EXMBATCH Revisited

We mentioned EXMBATCH in the last Quick Tips columns. Since then several users have asked that we explain what the program actually does. Here's a more detailed review of this product.

In the days of the HP 95LX, users of the UTIL Forth programming language figured out how to create "loader" programs on-the-fly. Loaders were small System Manager compliant programs that could be added to an APNAME.LST file. The purpose of the loader was twofold: 1) it would make it possible to assign a hot key to the loader program and 2) have the loader program run a DOS program. For example, if you used the VDE editor, you could create a VDE.EXM loader program to which you could assign a hotkey, say ALT+V. Then you could run VDE,EXE simply by pressing ALT+V.

EXMBATCH is basically a generic loader program for the HP 200LX. Instead of using Forth to create a loader on the fly, you use DEBUG to modify the EXMBATCH.EXM file and then rename the file to whatever you want. Then you can install the modified loader in Application Manager and give it a hot key.

EXMBATCH will let you create loaders for any .COM, .BAT or .EXE program. The loaders can also be set up to specify how much memory to give to a DOS program and whether or not you'll need to press the Enter key to return to System Manager when the program end.

Rod Whitby, the author of EXMBATCH, created the generic loader and wrote a set of instructions describing how to use DEBUG to tailor the loader for each DOS program you want. Rod is also thinking of creating a program that will create specific loaders as needed without the use of DEBUG. A word of encouragement from satisfied users of EXMBATCH would probably tip the scales in favor of this extra program.

EXMBATCH version 1.5 is available on the previous issue of The HP Palmtop Paper ON DISK. The latest version of the program may always be obtained from http://exmbatch.hplx.net/ (or www.hplx. net/exmbatch/ for WWW/LX users.)