Explore the World of Software 2: Kids, Adults, Educational

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Text File | 1991-04-02 | 15.4 KB | 328 lines

████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS AND ADVANCED DOS COMMANDS ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ Life gets more interesting the longer you stay in the game. DOS tries to offer you some shortcuts from time to time. We will talk about some advanced DOS commands, but first let's take a side trip to the keyboard. The keyboard function keys labelled F1 through F10 access a special buffer storage area of DOS. Additional key combinations offer other shortcuts. Some keyboards have twelve function keys while others have the function keys arranged along the top of the keyboard rather than stacked along the side. The best way to understand how the function keys work is to pause and explain the concept of a keyboard buffer which is little more than a temporary storage area in the computer's memory. A buffer is necessary because the activities of input and output (using the keyboard or printer) generally are much slower than those activities which interact with the speedy RAM memory chips and CPU. Data from the keyboard is placed into a memory buffer area until you signal the PC that you are ready to move on to the next task. Usually this signal is the carriage return or enter key. A buffer storage area can vary in size. For the DOS command line buffer, up to 127 characters can be contained. When data is entered into the buffer is stays there until flushed out. DOS allows some limited repeating and editing of data stored in the buffer (data you previously typed at the keyboard) using the function keys. Tip: The following discussion applies to the function keys WHEN YOU ARE USING DOS! When you use an application such as your word processor or database program the function keys will probably have different uses! On the FUNCTION Keyboard: ┌──╥──┐ │f1║f2│ ╞══╬══╡ │f3║f4│ ╞══╬══╡ │f5║f6│ ╞══╬══╡ │f7║f8│ ╞══╬══╡ │f9║f0│ └──╨──┘ The function keys assume different roles for different programs. F1 through F5 have special meaning within DOS. They help in reissuing/editing the last DOS command typed. F1 Repeats one character per keystroke of the LAST command typed. F2 Repeats characters stored in the buffer up to the character you typed after pressing F2. F3 Repeats the entire LAST command ------> USEFUL! Repeat last command and edit it over again with other function keys or the backspace key. F4 Deletes all characters in the buffer up to the character you typed after F4. The buffer is not displayed. To see the buffer on screen tap F3. F5 Stores the current line for re-editing. F5 is used with the other four keys so you can repair long DOS commands which weren't typed in properly. When you press F5 the current line will be marked and the cursor will move down one line WIHTOUT a new prompt. Then use the other function keys to finish editing. On the MAIN Keyboard: ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╤═════╤══════╤══════╗ ║Esc│ 1 │ 2 │ 3 │ 4 │ 5 │ 6 │ 7 │ 8 │ 9 │ 0 │ - │ = │ - │NumLoc│Break ║ ╟───┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴───┬─┴─┬───┬┴──┬───╢ ║ Tab │ Q │ W │ E │ R │ T │ Y │ U │ I │ O │ P │ [ │ ] │ │ 7 │ 8 │ 9 ╢ ╟─────┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬───┤ ┘├───┼───┼───╢ ║ Ctrl │ A │ S │ D │ F │ G │ H │ J │ K │ L │ ; │ ' │ ` │ │ 4 │ 5 │ 6 ║ ╟─────┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴─┬─┴───┼───┼───┼───┼───╢ ║ │ \ │ Z │ X │ C │ V │ B │ N │ M │ , │ . │ / │ │ │ 1 │ 2 │ 3 ╢ ╟─────┴───┼───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┼─────┼───┴───┼───┴───╢ ║ Alt │ │ Ins │ Del │ ║ ╚═════════╧═══════════════════════════════════════╧═════╧═══════╧═══════╝ Delete key deletes character on OR to the right of cursor Backspace key removes last character typed - to the left of cursor Insert key puts keyboard into insert mode Escape key voids current input and exits or escapes to previous settings. PageUp key in many applications moves you up one screen of text. PageDown key in many applications moves you down one screen of text. Left and right arrow keys move cursor left and right without deleting Numlock key toggles (goes back and forth) between numbers on the numeric keypad and cursor control (functions such as page down, move cursor right, etc.) Pressing two or more keys at the same time has yet further effects. Usually you hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and then press another key for a required result: Shift PrtSc prints one screen of data on your printer. Control-C or Control Break Aborts current DOS command -----> USEFUL! Control-H or backspace removes last character typed Control-P or Control PrtSc sends output to printer until turned off (by typing same key combination (Control P) a second time) Control Numlock or Control S pauses screen output. Press any key to continue. Conrol- Alt-Delete keys together shuts down computer and WIPES OUT all computer data! ALL DATA AND PROGRAMS LOST from RAM memory but whatever data stored on disk(s) remains. Other keys have special meanings and can be confused with their look-alike twins: the slash (/) and Backslash (\) are different but easily confused. The Apostrophe (') and Grave Accent (`), the capital O and Zero (0). ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ADVANCED DOS COMMANDS ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ Now on to some of the more advanced (and useful) DOS commands and methods which we continue from the previous DOS tutorial: ██ MODE ██ (external) is a command to setup the printer, display and communications outputs of your computer. Use mode when you have several printers, two or more monitors, several display types (color and mono-chrome). Example: a>mode co80 (set display mode to color,80 columns wide) Example: b>mode lpt1=com1 (set printer to com port number 1) Example: a>mode com1:10,n,8,1,p (set modem transmission settings) Example b>mode bw80,r (set monitor to b&w text, 80 columns wide) ██ MORE ██ (external) causes the display to pause when reading a long file or directory. More is always combined with other DOS commands. ██ REDIRECTION AND PIPING ██ Are not DOS commands but methods: Some commands (e.g., DIR) can use MORE, SORT and other DOS "filters" with a special vertical bar | in a method called "piping". Piping is best explained as "filtering" a DOS action through yet another DOS program or command. Example a>dir|more (DIR listing is "piped" through MORE) Example: b>type letter.txt|more (letter.txt is "piped" through MORE) ██ < and > ██ are input/output symbols. They help DOS send and receive signals properly. You can redirect the output from or towards a particular device. For example if the output of a file normally goes to the screen you could redirect it with the > symbol to the printer. Or in another example, you could redirect the input for a DOS command from a file, rather than the keyboard so you would not have to answer a series of questions - the file would provide the keystrokes. Example: a>sort<letter.txt>letter.new (sort letter.txt and output to a new file called letter.new) Example: b>dir>prn (meaning produce a directory listing, but send the output to the printer, rather than the screen). Example: format b:<special.txt (format a floppy and accept input keystrokes from the file special.txt rather than input from the keyboard.) ██ SORT ██ (external) sorts data lists in alphabetical or reverse order. It is frequently used with redirection and piping methods to sort directories, lists of text or to output its actions into a new file or directly to the printer. Example: a>dir|sort Example: sort<letter.doc>new.doc ██ GRAPHICS ██ (external) allows you to print the contents of a graphics display (e.g., a lotus graph on the screen) while using the SHIFT-PRTSC key combination mentioned earlier. Graphics mode software use medium resolution CGA color displays or other graphics displays which will not print using the standard SHIFT- PRTSC key until the DOS graphics command has been loaded. Graphics is a memory resident program which uses some RAM memory. Example: a>graphics ██ FIND ██ (external) searches for words and phrases in a file. You cannot use wild cards (? and *). You must use quotes surrounding the phrase or word which is sought. Example: a>find "chocolate candy bars" letter.txt bones.wks (meaning search for "chocolate candy bars" within the two files listed) ██ ASSIGN ██ (external) tells DOS to send disk requests for one drive to the other. Effectively renames your a drive the b drive and vice versa. Allows you to access only certain drives for security reasons (remote modem use, for example). By itself, assign simply restores the normal drive configurations and names. DISKCOPY and FORMAT commands ignore assign! Use of assign command is rare. Example: b>assign c=a ██ PATH ██ (internal) tells DOS where to search for executable files in the subdirectories you specify. Allows simultaneous searching of many subdirectories at once. Path eliminates the need to search through many subdirectories manually. Frequently used to establish a path command in your autoexec.bat file when starting the computer each time (more on this later) Example: c>path \letters;\finance;\utils ██ PROMPT ██ (internal) allows change of the DOS prompt - the dull a> on screen. $P shows the active directory. $G shows the > symbol. This can be setup in the autoexec.bat file to initialize the prompt every time you start your computer. Example: a>prompt $P$G. (result is: a:\> ) ██ TREE ██ (external) shows the structure of the subdirectories on your disk. You can check the arrangement of the root (main) and all subdirectories. Tree/f shows all file names. Example: b>tree/f ██ ATTRIB ██ (external) allows a file to be set as "read only" (non-erasable). Attrib +r marks for read only. Attrib -r removes this. Protects files from modification or removal. Attrib alone displays file attributes. A small r appears to the left of a files directory listing if that file is read only (protected). Only available in DOS 3.0 and later. Example: a>attrib +r letters.doc ██ BACKUP & RESTORE ██ (external) used to making spare copies (backups) of hard disk data. Copies groups of files to floppies. Restore reverses the process and puts the files from floppies to hard disk. Backup/m copies only files modified since the last backup. Backup/s copies all subdirectories and their files. Backup/d copies files modified after the date you specify. Backup/a adds files to a disk that already contains other files. Files copied to floppies with backup can't be used (they are "encoded") until they are restored ("unencoded"). Restore/s puts back all subdirectory files. Example: a>backup c:\*.* a:/s Example: c>restore a:\*.* c:/s ██ EDLIN ██ (external) is a small word processor/text editor which prepares files. Its output is ASCII (plain text). Edlin is rudimentary. Other word processors (text editors) can output ASCII files more quickly and easily, but edlin is good for short jobs. The copy con command (discussed earlier) will do the job also. The entire list of edlin commands is detailed in your DOS manual. Example: a>edlin go.bat ██ VDISK ██ (external) is a "ramdisk" which allows you to construct an artificial "software" disk drive in computer memory. It is very fast and uses RAM memory. Also known as a virtual disk. VDISK.SYS is usually placed in the configuration file (more on this in a bit) with the device command. VDISK is available in DOS 3.0 and later. DOS 2.0 users can use alternative "add in" RAMDISK utilities to produce the same result. Example: device=vdisk.sys 128 (sets up a ramdisk of 128,000 bytes in size) ██ CONFIG.SYS ██ is not a DOS command, but a file which tells DOS the "configuration" or structure of your computer. On startup of the PC, it helps DOS determine the status of screens, keyboards, ramdisks, hard drives and other "customizations" to your system. Following is an example listing of what might be contained WITHIN the config.sys file. Your DOS manual contains additional information of the CONFIG.SYS file and its many uses. device=hardisk.sys device=vdisk.sys buffers=20 files=20 device=ansi.sys You can create a config.sys file in the same manner as creation of a batch file (with the copy con instruction or with any ascii word processor or text editor such as DOS Edlin).