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1993-05-07
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219 lines
5-7-93
CATT / ZCOLOR / MAGIK / ZEDITT are copyright by CASTLEsoft Boston.
Copyright 1989-1993
CATT / ZCOLOR / MAGIK / ZEDITT are written in ZBASIC
and portions of the code are copyright by 32Bit Software, Tx.
CATT is a program for people who hate mice. It has mouse support, but
it works much better from the prompt. CATT is a transparent program that
both saves disk space, and organizes your computer interface. It's main
function is to automate batch files and save the hard disk space they use.
Batch (BAT) files are nothing more than lists of commands. You use a BAT
file when there is a series of commands you find yourself repeating often.
Each file you write, no matter how few bytes, takes a fixed amount of disk
space. Typically this is 2048k (even for 20 bytes). If you use a lots of
BAT files, you use up a lot of 'empty' disk room. CATT puts all those BAT
files into 1 ASCII file, and runs them from this file (Z.FLS). There is a
built-in editor for this file. Each CATT-bat command has a name, and those
names may be listed sorted, or in order they were entered. CATT is
transparent, and any command CATT doesn't find in it's own list, is passed
to DOS. Commands (Dos or CATT commands) may be recalled via left/right
arrows. CATT is =f=a=s=t and you will not see any loss of speed when using
CATT. CATT has mouse support for left/right buttons. Press either mouse
button and the list of CATT commands will be listed (sorted). Use the left
button to execute a command, the right button to list the contents of the
command. The execute button will also execute a program in a directory on
your screen.
Included are ZCOLOR, ZEDITT, and MAGIK. Zcolor sets menu bar / screen
colors, as well as the COMport for Magik. Zeditt is a very simple text file
(ASCII) viewer / line editor. Magik is a dialer which keeps a compact
database of numbers. (see separate DOC for Magik)
CATT
CATT is loaded from the DOS prompt by typing KITTY. I suggest you put
KITTY as the last line of your AUTOEXEC.BAT. I have extensively tested
CATT, and it is my normal computer interface, at home and work. I use many
programs, including FAX, Telecom, Word Processing, Paint programs, and
Windows and have found none that caused a crash or any other problem. (I
am using DrDos-6, SSTOR (HD compression), EMM386, PCKwik cache, w/ TWO
scanner drivers, mouse, 2 comports and more on the desktop. The 486slc
notebook has all but the scanner drivers, and has only 1 faxmodem). I have
even loaded DrDos window-like menu program, then loaded Windows on top of
that.
When CATT is loaded, you will have a 'menu bar' with the current DIR
shown on the left. EXAMPLE:
C:\TEXT CATT 93 (C)1987-93 CASTLEsoft Boston F1 for HELP
>>>
The cursor will be after >>> and there you type any command. If the
command is a CATT command it will run the bat-command in Z.FLS which has
that name. If it is a Dos command, it will be passed to the Dos prompt and
executed. Left/right arrows will recall commands, up to 8 are stored (after
which the oldest one is lost as you enter new ones). <F1> will bring up the
HELP screen for CATT. Press [Enter] and the list of Z.FLS will be shown
sorted alphabetically. Enter '/z' and the list will be displayed in the
original order they were entered. '? name' will show the contents of the
bat-command that is entered as 'name'.
Enter '/ed' to get the CATT editor. You can <A>dd <D>elete <E>dit
(modify) your commands in the list. Also included is <C>reate, for a new
Z.FLS, in case you want to start over for some reason. <C>reate will empty
Z.FLS. For your protection, CATT keeps two backups of Z.FLS (Z.BAK and
Z.BKK). Press the letter (a d e q (quit) to get a function. 'a d e' will
ask for a name. If you press [Enter] on the blank line it aborts that
function. After you enter the name, the <A>dd function will accept lines
until you enter 'END' to finish the bat. You enter the list of commands you
wish to execute when you enter the name of this CAT bat. example:
pro (name of bat)
c: (change to drive C:)
cd\procomm (change to proper directory)
procomm (run the program)
cd\dwn (change to your download directory when you exit Procomm)
dir/w (list the files in the download directory)
END (finish the bat)
Then you may <S>ave or <Q>uit (in case you misstyped). When you <E>dit a
CATT bat, you re-type any line you wish to change as it is displayed. Even
the bat-name can be changed this way. Press [Enter] on a blank line to
accept the old command unchanged. To insert a NEW line, begin the line with
'+' sign. (ie: +newcommand). The line will be inserted after the present
line. When you press enter to accept the line, it will show the line you
have just typed. To delete a line, just put '-' sign and press enter.
You may use parameters in CATT much like a normal BAT file. A very
simple example might be one to copy all the files using XCOPY.
xc (name of bat, must be lower case)
xcopy %1 %2
END (all CATT entries end with END, UPPERCASE)
Then typing 'xc a: b:' would be the same as typing 'xcopy a: b:' CATT
will accept several parameters on one line. Parameters on the command line
may be used in any order in the bat file, just like a Dos Bat file. A CATT
command name may be from 1-8 chars. There may by up to 200 commands, of an
'average' length of 20 bytes (per bat file) (up to 4,000 bytes total). When
you do a list of commands, it will also tell you how many commands you have
entered. When you 'Edit' CATT, you will be told how may lines have been
used. Included in Z.FLS is the command 'zl' which will list Z.FLS so you
can see how many bytes are used. You can see several examples of commands
in the included Z.FLS. CATT does not recognize BAT file commands and you
just use dos commands and programs in the bat files. But you can call a Dos
BAT from CATT. (I do have a very few of them).
To chase the CATT away (ie: exit CATT) enter 'dog' (lower case). To
reload, type 'kitty'.
The full CATT uses F-KEYS as shown in the HELP screen.
ZCOLOR
Zcolor sets colors for the menu-bar and screen characters. It also
sets the COMport for MAGIK. Just run zcolor and follow the prompts. In the
FULL version there are extra colors, and you are also allowed to set
alternate IRQ's for internal modems.
ZEDITT
This is a simple ASCII viewer / editor. Run 'zeditt' and it asks if
you want to <V>iew or <E>dit a file. Zeditt will accept paths in the
filename. When you <E>dit a file, the operation is the same as the editor
within CATT for Z.FLS. (see above for directions).
MAGIK (see separate DOC file)
Don Hinds, the Wyzard of Draper CASTLE, CASTLEsoft, Boston
CATT was written as an 'extension' of Bat Commander. Portions of the code
are copyright from 1987 through 1993.