DP Tool Club 15/CD_ASCQ_15_070894.iso/vrac/cf536r.zip/ADDENDUM

Text File | 1994-06-01 | 18KB | 355 lines

                     *******************************
                     *                             *
                     *  CMFiler -- Version 5.36r   *
                     *                             *
                     *******************************

     The following features have been added or improved since the CMFiler
     Version 5.35 User's Manual on this disk as MANUAL.535:

     Quick Registration Form:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Now CMFiler evaluators who want to take full advantage of the benefits of
     registration can instantly print a registration form to LPT1 with the key
     combination Ctrl-R.  These benefits include the current CMFiler
     registered release, a convenient bound 5-1/2x8 user's manual, bonus disk
     chock full of a variety of outstanding shareware programs by other
     shareware authors, discount certificates on shareware purchases worth
     $18, a free future CMFiler upgrade of NoVaSoft's choice, and user
     technical support for a year.

     Support of Blind Users:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     To assist blind people using Telesensory Systems, Inc. Power Braille 40
     displays, the character * is printed in the column to the left of the
     filename to denote a normal-tagged file (the character 1-9 or a-z was
     already printed to denote an alt-tagged file), and the character denoting
     a directory is changed from the graphics character ASCII 249 (a small dot
     in the center of the character array) to a colon.

     Mouse Support:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Navigation and some commands can now be done with mouse.  The mouse
     features stay dormant until the mouse is moved.  In the main module, the
     tree display and the file list display in the tree module, a five-
     character mini-mouse menu appears on the same line as the cursor and
     highlight, showing five operations that can be clicked with the left
     button:

     o  The left-arrow character (ASCII 27) acts like the Enter key, for
     directory navigation and file viewing.
     o  The three-line character (ASCII 240) pops a menu into the active
     window.
     o  The up, down and left or right triangles act like PgUp, PgDn and Left
     or Right Arrow for navigation.

     In the cases of file lists, the right button toggles the state of the
     tag.  Several files can be tagged by holding down the right button and
     dragging the mouse up or down the file list.

     The left button may in most cases be used to accept the default offering
     in yes/no choices, same as the Enter key.

     In the editor/viewer, the left button has the same effect as the Enter
     key.  Mouse movement navigates on the page like the arrow keys.  Holding
     the right button down and moving the mouse up or down activates a
     variable-speed scroll feature.

     New Floppy Diskette Copier:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     A built-in diskette copier is now accessible with the command Shift-K
     (for disKopy).  Double- and high-density 5.25" and 3.5" floppies are
     recognized.  User specifies hard drive to store master diskette image on,
     drive to make copies on, number of copies to make and whether each track
     should be verified as it is written.  Number of copies left to go is
     displayed after each successful copy.  Diskette image may be saved on
     hard disk for reuse.

     New Floppy Diskette Formatter:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Floppy diskettes may now be formatted without leaving CMFiler.  The
     command is Shift-M (forMat).  Double- and high-density 3.5" and 5.25"
     formats are recognized.  If an existing format is detected, CMFiler
     requests confirmation to proceed.  Diskettes cannot be "unformatted"
     after this command is used, so be certain the disk contains no valuable
     files before using.  All data sectors are overwritten with the format
     "fill" character hex F6, so, unlike the FORMAT.COM of MS-DOS 5 and later,
     the CMFiler formatter is good for obliterating sensitive data on the
     diskette.

     This formatter is also called during operation of the floppy filler, if
     needed, so unformatted diskettes may now be used for filling.

     New Cross-Drive File Move:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Previous versions would perform the "move file" command (Shift-C) only if
     the source and target directories were on the same disk, and would
     otherwise default to copying the source files to the target.  If users
     wanted to accomplish a file move across drives, it had to be done in two
     steps: copy the files, then delete them.  In Version 5.36a, the command
     Shift-C works as a cross-drive move, with the additional step of
     requiring confirmation of the user's desire to hard-delete the source
     files as the final step of the move.

     Support for VGA 25/43/50-Line Display:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     If your VGA monitor is set up in one of the standard display
     configurations, CMFiler will recognize it and permit on-the-fly changes
     to 25-, 43- or 50-line display through the Shift-O user Options screen,
     last line.  The selection is recorded as the default for the next
     execution of CMFiler.  You can also force your VGA into a specific
     display with one of the explicit command line arguments @V25, @V43 or
     @V50.

     Expanded Support for Laptop Displays:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     There are two classes of laptop computers for which CMFiler has not
     previously provided adequate support because of their unconventional
     (compared to desktops) displays with respect to the high-intensity bit of
     the color attribute.  The high-intensity bit is the way a monitor gives
     you bright white on blue instead of normal white, for example, or bright
     yellow instead of brown.  The high-intensity bit is crucial to many of
     CMFiler's displays.

     The first class of these unconventional laptops, of which some Epsons and

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     Packard-Bells are members, do not respond to or show little effect of the
     high-intensity bit.  For this case we have devised an alternative color
     attribute set, invoked by E (for Epson, the first of these laptops we
     contended with) on the next-to-last lline of the Shift-O user Options
     menu, or @E on the command line.

     The second class responds in inverted sense to the high-intensity bit,
     and it is found in Tandy black-and-white LCDs and some color LCDs.  For
     this case we have added a switch to the Shift-O Options menu above the
     monitor type selection.

     If you have a laptop that is not giving you an easily readable display,
     try various combinations of color sets and positions of the "high-
     intensity inverted" switch.  If none of these works, please contact
     NoVaSoft with the symptoms.

     Choice of Sort Algorithm:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     The user may pick between "bubblesort" and "quicksort" sorting
     algorithms, depending on which proves faster in actual use.  The original
     bubblesort was replaced with quicksort in Ver 5.35a based on a
     theoretical gain in sort time , but quicksort's performance has proved
     too variable and is in many cases slower than bubblesort.  For this
     reason, bubblesort was put back in as an alternative sort method.  You
     may toggle between the two by pressing A in the Ctrl-O Order mode screen.

     Quicksort works particularly well in a large directory where the natural
     DOS order is nearly the same as the order in which files are being sorted
     by CMFiler.  One way to reestablish a particular order to a large
     subdirectory is to move all the files.  Just create a new directory in
     the same level as the directory to be reordered, tag and move all the
     files to the new directory, delete the old one and rename the new to the
     old name.  This has the effect of reconstructing the directory table in
     the order in which the files are moved.

     New Floppy-filling Function:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     A new function has been added to fill target floppies in A or B drive
     from a source hard disk directory.  Floppies need not be formatted nor
     completely empty.  The function is "smart", in that it looks first to see
     if any files tagged for filling from the source directory already exist
     on the floppy, updates them only if needed, and then adds files as
     tightly as they will fit, untagging files in the source as they are
     successfully copied.

     Put the first floppy to be filled in A or B, and set up this drive as the
     target.  Set up the directory with the files to copy as the source, tag
     all the files to be used as "fill", and press Shift-I.  CMFiler first
     asks how much space you want to reserve for growth on each floppy disk,
     and then proceeds with filling the first.  After each floppy disk is
     filled, you may either keep going or escape.  You may even suspend the
     operation and, as long as you don't disturb any tags on the source
     directory, then resume it where you left off.

     New Method of Clearing Slack Space During Copy:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     The old method of ensuring no sensitive or classified information was

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     inadvertently carried into the "slack space" of the last sector written
     during file copy operations was to clear the DOS input/output buffers
     before writing.  The location of this buffer structure varies somewhat
     among operating systems.  CMFiler's ability to find it in networks was
     not fully reliable, and DR DOS reacts very badly to this technique.

     The new method for clearing the last-sector slack space is system-
     independent, uses standard functions only, and actually results in
     shorter file copying times.  It is always invoked, and the I/O buffer
     clearing switch in the Shift-O menu has been redefined as a "wipe-file"
     switch below.

     Wipe-File Feature:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     A wipe-file option has been added which causes all the data in any file
     being deleted to be completely obliterated before the DOS file delete
     service is invoked.  It is not a widely recognized fact that the DOS
     delete service simply changes the first character in the filename in the
     directory listing, and resets the File Allocation Table entries for the
     clusters previously used by the file, but otherwise leaves the clusters
     containing the actual data alone.  Thus, a disk showing no files may
     actually have a wealth of data, if one is smart and patient enough to
     read each cluster and figure out how they fit together.  This option may
     be exercised with the switch on line 3 of the Shift-O user Options menu.

     Individual Configuration on Networks:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Different users on a network may specify their own .CFG configuration
     file through a parameter passed in the environment.  The parameter is
     called CF-CFG, and should include the complete file specification.  For
     example, if C:\PROGRAMS is the network common area for programs, and
     CMFiler is in this directory as CF.COM and CF.OVY, and U is a user's
     logical drive, and the directory SETTINGS is where that user keeps
     miscellaneous program configuration data, the batch file:

               SET CF-CFG=U:\SETTINGS\CF.CFG
               C:\PROGRAMS\CF

     will run CMFiler from the common program area, and tell CMFiler to look
     on U:\SETTINGS for CF.CFG.  (The file CF.CFG is created if it is not
     already there.)

     Miscellaneous:
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     1.   The trash can is renamed ~TRASH~ to put it at the end of the
     alphabetical directory list.  Also, files are no longer redated when they
     are placed in the ~TRASH~ directory, to better preserve their original
     identity; however, since the file date/time stamp was previously used to
     identify how long the file had been in the trash, CF can no longer
     discriminate "fresh" from "day-old" trash, and now has to throw it all
     away during purge.  Also, RAMDrives of <10M are now treated like floppies
     with respect to file trashing (i.e., files are always hard-deleted).

     2.   The directory size limit has been increased from 1200 to 2400 files,
     if sufficient memory is available.  The size limit in the tree mode has
     been increased from 505 to 1700 directories.


          CMFiler -- Addendum                 1-4
     3.   In the editor, the Home and End keys now produce the following
     sequential effect: go to beginning/end of line, top/bottom of page,
     beginning/end of file.

     4.   Shift-R (Refresh panel from disk) is added for main module, and
     reconfigured from Alt-R in tree.

     5.   The file lists in ZIP, ARJ, LZH, ARC and EXE self-extracting files
     may now be seen just by putting the cursor on the file and pressing
     Enter.  This facility sees the filenames even when compressed files of
     different types are packed into a single file.  The limit on the number
     of filenames be displayed is effectively removed.  A second press of
     Enter views the raw file itself.

     6.   The file date/time facility is expanded to allow mass date/time
     setting of tagged files.

     7.   CMFiler protects antivirus signature/integrity data files.  The
     default name assumed for the Stiller Research Integrity Master's
     integrity data files is updated to the name ZZ##.IM from )(.ID,
     consistent with Integrity Master's default naming convention in version
     1.24a and later.  It may be changed with the command Alt-I (for "IDname
     change").

     8.   The date/time stamp of each subdirectory has been added to the
     directory listing information, and, since directories now have an
     appearance more like files, a highlighted "bullet" has been added to the
     left of each directory in the list as a visual cue.

     9.   The file mask blinks whenever it is set to a string other than *.*,
     as a visual cue that the displayed contents of the directory are not
     necessarily all the files that exist.

     10.  The operators Ctrl-U/L/I have been added to the editor.  Ctrl-U
     forces any alphabetic character to upper case, Ctrl-L forces to lower
     case, and Ctrl-I inverts -- upper for lower and vice versa.

     11.  A menu has been added to the print spooler.  When you print a file
     with the command L, a menu allows you optionally to add a form feed at
     the end of the printing, add a left margin pad of 5 or 10 blanks, send
     the file to parallel printer 1 or 2, and add a header to the printout
     showing file name and date/time stamp.

     12.  The capacity of the notes facility has been extended from being
     useable in directories of up to only 600 files to directories of up to
     1200 files.

     13.  The wild cards ? and * have been added to the G and Alt-G "go to"
     functions in the main module, and the wild card ? has been added to the
     "find text" functions in the editor and tree modules.

     14.  In the main module, the file name display and the Goto algorithm are
     now the same (name, then extension) for all sort modes (including those
     that sort on extension first).

     15.  The "New drive" prompt now includes a list of all the valid drives.


          CMFiler -- Addendum                 1-5
     16.  An option is added to the Shift-O menu to specify the European
     convention for dates (dd-mm-yy), and the command Ctrl-K has been added to
     adjust cursor height, which is now a savable configuration parameter.

     17.  Exiting via Esc restores all drives to the directories that were
     current when CF was started.  Exiting via Alt-Q leaves the current
     directories as-set.

     18.  When soft-deleting files to ~TRASH~, the date/time stamp is no
     longer changed to the date/time of the delete, in order to maintain the
     full identity of the file.  However, purging the ~TRASH~ directory
     results in hard-deleting the entire contents.

     19.  The exit routine in the editor has been revised to reduce the number
     of keystrokes required to exit using the default options (i.e., save the
     edited file under its original name, do not reuse the original date/time,
     do not save the original file, and do not return to editor).  The
     keystroke Y or Enter after Esc exits the editor through the default
     options.  To save the edited file but use one of the non-standard exit
     options, press N after Escape, and then pick the options desired,
     including editing the name of the save file and the rename for the
     original.  Also the command Ctrl-S (for Save file) has been added to the
     editor to facilitate file saving in mid-session, including save under a
     different name.

     20.  Pressing Enter on a .COM or .EXE file now gives the option of
     executing the file or viewing it, with executing as the default, accepted
     with a second press of Enter.  Double clicking the mouse left button with
     the arrow symbol in the menu bar highlighted accomplishes the same
     effect.




























          CMFiler -- Addendum                 1-6