

   *** Ten QBASIC ASCII file scrubbers by John Paul Jones ***

   Purpose:

   Apart from file compression utilities, such as PKZIP.EXE, 
   three other types of utilities are often used to free up
   disk space:

   1) PACKERS, i.e., programs that join or combine files into
   one file, e.g., packing source code routines into one file,
   such that the combined files can still function as desired
   when joined. 

   2) SWEEPERS,  i.e.,  programs that remmove  unecessary  or  
   unwanted files from the disk, e.g., a program that deletes
   temporary files or duplicates.  
   
   3) SCRUBERS, i.e.,  programs that remmove data detritus or 
   unecessary information from within a file, e.g., a program  
   that remmoves trailing spaces or source code comments. 

   SCRUBERS.BAT is a collection of 10 QBASIC scruber programs 
   packed into a batch file, which can be used to  save  disk  
   space or remmove unwanted data from within an ASCII  file,
   e.g.,  XENBLNK.BAT  remmoves the last line if it's a blank 
   line; typically, when people are done writing a program or
   text file, they hit the Enter key, thus placing an uneeded
   blank line at the end of the file,  which can be  remmoved 
   without affecting the functionality or  appearance of  the 
   file.  (There is one exception: deleting the blank line at
   the end of a DEBUG script will make the script inoperable,
   so using these  scrubers requires some  knowledge and care 
   on the part of the user.) 

   Other scrubers, e.g., HTML scrubbers, will affect how  the
   HTML code looks in a text editor; you may not want to omit
   comments or alter the appearence of your source code since
   the indentations and such are meant to make the code  more 
   understandable, yet you may want to save some disk space &
   retain the appearance of your ASCII files, in which  case,
   you might want to run XENDBLNK.BAT on your HTML files; due
   to the way DOS allocates  disk space,  this can  free up a 
   surprising amount of disk space,  especially if you have a
   lot of HTML pages. 

   Requirements:

   Because these are actually QBASIC programs packed into the
   batch file SCRUBERS.BAT, QBASIC.EXE & EDIT.COM are needed,
   and should be in the system path or current directory.

   Limitations: 

   Due to QBASIC's memory limitations,  these scrubbers won't
   work on huge files; thus, at the head of the SCRUBBERS.BAT
   is a routine to check if the file is too big for QBASIC to
   handle; if so, the program exits.  The programs don't test
   to find out if the right type of file (ASCII)  is  passed,
   and they don't back up the files to be altered but rely on
   the user or calling program to do that. 
   
   The maximum size limit is set to 1,000,000 bytes,  but you
   can increase that limit by editing the source code; as is,  
   the program will exit if the file is over 1 million bytes.

   Disclaimer:

   Use at your own risk;  I've used these programs for years 
   with no problems, but I make no guarantees.  Feel free to
   distribute freely,  to incorporate the  routines into any 
   of your own programs, or alter and improve the code, but,
   as always, proper attribution is just.  

   





   


