BOOT.EXE Version 2.01
Copyright 1988 by Stephen C. Kick



*************** DISCLAIMER **************

The author, Stephen C. Kick, makes no warranties expressed or
implied as to the quality or performance of this program. The
author will not be held liable for any direct, indirect,
incidental, or consequential damages resulting from the use of
this program. Your use of the program constitutes your agreement
to this disclaimer and your release of the author from any form of
liability or litigation.

******************************************







BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick


PURPOSE OF BOOT.EXE

The purpose of this program is to ease the process of booting
the computer in different configurations. By boot up
configuration, I am refering to way the "CONFIG.SYS" and
"AUTOEXEC.BAT" files initialize your computer after a reset has
occured. Most people can use the same " CONFIG.SYS" and
"AUTOEXEC.BAT" files all of the time. However, for those of us who
use several different terminate-and-stay-resident programs (TSRs),
different DOS interfaces, and large programs requiring lots of
memory the ability to change the boot up configuration of the
computer is a must. "BOOT.EXE" has been designed for those people
who require the ability to change the boot up configuration and
even those who only need this ability occasionally.

"BOOT.EXE" enables up to a maximum of 255 different boot up
configurations to be used, by allowing data for "CONFIG.SYS" and
"AUTOEXEC.BAT" files to be placed in a single text file. Since the
data is in a text file, it can be easily edited and managed using
your favorite text editor. An additional advantage of this program
is that you will always have clean copies of your different
"AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "CONFIG.SYS" files available.

"BOOT.EXE" is not memory resident, requires about 80K to
run and is a DESQview (C) aware program. DESQview is a trademark
of Quarterdeck Office Systems.

"BOOT.EXE" is a shareware program, it is NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN.
The cost, if you decide to use it, is only $10. This is my first
venture into selling any of the software I have developed, so I
thought I would start out small and see the response. Shareware is
a great way to obtain and evaluate affordable, quality software
before you fork out the bucks for it.

An example for building the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "CONFIG.SYS"
files is located in a file named "BOOT.CFG".




BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick

HOW BOOT.EXE WORKS


"BOOT.EXE" works by parsing a text file for your
"AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "CONFIG.SYS" data. This text file must be named
"BOOT.CFG" and must be located in the root directory of the boot
up disk. "BOOT.EXE" can be located in any subdirectory you desire
on the boot up disk. When "BOOT.EXE" is executed it looks in the
root directory for the file named "BOOT.CFG". If a parameter has
not been entered on the command line then "BOOT.EXE" parses the
text file to build and display a menu. Parsing is accomplished by
searching the text file "BOOT.CFG" for four parsing keys, all of
which begin with a squiggly parenthesis and a dollar sign "{$".
The four phrases are "{$Default=", "{$Name=", "{$C}", and "{$A}".
The "{$Default=" phrase will only appear once in the configuration
file, and then only in column one of the first line. The remaining
three phrases are used with each boot up configuration which you
define. It is very important to heed the following note:

****************** NOTE: *******************

IF ANY OF THESE THREE PHRASES, "{$NAME=", "{$C}", "{$A}", ARE
MISSING UNPREDICTABLE RESULTS WILL OCCUR. EACH CONFIGURATION MUST
USE ALL THREE PHRASES IN THE CORRECT SEQUENCE FOR "BOOT.EXE" TO
PROPERLY PARSE AND WRITE YOUR "CONFIG.SYS" AND "AUTOEXEC.BAT"
FILES. USE THE "CHECK" OPTION AT THE COMMAND LINE TO VERIFY
"BOOT.CFG" HAS BEEN SET UP CORRECTLY.

****************** NOTE: *******************

"BOOT.EXE" searches for "{$Name=" first. Once that key
phrase is detected, the line is parsed for the name of that
particular configuration and checked to see if it matches the one
being sought after. If it is not a match then the program
continues searcheing until a match is found, or the end of the
file is reached. After locating the name of desired configuration,
the program searches for the "CONFIG.SYS" file data which is
indicated by the "{$C}". This means you can have an extended
description on the lines between "{$Name=" and "{$C}" if you want.
This area could contain the development date, revision status, and
a more elaborate description of that particular configuration, or
clever phrases such as "KILROY WAS HERE" for example. The point
being that everything between the lines containing "{$Name=" and
"{$C}" can contain anything you want. Nothing will be written to
the "CONFIG.SYS" file until the "{$C}" is detected. After
"BOOT.EXE" detects the "{$C}", it regards everything from the
line after the "{$C}" , to the line proceeding the "{$A}" as data
for the "CONFIG.SYS" file. The "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file data is then
considered to be everything on the line following the "{$A}" to
the line preceding the next "{$Name=", or until the end of the
file is encountered.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WHEN DEVELOPING YOUR "BOOT.CFG" FILE, DO NOT
INCLUDE THE QUOTES, THEY ARE ONLY BEING USED FOR HIGHLIGHTING
PURPOSES.




BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick

RULES FOR BUILDING BOOT.CFG


1. The name of a configuration is prefixed by "{$Name=" and may
be followed by a description. The parsing key "{$Name=" must
start in column one. The name can be twelve (12) characters
long, up to column 20. Anything starting at column twenty
(20) is regarded as part of the description. The description
can be up to 60 characters long, any more than this is
ignored. For maximum menu readability limit names to ten (10)
characters. The name of a configuration can be anything you
want EXCEPT "CHECK". The name "CHECK" is reserved for
debugging purposes (see USING BOOT.EXE, note #7).

2. A default menu choice may be used by adding the parsing key
"{$Default=" followed by the name of the configuration you
want to be the default menu choice. The parsing key "{$Default"
must be the **FIRST** line in "BOOT.CFG". The default is used
to determine which menu choice is to be highlighted when the
menu is first displayed. If the default name is not found or
no default is specified then the default menu choice will be
the first configuration found in "BOOT.CFG".

3. After the first line in the configuration file and before the
first "{$Name=", any number of lines may be used to keep
notes or descriptions. If fact you may even include this file
in that area. Just be sure that none of the lines have
"{$Default=", "{$Name=", "{$C}", or "{$A}" starting in column
1 since the program uses these to key on. You may also
include information after each "{$Name=" and its
corresponding "{$C}".

NOTE: Before you include your life history as part of "BOOT.CFG"
it is important to point out the program must read those
lines to get to the actual configurations, thus resulting
in a decrease in performance. Therefore, keep the
information in these areas short.

4. The information for the "CONFIG.SYS" files are indicated by
"{$C}" starting at column one and is followed starting on the
next line by the "CONFIG.SYS" data.

5. The information for the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file is indicated by
"{$A}" starting at column one and is followed starting on the
next line by the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" data.

6. The parsing keys "{$Name=", "{$C}" and "{$A}" work as a set.
Each "{$Name" must have a "{$C}" following it and each "{$C}"
must have a "{$A}" following it.




BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick

RULES FOR BUILDING BOOT.CFG (continued)


7. The general layout of the "BOOT.CFG" file is as follows :

{$Default= 2 (Must be on FIRST LINE IN BOOT.CFG)
Any notes or messages for your self here.

{$Name=BootConfig1 Description
{$C}
CONFIG.SYS data

{$A}
AUTOEXEC.BAT data

{$Name=BootConfig2 Description
{$C}
CONFIG.SYS data

{$A}
AUTOEXEC.BAT data

8. The program is not case sensitive.

9. Up to a maximum of 255 configurations can be used.

10. Strings in the "BOOT.CFG" file are limited to 255 characters.
However the lines using the parsing key "{$Name=" should be
limited to less than 80 characters, anything past column 80
will be ignored for these lines.




BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick


USING BOOT.EXE


1. The BOOT program looks for "BOOT.CFG" in the root directory of
the default drive. Therefore if you use multiple drives you
may want to use the following batch file :

C:
CD\
BOOT.EXE

2. The "AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "CONFIG.SYS" files are written to the
root directory of the default drive.

3. The name or number of the desired configuration may be entered
on the DOS command line. In this case the menu will not be
displayed unless the choice is invalid. The command line is
not case sensitive.

Examples : BOOT 4
BOOT Plain

4. If no choice is entered on the command line a menu is
displayed showing the the configuration number, name and a
description of each routine. To select the desired boot
configuration simply move to the desired configuration using
the up and down arrow keys and press enter or enter the
number on the desired configuration. The PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN,
HOME and END keys may also be used to move around in the
menu. When the digit of a number is pressed an entry line
will appear on the bottom of the menu prompting for the
number. After typing in the desired number press enter. The
ESCAPE key may used to exit the menu without making a choice.

5. When the menu is displayed the number of desired configuration
may also be entered. If you press a number and want to go
back to the menu simply press ESCAPE.

6. The file "BOOT.CFG" must be located in the root directory.

7. A debugging option has been added for debugging your
"BOOT.CFG" file. When the command :
BOOT CHECK
is entered at the DOS command line, "BOOT.EXE" will scan the
"BOOT.CFG" file and check to see that all the parsing keys
are in the correct order and that none are missing. If an
error is found, then the line number, the line containing the
error, and an error message will be displayed when the
program terminates. When the "CHECK" option is used no
"CONFIG.SYS" or "AUTOEXEC.BAT" files will be written or
modified. The "CHECK" command line option should be used
whenever changes have been made to "BOOT.CFG" to ensure
proper operation of the program.



BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick


USING BOOT.EXE (continued)


8. "BOOT.EXE" will return the following error codes which can be
used by the DOS "ERRORLEVEL" command in batch files :

0 : No Errors, Program ended normally, CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT files have been updated.
1 : User pressed escape to exit, nothing was written to
disk
2 : Unsupported video mode, nothing was written to disk
3 : Missing in parsing key or parsing key out of order.
Some data may have been written to disk.
Be sure and check the contents of the "CONFIG.SYS"
and "AUTOEXEC.BAT" files before rebooting.
4 : Memory error, nothing was written to disk
5 : Error with "BOOT.CFG" file. Data may have been written
to disk.
Be sure and check the contents of the "CONFIG.SYS" and
"AUOTEXEC.BAT" files before rebooting.

9. When adding a boot up configuration to "BOOT.CFG" or
performing a major modification to a configuration make sure
that you get the "CONFIG.SYS" and "AUTOEXEC.BAT" files you
are expecting BEFORE YOU REBOOT. This can be accomplished
very easily by using the TYPE command at the DOS prompt and
viewing the contents of the "CONFIG.SYS" and "AUTOEXEC.BAT"
files. For example the command :
TYPE CONFIG.SYS
entered at the DOS prompt will display the contents of the
"CONFIG.SYS" file. The command :
TYPE AUTOEXEC.BAT
will display the contents of the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file. You
may also use your favorite text editor to view them. If you
don't see what you expect to see then re-edit the
"BOOT.CFG" file.




BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick

TRYING OUT BOOT.EXE


To to try out this program you may perform the following
steps:

1. Copy "BOOT.EXE" and "BOOT.CFG" to the root directory of
drive A.

2. Set drive A as your default drive.

3. Type "BOOT" at the DOS prompt.

4. Select a boot up configuration from the menu and press
ENTER. The program will then write an "CONFIG.SYS" and
"AUTOEXEC.BAT" file to the root directory on drive A.

5. At the DOS prompt type "TYPE CONFIG.SYS" to view the
contents of the "CONFIG.SYS" file.

6. At the DOS prompt type "TYPE AUTOEXEC.BAT" to view the
contents of the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file.




BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick

HISTORY OF BOOT.EXE


BOOT.EXE was conceived when I was attempting to automate
the selection of different AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files in
order to boot up my computer in different configurations. I manage
about ten different computers , all with different software and
hardware configurations, therefore, I needed a system which was
easy to maintain and adaptable. I initially tried to implement the
system using numerous batch files, however I could never remember
exactly which one did what and had numerous files to edit and
keep track of. Next I tried to combine everything into a single
elaborate batch file. This was easier to use but cumbersome to
manage.

I finally decided to use a program to parse the different
"AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "CONFIG.SYS" files out of a single text file.
Version 1 of "BOOT.EXE" used the first 25 lines in the text file
to display the menu. Actually, it wasn't really a menu, if nothing
was entered on the command line then the first 25 lines of the
text file were displayed as a menu. Version 1 was very compact,
taking up less than 3K of executable code and less than 20K of
memory to run. Version 1 worked great, except that it was a chore
to modify. Every time a boot up configuration was added, or
deleted, the menu had to be changed manually. Version 2 entirely
automates the building of a real menu. Implementation of the menu
system required almost an entire rewrite of the system and
resulted in a much larger program. The result, however is an
extremely easy method of managing multiple boot up configurations
for your computer.

Version 2.01 added some finishing touches to Version 2.00.
The 2.00 version used a number as an entry for the default menu
choice. Version 2.01 allows a name to be specified instead. This
is much easier than trying to count down to the configuration
which you want to use for the default. Additional error checking
has also been added to Version 2.01 via the "CHECK" option which
can be entered at the command line. The "CHECK" option will scan
the "BOOT.CFG" file for errors.




BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick

BOOT.EXE Registration


BOOT.EXE can be registered for only $10. Please fill out the
information below and return with your Check, Money order, or Cash
(sorry no credit cards) to :

Stephen C. Kick
703 Alder Drive
Allen, Texas 75002


I can also be contacted on :

BIX : SKICK
or CompuServe : 73707,2340

if you have any further questions.




BOOT.EXE Version 2.01 Copyright 1988 by Stephen Kick


BOOT.EXE Registration Form


Mail this registration form to :

Stephen C. Kick
703 Alder Drive
Allen, Texas 75002


Name : _____________________________________

Company : __________________________________

Address : ___________________________________

City : __________________________ State : _________ Zip Code : __________

Phone Number : ________________

Number of copies of "BOOT.EXE" _____________ X $10 = ___________ Total

How and where did you obtain program : ______________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Type of Computer : ___________________________________

Primary use of Computer : _______________________________________

Peripherals Used : __________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Comments : __________________________________________________________________

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