EZREAD VERSION 2.3
(c) Copyright David Batchelor 1992
All Rights Reserved


System requirements: Any IBM PC compatible running DOS 2.1 or higher.
EGA or VGA color monitor, ANSI.SYS or equivalent.

EZREAD is a replacement for the DOS TYPE command for reading a text file on the
PC screen. The DOS TYPE command operates too fast for comfortable reading, but
EZREAD presents text at a rate slow enough to read -- a rate chosen by the user
-- for the convenience of a user who simply wants to read a "scrolling" file at
a relaxed pace, "no hands," without having to type a carriage return repeatedly
(as the DOS TYPE | MORE command requires). EZREAD enables the user to change
the scrolling speed while reading, to skip ahead or back (impossible for the
TYPE command), and more. EZREAD types blank lines without delay to save time.
It also lets you search for text keywords in text files. Text is displayed in
easy-to-read black letters on a white background. The user can also make a
"bookmark" and EZREAD will return to the marked place the next time the file is
read. There is no practical limit on the size of text file that you can read
with EZREAD. No other PC utility has all of these features (and more).


USING EZREAD

The command line format is

EZR input_file_name -d# -w -?search_text

where every command line parameter following the EZR command is optional. If
the "input_file_name" parameter is omitted, the program will prompt the user
for a file to read. The "-d#" parameter enables you to choose the scrolling
delay at start-up, and if it is absent, the default interline delay of 3
seconds is assumed. The symbol # represents a character from the following
list: 0, q, h, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9, the desired number of seconds
between typed lines (q gives you 1/4 second and h gives you 1/2). I have found
that 3 sec. is a good match to users' reading rates. (It is simple to invoke
EZREAD with a BAT file if you would rather use another delay. For example, to
run EZREAD with a 4-second line delay, just put

EZR %1 -d4 %2 %3

into a BAT file, and use the BAT file and the input_file_name.) The optional
-w switch turns off character wrapping onto the next line; if your screen has
80 columns but the lines in the file are longer, you might want this option.

An especially powerful feature of EZREAD is the -? parameter. You can use it
to start up EZREAD in search mode, and it will skip immediately to the text you
specify after the -? (-/ can be used, too). EZREAD will search for 32 charac-
ters, at most.

Many commands are valid during scrolling:
h or H for Help (a command list will appear)

q or Q to Quit (the Esc key also works)
f or F to go Faster (decrease the interline delay in steps)
s or S to go Slower (increase the interline delay in steps)
w or W to Wait until you press another key

PgDn to view the next 24 lines immediately
PgUp to view the preceding 24 lines immediately

l or L to display the current Line number in the file
g or G to Go directly to another line number in the file
b or B to Begin scrolling again at your last starting line number
m or M to Mark the place (create a "bookmark" file)
n or N to read a New file
p or P to start/stop Printing lines on your printer
? or / to search for a keyword (character string) of your choice
> to suspend EZREAD and get a DOS prompt (EXIT to resume)
t or T to see a brief display of your system's date and Time

Also, if you want to see the next line without delay, you can hit a carriage
return to get it.

While reading a file, you may wish to "mark" your place, exit EZREAD, and some
time later continue reading where you left off. You may simply type M or m
while using EZREAD, and the current line number will be saved in a "bookmark"
file in the same directory as the file you are reading. The bookmark file will
have the same name as your text file, but with the three-character extension
.EZR. Next time you run EZREAD on the text file, EZREAD will find the bookmark
file and return to the place where you left off reading. At most one bookmark
file is made per text file, and if you no longer want to keep any bookmark in
place, delete the *.EZR file.

You may print text that you see scrolling on screen with EZREAD. The printing
starts with the BOTTOM line you see on the screen. Using a speed that is not
too fast for your reflexes, press P when you see the line you wish to start
printing at the bottom of the screen. The line will change color to "cyan" to
indicate printing. When you see the LAST line that you WANT to print, press P
again and no more lines will be printed. You may use PgDn while printing if
you want. If you interrupt scrolling by pressing keys like PgUp, G, Q, B, >,
then printing will stop. If you want to start printing at some random line on
the page, you will need to use the G command to go to the line by number, or
PgUp and wait until you see the line you want at the bottom. (Warning: EZREAD
will send the lines to your printer at the speed they are displayed. If you
exceed the capacity of your printer to store the lines, the printing may stop.
Only experience with your own printer can guide you in preventing this, and I
cannot assume any responsibility if printing isn't correct at high speed.)

EZREAD allows you to search for a character string of as many as 32 characters.
The search starts on the next line (not typed yet on the screen), so mark your
place or remember the line number if you want to come back. If the character
string is found, EZREAD skips ahead to the first line containing it and starts
typing with that line. The text string you found is highlighted. If the text
string is not found in the file -- between the bottom line you see and the end
of file -- then your place in the file does not change. The search for
characters does not distinguish upper and lower case letters (for example, if
you searched for "ezread" you would also find "EZREAD" and vice versa).

When the end of the file is reached, EZREAD types a message giving the line
number of the last line and the file name, and quits.

EZREAD can handle text files with lines that are longer than 80 characters. If
your PC is in 132-column mode, you can view files containing 132-character
lines using EZREAD. You should use the -w switch to avoid undesired line feeds
when a line has 132 characters. (If a line has more than 132 characters, a
character at the end may not be displayed.) EZREAD version 2.3 can also
correctly display text files created on UNIX(tm) systems (such files cannot be
displayed properly with the DOS TYPE command because their lines end with only
an ASCII linefeed, not with a carriage-return-linefeed pair).

EZREAD provides a filter to screen out control characters in files (ASCII
characters 0 through 31), except ^I, the Tab character. These characters are
displayed in reverse video, using the corresponding printable character, e.g.
^L (form feed) is displayed as a letter L on a blue background. This is useful
for examining files created by some word processors, which use control
characters as code for Italics or other functions. A ^Z in a text file will be
treated by EZREAD as the End of File, however, and not be printed. Tabs (ASCII
code 9, ^I) are expanded as blanks, rather than the symbol ^I. The number of
blanks is adjusted to conform with standard Tab stops. When printing on your
printer, Tabs are treated the same way, and blanks are substituted for the
other control characters.


LICENSE AGREEMENT

This program is SHAREWARE. EZREAD is the copyrighted property of the author,
David Batchelor, and you are granted the right to use it under the conditions
in this paragraph. You are granted a reasonable try-out period of 30 days in
which you may test EZREAD to see if it serves your needs. By trying EZREAD,
you implicitly agree to these terms. If you use EZREAD beyond 30 days after
first trying it out, then you are required to send the license fee of $5.00 US
to the author. The license fee entitles you to registered use and support of
this version 2.3 and any other releases of EZREAD, to gab about the program or
things in general with the author, and to receive a copy of the program source
code in C upon request. I am very grateful to the registered users, since I
have spent MANY hours of spare time creating and refining the program. You are
free to copy and distribute EZREAD under the following conditions: the
executable file EZR.EXE and this file EZREAD23.DOC are not altered in any way,
both files are included together in any distribution, and payment for EZREAD is
made to the author, not to the distributor. This program is offered to you for
personal use only, not for use in a business environment without a business
license agreement. Please contact the author to arrange a business license
agreement with generous discounts for multiple copies. (Exception: EZREAD is
free of charge, however, to any federal government employees or contractors,
for personal or professional uses.)

I welcome comments from users and suggestions about improvements. I can be
reached by postal mail at

David Batchelor
11412 Hawk Ridge Court
Beltsville, MD 20705

Users are welcome to call me at (301) 937-4796 with questions or comments. I
also can be contacted via Email on several Washington, DC, area BBSs, such as
the Capital PC Users' Group Member Information Exchange (301)738-9060. I would
appreciate hearing from you if you encounter any problems.

EZREAD is helpful to computer users who are visually impaired AND have other
speech software installed which can read aloud what is printed on the screen.
EZREAD slows down the typing and facilitates understanding the speech output.

EZREAD returns an error level of 1 if the input file cannot be opened on the
second attempt, or some other file-reading error occurs; otherwise it
terminates setting an error level of 0. EZREAD occupies about 110 K of RAM
while operating.

Release history:

SLOWTYPE Version 0.3 Nov. 13, 1990 (prototype with few functions)
SLOWTYPE Version 0.4 Nov. 15, 1990 " " " "
EZREAD Version 1.0 Nov. 20, 1990 (1st full-featured version)
EZREAD Version 1.1 Jan. 17, 1991 (performance tune-up)
EZREAD Version 1.2 Nov. 7, 1991 (ANSI screen control added)
EZREAD Version 1.3 Nov. 14, 1991 (Control character filter added; fixed a
bug: in ver 1.2, line # was 1 too large
on exit at EOF)
EZREAD Version 1.4 Nov. 16, 1991 (Delays of 1/2 and 1/4 second possible)
EZREAD Version 1.5 Nov. 20, 1991 (PgDn and PgUp functions added)
EZREAD Version 1.6 Nov. 21, 1991 (Fixed a bug in runtime command
interpreter)
EZREAD Version 1.7 Nov. 23, 1991 (Added search for character string and
a performance tune-up)
EZREAD Version 1.8 July 12, 1992 (Added EGA/VGA color, fixed a bug or 2)
EZREAD Version 1.9 Aug. 19, 1992 (Removed beep, which hung some 486's
and improved TAB display)
EZREAD Version 2.0 Oct. 13, 1992 (Added bookmark function, improved PgUp,
added new file option, shell to DOS,
line-printer function, on-screen time,
fixed TAB character display for good!)
EZREAD Version 2.1 Oct. 30, 1992 (Fixed truncated display of last line of
any text file without pair at
end of last line (rare). Added search-
on-start-up function.)
EZREAD Version 2.2 Nov. 19, 1992 (Fixed: while printing on printer, if a
highlighted control character was
displayed, black on cyan reverted to
black on white.)
EZREAD Version 2.3 Dec. 19, 1992 (Fixed: in a text search, if a TAB was in
the line, highlighting of found text
was in the wrong place.)

I hope you enjoy the program! - Dave