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Extended Command Processor 8
============================
Copyright 1987 by Don Elton
Carolina System Software
2916-A Chatsworth Road
Columbia, SC 29223
(803) 788-7360
This is the electronic version of the Extended Command Processor 8 (ECP-8)
for ProDOS. This is a shareware combination operating system shell,
program selector, and utility package for any Apple II computer that can
run ProDOS. The electronic version is a subset of the full program
package in that several utilities, commands, and features are missing
from this package. There is still pleny of usefulness to be gained from
this limited version though. It is my hope that you'll like what you
see and send in the paltry $30 registration fee to receive the full
package along with over 50 pages of in-depth documentation in the form
of a user's guide for the non-programmer as well as a technical reference
for the assembly language or C programmer who would like to extends
further the capabilities of this already powerful package.
Registered ECP-8 owners will tell you that it is worth your while to
register so you can receive the frequent update notices when new
features are added to this package. Most of these new features are
added as a direct result of user suggestions/requests so I want to
hear from you if you have ideas of how the package might be
improved.
If you don't find the program useful then just erase the files and
respect this shareware agreement by not using the software. The only
way I'll continue to write programs like this for shareware distribution
is if users support the effort. You'll do yourself and all of us a
favor if you support shareware software authors of programs you use.
If this program were being marketed on the retail level it would
cost you at least $80 or so if not more based on comparisons with
commercial competitors.
Because ECP-8 is a large software package you'll need to spend a few
minutes putting the package together on your disk. First off, a word
about program selectors. A program selector is a special type of
ProDOS program that is used to select or start application programs
such as your word processor or terminal program. When you use the
QUIT option from most ProDOS programs you ordinarily reach an
unfriendly screen that asks you for a prefix of the next application.
When a program selector is installed you are brought back to the
selector program automatically when you leave a ProDOS system program.
This way you no longer reboot your computer in frustration to switch
between your various application programs. For this scheme to work
correctly, the program selector itself (in this case ECP8.SYSTEM) should
be the first "system" program to be executed when you boot your computer.
You can assure that this will be the case by making sure that the file
ECP8.SYSTEM is the first file to be listed in the catalog of your boot
disk. You may need to do some renaming and file copying (using FILER
until you're more familiar with ECP-8) to accomplish this.
ECP-8 will look for two special subdirectories when it boots up. The
first is a directory named HELP. The HELP subdirectory should be
listed in the same directory as ECP8.SYSTEM. When you type the command
HELP <command.name>
at the ECP-8 prompt ":" then ECP-8 will search the HELP subdirectory for
a text file named <command.name> and will display it to the screen.
The HELP subdirectory is optional. If you don't have room for it or
don't need it then don't create it and ECP-8 will just disable the
HELP command no questions asked.
The other special subdirectory is the CMDS subdirectory. This is a
very useful (though still not required) subdirectory. It too should
reside in the same directory that ECP8.SYSTEM is found in. When you
type a command that isn't a built-in command to ECP-8 it will first
search for a file by that name in the directory that the ProDOS prefix
is set to. If it doesn't find the file there it will look for the file
in the CMDS subdirectory. This means that you can put ECP-8 external
commands, batch programs, or your own basic, assembler, c or other
utilities in this directory and never again have to remember where you
put them on your disk. ECP-8 always knows to look for any file in the
CMDS subdirectory if it can't find it in the current prefix directory.
To set up ECP-8 you should extract all of the members from the Binary II
file you downloaded onto a blank diskette. You will have to use the
Apple Library Utility (ALU) to do this. It is available separately
for downloading here on MAUG.
The following files are contained in ECP8.BNY:
ECP8.SYSTEM - the main ECP-8 system program
CP.STARTUP - an auto-start batch file for ECP-8
READ.ME - any last minute notices are included here
CMDS.BNY - several ECP-8 external commands are stored here
The contents of this BNY file should be placed in
your "CMDS" subdirectory described above. There's
one standard ECP-8 external command not supplied in
this file that you already have a copy of. You should
move your copy of BASIC.SYSTEM into the "CMDS" subdirectory
and then rename it as simply "BASIC". Then delete the
original BASIC.SYSTEM off your boot directory if it was
there as ECP8.SYSTEM should now be your default system
program.
HELP.BQY - this contains help files to be placed in the "HELP"
subdirectory described above. This is a SQUEEZED Binary II
file. Use the ECP command USQ to unsqueeze this file.
Just type "usq help.bqy" and the unsqueezed Binary II
file will be written to your disk. Then use a utility
such as ALU, BLU, or Binary.Dwn to unpack the Binary II
file into your HELP subdirectory. USQ is an external command
that you will find in CMDS.BNY so unpack CMDS.BNY first.
Brief pointers on how to use ECP-8:
----------------------------------
Read the help files.. they explain how to use most of the commands both
built-in to ECP-8 and several of the external commands. If you see help
for a command not included in this electronic version they are included
with the full version. There are also commands included in the full version
that do not have help files included with this electronic version of ECP-8.
To set a prefix just type the name of the directory.
To back up a prefix directory level just enter the "\" command.
To run a basic program just enter its name. So long as you have
the file BASIC in your "CMDS" subdirectory (and it's really a renamed
BASIC.SYSTEM) ECP-8 will run your basic program for you via BASIC.
To run a system program, binary program, or batch program, or external
command just type its name (see the pattern here?) ECP-8 will look at
anything you type and try to find a built-in command by that name. If
it's not built-in ECP-8 checks the PREFIX and then the CMDS directories
for a file of that name. If the file is a directory the PREFIX is
set there. If it's an executable file ECP-8 will try to run it.
Have fun and don't forget to mail in your check today for the latest
version of the software, the full utility package, a user's guide,
the technical reference guide, update notices, and a real warm
feeling inside for keeping low cost Apple software on the market.
-Don Elton
P.S. You may have noticed that this package is called ECP *8*. This is
because ProDOS 8 is the base operating system for the package (and is
included for registered users) and because there's now a 16-bit version
of ECP called ECP-16 that runs under ProDOS 16. ECP-16 is also a
shareware program that sells for $40 (and includes ECP-8 as a part of
the package).