JP Software Take Command/32 Update Documentation Version 1.02 -- April 17, 1996 Copyright 1988 - 1996, JP Software Inc., All Rights Reserved. Published by JP Software Inc., P.O. Box 1470, E. Arlington, MA 02174 USA, (617) 646-3975. 4DOS is a registered trademark and 4OS2, Take Command, and Take Command/32 are trademarks of JP Software Inc. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Check through this file for a comprehensive list of what's changed in Take Command/32 for Windows NT and Windows 95 since version 1.01. Additional documentation on new features is in the online help. Information about product changes before version 1.01 may be viewed at our web page (http://www.jpsoft.com) by selecting Take Command and then Product History. Many product history files are also available in our Compuserve forum (GO PCVENB or GO JPSOFT, library 10 / JP Software, look for files named UPxxxxxx.ZIP). Some of the descriptions below may be more detailed than you need; if you aren't using a feature, feel free to skip to the next item. If you are new to Take Command with version 1.01, you can skip this file entirely, and begin with the Introduction and Installation Guide. This file is divided into the following sections: General Features and Enhancements Startup and Initialization Command Line Editing Changes Variables and Variable Functions Command Changes Technical, Compatibility, and Bug Fixes Significant new features and those which affect most users are marked with "**" in the lists below. Other items discuss smaller or more technical changes. This file is formatted at 58 lines per page, and contains form feeds and page footers. It can be viewed with a file viewer such as the 4DOS LIST command, or printed on most PC printers using the command: copy updat102.doc prn Printing it with a program that formats the pages is not likely to work due to the formatting included in the file. (4/96-1.02) Take Command 1.02 [04-17-96] UPDAT102.DOC page 1 Take Command/32 1.02 Change List General Features and Enhancements --------------------------------- ==> ** File searches on FAT drives now look for long filenames and then short filenames. For example, suppose you have two files on your system: Long Name Short Name ------------------ ------------------ My Letter.DAT MYLETT~1.DAT Files.DAT MYFILES.DAT A search for MY*.DAT will now find both files; previously it would find only the first file. This was done to improve compatibility with CMD.EXE and to make the results more intuitive. CAUTION: Extra care should be taken performing certain commands on long filenames (e.g. using wildcards to delete or move files), as they may now affect files with short names as well. For example, DEL *1 will delete all files whose names end in "1". Because short filenames generated by the operating system end in "~1", such a command would delete all of those files -- probably not the result you wanted. ==> ** The print dialog now allows printing a marked block of text, by using the "Print Selection" button. The button will only be enabled if text is marked. ==> In the find files dialog, removed the file description / date / time text field from under the list box, due to difficulties synchronizing updates of this information with list box scrolling. This information is still available by double- clicking the file name in this list box. ==> Increased the maximum setting for ConsoleRows to 4096. ==> Increased the maximum history size from 8K to 32K. Startup and Initialization -------------------------- ==> ** Added a new .INI directive: AppendToDir = [Yes | NO]: If set to "Yes", TCMD will append a trailing '\' to directory names when doing filename completion. Take Command 1.02 [04-17-96] UPDAT102.DOC page 2 Command Line Editing Changes ---------------------------- ==> ** A Ctrl-A on the command line during filename expansion will toggle the returned filename between long filename (LFN) and the traditional short name (SFN) format. The default is LFN format; if you switch to SFN format the change will only remain in effect for the current filename expansion. Any new expansion sequence later on the command line will start in LFN format, and can be toggled to SFN format with another Ctrl-A. Internal Variables and Variable Functions ----------------------------------------- ==> @ALTNAME: Now returns a shortened pathname if you provide it a path (and you're running Win95 or NT 3.51+). If you only give a filename, or if you're running NT 3.5, @ALTNAME will return just the shortened filename. ==> @EXT: Increased the maximum length returned to 64 characters. Command Changes --------------- ==> IF ISWINDOW: Now supports wildcards in the window name. ==> ** LIST: Enabled mouse button 2 for "copy & paste" operation inside LIST. To use this feature, hold the button down and select an area by dragging the cursor. When you release the button, the marked area is copied to the clipboard. This is the same behavior that was already available in the command window. ==> ** SHRALIAS: Rewritten as a mixed internal/external command, rather than just an external program. You must now run the internal command, not the external program, and make sure that SHRALIAS.EXE is in the Take Command/32 directory or in your path. To convert from the previous version of SHRALIAS, remove the extension and path from any SHRALIAS reference, so that the internal command is used (you can no longer run the external SHRALIAS.EXE directly). The internal SHRALIAS /U command may be used to unload SHRALIAS.EXE. Technical, Compatibility, and Bug Fixes --------------------------------------- ==> DESCRIPT.ION now allows either a space, tab, or comma as the delimiter between the filename and the description. This is for compatibility with some third-party description files. Take Command 1.02 [04-17-96] UPDAT102.DOC page 3 ==> Added a work-around for Windows NT to prevent TCMD/32 from crashing after an ENDLOCAL. ==> Added a check for escaped characters in a redirected filename. ==> Added support for drives over 2GB in DIR, FREE, %@DISKFREE, etc. ==> Fixed a problem with multiple pipes where the first command being piped to was an external console-mode application (e.g. DIR | SORT | TEE FILE.DAT). ==> Fixed a minor problem with pipes of the form "prog1 | *prog2". ==> Fixed a problem with the Find dialog when double- clicking on a filename or selecting the Edit button. ==> Fixed a problem with the Find File dialog not double-quoting LFN/HPFS/NTFS names in the "found" listbox. This problem prevented a double click (to retrieve extended information) from working on names containing whitespace. ==> Fixed a rare problem when piping from an internal command that didn't support command grouping, to an internal or external command that ended with a '('. ==> Fixed a problem with NUL characters in batch files. ==> Fixed a problem with the HistCopy directive. ==> Fixed a problem with files executed via executable extensions. Double quotes are now added if the name contains whitespace. ==> Fixed a problem with marking more than one line using the keyboard (e.g. using Shift-Home at the end of a multi-line command). ==> Fixed the Find Files dialog so the Disks box correctly reflects choices made with the radio buttons. ==> FOR: Enabled extended parent directory names. ==> Removed the groups/apps from the Win95 Apps menu, as they are already included on the Start button, and Take Command could not support the nested groups provided by Windows 95 (this may be changed in a future revision). ==> Take Command now passes the Pause key on to other applications (this should resolve problems found while using SpinWizard). ==> TCMD/32 now creates a new console for executing a .PIF file, which keeps Win95 from crashing. Take Command 1.02 [04-17-96] UPDAT102.DOC page 4 ==> The PATH search routine now queries if the specified drive is ready before attempting to find an external command, which avoids a critical error message. ==> ACTIVATE: Fixed a problem with the CLOSE option. ==> DDEEXEC: Added a wait to solve a problem slower systems may have with terminating DDE links, fixed a problem which caused a GPF when DDEEXEC was invoked with no parameters, and solved a problem with DDEEXEC not passing the command arguments. ==> DO: Now allows embedded equal signs in a test condition. ==> FOR: Fixed a problem with include lists in the FOR arguments. ==> IF: Added a work-around for constructs like: if 1 == 0 echo foo && echo bar to emulate CMD.EXE's behavior of basing the && condition on the result of the IF test. ==> INPUT: Fixed a problem with using INPUT /E in a transient shell. Also solved a problem with INPUT /W /E which prevented the existing value from being displayed unless a key was pressed. ==> KEYSTACK: Fixed a sporadic problem with feeding keystrokes to message boxes. ==> LIST: Fixed problems with: Using Find with wrap on; marking wrapped lines; marking long lines with several embedded tabs; and selecting long filenames from the Open dialog. ==> LIST: Improved LIST's ability to find the end of each line properly in files with unusual line terminations (e.g. CR or LF alone, LF/CR, CR/CR/LF, etc.). ==> MD: Fixed a problem with /S and UNC names. Take Command 1.02 [04-17-96] UPDAT102.DOC page 5