SMOOTH.COM
Command

Michael J. Mefford
1989 No. 3 (Utilities)


Purpose:An EGA or VGA text-browsing utility that makes reading from the
screen easier by providing smooth scrolling in either direction at
user-selectable speeds.

Format:SMOOTH filespec [/W][/Snn][Cmmm]

Remarks:The filespec entered with SMOOTH is a filename plus any required
drive and path information. The optional /W switch strips the "high bit" from
WordStar document files. The optional /Snn switch sets the scrolling speed,
where nn is a decimal number that represents twice the number of pixel rows to
be scanned on each screen refresh cycle. The default value for nn is 3. For
comparative purposes, the DOS TYPE command used with an EGA (14 pixel rows per
character) would have an nn of 28. The optional /Cmmm sets the foreground and
background colors according to:

mmm = Foreground color + (Background color * 16)

The foreground and background color numbers are given in the BASIC
manual under the heading, Color statement. The default is 23 (white letters on
a blue background).

The up-arrow and down-arrows set the scrolling direction, and PgUp and
PgDn flip a screen page. The Home and End keys go directly to the top and bottom
of the file. Pressing the space bar (or the numeral 0) freezes the screen,
which can be restarted by pressing any key. Hitting Esc cancels SMOOTH and
returns to DOS. Pressing the plus and minus keys speeds up or slows down the
scroll rate, as does pressing the number keys.

Note: Since SMOOTH manipulates the Cathode Ray Tube Controller
registers directly, it is incompatible with operation of SideKick and Print
Screen.

Available for downloading from PC MagNet (see the SMOOTH by Modem
sidebar), SMOOTH.COM is already compiled and ready to run. SMOOTH.BAS will
automatically create SMOOTH.COM when run once in BASIC. To create SMOOTH.COM
from the SMOOTH.ASM source code requires use of a macro assembler (IBM or
Microsoft, Version 2 or later) and the following commands:

MASM SMOOTH;
LINK SMOOTH;
EXE2BIN SMOOTH SMOOTH.COM;