BRUCE610.DOC 1 Revised: 10-30-96
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact information
For the following routines: AV, BFIND, COPSINCE, DATES, DIRCOMP, DIRTOTAL,
EUMAIL, FILL, FIXTEXT, FORTUNE, HTMSTRIP, PAGINATE, READINIT, READMAKE-created
files, and TXTABLE:
Bruce Guthrie
Wayne Software
113 Sheffield St.
Silver Spring, MD 20910
fax: (301) 588-8986
e-mail: bguthrie@nmaa.org
http://hjs.geol.uib.no/guthrie/
For the following routines: CHANGE, CONVERT, FILUPDAT, READ, and READY:
Bruce Guthrie
Room H-4885
U.S. Dept of Commerce/ESA/STAT-USA
Washington, DC 20230
fax: (202) 482-2164
voice: (202) 482-3234
e-mail: bguthrie@doc.gov
Please provide an Internet e-mail address on all correspondence.
Since these programs are typically "freeware" (with the exception of people
trying to make money from them instead of me), they generate maybe $100/year in
revenue for me. As such, my ability to afford wonderful customer support is
somewhat restricted. Please do not leave messages saying "Call me long
distance". Also, please be specific about what problems you encounter and
include command-line inputs as well as any control or INI files that you're
using.
WIN/NT AND WIN95 USERS: All of these programs are DOS applications. This means
that they expect 8.3 filenames, short paths, etc. If you use long paths or
illegal characters in your file names or whatever, these programs may not work
for you. This is not a "bug" in the software. That's just the way DOS apps
are.
Standard disclaimer in this society: Wayne Software disclaims all warranties as
to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any
implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose,
functionality, data integrity or protection.
BRUCE610.DOC 2 Revised: 10-30-96
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
This documentation provides some overview information on a number of utilities.
All programs described herein were written by Bruce Guthrie. Most are
distributed with a Wayne Software copyright. Others were written for the U.S.
Department of Commerce. All are free for use provided relevant documentation is
kept with the programs, no changes are made to the programs or documentation,
and they are not bundled with commercial programs or charged for separately.
CHANGE, CONVERT, FILUPDAT, READ, and READY are excluded from the
commercial-packaging restriction. These programs are owned by the U.S.
Department of Commerce and may be re-distributed without restriction.
People who need to bundle AV, BFIND, COPSINCE, DATES, DIRCOMP, DIRTOTAL, EUMAIL,
FILL, FIXTEXT, FORTUNE, HTMSTRIP, PAGINATE, READINIT, or TXTABLE in commercial
packages other than shareware/freeware collections must pay a $50 registration
fee to "Wayne Software" at the following address. READMAKE-created files are
also subject to this limitation. I don't expect to make any money from these
utilities but I don't want others to sell them instead.
This collection of utilities were compiled using Microsoft's Visual BASIC for
DOS 1.0 compiler. Thomas G. Hanlin III's excellent PBClone routines, release
2.3, provided additional functionality. Since Tom has dropped support for his
PBClone routines, some things will are simply not possible for me to do so don't
push! The basic routines should be able to be maintained indefinitely as long
as DOS continues to exist; we'll see. Keep in mind that they are DOS-based
routines so forget long Win95 file names and such. I keep thinking that I
should be doing Windows programming but it's hard to get psyched up for that
when you think of Windows as a computer virus.
Documentation provided in appropriate ZIP files:
* routine.DOC: Each utility is separately described in a like-named *.DOC file.
* FILE_ID.DIZ: Standard Description In Zip file.
* BRUCEymm.DOC: This file serves to summarize all of the various utilities.
The "ymm" indicates the release date in year/month format. "601" means
1996, first month (Jan 1996).
* BRUCEINI.DOC: Most of the routines have defaults that can altered by using
initialization files (inifiles). These are referenced in the regular
documentation and further described here. (One thing about *.INI files; if
you don't have one, it's in your interests to specify the "/-I" parameter.
Otherwise, the program searches your entire DOS path looking for the file.)
* BRUCEHEX.DOC: Many of the routines allow you to enter parameters as either
hexadecimal or decimal strings. This is referenced in the regular
documentation and further described here.
All program documentation was created using a text editor (PE2). The
PAGINATE command (see below) was used to justify the text and create
titles, page breaks, and (where provided) indexes.
Beta testers and suggestions are always appreciated. Contact me at
bguthrie@nmaa.org Note that all beta releases are done via e-mail so if your
gateway can't handle some pretty big mail attachments, you definitely do NOT
want to be a beta tester for me! Modifications that are not of mainstream use
can be contracted for.
BRUCE610.DOC 3 Revised: 10-30-96
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finding the programs--Current version is 610 (1996 October)
The utilities are uploaded with a ZIP name that includes the year and month of
the release in a "ymm" format (mm-number month where 01=January, and 199y for
year). The files are posted directly by the author to two places. The
following Web site, provided by Hans Schrader, has the current versions of *all*
programs:
http://hjs.geol.uib.no/guthrie/
Major revisions are directly posted by the author to the following:
* Simtel (Coast-To-Coast): ftp.coast.net (http://www.coast.net/Simtel)
* Simtel (Keith Petersen): ftp.simtel.net (http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net)
* ZDI Software Library: No idea where that is!
Simtel locations and versions
http://www.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/ ftp://ftp.simtel.net/simtelnet/msdos/
..arcutil/ ..arcutils/
av607.zip Archive View: Free ZIP etc directory viewer
..batutil/ ..batchutl/
dates610.zip Warns you in advance of birthdays etc
fortn608.zip Fine-tunes DOS FOR command w/options
..dirutil/ ..dirutl/
cops608.zip Copies files modified since given date
dirco609.zip Updates files based on source directory
dirto610.zip Directory lister and totaller
filup610.zip Copy updated files based on a control list
..diskutil/ ..diskutil/
fill610.zip Stuffs as many files as possible on disk
..offline/ ..mailnews/
eumal610.zip Eudora utility for nicknames, boxes
..spredsht/ ..spredsht/
convr609.zip Convert dBase, ASCII-delim, fixed, 1-2-3
..textutil/ ..txtutl/
bfind610.zip Boolean FIND command (BFIND BEGIN & END)
chang610.zip Change strings in text/binary files
fixtx607.zip Translate text file characters en masse
htmst610.zip Reprocesses HTML pages for humans to read
pagin607.zip Paginates text (indexes, sorts, tables)
read609.zip Free viewer, also make any text self-viewing
txtab607.zip Generates text tables
If you're using a version of the programs that's more than a year old, it's
almost always the case that there's a newer version. Please check for an
update. If you can receive binary attachments, contact me at bguthrie@nmaa.org
for free updates. Alternatively, send $10 made out to "Wayne Software" to the
Wayne Software address above and I'll send you everything on diskette. (If you
need anything other than 3.5" high density, specify that too please.)
The versions of each program posted on SimTel are documented below along with
the directory information for this site. The *current* versions of *all*
programs are posted on the Web site in Norway.
BRUCE610.DOC 4 Revised: 10-30-96
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Short program descriptions
AV.EXE: Archive directory viewer. Presents list of files in archive (ZIP,
ARC, etc) and lets you sort as desired. Also allows resetting of the file
date based on the archive's contents.
BFIND.EXE: Allows Boolean-type FIND requests. For example, find any line
with one string AND another one, or any line with one string OR another.
Also allows wildcarded input file names.
CHANGE.EXE: Processes change commands in files. Files can be of any size
and type (e.g. binary or text) and are processed quickly. Up to thirty
change commands can be processed in a single pass. Also provides ability to
remove trailing spaces from text files.
CONVERT.EXE: Converts between data formats: FROM dBase, ASCII-delimited
(typically commas between fields and quotes around strings), and fixed field
TO Lotus WKS, ASCII-delimited, dBase, and fixed field.
COPSINCE.EXE: Copies all files modified since a given date. Primarily used
for making sure you have a back-up of files and also to copy updated programs
to another place. Lets you define your own groupings of files if desired.
DATES.EXE: Program that warns you in advance when an event like a birthday,
anniversary, or holiday is coming up. The idea is to give you advance
warning so you can send a card or get out of town in time.
DIRCOMP.EXE: Similar in some ways to DOS's REPLACE command but adds ability
to delete extra files in the destination subdirectory, copy hidden and system
files, and prepare a report showing inconsistencies. Is frequently used by
network administrators to update workstation files.
DIRTOTAL.EXE: Prepares report showing files in subdirectory or drive.
Allows restricting search based on date, size, attributes, etc. Works on
networked and CD-ROM drives. Produces more formalized report than some
utilities do. Also allows you to look for duplicate file names.
EUMAIL.EXE: Eudora mail summarizer. Dumps your Qualcomm Eudora mailbook as
well as summarizing the contents of all of your Eudora boxes and folders.
FILL.EXE: Program designed to move files off to floppy diskettes, taking the
biggest files first and skipping those that won't fit. Also provides option
of splitting large files, creating a status report, and other features.
FILUPDAT.EXE: Program which compares a selected list of files in a source
path against those in another path and copies those that have been updated.
Similar to DOS' REPLACE command but works from a stored list of files
(controlled updates) and can handle any number of directories.
FIXTEXT.EXE: Program which applies a user-definable character-translation
table to a text file. Can allow you to convert graphics characters to their
text equivalents, lowercase letters to uppercase letter, etc. Can also be
used to translate DOS text files to Mac or Unix text files and vice versa.
Can also expand tabs, remove trailing spaces, and remove backspaces.
BRUCE610.DOC 5 Revised: 10-30-96
FORTUNE.EXE: A tuner-upper for the DOS FOR command. Generates a batch file
which does all those wildcard things you wished FOR could do (like "FORTUNE
IN (*.BAS) DO RENAME %A %2*.*" to remove parts of file names). Lets you do
all sorts of things including distinguishing file name roots from their
extensions as well as incrementing file names by specified values.
HTMSTRIP.EXE: Goes through downloaded pages from the Web and removes
embedded HTML commands. Reflows paragraphs and tries to make it basically
readable. Can function on individually-saved pages or else process your
entire disk cache. Awarded a "Best" rating by "PC Computing" in their July
1996 issue. Includes MOZ.EXE which renames the files in your Web cache
subdirectory so you can identify them more easily.
PAGINATE.EXE: Reformats text files with embedded formatting codes. Handles
things like titles, footers, indexes, alignment, justification, multicolumn
listings, etc. Also provides support for embedding tabular data in
ASCII-delimited or dBase formats which can be embedded and/or sorted in your
reports.
READ.EXE, READY.EXE, READINIT.EXE, and READMAKE.EXE: Text file browsing
utilities. READ--Supports marking, copying text, reading Unix and Mac text
files, etc. Handles files of 16,000 lines or less (approx 800,000 bytes).
READY--truncates or wraps lines over 255 characters in length but handles
files of an unlimited number of lines. READMAKE--Takes an ASCII-text file
and makes it self-viewable (using a READ clone).
TXTABLE.EXE: Program to generate text tables. Allows inputs to be
HTML-based as well as one-record per cell.
BRUCE610.DOC 6 Revised: 10-30-96
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revision history
Detailed revision histories for the programs are only maintained for the last
three releases. After that, you get the major revision summaries only for the
next three releases or so. In any case, if your version of any of these
programs is more than a year old, your version is definitely obsolete. Hop onto
the Web or e-mail me or something and get the new version!
-------------- (full detail; revisions made 1 to 3 releases ago)
Release 96/10:
All routines: /inull (in lowercase) didn't used to work... Sigh.
All routines: If you pass in /DEBUG, among other things the programs will
show you the return code before ending.
BFIND: Added /W, /W0, and /-W parameters, mainly to determine pausing when
run run under Windows. Should no longer fail on some truly ugly files with no
CR/LF's anywhere. [Replaces bfind609.zip]
CHANGE: Added /W, /W0, and /-W parameters, mainly to determine pausing when
run run under Windows. [Replaces chang609.zip]
DATES: The program now defaults to pausing if being run from Windows.
[Replaces dates609.zip]
DIRTOTAL: Added /TREE, /A, and /TOP=n parameters. Sorting by date (/OD)
didn't work; fixed. [Replaces dirto609.zip]
EUMAIL: Documentation now includes lots of information about country date
formats and such. Pass in /DEBUG and the program will do more checking of
dates used. Having said all of this, added a /SHOWINT parameter (which is the
default) that uses the internal date/time stamps instead of the ones shown in
the menus so errors should not happen at all. Added subtotals for each
folder. Added "% of msgs" column in summary as well. Fixed error with /SPLIT
when files were in a folder. Added /HEAD=xxxx parameter. [Replaces
eumal607.zip]
FILL: Added attribute selections (/ATTR=x) and no longer has problems dealing
with read-only files when it moves them. [Replaces fill609.zip]
FILUPDAT: Fixed error with /FULL parameter. [Replaces filup607.zip]
HTMSTRIP: Documented the return codes used. Fixed some alignment problems
using /BORDER=N. [Replaces htmst609.zip]
Release 96/09:
BFIND: Fixed a bug with "BFIND NOT string" searches. [Replaces bfind607.zip]
CHANGE: Fixed a bug where it would repeat processing of some files. This
created some very flaky results and made the return codes worthless. Now
forcing /BINARY mode if you include a /FROM with CR or LF in it. /V and /-V
options did not work anymore; fixed them. Fixed a bug with "/IN NOT string"
conditions not working. [Replaces chang608.zip]
CONVERT: Fixed up a bug related to floating-point fields in dBase input
BRUCE610.DOC 7 Revised: 10-30-96
files. Added /Qn parameter to control frequency of record-by-record status
messages. [Replaces convr607.zip]
DATES: Fixed a bug with respect to flashing foreground characters. New
/ODATE=format parameter allows the dates to be displayed in a variety of
formats. Program now requires a single character delimiter in the input
dates; it probably did anyway but documentation specified otherwise.
[Replaces dates607.zip]
DIRCOMP: Added ERRORLEVEL 249 for /UPDATE specified but nothing copied,
moved, or deleted. Fixed some bugs in deleting empty files and empty
subdirectories. No longer blows up when it encounters an invalid date/time
stamp for the files. [Replaces dirco608.zip]
DIRTOTAL: Program would abort if a file had an invalid time stamp. Program
ignored /D (date) range tests; fixed. None of the reverse sorting options
(e.g. /O-S) worked; fixed. [Replaces dirto607.zip]
FILL: Program ceases to blow up when it encounters read-only files that you
want to "move". [Replaces fill608.zip]
HTMSTRIP: Changed /-SPACES so it also removes blank columns and (most) rows
in tables as well as blank lines within tables. Added "/" and "*" to the list
of characters that are acceptable as numbers when the program's determining
this for cell-alignment purposes. Fixed up some problems with translating the
"&" string. Added support for HTML command. [Replaces
htmst608.zip]
MOZ (included in HTMSTymm.ZIP file): Now adds a number of fail-safe options,
usually requiring parameters to be passed in before renaming everything in the
cache. Includes an option to create a graphic view page which, when loaded
from your Web browser, displays all graphics in your cache and includes the
links for where they came form. [Replaces htmst608.zip]
READ, READY, READINIT: Allowed for blinking foreground colors (which I hate).
Documentation already said they were supported but they weren't. [Replaces
read607.zip]
Release 96/08:
For some reason, several people chose this month to tell me that my programs
had "bugs" in them because they were using long file and pathnames under
Windows NT and the programs weren't handling them. All of these programs are
DOS applications; they don't recognize anything other than short pathnames and
8.3 file names with valid DOS characters in the file names. If you want to
branch out (literally) and use non-compatible names and structures, feel free.
However, you give up the ability the use some DOS programs including things
like DIRTOTAL and DIRCOMP. That's just the way it is. I can't provide
support if you violate these rules. These programs are freeware and it's not
worth my time (relearning) and expense (new compilers, new program libraries)
to rewrite them from scratch. Sheesh!
CHANGE: Fixed up some bugs involving the program not putting you into text
mode all the time. More bugs fixed related to column positions and /IN string
specifications. [Replaces chang607.zip]
COPSINCE: Fixed a bug handling international date formats. Added support for
4DOS. [Replaces cops607.zip]
BRUCE610.DOC 8 Revised: 10-30-96
DIRCOMP: Switched /R and /-R to /U and /-U (conflicted with other parms and
didn't match DOS REPLACE command switches). Added the ability to specify up
to 10 inclusion filespecs. Finally added the ability to remove destination
subdirectories that are now empty. [Replaces dirco607.zip]
FILL: Fixed a bug related to moving files in the non-default subdirectory.
[Replaces fill607.zip]
FORTUNE: Switched default to /WIPE (eliminate output batch file upon
completion). [Replaces fortn607.zip]
HTMSTRIP: More work on debugging tables. Added /INDENT and /-INDENT parms to
allow ...
blocks to be turned off. More debugging
for mostly foreign pages. [Replaces htmst607.zip]
-------------- (kind of terse; revisions made 4 to 6 releases ago)
Release 96/07:
AV, DIRCOMP, DIRTOTAL, and EUMAIL: Added support non-US date formats (program
reads the system configuration settings).
AV: Now prompts for infile spec if not provided.
BFIND and CHANGE: Added column ranges (vs column start requirement) for the
search parameter.
EUMAIL: Added /FORMAT=n handling.
FILL: Changed the default to /COPY if no parameters are passed in, and /MOVE
if any are.
FORTUNE: Added /RUN and /PROMPT parameters.
HTMSTRIP: Heady times after an endorsement from PC Computing in their July
and August 1996 issues! Improved recovery for huge cells. Added MOZ program
to the ZIP file.
Release 96/05:
AV: Added ability to delete the archive.
CONVERT: Program skipped the first record in DBF files; fixed this.
DATES: Added the ability to do weekly reminders.
EUMAIL: Added /SPLIT and /SCAN options.
HTMSTRIP: Added /A=spec, /IMG=spec, and /IMGALT=spec parameters.
Release 96/04:
FORTUNE: Added /WIPE parameter.
HTMSTRIP: Added /ALT parameter.
ISAMMAKE/ISAMFIND: Dropped.