w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (Keith Petersen) (05/29/91)
I have uploaded to SIMTEL20: pd1:<msdos.sysutl> XDOS320.ZIP ExtraDOS: Adds the commands that DOS left out ExtraDOS Toolbox Professional, Version 3.20, 05/16/91 by Foley Hi-Tech Systems The author says: "ExtraDOS is a compilation of tools useful to Microsoft DOS users. I originally wrote these tools under MS-DOS because I found a need for them and there were no commercially available products which provided these functions. Some ExtraDOS tools were designed to enhance programs already found in MS-DOS. Other tools were familiar to the Unix world, but were not available in MS-DOS. In addition, ExtraDOS compliments PC-Tools and Norton Utilities with added tools these programs do not provide." Here is a list of the programs which are included in this package: ADDCOMM - Serial Port Management Program ALARMCLK - Alarm Clock Program ALLSUB - Perform Task In All Subdirectories AREA - Telephone Area Code Search Utility BANNER - DOS Banner Display BOOT - PC Rebooting Utility BOOTLOCK - Lock Out Reboot Keys and Break Keys BOOTPAST - Boot Past a Floppy to the Hard Disk BRKBOX - COM Port Break Out Box Display CAL - DOS Calendar Display CAT - DOS Cat Text File Utility CHIMES - DOS Clock Chimes CLEAN - Floppy Drive Cleaning Program CLEANUP - Cleanup Your Drives from Duplicate Files CURLOCK - Lock Cursor Shape Permanently CURSOR - Change Cursor Shapes CUT - DOS Cut Text File Utility DELAY - Batch File Delay Utility DETAB - File Detabulation Utility DISKINFO - Disk Drive Information Reporter EDIT - Full Screen Editor EVAL - DOS Command Line Calculator FILEATTR - Change File Attributes FILEINFO - File Information Program FILESIZE - File Size Listing Utility FILETREE - File Directory Tree Listing Utility FINDFILE - Find File on Disk HELP - DOS Command HELP HEXDUMP - File Hex Display Utility HUSH - Speaker Silencing Utility KILLDIR - Remove Directory and All Contents LASER - Control HP Laser Jet from DOS LS - DOS Listing Utility MAZE - DOS Maze Creator MOVE - MOVE Files Across Disks NAMEDIR - Name Directory Utility PATHFIND - Path Find File Utility PSPRINT - PostScript Text File Print Utility SCNATTR - Set Screen Attributes SPEEDRAM - Speed up CPU by Reducing Refresh TEXTSRCH - Text Searching Utility TIDY - Clean up .BAK and 0 Length File Utility TOUCH - Touch File Date Utility TURBOBAT - Turbo Batch File Compiler VOLLABEL - Disk Volume Label Update Utility Revision notes: 05/16/91 - Version 3.20 Fixed the problem with some programs that had been compiled with 286 instructions and would not run on XT type machines. Updated the DETAB program with support for definable tab sizes and faster execution. Added the DISKINFO program that displays information about disk drives. Updated the FILEATTR program. Updated the FILETREE program for faster execution, display of status and CTRL C break out support. Updated the MOVE program to fix some bugs and added new file date checking. Added the VOLLABEL program that reads, displays and allows the changing of the disk volume label. - - - This file was obtained directly from the author's BBS. I did not repack it, although I was tempted to break it into two ZIPs because of the size: 602349 bytes. Complaints about this to the author, please, not to me. Keith - - - Keith Petersen Maintainer of the MSDOS, MISC and CP/M archives at SIMTEL20 [192.88.110.20] Internet: w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil or w8sdz@vela.acs.oakland.edu Uucp: uunet!wsmr-simtel20.army.mil!w8sdz BITNET: w8sdz@OAKLAND
kirsch@USASOC.SOC.MIL (David Kirschbaum) (06/04/91)
A *huge* package called XDOS320.ZIP was recently uploaded to the SIMTEL20
<MSDOS.SYSUTL> directory. It's a collection of DOS utilities.
Extracted from EXTRADOS.TXT:
ExtraDOS is a compilation of tools useful to Microsoft DOS users.
I originally wrote these tools under MS-DOS because I found a need
for them and there were no commercially available products which
provided these functions. Some ExtraDOS tools were designed to
enhance programs already found in MS-DOS. Other tools were
familiar to the Unix world, but were not available in MS-DOS. In
addition, ExtraDOS compliments PC-Tools and Norton Utilities with
added tools these programs do not provide.
The ExtraDOS utilities are Copyright (c) 1985-91 by Foley Hi-Tech
Systems. These programs are not public domain, but are "shareware."
Ok, so far so good. Until I started looking at some of these
programs. Then something smelled fishy. I've worked with public
domain utilities for a *long* time, tweaked a fair share of them
myself, and (again and again) these Foley utilities seemed familiar:
ALARMCLK - Alarm Clock Program
- SETALARM
ALLSUB - Perform Task In All Subdirectories
AREA - Telephone Area Code Search Utility
BANNER - DOS Banner Display
BOOT - PC Rebooting Utility
BOOTLOCK - Lock Out Reboot Keys and Break Keys
BOOTPAST - Boot Past a Floppy to the Hard Disk
BRKBOX - COM Port Break Out Box Display
CAL - DOS Calendar Display
CAT - DOS Cat Text File Utility
CHIMES - DOS Clock Chimes
CLEAN - Floppy Drive Cleaning Program
CLEANUP - Cleanup Your Drives from Duplicate Files
CURLOCK - Lock Cursor Shape Permanently
CURSOR - Change Cursor Shapes
Need I go on? EVERY SINGLE ONE of these *strongly* resembles a similar
public domain utility. On closer examination, BRKBOX is IDENTICAL in
appearance and function to an old BREAKBOX utility I've used for years.
Except it how has a "Foley Hi-Tech' copyright! CURSOR is ABSOLUTELY
identical (and even has the original SSI copyright on the screen!). Yet
now it has a Foley Hi-Tech copyright! CHIMES is ABSOLUTELY identical to
NJCHIME.ARC (right on SIMTEL20) (right down to the choice of chimes), but
now it has a Foley Hi-Tech copyright!
EVAL - DOS Command Line Calculator
FILEATTR - Change File Attributes
FILEINFO - File Information Program
FILESIZE - File Size Listing Utility
It goes on and on. Sorry but I do suspect Foley of stealing every
public domain utility he could find and stuffing his copyright into
the source. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he *did* write an original
utility, or make significant changes and improvements to entitle him
to a copyright. But for the most parts this smacks strongly of
piracy. How can you pirate from the public domain? Well, legally
there's no such offense. But morally there is.
And in the documentation he includes a list of "projects" Foley Hi-Tech
is currently working on. Heck, it reads like an extract of SIMTEL20's
PD:<MSDOS.SYSUTL> catalog!
I've had a gutfull of commercial enterprises ripping off the public
domain. Using our stuff I don't mind, but trying to OWN it? No way.
I'm ready to fight.
And there's another wee problem: Foley compressed most of the .EXE
programs with PKLITE. This did nothing to reduce the size of his 600+Kb
.ZIP archive, of course .. matter of fact, the PKLITE'd files made the
.ZIP bigger! But that's not the problem: it was just a royal pain to
PKLITE -x all those files to do a virus check! And some files could NOT
be restored to their uncompressed state:
EVAL.EXE :wrong version (compressed with PKLITE 1.0)
LS.EXE :some unknown proprietary Foley Hi-Tech compressor
MAZE.EXE :ditto
TEXTSRCH.EXE :ditto
TURBOBAT.COM :Has internal PKWARE copyright, but PKLITE 1.2 fails
So I can't check ANY of these for viri!
Perhaps an Info-IBMPC or Usenet reader can check with the Foley BBS and
get an explanation.
You do what you want about this archive. Me: I'm trashing this sucker.
David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
kirsch@usasoc.soc.mil