PWRMNU.100 v4.0 (Pgm CKSUM = 150,664) by Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 (c) 1988 PWRMNU.100 is a file management utility for use with the public domain version of POWR-DOS, currently available in this forum library. The program is posted here for the personal use of forum members, who should feel free to pass it along to friends, again for personal use.* What It Does PWRMNU is, in some ways, more powerful than commercial menu programs for the TDD. For example it is much faster than DMENU, which was sold along with POWR- DOS, and it has multiple command features that the TS-DOS menu utility doesn't support. As you'd expect, PWRMNU creates a formatted display of files, file sizes, and free memory -- and it allows you to switch the display back and forth between RAM and Disk. A widebar cursor moves across the display to select files. You can use a function key to transfer the selected file from Disk to RAM or vice versa. Other function keys let you print, kill, re-name, or read the selected file. ( For people with P.G. Design RAM banks and the 0MENU utility, the function keys will be in familiar places.) The program also includes a "tagging" feature -- allowing *multiple* operations on *multiple* files. That is, you can select a group of files with tagging; then you can select any combination of three commands -- transfer, print, and/or kill. All the operations are performed on all the tagged files. Setting Up PWRMNU.100 is written in BASIC. In order to run it, you need two machine language files in your M100. The first is the public domain version of POWR- DOS, which sits as an invisible program at the very bottom of user memory. The second is PWRHI.CO, by this author. It takes up about 290 bytes of RAM; but because it runs in an area of memory set aside for TELCOM use, it does not require any change in HIMEM, and it should not conflict with other machine language programs installed in your computer. You create PWRHI.CO by downloading PWRHI.LDR from this data library and running it once as a BASIC program. After the run, you will see PWRHI.CO on your menu. You can then kill the loader -- though you may want to save it to disk or tape first. Remember, the menu program, PWRMNU.BA, will not run unless you have both POWR-DOS and PWRHI.CO in your computer. Running PWRMNU.BA The Display: When you select the program from the M100's main menu, you'll see a new display. The listing of file names is different. In particular, the file name extensions -- ".BA", ".DO", or ."CO" -- have been replaced by a single, lower- case letter: "b", "d", or "c". A file like FILNAM.BA is shown as FILNAMb (easy enough to get used to; and it was the only practical way to put a _lot_ of files on a little screen). The Cursor: As on the M100 main menu, a widebar cursor moves across the screen to "select" files on the display. You'll find that the cursor cycles forward when you press any "standard" key on the keyboard. But you can also move it backward, or up and down, with the arrow keys. As you move the cursor from spot to spot, the size of the selected file is displayed near the lower-right corner of the screen. Function Keys: to Here is a list of the function keys and what they do. (Unless otherwise indicated, the keys perform the same way on both RAM and TDD files.) "": Switches menu display between RAM and Disk. "": Prints the selected file on the LCD. For .DO files only. The key lets you interrupt the viewing at any time and return to the PWRMNU main display. At the end of the file, you're prompted to hit the spacebar for a return to PWRMNU. If you want to stop the file while it's scrolling, use the key. "": Sends the selected file to a printer. As with the View feature, the key will abort the print at any time. For .DO files only. Printer must be connected. "": Transfers the selected file to the "ALT" device -- to Disk if you're displaying RAM files, or to RAM if you're looking at Disk files. Any file type. "": Kills the file under the widebar cursor. Does *not* ask for user verification; it just kills. So be careful! "": Re-names the file under the cursor. At the "Name as:" prompt, you can enter a new name with or without an extension; the correct one will be added if you leave it out. If you change your mind, pressing without assigning a new file name will return you to the menu with no change. This is for RAM files only. It will beep and do nothing if you try to re-name a disk file. "": Disk only. The PWRMNU display can show only 30 files at a time. If you have more than that on your disk, you'll see the word "More" appear in reverse video above . To view files #31-40, press the key. All other functions continue to work as they did before. (If the "More" indicator is not on, you'll also find that this key -- although unlabeled -- allows you to view the menu for a newly loaded disk, without returning to the RAM display. Convenient if you're switching disks in search of a particular file.) "": Returns to the M100's operating system menu. Tagging: "Tagging" is your way of telling the program you want to execute several commands on a single file, one command on several files, or several commands on several files. You tag a file by selecting it with the widebar cursor, then pressing the < CTRL> and keys simultaneously. You'll see a pointer, ">", appear next to that file. The tag is left behind as the cursor moves forward, and the file will then be grouped with any other tagged files for the command(s) you want to execute. If you tag a file by mistake, it can be un-tagged by putting the cursor over it and again pressing . The pointer will disappear. If you've tagged a bunch of files but then change your mind about what you want to do, pressing will un-tag *all* the currently tagged files. < CTRL> also provides a convenient way to "home" the widebar cursor when no files are tagged. Selecting Multiple Commands: to As described above, the function keys perform their operations as soon as you press them. They are working in the "immediate" mode. There's an exception. If any of the files are _tagged_, the , , and commands will have no immediate effect. Tagging one or more files puts you in the "command" mode. When you press a function key in this mode, you see the command highlighted in reverse video. Press the same key again, and the highlight disappears. This is how you select a *combination* of commands to be performed automatically on each of the files you've tagged. As soon as _one_ file is tagged, you can turn commands on and off, or continue with your tagging operation. Nothing will happen -- until you give the "Execute" command by pressing . Execute: This is what it's all about: multiple commands, executed automatically, on multiple files. Take a shower, eat lunch, have a swim (not in that order, please) while your computer takes all those RAM files, prints them, transfers them to disk, and kills them from RAM -- or any other command combination you specified. It all happens when you press the and (for "xecute") keys simultaneously. All you had to do was tag the files, select your combination of commands, and push . There are two important things to keep in mind: o It doesn' matter where the widebar cursor is when you begin execution. Files are selected only by the tags; and if the file under the cursor isn't tagged, it won't be included. o The *same* command or comand-combination is performed on *all* the tagged files. For example, you can automatically and files "A" and "B." But there is no way for a single execution to perform *different* commands on the two files - - eg., only file "A" and only file "B". (To do this, you should operate in the un-tagged "immediate" mode: put the cursor over file "A" and press , then put the cursor over file "B" and press .) If the sense of this doesn't come through immediately (sorry, I'm not a tech writer by trade), I suggest some experiments with "TEST" files. Again, it's easier to do than to describe. Thoughts: The directory display does not show RAM files that you've made invisible; so there is no possibility of inadvertently moving them out of the machine or killing them. For this reason, it might be wise to make PWRHI.CO invisible -- using one of the many utilites in Lib 7 that accomplish this -- so you don't have to worry about erasing it accidentally. I am still refining the 9/7/88 version (v4.0) of this program. It is highly functional as it sits, but it could use some further bytefighting, a little more error trapping, and maybe an added feature or two. Chief among those, perhaps, is an "Are you sure??" prompt for the KILL function. I will gladly tell anyone how to add this safeguard if they want it right away. Other possibilities: a "Printer not connected!" warning ... the ability to run a program or enter a .DO file directly from PWRMNU ... a "global tagging" feature -- like in reverse -- to put tags on all the displayed files; a date and/or time display; and ...?? I am very much hoping users will comment on the current version -- whether they like it or not -- so that we can, mutually, make it *the* definitive menu program for POWR-DOS. Lastly, my thanks to Beta tester Randy Hess, who convinced me that plucking data off the LCD is a worthwhile pursuit (a core element of PWRMNU) and who kept prodding for improvements every time I thought this program was ready to fly. Thanks to Paul Globman, who helped sort out the mysteries of pulling information from the TDD directory. And thanks, of course, to Acroatix, the people who wrote, marketed, and then "went public" with POWR-DOS. Best to all, Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 *In no case is this program to be published or distributed on a mass basis outside the Compuserve Model 100 Forum, whether a fee is charged or not, without the written consent of the author, who reserves all rights to the program and its contents.