Category : Utilities for DOS and Windows Machines
Archive   : TSRMAKER.ZIP
Filename : TSRMAKER.TXT

TSRMAKER v1.1

by

Jack A. Orman
Box 858
Southaven, MS 38671



What is TSRMAKER?
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This program will create an executable .COM file out of a
text file of 25 lines of 80 characters each. This fast
operating program when run will remain resident in memory to
be popped up by hitting the selected keys. It should not
cause any interference with other memory resident programs.


Features!
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* Full Screen text editor!

* TSRMAKER will read the text out of a .COM file that it
has created! No need to look for the original text just
to modify the document.

* Use any word processor that can save a file as straight
ascii text to make the display that you want to turn into
a .COM program. Then use TSRMAKER to turn the file
into a memory resident screen display!

* Full selection of colors to be used when the .COM file
displays the text.

* Select the keys to activate from among several choices.

* Enter a message to be displayed when the program is loaded.

* Have several screens resident in memory at once by using
different 'hot keys' to call up each.

* On-line help.

* Each resident program only uses about 2.3k of memory.


How to use TSRMAKER.
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Using a word processor, write the screen of text that you
would like to be displayed. There can only be 25 lines in the
file and each line may be a maximum of 80 characters. Save the
text in ascii format and exit.

TSRMAKER , will put the program in operation. Select F2
from the opening screen and you will be prompted for the name
of the text file to read. TSRMAKER will read the text and
display it so that it may be checked out before the .COM file
is created.

Assumming that the file is ready to use, hit the F6 key and
make a choice of colors to be used in the .COM file display.
The text display will then be set to the colors you have
chosen so that you may review the choices and modify if they
are not what you want.

Next, use the F7 key to call up a menu to select the 'hotkey'.
When that is complete, hit F8 and enter the message to be
displayed when the program loads.

To create the .COM program, hit F3 and you will be prompted
for a name to use for the text display program. The drive
letter is optional but the extention MUST be .COM! The default
drive and directory will be used if one is not specified.

Example: If I want to create a file called HELP on my hard
drive, I would enter 'C:HELP.COM' as the filename to
use. If I want to write this file to my hard drive in
the UTIL directory, I would enter 'C:\UTIL\HELP.COM'

TSRMAKER's full-screen editor may be used to write text or
modify a file that has been read into the program's buffer. It
operates like a basic word processor with no frills. The
screen changes color and a block cursor appears to indicate
that the editor is active. Since there is no on-screen display
to show the state of INS or DEL the screen colors will change
according to the mode you are in. White text is INS and yellow
text indicates the Overwrite mode. F10 is used to exit
from the editor routines. The cursor arrow keys are used to
move around the screen and PgUp, PgDn, Home and END are used
to move to extremes of the display. Tab will advance the
cursor 10 spaces.

The .COM program that is created by this program operates by
resetting the interrupt 9 vector and scans for the proper
keystokes that will cause the resident program to be run. When
the right key combination is hit (Alt-RightShift is the
default selection), the program sets the active page to 4
and writes the resident text to the screen in the blink of an
eye! When ESCAPE is hit to exit, the active page is
restored to whatever it was upon entry. The pop-up will only
operate if the video display is in modes 2 or 3 which are
25x80 text displays. Changing modes clears the video memory
but doesn't affect the TSR because it writes the text to the
screen each time that it is popped up.

A sample template is included to show the basic design of the
pop-up screen. It was created with a word-processor, edited
with TSRmaker and used to make the MIDIpop and MIDIhex
programs. Feel free to incorporate it into your pop-ups!

TSRMAKER is copyrighted and for private, non-commercial use
only! If you use this program, please make a donation of
$15 to the author at the above address.