SCOUG-HELP Mailing List Archives

<< Previous Message << >> Next Message >>

Date:	Sat, 5 Jan 2002 01:22:56 PST7
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: command prompt

Content Type: text/plain

=====================================================
If you are responding to someone asking for help who
may not be a member of this list, be sure to use the
REPLY TO ALL feature of your email program.
=====================================================

Zdenek Jizba wrote:
>
> I cannot read the contents of the a: drive (floppy diskette)

1) The drive's head might be dirty.

2) Sometimes the cable comes partially loose from vibration (this has
happened to me several times) and you need to plug it back in (both
ends).

3) The cable connectors may have built up a bit of corrosion
(oxidation). Disconnecting the cables and then putting them back on
sometimes solves the problem because it cleans the contacts. (Standard
maintenance procedure on a lot of machines.)

4) The drive itself might be worn out. One thing that breaks is the
ribbon cable from the head assembly. Try swapping in a floppy from a
different machine.

> if I try to format a: I get the message:
>
> SYS1281 ...
> SYS1279 ...

These two system messages mean:

[G:\]help sys1281
SYS1281: Track 0 cannot be formatted.
EXPLANATION: Track 0 is defective or the diskette and drive type are
incompatible.
ACTION: Make sure the diskette and drive type are compatible and take
appropriate action. If track 0 is defective, discard the diskette or
re-partition the hard disk.

[G:\]help sys1279
SYS1279: The format was unsuccessful.
EXPLANATION: A disk error occurred while the target disk was being
formatted.
ACTION: Review the error messages displayed and follow the corrective
action.

Of course, the diskette isn't necessarily bad. The drive just *thinks*
it's bad, possibly due to dirt or a drive malfunction.

> Until yesterday, whenever I entered on a prompt:
> [c:] a:
> it returned
> [a:]
> But now all of a sudden it returns:
> [c:\] a:
> [a:\]
> this despite the fact that A: contains good files.
> How can I get back to getting the prompt without the slash?

Short answer: Type "set prompt=" at the command line.

The command line prompt can be set to just about anything you want.
It's a variable in your environment, and you can see it with:

set prompt
or
set | find /i "prompt"

Mine returns the default prompt value

PROMPT=$i[$p]

and I sometimes also use

PROMPT=™™™™™ $d $t ™™™™™$p$g

(where the double lines are character 205 decimal -- I don't know if
they'll make it through everyone's email or not).

$i turns on the blue Help line at the top of the command line window.
$d and $t are the current date and time. $p is the drive-directory path
displayed as "x:\...".

When you change the prompt setting with, for example,

set prompt=$d$t $p$g

it only affects the current command line window and not the whole
machine so you can play with different prompts to see what they look
like without worrying about messing anything up. Changes are not
permanent.

In the default prompt value (above), the brackets "[" and "]" are just
text and you can include any text you want, such as

set prompt=Jizba $p$g (go ahead, try this one)

To return to the "default" prompt in the current command line window,
just enter

set prompt=

You can add colors, boldface, do screen layouts and other things with
PROMPT.

If you want all your command line windows to have a different prompt
other than the "default" one, you can set the PROMPT value in
CONFIG.SYS.

By the way, you can turn the blue Help line at the top of a command line
window on or off by entering

help on

or

help off

HELP is actually just a command file (HELP.CMD) that changes the PROMPT
value; it's in your \OS2\ directory if you want to look at it.

- Peter

=====================================================

To unsubscribe from this list, send an email message
to "steward@scoug.com". In the body of the message,
put the command "unsubscribe scoug-help".

For problems, contact the list owner at
"rollin@scoug.com".

=====================================================

Return to [ 05 | January | 2002 ]

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.