V8Power Tools

Putting the power of an 8-cylinder engine under the hood of DOS batch files.

Copyright 2015-2021 Jerome Shidel.
Released under the GPL v2.0 License.

The V8Power Tools project is being designed in cooperation with Jim Hall for the FreeDOS™ operating system. It is intended to expand the functionality of scripts written using batch files and to provide them with a better looking user interface with increased functionality.

Compiling V8Power Tools

   Prerequisites

      8086 or better cpu.
      EGA or better video adapter.
      FreeDOS™ 1.1 or higher
      NASM™ for DOS version 2.14.02 or newer

   Compiling

      Ensure the NASM directory is in your path spec.
      Download the latest sources from GitHub.
      Run the mkV8.bat script.
      All executibles will be placed in newly created BIN directory.

   For lazy people, like me

      Precompiled versions are available at http://up.lod.bz/V8Power.

V8Power Tools Tested Compatibility

• FreeDOS 1.1+
  

Limited compatiblilty of advanced features (no "set /p" batch support):

• MS-DOS 6.2 and 6.22
  
• PC-DOS 7.0, 7.01 and 2000
  
• DR-DOS 7.03
  
• DOSBox (i/o redirection or querying using stdout will NOT work using the built-in DOSBox shell. However, they work fine in DOSBox when a compatible shell like FreeCOM is used)
  
• Windows 3.11 Shell
  
• Windows 98 Shell and Command Line
  
• Windows XP SP3 Shell (except vcursor)
  

V8Power Tools Usage

Here is some basic information regarding all utilities and how they operate.

• Options, values and hexidecimal numbers are not case specific /f white is the same as /F wHIte.
  
• Hexidecimal numbers may be prefixed with 0x to prevent them from being treated as base ten. (Example: 10 and 0x10)
  
• Spaces are mostly optional. /B7/f0 is the same as /B 7 /F 0. But, not / B7 / F0.
  
• To use a / or spaces in a value, put it in qoutes. Like "Jack and/or Jill".
  
• Use multiple qoutes to use quotes. Like "Jack's house" or 'Say "What?"'.
  
• Unless overriden, most utilities use the text attribute at the current cursor location.
  
  

Here is color table used for all /A, /F and /B switches: