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DIRECTORY COMMANDER PLUS
========================
Version 2.0
Copyright 1991-1993 by Chuck Steenburgh
& Tay-Jee Software
_______
____|__ | (TM)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
DOS Version 6.00 adds many new features to the venerable
dir[ectory] command. What makes these new options even more
useful is the addition of the environment variable DIRCMD. By
using DIRCMD, you can store your favorite switches for the dir
command in the environment so you don't have to keep typing them
on the command line.
The problem, of course, is that these switches are still
just as cryptic as ever. For example, the command:
dir /og
means to show all files with subdirectories grouped before the
files. Makes sense, doesn't it? That's what we said.
We wrote DIRECTORY COMMANDER to make life a little easier
for myself. Instead of requiring you to spend 10 minutes look-
ing through your DOS 6.00 manual to remember what all those
switches are so you can compose a SET DIRCMD= line, DIRECTORY
COMMANDER will guide you through the process of selecting your
desired options from a simple, menu-driven display. DIRECTORY
COMMANDER will then create a small batch file containing the
options you have selected. Just execute this batch file, and
your preferences will be saved to the environment.
Material that differs from the documentation for the prev-
ious version is set off by vertical lines in the margin.
STARTING DIRECTORY COMMANDER
Page 1
Starting DIRECTORY COMMANDER couldn't be easier. Simply
type DCPLUS at the command line. You will see a small box
containing the words "DIRCMDr PLUS" at the top of the screen,
and two larger boxes below.
The box on the left (surrounded by double lines) contains
the Directory Options menu. Select these options by pressing
the first letter in the option name (highlighted in blue on
color displays). Pressing the first letter will toggle an
"X" off and on next to the option. "X" means that option is
currently selected.
[ ] Pause when full
This activates the /p switch. When the screen fills,
you will be asked by DOS to press any key to continue.
[ ] Wide format
This activates the /w switch. Filenames only will be
displayed in five columns across the screen. Has no
effect if the "File names only" option is selected.
[ ] Subdirectories
This activates the /s switch. In addition to the cur-
rent directory, all subdirectories beneath it will be
included.
[ ] File names only
This will eliminate all of the "extraneous" information
from the listing, producing only a list of filenames
(in the format FILENAME.EXT) with no headers or footers.
Activates the /b switch.
[ ] Lowercase only
This activates the /l switch. All file and directory
names will be displayed in lower case.
[ ] Compression ratio |
This actives the /c[h] switch, which displays the compres- |
sion ratio for DoubleSpace compressed drives. When selec- |
ting this option, you will be asked whether you want to |
Page 2
use the host drive's cluster size. Since DoubleSpace (and |
most other compression programs) use a misleadingly large |
cluster size, which reports an exaggerated compressio ra- |
tio, we suggest answering "Y" to this prompt. |
[ ] DIRCMD Set
When activated, this option will cause DIRECTORY COMMANDER
to set a master environment variable named DIRCMD with the
options you have selected. These options will then be in
effect automatically whenever the DIR command is used from
DOS.
The box on the right side of the screen (initially sur-
rounded by single lines) contains what two "special options."
These are the /a (attribute) and /o (order of sort) switches.
This large box is divided into two smaller boxes, one for each
of these two options.
This menu operates a little differently. Like the simple
Directory Options, "Attributes" and "Order of Sort" can be
selected by pressing the first letter of their names (high-
lighted in blue). Initially, both options are turned off
(no "X" displayed next to option name). When you press the
"a" or "o" key for the first time, you will activate that
option AND the Special Options menu. Note that single lines
will now appear around the Directory Options Menu and double
lines will appear around the appropriate portion of the Special
Options menu.
When the Special Options menu is active, you can select
additional options. These options appear below the words
"Attributes" and "Order of Sort." When you select either "a"
or "o", the corresponding set of special options becomes active
(first letter is highlighted in green). These options are
described below:
Attributes Special Options:
Hidden (displays hidden files)
System (displays system files)
Directories (displays only subdirectories)
Archive (displays files needing backup)
Read Only (displays read only files)
Order of Sort Special Options:
Page 3
Name (sorts by file name from a-z)
Extension (sorts by extension from a-z)
Date & Time (sorts by date & time, earliest to latest)
Size (sorts by size, smallest to largest)
Files First (displays all files before subdirectories)
Compression (displays files from least to most compressed) |
When you select one of the special options, a plus sign
(+) appears in front of that option. This turns it on.
Selecting the special option a second time puts a minus sign
(-) in front of the option. This activates the option "in
reverse." For the atttribute options, all files which DO NOT
possess this attribute will be displayed. For order of sort
options, the sort order will be reversed. Selecting the
option a third time will toggle it off.
For the Order of Sort options menu, the order in which
you select options is important. This is the order in which
those options will appear on the command line. For example,
let's say that you want to have all directories listed first
(alphabetically), then all files listed (alphabetically).
To select this option, you would first press "o" (for Order
of Sort) from the Directory Options menu. The Special Options
menu for Order of Sort will activate. Then press "f" twice
(two "reverse" the files first option). A minus (-) sign
and the numeral "1" should appear next to the "Files first"
option. Next, press "n" for "Name" option. A plus (+)
sign and the numeral "2" should appear to the left of the
"Name" option. When the SET DIRCMD= string is written, it
will appear as "/ogn".
As long as the Special Options menu is active, you can
toggle on/reversed/off as many of the appropriate special
options as you want. When you are finished, press ESC and the
Directory Options Menu will be reactivated.
If you press "a" or "o" a second time from the Directory
Options menu, that option (and any of the associated options
such as (N)ame, (S)ize, etc.) will be turned off.
When you are done selecting options, and the Directory
Options menu is active (surrounded by double lines), press
ESC to exit. A message will appear in the lower left hand
corner displaying the SET DIRCMD= string which you have
created.
HELP
Page 4
Pressing F1 from any portion of the program will call up
a window displaying context-sensitive help. There is a sepa-
rate, two-part help display for each of the three menus.
Page 5
FORMCMDr
========
Version 2.2
Copyright 1992-1994 by Chuck Steenburgh
& Tay-Jee Software
_______
____|__ | (TM)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
DOS' FORMAT command is one of the most essential of all.
Unfortunately, it can also be one of the most daunting (not to
mention dangerous) for new users. Although DOS 6.00 has made
the command somewhat easier by eliminating confusing references
to tracks and sectors on the command line, newer wrinkles were
introduced with the addition of "QuickFormatting" and the un-
conditional format. It is still far too easy to make mistakes.
FORMCMDr does for FORMAT what DIRCMDr Plus does for DIR:
it provides a menu-driven interface for selecting the various
formatting options. With a little help from the DOSKEY program
and a batch file, we are able to provide support for an environ-
ment variable, called FORMCMD, to specify default options.
GETTING STARTED
To run the FORMCMDr program, type:
FCDR
on the command line and press {Return}. (See the end of the
documentation for instructions on an alternate method of launch-
ing the program.) You will see a three-part display on your
screen.
In the upper left portion of the screen is the program menu.
It contains a list of 10 options. Specific menu items can be
selected through the use of a hotkey or a scrolling cursor bar.
Page 6
The upper right hand corner of the screen contains the
"Status Board." This displays the status of each of the options
which you can select via FORMCMDr.
The lower portion of the screen displays the options current-
ly stored in the FORMCMD environment variable.
SELECTING A MENU OPTION
Menu options can be selected by pressing the first letter of
that option (the "hotkey," highlighted on the menu) or by posi-
tioning the scrolling bar over that item and pressing {Return}.
The meaning of each menu item is described below.
Disk Size
Use this option to specify the size of the disk to be format-
ted. Upon choosing this item, a second menu will appear listing
the four most common disk sizes. To specify one of the more
uncommon disk sizes, such as a single-sided disk or the new 2.88
megabyte floppies, select "Weird Disk Sizes," then the proper
disk size from another menu.
The default disk size is that of the largest size disk that
can be formatted in drive A (the default drive), if the size can
be determined.
It is alright in some cases to NOT specify a disk size. In
this case, the drive will usually format disks to the largest
size supported by the drive in question.
Target Drive
You must always specify a drive letter to format. The de-
fault drive for FORMCMDr is drive A. After selecting this menu
option, enter the letter of the drive you wish to format.
If FORMCMDr can recognize the drive type, it will automatic-
ally set the disk size, or present you with a menu of possible
choices if the drive supports multiple disk sizes.
Volume Label
Select this menu item to include a volume label on your disk.
You can enter a label of up to 11 characters. Use volume labels
to identify your disks, especially important ones that you might
Page 7
not be able to identify from the files they contain.
Quick Format
A quick format does not actually reformat a disk; it essen-
tially does little more than erase the disk. Obviously, for
this to work, the disk must have been previously formatted; you
must also format the disk to the same size to which it was orig-
inally formatted. A quick format is much, much faster than a
normal format, but since it does not actually format the disk,
it is less reliable than a true format.
Quick formatting works on standard DOS formatted disks; it
also works on some disks formatted by non-standard formatting
programs such as Maxi-Disk.
Unconditional Format
DOS 6.00 provides the capability of unformatting disks. When
a disk is reformatted, DOS normally saves certain information
needed to unformat the diskette during the reformatting process.
This adds several seconds to the formatting time. To forego
this feature and speed up the formatting of your disks, select
this option.
System Disk
A system disk contains the operating system files and the
command processor and can be used to boot your system. A system
disk takes a few seconds longer to format (time to copy the
system files) and will have approximately 110k less space avail-
able than a normal disk. Select this option to create a system
disk. Since a system disk cannot be unformatted, it is usually
a good idea to specify an unconditional format also.
DOS 6.2 (and later) gives you the option of merely reserving |
sufficient disk space for the system files without copying them.|
When you select this item from the menu, you'll be given the |
choice of reserving space or actually copying the system files. |
Select the appropriate option. Your choice will be displayed |
on the Status Board. |
WarpFormat (DANGER)
DOS 6.00 provides several undocumented switches to allow
immediate formatting of a disk without prompts or warnings.
This can be very dangerous! The /AUTOTEST switch, which is used
by FORMCMDr to accomplish immediate formatting, will IGNORE the
Page 8
usual security features designed to prevent you from formatting
your hard disk. While this provides a convenient way to quickly
format a disk, it should be used sparingly and should NOT be
set to the environment!
FORMCMD Set
This option causes your selected options to be saved to a
master environment variable named FORMCMD. All options except
for WarpFormat and Volume Label will be saved.
Go For It!
This command will execute FORMAT with the options selected
and displayed on the Status Board (NOT in the environment dis-
play at the bottom of the screen).
Abort
This will exit the program without executing FORMAT. If you
have specified FORMCMD Set, the environment variable WILL be
set.
THE STATUS BOARD
The Status Board reflects the options currently selected by
you. When the program is started normally, all of the options
will be blank except for two: the Target Drive will be listed
as drive A and "Safe Format" will be selected.
If the FORMCMD variable is set when the program is started,
these settings will be reflected on the Status Board initially.
Target Drive, Disk Size, and Volume Label will all correspond
to the values you have selected/input from the menu. The other
options are toggled "on" or "off" through the menu. An option
is "on" when a check mark appears next to it on the Status
Board.
"Safe Format" is initially toggled on. Selecting "Uncon-
ditional" from the menu will toggle it off.
As mentioned above, a system disk cannot be unformatted, so
these options are incompatible with one another. Likewise,
QuickFormat and WarpFormat are incompatible. WarpFormat does
not support volume labeling; although you may enter a volume
label if WarpFormat is selected, it will be ignored if WarpFor-
Page 9
mat is still active when the F10 key is pressed.
USING THE BATCH FILE FMT.BAT
The file FMT.BAT is supplied as a convenient means of acces-
sing the FORMCMD variable created by the program. To perform a
format using the default options specified in the FORMCMD var-
iable, use the following syntax:
FMT d:
where d: is the letter of the drive you wish to format (usually
A: or B:).
If you like, you can redefine DOS' FORMAT command to corres-
pond to FMT.BAT through the use of the following DOSKEY macro:
DOSKEY format=fmt.bat $*
This DOSKEY macro can be implemented by typing the command above
or by executing the file FMAC.BAT in the distribution archive.
If you have used DOSKEY to redefine your FORMAT command, you
may from time to time wish to format disks using something OTHER
than the options defined in the FORMCMD variable. In this case,
you have one of two options. You can type a space before typing
the word "format" on the command line, adding your options such
as drive specifier and switches; OR you can type "format x" fol-
lowed by options such as drive specifier and switches. The
first method will simply bypass the DOSKEY macro definition al-
together; the latter method relies on features within FMT.BAT to
ignore the FORMCMD variable.
Page 10
OMBUDSMAN
These programs are produced by a member of the Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that
the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to
resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by
contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The
ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with
an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for
members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545
Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message
via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman, 70007,3536.
DISCLAIMER
The programs described in this documentation are guaran-
teed to do absolutely nothing! They have, however, in my exper-
ience performed essentially as described herein. The author
will not be responsible for any loss or damages caused through
the use of these programs. No warranty, express or implied,
is provided for this software's performance, merchantability,
or fitness for a particular purpose.
All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
The programs and documentation are Copyright 1991-1994 by
Chuck Steenburgh and Tay-Jee Software. You are encouraged to
distribute the UNREGISTERED VERSIONS of these programs provided
the conditions specified in the file VENDOR.DOC are met.
You may evaluate this software for up to 30 days on a free
trial basis. After 30 days, you should register your use of
the programs. The registration fee is $14.95, payable to Tay-
Jee Software at the address given below. Registration includes
both programs in the 6th Sense utility set.
Registration has the following advantages:
- Registration includes a collection of DOSKEY macros: dozens
of tricks, shortcuts, and handy additions to your DOS com-
mand set.
- We are improving these programs all the time. Registration
will get you IMMEDIATELY a disk with the latest version,
and automatic notice of future upgrades.
Page 11
- While we can't promise to include everyone's suggestions
in program updates, you can bet we'll listen to registered
users before any of you scrounges out there.
- You will also get an evaluation copy of our text file for-
matting program (used to produce the margins in this doc-
ument), and any other electronic creations we have decided
to unleash on a foolish, unsuspecting world. This includes
our best-selling STEENBURGH's STUFF, 21 utility programs
for use in batch files; and Back Soon!, a message-taking
utility.
Send comments/registrations to:
Tay-Jee Software
Post Office Box 835
Lexington, VA 24450
(703)261-7023
(800)378-3966 (US & Canada only) - MC/VISA accepted
!!!VIRGINIA RESIDENTS ADD 4.5SALES TAX!!! ($0.68)
International orders add $5 for shipping.
CIS 72330,1776 (IBMSYS and IBMPRO forums)
AoL, Delphi: TayJeeSoft
Internet: tayjeesoft@aol.com
You may also register on-line on CompuServe. GO SWREG;
the registration number is 1175.
Page 12
