22 April 1985 Z-NEWS 201 Z TIPS: We feel conditional testing aliases and IF12 submitted by Charles McManis (Sunnyvale, CA) so important we reproduce some of his work here for your information. Notice technique of indenting to indicate conditional nest level. Effective during alias design, but code is entered as one long line when keystroking in actual alias. IF12.LBR is on Z-Nodes; extract IF12.COM and it's ready to run after installing to your Z3 environment. "One small modification to IF.COM allows comparing wild card characters and ambiguous file names (AFNs). Feature adds needed flexibility to some aliases. Change affects only fcb conditional statement: IF fcb1=fcb2, where now fcb1 and fcb2 may be AFNs and still set IF state true if a match occurs. Following statement is thus accepted: IF $1=*.?Q? ;NOTE sets condition TRUE if $1 is a squeezed file. "Both fcb1 and fcb2 may contain ? and * ambiguous characters. An example of use of this new situation is shown in following aliases that manipulate a library containing squeezed ZCPR3 utility source files." Alias: PUT - Store source file in SOURCES library Usage: PUT [E] where E indicates external files are erased at completion. Statements Comments ---------- -------- IF $1=*; Match filename with no type IF EX $1.MAC; Check if file exists SQ $1.MAC; Squeeze before storing INSERT $1.MQC; Insert into library IF $2=E; See if externals are to be erased ERA $1.M?C; Erase squeezed/unsqueezed copies FI; ELSE; ECHO $1.MAC NOT FOUND; Announce unable to find file FI; ELSE; Syntax reminder ECHO PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE FILETYPE.; FI Done Alias: GET - Retrieve source file from SOURCES library Usage: GET Statements Comments ---------- -------- IF $1=*; Match filename with no type IF EX $1.MAC; Check if file exists and.. ECHO FILE EXISTS!; ..do not overwrite if it does. ELSE; EXTRACT $1.MQC; Get named file from library FI; ELSE; Syntax reminder ECHO PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE FILETYPE.; FI Done Now the single-line nested aliases: Alias: INSERT - Insert files into SOURCES library Usage: INSERT Statement Comment --------- ------- NULU -O SOURCES -A $1 -X Add file then exit Alias: EXTRACT - Extract files from SOURCES library Usage: EXTRACT Statement Comment --------- ------- NULU -O SOURCES -Q $1 -X Extract file, unsqueeze if necessary, then exit. Of course, INSERT and EXTRACT could be placed directly in GET and PUT. Advantage to having these outside (nested) is ease of change, and can be used alone, if desired. (One day soon we will have a full editor to enter and alter alias command text, making changes easily without having to completely re-do.) IF12 contains built-in help, obtained by entering command name followed by ZCPR3 conventional double slash, //. IF12 //: IF, Version 1.2 - Conditional Test Syntax: IF condition arguments -or- IF ~condition arguments where a leading "~" negates the effect of the IF Condition Possible IF Conditions are: T Always TRUE F Always FALSE EMPTY T if Files are Empty ERROR T if Error Flag Set EXIST T if Files Exist INPUT T if User Hits T, Y, CR, or SP NULL arg T if No Arg Follows TCAP T if ZCPR3 TCAP Available WHEEL T if Wheel Byte Set reg value T if Register reg = value fcb1=fcb2 T if the Two FCB values are = Only first 2 letters of keywords are required The leading "~" is effective with all conditions except fcb1=fcb2 Congratulations and thanks, Charles, for upgrading IF and providing such useful aliases--super job! Do remember, before using Charles' aliases and new IF.COM, to disable your resident (RCP) IF, if you have one; else use a different name, e.g., IF12, as upgraded COM file name and as conditional (IF12) name in Alias and Zex files. The above four aliases plus those we described in newsletter 109, dated 8 April 1985, demonstrate automation ease using Z System utilities. Also, Z- Node #2 Sysop, Al Hawley, has released a file (ALIAS.FUN) showing many tricks possible with aliases. And Z-Team Member, Joseph Wright, wisely seeing need for less message display from certain Z3 utilities, has produced a group of "silent" utilities responding to QUIET.COM. These (CD, LDR, PATH, QUIET, WHEEL) are on Z-Node Central as SILENCE.LBR and show no messages under QUIET--very useful for secure installations and many turn-key applications. Additional Z-Nodes coming online: 31. Richard A. Peterson - El Paso, TX - 915/755-3342 32. Allan E. Levy - Satellite Beach, FL - 33. Mark R. Evans - San Angelo, TX - Doug Thom (San Jose, CA), Z-Node #25, wants all to know he is online now and desires callers, lots of them. His modem number is 408/253-1306. Let him know you appreciate his activities to support high performance 8-bit computer developments. EDIT by Mike Rejsa (Minneapolis, MN) is now supported by Echelon and bundled as OS editor in our OEM packages (it's fully public domain, not copyrighted). EDIT is adequate for short document creation and maintenance, and ideal for use in Zex or Sub files. We supply an easy to read and learn from operator's manual. Look for COM and summary command reference card on our Z-Nodes as files EDIT.OBJ/CRD. EDIT is more than 1) an editor: it's 2) a file patcher, 3) list to printer with pagination, 4) hex dumper, 5) file size and disk status reporter, and 6) copy file to another disk utility--in 2k-byte COM file! EDIT doesn't generally replace WordStar, WordMaster, Mix, Vedit, etc.; nonetheless, it's quick and doesn't use much disk space. We're using EDIT in aliases and Zex batch files 'cause it loads so fast; try it and let us know what you think. Apple (CP/M disk format) ZCPR3 Core, Utilities, Z3-Dot-Com and Syslib3 are shipping. For so much patience, thanks Martin Rosenfeld, Jerry Levy, Mike Damiani, Julio Ibarra, George Proctor, and especially, Lloyd Hogan. Also, the gang at Hughes Aircraft get several gold stars for unusual forbearance. Wyse Technology, our favorite peripherals company, returned a profit of 2.2 million dollars on sales of 22.3 million for last quarter. Increases of 385 and 238 percent, respectively, over similar period last year! Their competitor, TeleVideo, didn't fair well with loss of 8 million on sales of 26.7 million--sales reduction of 38 percent and loss of .19 cents a share compared to last year's .14 cent profit. Perhaps their new Model 955 terminal ($699.00) will put them into hunt, be what they need to get going again. Wyse has real winners with their WY-50, 75 and 85 terminals (they've sold nearly 200,000 of 'em), enough better to keep ahead of competition. Echelon wishes Wyse President, Mr. Bernard Tse, and his team of spirited workers continued good fortune! With IBM's image tarnished by PCjr production cancellation, time is ripe (interval within the octave) for big position gains. EXPECTATIONS: One main advantage of microcomputers is that you control hardware/software without having an expert intermediary (priest) doing the work. But to be effective you must dedicate yourself to learning how to efficiently use your machine, to have it do constructive work for you! The two-edged knife: finding time (simply by setting priorities there's always time) to become more than we presently are--induced magically by learning, through self-discovery! We call everything WORK that's conscientious effort and intentional suffering performed to improve ourselves. "There's no free lunch!" So many think, act as if there were. What does free-lunch mean to you? See you down the lines... Echelon, Inc. 101 First Street Los Altos, CA 94022 Telephone: 415/948-3820 Z-Node Central: 415/489-9005 Trademarks: HD64180, Hitachi; Z80/800, Zilog; WY-50/75/85, Wyse; Model 955, TeleVideo; Z-System, Z-Tools, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Com, Zas, Zlink, DSD, ZDM, ITOZ, Z-Msg, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon and their respective owners and authors; CP/M, Digital Research. Z-News 201 is Copyright 1985 Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source credit is given to Echelon.