TXT2COM (Keith P. Graham)

File Format
Name	TXT2COM (Keith P. Graham)
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Executable envelopes TXT2COM (Keith P. Graham)
Extension(s)	.com
Released	1987

See TXT2COM for other things with that name.

TXT2COM is a DOS utility that converts a text file to a COM file that, when executed, displays the text in a full-screen viewer. It was developed by Keith P. Graham.

To recover the original text file, run the .COM file in a DOS environment, then press the 'T' key.

Later versions include TXT2RES and/or TXT2PAS, special-purpose variants of the software.

Later versions support special features enabled by markup syntax in the source document.

Overview of releases

The version numbering convention approved by the change log is that versions through 2.2 have one digit after the decimal point. Then came versions 2.03 through 2.10, which have two digits after the decimal point.

Some of the information in this table is guessed, as some releases do not contain a clear version number. For clarification, the "Size" column is the size in bytes of the TXT2*.COM file.

Program	Version	Date	Size	Remarks
TXT2COM.COM	1.0	1987-06-19	3757	Creates files containing no version number.
TXT2COM.COM	1.1	1987-07-21?	3775	Creates files containing "Vers 1.1".
TXT2COM.COM	2.0	1987-07-26?	3938	Creates files containing "Vers 1.1".
TXT2COM.COM	2.1	1987-08-30	4356	Creates files containing "Vers 1.1". Includes README.COM from v2.0.
TXT2COM.COM	2.2	1987-11-01	4380	Creates files containing "Vers 2.2".
TXT2COM.COM	2.03	1987-11-12	5173	Creates files containing "Vers 2.3".
TXT2COM.COM	2.06	1988-08-26	7772	Creates files containing "Vers 2.06".
TXT2COM.COM	2.10	1993-07-27	8525	Creates files containing "Vers 2.10".
TXT2RES.COM	1.0	1987-07-27	8837	Included with TXT2COM v2.0-2.2. Creates files containing "TXT2COM" and "Vers 1.1".
TXT2RES.COM	2.03	1987-11-12	9828
TXT2RES.COM	2.06	1988-08-26	11400
TXT2RES.COM	2.10	1993-07-27	12153
TXT2PAS.COM	2.03	1987-11-12	10714
TXT2PAS.COM	2.06	1988-08-26	12312
TXT2PAS.COM	2.10	1993-07-27	13055

Versions 2.04 and 2.09 might also have been released, but they haven't been found. The README.COM file from v2.10 might have been created by v2.09.

Identification

COM files produced by all known versions of TXT2COM have the ASCII string "TXT2COM Conversion utility" somewhere near the beginning of the file. It's at:

• offset 3 for v1.0-v1.1
• offset 5 for v2.0 through at least v2.03 (It's probably not hard to identify the specific version, but that's not investigated here.)
• offset 14 for at least v2.06 and v2.10

Note: Versions 1.1 through 2.1 all produce files containing the version number "1.1".

If the string is at offset 3, the first 3 bytes of the file are:

• e9 2f 01 for TXT2COM v1.0
• e9 38 01 for TXT2COM v1.1
• e9 d0 19 for TXT2RES.COM from TXT2COM v2.0 and some later versions

Files produced by TXT2RES/v2.06 have "TXT2RES Conversion utility" at offset 3.

Files produced by TXT2PAS/v2.06 have "TXT2PAS Conversion utility" at offset 3.

See also

• ICE (executable compression)#See also, for other software by the same author

Software

• TXT2COM
  • v1.0: [1]
  • v1.1: [2]
  • v2.0: [3]
  • v2.1: [4]
  • v2.2: [5]
  • v2.03: [6]
  • v2.06: [7]
  • v2.10: [8]]

Sample files

• The README.COM file included with most versions of the software
• STELTH24.ZIP → CATALOG.COM

Links

• A forum comment by the author