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┌────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ╔══════════════════════════════╗ │▒▒ │ ║ ║ │▒▒ │ ║ BATMNU ║ │▒▒ │ ║ Batch File Menu System ║ │▒▒ │ ║ Version 2.3 ║ │▒▒ │ ║ ║ │▒▒ │ ╚══════════════════════════════╝ │▒▒ └────────────────────────────────────┘▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ October 29, 1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2.0 MENU FORMAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2.1 General Format Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2.2 Window Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2.3 Window Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.4 Other Window Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.5 Option Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.6 Option Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.7 Headers and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.0 WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BATCH FILE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.0 MENUS WITH PARAMETERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5.0 MOUSE SUPPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6.0 SCREEN SAVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7.0 SHAREWARE INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7.1 New Security Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7.2 New Utility Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7.3 Bonus Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 8.0 BATMNU History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 1.0 INTRODUCTION ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This program is a menuing system for use with your batch files. It is not intended to be a shell, although with some very ambitious batch file programming, it could be used as one. Even nested menus are possible. Its purpose is to provide sophisticated flow control and give batch files a professional appearance by creating a point-and-shoot menu with up to 26 options per menu. The cursor keys and the HOME and END keys can then be used to make the selection. Each option can be selected by a 'hotkey' defined by your menu. A mouse is also supported if detected and there is a Screen Saver feature to protect your display. 1.1 Syntax ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── BATMNU [d:][path]filename [label] [default] The program defaults to a filename extension of "mnu" if none is provided. The filename can indicate a separate file or, if you prefer, the menu can be within the calling batch file. You will have to code the batch file so those lines are never executed, of course. If a separate file is used, it can be 'hidden' making it more secure from tapering. The optional label parameter can be used if you wish to put more than one menu within the file. Bracket your menu lines with ":label" and ":end_label". BATMNU will search your path for the file if it's not in the current directory. The label can be up to 15 characters long. The default parameter on the command line is used if you want an option other than the first one to be highlighted when the menu starts. e.g. "BATMNU NORTON.BAT 3" will highlight the third option. 2.0 MENU FORMAT ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── :menu {keyword to mark where the program should start reading} header,header text h_format,fYEL,bred,t1,d1 {header colors, time, date} window,tRED,hWHI,... {colors and window appearance definition} title,title text option,option text,[#] {# indicates hotkey position in option text} help,help text {must follow option help refers to} option,option text,[#][,[drive],[directory],program] {optional format} option... . . . footer,footer text f_format,fYEL,bred,t1,d1 {footer colors, time, date} :end_menu {Program stops reading and closes the file} 2.1 General Format Rules ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The definition can be organized in almost any order as long as it is placed between the ':menu' and ':end_menu' keywords (or other label if provided on Page 1 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 the command line). The window line should appear before the options if you use the 'l', 'n' or 'a' parameter. Maximum title length is 54 characters. Headers and footers can be 70 characters long if the time and/or date are not used. If you leave the title out, your menu will contain only your defined options. Header and footer are optional. Maximum option length is 50 characters for single column menus and 25 characters for double column.(See "no_margin" description on page 4 for longer title and option lines.) Maximum help length is 70 characters. All parameters on the window, h_format and f_format lines are separated by a comma. Spaces are ignored. The keywords can be indented for clarity, if desired, using spaces or TABs. Environment variables can be used within the header, footer, options, help lines or title. The variables are indicated by surrounding the name with the percent (%) sign, just as you would on a batch file command line. The variable's value is inserted when the menu is displayed. If the variable is not found, the variable name is used as it appears in the menu with % signs. 2.2 Window Options ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The "window" line in your menu will define the colors, appearance and actions of your menu. Each switch of keyword should be separated by a comma. The color options are: f# - foreground color of window (0-15) b# - background color of window, (0-7) t# - title color (0-15) o# - option color (0-15) h# - hotkey color (0-15) k# - screen color (clears screen), foreground (0-15), background (0-7) e# - screen border color (0-15) Color options should be followed by one of the color values shown in the chart below. Hotkeys can be made invisible by using "hinv" on the window line. The hotkeys will still select the options but the menu will not indicate them. This gives you the look of a simpler "light bar" style menu. COLOR VALUES 0 or bla = Black 8 or BLA = Grey 1 or blu = Blue 9 or BLU = Bright Blue 2 or gre = Green 10 or GRE = Bright Green 3 or cya = Cyan 11 or CYA = Bright Cyan 4 or red = Red 12 or RED = Bright Red 5 or mag = Magenta 13 or MAG = Bright Magenta 6 or yel = Brown 14 or YEL = Yellow 7 or whi = White 15 or WHI = Bright White The 'k' option fills double duty setting the foreground and background color for the screen. The first k parameter will set the background, the second the foreground (Foreground default is "whi" if not specified). The Page 2 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 foreground color is used with the fill character. The fill character can appear after the color of either to give the screen background more interest than a flat color. Use of the drop shadow is more dramatic too. If you prefer, a string could be used to fill the screen background. Either words or special characters could be used. Put the string after the color as above. If you want to add spaces, use the underscore (_) character. It will be treated as a space when displayed. (e.g. kred_Main_Menu) The 'e' option sets the screen border color which is outside the normal text area. An 'e' used alone will reset the border to its normal black. Default colors are provided (fYEL, bblu, tWHI, oCYA, hRED) and the options will be left-justified. The menu will be in single column format unless it exceeds 12 options. It will have a double line frame (m2). Default colors for headers/footers are fWHI, bred. 2.3 Window Appearance ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The window appearance options are: s# - shadow on, 1-4 to position shadow relative to menu c - center each option individually w - display menu in wide, 2 column format, default for > 13 options l - default to letter selection of options n - default to number selection of options, maximum of 10 options a[n] - automatic selection of hotkeys. [optional no case favoring] m# - menu frame type, 1 - ┌─, 2 - ╔═, 3 - ╒═, 4 - ╓─, 5 - █▀ r# - top row for menu window c# - left column for menu window no_margin - display menu without wide margin around the frame popup - save entire screen and restore when menu closes The shadow position is set with the 's' option. 1 is below and to the right. 2 is below and the to left. 3 is above and to the right. 4 is above and to the left. The 's' option alone defaults to 1. Menu options are normally left justified. If you want your options centered in the menu, use the 'c' switch. If you want a 2 column menu, the 'w' switch will force BATMNU into this mode. As a default, menus with more than 13 options are always displayed this way. The 'l' option can be useful when you have a large number of options or if you just prefer it that way. The 'n' option is for those who prefer numbered menus. Naturally, only 10 options are possible with numbers as hotkeys. The 'c' option is overridden if you use 'l' or 'n'. With these options, your maximum option length is reduced by 3 characters and the hotkey position will be set to 1. If you follow the 'l' or 'n' with another character such as a dash, period or parenthesis, this will be used as a separator. (e.g. 'l-' will produce 'A-', 'B-', etc for the menu.) Page 3 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 It is not necessary to specify the hotkeys for your options. If you leave this information out, BATMNU defaults to the first character. By using the 'a' switch, BATMNU will make sure you don't end up with duplicates. It makes a one-pass search to find unique letters for all the options. You can override the selection by indicating the hotkey on the option line. The search favors uppercase letters unless the no-case modifier is used, 'an'. To place the menu at a position other than centered on the screen, the 'r' and 'c' switches will define the position of the upper left hand corner. BATMNU will make adjustments to ensure the menu and shadow, if used, will remain within the screen boundaries. BATMNU will not confuse 'c' (centered) with 'c#', column #. If you prefer that the menu does not have the large margin around the menu, use the "no_margin" keyword to eliminate it. This will increase the Title and Option line maximum length to 60 and 56 respectively. It the menu is in 2 column format, the max option length is 28. You have the option to save the entire screen before BATMNU displays the menu, and restore the saved contents after the menu closes. Include the keyword "popup" on the "window" line to make this happen. Cursor position is saved as well. 2.4 Other Window Options ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── There are four other options for the window line: x - disables the mouse. No search is performed. p - Screen Saver Pause v - Option Return Value ~ - Allows use of the Escape key to exit menu, returns errorlevel 0 Use 'x' if you do not want to use the mouse. The mouse check is skipped when the program starts and there is no delay in activating the menu. This option has no effect on systems without a mouse. 'p' controls the pause time before the Screen Saver activates. The default is 5 minutes. The Screen Saver can be disabled with 'p0' and the maximum setting is 30 minutes (p30). Information about the option chosen can be returned through the environment by using the 'v' option. It extracts a portion or all of the option's text and can be used for a number of things. Its format is "v#var" where # controls the number of characters to return (1-60) and var is the variable name to use. If the variable name is not specified, BATMNU will use "VAL". In retrieving the text, if # is larger than the option's length, the entire option text is returned. If you use the letter or number option, the label is skipped so that just the option's text is placed in the environment. See the example batch file, NORTONV.BAT, to see how this feature can be used to eliminate "if errorlevel" statements and simplify the batch file. NOTE: DOS 3.3 or higher is needed to use this feature. Page 4 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 Normally, ESCape is not a valid key for a menu. If you wish ESCape to be active, place a '~' on the window line. Errorlevel 0 will be returned. If the 'v' option is used, the environment variable will be set to "ESC". 2.5 Option Lines ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── As stated above, the format for the option line is: option,Option Text,hotkey[,drive letter,directory,program params] Hotkey position starts at 1 and will default to that position if omitted or the number is longer than the text. Alternately, the hotkey can be defined with a character. BATMNU will first search the option text for an uppercase letter that matches. If there is no uppercase match, the program will do a lowercase search for the first character that matches. (e.g. "Disk Info,i" will highlight the I of "Info". "Disk Filer,i" will highlight the i in "Disk".) Use a number if you want a specific character as your hotkey. If a hotkey character is duplicated, the menu will return the value associated with the first option with that hotkey if the hotkey is pressed. If the highlight bar is used to select an option with a duplicate hotkey value, the highlighted option value will be returned. You can let BATMNU select the hotkeys, if you wish, with the 'a' window parameter. The choices can be overridden by the option line selection. The menu will default to letter choices if it runs out of characters to pick from. This procedure will also favor uppercase characters before lowercase. To override this, use 'an' (auto hotkey, no case). If the program cannot find any options in the file, a Menu Format Error message will be displayed. Refer to the section, Menus With Parameters (page 7), to see a description of the drive, directory and program options. 2.6 Option Help ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The Help line specifies text which will appear in the footer (See below.) when the option is highlighted. It can be up to 70 characters long and can appear with the time and date. This will restrict the help line length some, depending on the time/date format used. The help must follow the option it refers to creating option/help pairs in the menu. e.g. "option,Norton Commander" could be followed by "help,File Utility". 2.7 Headers and Footers ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Header and Format format lines have the following options: f# - Text Foreground color (0-15) b# - Text Background color (0-7) t# - Display time of day (0-4) d# - display today's date (0-5) popup - show text while menu is displayed only Page 5 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 The header and footer items define a line of text to appear at the top and bottom of the screen. The entire row will be colored with the background color. Colors are defined on the h_format and f_format lines using the f# (foreground) and b# (background) parameters as shown above. Refer to Window Options on page 2 for more information on colors. Another option for the f_format and h_format lines is the keyword "popup". Normally, the header and footer lines remain after the menu selection is made. If you want either or both of these lines to disappear with the menu, include the keyword "popup" on the appropriate format line. Their appearance will be the same when the menu is displayed, however, they will disappear, restoring the original lines, or the menu background if k# was used (p. 2), when the menu closes. The time and date can appear in the header and / or footer. On the format line(s) include a 't' for time and 'd' for date followed by a number indicating the format to use. They are as follows: TIME DATE 0 - HH:MM:SS (default) 0 - MM/DD/YY (default) 1 - HH:MM:SS am 1 - MM/DD/YYYY 2 - HH:MM am 2 - DDD MMM DD, YYYY 3 - HH.MM.SS 3 - DD/MM/YY 4 - HH.MM 4 - DD/MM/YYYY 5 - DDD DD MMM YYYY The date will appear to the left of the header or footer and the time will appear to the right. If the header/footer is too long, the time and date information could overwrite it. A footer can be combined with help (See above.) with the help line given precedence. If an option has no help line, the footer is displayed. Use of the "pop_help" keyword in the window (page 6) line will cause the footer to disappear with the menu when a selection is made. 3.0 WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BATCH FILE? ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you execute the sample batch file, NORTON.BAT, you will see a menu displaying several choices. If you choose one of the options, you will probably see a lot of DOS error messages as the chance of your computer being set up the same way is negligible. When you view the batch file, you can get a good idea how BATMNU operates. The menu is near the beginning of the batch file mainly for speed. You will notice a "GOTO START" statement which causes the batch to branch around the menu. After the ":START" label is the command line that calls BATMNU and tells it what file the menu is in. If this file is not in your PATH or in the current directory when started, you would need to specify the full path name. .e.g BATMNU D:\UTIL\NORTON.BAT DOS ERRORLEVEL is set on exit from BATMNU with EL 1 corresponding to the first option, etc. A series of "if errorlevel x goto ..." statements after the line calling BATMNU will allow the batch file to determine which option was selected and branch to the appropriate label. EL 127 is set whenever Page 6 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 the program encounters an error (file not found or parameter error) so you should plan your batch file accordingly. If the Escape key option is used, this will always return an EL 0. Be sure to order your errorlevel statements from largest to smallest since "if errorlevel 3" will be true for EL=3 or greater. See your DOS manual for more information. Executing BATMNU with no parameter will display a help screen and example menu if the file BATMNU.HLP, included in the original archive file, can be found (See the Appendix for more info on this file). If you type the command "BATMNU NORTON.BAT" from the DOS prompt, the menu will be displayed as before but nothing will happen when you make a choice. You need to run the batch file itself to get anything to start. Several example files are contained in this archive, including one showing a separate menu file, another a menu within a batch file, and a third detailing a menu with parameter passing. 4.0 MENUS WITH PARAMETERS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Optionally, a program can be started directly from BATMNU. This will result in shorter batch files as minimal ERRORLEVEL checking is necessary. You will also find the programs will start faster since there is no batch file processing. The option line contains additional information relating to the drive, directory and program name is this form: option,Word Perfect,w,c:,\wp51,wp In this example, BATMNU will change the drive and directory and start WP when this option is selected. When WP is finished, you are returned directly to your batch file. BATMNU sets an environment variable, ERRLEV, to identify the program run. You may wish to do further processing based on the program run or you can check for an ERRORLEVEL code returned from that program. The ERRLEV variable will equal the number of the option picked. If WP was the third option, ERRLEV=3 would be in the environment. You could then run an automatic backup procedure for WP with the line "if %ERRLEV%!==3! goto wpbackup". Additional parameters can be passed to your program. Simply include them after the program name as you normally would. option,Paradox - Phones,11,e:,\paradox\phones,paradox3 phone.scr This line would start Paradox which would then run the script phone.scr. It is recommended that your batch file clear the ERRLEV variable at the beginning and end to preserve space and prevent your batch file from acting on old information in the environment. The statement "SET ERRLEV=" will do this. If there are no parameters on a line, you can use BATMNU the same way as earlier versions and the ERRLEV variable will not be set. If you want to leave out the drive and/or directory parameters, leave a comma to mark it. BATMNU will assume the program can be found in your PATH. If you don't use any parameters for an option, the placeholders are not necessary. See the files NORTONP.BAT and NORTON.BAT in this archive for a comparison. Page 7 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 If you want the highlight bar to be on the option you just selected after returning, the ERRLEV variable can be used on the command line to set the default option. The command: BATMNU NORTONP.BAT %ERRLEV% will do this. Refer to the example file NORTONP.BAT to see how this is set up. IMPORTANT NOTE: DOS 3.3 or higher is required if you want to use parameters on the option lines. This is necessary so that BATMNU can use the environment to relay information back to the batch file. BATMNU will display an error message and return an EL=0 if you are not using the proper DOS version. 5.0 MOUSE SUPPORT ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── When BATMNU is run, it checks for a mouse unless the 'x' parameter is found on the "window" line. This switch will cause BATMNU to skip the check for, and not use, the mouse. Once the mouse is detected, the mouse cursor will be set next to the first option. The delay you will observe after the menu is displayed and before the highlight bar appears is the mouse initializing and is normal. Options can be selected with the mouse by moving the cursor to the option line and clicking the left button. If the option is currently highlighted, BATMNU acts as if the hotkey was pressed. If not, only the highlight bar is moved. A second click will then select that option. The right mouse button acts like the ESCape key if the ~ option is used. 6.0 SCREEN SAVER ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you use BATMNU for a shell, you will appreciate this feature. As a default, if the program does not see any key presses or mouse clicks in a 5 minute period, the screen will blank to protect your display. Only the cursor will show in the upper left hand corner. Press any key or mouse button to restore the screen. The pause time before blanking is set on the Window line with the 'p' parameter. 'p0' will disable this feature and the maximum pause before blanking is 30 minutes. 7.0 SHAREWARE INFORMATION ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This program is provided as "shareware". You are allowed to use it, free of charge, for a reasonable amount of time. If you find BATMNU to be useful, and continue to use it, a registration fee of $15 plus $2.50 postage and handling is required. A form is supplied with the archive file to register with (BATMNU23.REG). Paying this fee will encourage me to make improvements and/or correct problems for future versions. Registered users will receive notification of future releases and information on how the new version can be obtained. It will also give their ideas for improvements more value. Page 8 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 7.1 New Security Version ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you have trouble with people messing with your menu files, BATMNU is now available in a version which will read specially encrypted files. The encryption scheme will not fool the CIA, but it should keep curious people from playing with your screen definition files. This new version, called BATMNU-E, has all of the features of the regular program and is completely compatible with it. It will read straight text files as well as the encypted ones. The program which does the encrypting (and decrypting for editing) is included with BATMNU-E and is very simple to use. If you want to receive BATMNU-E and the companion encypting program, the cost is $15. Use the form provided to register either or both. 7.2 New Utility Available ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── WHY DO USERS LIKE A MENU? Because it makes their life easier. Now there is something to make the menu designer's life easier! Now creation of the menu is taken out of your hands and onto the screen! The BatMnu Menu Utility makes creating menus fast and painless. It gives instant feedback on what your new menus will look like. Debugging the most sophisticated menu is now a chore of the past. Seasoned BATMNU users quickly find they wouldn't be without this utility. It's out of beta testing now, and available to all registered BATMNU users. Why do you need this? LOOK! - See your menu as you are creating it. Instant feedback on changes and additions. The menu has the same look and feel it will have with BATMNU. - No need to remember which switch does what. - Menus are created just by filling in forms, answering a few Yes/No questions or selecting values from a list. - Automatic formatting of the menu file. - Menus can be edited even if they are inside batch files. - Up to 16 menus from the same file can be edited at one time. - Rearranging options is as easy as highlighting the option and pressing a key. I know you will want the easiest way to create and edit menus for BATMNU. The BatMnu Menu Utility will make menu maintenance as easy as filling in a form. Use the registration form (BATMNU23.REG) to order BMU with your registered version of BATMNU. It's just $10 if you order with BATMNU. If you decide to order later you will have to pay an additional $2.50 for postage and handling. Get your copy today! Page 9 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 7.3 Bonus Program! ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Upon receipt of the registration fee, a disk will be sent with the current version plus the program SW-DIR.EXE. This program provides a scrolling file directory which can be used to choose a file and pass that filename to an application or use it in your batch file. Appearance options are similar to BATMNU. The program includes a QuickSearch feature which can quickly locate a file by name. DOS 3.3 or higher is required to use this program. Site licenses for BATMNU can be negotiated. Registered 1.X users can upgrade to 2.3 for $5 plus $2.50 for postage and handling. Feel free to give it to friends or upload the original archive file to other BBS's provided that no fee is charged for distribution and it is not modified in any way. Note to BBS Sysops: Please post this archive file as is, with all files included, and without changing the filename. Ver. 2.3 October 29, 1993 Warren Small CIS 71076,407 35 Benjamin Street GEnie W.SMALL Manchester, NH 03109 Prodigy RSJW31A Page 10 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 8.0 BATMNU History ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1.1 2/02/90 First general release. 1.2 3/15/90 Options increased to 26. Added automatic hotkeys (A, p. 4) and hotkey choice by letter (p. 5). 1.3 4/22/91 Added numbered options (N, p. 3), menu frame choices (M#, p. 3), invisible hotkeys (INV, p. 2). 2.0 9/30/91 New option line format to start programs directly (p. 7). Added mouse support (p. 8), screen border color control (E#, p. 3), screen foreground color control (K#, p. 2), header and footer option (p. 5), shadow position control (S#, p. 3), letter and number separator (L, N, p. 3). 2.0a 1/31/92 Maintenance release fixing several bugs. Parameters now passed properly to programs started by BATMNU. Border color set properly. Default colors provided for header and footer. Header and footer documentation provided. 2.1 6/30/92 Added time/date options to header and footer (T#, D#, p. 6). Header and footer string length increased to 70 (p. 5). Default menu choice can be specified on command line (p. 1). Corrected action of menu with duplicate hotkeys (p. 5). Hotkey selection by letter favors uppercase match in option text (p. 4). Option string length increased to 50 for single column menus. Help line option added (p. 5). Background string fill added (K#string, p. 3). 2.1a 9/22/92 Environment variables can be used in title, header, footer, options and help (p. 2). ESC now clears help line (p. 5). 2.2 1/11/93 Right mouse button used as ESC (p. 8). Screen Saver added (P#, p. 8). Help now in external file (p. 12). 2.3 10/29/93 Added row/col positioning for menu (R#, C#, p. 4), option to remove wide margin around menu frame which increases title and option maximum length (p. 4), popup style header and footer (popup, p. 6), popup mode for the entire screen (popup, p. 4), and option value return through environment (V#[var], p. 4). Default 2 column menu now occurs at 14 instead of 12. Menu errors now return EL 127 instead of EL 0. Encryption version now available (p. 9). BatMnu Menu Utility now available (p. 9). Page 11 BATMNU v2.3 Warren Small (c) 1993 APPENDIX ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── BATMNU 2.2 and higher uses an external file for help information. The advantage to this is that it makes the program file smaller and it also allows a certain amount of customizing by the end user. The following is a guide to the structure of the help file, BATMNU.HLP. Each section begins with a header which contains a keyword, the window size, and the number of strings that will be placed in the window, enclosed in {}'s. {Keyword; top row; left col; bottom row; right col; # of strings} Example: {W_Colors; 12; 16; 18; 63; 4} The upper left corner for this window is at row 12, column 16, and the lower right is on row 18, at column 63. There are 4 strings of information that follow in this format: c or s; row; col; string Example: c; 12; 40;┤ WINDOW COLORS ├ s; 14; 19;f - Foreground Color b - Background Color s; 15; 19;t - Text Color o - Option Color s; 16; 19;h - Hotkey Color k - Screen Colors The letter beginning the line indicates whether it should be centered (c) at the position indicated or printed right at the position (s). The row and column position follows and then the string itself. If you decide you want to alter or add to the information in the file, here are a few things to remember. - The window should start at row 8 or more and end at row 22 or less unless you don't care if it covers the other text on the screen. In that instance, it can extend from row 1 to 25. The background text is not disturbed in any case. - The keyword cannot be altered. These are hard coded into BATMNU at present. If changed, the program would not be able to find the help section. - If the window position values are 0, as is the case for the 'Main' section, there is no window drawn and the program does not wait for the user to press a key. - Make sure that, if you add strings to a section, you adjust the window size accordingly. Likewise, position the strings so that they fit in the window. - Each parameter is separated by a semi-colon. A space is used only for readability. Leading spaces in a string are used. Page 12