Re: Testers wanted for new Copy/Paste/Replace routine

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Patricia M Godfrey  on Mon, 27 Oct
2003 10:29:00 -0500

> Will download the new U2--for which many thanks; it sounds great--as soon
> as I finish with my e-mail

Why not discuss this AFTER you've installed?

> but right away I've hit a snag.

No you haven't.

> I DO have
> both WScript.exe (in C:\windows, dated 4/23/99) and CSCript.exe (in
> C:\windows\command, same date) on my machine, and both Windows and
> Windows\command are referenced in PATH for the DOS prompt. When I type
> cscript /? at the C prompt, however,

However?

> I get this:
> < < < That rather looks as if it were looking for the help files in the root.

That's not what it _says_! It _says_ it failed to load a "script". Pretty
unambiguous. There isn't any Help file that is called by the CSCRIPT
interpreter. There's just a splash screen with a command summary. You have an
older version, and maybe it didn't have a command summary built-in, I dunno
(try "WSCRIPT /?" -- they have pretty much the same command syntax). Anyway,
big deal. Let's not confuse folks with a lot of noise and make them hesitant
for zero reason...

> Where should they be, and can I move them?

Let U2 worry about that. The script in question should be located per my
instructions, in the same directory as Editor.EXE. Or if you're talking about
that Backup script, on A:\ ...

> I also have a directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Script\ScriptDocs
> which contains the files
> Scrdoc56.inf
> Script56.chm
> Both are dated 9/6/01; the first is 4 K, the second 1,320 K.
> The latter has a yellow question mark over its icon

A yellow something? Use DOS! Not Explorer. Haven't you got a file viewer, a
la the old LIST?

> and when I tried to print out the WSH docs,

You can't "print out" a raw CHM file. Besides, it's about 1000 pages.

> I kept getting error messages about parts of the
> file not being available.

Preliminarily, look at files you don't understand with a LISTer! From DOS, not
from Explorer. You can see right away that INF is just what INF always is in
Windows, an installation/uninstallation script (mine is 3K). SCRIPT56.CHM
(Compiled M$ Help) is the main WSH/V[isual]B[asic]Script/J[ava]Script
Documentation: open IE, browse to its location, and read away. You need IE
(v3.0 or later, I think) to read CHMs.

> I'm wondering if my initial download of the
> docs failed, either because of my dirty phone lines or because I refuse
> to use Internet Exploiter to access the Net?

How you access the Net is irrelevant. The point here is, you need IE to read
CHMs -- period. You obtained the right documentation files. Look, I don't
like M$ either. I think their OpSyses stink. But, you know, it's what you're
_using_. So use it! IE is an integral part of the bloody thing. (And those
DOCs are pretty good.)

> I don't know if it's relevant, but I removed Internet Explorer and
> Outlook Express from my toolbar--with the result that I now don't have a
> toolbar, and cannot get one: when I click on the taskbar and then click
> Toolbars, they're all grayed out. Typical of Redmond.

Bah! The other day you said "I hesitate to sink too much time into learning
more
proprietary MicroSludge." Well, proprietary, yes, but not sludge. That's
nuts. It's just another scripting language, with a needlessly self-important
"high level programming" syntax but a lot of power, which happens to be free --
and most importantly, for people who worry and compose Email first and install
much later, it doesn't _need_ to be installed because it's already there!
(Somebody just wrote to me -- he knows who is -- and said, quote, "I set up
CLIPW* on my office machine (it took about 60 seconds) and it works
BEAUTIFULLY! Cutting and pasting a 378K block back and forth between W[ord]
P[erfect] and Xy4 is unbelievably fast and smooth. Fan-fu**in-tastic!" Now
THAT'S what I like to hear, on 4 hours sleep. Not these proemial groans.)

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------