旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� 낢굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇 Features of DOSSBOSS v4.0 굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇굇교 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� Copyright (c) 1994,1995 - James Baartse - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Why do we need another DOS Shell? DOSSBOSS was born out of frustration with existing DOS shells which were not customizable enough for me. One or more of the following problems has caused me to throw out every shell I've looked at: * limited function - I needed to shell to DOS to do half the things I wanted. * Most shells do not INTEGRATE program launching and file manager operations well. (e.g. simple tasks like selecting a file and launching ANY tool that YOU write against it; or selecting multiple files and dropping them all on the tool! The best most shells do if you want to drop a file on a tool is to allow the tool to prompt you for a file name - very tedious!) * file manager commands, such as view or edit, were not customizable to use my own preferred editor, viewer, print utility etc. * basic commands such as copy and move still required typing half the command in (ie. where do want to copy to?....) * inefficient use of screen space, requiring flipping through menus (or various keystrokes) to see the information I wanted or to accomplish the task I wanted. * For the few shells out there that do overcome some of these problems, there is usually a high price tag attached. So, DOSSBOSS was written to overcome these problems. In the process it became packed with a lot of features I found useful. Many of these features are unique. You won't find them anywhere else (at least not to my knowledge, and believe me, I've looked at a lot of menu/shell/file systems). So be prepared to have your idea of how a shell or menuing program should work be stretched and expanded a bit. DOSSBOSS v4.0 is a menuing program, a file manager, shell, job scheduler and a batch file enhancer all rolled into one! It does all these things extremely well and integrates them together seamlessly! It's not simply a program where you can toggle back and forth between menuing capabilities & file management. The are thoroughly integrated on one main screen! Here's an overview of the main features of DOSSBOSS v4.0: File & Directory Management Capabilities: 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� * Side by Side Directory and File windows * Directory tree has expanding/collapsing branches * Create, remove, rename or hide directories. * Empty a partial directory tree of all its files; with the choice of also removing or leaving behind its (now empty) subdirectories. * Copy a partial directory tree (with or without accompanying files) into another directory. * Set up to 6 bookmarks to allow jumping between commonly used directories. Also useful for quickly copying/moving files. * Tagging of multiple files possible (one at a time, all at once, or simply toggle the tag setting on all the files). * Copy, move, rename, delete multiple files. * Print, edit, view & find commands are customizable to run your favorite editors, viewers, etc. (and also will work on multiple files). * Quickly switch any attribute of one or more files on or off. * Various Masking and sorting options. * Two handy commands that allow you to immediately isolate or tag all files having the same extension as the currently selected file. * Associate file extensions with programs (or tools) to be run. Menuing Capabilities: 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� * Define an unlimited number of 'tools' which can be as simple as calling a program, or as complex as a batch-like file containing many additional (and powerful) commands that DOSSBOSS will preprocess. * Define up to 100 pages with up to 41 tool references on each page (if in 50 line video mode). The same tool can exist on multiple pages without having to recreate the tool over and over. * Output of one tool can be used as input to another tool. * Specialized built-in editor for writing your own tools. * Launch tools with just one key stroke (and you define the hotkeys). * Facilities exist to help you debug the tools you write which don't work the way you expect them to. * When you start DOSSBOSS up, you can pass it a name of a tool to run and whether it should exit when its finished running (Useful for executing your tools from a Windows environment). Tool Commands (like having enhanced batch file capabilities): 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� * For each tool, you can specify whether DOSSBOSS should remove itself from memory or not, or whether or not it clears the screen before running. * Powerful commands that can be included in a tool besides all the usual DOS and batch file commands: - password protection - display messages and prompt for input (placed in variables) - extensive manipulation of 12 different variables - call other tools (up to 3 levels deep). - pass up to 15 key strokes to an application. - pause after any command or at the end of a tool - automatically jump to end of tool after execution (perhaps a condition execution) of a command. - conditionally execute lines (based on a number of conditions) - have any number of DOS commands in your tool run recursively in the current directory AND all its subdirectories! - Jump to another page (allows setting up of submenu effects!). * Import existing batch files into DOSSBOSS tools. General Shell Capabilities: 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� * Shell to DOS * Popup command stack to keep track of 10 last DOS commands * Job Scheduling - Schedule jobs (i.e. tools) or popup reminders to run automatically anytime in the future (at repeated intervals if desired!) You need never forget a birthday or forget to back up your data again! * Screen Blanker * Mouse Support * Calendar * Prioritized Popup To-Do-List (up to 200 items & 9 priority levels). * Safety mode (otherwise known as 'child-proof' mode!) * supports 43 & 50 line video modes (for ega/vga systems). * Customize function keys to run your favorite tools. * Customize the online help available. But the real beauty and strength of DOSSBOSS lies in how all these are powerfully and seamlessly integrated together! 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� * All four windows (page, tool, directory and file windows) are displayed simultaneously on-screen! No flipping through menus, etc. * Multiple files tagged in the file window can be dropped on a tool that YOU created, with just one keystroke! * Input to a tool (normally the selected files in the file window) can be easily overridden by pressing along with the tool's hotkey! * Every tool has a flag to indicate whether it should be run just once (like a calculator tool) or if it should be run against every tagged file in the file window (like a tool for printing). * Each command line in a tool can be run once at the beginning of the tool, once at the end of a tool, or once for every tagged file (useful to prevent prompts from appearing repeatedly when the same answer would be given for every file). * 12 different variables are accessible to every tool, giving information about the file name(s) passed to the tool, their attributes, the directory they exist in, a target directory (if needed), work variables, etc. * These variables are even accessible from the DOS command stack (you'll never need to type a file or directory name again!) The best news is that all this still costs just $19! (plus you can earn money if you help me distribute DOSSBOSS - see REGISTER.FRM for details). DOSSBOSS is highly, highly customizable! The things you can make DOSSBOSS do for you are limited only by your imagination! Hackers and any one with a little knowledge of DOS or programming (which helps in the writing of powerful tools) will particularly love DOSSBOSS! I use it for all my DOS work and have a slew of tools created to do all sorts of tasks automatically. I even call up DOSSBOSS from Windows to run some of the DOSSBOSS tools I have created! It is through my own extensive use of DOSSBOSS that many useful features were added. DOSSBOSS was not designed to just be visually attractive (although its screens do look pretty good). It was designed to be practical and productive!