Z3 TIPS: Creating menus with ZCPR3 tools is easy, once the technique has been
learned. Everything needed is in the online HELP system, for MENU, VMENU, and
VFILER. But it takes a little doing to get used to creating! So now we do.
Command syntax and grammar for MENU and VMENU are similar; differences are
noted as we come to them.
Until ZCPR3: The Manual is available we are obliged to use available
online help facility to learn ins-and-outs of various utilities. We urge you
to study these help files. If you don't like reading from your CRT, then use
HELPPR to print-out VFILER, VMENU and MENU HLP files.
VMENU's power to scroll forward/backward a 16 file-display and move
cursor pointer indicating Current File makes it the general favorite for menus
though MENU actually has more flexibility; but, why not mix MNU's and VMN's?
The beauty of ZCPR3 menus is they may "come and go" depending which directory
you are in. Your system can be a hybrid. Flexibility--no operating system
has more!
Directories may have simple, quick (for-the-programmer who hasn't yet
found menus, or a mix there of, to be efficient) command-line completion
capability (command- vs menu-driven). On the other hand, menus may be set-up
to manage complex functions used too infrequently to justify the mental
overhead required to remember what's required...DISCAT uses such menus. Why
would you want to remember little-used, multitude of commands with their
trailing parameter possibilities? But if you do, ZCPR3 lets you use your
recall (organic memory) ability; and if you forget, a menu can be there to
serve. A complex three-menu skeleton to show some possibilities (command-line
VMENU entry is VMENU <*.typ> <fn.VMN><cr>):
-x
#
^A+++^B Word Processing Display ^A+++^B Current Directory: $D$U
1 - ^AEdit Current File using WordStar^B C - ^ACopy Current File to BACKUP^B
2 - ^AType (Page) Current File^B G - ^AGoto System Utility Menu^B
3 - ^ACopy File(s) to Another Directory^B Z - ^AEnter ZCPR3 Command Line^B
#
1ws $Pf
2page $Pf
3mcopy "Destination DIR? "="Source DIR:afn? "
cmcopy $Pf
g:3
z!"ZCPR3:Command>"
#
(put display text for menu #2 here and..
#
..put commands for menu #2 here)
#
^A+++^B System Utility Menu ^A+++^B Current Directory: $D$U
C - ^ARun DISCAT Catalog System^B D - ^ADisplay Selected Directory Files^B
Z - ^ARun ZCPR3 Command(s)^B
#
ccd cat:
d!xdir "Enter DIR:AFN and trailing options (U for all users): "
z!"ZCPR3:Command>"
##
Menu displays have an automatically generated command line allowing the
user to go from menu to menu, forward and backward, and to jump to first menu.
Goto's may be added to menu lines to custom-jump to menus. MCOPY
automatically copies files to directory BACKUP if a destination DIR is not
declared. Going to the CAT directory loads ST which runs MENU and its
associated MNU file. $Pf expands to full filename cursor arrow points to, the
Current File. Using n after the P would evaluate to just the file name, with
file type left off. The latter is useful during ASM or MAC and LOAD/MLOAD
operations.
Options are different between VMENU and MENU: only "x" (permission to
exit) is available with VMENU, but "cdpx" (command line expansion, display
menu, and page screen) with MENU. The usage intended for each program
established options available.
A simple but powerful menu example: Richard Conn uses an interesting menu
for spreadsheet and database management. In Rick's environment, DBASE.COM and
its overlays are in A9:, with all *.CMD files (these are dBASE files and not
VFILER CMD's) and data files in B9:. Each dBASE II invocation logs into A: so
that dBASE runs from a directory which contains its overlays. The indicated
command file does is set the default disk to B: which logs dBASE II into B:
for command file and data file processing. The menu-driven process continues
until a Quit (which drops Rick into dBASE) or an Exit (which drops him out of
dBASE and back to ZCPR3). Upon leaving dBASE, command "B:" is executed,
putting him back into B9:, and the menu then resumes. His complete DBMENU.MNU
file:
-dpx
#
*** Access to dBASE II and MultiPlan (MP) ****
dBASE II
D -- Invoke dBASE II and Set Options
dBASE II Applications to Run
1 -- Check Book 6 -- Labels
2 -- Income Tracking 7 -- Software Inventory
3 -- Business Expense Tracking 8 -- Hardware Inventory
4 -- Time Cards 9 -- Itemized Inventory
5 -- Name and Address 0 -- <spare>
MultiPlan Editor
M -- Invoke MultiPlan E -- Invoke Editor on File
Miscellaneous Functions
B -- Run Microsoft BASIC X -- Directory Display
T -- Time and Date Z -- Enter Any ZCPR3 Command
#
da:;dbase DPSETUP;b:
1A:;dbase B:cb;B:
2A:;dbase B:it;B:
3A:;dbase B:be;B:
4A:;dbase B:tc;B:
5A:;dbase B:nad;B:
6A:;dbase B:labels;B:
7A:;dbase B:sw;B:
8A:;dbase B:hw;B:
9A:;dbase B:itm;B:
ma:;mp MPSETUP.MP;b:
ewm "Name of File to Edit?
becho use command 'SYSTEM' to exit;mbasic
t!time
x!xd
z!"Command Line?
##
--------------
DBMENU file is for use with MENU and not VMENU (VMENU allows up to 16
display text lines versus MENU's 22, here Rick has 19). Notice the 'SYSTEM'
he reminder uses. Highlight display text using ^A and ^B to start and end
highlighting, respectively. When designing screen layout, try to achieve text
separation, more than provided by the characters alone. For example,
highlight headers or highlight functions but never both. Achieve
distinctiveness!
Remember, study the capabilities of the system and you are set free--free
to do exactly what you wish to do!
Good News: Zilog Z800 microprocessor details released indicate one super
chip...25 mHz clock rate, 8-bit bus, 4-DMA channels, CTC's, a UART, math co-
processor for number crunching, instruction set downward compatible with Z80
and 8080, etc. Write to Zilog, Inc. (1315 Dell Avenue, Campbell, CA 95008)
expressing your interest in 8-bit microprocessor advancement. Direct letters
to Edgar A. Sack, new president of Zilog; Jerry Higgins, Systems Division; Tom
Popek, Components Division; William Walker, Finance; Harry W. Look, Z800
Product Manager; and John Johnen, Software Marketing. Let them know they
could be "numero uno" in 8-bit computers for both industrial and individual
use. (Additionally, first S-100 board manufacturer announcing Z800 product
will do a brisk business, coming from pent-up hobbyist and system integrator
demand.)
But along with good comes bad: samples of Z800 chips are now scheduled
for April '85, not mid-February, as was previously announced by ex-Zilog
president Franc deWeeger (he recently resigned to become president of Advanced
Semiconductor Materials-America, a subsidiary of ASM-Holland).
New-Users-of-CP/M_Corner: Many ask why, for so little money, we supply source
code to our ZCPR3; can we make enough money to stay in business? Our answer,
"We want you to be more than a computer user, to know about computer software,
to understand what makes your machine tick!" Being a user is a-okay, but
there's so much more to learn, learning that alters your perception of
reality! Being simply a user is much like simple consumption...get beneath
surfaces and enjoy wonders to behold!
By the way, we make a staying-in-business profit from application
programs, Discat, Z3-Dot-Com, and others to follow, like Term3, and from
ZCPR3: The Manual.
Big Business: Several months back we stated that competition in long-distance
telephone (satellite) arena would create largest redistribution of corporate
and personal wealth in history of our free enterprise system...well, such
musing could be more than true. AT&T is spending most of their energy
worrying about IBM and not about customers, outcome of which could be loss of
their vitality! Watch profit and loss statements for next nine months--
indication of vigor, management discipline.
Echelon customers are members of a family, a family connected by a common
thread: understanding. We all want to learn, learn through working,
thinking, doing, thus becoming what we are capable of becoming. We expect not
instant gratification from our actions--we know doing, in itself, is reward
enough! But neither do we forget the value of quality of results--lasting
value.
When we reach for stars, we sometimes don't come up with one, but
seldom do we get a hand-full of mud either! Echelon--your single source for
economical, efficient, and generally overall useful 8-bit CP/M-80 compatible
software.
See you down the lines...
Echelon, Inc.
101 First Street
Los Altos, CA 94022
Telephone: 415/948-3820
ZCPR3 BBS & RCP/M: 415/489-9005
Trademarks: CP/M, Digital Research; Z3-Dot-Com, Alpha Systems; Bookshelf,
Ampro Computers; Z80, Zilog; Unix, AT&T Bell Laboratories; ZCPR3, Syslib3,
Term3, Richard L. Conn; Discat, Lasting-Value Software, Disk7, Echelon; PC-
DOS, IBM, Int'l Business Machines; Xenix, Microsoft; WY-50, Wyseword, Wyse
Technology; ZRDOS, Dennis L. Wright; Metal, Delphi Data Systems.
Newsletter 101 is Copyright 1984 Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permis-
sion to reprint automatically granted if source credit is given to Echelon.