Category : Batch File Utilities - mostly for DOS
Archive   : MM-BAT10.ZIP
Filename : MB.DOC

Document for MicroMacroBat....................................................

MB.EXE is a program which when run with an argument on the command line, from
either the DOS prompt or within a batch file, performs the operations specified
by that argument. For example, by typing or placing this line in a batch
file or on the command line:

MB BOX/1/1/12/80/1/112

MicroMacroBat will perform the operation specified by the argument
BOX/1/1/12/80/1/112. The argument tells MicroMacroBat to place a BOX with the
upper left corner at row 1, column 1, the lower right corner at row 12,
column 80, use the single line box character and make the color black on
white.

MicroMacroBat can be a very handy extention to your batch file writing tools
without having to learn a new batch-file-writing language or performing
a compilation.

MB.EXE can be tucked away in your utilities directory with a "path" pointing
to it. MicroMacroBat calls may be intermixed with the batch file routines you
normally use without any further consideration other than proper syntax usage.

MicroMacroBat will have many uses:

* In your AUTOEXEC.BAT files.
* In distribution disc BAT files for hard drive installations.
* In BAT files for making file backups.
* In BAT files for demonstration programs and slide shows.
* For Shareware distributors GO files.
* BLOADable screen design. See note 3 under REGISTRATION.

DEMO.BAT is a batch file which demonstrates some of the routines and contains
some important remarks.

NOTE: In order that MB can load and execute as quickly as possible, syntax
. and error checking are non-existent. Make no errors and you will have
. no problems.

The ONLY legal argument separator is the "/". DO NOT use anything else.
Either upper or lower case text is acceptable. Remember, each line is to
be prefixed with MB, followed by a space and the argument, ie:

. MB BOX/1/1/12/80/1/31

The following is a list of supported arguments, their proper syntax and an
explanation of what the operation does.


BOX/BR/BC/ER/EC/CHARACTER/COLOR/C Draws a box where BR is the beginning
. row, BC the beginning column, ER the
. ending row, EC the ending column where
. BR < ER, BC < EC and COLOR < 256.
. CHARACTER is either 1 or 2 indicating
. a single or double line box. COLOR
. is a single value representing the
. foreground and background colors. See
. the single color chart below. The
. values for BR, BC, ER and EC
. should be within the allowable limits
. as dictated by the lines/columns mode
. of your monitor. Appending /C to the
. argument clears the inside of the box
. to the background color specified in
. the COLOR argument.
. Example: BOX/1/5/12/75/1/79 draws a single-line
. box with the upper left corner at row
. 1, column 5, the lower right corner at
. row 12 column 75 in bright white on
. red and not cleared.

CLEARSCR/BR/BC/ER/EC/COLOR Clears an area of the screen where BR,
. BC, ER, EC and COLOR have the meanings
. as described above.
. Example: CLEARSCR/1/5/12/75/31

BLOAD/FILENAME$ BLOADS a file into video memory as
. the BASIC's BLOAD command. The area
. of video memory the file is loaded into
. is automatically determined by the
. monitor in use. This command is for
. "slide shows" of predetermined screen
. files made with Basic's BSAVE or a
. screen capture utility.
. Example: BLOAD/MAINMENU.SCR

FILLSCRN/BR/BC/ER/EC/COLOR/ASCII Fills the screen with the character
. represented by the value ASCII. BR,
. BC, ER, EC and COLOR are as previously
. described.
. Example: FILLSCRN/1/5/12/75/30/45 will fill the
. described area with dashes colored
. yellow on blue.

PAINT/BR/BC/ER/EC/COLOR Paints the screen without disturbing
. the existing text.
. Example: PAINT/1/5/12/75/7

OCPRINT/ROW/COLUMN/TEXT$/COLOR Same as PRINT, below, except that
. printing takes place slowly; one
. character at a time, for effect.

PRINT/ROW/COLUMN/TEXT$/COLOR Rapidly prints TEXT$ in COLOR at the
. ROW/COLUMN. TEXT$ will be displayed
. exactly as entered, including quotes
. if used. Extended ASCII characters
. may be displayed. The routine writes
. to video memory; no line feed issued.
. Example: PRINT/5/1/display these words/31

CURSOROFF Turns the cursor off.

CURSORON Turns the cursor on.

LOCATE/ROW/COLUMN Locates the cursor at ROW/COLUMN.
. Handy if you want to use the ECHO
. command. Printing by DOS will begin
. at the cursor position.
. Example: LOCATE/1/1

WAIT Suspends operation and waits for a
. keypress.

CHIME/WHICHONE Makes a chime-like tone. WHICHONE
. must be in the range of 1 to 10.
. Example: CHIME/7

SLEEP/SECONDS Suspends operation until SECONDS
. seconds elapses.
. Example: SLEEP/4

STUFF/TEXT$ Stuffs text into the keyboard buffer,
. appending an keypress.
. To simulate pressing , simply
. use STUFF without parameters. TEXT$
. CANNOT be more than 15 characters.
. Example: STUFF/Y

USCROLL/BR/BC/ER/EC/TIMES Provides for scrolling of a selected
DSCROLL/BR/BC/ER/EC/TIMES area of the screen, either Up, Down,
LSCROLL/BR/BC/ER/EC/TIMES Left or Right, TIMES times.
RSCROLL/BR/BC/ER/EC/TIMES
. Example: LSCROLL/1/1/12/80/4

FADE/COLOR Provides for a screen disolve to COLOR.
. Example: FADE/64

BIG/TEXT/CHR/R/C/COLOR Prints large block text; 3 rows, 10
. columns in COLOR color with ASCII
. character CHR.
. Example: BIG/Hello there/219/1/1/31

RECOLOR/OLD/NEW Changes all instances of color OLD to
. color NEW.
. Example: RECOLOR/31/78

LIST/ROW/COLUMN/COLOR/X/word/word/.... Prints a vertical list of words (18max)
. starting at ROW, COLUMN in COLOR.
. There will be X rows between words.
. Example: LIST/12/1/31/1/Item 1/Item 2/Item 3


VPRINT/ROW/COLUMN/TEXT/COLOR Prints TEXT vertically in starting at
. ROW, COLUMN. Do not print more text
. than there is room for.
. Example: VPRINT/1/1/HELLO THERE/2

CBUF Clears the keyboard buffer.





__________________________________OneColor Chart______________________________

. ......................Background...........................
. Black Blue Green Cyan Red Magenta Brown White

Foreground
..........
Black 0 16 32 48 64 80 96 112
Blue 1 17 33 49 65 81 97 113
Green 2 18 34 50 66 82 98 114
Cyan 3 19 35 51 67 83 99 115
Red 4 20 36 51 67 83 100 116
Magenta 5 21 37 52 68 84 101 117
Brown 6 22 38 52 69 85 102 118
White 7 23 39 53 70 86 103 119
Gray 8 24 40 54 71 87 104 120
Bright blue 9 25 41 55 72 88 105 121
Bright green 10 26 42 56 73 89 106 122
Bright cyan 11 27 43 57 74 90 107 123
Bright red 12 28 44 58 75 91 108 124
Bright Mag 13 29 45 59 76 92 109 125
Bright Brown 14 30 46 60 77 93 110 126
Bright White 15 31 47 61 78 94 111 127

For a blinking foreground, add 128 to the above values.


REGISTRATION.................................................................

The $35 registration fee for this program will provide you with:

The MicroMacroBat program broken down into it's component parts. vMB, uMB and
dMB are the video, utility and display/printing controllers, respectively.
Separate controllers load and execute faster, but the speed is partly offset
by the additional disc seek time. Also, you may only need, or have room for,
one controller on a disc. The breakdown is as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. vMB uMB dMB
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. ClearScr Wait Big
. FillScrn Chime VPrint
. Paint Stuff BLoad
. CursorOn Sleep OCPrint
. CursorOff CBuf RScroll
. Print Fade UScroll
. Recolor Locate DScroll
. Box LScroll
. List

You will also be provided with:

1. A handy card showing the proper syntax of each routine.

2. A collection of even smaller, individual control programs, each
. containing a SINGLE routine. These will prove to be of value,
. especially if you need only one or two. You may use these stand
. alones in your batch files or run them from the DOS command line.
. The single routines will not need the MB prefix, are called by
. name and will use the same syntax as required by MicroMacroBat.

3. Other routines which will have been developed since the release
. of this shareware program. One of these will DEFINITELY be a
. routine to allow MicroMacroBat to be used as a screen design
. utility; use a batch file to call MB repeatedly until you like
. the design then, simply press ^F1 and the screen is saved as a
. BLOADable file. Using a small batch file to put you in a loop
. with a text editor will allow you to completely design a screen
. in less than 15 minutes! You can save screens prior to registering
. MicroMacroBat with one of the screen capture utilities available.

4. COMA PASSWORD, a command line routine which Blanks the screen, disables
. ^Break, ^C and then waits for a password to be input. Reenables
. ^Break and ^C after the password is entered. If /FUSS is appended
. to the command line and the WRONG password is entered, the machine
. generates assorted speaker noises and displays a warning screen for
. about 5 seconds then waits for the correct password. If /LOCK is
. appended to the command line and the WRONG password is entered, a
. warning screen is displayed and the machine will lock up.

5. Possible inclusion of YOUR suggestions in the registered disc you
. recieive.

6. Placement on the update list. You will automatically receive notices
. of program enhancements and have the opportunity to upgrade for a
. pittance.

Even if you do not wish to receive the separate controllers & other advantages
of registration, you are still expected to register your continued use of
MicroMacroBat.


Send your $35 registration fee to: Sitting Duck Software
. POBox 130
. Veneta, OR 97487
. (503) 935-3982

If you have suggestions for additional features, we are happy to consider
them.


SITE and DISTRIBUTION LICENSES................................................

Site licenses are available for MicroMacroBat. In order to legally distribute
MB.EXE with your products, distribution licenses are also available. Because
the execution speed of MicroMacroBat depends on the size of the MB.EXE file,
licensees may ask that only the routines they require be included. Contact
us at the above address for details.

MicroMacroBat (c) 1989 Sitting Duck Software All rights reserved



----------------end-of-author's-documentation---------------

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