386 Conversion Calculator by Speakeasy Software

PROLOGUE

This program was designed eliminate the need for a programmer to have
a calculator by his side when he is most definitely sitting in front of the
most expensive one he has ever bought.

CONVERT.EXE is a RAM-resident base conversion and logical operation
calculator for 386 machines. It features 32-bit number conversion in binary,
octal, decimal and hexidecimal modes, the logical operators OR, AND, XOR and
NOT and a user-defined hot key. The program uses approximately 3.8K and can be
loaded into high memory. It will work with either color or monochrome in
various TEXT configurations (i.e. 80X25, 80X60, 132X43/50, etc.).

To load using the default hot key, just run CONVERT. Upon loading you will
see the message "386 conversion/calculator installed." At this point just hit
ALT-Z to pop it up. (I chose ALT-Z as the default hot key because the only
thing I could think of that uses it is PROCOMM's help key. Tip: If you don't
know the keypresses for PROCOMM yet, sell your computer.) If you don't like
using ALT-Z, you may specify another key on the command line using the format:

CONVERT 2000

where 2000 is the hexidecimal notation for ALT-D. The first two digits are the
high order byte, and the last two digits are the low order byte. Extended keys
will always have 00 as the low byte and the extended code as the high byte,
while standard ASCII characters will have the code as the low byte and 00 as
the high byte. Please note the difference in the following:

"CONVERT 2000" uses ALT-D;
"CONVERT 0020" uses 2.

THE HOT KEY MUST BE ENTERED IN HEXIDECIMAL. I have included a small program
called "KEYCODE" which outputs extended codes in the desired format for those
of you that don't have a good reference. By the way there is a slew of good
reference tables in Supercharging MS-DOS, a book by Van Wolverton.

USAGE

Now that you know how to start it, using it is the next step. Upon hitting
the hot key, you should see this:

Current mode: Dec


F3=Bin F4=Oct F5=Dec F6=Hex
F7=And F8=Xor F9=Not F10=Or


If you don't see this, check your command line for proper hot key format. If
you can't see anything wrong, try loading the program using the default hot key.

Once the program is running, you may switch numeric formats at any time by
hitting the key which corresponds to the desired mode. For example, to convert
the decimal number 1234 to hexidecimal, use the following keypresses:

1234

which yields the result 000004D2. Note: carriage returns are optional in dir-
ect number conversion, thus entering

1234

yields the same result as the previous example.

Logical operations are a different story. A carriage return before the
logical function is mandatory! The easiest way to learn this is by example...
again:

1234 yields 000004D2.
^This carriage return is OPTIONAL.
FF yields 000000D2.
^This carriage return is MANDATORY.

The first step converts decimal 1234 to hex; the second step ANDs the result
with FF. Thus, 4D2h (1234d) AND FFh (255d) is D2h (210d).

EPILOGUE

Hopefully this all makes sense. Experiment with it. I personally have
used this program under MS-DOS 5.0 on a 386/25 with a variety of programming
environments and editors. However, please keep in mind that this program will
NOT work with graphic environments such as MS Windows, so if you are using
Turbo Pascal for Windows or some other Windows product, stick with the Windows
calculator.

If you like this program and you think it's worth a measly $5, please send
your donation and the registration form below to:

Speakeasy Software
6513 Brighton Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21215

In doing such you will help feed a starving programmer and will entitle you
to future updates and new program releases.

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