ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Û ³ Û ÞÞÞÞÞÞ ÞÞÞ ³ÛÛ Û ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ³ÛÛ Û ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞÞÞ ÞÞÞÞ ÞÞ ³ÛÛ Û ÞÞÞÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞÞÞÞ ³ÛÛ Û ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞÞÞÞÞ ÞÞÞÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ³ÛÛ Û ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞ ³ÛÛ Û ÞÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞÞÞ ÞÞÞ ÞÞ ÞÞÞ ÞÞ ³ÛÛ Û ³ÛÛ Û Sun 11-27-1994 15:11:58 ³ÛÛ Û ³ÛÛ Û John De Palma on CompuServe 76076,571 ³ÛÛ ßÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³ READ.EXE ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; Caveat Lector (Reader beware!) ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ If you have downloaded an earlier version of this program and have READ.COM on your computer, DELETE IT, leaving only READ.EXE. 'Cause if you have both of them in the same directory or READ.COM in a part of the PATH ahead of READ.EXE, READ.COM will always load first. *.COM files always execute instead of *.EXE files when they have the same filename (READ.COM will run, not READ.EXE). Run the batch file READFIND.BAT, in this file set to search your hard drive for READ.COM. Introduction ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ What's that you say? Who needs another "text file loader?" Who needs a small, simple minded executable program that will load an ASCII file and pop it up on the screen allowing you to scroll up and down from beginning to end and then exit with a touch of the {Esc} key? Who needs that in the era of Windows, multitasking, Pentium chips, and dialog boxes. Well partner, we ALL do! Many times all you want to do is use a low memory program to look at a file -OR- display a text file IN YOUR BATCH FILE. This second reason is my reason. I make batch files for myself and for the office. Six months later we both wonder what these batch files were supposed to do. The people at the office don't even bother to wonder, as the normal help file are usually terse "ECHO" line statements telling them to do something that they don't understand. READ.EXE is a part of an answer to this problem as you can display long scrollable text files in your batch files with it. READ.EXE is a also a teeny, tiny... QuickBASIC 4.5 program. Assuming you don't know zip about QuickBASIC as a programming language, let me add that the reduction in size is from compiling with Crescent Software's PDQ Library and then squeezing that file down with LZEXE.EXE (from Fabrice Bellard, a Freeware program from France). If any of you junior propeller hat wearers want to see how this is done, in QuickBASIC, please go over to the MSBASIC Forum on CompuServe where I uploaded the -original version- (not this improved one). If you ran GO.BAT when you unarchived this file set, you are reading this INSIDE that batch file. You will know that you are still inside a batch file as when you press {Esc}, this text file will unload, the BATCH FILE will beep and LOAD a second text file. When you read then exit that second batch file, you will note my "Brag box" pops up to tell you I am the proud papa of this little simple son of a code. READ.EXE only accepts two parameters on the command line. READ {FileName.Ext} /n    READ.EXE File Name No Brag box switch If you run READ.EXE by typing: READ {Enter} you will get a "Squawk" sound and the minimalist help file: ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³ An ASCII File Browser ³ ³ ³ ³ TYPE: READ Filename.Ext ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; If you run READ.EXE with a real file -without- the "no Brag Box switch" by typing: READ c:\autoexec.bat when you press to end the file browsing you will see... ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³ John De Palma on CompuServe 76076,571 ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; Some Important Stuff ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÕÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍѸ ³³ IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THE PARAGRAPHS IN THIS BOX ³³ ³ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;³ ³ ³ ³ If the text file is NOT in the same directory that you execute ³ ³ READ.EXE from, you MUST enter the full path and FileName of the ³ ³ text file or you will get a beep and as very terse help message ³ ³ to do just that. ³ ³ ³ ³ Entering a LONG file name as: "E:\QB45\TOOLBOX\README.TXT," ³ ³ the first line display will read "E:\README.TXT" as the code ³ ³ parses and truncates the full path name so it can be displayed ³ ³ in fifteen (15) characters on line one. ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ READ.EXE will display in text mode (Screen 0) any true ASCII ³ ³ file up to about 32,000 bytes. ³ ³ ³ ³ If you attempt to load a larger file, you can view the first ³ ³ and -TRUNCATED- portion of that large file if you wish. ³ ³ ³ ³ If you enter a name of a file that doesn't exist, you will be ³ ³ advised of that and told to try again. ³ ³ ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ³ THE AUTHOR ³ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The author is -still- John De Palma. But if you downloaded this file set and READ.COM a year or so ago, he was much more cocky then about how great this program was.... Yep, he thought it would display any ASCII file up to hundreds of Kilobytes long. He even said so. But he was wrong.... As he used READ.EXE's predecessor program, READ.COM, he found that if the ASCII file was way over about 32,000 characters (or bytes), the computer would lock and a reboot was in order. In all fairness to our now humbled author... he wishes to advise the reader that he inherited this notion from one of his favorite QuickBASIC authors. If you have READ.COM on your computer, delete it and use READ.EXE. 'Cause if you have both of them in the same directory or READ.COM in a part of the PATH ahead of READ.EXE, READ.COM will always load first. *.COM files always load preferentially to *.EXE files Use the batch file READFIND.BAT, to find READ.COM on your hard drive. Anyways and anyhow, the Author.... ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ John De Palma, likes computers because he sees them as big toys. Computers to him are complicated black boxes that have infinite possibilities for causing to the user --at the same time -- enjoyment and pain. Unlike most computer users he really doesn't like to use the computer to do anything important (like write a letter to PC Magazine or to your IRS agent) but to tinker with. He was one of those kids that took his Dad's watch apart to see how it worked, but never figured out how to put it back together again (boy was THAT a lesson in "leaving things alone!"). You can usually find him on CompuServe --somewhere-- uploading some fairly useless program that other "kids" like and download. He would welcome any thoughts, comments, criticisms, spelling corrections, or QuickBASIC code that is understandable by an ordinary mortal. He looks forward to receiving any kind of reader's mail. He can be reached by dialing CompuServe's E-Mail service and leaving a message there. His CompuServe number is: 76076,571.