This Read Me contains only the most essential information, as most documentation has been moved into the on-line help. Access it from the System 7 Help menu or the Apple menu. the file File Buddy Help must be in the same folder as your copy of File Buddy and must be named "File Buddy Help".
Complete registration information is now found below. Please read it. The essentials are:
File Buddy is $25
To register with credit cards, I now use the Kagi registration system.
Overview
File Buddy is a general utility for working with files and folders. It can:
Obtain and set a wide range of file and folder information.
Find files using an extensive set of search criteria.
Find files containing specified resources.
Modify a batch of file names, e.g., remove ".txt" from several file names at once.
Create custom icons: from PICTs on the clipboard; from other icons; for folders; with blank icons; using only small icons.
Create aliases.
Find empty files and folders, duplicate files, unattached aliases, and unused preference files.
Rebuild the desktop.
Move and copy files.
Delete resource forks.
Note that all dragging features of File Buddy require that you have Macintosh Drag and Drop installed, either as an extension, or as a part of system 7.5.x.
Version 4.0b1 20 Dec 1996:
Bugs have been fixed in the code to mark duplicate files that could cause some duplicates to be missed.
All of the commands to Update, Rebuild, and Replace the desktop now rebuild the desktop on floppies, but they all work the same way since floppies have a desktop file, not a desktop database file.
The Unattached Aliases window has two new buttons: Show, and Find... The Show button tells the Finder to find the alias. The Find button loads any infomation that can be determined about the alias' old target into the Find window. From there you can search for possible targets and drag the best choice from the File List window into the target area of the Unattached Aliases window to reconnect the selected aliases.
Clicking a heading (other than Icon) in a file list window with the option key down sorts the list in the reverse of the normal order.
You can now have multiple file list windows.
Previous versions of File Buddy saved the state of the file list window when it was closed, for use the next time it was opened. Because you can now open more than one file list window at a time, File Buddy 4.0 saves the state of the frontmost file list window when you select Capture Defaults from the List menu.
There is a New List Window command in the List window. It opens an empty file list window.
You can now drag items out of file list windows as well into them. If you drag an item from one file list window to another, it is moved to the new window, unless you hold down the option key at the start or end of the drag, in which case it is copied into the destination window.
When a disk is inserted while a selection dialog is up, the disk is now mounted and shows up in the menu of available disks.
Text can now be dragged out of the On-Line Help window.
Fixes a bug that no one has ever probably experienced in repositioning the Find window when it's expanded while spanning 2 monitors.
The most significant change is that v4.0 represents a complete rewrite of File Buddy in C++. This has provided a much better code base, which has facilitated better debugging and easier feature implementation. It is also the first step in creating a version that is PPC native.
What the Future Holds:
PowerPC native, once the bugs in the 68K version of the beta versions of 4.0 are squashed.
Other stuff.
Registering File Buddy ﾊ
File Buddy is shareware. Shareware is try-before-you-buy-software. It is not use-it-as-long-as-you-like-for-free software. That kind of software is called freeware. If you like it and use it, please register. You can't register this beta version, but I will release registration information when the final version is released.
Disclaimer:
I have endeavored to make File Buddy as reliable and stable as possible, even in this beta version. Nevertheless, it has bugs. I don't know of any bad ones, but just about every piece of software with more than 20 lines of code has bugs. I use File Buddy. However, you--as do I--use it at your own risk.
Please contact me if you find any bugs, unexpected behavior, or have a suggestion for a new feature except for the following:
File Buddy's Get Info is modal. This is a design decision. At some point this may change, but for now it seems the best thing to do.
I welcome ideas, but please keep in mind I can't use them all, or File Buddy will need over a meg of disk space, and the interface will suffer terribly. If you've used Word 6, or heaven forbid, Microsoft Exchange, you know what I mean. Only features which would have wide appeal can make it in.
Well, that's all for now folks. PLEASE let me know if you find any bugs, so I can fix them asap.
Hope you find 4.0 an improvement.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the people who registered a prior version of File Buddy for their financial and moral support. Without their appreciation, File Buddy 3.x would never have been done.
Thanks to those users--too numerous to list--who reported bugs so I could fix them and you could have a better product.
Thanks to everyone on CompuServe that helped me with technical questions, now too numerous to mention. Thanks to everyone who tested some version of File Buddy to see if I had been successful in fixing a bug I couldn't reproduce.
Thank you,
Laurence Harris
17 Old University Station Rd
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-1572
919-933-9595
Contact Information:
Web: <http://www.skytag.com/>
FTP: <ftp://ftp.skytag.com/skytag.com/>
Please try standard Internet sites or on-line services to obtain the latest versions of File Buddy, RegisterFB, or FindFile Chooser before downloading from my site, as there are limitations to the amount that can be downloaded from mine. But if you canﾕt find them anywhere else, thatﾕs why I put them on mine, so feel free to get them there.
E-mail:
CompuServe: 76150,1027
Internet: <76150.1027@compuserve.com> (preferred) or <skytag@mindspring.com>
A few e-mail requests:
1. Please do not send attached files without asking first, and if I okay a file, please send it to <skytag@mindspring.com>.
2. E-mail me jusdiciously. Since the same guy designs the software, writes the software, processes registrations, and answers e-mails, the more e-mail I get, the less time I have for the other activities.
