AutoCat™ 1.1  by olivier lebra

AutoCat™ is shareware !

You can copy it, distribute it where you want: including CD-ROM, magazines, BBS, Compuserve, Internet,....

AutoCat™ is a shareware product. Registering will provide you with the means to stop the mildly annoying reminder message displayed at startup.You will also be registered for future releases. If you decide to keep AutoCat™, please send a check, money order, or cash in the amount of 60 FF (i.e. $10 U.S./$12 Cdn). If you can't pay in French Francs, please send cash, money orders, or traveller checks in French, Canadian, or American currency.

To receive the latest version of AutoCat™ and my other shareware products, send me your electronic address (or a floppy disk) along with your registration request.

Please send your payment (and the name that will replace the "Unregistered copy" message in the control panel) to:

        From May 1995 :

  

   Until May 1995 only :

Olivier Lebra

  

Olivier Lebra

8, rue Paul Bounin

  

1950, Lincoln     App. #1707

Nice

  

 Montreal, Quebec

06100

  

  H3H 2N8

FRANCE

  

CANADA
        Tel : (+33) 93 98 40 91

  
 Tel : (+1) 514-846 9781

Internet address :

 olebra@ifaedi.insa-lyon.fr    (valid until July 1996)
(You can also try lebra@cs.concordia.ca until May 1995 but the address above is more likely to bite.)

I am a French student, studying at Concordia University in Montréal. I expect to be in Canada until at least May 1995, so you can send $12 Cdn (cash or check).

Thank you for your honesty !

What is AutoCat™ ?

AutoCat™ is a control panel that automatically creates a catalog of the files on your floppy disks when they are ejected. With AutoCat™, you have only to write the name of your disks on their label. To find a file, you can use the Finder's "Find…" command as though your file was on your hard disk.

How does AutoCat™ catalog disks ?

The first time you open the control panel, AutoCat™ creates a preferences file with default options. Note that AutoCat™ will place the catalog information, by default, in the Desktop Folder.

When you eject a diskette, AutoCat™ creates a folder (with the same name as your diskette and with a customized AutoCat™ icon) within the currently designated Cataloged disks folder. Into this folder AutoCat™ puts aliases to all the files on the diskette.

AutoCat™ maintains the hierarchical directory structure of your floppy disks; it copies folders from the diskette into your Cataloged disks folder and, instead of copying files from the diskette, makes aliases of the original files and puts them in their respective folders in the Cataloged disks folder. (When AutoCat™ is working, the mouse pointer is replaced by an AutoCat™ animated cursor.)

System Requirements

AutoCat™ uses System 7 enhancements, especially aliases. Consequently, it works only on Macintoshes running System 7.0 or later.

Installing AutoCat™

Drop it on the icon of your closed System Folder and restart your Macintosh. That's all !

Configuring AutoCat™

AutoCat™ takes account of all changes as soon as you click in the items. It is not necessary to close it or to restart your Macintosh.

If AutoCat™ was not in the control panel folder when you started your Macintosh, or if extensions are deactivated (shift key was held down during startup), AutoCat™ is deactivated until you restart your Macintosh with AutoCat™ in the control panel folder. However, new settings are saved.

• You can turn on or turn off AutoCat™ with the On and Off radio buttons.

• You can activate or deactivate balloon help directly from AutoCat™. Select or deselect the check box near the balloon help icon.

• If you want the feedback of an AutoCat™ icon during the startup process, click the Show startup icon check box. Deselect it if you don't want to show the icon.

• By default, the Cataloged disks folder is the Desktop Folder of your startup disk. You can select a different folder by clicking in the Cataloged disks folder field. A standard dialog allows you to select an existing folder. Don't select a folder on a disk that will be ejected ! (Don't worry, if you make this mistake, AutoCat™ will do nothing when you eject the disk.)

• By default, if you hold down the Option key while you are ejecting a diskette, AutoCat™ is deactivated. Don't change this option if you use AutoCat™ with a lot of disks. If you want to use AutoCat™ with just a selection of disks, click on the other radio button; AutoCat™ will then catalog disks only when you hold down the Option key.

• You can use the Archiving Mode... button to quickly catalog a series of disks. You should use this mode the first time you use AutoCat™ to catalog all your diskettes. In this mode, each disk you insert is cataloged and is immediately ejected. To quit this mode, press the Quit button in the Archiving Mode dialog. (Note that if there was a diskette in the internal drive when you press the Archiving Mode... button, it is ejected but not calataloged.)

If AutoCat™ was not in the Control Panels folder when you started your Macintosh, or if extensions were deactivated (shift key was held down during startup), AutoCat™ is deactivated until you restart your Macintosh with AutoCat™ in the Control Panel folder. However, new settings are saved no matter when they are made and you can use the Archiving Mode.

How to Find your Files

Using the "Find..." command from the Finder™, specify the name of your file. The suitably-named Finder™ will find the file and select the alias created by AutoCat™. Open the alias by double-clicking it, or select the Find Original button in the "Get Info…" window of the alias. The Finder™ will ask you to insert the diskette "so-and-so".

Additional Information

• AutoCat™ only catalogs diskettes when they are ejected by the "Put Away" command or when the icon of a diskette is dropped on the trash. If you eject a diskette using "Eject Disk" and you later drop the icon on the trash, AutoCat™ does nothing.

• AutoCat™ identifies a disk by its name and its creation date. If you use disks with identical names and creation dates, AutoCat™ will become confused ! (It could happen if you buy formatted disks.) If you change the name of a disk, AutoCat™ will create a new folder with the new name, but will not erase the old folder or its contents.

• Warning ! When AutoCat™ catalogs a disk already cataloged (i.e. with the same name and creation date), it first erases the AutoCat™ folder bearing the name of the diskette. So, don't use folders with the same name and creation date as the disks in your Cataloged disks folder. (I suggest you keep only AutoCat™ folders in the Cataloged disks folder.)

• If you have floppy disks with identical names, the folder created by AutoCat™ will be called "name", "name - 2", "name - 3", and so on… Avoid naming your disks with this method !

• If AutoCat™ can't find the Cataloged disks folder, the Desktop Folder of your startup disk becomes the location for new catalog entries.

• Unfortunately, aliases take a lot of room ! Here is the reason : the Macintosh file manager uses blocks of fixed size on hard disks, and consequently the sizes of the files are multiple of this minimal size which is equal to (size of the disk) / 2^16, rounded up.
For example, on a 240 MB hard disk, the smallest files occupy 4K, 8K, 12K , and so on,... If you have only two 100K files on the disk and if they really occupy 97K, you only lose 6K. But if you have 25 8K files and if they really occupy 5K each, you lose 75K ! The real size of an alias is about 600 bytes (about 0.6K).
 
• AutoCat™ takes up very little memory : less than 10K.

AutoCat™ Tips

• AutoCat™ is configured to catalog floppy disks only. If you want to force AutoCat™ to catalog a bigger volume (hard disk, SysQuest cartridge,…) you can hold down the shift key while you are unmounting the volume. (Option key is stronger than shift key.)
If you often catalog volumes, you can reconfigure the 'PREF' ressource in the AutoCat™ control panel with ResEdit™: by default, AutoCat™ only catalogs volumes with a capacity less than 2 MB, but you can change this value.

• You can stop AutoCat™ while it is working (the pointer is an AutoCat™ symbol) by pressing the command-. keys. (The usual way to interrupt a process.)

Troubleshooting

I succesfully tested AutoCat™ with many extensions and there was no conflict. But, I can't assure you there will never be conflicts with AutoCat™.

         Technical note : AutoCat™ only patches the UnMountVol routine.

If there is a problem when AutoCat™ is loading during startup, the AutoCat™ icon is crossed out (unless you have deselected the Show startup icon check box). If that happens, throw away any existing AutoCat™ preferences file in your Preferences folder (located within your System Folder). You can also try to throw away the last folder created by AutoCat™.
You should have no trouble with AutoCat™ !

Known Problems

AutoCat™ can catalog DOS disks but is not able to recognize if a DOS disk was already cataloged. (For a single disk called "disk", AutoCat™ will create "disk", "disk-2", "disk-3",… folders.)

Future enhancements

AutoCat™ will someday recognize CompactPro™ (and perhaps StuffIt™) archives and create an alias for each file in the archive. Obviously, these aliases will open the archive. Currently, AutoCat™ simply makes an alias of the archive itself.

Contacting the author

Don't hesitate to contact me ! Please send me bug reports, suggestions about AutoCat™ and, if possible, $10 U.S. ! If you can't pay (for example if you are a student like me), send me a postcard or a diskette with cool pictures, sounds or anything else, and I will register you. I would like to discuss the possibility of collaborating on future programming projects. If you give me your electronic address, I will send you all my other programs and future versions of AutoCat™. Please enclose a floppy disk if you have no access to Internet.

Acknoledgments

I would like to thank Stéphane Galli for the small cat drawing.
I thank Michael Thibault for making more than a few suggestions and for fixing a few mistakes in this documentation (Don't forget, I'm French.)
I also thank all those who use my previous software and who have contacted me.

Revision history

11/22/94   Version 1.1
   - minor improvements
   - fixed unpredictable bug (a handle was disposed twice)
   - Online Help is added.
   - Cataloging Mode is added. (Thanks Michael for this suggestion)

11/15/94   Version 1.0.5
   - fixed bug : the reminder message did not disappear with registered copies !

11/11/94   Version 1.0.4

 - minor improvements
   - Aliases are now created at the same location as the original files in the floppy disk.
  
11/03/94   Version 1.0.3

- fixed bug : Version 1.0.2 prevented the Finder™ to format a disk ! (Thanks again Dino !)
  - When you put away the icon of a disk that was ejected but not unmounted, AutoCat™ no longer catalogs the disk.

11/02/94   Version 1.0.2

- fixed bug : While unmounting a disk that was ejected but not unmounted, AutoCat™ cataloged the disk but did not eject it. (Thanks Dino !)

10/28/94   Version 1.0.1

- fixed bug : AutoCat™ did not release into the heap all storage allocated.

10/24/94   AutoCat™ 1.0 released

Shareware Info

AutoCat™ is a shareware program. It can be distributed freely. The AutoCat™ package may be included in the "pay for the media" shareware distribution methods (such as, but not limited to, CD-ROM archives) as long as Olivier Lebra, author of AutoCat™, is informed about the distribution of AutoCat™.

Warranty

AutoCat™ comes with no warranty, written or implied. Olivier Lebra accepts no liability for the use or performance of AutotCat™. Olivier Lebra accepts no liability for any damage caused by the use of AutoCat™. Use of AutoCat™ implies your complete acceptance of this warranty.

Copyright ©1994 by Olivier Lebra. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.