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HELP VARNAMES Does Not Work

Jay Sage

Jay Sage

Jun
760
16
The command help varnames used to open to page listing "Variables by Name". Now it produces a strange message.

[TCC33.00.20 | C:\commands\bat]
>*help varnames

List the environment variable names; with /S, space-separated
 
Here it works as desired. Same version.
 
I get the same as Jay,
probably because varnames is a plugin command.

Code: 
E:\Utils>which varnames 
varnames is a plugin command (4UTILS)

Joe
 
Was that command added recently to 4UTILS? I did not have this problem when I wrote the script for displaying my favorite help topics. That explains why I see the problem on both my desktop and laptop computers.

Is there a way force HELP to display the topic in the TCC help instead of the plugin help? Or to remove that one command from the plugin?
 
4UTILS's VARNAMES is pretty old, at least 3 years, I'd guess.
 
I wouldn't mind changing the name (ideas?). It might even be more useful if it became @VARNAMES = space-separated list (with varnames containing spaces quoted). I could even get rid of it.
 
Actually, 4UTILS already has _ENVVARS (space-separated list). I just added the quoting mechanism to it. Would anyone miss VARNAMES if it went away?
 
Perhaps I wrote that script at a time when 4UTILS happened not to be loaded. Don't some of the plugins have a way to enable/disable specific items?

A related question: How can I tell the name to use to reference a page in the help file. As I recall, it used to be displayed, which is how I learned that "varnames" would take me to that page. In the eViewer display, I don't see the name of the page.
 
Jay Sage said:
A related question: How can I tell the name to use to reference a page in the help file. As I recall, it used to be displayed, which is how I learned that "varnames" would take me to that page. In the eViewer display, I don't see the name of the page.
Click to expand...
There are two methods that I know of...

From the eViewer help, right click the page that you want, and choose print.

When I print from the @EXETYPE page, the URL is in the footer of the page.

In my case...
Code: 
http://127.0.0.1:8000/1CA17B92-23A4-409B-8A6A-8E627BB79082/index.html?f_exetype.htm

So, help f_exetype would open the eViewer help for @exetype.

Another method...

From the online help, select @exetype

The URL is
Code: 
https://jpsoft.com/help/index.htm?f_exetype.htm,
so, help f_exetype would open the eViewer help for @exetype.

Joe
 
You could also unload the plugin,
get the help for varnames,
then load the plugin again.

Code: 
plugin /u 4utils & *help varnames & plugin /l e:\utils\4Utils64.dll

Joe
 
Or launch the help viewer yourself:

Code: 
alias ev=`"%@path[%_cmdspec]eviewer.exe" "%@path[%_cmdspec]TakeCommand.ewriter"`
ev varnames.html
 
This works, even with the plugin loaded.

Code: 
help varnames.htm?

It gives the varnames page with no lefthand pane. But if you follow links (maybe several), the backward/forward (</>) buttons work as expected. If you need to, you can make the lefthand pane appear by selecting "Home" on the "TCMD" drop-down menu.

It does not work without the '?'.
 
Very interesting ... this will give the varnames page with the lefthand pane.

Code: 
help varnames.html?

So you can use either ".htm?" or ".html?" and they give different behaviors. That's a little bizarre. I wonder if there's more to that feature.
 
Charles Dye said:
Or launch the help viewer yourself:

Code: 
alias ev=`"%@path[%_cmdspec]eviewer.exe" "%@path[%_cmdspec]TakeCommand.ewriter"`
ev varnames.html
Click to expand...
If you're going to call eviewer.exe by name, there's apparently a lot you can do. Here's just one example, a modified version of an example I found starting at this page.

Code: 
eViewer.exe "ewriter://d:\tc33\takecommand.ewriter?loadpage=index.html?varnames.htm&defpos=50,50,600,600
 
Great solutions from Charles and Vince, thanks for those!

With the TCMD.CHM file, I was able to export the .html files doing...
Code: 
hh.exe -decompile r:\help tcmd.chm

If anyone discovers how to do this with the TakeCommand.ewriter file,
I would appreciate them sharing how to accomplish this.

Joe
 
Joe Caverly said:
Great solutions from Charles and Vince, thanks for those!

With the TCMD.CHM file, I was able to export the .html files doing...
Code: 
hh.exe -decompile r:\help tcmd.chm

If anyone discovers how to do this with the TakeCommand.ewriter file,
I would appreciate them sharing how to accomplish this.

Joe
Click to expand...
The site I linked might say how.
 
Thanks for all the help, everyone.

vefatica said:
It does not work without the '?'.
Click to expand...

That's odd. It works fine for me without the question mark. But only the ".htm" version. With ".html" I get three columns instead of two.
 
@Joe Caverly

As far as I know that's not possible with .ewriter files.

There is no direct decompile possibility like hh for .chm (at least not available for the public).

And the cached things (because the rendering is in HTML) are highly probably not really sensefully (only parts would be available).
 
I modified my 4help.btm to take advantage of the new HELP switches.

Of the two new switches;
Code: 
/I    Show the Index instead of the topic, and optionally search for the specified string
 
/S    Show the Search window instead of the topic

I chose to use the /I switch in my 4help.btm.

The help system (eviewer.exe) seems to be more usable in v34 than in past versions.

Joe
 
The problem with VARNAMES popped up again for me with version 34. In fact, many of the help pages that my script opens stopped working until I removed the suffix ".htm" from the page names. To solve the VARNAMES problem for the moment, I just removed the 4UTILS plugin, whose VARNAME command was causing the problem.
 
rconn said:
Why would you need to do this? You can get all of the .html files from the website (Take Command / TCC Help v. 33).
Click to expand...

I get the error;
Code: 
16:12:19 Error:  "Forbidden" (403) at link https://jpsoft.com/help/index.htm?overview.htm (from primary/primary)
...or...
Code: 
16:15:24 Error:  "Forbidden" (403) at link https://jpsoft.com/help/index.htm (from primary/primary)

when using HTTrack to copy those files.

Joe
 
It's an ongoing problem. TCC's COPY is no better.

Code: 
v:\> copy https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v33/tcmd.exe
https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v34/tcmd.exe => V:\tcmd.exe
TCC: HTTP protocol error. 403 Forbidden. "https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v34/tcmd.exe"
     0 files copied       1 failed

It hasn't got much attention. It works for Rex and for @Charles Dye (from one of two locations). Funny, it worked during the recent site update and shortly after, but it doesn't work today.
 
Windows's built-in CURL.EXE (curl --help) can get it. Here's a command line that works for me when COPY fails.

Code: 
curl -s -A "moi" --output-dir %userprofile\desktop -O https://jpsoft.com/help/index.htm
 
@vefatica

A "normal" load that page in browser and "save site" or something like that isn't enough?
 
vefatica said:
It's an ongoing problem. TCC's COPY is no better.

Code: 
v:\> copy https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v33/tcmd.exe
https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v34/tcmd.exe => V:\tcmd.exe
TCC: HTTP protocol error. 403 Forbidden. "https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v34/tcmd.exe"
     0 files copied       1 failed

It hasn't got much attention. It works for Rex and for @Charles Dye (from one of two locations). Funny, it worked during the recent site update and shortly after, but it doesn't work today.
Click to expand...

Code: 
C:\>ver /r

TCC  34.00.12 x64   Windows 10 [Version 10.0.19045.5247]
TCC Build 12   Windows 10 Build 19045
Registered to COE-LN00061392

C:\>copy https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v33/tcmd.exe
https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v33/tcmd.exe => C:\tcmd.exe
TCC: HTTP protocol error. 403 Forbidden. "https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v33/tcmd.exe"
     0 files copied       1 failed

C:\>acquire https://jpsoft.com/downloads/v33/tcmd.exe
Wrote 92,559,296 bytes to "C:\tcmd.exe".

C:\>which acquire
acquire is a plugin command (Acquire)

C:\>

My external IP is 73.127.229.169 at the moment.

Acquire is pretty basic. It uses WinINet functions: InternetOpen(), InternetOpenUrl(), HttpQueryInfo() or FtpGetFileSize(), InternetReadFile(), InternetCloseHandle().
 
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