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Text File | 1987-10-04 | 17KB | 344 lines

-----( PC-COMMANDER )------(Version 1.1, October 1987)------------------------ What is PCC... PCC is a directory management utility, with the purpose of making the tedious task of communicating with DOS much easier. Although many of the features are, admittedly, not original, PCC brings together all the most useful utilities that can be found in any directory management program. Two features that make PCC unique are the ability to view two directories at once, and the ability to shell to DOS. By enabling you to work with two directories simultaneously, PCC becomes more than another simple DOS interface, it is an organizational tool that allows you to take full advantage of DOS' tree-structured directory system. A well structured directory system can make using DOS a pleasurable experience. Because no program can provide for all of everybody's needs, the ability to shell to DOS allows you to do anything from PCC that you could do in DOS, without the need to leave the program. PCC has been made as intuitive as possible without becoming cumbersome to use. Most questions are relatively simple, and there are always fewer steps to accomplishing you goal, whatever that may be, than there would be from DOS. If you find PCC to be a useful addition to your system, then please let me know by registering your copy according to the instructions at the end of this documentation. If, however, you choose not to use PCC for a specific reason, please let me know why, and maybe your input will contribute to the next version of this program. The Screen: When PCC is first run, you will see several things. First of all, the top line of information on the screen is the current directory. The second line shows the size of the current disk, and amount of memory free on it. Lastly, the third line shows the size of the current directory and the cumulative size of all marked files. Below these is a list of all the files in the current directory. If there are more files than will fit in the window, then you can move the reversed bar to the bottom of the listing with the appropriate cursor key and scroll the listing up until the end of the list is reached. Home moves the bar to the top of the window, and End to the bottom. Ctrl-Home moves to the top of the list, and Ctrl-End to the end. Notice that the screen is divided in half. By hitting the F4 key while the bar is over a directory, that directory will be displayed in the Right window (the '..' entry indicates the directory BELOW the current one). Hitting Shift-F4 would allow you to type in a new drive and path for the Right side (and Shift-F3 works for the Left side). If there are two directories on screen, then you can always tell which side you are on by looking at the highlighted bars in each directory. The one with the flashing box-cursor to the left of the bar is the current directory. File Displays: Each file or directory entry is listed on a seperate line. To the right of the file name is the file's size. If a certain entry is a directory, then the word '<DIR>' will appear instead of a size. Following the size are the date and time of the file's creation, and the file's attributes. If there is nothing to the right of the time, then the file has no special attribute settings. Otherwise, S indicates a System attribute, H indicates a hidden file, and R denotes a Read-only file. Unlike the DOS Attrib command, not only can ALL attributes of a file be changed, but these changes can also be made to directories. If you want to have a hidden directory (for security reasons), then Hide it, and it cannot be seen in ordinary DOS Dir listings. The '..' directory listing refers to the directory ABOVE the current one (if you are in \UTIL\DOS, then '..' refers to the directory \UTIL). Use the subdir command on this entry to 'Pop Up' one directory level. Talking to PCC: All input required by PCC follows some basic guidelines. When PCC is for a command (like just after you've called it from DOS), striking a key will immediately start the command. All destructive commands require verification. Whether PCC is waiting for a single letter or for whole words, hitting the escape key will abort the process. Also, when PCC is waiting for a single letter (as in a Yes/No question), PCC will continue AS SOON AS YOU HIT AN APPROPRIATE KEY. Because of this, you should be careful of what you type until you are familiar with the program. Because PCC uses standard DOS input routines, you are able to create a file which contains the Ascii or Ascii Extended codes that you might commonly use when starting PCC, and use the file as a pipe into PCC. For more info on this, see your DOS manual about Pipes and Filters. Marking Files: Hitting the spacebar Marks a file. A small symbol is placed next to the file ('>>'), and it will change color when the bar is no longer on top of it. Then, when certain commands are used (such as Copy and Delete), you will be asked 'Marked or Current?', to indicate whether the command will operate on all the files you Marked, or just the one under the bar. Whenever files are marked or unmarked, the new cumulative size of the marked files will be shown in the Dir/Marked Size status line of the display. Please note that you CANNOT mark a directory. Menu Selections: Most menu selections have equivalent Function Keys, to lessen the amount of time required to perform most functions. To choose any option from the menu, just hit the first letter of the option you want, and either the option will execute, or another menu will be presented. Hitting ESC will return you to the previous menu level. The 'Other' option switches between two different sets of menu selections, and any time a menu selection is used, the menu is switched to the current menu. {.PA} PCC Functions --------------- Cursor Left and Right Keys: Flip between left and right windows. Home: Point to file at top of window End: Point to file at bottom of window ^Home: Point to first file ^End: Point to last file Space: "Mark" file to be manipulated with other marked files. The ">>" symbol denotes the file as marked. The new size of the group of marked files will be reflected in the status bars above the window. Marks (Main Menu Option): To help you use the marking facility of PCC to its fullest, there are several ways to mark files. Available are the following options: Altered: Marks any file which has been created or altered since the last backup (files with the archive bit set). This option can be very useful in backing up your files, especially when used in combin- ation with the Attribute-setting commands. Clear: Removes all marks from the current directory. Toggle: Flip the marked status of all files in the current directory. This is useful if you want to do something to all files except a certain group of files. For example, if you want to copy all the files in the current directory except for all the .COM and .EXE files, this would normally be very tedious in DOS. Using the Mark by Wildcard option, you could mark all .COM and .EXE files, and then Toggle Marks, causing all files except .COM and .EXE files to be marked for copying, deletion, etc. Wildcard: Marks all files in the current directory which match the DOS- type wildcard specifier you enter. For example: *.* - marks all files *.COM - marks all files with the extention of .COM P?.0?? - marks all files starting with P, and whose extention begins with 0. Attributes (Main menu selection): Use this command to Clear, Set or Toggle attributes of files in the current directory. Clear: Turns off the attributes marked with (-). Set: Turns on attributes marked with (+). Toggle: Flips (XOR's) attributes marked with (+/-). When you see the attribute line ("Attribute> Read(.) Hidden(.) System(.) Attrib(.)"), then hitting R will select/deselect the Read-only attribute, H the Hidden attribute, S and A the System and Archive attributes. If, for example, you chose Set from the Attribute menu, and you select 'R' and 'H', then there will be a (+) next to R and H. Then, hitting return would make the current file (or Marked files, if you choose) Hidden and Read-only. Hitting ESC would abort the operation. Note that this also works on direc- tories, so long as you choose to work on the Current file. Help (F1): Displays list of active keys on opposite window. The window you are in is the one with the cursor. Protect (F2): Toggles Read-Only status. Subdir (F3,F4): Puts the subdirectory currently pointed to in either the right or left window. (Ex.- If you're in the left window, pressing F3 will change to the highlighted subdirectory. Pressing F4 would put the highlighted subdirectory in the right window.) Copy (F5): Copies current or marked files to another directory. Delete (F6): Deletes either current file or all marked files (in current window). BE CAREFUL! Execute (F7): Runs current program. See notes on "Command" Sort (F8): Sorts by Name.Ext, Ext.Name or by Date. Please note that, while the Name and Extention sort by two criteria, the Date option sorts ONLY by date. If you want the files under each different date to be in any sort of order, first use one of the other sorts. View (F9): Shows file on screen. All the cursor keys are active. Home goes to the beginning of the file, End to the end. If there is a reversed arrow ("->") in the upper-left corner, then there is data to the right of the screen. The right arrow moves one char- acter right, and the tab key moves eight characters to the right. Shift-tab moves eight characters to the left, but left arrow moves all the way to the left again. Note that the text display is made ONLY for text. If you View a non-text file in text mode, some odd effects may be observed. Pressing "T" toggles between Text and Hex displays. Please note that the first character in the upper-left corner of the text will be approximately (within 15 characters) the same upper-left character seen in the hex display. Returning to the Text display from a Hex display may cause the first line on screen to be shown incorrectly (start in the wrong place). Scroll the screen up and down by one line to correct this. Pressing "F" turns the ASCII/WordStar filter On and Off (as shown in the top Status Bar). When in the Text display, Filter removes the high bits from all the letters, to properly display WordStar (and some other Word-processors') text files. When in the Hex display, characters in the Text field are displayed as a period ('.') if they are not ASCII characters (under 20h or over 7Dh). Also note that the "Offset" counter ALWAYS reflects the char- acter in the upper-left corner. Clear Marks (F0): Remove all marks. Quit (SF1): What do you think it is? Hide (SF2): Toggles Hidden status. Can hide subdirectories too. New Path (SF3,SF4): Changes the directory in the left or right window, respectively. Rename (SF5): Rename current file or subdirectory. Relocate (SF6): Moves the marked or current file's directory entry to another directory. This has the same result as copying and then deleting a file, but is much faster. Since only the directory entry and not the file's data is moved, you can only move files to directories on the same drive. You are also not allowed to move subdirectories. Command (SF7): Executes COMMAND.COM. If you enter a command, it will be executed as if at the A> prompt. This includes path- searching commands. If you simply hit return, you will shell into dos. Entering "EXIT" will return you to the program. Please note: If you make changes to either of the direct- ories displayed by the program, they will NOT be reflected on the screen when you return unless you set the Auto-reread ON in the Setup menu (or saved the setup with it on). This cannot be helped. To reflect any changes, reread the changed directory. If this function does not work, there is a problem with the COMSPEC setting in your environment. For more information, see your DOS manual. Setup (SF8): Setup PCC's colors and default settings. Some options are not used yet. Only the spacebar can make changes to the highlighted entry. Hit F2 to save the changes to the main directory of the disk you ran PCC from. These changes will be loaded auto- matically every time you run PCC, unless you erase the file. When you are finished with all changes, hit ESC. The meanings of all the options are as follows: Verify: Sets DOS Verify-after-copy on or off. For more info, see your DOS manual. Suppress Snow: Some color monitors will display alot of "snow" whenever any changes are made to the screen. Setting this option "ON" will remove the snow. However, this also makes the display (especially in View) noticably slower. Remove Marks: When doing operations on marked files, sometimes you may decide that the marks only apply to the one operation. Setting Remove Marks 'ON' will unmark each file as it's Attribute is changed, Copied, Moved, etc. This is especially useful if you are copying marked files, and the disk fills in the middle of the copy. The files which are still marked are the ones which were not copied. Auto-Reread: After Executing a program or doing a Shell to DOS, any changes to a displayed directory will not normally show up on screen. If Auto-reread is 'ON', after each time you Execute a program or Shell to DOS both directories will be reread from the disk. It is usually beneficial to leave this 'OFF', to save time when returning to PCC. Default Sort: When you first run PCC, or whenever you load a new directory, the files can be displayed as-is (Unsorted), or any of the three available sorts can be done auto- matically. Colors: Allows you to set the Foreground and Background colors for various parts of the display. Note that the color setting for Files is also used for the View display and for all other 'normal' text displays. The Highlight is also used for the Status bars in the View display. As you make changes to the colors, watch the display below the colors menu change also, to show you how the changes you made will look. Refresh (SF0): Redraws screen, in case DOS disk errors mess it up. Note that, whenever DOS gives you an "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" error, you should answer Ignore. After about three times, you will return to PCC, and you can restore the screen by hitting this key. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {.PA} R E G I S T R A T I O N ------------------------- To register your copy of PCC, please send a contribution of $25, for which you will recieve a bound copy of the documentation, the latest version of PCC, and notices of enhancements to PCC. With a contribution of $35, you will recieve the latest version of PCC with documentation, free upgrades of PCC, and discounts on future program releases by Brick Prison Software. Please send your payments in the form of a check or money order, made out to David Goldstein. CASH WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Please remember to include your full address and home phone number, and any comments you might have. David Goldstein Brick Prison Software Co. 11 Rockwell Circle Marlboro, NJ 07746 Proposed enhancements: - Jump and Search options for the View command. - Make-your-own menus. - A directory tree utility - A memory-map utility - An unerase function - A built-in editor - Directory filters - Your Ideas! If you think a memory-resident, single-directory version would be useful, please let me know.