From: 890491g@dragon.acadiau.ca (Don Graves)
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Keyboard Interrupt
Date: 28 Aug 92 16:40:46 GMT
Organization: Acadia University

dspascha@eos.ncsu.edu (DAVID SCOTT PASCHAL) writes:


>In article <g89f2900.4.714907231@giraffe.ru.ac.za>, g89f2900@giraffe.ru.ac.za (MR BRI FAWTHROP) writes:
>|> Hi
>|> 
>|> I am trying to write  program  which reads the keyboard buffer, before the 
>|> command.com interrupter does.
>|> In other words
>|> I want to write a program that if certain keywords are typed in it will go 
>|> and do some function.
>|> otherwise it must act as normal.
>|> 
>|> eg
>|>  enter CLS
>|>    I want it to first do the normal clearscreen 
>|>    but afterwards it must print my name and time and other tings on the top 
>|>    of the screen.
>|>         ( I will write the program that prints my name and other things )
>|>         ( But I need to know how to link in the keyboard interrupt   so )
>|>         ( that when it reads CLS if first does CLS and then comes and   )
>|>         ( executes my program. )
>|> 
>|>  OR
>|>  enter TIME
>|>    I want it to ask me if I want to change the time or just display it.
>|>    THEN it must go and do the NORMAL time function.
>|>           ( same applies here I will write the program but how do I )
>|>           ( link it into the keyboard interrupt )
>|> 
>|> Does anyone know if this is possible ???
>|> 
>|> PLEASE I HAVE BEEN TRYING FOR +/- 4 mths. BUT no-one I have asked knows
>|> what to do or even how to HELP
>|> 
>|> 

>Hi.  This seems rather difficult to do with a keyboard intercept, partly because
>it would be difficult to determine whether or not you're sitting at a
>COMMAND.COM C:\> prompt or in an application program.  What I would suggest is
>this: take a disk editor and "hack" up COMMAND.COM -- find where in the file it
>stores its command table, and replace maybe the first letter of each command
>you want to change with an underscore (or whatever character you want to use --
>just be sure it's some character allowed in a filename).  So let's say you've
>changed "TIME" and "CLS" to "_IME" and "_LS".  Now create some batch files
>called "TIME.BAT" and "CLS.BAT" that say something like the following:

>CLS.BAT:
>_ls
>echo Hi.  This is my computer.  Hope you enjoy it.

>TIME.BAT:
>echo Hi.  Do you want to change the time? (Y/N)
>yesno
>if errorlevel 1 goto settime
>_ime<newline.txt
>goto end
>:settime
>time
>:end

>In addition, you'll need to create a file with a single blank line called
>"newline.txt" (or whatever you want to call it) that when fed into the standard
>input of the _IME command will do the same thing as pressing <Enter> at the
>"Enter new time" prompt.  You'll also need to find or write a short program
>that waits for a Y or N to be pressed on the keyboard and returns exit code 1
>if Y or y pressed, otherwise exit code 0.  But this shouldn't be too hard to
>write.  (I suppose a lot easier than writing a keyboard interrupt handler to
>do all this!)  :-)

>Hope this helps.

>Tschuess,
>David Paschal

Another thing that you might try is adding time and date variables in your
prompt statement.  For example, 
prompt $t $d $P$G
will give you the prompt:
<time> <date> C:\>
There is a way to make it so that you time and date always appears at the top
of the screen (or anywhere on the screen) by issuing the proper strings within
your prompt statement.  Your DOS manual has all of the possible strings, but
I do remember using them in the form
prompt $e[
or something like that.  I really can't remember any particular command string
(escape sequence is what they're called) and I wish I could because it would be
more of a help to you.  But at least it's something you could check out.
I remember there being a sequence that allows you to put the cursor anywhere
on the screen.  When I made my time prompt, all I did was add strings that
saved the current cursor position, moved the cursor to the desired location,
display the time/date/my name (in whatever color I wanted), then a command t
o put the cursor back where it was in the first place.  You can make some
nice prompt displays this way (make the whole screen color, display the path
and drive at the top of the screen, but use a > as the user prompt, etc.)
Anyway, give it a try.
-Sorry for the vague description, but my manuals and DOCs (and memory) are not
here to help me.


-- 
--
Don Graves
Acadia University, Wolfville, N.S. Canada
don.graves@dragon.acadiau.ca || 890491g@ace.acadiau.ca