


                                 Name Date (ND)

                                 Revision 2.00


           Copyright 1989-1992 by Gordon Haff and Bit Masons Consulting.
                              All rights reserved.

                                Freeware program.


          Command:  ND

          Purpose:  Rename specified filenames(s) to a specified format
                    such as the current date.  This is NOT yet another
                    "touch" utility.  It does NOT change the file's
                    time/date stamp, it changes the name.

                    For example, in the default configuration, a file such
                    as CHANNEL1.QWK would be renamed to 920203.QWK if the
                    current date were 02/03/92.  This is a handy way of
                    consistently renaming log files or message packets so
                    you can archive them.

          Syntax:   ND filenames [/f=] [/e=] [/d=] [/t=] [/p] [/b] [/?]

          Prereqs:  100% IBM Compatible PC running DOS 2.1 or higher

          Archive Name:   NAMD200.ZIP

          New Feature Summary:

                    ND has been significantly enhanced in rev 2.0 to allow
                    much more flexibility in naming format.  The user can
                    now specify a variety of formats and other settings on
                    the command line.  Default settings are the same as
                    for rev 1.0, so existing users do not have to make any
                    changes to accommodate the new revision.




                                 Ŀ
                           Ŀ                   (tm)
                         ĳ         o    
                              Ŀ   Association of
                                         Shareware
                           ĳ    o        Professionals
                         ĳ        
                                   MEMBER


          ND 2.00                                                     2


                                     DISCLAIMER

          The author hereby disclaims all warranties relating to these
          products, whether express or implied, including without
          limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness
          for a particular purpose. The author cannot and will not be
          liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or
          similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason, even if
          the author or an authorized agent has been advised of the
          possibility of such damages.  In no event shall the liability
          for any damages ever exceed the price paid for the license to
          use the software, regardless of the form and/or extent of the
          claim.  The user of this program bears all risk as to the
          quality and performance of the software.

                                       LICENSE

          Name Date is distributed as free, copyrighted software.  What
          this means is that you can use these programs for as long as you
          like without cost or obligation.  What you cannot do is to sell
          this software or make a profit off of it (except as described
          below) without the express written permission of the author.

          Name Date is the sole property of Gordon Haff.  This program may
          be freely copied and transferred to individual parties.  It may
          be posted on Bulletin Board systems (BBS) for electronic access
          as long as NO FEE is charged for its distribution except for
          private BBS operations that charge a regular user subscription
          fee.  Computer information services such as Compuserve (CIS),
          Genie, and Byte Information Exchange (BIX) are authorized to
          post this product for subscriber access.  Name Date may be
          distributed on diskette only by 1) disk distributors/vendors who
          are associate members of the Association of Shareware
          Professionals (ASP) or 2) users groups which do not charge more
          than a nominal fee ($5) to cover the costs of distribution.  Any
          changes to these policies must be made in writing by the author.

          This software is produced by a member of the Association of
          Shareware Professionals (ASP).  The ASP wants to make sure that
          the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to
          resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by
          contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP
          Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP
          member, but does not provide technical support for members'
          products.  Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Rd.,
          Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 or send a Compuserve message via
          easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.

          ND 2.00                                                     3

                                  TECHNICAL SUPPORT


          Since this program is a freebie, unlike the shareware programs
          for which I request a registration fee, I'm not going to make any
          guarantees here with respect to bug fixes or other technical
          support.  Having said that, I do like my programs to be as
          bug-free as possible, so feel free to report any problems which
          you run across.


               Contact via:

                    Channel 1 BBS            (617) 354-8873
                    Compuserve User ID#      72561,2637  (See Note 1)
                    InterNet/ARPANET         72561.2637@compuserve.com

                    U.S. Mail                3205 Windsor Ridge Dr.
                                             Westboro MA 01581
                    Telephone                (508) 898-3321 (after 6pm
                                                          Eastern time)

          The above are roughly in order of preference (i.e. how quickly
          I'm likely to see your message and be able to respond).  I check
          Channel One almost daily and the other electronic services at
          least weekly in most cases.  In addition, I monitor the Interlink
          and the PCRelay Shareware relays through Channel One.

          Note 1:
          When contacting me via Compuserve, please use the Easyplex mail
          system since I do not regularly monitor any of the IBM SIG
          message bases.

          ND 2.00                                                     4


          1.0     Why ND?
          ---------------

          Sometimes when you gather information such as logs or message
          packets from some source (such as QWK mail packets from your
          local BBS), you'd like to be able to rename them in some
          consistent manner for archiving purposes.

          A couple years back, I wrote a little utility called ND to do
          this for me.  It did the job for me -- it would take something
          like CHANNEL1.QWK and rename it to 920203.QWK if Feb. 03, 1992
          were the current date.  It would even stick on a letter ranging
          from A to Z if it had to to prevent duplicates.

          As I say, this worked fine for my purposes, but wouldn't you
          know it?  Some people are never satisfied.  I made slightly
          patched versions which worked a little differently for a couple
          of whiners.  But I still got some requests in for a more
          flexible version.

          Finally, I decided to break down and do a new rev which gives
          users lots more flexibility.  Here it is.  Now stop your
          bitching!



          ND 2.00                                                     5


          2.0     How does it Work?
          -------------------------

          The syntax is as follows:

          ND filenames [/f=] [/e=] [/d=] [/t=] [/p] [/b] [/?]

          Other than at least one filename, you don't need to enter
          anything.  Wildcards are fine for the filenames.  The other
          stuff are switches.  Maybe I shouldn't tell you what they do and
          make you figure them out yourself.  But I suppose that wouldn't
          be much fun since they're listed in the on-line help screen
          anyway.  (By the way, you can use a - instead of a / if you're
          one of those odd Unix people who prefer to do that sort of
          thing.)  So here they are:


          /F=

          This allows you to specify a new format string.  The default one
          which is perfectly good for me and should be perfectly good for
          other normal people is YYMMDDA .

          The format string specifies the form the new name of the file
          will take.  It has no effect on the extension (see the /e
          switch), just the first 8 characters.  The following are valid
          format string entries:

              yyyy       Year (4 digit)
              yy         Year (2 digit)
              mm         Month
              dd         Day
              hh         Hour
              tt         Minute
              'xyz'      Literal (i.e. insert what's between the ' and ')
              a          Put 1 to 4 of these in a row for "duplication
                         preventers" between A and Z
              n          Ditto but with the digits 0 to 9

          Not surprisingly, the various dates and times use the current
          system date and time unless you override them with other
          switches.


          ND 2.00                                                     6

          Some examples of valid formats are:

          /f=yymmddaa
          /f='grh'yymma
          /f=yymmddtt

          You get the idea.  A few notes:

           o   Only add one non-duplicator sequence (e.g. aa) per format
               string.  The following is invalid: /f=yynnaa
           o   Use a ' rather than a " for literals.  Odd things will
               happen if you use a ".
           o   8 characters is the maximum (not counting the quotes around
               literals)


          /E=

          Specify a new extension for the renamed files.  Normally ND will
          just use the same extension which the file had originally.

          Example:

          /e=LOG


          /D=

          Specify a new date of the form mm/dd/yy.  Normally ND will use
          the current system date.  ND only does limited up-front checking
          for date validity.  A date like 2/31/91 will not be caught as
          invalid (though 2/32/91 would).

          Examples:

          /d=2/16/92
          /d=09-12-93


          /T=

          Specify a new time in the form hh:mm.  The format is 24-hr.  AM
          and PM-type formats are not accepted.  Limited checking for
          out-of-range numbers is performed.

          Example:

          /t=22:14


          /P

          Displays the current format setting and prompts before actually
          renaming any files on the disk.

          ND 2.00                                                     7


          /B

          Append a duplicate prevention character on the first filename.

          The following example shows what I means by this (assume the
          format is YYMMDDA, i.e. the default).

              No /B switch                  /B switch

              TEST0.TST -> 920203.TST      TEST0.TST -> 920203A.TST
              TEST1.TST -> 920203A.TST     TEST1.TST -> 920203B.TST


          /?

          Displays a help screen.



          3.0     Technical and Acknowledgments.
          --------------------------------------

          ND 2.0 was developed using Borland C++ 3.0.

          The hardware environment was a homebrew 386 (named Dejah Thoris)
          based on an AMI 20MHz full-size motherboard with a Micropolis
          160MB ESDI disk and Ultrastore 12(F) ESDI controller.  It is a
          dual monitor system with an Orchid Prodesigner 512KB VGA board
          and an IBM MDA board.


          ND 2.00                                                     6


          4.0     Other Programs by Gordon Haff and Bit Masons Consulting:
          -----------------------------------------------------------------

          Directory Freedom (DF):

              Offers users a fast, compact alternative to DOS Shells which
            provides 1) selective file and directory operations; 2) a
            scrollable environment for examining files and directories; 3)
            user-defined keys which can operate upon highlighted files
            (e.g. by defining an editor).  All this in a program which
            takes less than 25KB since it is written in assembler! Easily
            customized through an external configuration program. A "look-
            and-feel" similar to PC Mag's DR, but does much more.  Now with
            SmartViewers and many more exciting new features.
                         Shareware: $20 Registration
                         Latest version: 4.50 (DF450.ZIP)


          the last word:

            'the last word' is a quotations trivia game in which 1 to 4
            players compete against each other and their own high scores in
            identifying the source of quotations and completing partial
            quotes.  Most answers are entered free-form and are matched
            against a set of acceptable responses with a sophisticated
            pattern-recognition algorithm.  'the last word' runs in text
            mode -- including on mono displays -- and offers a high level
            of user configurability.
                         Shareware: $15 Registration
                         Latest version: 1.00  (LWORD100.ZIP)


          CONVERT:

            Unit conversion calculator for Windows 3.0.  Comes with a data
            file containing a large number of common (and not so common)
            conversions in categories such as length, speed, pressure,
            volume, and time.  The data file is a plain ASCII text file so
            the user may add or delete units to best fit his individual
            needs.
                           Free, copyrighted software
                           Latest version: 1.0  (CNVRT100.ZIP)



          ND 2.00                                                     7

          X-Ray Viewers:

            The X-Ray Viewers provide a scrollable environment for
            examining the contents of various types of archive files and
            allows the user to view those contents by piping them to LIST.
            In other words, you can read a text file contained within, for
            example, a .ZIP file without extracting the archive.  In
            combination with the SmartViewer functions in DF, the X-Ray
            viewers make the examination of .ZIP, .ARJ, .LZH, and .ZOO
            files almost automatic (just highlight a file and press
            <Enter>).  "Freeware" but requires the appropriate archive
            program and LIST to function.
                           Free, copyrighted software
                           Latest revision: 1.10  (XRAY110.ZIP)


          MAKETEST:

            Command-line utility to create test files.  Lets you create
            any number of test files with user-specified names and sizes.
            Automatically can add characters to avoid duplicate names.
            This is an easy way to create something like 100 zero-length
            files.  Handy for users or programmers who want to test a
            program's capabilities.
                           Free, copyrighted software with QB source
                           Latest version: 1.0  (MKTST100.ZIP)


          These programs and others (Multi-Edit macros for use with Qmail
          Deluxe, for example) are available on many fine bulletin boards.
          The latest releases are always available on Channel One.   If you
          just have to get a copy of one or more of these programs and
          can't find one, however, I can send them out for a nominal media
          and postage charge.

          ND 2.00                                                     7


          5.0     History:
          ---------------

          Rev. 2.0       Completely rewritten.
                         Switches and many other user options added

          Rev. 1.0       Initial Release