Time: Sat Nov 01 10:02:29 1997
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Date: Sat, 01 Nov 1997 10:01:23 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLL: major software development completed
Cc: supremelaw@ibm.net, pmitch@primenet.com
Dear Team SL:
With generous appreciation to Reed Harris,
for discovering an undocumented feature
in the DOS operating system, we have finally
finished developing the software which we
have been describing to you as the work
has been progressing.
Our goal for this difficult project has been
to run a DOS batch sequence against all ASCII
text files with an extension of ".ASC". These
files are joined to two HTML template files:
one at the beginning of the ASCII file,
and the other at the end of the ASCII file,
very much like a sandwich, in which the HTML
corresponds to the two slices of bread, and
the ASCII is the "meat" inside the sandwich.
Keep this analogy in mind, as you read, and
learn, more about this crucial project.
The software we have developed is called
PRETRUNC, which is an acronym for "truncate
the filename prefix". Attached here is the file
PRETRUNC.ZIP, which should be copied to its
own DOS directory; we recommend PRETRUNC.DIR.
Once this .ZIP file is copied to this directory,
run PKUNZIP to extract the component files.
PRETRUNC is a component within the new PREEDIT
function, which is invoked from the DOS command
line, as follows:
C:\MYDIR> preedit *.asc "case name here"
For example, the case name might be "People v. U.S."
PREEDIT creates a "sandwich," with the correct
HTML code at the front, and at the back, of each
ASCII input, and the prefix portion of the DOS
file name, and the case name, are both placed
into the resulting HTML files. Under DOS,
these HTML files have a .HTM suffix (only 3
characters, instead of 4).
This software works only on MS-DOS systems;
it was not designed to work on Apple Mac systems,
however!
After extracting the component files from
PRETRUNC.ZIP, the INSTALL.BAT file should be
executed at the DOS command prompt. For
Windows 95 systems, the INSTALL.BAT file
does the following:
copies PREEDIT.BAT to C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
copies JOINHTML.BAT to C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
copies PRETRUNK.EXE to C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
These COPY commands can be done manually,
if you wish to understand each component
in detail, and if you wish to skip the
INSTALL.BAT program.
For earlier versions of DOS, INSTALL.BAT
does the following:
copies PREEDIT.BAT to C:\WINDOWS\DOS
creates DOS directory C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
copies JOINHTML.BAT to C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
copies PRETRUNK.EXE to C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
Again, you may do these COPY and MKDIR commands
yourself, and skip INSTALL.BAT if you do. Notice
that C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND does not normally exist
for DOS versions prior to Windows 95.
If you haven't already done so, we require
that two template files be copied to the
DOS directory: D:\WEBSITE.DIR. These
two files are PROLOG.HTM and EPILOG.HTM.
These two files are components of PRETRUNC.ZIP.
If you do not have a "D:" partition, you will
need to edit the JOINHTML.BAT file, and make
the appropriate changes in the COPY command
in that file.
The last piece of software you will need to
use these procedures is the GEDIT.EXE program,
which is available in a trial version from us.
GEDIT.EXE must be installed in C:\DOS under DOS 6.22
or earlier versions of DOS, and in C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
under Windows 95.
GEDIT.EXE is a global search and replace
tool, which has the command-line syntax that
we prefer. The trial version will work, but
it requires terminal input after each run
of the program. The registered version
eliminates this need for terminal input.
To see how the GEDIT program integrates with
the rest of this software, examine the logic
in the file JOINHTML.BAT, which does the
bulk of the work in these various programs.
The file PREEDIT.BAT simply loops through
each qualifying filename in the current DOS
directory, and makes multiple CALL's to
JOINHTML.BAT for each .ASC file it finds
in the current DOS directory (but ONLY
the current DOS directory).
Three test files have been provided,
with names A.ASC, B.ASC, and C.ASC.
These files are meant to emulate standard
ASCII text files (like CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT).
A.ASC contains one line:
aaa
B.ASC contains one line:
bbb
C.ASC contains one line:
ccc
If you have any further questions, please
don't hestitate to contact me here. We would
strongly recommend that you invest $25 to
purchase a registered copy of the GEDIT
program, so that we can all be using the
very same software. I can provide you
with the information you need to pay the
registration fee for GEDIT.
Thanks very much, all of you, and my special
appreciation to Reed Harris to staying on
course, when the going got tough. The main
cause of all our difficulties was a decision
by Microsoft to remove functionality from the
DOS SET command at Windows 95. This caused
us untold grief, as we struggled to find a
"work-around," for something which worked just
fine under DOS 6.22.
/s/ Paul Mitchell
http://supremelaw.com
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