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1994-06-01
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Honto v1.00 06/01/94
(c) 1993,94 Sam Leventer
Description
~~~~~~~~~~~
Honto is a program that helps you identify an unknown filetype. Its name
comes from the Japanese word meaning really, or truely. This is because
Honto is not mislead by an incorrect extension; It tells you what a file
really is. Honto colors a file's listing, depending on its type, tells you
what type of file it is, and optionally displays extra information. The
included configuration program allows you to customize Honto. It also
performs a CRC check on Honto, to detect virus infection.
One situation where you might need a program like this is if you have a
large number of backup files, all with the extension .BAK, some created with
PKLite, some with GIFLite, others backups from your paint program, other
backups from your word processor, etc... and you need to restore these
backups. Rather than going through a trial and error process in each program,
you can simply type HONTO *.BAK, and find out what each file is. Or, if a
file comes with several WHATEVER.000, WHATEVER.001, etc. files, and you are
curious as to what type of files those are, simply type HONTO *.0*.
Honto is also usefull in identifying self-extracting archives, created by
all of the major archive software. When you recieve a (supposed) self-
extracting file, use Honto to be sure that it is not a "trojan horse" type
program.
Another usage of Honto would be as replacement for the DIR command. Honto
is designed to work identical to the DIR command, except for including extra
information on the right side of the screen, and coloring files depending on
their filetype. Honto can also display several wildcards in the same listing.
If a file has an extension that Honto recognizes as not matching the
standard extension for that filetype, such as if a ZIP file has been renamed
to .QWK, then the file's current extension will be displayed in lower case.
This will draw your attention to files with incorrect extensions. The correct
file description will still appear beside the directory listing.
Honto displays files in different colors depending on the type of file that
it is. The following chart shows the default colors:
Archives....... Bright Blue
Programming.... Dark Blue
Pictures....... Red
Sound.......... Magenta
Executables.... White
Text........... Gray
Directories.... Dark Gray
Unknown files.. Gray
This grouping was done so that you could easily pick out related files.
Using the included HONTOCFG.EXE utility, you may easily change the default
coloring to any colors that you wish. However, the grouping may not be
changed (ie GIF and PCX images must be the same color).
Command line switches
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you specify /E, for extra, then (with certain types of files), Honto will
give you extra information. The chart below shows which filetypes contain
extra information. I tried to come to a reasonable trade-off between amount
of information and time to retrieve it. Specifying /E should not slow Honto
down unreasonably, except in the case of new GIFs. The GIF 89a format is
very flexible, and to find comments and application blocks, almost the whole
file must be scanned.
Normally, direct screen writes are used, for color support. However, if you
need to re-direct the output, direct screen writes will not work. To solve
this problem, use /B, for Black and white output. If you have speech software,
or other specialty software that needs to trap information being written to
the screen, it will be able to trap output when /B is used.
Specifying /P will pause the screen every time it fills up. This way you
can easily view large directories, without keeping your finger on the pause
key. (Note that ^S will not pause the display, unless /B is used)
Command line switches must be preceded by a '/' or '-', without the quotes.
One slash (or dash) will cover all command line options until a space. Also,
options and filenames may be interleaved in any order.
The following are all CORRECT uses of Honto:
HONTO C:\SCANS\*.GIF /EB > PICTURES.TXT ; Will make a file containing a list
of all GIFs and PCXs in the C:\SCANS
directory, with extra info.
HONTO D:\DOWNLOAD\*.* -E -B ; Lists all files in the download
directory, with extra info, in B&W.
HONTO ; Shows a colored list of current dir.
HONTO ..\*.0* -p /E
HONTO *.PCX *.GIF *.BMP /E ; Shows all pictures, with dimensions.
Notes
~~~~~
Note: For some file types, there is no reliable way to identify files. This
shows nothing but a lack of foresight by the designer of the file format. For
example, Amiga modules (music files) have no ID information whatsoever. There
is no quick way to identify the file as a .MOD, and I felt that speed was more
important than searching the file for correct sample information. For some
other file types, notably .COM files, the detection is not too reliable. In
general, if Honto says "probably", it means just that. For file types that
Honto says "probably", the file's extension will still be displayed in caps,
even if it is mismatched.
For image files, in the extra information, Honto displays a "compression
ratio." This is a measure of how much the file compressed by the format.
A higher compression ratio means that the file is smaller.
Registration
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is finally a release version of Honto, and registration is REQUIRED!
This means that you MUST pay for Honto. The fee for using Honto is a mere
$20. For that price, you recieve the legal right to use Honto beyond a 10
day evaluation period, and notification of new versions. For $25, you will
be mailed the next new version of Honto, when released. Please register, as
many hours of hard work have gone into this program, I am very willing to
implement suggestions, if you have any.
Copyrights
~~~~~~~~~~
All program code and data, including this Documentation file, are
copyrighted 1994 by Sam Leventer.
ARJ is copyright R.K. Jung.
Doom is (c) ID software.
GIF is a trademark of Compu$erve, an H&R Block company.
PC Paintbrush is a trademark of Z-Soft, Inc.
PKZip is a trademark of PKWare.
Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland International.
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corp.
Word Perfect is a trademark of the Word Perfect Corp.
All other trademarks and copyrights are property of their owners.
Contacting Me
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Snail mail:
Sam Leventer
42 Oakdale Dr.
Rochester, NY 14618-1120
E-Mail:
FidoNet- 1:2613/313 (Knight Moves)
Internet- sam.leventer@f313.n2613.z1.fidonet.org
After August, 1994:
Internet- sam.leventer@cornell.edu
Current list of file types Honto can Identify
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extra Versions that
info ext Honto knows
---- --- -------------
ARC : All versions
X ARJ : All versions
LZH : All known versions
X ZIP : All versions
OBJ : Microsoft/Intel format
OVR : All versions I could find
X TPU : Turbo Pascal v4.0-7.0 (all)
C : N/A
PAS : Programs & units
TXT : N/A
X WPD : Word Perfect 5.x only
WRD : Word v5.5
ANS : N/A
X BMP : All versions
X GIF : All versions
JPG : JFIF and others
LBM : N/A
X PCX : All versions
X TD : All versions
WAD : All versions
X VOC : 1.10
X WAV : N/A
BAT : N/A
COM : Most .COM files I could find
X EXE : N/A
SYS : Most .SYS files I could find