Take Command : Java Glossary

A replacement for Windows W2K/XP/W2003/Vista/W2008/W7-32/W7-64 command.com/cmd.exe that adds many extra features to BAT (Batch) file processing. It includes tcc.exe (née 4NT) for console batch files and a GUI (Graphic User Interface) equivalent. tcc.exe used to be sold separately. Even the familiar 4nt.exe is still there, but renamed to tcc.exe. The current version is 15.0.1.51 Last revised/verified: 2013-06-01.

It comes in two versions:

I have only limited experience with the GUI component, (which does not appear to do much), though I bought a copy of Take Command on 2008-03-04. Within that you can download the 32 or 64-bit version. Everything following is about the tcc console batch component. Take Command/LE has been discontinued.

Redirection

Once you have tcc installed you can redirect output:

or pipe output to another utility:

rem pipe stdout to more utility
javac.exe *.java | more

rem pipe output of stdout and stderr to more utility
javac.exe *.java |& more

or pipe with a tee to both redirect to a file and pipe:

Programs don’t have to be on the path to start them with tcc. They just need an Registry App Paths entry so there is no need to put a directory on the path unless it contains several programs. This keeps your path short, simple and fast.

File Timestamps

REM if myfile.java is newer than myfile.exe,
REM i.e. has a bigger timestamp,
REM then recompile.
REM note the the [] around parms and lack of () around the if expression.
if %@FILEAGE[myfile.java] GT %@FILEAGE[myfile.exe] call recompile myfile

tcc Pet Tricks

Here are some of the sorts of tricks I use with tcc.

To calculate, add, subtract, multiply, divide use the @EVAL function.

Recursive Directory Processing

Here an example of recursively descending a directory tree and processing each directory it finds.

Directory Diff

This script compares two directories to detect missing, older, newer, or extra files.

Orphan Deleter

Here is an example of an iteration over all directories in a tree, and within that over each file. This is a useful script to keep to trees in synch by deleting files in the destination that no longer exist in the source.

Recursively Running a Utility on a Directory Tree

Here is the bloutall.btm script I use frequently. It runs the blout.exe utility on every file in the current directory, or optionally on every file in the directory tree. It only runs it on files with an extension that implies than contain readable text. blout.exe gets rid of excess blank lines and normalises line ending separators. I could also have implemented it with the simpler GLOBAL command.

Copying just selected Dirs from one tree to Another

Often you don’t want to process a whole directory true, just do the same thing to some or most of the directories in it. Here is an example where I provide a list of dirs I want to copy to the corresponding spot in another tree.

Caveats

• copy /u will replace older files and add new ones. copy /c will just replace older files.
• To control the background colours in TCC (Take Command Command line), you must first use the OPTION command to define a palette of custom colours. Then you can click a window and select one of those colours for the background. If you select a colour not on the palette, it will revert to a colour on the palette the next time you open the window. To add to the confusion, sometimes the palette itself reverts to primary colours, but I have not determined the conditions under which that happens.
• There are five places you can do configuring:
  1. The TCC option command
  2. The Take Command Option menu
  3. The C:\Users\userid\AppData\Local\JPSoft\TCMD.INI file
  4. The properties of a running TCC program.
  5. The properties of a shortcut for a BTM file. (here is where you specify the default starting directory.

  Look in all five places before you give up.

• The biggest problem with tcc is you may not distribute it to you customers in any way. If they want to run your *.bat files they must buy and install tcc for themselves. There is no such thing an a tcc runtime.
• There is a version of tcc for Windows W95/W98/Me called 4DOS.
• I have encountered only one bug in CDD (Change Disk and Directory). CDD /S DE will not work unless a C: drive exists. You can work around that by providing it with a dummy one with SUBST C: D:\
• I think this is now fixed but in version 4.01, wildcards on long file names will be performed on both long and short filenames, so often you get two matches on the same file! The result in you often notice tcc running a utility twice when you use wildcards.
• You can install it as your official command processor, replacing cmd.exe with by setting the COMSPEC environment variable to:
• With Vista, the registration key can mysteriously disappear. Use the inikey version to keep it in a file instead of the flaky registry.
• With Vista, the defender will keep asking you for permission to run tcc. Change the short cut you use to invoke tcc in the for all users option to tell it not to run as administrator.

COMSPEC

Configuring

• register, where you put your registration key.
• command line: extended directory search: 2. This makes CDD a very useful command to jump to a directory on any drive just by typing a few letters of its name. It creates an auxiliary list of all directories in C:\jpstree.idx, or possibly is the LOCALAPPDATA directory, C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\JPSoft\jpstree.idx or even the X:\Program Files\JPSoft\TCMD14x64 directory. It is just a text file, which can be used to compose a list of directories to backup or directories to erase. You will probably want to unhide your C:\Users\user\AppData directory to make the list more complete.
• advanced ntsc descriptions: on
• for Windows : colours try:

  use	foreground		background
  output	black	#000000	bright cyan	#96ffff
  input	blue	#0000ff	bright cyan	#96ffff
  error	bright red	#ff0000	bright white	#ffffff

• shortcut : start in : your usual working directory.
• 14 point font
• screen buffer: 100 × 5000
• Window size: 100 × 40
• Edit options: insert mode and quickedit mode
• Screen background: 200-255-255 : pale cyan. You can also configure the popup colour here.

You can configure the size of the CDD window by dragging it to the size you want with the mouse. This is a bit of a surprise since 4DOS/tcc/TakeCommand has been keyboard driven since the DOS (Disk Operating System) days.

MultiTasking

Especially if have multiple CPU (Central Processing Unit) cores, you can speed things up by dividing your work between several *.btm files and running the simultaneously. You then need to launch them, wait for them to finish, and keep them from interfering with each other. Tools include: START, DETACH, _DETACHPD, %@isproc[], START /AFFINITY, Event utils plug-in (put the dlls in the X:\Program Files\JPSoft\TCMD13x64\PLUGINS directory.) See Hints on how to coordinate tasks.