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1990-05-17
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DOS Interactive Command Editor Page 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3 OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.1 To Exit DICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.3 Command Line Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.4 Display And Buffer Operations . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.4.1 Command Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.4.2 Command Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.4.3 Argument Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.5 Command Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4 PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION USAGE . . . . . . . . . . 8
Copyright (C) 1986-1990 Eric S. Adams
1 INTRODUCTION
DICE (DOS Interactive Command Editor) is a command line editor.
It provides features which enable more efficient entry of typed-in
commands for DOS or OS/2 full screen command mode. It's features are:
1. Enhanced editing capability for the DOS and OS/2 command
line.
2. Saves command line commands on a stack as they are entered.
3. Supports tag, save and recall of often used commands and
arguments.
4. Display of tagged arguments, commands and stacked commands.
5. Help function that shows a summary of DICE commands.
2 GETTING STARTED
The easiest way to start using DICE is to run the STRTDICE.BAT
file under DOS or the STRTDICE.CMD file under OS/2 full screen command
mode. These procedures will start either the DOS version or the OS/2
version of DICE. The DOS executable is DICE.EXE and the OS/2
executable is DICE2.EXE. At this point, a prompt and command line
appear on the screen and command entry is much like that of DOS or
OS/2 full screen command mode with added features.
DOS Interactive Command Editor Page 2
3 OPERATION
The following sections describe the operation and features of
DICE.
3.1 To Exit DICE
If you want to exit DICE, press <Alt>X (hold the "Alt" key down
while pressing the "X" key). You will then be asked whether or not
you want to save your commands and buffers. Pressing the "Y" key will
cause DICE to exit, pressing the "S" key will save the command stack
and buffers to a file and then exit or pressing any other key will
continue. The location and name of the file used to store the command
stack and buffers is described in the section "Display and Buffer
Operations".
3.2 Help
You can get help displays of the DICE commands and startup
parameters by pressing <Alt>H or the F1 key. The first screen gives a
short description of the DICE commands. If you press "Y" when this
screen is displayed, a short description of the DICE startup command
line arguments is displayed.
3.3 Command Line Editing
The following list summarizes the basic editing functions for the
DICE command line:
1. Left or Right arrow - moves cursor one character.
2. <Ctrl>Left or <Ctrl>Right arrow - moves cursor one word.
3. Home - moves to the start of the command line.
4. End - moves to the end of the command line.
5. Del - deletes the character at the cursor.
6. Backspace - deletes the character in front of the cursor.
7. Ins or <Alt>I - toggles the edit mode between insert mode and
overstrike mode.
8. <Alt>K - Deletes from the cursor to the end of the command.
9. Toggle command - <Alt>T (or F3) alternately clears the
command line and moves the command or argument at the pointer
to the command line. (The pointer is described in the
section "Display and Buffer Operations").
DOS Interactive Command Editor Page 3
10. A Semi-colon is a command line delimiter and can be used to
include comments in the saved command buffers. For example:
CD C:\MYDIR ; Change to my directory
If you want to actually enter a semi-colon on the command
line, type two semi-colons together. For example:
masm myfile.asm;;
This example will become "masm myfile.asm;".
11. A comma is a command delimiter and can be used to put
multiple commands on a single command line or command buffer.
For example:
C:,CD C:\MYDIR ; go to drive c and change to my directory
If you want to actually enter a comma on the command line,
type two commas together. For example:
masm myfile.asm,,;;
This example will become "masm myfile.asm,;".
3.4 Display And Buffer Operations
To display the Command Stack and tagged commands and arguments,
press <Alt>B (buffers display). F2 or <Alt>F2 may also be used to
display the buffers.
The following commands are used to move the buffer pointer. Note
that these commands are in effect even if the buffers are not being
displayed.
1. Up or down arrow - moves command/argument pointer up or down
one position.
2. PgUp - scrolls arguments or commands up 5.
3. PgDn - scrolls arguments or commands down 5.
4. <Alt>N - moves the pointer to the next buffer group.
5. <Ctrl>PgUp - moves the pointer up to the command or argument
buffers section.
6. <Ctrl>PgDn - moves the pointer down to the command stack or
command buffers.
Each time DICE is started, it attempts to read the buffer
information from a disk file. The buffers can be written to this file
by pressing <Alt>S (save buffers). The information can also be read
from the file by pressing <Alt>F (fill buffers). The file that is
used is identified by environment variables. The DOS version uses the
environment variable "DICEDAT" and the OS/2 version uses the variable
"DICE2DAT" to identify the file to use. For example, if you want to
use a file called "DICE.DAT" in a directory called "c:\util", you can
setup the environment variable as follows: "set
DOS Interactive Command Editor Page 4
DICEDAT=c:\util\dice.dat". Note that environment variables cannot be
set from within DICE.
If the environment variable does not exist, then the DOS version
of DICE uses a file named "DICE370.DAT" and the OS/2 version will use
a file named "DICE2.DAT". The default files will be located in the
directory that was the current directory at the time DICE was started.
3.4.1 Command Stack -
As commands are entered and executed, they are pushed onto the
command stack. The command stack can be displayed along with the
other buffers by pressing <Alt>B. Previously entered commands are
moved back to the command line as the pointer is moved up or down
through the stack (using the up or down arrow key). You can also push
a command from the command line onto the stack without executing it by
pressing <Alt>P (push). When a command is pushed onto the stack, one
of the other commands in the stack is removed. If an identical
command exists within the stack, it is removed, otherwise the command
at the top of the stack is removed.
3.4.2 Command Buffers -
The command buffers contain saved commands that can be executed
by entering a user defined pneumonic of alphnumeric characters. The
default number of characters allowed in a tag is 4, however this can
be configured at startup with a DICE startup command line parameter.
For example, changing the current directory to "c:\project\source" can
be done by entering the command "cd c:\project\source". You can
define a command called "ps" to do this by typing in the following:
ps=cd c:\project\source<Alt>C
This will enter the c