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MASDIR The MASter DIRectory System featuring SDL.COM The Best Directory Program and Disk Label Printer System Version 5 August 1990 Copyright (c) 1987-1990, Bob Stephan All Rights Reserved For information or orders contact: MOBY DISK Phone 1-408-646-1899 1-408-646-1373 GENIE: MOBYDISK COMPUSERVE: 72357,2276 Monterey Bay Disk Data Systems Attn: Bob Stephan 1021 San Carlos Road Pebble Beach, CA 93953 MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page ii QUICK START INFORMATION TUTORIAL: Please take a few minutes to read the documentation on the disk which includes an interactive DEMO, then experiment. A few minutes doing this will show you more about using SDL than 60 minutes of reading. Just put a copy of the MASDIR disk in drive A: and enter two commands, A:, then GO, TUTOR, or DEMO. If you run the TUTOR portion first you will be given a chance to run the DEMO portion next. To run it later by itself just enter DEMO. If you enter GO or README you will be presented with a menu from which you can choose. SETUP: To use SDL simply copy SDL.COM to the disk and/or direc- tory in which your other DOS commands and utilities are kept. Then use SDL instead of DIR. Be sure to back up your MASDIR dis- kette by copying everything to a formatted diskette. You will be wanting to customize SDL with the setup program, so make a work- ing disk or directory by copying all SDL*.* files from the MASDIR disk to your working disk or directory. You can run INSTALL to do this for you. See SDLSETUP.DOC on the disk for more informa- tion if needed, or simply run SETUP after you have copied the files to a working disk or directory. WHY: SDL is designed to list and/or print directory listings in several formats - labels, sleeve inserts, full pages, or any way you want to set your printer. It it completely replaces the woe- fully inadequate DOS DIR command. HOW: SDL is used very much like DIR. It takes the same path and file specifications (filespecs), but it presents a much more readable listing. By using 2, 4, or 6 columns of file names vice DIR's one, it lists many more files on one screen in a very readable format. If the screen becomes full, it automatically pauses. You can immediately shift to a different number of columns to see more files on the screen, exit if you have seen enough, or continue with the listing. MENUS: SDL can be used in menu mode. Enter SDL with your filespec just like DIR, then make your selections from the menus at the bottom of the screen. You can reconfigure the listing to your liking without returning to DOS. HELP: SDL also has many options that can be entered on the com- mand line in the usual fashion using / as a "switch" or option indicator. At first, the /? option will be useful to bring up a help screen. The /? option displays a reminder of the syntax and options. When running DEMO, one of the screens will show the result of entering SDL /?. Your choice of options can be customized with the SDLSETUP program so you don't have to bother to enter them every time. MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page iii CONTENTS QUICK START INFORMATION........................................ii FOREWORD........................................................v INTRODUCTION....................................................1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.............................................2 HOW TO USE SDL..................................................3 SCREEN DISPLAY OPTIONS..........................................4 AUTOMATIC COLUMN SELECTION......................................7 AUTOMATIC LABEL PRINTING........................................7 PRINTING LABELS FOR 3.5 INCH DISKETTTES.........................8 OTHER PRINT OPTIONS.............................................9 USE OF THE PgUp, PgDn, Home, AND End KEYS......................11 ENTERING TITLES................................................11 FILE ATTRIBUTES................................................12 VOLUME LABELS..................................................13 CATALOGING FLOPPIES WITH SDL...................................13 BATCH PROGRAMMING..............................................14 CUSTOMIZATION..................................................15 RUNNING SDLSETUP...............................................15 LICENSE AND WARRANTY STATEMENTS................................20 MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page iv FOREWORD . . . This documentation may seem extensive for a directory program, but MASDIR has so many useful features that I want to make sure you know about them all. Please read the TUTORIAL first by en- tering TUTOR or run the demo by entering DEMO. Then, experiment a little with SDL to get the hang of it. After that, read this to obtain the full benefits of using SDL. Of course, nobody is going to bother to print a label for just one disk at a time, or even for only 2 or 3. What I find con- venient is to print sleeve inserts or hand write small, removable labels to remind me what is on a disk. Then when I have accumu- lated a half dozen or more I load my printer with labels and label them all. SDL makes it convenient to do it that way, and it makes it more likely that permanent labels will be prepared only for disks that have information of a more permanent nature. Version 5 makes it even easier to do batch labelling because it can read and display the directory of a new diskette without hav- ing to return to DOS. Laser printer versions of MASDIR are available for printing sleeve inserts, but laser printers are not supported for printing disk labels. The labels available from MOBY DISK are not suitable for use with laser printers. --------------- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank members of MBUG-PC - The Monterey Bay Users' Group - for their indulgence during my development of this system. Many members have used preliminary versions and offered their comments and suggestions. I am particularly grateful to the beta testers who held my feet to the fire to ensure that this would be a reliable and useful product. Among those who have been particularly helpful are (in alphabetical order) John Blankfort, Fred Brownell, Frank Murphy, Patt Patterson, Bing Perry, Ben Rees, Jim Robeson, and Keith Whipple. Other members encouraged me by purchasing my initial offerings, which rein- forced my conviction that this is a useful system with unique ca- pabilities. --------------- ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bob Stephan has been using and programming computers for over 22 years, mostly for other companies and for his own use and enjoy- ment. This is his first independent commercial venture. He has been a mainstay in his local computer users group for over 7 years and is a past president as well as an author of informative articles for the newsletter, leader of special interest groups, and provider of help to members on a variety of topics. MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 1 INTRODUCTION SDL is a Sorted Directory Listing program that is used in place of the DOS DIR command. You can invoke it from the DOS prompt just like DIR, and it accepts the same file specifications (filespecs) that DIR does including paths and wild cards. But there the similarity ends. SDL has these features: <> Sorts the listing alphabetically by name, or optionally by extension, date, size, or (like DIR) not at all. The sort- ing can be in ascending or descending order, and the se- quence can be from top to bottom, or from left to right. <> Automatically formats the listing in the number of columns that will fit all the file names on one screen, if possible. This permits you to see up to 144 file names on the screen to get a good overall view of the contents of the disk or directory. Optionally 2, 4, or 6 columns can be specified and/or set as the default. <> SDL pauses after each screen until you are ready to con- tinue. At the pause you can make a new column or sort se- lection, exit, or continue. Pausing is optional and can be turned off either by default or as an option. <> The options are selectable on the command line by adding them to the SDL command (like you can add /P or /W to the DIR command). <> Most options can also be selected from a menu that is pre- sented at the bottom of the screen at the end of each screen of the listing. This permits you to change your mind as often as you like, and adjust the listing to obtain just the right information from it without having to return to DOS and enter a new command. <> A TUTORIAL which includes an interactive DEMO. <> A SETUP program that lets you select your own defaults for the various options by simple keystroke entries in response to a few questions. You can make SDL work the way you want it to. <> On-screen help by entering SDL /?. <> Unique to SDL are some excellent printing capabilities for both 5.25" and 3.5" diskettes! With a single keystroke you can print the directory you see on the screen in your choice of four print modes: 1. Regular printing in whatever mode your printer is set for with no changes to your printer setting. MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 2 2. A "sleeve insert", which is printed on your regular printer paper in a format that can be trimmed to a con- venient size to slip into the diskette sleeve for future reference. 3. A disk label which can be printed on the continuous labels that are included with the SDL system kit. By using compressed print and 8 lines per inch up to 42 filenames can be printed on a 5x1-7/16" label. 4. Another style of disk label printing which uses "tiny" printing to fit up to 102 names onto a label. Tiny print makes use of the compressed and superscript modes that are available on Epson compatible printers. 5. And, if you select a printing option on the command line, the number of columns needed to fit the filenames on a label will be automatically calculated and set. If there are too many file names, a message is displayed and no printing takes place. <> Very useful when using a print option is the ability to en- ter up to 3 lines of titles for your sleeve inserts or labels. Two of these lines can be customized with the setup program, and any or all of the 3 can be specialized for any individual listing. <> Other directory listing options include turning off the listing of subdirectories, listing the combined files for two file specifications, listing only those files created since a certain day, listing only files with the archive bit set, showing total size required for different disk formats, listing from left to right instead of top to bottom, and paging backward and forward through long directory listings. <> Automatic support of color, EGA, and VGA modes. Highlighted key-letter colors can be customized in the SETUP program. -------------- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SDL is compatible with all computers running under MS or PC-DOS Versions 2.0 and later, although 3.1 or later is preferred. It requires no more than 64K of memory. It is not memory resident (TSR) and will not reduce the amount of memory available to other programs. It supports all types of monitors and display adapters whether monochrome or color. NOTE: To support the many features it is preferable if you are running DOS 3.1 or later. SDL requires at least DOS 2.0, but a few features may not work fully, especially in the setup program SDLSETUP. Please let me know if you have any problems or com- MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 3 ments concerning the operation of SDL, SDLSETUP, or any part of the documentation portion of the system. Customized versions can be prepared for a reasonable fee. If you have difficulty finding disk labels in the proper size, contact me for information, or send in the order form. -------------- HOW TO USE SDL Basically SDL is used just like the DOS DIR command with quite a few enhancements. Both SDL and DIR accept the same file speci- fications (filespecs) including the "wild cards" * and ?. For more detailed information on the use of wild cards see your DOS manual. HINT: It is never necessary to enter *.* with either DIR or SDL. A single * will serve the same purpose and save a bit of typing. For all files in the current directory no filespec at all is needed, simply enter SDL. More information on shortcuts for filespecs is presented later in this document. The best and quickest way to learn to use SDL is to run the TUTORIAL on the disk or run the DEMOnstration program by itself. Most of this introductory information can be found in the tutorial. Read the QUICK START INFORMATION page at the beginning of this document for instructions on running the tutorial. The key to using SDL is the reminder line which appears as the second line of the display. It contains the following informa- tion which is explained fully in this document. /OPTS:/? More PRInt Cls titlE Hdr Fre Lbl All rK Byt Wid 2 4 6 N X S D[n] - dOs This line may appear cryptic, but it contains mnemonics for all of the SDL options as memory aids until you become thoroughly fa- miliar with SDL. The capitalized letters are key-letter switch characters which are highlighted on the screen. Although there are quite a few options to provide the capabilities requested by users, you will find them to be quite intuitive and easy to use. After a few minutes of experimentation you will find a few of them that you like to use. This experimentation can be taken care of in the DEMO program. As soon as you find the options that you like, you can customize your copy of SDL with the SDLSETUP program. I have tried to set SDL up the way I believe most users would like to use it, but you might want to change it for your own use. If you would like one or more of the defaults to work differently, run SDLSETUP. Then it will only be necessary to use options oc- casionally when you want something different. The SDL /? help screen is always available as a reminder at those times. The README program will give you an opportunity to read the SDLSETUP MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 4 documentation, but SDLSETUP is easy to use, requiring only simple single keystroke answers. The printing capabilities of SDL are most useful and remarkably easy to use. For example, to print a label of the diskette in drive A, just enter SDL A: /L. Nothing could be simpler. The /L is an option mnemonic for Label, and SDL will calculate how many file names it can fit on a label and select the print mode to do it. Of course, if you want more control, and less automation, SDL will always let you make your own specifications. You can print labels in either of two print styles, labels and sleeve in- serts in a variety of sort orders and columns of file names, or you can print with your own normal printer setting. Adding the 3-line title option (/E) provides a means to include printed ex- planatory information about the contents and use of the disk. The documentation that follows assumes that you have already familiarized yourself with SDL by running TUTOR and DEMO. ---------------------- SCREEN DISPLAY OPTIONS: SDL can be used in command line mode, menu mode or a combina- tion of the two. The "command line" is the line on your screen following the DOS prompt on which you enter your commands. The general syntax of the SDL command line entry is D>SDL filespec /options where D> represents the DOS prompt. To enter an option on the command line use the / character fol- lowed by the letter, number, or symbol shown as the key character in the reminder line (the letters shown in CAPS). The options must come after the file specification (filespec), and each must be preceded by the switch character / (the virgule). The only required space is the one following the SDL command itself, other spaces are optional, but there must NOT be a space between the / and the option character. Most options allow only one character in addition to the virgule per option. For example, to sort by Size and display in 4 columns you can enter >SDL /S/4 Menu mode is automatic. At the bottom of each screen a prompt will display the keys that can be entered to make selections. Not all of the command line options are available as menu selec- tions; however, the most useful ones are. All options can be entered in either upper (CAPS) or lower case. They are shown in CAPS on the reminder line merely to highlight them. When entered on the command line they must be preceded by /, but when making menu selections just use the key MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 5 letter, number, or symbol by itself and you don't need to use the Enter key. In some cases using an option on the command line may have a slightly different meaning than using it from the menu. If there is such a distinction, this documentation uses the / notation to distinguish the command line selection. After each screen is displayed on your monitor, you have several options. If there is more of the directory to display, you will see an intermediate menu starting with "--More--". At this point you may want to make a new selection to change the display. The prompt will show the options as a reminder of the ones available with the option keys highlighted. Pressing one of them will immediately start the directory over again with the new display that you have requested, even if it is the same as is al- ready being displayed. This is the way you can go back and look at the previous screens of a multi-screen display. If you want to exit at this point press Esc. Pressing C or PgDn will clear the screen and continue with the next "page". Pressing any key not listed will continue with the next screen in a scrolling mode. If there has been more than one screen of filenames dis- played, pressing PgUp will go back to the previous screen. At the first screen, PgUp will suppress the header so that up to 144 file names can be displayed. The last line of the directory display shows the number of files, and optionally the total amount of disk space they occupy. After this file count is shown, you may select one of the keys shown in the menu to start the display over. The space bar, En- ter or Esc key will EXIT from SDL. The Esc key will NOT clear the screen. This permits you to leave the directory on the screen if you so desire even if Cls is on. Other items can be selected from the menu as described later. You may select a print option (/P, /R, /I, or /L) on the com- mand line. If you specify /L, the display will automatically be adjusted for printing a label. If you specify /I a sleeve insert will be printed. If you select /P or /R you will see a print menu from which you can make a selection. When printing, each screen selected will be printed, but the prompts and your input are not sent to the printer. /C or C is the clear screen (Cls) option. This controls the clearing of the screen before each page of file names, and at the end of the display. Pressing C or PgDn at the end will do a one- time clear screen (Cls) and start form feeding (ff) to the printer if printing is on, but will not change the Cls setting. After the Cls, the directory will be displayed in the same sort order and columns as the most recent selection. /M stands for More and toggles the pausing at the end of a page (screen). You may use the /M option to eliminate all pausing, both intermediate and at the end. This disables the menu selec- MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 6 tion procedure. If pausing is defaulted to off by running SDLSETUP, /M will turn it on. For compatibility with earlier versions you can change the /P option to Pause with SDLSETUP to do the same thing. Otherwise /P is used to bring up the print (Prn) menu. /H stands for Header (or Hdr). The H option controls whether the first two title lines of the header are displayed. When using SDL as a directory program for hard disk listings on the screen, the first two lines are just boring repetition. The third line presents the useful "Directory of ..." information giving the subdirectory name for the listing, but the first two lines don't change and might as well be suppressed to allow two more rows for file names. At other times, such as when printing a label for a diskette, all three lines can contain useful in- formation if you use the title option. /F is the option to display disk Free space. For hard disks the amount of free space is not generally of interest unless the disk is quite full. DOS takes a noticeable amount of time to calculate the disk free space on large hard disks, so eliminating the display of this information greatly speeds up the directory display. The setup program has an option to adjust this to your liking. The /F option on the command line, or selecting F from the menu will toggle it. The calculation of the total "Bytes in xxx Files" is rounded up to the next exact kilobyte for each file. (Individual file sizes are not.) In previous versions the total was not very useful in that it did not indicate the amount of disk space actually used by the files. Rounding the size to K-bytes makes it agree with the amount of space used on a floppy disk. If you do a CHKDSK on a floppy, the amount of space used for the same set of files will now agree with the SDL total. A common use for this total is to determine whether certain files will fit on a floppy. The new calculation makes it possible to make this determination ac- curately. You can also adjust the rounding to indicate the total size on various disk formats as described later. There is a W or /W option that will list the files in sort or- der across the Width of the screen vice down the columns. When printing a 3.5" disk label this is the only method of listing file names that is available, but for listing on the screen or on a 5" label you can choose by toggling W. Another useful feature is the option to set the cluster size for the total bytes. Since 1.2Mb and 1.44Mb disks use 1-sector clusters, the default rounding up of the file size total in 1Kb increments is not accurate for these disks (or for hard disks). The /B (for Bytes) command line option is available to adjust for the number of kilobytes per cluster. /B1 (the default) for 1 Kb (2 sectors) per cluster as on 360k and 720k diskettes, /B for .5 MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 7 Kb (1 sector) per cluster as on 1.2Mb and 1.44Mb diskettes, and /Bn, n=2-8 for hard disks as appropriate where n indicates the number of Kb per cluster. This option is only available on the command line, but SDLSETUP is able to set the default as desired. Note that just /B (or /Banything other than 1-8) drops to 1 sec- tor per cluster, and /B1 is the same as the current default. The number, if used, must immediately follow the B with no spaces. Reverse sorting. The '-' character is the symbol to sort the file names in descending, vice ascending order. On the command line this can be /-, /a-, or /-a where a is one of the alphabetic characters N, X, S, or D. (There is no reverse for DOS order.) At either the end or the intermediate menu, pressing the "-" key will re-sort the names in reverse order using the same sort field. SDL automatically adjusts for any number of lines of text your monitor is set for such as 43 line EGA, or 50 line VGA modes. It also uses the foreground and background colors that you currently have set on your screen. The color of the highlighted key let- ters in the menu can be changed in SDLSETUP. Other options are described in more detail below. The default state of these various screen display options can be set to your liking by using the SDLSETUP program. --------------------------- AUTOMATIC COLUMN SELECTION Unique to SDL is the AUTOmatic column selection feature. In its original default mode, SDL will determine from the number of files how many columns it will take to display all of the file names. Unless there are more files than will fit on the screen in 6 columns (114 or 126 depending on the header), you will see all of the file names on the first screen. This lets you see at a glance the general contents of a disk or directory. If you then need to see more detail, you can make a new selection from the menu. The automatic feature is easily overridden by entering a firm column option on the command line (/2, /4, or /6). The default can also be set to a firm number with SDLSETUP if you prefer. The label printing options (/L) described later will cause any other default or command line column options to be overridden. ------------------------ AUTOMATIC LABEL PRINTING There are two options that can be entered on the command line to activate automatic label printing - /L and /P. /L automati- cally prints a label. /P causes a printing option menu to be displayed. From this menu you can select L, R, I, T, Esc, or just Return <CR>. MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 8 When you select from the menu, L and T set Epson compatible printers for 1-7/16" labels. L prints in compressed width at 8 lines per inch, and T in "Tiny" print using superscript, com- pressed, and about 14 lines per inch. Continuous feed labels of this convenient size are available from at a nominal price if you cannot find them at your office supplier. If the menu is pre- sented because of /P on the command line, the number of columns will be calculated automatically to fit the file names on a label. If there are too many names a message will be displayed. If L is selected after files have been displayed, the number of columns is not recalculated, but is printed as you see it dis- played. /L is the most general of the command line print options. When you use /L you do not need to know the number of files ahead of time and make calculations. The algorithm calculates the number of files that will fit in 4 columns using the L mode. If the ac- tual number of files is greater, the T mode is automatically selected instead. The other print options (R or I) described be- low are not affected by the /L option. You may combine the /P, /I, or /L options with other options such as the /E option which will allow you to add up to 3 lines of titles to the label or insert. You may also see the print menu by selecting P at the end-of- directory menu. To give you full control when you want it, NO automatic calculation takes place if P is selected from the menu instead of on the command line. Thus you can view the display, select the number of columns and sort order you want, enter titles if desired, and then print in the mode that you select. This could be useful if you use a different size label, want to print on paper in Tiny print, or just want to see the file names and set up the options before printing. By having full control you also have the responsibility to be sure the printout will fit on the printing medium. No assumption is made about the number of file names that will fit, and printing will continue until the full directory is printed if either W or T is selected from the menu at the end of the display. If you select conflicting print options, /P and /L, no harm will be done, but the first option will will be the one used and the other will be ignored. --------------------------- PRINTING LABELS FOR 3.5 INCH DISKETTTES The printing directory labels for 3.5" disks is controlled by the 3 and 5 options--3 for 3.5" disks and 5 for 5.25" disks. On the command line you can enter either /3 or /5 to prepare SDL to print the style of label you want. The Print Options menu is brought up by entering either P from the menu, or /P or /R on the MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 9 command line. From this menu you can select, or change your se- lection, by pressing either 3 or 5 as appropriate. The default 3.5" disk form depth is set for the 2-3/4" labels that wrap around the top of the disk. The setup program permits setting it for the 2" labels that do not wrap. The default is set for the 5.25" labels, so use the 3 or /3 option to get 3.5" labels, or change it with SDLSETUP. (For convenience the labels and disks will be referred to as 3" and 5".) Until actual printing is started the screen display will be the normal display. If 3" disk label or Insert printing is selected, when printing starts, each line of the display will be split to fit the 2-3/4" width of the label. Thus, a 2 column screen dis- play will result in a 1 column 3" disk label, a 4 column screen display will be a 2 column label, and a 6 column screen display will be a 3 column label. The 2, 4, and 6 selections remain un- changed for either type of label. To keep the file names sorted properly, the W option will automatically be invoked during the printing of labels for 3" disks. The R print option is not affected by the label setting, but the File option is. You can use this to create a directory catalog file with space for your own comments after each file name. When entering titles for 3" labels, each line will be split after the 40th character. The vertical bar indicates the position of the last character that goes on the first line of the split. The next character after the bar will start the second line of the split. If you need to see the effect of the split on the screen before printing use the File option and create a temporary file that can be erased later. Then "what you see is what you get". When it is what you want you can select the print mode. --------------------------- OTHER PRINT OPTIONS - R, I, PgDn, and C. R for 'Regular' leaves your printer unchanged as you have set it yourself. This permits any printer to print the directory listing from SDL in any manner that you want to set your printer. Note that all listings will fit on the standard Pica 80 column printer. The default number of columns for R (and for I) is the same as for a screen display (AUTO, 2, 4, or 6) and can be specified in the same ways. I stands for sleeve Insert. It uses the same printing mode as L, but sets the form length to 1/2 of a standard page (5-1/2") for printing diskette sleeve inserts. This permits 2 inserts to be printed on a standard sheet. They can then be easily trimmed to fit into the diskette sleeve. Note that printing doesn't stop when the 5-1/2 inch form bottom is reached. Just as with any printing, if you give the printer more than will fit on a page, it just continues printing onto the next page. Since sleeve in- serts can be easily folded, this permits an unlimited number of MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 10 files to be listed. If you prefer a full page for each sleeve insert so as not to change your Top Of Form (TOF) setting, you can make that change with SDLSETUP. Print-to-file. Now on the Print Options menu a "File" option appears. If you select F you will be prompted for a file name. This can be any valid non-ambiguous file specification (no wild- cards). If the file exists, the directory output will be appended to the end of the file. Be careful not to use reserved DOS names such as COM1, AUX, LPT1, PRN, NUL, etc. unintentionally. All of the print options can be selected from the print (Prn) menu at the end of the directory display. As mentioned above, there is a difference if /P is entered on the command line or P selected from the menu for the L and T selections. The print mode is the same, but SDL lets you take control of the number of columns. Note also that L, I and T require a certain degree of compatibility with IBM/Epson printer control codes, although they do not print any of the extended ASCII graphics characters. But see CUSTOMIZATION below. After printing with /L, L, I or T, your printer will be restored to Compressed OFF, Script OFF, and the standard 6 lines/inch. Note that if you interrupt with Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break before the entire file list is printed, the printer will not be reset. The same will happen if you clear your printer buffer be- fore it completes printing if you have a print spooler. However, if you use Esc to abort SDL, your printer will be restored as above. When you exit normally or with Esc, a form feed is sent to the printer so that you can realign your Top Of Form (TOF) setting. No form feed is sent if the R option is selected. Control of printing is very versatile. The prompt line indi- cates whether printing is on or off (Prn=ON or Prn=OFF). At the print menu Esc will turn printing off if it was on or exit without turning it on. Pressing C for Cls (or PgDn) turns on page eject (ff for form feed). This is also indicated on the prompt line with (ff=ON or ff=OFF). Turning printing off at the print menu with Esc will also turn off ff until you press C or PgDn again. Thus you can turn these features on or off, and you can change from one print mode to another without exiting to DOS. When you select any print mode you have the option of form feeding your labels, sleeve inserts, or sheets at the end of each directory. This is useful if you are making more than one copy. If you want to start form feeding labels, sleeve inserts, or your own setting (with R), press C at the menu. This will clear the screen, and if a print mode has already been selected will send a form feed to the printer and turn form feeding ON for future se- lections. Thus any subsequent selections, will continue to send form feeds to the printer and clear the screen. If you don't want any form feeds sent to the printer, just don't press C. If MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 11 you have not yet selected a print mode, the C selection will only do a Cls. Of course, each time you invoke SDL from the DOS prompt it is a fresh copy that is running, so only your default selections can be carried over from one call to the next. It is only as long as you continue to make menu selections that the above information about subsequent selections applies. However, many of the op- tions can be set permanently the way you want them by using the SDLSETUP program. Other methods of printing the output are available. The usual CtrlPrtSc and ShiftPrtSc, of course, as well as re-direction using the command line option >PRN. These methods do not require Epson printer control code compatibility, but they do try to print the extended ASCII graphic characters you see on the screen. These will print as different characters on some printers. The prompts will be seen, but it is best to use the /M option when using redirection to eliminate the prompts. You can also use redirection to write the directory to a file. If you use redirection with /E you will have to enter the titles in the blind (a feature of DOS). Do NOT use both a print option and redirection to the printer. If you do, everything will be printed twice and the formatting will be uncontrolled. ----------------------------------------- USE OF THE PgUp, PgDn, Home, AND End KEYS These keys can be very useful for paging backward and forward through large directories. Pressing the PgUp key will redisplay the previous screen. This can also be used on the first screen to eliminate the header completely and display up to 144 filenames on one screen. PgDn pages to the next screen the same as C, End scrolls to the end of the directory, and Home returns to the first screen--similar to pressing C at the end menu, but Home can also be used for this purpose at the intermediate menu. Pressing End will SCROLL to the end of the directory and pause, leaving the last page on the screen. If printing was on, it will be turned off before scrolling. If PgUp is then pressed, it will jump back to the beginning of the file list. Note that both End and PgUp turn off printing if it is on, while Home and PgDn will print another copy of the listing similar to C. --------------- ENTERING TITLES E stands for Entitle (or titlE) and is very useful for adding titles to printed directory listings. Specifying an option of /E on the command line or E from menu will result in prompts for up to 3 lines of titles to replace the text in the first three lines of the display header. The number of titles to be entered will be the same as the number of header lines, and is dependent on the current H (for Hdr) setting. The first title can contain up MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 12 to 45 characters and fits on the first half of the top line leav- ing the "Vol:" information unchanged. The other two titles can be up to 79 characters. The second title replaces the reminder line. The third title replaces the "Directory of ..." line, but usually diskettes don't have subdirectories so no information is lost. The first two titles can be customized by using the SDLSETUP program. If the Hdr option is off, only the third title line can be entered, but you can turn the header back on by se- lecting H from the menu, or it can be controlled by /H on the command line. Just pressing <enter> for any line will leave that line un- changed from your default or previous entry. To blank out a line completely just enter one or more spaces. The E option, in con- junction with the enhanced print options for printing disk labels or sleeve inserts, provides much more flexibility than other directory printing programs. /E is really g-r-r-r-e-a-t when printing multiple copies of labels or inserts, such as for disks to be sold or distributed by clubs or individuals. At the end of each directory just press the C key and it will position and print the next label or insert im- mediately without having to read the directory of the disk again. The same titles will be used. It is fast, and the options can be changed from one to the next. Once C has been pressed, any other valid selection will continue to conveniently form feed your labels, inserts, or pages. If you do not want to use form feed- ing, just don't press C or PgDn. I would like to point out a convenience for users of CED (the Shareware Command EDitor or its commercial version, PCED). When- ever you enter titles for SDL, CED saves them in its application stack buffer. If you select E again or exit to DOS then call SDL again with the /E option, you can retrieve the titles you used before with the up and down arrow keys, edit them if you like, and enter them again. It can save a LOT of typing. ---------------- FILE ATTRIBUTES The file attributes are Archive, Hidden, Read only, and System. In the 2-column display, the letters A, H, R, or S in the Atr column indicate which of these attributes are set. /A stands for All files. It controls whether the directory listing will contain subdirectories (shown as <DIR>, <.> , and <..>) and hidden files. If the default for /A is OFF, then specifying /A will turn it ON. If you want to see directories but not the <.> and <..> entries, you can select this option by running SDLSETUP. /K can be thought of as either arKive or bacKup. It has limited usefulness, but can be valuable to some of us. Whenever MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 13 a file is changed, DOS "sets the archive bit" in the file's at- tribute byte. If you use a backup program which clears the ar- chive bit when a file is successfully backed up, the /K option will display only the names of those files needing backup since the last time you ran your backup program. These files appear with the A in the Atr field of the 2 column display. Do not con- fuse this use of "archive" with the so-called archiving done by the popular "arc" programs. If both K and A are in use, hidden files and directories with the archive bit set will also be shown. You might find two other programs on the MASDIR disk useful in managing attributes and backups. See ATTR.DOC and COPYNEW.DOC on the disk. ------------------ VOLUME LABELS SDL displays the volume label in the first line of the header. Volume labels are useful for identifying a specific diskette. If you want to set or change the volume label displayed, you can easily do so with any of the many volume labelling programs available, including the one in DOS. You can use the SDL /dos option to do this without exiting to DOS. Volume labels can be up to 11 characters. DOS will allow any of the 256 ASCII and extended characters except ."/\[]:*|<>;,? and the lower case alphabetic characters. (Actually some LABEL programs allow lower case, but since DOS converts lower case to caps it is better to stick with caps.) Even the space character is allowable in a Volume label. Therefore, with 216 characters to choose from, there is an almost endless set of combinations that you can use. To enter the extended characters above 127 hold down the Alt key while typing the ASCII code on the number pad keys. (On some systems it is necessary to hold down both the Alt and the Shift keys while typing an extended character.) The next section describes one useful application of volume labelling. ------------------ CATALOGING YOUR FLOPPIES WITH SDL Starting with Version 4.2 it is even easier to create and maintain a catalog of all your floppy disks by using the capabil- ities built into SDL. The new print-to-file capability intro- duced in Version 4.2 makes creating a copy of a directory in a disk file as easy as pressing a key and typing in a file name. And with Version 4.3 you can create a 40 column file leaving room to the right of each file name for your own full description. The first, and possibly the hardest, step in creating a cataloging system is to design a naming convention. In order to find a specific floppy it must have some sort of a name. The name can be electronically encoded in the volume label of the MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 14 diskette. The V for VOLume label feature introduced in SDL Ver- sion 4.1 can make this job more convenient. You might like to start the label with one or two characters to indicate the general purpose of the programs or data on the disk. For example you might use UT for utility, or WK for worksheet. You can follow that with combinations of letters and numbers to indicate more specific uses and a numerical sequence. The easy part is creating the file for the catalog itself. Use /2 or menu 2 to create a two column display, then at the SDL end menu press P to bring up the print options menu. For a 40 column file press 3 (for 3.5" disk), then press F to print to a file. You will be asked to enter a file name. Enter the name of the catalog file you want the directory added to. You may include drive and path in the file specification if you need to. Thus you can print the information you want on a disk label or sleeve insert, then store exactly matching information in your disk catalog file. Using SDL to create your catalog files makes it possible to in- clude up to 3 lines of descriptive information, and to adjust the amount of information that is stored for each file. The descrip- tive titles are entered by pressing the E key at the end menu and entering the title information at the prompts. To leave any line unchanged, just press Enter without typing any other keys. If you want to annotate the file, just use a text editor or your word processor in non-document mode. Then it is a simple matter to find a specific file. Just use your word processor or text editor to search the catalog file for a file name, a key word, or any fragment of text that might appear in a file name, volume label, or your description. When you find the right disk, remember the volume label, then go to your disk storage and pull out that volume and you have the one you want. If you have a lot of floppies you may want to set up several catalog files for dif- ferent series of diskettes. ------------------ BATCH PROGRAMMING For you BATch programmers, SDL can be used to report the number of files that match a specification. Upon exiting, SDL places the number of files (up to 255) in the ERRORLEVEL that BATch files can check with the IF ERRORLEVEL statement. Be sure to use the /M parameter to avoid your BATCH file pausing for input. If you do not want to see the display of file names, you can redirect output to the NUL device by including >NUL in the com- mand line. Of course, IF EXIST is a way to check for the exis- tence of one or more files, but if the number of files is impor- tant, SDL would be a way to get it. Also, older versions of IF EXIST do not recognize paths, so SDL would be a way to check for the existence of a file in a sub-directory. MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 15 --------------- MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 16 CUSTOMIZATION: One of the best features of the SDL package is the menu driven program SDLSETUP.BAT. To customize the defaults and title lines, simply run SDLSETUP and follow the prompts. If more information is required read the next section, see SDLSETUP.DOC on the disk, or enter SETUP at the DOS prompt. The following items can be adjusted in SDLSETUP: All files option off or on, /A toggles it. In addition you can suppress the . and .. subdirectory entries. Hdr option off or on, /H or H toggles it. Cls option off or on, /C toggles it. More (pause) option off or on, /M toggles it. Or later select P for the switch character in addition to M, then use R for pRinting. Default SORT order Name, eXtension, Date, or nOne. Default number of COLumns AUTOmatic, 2, or 4. Your own TITLES installed in first two header lines. Either full or half page eject for sleeve inserts. Disk Free space option off or on, /F or F toggles it. Print using the extended ASCII box drawing characters vice sub- stituted characters. Adjust the number of file names per column for Tiny print. Specify color or mono--useful for monochrome graphics displays. SDL can be customized for printers that are not Epson com- patible if you send your printer codes along with your original MASDIR disk and a $5 handling fee. Even though SDL is so useful, it is sometimes difficult to get out of the habit of typing DIR. If you are a user of CED (or PCED) or one of the other command editors that allows synonyms or aliases, you can make SDL a synonym for DIR. Alternatively, it is easy to modify COMMAND.COM so that when you forget and enter DIR, SDL will be run instead. If you can't find the information on how to patch COMMAND.COM, write for a free information sheet. If you use either of these methods to let DIR mean SDL, the normal DOS directory listing will still be available if you should need it for some reason. --------------- RUNNING SDLSETUP NOTE: SDLSETUP will not modify any of your original files. Only SDL.COM will be affected. In particular, your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT will not be touched. SDLSETUP is a handy program to customize many of the options of SDL.COM, the Sorted Directory and disk Label printing program. It requires only that you answer a series of questions with single keystroke responses and, if you care to, input new titles to appear in the top 2 lines of the display. MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 17 To run SDLSETUP establish a working disk or directory (a RAM disk will be fastest, a directory on a hard disk next, and a floppy can be quite slow). Enter the following command to copy the necessary files from the MASDIR diskette to your working area. Assume that the MASDIR diskette is in drive B: and the working area is the current directory on drive C:. Then just enter COPY B:SDL*.* C: You can add the path after C: if you care to, or just issue this command after changing to the working disk or directory. You can use MAKEWORK to help you do this if you like. Enter MAKEWORK at the DOS prompt. There are two features that make SDLSETUP faster to use. The first is the Carriage Return (cr) response. Just pressing Return (called Enter on some models) will leave that particular default unchanged. This saves the time of figuring out what the proper response should be for items that you don't want to change. The other time saver is the Escape (Esc) response. SDLSETUP is organized into sections. Pressing Esc will skip to the end of the current section and take up again at the beginning of the next section. Several of the defaults and their switches are "toggles". A tog- gle has two settings, generally "off" and "on". The switch on the command line, or a selection from a menu, changes the posi- tion of the toggle. When you set the default position of a tog- gle, you can always toggle it back with the switch. All of the questions in SDLSETUP are self-explanatory and should cause no confusion. A few of them are explained in a little more detail here. If you have any questions, read on. Then if you still have questions after running SDLSETUP please contact me. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - At your DOS prompt enter SDLSETUP You will see the message: Checking system resources. Please wait. At this point SDLSETUP is looking for the DOS DEBUG external com- mand. If it is not found you will see the message "Bad command or file name". This will be followed by a beep and the follow- ing: The message "Bad command or file name" that you just saw means that a system file is not available to SDLSETUP. This program re- quires access to the DOS external command file DEBUG.COM. It must be in this directory on this disk or in one of the direc- tories on your path, which is PATH= (REM: your current path will be displayed here). MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 18 Please correct the problem and run SDLSETUP again. (REM: One user reported a problem during this portion of the set- up program, and it turned out that he was running a RAM resident (TSR) program named DOSEDIT. This appeared to interfere with the redirected input to DEBUG. The solution was just to boot the com- puter without DOSEDIT temporarily while running SDLSETUP.) (REM: This will be followed by an exit back to DOS for corrective action. But if DEBUG is found, SDLSETUP will check for the presence of other files. Depending on what is found you may see some of the following messages. If you don't see them, then all is well.) Next the presence of required files will be verified. If any needed files are not present, you will see ... The following files must be in this current directory on this disk: SDL.COM SDL_GET.COM SDLTITLE.COM SDLSETUP.BAT SDLPARMS.BAT SDLNOTOG.BAT SDLFINIS.BAT SDLDEBUG.BAT The DOS version will be checked. If it is found to be version 2.x you will see the following message. Please see the note at the end of this DOC file. If you have any difficulty running SDLSETUP under DOS 2.x, please see SDLSETUP.DOC. Setting the More or Pause default... Pausing refers to both intermediate pauses if the directory is more than one page (screen), and the pause at the end to allow you to select a new option. This is merely personal preference, but pausing is a good idea, and it allows you to select new op- tions. Setting the Hdr default... The first two lines of the header contain the copyright notice and the reminder line, as well as the volume label. If you use SDL mostly for directories on the your hard disk drive, you may have no need for the first two lines as a rule. This permits 2 more rows of files to be shown on the screen. The directory name will still be shown, and you can restore the title lines for any MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 19 display with the /H option. Later during SDLSETUP you will be given the opportunity to change the default titles in these two lines. Setting the sleeve Insert eject default... A half page saves paper if you print many Inserts. Then if you print an even number of inserts your TOF setting will not be changed, but if you print an odd number your printer will be left at the middle of a page. If you prefer to always use a full page for a sleeve Insert, you can set that here. Installing your own default title lines... If you answer N you are finished, and SDLSETUP will call DEBUG to make the changes you have requested. If you answer Y, another program, SDLTITLE.COM, will be called to ask you for the titles you want. The first line title can be 44 characters long and the second line can be 79 characters long. If you want to change only one, just press ENTER for the other. Whenever you just press EN- TER, the original title will be used. If you want to blank out a title completely, just enter one or more spaces. If you want to have your own titles on the first two lines you will have to en- ter them both even though you may just be changing one of them from a previous setting. To restore the original titles, simply press ENTER at each prompt. Setting your own titles or restoring the original titles eliminates the highlighting of the key characters in the reminder line and allows all lines of the directory display to be redirected to a file using the DOS redirection facility when ap- propriate. After setting the titles the program will run to completion. The only problem that can arise is no access to DEBUG. In that case you will see the following message. Bad command or file name Using the DOS DEBUG command appears to have failed! You may not have a path to DEBUG. Please check the directories on your path for the existence of DEBUG.COM. If you can establish a path to DEBUG or copy DEBUG.COM to this working area, you can install the changes you have made by entering SDLDEBUG. If you see this message, please make DEBUG available from your version of DOS and run SDLSETUP again. In fact, if you have got- ten this far you can take a short cut and run SDLDEBUG after you have made DEBUG available. That will finish up the changes. (CAUTION: Do NOT run SDLDEBUG if there has been any other error or interruption. In that case it is safer to start over again, MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 20 but see the NOTE below. SDLDEBUG uses redirection and if the in- put file SDLSETUP.TXT has not been completed, it can cause a hangup that will require a reboot.) If everything completed normally you will see the message... SDL.COM has been modified. Don't forget to COPY your new version of SDL.COM to the disk and/or directory with your other DOS com- mands and utilities. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - That's all there is to it, so enjoy using SDL with your own con- figuration. SDLSETUP creates two working files named SDLSETUP.TXT and SDLTITLE.TXT. These files will be erased when SDLSETUP is fin- ished with its work. NOTE: I have run into an occasional problem running SDLSETUP un- der DOS 2.1. Generally it works fine, and I can detect no prob- lems under DOS 3 or later, but if you see either of the messages "EXEC failure" or "File creation error" please let me know. You might try increasing the "FILES=" value in your CONFIG.SYS file and reboot. A remote possibility is that the directory is full, so you might try running it on a different drive or in a dif- ferent directory. You can also run CHKDSK to see if there are any other conditions that might cause the error. This problem is apparently caused by a bug or deficiency in DOS 2.1, but I have included a work-around for it. If you see either of the above messages, AND if SDLSETUP has finished all of its questions through the ones about changing the titles, then reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del and get back to the drive and directory in which you were running SDLSETUP. (If you are working on a RAM disk, copy your work to a permanent disk first.) One or two of the .TXT files named above should be in that directory (2 if you changed titles, otherwise only the first one). If you see SDLSETUP.TXT you can run SDLDEBUG, the last batch file in the series. This should install your changes and clean up after it- self. See the CAUTION above about other types of problems. I apologize for any inconvenience, but it is a problem beyond my control. As a last resort, run SDLSETUP on a machine that is running DOS 3 or later. Then copy the resulting SDL.COM to your machine. Good luck! MASDIR featuring SDL Version 5 Page 21 LICENSE AND WARRANTY STATEMENTS This software is protected by both United States Copyright Law and International Treaty provisions. Therefore, you must treat this software JUST LIKE A BOOK with the following single excep- tion. You are authorized to make archival copies of the software for the purposes of backing up your software and making a working copy to protect your investment from loss. By saying "just like a book" is meant, for example, that this software may not be used on one computer at the same time that it is being used on another. Just like a book that can't be read by two different people in two different places at the same time. 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