MaxZ80 - Chapter 14 The tail end of MENU.MNU looks like this: #$< < System Menu< < D. Change B.DSK to dbase.dsk< W. Change B.DSK to work.dsk< < Z. Issue Z-System command< < #< @ echo h%>i there!< ? !echo %>run OR swim daily!< D chgdsk b: dbase.dsk;jetldr b0:saved.ndr< W chgdsk b: work.dsk;jetldr b0:saved.ndr< Z !"Your command: "< V !echo 6/4/2007< ##< This is a System menu. You bring it up by typing $ and, when asked for a password, the word SYSTEM, in capital letters. The $ following the # that introduces the display section of this menu is the signal that this is a System menu. Unlike regular menu pages, the existence of this page is not apparent from the prompt line at the bottom of the menu. System menus are intended for administrator applications. Here, we have our first example of the MYZ80 CHGDSK command. You can build any number of virtual disc files and, on the fly, change the active A:, B: or C: disc to any .DSK file you've previously built. That's what the D and W menu picks do. .DSK files can hold up to about 8 MB. @ echo h%>i there! in the command definition section of this menu illustrates another MENU feature. The @ character does not correspond to any key you might hit, like the D and the W. It defines a command that is automatically issued by MENU when this menu comes up. ECHO is a Resident Command Package command. ECHO displays its command tail on the screen. A mechanism which supports sending control (non-printing) characters to the screen and also a way to get upper-case or lower-case characters to display is built into ECHO. A caret preceding the character means send the control character. To send the caret itself, precede it with a %. The % character followed by a < or > means send what follows in upper-case or lower-case. There's an @ command in the first menu that reads @ echo ^i^ip%>ress ^[(%^%<c^[) %>to exit %<menu^j which causes the messageto appear right after the main menu. The Terminal Capabilities character strings to turn highlighting on and off are used to make the ^C bright. While writing this Chapter, I used the Log Shell, LSH. It logs the commands you issue and lets you recall them by hitting your up or down arrow keys. Once recalled, you may use the right and left arrow keys to move forward and backward in the command, inserting and / or deleting characters, before finally hitting the Enter key. The first screen shot in Chapter 1 showed a command prompt that included a highlighted time, a named directory and a >>. The following does not show the highlighting but otherwise it's what was in that shot. 6:57 A0:MOUSE>> LSH is doing this. If you type Esc S (for Save), the prompt will lose one > and any command you subsequently issue will be saved in LSH's log file, which is named LSH.VAR and which is kept in A1:. Esc S is a toggle, so if you issue another Esc S, you'll get the >> back and your commands will no longer be saved. Esc T will toggle the time display. Esc Esc will put you in full screen mode, where all your previously issued commands may been seen. Here's what this looks like : A0:MOUSE 9:44 - ---------------------- dir filedate /- exit cls sil: rdump sil:rdump12k.sil -p -l1 ff cmp b1: ld cmp30c.lbr exit ---------------------- Occasionally, I clear my history, which I do via an ARUNZ alias clh. clh silent shctrl p`era a1:lsh.var`lsh This quietly (because of silent) pops the shell stack (via the shctrl utility), thus getting rid of LSH as a shell. It then deletes the log file, using another Resident Command package command, era, and, finally, it reinvokes LSH. Those `s are what the silent utility has been configured to use for the character to use to separate commands in a multiple command line. I appealed to LSH while writing this when I was verifying that the first menu's @ command worked. That's a complicated command to type and so I hit Esc S to log the command and then typed it. I did have to appeal to the editing capabilities mentioned above and finally got it typed correctly.