Program: VCOMP, Version 2.1 Author: Rob Friefeld Date: 19 Sept 1990 VCOMP - VISUAL TEXT FILE COMPARISON ----------------------------------- PURPOSE: Find the differences between two similar files. Example: VCOMP VERS1.Z80 VERS2.Z80 VCOMP TEXT TEXT.BAK SYNTAX: VCOMP [DU:|DIR:]FILE1 [DU:|DIR:]FILE2 [/] Both files are text. The optional "/" character at the end of the command line automatically wild-cards the file names to save typing. In that case, the first match on disk is the file opened. Example: VCOMP F.T F.B / Might open FILE.TXT and FILE.BAK SYSTEM: ZCPR 3.0 and Z3PLUS TOOL. Requires CRT with at least 79 cols x 24 lines, and TCAP support for EREOL, CLS, and GOTOXY. USAGE: Each file is displayed in a half screen window. Lines wider than the CRT are truncated. The command descriptions which follow refer to the default command set. VCINST.COM is a configuration program for changing the command set to your preference. COMPARING TEXTS --------------- C - AUTO-COMPARE: Find the next line in which the files differ. Display both files at that line. If the display did not start with the files in sync, then you will only move a single line ahead. If no difference is found, an EOF message shows on the status line. - RE-SYNC: Re-align display of files to facilitate comparison. This function simply looks for the next occurrence of a pre-set string in both texts. When comparing source code files, the default ":" will move both displays to the next label. Q - SYNC STRING SET: The string to re-sync to may be set on-the-fly. Length is limited to 5 characters. To paragraph align two text files, you could use " ". Control characters can also be used. MOVING THROUGH TEXT ------------------- Left Hand Right Hand --------- ---------- A End of text. ; Start of text. S Ahead 5 lines. L Back 5 lines. D Next line. K Previous line. F Next screen. J Previous screen. Next screen, both files. (Same as echo F) These settings are finger-oriented rather than mnemonic. Infrequent users will probably want to set these up differently. That is easily done with the installation program. The command table is near the start of the code, if you prefer to use a file patcher. MOVING BETWEEN TEXTS -------------------- - SWITCH FILES: Toggle Swap active file. E - ECHO MODE: Toggle Echo mode repeats the text movement commands for both files so you can move through them in tandem. To avoid confusion (?) R - READ MORE and P - PRINT do NOT echo. You can do double finds, set double markers, etc. W - WINDOW: Toggle View the files on a full screen. FIND ---- G - FIND: Find a string (up to 20 characters). The search is forward only and is case insensitive. Since the BDOS read string function is used, it is best to avoid entering ^P. If the display is garbled somehow, refresh the screen by entering "?" to show the help screen, then go back to viewing. H - REPEAT FIND: Repeat find on the same string. The string is not changed when switching files, so a FIND in one file and a RPT FIND in the other will have the desired effect. READ ---- R - READ: If VCOMP printed a "memory full" message, additional text may be read in. The new text replaces text currently in memory with one screen of overlap. If there is no more to read, you may start again at the top of the file. MARK AND PRINT ------------- O - MARK: Set a pointer to the top line of the current screen. MARK is both a place marker AND the beginning of text sent to the printer. 0 - GO TO MARKER: Return display to marker set with the O command. The marker is initialized to the beginning of the text. P - PRINT: List text from Mark to bottom of current screen. Only the currently selected file will be printed. ESC or ^C will interrupt the listing. I - INITIALIZE PRINTER: Send installed initialization string to printer. The installation is done with VCINST.COM. T - TYPE: Type a line to be sent to printer. (e.g. comments, labels) sends a return. Can also send ^L line feed or other control characters which the BDOS will pass. Edit the line with ^X, DEL, etc. END VCOMP 2.1 DOC