Post 2662061 by tricoteur@pouet.ca
(DIR) More posts by tricoteur@pouet.ca
(DIR) Post #2660196 by ajroach42@retro.social
2019-01-05T05:30:11Z
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Anyone have any good resources for coding #DOS #batch files? or a good menuing program for DOS? I don't need to do anything fancy, I'd just like to script up a basic, keyboard driven menu that will run in DOS. I used to do this sorta thing all the time, but it's been at least 10 years, if not longer, since I made a DOS environment for other people to use. Some kind of pseudo-graphical TUI that can be navigated with a keyboard would be perfect. Any thoughtS?
(DIR) Post #2660215 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T05:32:59Z
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@ajroach42 I SORT of know how to do that in C, but I didn't know you could do that in batch. Are you sure that you where not just using batch files as a way to call an exe? From what I can tell dos batch files are just lists of command line commands....
(DIR) Post #2660220 by clacke@libranet.de
2019-01-05T05:32:48Z
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Back in the 80s, Swedish people used SPCS Meny a lot. That brings back memories. 😀Not free software, and likely near-impossible to find. Just an association in my brain.I seem to remember though that there was some tool for making TUI dialogs. Maybe it was built into 4DOS.
(DIR) Post #2660243 by clacke@libranet.de
2019-01-05T05:33:30Z
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4DOS is now free software, apparently!www.4dos.info/
(DIR) Post #2660275 by ajroach42@retro.social
2019-01-05T05:35:08Z
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@Canageek When I was doing the fancy ones, I was using a menu generation program. But batch files can wait for inputs and respond. You can, at the least, have the batch file present a list of options and require the user to type a letter or number to select one. I'm fairly certain that there are ways to do ncurses style menus in batch though... Maybe with an add on.
(DIR) Post #2660301 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T05:36:26Z
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@ajroach42 Yeah, I suspected you could do a print options and get input type list, but I didn't think they where really a full programming language in the way bash was.
(DIR) Post #2660308 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T05:36:46Z
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@ajroach42 If you find out, let me know
(DIR) Post #2660352 by brennen@mastodon.social
2019-01-05T05:35:41Z
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@ajroach42 i'm guessing you don't have room for a doslynx? because lynx is pretty good at being a menu system...
(DIR) Post #2660353 by brennen@mastodon.social
2019-01-05T05:37:02Z
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@ajroach42 here's one i did a bit ago: https://squiggle.city/menu/ - in lynx those <a href="lynxexec:foo">foo</a> links will run the provided command.
(DIR) Post #2660360 by ajroach42@retro.social
2019-01-05T05:35:40Z
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@clacke There were several tools! I just can't remember what any of them are called.
(DIR) Post #2660440 by clacke@libranet.de
2019-01-05T05:40:48Z
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@brennen @ajroach42 That is just fantastic!
(DIR) Post #2660508 by fifonetworks@mastodon.technology
2019-01-05T05:39:10Z
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@ajroach42 I still do quite a bit of work with DOS batch files. Here's the resource that I give to my students. It's more understandable and complete than Microsoft's help pages.https://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm
(DIR) Post #2660509 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T05:44:48Z
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@fifonetworks @ajroach42 https://www.computerhope.com/choicehl.htm seems like what you are looking for
(DIR) Post #2660599 by ajroach42@retro.social
2019-01-05T05:48:11Z
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@Canageek @fifonetworks Yep. That's the basic way. I still want to look for a way to do it the other way, but this will work for now. thanks again.
(DIR) Post #2660620 by clacke@libranet.de
2019-01-05T05:49:23Z
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Yeah, yeah, sorry, I'm just jogging my memory out loud. 😀Someone on the internet says that www.jedsoft.org/slang/ is apparently usable on DOS.
(DIR) Post #2660641 by clacke@libranet.de
2019-01-05T05:50:35Z
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Not sure if that means slsh is available, or just that e.g. jed can be compiled for DOS and it uses slang internally.
(DIR) Post #2660665 by ajroach42@retro.social
2019-01-05T05:52:04Z
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@Canageek Here are some some menu programs: https://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/menu.htmNow I have to figure out which one I used before.
(DIR) Post #2660745 by clacke@libranet.de
2019-01-05T05:53:00Z
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Found one!www.horstmuc.de/ui.htm
(DIR) Post #2660977 by clacke@libranet.de
2019-01-05T06:07:38Z
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I figured there had to be one somewhere in or around FreeDOS, but I'm not finding anything except libraries for compiled languages, nothing for BAT use.
(DIR) Post #2661155 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T06:16:53Z
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@ajroach42 Ah, so it was calling an exe.
(DIR) Post #2661212 by ajroach42@retro.social
2019-01-05T06:19:06Z
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@Canageek looks like some of them actually load as tsrs, but mostly yeah, they just serve as an exe to call as part of batch execution. I’m specifically looking at wbat right now, or I will tomorrow when I start fiddling with this again. In an idea world, I’ll get my menuing system in under 50k, leaving room for something for the menu to actually call on the floppy.
(DIR) Post #2661247 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T06:20:50Z
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@ajroach42 WTF is a tsrs? I know of com and exe files, never heard of a tsrs!
(DIR) Post #2661275 by ajroach42@retro.social
2019-01-05T06:21:40Z
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@Canageek TSRs, terminate and stay resident. It was a way to simulate multitasking, and a way to load device drivers and stuff.
(DIR) Post #2661765 by ajroach42@retro.social
2019-01-05T06:12:19Z
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@clacke I saw that one, but couldn't find a download link. Playing with dmenu for now, which I snagged from: http://www.retroarchive.org/garbo/pc/menu/index.htmlBut now that I have a good download for wbat, it might be a better choice. Thanks!
(DIR) Post #2661800 by tricoteur@pouet.ca
2019-01-05T06:38:04Z
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@ajroach42 @Canageek bitd I used to create *nixy-like cli tools in Asic (it's almost basic.) This command file assembler (.com) is still available as a shareware. It is very performant.You can persist variables with memory hacks.The most important tool for me was the line editor; I eventually hacked together my own, but get super familiar with the arcana of whichever line editor you are working with.You can draw and animate windows in batch. It is a waste of time, but you can do it.
(DIR) Post #2661801 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T06:48:36Z
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@ajroach42 @tricoteur yeah I'm not sure why you'd want to do that these days. I use batch files because there's some really simple things that it's good and it's almost always available on any Windows computer which is about all I can rely on at work. however if you want to do something more complex than that any Windows 10 computer supports bash or you can install python, both of which seem like they'd be far easier to run in a modern day if you have to install stuff anyway
(DIR) Post #2661915 by tricoteur@pouet.ca
2019-01-05T06:55:20Z
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@Canageek @ajroach42 <big nods> Or, you know, you could use a gui.But assuming you want to build stuff from scratch in DOS... this gave me some PTSD flashbacks:https://www.dostips.com/DtTipsMenu.php
(DIR) Post #2661930 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T06:56:11Z
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@tricoteur @ajroach42 You can't script GUIs
(DIR) Post #2661946 by tricoteur@pouet.ca
2019-01-05T06:56:54Z
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@Canageek @ajroach42 You can in Mac OS. I have never looked into it in Linux/Windows.
(DIR) Post #2661968 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T06:57:48Z
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@tricoteur @ajroach42 I mean, you can script the gui using a script, but you can't just save a bunch of gui commands in an arbitrary program. (Or, you can with third party programs, but I think moving windows or such would break it easily....)
(DIR) Post #2662025 by tricoteur@pouet.ca
2019-01-05T07:00:51Z
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@Canageek @ajroach42 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleScript
(DIR) Post #2662035 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T07:01:44Z
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@tricoteur @ajroach42 Right, you are writing a script.
(DIR) Post #2662061 by tricoteur@pouet.ca
2019-01-05T07:03:54Z
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@Canageek @ajroach42 There is an interface which lets you simply perform the gui actions, which it records. And you can use it to animate Quartz, moving the cursor to a window, clicking, that sort of cra... thing.It is a long time hang-over from MacOS 7 onward iirc. Not sure how much of it is still in there.
(DIR) Post #2662314 by Canageek@cybre.space
2019-01-05T07:19:36Z
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@tricoteur @ajroach42 Ahhhh