[thelist] Automate zip?

[Joel D Canfield]

> > Diane Soini wrote:
> >> Hi, please forgive me as I'm a total Windows idiot. I know next to
> >> nothing.
> >> I'd like to be able to automate the making of Windows .zip 
> files, by 
> >> making it easier to zip up a directory and exclude certain files 
> >> automatically.

Goodness that's a long message! I think the two questions ended up at
'what app could I use?' and 'how do I write DOS batch files?'

I've done this with WinZip's command line version. Not expensive (but
not free; WinZip is *not* free!)

As for a DOS tutorial, 'Ancient Art' covers quite a bit:
http://gatsby.tafe.tas.edu.au/batch/ and googling up 'DOS batch' is a
good start (http://www.google.com/search?as_q=dos+batch)

Once you're burrowing into it, if you have specific questions, just ask
(offline or on). String manipulation in DOS can be extremely useful, but
tricky. If I can find the scripts I used before, want me to send
samples?

joel