Sat 16-Mar-91: Having had the opportunity to use PCs extensively
both at work and at home for several years I decided to take a very
subjective look at what have been the most useful MsDos shareware
and PD utilities for me. Here are my choices in an alphabetical
order.

Fri 11-Oct-91: Updated the text and added some new items on my list.

Sat 2-Nov-91: Added one further item (shrom) on the list, and
rewrote some others a bit. For the record. I have registered all the
shareware programs on this list.

Fri 17-Apr-92: Updated the version numbers and added one new item.

Tue 19-May-92: Updated the version numbers and added two new items.

Sat 20-Feb-93: Updated the version numbers and added one new item.

Fri 2-Jul-93: Made no additions but changed one choice and rewrote
most of the items.

Sat 3-Jul-93: Corrected the out-of -date information about
target15.zip.

Note that this list is subjective reflecting my own usages. Hence
one cannot "submit" to this list, as some users and authors have
done after this list has become fairly widespread.

ask.exe         The most important command missing from MsDos batch
                programming. Ask comes under many names and has been
                rewritten by countless programmers. Also I have
                written my own in garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/ts/tsbat43.zip.
                The basic idea of asks is to prompt the user for a
                choice, and return an errorlevel (or sometimes put a
                value to an environment variable), which then can be
                used for a conditional jump in the batch in
                accordance with the user's choice. My own ask uses
                the most common ask standard of returning as the
                errorlevel the ascii number of the first letter of
                the user's response, but I also have written an
                errorlevel version. It is interesting that MicroSoft
                finally succumbed and introduced a similar command
                in MsDos 6.0 calling it CHOICE.

scrlit17.zip    A resident screen scrollback utility. This handy TSR
                utility allows one to see back what has been written
                on the screen. Because the scroll-back buffer
                reserves a lot of memory, srollit is best used with
                an upper memory manager like loadhigh introduced in
                MsDos 5.0's or lastbyte (see a later item). I have
                this tsr routinely loaded in my autoexec.bat. This
                is one case where I have changed my mind when a
                better utility came around. Originally I had
                buffit30.zip as my choice, but scrollit can capture
                colors and some output that buffit can't. So, after
                the srollit author made some crucial improvements
                based on my feedback suggestions in releasing
                version 1.7, I had a change of heart.

ced10da.zip     Command line editor. This facility lets the user to
                recall earlier commands, edit the commands, make
                aliases (synonyms) for the commands, and optionally
                ignore commands. CED is old, but still extremely
                useful as such even compared doskey which was
                introduced with MsDos 5.0. Don't go without it, or
                some other good, alternative command line editor.
                Despite being old, CED still often features on the
                best program lists of many computer magazines. The
                one feature CED unfortunately lacks is file name
                completion present in some other command line
                editors. The later versions of CED have gone
                commercial, as far as I know.

dc106f.zip      Directory control from the PC-Magazine by Michael
                Mefford. A simple, but a very useful point and shoot
                facility to copy, move, rename, or delete files. DC
                is an excellent example of the fact that a good
                program doesn't need to be over-packed with features
                nor need it be flashy.

dcf40d.zip      A fast 1-pass copying facility for floppies. One of
                the most irksome MsDos task is copying a floppy in a
                single drive. I have been looking for a suitable
                1-pass program for quite awhile, and found quite a
                few, and this one is it for the time being. It has a
                nice interface and is fast since it can skip the
                empty sections. Yet, I included this utility with
                considerable doubts, because there still is ample
                room for improvement starting from the missing
                possibility of storing the option settings, removing
                the nag screen, etc. A simple but useful alternative
                to look at is xdcpy150.zip.

dirmat20.zip    Dirmatch for comparing & manipulating two dirs side
                by side. Another really great utility from Michael
                Mefford. Originally appeared in the PC-Magazine.

dirw.exe        From my own garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/ts/tsutil38.zip
                utility collection. It is like MsDos dir /w, but it
                also shows the file attributes, and it can be made
                to recurse all the directories. I use it on a daily
                basis to have a backup list of what my hard disks
                contain. It is vindicative to note that in DOS 5.0
                the new dir command was endowed among other things
                with abilities what my dirw already had. Yet dirw
                still has a feature (at least in MsDos5.0) which the
                MsDos dir curiously lacks. My dirw displays the size
                of a disk also if it has no files.

drx108.zip      A shell for listing and handling lzexe and pklite
                etc. compressed executables. A very useful companion
                to lzexe and pklite. Nothing is perfect, though. I
                am not happy with the fact that dirx forcibly leaves
                one to the target directory on exit. Also the
                documentation leaves exceptionally much to be
                desired in a top utility. But the basic idea is very
                sound, and most importantly to my knowledge there
                are no alternatives (which is rather odd) so dirx is
                left to hold the field at the moment despite its
                faults and non-support. There is a later version
                than 1.08 but it has configuration file problems.
                Strangely, the author has shown no interest
                whatsoever in the feedback I have tried to give.
                Fortunately such a supercilious attitude is not very
                common.

dosclip.com     "A TSR utility that provides Windows-like
                cut-and-paste facilities to applications running
                under DOS". A PC-Magazine utility by Douglas Boling
                in vol11n07.zip. I use it for example for cutting
                and pasting commands and data when being connected,
                using MsKemit or Telnet, to your Unix hosts Garbo
                and Chyde. The only problem is that the hot keys are
                too common and may thus interfere with other
                applications. For a patch see garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2
                /post09.txt.

fed153.zip      FileEDit binary editor for MsDos by Phillip Nickel.
                Binary (or rather hexadecimal) editors are
                specialized utilities needed only occasionally for
                advanced usage. As with ascii editors the choice of
                one's binary editor is a matter of taste and there
                are other goods ones like the MicroEMACS-like beav.

gsz0529.zip     Full-screen version of Zmodem file transfer
                protocol. Chuck Forsberg's Zmodem has become the
                veritable standard of file transfers from BBSes and
                between PCs and hosts. GSZ brings the visual
                interface to DSZ that has been formerly lacking
                while it has been offered by some telecommunication
                programs such as Telix. In the long run Forsberg's
                programs must have been one of the the most
                frequently updated programs on the scene, which is
                not always an unqualified boon.

keyrate.exe     From my own garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/ts/tsutld20.zip
                utility collection. What it effectively does is that
                it speeds up the cursor movement. An absolute
                necessity because the slow default keyrepeat rate
                makes moving the cursor a real pain in the neck.
                Mostly found only in commercial packages. Haven't
                seen many shareware or PD "competitors", but I may
                be too "optimistic". MsDos 5.0 finally introduced
                this feature into the mode command, which goes to
                show that the idea was a good one.

list77a.zip     Vernon Buerg's list program, a definite must for
                file browsing. It is so good that many other
                programs rely on list instead of having browsing
                routines of their own. Currently contains three
                versions of list of varying program sizes. Very
                handy also as a "grep" finder using the /F option.

pcopy787.zip    Patriquin's really fabulous copy program with a huge
                selection of useful optional switches. The current
                version is pcopy92c.zip, but the program and its
                installation have become so bloated that I have
                personally preferred to stay with an older version.
                In fact I still use version 5.0 on my old Zenith
                XT portable. The phenomenon is what the columnist
                John Dvorak calls excessive featurism.

pklte115.exe    PKWare's compress and uncompress executables. One of
                the great ideas of 1990 came from France from
                Fabrice Bellard. He wrote lzexe91.zip (currently) to
                decompress executable at call time by putting the
                decompression code into the executable. PKWare took
                the idea (an echo of the .arc debacle?), and
                developed with their background a more professional
                product. I must say, however, that I don't like
                pklite's (commercial version's) ability to make
                irreversible compressed executables, because this
                increases the danger of virii going undetected. Of
                course, there are cracking programs in circulation
                to expand even the "irreversible" executables, but
                this situation is not stylish.

pkz204g.exe     The most useful all-round archiver. From PKWare.
                (Surrounded by some totally stone-age hassle around
                the encryption issue when exported outside North
                America). Pkzip was born out of the controversy and
                litigation on .arc archiving. There is also a Unix
                (actually multi-platform) version of zip by Mark
                Adler, Rich Wales, Jean-loup Gailly, and others of
                the InfoZIP programming group. Zip is our now
                compulsory choice in garbo.uwasa.fi archive
                maintenance with for example ZOO outdone with its
                date stamp problems and ARJ with its lack of a
                proper Unix version. Despite its dominance, pkzip is
                not without its downsides. Beside the encryption
                issue, the 2.0 release was advertized in PC
                magazines almost a year prematurely. It became known
                as a classic case of vaporware, and at first release
                pkz204c.zip was outrageously buggy and sloppily
                documented (the latter aspect still leaves a bit to
                be desired). But 2.04G is the dominating archiver
                with perhaps ARJ having the second most following
                with its excellent multi-disk capabilities. No
                wonder that the debates about "the best archiver"
                are very common for example on the UseNet news.

qedit215.zip    QEdit, SemWare's text editor. More than perhaps any
                other category of programs, the choice of a text
                editor is a matter of taste. I have opted for QEdit
                because it has the same basic WordStar-like commands
                than Borland's Turbo Pascal interface, is nicely
                configurable, and has a fair macro language for
                advanced users. The only major thing I personally
                miss very much is a right-side justification. That
                is a problem I know will be corrected in the SemWare
                Editor (TSE), that will an upgrade of QEdit. At the
                time of writing this I have the prerelease version.
                I don't know, however, whether it will be shareware
                or fully commercial. TSE has a very much improved
                macro language.

scanv106.zip    VIRUSCAN scans for a great number of major virus
                strains. McAfee's virus scanner has drawn true
                world-wide acclaim. I've needed it just once in
                earnest, but that's enough to get it on this list.
                One of the utilities that has been very frequently
                updated to keep up with the developments. By the
                time you read this, it is likely that the version
                number has grown again. I have been personally very
                pleased with the exemplary support from McAfee.

shez90a.zip     A shell ("Compress Companion") to drive the many
                archivers for MsDos (that is for the programs
                un/compressing and clustering files). By Jim Derr,
                who has constantly been keeping Shez up to date with
                archiver developments. Makes life easy with so many
                alternative archiver methods in use. The number of
                the menu driven / hotkey options in this program is
                something to behold. Like most of the other programs
                on this list, I need it every day. Among its many
                advanced usages is the possibility of using it to
                convert archives from one format to another.

shroom2d.zip    ShellRoom. Swap to disk when shelling from an
                application. One of the big problems with many
                programs that allow the user to shell to Dos, is
                that the user is left with little memory. This very
                useful utility remedies that by swapping the
                application to dos when the application shells.
                Borland's Turbo Pascal is the only important
                application I have found so far that is not amenable
                to SHell ROOM.

snippr26.zip    Snip the screen into a file originally by Tom
                Kihlken in the PC-Magazine. The later versions are
                tweaks, that is the original source has been
                developed by several different savants. This TSR
                utility can capture text from the screen, and send
                it to the printer, a file, or the keyboard buffer as
                if typed. See garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/post09.txt for
                a patch to customize the Snipper hotkey.

target15.zip    Formerly sst_53b.zip "Seek and thou shalt find
                Supersonic Search Tool" originally called Whereis.
                An excellent filename finder by Keith Ledbetter now
                distributed by McAfee Associates. Fast, with many
                useful options including browsing inside archives
                and executing commands on found files. (Echoes of
                Unix find). Can also find and list the duplicate
                files on a hard disk even if there are better,
                specialized programs in that respect.

tlb-v220.zip    The Last Byte MsDos Upper Memory Manager. It enables
                loading device drivers and TSRs to high memory. Such
                a utility becomes a practical necessity when the
                number of memory-hungry TSRs grows as happens on my
                MsDos 3.30 office 386 where I have, for example, a
                network driver to connect to our department's laser
                printer. None of the upper memory managers are
                simple to use, but Dan's is not prohibitively
                difficult as some others. At the time of first
                writing this Dan was upgrading to 2.00 with a new
                user interface. (I was of the beta testers, and I
                don't accept such a task easily because of my own
                time limitations).

tlx320-?.zip    Telix 3.20 telecommunications package. There are
                many excellent telecommunication packages on the
                scene, and the choice is somewhat arbitrary between
                them. Telix was one of the first with inbuilt
                Zmodem, and its user interface is the most
                convenient I know. But none of the telecom progs is
                completely without problems, and this goes for
                Telix, too. Telix has a new owner deltaComm
                Development.

tsrcom34.zip    TSR utilities from TurboPower Software, also a must.
                Most importantly includes mark, release, and mapmem
                for unloading terminate and stay resident programs.
                The veritable standard of TSR maintenance. I have
                often advised the users of TSRs to apply mark /
                release from tsrcom rather than using the TSRs' own
                methods for removing them from the memory because of
                the danger of leaving holes and finally crashing the
                machine.

..................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi      Co-moderator of comp.archives.msdos.announce
Moderating  at  garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous FTP archives 128.214.87.1
Faculty of Accounting & Industrial Management; University of Vaasa
Internet:  ts@uwasa.fi  Bitnet:  salmi@finfun; FI-65101,   Finland
