
Bay Program Loader
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<<PROGRAMS: BAYLOAD.BAS and BAYLOAD.EXE> Look for them in the file 
PCMO9508.ZIP. Ask your SysOp for the location of this file.>
What you need to run the program:  BASIC or QBASIC

"A good DOS shell in only 161 lines of BASIC code? You bet! The first-
prize winner in PCM's programming contest "

                          BAY PROGRAM LOADER
                          by Billy A. Younger


   Bay Program Loader is a utility program that makes it a very simple 
task to load any program that is loadable from either BASIC or the DOS 
command line. The minimum requirements are a Tandy/IBM-compatible 
computer with 384K (640K is preferable), Version 2.11 of MS-DOS/BASIC or 
higher, a color monitor and one disk drive.

   This program should be loaded from an AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that it 
will start automatically when the computer system is first turned on or 
rebooted. To create an AUTOEXEC.BAT file, first make sure the computer 
is at the DOS prompt, then type the following, pressing ENTER at the end 
of each line:

          COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT
          QBASIC BAYLOAD
          F6

   If a compiled version of Bay Program Loader is used [look for 
BAYLOAD.EXE in the file PCMO9508.ZIP], create the AUTOEXEC.BAT file by 
typing the following:

          COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT
          BAYLOAD
          F6

   The F6 in the above examples is the F6 function key; it saves the 
AUTOEXEC.BAT file to disk. If your computer system has a hard disk, Bay 
Program Loader should be placed in the root directory or in a directory 
pointed to by the PATH statement.

   When Bay Program Loader is loaded and executed, the screen clears and 
the directory of the disk is displayed. The first filename is displayed 
in white letters on a red background. The function keys and commands for 
each are displayed at the bottom of the screen.

   The four arrow keys are used to move the cursor left, right, up and 
down. When one of the arrow keys is pressed, the filename that is one 
column or one line in the direction of the arrow is displayed in white 
letters on a red background; the previous filename is shown in gray 
letters on a black background.

   When the desired program is displayed in white letters on a red 
background, you can press the ENTER key to load and run the program. 
After you press ENTER, the program name is shown and you can type any 
other necessary parameters or entries needed to load the program. If no 
other parameters are required, just press ENTER. Programs with the file 
extensions of .EXE, .COM, .BAS and .BAT are the only program types that 
can be executed from Bay Program Loader.

   In order to load a BASIC program, the BASIC.EXE (or BASICA, or 
QBASIC, etc.) program should be on the same disk as the BASIC program 
(or in the PATH). The BASIC.EXE program is loaded first and then the 
BASIC program is loaded.

    Bay Program Loader can load most DOS programs. When .EXE, .BAS, .BAT 
and .COM programs are ended, Bay Program Loader is functional again, 
ready to let you load another program.

   To display the subdirectories of a current directory, press the ALT 
and F5 keys. To change directories, move the cursor to the desired 
subdirectory and press the F9 key. If you want to return to the parent 
directory of a subdirectory, press the F10 key.

   To display files beginning with a particular letter -- F, for example 
-- press the letter F on the keyboard and all files beginning with F are 
shown. Pressing any letter, A to Z, show files beginning with that 
letter. If no files exist, the program goes to the error-trapping 
routine and beeps. The full directory is then displayed.

   Approximately 65 files can be displayed on the screen. The filenames 
scroll off the screen when the number of files is higher. To compensate 
for this, the function keys F5 through F8 can be pressed to display only 
the files with the extensions .BAS, .COM, .EXE or .BAT. Pressing letters 
A through Z also display only the files that begin with the letter 
pressed.

   The COMMAND.COM program should be on the disk of the default drive at 
all times. (The default drive is Drive A unless you are using a hard 
disk.) This is because the SHELL command used in this program looks for 
COMMAND.COM only in the default drive.

   To print a copy of the function-key commands, press the ALT and F1 
keys while the program is working. After the Help menu is shown, turn on 
the printer, then press the SHIFT and PRINT keys.

   Here are the function-key commands:

           F1   Displays the directory of the disk in Drive A
           F2   Displays the directory of the disk in Drive B
           F3   Displays the directory of Drive C
           F4   Displays the directory of Drive D
           F5   Displays all .COM files in assigned drive
           F6   Displays all .BAT files in assigned drive
           F7   Displays all .BAS files in assigned drive
           F8   Displays all .EXE files in assigned drive
           F9   Changes to a child directory. Move the cursor to the
                   desired child directory and press F9
          F10   Changes back to the parent directory
       ALT-F1   Displays the Help menu
       ALT-F5   Displays all subdirectories in the current directory
       ALT-F8   Goes to a DOS shell (type EXIT to return)
     Up Arrow   Moves cursor up one line
   Down Arrow   Moves cursor down one line
  Right Arrow   Moves cursor right to next column of filenames
   Left Arrow   Moves cursor left to next column of filenames
          ESC   Clears the screen and exits the program
        ENTER   Loads the highlighted program
  Letters A-Z   Displays the files beginning with the selected letter

                                 -=*=-

              Billy Younger, some of whose other programs in
           BASIC and dBASE have been published in PCM, works
           in cargo statistics for a major airline.

-=-------------        -=*=-     -=*=-     -=*=-        -------------=-
