What it does have that LIST.COM does not do.

• Expandable screen sizes, up to and including full-screen. Use the mouse/cursor to stretch/shrink the ZBList window.
• More colors
• No limit for number of files in a directory. LIST.COM was limited to about 1000 entries.
• File sizes up to two gigabytes. I believe LIST.COM had trouble with files over 16mb.

What ZBLIST does not have (yet):

• Piped input
• A config/initialization file for the user to specify their personal options
• A help command if one hits F1
• Finding text in HEX mode
• Input commands at startup (other than file/directory names) such as /D or /E, etc. 
• Mouse support (e.g. the graphical user interface is non-existent at this time).  Mouse support was being written as I write this. 
• The next release should have some/all of the above missing features. 
• Any feature that is not listed below is unavailable at this time, but under consideration for the subsequent releases. 

• If no parameters are present, ZBLIST enters DIRectory mode and lists the current directory.
• If the passed parameter is a directory, ZBLIST enters DIR mode and lists the named directory.  (e.g. ZBLIST     \MYDIR\OLDFILES)
• If one or more file names are passed as parameters, ZBLIST starts in LIST mode and lists the files named.  Use the "Q" button to scroll to the next file. 
  e.g. "ZBLIST WHAMMY*.TXT" will list all files in which the first six characters are WHAMMY and the last four characters are .TXT.
  Users can forward scroll to the next file with the Q, Ctrl-N, or Ctrl-PgDn.  Users can scroll to previous files with Ctrl-U, or Ctrl-PgUp.  Users can go back to the first file with "1" (one). 
• If one or more files are passed as parameters AND the user specifies "/d" in the parm, ZBLIST goes into DIR mode and lists the file names specified.
• If the opTional parameter /T(parm) is entered, ZBLIST examines the parm for for the following:
  ** If Cnn is entered (nn is any number from 06 to 20), ZBLIST uses the Consolas font with a font size of "nn".  (e.g. a parm of /TC12 sets ZBLIST to use 12-point Consolas font.
  ** If Fnn is entered (nn is any number from 06 to 20), ZBLIST uses the Fixedsys font with a font size of "nn".  (e.g. a parm of /TF09 sets ZBLIST to use 9-point Fixdsys font.
  ** If Lnn is entered (nn is any number from 06 to 20), ZBLIST uses the Lucinda Console font with a font size of "nn".  (e.g. a parm of /TL16 sets ZBLIST to use 16-point Lucinda Console font.
  ** If Nnn is entered (nn is any number from 06 to 20), ZBLIST uses the Courier-New font with a font size of "nn".  (e.g. a parm of /TN11 sets ZBLIST to use 11-point Courier-New font.
  ** If Tnn is entered (nn is any number from 06 to 20), ZBLIST uses the Terminal font (a.k.a. Code page 437) with a font size of "nn".  (e.g. a parm of /TT7 sets ZBLIST to use 7-point Terminal font.  Vern Buerg's LIST.COM used the Terminal font. 
  ** If B is entered, then ZBLIST sets the background color to black and the forground color to light gray.
  ** If Sxy is entered (x and y are digits 0-5), then ZBLIST sets the screen size from the minimum (zero) to maximum (five) in the x (horizontal) or y (vertical) direction.&bnsp; e.g. S35 sets the horizontal window to 3/5 of the screen, and the vertical size of the screen to the full screen size.  S00 sets the screen size to 24 rows of 80 characters, while S55 sets the ZBLIST window to full screen. 
  All of the /T parms can be combined.  For example, a parm of /TS55N16B sets the ZBLIST window to full-screen, uses 16-point Courier font, and sets the background color to black. 

• Alt-G spawns a new DOS window in the current directory without terminating ZBLIST. 
• Alt-W spawns an additional copy of ZBLIST in the current directory.  The two executions of ZBLIST run independantly of each other. 
• F5 thru F8 - Change colors.  When hitting F5 - F8, users will be prompted for the color for that particular aspect of ZBLIST.  The colors Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Magenta, White, blacK, and grAy can be entered by name, or by R, Y, G, C, B, M, W, K (for blacK), and A (for grAy), respectively.  In additon, users can specify the first three or more letters of Brown, Chocolate, Gold, Khaki, Lime, Maroon, NavyBlue, Peach, Olive, Purple, Silver, SkyBlue, Tan, Turquoise, or Violet.  In addition, users may append one-to-five plus signs ("+") to lighten or one-to-five minus signs ("-") to darken any color.  (e.g. specify "Lime++" for a light lime color).  Alternately, colors can be entered with the 6-character HEX RGB equivalent (e.g. FF0000 for red, FFD700 for gold, etc),
• F5 - Change the background color of the main display (ZBLIST starts with this value set to Peach).
• F6 - Change the color of lettering of file names (in DIR mode) and the color of lettering when listing a file (ZBLIST starts this in Black). 
• Ctrl-F6 - Change the coloring of the letters for directory entries when in DIR mode (ZBLIST starts this in a light blue, 0x0000C0).
• F7 - Change the background coloring of the top/bottom lines (from gray).
• Alt-F7 - Change the color of the background of the cursor when in DIR mode. (ZBLIST starts this with a light gray (0xE0E0E0),
• F8 - Change the lettering of the top/bottom lines of the display.  ZBLIST starts this in black (0x000000). 
• F10 - Exit ZBLIST

• Use cursor keys (up, down, right, left, Pg-Up, Pg-Dn, Home, End) to move around the page.
• Use Ctrl-End, Ctrl-Home to move to 1st/last file in a directory.
• 0-9 - The numbers zero through nine select the number of columns for the directory listing. "0" is the max for the screen size.  More columns means that more files (but less data for each file) per page are displayed.  Fewer columns means that fewer files (but more data for each file) are displayed on each page.  ZBLIST starts with this value set to "4".  At a minimum, ZBLIST displayes the old 12-byte file name format with an 8-byte name followed by a period followed by the old three-byte extension (e.g. ZBLIST.EXE). If only one or two columns are displayed, then ZBLIST displays
  (A) - The 12 byte old file name,
  (B) - The number of bytes in the file.  Larger files may have "k" or "m" appended to indicate that the file size should be multiplied by 1024 or 1048576 respectively. 
  (C) - The date/time of last modification in the format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm. 
  (D) - The file attributes "A" for archive, "S" for sytem, "H" for hidden, and "R" for read-only. 
  (E) - The full long file name.  If there is insufficient room to display the entire file name, ZBLIST places a tilde ("~") at the end to signify that more data exists. 
• If the shift key is depressed and any letter is hit, the cursor jumps to the first entry that begins with that letter.  (e.g. Shift-W positions the cursor to the first directory entry that begins with "W"). 
• B - Create a temporary backup copy of a file in the same directory.  It copies the file to another file in the same directory named _Zyymmdd.ZBhhmmBU.(old file name) where: yymmdd is the curent date and hhmm is the current time.  This is a temporary file which may get scratched by future releases of ZBLIST when the file is more than 30 days old.  For example, ABCD.DOC would have a copy created named _Z100630.ZB1425BU.ABCD.DOC.  ZBLIST temporary files will be better documented in the future.  For now, realize that ZBLIST is creating a short-term working backup copy of a file for TEMPORARY backup purposes.  When implemented in the future, ZBLIST will delete temporary files older than 30 days (even files that are created now).  The long-term purpose of this feature is to create a backup copy of a file just before it is edited.  If a user makes a catastrophic mistake, they could just revert to the backup copy.  (It is assumed users will discover their mistake within 30 days) 
• C - Copy a file - ZBLIST prompts for the new location and/or new name.
• D - Delete a file (actually move it to the recycle bin) - Use "Alt-D" to move a file to the recycle bin without prompting.
• E - Edit the file using the command "EDIT filename".  If "EDIT" is not a valid command on your system, create a .BAT file named EDIT.BAT.  If the CTRL key is down when "E" is hit (i.e. CTRL-E), a temporary backup copy of the file is made (see the B command above). 
  Note: If you want to use NOTEPAD, see the "O" command, below. 
  Note: On 04-JAN-11, someone reported a bug wherein file names that contain imbedded blanks do not work.  This will be fixed in the next release. 
• Alt-E - For users who want to use their own editor, Alt-E invokes a command ZBEDIT drive dir filename complete_file_name, where drive is the drive on which the file exists, dir is the directory on which the file exists, filename is the filename of the file, and complete_file_name is the fully-qualified path/file name.  I created a 3-line .BAT file named ZBEDIT.BAT which contains   %1:   on the first line, thence   CD %2   on the second line, and thence   EDIT %3   on the third line. Together, these three lines are used to edit the file.  Users can create their own .BAT file and use the parameters as desired. 
• F - Enter file specifications.
• I - Invoke the file as a command.  It is assumed that the file is a .BAT, .EXE, or .COM file, otherwise, users will be prompted if they wish to continue.  Thence, users will be prompted as to the parms to be passed to the invoked program.  (If no parms, then just hit enter or click "OK")  The current directory will be changed to the directory in which the program resides and the program will be called.  ZBLIST will wait for the program to complete.
• L - Change to LIST mode and display the file on which the cursor resides.  This is the same as hitting the Enter key. 
• M - Move a file/directory (you will be prompted for destination)
• O - The letter "O", not zero.   Similar to E, this command invokes "NOTEPAD filename".  Note: Use Ctrl-O to create a backup copy before NOTEPAD is called. 
• P - Change current directory or current drive.  Wild-card characters ("?" or "*") are allowed.  Wild-card character "*" is assumed at the end if no wild-card characters are supplied, and ZBLIST will path to the first directory that meets that specification. 
• Q - Quit (if in DIR mode) or return to list the most recently listed file.  (See below for LIST mode. 
• R - Rename a file
• S - Sort the directory.  Unlike LIST.COM, when a directory is sorted in date sequence, the directory is also sorted by date.  Use "F" to sort by file name (directories sorted first).  Use "D" to sort by date sequence.  Use "N" to sort by name with directories interleaved in file names.  Use "S" to sort by size (number of bytes).  Preceed F, D, N, or S with a minus sign (-) to sort the items in decending sequence.  (e.g. "-D" to sort in descending date sequence, "+S" to sort in ascending size sequence). 
• W - Toggle Word-wrap. If Word-wrap is "on", files being listed in ASCII mode will "break" at the end of the line, or if a "break" character is found in the last 9 columns of a line. A "break" character is 0X00, a blank, a minus sign, or a 0XA0
• X - Start a new DOS session using the current directory as the starting directory.  Thence end ZBLIST (see ALT-G to not end ZBList). 
• Esc - Escape - Exit ZBLIST
• "*" (asterisk) - Refresh the directory listing. 
• Enter - Change from DIR mode to LIST mode and display the file on which the cursor resides.  This is the same as "L". 
• "." (period) - Jump to the parent directory.  This has the same effect as hitting Ctrl-Home and thence hitting Enter. 

• Use cursor keys (up, down, right, left, Pg-Up, Pg-Dn, Home, End) to move around the file. 
• 7 or 8 to display 7-bit ASCII (ignoring the high-order bit) or 8-bit ASCII.
• F3 and or "A" to find the next text; F9 to find the previous text.  (See: "F", below)
• E - to display the file in EBCDIC (Hit "E" again to return to ASCII display
• "F" or "S" or "\" or "/" to find text.  "F" and "\" finds text regardless of case.  "S" and "/" finds text which is case-sensitive.  Lines containing the text are listed in bold (the entire line).  The next found text is bookmarked (seel Alt-Y).  Currently, ZBLIST only supports ASCII text finds.  ZBLIST does not support searches while listing in HEX mode at this time. 
• Alt-H> to display a file in hex.  Note: If the screen is more than 116 characters wide, ZBLIST will display 32 characters per line.  If the screen is more than 125 characters wide, the ASCII line number (in decimal) will be displayed on the right as well. 
• Ctrl-N - quit listing the current file and list the next file of a list.
• Q - quit listing the current file and list the next file. 
• Alt-R to display column numbers on top.
• S - Finds text (see "F")
• Ctrl-U - quit listing the current file and list the previous file of a list.
• Ctrl-Y to bookmark the top line listed on an ASCII display
• Alt-Y to return to the previous bookmark.  Keep hitting Alt-Y to cycle through previous (up to 25) bookmarks. 
• # is used to jump to a specific line number (if listing in ASCII mode).  You will be prompted for the line number.  If you are listing a file in HEX (see: Alt-H), then you will be prompted for the byte position within the file.  Preceed the line number or byte number with H or X to indicate a hexadecimal byte number.  (e.g. "H1000" or "X1000" are equivalent to decimal "4096"). 
• + The plus sign is used to jump forward a relative number of lines (if listing in ASCII mode) or number of bytes (if listing in HEX mode).  For example, to jump forward 3000 lines, enter "+", then enter "3000" when prompted.  To jump forward &H4000 (16384) bytes, enter either "16384" or "&h4000". 
• - The minus sign is used to jump backward a relative number of lines (if listing in ASCII mode) or number of bytes (if listing in HEX mode).  You will be prompted as to how many lines/bytes you wish to move backwards in the file.
• / or \ - Used for finding text. See: "F", above
• Ctrl-Pgup - quit listing the current file and list the previous file of a list.
• Ctrl-PgDn - quit listing the current file and list the next file of a list.
• Ctrl-Left (arrow) - Go left to column 1.
• Ctrl-Right (arrow) - Go right to the last column of the longest record on the current page. 
• Esc - Escape: Exit LIST mode, return to DIR mode.

Other:

• I started this project in December, 2009, before I learned that Vern Buerg had passed away.  I'm a bit discouraged that I'm only receiving about eight emails a month about ZBLIST.  It's enough to keep me going, but this is mostly a spare-time project.  If it looks like it might be a viable product for better development, I shall give it more time. 
• Please report any errors to me at yellowspoon@verizon.net. 
• Email me if you're hot-to-trot over a feature that I haven't included, yet.  I wrote this with my own needs in mind. 
• ZBLIST only supports long file names.  The 8.3 file name displayed on the left during a directory listing is only used for display and because LIST.COM did as well.
• If directory names or file names contain embedded blanks, ZBLIST may have a problem.  I've corrected some issues, but some may still be outstanding.  Please email me if you have a problem in this area (or any area). 
• If you're lazy, like I am, and you use ZBLIST as frequently as I do, I suggest creating a short-named Z.BAT so that you only have to type Z to get to ZBLIST.  My Z.BAT file consists of
  \path-to-exe-file\ZBLIST %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
  where \path-to-exe-file\ is only necessary if ZBLIST is not in the WINDOWS path for executable files.
• This is a BETA version and will suffer gradual performance degradations after February 22, 2012.  I don't want this BETA version meandering through Al Gore's INTERNET for eternity.  C'mon back here for a newer version.

Clark Woodworth