ctrl-K> except the retrieved line is immediately accepted. If you are positive the line you wish completed will be the first (or next) one Anarkey will find, pressing <F6> or <Ctrl-L> will save you from having to hit <Enter>. However, if you were wrong, it will be too late; the retrieved line will already be executing when you realize your error. The <F6> and <Ctrl-L> keys allow you to really fly when working at the command prompt, executing long and complicated lines with a minimal number of keystrokes. Just be careful you don't crash and burn. The History-Buffer Window If neither walking through the history buffer nor command completion are to your liking, Anarkey provides yet another method to retrieve lines from the history buffer. Press <Alt-F5> or <Alt-K> and a full-screen window will pop-up that contains all the lines stored in the buffer. If one or more characters are on the input line when you press the key, the window will contain only those lines from the buffer that could be used to complete the remainder of the line. Note: Before you pop-up the history-buffer window, be sure the Anarkmd program is available in either the current directory or a directory specified along the PATH environment variable. Anarkey actually executes Anarkmd which then displays the pop-up window. This saves a large amount of memory since the code to process the window is not required to be resident. From the history-buffer window, you can scroll through the buffer, select a line to retrieve or combine multiple commands to form a single line to enter on the input line. Each of these operations will be described, but if you ever need a reminder, you can always press the <F1> key to display a help window of recognized keystrokes. If the history buffer contains more lines than will fit in a single window, you can scroll through the buffer by using the keyboard or a mouse. Navigating through the buffer window is identical to scrolling through the pop-up help window described in Chapter 2. Refer back to it if you need to refresh your memory on this topic. One line in the history buffer window is always displayed in reverse video (i.e. black characters on a white background). This is the current line. By using the <Up> or <Down> arrow keys, you can make the previous or next line in the window the current line. Press the <Enter> key to select and retrieve the current line. The pop-up window will clear and the selected line will be entered onto the input line. A line can be selected with the mouse by placing the mouse cursor anywhere on the line and clicking the left button. If the left mouse button is double-clicked (clicked twice in rapid succession) the line is selected and immediately executed. The pop-up history buffer window provides one function not found in other Anarkey windows. That function is the ability to combine two or more lines together to form a single line. This single line can then be entered onto the input line automatically. Combining lines saves you from having to retrieve each one individually; a single retrieval operation is all that's required. Entering multiple commands on a line is discussed in detail in Chapter 7. However, to understand how they are constructed in the pop-up history window, all you need to know now is that each command must be separated by a semicolon(;). For example, the following input line is composed of two commands, "cd \temp" and "dir." cd \temp;dir When combining lines in the history buffer window, the semicolon character is placed in the line for you automatically. The process of combining lines entails selecting a line from the window. However, before you press <Enter> or the left mouse button to make the selection, press and hold the <Ctrl> key (i.e. press either <Ctrl-Enter> or <Ctrl-Left Mouse Button). This causes the line construction window to pop-up. The line construction window consists of one field area which contains the combined lines you have selected up to that point. Additionally, there are four buttons along the bottom of the window. Each action that may be performed in the line construction window is represented by one of the buttons. To perform an action, you select or push its associated button. At all times, one button is displayed with a double-line frame. This is the current button. Press the <Tab> or <Right> arrow key to make the next button current. Press <Shift-Tab> or <Left> arrow to make the previous button current. To push a button and perform its associated action, make it the current button and press <Enter>. A mouse can also be used to push a button by placing the mouse cursor over it and clicking the left button. Each button also has a hot-key character which is displayed in highlighted video. You can press a button's hot-key to select or push the button. If you ever need to be reminded of these keystrokes, press <F1> to display a context-sensitive help window. The Abort button terminates the line construction operation. Any combined line created up to that point will be cleared and control will return to the history buffer window. The Continue button returns control back to the history buffer window. From here, you can select an additional line to append to the line being constructed. To append a line to the previously-selected lines, be sure to press <Ctrl-Enter> or <Ctrl-Left Button> when you select the line. Pressing <Enter> or the left mouse button without holding the <Ctrl> key will retrieve that line only and not the combined line. The Accept and Edit button accepts the constructed line. All windows will clear and the line will be entered onto the input line for your editing edification. The Accept and Execute button is identical to Accept and Edit except the line is executed immediately. Pushing the Accept and Execute button is the same as pressing Accept and Edit followed by <Enter>. Miscellaneous Operations In addition to retrieving lines from the history buffer, Anarkey provides several miscellaneous functions which effect the buffer. To store a line in the history buffer without executing it, accept the line by pressing <Ctrl-Enter>. Be aware this function is only available at the DOS prompt and not in the history buffer window; in the window, <Ctrl-Enter> invokes a line-construction operation. Individual lines can be removed from the history buffer by first retrieving the line and then pressing <Ctrl-Z>. In effect, the current buffer line (CBL) is deleted from the buffer. When this occurs, the CBL will move to the next line in the buffer which is then retrieved and entered onto the input line. Thus, <Ctrl-Z> can be pressed repeatedly to delete a group of consecutive lines from the buffer. The entire history buffer can be cleared by pressing <Ctrl-X>. Finally, the contents of the history buffer can be written to an ASCII text file by pressing <Ctrl-W>. The Load program, discussed in Chapter 14, can then read this file to refill the buffer at a later time. This function is useful for carrying over the history buffer contents from one computer session to another. When you press <Ctrl-W>, the history buffer is always written to a file called ANARKEY.LOG located in the root directory of the current drive. If the file cannot be written because of a full disk, Anarkey beeps. If you prefer the file be written to a different location or under another name, use the Anarkmd program to create the file. Refer to Chapter 16 for details on Anarkmd operation. Summary The line-retrieval functions discussed in this chapter are among Anarkey's biggest strengths. If you take the time to become comfortable with them, you will be rewarded with a significant time savings. In summary, the functions and keystrokes discussed in this chapter are listed below. <F4> View history buffer (top to bottom) <Alt-F4> View history buffer (bottom to top) <Up> Retrieve previous buffer line <Down> Retrieve next buffer line <PgDn> Retrieve buffer line following last retrieved line <F5> Complete line <Ctrl-K> Same as <F5> <F6> Complete line and execute <Ctrl-L> Same as <F6> <Alt-F5> Display history-buffer window <Alt-K> Same as <Alt-F5> <Ctrl-Enter> Store line in history buffer, do not execute <Ctrl-Z> Remove current buffer line from history buffer <Ctrl-X> Clear history buffer <Ctrl-W> Write history buffer Chapter 5 Anarkey AKAs There exist certain commands which you probably execute with great regularity. The retrieval operations discussed in the previous chapter are extremely useful in reducing the number of times you have to type such lines. In addition to retrieval functions, Anarkey provides another powerful feature called an AKA (pronounced "a-k-a"). AKAs provide a text-substitution capability to Anarkey. You can assign a long string of characters to a short character string of one or two characters. Then when you enter the short string on the input line, Anarkey will replace it with the long string. This text substitution occurs after the line has been accepted, but before it has been executed, therefore, the substitution is transparent to the user. If you are familiar with another command-line editor, an Anarkey AKA is analogous to what is sometimes referred to as an alias or synonym. "AKA" is an acronym for "Also-Known-As" and "AnarKey Alias." In Anarkey's default configuration, AKAs are not supported. This saves DOS memory because none of the code needed to process AKAs remains resident. If you wish to use Anarkey's AKA feature, you must specify the -A option when Anarkey is installed. Immediately following the -A option, specify the amount of memory Anarkey should reserve to store your AKAs. For example, to store 200 characters of AKAs, install Anarkey with the option -A200. The -A option is also described in Chapter 11 of this manual. Defining an AKA An AKA is composed of two parts: an AKA word and a substitution string. In most cases, the AKA word will be short and the substitution string fairly long or complicated. When you type the AKA word onto an input line and accept the line, Anarkey replaces the word with its substitution string. AKAs can be defined on the DOS command line or via the Load program. (Load is discussed in Chapter 14.) The syntax for both methods is identical and is shown below. :AKA_word substitution_string A colon(:) character marks the start of an AKA definition and AKA word. AKA words are not case sensitive; "word" is equivalent to "WORD." The first space or <Tab> character marks the end of the AKA word. The remainder of the line is the substitution string. If the definition's AKA word is identical to an existing AKA, the existing AKA is replaced with the new definition. A definition's substitution string can include multiple commands, provided each command is separated by a semicolon(;). Entering multiple commands per line is documented in Chapter 7. Anarkey performs a length check on each command specified in the substitution string. If any single command exceeds 127 characters, Anarkey will refuse to accept the definition. It will beep and position the cursor beneath the first character that exceeds the limit. AKAs cannot be nested. In other words, if the substitution string contains the AKA word from another definition (that is, the AKA word is "nested" in the substitution string), when Anarkey performs the substitution operation, the nested AKA word is not replaced. The following line defines an AKA called "home" and a substitution string of "cd \mydir." :home cd \mydir If you enter the above AKA definition onto the input line and press <Enter>, Anarkey will save the AKA in it storage area. If there is not enough room to save the definition, Anarkey beeps. To use an AKA, simply enter its AKA word onto the input line. Using our example, typing "home" and <Enter> will execute the command "cd \mydir." It is important when entering AKAs that they be specified in the command-portion of the line. The substitution operation is only performed on commands and program names and not on program arguments or parameters. This is illustrated in the following two input lines. >home Executes "cd \mydir" >cd home Executes "cd home," not "cd cd \mydir" Any arguments following the AKA on the input line are appended to the substituted sting. For example, take the following AKA definition. :d dir Now if you enter "d *.exe" on the input line, Anarkey will expand it to "dir *.exe" before execution. Notice that the "*.exe" argument was appended to the substitution string. Viewing AKAs The list of defined AKAs can be viewed at any time by pressing <Alt-F4>. AKAs will be displayed one per line until the screen is full. Press any key to see the next screen's worth of AKAs. At the end of the displayed list, Anarkey will output the amount of space still available to store further AKA definitions. If AKAs have not been enabled via the -A command-line option, the <Alt-F4> key has no effect. The Anarkmd program also supports saving AKA definitions to a disk file suitable for processing by the Load program. This allows you to save your AKA definitions between computer sessions. The Anarkmd program is discussed in Chapter 16. Load is explained in Chapter 14. Undefining an AKA To undefine an AKA, simply specify the AKA word preceded by a colon(:). Do not specify a substitution string. For example, to undefine our sample AKA, enter the following line. :home Additionally, every AKA can be undefined in one fell swoop by pressing <Alt-X>. This clears the entire AKA storage area so that no AKAs are defined. Parameter Fields All the AKAs shown so far are simple text substitutions where the AKA word is directly replaced by the substitution string. However, substitution strings may contain something called a parameter field. A parameter field is a special type of designation in the substitution string. Parameter fields are specified by a leading percent sign(%) followed by a single-digit number from 1 through 9. For example, %1, %2, %6 and %9 are all valid parameter fields. The following is an AKA definition that uses parameter fields. :test echo %1 %2 %3 When Anarkey is processing an AKA and performing text substitution (that is, after you have entered and accepted a line), a parameter field is replaced with the corresponding argument taken from the input line. For example, the %1 parameter field is replaced with the AKA's first argument, %2 with the second and so on. Given our sample AKA above, entering the input line "test one two three" would result in the command "echo one two three" being executed. The %1 parameter field in the substitution string is replaced with the first argument to "test," that is, "one." The other two parameter fields and arguments are handled in the same manner. Now suppose we redefined our "test" AKA to the following. :test echo %3 %2 %1 Entering the same "test one two three" line would result in the execution of the command "echo three two one." Notice the %3 parameter field was substituted with the third argument to "test," %2 with the second argument and %1 with the first. If a substitution string contains a parameter field, but the input line has no corresponding argument, the parameter field is replaced with an empty string. In other words, the parameter field is deleted. Thus, given the previous "test" AKA, the input line "test one" would execute "echo one." Notice that since there is no second or third argument, the %2 and %3 parameter fields are ignored. Conversely, if the AKA definition contains a parameter field, but the input line includes additional arguments, the extra arguments are ignored. Thus, a line of "test one two three four" converts to "echo three two one" and the extra "four" argument is ignored. Notice that this is different than if there were no parameter fields specified in the definition. Recall that without parameter fields, all arguments are appended to the end of the substitution string. Parameter fields provide the advantage of being able to position an argument in a specific place within the substitution string. They can be used to create fairly powerful AKAs which approach the functionality of batch files, but execute much faster. Here is an example of an AKA definition that copies files to a specified drive. The AKA accepts multiple drive specifications and each can include the DOS wildcard characters. The syntax of the AKA is: MCOPY drive file_spec [file_spec ...] For example, you can enter "mcopy a: *.doc test.* *.com." The result will be that all files matching the *.doc, test.* and *.com specifications will be copied to the A: drive. Here is the AKA definition for this command. :mcopy for %f in (%2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9) do copy %f %1 As you can see, the substitution string uses the DOS "for" command. If you are unfamiliar with this command, refer to your DOS manual for details. The "for" command is usually used in batch files, however, it can be used on the command line as well. When the input line "mcopy a: *.doc test.* *.com" is entered, the executed line after substitution is shown below. for %f in (*.doc test.* *.com) do copy %f a: When DOS executes the "for" command, the effect will be the same as executing the three commands "copy *.doc a:," "copy test.* a:" and "copy *.com a:." Summary In summary, this chapter documented how to work with AKAs and the following keystroke operation. <Alt-F4> View AKAs Chapter 6 Filename Completion The average input line often includes a filename. Many times the filename is prefaced by a path specification. And all input lines include a program or command to execute. Because these items are entered so often, Anarkey provides functions to complete them for you automatically. These completion operations are similar in concept to the line completion functions discussed in Chapter 4. As you continue to learn Anarkey, it will become clear that entering most items on an input line requires only that you type one or two characters of the item and then let Anarkey do the rest. Completing Names Anarkey divides the completion of filenames into two categories: directory names and all other files. The group "all other files" includes programs and "normal" files, such as text or data files; in other words, anything that is not a directory. Although completing a directory name isn't much different from completing a filename, there are some minor differences. These differences will be noted where applicable. Unless stated otherwise, all operations described in the remainder of this chapter apply to name completions of all types. To complete a directory name, press <F7> or <Ctrl-D>. To complete the name of any other type of file, press <F8> or <Ctrl-F>. Any non-whitespace characters (e.g. blank or <Tab>) immediately preceding the cursor position are used to narrow down the list of possible completions. For example, if the cursor followed the letter "d," Anarkey would complete the name using only those files starting with the letter "d." The case of the letters is not important. If no or a blank character precedes the cursor, Anarkey will match all files in the category (directory or otherwise). If Anarkey finds an existing file that could complete the filename, it enters it onto the input line. The cursor position remains unchanged. If the completed name is not the one you desire, press the appropriate completion key again and Anarkey will cycle through the list of possible completions. Once Anarkey has completed the filename, the cursor will still be at its original position, that is, somewhere in the middle of the completed name. If you need to enter additional characters after the filename, the cursor will have to be moved. This can be accomplished by pressing the <End> or <Right> arrow keys, but there is a faster way: simply type them in! Anarkey will automatically move the cursor to the first position beyond the completed name if the first keystroke after a name completion is one of the following: Space Backslash(\) Colon(:) Slash(/) Input redirection(<) Semicolon(;) Asterisk(*) Output redirection(>) Equal sign(=) Plus sign(+) Question mark(?) Pipe character(|) Comma(,) Dash(-)(only if -U active) After moving the cursor, the typed character is entered onto the input line. Note that the dash(-) character moves the cursor only if the -U option was specified on the Anarkey installation line. The -U option controls Anarkey's interpretation of the slash(/) and dash(-) characters as a path separator and switch (or option) specifier, respectively. This topic is discussed in detail in Chapter 10 so don't worry about it for now. If any other character beside those listed above is typed following a completion operation, the character in entered onto the input line at the current cursor position. This is useful in case you begin a completion operation only to discover there is a large number of possible completions. For example, you start completing all the files that start with the letter "c," but suddenly remember 75 files start with a "c." Rather then cycle through them all until you hit upon the desired file, you can enter additional characters to narrow the completion possibilities down. When Anarkey completes the name of a program file, it does not include the file's extension when it enters the name on the input line. Program names must have the file extension BAT, COM or EXE. When Anarkey searches for the completion to a "normal" filename, in other words, any file other than a program or directory, it ignores files with certain extensions. A file using one of the following extensions will not be completed by Anarkey. .$$$ .BAK .BIN .COM .EXE .TMP .HEX .LIB .OBJ .OVR .SYS These extensions are ignored because the files which use them are rarely entered on input lines. Anarkey attempts to save you the trouble of cycling through these undesired files by ignoring them. If you prefer that Anarkey not ignore files using the above extensions, you can specify the -X\ option on the installation command line. Also, you can add additional extensions to the ignored list via the -X option. Complete details will be covered in Chapter 11. Pop-Up Filename Completion Window A pop-up window that contains the entire list of completions can be displayed by pressing <Alt-F8> or <Alt-F>. All file types, directories and others, are displayed in the window. From this window you can scroll through the list and select the desired filename using the keyboard or a mouse. The file-completion window is identical to the history-buffer window in the way scrolling and selection are performed. Refer to the discussion of the history-buffer window in Chapter 4 or press the <F1> key with the file-completion window displayed to refresh your memory on the supported operations. Summary The following operations and their assigned keystrokes were discussed in this chapter. <F7> Complete directory name <Ctrl-D> Same as <F7> <F8> Complete program/file name <Ctrl-F> Same as <F8> <Alt-F8> Pop-up filename completion window <Alt-F> Same as <Alt-F8> Chapter 7 Multiple Commands per Line In plain, vanilla DOS, you are allowed to enter only one command per input line. With Anarkey, multiple commands can be included on a single input line. Using multiple commands will reduce the number of line retrieval operations performed. More importantly, multiple commands are extremely useful for AKA definitions. An AKA that uses multiple commands is like a miniature batch file. Entering Multiple-Command Lines Multiple commands are separated on the input line by a semicolon(;). When a line is accepted, Anarkey breaks it into separate commands and passes each one to the command processor for execution. The semicolon separators are "eaten" by Anarkey and are not passed as part of the command. The following are examples of input lines that contain multiple commands. cd \temp;dir md \newdir;cd \newdir;copy \olddir\*.* \newdir edit letter.doc;print letter.doc There are two situations where the semicolon character is not interpreted as a command separator: (1) the semicolon is the very last character on the input line and (2) any semicolon used in a PATH, PROMPT or SET command. If you wish to include a semicolon in a command, specify two consecutive semicolons. Anarkey will convert them to a single semicolon character before passing the command along for execution. The following input lines use semicolon characters as part of the command rather than as separators. masm anarkey; path=c:\dos;d:\global;c:\masm prnt doc1.txt;;doc2.txt Multiple commands can be disabled on a per-line or permanent basis. With multiple commands disabled, the semicolon character is never interpreted as a command separator. To disable multiple commands on the current input line, press <F10> or <Ctrl-R>. The -O installation option will disable multiple commands for the entire Anarkey session. (However, note that multiple commands are still allowed in AKA definitions, even with the -O option.) Length Considerations Anarkey input lines can be up to 255 characters in length. However, individual commands within the line are restricted to the maximum length specified by the command processor in service. The standard DOS COMMAND.COM program prohibits commands composed of more than 127 characters. If you attempt to accept an input line that contains a command whose length exceeds the maximum allowed by the command processor, Anarkey will beep and position the cursor beneath the first character that exceeds the limit. You can also have Anarkey check the length of your commands before you accept the line by pressing <F2>. If any commands exceed the maximum, the cursor will be positioned at the first character beyond the limit. Anarkey will do nothing if all commands in the line are within bounds. Miscellaneous Considerations There are a few minor characteristics of multiple-command lines that must be mentioned. First, if the Load program (discussed in Chapter 14) is included on a multiple-command input line, it must be the last command in the line. Any commands following Load will not be executed. Second, many programs allow you to temporarily exit the program and shell to DOS. Normally, Anarkey would process the input line while in this temporary DOS shell. However, if the program that was temporarily exited was invoked from a multiple-command line, Anarkey will disable itself while in the DOS shell. This is done to prevent any subsequent commands in the original input line from being executed while in the temporary shell. The following input line illustrates this situation. cd \work;progname;cd \home Imagine you were to temporarily shell to DOS while executing "progname." If Anarkey was active, it would execute the next command in the line, "cd \home." However, that command should not really be executed until "progname" has completed. To achieve this, Anarkey disables itself while the temporary DOS shell is in effect. Once "progname" terminates, Anarkey automatically enables itself and executes "cd \home." Note the automatic disabling is only performed when processing multiple-command lines. Normally, Anarkey is active when temporarily exiting a program to DOS. Summary In summary, this chapter described the functions assigned to the following keys. <F2> Check command lengths <F10> Disable multiple commands on current line <Ctrl-R> Same as <F10> Chapter 8 Editing Environment Variables In addition to retrieving past lines from the history buffer, Anarkey can retrieve environment variables and enter their values onto the input line. Once retrieved, the value can be modified using the standard editing facilities. This is particularly useful for those times when you need to add a new directory to the end of the PATH setting. To retrieve the value of an environment variable, enter the "SET" command followed by at least one space and then zero or more characters of the desired variable's name. Then press the <F9> or <Ctrl-E> key. If one or more characters of the name are entered, Anarkey searches for an environment variable to complete the name. You can cycle through all matching completions by repeatedly pressing <F9> or <Ctrl-E>. If no characters of the name are entered, Anarkey cycles through all the defined environment variables. When an environment variable is retrieved, its complete name is entered on the input line followed by an equal sign and its value. The cursor is positioned beneath the first character after the equal sign. Normally, the PATH and PROMPT environment variables do not require that they be preceded by the SET command. Anarkey will still retrieve the values of PATH and PROMPT even if they are not in an explicit SET command. However, their complete variable names must be entered on the input line before pressing <F9> or <Ctrl-E>; Anarkey will not complete the names of PATH and PROMPT if they are not preceded by the SET command. For example, enter the following input line and press <F9> to retrieve the value of the PATH variable. (The underscore represents the cursor position.) >path_ Pop-Up Environment Window A full-screen pop-up window containing an alphabetized list of all environment variables can be displayed by pressing <Alt-F9> or <Alt-E>. Like all the other Anarkey pop-up windows, Anarkmd actually performs the window operation, so be sure the Anarkmd program is in either the current directory or a directory along the PATH. The environment window is similar to the other windows discussed to this point. The current variable is displayed in reverse video. Other variables in the list can be made current by using the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys. If more variables are defined than can fit in one window, the window can be scrolled using the keyboard or mouse. Selecting a variable for retrieval is performed by making the variable current and pressing <Enter>. The mouse can also be used to select the desired variable. If you need help on using the environment window, press <F1> to display a context-sensitive help screen. Refer to Chapter 4 and the discussion of the history-buffer window for complete details about the recognized window keystrokes and mouse actions. Summary In summary, the environment variable functions and keystrokes described in this chapter are listed below. <F9> Retrieve environment variable value <Ctrl-E> Same as <F9> <Alt-F9> Pop-up environment window <Alt-E> Same as <Alt-F9> Chapter 9 The MegaKey and MenuKey Throughout this manual, you have learned about many keystrokes that invoke individual Anarkey functions. In this chapter, you will learn two new keystrokes which combine the operations of several of those functions. The MegaKey and MenuKey are two of Anarkey's most potent strengths. With these two simple keys, you gain access to all of Anarkey's completion, line-retrieval and window functions. The MegaKey In the previous chapters, you learned about several separate Anarkey functions which retrieve and complete items on input lines. Each of those functions and their assigned keystrokes are listed below. <F5>, <Ctrl-K> Retrieve line from history buffer <F7>, <Ctrl-D> Complete directory name <F8>, <Ctrl-F> Complete filename <F9>, <Ctrl-E> Retrieve environment variable Rather than force you to remember all those keystrokes and have to think about which one to press at a given time, Anarkey combines them all into a single MegaKey. By default, the MegaKey is assigned to <Tab>. When you press <Tab>, Anarkey determines on its own the type of completion or retrieval operation you desire and does it for you. Of course, you can still press any of the keys listed above, but in most instances, it will be easier to just press <Tab> and let Anarkey do all the work. Like all the other retrieval and completion functions, the MegaKey can be pressed repeatedly to cycle through the list of possibilities. The MegaKey will correctly determine the desired type of operation an amazingly high percentage of the time. However, you may occasionally have to cycle through some unwanted completions before getting to the one you want. The MenuKey The MenuKey is a close cousin of the MegaKey. Like the MegaKey, it combines several operations to a single key. The MenuKey can be thought of as a "front-end" to all of Anarkey's pop-up window functions listed below. <Alt-F1>, <Alt-H> Pop-up help window <Alt-F5>, <Alt-K> Pop-up line retrieval window <Alt-F8>, <Alt-F> Pop-up filename completion window <Alt-F9>, <Alt-E> Pop-up environment window The MenuKey is assigned to the <Alt-Tab> and <Shift-Tab> keys. However, be aware that the <Alt-Tab> key is not normally recognized on DOS systems. If your system has an enhanced, 101-key keyboard (i.e. a keyboard with <F11> and <F12> keys), you can use the 101-Keys program to allow DOS to recognize <Alt-Tab> and many other keystrokes. 101-Keys is discussed in Chapter 15. Like all the other Anarkey window functions, be sure the Anarkmd program is located in either the current directory or a directory along the PATH before pressing the MenuKey. The MenuKey displays a pop-up menu. Each of the above operations is listed in the menu. In addition, the item "Return to Command Line" is included in the menu. Using the selection techniques discussed for windows in previous chapters, you select a menu item via the keyboard or a mouse. The operation you select is then executed. For example, if the help window menu item is selected, the pop-up help window is displayed onscreen. The effect is the same as if you had pressed the <Alt-F1> key to display the window, but now you only have to remember a single key, the MenuKey, to display any of the supported Anarkey windows. Summary Despite its brief length, this chapter described Anarkey's most powerful functions, the MegaKey and MenuKey. These two functions are great leaps toward a state of total Anarkey, a state without keystrokes. Learn them and your life at the command prompt will become a pleasure. <Tab> MegaKey <Alt-Tab> MenuKey <Shift-Tab> Same as <Alt-Tab> Chapter 10 Unix Switchar Conventions The Unix operating system separates directory names in a path specification with a slash(/) character rather than DOS's backslash(\). Also, a Unix command-line option, often called a switch, is always preceded by a dash(-) while DOS uses a slash for switches. The character used by an operating system to specify program switches is referred to as the switchar (pronounced "switch-char"). Many people prefer the Unix switchar convention over the DOS method. Interestingly, early DOS versions supported an undocumented system function which caused the COMMAND.COM internal commands, like COPY and DIR, to recognize the Unix switchar conventions. There are several public domain programs available that use this undocumented function to alter the DOS switchar. When run, they allow the user to enter a dash before each command option and slashes in path specifications. Unfortunately, these switchar programs suffer from several difficulties. First, they only effect internal COMMAND.COM commands and not external or third-party programs, like XCOPY. Second, they have some strange side-effects which can make them an adventure to use at times. And finally, both the compatibility box of OS/2 and DOS versions since 4.00 do not implement the undocumented switchar function, making it impossible to change the switch character in these newer environments. Anarkey provides complete Unix switchar support with none of the problems inherent in the switchar programs. All programs, whether internal to COMMAND.COM or external, will recognize Unix switchar conventions. Further, Anarkey implements the switchar support in a consistent manner so there are no undesirable side effects. Also, Anarkey fills the void left by the new operating systems which do not allow modification of the system's switchar. By default, Anarkey's Unix switchar support is disabled. It is enabled by including the -U option on Anarkey's command-line. This causes Anarkey to modify certain characters entered on an input line. Generally, the characters used in the Unix switchar convention get converted to those used in DOS. The result is that a line entered using the Unix convention is translated to its DOS equivalent. This translation is invisible to the user. Only two characters are potentially modified by the switchar translation. They are shown in the table below along with the character to which each is converted. Note: The backslash character is included in the table to emphasize that it can still be used as a path separator even with Unix switchar support active. Both slashes and backslashes are valid path separators. Character on input line Converted to ----------------------- ------------ / \ - / (unless used in file name) \ \ (unchanged) The character translation Anarkey performs is demonstrated in the following sample input lines. Input Line Translated Line ------------------------- ------------------------- dir -p dir /p copy a:/dos/*.com copy a:\dos\*.com c:/dos/xcopy a:/*.* c: -s c:\dos\xcopy a:\*.* c: /s If you wish to type a slash or dash character and not have it translated, enter the character twice. For example, to execute the line "dir /p," you can enter "dir //p" (or "dir -p" as shown in the previous table). In DOS, the dash character is often used in filenames, as in "101-Keys." If Anarkey were to translate dashes used in filenames, the resulting line would be incorrect. For example, the line "copy 101-keys.com a:" would be converted to "copy 101/keys.com a:." Fortunately, Anarkey does not translate dash characters used in filenames. Anarkey determines the dash character's context by checking the character that immediately precedes the dash. If the character is not a blank space, the dash is assumed to be part of a filename. Otherwise, it is determined the dash is a switchar and it gets translated to a slash character. Unix-Type Programs Some third-party programs already support the Unix switchar convention. Character translation can cause a problem for these programs when they receive a line using the DOS syntax rather than the expected Unix syntax. For example, a program that recognizes Unix conventions will not understand an input line such as "sort /dos/text.doc -b" after Anarkey translates it to "sort \dos\text.doc /b." Such programs need to receive untranslated input lines. Since Unix-switchar translation must be applied on a program-by-program basis, you must tell Anarkey which programs already recognize the Unix convention. Then when you execute that program in the future, Anarkey will not perform a translation on the program's arguments. To inform Anarkey that a program recognizes the Unix switchar syntax, enter the program's name on the input line preceded by an exclamation point(!). For example, to prevent translations from occurring on the SORT program's input line, enter the command "!sort." Depending upon the programs you typically run, you may have a large number of Unix-type program names to enter. To save you from having to enter each program every time you run your computer, you can store the list of program names in a text file and have the Load program send it to Anarkey upon program start-up. Additionally, the Anarkmd program can create the text file of program names for you. These capabilities of Load and Anarkmd are discussed in Chapters 14 and 16, respectively. When Anarkey receives the name of a Unix-type program, it stores the name in its Unix buffer. The Unix buffer is an area of memory Anarkey allocates during installation. By default, Anarkey does not support Unix switchar usage and therefore, no memory is allocated for the Unix buffer. When the -U option is specified during installation, Anarkey allocates a 25-character Unix buffer. If more space is required to hold Unix-type program names, the desired size of the Unix buffer can be specified by appending it to the end of the -U option. For example, to enable Unix switchar translations and allocate a Unix buffer of 100 characters, include -U100 on the Anarkey installation line. The -U option is more fully described in Chapter 11. Note: The Anarkmd program already recognizes Unix switchar syntax, therefore, it should always be stored in the Unix buffer. Because Anarkey makes extensive use of Anarkmd (e.g. to display the various pop-up windows), when the -U option is specified, Anarkey automatically saves the Anarkmd program in the Unix buffer. This preloading of the buffer is done to guarantee Anarkmd's proper execution and save you the trouble of storing it yourself. If there is not enough room to store a program's name in the Unix buffer, Anarkey will beep. A program can be removed from the Unix buffer by preceding its name on the input line with two exclamation points. For example, "!!sort" removes the SORT program from the Unix buffer. The entire list of programs stored in the Unix buffer can be displayed by pressing <Shift-F4>. Each output line will contain one program name preceded by an exclamation point. If all programs cannot be displayed on a single screen, output is paused between screens. Press any key to display the next screen of names. Note that when a program is stored in the Unix buffer, only the program's arguments will remain untranslated; all other items on the input line, including the program's path specification, redirected filenames and piped commands, are still translated. These are all demonstrated in the following input line and the resulting translated line. Input line: c:/bin/sort -b >f:/log.txt | echo -test --the /translations Translated line: c:\bin\sort -b >f:\log.txt | echo /test -the \translations As this example illustrates, Anarkey intelligently parses the input line and translates only the appropriate characters. Summary This chapter has described Anarkey's Unix switchar support and the following related function. <Alt-F4> Display Unix buffer Chapter 11 Anarkey Installation Options Anarkey recognizes a large assortment of installation options which can be used to configure Anarkey to your preferences. Options are specified on the Anarkey command-line during installation. An option must be preceded by a dash(-) or slash(/) character. Options may be in upper or lowercase and may appear on the command line in any order. Each option must be separated by at least one space. A sample Anarkey installation line is shown below. anarkey -f -h1000 -io All of Anarkey's options are described in the remainder of this chapter. Enable AKA Support -An Enable AKA support and allocate memory to store n characters By default, AKA support is disabled to save memory. The -A option enables AKA support. The option also specifies the amount of memory Anarkey should reserve to store AKA definitions. This number must be appended to the -A option; no spaces may separate them. For example, the following input line enables AKA support and allocates 400 characters for AKA definitions. anarkey -a400 The combined memory allocated for AKA definitions, the history buffer (-H option) and the Unix buffer (-U) may not exceed 50,000 characters. Anarkey will automatically reduce the memory allocated, first for Unix definitions and, if necessary, AKA definitions if this limit is exceeded. Cursor Options -C Never change cursor shape -CN Display non-blinking cursor -CT Display thick underscore cursor Anarkey recognizes several options to configure management of the cursor. The -C option instructs Anarkey to never alter the cursor's shape. Normally, Anarkey will set the cursor shape based upon the input mode. The -CN option causes Anarkey to display a non-blinking cursor whenever possible. When the cursor is beneath a space character, the cursor will not blink. When beneath any other character, the cursor will still blink. Some EGA video cards will continue to display a blinking cursor despite the presence of the -CN option. The only solution to this is to change video cards (preferably to a VGA or better). If you pop-up a resident program when the non-blinking cursor is active, the cursor may not be visible in the popped-up program. This is a shortcoming of the resident program. The -C and -CN options cannot both be included on the command line. If they are, the -C option overrides the -CN. The -CT option instructs Anarkey to display a thick underscore cursor as opposed to its normal "thin" underscore. This option may be desired if the thin underscore is difficult to see on your display monitor. The -C and -CT options cannot both be included on the command line. If they are, the -C option overrides the -CN. Use Expanded Memory -E Load Anarkey in expanded memory Anarkey can store most of its code and data, including the history buffer, AKA definitions and Unix program names, in expanded memory. When this occurs, Anarkey takes only about 1K of DOS memory. To load Anarkey in expanded memory, include the -E option on the installation line. All versions of the Lotus-Intel-Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification (LIM EMS) are supported, including versions 3.2 and 4.0. If a valid expanded memory manager is not installed or there is not enough expanded memory available to load Anarkey, an error message will be displayed and Anarkey will install itself in conventional memory. Full History Buffer Disclosure -F Suppress line movement in history buffer When a line is retrieved from the history buffer and immediately accepted, Anarkey normally moves the line to the end of the buffer to prevent the storage of duplicate lines. If you prefer to maintain an log of input lines in the exact order in which they were entered, specify the -F option during program installation. The -F option suppresses line movement in the history buffer. Each input line will be entered at the bottom of the buffer. History Buffer Size -Hn Reserve n bytes of memory for history buffer The default history buffer size is 500 characters. Using the -H option, the buffer size can be set to any value from 255 through 50,000. The size must be appended to the -H option with no spaces between them. For example, the following line allocates 10,000 bytes for the history buffer. Notice that commas should not be included in the option. anarkey -h10000 The combined memory allocated to the history buffer, AKA definitions (-A option) and the Unix buffer (-U) cannot exceed 50,000 bytes. If this limit is exceeded, Anarkey will automatically reduce the Unix buffer size and, if necessary, the AKA-definition space. Input Mode Options -II Start Anarkey in insert mode (default) -IO Start Anarkey in overwrite mode F Optional modifier to force input mode at start of each line By default, Anarkey first starts up in insert mode. This is the same as specifying the -II option on the installation line. Normally, Anarkey remains in the current input mode until the <Ins> key toggles the mode. If you specify the -IIF option, Anarkey will force itself into insert mode every time it begins a new input line. The -IO option instructs Anarkey to begin operation in overwrite mode. -IOF forces Anarkey into overwrite mode for every new input line. Display Memory Usage -M Display Anarkey memory usage The -M installation option instructs Anarkey to calculate and display the total amount of memory required for the specified configuration. Anarkey takes into account the size of any buffers and whether or not expanded memory is to be used when it performs its calculation. When -M is specified, Anarkey does not install itself and remain resident. It only calculates its memory requirement and displays the information. Be aware that expanded memory is allocated in 16K chunks. Even if only a single byte of expanded memory is needed, an entire 16K block must be reserved. This is a characteristic of the LIM EMS specification. To help you use expanded memory wisely, Anarkey displays the amount of reserved, but unused, expanded memory along with the amount that is in use. Any unused memory can be allocated to the history buffer, AKA definitions and/or Unix buffer without any additional memory allocation occuring. In effect, this is free memory. Neither expanded memory nor an expanded memory manager need be present to include both the -E and -M options on the installation line. Note: The memory requirements output by Anarkey indicate the amount of memory Anarkey will request from DOS before going resident. In addition to this value, DOS will allocate a block of memory large enough to store a copy of every environment variable defined at that moment. You can reduce the memory requirements of Anarkey (and any TSR program) by installing it before defining many environment variables. The sample installation line shown below instructs Anarkey to calculate how much memory it will need when configured with a 1000-character history buffer and 400 characters allocated for AKA definitions. anarkey -a400 -h1000 -m Enable Alternative Mouse Interface -MA Use alternative mouse interface in pop-up windows Anarkey supports two different mouse interfaces when processing a pop-up window. The default interface has been described in the earlier chapters of this manual. The alternative interface is discussed in Appendix I. To enable the alternative mouse interface, include the -MA option on Anarkey's command-line during installation. Disable Multiple-Command Lines -O Disable multiple-command lines Anarkey normally allows multiple commands to be entered on a single input line as documented in Chapter 7. The -O option disables multiple-command lines entered on the input line. Multiple commands are still allowed in AKA definitions. Multiple commands can also be repressed on a per-line basis by pressing <F10> or <Ctrl-R>. Refer to Chapter 7 for additional information on multiple-command lines. Anarkey Process Number -Pn Set Anarkey process number to n During installation, Anarkey assigns itself a default process number. This process number is used to determine whether or not Anarkey is already resident. This basically prevents the loading of duplicate copies of Anarkey. There are two instances when you will want to assign Anarkey a new process number: (1) when another TSR program uses Anarkey's default number and (2) when you wish to purposely load multiple copies of Anarkey. The first scenario is possible, but highly unlikely. It will make itself known by Anarkey's failure to install even one copy of itself and report that it is already resident. You may wish to purposely install multiple copies of Anarkey if you use DesqView or Microsoft Windows in their non-386 modes. Instructions on how to use Anarkey in these environments are included in Chapter 12. When you assign a new process number to Anarkey, the number is appended to the -P option with no spaces between them. Valid process numbers are 0 through 63. By default, Anarkey uses process number 35. Be aware that if you change Anarkey's process number, you will have to specify the new process number on the Load and Anarkmd program's command lines every time you run them. This is because those programs require Anarkey to be installed in order to perform their tasks and the process number is needed to determine Anarkey installation. The Load and Anarkmd programs are discussed in Chapters 14 and 16, respectively. The following line installs Anarkey with the process number 14. anarkey -p14 Note: Never use the -P option if running the TSR version of the QEdit text editor from SemWare. QEdit TSR contains dedicated Anarkey support which requires Anarkey to use its default process number. This is only applicable to the TSR version of QEdit and not other QEdit implementations. Quiet Mode -Q Run in quiet mode Anarkey will occasionally sound the system bell, for instance, after cycling through the list of possible filename or line completions. To suppress these beeps and run in quiet mode, include the -Q option on the installation line. However, even in quiet mode, Anarkey still beeps in error situations where no other form of notification is provided. Such situations are when an AKA or Unix program name is defined, but there is not enough memory left in the respective buffer to store it. Suppress Line Redisplay -R Do not redisplay accepted lines When an input line is accepted, Anarkey normally redisplays the line onscreen so as to allow any redirection to the printer to occur. (Redirection to the printer is implemented in DOS by pressing <Ctrl-P>. Refer to your DOS manual for further details.) This redisplay is annoying when a voicebox is connected to the system because the user hears each input line twice. To suppress line redisplay, include the -R option on the installation line. However, be aware that doing so prevents input-line printer redirection from occurring. History Buffer Minimum Line Length -Sn Save input lines at least n characters in length to history buffer By default, Anarkey saves all non-empty lines in the history buffer. However, very short lines of one or two characters are probably easier to retype than to retrieve from the buffer. Rather than clutter the history buffer with these short lines, they can be excluded from the buffer via the -S option. Appended to the -S option must be the input line's minimum length for Anarkey to store it in the buffer. No spaces can separate the -S from the length value. For example, the following line instructs Anarkey to store only lines of three or more characters in the history buffer. anarkey -s3 Unix Switchar Support -U Enable Unix switchar support -Un Enable Unix switchar support, allocate Unix buffer of n characters -US Translate slash character(/) only, leave dash character(-) unmodified The various -U options provide levels of support for the Unix switchar conventions. Details about this topic are discussed in Chapter 10. The -U option enables Unix switchar support and allocates a Unix buffer of 25 characters. The -Un option also enables Unix switchar support, but the size of the Unix buffer is specified immediately after the option. No spaces may separate the -U from the buffer size. Buffer size is specified in number of characters and can be any value up to 50,000. Note however, that the combined memory allocated for the history buffer, AKA definitions and Unix buffer cannot exceed 50,000 bytes. If it does, Anarkey will automatically reduce the size of the Unix buffer and, if necessary, the AKA storage area to meet the limit. The -US option instructs Anarkey to convert any slash(/) characters on the input line to backslashes(\). Dash characters are left unmodified. In effect, this allows slashes to be used as a path separator in filenames. The -US option is leftover from earlier versions of Anarkey that did not provide the extensive Unix switchar support found in the current version. Even though it is still supported, the comprehensive Unix support described in Chapter 10 is preferable to the limited support provided by the -US option. The following command line installs Anarkey with a 150-character Unix buffer. anarkey -u150 Ignored File Extensions -X\ Do not ignore any file extensions -Xext Ignore files with ext extension Anarkey usually ignores files with certain extensions when it is choosing a filename completion. This operation is described in Chapter 6. The -X\ option instructs Anarkey to not ignore any file extensions when completing a filename. In effect, this clears the list of ignored file extensions. Additional extensions can be added to the list of ignored extensions by specifying them with the -X option. Append the extension, with no intervening spaces, to the -X option. The DOS wildcard characters '?' and '*' are allowed in the extension. The Anarkey installation line may contain up to six (6) -X options. The following line adds the extensions .BAT and .Q* to the ignored-extensions list. anarkey -xbat -xq* Both the -X\ and -Xext options may be specified on the same installation line. The -X\ option clears the default ignored-extensions list. Any -Xext options after -X\ are then added to the list. The next line instructs Anarkey to ignore only files with a .TXT extension. anarkey -x\ -xtxt Chapter 12 Microsoft Windows and DesqView Anarkey is compatible with the Microsoft Windows and Quarterdeck DesqView environments. Important considerations when running each of these programs are discussed in this chapter. Microsoft Windows Anarkey contains dedicated support for Microsoft Windows v3.0 and later. Anarkey runs in a DOS session with Windows operating in any of its modes (real, standard and 386-enhanced). When running Windows in real or standard modes, install Anarkey in each DOS session after beginning the session. Anarkey can already be installed when you start Windows, but that copy of it will be ignored while in Windows, even in a Windows DOS session. When you terminate a DOS session by typing "exit," that session's copy of Anarkey is automatically removed from memory. Things are quite a bit different when running Windows in its 386-enhanced mode. Anarkey is aware of the Windows 386 mode and provides special support for each open DOS session. However, if you are going to run Windows in 386 mode, Anarkey must not be using expanded memory. This means do not include the -E option on the Anarkey installation line. If Anarkey is using expanded memory and you attempt to execute Windows in 386 mode, Anarkey will terminate the Windows session and display an error message. Either run Windows in another mode or reinstall Anarkey without the -E option. When running Windows in 386 mode, install Anarkey before starting Windows. When Windows begins, a snapshot is taken of Anarkey's current status, including the history buffer contents, AKA definitions and Unix program names. Then every time a new DOS session is opened under Windows, it is initialized to this saved status. There is no need to reinstall Anarkey in each DOS session; it is installed and initialized automatically. Multiple DOS sessions can be open simultaneously and Anarkey will operate in each one. However, each session maintains its own separate copy of data, including history buffer and AKA definitions. For example, if you enter an input line in one DOS session, attempting to retrieve it from another session will fail because the line was saved in the other session's history buffer. This is also true for AKA definitions and the Unix buffer. Thus, it is a good idea to perform all buffer initializations and AKA definitions before starting Windows. When a DOS session is terminated, its copy of Anarkey is automatically removed from memory. DesqView Anarkey is compatible with DesqView and DesqView 386 and can run in a DOS window in either environment. As far as Anarkey is concerned, there is no difference between DesqView and DesqView 386; the remainder of this discussion applies to both environments. When a DesqView DOS window is opened, Anarkey will not be active within it, even if Anarkey was loaded prior to running DesqView. A copy of Anarkey must be installed in each DOS window for it to be active. If Anarkey was not installed prior to running DesqView, it can be installed in multiple DOS windows without specifying any special options. When a DOS window is closed, its copy of Anarkey is removed from memory automatically. If you want Anarkey active outside of DesqView *and* in each DesqView DOS window, a little more work (but only a little) is necessary. Anarkey stills needs to be installed separately in each DOS window. In other words, multiple copies of Anarkey are installed into memory. It is useful to categorize these multiple copies into two groups: copies loaded in DesqView DOS windows and the single copy loaded outside DesqView. One of these groups must use the -P option when installing Anarkey. The -P option assigns a process number to Anarkey which allows multiple copies of it to be installed. Appended to -P must be the assigned process number, for example, -P1. Refer to Chapter 11, page 38 of the "Anarkey User Manual" for more information concerning the -P option. This is most easily understood by an example. Say the Anarkey copy outside of DesqView was installed without the -P option. Then all Anarkey copies loaded within DesqView DOS windows must be installed with -P. The process number specified with -P can be the same for each DOS window, for example, you can use -P1 in each window. This is handy because it allows you to use the same initialization file for each DOS window. Conversely, say the Anarkey copy outside DesqView was installed with -P. Then the Anarkey copies loaded within DOS windows do not need -P options. It all breaks down to the two groups: Anarkey copies installed outside DesqView and those installed inside DesqView. One group must use -P options, the other does not. Chapter 13 Anarked, the Anarkey Keystroke Editor Anarked allows you to change Anarkey's default key assignments. For example, if you want to display the help window by pressing <F1> instead of the default <Alt-F1>, Anarked lets you do so. Any Anarkey keystroke, except those used during processing of a pop-up window, may be reassigned with Anarked. Anarked modifies the ANARKEY.COM program file. Therefore, new key assignments made with Anarked are not active until you run the modified Anarkey program. Running Anarked Execute Anarked from the DOS command prompt. When executed, Anarked prompts for the specification of the ANARKEY.COM program to process. If ANARKEY.COM is not in the current directory, its location must be specified. A default spec is displayed in [] brackets. To accept the default, press <Enter>. Otherwise, type the appropriate filename and press <Enter>. Anarked verifies that the entered filename is a valid ANARKEY.COM program file. If it is not, Anarked refuses to accept it and prompts you for a new file spec. Anarked recognizes one optional command-line argument, -U. -U is used if you are upgrading from a previous version of Anarkey. It allows you to carry over key assignments from one version to another, saving you from assigning them again. When -U is specified, Anarked prompts for two file specifications: (1) the old ANARKEY.COM file and (2) the new ANARKEY.COM file to receive the transferred key assignments. Again, Anarked checks both files for validity before agreeing to process them. If both files are valid Anarkey programs, the key assignments of the first program spec are copied to the second spec. Occasionally, a new release of Anarkey adds new functions not available in the previous version. When upgrading with -U, the default key assignments to all new functions are cleared so the new functions are not assigned to any keys. This is done to prevent the possibility of conflicting key assignments between the new version and the modified, older version. When Anarked begins processing, it displays a list all new functions added to the new version. You will have to assign keys to those functions if you wish to use them. Note: This requirement is only necessary when upgrading with the -U option. After all requested input files have been entered, Anarked prompts for the name of the output file. Any changes made during the forthcoming Anarked session will be saved in this output file. A default filename is displayed within [] brackets. Press <Enter> to accept the default or enter another filename. With all input and output files specified, Anarked enters edit mode where Anarkey key assignments are modified. Anarked Edit Mode Anarkey key assignments are modified in Anarked's edit mode. In edit mode, a full-screen window is displayed which lists several Anarkey functions and their current key assignments. Each line in the window contains one Anarkey function. The function's description is displayed on the left half of the line. Alongside the description are two columns which display the function's current key assignments. Key assignments are surrounded by <> brackets, as in <F1>. If no key is assigned to the function, empty <> brackets are displayed. Each function may have a maximum of two keys assigned to it. Anarkey's functions are spread over several windows. You can view the next window by pressing <PgDn>. Press <PgUp> to view the previous window. One key assignment in the window is displayed in reverse video (i.e. black characters on a white background) and is referred to as the current key assignment. Other assignments in the window can be made current by pressing the <Up>, <Down>, <Left> and <Right> arrow keys. Key assignments are modified by first making the assignment you wish to modify the current key assignment. Then press the key sequence you wish to assign to the function. For example, to change the help window's key assignment from <Alt-F1> to <F1>, use the <PgUp>, <PgDn> and arrow keys to make the <Alt-F1> field the current key assignment. Then press <F1>. The new key assignment replaces any previous assignment. Nearly any keystroke recognized by DOS can be assigned to an Anarkey function. This includes the function keys and key sequences combining one of the <Alt>, <Ctrl> or <Shift> keys. WordStar-like multiple-character key sequences, such as <Ctrl-KS>, are not supported. Because DOS handles the <Ctrl-C> and <Ctrl-P> keystrokes itself (to abort a program and redirect output to a printer, respectively), these keys may not be assigned to Anarkey functions. Also, a key may not be assigned to more than one function. If the key being assigned is already assigned to another function, Anarked displays a window stating the key's current assignment and asks if you wish to remove it. If you respond positively, the key is removed from its old function assignment and assigned to the current function. A key assignment can be explicitly removed by making it the current assignment and pressing <Ctrl-@>. Key assignments can also be removed by going through the Anarked action menu described in the next section. Note: The TOPS local area network does not correctly handle <Ctrl-@> keystrokes. Thus, to remove key assignments, either UNLOAD TOPS or use the action menu function described in the next section. The Anarked Action Menu The Anarked action menu provides operations not available in edit mode. Press the <Esc> key to display the action menu. The action menu lists several operations. One operation, the current item, is displayed in reverse video. A menu operation is invoked by using the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys to make it the current item and then pressing <Enter>. Some operations are executed immediately, while others prompt for additional input. The action menu can be exited by pressing <Esc> again. Save changes and quit Select this menu item to save your key assignments to the output file specified upon program startup. The new assignments will be in effect the next time Anarkey is installed. Anarked terminates after saving the key assignments. Create summary list This operation creates an ASCII text file listing all the Anarkey functions and their key assignments. This file is suitable for printing and can be displayed in Anarkey's pop-up help window. Refer to Chapter 2 for information about the help window. Anarked prompts for the name of the file to create. The default file name is the output filename specified at startup with a .SUM extension. Press <Enter> to accept the default or enter another filename. Alternatively, the file can be sent directly to the printer instead of a disk file by entering "PRN" when prompted for the filename. However, be sure the printer is turned on before sending the file to it. Press <F1> to abort the operation without creating a summary list. Assign key Since the <Esc>, <PgUp>, <PgDn> and arrow keys are intercepted and interpreted by Anarked, assigning them to an Anarkey function requires that you go through this operation of the action menu. Anarked prompts for the key to assign to the current-key-assignment field. Any key you press, including <Esc>, <PgUp>, <PgDn> or the arrow keys, is assigned to the field. Press <F1> to abort the operation and return to edit mode. Remove keystroke (<Ctrl-@>) When this operation is executed, the current-key-assignment field is cleared. This is identical to pressing <Ctrl-@>. Quit Anarked without save This operation terminates Anarked without saving any modified key assignments. Keyboard Considerations Anarked recognizes the same keystrokes the DOS operating system recognizes. Be aware that even though your keyboard may include <F11> and <F12> keys does not necessarily mean you can use them. If DOS does not recognize a keystroke, neither does Anarked. This problem can be resolved by running the 101-Keys program distributed with Anarkey. 101-Keys provides support for enhanced keyboards. It lets Anarked and other programs recognize keystrokes DOS does not normally support, including the <F11> and <F12> keys. 101-Keys is described in Chapter 15. Chapter 14 Load, the Anarkey Load Utility The Load program reads an ASCII text file and processes each line as if it were entered at the DOS prompt. The difference is that the lines are not executed; they are only stored in the history buffer. Thus, Load provides a method to initialize the history buffer. Also, if the text file contains AKA definitions or Unix program names, Load will process and save them in the appropriate manner. So you don't have to type in your AKA definitions and Unix programs at the start of every session, it is a good idea to store them in a text file and then have Load process the file during AUTOEXEC.BAT initialization. The Anarkmd program can create these files for you using the AKAs and Unix programs existing at the time it is executed. Anarkmd is discussed in Chapter 16. You can also tell Load to not process AKA definitions and Unix programs by including the -D option on the command line. Load options are explained later in this chapter. Running Load Anarkey must be installed prior to running Load. The only exception to this is when Load is executed with the -M option, explained below. Once Anarkey is installed, Load can be executed at any time and any number of times. Load can be executed as part of a multiple-command line, but it must be the very last command in the line. Any commands following Load in a multiple-command line are ignored. Load command-line syntax is shown below. LOAD [-options] filename [filename...] If Load is executed with no arguments, a usage message is displayed. Load command-line options are not required. When specified, an option instructs Load to operate in a different manner than it normally does. Recognized options are described in the next section. Load processes all filenames specified on the command line. Filenames may contain the DOS wildcard characters '*' and '?'. Each file must be an ASCII text file. Load ignores all lines in the file which are empty or have a first word of "REM." The remaining lines are stored in the history buffer, unexecuted. AKA definitions (identified by a colon(:) as the line's first character) are processed and added to the list of AKAs. If there is not enough room to store the AKA, Load beeps, displays an error message and continues processing the remainder of the file. Likewise, Unix program names (specified by an exclamation point(!) as the line's first character) are saved in the Unix buffer. Load rejects lines longer than 255 characters or containing commands of more than 127 characters. Command-Line Options Load options modify Load's default operation. Options may appear anywhere on the command line. Each must be preceded by a dash(-) character. Options may be in upper- or lowercase. Recognized options are described below. Suppress Processing of AKA Definitions and Unix Programs -D Do not process AKA definitions and Unix program names Normally, Load processes an AKA definition or Unix program name just as if it had been entered on the input line. However, sometimes the processed file may contain definitions that were defined temporarily and are no longer desired. This can occur when the history buffer from a previous session is saved and then restored. Such definitions can be ignored during Load processing by including -D on the command line. With -D specified, AKA definitions and Unix program names are ignored; they are not defined or stored in the Unix or history buffers. Fast-Load Operation -F Load disk file as quickly as possible, bypassing any error checking Load normally performs extensive error checking on each line it processes. For example, the line's length is checked to verify it is not too long and sufficient space to store an AKA definition or Unix program name is checked. If any errors occur, Load displays a message explaining the problem. The Load error checking can take a significant amount of time. If you are confident the processed file contains no problems, time can be saved by performing a fast-load operation. Fast-load is activated by specifying the -F option on the command line. In fast-load, error checking is bypassed and an optimized Load is performed. Fast-load is significantly quicker than Load's normal processing. Calculate Space used by AKA Definitions and Unix Program Names -M Display AKA and Unix program space requirements When first configuring Anarkey, it is common to create files containing AKA definitions and Unix program names, install Anarkey and then have Load process the files. But before installing Anarkey, it's useful to know how much space to allocate for AKA definitions and the Unix buffer. Load can provide this information by processing the files with the -M option. With -M on the command line, Load reads the contents of the file and accumulates the number of characters required for AKA definitions and Unix program names. It does not process the file in any other way. In other words, the file is not loaded into Anarkey's history buffer and AKA definitions and Unix program names are not saved. When all specified files have been read, Load displays the total amount of space Anarkey will need to store the AKA definitions and Unix program names. These values can then be used in the Anarkey -A and -U options, respectively, to reserve Anarkey memory during installation. Anarkey does not have to be installed prior to running Load with the -M option. Anarkey Process Number -Pn Anarkey's process number is n The Load -P option is identical to the -P recognized by Anarkey. This option is only necessary in rare situations. Refer to the discussion of the Anarkey -P option in Chapter 11 for information on when to use it. Execute in Quiet Mode -Q Suppress messages When -Q is included on Load's command line, informational messages, such as the name of the file being processed, are not displayed. However, error messages are still displayed. Chapter 15 101-Keys, Support for Enhanced Keyboards Many DOS computers come equipped with an enhanced, 101/102-key keyboard. This is the keyboard with <F11> and <F12> keys. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, the DOS operating system does not support the extra keys available on these enhanced keyboards. The 101-Keys program solves this problem. 101-Keys is a small resident program. It allows full recognition of enhanced keys typed at the DOS command prompt and within application programs that normally do not support 101-key keyboards. With 101-Keys, programs such as Anarkey and Anarked recognize many new keystrokes, including <F11>, <F12> and combinations of those keys pressed with <Ctrl>, <Alt> or the <Shift> keys. Even though 101-Keys is distributed with Anarkey, it provides enhanced keyboard support for most application programs that do not normally support such keyboards. Installation To install 101-Keys, execute it from the DOS command prompt or a batch file, such as AUTOEXEC.BAT. 101-Keys installs itself and terminates while remaining resident. An enhanced keyboard must be present on the system. If 101-Keys does not find an enhanced keyboard, it displays an error message and terminates without remaining resident. Once installed, no additional action is required. From that point, Anarkey, Anarked and most application programs will recognize the new keystrokes supported by enhanced keyboards. 101-Keys can be disabled by executing it again with the argument "OFF" on the command line. To enable it, run with a command line of "ON." Temporarily disabling 101-Keys can be a workaround if a program incompatible with 101-Keys is discovered (which is unlikely). As an example, if the program "incomp" does not work with 101-Keys active, the following AKA definition temporarily disables 101-Keys whenever it is run. :incomp 101-keys off ; incomp %1 %2 %3 ; 101-keys on 101-Keys and Other Programs Some programs need to be specially configured for them to recognize the additional keys 101-Keys provides. All such known program configurations are described in this section. BRIEF Programmer's Text Editor The BFLAGS environment variable must be defined and include the string "-D101key." This informs BRIEF to expect and properly handle the enhanced-keyboard input it may receive. New 101-Key Keystrokes The following list details the new keystrokes that programs recognize with 101-Keys installed. Stand-Alone Keys Alt-Keys Ctrl-Keys Shift-Keys ---------------- -------- --------- ---------- F11 Alt-F11 Ctrl-F11 Shift-F11 F12 Alt-F12 Ctrl-F12 Shift-F12 Alt-Up Arrow Ctrl-Up Arrow Alt-Down Arrow Ctrl-Down Arrow Alt-Left Arrow Alt-Right Arrow Alt-Home Alt-End Alt-Page Up Alt-Page Down Alt-Keypad / Ctrl-Keypad / Alt-Keypad * Ctrl-Keypad * Alt-Keypad - Ctrl-Keypad - Alt-Keypad + Ctrl-Keypad + Alt-Keypad Enter Alt-Insert Ctrl-Insert Alt-Delete Ctrl-Delete Keypad 5 Ctrl-Keypad 5 Alt-Backspace Alt-Enter Alt-Esc Alt-Tab Ctrl-Tab Alt-` Alt-[ Alt-] Alt-; Alt-' Alt-, Alt-. Alt-/ Alt-\ Chapter 16 Anarkmd, the Anarkey Command-Line Utility In previous chapters, all Anarkey functions were executed by pressing keys. However, some of Anarkey's operations can also be executed by running the Anarkmd program (pronounced "anar-command"). There are three advantages gained from this capability: (1) It makes Anarkey functions available in situations where they are not normally available, (2) some of the functions Anarkmd implements are improvements over what Anarkey itself provides and (3) Anarkmd can provide functions used by Anarkey, thereby saving Anarkey from having to provide such functions itself. To explain the first advantage, recall that Anarkey does not process batch-file lines, therefore, features such as AKAs and multiple-command lines cannot be used in them. However, Anarkmd can be executed from a batch file and thus provides an indirect way to execute an AKA or multiple-command line. Also, when Anarkey writes the history buffer to a disk file, it always saves it in a file called ANARKEY.LOG located in the current directory of the current drive. (Check Chapter 4 if you need to refresh your memory on this.) Anarkmd adds the ability to specify the file's drive, directory and/or name, making it more flexible than the related Anarkey function. Finally, all of Anarkey's pop-up window functions, like the help and history-buffer windows, are actually implemented in Anarkmd. Anarkey simply executes Anarkmd whenever a window function is invoked. This saves a large amount of memory because none of the window-handling code needs to be resident. Running Anarkmd Anarkmd can be executed from the DOS command prompt, a batch file or an AKA. Anarkmd cannot be run as part of a multiple-command line unless it is the last command in the line. If it is not the last command, all trailing commands on the line are ignored. Anarkmd accepts two types of arguments: (1) a command-line option or (2) an input line to execute. Command-line options are used to indicate the Anarkey function to execute. Input lines are used to execute an AKA or multiple-command line from a batch file. Only one type of argument can be passed to Anarkmd, either an option or a line to execute. Command-Line Options Options are prefaced by a dash(-) character, may be in upper- or lowercase and may be specified in any order on the command line. Each Anarkmd option is described in the remainder of this section. Invoke an Anarkey Function -Fx Execute the Anarkey function specified by x The -F option informs Anarkmd of the Anarkey function to execute. Only one -F option may be specified on the command line. Attached to the -F option is a function name. No spaces may separate the -F from the function name. Anarkmd recognizes several function names, but it only looks at the first two characters of the name to determine its identity. Thus, you may abbreviate each of the following function names by specifying only its first two characters. Function name can be in upper- or lowercase. Here is a list of recognized function names, followed by a description of each. Since all of these functions have already been documented in previous chapters, they are only outlined here. Refer to previous chapters for complete details of a particular function. Bottom_display_history_buffer Clear_history_buffer Command_completion_full_screen Display_history_buffer Environment_selection_full_screen Filename_completion_full_screen Full_screen_menu Help_screen List_switchar_programs Restore_Anarkey Show_AKAs Suspend_Anarkey Toggle_input_mode Undefine_all_AKAs Write_history_buffer Bottom_display_history_buffer The history buffer is displayed onscreen starting from the last line in the buffer (i.e. the newest line) and moving toward the first (the oldest line). This function is identical to pressing <Ctrl-F4> except the output is not paused between screens. This nonstop display allows the output to be redirected to a disk file via the DOS '>' redirection character. Use the display_history_buffer option to output the buffer from first line to last. The following input lines demonstrate this option. anarkmd -fbottom_display_history_buffer anarkmd -fbo anarkmd -fbo >c:\anarkey\anarkey.log Clear_history_buffer All lines in the history buffer are deleted. This function is identical to pressing <Ctrl-X>. This function could be useful when placed in an AKA definition. For example, you may be afraid of accidently pressing <Ctrl-X> and clearing the history buffer. If so, use Anarked to remove all key assignments for the clear-history-buffer function and then define the following AKA. :clr_hist anarkmd -fcl With this setup, you can still clear the buffer when you enter "clr_hist" and there is no danger of accidently erasing it by pressing the wrong key. Many of the other Anarkmd functions can be used for the same purpose. Command_completion_full_screen The history-buffer window is displayed and processed. When the <Alt-F5> or <Alt-K> key is pressed, Anarkey invokes Anarkmd with this option to activate the window. Display_history_buffer The history buffer is displayed onscreen starting from the first line in the buffer (i.e. the oldest line) and moving toward the last (the newest line). This function is identical to pressing <F4> except the output is not paused between screens. This nonstop display allows the output to be redirected to a disk file via the DOS '>' redirection character. Use the bottom_display_history_buffer option to output the buffer from last line to first. Environment_selection_full_screen The environment variable window is displayed and processed. When the <Alt-F9> or <Alt-E> key is pressed, Anarkey invokes Anarkmd with this option to activate the window. Filename_completion_full_screen The filename-completion window is displayed and processed. When the <Alt-F8> or <Alt-F> key is pressed, Anarkey invokes Anarkmd with this option to activate the window. Full_screen_menu This function implements the actions of the MenuKey. When <Alt-Tab> or <Shift-Tab> is pressed, Anarkey invokes Anarkmd with this option to activate the window. Help_screen Anarkey's pop-up help screen is displayed and processed. When <Alt-F1> or <Alt-H> is pressed, Anarkey invokes Anarkmd with this option to activate the window. List_switchar_programs The Unix buffer is displayed onscreen. This function is identical to pressing <Shift-F4> except the output is not paused between screens. This nonstop display allows the output to be redirected to a disk file via the DOS '>' redirection character. Restore_Anarkey Restores Anarkey processing after it has been disabled by the Suspend_Anarkey option. This function has no comparable Anarkey key; it is only available from Anarkmd. Show_AKAs All AKAs are displayed onscreen. This function is identical to pressing <Alt-F4> except the output is not paused between screens. This nonstop display allows the output to be redirected to a disk file via the DOS '>' redirection character. By redirecting the output, a text file is created that can be processed by the Load program. The following line demonstrates an AKA definition that saves all AKAs to a disk file. :save_aka anarkmd -fsh >c:\anarkey.aka Suspend_Anarkey All Anarkey processing is disabled. Subsequent requests for input are handled by DOS. Anarkey can be enabled by running Anarkmd with the Restore_Anarkey option. This function has no comparable Anarkey key; it is only available from Anarkmd. Toggle_input_mode Anarkey's input mode is toggled to either insert or overwrite mode. This function is identical to pressing <Ins>. Undefine_all_AKAs All AKAs are deleted. This function is identical to pressing <Alt-X>. Write_history_buffer The history buffer is written to a disk file. The file's name is specified along with the function name. Each is separated by a colon(:). The filename must be specified; there is no default filename. The required syntax is shown below. wr[ite_history_buffer]:filename The filename may include a drive and/or path specification. Sample command lines are shown below. anarkmd -fwr:history.buf anarkmd -fwr:c:\anarkey\hist.sav anarkmd -fwrite_history_buffer:\temp\anarkey.log This function is similar to pressing <Ctrl-W>, but supports the specification of the output file. If you have a batch file you run whenever you power-down your system, this function can be used to save the history buffer between sessions. Simply add the appropriate Anarkmd line to the batch file to write the history buffer and then place a line in AUTOEXEC which instructs the Load program to restore it. This is illustrated in the following two files. LOGOFF.BAT anarkmd -fwr:c:\anarkey.log AUTOEXEC.BAT load c:\anarkey.log This completes the Anarkey functions which Anarkmd can execute. The remainder of this section describes additional options that Anarkmd recognizes. Enable Alternative Mouse Interface -MA Use alternative mouse interface in pop-up windows Two different mouse interfaces are available when processing a pop-up window. The default interface has been described in previous chapters. The alternative interface is discussed in Appendix I. To enable the alternative interface, include the -MA option on the Anarkmd command line. The Anarkmd -MA option is the same as Anarkey's -MA option. When Anarkey is installed with -MA and a key is pressed to display a pop-up window, Anarkey executes Anarkmd with the -MA and appropriate -Fx options. The -MA option is ignored if Anarkmd is not processing a pop-up window. Anarkey Process Number -Pn Anarkey's process number is n The Anarkmd -P option is identical to the -P recognized by Anarkey. This option is only necessary in rare situations. Refer to the discussion of the Anarkey -P option in Chapter 11 for information on when to use it. Executing an Input Line Anarkmd can execute any valid Anarkey input line passed to it as an argument. Doing so allows AKAs and multiple-command lines to be executed from batch files. This is demonstrated in the following lines. (Assume "aka2" is a defined AKA.) anarkmd aka2 file1 file2 file3 anarkmd cd\temp;copy prog.exe a:;dir a: If the input line contains any DOS redirection characters ( >, >> or < ) or the pipe operator(|), surround the entire input line with double quotes. Example lines are shown below. anarkmd "dir >dir.log" anarkmd "aka2 file1 | more;aka2 file2" When Anarkmd executes an input line, it creates a temporary work file. By default, this file is written to the current directory of the current drive. The file's location is configurable by defining an environment variable called "ANARTMP." Set ANARTMP to the drive and/or path in which to write the temporary file. Anarkmd execution speed can be increased by setting ANARTMP to a RAM disk. Anarkmd always deletes the temporary file before terminating. The following line instructs Anarkmd to write the temporary file to the root directory of J: drive. set anartmp=j:\ Chapter 17 Convert, AKA-Conversion Utility If you are upgrading to Anarkey from another command-line editor, you may already have a group of defined AKAs or, as they are sometimes referred to, aliases or synonyms. To make the transition from your current editor to Anarkey, the Convert program is provided to translate your existing AKAs into their equivalent Anarkey syntax. Convert translates alias and synonym definitions for the CED, PCED and DOSEDIT command-line editors. The command-line syntax is shown below. convert -type input_file [output_file] The input_file argument specifies the file to convert. The type argument indicates the kind of definitions contained in the input file, in other words, whether they are CED, PCED or DOSEDIT aliases. Recognized type arguments are shown below. -C CED synonyms -D DOSEDIT aliases -P PCED synonyms The optional output_file argument designates the file in which to save the converted AKA definitions. If output_file is not specified, Convert writes its output to ANARKEY.AKA in the current directory of the current drive. Sample Convert input lines are depicted below. convert -c syn.def anarkey.cfg convert -d dosedit.ali convert -p pced.syn c:\bin\anarkey.aka When converting DOSEDIT aliases, no additional editing is required; a 100% translation is performed. Converted CED and PCED synonyms may need some additional touch-up before they are fully Anarkey compatible. The areas requiring attention are discussed in the remainder of this chapter. Convert recognizes and processes the CED/PCED commands CHAINCH, PARAMCH, SYN and USERSYN. Any other commands may require some manual conversion. PCALL and PCED's '*' operator is irrelevant in Anarkey because of its more powerful command-completion functions. Thus, Convert removes all asterisk characters from processed names. After conversion, you should check all PCALL and synonym definitions that used asterisks to see if they are still useful; they may be unnecessary and obsolete with Anarkey. Anarkey does not support nested AKAs and Convert does not look for nested synonyms in the input file. Any nested CED/PCED synonym will require manual conversion. To all users of other command-line editors, welcome to the wonderful world of Anarkey! Appendix I Alternative Mouse Interface The main chapters in this manual dealt only with Anarkey's default mouse interface. However, Anarkey supports an additional interface in its pop-up windows. This alternative mouse interface is used if Anarkey or Anarkmd are executed with the -MA option. The alternative mouse interface does not support a separate mouse cursor or scroll bar. Instead, mouse movements emulate presses of the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys. To change the window's current line (i.e. the highlighted line displayed in reverse video), move the mouse in an upward or downward direction. To scroll the window's contents, attempt to move the current line beyond the top or bottom edge of the window. The current line can be selected and entered onto the input line by clicking the left mouse button. Double-clicking the left mouse button selects the current line and immediately accepts it for execution. To exit the window, click the right mouse button. Appendix II Anarkey Internals This appendix documents some technical aspects of Anarkey's inner workings. Anarkey users do not need to read or understand the information contained in this section. It is provided for technical people interested in getting a general under-the-hood view of Anarkey. This discussion assumes the reader has a basic understanding of DOS functions and TSR program structure. Upon installation, Anarkey hooks into two interrupts: (1) INT 2Fh, also known as the multiplex interrupt, and (2) INT 21h, function 0Ah. INT 2Fh is used to store Anarkey's program signature. When Anarkey starts execution, it checks INT 2Fh to see if its signature, and therefore, a previous instance of the program, is already installed. Anarkey will not install multiple copies of itself. If it finds its signature already installed, Anarkey terminates and does not remain resident. INT 2Fh is shared by many programs, for instance, DOS's PRINT and SHARE programs. Each program is differentiated by a unique process number. Process numbers 0C0h through 0FFh are reserved for user programs, such as Anarkey. By default, Anarkey appropriates process number 0E3h. The -P option can be included on Anarkey's installation line to have it use a different process number. The -P option requires the specification of a value from 0 through 63. Anarkey adds 0C0h to this number to arrive at its process number. If Anarkey determines it is not already installed, it hooks into INT 21h, function 0Ah. This is DOS's buffered-input routine. The resident portion of Anarkey is a replacement for this function. Anarkey then terminates and goes resident. All subsequent requests for buffered input (most often made by the command processor) are intercepted and processed by Anarkey. Appendix III Miscellaneous Considerations A few special situations exist that Anarkey must be able to handle appropriately. These are described in this appendix. Also included are programs that are incompatible or require special installation to work with Anarkey. Redirecting Output to a Serial Terminal Anarkey supports cursor positioning and many fancy display-related functions. Unfortunately, serial terminals have no standard method to perform such operations; each terminal supplies its own "standard." Because of this, Anarkey does not support operation on a serial terminal. In DOS, it is possible to redirect output to a serial terminal (also called the COM device) by two methods: (1) the '>' redirection character and (2) the CTTY command. If output is redirected via '>' redirection, Anarkey detects it and temporarily disables itself. Anarkey then monitors the system until output is restored to the video console, at which point it reenables itself. Note this situation is handled by Anarkey automatically and no user intervention is required. If output is redirected by the CTTY command, Anarkey does not detect it. If Anarkey is active when the CTTY redirection occurs, the system may hang. To avoid this, disable Anarkey before executing CTTY. To disable Anarkey, run Anarkmd with the -FSU option. After output is restored to the primary video console, run Anarkmd with the -FRE option to reenable Anarkey. Incompatible Programs Some programs are not 100% compatible with Anarkey. Others require special installation instructions to work in harmony with it. Both types of programs are discussed in this section. SIDEKICK Very old versions of Borland's SideKick program do not correctly execute multiple-command lines. The first command gets executed, but each subsequent command requires that a key (any key) be pressed before it will be executed. This problem can only be solved by upgrading to a newer version of SideKick. TOPS Network Anarkey works with the TOPS local area network provided Anarkey is installed after TOPSKRNL and TOPSCLNT. Also, TOPS alters some typed keystroke codes. This can result in problems when making key assignments with Anarked. To get around this problem, restrict your key assignments to keys not altered by TOPS. Appendix IV Anarkey Keystroke Summary The following table lists Anarkey's default keystroke assignments. Help window <Alt-F1> or <Alt-H> Cursor movement: To start of line <Home> To end of line <End> Right one character <Right> Right one word <Ctrl-Right> Left one character <Left> Left one word <Ctrl-Left> Character deletion: Character left <Backspace> Current character <Del> Word right <Ctrl-T> To end of line <Ctrl-End> or <Ctrl-Y> Delete line <Esc> Character retrieval: Single char from prev line <F1> Remainder of prev line <F3> Remainder of prev line and execute <Alt-F3> General editing: Accept line <Enter> Toggle input mode <Ins> Accept next keystroke unmodified <Ctrl-U> MegaKey and MenuKey: MegaKey <Tab> MenuKey <Alt-Tab> or <Shift-Tab> History Buffer Functions Retrieve previous buffer line <Up> Retrieve next buffer line <Down> Complete line <F5> or <Ctrl-K> Complete line and execute <F6> or <Ctrl-L> History-buffer window <Alt-F5> or <Alt-K> Restore CBL, get next line <PgDn> Display buffer contents <F4> Display buffer contents from bottom <Ctrl-F4> Write buffer to \ANARKEY.LOG <Ctrl-W> Save line in buffer, do not execute <Ctrl-Enter> (or <Ctrl-J>, same key) Remove current buffer line <Ctrl-Z> Clear buffer <Ctrl-X> AKA Functions Display AKAs <Alt-F4> Undefine all AKAs <Alt-X> Filename Completion Functions Complete directory name <F7> or <Ctrl-D> Complete file/program name <F8> or <Ctrl-F> Filename-completion window <Alt-F8> or <Alt-F> Environment Variable Retrieval Retrieve environment variable <F9> or <Ctrl-E> Environment-variable window <Alt-F9> or <Alt-E> Unix Switchar Support Display Unix buffer <Shift-F4> Miscellaneous Functions Check command lengths <F2> Repress multiple-command line <F10> or <Ctrl-R>