programmer needs ideas

[REM]

Wasn't there a limit in a command prompt path?

Yes, but I found a small function that returns a short path\filename,
given the long. It works very nicely!

Absolutely right, although "open for read" still should be possible if you
would go along that road; the problems start when you try to write to the
file-in-use (as in deleting it), then the infamous "locked error" appears.

Take NTFS4DOS to create a floppy with full R/W support on NTFS volumes from
DOS (available at:

http://www.datapol-technologies.com/dpe/recovery/ntfs/index.html )

Then you could read the exe-files from the drive and possibly create the
list on the NTFS-volume (so the floppy can be write-protected)

Good idea. I know there will be problems with system protected files
in XP.

REM, how long is "loooooooongname" plus the remainder of the path??? Is it
<= 128?

Yes, the longest I've seen was 138, but the majority are less that
129. The function I found fixed this problem though.

I'm still testing (XP) John. I hope it will be ready by tomorrow. I
don't have a 98 box anymore to test it with. It cannot do any harm
though. It only checks files and writes reports for sfx files, program
files, and program errors.

 

[Al Klein]

John, is your interest here looking for suspicious .exe files on your
drive? As in spyware\adware that is silently installed, or something
like that?

His original request was about having a list of "installed programs"
so he could reinstall them if needed. ("Installed" meaning not just
those actually installed, but also executables, but not installation
sfx files, just existing on the drive.)

 

[Al Klein]

Al, I'm passing an array with the bat file name and the path for each
.exe in a system call. I'm placing parens around the path, but it's
not working. The only files that are processing correctly are 8.3
filenames and 8.3 paths:

It's been a long time since I wrote a batch file, but the quotes
should do it.

run.bat "C:\archive\loooooooongname\foo.exe" - no go

I can send that to another batch file and have it echo, and it echoes
correctly. Maybe something in run.bat is choking on it?

 

[Al Klein]

If one were able to exclude all .exe files that are compressed then
one should be left with .exe files that aren't compressed.

Which could be plain programs or installers that are .exe but not
compressed. And one would miss all the compressed plain
(non-installer) .exe files.

IOW, what's the all-inclusive definition of "installed program", as is
being used in this context. (It's probably easier to define "human
being".)

 

[Al Klein]

How about a program that allows you to connect two wireless clients
together without a wireless access point (like a crossover cable). Or
is this doable and I'm just not thinking straight because of the heat?
http://www.webdingers.com/filelist.html

 

[REM]

Al Klein <[email protected]> wrote:

It's been a long time since I wrote a batch file, but the quotes
should do it.

I can send that to another batch file and have it echo, and it echoes
correctly. Maybe something in run.bat is choking on it?

The author said that the program does not support long filenames. I
scratched my head for several hours trying to figure what the problem
was... I should have just asked in the first place.

 

[In_Parentheses]

Hi REM!

Yes, but I found a small function that returns a short path\filename,
given the long. It works very nicely!

Very good, that solves at least one problem you might have encountered!

Good idea. I know there will be problems with system protected files
in XP.

From a DOS environment I don't think there would be any problems (but I
don't have XP to test that with :-D). IMO these files are kept under
system protection as long as XP is running... anyone with more info on
this?

Yes, the longest I've seen was 138, but the majority are less that
129. The function I found fixed this problem though.

OKay, then that is solved.

I'm still testing (XP) John. I hope it will be ready by tomorrow. I
don't have a 98 box anymore to test it with. It cannot do any harm
though. It only checks files and writes reports for sfx files, program
files, and program errors.

If you need another W98 tester, just let me know, I still have a W98 box,
which I can hook up in 5 minutes!

 

[John Fitzsimons]

John, is your interest here looking for suspicious .exe files on your
drive? As in spyware\adware that is silently installed, or something
like that?

No. I have thousands of .exe files on my system. I am looking for
a way to find all .exe files that aren't "compressed" so that I can
create a list for transferring (installations) to another computer.

Regards, John.

 

[REM]

From a DOS environment I don't think there would be any problems (but I
don't have XP to test that with :-D). IMO these files are kept under
system protection as long as XP is running... anyone with more info on
this?

I run XP. I grabbed the NFTS4DOS app yesterday, but I haven't had a
chance to look at it yet. I'll give it a run (if I can find an
uncorrupted floppy) here in a little while.

If you need another W98 tester, just let me know, I still have a W98 box,
which I can hook up in 5 minutes!

Sure, let me give it a good once over, and make sure everything in
right, and I'll post a link. I'm pretty rusty...

 

[REM]

No. I have thousands of .exe files on my system. I am looking for
a way to find all .exe files that aren't "compressed" so that I can
create a list for transferring (installations) to another computer.

So you're more interested in finding the sfx files? Either way, a
report of both is created.

The sfx report is more accurate, as only files that were identified
with sfx signatures are in it. One ironic exception, is that the SHAID
exe will be listed as a sfx, because it's full of sfx signatures.
Other than that, the sfx report should be solid.

There a few installers that it doesn't catch. None of my archived
Avant installers was caught. Spybot also uses an archiver the program
doesn't catch. I'll try listing the other ones that I see, as testing
goes on.

 

[In_Parentheses]

Hi REM!

I run XP. I grabbed the NFTS4DOS app yesterday, but I haven't had a
chance to look at it yet. I'll give it a run (if I can find an
uncorrupted floppy) here in a little while.

If the floppy is beyond recognition by the program, it will format it,
put a copy of FreeDOS on it, together with the necessary files for NTFS-
access, so you can even use a blank floppy!

Sure, let me give it a good once over, and make sure everything in
right, and I'll post a link. I'm pretty rusty...

OK, I will wait for the link to be posted. You may be rusty, but in the
Windows era there are only few people left who can make a good
functioning batch file that is more complex tha "@echo off" ;-D

 

[REM]

"In_Parentheses" <[email protected]> wrote:

If the floppy is beyond recognition by the program, it will format it,
put a copy of FreeDOS on it, together with the necessary files for NTFS-
access, so you can even use a blank floppy!

I've had pretty horrible luck in floppy quality the last few years.
Right out of the box most of them are bad and cannot be formatted. I
don't know if the floppies are being made so cheaply that they are
worthless, or if the particular floppy drives I've tried them in are
the same.

I have some old floppies I keep around for just such occasion that
work.

OK, I will wait for the link to be posted. You may be rusty, but in the
Windows era there are only few people left who can make a good
functioning batch file that is more complex tha "@echo off" ;-D

Aw man, you should read [alt.msdos.batch], and [alt.msdos.batch.nt]!

Those guys are awesome. REM came from batch to munge the email address
here. It's been so long that I'm next to useless. The only batch that
I used was to get a dir listing of all .exe files on the drive.

Can you verify that this works in 98:

dir /b /s C:\*.exe

Should produce a listing like this:

C:\Archive\gdiscan.exe
C:\Archive\UBCD4WinV23.exe
C:\Archive\123PasswordRecovery\123.exe
C:\Archive\123PasswordRecovery\123pwdrec_setup.exe
C:\Archive\Adaware\aawsepersonal(1).exe
C:\Archive\Adaware\aawsepersonal.exe
C:\Archive\AdobeAcrobat\AdbeRdr705_enu_full.exe
C:\Archive\Agent\agentenu200-652.exe
C:\Archive\Agent31\agentenu-spelleng300-100.exe
C:\Archive\Agent31\agentenu310-783.exe
C:\Archive\Aida32\aida32ne_393.exe
C:\Archive\Aida32\aida32-3942\aida32.exe
C:\Archive\Aida32\aida32ee_393\aida32.exe
C:\Archive\Aida32\aida32pe_393\aida32.exe
C:\Archive\Analogx\cookiei.exe
C:\Archive\Analogx\dhcpfixi.exe
C:\Archive\Analogx\sdefendi.exe
C:\Archive\AntiVir\avrptool.exe
C:\Archive\AntiVir\NewAntiVir\avwinsfx.exe
C:\Archive\AntiVir\Win9x-ME\antivir_workstation_win7_en_h.exe
C:\Archive\AtlantisNova\ANv10068.exe
....
....

 

[In_Parentheses]

I've had pretty horrible luck in floppy quality the last few years.
Right out of the box most of them are bad and cannot be formatted. I
don't know if the floppies are being made so cheaply that they are
worthless, or if the particular floppy drives I've tried them in are
the same.

I have some old floppies I keep around for just such occasion that
work.

Years ago I got a few packs of those FUJI multi-colored floppies;
amazingly their format is still on them, and they can be used
out-of-the-box. But I know the problems one can have with the "white

OK, I will wait for the link to be posted. You may be rusty, but in
the Windows era there are only few people left who can make a good
functioning batch file that is more complex tha "@echo off" ;-D

Aw man, you should read [alt.msdos.batch], and [alt.msdos.batch.nt]!

Those guys are awesome. REM came from batch to munge the email address
here. It's been so long that I'm next to useless. The only batch that
I used was to get a dir listing of all .exe files on the drive.

I know... I know

Can you verify that this works in 98:

DIR /B /S C:\*.EXE works, and displays a listing similar to yours, under
W98SE!

 

[REM]

John Fitzsimons <[email protected]> wrote:

Here is an idea. Do something that nobody else has been able to do
(despite claims to the contrary in this newsgroup). Make a program
that can list all the .exe files one has on a computer. EXCLUDING
the .exe files that are simply compressed files.

This is NOT simply a list of (registry) "installed programs". An
application can run without making entries in the registry.

I think the little app I made is ready.

1) As Sieste said, grab the newest version of SH Archive Identifier,
aka: SHAID:

It looks like the latest version is 2.70, released on 29 July 2000.
Downloadable from the author's site:

http://www.pcuf.fi/~heiska/shs/shaid.htm

Unzip it.

2) Grab my .exe. It is an executable file. Place it in the same
directory where SHAID was unzipped. All it needs to run properly is
SHAID's "archid.exe" - make sure that my "ID.exe" is in the same
place. These two files can be placed in a subdir alone to ease
congestion, or, just drop it in the SHAID subdir. No matter.

http://www.woundedmoon.org/SHAID/ID.exe 55,296 bytes.

3) Execute "ID.exe" - it uses SHAID to make the reports.

After executing, look In the same location for:

SFX.TXT - list of all .exe files identified as sfx.
PROGRAM.TXT - list of all .exe files not identified as sfx.
ERROR.TXT - list of errors, with line numbers for files found in:
TEMP.TXT - the complete list of .exe files on the drive.

Most errors that I've had in XP are paths that are too long for SHAID,
even after using short paths. The programs that I have installed on XP
have a bunch of overly long path and filenames.

I also found a couple of directories that have names that SHAID will
not accept:

C:\Downloads\BV\www.blackviper.com\pub\mozilla.org\firefox\releases\1.0.6\win32\en-US\Firefox
Setup 1.0.6.exe ---- exit errorlevel = 253 (www.blackviper.com is in
the directory name)

I screwed up when making this directory, naming it: \ANv10068.exe\

C:\Archive\AtlantisNova\ANv10068.exe\


The SHAID docs contain the return values that are displayed.

The display shows the SHAI output and a countdown. It's better than
staring at a blank screen, but it does make the program run slowly.
It's interesting to see the different compressions used. Hit Pause on
the keyboard to better read the screen.

After it's fully debugged, I'll remove the excess display, and the
program will run quite a bit faster... There is no documentation yet
either. After getting some feedback, debugging, etc. I'll fix it up
right!

The current version is hard coded for C:
I'll add other partitions if there is any interest.

 

[REM]

Sorry for the misspelling, Sietse! Duh...

I think the little app I made is ready.

1) As Sieste said, grab the newest version of SH Archive Identifier,
aka: SHAID:

Unzip it.

2) Grab my .exe. It is an executable file. Place it in the same
directory where SHAID was unzipped. All it needs to run properly is
SHAID's "archid.exe" - make sure that my "ID.exe" is in the same
place. These two files can be placed in a subdir alone to ease
congestion, or, just drop it in the SHAID subdir. No matter.

http://www.woundedmoon.org/SHAID/ID.exe 55,296 bytes.

3) Execute "ID.exe" - it uses SHAID to make the reports.

After executing, look In the same location for:

SFX.TXT - list of all .exe files identified as sfx.
PROGRAM.TXT - list of all .exe files not identified as sfx.
ERROR.TXT - list of errors, with line numbers for files found in:
TEMP.TXT - the complete list of .exe files on the drive.

Most errors that I've had in XP are paths that are too long for SHAID,
even after using short paths. The programs that I have installed on XP
have a bunch of overly long path and filenames.

I also found a couple of directories that have names that SHAID will
not accept:

C:\Downloads\BV\www.blackviper.com\pub\mozilla.org\firefox\releases\1.0.6\win32\en-US\Firefox
Setup 1.0.6.exe ---- exit errorlevel = 253 (www.blackviper.com is in
the directory name)

I screwed up when making this directory, naming it: \ANv10068.exe\


The SHAID docs contain the return values that are displayed.

The display shows the SHAI output and a countdown. It's better than
staring at a blank screen, but it does make the program run slowly.
It's interesting to see the different compressions used. Hit Pause on
the keyboard to better read the screen.

 

[Sietse Fliege]

Sorry for the misspelling, Sietse! Duh...

LOL No sweat!
B.t.w. I've seen that quite a few times. I guess that Sietse just looks
plain silly for you English speaking guys and typos happen easily.
Just a few days ago I managed 'Conny Magnussen' (Danish) while I know
very well that Conny is a Swede and his name is 'Magnusson'. Duh...

 

[Morgan Ohlson]

the title says it all, if you have anything then please feel free to
post, or preferably email me at <metheperson1980(at)gmail.com>

BACKGROUND: People who have the gift to write in a straight line from Ch1 to
ch15 doesn't need much artificial help. Another big group develop their
stories almost like laying a huge jiggsaw puzzle. Very often questions like
this arise: "Have I droped info about this character in this chapter (file)
or in a chapter before?" The key is to get a good feeling about text and
story. No clouds should come between writer and story. Smooth navigation and
some impossible bird perspective would have an increadible value if it
worked as a breeze... For reliability all files can be opened & edited in
any txt editor (notes shown as aftertext).


__The Wishlist__ (text and story writing with navigation format only)

REQUIREMENTS: Fast hotkey based txtpad for creative writing. Spelling, book-
marks and statistics (count: words, word length, sentences etc)
capabilities. Ability to open >15x ~3Mb files at once (each) in tabbed (>3x)
windows w weak screen options. Special "Red and blue notes" in any text
location to be shown /not shown via hotkey. "Red and blue notes" saves after
the body text.
WHY NEEDED: No Existing Freeware


Morgan O.