ReadMe File for

The CommandLine Commando (C) V1.0 CopyLeft Bill Buckels 2000.
All Rights Reversed.
FreeWare CommandLine Utilities for 32 Bit WIN 9X/NT

The CommandLine Commando is the first release of a growing collection of
FreeWare Utilities for Windows 9X/NT. These are primarily utilities
ported from the 16 bit DOS World and the majority of these utilities are
32 Bit except where the 32 bit calls are unsupported. The 32 bit
utilities handle Long File Names and the Long CommandLine.

These utilities include many filters and other text processing commands
as well as file and text search utilities.

In the year 2000 it has been estimated that 5% or less of Windows Users
bother with the DOS CommandLine (DOS Prompt). But for those who do,
including this author, the commandline is where we do much of our
meaningful work. It is no bother at all.

These CommandLine Utilities may prove useful to programmers and
non-programmers alike. Several of the utilities were originally released
in July 1996 as a 16 bit MS-DOS package called The Igrep Utilities
distributed from the author's website.

With this first release of the CommandLine Commando, these have now been
ported to the 32 bit DOS that is bundled with Windows, but they are
still distributed as freeware and come with source code. Most of these
can be run without a command line argument and they will present a usage
line. The source code is commented and will offer additional information
about the use of these, as will the online documentation and articles
that are also included.

In addition to the Igrep Utilities, many additional utilities have been
added, including Filters that were inspired by Joi Ellis and Ray McVay
for each's early work on MS-DOS Filters in the 1980's. It is to them
that this package is dedicated. (Please see the dedication in the
documentation.)

Reporting Bugs
--------------

Even though The CommandLine Commando is FreeWare, bugs can be reported.
To report Bugs, use the online form at:

http://www.escape.ca/~bbuckels

Please note: The CommandLine Commando(C) was written for fun, and as a
public service, but mostly to make the Author's working life easier.
Enhancement requests will probably not be accepted, since the goal is
not to be perpetually developing this product.

Open Source
-----------

The CommandLine Commando is distributed as FreeWare with Open C Language
Source Code. Most of the programs are written in hard-wired 100% Pure
Industrial Strength Microsoft 32 Bit C, and compiled under MSC Version
12 (Visual Studio 6).

Installing and Running The CommandLine Commando
-----------------------------------------------

Install by "UNZIPPING" complete with pathnames to the drive of your
choice.

Start The Various Utilities in The CommandLine Commando from the Command
Line (WINDOW's "MS-DOS" Prompt).

See the file list below under "What's Included" for a summary of
commands and utilities.

Use your Web Browser to load COMMANDO\DOC\INDEX.HTM for detailed
information about this package and several related articles.

Licence Agreement
-----------------

The CommandLine Commando(C) CopyLeft Bill Buckels 2000.
All Rights Reversed.

The CommandLine Commando is distributed as FreeWare with Open Source.

You have a royalty-free right to use, modify, reproduce and distribute
these programs and their source code and associated files in any
non-competitive way you find useful, provided that you agree that Bill
Buckels has no warranty obligations or liability resulting from said use
or distribution in any way whatsoever. If you don't agree, remove The
CommandLine Commando and all associated files from your computer now.

Bill Buckels
589 Oxford Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3M 3J2

Email: bbuckels@escape.ca
WebSite: http://www.escape.ca/~bbuckels

The CommandLine Commando is not a derivative work of any other author
except where noted (see the dedication above) and is the exclusive
property of Bill Buckels (the author) except where noted. Exceptions
include ideas from Joi Ellis and Ray McVay, used with permission. All
methods are the product of work and study by their respective authors.

The CommandLine Commando was not produced in anticipation of profit.

Having said all that, many of the utilities descended from Unix commands
and the like. Since it is pretty nearly impossible not to build on what
we already know, it is impossible to write a utility that is not similar
to something else that already exists. The Author makes no claims of
ownership of these sorts of ideas either, since everything is connected
anyway.

What's Included
---------------

When you unzip The Commandline Commando complete with pathnames
(recommended) the following directory structure and major filetypes will
be installed. This will make it easy to organize the utilities and
peruse the docs and source code etc. You can then move your favorite
utilities onto your main path (into your bin directory, or wherever you
keep your favorite commands).

COMMANDO\README.TXT - This File
COMMANDO\BATCHJOB.BAT - Instructional BatchFile - Run This.

COMMANDO\BIN\*.EXE - CommandLine Utilities - 32 Bit.
COMMANDO\BIN\SRC\*.C

COMMANDO\BIN16\*.EXE - CommandLine Utilities - 16 Bit.
COMMANDO\BIN16\*.COM
COMMANDO\BIN16\SRC\*.C

COMMANDO\DOC\INDEX.HTM - Master Documentation Index
Note: Load this into your web browser to view documentation.

COMMANDO\DOC\*.HTM
COMMANDO\DOC\*.TXT - Various Documents and Articles of Interest.

COMMANDO\FILTER\*.EXE - Text Filters - 32 Bit.
COMMANDO\FILTER\SRC\*.C

COMMANDO\FILTER16\*.COM - Text Filters - 16 Bit.
COMMANDO\FILTER16\SRC\*.C

COMMANDO\TSR16\*.EXE - Memory Resident Programs (TSR's) - 16 Bit.
COMMANDO\TSR16\SRC\*.C

The WIN9X/NT filters
--------------------

Basename | gets basename from filename.
Decho    | echoes standard input to screen (great for debugging).
Dict     | puts each word of a file onto a separate line.
Lcase    | translate all uppercase characters to lowercase.
Numbey   | number all the lines in a file.
Onespace | removes extra blank lines from a file.
Pad      | pad each line in a file to a fixed length.
Strip    | create comments file from a c source code file.
Sub      | replace one string with another throughout a file.
Sum      | add columns of numbers from a redirected file.
Trim     | trim trailing blanks from each line in a file.
Truncate | truncates a line at first matching char (or space).
Ucase    | translate all lowercase characters to uppercase.
Uniq     | deletes multiple occurances from a sorted list.
Untab    | expand all tabs in a file to blanks.
Unws     | translate a wordstar document to plain text.
Xtodos   | translate Unix text or Apple Text to DOS text.

The WIN9X/NT "almost filters" and utilities
-------------------------------------------

Bingrep  | a grep (text search) for binary files.
Ffeed    | reads a filespec and sends files to standard output.
Grabasc  | a tsr ascii text screen capture utility.
Hexval   | create character arrays from binary files.
Idiff    | compare 2 textfiles and report differences.
Igrep    | a grep (text search) for text files.
Longtext | remove wordwrap from textfiles (DOS to Windows Text).
Mloc     | count lines in text files and report totals.
Modeget  | get video mode.
Modeset  | set video mode.
Newfiles | create list of files modified after specified date.
Pipecon  | pipe the console to a diskfile.
Touch    | modify file dates and times.
Txt2pcx  | convert ascii text to monochrome .PCX image.
Unfeed   | undo a lumped file created by ffeed into single files.
Whereis  | search the harddisk for files specified.
Which    | search the environment for the specified file.
Wraptext | add wordwrap to textfiles (Windows to DOS Text).
Yesno    | batchfile extension to allow yes/no questions.

Bill Buckels
April 2000
End of ReadMe
