[Coco] NitrOS-9 Help Message suggestion

[William Carlin]

I was briefly looking into this.  How can the 'help' program determine what
the screen width is?  I know you can set the page length with tmode but see
nothing there that describes the width of the current screen.

{N2|03}/DD:tmode
/N2
 upc=00 bso=01 dlo=00 eko=01 alf=01 nul=00 pau=00 pag=18
 bsp=08 del=18 eor=0D eof=1B rpr=04 dup=01 psc=17 int=03
 qut=05 bse=08 ovf=07 par=00 bau=00 xon=00 xof=00

The width of the screen I copied this from is 80 columns.  I do not see an
entry set to $50 that would indicate an 80 column screen.

I have not cracked open the OS9 technical documentation yet.  Perhaps this
can be gleaned thought one of the getstat options?


William



On Sat, Dec 31, 2016 at 2:42 PM, Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net> wrote:

> Dave Philipsen wrote:
>
>> Is it just a matter of word wrap?
>>
>> Dave Philipsen
>>
>>
> Not really. Here is an example of a help message and what it looks like on
> a 32 col screen. Note that because of the line overrun, you lose lines as
> the screen pause does not occur at 16 lines.
> The col 32 screen has TMODE PAU=1 for a pause.
>
> col80 screen
> ============================================================
> ===================
> {Term|02}/DD:help dsave
> Syntax: Dsave [<opts>] [<to path>]
> Usage : Generates procedure file to copy all files from the
>         current directory to <to path>
> Opts  :
>   -b = make a system disk by using OS9boot if present
>   -b=<path> = make system disk using path as source
>   -i = indent for directory levels
>   -l = do not process below the current level
>   -m = do not include makdir commands in procedure file
>   -n = don't load copy/cmp
>   -r = force rewrite of file on copy
>   -s<num> = set copy size to num K
>   -t = don't issue tmode (pause/nopause)
>   -v = verify copies
>
> Examples:
>    Create a script to copy /h0 to /h5 with forced rewrite:
>        chd /h0; dsave -r /h5 > dsave.out
>
>    Immediately copy /d0 to /d1 with a 24K copy buffer:
>        chd /d0; dsave -s24 /d1 ! shell -p
>
> ============================================================
> ====================
>
> Now a col32 screen1
> ================================
>   -i = indent for directory leve
> ls
>   -l = do not process below the
> current level
>   -m = do not include makdir com
> mands in procedure file
>   -n = don't load copy/cmp
>   -r = force rewrite of file on
> copy
>   -s<num> = set copy size to num
>  K
>   -t = don't issue tmode (pause/
> nopause)
>   -v = verify copies
>
> Examples:
> ================================
>
> screen2
> ================================
>
> nopause)
> -v = verify copies
>
> Examples:
>    Create a script to copy /h0 t
> o /h5 with forced rewrite:
>        chd /h0; dsave -r /h5 > d
> save.out
>
>    Immediately copy /d0 to /d1 w
> ith a 24K copy buffer:
>        chd /d0; dsave -s24 /d1 !
>  shell -p
>
>
> OS9:
> ================================
>
> Beginners have a hard enough time learning OS-9 without mangled help
> messages. :)
>
>
> Robert
>
>
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