home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TPUG - Toronto PET Users Group
/
TPUG Users Group CD
/
TPUG Users Group CD.iso
/
AMIGA
/
(A)U
/
(A)U1.ADF
/
Documentation
/
duIII2.doc
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1986-08-01
|
56KB
|
1,065 lines
DirUtil III Plus HR
File Management Utility for the Commodore Amiga
Copyright 1987, 1988 Nathan Barber
Release Date October 1, 1988
DirUtil III Plus HR is Copyright 1987,1988 by Nathan Barber and
is NOT in the Public Domain. However, the author hereby releases the
included demo version of the program and this documentation for
distribution under the conditions described in the following
paragraphs:
This program is distributed as a demo ONLY. If you use and
like the demo of this program and wish to receive the fully
operational version, send $25 in United States currency to the
following address:
Nathan Barber
227 Chateaugay St. NW
Fort Walton Beach FL 32548
For further information regarding enhancements or other
questions, you may also contact me on GEnie as NBARBER and with
FIDOnet mail addressed to Nathan Barber sent to 1:366/3.
With the first $25 of your payment, you will receive the latest
version of the program and a personal demo version that you may
freely dis-tribute in order to collect commission bonuses (see below).
Amiga User Groups are invited to inquire about bulk distribution of
the program at reduced rates. Any funds remaining after the initial
fee will be put towards the purchase of enhanced versions of the
program as they become available at the rate of $10.00 each. I will
supply the blank disk as a bonus for advance payment of at least one
updated version at the time of initial purchase.
If you wish to have a change made to the program, enclose
its de-scription with your payment and I will try to add it to your
copy prior to shipping. Bugs (none currently known) reported prior to
the release of an enhanced version will be fixed for registered
owners of DirUtil III Plus HR for the cost of shipping and materials.
Normal enhancement updates are available for $10.00 and a blank,
formatted disk sent to the address above ($11.50 with no disk).
DirUtil III Plus HR will perform very closely to what is
described in this documentation. However, because of the nature of
the program, the author cannot assume responsibility for any lost time
and/or profits or claims of fitness for a particular purpose
resulting from the use of the program.
Commission Sales:
----------------
The following policy supercedes all other commission offers
previously extended to Amiga User Groups and individuals.
After registering your copy of the program, the disk you
receive will contain a personal demo version of the program with your
serial number prepended with the letter "D". You may distribute
your personal demo copy through any other channel except as
noted in the following paragraph. This includes bundling the demo
version of the program along with the documentation and any other
files designated as freely-redistributable (see ReadMeFirst.doc for
the listing). Commissions are paid as credits towards future updates
unless otherwise requested. An update credit of $5.00 will be
awarded for each copy of DirUtil III Plus HR that is registered using
the serial number contained in your personal demo. It is VERY
important that you make sure that persons registering a copy
distributed by you include their serial numbers as no credit can be
given without this number. Cash credits will be given ONLY if
requested in writing at 50% of the current credit balance in
your account. Program updates will be mailed automatically when your
account reaches $10 of credit if an enhanced version of the program is
available. Persons wishing cash payment should address a letter to me
informing me of their desires. Cash payments will be sent out every
three months (approximately) or when the cash balance reaches $50.
Restrictions on Distribution:
----------------------------
DirUtil III Plus HR, its documentation, support programs, and all
associated works MAY NOT be distributed through the following entities
without prior written permission of the author. Furthermore, all
previous versions of this program written by Nathan Barber and
collectively known as DirUtil III and DirUtil III Plus must be removed
and destroyed if any part of this package, or any collection of files
containing this package is available from the same source as this
package.
DirUtil III Plus HR (demo version) must not be distributed to:
1. Any person in the employ of Random Access Computers in Fort
Walton Beach Florida, nor to the business itself.
2. Any person in the employ of Oscar's Computers in Okaloosa
County, Florida, nor to the business itself.
3. Any officer of the Okaloosa Amiga Research Society (OARS) in
Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
4. Any other business, organization, or computer Bulletin Board
Service in Florida having one of the following area code and
prefix combinations:
904-862 904-863 904-837 904-243 904-244 904-581
904-664 904-651 904-678 904-897 904-729 904-939
904-267
5. The General Electric Network for Information Exchange
(GENIE) EXCEPT for releases uploaded by NBARBER.
These restrictions are to allow a limited beta test area free
from prior versions. Item 5 is included as this is the national
network that will have the most current version and will be handled by
myself and no one else.
System Requirements:
-------------------
DirUtil III Plus HR requires any Amiga with 512K of memory,
one disk drive, and Kickstart 1.2 or higher. Two disk drives are
highly recommended and certain commands may require more than 512K of
memory ie. SHOWING large picture files.
Introduction:
------------
DirUtil III Plus and its predecessors have been around for over
a year (since March 1987). DirUtil III Plus HR is being "marketed" as
a play before you pay product with a functional demo version of the
program being distributed to unregistered owners. I must say that I am
quite pleased with all the people who have supported and who continue
to support the previous versions of the product and have been willing
to bear with me as I make improvements to the program. DirUtil III
Plus HR has now evolved into the two window version of the program
which includes many user suggested enhancements in the hope that it
will make the Amiga a better place to live and play. I plan on
releasing a new version with user suggested improvements approximately
every two months or when I have received ten user requested
improvements.
Features of DirUtil III Plus HR:
-------------------------------
DirUtil III Plus HR was made to be a replacement for the AmigaDOS
Work Bench and CLI interfaces and an alternative to the other file
management systems now on the market. DirUtil III Plus HR encompasses
the best features of both Workbench and CLI and consumes little
memory or disk space. DirUtil III Plus HR also provides many features
not available or tedious to perform in the normal AmigaDOS
environment.
DirUtil III Plus HR contains over 100 functions with
variations including user definable gadgets.
DirUtil III Plus HR is not limited to the preset devices that some
programmer thought up. The program automatically reads YOUR devices
upon startup.
With DirUtil III Plus HR, you can delete 90% of the commands in
your C: and SYS:system/ directories, thereby freeing valuable space
on your disks.
Unlike other file management programs, DirUtil III Plus HR
contains all the code you need to do normal disk functions such as
COPY, DELETE, DISKCOPY (with multiple copy ability), FORMAT and SHOW.
Other lesser programs make you reinsert the Workbench disk to load the
command.
DirUtil III Plus HR is the ONLY program that will show full
overscan pictures successfully and allow scrolling of those pictures.
DirUtil III Plus HR is a viable hard disk backup program when the
program's powerful file selection and archiving features are used.
Known Problems beyond the control of DirUtil III Plus HR:
--------------------------------------------------------
Some older device drivers such as VDK:, do not support setting a
filedate after a file is created. This causes DirUtil III Plus HR to
sometimes fail to set the datestamp on a file it has just copied. If
this happens, just select the file with the bad date (hitting the DATE
gadget will show you the files to select), then hit the RIGHT button
on FIXOBJ.
The Amiga Workbench has a very poor and inconsistent interface to
AmigaDOS. It does not honor the DOS path command in a predictable way
and does not support the setting of a current directory without the
use of the DOS CD command. Consequently, the DOS batch file commands
listed under the description of the RUN command are practically
useless if DirUtil III Plus HR is invoked from WorkBench. If you have
only one drive and are trying to run DirUtil III Plus HR strictly
from WorkBench, be prepared for a lot of disk swapping when using the
RUN and EXEC commands.
Occasionally, the SHIFT and ALT keys will appear to have become
stuck in the wrong position. This is caused by hitting the SHIFT or
ALT keys when the DirUtil III Plus HR main window is active, then
releasing them when it's windows are not active. Hitting and then
releasing the SHIFT or ALT key after activating one of the DirUtil III
Plus HR windows will eliminate the problem should this occur. Also,
it has come to my attention that the TimeSaver Clock/Macro add-on
from C-Ltd uses the right SHIFT key for it own purposes. If you have
this product, you must use the LEFT SHIFT key on those commands that
specify the use of EITHER SHIFT key.
Certain IFF pictures, most notably gray scale, hi-res pictures
produced by DigiView V2.0, save incorrect color cycling information.
DirUtil III Plus HR compensates for this but certain combinations
might slip through as new IFF picture formats are introduced. Also,
the new, large scrollable pictures produced with Express Paint from
PAR Software have been reported to cause a crash when viewed from
DirUtil III Plus HR. As I do not have this software, proper handling
of these pictures might be a long time in coming. The maximum size
picture thus far shown successfully shown is 768x480.
Some of the newer "input enhancing" programs such as MachMouse
try to put their own little windows (namely clocks) on the frontmost
screen of the system. DirUtil III Plus HR does not appreciate this in
the least and some functions will not work if there are more windows
on its screen than it is expecting to find.
IMPORTANT TRACKING INFORMATION:
------------------------------
The copy of DirUtil III Plus HR you received contains a serial
number. You can view the serial number and version number by hitting
the ALT-SHIFT-CONTROL key combination at the same time. This serial
number is used to track distribution of the program and to provide me
with the internal version number of the program for update purposes.
When you register your copy of DirUtil III Plus HR, include the serial
number and version number of the copy you are registering. This will
enable me to pay commissions as outlined above.
Instructions:
Workbench Startup: Click on the DirUtil III Plus HR icon.
The program will load and open a small window on the Workbench screen
as well as its own screen. DirUtil III Plus HR will then load the
filelists from the default device if it is known, otherwise it will
default to the RAM: device.
CLI Startup: Type "du" or "run du" (no quotes) to start the
program. A stack of 25000 is recommended if running the program on a
hard disk or on a floppy disk with a large number of files. DirUtil
III Plus HR will then load the filelists from the default device if
it is known, otherwise it will default to the RAM: device.
NOTE: The small window that opens on the Workbench screen
while DirUtil III Plus HR is running may not close when the program is
exited. If this happens, it means that another program has "adopted"
that window as its own. The window will close when all programs using
it have closed. THE DISPLAY WINDOWS: DirUtil III Plus HR opens its own
640x400 4 color interlaced Intuition screen during operation. If you
do not like interlace mode, or need to save memory, hitting SHIFT-
ESC will toggle DirUtil III Plus HR into a non-interlaced mode.
The title bar of the largest window on this screen has a display
of "F: xxxxxxx C: xxxxxxxx". The number after the "F:" is the
amount of FAST ram you have available in your Amiga. The number
after the "C:" is the amount of CHIP ram you have available in your
Amiga. The CHIP ram number is the most important as the Amiga does not
perform well when CHIP ram is extremely low (below 32000 bytes). Just
above the Intuition window front/back gadgets on the upper right is a
one pixel tall screen front to back gadget for moving the DirUtil III
Plus HR screen. The majority of the rest of this window contains the
filenames and subdirectories associated with the "S"ource and
"D"estination directories. You may manually change the "S" and "D"
directories by entering a new name in the string gadgets just above
this file display. Above the "S" and "D" gadgets are two lines used
for status information. The two slider gadgets running down the middle
of the screen are used to position the file display window. The second
window, labeled "Function Window", contains all the gadgets that
control what functions will be done to the highlighted files.
This window may be dragged or moved to the back to of the large
window to allow more filenames to be displayed. Also, hitting
ALT-ESC will resize this window to show just he built-in DirUtil
III Plus HR functions (useful for use in non-interlaced mode).
To select/deselect a directory entry, click on its name in the
file window with the left mouse button. Click on one of the
gadgets to take the selected action on the selected names.
To enter a subdirectory, click on its name with the RIGHT mouse
button. NOTE: in order for any function using the RIGHT mouse
button to function, one of the two DirUtil III Plus HR windows
must be active. To automate this requirement, I highly recommend
either DMouse or MachMouse (both available on many BBS' around
the country).
If you invoke a function that you really did not mean to invoke,
click anywhere in the DirUtil III Plus HR screen with the LEFT
mouse button to abort the operation. You will be asked if you
really want to abort the next time DirUtil III Plus HR checks the
status of the mouse. The mouse is checked before any operation
that would write to a disk and periodically while DirUtil III
Plus HR is passively acting on a disk. Any operation can be
aborted, even reading the directory of a disk.
If you hit and drag either of the slider gadgets, the filenames
will scroll in real time with the movement of the gadget.
The two file windows are treated on an equal basis. Either may
be the "S"ource or "D"estination directory. To switch between
them, just click on the half of the screen containing the window.
You will see the highlighting change and the letters "S" and "D"
change places.
The string gadgets at the top of the DirUtil III Plus HR window
are:
S: The source directory.
D: The destination directory.
Device Gadgets:
The first two rows of four gadgets each are reserved for the
first eight file system devices that you have in your system. These
gadgets will always include the disk device from which the program
was booted. DirUtil III Plus HR automatically fills these in
alphabetical order when the program is first booted. If you have
less than eight devices, the remainder of these gadgets will remain
blank and not used. If you have more than eight devices, any unused
user gadgets will be filled with the overflow. If DirUtil III Plus HR
must use this "overflow" area, the gadget text will be prefixed with
the '@' symbol to signify a temporary allocation. Such temporary
device gadgets will not be saved upon exiting the program. DirUtil III
Plus HR can update this listing at any time with a command from you
(see USER GADGET descriptions). Hitting the left button on one of
these gadgets sets the "S"ource directory to the root of the selected
device and reads the filelist of that device if possible. Hitting the
right button on these gadgets sets the "D"estination gadget to the
root of the selected device and reads its filelist. While reading
the filelist of a disk, DirUtil III Plus HR might bring up the prompt
"Directory Loop - Continue?". This means that the current filelist has
over 256 entries in it and DirUtil III Plus HR is warning you that
your disk directory might be damaged in such a way as to eventually
hang the machine if processing is continued. If you are not sure of
the contents of the directory you are reading, it is good procedure to
click "ABORT" and see what DirUtil III Plus HR has read so far. There
are many valid situations in which a directory can have more than 256
proper entries. If you know this to be the case, feel free to click
"CONTINUE" and proceed. If you click "CONTINUE" and the directory
really is in a loop, you will have to click the left mouse button to
abort the filelist scan operation. Since DirUtil III Plus HR is only
limited by available memory as to the number of file-names it can
process, you run the risk of running out of memory if a directory loop
is allowed to continue forever.
REMINDER: One of the two windows on the DirUtil III Plus HR
screen must be active in order for any function that involves the
right button to work properly.
ALL(D) Select all files in the current "S" directory, including
the ones "scrolled off" the window. Hitting the RIGHT mouse button
will highlight all subdirectories as well. Hitting the right mouse
button while holding a SHIFT key will highlight all files whose
protection flag includes the archive flag.
CLEAR
De-select all selected files in the "S" directory. Hitting the
right button will clear all selected subdirectories.
COPY
Copy selected files to the directory specified in the "D" gadget.
"D" must contain an existing directory path and CAN go across devices.
COPY preserves the protection status, file comment, and creation date
of the original file when making the copy. DirUtil III Plus HR will
clear the archive bit on any copied file as per AmigaDOS convention.
If you select to copy a subdirectory, DirUtil III Plus HR will create
that directory on the "D" disk and copy all the files to the new
directory. If an error condition is encountered while copying files
inside the subdirectory or anywhere else in its particular "tree",
all files associated with the subdirectory will be deleted from the
destination disk. Hitting the right mouse button on COPY copies all
selected files as above and sets the archive bit for the original
file. Non disk devices such as PRT:, SER:, and PAR: may have files
copied to them by manually entering the name of the device into the
"D" gadget.
DELETE
Delete selected files and directories. You will be prompted
for confirmation before any files are deleted.
RENAME
Renames selected files to a different name or path (on the same
device). You must enter the COMPLETE PATH and NAME of the renamed
file. You will be prompted for the new name of the file for every
highlighted file.
MAKEDIR
This will create a new subdirectory. You will be prompted for the
name of the new subdirectory. Enter the FULL PATH of the directory you
wish to create. DirUtil III Plus HR will prompt you with the current
"S" directory as a starting point to try and save you some typing.
Hitting the right button will create a directory AND create a drawer
icon to go with it. Also, using the right button option will allow
you to create a drawer icon for an existing directory.
PARENT
Go to the parent directory of the "S" gadget. Clicking on the
gadget with the right mouse button will go to the parent directory of
the "D" gadget.
TYPE
Use this to view standard ASCII files on your screen. Use the
slider gadget to move anywhere in the text instantly. Hitting the LEFT
mouse button moves back a page. Hitting the RIGHT mouse button moves
forward a page. Cursor LEFT and RIGHT emulate the LEFT and RIGHT
mouse buttons. Cursor UP and DOWN pages four lines at a time either
up or down. Hitting "T" will go to the top of a file and "B" key goes
to the bottom of a file. Hit the CLOSE WINDOW gadget or the ESC key
when you are through looking at the file. Hitting the right mouse
button on the gadget will type a file to the screen in HEX and ASCII
20 numbers at a time. The mouse pages the file as above and the cursor
left, cursor right and ESC keys also function as above. If you have
trouble reading the text displayed in the interlace mode, try
dropping into non-interlace mode before hitting TYPE.
INFO
Used to show the number of free bytes from the device associated
with the "S" gadget. Hitting the right button on this gadget will
display the same data for the "D" gadget. The numbers given in
parentheses are the number of disk sectors used and free respectively
and can generally be compared to the corresponding numbers given by
the BYTE command. INFO will also print the current status of the disk
in the drive, either READ-ONLY, READ-WRITE, or VALIDATING and whether
the drive is operating under AmigaDOS 1.2 or Fast File System.
Comparing the numbers INFO gives for FFS and non-FFS devices is not
very useful due to varying data block sizes.
PRINT
Copies the chosen files to PRT: using the current Preferences
settings.
SWAP
Flips the highlighted status of all files in the "S" di-
rectory, including subdirectories. Hitting the RIGHT button will copy
DirUtil III Plus HR's file information from the "S" file window to the
"D" file window WITHOUT actually copying any files. This effectively
gives you two windows that contain the same information without
having to re-read the disk's directory over again.
BYTE
Adds up the number of bytes of the selected files, subdirectories
and any files in the subdirectories and displays the sum, the number
of files, and the number of subdirectories. The number in parentheses
is the number of disk sectors used by the files and subdirectories and
can generally be compared to the corresponding numbers given by the
INFO command.
RUN
"RUNS" the selected files from inside DirUtil III Plus HR. The
file C:RUN must be available for RUN to function properly. If you only
have one disk drive or you do not want to be bothered with having to
reinsert the system disk to load the AmigaDOS "run" command, add the
following lines to your startup-sequence and only run DirUtil III
Plus HR from the CLI:
copy c:run ram:
copy c:cd ram:
path add sys:c
assign c: ram:
This batch file will, however, fail to find the normal DOS
commands if the system disk is not in the drive when the command is
invoked. Hitting this gadget with the right button will EXEC a batch
file. The files "NEWCLI" and "ENDCLI" must be available in your
search path for EXEC to function. If the batch file aborts, you will
have to type "ENDCLI" to close the DOS window. As a useful side
effect to this abnormally ended batch file, if you need a quick
NEWCLI, just EXEC a file that is NOT a batch file. EXEC will abort,
but you will have a newcli and you will not have to waste a user
gadget on the command!
EDITOR
Call the program named "ED" in order to edit the selected files.
The editor is a completely separate task and runs independently of
DirUtil III Plus HR once started. Hitting the right button will call
"ED" and put quotes around the filename to be edited. Many editors
cannot parse quotes; this alternate format is a last resort when
trying to edit files which contain spaces in their filenames. Since
the editor runs as a separate task, the file length of the edited
file may not match the number displayed by DirUtil III Plus HR. All
commands will adopt the new file size if the edited file is accessed
again.
LIST
LIST will print the names, sizes, dates of creation and protection
status of ALL files in the filelist. You will be prompted for an
output filename. If the output file already exists, LIST will append
its data to the end of the existing file.
DATE
DATE is a toggle. If highlighted, the date of creation and
protection status of the files in the filelist will be displayed
instead of their size. Hitting the right button on DATE will check all
the files in the "S" directory against all files in the "D" directory
and highlight all those that are newer than a file of the same name
found in the "D" directory.
PROTECT
PROTECT summons a requester containing ten gadgets. Eight of these
gadgets are the alphabetic flags associated with the protection status
of a selected file. Click on these gadgets until you have the pattern
you wish to use for all the highlighted files. Hitting OK will
protect the file according to your pattern. Hitting ABORT leaves the
pattern as it was before the requester was entered.
MOVE
MOVE performs a COPY and DELETE on the selected file(s) from the
"S" directory to the "D" directory. MOVE will move whole sub-
directories to any other path including another subdirectory or
another device. MOVE is the recommended way to get a file from one
place to another quickly since it will do a RENAME command if the
files are destined to be on the same device rather than copy then
delete a file. Successful MOVES between different devices will result
in the original file being deleted.
BEWARE: there is a bug in the DOS 1.2 RAM: device. You
should not MOVE a file to RAM: if it already exists.
SEARCH
Search a file for a pattern. You will be prompted for the search
string. Upper/lowercase characters are different ONLY if you select
this function with the right mouse button. If the "\" character is
found in the search string, the next two characters are converted
into a single hexadecimal digit and used as one character in the
overall search. If a question mark is found in the pattern, it will
match any character found in that position. The search pattern is
limited to 60 characters. SEARCH will abort if you hit the close
window gadget on its output window while the search is in progress.
When searching a file using a hexadecimal pattern, it is recommended
that you only use the right button option to prevent unwanted upper/
lowercase conversions.
DISKCOPY
COPY a whole disk without regard to file structure. You can copy
with one drive or two and can copy using the 5.25" Transformer drive.
DISKCOPY will prompt for a source and destination drive. In the case
of one drive copies, you will be prompted when disk swaps are needed.
Click the DirUtil III Plus HR window's close window gadget in the
upper left corner of the screen when you have swapped disks. DISKCOPY
works ONLY with the floppy drives listed in the prompt requester.
DISKCOPY assumes you are copying disks with the same number of
cylinders ie. 3.5" to 3.5" or 5.25" to 5.25", but not 3.5" to 5.25".
Hitting the right button on this gadget will perform a DISKCOPY and
verify the written data more stringently. DISKCOPY does not require
that the destination disk be pre-formatted, it will do that itself if
needed. DISKCOPY uses all available RAM starting with FAST RAM and
continuing with CHIP RAM if needed. If you have enough free RAM to
load the entire contents of the disk into memory at one time, DirUtil
III Plus HR will ask you if you wish to make another copy of the disk
after the first copy is complete. If you tell DirUtil III Plus HR you
would like another copy, it will prompt you to insert another blank
disk (formatted or unformatted) into the drive that was specified as
the destination and click the close gadget on the larger of the two
DirUtil III Plus HR windows. You may make as many copies of the same
disk as you would like, just hit "ABORT" when you wish to stop making
copies.
ARCV
List the contents of an ARC file to the screen. Hitting the right
button on this gadget will list the contents of a ZOO file (up to
V1.31 of ZOO) on the screen. DirUtil III Plus HR will print the names
of V1.40 (or higher) ZOO files, but not the full pathnames allowed in
V1.40. This will be included in future versions of DirUtil III Plus
HR. Hit the Window Close gadget to exit from the listing window.
FIXOBJ
FIXOBJ will "pad" a file you have downloaded to enable the Amiga
scatter loader to process it correctly. FIXOBJ has two modes of
operation. First, if the file is NOT already padded and is an
executable, FIXOBJ pads it so that upon uploading, anyone
downloading that file need not FIXOBJ it again, just load and run.
Second, FIXOBJ will pad a file that has been downloaded but not yet
fixed. FIXOBJ will not pad any file that is not a stand alone
executable ie. ARC files. Hitting the right button on this gadget will
change the dates of the highlighted files to the current date. This
is to fix a bug in some device handlers and will not be needed using
floppies, RAM: or hard disks with properly written drivers.
SAVE OLD
SAVE OLD is a toggle. If enabled, you cannot copy/move/rename a
file to a file that already exists in the new directory path with
the same name. Hitting the right button will highlight all the files
that exist on both the "S" and "D" devices.
FREEZE
FREEZE is a toggle. If FREEZE mode is active, any name you
highlight will not be de-selected upon completion of subsequent
functions that act upon highlighted files.
SHOW
SHOW the selected files as IFF pictures. If you have selected a
subdirectory, DirUtil III Plus HR will also show any pictures
contained within these subdirectories. Click in the upper left hand
corner of the screen or hit the ESC key to cease viewing a picture.
If the selected pictures have color cycling information imbedded in
them in Dpaint format, the picture will cycle automatically. This
automatic cycling may be manually overridden by hitting the right
button on SHOW. DirUtil III Plus HR will reject any file that is not a
picture. It will also attempt to show a picture recorded in "overscan"
mode. Overscan mode is very desirable in professional video, but many
monitors cannot display the full picture at one time. If this is the
case on your monitor, use the left, right, up, and down cursor keys to
move the picture around on the monitor. I have purposely left out
bounds checking for this scrolling picture feature to enable the
largest possible pictures to be shown. If you scroll the picture too
far in a given direction, the Amiga will show it in a manner not
conducive to pleasant display. No harm will result, but the picture
will not look like a picture! To correct a situation such as this,
just scroll in the opposite direction and the strange display mode
will correct itself.
SLIDE
SLIDE is a toggle. The slideshow mode will show all selected
pictures with a blank backdrop screen. You do not have to click in the
upper left hand corner to view the next picture. When starting the
slide show, you will be prompted for the delay factor between
pictures. There are 50 time units per second ie. entering 50 (the
default) will pause one second between pictures. The normal abort
procedure for DirUtil III Plus HR functions still holds: just click
the backdrop screen to the back and click inside DirUtil III Plus HR'
window as usual. Clicking the right mouse button on SLIDE will toggle
a continuous SHOW mode that will show the selected files and
directories until DirUtil III Plus HR is manually aborted.
CHANGE
Perform a DISKCHANGE command on a floppy drive. You will be
prompted for the drive name.
FORMAT
FORMAT a floppy drive. You will be prompted for both the drive
name to format and the new name for the disk. Disknames must be less
than 32 characters in length. Format destroys all previous data on a
disk so be careful when using it. Format works on 3.5" drives and the
5.25" Transformer drive. Hitting the right button will format the disk
and do a more complete verification of the disk at the same time.
Either method of formatting a disk is faster than the standard
AmigaDOS format command.
RELABEL
Change the name of the disk represented in the "S" gadget. You
will be prompted for the new diskname. Names must be less than 32
characters in length.
COMMENT
Set the comment field of the selected files. You will be prompted
for the new comment to attach to each selected file in succession.
You must use the AmigaDOS LIST command or the WorkBench INFO command
to see the comment from outside DirUtil III Plus HR. DirUtil III Plus
HR's COPY command will replicate the comment on any file you copy
unlike normal AmigaDOS (upto V1.2) and is the preferred way to
preserve comments on a file. Hitting the right button on COMMENT will
show the comments attached to the highlighted files.
CRYPT
CRYPT is a toggle. If lit, any file you TYPE, COPY, MOVE or SHOW
will be crypted/de-crypted according to the current password key.
To enter this password key, hit the right mouse button on CRYPT.
The decryption password must be at least 5 characters long. If the
CRYPT gadget is lit, this password will be used for various
commands listed below. DirUtil III Plus HR encodes 33.5 kilo-bytes of
data per second so using this function will not slow down operation
significantly. The encryption mode is reversible; ie. copying a file
twice with data encryption turned on will result in an unchanged copy
of the original file. No encryption algorithm is foolproof, but the
one used in DirUtil III Plus HR is as good as you will see outside
the government. Without the password, no one (even the author) will
have any kind of rea-sonable chance of gaining access to the file's
data.
WHEREIS
WHEREIS is used to find a file on a disk when you only know the
first few letters of the name. You will be prompted for the file-
name which you wish to find. Enter as many characters as you can
remember (upper/lower case are the same). WHEREIS will scan from the
current "S" directory through all the files and subdirectories on the
disk looking for a match. For example, if you entered "du", DirUtil
III Plus HR will locate "du", "dudemo", "du2.config", etc. If DirUtil
III Plus HR finds a match, it will print the full pathname where the
file or subdirectory may be found and ask you if it should continue
searching. Any group of characters may be searched for, although
searching for a file with no name will not succeed.
SORT
Clicking on SORT with the left mouse button rotates the current
sorting criteria of the file listings. The three possibilities are:
SORT by NAME (the default), SORT by DATE, and SORT by SIZE. The new
status of the file listing will be immediately redisplayed according
to the new settings. Hitting the right button on SORT toggles the
sort routine's ascending/descending progression. The default is to
sort in ascending order. Files with bad datestamps will be set to have
a date of 0, IE Jan 0, 1978 in the Amiga scheme of things. By
definition subdirectories have not a file length, so they are treated
as files with a length of 0. Observe that this allows all the
subdirectories of a disk to be grouped at the top or bottom of a file
listing if sorting by size is performed.
PLAY
PLAY an IFF sound file or a raw data file. If the file has a valid
IFF header, the period of the sound will be set accordingly. Hitting
the right button on PLAY will cause the sound to play continuiously
until the user performs an abort.
ARC
Click on the files to be contained in the ARC file, but remember,
a command line can only be 255 characters total. You will be prompted
for the name of the ARC file to create. You must enter the WHOLE path
and name of the ARC file to create WITHOUT THE .ARC EXTENSION. The ARC
command will be loaded from your current path if DirUtil III Plus HR
was run from the CLI or from your C: directory if run from the
Workbench. See the endnotes to help in ARCing files with one disk
drive. Hitting the right button on ARC will UNARC the selected ARC
files. You will be prompted for the device and/or subdirectory into
which the UNARCed files are to be placed. The default is the "D"
directory. If you change this default, it must be changed to a device
or subdirectory that already exists. UNARC will overwrite any file by
the same name that previously existed in the output directory. Both
ARC and UNARC open a console window on the screen to display their
progress. ARC and UNARC require that the file C:RUN be present on your
disk. You may follow the instructions listed under the RUN command to
change this requirement.
ZOO
Uses the exact same syntax as the ARC gadget. Hitting the right
button on the gadget will UNZOO a file following the same sequence
as described in the UNARC command above. DirUtil III Plus HR requires
Amiga ZOO V1.40 or above to function properly. Unlike Amiga ARC, ZOO
will allow the archiving and unarchiving of subdirectories. DirUtil
III Plus HR will not list these correctly (yet), but will extract
them properly. ZOO and UNZOO require that the file C:RUN be present on
your disk. You may follow the instructions listed under the RUN
command to change this requirement.
USER GADGETS
These are completely user definable gadgets which perform various
functions depending on the definition string for a particular
gadget. To set a command string for any of these gadgets under
normal circumstances, hit the right button on the gadget and
enter a string the format NNNNNNNNMCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC where "N"
represents the name to be displayed in place of the default USER
definition, "M" is a modifier or a normal letter (see below), and
"C" is the command string attached to this USER gadget. A
complete definition should be no more than 255 characters. If
the definition you are changing is already occupied by a special
device name (discussed below), you must hold either ALT key
before hitting the right mouse button. A successful operation
will replace the old definition with the new one. The next time
you hit the LEFT button over the same gadget, the command string
will be interpreted depending on the modifier used. If the "M"
character is not a "\" or "|", the command string will be parsed
(based on the commands below) and the result sent to AmigaDOS for
execution. If the modifier is a "\", the command string is
parsed and sent to AmigaDOS without the need to click on a
filename. This form is used for invoking frequently used external
commands that may require parameters, but not filenames. If the
modifier is a "|", the string of characters following the "|", but not
including it, are taken to be the new setting of the
"S" gadget and the appropriate directory will be read. Any USER
gadget containing the "|" modifier will behave just like its
counterpart on the top two rows of gadgets ie. hitting the right
button on it will set the "D" gadget to the drive/path associated
with it. This explains the need for using the ALT key to set or
reset these definitions. For full compatibility with all DOS and
NON-DOS commands, DirUtil III Plus HR uses the AmigaDOS RUN
command when executing any USER gadget with the exception of the
special "|" modifier above. The file called "du2.config"
included with this package is a working example of a configuration.
The parser looks for a % character followed by one of the
following characters:
"S" refers to the current "S" directory.
"D" refers to the current "D" directory.
"F" refers to the full path and filename of a high-
lighted file.
"N" refers to the filename of a highlighted file
excluding the path name.
"E" refers to a parameter that you will be prompted
for during the execution of the user definition
(entered only once at the beginning of a multi-
file operation unless %R is encountered).
"C" refers to the hexadecimal address of DirUtil III
Plus HR' screen for use in the CONMAN program.
"Bn" this character does not generate any text, but
tells DirUtil III Plus HR to move its screen to
another location. If the character represented by
"n" is a "0", DirUtil III Plus HR' screen will
immediately move to the back of all other screens.
If the character is a "1", the DirUtil III Plus HR
screen will move to the front of all other
screens. This command is used primarily in
conjunction with the "W" command listed below.
"U" causes DirUtil III Plus HR to immediately update
the file lists in the "S" and "D" windows if
needed. This command is used primarily in
conjunction with the "W" command listed below.
"Wn" causes DirUtil III Plus to WAIT on a specific
condition. Currently only one option is defined.
If "n" is "0", DirUtil will wait until a window on
the WorkBench Screen with a given name is closed.
DirUtil III Plus HR will interpret the characters
that follow the "0" in the following pattern:
nnnnnnnnnn|wwwwwwwwww|.
Example:
%w0testingwindow|%b1%u|
This will cause DirUtil III Plus HR to complete
the other commands contained in the user defined
gadget, then wait until a window title whose first
characters are "testingwindow" (no quotes,
upper/lower case ARE SIGNIFICANT), has closed.
When this condition is met, DirUtil III Plus HR
will execute the commands "%b1%u" (also no quotes)
which will bring the program's screen to the front
and update the file listings. The wait commands
are designed to be able to let DirUtil III Plus HR
interact better with external programs that may be
launched from within the program. If you spell
the name of the window wrong, DirUtil III Plus HR
will appear to lockup, clicking the left button
will bring up the normal abort function requester
as always. The string that is to be executed
after the wait is complete is reinterpreted from
scratch based on the values that were in place at
the end of the initial operation that started the
wait. There may theoretically be %w commands
inside other %w commands although this has not
been tested.
"R" resets the flag and allows a user to subsequently
enter new text at a %E prompt. This allows for
multiple user inputs in the same user definition.
"P" Sets the prompt string for use by the %E command.
%P should occur before the %E command it is to
affect. The string should end with a | character
and be no more than 30 characters long.
"%" Use a real percent sign instead of interpreting it
as a command introduction. IE if you want a % in
your user text, type %% instead.
"I" If interlace mode is not already active, turn it
on.
"L" If interlace mode is already active, turn it off.
"Z" Stands for ZAP devices. It will clear all device
definitions from the first eight device gadgets as
well as any overflow that has been stored in the
user definable area. It will then scan the list
of current file system devices and fill in the
appropriate gadget boxes with your current device
list. DirUtil III Plus HR will handle a removed
device (as of Workbench 1.3).
EXAMPLE:
-------
The "S" directory is "df0:s" and your have clicked on the file
"startup-sequence". The "D" directory is "df1:backups". The definition
string for one of the user gadgets looks like:
"MAKEBAK copy %f to %d/%n.bak"
The quotes in the above definition ARE NOT TO BE TYPED, they
are for delineation only. DirUtil III Plus HR will interpret
this string and send the following string to AmigaDOS:
"copy df0:s/startup-sequence to df1:backups/startup-
sequence.bak"
Notice the "/" character in the definition, this is required to
make a valid path name. The carriage return between startup- and
sequence is caused by the word processor this document is printed
with and is not actually sent to AmigaDOS. The included config file
shows many of the ways to use the parser.
EXAMPLE 2:
---------
A user gadget definition looks as follows:
" PKAX %pEnter Output Dir|run > nil: cd %e+<CR>pkax %f"
This definition will set the prompt for the %E command to "Enter
Output Dir", prompt for a string, then use the + option of the RUN
command to run two commands in sequence. The <CR> symbol means to type
a CTRL-J in its place. This is the way AmigaDOS recognizes a carriage
return in a manner equivalent to typing it from the keyboard. The
first command will CD to the string just entered ie. the disk or sub-
directory where you wish the files to be unARCed into. After CD runs,
the file named PKAX will be run with the filename and path currently
being processed. I will leave you with the method I use to unARC files
when I am not using the built in ARC functions of DirUtil III Plus HR.
This example requires a version of DirUtil III Plus HR dated June 2,
1988 or later to function.
" PKAX %Enter Output Dir|run > nil: cd %e+<CR>pkax
> CON:0/150/640/50/UNARCing_%n_to_%e -r %b%f"
IMPORTANT:
---------
When DirUtil III Plus HR first boots, it will look in your S:
directory for a file called "du2.config". If this file exists, the
USER gadgets will be preloaded with the file's contents. On leaving
DirUtil III Plus HR, this file will be saved ONLY IF you have changed
the definition of a gadget.
HINT:
----
You can use the AmigaDOS Execute command to run a batch file using
a user gadget. This will allow more flexibility when creating your
user definitions by allowing parameters to be passed to the batch file
for conditional testing.
IMPORTANT OPERATIONAL NOTES:
---------------------------
There are no known conditions that will crash DirUtil III Plus HR.
If you get a software failure during use, be sure that the error is
not caused by another task running at the same time. When all else
fails, AND you can replicate the error using DirUtil III Plus HR AND
provide an exact command sequence that produces the error, let me know
and I will fix the bug. I have gone to great lengths to provide low
memory and stack error checking, however if you get sporadic guru
meditations during usage of DirUtil III Plus HR, or you have a hard
drive, I highly recommend you increase your stack size to 25000. This
can be done from the CLI or using the Info command on the Workbench.
DirUtil III Plus HR' S" directory will default to RAM: if the
default directory cannot be determined. If the RAM disk handler
cannot be loaded, DirUtil III Plus HR will exit cleanly.
DirUtil III Plus HR has a limit of 255 characters for directory
path names. This is based on the length of a command line in the
AmigaDOS CLI environment.
While you are using DirUtil III Plus HR, various prompts will come
up asking for confirmation. There will be two selections:
"CONTINUE" or "ABORT". "CONTINUE" is always the affirmative to the
prompt and "ABORT" is the negative response. The most common
requestor you will get when calling external programs such as ARC
or ZOO is the "UPDATE FILELIST" requestor. Getting this requestor,
means that DirUtil III Plus HR has detected that the filelist in
memory is not current for one reason or another. If re-reading the
filelist would disturb your current set of file selections, DirUtil
III Plus HR will ask you if you want to update the filelist. If you
have no files and/or subdirectories selected from the filelist that
needs updating, DirUtil III Plus HR will update the listing
automatically.
AmigaDOS, and consequently DirUtil III Plus HR, has problems with
spaces in file and volume names. This problem will result in
unexpected expected results when using some external commands from
within DirUtil III Plus HR. DirUtil III Plus HR tries to minimize this
problem by putting quotes around commands with spaces in them, but not
all programs can parse quotes in the way AmigaDOS handles them. Also
DirUtil III Plus HR uses the volume name of a disk rather than its
device specification for most operations. Consequently, disks with the
same volume name mounted at the same time tend to produce
unpredictable results.
The DISKCOPY command of DirUtil III Plus HR assumes it is copying
a normal AmigaDOS disk. However, DirUtil III Plus HR will copy any
non-copy protected disk non-AmigaDOS disk. If a non-AmigaDOS disk
is detected, DirUtil III Plus HR will not update the creation date on
the destination disk, thus making an exact copy of the original.
DirUtil III Plus HR was developed and tested on an Amiga 1000 with
2 3.5" drives, 1 5.25" Transformer drive, 1 5.25" 880K Quad
Density drive (emulating a 3.5" drive), 2.5 Megabytes of RAM and 2
50 meg C-Ltd SCSI hard drives. DirUtil III Plus HR has also been
tested on the Amiga 500 with and without the A501 RAM Expander, and
on an Amiga 2000 with and without RAM expansion and hard disk. This
implies that some users may find it difficult to use DirUtil III Plus
HR on a machine with only one drive. DirUtil III Plus HR has been
tested under these conditions and performs quite well although
disk swapping will cause irritation when using external commands. It
is also not recommended that you invoke ARC, UNARC,ZOO, or UNZOO with
only one drive (don't forget the RAM: drive however). Also, in order
to provide the best possible throughput, DirUtil III Plus HR buffers a
whole picture in ram while it is being decoded for showing. This
buffering may cause problems when showing some pictures on a 512K
machine if memory has become fragmented.
Quick Reference Chart for DirUtil III Plus HR
GADGET LEFT BUTTON RIGHT BUTTON R/SHIFTED
------------------------------------------------------------
EIGHT "S" = DRIVE "D" = DRIVE
DEVICE IN GADGET IN GADGET
GADGETS
ALL(D) ALL FILES ALL FILES/SUBDIRS ALL ARCHIVE
INFO "S" INFO "D" INFO
PARENT "S" PARENT "D" PARENT
PROTECT PROTECT FILES
CLEAR CLEAR FILES CLEAR SUBDIRS
SWAP SWAP "S" & "D" COPY "S" TO "D"
TYPE TYPE ASCII TYPE HEX/ASCII
RUN DOS RUN DOS BATCH FILE
COPY COPY SELECTED ARCHIVE COPY
MOVE MOVE SELECTED
PRINT PRINT SELECTED
DELETE DELETE SELECTED
FORMAT FORMAT FLOPPY FORMAT W/VERIFY
MAKEDIR CREATE SUBDIR
RENAME RENAME FILES
DISKCOPY COPY WHOLE DISK DISKCOPY W/VERIFY
LIST LIST FILES
SEARCH STRING W/UL CASE SEARCH U <> L CASE
EDITOR EDIT WITH ED EDIT + QUOTES
BYTE SIZE OF FILES COMPARE FILE SIZES
FIXOBJ PAD FILES FIX FILE DATE
CHANGE DISKCHANGE
ARCV LIST ARC LIST ZOO
RELABEL CHANGE "S" NAME CHANGE "D" NAME
SORT SET SORT FIELD SET ASCEND/DESCEND
PLAY PLAY A SOUND PLAY CONTINUOUSLY
ZOO MAKE ZOO FILE UNZOO FILE
ARC MAKE ARC FILES UNARC FILE
COMMENT SET FILE COMMENT PRINT FILE COMMENT
SHOW SHOW W/CYCLE SHOW W/O CYCLE
WHEREIS FIND A FILE
CRYPT+ ENCRYPTION SET ENCRYPT KEY
DATE+ SHOW DATES COMPARE DATES
FREEZE+ FILE SELECTION
SAVE OLD+ KEEP SAME NAMES CHECK EXISTENCE
SLIDE+ SSHOW ON/OFF SHOW CONTINIOUS
USER** INVOKE USER SET USER
** ALT KEY REQUIRED TO SET SOME FUNCTIONS
+ FUNCTIONS AS TOGGLE
VERSION NUMBER IS SHOWN BY CTRL-ALT-SHIFT
INTERLACE TOGGLED VIA SHIFT-ESC
Documentation for DirUtil III Plus HR Palette Program
The program named PAL on the DirUtil III Plus HR disk is used to
change the colors of the file window and type window. The program
can only be run when DirUtil III Plus HR is already running. Also, PAL
will only search out the front most DirUtil III Plus HR screen in case
you have multiple copies of the program running. You have two options
upon loading PAL: MAIN and TEXT. Click on MAIN to alter the colors
of the file window and click on TEXT to change the colors for the
TYPE, HTYPE, SEARCH, ARCV, and ZOOL commands. Upon exiting the
program, a file called "du2.color" will be written to the S: directory
for future use. DirUtil III Plus HR is still running when the palette
program is active and you can switch between all the various displays
until you have the colors set just right. You cannot exit DirUtil III
Plus HR, nor change its resolution, until the palette program has
terminated.