Cream of the Crop 3/Cream of the Crop 3.iso/utility/v_210a.zip/VIEW.DOC

Text File | 1992-05-18 | 23KB | 440 lines

                       ┌────────────────────────────┐
                       │          VIEW.EXE          │
                       ╞════════════════════════════╡
                       │  Programmed by Jim Wilson  │
                       │Copyright(C) 90-92 * Ver 2.1│
                       └────────────────────────────┘



    Stop,   hold  the  presses!  Major  story  breaking  -  View  has  been
    rewritten!  Yep,  it's  true.  This little file viewer has had almost a
    complete   rewrite,   all   for   the   sake  of  speed  and  increased
    functionality.  I've  added  lots  of  features and enhanced it's value
    tremendously  (at  least I think so). For example; there is no longer a
    64K  file  size  limit - you  can  load files that are equal in size to
    your  available  RAM  (minus what View itself needs, of course)  or 10,
    000  lines,  whichever  comes first. There is no longer an 80 character
    per  line  restriction - you  can read lines up to 250 characters wide.
    Loading  files  from  disk  is also about 200% faster! For those of you
    still  using  versions  1.0,  1.1,  and  1.1a  you might not notice the
    changes  immediately  because  the  program  appears the same - but you
    will, trust me.


    If  all  this  sounds  kind  of dramatic for such a little program then
    maybe  I  let  my  enthusiasm get the best of me. You see, I've spent a
    great  deal  of  time  enhancing View, so read on and find out what I'm
    talking about.



    ┌──────────────────────┐
    │ GENERAL INFORMATION  │
    └──────────────────────┘

    View  is  a  text  and ASCII file viewer. You can use View to read just
    about  any  BAT,  DOC,  TXT,  or Read.Me type of file. It allows you to
    read  a  file  with  up  to  10,000  lines, or as many as will fit into
    your  RAM.  Each  line  can  contain  up  to  250 characters. What's so
    special about that? I'm glad you asked!


    There  are  a  million text file viewers floating around. Hell, you may
    have  even  written one yourself. I've written three or four different,
    but  somewhat  specialized,  viewers  over the years. If you have spent
    more  than  2  seconds with any ShareWare or Public Domain software you
    know  that  the  manual is usually a DOC file included on the diskette,
    just  like  this  one.  There is almost always a Read.Me file with last
    minute  changes  that  didn't  make the manual on time (most commercial
    software  even  contains one). Some of these files can grow quite large
    (I  saw  a  ShareWare  programmer's editor that had a DOC file that was
    357K - too big to be loaded by the editor it came with!).


    Your  only  available  choices for reading files of this type have been
    either  a  file  viewer that could only read one 64K block of text at a
    time  (one  memory  segment,  which  View use to be), one that tried to
    read  the  entire  file  into RAM (which meant you usually had a viewer
    with  a  big  EXE file or one that took a lot of RAM itself), your word
    processor  (what  a lousy choice that is), or your text editor. If your
    file  was  real  big  most viewers or word processors would not be able
    to  load  the  entire  thing  so  they wouldn't load ANY of it. If your
    lucky  the  text editor you use is able to "unload" the text that can't
    fit in memory onto your hard drive like the one I use - Bingo.


    Now,  just  because  you  have about 550K of available RAM doesn't mean
    that  your  viewer  or  editor  could  load  a file that big - it needs
    space  to  work  in  too.  Enter View. With View you can read any ASCII
    text  file,  even ones that are over 450K! And if the file is too large
    for  RAM  View  doesn't just say "sorry pal, it's too big for me so I'm
    going  to  exit  to DOS" (which a lot of programs do!), it will display
    what it could read.


    In  short,  Views  combination  of speed, features, and small size make
    it  the  ideal  choice for almost anybody. Because the EXE file is only
    9,459  bytes  you  can  carry  it  anywhere.  And  since  all the major
    movement  commands  are  present (Arrows, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, etc..)
    you're   not  sacrificing  features  for  portability  or  speed.  This
    program  has  been  carefully crafted to use as little of your precious
    RAM as possible, so there's more available for your file.



    ┌──────────────────────┐
    │ PROGRAM INFORMATION  │
    └──────────────────────┘

    View  uses  only  about  59K of RAM for itself. This means that you can
    use  it  on  virtually  any  PC.  (If  you  don't  have  that  much RAM
    available  your  in the wrong business!) Essentially what this means is
    that  all  the  remaining conventional (base) memory in your system can
    be  used  for  file  storage.  For example; if, after having loaded all
    your  device  drivers  and TSR's you have 560K of RAM free (as reported
    by  chkdsk  or  some  similar  program), then you would be able to load
    and  read  any  ASCII  text  file  up  to about 500K (or 10,000 lines)!
    Not too bad from an EXE file of only 9,459 bytes!


    View  starts  by verifying that the file you want to read exists. If it
    does  View  then  verifies  that  the file actually contains data (some
    programs  will  attempt to read a file with 0 bytes of data). View then
    checks  to  see  that  you have at least 75K of free RAM. If everything
    is  good  up  to  this  point  View then loads itself into memory. Once
    loaded,  it  proceeds  to  set  up  10,000 5 byte pointers for the data
    structure  (each  one  will contain a line number and the string length
    for  the  data  it  is about to read). After the pointers have been set
    up  View  then  starts  reading  until  it reaches the end of the file,
    runs  out  of  RAM,  or until it has read 10,000 lines (this limit will
    be explained later).


    Once  the  file  has been loaded you can use the up, down, left, right,
    ctrl-left  and  ctrl-right arrows, along with the PgUp, PgDn, Home, and
    End  keys  to  move  around.  If  you  hit  a wrong key or if you hit a
    "limit", like  hitting  PgDn  when  your  on  the last page already the
    program gives a very gentle beep (not the annoying kind!).


    I've   spent  a  considerable  amount  of  time  fine  tuning  the  RAM
    requirements  for  View. With all the tweaking that was done I probably
    gave  View  the  ability  to read a file that was 25K - 30K bigger then
    when  I  first  wrote  the  new memory scheme. That may not seem like a
    lot  in  todays world of multi-megabyte systems, but when you only have
    640K  of  RAM for DOS all of the sudden 30K seems like a lot. Even with
    that  I  was  able  to  give  the  program  a few extra features like a
    status  line  at  the  bottom  of the screen which contains the name of
    the  file  you're  viewing,  the  current  line  number,  the last line
    number   in  the  file,  and  the  right  column  position.  I've  also
    incorporated  direct  video  writes  (which  required  a  procedure  to
    determine  what  type of monitor you have), pretty good error checking,
    a  goto  line number feature, and even a brightness control for laptops
    or  PC's  with  crappy  contrast  (does your present file viewer have a
    brightness control as a feature?).



    ┌────────────┐
    │ RAM USAGE  │
    └────────────┘

    OK,  enough  of  the  propaganda,  now  let's get serious. The RAM that
    View uses is broken down as follows:

           50K - 10,000 5 byte data pointers.
            4K - Error checking and all status information
            5K - Video writes, keyboard routines, associated "housekeeping"
         =====
           59K - Total RAM used by View.Exe (approximately)

    Not  too  bad,  huh?  The  EXE  file is only 9, 459 bytes, which is 541
    bytes  less  then  my  maximum target of 10, 000. It will work with ANY
    type  of  monitor, be it monochrome, CGA, EGA, VGA, LCD, Gas Plasma, or
    whatever  you  happen to have. As a matter of fact, the procedure which
    determines  what  type of monitor you have is so accurate that you will
    probably  never  have  to  use  the  /M  command  line option, which is
    discussed  a  little  later  in this document. The video writes and the
    keyboard  handler  were  written  in assembler for the fastest possible
    performance on any computer.



    ┌────────────────┐
    │ KEYBOARD USAGE │
    └────────────────┘

    The  keys  that View uses are all pretty self-explanatory (hell, if you
    made  it  this far in the documentation you figured out how to use most
    of them already). Here's a listing of them, anyway.

    LeftArrow  - Moves the data on the screen 5 columns to the left
    RightArrow - Moves the data on the screen 5 columns to the right
    UpArrow    - Moves back to the previous line of data
    DownArrow  - Moves down to the next line of data
    PgUp       - Moves back to the previous 24 lines of data (1 page)
    PgDn       - Moves down to the next 24 lines of data (1 page)
    Home       - Goes to the first line of the file
    End        - Goes to the last line of the file
    CtrlLeft   - Moves the data 40 columns to the left
    CtrlRight  - Moves the data 40 columns to the right
    B or b     - Toggle: turns the brightness of the data up or down
    G or g     - Goto a specific line number
    ESC        - Exits View


    NOTE:  When  using  the  'G'oto  function the line number you specified
    will  be  placed directly above the status line. If you select a number
    less  then  24  then  View will display the first page of data from the
    file.  If  you specify an invalid line number then View will just beep.
    If  you  decide  that the number you entered is not correct you can hit
    the  BACKSPACE  key  to  erase  it.  If  you  decide against using this
    function at all you can hit the ESC key to cancel.


    Another  bit  of  information that might make you understand the status
    line  a  little  better;  the Col:## is the right most column currently
    being  viewed  while  the  Line:##  is  the  last line displayed on the
    screen.  This  makes the numbers you see always the extremes - the last
    line and the last column of that particular screen.



    ┌─────────────────┐
    │ PROGRAM OPTIONS │
    └─────────────────┘

    View supports only three command line options, which are:

             /? or /H - A small help screen
                   /M - Forced monochrome mode
         Filename.Ext - Name of the file to view

    Options  can  be  entered  in any order and you can use either upper or
    lower  case  letters,  but  you  must leave a space between each option
    selected.  All  unrecognized commands are ignored. One option causes an
    immediate  response - /?  (or  /H).  This  instructs  View to print the
    help  screen  and  then  return  to DOS. This option will be acted upon
    REGARDLESS  of  where  it's  placed  on  the command line. If you don't
    specify  a  file  name  you will get the help screen to remind you what
    to do. The definition of the available options is:

    /? or /H - Use  this  option to get a help screen that looks similar to
               the  one above. If no file name is given on the command line
               then View will print this Help screen as a reminder.

          /M - By default View displays white text on a blue background. On
               most  systems  this  doesn't  present a problem. However, on
               certain   laptops,  portables,  and  monochrome  EGA  or VGA
               monitors  this  can be difficult to read. Use this option to
               instruct  View  to  display  white  characters  on  a  black
               background.  The  'B'rightness  command  will recognize your
               selected color choice and will work accordingly.

    Filename - The  name  of the file you would like to view. Drive letters
               and paths are fully supported.



    ┌─────────────────┐
    │ VERSION HISTORY │
    └─────────────────┘

    1.0 - Initial  release  to  the  general  public.  Only  used by myself
   6/91   prior to that.


    1.1 - Added  the  /I  option to ignore blank lines. Added the /S option
   8/91   to  check  the  file  size  in  lines. Fixed a bug with the error
          checking  routine. Fixed a bug when you had a file with less than
          24  lines  (1  full  page)  of text. Fixed a bug with the monitor
          checking procedure.


    1.1a- Fixed  a  bug  with  file  names that started with a number, like
   10/91  4DOS.DOC.  View  mistook  that  for  a  'start  at  line  number'
          command (similar to the /##### option).


    2.0 - Major  rewrite!  Removed  the  /#####  (start at line number), /I
   3/92   (ignore  blank  lines),  and  the  /S (show size of file) options
          because  they  are no longer necessary - they existed strictly to
          make  the  64K  file  size  limit  a  little more bearable. Added
          support  for  the left and right arrow keys, the 'B'rightness and
          the  'G'oto  line  number functions as well as being able to load
          files  up  to the maximum size of your free RAM. All this and the
          EXE file is only 1.1K larger!


    2.1 - Added  the  ctrl_left  and  ctrl_right  arrow  keys to scroll the
   5/92   screen  40  columns  to  the  left/right,  respectively.  Fixed a
          memory  allocation  error where View was loading 1 line less then
          it  said  it  was if your file was either 10,000 lines long or it
          used  up  all  the RAM in your system before the end of the file.
          Added  some  color  to  the  display,  for those of us with color
          monitors.  Fixed  a  bug  with  the  'G'oto  command  if the user
          entered  a  number  larger  then the total number of lines in the
          file.  Performed  some  general "housekeeping" on the source code
          for  the  sake of speed and/or size. All this and the EXE file is
          now  148  bytes  smaller than version 2.0! Yeah I know, 148 bytes
          ain't  much - but how  many times have you seen a program updated
          with  new  features  and  bug  fixes that actually got smaller in
          size?


    2.1a- Fixed  a  keyboard  handler  problem  where  the  keyboard  would
    5/92  respond  sluggishly,  if  at  all,  when the file you loaded took
          all available RAM and you had the TSR SuperKey loaded.


    ┌──────────────────┐
    │ FINAL RAMBLINGS  │
    └──────────────────┘

    Some last words of wisdom (or at least as close as I can come).


    As  with  all Public Domain programs I take no responsibility for View.
    If  it  blows  up  in  your  face then it's your fault, not mine. It if
    melts  your  hard drive, then so be it. If it makes you wish you were a
    Vulcan  (for  all  you  Star  Trek  fans) then "live long and prosper".
    Actually,   I  get  pretty  fed  up  with  the  legal  crappola  that's
    necessary  in  todays world. Of course my program won't blow up in your
    face  or  melt your hard drive - I'm being sarcastic and ridiculing the
    legal  establishment!  I  use  View  every  day and I have yet to see a
    Vulcan (prior to consuming larger quantities of Becks, that is).


    View  has  a  "big"  brother  called ReadIt. Yes, that's right - if you
    like  View  but  want  something a little more powerful I can certainly
    help  you  out.  You  see,  View  is  kinda  like my "test bed" for new
    ideas.  It's  also something I happen to give away for free because I'm
    a  nice  guy!  ReadIt  is my ShareWare program, the one you have to pay
    for.  Both  View and ReadIt share the same basic "engine" (file access,
    error  handling,  keyboard reading, and video writes). ReadIt, however,
    includes  online  help,  text  search  (case  sensitive or not), a file
    information   window,  monochrome  or  color  palette  selection,  user
    selectable  TAB  expansion,  and  the  ability to print any part of the
    file  with  automatic  or manual form feeding and line widths up to 250
    characters.  This  is  all  wrapped  up in an interface featuring popup
    windows  with  shadows  and an EXE file size of only about 16K! If this
    sounds  good  to you then send just $10.00 dollars to me at the address
    at  the  end of this DOC file, along with a letter containing your name
    and address, and I'll rush a copy of ReadIt out to you.


    You've  probably  noticed  that  I have given View a 10,000 line limit.
    This  file  size  limit is because I'm trying to get you to buy ReadIt,
    which   has  limit  of  almost  16,000  lines - that's  more  then  50%
    greater  then  View!  Why  does  ReadIt have such a limit at all? Well,
    it's  not  because  of  me  really - it's Borland. For some reason they
    set  a  limit  on the size of a data structure you can create when your
    allocating  RAM  from  the  heap.  I don't know if Turbo C suffers from
    the  same  restriction  as  Turbo  Pascal,  which  View and ReadIt were
    written  in.  If it were up to me I would have ReadIt use all available
    RAM, regardless of the number of lines.


    If  you  happen to be one of the few unfortunate souls who still have a
    CGA  monitor  you had better be prepared for a "blizzard" of snow. View
    writes  directly  to  video  RAM  and  I didn't program any routines to
    perform  the  necessary  synchronization  for the video retrace signal.
    On all other types of monitors there will be no problems.


    View  works  exclusively  in  read  only  mode.  What exactly does that
    mean?  Well,  it  means  you  can  read  ANY  file,  regardless  of its
    attributes  (hidden,  system,  readonly)  or  its  type (DOC, TXT, HLP,
    etc).  View  doesn't  create  any  temporary files for data storage nor
    does it alter the original so you can use it without concern.


    From  time  to  time  you  might see some strange symbols appear on the
    screen.  This  is  the  way  View  prints  the  TAB  (ASCII  code 009),
    FORMFEED  (ASCII  code  012),  and  a few other "difficult" characters.
    View  doesn't  have routine to expand TAB's into spaces. Very few files
    are  saved with TAB's anyway, so this shouldn't be a problem. If it is,
    then  get  a  hold  of  ReadIt  which  does  have  TAB  expansion as an
    option.


    The  three  areas  I've concentrated on the most when writing View were
    file   reading,  video  writes,  and  memory  allocation.  These  three
    functions  were  tweaked  and tweaked till they screamed. Consequently,
    they  are  the areas that work the fastest and consume the least amount
    of memory (as it should be).



    ┌──────────────┐
    │ WHAT'S NEXT? │
    └──────────────┘

    What's  next  for View? Well, I'm not really sure. My main objective is
    to  keep  the  program  small  and  fast  - that design goal will never
    change.  However,  I'm  not  going  to  ignore a good suggestion for an
    enhancement  if  you've  got  one.  Want a neat new feature added? Then
    drop  me  a  line  at the address below and I'll check into it. Some of
    the  things  I'm  contemplating  are:  a  search  or  find  function, a
    "bookmark"  or  place  holder  to  mark  a  spot in the file so you can
    easily  jump  back to it later, and maybe the the ability to use EMS or
    XMS memory for data storage.



    ┌──────────────┐
    │ REGISTRATION │
    └──────────────┘

    Why  is  this  part of View.Doc last? Because it's the least important,
    that's why! I don't believe in a lot of legal rhetoric.


    VIEW  IS  A  PUBLIC DOMAIN PROGRAM. YOU ARE FREE TO USE IT FOR YOUR OWN
    *PERSONAL*  USE.  YOU  ARE  ENCOURAGED  TO  GIVE  IT AWAY TO ANYONE AND
    EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT (except as noted below).


    The only real restrictions I impose are:

    1. Whomever  you  give  this  program  to,  whether  you copy it onto a
       diskette,  a  hard drive, or you upload it to a BBS, *MUST* be given
       the  complete  set  of  files (at this writing they are View.Exe and
       View.Doc).

    2. None  of  the  files  (View.Exe  or  View.Doc) may be altered in any
       fashion and must remain in their ORIGINAL form. NO EXCEPTIONS!

    3. You  CANNOT,   under  ANY  circumstance,   use  this  program  in  a
       commercial,  retail,  promotional,  or other similar fashion without
       the expressed written consent of the author.

    4. You  CANNOT,  under  ANY  circumstance,  use  this program to make a
       profit.  This  includes  distributing  it  with  your  own software,
       selling  it,  "renting"  it,  or any other such arrangement that you
       obtain reimbursement for.

    If  you  do desire to distribute View with your ShareWare catalog, your
    commercial  software,  or  for  any other non-personal endeavor, please
    write  to  me  at  the  address  below.  I  would be more then happy to
    license  View  to  just about anybody. Remember, it's entirely free for
    personal use!


    If  you  would  like  to  be  kept  abreast  of  any  new  developments
    concerning  View  then  send  me a buck (one thin dollar!) and I'll add
    your  name  to  the  mailing  list.  Make sure you tell me what version
    your  using.  If  you  would like me to automatically send you the next
    version  then  send  me  five bucks. Even if you don't send a buck (you
    cheap  skate)  feel  free  to  drop  me a note and let me know what you
    think about View, especially if you've found a bug (God forbid!).



                          ╓────────────────────────╖
                          ║       Jim Wilson       ║
                          ║      9 Miller Ave      ║
                          ║  Washington, NJ 07882  ║
                          ╙────────────────────────╜