SORTER.exe Version 1.0
Copyright 1989 Patrick M. Scanlon
-------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION - SORTER is a utility for the sorting of text files. It is
especially useful for text files that contain headers
that you do not wish to be sorted.

SYNTAX - SORTER [/B] [/#] FileSpec1 [FileSpec2]..[FileSpec10]

WHERE - /B is used to designate that you wish to maintain the original
file as a backup. If this is selected, the original file
will be renamed with a BAK extension before any sort
begins. If this isn't selected, the file to be sorted will
be read, then sorted in memory, and then the original file
will be overwritten with the new sorted file.

/# is used to designate how many lines at the beginning of the
file you don't want included in the sort. This number of
lines you designate here (in place of the #), will be read
from the original file and written as the first # lines in
the new sorted file.

FileSpec1..FileSpec10 are the files that you wish to be
sorted. Maximum files allowed on the command line is 10
(although you are also limited to your operating systems
allowed length of any command). These filespecs should
include the path (if not in the current directory),
filename and extension. WILDCARD characters are NOT
ALLOWED in this version!

COMMENTS - SORTER completes its sort by sorting each line in the text
file while loading into memory. So, you are limited to the
size of the text file only by your computers memory.
Typically, with 640k of memory you would be able to sort a
file consisting of approximately 4000 lines. Each line may
be up to 132 characters per line.
This program treats upper and lower case letters to be
equal except when an entire line matches exactly, except for
the case, in these instances the lower case will be written
to the sorted file first. This solves the problem of many
other sorting utilities (and DOS) which consider a "Z" to be
less than an "a" simply because it has a lower ASCII number.

EXAMPLES: SORTER file1.txt
- will simply sort file1.txt

SORTER /B file1.txt file2.txt
- will sort both file1.txt and file2.txt but first it will
rename the original files to file1.bak and file2.bak.

SORTER /b /6 file1.txt
- will sort file1.txt, maintain the original file as
file1.bak, AND maintain the first 6 lines of the file (the
header) in the same location in the new sorted file.


If you like this program, please send a (recommended $5.00)
donations to: Patrick M. Scanlon
8910-A Golden Oak Dr.
Manassas, Va. 22110

Or call The BUCKET BRIGADE BBS with comments at (703) 330-9264