SHOW (Gary M. Raymond)

File Format
Name	SHOW (Gary M. Raymond)
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Executable envelopes SHOW (Gary M. Raymond)
Extension(s)	.com
Released	1992

SHOW is a DOS utility for creating a COM file that, when executed, displays a text document in a full-screen viewer. It was developed by Gary M. Raymond and Simple Software.

Identification

COM files made by known versions of the utility start with byte pattern e9 ?? ?? ?? 00 1f a0 00 00 'S 'H' 'O' 'W'. Unfortunately, the SHOW.COM program itself may be a false positive for this pattern.

Other identifying features:

• The byte at offset {3 + {the two-byte integer at offset 1}} is 0xb8.
• The last byte of the file is 0x1a.

Note: Generated files are self-modifying. The byte at offset 3 is originally 0x30, but changing and saving the color scheme modifies it.

Software

• SHOW v1.0: The 640 Meg Shareware Studio CD ROM Volume III → INFO/SHOWV10.ZIP
• SHOW v1.4
• SHOW v2.0 (1993)
• SHOW v2.0a
• Deark

The change log from v2.0a says that versions 1.1, 1.2b, 1.3, and 1.5 also exist.

SHOW v2.1 (1995) also evidently exists.

Sample files

• SHOWV20.ZIP → README.COM, ORDERME.COM
• EZBBSV11.ZIP → INSTALL.EXE (LHA SFX) → EZBBS/DOCS/*.COM (files apparently made by v1.5)
• PEPI207.ZIP → README.COM, etc. (v2.1)
• 0493KEG.ZIP → *.COM (v1.4 with custom colors)
• dexvert samples — document/showCOM