VAREAD SHAREWARE UTILITY by P.Mihok - 21 Jan 1995 rev 1.3 ************************************************************* :INTRODUCTION: This little utility arose as an offshoot of another utility I was writing, as a sort of "base program" to which I wanted to append ANSI display capabilities. I found it very handy to read long ASCII documents, and thought my users might also find it useful. I am including the updated mouseable version, VAREAD - the preliminary version with mouse added. There are a couple of minor glitches in the mouse operation, which I did not have time to solve. They are a minor inconvenience. The main one is that you cannot exit the mouse menu except by viewing the help screen. There have been fixes to the find and scrollbar operation. ************************************************************** :DESCRIPTION: The utility can be summoned by typing VAREAD at the command line, in which case it starts out showing a directory. Typing a file name after the name of the utility, VAREAD YOURFILE.TXT will load the specified file. Do not use VAREAD to read unusual files (non ASCII) as the software cannot deal with them properly. The utility will display ASCII files of up to 10,000 lines in length. It will wrap long lines, so long files with long lines may be truncated at the 10,000 (wrapped) length. It will also run .EXE, .COM and .BAT files. The utility shows you the first screen as it loads the file, so you can start reading right away as it is loading. It has a help screen which explains everything except the mouse operation. It will also do a word search, do a basic printout of the file, and provides two directory/shell options: (a) Shell option - if the name of a shell file is loaded at the command line as follows: VAREAD YOURFILE.TXT &BINGO VAREAD will then shell out and try to run the file named "BINGO" when F2 is hit. (The ampersand flags that it is the shell name.) If no shell file has been loaded, VAREAD will load a directory of the current directory. (b) Directory option - An extended directory list will be loaded (up to 212 files) including the names of subdirectories and the path back towards the root (shown as two dots: .. ) when you hit F3. VAREAD will navigate to directories that are chosen, so you can use it to travel about your hard drive looking for a file. VAREAD shows a graphic display of your position in the file and also tells you what line number is at the top of the screen. The HELP screen gives a clock display and tells you the total number of lines that are in the file. The mouse provides you with two navigation options: 1) You may move a page at a time or to home or end by placing the mouse against the right hand side of the screen and observing the way the cursor alters (up or down arrow or stars for home and end), and press the left mouse button, or 2) You may place the mouse cursor atop the position in the filebar which coincides to the location where you wish to go, and then press the left mouse button. There is also a mouse menu accessible by moving the mouse cursor to the lower left hand corner. It allows you to view the help text, print, view a directory or shell, or leave VAREAD. ********************************************************************* :LICENCE: You may use VAREAD on your own machine as much as you like. If you wish to distribute it, though, to display ASCII text files, you should send $10. to: VMV Ltd. 5694-4 Hwy 7 E. Unit 193, Markham Ont. Can. L3P 1B4 You will receive a copy (if on Compuserve) which is registered to your name. If you are not online, I don't know how I will get the registered copy to you, though, as mailing it costs nearly $4 including the disc... I guess I'll have to ask for $14 before you'll get the registered copy by itself, or $10 if you register something else at the same time or are on Compuserve. (The online registration will cost more since Compuserve takes a bite out of it. Online registration consists of doing a fund transfer via your VISA account when connected to Compuserve by your modem.) If you find VAREAD *Very Useful* it would also be nice to send the $10. to support my continued software development efforts. At that price, though, I can't promise much - but I'll post you a thank you message and let you know how those software development efforts are coming along! I'm still planning to do the following projects, in case you are interested: 1) VMASC - may be included with your package. Lets you do a graphic character colour screen to serve as your title page. Includes a viewer. 2) VMANSI - Works as above but generates an ANSI graphic file so if you are online or a sysop, you can send elaborate ANSI graphics online. 3) VANDOOR - Uses an ANSI compatible reader and files to give a custom announcement door (for sysops only. For those who are not online, a sysop is the system operator who runs a BBS (Bulletin Board System) which people may call with their modems. ANSI is a colour character mode system that allows full colour and graphic characters to be sent over a connexion that's designed for only 7 bit monochrome characters. A door is software that you can run remotely via your modem, on the host computer.) 4) VANREAD - An ANSI reader. 5) CYBRTEXT - the new VPUBLISH commercial version. 6) VMSHOW - an animation system working with VMASC or VMANSI files. Easy to use. Most of these are almost complete or underway at the time of writing. ************************************************************************ UPDATE NOTE - Feb 1 95 - Since the original release I've fixed a problem with FIND and done some more work on the little scrollbar, besides a few other touches here and there. If anyone notices any irritants or "bugs" feel free to contact me! UPDATE NOTE - Feb 18 95 A new version of VAREAD, named NUVAREAD (of course!) has many added features making it highly suitable for document distribution. (It does not have the directories, however. It seemed to me that the directories would be too confusing to a user who only wanted to read the document.) Therefore, VAREAD provides you with a handy utility especially useful for a non-Windows machine, and NUVAREAD provides functionality for displaying documents - including a built in automated menu!