ÿWPC4 ûÿ2BVP Z¦ÿÿCourier 10cpiÿÿ‰?xxx rôxþ6X@É“8X@ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿþÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿStandard PrinterSTANPRIN.PRSôxþ6X@É“8Ç;ZwX@ûÿ22ÿÿBÿÿVPÿÿZ¦|xCourier 10cpiðÿÿ‰?xxx,£sôxþ6X@É“8Ç;X@þþþþþþþÿþÿÿÿþÿÿþÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿHP LaserJet IIIP (Additional)HPLAIIAD.PRSôxþ6X@É“8Ç;,\,ðŸCˆX@ûÿ222Ð °°XX Ð Documentation for MENU.CMD The full-functioned Multi-purpose Menu processor ------------------------------------------------ Copyright (c) 1988 by Orion Micro Systems Copyright (c) 1992 K©Products Note: See end of documentation for changes in v3.x of MENU.CMD -------- Overview -------- MENU.CMD is a multi-purpose menu processor that allows you to mix both command and text files in the same menu. Up to 99 entries are allowed per menu. In addition, MENU.CMD allows you to move .CMD files out of your >COMMANDS> subdirectory. ------------------ How MENU.CMD works ------------------ MENU.CMD setup can be a little tricky, so get you a fresh cup of coffee and pay close attention. One of the limitations of specifying commands in the SYSDATA "main command table" is that there is no way for you to specify a "command line" with arguments to pass to the program you are about to execute. One of the main reasons we wrote MENU.CMD was to allow .CMD files to be placed in subdirectories other than the >COMMANDS> subdirectory. So, how does MENU.CMD know which subdirectory to use? Well, it gets its info from the command name itself. You simply rename (or copy) MENU.CMD to M_xxxxxx.CMD, where the 'xxxxxx' is the subdirectory name to be used for this menu. These 'xxxxxx' subdirectories are found in your system >DATA> subdirectory. For example, if you were going to set up 3 menu processors named GAMES, LIBRY, and UTILS (for games, library, and utilities) you would do the following: o make 3 copies of MENU.CMD named: M_GAMES.CMD M_LIBRY.CMD M_UTILS.CMD o create 3 subdirectories under your >DATA> subdirectory named: Ôh)0*0*0*°°ÔŒ Dx:>PRO>DATA>GAMES> Dx:>PRO>DATA>LIBRY> Dx:>PRO>DATA>UTILS> o create 3 menu files in those subdirectories named: Dx:>PRO>DATA>GAMES>GAMES.MNU Dx:>PRO>DATA>LIBRY>LIBRY.MNU Dx:>PRO>DATA>UTILS>UTILS.MNU --------------------------- The Layout of the .MNU file --------------------------- The .MNU file for a menu contains three pieces of information for each entry in a menu: (1) whether this entry is a "T"ext or "C"ommand file, (2) the name of the file to view/execute, and (3) the description to be shown to the user. THERE MUST BE NO BLANK LINES IN THE .MNU FILE! The layout is as follows: The Title of the Menu ----> first line is the "menu title" c filename This is the description ----> signals a "c"ommand file t filename This is the description ----> signals a "t"ext file c filename This is the description ----> signals a "c"ommand file t filename This is the description ----> signals a "t"ext file p filename This is the description ----> a command file with "P"arameters The "filename" MUST BE 8 CHARACTERS LONG AT ALL TIMES. If the filename is shorter than eight characters, then fill it out with spaces. All of the .CMD files get executed from the menu subdirectory, not from the >COMMANDS> subdirectory. Also, all text files get viewed from the menu subdirectory. If the user is in 80 column mode, the menu program looks for a text file with an extension of ".80". If they are in 40 column mode, it looks for a file with an extension of ".40". In addition, if there is no ".80" file there, then the menu processor will go ahead and view the ".40" file. This means you can simply keep only the 40-column versions of text files if you wish. ----------------- An Example Menu ----------------- As an example, we will now go through the steps to set up a menu process. A good example will be to create a "GAMES" menu where you can place all of your game .CMD files. Here are the steps you would perform to do this (we will assume that you have 3 games named KINGDOM.CMD, CHESS.CMD, and HANGMAN.CMD). Ôh)0*0*0*°°ÔŒ™ 1. Copy MENU.CMD to M_GAMES.CMD. 2. Install "M_GAMES" in your "main command" table in the SYSDATA file. 3. Create a directory called >GAMES> in your system >DATA> directory. 4. Create a text file named GAMES.MNU in your new >GAMES> directory with the following data (each line beginning in column 1): BBS Pro Game Menu C kingdom The Kingdom Game C chess The Chess Manager C hangman Hangman; Guess the words! 5. Copy Dx:>pro>commands>kingdom.cmd to Dx:>pro>data>games>kingdom.cmd 6. Copy Dx:>pro>commands>chess.cmd to Dx:>pro>data>games>chess.cmd 7. Copy Dx:>pro>commands>hangman.cmd to Dx:>pro>data>games>hangman.cmd 8. Delete Dx:>pro>commands>kingdom.cmd 9. Delete Dx:>pro>commands>chess.cmd 10. Delete Dx:>pro>commands>hangman.cmd ---------- That's It! ---------- That's all there is to it! MENU.CMD provides a very nice display to the user with the ability to page forward and backward throughout the menu. But, its big plus is that it allows you to ease up the tension of the >COMMANDS> subdirectory filling up. Use your imagination with MENU; it can do many things. Here are some things you could do: o A library full of text files. o A "sysop utility" menu with your most-used sysop commands. o A "file menu" that replaces the "B"rowse command from the main command. Could take them to a menu with options like: Display file stats (filestat) Search download files (findfile) Enter the file processor (browse) Have fun! KeithÔh)0*0*0*°°ÔŒ™ØD3 1, 4DØ v3.x MENU.CMD Program Update By: Tim Lowery 7644 Forest Drive Fishers, IN 46038 317©845©4263 With the introduction of Dosshell.Cmd v3.5, I felt there would be a possibility that some Sysops would want to incorporate the power of batch processing in MENU.CMD files. With this update of MENU.CMD you may tap that power very easily. Your format of accessing Dosshell batch processing into your xxxx.MNU files is: p DOSSHELL %filename This is the description Where p means passing parameters, DOSSHELL the Cmd filename %filename (a new entry) represents the name of the batch file you want to execute, and the description. First off, this update is completely downward compatible with all of your existing xxxx.MNU files. If you happen to have a previous entry where you are passing parameters with 'p', if you don't have the entry %filename, you will still be prompted to enter your parameters as before. A few things to keep in mind when setting up your menus for batch processing are: (1) Nothing has changed regarding the filename. You still need an eight character filename, as before. Of course 'DOSSHELL' is an eight character name so no problem there. (2) Your batch filename that you are passing must begin with '%'. The filename may be 8 characters or less. You DO NOT need to pad this filename with spaces to make it 8 characters long. Your only requirement is that you must put a space between the %filename and the start of your description. (3) After composing your batch file that you want to execute, copy the file into the Dx:>pro>data>(util,games etc.) subdirectory. So for clarity will have all of your (* Cmd) files, your xxxx.mnu file and all of your xxxxxxxx.bat files in one place. You may nest your batch files as you would any other batch file. (see update notes included in Dosshell package). If you do nest, it is best to specify the full pathname of the file you are nesting. * If you have used MENU.CMD before, or are contemplating using this program, you will know that you must dupe the various CMD files out of your commands subdirectory and into your Dx:>pro>data>xxxx> directories. It may be necessary in some cases, such as using dosshell and others to have to keep copies in both areas. This can take up a lot of precious free space on your drives. You might want to consider using my menusave program whichÔh)0*0*0*°°Ô I wrote a few years back, which writes a 236 byte loader file into your menu subdirectories. Instead of having to maintain duplicate copies of cmd files, you would only need one copy and the small loader file. You will find this file on the support board for downloading. There are 2 versions of this program included in the package. A straight loader file and a loader file which keeps a log of which program gets executed from your menu. This file is about 697 bytes or so. Still a considerable savings, wouldn't you say?