TH GROU MACR FACILIT I ZFILE v1.0f
b Ric Charnes Jun 24 198 Sa Francisco

     Ja Sag ha release  versio o hi ZFILE whic ha th 
extraordinar abilit t ru  macr comman lin upo AL tagge 
files  Thi i th firs tim thi ha bee done  ZFILE i 
base upo VFILE an run bes o ZCPR3 o BGii   _believe -
 bu a no sur  tha excep fo an ZE file tha ma b i 
one' comman scrip fil i wil ru fairl wel o ZCPR30.

     Thes ar jus som informa comment th firs par o 
whic  originall intende fo Ja personally.

                            *

      It' quit amazing  Really reall nic t have  Thi i on 
beautifu product  I i  qualitativ advanc ove an previou 
version o ZFILE an VFILER.

      Nic aestheti effect  Th tag disappear th scree 
clears  fe second o anticipatio an myster whil th *.ZE 
fil i created the ZE loads...

      Yes, it would be nice to have ZFILER generate a group list 
in a single command.  One of the most important uses to which I'd 
like to put the group macro facility is similar to what you 
describe in the doc file: inserting with NULU a number of tagged 
files into a single, already-existing library.

      The '$!'=GO feature is wonderful.  Very nice.

      *** This further reminds me of how I wish that we could 
eventually create a ZEX (control directive, perhaps) that would 
suppress display of the system prompt.  Really clutters up the 
displa fo me  Also i woul g  lon wa her toward givin 
th use  feelin o experiencin somethin ne an different  
Th use wouldn' eve hav t kno ZE i runnin a all.

      Yes, if ZFILER could read from ZFILER.CMD various 
information such as initial text to include before the macro 
commands, one thing I'd like would be to put in a ^. directive to 
turn off display of each individual ZEX command, thereby making 
"cleaner" displays.  But this of course necessitates putting a 
"|" after each line in ZEX.  Wonder if this can be done.  Also, 
we then have our age-old incompatibility between the ^.  and ^& 
ZEX control directives.


[en o comment t Jay no fo genera note o th program]


      hav mad  chang t m ZFILER/ZE syste tha feel t 
m ver significan an greatl add t it aestheti effect  M 
stron sens upo firs runnin th grou macr facilit wa tha 
thi featur shoul "feel t th use ver special a i s/h wer usin  ne progra tha ha neve befor existed tha 
relies o al ne tools  Afte firs th tag o th desire 
file disappea an the th scree i cleared the whe th 
use see th "ZE 3.1a loadin messag displaye a th to o 
th screen i m min ther i som letdow i th leve o 
mystery o suspens an excitement   don' wan t se th 
sam ol ZEX thi i a extraordinar NE featur an  wan i 
t b announce a such   thin th use shoul hav th 
feelin tha thi i a al-ne sel-containe program  Here' 
wha  did:

      mad mysel  secon cop o ZE t us onl fo thi 
purpos an calle i ZBX.COM   the foun wher th sig-o 
displa messag i locate i ZBX.COM it' th 1 byte betwee 
0F22 an 0F32h   the patche i (wit ZPATCH EDFILE o 
whateve i you favorit patchin tool t rea somethin mor 
appropriat t a extraordinar progra lik ZF10F.COM   hav 
i tur o m terminal' blin vide attribute the th tex 

                         Stan b *

Yo hav te byte exactly thi shoul fit  Simpl patc ove 
th ol "ZEX31.a tex  yo shoul se i locate betwee "$"' 
tha ac a strin delimiters.

     The yo hav anothe job  W hav t convinc ZFILE t 
ru th comman lin "ZB ZFILER rathe tha "ZE ZFILER  
Otherwis i won' eve fin ou ne program  ( prefe t leav 
on cop o ZEX.CO a i an us i fo mos applications.  G 
int ZFILER.CO thi tim t locatio 1E25 (recor #59 an 
you'l fin th strin "ze zfiler whic i wha you'r lookin 
for  Simpl chang "zex t "zbx o whateve you'v name you 
ne progra an you'r i business  Fro the o ZFILE wil 
loo fo ZB.CO rathe tha ZEX.COM.

     Tr ou th grou macr facility  Firs you tag wil 
clear the you scree wil blank  Afte abou  secon o tw 
you ne messag wil com on lookin clean brigh an fresh   
Th use (you!? doesn' kno thi featur ha anythin t d 
wit ZE a all   rea nic touc o myster an newness  

                                      *

     Th secon bi o enjoymen  ha wit ZF10 wa i usin 
th residen G wit  comman lin usin NUL simila t tha 
use b Ja a a exampl i ZF10F.DOC  I' jus startin t 
fin mor an mor use fo GO   kno Ja an other hav bee 
ravin abou i fo quit  whil bu unti  stoppe usin 
HSH.CO  couldn' understan wha al th hubbu wa about  (G 
canno b use whil HS i loaded.  Usin i wit ZFILER' 
grou macr featur i th idea wa t se it powe i action  
It' extremel impressiv her an i quit awesom t watch.

     I' no sur wh Ja didn' indicat i hi sampl NUL 
comman lin i th documentatio tha i coul b use wit GO  T allo fo this simpl prefac th comman lin wit th 
symbo "$! immediatel prio t an touchin th firs strin 
'NULU'  M particula comman lin is:

$!nul - $"Nam o librar ([DIR:]LIBNAME):  - $ -x;er $f

A explaine i th documentation th "$! indicate t ZFILE 
whe i expand th comman lin tha al bu th firs 
invocatio shoul substitut th wor 'GO fo th wor 'NULU 
whe i i expanded  S th comman lin buil fo th firs 
tagge fil wil ru wit NUL an al successiv comman line 
wil substitut th wor 'GO'  Fo thos who lik mysel unti 
now hav alway consigne th 'GO comman t th categor of
"somethin tha othe peopl us bu wha ca _I d wit it?" 
her i you chance  It spee i quit impressive.

      did however ru int som problem initially Th cop 
o NUL tha  ha bee usin refuse t loa wit GO  I 
return wit th infamou 'NUL CR error message indicatin 
tha th cop i see o itsel a loade i no wha i 
know itsel as   wa quit disappointed a thi particula 
us o grou macro  insertin  numbe o disparat file int 
 singl alread existin librar  wa on o th preeminen 
use t whic  ha bee wantin t pu it   ha alread 
devise severa other les elegant way t d thi frequentl-
performe tas an wa reall lookin forwar t this.

      didn' reall understan wh NULU' erro-checkin woul 
fin somethin differen whe r-loade wit G compare t th 
firs tim i ran  Bu th olde  ge th mor  realiz tha 
i thi worl sometime yo hav t ac o thing yo don' 
understand  Now afte havin experimente  bi an see som 
puzzlin thing  believ  understan wha wa goin on  Bu 
I'l explai tha later.

      certainl wasn' prepare t giv up  Havin see G i 
operatio i  grou macr comman lin  create usin VTYP 
(man i yo wan t se ---t tr this  remembere C.F 
Falcone cam ou wit  patc t alte th wa NUL doe it 
interna erro checking   modifie NUL wit hi patch thereb 
creatin NULU152.COM an trie thi wit m comman line  Nope  
Stil n good  Apparentl an interna erro checkin a al 
prohibit G fro bein use wit NULU  (Actually a  late 
foun ou thi isn' entirel true  Bu a th tim  though 
so.

     I m searc o th variou BBS's however  cam acros  
muc mor simpl patc t NUL tha Mr Falconer's whos 
functio i t rende interna erro checkin completel nul an 
void  I i i  fil calle NULU.PA b on Jo Saxton  Al 
on nee t i chang th ver firs instruction "J 0146" t 
"J 01A2 an i wil bypas th erro checkin completely  
Simpl chang th byt a 0101 fro 4 t A2  O course thi 
defeat th purpose etc etc etc bu fo m  prefe i thi 
way   don' reall min th loadin tim o th origina progra bu i th ne wa work wit G tha doe i fo me  I 
works.

     No  thin I' i  positio t understan wh G didn' 
wor fo m o th unpatche versio o NULU  A th en o th 
NUL documentatio ther i  sectio detailin  numbe o 
area wher  use migh patc th program suc a t instal 
vide attribute an especiall t inser  comman lin tha 
NUL wil ru whe firs invoked   kno  mad som o thes 
patche year ag t m cop o NULU  Apparentl whe NUL i 
loade _normally it' smar enoug t tel th CR erro 
checkin i _normally perform o itsel t NO pa attentio t 
thes changes t no se the a qualitativ an possibl fata 
revision t th program  Whe loade wit GO however fo som 
reaso thi "conditiona checking featur seem t b bypasse 
an w ge th "full checking  Therefor i see thes 
innocuou change a dangerou an w ar give th erro 
message   believ  completel virgi cop o NUL wil ru 
fin unde GO  I yo hav patche you cop a all however 
simpl ru Jo Saxton' patc o i an i wil wor fine.

     Note b th way tha  hav a 'ER $F comman a th en 
o th NUL comman line   us thi macr t ad file t  
librar an the delet the a dis file onc they'r safel 
ensconce withi th library  Whe  firs wa envisionin 
runnin thi wit G  wa thinking "Nah i won' work 'GO 
wil jus reloa th 'ER $F comman sinc tha i th las on 
ru befor G i invoked.  Bu the  realized nop  G onl 
r-run th las < *.CO fil > tha wa loaded  I run onl 
whateve i hangin ou a 010 he i th TP whic i wher CO 
file run   haven' th slightes ide wher memor-resident 
lik ER d thei thin bu  kno it' no there  S havin ER 
ther work fine an G doesn' touc i a all.

     B th wa  thin it' ironi tha tw ne program hav 
com ou a abou th sam tim tha perfor simila task bu i 
differen ways  Drea Nielsen' super FOR/NEXT/PERFOR serie 
(i FO-NXT2.LBR o -Node everywhere i anothe wa t ru a 
operatio o serie o operation o  numbe o disparat files  
 ca us FO an PERFOR t d precisel thi sam tas o 
addin file t  library:

            FO <file1 <file2 <file3 <file4>
            PERFOR nul - libnam - $ -x
                                        |
                                       [Thi i th symbo fo 
                                       paramete substitutio i 
                                       PERFORM.COM.]

Interestingly thi run MUC slowe tha doin wit ZF10F  Thi 
i onl partl du t th fac tha i ZF10 th comman lin 
generatio take plac withi ZEX whic i memor-based wherea 
PERFORM.CO mus loa fro dis eac time  I i ver 
importantl als becaus o ou us o G i ZFILER  Wit th 
FOR/PERFOR method no onl mus PERFORM.CO loa eac tim fro dis bu s mus NULU!

      eagerl awai Jay' ne ZFILE codin tha wil allo th 
grou macr facilit t buil  singl lis o al th tagge 
file  Thi o cours wil spee u operation considerabl an 
reall pu th featur int  qualitativel ne realm  I th 
meantim runnin somethin lik thi wit th residen G comman 
goe  lon wa toward makin thi ne program lik virtuall 
everythin Ja does quit extraordinary.

                                        
                               Ric Charnes
                               Sa Francisc Morro user group
                               Z-Node 1 2  15
                               Jun 24 1987
rancisc Morro user group
                               Z-Node 1 2  15
             