Collection of Tools & Utilities/Collection of Tools and Utilities.iso/keyb/otto14.zip/OTTO.DOC

Text File | 1993-01-19 | 28KB | 669 lines

                   ╔══════════════════════╗
                   ║   Welcome to Otto!   ║
                   ║   Ver 1.4   1/19/93  ║
                   ║   (c) 1993 RSE Inc   ║
                   ╚══════════════════════╝

Otto lets you automate a wide variety of tasks.  I created it to help me
take advantage of Compuserve's new basic features but it can be used for
virtually anything.

If you use "Autosig" as your communications program you can see for
yourself what Otto can do.  Use any ASCII editor to edit the first few
lines of "DOALL" to reflect what subdirectory AUTOSIG.EXE resides in.
Then enter "otto doall" at the DOS prompt.  (If for any reason you want
to abort the process press both shift keys at the same time)  Otto will
send out your e-mail (if you have any), gather your e-mail, get some
stock quotes, get the latest news and sport scores, download some weather
maps, and get the latest weather forecast.  And Otto can do all this
unattended at 5 AM so its all waiting for you when you wake up!

Although this "DOALL" script only works for users of "Autosig", later on
we will discuss how you can modify "DOALL" to work with your
communications program.  And of course we will discuss how you can create
your own scripts thereby automating virtually any task!

The bad news is Otto uses scripts.  If you've tried writing scripts
before you know what a pain it can be.  The *good* news is that Otto has
just a few simple script commands making it very easy to learn and use.
The *GREAT* news is that Otto also has a script recorder that creates
scripts on the fly as you go about doing the task you want to automate!
It records what you're doing as you're doing it.  Once Otto creates the
script you can go back and edit it to make any desired changes.  Sure
beats trying to create scripts from scratch.

Some of you may be familiar with our "Playback" program which is also a
task automator.  Playback records your keystrokes with the delays intact
and lets you turn these "keyfiles" into small .COM programs.  You can
playback they keyfiles via hot key, from the DOS prompt, from the MENU
program or at some specified times.  The MENU program also lets you add
notes to your keyfiles, adjust their playback, edit them and much more.
But the point is Playback makes it's decisions on when to stuff
keystrokes based on the delays between keystrokes.

On the other hand, Otto bases its decisions primarily on what appears on
the screen.  This is good for situations where the delays between
keyboard inputs may vary from use to use (like using your modem).  On the
other hand, since you can only read text from a text screen, Otto works
best when the application you're using is text based and not graphics
based.  On the plus side, Otto can incorporate decision making whereas
Playback can't.  For example if you try to log-on but the line is busy,
Otto can have the program re-dial instead of pressing ahead as tho the
connection had been made.  If Otto doesn't fit your needs chances are
Playback will.  You can find Playback in Library 3 of Compuserve's IBMSYS
forum with the name PB??.EXE with ?? being the latest version number.

== How Much? ==

Otto is shareware.  As such you are given the program without obligation
in order to evaluate it.  If after a 3 week evaluation you decide to
continue using it then you are obligated to become a registered user.
You register by sending $30 + $1 shipping (add $1 for 3.5 disk,
$5 for overseas orders) to:

 Otto                │  Visa or MC customers:       │  Modem-It! to:
 1157 57th Drive SE  │  call or FAX [phone]  │  [phone]
 Auburn, WA 98002    │  Compuserve: 72371,1557      │  Product ID: OT

(Modem-It! (tm) is a free program that lets you use your modem to easily
place orders 24 hours a day with any participating merchant.  Look for it
on any bulletin board.)

As a registered user you'll get the following additional benefits:

      1. Technical support and the latest version of Otto.

      2. The unregistered versions of some of our other shareware
         programs including Playback, Nabbit, FileNotes, Remind Me!,
         Trash-It, BriteLine, and others.

      3. No more "please register" messages.

Because Otto is shareware you're encouraged to give copies of it to
others as long as you don't modify the program or these instructions and
you don't charge for the copies.  The only exception to the last rule is
for shareware vendors who may charge a reasonable distribution fee.

Those using Playback in a commercial or educational environment must
register.  Site licenses are available, as well as quantity discounts.

== Getting Started ==

* Put OTTO.COM in one of the subdirectories listed in the PATH statement in
  your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

=== Creating your own scripts ===

== Definitions: ===

The following symbols are used in the format description of the various
commands:

{alt-3}         This signifies the character that appears when you hold
                down the Alt key and press three.  Don't put the brackets
                or the description in your scripts, just the character
                that appears when you press the keys within the { } at
                the same time.

[message]       specifies data that appears on the screen.  Must be
                enclosed quotes.

[delay]         delay in seconds

[evaluator]     must be either "=" or "<>"

[label]         specifies a location in the script.  Must be less than
                eight characters long and be enclosed within "*"s.  For
                example: *GetMail*

[location]      You tell Otto where on the screen to look for a message
                in a variety of ways.  If you specify "cursor" then Otto
looks for the message directly in front of the cursor.  For example if
your screen looks like this:

  Enter Name: _

then the cursor message could be "Enter Name: ", "Name: ", ": ", or even
" ".  Notice I always included the space right in front of the cursor.
Therefore the command:

  waitfor cursor "Name: "

would wait until "name: "appears directly before the cursor.  The
uppercase/lowercase status of the message is irrelevant as the "message"
comparison is case insensitive.

You can also specify the message location by screen location.  Enclose
the coordinates in ROW,COLUMN format within ().  For example:

  waitfor (4,0) "City: "

would wait until "City: " appears at row 4, column 0.

Both rows and columns begin at 0, therefore the upper left corner of the
screen would be (0,0).  If you're more comfortable using COLUMN, ROW
than ROW, COLUMN then use DEBUG to change byte 0F hex of OTTO.COM to a
value of 1.

You can also specify message location in offsets from the cursor
location.  You do this by specifying + or - for values that are to be
cursor offsets.  For example:

  waitfor (-1,+2) "message"

would wait until "message" appeared at cursor row -1 and cursor column
+2.  You MUST use a +  or - to signify an offset.  Let's say you want to
specify the message location as the same column as the cursor but two
rows up.  You would use (-2,+0).  If you used (-2,0) then Otto would look
two rows up but at column 0 since the lack of a + or - on the 0
signifies the 0 is an absolute location.  Make sure you understand the
following examples:

(3,1)      Row 3, Column 1
(0,-3)     Row 0, Cursor column-3
(+0,-3)    Cursor row, Cursor column-3
(-1,-2)    Cursor row-1, Cursor column-2
(+2,3)     Cursor row+2, Column 3

== Some ground rules ==

* Otto only looks at the first letter of each command.  Therefore the
  command:  waitfor cursor "message"
  could be abbreviated to:  w c "message"

* You must leave a space between each component of the message:

  w c "message"  ;would be correct
  wc "message"   ;would generate an error.

* Use only one command per line, except for " ; " which allows you to add