---------------------------------------------------------------------- Combine by David M. Balean, 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = -  There is a very real problem with the AmigaDOS "JOIN" command. What happens if you wish to join 100 files? Quite frankly it is a pain in the unmentionable. Not only are you unable to join that many files at one go, but a mistake could land you in some more unmentionable. Here is my answer to that difficulty. "Combine" takes the name of a file containing a list of the files you wish to join together and sends them in same order as in that list to the designated destination file. There are QUIET and DELETE options and the standard output can be redirected. The name of the list file can't be the same as the destination but it can be placed in list file as one of the source files. SHELL or CLI usage ------------------ When used from the SHELL or CLI the format is:- COMBINE [FROM] {list file} [AS/TO] {destination file} [Q/QUIET] [D/DELETE] Redirection in this case is managed by AmigaDOS in the normal manner with the following: ">filename" to create a new output file, deleting any pre-existing file ">>filename" to append to an already existing file "" because that will be taken to be part of the filename! If designated, any existing file will have the output appended to it so that it's original contents won't be lost, otherwise a new file will be created. In general it is probably better to let the output go to the window as normal and simply press the return key unless you want a log of what happened. Remember that all user input is treated literally! The input routine accepts characters $20 to $7e and $a1 to $ff as literals. This is the normal and alternate character sets more or less complete. The Del key generates character $7f and this causes the character under the cursor to be deleted and the rest of the line is moved left one place. If there is no character under the cursor, a screen "DisplayBeep" is generated. The Backspace key has "<-" on it (as does the cursor left key) and this generates character $0b. This is similar to the Del key except that it causes the key to the left of the cursor to be deleted. The right and left cursor keys operate as normal but if an attempt is made to move out of the existing input string a screen "DisplayBeep" is generated. The left and right cursor keys can also be operated in shifted mode in which case the cursor is moved to the beginning or end of the string. The "RETURN" or"ENTER" key generates character $0D which terminates the entry of that patricular input. All the other keys are ignored and may or may not generate a screen "DisplayBeep".  Icons - Tool and Project: Combine can be started under Workbench in either of two ways. Firstly it can be started from it's own icon in the normal way. If you do this then all path names either have to be complete or worked out from position in the file structure of the "Combine " program. The other way is to use it's "Do_Combine" project icon. As this occupies very little disk space, copies can be made for wherever it is needed. Put the "Combine" program's full pathname in the default tool of the icon using "Information" in the Workbench menu. If you have made "Combine" resident with the AmigaDOS "Resident" command, just insert "Combine" into the default tool name without any path. In this case "Combine" picks up the current directory to use from the icon's position in the file structure. It's actually a lot simpler than it sounds. The way I use "Combine" is to place the program in a directory called "bin". I prefer to keep the C directory for standard commands only. In my startup sequence "bin" is placed in the search path using the "PATH" command so that it is only necessary to place "Combine" in the default tool of the project icon. The File List -------------  Filenames: The filenames in the list must be separated by white space or on separate lines. If a filename contains any spaces it must be surrounded by double quotes which are treated as invalid characters as far as filenames are concerned. Combine will accept the output file of the "DIR" AmigaDOS command assuming that the output is all files and no directories. However if any files do contain spaces in their names it will be necessary to surround these names with double quotes first.  Comments: It is also possible to include comments in the list. A comment starts with a semicolon. The rest of the line is treated as a comment. If it starts after a filename, make sure there is a space after the filename. Example of a list: ;list file - this is a comment ,,,¨¦Þµ,,;;.®;;i Anything you like! Filename1 Filename2 Filename3 "Filename 4" ;Another comment "Filename 5" ;END OF FILE - another comment! Options -------  QUIET or Q If the QUIET option is chosen there are no progress reports sent to the user's window or designated output file if output has been redirected. The only exception to this is if there was a Workbench start in which case the user is requested to press a key to quit the program at completion. If the operating system is Version 2 or higher there is the option of clicking the mouse on the CLOSEWINDOW gadget to quit at termination.  DELETE or D It may be that the chosen destination file already exists or that the destination file is mentioned once or more within the source file list. For the AmigaDOS "JOIN" command it is illegal for a source file to be the same as the destination... Combine allows this however. The list file is scanned before any attempts to create the destination file. What happens is that the original destination file is saved to a temporary file in the "T:" directory which MUST exist if this happens. If it doesn't, the program will quit with an error message provided the QUIET option hasn't been specified. No harm will be done. If the "T:" directory exists, the normal state of affairs, and the file was successfully copied, then all future references to that file as a source are treated as being the saved file, and not the original. This prevents the file from being overwitten and then being unavailable for future appending if in the list. What the "DELETE" option does is to automatically delete such a temporary if it has been created. If there has been an error, however, the file is automatically retained. As long as the "QUIET" option hasn't been selected the user will be kept informed as to what happened. ABORT ----- To abort the program simply press [Ctrl C] or [Ctrl D] in the normal way. All memory allocation, unclosed files and locks get cleaned up in the normal way by the program's exit routine. Also the current directory is returned to the original as I have found the SHELL sometimes misbehaves (not disastrously) if this happens. Resident -------- Combine can be made resident with the AmigaDOS "RESIDENT" command. As it would probably only be used at infrequent intervals this is a little bit of overkill but I wanted to test it out. Version ------- To display the version use the AmigaDOS command VERSION Combine full General Information & What I Learned ------------------------------------ I started this program partly because I wanted to check out the SAS/C library function "getch()" which returns an immediate character much as "getchar()" does on other systems. I had earlier discovered that it recognized the WINDOWCLOSE gadget but it didn't seem to do so every time. For a long time I couldn't work out what was going on. The AmigaDOS Reference Guide makes it plain that in RAW: mode [as per "getch()] the input event itself gets transmitted and in the Amiga ROM Kernal reference it is stated that it is terminated with '|'. I thought at first that there was a fixed length to this but I was wrong. After about a week of getting nowhere I realized that the real problem was that "stdout" must be flushed every time otherwise things went totally up the spout. I also managed to freeze Workbench on numerous occasions, something I've never done before. I traced this to my use of the SAS/C library function "chdir()". It appears that it is safe under most circumstances but not every time. I can't see why. I found that the AmigaDOS function "CurrentDir()" to be bulletproof so I have stuck with that. One other thing that has annoyed me for some time with the later versions of SAS/C which I didn't encounter previously is that "feof()" is supposed to set the EOF flag when the end of file is reached. In fact it doesn't do so; the next non-existent byte has to be read first. This gives no input byte of course so an error condition has to be checked in any case. You can't use something like "while (!(feof(fp))". It doesn't really matter except that the "feof()" function is rendered useless. Endo of file shouldn't have to be treated as an error state. Lastly, I haven't had any problems with this version but I have to suggest that you use it at your own risk! I hope it makes someone's life easier. I haven't tested it on OS1.3 but it should be OK. Combine v1.5 © David M. Balean 1994 Machine used was Amiga 2000HD with Derringer 68030 and total 7MB ram, OS2.04 Compiled with the C language using SAS/C 6.50 Text editor used was Cygnus Ed v2.11 Program size 15744 bytes David M. Balean 44, Wyong Road Killarney Vale N.S.W. 2261 5th March 1994 - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = -