Gold Medal Software 3

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_______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Files included in this release: XMENU10.DOC VIEW.COM XMENU.COM VIEW.DOC XMENU.CFG COLORMAP.COM _____________________ XMENU version 1.0 Copyright 1993, David M. Dibble All rights reserved 8/08/93 In brief: A shell program for LHA, PKZIP, ARJ, ZOO, PAK, PKARC, and ARC. XMENU self-lists the contents of archives, then runs all archivers from a shell to view the contents of files, extract, delete, or freshen them. Regular archives may be converted to self-extracting archives. The interface is indistinguishable from a conventional file manager. Has tagging and sorting capabilities. Notable features: exceptionally small and fast, with a fully customizable command set provided by simply editing XMENU.CFG with an ASCII text editor. XMENU should work on any PC compatible system. It can be used on a full floppy disk, if all you want to do is list contents of archives. You MUST have the appropriate archiver--LHA, PKUNZIP, ARJ, ZOO, PAK, or ARC--present in the current directory or in the DOS path in order to read or extract files within an archive. Only one of them is needed for your own use. In the default configuration, VIEW.COM (included) must be present. The .CFG program is never required to run XMENU.COM. XMENU allows rapid processing of newly received archives. Simply type XMENU FILENAME at the DOS prompt. Highlight any READ.ME or other quick-start text files, and press <Enter>. Then tag the various EXE files and their associated CFG, HLP, or OVR files, and hit ^E to extract them. Only the essential files need to be removed from the archive, so a new program can be tried out with a minimum of time and bother. XMENU is distributed as shareware, giving users a chance to try it before they buy it. If you continue to use it, you are expected to register. The essence of user-supported software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you are unfamiliar with this distribution method, please read the comments at the end of this file. You may pass a copy of XMENU along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they continue to use it. SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER: For this initial release, your $12 shareware payment will not only register this program, but you will receive in addition the full registered DDKEY distribution package. (Normally $18 by itself. Sorry, at this price I can only afford to send out one disk--no later updates mailed.) You will get the latest version of XMENU and DDKEY, and various bonus programs. This is an introductory offer, and I do reserve the right to withdraw it at any time. Commercial, institutional, and government users of XMENU must register and pay for their copies of XMENU within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Contact the author for site-license arrangements. XMENU IS SUPPLIED AS IS. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM THE USE OF XMENU. David M. Dibble 5388 Dahlia Lane Riverside, CA 92507 August 8, 1993 U.S.A. _________________ To start XMENU simply type at the DOS prompt: XMENU [d:\path\]filename[.ext] Typically, the file will have the extension ZIP, ARJ, LZH, PAK, ARC, ZOO, COM or EXE. The extension is not necessary and does not need to be entered on the command line. XMENU will search any file to see if it might be a misnamed archive. Wildcards are allowed, but your entry should be sufficient to unambiguously specify the file you want. Thus XMENU AT* would locate the file AT750A.ARJ, presuming that no other files matched the designation AT*. Those using DOSSHELL can *Associate* XMENU with the extensions ZIP, ARJ, LZH, PAK, ARC, ZOO, COM and EXE. Within DOSSHELL simply highlight the file and press <Enter> to have XMENU expand the archive. XMENU lists the files within the archive, just as a file manager lists a directory. The keys Home, Up, PgUp, End, Down, PgDn, ^PgUp, ^PgDn, and Esc all work as you would expect them to. Pressing a letter will jump the highlighted bar to the first file that begins with that letter. Pressing the letter a second time will take you to the next file. Place the highlighted bar on a text file and press <Enter> to view it on screen. Tag multiple files and press ^E to extract them. Page back and forth through screens of files, or sort them for ease of study. The remaining keys are listed on the overhead menu, except where noted, so the following list does not need to be memorized. Enter - View text and doc files. The actual process is somewhat complicated, requiring XMENU to shell to DOS and run the appropriate archiver, but once set up this can be ignored. (Not on Menu) F1 or ^E - Extract files. Mark multiple files if your archiver can handle them, and extract them all at once. F2 - Delete. If no files are tagged, the highlighted file is deleted. If files are tagged, then they are deleted. Note: ^D does NOT delete F4 or ^F - Freshen files. The highlighted or tagged files in the archive will be updated by matching files in the directory which have more recent timestamps. F5 - Clear all existing marks. F6 - Mark all remaining unmarked files. F7 or ^R - Redate. The date and time of the archive will be set to the date and time of the most recent file within the archive. F9 - Make Self-extracting. A regular archive will be converted to a self-extracting EXE archive. If this requires a separate program (such as ZIP2EXE) then that program must be present. gray + Mark gray - Unmark space Toggle between marked and unmarked. SORT OPTIONS (not on menu) ^N - Sort the files alphabetically by name ^S - Sort by size ^D or ^T - Sort by Date and Time (equivalent) ^O or ^U - Original, Unsorted order It is a good idea to test the delete function on your own system. TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS To view text or extract files, XMENU must be able to find COMMAND.COM or your replacement shell. Normally this is specified by COMSPEC, and is automatically placed in the environment at start up. At the DOS prompt type SET and press <Enter> to view your PATH and COMSPEC. Floppy disk users may wish to place COMMAND.COM onto a RAM disk, where it will always be available. If you relocate COMMAND.COM you must tell the computer where it is. Assuming COMMAND.COM is moved to a RAM disk D:, then enter at the DOS prompt: SET COMSPEC=D:\COMMAND.COM The appropriate archiver and VIEW.COM must be available, either in the current directory or in your DOS path. You must have PKUNZIP, LHA, ARJ, or ZOO to act on their archives. To see a file within an LZH archive on screen, XMENU will generate a background command such as - LHA P SOMEFILE.LZH WHATSUP.DOC | VIEW /R LHA melts the file, which is then piped by DOS to VIEW for reading. When done, press <Esc> to return to XMENU. XMENU largely shields the user from this process and makes it automatic. A similar command for extract would be - LHA E SOMEFILE.LZH WHATSUP.DOC HOW.COM Many files may be extracted at once by simply marking then and pressing the extract key, F1, or ^E. A comment is in order. Assume the archive contains 30 files. Mark 28 files, and press F1, to generate the following command - LHA E SOMEFILE.LZH FILE1 FILE2 FILE3 ... FILE28 This creates a potential problem since XMENU is passing these parameters through a shell. User entry in the Program Segment Prefix is limited to 127 bytes, and the entire command string must not exceed this. Consider the case where SOMEFILE.LZH is replaced with C:\HEY\DERRY\DOWN\SOMEFILE.LZH, and the command line begins to look very skimpy indeed. XMENU solves this by making multiple runs, until all tagged files are accounted for, so - LHA E SOMEFILE.LZH FILE1 FILE2 ... FILE9 LHA E SOMEFILE.LZH FILE10 ... FILE19 LHA E SOMEFILE.LZH FILE20 ... FILE28 The number of files you can squeeze on the command line will vary with the length of the file names. Those with 386 machines and fast hard drives will hardly notice the multiple runs, but those with floppy disks may want to move not only COMMAND.COM but their archiver to a RAM disk to speed up such operations. In the above example, it is simpler and faster to mark all the files. Then XMENU can use the short command: LHA E SOMEFILE.LZH You may specify a destination directory for the extract command by editing XMENU.CFG as suggested below. CUSTOMIZING XMENU -- XMENU.CFG XMENU comes with an easy-to-use interface. First try out XMENU and become comfortable with it before proceeding to this advanced level. XMENU uses various defined command lines, which are listed at the beginning of the program. A .COM file can only be viewed with a sector editor, so these same commands appear in the file XMENU.CFG. The .CFG file is under the complete control of the user. It is possible to actually read the manual that came with your archive program, and to develop your own replacement command set. Examine XMENU.CFG and you will see commands such as - ;ZIP_VIEW DB "PKUNZIP -C %F %A | VIEW /R ",0 ;ZIP_EXTRACT DB "PKUNZIP -E %F %A ",0 ;LHA_VIEW DB "LHA P %F %A | VIEW /R ",0 ;LHA_EXTRACT DB "LHA E %F %A ",0 Only the text within quote marks may be modified. %F is the original filespec (archive name) specified on the command line after XMENU. %A is replaced by the selected file (or by the list of file names if many files are tagged for extracting or deleting). These command lines are fully specified so that the user may modify them with an ASCII text editor. Store a backup copy of the original XMENU.CFG so that you can quickly return to it if there is a problem. XMENU.CFG, when used with DEBUG, will create a new program, XMENU2.COM. Some suggestions: Those who prefer the program LIST could use a text editor in XMENU.CFG to change all occurrences of VIEW /R to LIST /S. DOS creates a temporary file to pipe to VIEW. Floppy disk users, with limited disk space, could change ZIP_VIEW to: PKUNZIP -CM %F %A Overtype any trailing code with spaces. Then PKUNZIP will output the file to console, stopping at the end of each page. No extra disk space is required for listing or viewing archives. If you have a large RAM disk, D:, you may find it convenient to modify LHA_EXTRACT to: LHA E %F D: %A Files will then be extracted to the specified D: drive, rather than to the default drive and directory. If you specify a directory for LHA, be sure to include the trailing '\', as in C:\LHTEMP\ XMENU.CFG supports both ARC (SEA) and PAK (NoGate). If instead of ARC you use PKXARC or ARCE, these file names may be substituted for ARC_VIEW and ARC_EXTRACT and so forth. Those with color monitors may also select colors using XMENU.CFG. The current values are: Address Byte NORMAL 103 70 Black on white BAR 104 30 Black on cyan MENU 105 1E Bright yellow on blue HEAD/FOOT 106 71 Blue on white Two-bytes hex codes can be obtained by running the utility COLORMAP.COM. Write down your choices, and substitute them at the beginning of XMENU.CFG after each DB. When done modifying XMENU.CFG, enter the following command at the DOS prompt: DEBUG XMENU.COM <XMENU.CFG DEBUG will read in a memory image of XMENU.COM, and using XMENU.CFG for input, change all configurations in memory, and will then write to disk a new file, XMENU2.COM. The original file, XMENU.COM, should not be altered in any way. For the above to work, XMENU.COM must not have been compressed with PKLITE or LZEXE. LIMITATIONS XMENU was not designed to handle an archive with more than 255 files. It ignores volume labels and path names within an archive. Some of the programs which were used to test XMENU were: LHA 1.13c and 2.13 PKZIP 1.1 and 2.04g ARJ 2.22 and 2.41p ZOO 2.01 PAK 2.50 ARC 6.01 PKPAK 3.61 If a program version number differs significantly from these, there may be an incompatibility. Contrary to statments made in the documentation for other shells, there is no problem in altering the contents of a self-extracting archive (including a freshen or a delete). Under XMENU, self-extracting archives may be manipulated just as regular archives. XMENU does not have any directory listing or file mananger capabilities, but such features would only get in the way. XMENU may be used with such programs as Directory Freedom 4.60, a fast and complete file manager with the virtues of a shell, but none of the cumbersome feel of a shell. With DF460 use XMENU as a replacement SmartViewer for the extensions LZH, EXE, COM, ZIP, ARJ, ZOO, ARC, PAK. Set the target directory with DF, and XMENU will extract files to that directory. If an LZH archive is corrupted by as much as one byte, LHA may not be able to read it. XMENU probably can read the archive, particularly if only one file is damaged. XMENU may be used to progressively extract files, saving everything but the corrupted file. LHA cannot restore a corrupted file. On the other hand, if a ZOO or ARC file is damaged, XMENU will not be able to read past the lost data. When listing ZIP archives, you may find it impossible to view such text files as -ASCII.DOC and -DIRLIST. That is because ZIP interprets the hyphen as its option delimiter, and becomes very confused about what you want. When you encounter such display problems, try running the archive program from the command line to assure yourself that the fault does not lie with XMENU. OMBUDSMAN - Association of Shareware Professionals David M. Dibble is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. NOTES ON SHAREWARE, DISTRIBUTION Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, though shareware authors my grant specific rights to copy and distribute the software, in some cases requiring written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. Because the overhead is low, prices are low. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee--if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. XMENU is a shareware program and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. If you find this program useful and find that you continue to use XMENU after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment to the author. Anyone distributing XMENU for any kind of remuneration must first contact David M. Dibble at the above address for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering XMENU immediately (however, David M. Dibble must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of XMENU).