25 Oct
2009
25 Oct
'09
6:47 p.m.
Hi, All,
I'm trying to help a friend out with a role-playing game prop, and I
have a memory of some tool from a number of years back that can accept
a set of scripted menu items and responses and build an MS-DOS BAT
script that will "implement" the menu structure.
For example - you'd start off with a top level menu with, say, 4
items. Typing 1-4 would take you to one of four sub-menus, etc.,
until the end "nodes" are reached. The end-nodes could be a launching
point for a DOS program (optional), or just a page of informational
text.
Does this sort of menu generator script ring any bells with anyone?
I've googled for three days and have found all sorts of tutorials for
how to craft scripted menus (for DOS and UNIX), and I could easily
write my own set of menus from scratch in any number of system script
languages; the end user in this particular case is not a programmer,
so I'm trying to find something that will let him write the
informational text for the end-nodes and the menu items to lead to
them, but have a tool auto-generate the structure around it.
Thanks for any pointers, suggestions or keywords to help my search.
-ethan
25 Oct
25 Oct
7:28 p.m.
Wholey Cow!!! You are bringing up some GREAT memories, I'd totally
forgotten about writing those, that used to be such a blast, here this
site has a full tutorial with examples and doing batch menu building for
MSDOS:
http://http-server.carleton.ca/~dmcfet/menu.html
Curt
Ethan Dicks wrote:
Hi, All,
I'm trying to help a friend out with a role-playing game prop, and I
have a memory of some tool from a number of years back that can accept
a set of scripted menu items and responses and build an MS-DOS BAT
script that will "implement" the menu structure.
For example - you'd start off with a top level menu with, say, 4
items. Typing 1-4 would take you to one of four sub-menus, etc.,
until the end "nodes" are reached. The end-nodes could be a launching
point for a DOS program (optional), or just a page of informational
text.
Does this sort of menu generator script ring any bells with anyone?
I've googled for three days and have found all sorts of tutorials for
how to craft scripted menus (for DOS and UNIX), and I could easily
write my own set of menus from scratch in any number of system script
languages; the end user in this particular case is not a programmer,
so I'm trying to find something that will let him write the
informational text for the end-nodes and the menu items to lead to
them, but have a tool auto-generate the structure around it.
Thanks for any pointers, suggestions or keywords to help my search.
-ethan
8:21 p.m.
On 10/25/09, Curt @ Atari Museum <curt at atarimuseum.com> wrote:
Wholey Cow!!! You are bringing up some GREAT
memories, I'd totally
forgotten about writing those, that used to be such a blast, here this
site has a full tutorial with examples and doing batch menu building for
MSDOS:
http://http-server.carleton.ca/~dmcfet/menu.html
Hi, Curt,
Thanks for that pointer. I hadn't run across that particular one (but
it's like many others I did run across) - it's more elaborate than
most.
Unfortunately, it's not what I am looking for - what I am after is a
menu *builder* that works from a pre-written "script" that contains
the menu items and such. As I mentioned previously, I would have no
problem whipping up a set of scripts but the person this is for is not
a coder.
Interesting reference, though. Thanks for it.
-ethan
8:36 p.m.
Hi Ethan,
Sorry, I misread. There used to be a product and I'm rattling my
brain to remember the name of it. It is exactly what you are looking
for, it was a menu building app that I used in 1994 to load up
applications to users desktops from their Novell network. Black
background, dark blue border... I'll look through some old notebooks I
still keep and see if I kept a reference name for the program...
Curt
Ethan Dicks wrote:
On 10/25/09, Curt @ Atari Museum <curt at
atarimuseum.com> wrote:
Wholey Cow!!! You are bringing up some GREAT
memories, I'd totally
forgotten about writing those, that used to be such a blast, here this
site has a full tutorial with examples and doing batch menu building for
MSDOS:
http://http-server.carleton.ca/~dmcfet/menu.html
Hi, Curt,
Thanks for that pointer. I hadn't run across that particular one (but
it's like many others I did run across) - it's more elaborate than
most.
Unfortunately, it's not what I am looking for - what I am after is a
menu *builder* that works from a pre-written "script" that contains
the menu items and such. As I mentioned previously, I would have no
problem whipping up a set of scripts but the person this is for is not
a coder.
Interesting reference, though. Thanks for it.
-ethan
8:50 p.m.
Hi Ethan,
This is the later DOS version of EZ Menu then the one I used in 1994.
Download it from here:
http://www.atarimuseum.com/downloads/eminstal.zip
Curt
Ethan Dicks wrote:
On 10/25/09, Curt @ Atari Museum <curt at
atarimuseum.com> wrote:
Wholey Cow!!! You are bringing up some GREAT
memories, I'd totally
forgotten about writing those, that used to be such a blast, here this
site has a full tutorial with examples and doing batch menu building for
MSDOS:
http://http-server.carleton.ca/~dmcfet/menu.html
Hi, Curt,
Thanks for that pointer. I hadn't run across that particular one (but
it's like many others I did run across) - it's more elaborate than
most.
Unfortunately, it's not what I am looking for - what I am after is a
menu *builder* that works from a pre-written "script" that contains
the menu items and such. As I mentioned previously, I would have no
problem whipping up a set of scripts but the person this is for is not
a coder.
Interesting reference, though. Thanks for it.
-ethan
8:57 p.m.
Ethan,
If you also want to try some other DOS menu apps and shell apps, look
here:
http://mail.nfbnet.org/download/dos_shel.htm
Curt
Ethan Dicks wrote:
On 10/25/09, Curt @ Atari Museum <curt at
atarimuseum.com> wrote:
Wholey Cow!!! You are bringing up some GREAT
memories, I'd totally
forgotten about writing those, that used to be such a blast, here this
site has a full tutorial with examples and doing batch menu building for
MSDOS:
http://http-server.carleton.ca/~dmcfet/menu.html
Hi, Curt,
Thanks for that pointer. I hadn't run across that particular one (but
it's like many others I did run across) - it's more elaborate than
most.
Unfortunately, it's not what I am looking for - what I am after is a
menu *builder* that works from a pre-written "script" that contains
the menu items and such. As I mentioned previously, I would have no
problem whipping up a set of scripts but the person this is for is not
a coder.
Interesting reference, though. Thanks for it.
-ethan
26 Oct
26 Oct
6:42 a.m.
You might also want to check out a cool little utility
called "Snobol"
It was actually a "programming language" *cough* (not really!)
I remember ez-menu very well, and it was very simple to use,
snobol is another one, and it's incredibly simple.
we had a retail store running off of snobol for years.
and if I remember correctly, snobol could do things ez-menu couldn't, depending what
you needed.
on the linux side, check out "dialog", I don't know if there's a dos
equivalent.
Just some suggestions...
Dan.
_________________________________________________________________
Ready for a deal-of-a-lifetime? See fantastic offers on Windows 7, in one convenient
place.
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9691634
9:59 a.m.
its funny, I was just thinking about this the other day, i was planning on
building a dos menu for my ibm ps2-25 that i was going to netboot, trying to
emulate lanschool, which at the time, was a simple menu that kept you out of
the dos-interworkings. although, that menu had the highlight bar that moved
as you clicked the arrows, will any of these systems do this?
On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 8:42 AM, Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com> wrote:
You might also want to check out a cool little utility
called "Snobol"
It was actually a "programming language" *cough* (not really!)
I remember ez-menu very well, and it was very simple to use,
snobol is another one, and it's incredibly simple.
we had a retail store running off of snobol for years.
and if I remember correctly, snobol could do things ez-menu couldn't,
depending what you needed.
on the linux side, check out "dialog", I don't know if there's a dos
equivalent.
Just some suggestions...
Dan.
_________________________________________________________________
Ready for a deal-of-a-lifetime? See fantastic offers on Windows 7, in one
convenient place.
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9691634
27 Oct
27 Oct
6:42 a.m.
Menu systems to check out:
"ez-menu"
"Automenu"
and
"Snobol" (programming language, but anyone can do it)
Dan.
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:59:27 -0500
Subject: Re: Menu builder script for MS-DOS?
From: jlobocki at gmail.com
To: cctech at classiccmp.org
its funny, I was just thinking about this the other day, i was planning on
building a dos menu for my ibm ps2-25 that i was going to netboot, trying to
emulate lanschool, which at the time, was a simple menu that kept you out of
the dos-interworkings. although, that menu had the highlight bar that moved
as you clicked the arrows, will any of these systems do this?
On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 8:42 AM, Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> You might also want to check out a cool little utility
> called "Snobol"
>
> It was actually a "programming language" *cough* (not really!)
>
> I remember ez-menu very well, and it was very simple to use,
> snobol is another one, and it's incredibly simple.
>
> we had a retail store running off of snobol for years.
>
> and if I remember correctly, snobol could do things ez-menu couldn't,
> depending what you needed.
> on the linux side, check out "dialog", I don't know if there's a
dos
> equivalent.
>
> Just some suggestions...
>
> Dan.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Ready for a deal-of-a-lifetime? See fantastic offers on Windows 7, in one
> convenient place.
> http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9691634
_________________________________________________________________
CDN College or University student? Get Windows 7 for only $39.99 before Jan 3! Buy it
now!
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9691636
26 Oct
26 Oct
11:13 a.m.
On 26 Oct 2009 at 9:42, Dan Gahlinger wrote:
You might also want to check out a cool little
utility
called "Snobol"
It was actually a "programming language" *cough* (not really!)
Actually, it *is* a programming language. I still have my black-
covered "The SNOBOL4 Programming Language" from 1968. It was an
interesting language to play around with, and unless my memory is
failing, was implemented in FORTRAN for portability. SNOBOL's forte
was pattern-matching with strong support for recursion. I
encountered it both on S/360 and CDC 6000 systems, although I believe
it was available on other mainframes of the time (e.g., GE 635,
Univac 1108).
There were a lot of "menu builders". I have a couple of lesser-known
ones. One is called "SNAP" and I don't remember the others. Of all
of the batch-file enhancers for DOS that I used, only CENVI remains
as something that I still use for doing more invoved jobs. It's
basically an interpreted C that runs as batch files.
--Chuck
28 Oct
28 Oct
10:58 a.m.
New subject: Menu builder script for MS-DOS? >> SNOBOL
FWIW:
I have from pcsig/public domain
Disk No 980
Program Title: VANILLA SNOBOL4 version 2.14
PC-SIG version 1.3
VANILLA SNOBOL4 is an easy-to-learn, flexible language used primarily for
non-numeric applications, such as artificial intelligence, analyzing
databases, text formatting, data conversion, finding patterns in all kinds
of data, searching text files, etc. The language also has a full array of
mathematical functions.
This version of SNOBOL4 does not have real numbers, and the object program
and data cannot exceed 30K in size. Otherwise, VANILLA SNOBOL4 provides
the entire SNOBOL4 programming language as described in textbooks.
VANILLA SNOBOL4 is being used for teaching in college computer science and
humanities departments. A 150-page language tutorial and reference manual
is included on this disk. Source programs for SNOBOL4 are typically five
to ten times smaller than equivalent C or Pascal programs.
Usage: Programming Language.
Google "vanilla snobol" brings up some links to get various versions of
Snobol.
Keven Miller
5316
days inactive
5318
days old
10 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
cclist＠sydex.com -
curt＠atarimuseum.com -
dgahling＠hotmail.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
jlobocki＠gmail.com -
kevenm＠reeltapetransfer.com