Links
Kilowatt Software's Poof!(TM) programs provide numerous productivity opportunities for users of NT 4.0, Windows 98, and Windows 2000 system environments.
Poof!(TM) programs are performed as commands from MS-DOS command prompt windows. These programs can also be used in batch scripts, or DOSKEY macro definitions. Some programs are specifically intended for use in batch scripts. All of the Poof!(TM) programs are designed for a minimal, specific purpose.
Although this series of programs provides you with many opportunities for productivity, you are advised to backup your files regularly before using these programs. Some programs alter the contents of existing files. Other programs replace existing files, or remove them. There is no way to reverse the affect of these changes afterwards. If you do not have a backup, then prior file contents or entire files may be irrecoverable.
The following categories of programs are available:
The following programs help you manage files on your computer.
| ASSOCEXT | associates an executable program with a file extension |
| CAT | concatenate one or more files into a single composite file |
| CATBIN | concatenates the binary contents of one file to the end of another file |
| CP | protected copy of a file to another file or directory |
| DISKFREE | determines how much space is free on one or more disks |
| DRIVES | shows active drives and current directories |
| FI | vertical filename listing |
| FILEINFO | detailed file information listing |
| FILES | horizontal filename listing |
| LS | vertical filename listing |
| MV | protected movement of a file to another file or directory |
| NEWER | determines if one file is newer than another |
| RM | removes one or more files with cautionary prompts for each removal |
| RO | converts one or more files to be read-only |
| RW | converts one or more files to be writeable |
| SETFTIME | sets a file's last modification time |
| TOUCHE | sets the last modification time of one or more files to the current time |
| WHEREIS | locates file(s) within the current directory, or all subdirectories |
The following programs can launch nested commands; or are associated with nested command launching. These programs can significantly improve your productivity.
| ! | ! command shell |
| ALIAS | maintains and displays substitution strings for the ! shell program. |
| ASK | asks question, sends response to standard output |
| DELVE | perform command in current directory and all subdirectories |
| DOMANY | performs a command on a series of files, or other arguments |
| DOMANY2 | performs a command on a series of files, or other arguments |
| FILECMD | performs a command that is composed from all lines in a file | REPEATN | performs a command multiple times |
The following programs are associated with software development activities.
| CFLOW | source program abstraction |
| CLSPATH | locates a java.CLASS file within the prevailing CLASSPATH environment |
| COM | extracts comments from C/C++/Java source programs |
| DCOM | extracts source (minus comments) from C/C++/Java source programs |
| DECAF | Java class file decompiler |
| DGARNER | extracts source (minus special comments) from C/C++/Java source programs |
| DQUOTE | locates all double-quoted strings in input text file(s) |
| EBNF | extended backus-naur form syntax analyzer |
| ENUMSTR | prepares a Windows resource file STRINGTABLE from a C/C++ 'enum' definition. |
| EXEPATH | does a standard Windows search for an executable file |
| GARNER | gathers special remarks from program source files for conversion to HTML |
| GETDEPS | determines functional dependencies of C/C++ programs |
| GETFUNS | determines functions defined in C/C++ programs |
| GETVER | shows windows system version information |
| IDELVE | shows hierarchy of 'included' source files |
| IPATH | locates an 'included' file within INCLUDE environment variable directories |
| MODPROC | tests existence of module and optionally a procedure |
| MODVER | shows module version information |
| NEWER | determines if one file is newer than another |
| SEEKFILE | locates a file by searching through directories defined by a system |
| SPLICE | splices a segment into one or more text files |
| SQUEEZE | removes trailing spaces and runs of multiple spaces from a text file |
| TOHTML | converts output of GARNER program to HTML content, and prepares an index |
| TOUCHE | sets the last modification time of one or more files to the current time |
| UNREFD | identifies unreferenced functions in C/C++ programs |
The following programs are math and conversion utilities.
| C2X | convert characters to hexadecimal equivalent |
| D2X | convert decimal value to hexadecimal equivalent |
| RADIX | converts a numeric value to another numeric base |
| RANDOM | generates a random number |
| SUMCOL | totals numeric values in the first or a specific column of a text file |
| X2C | convert hexadecimal values to character equivalent |
| X2D | convert hexadecimal value to decimal equivalent |
The following programs are helpful for creating HTML files.
| CSV2HTML | converts a comma separated value file to a corresponding web page |
| FILENOTE | shows contents of text file(s) within a scrolling marquee |
| IND2HTML | converts indented text files to web pages |
| INNOTE | shows contents of the input text file within a scrolling marquee |
| SHOWNOTE | shows argument text within a scrolling marquee |
| TOHTML | converts output of GARNER program to HTML content, and prepares an index |
The following programs are helpful within batch scripts.
| BEEP | generates one of various audible message sounds |
| JOURNAL | writes a time-stamped note to a journal file |
| MSGBOX | shows a standard message window |
| NEWER | determines if one file is newer than another |
| PICKLIST | A visual list selection accessory for use in batch scripts |
| QUERY | shows a simple YES or NO prompt within a message window |
| SAYRC | shows the return code of commands |
| SLEEP | snoozes for awhile |
The following programs are helpful for interacting with the system clipboard.
| CLIPARGS | adds a line composed from command arguments to the clipboard |
| CLIPIN | adds the contents of a file to the system clipboard |
| CLIPOUT | adds the contents of the system clipboard to a file |
| CLIPPATH | adds directory path of a file to the system clipboard |
| CLIPPING | copies a text fragment to the clipboard |
The following programs are helpful for accessing binary files.
| ASC_ONLY | extracts ASCII characters from a binary file |
| CATBIN | concatenates the binary contents of one file to the end of another file |
| CHARDIST | determine frequency of byte values in input file |
| CHECKSUM | compute signature of a binary file |
| CMP | performs binary comparison of two files |
| EXCISE | extracts binary segment from a file |
| HX | show binary content of a file |
| ZAP | alters the contents of a binary file |
The following programs are used for miscellaneous activities.
| ALARMER | shows alarms defined in ALARMS.ASC |
| ARGS | shows command arguments |
| ASCII | displays the ASCII character table |
| COLLIM8 | converts a vertical file into a multiple column file |
| DATE | shows the current time and date using a UNIX(TM) format |
| DIRMON | monitors file changes in a directory, or subdirectory tree |
| FINDWND | locates one or more windows having a caption, or caption segment |
| KWIC | first stage of 'keyword in context' pipeline |
| KWOC | converts an indented keyword definition file to 'keyword out of context' format |
| LENGTH | counts characters in input argument |
| LOGEVENT | reports an event to the NT event log |
| MAX | finds the line with the largest number in the first column of a file |
| NEWSHELL | creates a new command shell usually via a file drop action |
| NOW | shows the current time and date using a format that is easy to read. |
| RULER | shows a simple character column ruler |
| SEEK | locates topics and associated items within an indented text file |
| SENDMSG | sends a message to another application |
| TCPIP_ID | shows network addresses |
| TEE | shows pipeline input while redirecting to pipeline output |
| TELLTIME | shows programming information about the current time, |
| TIMESTR | format the current time using various options |
| UNROTATE | final stage of 'keyword in context' pipeline |
| Z | the 'do nothing' program |
A command prompt window is often started by locating the 'MS-DOS prompt' or 'Command prompt' entry within the 'Programs' selections of the 'Start' menu. A shortcut is usually available, or can be added, on the desktop as well.
You can also start an MS-DOS command prompt window by selecting 'Run' from the 'Start' menu. In the input field type 'cmd' in NT environments and 'command' in Windows 98 environments, then press the OK button.
You can create a new command prompt shortcut on the desktop as well. The easiest way to do this is to select an existing 'MS-DOS prompt' desktop icon with the mouse, and drag&drop it to another area on the desktop. You can then customize the new icon by:
You can prepare folders containing various command prompt shortcuts. Shortcuts you created on the desktop can be dragged and dropped to these other folders.
Program usage information can be displayed by typing the program name, and specifying either '-H' or '/H'.
Generally, you can request usage information by specifying either '-?' or '/?'. However, some programs process file patterns that can contain the wild-card characters '*' and '?'. These programs process '-?' and '/?' requests as wild-card file patterns. For these programs you should use either '-H' or '/H' instead.
Detailed usage information (HTML text) can be displayed by specifying '-!' or '/!' after the program name.
The following is an example of a command usage request:
ff /h
Which shows how to use the FF program.
The usage information that is displayed by a command is constrained by the size of the prompt window. Detailed program usage information is provided in web pages. For example, the following link shows information for the FF program.
Command lines have the following general format:
ProgramName [Options] [Arguments] [ < infile] [ [>]> outfile]
The square bracket characters ('[') and (']') around an item indicate that it is optional. The less than ('<') and greater than ('>') characters are used for redirecting input and output files respectively.
c:\windows\notepad.exe
Usually the 'ProgramName' will consist of just the name of the file, without the '.exe' extension. In this case, the program is located via a standard system search.
The following shows how the '-t' option is added to the FF program.
FF -t phib Animals.txt
All program options are distinguished by the first character after the switch character; which is either a forward slash ('/') or a hyphen ('-'). The leading option character can be typed in either lower or upper case. The 'usage' descriptions usually describe options as readable text; for example:
/TextOnly
However, only the first character after the switch character is referenced; such as, the 'T' in 'TextOnly'.
FF "open sesame" MagicWords.txt
Some programs do not require the double-quotes around arguments that contain spaces; i.e. the SEEK program. However, your productivity will probably improve if you ALWAYS surround arguments containing spaces with double-quotes. You may encounter results that differ from your expectations otherwise.
When two greater than symbols ('>>') precede the output file, program output is added to the end of an existing file. If the file did not exist, then output is written to a new file.
Warning: an existing output file is REPLACED when program output is redirected to a file. The system does not display a confirmation prompt before replacing the existing file.
Many command programs can participate in pipelining operations. This provides many opportunities, as programs can be combined in various ways. Pipeline segments are delimited by the vertical bar character ('|'). The output of the program to the left of the vertical bar is passed as input to the program to the right of the vertical bar. More than one vertical bar can appear in a command line.
Any program that supports input file redirection via the ('<') character can appear after a vertical bar. Any program that supports output file redirection via the ('>') character can appear before a vertical bar.
The following are examples of command pipelining sequences.
This example shows all words that contain 'seek' in the file 'abc.java'. The output of the WORDS program is passed as input to the FF program.
This example shows all unique words in a file. The output of the WORDS program is passed as input to the FSORT program. The output of the FSORT program is passed as input to the UNIQUE program. Finally, the output of the UNIQUE program is written to the file 'unique.wds'.
The search for programs to execute as commands involves numerous possibilities, and many opportunities for confusion. In all cases, when a file extension is absent, multiple implicit file extensions are tried: BAT, or EXE. NT systems will also try to locate the implicit CMD extension.
A command program to locate can be fully qualified, a relative path, or a partial name. Examples of each are:
When a fully qualified path is specified, the program is executed if the file exists, otherwise an error message is displayed.
Relative path names are converted to fully qualified paths, by using the current working directory. The current drive is used unless an explicit drive is specified, in which case the current working directory of that drive is used as well. A directory name that consists of two dots ('..') indicates that the file is in the parent directory. When backslashes appear each term between backslashes is a directory name, relative to the current directory.
If the current drive is 'C' and the current directory is the root, then the first 'relative' path above is converted to a complete path by adding 'C:\' ahead of the path. The resulting path is 'C:\windows\notepad.exe'.
Similarly if the current directory is 'C:\windows\system', then the second example becomes 'C:\windows\notepad.exe' as well. For the 'c:\windows' directory is the parent directory of the 'c:\windows\system' directory.
The search for partially specified command programs will first search the current directory. If the program is not found there, then all of the directories that are defined within the PATH environment variable are searched. Directories within this variable are separated by semicolons. When a directory name contains a space, its entire name must be enclosed in double-quotes when it is added to the PATH environment variable definition.
The following is an example of a PATH environment variable value:
c:\windows;c:\windows\system;c:\kwsw
A search for the 'FF' program will try all of the following:
You can use the EXEPATH program to determine the fully qualified path that is used for a partially qualified or relative file name, in the current drive and working directory.
For example:
exepath FF.EXE
Before you update your PATH environment variable, make sure you are fully alert! If a Windows system expert is nearby, you might request assistance the first time you try to modify the PATH environment variable.
In NT environments, the PATH environment variable is defined by selecting 'Control Panel' from the 'Settings' selection of the Start menu. You then activate the 'System' icon. Then, double-click the PATH variable in the User section. After editing the value, you must press the 'Set' button, and then OK. If you press the OK button, without pressing the 'Set' button, the PATH variable is not changed. You will need to restart command prompt windows that are already active, after revising the PATH variable, as the change does not take effect until the command prompt window is started again.
In Windows 98 environments, you define the PATH environment variable in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Please make a back up of this file before revising it. Note, there may be more than one definition of the PATH environment variable in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Be sure to update the one that is really used. You will need to restart command prompt windows after revising the PATH variable, as the change does not take effect until the command prompt is started again. In Windows 98 environments you need to restart your system.
You can locally alter the PATH environment variable for a specific command prompt window. Usually you will want to do this by defining a batch script that sets the PATH environment variable. The following line prepares a minimal path.
set PATH=c:\windows;c:\windows\system;c:\kwsw
In Windows 98 environments, you will probably want to copy the PATH environment variable line from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
You should add the directory that contains Poof!(TM) programs to your PATH environment variable.
Command line program arguments may contain wild-card characters that are expanded with file names that match them. The '?' character matches a single character. The '*' matches all names that have matched up to that point. Some examples appear below.
| ?? | matches 2 letter file names that do not have an extension |
| ??.def | matches 2 letter file names that have a '.def' extension |
| abc?.def | matches 4 letter file names that start with 'abc', and have a '.def' extension |
| a*.def | matches all file names that start with 'a', and have a '.def' extension |
| a*.d* | matches all file names that start with 'a', and have an extension that starts with '.d' |
| a*.* | matches all file names that start with 'a', and have any extension or no extension |
| *.* | matches all file names |
| * | matches all file names |
| *. | matches all file names that do not have an extension |
Various Poof!(TM) programs process text files that are organized in the following formats:
These are text files that do not have any special organization. These files can be prepared by the standard Notepad and WordPad accessories.
Plain text files can be processed by the following programs:
| BUNDLE | gather multiple text files into a single bundle file |
| CAT | concatenate one or more files into a single composite file |
| CENTER | horizontally centers input lines |
| CHG | substitutes one text string for another in one or more files |
| CLIPIN | adds the contents of a file to the system clipboard |
| DROP | drops leading lines from the input file |
| EGREP | generalized regular expression text search, using extended regular expressions |
| FF | fast file search for text |
| FGREP | fast file search for text |
| FSORT | file sorting utility |
| GIST | identify most frequent meaningful words in a text file |
| GREP | generalized regular expression text search |
| HEAD | show leading lines of a text file |
| INNOTE | shows contents of the input text file within a scrolling marquee |
| LOWERIT | converts the input file to lower case |
| MERGE | merges the contents of two sorted files to form a third file |
| NUMBER | selects a specific line, or numbers all lines |
| PF | pattern find -- generalized regular expression text search, using extended regular expressions |
| PICK | selects lines and/or ranges of lines from a text file |
| PREFIX | prefixes output with empty lines |
| RANGE | selects a range of lines from a text file |
| RAVEL | transforms text file with lengthy lines to a shorter line format |
| SIDESIDE | visually compares two similar text files |
| SPACE | adds line spacing between text file lines |
| SPLICE | splices a segment into one or more text files |
| SQUEEZE | removes trailing spaces and runs of multiple spaces from a text file |
| STRIP | removes leading and/or trailing spaces from text file lines |
| TAIL | show trailing lines of a text file |
| TR | translates characters in a text file with replacements |
| UNIQUE | finds unique, duplicate, or omitted items |
| UPPERIT | converts the input file to upper case |
| WC | counts lines, words, and/or chars in one or more files |
| WORDS | extracts all words from a text file |
The BUNDLE program combines multiple text files into a single bundled text file.
Bundled text files can be processed by the following programs:
| BUNDLE | gather multiple text files into a single bundle file |
| GETONE | extracts a single file from a bundle file |
| LBUNDLE | lists files contained in a bundle file |
| UNBUNDLE | extracts all files from a bundle file |
Bundle files can also be created by using the CAT program.
These are text files that contain multiple values per line, with each value separated by a comma. When a value contains one or more commas the value is enclosed in double quotes. CSV files are commonly prepared by export operations from spreadsheets, databases, and similar applications.
Comma separated value files can be processed by the following programs:
| CSV2HTML | converts a comma separated value file to a corresponding web page |
| CSV2TABT | converts a comma separated value file to a corresponding tab delimited |
| FROMCSV | converts a comma separated value file to a vertical format |
| TABT2CSV | converts a tab delimited text file to a corresponding |
| TOCSV | converts a vertical attribute file to a comma separated value file |
These are text files that contain multiple values per line, with each value separated by a tab. Tab delimited files are commonly prepared by export operations from spreadsheets, databases, and similar applications.
Tab delimited value files can be processed by the following programs:
| COL | extracts a column from a text file |
| CUT | extracts one or more columns from a text file |
| DETAB | convert tabs in text files to spaces |
| PASTE | join the contents of multiple text files vertically |
| TABT2CSV | converts a tab delimited text file to a corresponding |
These are text files that store items within topics by simple space indentation. Topic lines do not have a leading space. Related items follow. Each item line starts with a space. The end of items within a topic is determined when a subsequent topic line is reached.
The following is an example of an indented file:
|
Amphibians
Birds
Fish
Mammals
Reptiles
|
Note: intervening empty lines between topics are ignored. Long lines within topics are wrapped. Long lines can be explicitly wrapped by using the HTML <BR> tag. Less than characters ('<') must be entered using the HTML sequence <. Greater than characters ('>') must be entered using the HTML sequence -- >. Ampersand characters ('&') must be entered using the HTML sequence -- &.
Indented text files can be processed by the following programs:
| CLIPPING | copies a text fragment to the clipboard |
| IND2HTML | converts indented text files to web pages |
| KWOC | converts an indented keyword definition file to 'keyword out of context' format |
| SEEK | locates topics and associated items within an indented text file |
