------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Script.doc -- Access! (C) 1987/88 By Keith Young -- Other text files in this archive: Access!me The origional 'doc' file describing most of Access!'s features. Future.txt This author's ramblings about what the future may hold for Access! (please read) Update.doc Documentation describing additions/changes to the current release of Access! (please read) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Time: -23:- Date: 8/14/88 Subject: Script Commands and Formats Scripts -- I am in the process of adding 'real' scripts (as opposed to the 'psuedo scripts' that _were_ available through the macro keys). This release has a limited (first) verson of the new scripting language and it will be expaned in future releases. Below are listed the various commands (and format for each command) that are currently implemented. There should also be an example script in the arc. ( anything within the [] is optional, but may effect the way the command works ). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASEND Format: ASEND [drive:dir/filename] Discusion: This will start an ASCII text send of the filename given. Or if there is an ASCII send in progress, it will abort the send. This command just 'starts' (or stops) the send in motion then continues with the script. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEEP Format: BEEP Discusion: Causes an audible 'beep' of the terminal. This can be used to signal certain events such as the script finishing, a certain string being recieved, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BYE Format: BYE Discusion: This will cause the the terminal to hangup the modem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CAPTURE Format: CAPTURE [drive:dir/filename] Discusion: Opens an ASCII capture file with the specified name. Or if there is an ASCII capture already in progress, it will close the capture file. This command just 'starts' (or stops) the capture then continues with the next script command. See Also: TOGLCAP, ASEND ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DELAY Format: DELAY x Discusion: Causes a delay of 'x' seconds. eg. DELAY 10 will delay the execution of the script for 10 seconds (there is a minimum of 1 second). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISPLAY Format: DISPLAY "Strings with spaces in them must have quotes |" Discusion: This command is used for displaying messages to the local screen (not sent to the modem). This can be used to help you debug your scripts, using several of these in various parts of your script will let you know where you currently are within the script (this is my 'printf()' 8) See Also: DISPEN, BEEP, ON, WAIT, SEND ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISPEN Format: DISPEN x Discusion: Sets the 'pen color' for DISPLAYed messages. Where 'x' is a number from 0-15 for one of the 16 colors of the terminal. See Also: DISPLAY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXIT Format: EXIT Discusion: Exit the current script. (need I say more? 8) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOTO Format: GOTO Label Discusion: The normal execution of a script is from top to bottom. You can use GOTO to jump to a specified position ( a label) in the script (can be either a forwards or backwards jump). See then 'General' section below for the format of a label. ( I know... a GOSUB would be nice... I'll look into it 8) See Also: ON, WAIT, General (below) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEND Format: SEND "Send this out to the modem, plus a return char-> | " Discusion: Sends a string to the modem. Strings with spaces in them must have quotes. A '|' char is interpreted as a CR. See Also: DISPLAY, ASEND ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOGLCAP Format: TOGLCAP Discusion: The first time this cammand is used, it will open an ASCII capture file with the name specified in the DEFINE window of Access! as the "Def.Capture:". Subsiquent (sp) calls will toggle the capturing on/off without closing the file. It 'suspends' and 'unsuspends' the capturing, this works _exactly_ the same as hitting from within the program and can be used along with the keyboard command. To close a capture file after it's been started using this command, use the CAPTURE command with no filename. (this file will also be closed when you quit the program but not automatically when the script finishes). See Also: CAPTURE, ASEND ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ON Format: ON "Password:" SEND "MyPassword|" ON "?a?sword?" SEND "MyPassword|" ON "NO CARRIER" GOTO Exit ON "Hey Fred" BEEP ON "dir" ASEND dh0:Acc!BBS/filelist (hint, for the future 8) Discusion: Even though only one 'on string' is allowed at a time (currently), this is a powerful command. It tells the terminal to store the 'string' in memory and if/when the term recieves it (no matter where else it may be in the script at the time) to stop what it's doing and perform the specified command. As mentioned above, currently only _one_ ON string is stored in memory at a time... each call to ON will replace it with the new string to look for. This command along with WAIT (below) and GOTO make a powerful team if used wisely. (hopefully, future versions will allow multiple ON strings for matching... this (and a few other 'parsing' and conditional-type commands) would make a simple automated BBS a trivial thing to do... all with just a script .... I like it ) See Also: WAIT (in particular), and every other command ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINT Format: PRINT Discusion: Toggles the printer on/off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WAIT Format: WAIT "Password:" WAIT "?as?word?" Discusion: Causes the execution of the script to _stop_ until the specified string is recieved. When/if the string is received, the script continues at the next instruction. If the string is never recieved, the script never continues, and must be manually aborted. You might want to setup an ON string (see above) before using WAIT for a way to bail out in case the string you are WAITing for doesn't arrive. See Also: ON, GOTO, General (below) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- General I'd like to make a few comments that apply to the scripts in general... o The commands ON and WAIT have a 'string' as thier argument. This string is 1) case sensitive 2) must be 20 chars. or less 3) you may use a '?' char. as a wild-card to match any single char. (this is useful if you are not sure of the 'case' of a particular char. in a string you will be waiting on, or if you are like me and just plain don't know how to spell it 8). o You may use 'white space' to whatever degree suits your taste of formatting. ( TABs SPaces and (I think) LFeeds ) o A '|' char. is interpreted by the script parser as a char. o A ';' charactor is used to specify a comment line, anything after the ';' charactor is ignored by the script parser. Currently, comments must be on a line by themselves and may _not_ be on the same line as a command. o A label is specified by a ':' char following a case sensitive string. Generally, a descriptive word with the first letter in Upper-case should be used, although this is not required. Here is a short example of how the GOTO command and labels might be used (see the supplied example script file for further examples)... Top: ;--------------------------------------------------------------------- ; First set up an ON string in case something goes wrong... note that ; you can use all the 'white space' you want between the command ; and it's argument and at the beggining of the line ;--------------------------------------------------------------------- ON "NO CARRIER" GOTO Exit WAIT "Name:" SEND "Roger Rabbit|" WAIT "Password:" SEND "IDunWorkForNo'Toons|" WAIT "Command:" ;--------------------------------------------------------------------- ; Ok, we're logged on to this 'made up' BBS, so lets open up a capture ; file and read new messages ;--------------------------------------------------------------------- CAPTURE dh0:msgs/filename SEND "rtn|" ;--------------------------------------------------------------------- ; Now we'll reset the ON string to set up a little loop to send a ; return char each time we get a 'Read Action:' prompt... until we ; get back to the main 'Command:' prompt that we are WAITing for ;--------------------------------------------------------------------- ON "Read Action:" GOTO Again Again: SEND "|" WAIT "Command:" ;--------------------------------------------------------------------- ; We're through reading new messages, so close the capture, send the ; logoff string to the BBS, hang up the modem, then Beep to signal ; that the script is done and finally Exit ;--------------------------------------------------------------------- CAPTURE SEND "Goodbye|" Exit: BYE BEEP EXIT