HELP CONTENTS Menus Windows Archive Requirements Database structure screen About Author Concepts What's Index Registration Glossary Window resizing For enter the window resizing mode, you may press Ctrl-F5. Now using arrows you mai move window. Holding down Shift and pressing arrows you may resize the window. _ At end, press RETURN to accept new sizes of the window or press ESC to restore the olds ones. Help on help That you are reading now is an help screen. You may press to move text. Using mouse, click on the arrows of the scroll on the right and on the bottom. On most help screen there are some words highlighted, the KeyWords. The KeyWords links the current help "page" to another. You may move through KeyWords pressing TAB to pass to next KeyWord and pressing Shift-TAB to pass to the previous one. ` Pressing ENTER or clicking two times on a KeyWord, you go to the "page" linked with that word. % Pressing letters from A to Z you pass to the first KeyWord that begin with that letter. Continuing pressing letters you make a word and you pass to the first KeyWord that begin as your word. Pressing "<-" you delete last letter pressed. Pressing HOME the word that you are written is erased. You may return to previous page pressing Alt-F1. You may call help on help pressing F1. You may pass to help index pressing Shift-F1. Pressing ESC the help window will be closed. When you are positioned on a menu or on a command you may press F1 to have help of that menu/command. The same if you are in a window. % Try now to have informations about: " Using menus Using windows Archive Help Index -A- Attributes, -B- Buttons, defined buttons -C- Calculator Calendar Complex, window Complex search Complex select Concepts Contents -D- Database structure Date, opzione Dialogs: see windows. Disks, command Disks, window Disks, statistics prompt Shell -E- -F- File, Fragmentation level -G- Glossary Info, command -H- Help, contents Help, glossary Help, index Help, -I- Index, -J- Jolly, characters -K- Keys, command Keys' choice, window Keys, window Keys, statistics -M- keys, command keys, window keys, statistics Menu, Menus Attributes Utility Options Search Select Statistics -O- Options, -P- Print, command Print, window Print styles -R- Reselect Resizing windows -S- drive, option Scroll Search again Search archive Search, complex search Search, Search program Select Select Select, complex selection Select, Selection Speeding Archive Statistics, -U- Utility, -V- Volume label service -W- window What's Windows, Window resizing Concepts : Main keys A main key is a word that may be associated to a group of programs. The main key is shown at the right of the program name on the main list. Therefore main key must denote the type of program. Goods main keys are "Game","Utility","Word processor"... With main keys you may search and select more speedy that with other informations. e Before you may use a main key, you must define it through command on menu Attributes The main keys may be maximum 127. Concepts : Keys A key is a word that may be associated to a group of programs for selections . A program may have more than one keys. Example: 7 An archive that contains source of programs may have set to "Source" and the keys may be "C", "Pascal" ... , A key denote a particular of the main key. ` Before you may use a main key, you must define it through command on menu Attributes The keys may be maximum 127. Concepts : Selection The selection extract from database only the programs that correspond at the user prototype. With selection the programs are hidden, not erased. There are three selections, all three on menu Select . Selection by main key extract all programs that have the main key choos by user. Selection by disk extract all programs that are in the disk choose by user. Complex selection extract programs using all its informations. Concepts Selection Database structure The database is a group of programs. Each program may be situated on one or more compressed files (archives) Besides location and dimensions (compressed and not) for each program are stored informations about video and audio boards, CPU and memory requirements, operative sistem and peripherics supported. Yoy may write for each program a description (Memo) (Max. 10K). For each program are also stored a and many The Author The Author is reachable for registration or for bugs or suggests at this address : Gabriele Tessaro Via Maniago N 33090 Colle di Arba (PN) ITALY Requirements Archive can run under every 8088 with 320K of conventional memory free (request of memory increases with increase of database). Archive can use EMS memory (if there is, Archive use about 160K of it). Registration If you think Archive good, you must register after a trial period of 30 days, oterwise you violate law. The registered version of Archive can print the list of programs on printer, on disk and simple on the screen, in two styles. The registered version haven't registration messages and waits. Register is simple: call INSTALL and use "How can I register" to view registration instruction. - Register now: registration costs only 20$ ! b PS: If you have the registered version 2.0, you may register version 2.1 using the same keyword. What's changed from version 2.0 to 2.1 ? In the new version 2.1 I changed these points: - I correct some bug. - I changed the window of key in the program window. - I better window of statistics about disks. - I add a new utility that allows you to find the disk that contains the file specified leaving the smallest space free. + - I add support of .ARC compressed files. Welcome to Archive v2.1 Archive 2.1 is a database specialized in memorize programs so you can search them without look in all disks. For each program are stored many informations: from dimensions to video boards supported. ? Till now it looks like a normal database, but Archive is created on purpose of manage a database of compressed files (archives), so its use is much move fast and simple. Archive 2.1 can read by oneself informations about archives compressed by PkZip, Arj e Squeeze (not self-extracting) and DIET (not self-extracting) Archive 2.1 can select programs for a more fast search. Using Archive you may also have statistics about programs: from space occupated by all catalogued archives (compressed and expanded) to archives compression ratio for each copressor (for all files .ZIP, for all files .ARJ ...). Production notes: Archive 2.1 was compiled with Turbo Pascal 6.0 from a source of about 9000 lines. I thank producers of PkZip, Arj and Squeeze for documentation enclosed in their compressors. !!! If you have informations about archives .LHA, .ZOO, .UC2 and other compressors, please send these information by mail to the author . I will create a new version of Archive. See also: 0 Author Database structure Requirements Glossary Jolly characters Promt Scroll The Print Window The print window is made up by group of options about: # - What print: you may choose what informations print for each program. - Print style: with this option you may choose if you want to print each program in a single line or in a block of lines. Using line style all information are put in a table. The result is this : Name program | Main Key | Video | Cat. data ----------------------------------------------- Lotus 1.2.3 | Applicati|.......| 01/01/1995 Space invaders | Game |CEMV...| 04/01/1995 Using block style the result is this Lotus 1.2.3 --- Application Was catalogued in 01/01/1995 Description: ......... . Space Invaders --- Game Was catalogued in 04/01/1995 Supports these audio boards: CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA. Description: Space game ...... . - Print columns: Select the number of columns of your printer Button "Print !!" starts print. Print With this command you can export database informations sending them to printer, to a file on the disk or on the screen. Sending the list of programs to file, Archive make a file that you may print after with the dos command "COPY nomefile.ext >PRN". Sending list of programs on the screen you may have a preview of printing result. See also: Print window Exit With this command you exit Archive and return to DOS. Speed up Archive There is some trick that can speed up Archive: - Put Archive and its files on Hard Disk, so that speed up disk accesses. - Left to Archive about 160K of EMS memory free. They will be used to load overlay in memory. - When you would to see a program without modify it, exit from window pressing ESC or click on the button "Cancel" or in the close icon. So archive don't write the information (not changed) on the disk. Note: You must press "OK" if you have changed some information. Get Info Using "Get Info" command is opened a window that reports informations about Archive status. In the window are reported the memory free (readable also in the low-right corner of the screen), the memory used by database informations ("Used by database") and the percentage of memory free. x If Archive use EMS memory to load overlays, there is a line that show this. About this, see also " Speed Archive Press OK button to close window. Complex Window This window asks you informations for search or select programs. In the box in the top there is the display that show current search/select criterion that you are writing. In the bottom there are the buttons that are divided into five groups: - Parentheses buttons. - Conditional buttons (AND OR and NOT) - Delete button (<-) - Confirm (GO) and abandon (ESC) buttons - Search/selection criterion buttons. These buttons are: MKy - Main key Key - Key Vid - Video board Aud - Audio board OS - Operative system CPU - Processor Prg - Program name Ark - Archive name Mem - Memory Msc - Miscellaneous Dta - Inserting data Dsk - Disk When you pressone of this buttons you open a window that asks you which element of the list you want. Example: For Main keys you must choose one of main keys in the list. Using example: y If you want to select all sharware ("sharware" is key) programs that aren't games ("game" is main key), you must press: W "Key", choose from list "Sharware" "AND" "NOT" "MKy", choose from list "Gioco" The display will show: " [Key:Sharware]ANDNOT[MainK:Game] Note: Operators "()", NOT, AND, OR, have an exact priority: "()" > "NOT" > "AND" > "OR" That is in an expression [..]OR[..]AND[..]OR[..] are calculated first the AND then the two OR. * For use first the two OR, you must write ([..]OR[..])AND([..]OR[..]) Command Main keys This command opens you the gate to access the list of main keys from that you may add, edit or delete (if not used) some main key. Command Keys This command opens you the gate to access the list of keys from that you may add, edit or delete (if not used) some key. Command Disks This command opens you the gate to access the list of disks from that you may add, edit or delete (if not used) some disk. Menu Attributes With "Attributes" menu you may accede to list of disks, main keys amd keys. The disks and the main keys are important. Without them you can't insert programs in the database. The commands of menu are: Disks Comando Pack This command frees the empty holes that may form in the database with an intensive use. Using this command the space occupated by database on the disk decrease. Note: for use this command you must have enought space on the disk. This empty space don't form often: for know when you must use Pack, you may use command Fragmentation Level in the Statistics menu. This command reports you the percentage of empty holes in the database. It's expedient use the PACK command when this percentage exceed 10%. Glossary : DOS prompt The DOS prompt is the line that the DOS usually write waiting a command. Example: A:\> C:\ARCHIVE> DOS shell This command allows you to exit TEMPORALY to DOS to exec some command ... To return to Archive, write EXIT at the prompt and press ENTER. Menu File This menu allows you to interface Archive with the DOS operative system. Available commands are: 7 Print shell There is also the sub-menu Utility Glossary - Jolly characters Jolly characters are special characters that may used to replace one or more letters in the description of a name. The using is identical to use in the DOS: ? - Replace one and only one character. * - Replace one or more characters. (Pu anche non sostituire nessun carattere. Search Again Repeat last search, beginning from last program checked. Naturally it is not available until you don't do a search. Complex Select With the "Complex search" you can select a program using information as video boards, memory requirements.. See also: " Complex window Search Again Complex Search With the "Complex search" you can search a program using information as video boards, memory requirements.. See also: " Complex window Search Again Search Archive With this command you can search in the database an archive that have a name correspondent to the name written by user. Q Writing name to search you can use the Jolly characters to describe the mask. See also: Search Again Search Program With this command you can search in the database a program that have a name correspondent to the name written by user. Q Writing name to search you can use the Jolly characters to describe the mask. See also: Search Again Select by main key With this command Archive select only the program that use the choice main key. Select by disk With this command Archive select only the program that use the choice disk. Reselect all With this command all effects of a selection are eliminated and all programs are shown. Naturally, this command is not available until you do a selection. Menu Select "Select" menu allows you to select the database, that is to show only a portion of database. Note: If you select the database when it is already selected, the selection will do on at the moment listed programs. Available commands are: V Select Select Complex selection Reselect programs Menu Search Menu search allows you to search a program in the database. Available commands are: F Search program Search archive Complex Search Search Again About In the About window there are Archive's logo and informations about productions. Click on the OK button or press ENTER to close the window. Menus and Hot keys In the top of the screen there are the menu bar, the gate to access to all menus. You may switch to the menu bar pressing F10 or clicking to a name of menu. The menus are: J Search Select Attributes Options Statistics Clicking on " " you open the window with the About Choose now if you want to see: menus Calculator With Archive there is also a calculator reachable by menu in the sub-menu Utility . The use is identical to a normal calculator. The "<-" button delete the last number written. Calendar The calendar is reachable by menu in the sub-menu Utility . The calendar open itself on the page of current month. You may change month by " " or "-" for switch to previous month and by " " or "+" for switch to next month. The current day is highlighted. Volume label service With this utility (menu , sub-menu Utility ) you can write a label into a disk without it and change the label to a disk that already have one. Menu Utility (Sub-menu of menu In the utility menu you can choose one of these commands: > Volume label service Calculator Calendar How use menus You may activate a menu pressing Alt with the letter highlighted in the name of menu. Example: For activate the File menu you must press Alt-F. When you active a menu, you see a list of commands. Pressing you may move the bar that identify current command. Press to exec it. Pressing you may move from a menu to another one. How use windows Through window Archive can communicate with user. This is a window of type blue or cyan. t Close icon Zoom icon V V Title of the window <-- Scroll bar that moves text up and down. <-- Resize icon A Scroll bar that moves text left and right This is a gray window: Close icon V Title of the window Buttons In both window types, clicking on the close icon (or pressing Alt-F3) the window will close itself and if the window was gray the current operation is cancelled. Clicking on the zoom icon of the cyan or blue windows (or pressin F5) the window enlarge itself to all screen. Click again to return the window at the previous size. Clicking on the resize icon you enter in the resize window Holding click on the title of the window you may move the window. In the blue or cyan windows there are the scroll bar to move the text. In the gray windows there are buttons and other input devices: u Click on the buttons to do action written. By keyboard, press SPACE when they are selected. ) Abc This is a radio button. The point denote the action ( ) Def selected. Click to another option to change. ( ) Ghi By keyboard, press [X] Abc This is a check box. The cross denote that that cross [ ] Def is actived. Click on it to disable. Click on a not [ ] Ghi active to active it. By keyboard press to move selected option and SPACE to enable/disable. For pass from a button to another, from a group of options to another by keyboard there are two ways: - - Press TAB for pass to next and Shift-TAB for pass to the previous. 7 - Press Alt with the highlighted letter of the name. The red window communicate an error. Click on the OK button or press ENTER for continue. Glossary : Scroll bar <- This is a scroll bar. Its purpose is to show the list on its left when you are using the mouse. (With keyboard you use , Pag , Pag when the list is selected). Clicking on the top arrow the list scroll itself by one row to top. Clicking on the bottom arrow the list scroll itself by one row to bottom. Clicking in the space between the top arrow and the square the list scroll itself by one page to top. Same to the bottom. Option Scan drive With this option you choose what drive use to scan and setting disk label operations. Option Date With this option you choose if the date must be shown in the Italian mode (DD/MM/YYYY) or the English mode (MM/DD/YYYY). User defined buttons In the box in the top-rigth of the screen, in the bottom there are four buttons that the user may change. Pressing them they exec command planed by user. Button 1 is the button at the top-left. Button 2 is the button at the top-right. Button 3 is the button at the bottom-left. Button 4 is the button at the bottom-right. When they are not setted to a command, if you press them they call the defining buttons window Menu Options With "options" menu you may configure some options to personalize your version of Archive. The menu have these commands: < drive Button1, Button2, Button3, Button4 Contents Call help on page of contents of help. Index Call help on page of index. Glossary Call help on page of glossary. Help on Help This command explain you how to use the help. % Click learn Menu Help From menu help you may accede at the help. The main pages are reachables by: 1 Contents Index Glossary Command Program statistics This commands opens a window that shown main informations about database. The window reports the number of programs and archives and space occupated by archives compressed and decompressed. Command Archives statistics With this command are shown the list of extensions of archives, each with his number of archives (number (N ) and percentage on the total (P%)). There is also another percentage (Rem%) that shown the compression ratio and denote the REMaining dimension of archive. Example: if the compression ratio is 40%, the size of compressed archive is 40% of real size. Command Disks statistics With this comand are shown statistics about composition of disks database (number of disks 3 720 K, 5 da 360 K ...). Command Main keys statistics With this command are shown the composition in number and in percentage of the database, studied by main keys. For each main key are shown the number of programs that use it. Command Keys statistics With this command are shown the composition in number and in percentage of the database, studied by keys. For each key are shown the number of programs that use it. Command Fragmentation level With this command are shown the level of fragmentaation of database. Sometimes modifying the list of programs may create some empty hole. Is shown the percentage of this empty holes in the archive. These holes may be deleted using command Menu Statistics Statistics menu have a group of commands for show information about state of database. Available commands are: Programs statistics Archives statistics Disks statistics statistics statistics Fragmentation level Press this button O k to continue Now press ESC to put away this help screen Fit file With this utility Archive looks for the disk for insert a file, choosing among known disks. p Archive finds the disk that contains the file leaving the smallest space free, using the disk up to last byte. Hot keys There is some key that shorten the operations. Some of these are written in the bottom of the screen. The Hot Keys are: TAB - Switch to next field. F1 - Call help. If you are using menus, the help will switch in the argument of current command. Shift-F1 - Call help index. Alt-F1 - (only in the help) Return to previous topic. Alt-F3 - Close current window. F5 - If you are using a blue or cyan window, the window will zoom to the maximum size. Ctrl-F5 - If you are using a blue or cyan window, you will enter in resizing window mode. F10 - Switch to Menu bar. ESC - Close current window or escape from current menu. Alt-X - Exits from archive. Calculator With Archive there is also a calculator reachable by menu in the sub-menu Utility . The use is identical to a normal calculator. The "<-" button delete the last number written. Calendar The calendar is reachable by menu in the sub-menu Utility . The calendar open itself on the page of current month. You may change month by " " or "-" for switch to previous month and by " " or "+" for switch to next month. The current day is highlighted. Search program window Write here the name of program to search. You may use Jolly characters writing name. Press OK to begin search or CANCEL to abandon it. Search archive window Write here the name of archive to search. You may use Jolly characters writing name. Press OK to begin search or CANCEL to abandon it. Main key selection window In this window are shown the list of main keys inserted. Use the scroll to view the list of main keys if it's too long. Click two times on a main key or press OK when it is selected to choose that main key and continue selection; press ESC to abandon selection. Disk selection window In this window are shown the list of disks inserted. Use the scroll to view the list of disks if it's too long. Click two times on a disk or press OK when it is selected to choose that disk and continue selection; press ESC to abandon selection. Wait window The wait window open itself when Archive are busy in slow operations. The progress of the operations are shown by the black bar that fills the gray one. When it cover all bar, Archive has finished. 1 You can press ESC anywhen for breack operation. Defining buttons window The window is made up by three parts: - In the left, the list of commands that you may associate to the button. - In the top-right, the field for the button name. If you want to associate a rapid access key (Alt-Letter) you must write the letter you choose between ~ (#126). Example: If you want a button "Quit" that active itself by Alt-Q, you must write "~Q~uit". The letter for rapid access is optional. C - In the bottom there are the buttons for confirm ("OK") and for discard modifications("CANCEL"). Choose date mode window With this window you can choose if you want the Italian mode or the English mode to show the date. The English mode is MM/DD/YYYY. The Italian mode is DD/MM/YYYY. Finestra di scelta del drive di scan With this window you may choose which drive you want use for scan operations. Select "Drive A:" if for scanning and setting volume label operations you want to use the drive A. Select "Drive B:" if you want to use drive B. Main keys window Through this window you may add, delete or edit the main keys. With ADD button you add a new main key. With EDIT button you change the name of the selected main key. With DELETE button you delete the selected main key from the list if it isn't used. Keys window Through this window you may add, delete or edit the keys. With ADD button you add a new key. With EDIT button you change the name of the selected key. With DELETE button you delete the selected key from the list if it isn't used. Disks window This window allows you to add, edit or delete disks from list of there known. With ADD button you may add a new disk to the list through another window. In this window there is the button SCAN that allows you to read informations from disk inserted in the drive. With EDIT button you may change the attributes of disk. With DELETE button you may delete a disk, if it is not used. With SCAN button you may add a new disk reading informations from the disk in the drive. Program window This is the main window of Archive because allows you to insert or edit informations about programs. 4 The window is divided in three groups of programs: 8 Location Group Main In this group are registered the name of the program, his real and compressed (packed) dimension, the number of archives and the main key. In the bottom there is also the insertion date (Cat. date). In the right there are the buttons for close the window and save information (OK), for discard mofifications (CANCEL), for restore old informations (RELOAD) and for call help (HELP). Note: Real and Compressed dimension values and number of archives are calculated by list of archives in the Location group Group Location The Location group manages the list of archives that the program occupes. There are buttons for add, edit and delete an archive and there is also the button "SCAN" that allows you to insert a new archive reading from disk the informations: a window allows you to choose which is the file to scan. Note: If the archive is compressed by PkZip, Arj, Squeeze or Diet Archive can read by oneself the real dimension of compressed data. Each time that the list of archives is modified, the real and compressed dimension value in the group are recalculated. See also : Add/Edit archive window Group Info In this group are managed all other informations of the program. N There are two green fields in the bottom: Pressing key or clicking on the arrow to choose one value. The first field is "CPU": it show the processor minimum required. The other field ("OS") show the operative sistem required by program. "Dos & Windows" denote that the program have one version for DOS and one version for Windows. s The Keys button open a Window that allows you to add o delete keys associated at that program. See "Keys window". q The Memo button open the window that allows you to write a little description (Max. 10K). See " Video and Audio buttons open two windows that manages audio and video boards supported by program. 6 Memory button allows you to set memory requirements. Misc. (miscellaneous) button allows you to set the peripherics supported by program. (FPU = Floating Point Unit, mathematic processor). How use memo The memo editor is situated in a window with some button. One of this is the button "Import" that allows you to copy the memo from an existing file on the disk. < The keys to move cursor in the memo are the standart ones: , : one row to top. , : one row to bottom. : one page to top. : one page to bottom. : one character to left. : one character to right. Crtl- : one word to left. Ctrl- : one word to right. Naturally there are also the combinations CTRL-letter used by Word Star. F Pressing OK all modifications are stored, pressing CANCEL are losed. Add/Edit archive window In this window there are many fields: Name: the file name. Expd: (Expanded) dimension of files of archive not compressed. Pakd: (Packed) dimension of files of archive compressed. Disk: the disk occupated by the file. Press key or click on the arrow to open the window that allow you to choose the disk. With Scan button all information are readed by the file specified by user among the files in the disk on the drive di scan (see option: drive Choose the file to scan. Press OK to continue or Cancel to leave. The main screen The main screen of Archive is made up by many zones: A - In the top, the , the access to Archive's commands. - In the bottm, the status line. In the status line there are the shortcuts of some command and, when you use menus, a little description of what the current command do. 5 - In the center-left there is the list of programs. - Under the list of programs there are a box that reports the number of programs in database, the number of current program and the selection status. - In the top-right there are the buttons. In the top there are the buttons for add, edit and delete programs and for call help and in the bottom there are four defined buttons - In the bottom-right there is Archive's logo. Keys' choice window In this window there are two list of keys: on the left, the list with all keys defined in Archive, without the keys selected for the current program. The list on the right contains the keys associated with the current program. Clicking twice (or pressing Enter) in the list on the left you add the key highlighted to the keys of current program. j Clicking twice in the list on the right you delete the key highlighted from the keys of current program. About In the About window there are Archive's logo and informations about productions. Click on the OK button or press ENTER to close the window.