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*************************
* General Documentation *
*************************
PocketD Plus v4.0 (D.EXE)
Directory Listing, Copy and File Management Program
PocketD (TM) Copyright Jeff Rollason, PocketWare (TM) 1990-1994
All Rights Reserved
Contents:
(1) PocketD Plus and Shareware
ASP
Shareware
PocketD Plus
Trademarks
(2) Special Tips and Speeding up PocketD
(3) Design Compromises
(4) Compatibility and Limitations
(1) >>>>> PocketD Plus and Shareware
PocketD Plus is a shareware product. You may use the software for free
for 30 days. If you continue to use it after this time you must
register it through PocketWare (See below).
_______
____|__ | (R)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
Jeff Rollason is a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware
principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member
directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you
resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide
technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP
Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI USA 49442-9427, FAX
616-788-2765, or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP
Ombudsman 70007,3536.
****************************
* The Shareware Principle *
****************************
Software distrubuted as Shareware allows the user to try out fully
working programs before buying.
>>>>> THIS IS THE IDEAL WAY TO BUY SOFTWARE:
It has the benefit of giving users the chance to fully try out
whether a product is suitable for their needs without risking a
wasted financial outlay. The software is also CHEAPER! (See
below).
>>>>> THIS IS THE IDEAL WAY TO SELL SOFTWARE:
The Shareware Author does not have the overhead of high
advertising or distribution costs, as the product is
self-promoting. In consequence Shareware products can be sold
at a lower price than conventional retailed software.
>>>>> IS SHAREWARE SOFTWARE ANY GOOD?
Yes! The proof of this is obvious. Shareware completely
dominates many areas of software, such as file compression and
communications, where Shareware clearly lead the markets.
>>>>> IS IT FREE?
No! Much time and effort is required to turn programs into
polished and documented products. So if you seriously intend to
use a Shareware product, then support it!
************************************
* The Shareware version of PocketD *
************************************
The Shareware version of D.EXE has a built-in Registration banner
screen that will appear whenever the user accesses the full on-line
manual, also prompting the user to input a single digit between 1 and
4 to acknowledge the banner. The same banner appears randomly 3% of
the time whenever D.EXE is run, waiting for any key input or
continuing anyway after 60 seconds (It can therefore run unattended
during evaluation). MENUD.EXE has a similar mechanism.
Users must refer to the file VENDINFO.DIZ for the DISCLAIMER OF
WARRANTY and distribution restrictions.
TRADEMARKS
All trademarks are acknowledged. This and other related documents
refer to the following names, among others:
- OS/2 & PC-DOS are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp.
(IBM Inc.)
- LIST copyrighted by Vernon D. Buerg
- Microsoft, Windows & MSDOS registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corp.
- DIET Written by Teddy Matsumoto
- PKlite, PKzip, PKARC and PKPAK trademarks of PKWARE Inc.
- LZEXE copyrighted by Fabrice Bellard
- ANARKEY copyrighted by Steve Calwas of Moderne Software
- CED Written by Christopher J. Dunford
- NORTON trademark of Peter Norton
- PCTOOLS copyrighted by Central Point Software, Inc.
- LHA & LHARC copyrighted by H. Yoshizaki
- ZOO copyrighted program
- ARC & SEA copyrighted by SEA
- ARJ copyrighted by Robert K. Jung
- DESQview copyrighted by Quarterdeck
- 4DOS copyrighted by J.P. Software
- Novell NetWare copyright Novell
- CompuServe registered trademark of CompuServe Inc.
(2) >>>>> Special tips and Speeding up PocketD
PocketD is intended for use from the command line. The user is
strongly recommended to use it with one of the many command
history editors such as CED or ANARKEY. This will allow the
user to experiment with long command lines without needing to
re-type command input.
DOS constrains the user to inputing lines no longer than 128
characters long. This is a serious constraint when using
multi-line or multiple templates or very large numbers of
filespecs. A way around this constraint is to make use of
user-defined parameters to build long lines. e.g.
set a1=[echo Creating $n//md $n//pkunzip $w $n\]
set a2=[?Unpack ZIP file to its own subdir ?]
which could be used by the following line to generate a long
command line that could not have been entered within a single
line.
d programs.zip game*.zip util*.zip /- *temp /a1 /a2
Another solution to processing large numbers of files is to use
a "response" file, e.g.
d <list [pkzip -m backup $w]R
where "list" is a file of any size containing the filenames
(and paths) to be processed.
Since PocketD (D.EXE) can be slow to load and run, it
is recommended that it is run from a ram disk (e.g.
VDISK or RAMDRIVE). To further improve the load speed, the
user can also aliase D to D:D (where D: is the ram drive).
OS/2 Users! --> Look at the compatibility notes.
(3) >>>>> Design Compromises
PocketD could have been designed differently.
Many of its features could be expanded and made more exotic and
powerful. For example the file viewer could allow wildcard
searches. D.EXE could make use of expanded memory and shell out
to extended memory or disk when running other programs. File
copying could be made faster by buffering multiple files before
beginning a copy.
All these are possible, but if implemented, the tiny 30k of the
(registered) D.EXE program would be substantially bigger, and
less attractive to those who need D.EXE to be very small.
D.EXE has been carefully designed to provide an astonishing
range of features within a truly tiny program. This has meant
that its facilities have had to be closely integrated to
achieve the maximum utility for each code section added. This
design approach has been very successful. D.EXE cannot be
completely replaced by any other combination of tool sets,
despite its small size. The program that does come closest to
D.EXE in functionality has less than half the range of options,
but is over twice the size.
One particular compromise is the design of the directory
browser. This traverses subdirectories by re-invoking D.EXE.
This has the effect of limiting how deep the user can browse,
only about 9 levels on a normal machine (or 8 if called by
MENUD). It also imposes limits on the screen refresh between
levels and the speed of traversing levels. The payoff has been
the very small code size increase to D.EXE, also the
compensation by the useful and unique ability of D.EXE to
search for and collect any group of files and directories from
multiple drives to be browsed within a single list.
The final compromise is the single letter option names, giving
parameter strings that are often hard to read. This was a
deliberate decision to allow the user to combine large numbers
of options without hitting the 128 byte command limit. In the
long run, most users will also appreciate the reduced number of
keystrokes needed to input a command.
Does PocketD provide the right things?
I believe it does. PocketD 1.67 was developed from the feedback
of just a few users. v4.0 has been developed from the feedback
from a much wider base, including reviewers and many registered
users, and in consequence has been able to grow into a product
that closely satisifies the needs of a much more diverse group.
(4) >>>>> Compatibility and Limitations.
o PocketD works under MS-DOS/PC-DOS 3.0 or later, Windows 3,
OS/2 and DESQview. However, moving files between logical
drives under OS/2 v2.0 will not work, because v2.0 has a bug
which prevents inter-drive moves in a DOS window from working
at all. This may be fixed in v2.1. Users can safely speed up
MOVE within a drive by using the /.4 switch to turn off OS/2
copy/move compatibility.
o PocketD will work with non-standard display sizes, e.g.
132x44. Note that DOS's ANSI.SYS does not, and may therefore
prevent PocketD (and DIR) from working correctly.
o PocketD can scan any number of files and directories but is
limited to building lists of about 1,400 names (except when
using /r or /e which can process any number). The registered
version includes DL.EXE which can handle 10,000 names (PocketD
can generate lists of unlimited length with the line "D /j").
o PocketD needs COMMAND.COM to be available when running
external programs. It is strongly recommended that COMMAND.COM
is made resident using a line of the form
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /p /e:1024 in CONFIG.SYS. This provides
additional environment space, which PocketD can use for
configuration, color and user-defined parameters.
o PocketD does not need any external programs to see filenames
inside archives, but will need the appropriate de-archivers
such as PKUNZIP etc. if the user wants to view the contents of
files during browsing (/Q or /q). If these programs are
missing, then D.EXE will attempt to run them, fail, and then
return to the browse display. If you are unsure about why this
fails, then use /q to view the error, otherwise the error
message will be cleared from the screen. If you have .LZH
archives created by LHARC rather than the newer LHA, then you
should create a BAT file LHA.BAT with the line "LHARC %1 %2 %3
%4 %5" inside to allow D.EXE to view these files.