================================================================= SEE.TXT: Description of the program SEE ================================================================= J R Ferguson, The Netherlands version 1.1 Feb 15, 2000 download: http://hello.to/ferguson e-mail : j.r.ferguson@iname.com This program, and its source code, may be used and copied without charge, but only for non-commercial purposes. The author can not be held responsible for any damage or loss of data that may be caused by its use. SEE offers a page oriented display of a textfile on the screen, with options to scroll in vertical and horizontal direction and to search for a string. You can not change the file by using SEE. The command format is: SEE [dn:]filenaam.typ "Wildcards" (* and ?) are not allowed. If you enter SEE without a filename, the version number is displayed. If the specified file exists, as many lines as fit in the memory buffer are read, and the first text page is displayed. At the bottom of the page a prompt line is displayed. You are now in text display mode, and can issue the following commands: Down : line down Up : line up PgDn : page down PgUp : page up End : to end of buffer Home : to start of buffer Right : scroll right 16 positions Left : scroll left 16 positions ENTER : scroll left to start of line + : read next buffer - : go to start of file C : Toggle control-character display default: off Del or T : Toggle tab expansion default: on Ins or N : Toggle line number display default: off W : Toggle Wordstar document mode default: on L : Go to specified line number F : Find literal text S : Find text, ignoring case X : Find same text again ? of F1 : Display help H : Hexadecimal display ESC : Exit program When you switched to hexadecimal display mode, using the "H" command, you can issue the following commands: Down : line down Up : line up PgDn : page down PgUp : page up End : to end of buffer Home : to start of buffer + : read next buffer - : go to start of file ? of F1 : Display help H : Hexadecimal display off ESC : Exit program To change the command keys: see "Technical information". The promp line -------------- At the bottom of the screen a prompt line is displayed. On the left side of is, the following symbols are used: [ start of file or < start of buffer, not start of file ] end of file or > end of buffer, not end of file C Control on or c Control off T Tab expansion on or t Tab expansion off W Wordstar on or w Wordstar off In hexadecimal display mode the symbols C, T and W are replaced by the word 'HEX'. The C, W and T states are not lost, however. They are restored as soon as you switch back to text display mode. Also displayed on the prompt line is the name of the file you are browsing, its date and a short help text or message. Large files ----------- The program uses a text buffer of approximately 60 kilobytes. If the file is too large to fit in this buffer, you can still browse all of it by issuing the command 'Go to next buffer' as often as needed. With the command 'Go to start of file' you can go back. The commands 'Go to specified line number' and 'Find text' will only search in the current text buffer. Further explanation of some commands ------------------------------------ Scroll right/left: Long text lines are only displayed as far as they fit on the screen. To view the remaining characters, you can issue horizontal scroll commands. The maximum line length that can be displayed is 255 characters. The horizontal scroll commands are not supported in hexadecimal display mode. Next buffer: When a file is too large for the memory buffer used by SEE, the text is displayed on a 'buffer by buffer' base. This situation can be recognized after you issue the command 'Go to end of buffer' by the fact that a '>' sign (end of buffer) is displayed in stead of a ']' sign (end of file). Issue the command 'Go to next buffer' to see more of the file. This can be repeated until you reach the end of the file and a ']' is displayed. Go to start of file: After you have issued the command 'Go to next buffer' one or more times, you can start again by issuing the command 'Go to start of file'. The is no command 'Go to previous buffer'. Toggle control-character display: This command enables you to toggle the display of control characters. If the display is enabled, control characters are shown as ^@, ^A, ^B, etc. (^? is used for DEL). If the display is disabled, control characters are ignored. Exceptions: - The TAB display can be toggled separately (see below). - CR, LF, FF, CR-LF and LF-CR are interpreted as end-of-line markers. This command is not available in hexadecimal display mode. Toggle tab expansion: When this switch is on, horizontal tab characters will align the text display to fields of 8 character positions wide. When the tab expansion switch is off, the display of tab characters depends of the control-character display mode. Id control-character display is on, tabs are displayed as '^I', if it is off they are replaced by a single space. This command is not available in hexadecimal display mode. Toggle line numberdisplay: You can show line numbers by using this toggle command. The maximum line number that SEE supports is 65535. In hexadecimal display mode this command is not supported, and neither is the 'Go to line number' command. Toggle Wordstar document mode: The original (Dutch) version of SEE was written in a time when Wordstar was a popular word processor. SEE allows you to view Wordstar documents in a readable way. These days Wordstar documents will be scarce, but the support for its display is left in the program as it won't hurt anybody. You can leave the Wordstar toggle activated when viewing textfiles that are not written by Wordstar. Go to specified line number: After issuing this command you can enter a line number, which will be searched for in the current text buffer. You may want to toggle the line number display first. The maximum line number SEE can handle is 65535. Line numbers are not supported in hexadecimal display mode. Find literal text: After issuing this command you can enter a search text and press Enter. The search text may not contain any control characters, with the exception of the TAB character which is translated to a space. Upper case and lower case letters are interpreted literally. The text is searched forward, from the current position to the end of the current text buffer. If the text can not be found, the last page of the buffer is displayed. This command is not supported in hexadecimal display mode. Find text, ignoring case: Like the previous command, but no distinction is made between upper case and lower case letters. Find same text again: The last Find command is repeated, searching from the current display position. Hexadecimal display: This command can be used to switch from text display mode to hexadecimal display mode and back. An implicit 'Go to start of file' command is issued when you use this toggle. Technical information: ---------------------- SEE was written in Intel 8086 assembly language, using the Turbo Assembler release 1.0 Ideal mode. To assemble and link the program, you can use the following commands: tasm see tlink /t see The hardware dependant parts are designed for a computer that uses MS-DOS version 3.2 or higher, and a CGA or compatible monitor. These parts are clearly indicated in the source text. History: -------- v1.1 Feb 15,2000 Changed author's Internet address. v1.0 Dec 07,1996