SECTION 7
System Information
7-4 PEN*KEY
R
6200/6300 Hand-Held Computer Programmer’s Reference Guide
MiniCMD Restrictions
The PROMPT environment variable is not used by MiniCMD. The MiniCMD
prompt is a single >" character. If a PROMPT environment variable is defined,
it is passed to all programs and child processes, along with all the other defined
environment variables.
Although environment variables can be defined, they cannot be used within
ROMINIT.BAT in the same way that COMMAND.COM can use environment
variables. The percent character (%) is not treated as a special escape character
used to substitute the value of an environment variable into a command.
Other than the internal commands defined in the preceding list, MiniCMD
strictly attempts to load and execute whatever you type, using a simple DOS
exec
command. Thus, to execute a program, you must specify the full path name for
the program on the command line.
EXAMPLE:
type
A:\DOS\CHKDSK.EXE
or
A:CHKDSK.EXE
or
CHKDSK.EXE
but not
CHKDSK
Note that file extensions receive no special treatment. You can rename
executables to have any extension, or even no extension, and still execute them.
ROMINIT.BAT, loaded when DOS first boots, is the only batch file executed by
MiniCMD. Furthermore, the only batch file you can invoke from the MiniCMD
prompt is ROMINIT.BAT. You can reinvoke ROMINIT.BAT only by typing the
file name for
MiniCMD
, which, in turn, restarts MiniCMD.
Every time MiniCMD is executed, it looks for and executes ROMINIT.BAT. You
do lock up if you attempt to execute another batch file by name, either in
ROMINIT.BAT or at the MiniCMD prompt, because MiniCMD attempts to
execute that batch file as if it were a binary program.
MiniCMD Changes, Specific to NORAND
R
HHCs
All the messages displayed by MiniCMD have been shortened or split into
multiple lines so that they fit the 20Ćcolumn screen on the 6200 Computer.
"
The @ command prefix is added.
"
Prompt character is changed to the familiar
>
character.
"
The critical error handler in MiniCMD now displays a menu that includes
numeric responses so that you can respond without using an alpha
keyboard. For example, Abort, Retry, Fail?" becomes
2) Abort,
1) Retry,
3) Fail?
The numbers are not always in order so each line is displayed independentĆ
ly, depending on the available options. If the numbers were altered to apĆ
pear correct for one condition, they would appear wrong for another.
"
Echo command is modified to allow ECHO," to display a blank line instead
of Cannot load program." Also, comma (,), equals (=), and quote ()
terminate a keyword comparison.
"
A GOTO bug is removed to work with labels of two or more characters.
"
The diskĆbased version of MiniCMD is used to favor the executeĆinĆplace
ROMĆbased version. Also, the diskĆbased version is modified so that there
was no back door for exiting MiniCMD. The diskĆbased version was
originally intended to test MiniCMD, and the back door for exiting it was
used to get back to a normal COMMAND.COM.
7. System Information
