CopyCon


Version 4.10
January 1990





















by
John E. Bean, P.E.
JB Technology Inc.
28701 N. Main St.
Ridgefield, Wa. 98642






INTRODUCTION


CopyCon is a program to be used in lieu of the DOS command COPY CON. I
have used COPY CON numerous times in creating batch files and miscel-
laneous small text files.

I have experienced many frustrating moments using COPY CON. I have ac-
cidently overwritten existing files. I have mistyped commands only to
notice them while entering the next line. I have also wanted to have
graphic boxes in my batch files.

CopyCon alleviates all of the above problems. It checks to see if the
specified file exists, and if it does CopyCon provides either loading
the existing file or allows the existing file to be overwritten. Copy-
Con also has full screen editing capability and built in Macros which
aids in creating files.

CopyCon was written in Turbo Pascal 5.0 using routines from Turbo 5.0
Professional.

CopyCon is so easy to use that this manual is not necessary but the
following sections will briefly discuss how to use CopyCon.




LIMITATIONS

I have designed CopyCon for typical batch files and small text files.
It is not designed to be a text editor! If you need a text editor, Ez-
Doss (A Dos Shell), which I have written, includes a text editor.

There are two main limitations that I designed into this program. They
are:

* The maximum length of a text line is 80 charac-
ters.
* There is no word wrap.

These limitations were done to distinguish the difference between Copy-
Con and a text editor.




GETTING STARTED

CopyCon is comprised of two (2) files. They are:
* Copycon.exe - The executable program.
* Copycon.doc - This documentation.

Start CopyCon by issuing the following command at the DOS prompt:
A:>CopyCon .

As you can see this is identical to using the DOS command COPY CON ex-
cept there is not a space between Copy and Con. If no file name is en-
tered, a window will "pop up" with the drive/subdirectory and the de-
fault file name NONAME.BAT. You will be allowed to enter/edit a new
file name. (See "LINE EDITOR COMMANDS" for available keystrokes in en-
tering the file name.)

Once the program is loaded into memory, the program will check to see
if your computer has a color graphics card. If it does the program will
be displayed in color. You can force CopyCon to be displayed in black
and white by typing in "/bw" AFTER the filename on the command line.
For example; if you wish to create a batch file named "CPY.BAT" and
have CopyCon be in black and white the following is the correct syntax.

A:>CopyCon CPY.BAT /bw

Next the screen will be cleared, ">CopyCon (filename)" will be dis-
played in the upper left hand corner. Several other items will be dis-
played to the right of the file name. They are:
* F1 - Help: A help menu is available simply by de
pressing the F1 function key. The help
menu provides information on editing
keys and several batch file command.
* F2 - Macros: Depressing the F2 function key will
display the predefined Macros.
* 1,1: The y,x position of the cursor. The y
position is the FILE LINE position.
* INS: If the insert mode is ON then INS will
be displayed.
* [max line]: The number displayed inside the "[ ]"
is the maximum number of lines your
file can have. For a 640K machine, this
should be around 5000.


If the file entered on the command line exists, a pop up menu will ap-
pear offering the following choices:
* LOAD: This option will load the existing file
and CopyCon can be used to modify the
file.
* OVERWRITE: This option will overwrite the existing
file.
* EXIT: This option will abort CopyCon.

The cursor will be located at the left hand column of your screen. You
are now ready to create/edit your file.




EDITING COMMANDS

CopyCon provides simple editing commands. These commands can be dis-
played while editing through the Help Menu which is accessed by de-
pressing the F1 function key. The editing commands can be broken into
the following sections.

CURSOR PAD KEYS:
Up Arrow Key:
Depressing the Up arrow key will move the cursor to the
previous line. Depressing the Up arrow key while on line
one will result in the display of an error message.

Down Arrow Key:
Depressing the Down arrow key will move the cursor to
the next line. Depressing the Down arrow key while on
the last line entered will result in the display of an
error message.

Left Arrow Key:
Depressing the Left arrow key will move the cursor one
position left on the current line. Depressing the Left
arrow key while at the leftmost column on the screen
will result in the display of an error message.

Right Arrow Key:
Depressing the Right arrow key will move the cursor one
position right on the current line. Depressing the Right
arrow key while at the rightmost column on the screen
will result in the display of an error message.

Home Key:
Depressing the HOME key will move the cursor to the
leftmost position on the current line.

End Key:
Depressing the END key will move the cursor to the
rightmost position on the current line.

Tab Key:
Depressing the TAB key will move the cursor right eight
(8) spaces.

Shift Tab Key:
Simultaneously depressing the Shift key and the Tab key
will move the cursor left eight (8) spaces.


Ctrl Home Key:
Simultaneously depressing the Ctrl key and the HOME key
will move the cursor to the top of the screen.

Ctrl End Key:
Simultaneously depressing the Ctrl key and the END key
will move the cursor to the bottom of the screen.

Ctrl PgDn Key:
Simultaneously depressing the Ctrl key and the PgDn key
will move the cursor to the end of the file. If the cur-
sor is already at the end of the file an error message
will be displayed.

Ctrl PgUp Key:
Simultaneously depressing the Ctrl key and the PgUp key
will move the cursor to the top of the file. If the cur-
sor is already at the top of the file an error message
will be displayed.

Ins Key:
Depressing the INS key will toggle the Insert Mode on
and off. If the Insert Mode is on, "INS" will be dis-
played on the top line in inverse video.

Del Key:
Depressing the DEL key will delete the character under
the current cursor position. All characters to the
right will move one space to the left.


FUNCTION KEYS:

F1:
Depressing the F1 function key will display the Help
Menu. The Help Menu will display screens for all the
keys discussed in this section and the following Batch
File commands:
* Echo
* Set
* Rem
* Pause
* Shift
* Goto
* If
* For


F2:
Depressing the F2 function key will display a listing of
all the built in Macros available in this program.

F3:
Depressing the F3 function key will copy the previous
line. (The tutorial will show how useful this can be)

F4:
Depressing the F4 function key will center the current
line on the screen. This feature is multifunctioned. If
the line starts with "REM" or "ECHO" the centering will
be offset to accommodate for those words. (The tutorial
will show how this works)

F6:
Depressing the F6 function key will save the file and
exit the program.

F7:
Depressing the F7 function key will insert a new line at
the current cursor position.

F8:
Depressing the F8 function key will delete the current
line.

OTHER KEYS:

TAB:
Depress the TAB key will move the cursor eight (8) posi-
tions to the right.

SHIFT TAB:
Simultaneously depressing the SHIFT key and the TAB key
will move the cursor eight (8) positions to the left.

ESC:
Depressing the ESC key will abort CopyCon. Once the ESC
key has been depressed, CopyCon will ask if you are sure
you wish to leave CopyCon. If you do, depress the "Y"
key and if you do not simply depress any other key.


ALT -:
Simultaneously depressing the ALT key and the MINUS key,
located next to the 0 key, will allow multiple lines of
text to be marked as a block which can be inserted at
another location in the file.

Once the ALT MINUS key combination has been depressed, a
"pop up" window will be displayed asking how many lines
will be included in the block. Enter the proper number
(0 if you do not want any) and depress . The
lines of text in the block will be displayed in a dif-
ferent color.

ALT +:
Simultaneously depressing the ALT key and the PLUS key,
located next to the BACKSPACE key, will insert the pre-
viously marked block in the current line.

ALT Z:
Simultaneously depressing the ALT key and the letter Z
will flush (unmark) the block.

ALT A:
Simultaneously depressing the ALT key and the letter A
will pop up a window containing ASCII characters that
can be inserted into your file.

Use the ARROW KEYS to highlight the desired ASCII char-
acter. When the desired ASCII character is highlighted,
depress the key.

Another window will pop up. This will ask you how many
times do you want the selected character to be repeated.
Enter the number (0 for none) and depress the
key.

CopyCon will insert the ASCII character at the current
cursor position.





MACROS

CopyCon has built in Macros. What are Macros? Macros are a character
or a series of characters displayed on the screen when a designated key
or two designated keys are simultaneously depressed. A list of Macros
can be displayed during editing by depressing the F2 function key. The
Macros in CopyCon can be divided into two categories. They are:

BATCH FILE COMMANDS:

CopyCon has assigned several of the most commonly used batch file com-
mands to key combinations. They are:

Alt C:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "C" key
will display "copy " on the screen.

Alt E:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "E" key
will display "echo " on the screen.

Alt F:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "F" key
will display "for %% in ( ) do " on the screen.

Alt G:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "G" key
will display "goto " on the screen.

Alt I:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "I" key
will display "shift " on the screen.

Alt L:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "L" key
will display "cls " on the screen.

Alt P:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "P" key
will display "path " on the screen.

Alt R:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "R" key
will display "rem" on the screen.

Alt S:
Simultaneously depressing the Alt key and the "S" key
will display "erase" on the screen.



GRAPHIC BOXES:

Many times boxes look good in batch files. CopyCon has established Mac-
ros for both single and double sided boxes. The following will describe
the keys used to print the box characters on the screen.

SINGLE LINED BOX:

Alt F1 - Upper Left Hand Corner
Alt F2 - Upper Right Hand Corner
Alt F3 - Lower Left Hand Corner
Alt F4 - Lower Right Hand Corner
Alt F5 - Horizontal Line
Alt F6 - Vertical Line
Alt F7 - Upper Horizontal Cross
Alt F8 - Lower Horizontal Cross
Alt F9 - Left Vertical Cross
Alt F10- Right Vertical Cross
Alt 6 - Center Cross


DOUBLE LINED BOX:

Ctrl F1 - Upper Left Hand Corner
Ctrl F2 - Upper Right Hand Corner
Ctrl F3 - Lower Left Hand Corner
Ctrl F4 - Lower Right Hand Corner
Ctrl F5 - Horizontal Line
Ctrl F6 - Vertical Line
Ctrl F7 - Upper Horizontal Cross
Ctrl F8 - Lower Horizontal Cross
Ctrl F9 - Left Vertical Cross
Ctrl F10- Right Vertical Cross
Alt 5 - Center Cross


SHADING:

There are several characters that are commonly used for "shading"
boxes. CopyCon provides Macros for four (4) of these characters. De-
pressing Alt 1, Alt2, Alt 3 or Alt 4 will insert a "shading" character
on the screen.





LINE EDITOR COMMANDS

The Line Editor is used when entering a new file name. The Line Edi-
tor has many features which allow flexiblity when entering the file
name. The editing commands are:

Key Description
Accept Line
Esc Quit without changing line
Left Arrow Cursor left one character
Right Arrow Cursor right one character
Ctrl Left Arrow Cursor left one word
Ctrl Right Arrow Cursor right one word
Home Cursor to beginning of line
End Cursor to end of line
Del Delete character under cursor
Backspace Delete character left of cursor
Ctrl End Delete to end of line
Ctrl Y Delete entire line
Ctrl Home Delete from beginning of line
Ctrl T Delete word to right of cursor
Ins Toggle insert mode
Ctrl R Restore original contents of line

When entering a string, if the first key you depress is any letter,
or number the default string will disappear. If you wish to use
part of the default string the first character must be one of the
keys listed above.



VERSION CHANGES

Version 4.10 has changed the following:
* Fixed a bug in the backspace feature.
* Fixed a bug when deleting the last line of the file.
CopyCon WILL NOT delete a line of a one line file.

Version 4.00 has changed the following:
* Added the feature of entering a file name if no file
name is entered on the command line.
* Fixed a bug in line deletion. If you put your cursor
on line 1 and deleted each line, using F8, after the
last line was deleted the program would freeze. This
is not good! Therefore I fixed it.

Version 3.60 has changed the following:
* Added the "Insert ASCII Character". This will allow
ASCII characters not on the keyboard to be inserted
into the file.

Version 3.52 has changed the following:
* Fixed bug when you exit when nothing was entered in a
new file.

Version 3.50 has changed the following:
* Fixed bugs with the delete line function. Sometimes
the last line would be lost when saved.
* Added "BLOCK" functions. I got so many requests that
I added some minor block functions. You can now mark
several lines of text, insert text and flush the
buffer. You have to enter the number of lines that
you want in your block. I feel that is reasonable be-
cause this program is designed for small files and by
doing this way, there was minimun code to be added,
thus keeping the program as small as possible.

Version 3.25 has changed the following:
* Backup files are now ceated with an extension of .BAK.
* Miscellaneous bugs are fixed.

Version 3.10 has changed the following:
* Fixed a bug in scolling up multiple screen files.
* Added color to the program.
* Change the X,Y on the status line to be Y,X.

Version 3.0 has changed the following:
* Converted to Turbo Pascal 5.0.
* The maximum length of the file is limited only to the
size of RAM.
* Many of the bugs in 2.0 have been corrected.

Version 2.0 has changed the following:
* The program was rewritten in Turbo Pascal 4.0.
* A Help Menu has been include providing help on some
most commonly used batch file commands.




Version 1.30 has changed the following:
* When copying (F3) the line above, the cursor now goes
next line.
* Corrected an error when attempting to center (F4) a
blank line.
* Added cursor X and cursor Y (file line) to the status
line.
* Added Insert Line (Ctrl N).
* Added Delete Current Line (Ctrl Y)

Version 1.20 has changed the following:
* Better memory allocation.
* Limit file size to 500 lines maximum
* CopyCon will now load existing files.




OTHER PROGRAMS

I have used many Public Domain, Shareware and Commercial software
over the years. In appreciation to all those authors of Public Domain
Programs I have written several Public Domain Programs. They are:

EzDoss: ($10.00)
EzDoss is a Dos Shell. I have used many Dos shells over
the past years. Each program has several features that I really
enjoy. I decided to write a Dos Shell that put most of those
features into EzDoss. EzDoss is both Menu Driven and has
"Quick Keys". Some of the features that EzDoss has are:
* Tag files either singularly, all at once, or by pat-
tern.
* Copy, delete, move, rename, print or view tagged
or highlighted files.
* Include or Exclude file from being displayed by a
user defined mask.
* Edit an existing Ascii file.
* Invoke an Ascii text SideKick type editor.
* Locate all files using a user defined mask for on a
given drive.
* Print a tree of the specified disk drive.
* Format a disk without leaving EzDoss.

I am sure that once you try EzDoss and discover all the power
and ease it has this will become an indispensable program.


Find Duplicates: ($15.00)
Most users of hard disks have duplicates files on their disks.
The file COMMAND.COM will appear in numerous subdirectories.
Significant hard disk space is being wasted by these files.

Find Duplicates is an utility which can scan all the files, in-
cluding files embedded in ZIP and ARC files, across multiple
drives and displays a list of duplicate files. You can move
through the list by using the arrow keys, page down, page up,
home or end keys. The contents of the files can be viewed using
VIEW.COM or any file viewer which can be specifed on the command
line. Files which you want to be deleted, are "tagged" by de-
press the "T" key. Once all the desired files are "tagged", de-
pressing the F10 function key will delete all the "tagged"
files.

Find Duplicates will become an utility that will be used on a
regular basis.


Back Off!: ($15.00)
Back Off! is an utility that you will used on a weekly basis. A
co-worker of mine one day told me that I need to write a program
that will display backup files on the screen which can be
"tagged" and deleted.

Back Off! does just that. Back Off! allows up to thirty (30)
different file extensions and will scan multiple drives. Once
the drives have been scanned for files with the extensions
listed, the files will be displayed on the screen. The files can
be viewed (only in ASCII format) and/or "tagged" for deletion.

The registered version adds the features of having multiple data
files which contains the files extensions to be searched for and
the option of having Back Off! perform in automatic mode. In au-
tomatic mode, Back Off! will scan the disk drives specified on
the command line and for the files with the same extensions
found in the specified file. Those matching files will automati-
cally be deleted. This feature is designed so Back Off! can be
used in batch files. An example is:

BO /d=c,d /f=baks /auto

The above example will scan drives C and D, search for files
whose extension match those in the data file "BAKS.EXT" and au-
tomatically deletes the matching files.

Back Off! will be an utility that you will use weekly.



To get the most current version and printed manuals of the above pro-
grams send amount listed next to the program to me at the following ad-
dress:

John E. Bean
JB Technology Inc.
28701 N. Main St.
Ridgefield, Wa. 98642
(206) 887-3442

I hope you enjoyed CopyCon and please do not hesitate to send comments
and praise to me.






INVOICE


Remit to: From:

JB Technology Inc. __________________________
28701 N. Main St.
Ridgefield, Wa. 98642 __________________________
(206) 887-3442
__________________________

__________________________

Contact Individual

__________________________

__________________________


Quantity Unit Price Total

_______ CopyCon Software $10.00 ___________

Total ___________


I want 5 1/4" _______ 3 1/2" _______ diskette. (Check One)


Note that CopyCon computer software has been delivered and ac-
cepted by the customer. Upon receipt of paid invoice, a printed
manual and current disk will be sent.