Patches for Rainbow under MS-DOS v3.1.016

                brought to you by Dick Bartlein (414-871-4133)

             (No warranty is expressed or implied and any patches
                  applied are at the sole risk of the user.)


1. Use ECHO to produce a blank line from a .BAT file:

   No patch needed under Rainbow MS-DOS v3.1, a trailing dot (ECHO.) will
   cause display of blank line; who knows, maybe it works on IBM also.
   For compatibility with older .BAT files which use "ECHO <space> <space>"
   to create a blank line:

        COPY COMMAND.COM XCOM.COM
        DEBUG XCOM.COM
        -D 3808<cr>         (Check contents:  E8 20 00 74 09 BA ...)
        -E 3808 83 F9 02 72<cr>
        -W<cr>
        -Q<cr>
        COPY COMMAND.COM *.ORG
        COPY XCOM.COM COMMAND.COM
   (Reboot to enable new version or test by typing XCOM and then
   running a batch file.  Leave the test copy by typing EXIT.)


2. Avoid necessity for device entry when first invoking PRINT:

   No patch needed here either, PRINT /D:PRN is a new option which
   prevents the question from being asked.


3. Expand the environment space for SET values:

   That's right...no patch needed:  in your CONFIG.SYS file, code a
   SHELL statement similar to this one:

        SHELL=E:\COMMAND.COM E:\ /P /E:40

   The /E option allows from 10 to 62 paragraphs to be allocated for
   environment space.  The default is /E:10.  The /P causes this copy
   of COMMAND to be the permanent (lowest-level) copy and also triggers
   it to execute AUTOEXEC.BAT when it starts.  Also available is /D, which
   tells COMMAND (with /P specified) to skip execution of AUTOEXEC.BAT.


4. Default to ECHO OFF in batch files (except AUTOEXEC.BAT):
   File=COMMAND.COM     Rainbow 3.1 Addr=195f   Change 01 -> 00

        COPY COMMAND.COM XCOM.COM
        DEBUG XCOM.COM
        -D 195f<cr>         (Check contents:  01 50 E8 96 00 BE ...)
        -E 195f 00<cr>      (00=ECHO OFF, 01=ECHO ON)
        -W<cr>
        -Q<cr>
        COPY COMMAND.COM *.ORG
        COPY XCOM.COM COMMAND.COM
   (Reboot to enable new version or test by typing XCOM and then
   running a batch file.  Leave the test copy by typing EXIT.)

   The default is still ECHO ON for processing AUTOEXEC.BAT.  See the
   next patch to change this.


5. Default ECHO OFF for AUTOEXEC.BAT:
   File=COMMAND.COM     Rainbow 3.1 Addr=11d8   Change 03 -> 02

        COPY COMMAND.COM XCOM.COM
        DEBUG XCOM.COM
        -D 11d8<cr>         (Check contents:  03 8E C0 33 FF B0 ...)
        -E 11d8 02<cr>      (02=ECHO OFF, 03=ECHO ON for AUTOEXEC.BAT)
        -W<cr>
        -Q<cr>
        REN COMMAND.COM *.ORG
        COPY XCOM.COM COMMAND.COM
        (Reboot to enable new version)

-End-