TEXT2DB reads bytes from an ASCII text Input File (IN) and sends them to an Output File (OUTPUT) reformatted as data statements suitable for input to an assembler. Certain control characters are recognized and replaced in the output file with a symbol. An input carriage return and line feed (0Dh and 0Ah), for example, is emitted as ,CR,LF; strings of text are emitted enclosed in quotes. Menu items 1-7 allow you to replace the symbols emitted with others of your choice. Control characters from the input file not included in this list are emitted in their HEX data form. ^L, for example, is emitted as ,0Ch,. Menu item 8 allows you to select an ASCII character (in hex) whose presence in the input stream marks the location of a label generated by TEXT2DB and included in proper form in the Output File. For each occurrence of this 'trigger' character, the numeric part of the label is incremented so that duplicate labels are not produced. The first label produced will be that shown in the menu. SYNTHETIC (TEXT2DB generated) LABELS The labels generated have three parts, each of which is independently configurable. The first two parts are 3 character Alpha Numeric fields; the last is a single AN character. The first field, selected as Menu item A, need only satisfy the requirements of a label imposed by your assembler; usually this means that the first character must be Alpha (NOT a number). The second three characters, selected with Menu item N, must be NUMERIC. The counter used for incrementing this field with TEXT2DB is a single byte quantity which limits the numbers provided to the range 000 to 255. If you enter larger numbers, you won't get the labels you expected! The last field, selected with Menu item T, is the label terminator. Most assemblers accept (or require) a colon (':') here. You may change it to some other character, such as a space, if you and your assembler agree upon the suitability of the new character. OUTPUT FILE DATA STATEMENTS The following 4 lines illustrate the format of the OUTPUT file. They are taken from the source which, after assembly, produces the MENU screen for TEXT2DB. Note that the label was generated by TEXT2DB. DB ' F) lines are FOLDED after ' SCR016: DB ' characters to limit line length' DB CR,LF DB 0 Menu items M, D, L, and F allow you to control the format of such lines. Item M permits substitution of other assembly mnemonics (like DEFB) for the 'DB'. In this example, the mnemonic is surrounded by TAB characters. The following example shows 2 output lines from the file which produces this help screen. Here, spaces are used to delimit the 'DB'. DB 'the ''DB''. In this example, the mnemonic' DB ' is surrounded by TAB characters.',CR,LF Menu item D is a toggle which will change the delimiters between TAB and SPACE characters. TEXT2DB inserts the last DB statement in the file. It contains ONE argument that marks 'end of text'. Menu item L permits changing this argument as required by your string-handling routine. Enter the DECCIMAL VALUE of a character, one character with quotes (example: '$'), or the HEX value of the character (example: 24H) including the H. DEFAULT FILE TYPES If you do not specify a complete filename.typ for the Input or Output files on the command line, TEXT2DB will assume the filetype extensions shown in Menu items I and O. If no filename is specified for the Output file, then the name of the input file is used. The default extensions shown can be altered as you wish with these menu selections.