Category : Miscellaneous Language Source Code
Archive : TEXTRUN.ZIP
Filename : TXTRUN.DC1
Output of file : TXTRUN.DC1 contained in archive : TEXTRUN.ZIP
version 0.8 (c) copy right 1990-91 All Rights Reserved
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
FORMAT REQUIRED FOR YOUR TEXT FILE
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The file called TXTRUNDC.TXT is a sample document which can
be turned into a .COM software.
To assist you further, this section also explains the
same thing.
Your text file prior to Editing must not contain nulls
(chr(0)). Ideally, it should not contain chr(0) - chr(31),
except the
(chr(12)) and the screen code (chr(19)).
Your text should not be more than 78 characters wide if you
want the generated .COM software to run on a monitor which
is 80 characters wide and no more than 38 characters wide if
you want the generated .COM software to run on a monitor
which is 40 characters wide.
Your text should have a form feed (chr(12) typed by pressing
alt-12 every 23 rows if you want to run the generated .COM
software on 25 rows monitor. There should be a form feed
every 41 rows if you want to run the .COM software on only
43 rows EGA monitor or 50 rows VGA monitor. There should be
a form feed every 48 rows if you want to run the .COM
software on only 50 rows VGA monitors. TXTRUN (and hence
the .COM software this makes) will not change a 25 rows mode
EGA/VGA monitor to 43/50 rows mode.
The discrepancy of two characters width and two rows
in height comes from the fact that the generated .COM
software will be surrounded by a box of one type or
another (a blank box exists if you don't want a box and
you can redefine any or all of them).
The width of each page of text displayed will be the
length of the longest line of text. In other words,
if this was made into a page, it will be this wide.
|..................................................|
Or if there was a trailing space line,
it will be as wide as that, as
illustrated here with
|...................................................|
The height of each page of text is determined by the
presence of a form feed (chr(12), which displays as the
female symbol, a venus mirror sign, which looks like a
circle with a cross attached on the bottom.
Avoid making text more than 250 characters wide or over
48 rows per page (48 rows, not including the associated
help following the "^S_##" section.
CALLING OTHER PAGES AS SUBROUTINES
By default, if you want to call another page above the
present level, the coding "^SC" must be present wherever you
want to call them on screen.
That's control-S followed by either the small letter or
capital letter "C". Not the caret sign "^" followed by
letters "SC".
While Editing your text file, TXTRUN will detect the
presence of the coding and places the blinking cursor on the
first top left selection, prompting you to type alt-C for
the page to be called from here.
In order to use this feature, you must first go to another
page by using ^PgUp/^PgDn to select another page to be
called from this selection and typing alt-5 to store that
page number.
Then go back to this page with the ^SC coding and go to the
selection you want to call it from and type alt-C. The page
stored with alt-5 can now be called from this selection by
simply moving the blinking cursor here using the cursor keys
and typing
page again. (both the CAPS LOCK and SCROLL LOCK keys must
be OFF, since when ON, the cursor keys control the size and
location of each page made from your text.)
You can have up to eight such codings on each row as in
^SC ^SC ^SC ^SC ^SC ^SC ^SC ^SC
If you have more than this, then the rest are ignored.
You can have such coding on each row on the screen like this
^SC 1 ^SC 2 ^SC 3
^SC 4
^SC 5 ^SC 6
^SC 7 ^SC 8
up to the 49th row on a VGA monitor, but TXTRUN will
internally reorganize them so that when you use the cursor
to move amongst the selections, they act as if you had them
in order like this
^SC 1 ^SC 2 ^SC 3
^SC 4
^SC 5 ^SC 6
^SC 7 ^SC 8
so when the blinking cursor is at ^SC 2, and you press on
the down cursor, the blinking cursor goes to ^SC 6, not the
^SC 5 as visually presented above.
If you want to go down from ^SC 2 to ^SC 5, you must have a
^SC coding below ^SC 1 on the same row as ^SC 5 like this
^SC 1 ^SC 2 ^SC 3
^SC 4
^SC 9 ^SC 5 ^SC 6
Note that the numbers are only present to allow you to
differentiate between the various ^SC codings.
The significance of calling other pages is explained in
these documents and the TXTRUNDC.TXT file in various ways.
As soon as you type alt-C, TXTRUN now asks you to press down
on the right cursor key to define the length of the reverse
character high-lighting here. The begin location is where
you had the ^SC coding. Correct excessive length by using
the left cursor key.
Once you define the length, end this by typing
selection, the page number stored with alt-5 is called and
will pop up over this page. By defining other pages to the
left/right or PgUp/PgDn, you can now move at a higher level
of pages than previously.
The pages at levels below the present level will display
under the present level pages. The pages at the same level
of pages will displace each other and will not appear.
...................................
. . <-page 1 from level 1
. ,,,,,,,,,, .
. , , .
. , , . If you define a right
. , , . page for page 2 at
. , ,<-page 2 at level 2 . level 2 and you type
. , , . on the right cursor,
. , , . the page 1 will remain
.., ,....................... on screen, but page 2
, , will disappear. Then
,,,,,,,,,, the next page appears
as shown here.
...................................
. . <-page 1 from level 1
. ,,,,,,,,,, .
. , , . In order for page
. , , . 3 to appear at
. , , . this location,
. , ,<-page 3 at level 2 you had to move
. , , . the page here
. , , . of course. If
.........., ,............... you used alt-V,
, , this page will
,,,,,,,,,, open vertically
and if alt-M
was used, then
this page 3 will appear on the top left corner first, and
then move to this final location which you specified.
The alt-H/V/M features are not recommended for CGA equipped
PC because the inadequate hardware in this video card will
cause top half of the screen not to display while the pages
are changing size and/or location. EGA equipped PC will
suffer some blinking, while VGA will not be affect as much.
These statements hold true for true blue IBM equipments
only. There are enough discrepancies among what some
people call "CGA", "EGA" etc to make these statements
sound like a lie, even with some IBM PCs.
This behavior of keeping pages at levels below itself, but
deleting competing pages at the same level as itself is
called by various names, depending on whether you are using
a pull-down menu or games.
Each page at the eight levels will behave the same as any
page, including calling other pages, running softwares,
changing attribute (color) etc. The only requirement is that
the screen be in text mode.
To distinguish the difference between text mode and
graphic mode, look at the blinking cursor. When it
blinks, it is in text mode. When there is no cursor, or
the cursor is non-blinking, the screen is in graphic
mode. (due to a bug in some EGA video cards, changing the
cursor shape may prevent text mode cursor from showing on
your screen, so there are always exceptions.)
The exact attribute or color used to define the reverse
character high-lighting depends on the attribute you gave to
this page, since a boolean or'ing is applied to generate the
high-lighting.
RUNNING OTHER SOFTWARES FROM YOUR PAGES
If you had the coding ^SS instead of ^SC, then instead of
calling other pages, you are prompted to enter software
names, batch file names or DOS commands such as COPY, DIR,
RENAME etc. The very first character location where you are
prompted to enter text must be a space (
This behaves the same as calling other pages, and to the end
user who will be using only the .COM software made by TXTRUN,
there is no apparent difference.
There is no need to use alt-5 to store a page number before
using this.
After you type alt-S, you are required to define the length of
the reverse character high-lighting as before. But after you
do, you are prompted to type the string which will run, up to
50 characters. The first character location is reserved for
internal uses to be explained later.
If you want to run a software, enter the subdirectory where
it exists, the entire file extension (.EXE or .COM) and the
parameters separated by one space each as in
C:\BRANCH\LEAF\HYPERWRD.COM PARAM1 PARAM2
^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
|| | | | | |
|| | | | | |ends with
|| | | | |one space.
|| | | |one space after ".COM".
|| | |".COM" here.
|| |the entire subdirectory path, separated by backslash "\".
||the drive letter is given, followed by colon ":" and
| backslash "\".
|space on the first location.
Do not include the drive letter or subdirectory if the .COM
software will run on a PC where you don't know where the
software etc is. In other words, instead of the above line,
use " HYPERWRD.COM PARAM1 PARAM2
If you want to run a batch file, enter the subdirectory
where it exists, the entire file extension (.BAT) and the
parameters separated by one space each as in
D:\TRUNK\BIT.BAT PARAM1
If you want to run a DOS command, enter them, separating the
parameters by one space as in
COPY A:CHEAP.COM B:EXPENSIV.COM
DIR *.*
DIR F:\BRANCH\*.TXT
Typing
What happens if you don't specify where your software etc
is? or use two spaces between parameters? Usually, DOS will
simply search through PATH to find the software etc and
would not care how many spaces there are between parameters.
If the .COM software runs on a PC where no PATH was
specified, or where PATH was modified to exclude the
location where the software etc is, then it cannot run.
Placing one space between parameters is just a good
practice to follow.
At the first character location, you can type either
the letter "K", "P", or the numbers "1" - "9" or "0".
If you type
page at which you typed
your software/batch-file/DOS-command, not the .COM software
made by TXTRUN) will be cleared, then your software etc will
run, and as soon as it ends, control is returned back to page
1 of your text.
The screen will be cleared to white letter on black
background be default, unless you used the CLRA option to
clear it to something else.
If you type "K" at the first character location, then the page
at which you typed
After your software etc ends, control is returned back to page
1 of your text.
This is in case you write a software which interacts with
the page.
If you type "P", then the screen clears, your software etc
runs, and after it ends, it (TXTRUN or the .COM software made
by TXTRUN) Pauses for you to type any key before returning
control back to page 1 of your text.
This is useful for running DOS commands.
If you type "1" through "9", then the screen clears, your
software etc runs and ends, and then it pauses for this number
of seconds before returning control back to page 1 of your
text. If you typed "0", this is the same as 10 seconds.
The time is not exactly 1 - 10 seconds, since the common
timer hardware included with a PC is not very accurate.
COMMENTING EACH SELECTION ON YOUR SCREEN
If you used Lotus 1-2-3 or comparable softwares in which you
can select something with the cursor, each selection is often
accompanied by a line of text explaining what typing
this selection will do. TXTRUNDC.TXT demonstrates this
feature as well. How is it done?
After the ^SC and ^SS codings in your text, past the 23/41/48
rows of text, insert "^S_" at this location, followed by two
characters representing the location where the line of text
should appear at, followed by the letter "R" or "A" as in
^SC 1 ^SS 2
^Sc 3 ^Ss 4
^S_00rcomment for ^SC 1
comment for ^SS 2
comment for ^Sc 3
comment for ^Ss 4
There must be enough lines of text to account for the
number of ^SC and ^SS selections on this page.
Each line must be the same length, padding the length
till the "
length is less than others, then the other characters
will remain on screen.
The capital and small letters "S/s" and "C/c" are used
above to indicate that both forms are identical.
The ^S_ coding indicates that the lines below this is used by
the ^SC and ^SS above on this page.
The 00 part indicates that these comments appear on the box
itself at the very left edge like this
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,<- outline of
, comment for ^SC 1....<- outline of the , the screen
, . . box for this page ,
, . . ,
, . . ,
, . . ,
, . . ,
, ...................... ,
, ,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
As for the "R" in "^S_00R", it stands for Relative location.
When you move this page around on the screen, the comment will
remain at the same location on the page, moving on the screen,
but stationary relative to the page it's associated with.
If you have the letter "A" as in "^S_00A", it will be Absolute
location. When you move this page around on the screen, the
comment will not move from the screen location, wherever the
page is moved as illustrated below.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,<- outline of
, comment for ^SC 1 , the screen.
, ......................<- outline of
, . ., the box for
, . ., this page.
, . .,
, . .,
, . .,
, ......................,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
As for the column and row location of the comment, from value
0 through 9 looks like this.
0123456789 column values As for the column and row
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, locations of the comments; from
,1 value 0 through 9 looks like
,2 row values this. Nothing special about
,3 it, but only one character
,4 location is reserved for
,5 storing the column and row.
,6
,7 To move the comment to
,8 locations beyond the ninth
,9 column or row, other symbols
are used like this
10 20 25
|11 |21 |26
||12 ||22 ||27 etc
||| ||| |||
vvv vvv vvv
111111111122222222223333333333444444444455555555556
0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijkl
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,1
,2
,3
This is the only case where capital letters and small letters
mean different things, because they are used instead of
numbers to represent the column and row where the comment will
start writing.
Obviously, the length of the comment should fit on the screen
it is displaying on. When in doubt, assume that the .COM
software will always be used on a screen 80 columns wide and
25 rows high.
Hopefully, that covers everything.
If the explanation does not seem clear on one area or another,
try running the TXTRUNDC.TXT and checking the various segments
of these documents. The same thing is usually reworded or
illustrated differently to try to convey the meaning and the
flow of logic behind everything. (especially if your language
of choice isn't English.)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
HOW TXTRUN.EXE WORKS
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
TXTRUN requires the 80 columns wide text mode on either the
CGA, monochrome, EGA or VGA video card equipped monitor in
25, 43 or 50 rows modes. If your monitor is not in any of
these modes, TXTRUN will change it to one of these modes.
If the monitor is in 40 columns wide mode, it will be
changed to 80 columns wide mode, but if the monitor is
in 80 - 132 columns wide text mode, it is used as is.
At 132 columns wide text mode, up to 30 rows modes is
fully supported, but the screen will be cleared beyond
30 rows unless you use the CLR option.
All optional parameters which were set before the Edit
option is loaded to memory and the internal workings are set
accordingly.
When you Edit a text file, TXTRUN will first check to see if
there is about 200 KB of free system memory of the 640 KB
for TXTRUN.
If you Edit a file with the .EDT file extension, TXTRUN will
read a file up to 45,000 bytes long. If other file
extension, this will read a file up to 40,000 bytes long.
If your file is longer than these length, they are not
read. You should avoid files which hit these limits
since overlays and other features can be added easily.
If the file length is less than 10 bytes, then there was
something wrong, since this is too short, so this aborts.
EDITING REGULAR TEXT FILE
TXTRUN will check to see if the form feed code (chr(12))
exists in your text file or not. The form feeds signal the
end of each page which will be displayed.
If there is no form feed found, then form feeds are
placed every 23 rows or so.
If there is at least one form feed, then it is assumed
that there is an appropriate number of form feeds to
account for the entire file and is left as is.
If there is a form feed at the very end, then this signifies
that you want a page with no text whatsoever. This doesn't
make sense so that a form feed in such a case is removed.
If there is no
then a pair is added.
The file will now be checked to make sure that this isn't a
.EDT file which was accidentally renamed. TXTRUN checks the
beginning code, and if it looks like a .EDT file, TXTRUN
will ask you if this was really a .EDT file or not.
If you decided that this is not a .EDT file, then this
file will be treated as a regular text file. If this
was a .EDT file and you told TXTRUN to treat it as a
regular text file, the result is unpredictable.
If you decided that this was a .EDT file as suspected,
then TXTRUN will treat this as a .EDT file.
If you're not sure, typing
so that you can try typing or editing the file to find
out what happened.
Now, TXTRUN will check to see if there is at least five
sure that you're not trying to edit a .COM or .EXE type
executable file as a regular text file.
All these checks are useless if you intentionally try
to sabotage things, but it will catch most accidental
attempts to edit things which were not editable.
All tabs (chr(9)) are removed and replaced by single spaces.
You should not have tabs in your text file.
If your text has "^SC" or "^SS" codes, then the text file is
enlarged in size to accommodate for the fact that you will
want to define other subroutine pages and other softwares/
batch-files/DOS-commands.
If you call other softwares/batch/DOS, allow for the
fact that it will use about 55 bytes each time you have
"^SS" in your text.
Every time you have a new page, allow about 16 extra
bytes required so that TXTRUN can define its page size,
page location, attribute and other features which can
be placed on each page.
If the text file enlarges too much, it will overflow past
the 64 KB limit size allowed for the .COM software which
will be made from this and TXTRUN will abort with a message.
EDITING EITHER .EDT OR REGULAR TEXT FILE
The main menu will pop up with explanations and options
which can be used.
Type "Q" to quit. "S" to save the changes made so far as
the intermediary file with file extension .EDT. "C" to
change the file into a .COM software. (your original file
will be left alone unless you decided to give it the .COM
file extension for some reason.)
If the intermediary file cannot be saved, then TXTRUN
will display the reason and then ask you whether to
abort (go back to editing) or retry (insert another
diskette with enough free space).
If the .COM software cannot be made, then TXTRUN will
display the reason and then ask you whether to abort
(go back to editing) or retry (insert another diskette
with enough free space).
Since the menu is treated as page "0", which makes it an
extension of the text file which begins with page "1", you
can use control-PgDn (^PgDn) to look at each page which you
defined. ^PgUp will let you go back up one page at a time.
While editing, ^home will let you go back to the menu
immediately from any page and then go right back to the page
you were editing.
While editing, typing
back to the menu. Once .COM software, typing
page 1 lets you get out of the .COM software.
All features which require control or alt key combinations
will not operate once this becomes a .COM software. These
extra features which only work while editing will be
discussed first, since these are the features which will be
used first by you.
MOVING THE PAGES AROUND AND CHANGING ITS SIZE
You should have run the TXTRUNDC.TXT already and be familiar
with this feature, but is reworded for those who didn't
understand it or didn't bother to run it.
Turn ON the CAPS LOCK and then try moving the cursor keys in
the left/right/up/down directions. The box size changes in
this form
-------------- page outline
|
V
.................,,,,,,,,, <-- page outline after you
. . , press down on the right
. . , cursor key.
. . ,
. <-cursor.cursor->,
. left .right ,
. . ,
. ^cursor . ,
. | up . ,
.................,,,,,,,,,
, |cursor ,
, v down ,
, , <----------- page outline after you
, , press down on the down
, , cursor key.
, ,
, ,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
If you shrink the width below what is required to display
the page number, the page number will stop displaying, or
you can turn it OFF by typing the alt-P key combination.
In either case, the page number will not display once it
becomes a .COM software.
If you want the page to expand horizontally (<--> way) on
its own, every time you go to this page, type alt-H. The
text will respond by doing so. Type it again to turn it
off. The .COM software will act the same.
If you want the page to expand vertically (^ v way) on its
own every time you go to this page, type alt-V. The text
will respond by doing so. This is not as obvious as alt-H
because alt-H will typically open up to 78 columns, while
this is obvious when opening up to 41 or 48 rows but not so
when opening up only 23 rows.
Do both to expand vertically and horizontally.
Although TXTRUN makes sure that this works on the CGA
video card, the inadequacy of this video cards will make
the top part of the screen blank. So do not use these
features which move the pages or change size if the .COM
software will be running on a PC equipped with a true CGA
video card. (no such trouble occurs with an EGA or VGA
video card emulating a CGA, which also tells you that
EGA/VGA do not truly duplicate everything a CGA card
does as well.)
On EGA video card monitor, there is some flashing.
There is a steady image on VGA video card monitor.
On 80386 PC, the speed at which the screen is written
is fast and may not be very noticeable. On 8088 or V20
PC, the screen is clearly seen to be expanding with
text displayed at all times. On IBM PC made circa
1981, it takes several seconds and with over four rows,
top parts of the screen will disappear while the page
expands when used with CGA video cards. This is due to
the hardware deficiencies in CGA video cards. If CGA
equipped PC will be used, this feature should not be
used to avoid this annoying effect.
Turn ON the SCROLL LOCK and then try moving the cursor keys
in the left/right/up/down directions. The box size remains
constant, but now the page moves around on the screen. Use
this feature to position the page where you feel it should
go to.
..................................
. ........ .<-screen outline
. . . .
. . .<-page location before .
. . . you do anything. .
. . . .
. ........ ........ .
. . .<-page location after a series
. . . of pressing down on the down
. . . and right cursor keys.
. . . .
. ........ .
..................................
This feature operates when the .COM software is made so
that the user can reposition the pages to see pages
hidden underneath or to reposition pages at individual
eye levels.
The blinking cursor remains on the top left to indicate that
there is no selection which can be high-lighted in reverse
character to call other pages or to run other softwares.
Since turning ON CAPS LOCK changes box size and alt-H/alt-V
automates it, it makes sense that since turning ON SCROLL
LOCK will move the box around, there should be a feature to
automate moving the box around as well, right? Try alt-M:
Be sure that you moved the box from the default
position at the very top left location to somewhere
else, or you won't see any difference.
Typing alt-M once will Move the box to the very top
left location and then moves it to the location where
you specified it should appear.
There is no separate vertical and horizontal controls
since it looks better if the boxes move diagonally,
rather than just vertically or horizontally.
^PGUP/^PGDN (CONTROL-PAGE-UP/CONTROL-PAGE-DOWN)
At first, you cannot use regular PgUp/PgDn or left/right
cursor keys to move through the pages. You must define what
order, what direction and what level it will be accessed at.
To accomplish this, ^PgUp/^PgDn lets you go through each
page one by one.
Once the .COM software is made, these features which require
the use of the control and alt key combinations will no
longer work. These features only work while you're editing
your text.
DEFINING THE PAGE ORDERS
In order to control how the pages will be accessed once the
.COM software is made, go to the page which you want
accessed and press down on the alt-5 key combination.
That's the "5" on the numeric keypad, not the "5" above the
letters "RT". If there is no numeric keypad on your
keyboard, then there is an equivalent overlay over the
alphabet keys which should act identically in software.
Alt-5 stores the page number where you are at the present so
that that page can be accessed when you move to another
page later on. It's not explained in detail here, since the
interactive help from editing TXTRUNDC.TXT is much easier to
understand.
Once you stored a page, go to the page it should be
connected to and type these key combinations to let this
page access the stored page
alt-PgUp in the specified direction.
alt-left alt-right If your keyboard does not have
alt-PgDn specific numeric keypad, then
type alt-number combinations.
alt-9 These are not the regular
alt-4 alt-6 numbers above the letters
alt-3 "QWERTYUIOP", but your
keyboard's equivalent for
entering alt-1 through alt-255 for chr(1) through chr(255).
Type alt-home key combination to tell you what pages can be
accessed from the present page. It also has other help on
ending the passage between pages and making one way access
for dungeons and dragon games. It is not discussed here
because it's not the main purpose of this program.
If you have many pages defined, the easiest way is to draw a
simple map of the way your pages should be accessed with a
pencil and paper and then make those passage ways.
......... ......... .........
.page 3 . cursor .page 1 . cursor .page 2 .
. .<- left .start .<- left . .
. . right-> . here. right-> . .
......... ......... .........
^ page up
|
|
v page down
......... ......... .........
. . cursor .page 4 . cursor .page 5 .
. .<- left . .<- left . .
. . right-> . . right-> . .
......... ......... .........
^page up ^page up
| |
| |
vpage down vpage down
......... .........
. . cursor . .
. .<- left . .
. . right-> . .
......... .........
To define page 2 accessible from page 1: Go to page 2, type
alt-5, go back to page 1 and type alt-right. Or go to page
1, type alt-5, go back to page 2 and type alt-left.
To define page 3 accessible from page 1: Go to page 3, type
alt-5, go back to page 1 and type alt-left. Or go to page
1, type alt-5, go back to page 3 and type alt-right.
To define page 4 accessible from page 1: Go to page 4, type
alt-5, go back to page 1 and type alt-PgDn. Or go to page
1, type alt-5, go back to page 4 and type alt-PgUp.
To define page 4 accessible from page 5: Go to page 4, type
alt-5, go to page 5 and type alt-left. Or go to page 5,
type alt-5, go back to page 4 and type alt-right.
Do similar to define the other pages.
Think of this as one layer of pages in this format:
........... ........... ...........
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
........... ........... ...........
........... ........... ...........
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
........... ........... ...........
Seen from afar, it will look like this
...................
. . . .
...................
. . . .
...................
This is important since TXTRUN allows eight levels of
nesting of pages like this. The number of pages at each
level is up to you and there
................... is nothing to prevent you from
. . . .| accessing the same page at
................... |level two or more different levels
. . . . | 3 since this is a free format
................... | entry of pages.
| | | | If you have one big page at
| ..............|.... level 1 and you move through
| . . . | .| several small pages at level
| ................|.. |level 2 by using the left/right
|. . . |. | 2 cursor keys, then this is
................... | what is known as a pull-down
| | | | menu system.
| ..............|.... .............................
| . . . | . ...... ..... ...... .
| ................|.. level .. . . . . . .
|. . . |. 1 .. .<----->. .<->. . .
................... .level2 ..2.. ...2.. .
. .
. .
. .
.level.1.....................
This is because the level 2
allows display of text below
itself, though it will erase
the display of text at the
same level as itself.
Typing
and typing
1 etc by default. If the AOFF option is used, then you can
only get down one level at the page you went up at.
Visualize the image on the left if you're making a dungeons
and dragons game, and the image on the right if you're
making a pop up with pull-down menus.
CALLING SUBROUTINES OR RUNNING SOFTWARES
In order to go up one level, your text file must have the
string "^SC" for calling pages and "^SS" for running
softwares.
Follow the instructions which appear on the screen when you go
to the page with the ^SC and ^SS. Running TXTRUNDC.TXT will
tell you what's required.
Testing the pages called is easy, but when running softwares,
batch files or DOS commands, there may not be enough free
system memory out of the 640 KB (512 KB on some portables)
available. If TXTRUN tells you that there is not enough space
to run it, then try editing your autoexec.bat file to remove
or to make into comments memory resident utilities, drivers
etc and using a smaller virtual RAM disk.
When testing through TXTRUN, do not run memory hungry
softwares such as spread sheets, graphic softwares and
statistic packages. TXTRUN uses about 220 KB and would
not leave enough space to run memory hungry softwares.
Once the .COM software is made, the memory requirement is
reduced enough that most softwares will run. Some
softwares are so memory hungry (often written in an
inefficient computer language) that no amount of
prodding will work.
After running your softwares etc, it automatically kicks
back into page 1. TXTRUN is emulating how your .COM
software will behave by doing this.
The main menu on page 0 also tells you other features such as
alt-A to change the attribute of the pages. Try them to
make your menu fancy. People who know how to make pages which
enlarge and move around may find adding fancy touches boring,
but it may entertain others.
Occasionally go to the main menu in page 0 and type "S" to
save the intermediary .EDT file. It will be saved in the same
drive and subdirectory where your text file was.
Once all the editing you want to make are done, type "C" to
change it to the executable .COM software.
Now quit by typing "Q".
THE .COM SOFTWARE
All the editing you did with the control and alt keys no
longer work when you run the .COM software, but everything
else works the same as when you were editing in TXTRUN.
The .COM software will check to see if you are in graphic mode
or not and do the same chores as before. What you did while
in TXTRUN is the same in the .COM, except that the .COM
software is a lot smaller.
If you forgot to define some ^SC or ^SS selections, the .COM
will still display the same prompts as before to warn you that
you forgot to define them.
All options and features which you set, such as N32 to prevent
displaying end-of-line symbols or BOFF for Beep OFF are
operational in your .COM software.
When you're on page 1, typing
you if you want to exit or not. Type "Y" to exit to DOS, "N"
if you pressed down on this key by mistake.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
CHAT in a HAT
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
One sad point I found about a certain speech synthesizer:
It looks like a pure software synthesizer, which was then
crippled so that it must use the printer port, instead of
the built-in speaker. It may discourage piracy, but then
it discourages wide spread use as well. May it rest in P
US by rule packs all its eggs in one basket, saying "they're
ONLY making it because of cheap wages". Followed by "ALL we
need is quality control" and "JUST in-time", "lower interest
rates", "ONLY interact with the subcontractor and customer",
"bad managers? pass." On the other side, they did all that
and its publishers write about every new development in here
in detail. How many US magazines do you know which has even
one columnist who can JUST read J, let alone writes about J?
Was US ever even a rival when the US didn't know it had one?
Long before ecology was "fashionable", J was recycling
paper, iron and anything recyclable. While J is still
recycling a lot, a lot more is thrown away at sea. It
sounds bad until you learn that the garbage is covered
with dirt and will become habitable fifty years hence.
Didn't US used to picture J as a near-sighted, shaggy-
hair chimp? Or was US laughing at a mirror of itself?
For the US, the trouble with fine samples of US firms and
corrupt examples of J firms: Both tend to be exceptions.
For J, the silver linings in corrupt examples of J firms:
They face its existence, discuss it and work to solve it.
20 years ago, US was laughing at wife beaters and child
molesters in other lands. 10 years ago, many denied it
exists in US. Now, we're supposed to teach children so
that they can live with it. If its existence was faced
20 years ago, couldn't it have been made socially, very
unacceptable, to beat wives and molest children by now?
20 years ago, US was laughing at J as a Xerox. 10 years
ago, many denied that US could lose. Live with it? oh.
Which nation is like a rabbit, taking big strides and then
napping without checking to see where the turtle is? This
turtle reads publications outlining where the rabbit naps.
This rabbit dreams about how great it is to be THE rabbit.
Do you know exactly where your turtle rival is, Rabbit Jr?
Rabbits take flight, from bad stimuli, which turtles face.
Is denial a form of flight from bad stimulus, Mrs. Rabbit?
It's not cheating if the turtle found a short cut to goal.
This turtle is only a teenager, and can mutate quite fast.
Given time, this mutant turtle can run as fast as rabbits.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
For permanency, contact
c/o Sawada
LCS
P.O. Box 956
Outremont, Quebec
Canada H2V 4R8
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!
This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.
But one thing that puzzles me is the “mtswslnkmcjklsdlsbdmMICROSOFT” string. There is an article about it here. It is definitely worth a read: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/mtswslnk/