         CHANGE                               Michael J. Mefford
         Command                                     1986/No. 19
***                                   Modified: Jacques Bensimon
          ______________________________________________________

          Purpose:  Performs a rapid search-and-replace operation
                    for text strings and/or ASCII decimal codes
***                 throughout a file of maximum 64,000-byte
***                 length (and maximum 65,535-byte result).

          Format:   CHANGE filespec findstring replacestring

          Remarks:  The filespec parameter may include a drive
                    letter and a path in addition to the
                    designated filename.

***                 If filename starts with (or consists of) the
***                 character *, CHANGE acts as a STDIN/STDOUT filter.

***                 When not in filter mode, CHANGE writes back to
***                 the original file clusters.

***                 Errorlevel return codes:
***                     0 = no error / file changed   (no message)
***                     1 = no error / file unchanged (no message)
***                   255 = error (explanatory message written to STDOUT)

                    Findstring and replacestring may consist of
                    text characters enclosed within (double)
                    quote marks or ASCII decimal codes whose
                    numbers are separated by commas.  Note that
                    the format requires that each parameter be
                    separated by a single space.  Text strings in
                    quotes and ASCII values in numerals may be
                    combined in either string if separated by
***                 commas(,) [[ or plus-signs(+), for use when CHANGE
***                 parameters must be passed to a batch file ]]

          Example:  To change all references to Miss Jones to
                    Mrs. Smith in the file NOGOSSIP.ART on the
                    current directory, you would enter

                    CHANGE NOGOSSIP.ART "Miss Jones" "Mrs. Smith"

          Example:  To strip out all carriage return-line feeds
                    (i.e. replace them with a null string) in the
                    file MCI.B16 in the \COMM subdirectory, enter

                    CHANGE \COMM\MCI.B16 13,10 ""
***             or  CHANGE \COMM\MCI.B16 13+10 ""

                    Notes:

                    1.   In the second example you might want to
                         use a space between the quote marks
                         rather than a null string to keep the
                         words from running together.  Observe
                         that by putting the number of the month
                         in hexadecimal (B=November) you can fit
                         both month and day within the three-
                         character DOS filename extension.
