Off the top of my head, I would do that using environmental strings with
the SET command--you can define some environmental variable, say FNAME with
the SET command, and set it to the filename, sans extension, then, when you
run the batfile you have %FNAME%.wp in the reference variable and the batch
processor will replace %FNAME% with the string in the SET command, say SET
FNAME=xxx, to use your example. That way, you only need execute the SET
command to load the env. var. before you execute your .bat file.
The so-called dummy arguments referred to as %1, %2, etc., in the batch
file are simply replaced by the arguments, in numerical order, given on the
batch file command line, as for a batch file copyme.bat
COPYME first.dat second.exe third.com (space separated vars.)
would perform operations referring in the batch file to 'first.dat' as %1,
'second.exe' as %2, etc. But they're always used as parameters, not
strings.
Hope this is what you need,
Joe
"Ivan Bútora" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the e-mail. Actually, the program does accept wildcards (I don't
know why I thought it didn't.) So indeed, that solves my first question - it
is quite easy to do a mass conversion.
What about the second question, though? Is there any way to refer to the
part of a file before its extension? You mentioned %1, %2, etc. How are %2
or %3 different from %1?


"jt3" wrote in message
...
Ivan,
It's been a long time since I did any batch programming, and on 6.22,
as
well, and 7 is no doubt somewhat different, but the first order approach
(easiest) depends upon whether or not your program pre602.exe will accept
wildcard characters, *, or ?, or not. If so, it is as easy as pre602 *.wp
*.602, conceivably. If you want a list, use the redirections symbol to
have a function such as dir put it into an output file. Remember that if
you execute a batch file within a batch file, the command processor
doesn't
return to the calling batch file unless you use the CALL command to load
another copy of the command processor. Reference any dummy parameters as
%1--%9, SHIFT can be used to access more than nine dummy args. FOR loops
are available if necessary:
FOR %%x IN(1, 2, 3, 4) DO something %%x
where x is a value taken from the list (1, 2, 3, 4), etc., and is a
parameter in executing 'something' where 'something' can be almost
anything
except another FOR (no FOR nesting).
IF statements are pretty standard though limited to:
IF string1==string2 command (can also be EXIST, or NOT EXIST,
etc., as in a file
referenced)
This can also test for an ERRORLEVEL (var) condition if the program gives
an
ERRORLEVEL output.
Statement labels begin with a colon, and GOTO references the name without
the colon. For output, there's REM, ECHO (ON or OFF), and PAUSE, which
stops execution, displaying "Strike a key when ready.." until the key is
struck, allowing resumption of processing. I believe that there are more,
some of which came in about 6.22 and later which I never used and don't
recall, but this might be enough to do what you want?
Pardon me if I have misinterpreted your question and regaled you with
the obvious.
Joe

"Ivan Bútora" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone,

not sure if the subject of this thread is a good way to describe what I
want
to do, but here it is. Basically I wish to convert several (many) files
from
WordPerfect format to T602 format. For this, I have a small utility
"pre602.exe" which functions in this way:

PRE602.EXE [parameters] inputfile outputfile

In my case, let's say I wish to convert a file called "text.wp", I would
do:
pre602 /d:5 text.wp text.602


Question 1
Imagine I have twenty files I want to convert, and I don't want to do each
one individually. Is there any way to do this using a batch file? If I put
all those files in one folder, is there any way how to generate a list of
those files, and then run this list through the pre602.exe command
automatically?


Question 2
I want to define a custom action for .wp files which would do the
conversion
to .602. I was able to do something like this:

pre602.exe /d:5 %1 new.602
However, I am not able to figure out a way to refer to the part of the
filename before the file extension, and thus I had to make the output file
something fixed, which I subsequently have to rename. I know "%1" refers
to
the file that the action is taken on. If the file is, say, "xxx.wp", is
there any way to refer just to "xxx"?

Thanks for your input.

Ivan