═══ 1. Introduction ═══ File Commander/2 is intended to be an OS/2 2.x version of the popular Norton Commander(tm) DOS program. It implements most of the features provided by Norton Commander and adds some features of its own that are only possible under OS/2 and some others that many people think NC should have had. If, as an OS/2 user, you find yourself running NC in a DOS session to do your file manipulation, File Commander/2 is the program you've been waiting for. See Advantages over NC in a VDM for more details. File Commander/2 can also be used as an alternate shell if you don't like GUI shells like WPS (or don't have enough memory to run it) but want something a bit better than the command line. The philosophy of the program was once described as a 'supercharged CLI' which I think sums up FC/2 quite well (Thanks Kurt :-). For all those who've asked, I do intend to continue working on FC/2 for a while yet so there should be several more versions to come. So feel free to send me your suggestions for improvements and please report any bugs you encounter. ═══ 2. Shareware ═══ File Commander/2 is copyrighted software. However, you are encouraged to copy and share the software with others according to the following requirements: File Commander/2 may be freely copied and shared with others, so long as no charge is made for the software, and it is unmodified and copied in its entirety, including program documentation. It may be distributed by electronic means (modem, ftp etc), provided that all files are transmitted (archived) together. Notice that ShareWare is copyrighted software. It's not "Public Domain" software, nor is it "free" software. If you continue to use this program beyond a reasonable "trial period", not to exceed 30 days, you must pay for it by registering. See Registering for how to register. o Your registration fee makes it possible for me to continue to improve the program and increases the likelihood that I will provide useful, cheap software in the future. o IF YOU USE THE PROGRAM FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES, YOU MUST REGISTER. o Your registration fee buys you the right to use the program beyond the trial period of 30 days. Your registration covers ALL VERSIONS of File Commander/2, past, present AND future. ie You'll only ever have to register File Commander/2 once. o As a registered user, you'll be notified as new versions are released. Also, when possible, I'll send registered users new versions electronically. You may NOT charge anyone for a copy of this software other than a small copying fee. You may NOT include this software with any commercial software without the consent of the author. This software is supplied WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. In no event shall the author be liable to you for any consequential, special incidental or indirect damages of any kind arising out of the performance or use of the software, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. By using the software, you agree to these terms. Norton Commander is a trademark of Symantec Corporation. ═══ 2.1. Registering ═══ The registration fee for File Commander/2 is $29 Australian. If you are not an Australian resident you can pay by one of the following means: 1. An international draft made out for $29 Australian (Beware, some banks charge huge fees for these, check first). 2. A cheque made out in your local currency for the equivalent of $35 Australian (It costs me to cash foreign currency cheques at this end). I can't accept "Euro cheques" though. 3. If you trust the postal service you can send cash in your local currency to the value of $29 Australian (example US$20 note). Registered mail recommended. Send payments to the address given in Contacting the Author. Please make cheques payable to 'Brian Havard' (and please spell it correctly when writing the cheque to keep my bank manager happy). Please include a Registration form (or note containing same information). Once you have registered, you will be sent a serial number that, with your name, will allow you to 'register' the copy of the program you have. Once you have done this your name will appear in the 'Info' panel and you will not see any shareware reminders. If you have an email address, include it on the registration form for fastest response. The next best alternative is a fax number. If you would like a site licence for a number of computers, you can get a bulk discount on the following scale: Number 1-9 10+ 50+ 100+ Price $29 $25 $20 $15 The pricing is not cumulative so, yes, it's actually cheaper to get 10 than 9. Registrations so far = 46 ═══ 2.2. Registration Form ═══ File Commander/2 Registration Form ---------------------------------- Name:................................................... Address:................................... ................................... ................................... ................................... Fax: ................................. Email: ................................. [ ] Email uuencoded binaries of new versions (tick if required) I would like to register [ ] copy/copies of File Commander/2 at $29 Australian per copy. Total A$ : _______________ Comments: ═══ 3. Advantages over NC in a VDM ═══ Why use File Commander/2 instead of Norton Commander in a DOS session? FC/2 offers the following benefits over Norton Commander in a VDM: o HPFS long filename support. Long names can be seen and used wherever you would expect. Also if no files are tagged, up to 36 characters of the current file name are displayed at the bottom of the panel. If a file name is too long to fit in the file name column of the panel, the first 12 characters are shown with an arrow indicating there is more. Also the case of file names isn't lost. o Can execute OS/2 programs (PM and text mode) as well as DOS and Windows programs. o Can spawn off child processes (Run commands in a separate session). o Doesn't hog CPU time when idle. o Better wildcards. o Copy/Move will handle a directory tree if the source file name is a directory. o Delete can remove an entire tree. o Starts up faster (no VDM to start). o Uses less system resources than a DOS session. (a VDM uses ~1MB of system memory). o Association by wildcard instead of just extension. o Support for 4DOS/4OS2 descriptions. ═══ 4. Key reference ═══ To try to put things into some kind of order, I have divided the key reference into the following sections: 1. Function Keys 2. Contol Keys 3. Cursor Movement Keys 4. Storing/Retrieving paths 5. Miscellaneous Keys ═══ 4.1. Function Keys ═══ o F1: Brings up the online help (fc.inf) or the INF file(s) of your choice. (See Configuration) For this to work, fc.inf (or the files you specify) must be in a directory pointed to by the BOOKSHELF environment variable or be specified with their full path. o F2: Brings up the User Menu o F3: Views the current file with the viewer of your choice (defaults to internal). o Alt-F3: Views the current file with an alternate viewer of your choice. (Default is 'list') o Shift-F3: Prompts for a file name to view. o F4: Edits the current file with the editor of your choice (defaults to internal). o Alt-F4: Edits the current file with an alternate editor of your choice. (Default is 'e', the OS/2 system editor) o Shift-F4: Prompts for a file name to edit. Can be used to create a new file. o F5: Copies the current file or currently tagged files. Default destination directory is that of the opposite panel. o F6: As above but moves the file(s). o F7: Make a directory. You are prompted for the name of the directory. o F8: Delete current file or tagged files. There is a double confirmation on a tagged file delete. If you try to delete a non-empty directory, You will get a special confirmation box in which you must type "YES" exactly (in upper case). The entire directory tree from that directory downwards will then be deleted. Only do this if you are really REALLY sure! If you want to live dangerously, you can disable these confirmations from the Options/Confirmations dialog. o F9: Display menu bar. Once displayed you may use the left/right arrow keys to select a menu and the down arrow key to "drop" the menu. You can also drop a menu by pressing the key corresponding to the first letter of its name. Once dropped, you can move a cursor in the menu with the up/down cursor keys and use ENTER to select a menu item. Alternatively, you may select a menu item by pressing the key that is highlighted in the menu item's name. Menu items not yet implemented are greyed out and will not respond to selection. See Menu functions for more details. o F10: Exit File Commander/2. You must confirm this choice by pressing 'Y' or ENTER when asked 'Are you sure you want to exit FC/2 ?'. Mouse button 2 can also be used to confirm. Any other key, or mouse button 1, will cancel the exit. o Alt-F1: Select a new drive for the left panel. o Alt-F2: Select a new drive for the right panel. o Alt-F6: Create a WPS object for the current file. For executable files (EXE, COM, CMD, BAT) a Program object will be created. Any other file type will have a shadow created for it. All created objects are placed on the desktop. Using this function allows you to avoid using the 'Find' button (you know the one). o Alt-F7: Finds a file or files that match the name you enter. You may include wildcard characters as described below under 'Grey-+' tagging. Once the search is complete, a list of matches is displayed. You may move around this list using the up and down arrow keys. Pressing ENTER will move the current panel to the directory of the file under the cursor and place the file cursor on the selected file. Pressing ESC removes the Find File panel with no action. ESC can also be used to stop the search. o Alt-F8: Brings up a window containing the command history. Use the up and down cursor keys to highlight a command. You can then use Enter to re-run the command, Alt-Enter to re-run the command in a separate session or Ctrl-Enter to place the command in the current command line for modification before re-running (similar to 4DOS/4OS2). Pressing ESC or clicking mouse button one outside the window dismisses the history window. o Alt-F9: Switch between 25 and 50 line mode. o Alt-F10: Displays a tree of the current drive, allowing you to quickly change to another directory. o Ctrl-F1/F2: Switch off/on left or right panel. o Ctrl-F3..F7: Change the sort mode of the current panel. o Shift-F9: Save Setup. Rewrites the fc.ini file with current settings. ═══ 4.2. Control keys ═══ o Ctrl-E: Scroll back through command history. Note that this wraps around. ie pressing Ctrl-E when the oldest command is showing will bring up the newest command. o Ctrl-F: Insert name of current file with its full path into the command line. o Ctrl-J: Insert name of current file into command line or, if there is an alphanumeric character before the cursor, searches history. Note that only text before the cursor is used when looking for a match in history. Note also that if pressed again, the next match from history will be recalled. This key alters the history position used by Ctrl-E and Ctrl-X. o Ctrl-Enter: Same as Ctrl-J. o Ctrl-L: Toggles drive information panel on/off. Shows drive total space, free space, number of files and total bytes occupied by current directory, the drive's label, file system and serial number. o Ctrl-O: Turn panels On/Off. Useful if you want to see the output of the program you just ran or if you just want a command line for a while. o Ctrl-R: Re-read the current panel. (Useful if you changed a floppy or if another process has altered the directory contents.) If the current panel is a tree panel, the drive is re-scanned to refresh the tree. o Ctrl-U: Swap left and right panels. o Ctrl-X: Scroll forward through command history. ═══ 4.3. Cursor Movement keys ═══ o Home: Moves cursor to the first file on the panel. o End: Moves cursor to the last file on the panel. o Ctrl-Home: Moves command line cursor to the start of the line. o Ctrl-End: Moves command line cursor to the end of the line. o Ctrl-Backspace: Deletes word to the left of the cursor. o Cursor Up/Down: Moves the cursor up or down one file name. Will scroll window if necessary. Also if panels are off, scrolls through history. o Cursor Left/Right: Moves the command line cursor, or if "Brief" view is selected, moves cursor over one column. o Ctrl-Left/Right: Moves the command line cursor one word left or right. o Alt-Left/Right: Moves the command line cursor, regardless of panel mode. This allows you to move the command line cursor when the current panel is in brief view. o Page Up/Down: Moves up or down a page of files. o Ctrl-PageUp: Move to the parent of the current directory. o Ctrl-PageDown: Move into the directory the cursor is on. This works like pressing ENTER except it won't try to execute anything you've typed on the command line. o Alt-letter/number: Holding down ALT and typing a partial file name will move the cursor to the first file matching that partial name. o Alt-Up/Down: Move to previous / next match of partial file name. ═══ 4.4. Storing/Retrieving paths ═══ To make directory navigation easier, you can store the current directory path in one of ten 'slots'. At a later point in time you may recall the directory which causes the current panel to instantly move to the stored directory. o To store the current directory, hold down Ctrl and Shift then press one of keys 0-9 on the numeric keypad. o To retrieve a directory, hold down Ctrl then press one of keys 0-9 on the numeric keypad. You can also preset the contents of the 'slots' in the fc.ini file using statements in the form: dx=d:\path where the 'x' is 0-9 and specifies which key will activate the directory. Alternatively you can set the directories and then save them to fc.ini using the Options/Save Setup command. ═══ 4.5. Miscellaneus ═══ o Esc: Clear command line. o Tab: Switch cursor between panels. o Enter: Execute command line, or if command line is empty, execute current file. If the file matches an association, then the program associated with it will be used on the file (See Configuration). If the cursor is on a directory, FC/2 will change into that directory. o Alt-Enter: Same as above but the executable is run in a separate session. o Insert: Tag/Untag current file and move cursor down. o Ctrl-\: Moves to the root directory of the current drive. o Grey +: Tag files by wildcard. Note that this uses REAL wildcards. ie: "*" matches EVERYTHING "*x*" matches everything with an 'x' in it "??*" matches everything with 2 or more characters "[a-c]*" matches files starting with a, b or c "[^a-c]* matches files NOT starting with a, b or c "[a-d^c]*" matches files starting with a, b or d o Grey -: Same as above, only UNTAGS. o Grey *: Inverts selection. ie all tagged files become untagged and vice versa. Can be used as a quick way to tag all files when no files are tagged. ═══ 5. Menu Functions ═══ The following menu items have been implemented so far: Left/Right: Brief - change left/right panel to brief file view. Full - change left/right panel to full detail file view. Wide - change left/right panel to wide view (good when there are many long file names in a directory). Info - make left/right panel display drive info for opposite panel (or switch back to normal if already on). Tree - change left/right panel to tree view. On/Off - Switch left/right panel on or off. Name/Extension/Time/Size/Unsorted - Sort panel according to selected key. Re-Read - Re-read the contents of panel (same as Ctrl-R) Filter - Edit the filename filter for a panel. See File Name Filters. Drive - Select a new drive for panel (same as Alt-F1/F2) Files: Same functions as F1-F10, Grey-+/-/*. Commands: Tree - Bring up a tree of the current drive, allowing you to quickly change directory. Find File - Search disk for a file or files (same as Alt-F7) History - Bring up panel containing the command history (same as Alt-F8). EGA Lines - Switch between 25 and 50 line mode (same as Alt-F9) Swap Panels - swap left and right panels (same as Ctrl-U) Panels On/Off - Show/remove panels (same as Ctrl-O) Compare Directories - Tags files that aren't in the opposite panel's directory, or are newer than the copy in the opposite directory. Register - Allows you to enter your name and serial number (which you receive when you register) to disable reminder messages. Also your name will appear in the Info panel instead of 'Unregistered Version'. Options: Configuration - Brings up a panel that allows you to change configuration options. Changes made here have immediate effect but will be lost on exit unless you use the Options/Save Setup command. For more information on what the fields do, see Configuration Keywords. Use the cursor Up/Down keys or the mouse to select an option to alter and the space bar to toggle non-string values. Colours - Brings up a panel that allows you to alter the program's colours. Use the cursor keys to move the arrow to point to the item you wish to change then press 'f' to change the foreground colour or 'b' to change the background. You can also click mouse button 1 on an item to select it. Clicking button 2 will accept any changes you have made and clicking button 1 outside of the window will dismiss the window, forgetting any changes. Use Options/Save Setup if you want the changes to be permanent. Confirmations - Allows you to disable the more common confirmation prompts. A list of confirmation types is displayed with check boxes which you can toggle with the space bar. When done, press Enter or mouse button 2 to enter the changes. To forget the changes, press ESC or click mouse button 1 outside the confirmations window. Disable confirmations at your own risk! Save changes with Options/Save Setup Hidden Files - Toggles the display of hidden files in the file panels. Path Prompt - Toggles the display of the current path in the command line prompt. Full Screen - Toggle between full and half height panels. Clock - show/remove clock. Save Setup - Saves the current configuration to the fc.ini file. ═══ 6. Using the Mouse ═══ You can use the mouse to perform the following operations: o Select a file by clicking button 1 on a file name. o Tag/Untag a file by clicking button 2 on it. o Execute a file or change into a directory by double clicking button 1 on it. o Scroll the files up or down by clicking button 1 on the line directly above or below the files. o Tag several files by holding down button 2 and moving the mouse. If, while button 2 is pressed, the mouse is moved onto the line above or below the file list, the panel will scroll, tagging all files that pass by. o Select a function to perform by clicking on the function bar at the bottom of the screen. Using button 2 Selects the Alt function. This is particularly handy for changing drives (Alt-F1/F2). o Activate the menu by clicking button 2 on the top line of the screen. The easiest way to make a selection is to hold button 2 down after activating the menu, "pull down" the menu you want and release button 2 when you have the correct item highlighted. Clicking outside the menu area will dismiss the menu. o Whenever a dialog popup appears that contains push buttons that look like "[ OK ]", you may click on these with mouse button 1 to select the indicated choice. Clicking button 2 will select the highlighted button. o Whenever a dialog popup appears that requests a string input (eg Make Directory), button 1 may be used to position the cursor on the line and button 2 is equivalent to pressing ENTER. Clicking button 1 outside the dialog box or on a Cancel button, cancels the operation. o When the results of a 'Find File' operation are showing, double clicking button 1 on a file name will cause FC/2 to jump to the directory the file is in (like pressing ENTER). The window can be scrolled by clicking on the top or bottom lines of the window. o When using the internal file viewer, clicking button 1 in the top or bottom third of the screen scrolls the screen up/down. Using button 2 pages up or down. o When using the internal editor, the mouse may be used to position the cursor on the currently displayed page. ═══ 7. The Internal Viewer ═══ The file viewer built into FC/2 is a basic text viewer that is perfect for taking a quick look at your text files. You can use the mouse or keyboard to scroll the text up and down (Keys: Cursor-Up/Down, Page Up/Down, Home, End). When the mouse is being used to scroll the text, the speed of scrolling is determined by the 'scrolldelay' configuration directive. o If a line is longer than 80 columns it will be chopped off at that length and the remainder placed one the next line. o You can search for a string using F7 (or Shift-F7 to find next). The search is case insensitive. The searching is much faster than the NC internal viewer (though that's not hard....). o Will correctly interpret UNIX, PC or MAC line terminators (LF, CR/LF, CR) o F4 will toggle between ASCII and Hex view. o I think I've got all the bugs out of it but if you ever think it has become confused, pressing Ctrl-L will repaint the screen. ═══ 8. The Internal Editor ═══ The built in editor is a very simple editor that allows you to make quick changes to any plain text file. o Like the viewer, the editor will read a file using any type of line terminator. When the file is written, however, all lines will be CR/LF terminated. o Although there is no limit on the size of file you can edit, keep in mind that the whole file is loaded into memory so opening a multi-megabyte file may strain your swapper.dat file. The following keys are implemented: o Left/Right/Up/Down - As you'd expect o Home - start of line o End - End of line. o Page Up/Down - Up/Down one page o Ctrl-Home - Top of screen o Ctrl-End - Bottom of screen o Ctrl-Page Up/Down - Start/End of file o Ctrl-Y - erase line o ESC or F10 - exit editor (prompts to save if changes made) o F2 - Save now without exiting o F7 - Search for a word in the text (case insensitive) o Shift F7 - Search for the same word again ═══ 9. The User Menu ═══ The user menu is a list of functions defined by you to help you carry out common tasks. To create a user menu you need to create a plain text file (using an editor like the OS/2 System editor "e.exe" or FC/2's internal editor) named fc.mnu in the same directory as fc.exe. Here is an example user menu file: S:Scan for viruses os2scan c: d: D:Dos Window start /dos F12:Pulse start pulse A line that starts in the first column is a description line. The key used to activate the function is first and may be any single letter or number or one of the function keys F1-F12. After a separating colon comes the description that will appear in the menu when it is displayed. Any line that starts with a space or tab is a command and will be executed when the preceding description is chosen from the menu. ═══ 10. File Name Filters ═══ The file name filter can be used to define which files you want to see and which files you don't. It may contain up to 40, space separated file masks that are tested from left to right. The first mask that matches a file name will determine that file's visibility. To indicate an exclusion file mask, precede it with a '!'. If a file name doesn't match any of the masks, it will not be shown. EG *.exe *.com *.cmd *.bat Show only executable files !*.obj * Show all files except object files. foo* !*.obj * Show all files except object files unless they start with foo. ═══ 11. Notes, Hints and Tips ═══ o If you use 4os2 as your command interpreter, try to keep the contents of your 4start.cmd to a minimum as it is run every time you execute an external command in FC/2. o The fastest way to select a new drive for a panel using the mouse is to click the right mouse button on F1/F2 in the help bar at the bottom of the screen. o FC/2's tree information is kept up to date if you create and delete directories using FC/2. The only exception to this is if a directory tree is copied or moved between drives. o If you attach 4DOS/4OS2 descriptions to your files, they will be preserved if you copy or move them using FC/2. o You can use the '!' substitutions described with associations when specifying a viewer or editor. o If you don't want (or can't have) tree information written to the root of drives, use the 'treedir' configuration directive as described in Configuration Keywords. ═══ 12. Configuration ═══ Configuration is done with the file fc.ini which must be in the same directory as fc.exe. If you rename fc.exe you must also rename fc.ini to match. As most options are now configurable within FC/2 and saveable with Options/Save Setup, you shouldn't need to edit this file except for adding / changing the associations. You may specify an alternate .ini file for FC/2 to use by naming it on the command line. If the named file does not yet exist, the default .ini file will be read but Save Setup will write the new file name. This allows you to easily create another configuration that is only slightly different to your normal configuration. The file fc.ini contains statements in the form: keyword=value to set a configuration setting (see Configuration keywords for valid forms) or wildcard:program [switches] [! switches] to create an association. The effect of this is to use "program" on any file matching "wildcard" when ENTER is pressed on the file. A '!' character on the right of the ':' will be replaced by the file name when "program" is executed. If there is no '!', the file name will be added to the end. This is useful if you need parameters AFTER the file name. You can also use '!p' to substitute for the current path or '!P' to substitute for the path of the opposite panel. e.g. *.dsk:loaddskf ! a: *.zip:pkunzip ! !P *.inf:view *.ico:iconedit *.zoo:zoo x *.tif*:pmview (matches both x.tif and x.tiff, not actually sure if pmview handles tiffs...) Any line not containing an '=' or ':' will be ignored entirely. Do not use quotes around string values. (used below for clarity only) When you use the 'Save Setup' menu option, the fc.ini file is rewritten with the current setup. All configuration keywords are written out even if fc.ini did not previously contain them. ═══ 12.1. Configuration keywords ═══ o background String prepended to a command to start it in a separate session when Alt-Enter is used. Default is "start /f /c" o clock=on|off Specifies whether a clock should be shown or not. o codepage If non-zero, FC/2 will switch to the specified code page. Can be used to change to a code page that supports the graphics characters used by FC/2. o confirmations Numeric value representing confirmation options. Normally you would set this up using the Options/Confirmations menu option (and using Save Setup) but if you want to set it manually it is made up by adding 1 for file delete, 2 for tagged delete, 4 for tree delete and 8 for exit confirmation. Adding a value disables the confirmation. o editor name of editor used when F4 is pressed. Default is the internal editor. o editor2 As above but for Alt-F4. Default is "e.exe", the OS/2 system editor. o fullscreen=on|off Specifies if panels should fill the whole screen or half the screen. Can be changed from the options menu while running. Default is on. o help names .inf files viewed by pressing F1. (Default is "fc.inf") The .inf files must be found in directories listed in the BOOKSHELF environment variable. eg 4os2.inf+cmdref.inf o hidden=on|off Specifies if hidden files will show up. Default off. o left directory that the left panel starts in. Defaults to current directory. o leftfilter,rightfilter One or more (space separated) filename masks, one of which a file must match in order to appear in a panel. Default is "*". o leftsort,rightsort Sets the sort key for the left and right panels. Value can be: name : Sort by name only extension : Sort by extension, then name time : Sort by time/date (newest first), then name size : Sort by file size (largest first), then name unsorted : Order is as read from file system o leftstyle,rightstyle=brief|full|wide|tree Sets the display type for left and right panels. Default is full. o lines Sets the number of lines on screen at startup. Can be 21, 25, 28, 43, 50 or 60 for full screen sessions or any value of at least 21 for a windowed session. Using a number that is not one of those listed for a full screen session will result in the number of lines being set to the next value up. o mouspeed Sets the mouse speed (sensitivity) for full screen sessions. The default is 8 with smaller numbers making the mouse faster, larger numbers slower. o numlock=on|off Specifies if numlock should be fixed on or not. Affects both FC/2 and any program started by FC/2 unless it is in a separate session. Note: This does NOT work for a windowed session as PM keeps its own idea of key lock status. However, it seems that v2.1 of OS/2 does take some notice in that the keyboard operates as though numlock was on but the light stays off. o right directory that the right panel starts in. Defaults to current directory. o saver Specifies number of minutes before the screen saver starts. Using saver=0 (the default) disables the screen saver. The screen saver only activates in a full screen session. o scrolldelay If you find that scrolling using the mouse goes too fast, use this directive to specify a delay (in milliseconds) between each line scrolled. I find 5 is a good value. This directive only affects full screen sessions as windowed sessions usually need all the speed they can get. o timemode=12|24 Specifies whether times will be displayed in 12 or 24 hour mode. This affects the clock and the time stamps on files. Default is 12. o treedir Specifies a directory to store tree information in. If this is not specified (or is empty) then tree information will be written to the root of each drive. This is especially useful if you don't have write permission to the root of some drives (network drives, CD-ROMs etc). o viewer name of file viewer used when F3 is pressed. Default is the internal file viewer. o viewer2 name of file viewer used when Alt-F3 is pressed. Default is "list" as in the one built into 4os2. ═══ 13. Contacting the Author ═══ If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or bug reports, you can contact me by either of the following means: Internet: s902150@numbat.cs.rmit.oz.au (at least until mid 1994) Snail Mail: Brian Havard 16a Rennison St, Mordialloc 3195, Victoria AUSTRALIA ═══ 14. Release History ═══ o 13/4/93 v0.1 Initial Release o 28/4/93 v0.11 o 24/5/93 v0.12 o 7/6/93 v0.13 o 21/7/93 v0.14 o 12/8/93 v0.15 o 13/10/93 v0.16 o 17/1/94 v0.17 o Future ═══ 14.1. Version 0.11 ═══ o Fixed bug that caused lockup if a history search found no match. o If an executed program changes directory contents, cursor stays on same file name. o Improved logic of and documented file name seeking. (Alt-letter/number) o Added clock. o Added screen saver. o Cursor should now be in the right place after changing up a directory. This was only wrong after using Alt-F1/F2 to change to a drive who's default directory was not its root. o 43/50 line mode support added. As the EMX static link library doesn't support >25 lines, emx.dll is now required. Note that in a windowed session you can have as many or few lines as you like although things start getting a little mixed up with less than 16. Before running FC, use "mode co80,n" where n is the number of lines. o No harderr popup if no disk in drive. o Option to deselect use of KBD subsystem if causing traps. o ".." entry not shown at root of HPFS drive. o Several other minor bugs I didn't bother to note down. ═══ 14.2. Version 0.12 ═══ o Prevent view or edit of a directory. o Use of '!' in associations. o Preservation of tagging when program executed. o Ctrl-U panel swap. o Menu system added. o Panel (single) on/off - Ctrl-F1/F2 o Sort by Name/Extension/Time/Size/Unsorted o Brief (3 column, no details) file view o Clock can be turned on/off from menu o Moved from EMX/GCC to Borland C++ which required a fairly major operation to convert from the EMX windowing library to Borland's. o Wildcards can now be used in destination specification to modify file names with rename/move/copy operations. o Altered use of KBD subsystem to stop Trap problems. o Capitalisation of directory names on FAT volumes. o Deletion of directory trees using F8. Also allows F6 to move a tree between drives successfully. o Converted documentation to INF format. o Added volume label, file system and serial number to Info panel. ═══ 14.3. Version 0.13 ═══ o Added Compare Directories o Improved wildcards to handle square bracket notation. o Stoped the following causing TRAPs: Ctrl-U without both panels showing. Brief/Full selection on hidden panel o Fixed Alt-F1/F2 behaviour if panel not showing. o Fixed mess caused by copying/moving files when only 1 panel is showing. o Screen is restored on exit. o Added lines= directive to allow setting of initial screen lines. o Added Alt-F3/F4 and viewer2/editor2 directives to give a choice of 2 viewers/editors. ═══ 14.4. Version 0.14 ═══ o Fixed "Overwrite all" option when moving files to a directory on the same drive. o Added Find File function. o Added internal file viewer. o Added mouse support for most functions. o Added 'mouspeed' configuration directive to adjust mouse sensitivity. o Improved behaviour when a panel's directory becomes non-existent (will move up directories until it finds one that exists). o Now allows international characters >127 (and graphic characters) in all input fields (including command line). o Stopped re-prompting of Delete Tree dialog if something goes wrong during tree deletion. o In brief view, file details given on status line. o Improved behaviour when selecting Full/Brief/Info from menu. o Added simple interpreter for "cd" and "d:" type commands o Removed finite length limit on string values in fc.ini (viewer, editor etc). o Added half height panels. o Stopped screen saver activating in a windowed session. o Alt-Left/Right can be used to move the command line cursor when in brief view. o Ctrl-Left/Right moves cursor a word left/right. o Added file mask. o Removed case sensitivity from square bracket operator in file masks. o Added ability to insert a file name with its full path into the command line (Ctrl-F). o File sizes >= 1e8 (ў100Meg) will be displayed sensibly ( divided by 1024, 'K' appended ). o 4DOS/4OS2 descriptions preserved by copy/move operations (and deleted by file delete operations). o Added support for VCD. o Added exit (F10) confirmation. o Ctrl-O will now only restore panels it switched off. o Path in prompt can no longer fill whole line. o Fixed bug in history that sometimes gave junk on Ctrl-E. o Added 'scrolldelay' configuration directive to allow slowing of mouse scrolling. o Ctrl-Backspace now deletes word to the left of the cursor. o lines=nn can now be any number for a windowed session. o Improved handling of read only files including 'All' option when deleting several read only files. o Can now use a mode co80,nn command on the command line to adjust FC/2's number of lines. o Plus many other minor changes and fixes. ═══ 14.5. Version 0.15 ═══ o Fixed problem with network drives. o Added 'Wide' panel view style. o Fixed trap when viewing 0 length files with internal viewer. o Fixed problem with % in command lines. o Whenever only 1 panel is showing, now automatically becomes current. o ESC can now be used to stop file search. o When drive select window showing, right mouse button re-selects current drive which effectively re-reads the current drive. o Now uses correct date separator for country. o Uses 24 hour format time stamps on files if clock is 24 hour or 'timemode=24' configuration directive. o Added 'left=' configuration directive. o Will ignore invalid left= or right= directories. o Reduced cursor 'flicker' when moving mouse with button held down. o Fixed behaviour after running full screen OS/2 graphic program. o Added ability to invert selection with Grey '*'. o Improved 'Change drive' popup. o Fixed copying/renaming tagged files with wildcard (broken in 0.14). o Added store/retrieve paths. o Added User Menu. ═══ 14.6. Version 0.16 ═══ o Fix User Menu to make cd and d: type commands work. o Added ability to preset the stored directories in fc.ini. o Added saving of configuration with 'Save Setup' menu option. o Can now specify alternate ini file on command line. o Put 'Hidden Files' on option menu. o Enabled 'Path Prompt' choice on options menu. o Added colour customization o Implemented 'Configuration' menu option. All options can now be set from within the program. o Most string input fields now scroll to permit longer values. o Added ability to configure confirmations. o Can now dismiss Copy/Move dialog boxes by clicking mouse button 1 outside box. o When locating file using Alt-[A-Z] etc, partial file name shown in mini status line. o Can no longer bring up 2 info panels with Ctrl-L. o Ctrl-P turns off opposite panel. o Added mouse clickable buttons (OK, Cancel etc) to most dialogues. o Improved mouse control of user menu and change drives popup. o Ctrl-Break now interrupts copy/move/delete operations. o Added internal editor. o Internal viewer & editor report why they couldn't open a file. o Help bar now switches to Alt functions when Alt is pressed. o When tabbing across to a panel it will be re-read if its serial number or label have changed giving semi-automatic floppy change detect. o Some shortcut keys listed in menus. o Shift-F3/F4 implemented. ═══ 14.7. Version 0.17 ═══ New Features o In associations, !p gives path of current panel, !P, opposite panel and ! by itself can be used any number of times in one association. o Ctrl-F3-F7 change sorting of current panel. o Hex view mode added to internal viewer o Added WPS object creation for file under cursor (Alt-F6). o History window (Alt-F8) added. o Added tree view in panels. o Added Directory change tree popup (Alt-F10 & F10 when copying / moving). o The filter can now exclude files. Minor enhancements o When tagging files by holding down mouse button 2, files are no longer skipped if mouse is moved quickly. o When a file is 'executed' via an association, the whole command is entered into history. o FC/2 can now optionally set which code page it uses. o Internal editor can now update hidden files. o Ctrl-J & Ctrl-F now quote file names that contain spaces. o The clock & timemode directives are now more sensibly organised o Alt-Up/Down can be used to seek to previous/next matching filename when using Alt-letter/number to locate a file. o Alt searching now works with all symbols, including shifted ones like ! @ { } _ + o Alt-Backspace removes a character from the search string. o Directory reading slightly faster. Bug fixes o Pressing enter in editor now counts as a change. o Function bar now correct after Shift-F4 o When going up directory, after directory in parent has been added/removed, cursor is placed correctly. o When full screen, when Ctrl-Break is pressed during file operation, mouse cursor does not disappear. o When full screen, when Ctrl-Break is pressed at normal prompt, "Terminate FC/2?" prompt doesn't disappear immediately. o When changing number of lines and cursor is lower than the new number of lines, it is now correctly positioned. o In editor, decimal value of char in status line now unsigned. o Can now rename directories so that only case is changed. o Commands like "cd\blah" (no space) now work properly. o Chars greater than 127 can now be searched for in viewer & editor o Internal editor no longer trashes EAs when updating file. o Stopped editor losing blank lines when several occur together. o Fixed problem editor had moving into tabs from above or below. o 4DOS descriptions on files with spaces in their names are now handled properly. o Fixed problem with Alt-F1/F2 and network drives. ═══ 14.8. Planned for future versions ═══ o Unwrap in file viewer. o Popup of stored directories. o Online text mode (not .inf) key reference. o Maybe: Cut & paste in editor. o Anything else I get around to doing......