V8.10 - January 1997 -------------------- This is a maintenance release, that also introduces a number of new commands; 1. TOUCH - to change the date/time stamp of a file/filespec 2. SAVEDATE - to save the system date and time, in a file called WCL.DTE in the WCL home directory 3. RESTOREDATE - to restore any saved date and time from WCL.DTE 4. WCLFORMAT - now uses a GUI interface under win95 V8.00 - August 1996 ------------------- This is a new hybrid 16-32 bit version - it calls some 32-bit functions when running under Win95 or Windows NT. Apart from several internal enhancements, there are these new features; 1. Environment variables can be used from commandline - e.g. dir %temp% - restriction - must be preceded and followed by a space 2. Extension of wildcards; if the last character in a file specification is a "*", it will be expanded to "*.*" - this is for compatibility with the Win32 API (Windows 95 and NT) which will do this automatically. 3. New setting in WCL.INI - "COMMAND-SEPARATORS" This can be used to specify the separator(s) for multiple commands; The default is to use the semi-colon (";") - but you can specify alternatives here (up to a maximum of 5). Note that you must be careful to specify only characters which you will not normally use in commands, AND characers which do not have a special meaning for WCL - otherwise there will be real problems (and maybe even a disaster!). You have been warned! Note: EACH character after the "=" sign (including a space) will be taken as a separator; e.g., to use ";" and "&" as separators, do this := COMMAND-SEPARATORS=;& other examples; COMMAND-SEPARATORS=& COMMAND-SEPARATORS=|£[ 4. "DIR /B" = for bare format display 5. "Less" - a command for viewing small text files (may be scrapped) 6. "ED" - a command for editing small text files (may be scrapped) 7. No limit on the size of batch files 8. "/date=" can now be "/d:" (for "copy" command) 9. alias commands maximum number increased from 50 to 255 10. command line history increased from 30 to 64 11. "unix-mode" (in WCL.INI ini file) - to turn to quasi-unix mode in INI file (e.g., UNIX-MODE=1) - the main effects of this are, that the prompt is shown with "/" instead of "\", and that users will have to insert a space manually to separate switches ("/", '<", ">", "|"). This has a significant effect on how parameters are handled. So please do not turn this feature on unless you are sure of what you are doing. You have been warned! 12 "unixmode" (command) - to turn to quasi-unix mode from command line 13. length of command line increased from 80 to 150 characters 14. icons can be used in "usermenu" for the icon toolbar - check MENU-B.WCL and MENU-S.WCL for examples. This depends on the existence of a DLL with numbered bitmaps, called WCLTOOLB.DLL NOTE: you can use the buttons, or just text - not both. An attempt to use buttons for some menu items and text for others will only result in a very ugly screen. 15. drag and drop support from file manager 16. scheduler - can now be used to schedule a program to run daily - by putting "!!!" before the command e.g., timed-run 12:35 !!!backup.exe - needs Windows to be running continually - at midnight, the schedule is renewed 17. Calls the 32 bit functions for some purposes when running under Win95 or NT 18. Long filename support under Win95 and NT (for DIR, and COPY commands). - not available for COPYTREE command. - while long filenames may normally contain spaces, it is recommended that user do NOT use spaces in their long filenames. Doing this may confuse the WCL parser in some cases. ** Please NOTE this restriction! 19. "DIR /Y" - to stop short filenames from being listed (under Win95 and NT) 20. "DIR /Z" - to stop long filenames from being listed (under Win95 and NT) 21. Because of "features" in the Win32 API, file operations should now contain the full path names of the files (e.g., COPY and DEL), when running under NT or Win95. 22. BWCC.DLL has been removed, in favour of CTL3DV2.DLL 23. If you want to change to a directory with spaces in its name (under Win95 or NT), put the name in quotation marks. 24. New command (for Win95 only) - "SETENV" - to set or change an enviroment variable. 25. New command (for Win95 or NT only) - "ADDPATH" - add a new directory path to the current path statement. 26. New entries in WCL.INI "BIGWCL-SHOW-DRIVES" and "WCL-SHOW-DRIVES" If set to 0 then the drives will not be shown in the toolbar - else they will be shown. 27. New bitmapped buttons for the drive letters 28. Descriptions can now be attached to the user menus and buttons on the toolbar (see MENU-B.WCL for examples). The descriptions are shown beside the window title when you click on any of the buttons 29. Aliased directories can now be used in the COPY command - but only as the DESTINATION DIRECTORY for the file copy. To do this, you put an exclamation mark ("!") before the name of the alias. e.g., if you have a directory alias "SRC=C:\DELPHI\SOURCE\RTL70" you can copy a file to SRC=C:\DELPHI\SOURCE\RTL70 by doing; COPY *.PAS !SRC 30. New command "LZEXPAND" - to expand files which have been compressed with Microsoft's COMPRESS.EXE Syntax= LZEXPAND 31. New command: "REBOOT" - to reboot the system. 32. New entries in WCL.INI - "MAX-LONGDIR-LENGTH.BIG" and "MAX-LONGDIR-LENGTH.SMALL" these should contain a number which is the point at which long filenames on the command prompt will be reduced to the short filenames. This is useful for Win32 only. By default, the number is set at 67. This is only to help in cases where the WCL prompt might otherwise be too long (if you use long names for your directories). e.g., MAX-LONGDIR-LENGTH.SMALL=30 33. New entry in WCL.INI - "MANUAL-SPACES" If turned on, this will disable the WCL feature of automatically inserting a space before certain "switch" characters (e.g., "/", '<", ">", and "|"). In these cases, you will have to insert a space yourself every time you use a switch (either in a batch file, or at the command line). Turning this feature on WILL significantly affect how parameters are handled - so please do not use it unless you are sure of what you are doing. You have been warned! 34. New entry in WCL.INI - "USE-WIN32" This is only useful for Win95 and NT. In those environments, 32-bit functions are turned on automatically. However, if you don't like those features (e.g., long filenames) then you can use this setting to turn the 32-bit functions off (USE-WIN32=0). Note that this disables ALL 32-bit functions. 35. New command "USEWIN32" - to turn 32-bit functions on/off at the command line. This also makes the necessary entry into WCL.INI (see above). Syntax= USEWIN32 OFF, or USEWIN32 ON If no parameter is supplied, it displays the current state of the 32-bit facilities. 36. THREE New network commands NETMAP - to connect a local device to a network resource - the connection (if successful) is persistent NETFREE - to disconnect a local device from a network resource NETINFO - to return the name of the network resource associated with a local device * Run each of them with no parameter to see the syntax 37. New command: "SENDCLICK" - to send a mouse click to a button via its window ID. You have to obtain the window IDs manually by liberal use of the "CW" command. Some buttons have no window ID at all. 38. The SENDKEYS command will NOT work for Win32 programs under Win32 (NT or Win95).