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NEXT V2.4 (c) 1993-98 by Jürgen Klawitter FREEWARE NEXT needs at least OS 2.04 NEXT ist mainly a text reader, but can also be used as datatypes viewer, print utility and dearchiver. INSTALLATION & SHORT INSTRUCTION Copy NEXT to C: or somewhere else in your path. Reqtools.library, (c) by Nico Francois, should be in LIBS:, although NEXT can work without it. If you use NEXT frequently you should insert a line like "resident c:next pure" in your user-startup. Further on amigaguide.library is needed if AmigaGuide files are to be displayed as hypertext. XPK-Libraries, LhA, LZX, UnZip and GZip are required for xpk-compressed and archived files respectively. You can use NEXT without reading this document although you probably will not detect all features. Most commands are compatible to those of More, MuchMore or PPMore. Press "Help" in case of need. The Help window can be used as popup menu: Doubleclick on a line or use cursor keys + return to start an action. Contents 1.General remarks 17.Loading a new file 2.Start, options 18.Highlighting a line 3.Configuration 19.File conversion 4.Moving through text 20.AmigaGuide, datatypes 5.Messages and input 21.Viewing pictures 6.Search 22.Info, filenote 7.Search by mouseclick 23.Delete current file 8.Searching text in binary files 24.%-Display 9.Marking a block 25.Archives 10.String count 26.Tabs 11.Word statistics 27.Megafiles 12.Print/Save 28.Settings 13.Print with page numbers 29.Editing current file 14.Print modes 30.Copy files 15.Initializing printer 31.Font selection 16.Changing window size & position 32.Changes in V2.4 If you only want to read one of these chapters, you can use a special function of NEXT (called MSEARCH): press Ctrl and click with left mouse button on the number of the respective chapter. 1.General remarks NEXT will use the system font if at least 79 rows of text can be displayed with this font. Otherwise topaz 8 will be used. If the default font is smaller than topaz 8, 80 rows will be displayed. You can override this behaviour by options FONT and ROWS (see below). NEXT formats the text before displaying it. That means, lines are wrapped at word boundaries if they are too long and nonprintable chars are converted to spaces. ESC-sequences for color, style and printing will not be touched. Formfeeds are left intact, too, but will be displayed as L. Formatting is done very fast, but will take some instances if a file is very long. Formatting speeds up text display, also binaries can be read like ordinary text files. The disadvantage is that the length of lines stays constant if window width or tab size are changed. You have to reload the current file in these cases to adjust lines again. The window title contains some useful informations, two of which have to be explained. Example: 2/16 AMINET11:Aminet/AMINET (262.941 bytes) DV* 50% ^ ^ 1 2 (1) If a file couldn't be loaded completely into memory, you can see here which part of it is currently displayed (part 2 of 16 in this case). (2) At this position some status informations may appear: D = currently displayed file has been deleted V = commands "VIEW archive" and "UNPACK archive" can be used * = a pattern exists which can be used to scan a directory, see chapter below. Some terms used in this doc should be explained to avoid confusion: current file = file which is currently displayed in NEXT's window current directory = directory of current file (not that of the shell) 2.Start Workbench: ========== 1. Click on NEXT icon and doubleclick on the icon of a file or directory (holding down the shift-key) 2. Set NEXT as the default tool in a text icon and doubleclick on that. If you only doubleclick on the NEXT icon, a filerequester will appear. Shell: > next [file|directory] [options, see below] ====== All arguments are optional and can be typed in any order. Without arguments the filerequester will open. The same is true if you provide the name of a directory. If a wrong name has been given, NEXT tries to extract the parent directory from the pathname and presents that. Instead of a file or directory a pattern with AmigaDos wildcards can be used. Patterns for directories must be terminated by a "/". After the first file has been loaded, you can continue to scan the directory for other files which match the provided pattern, using the command "LOAD next". OPTIONS ======= There are the same options for Workbench, Shell and config file. When starting from Workbench they can be defined as tooltypes in the project icon. Between tooltype and its value must be a "=", e.g. ROWS=79. Basic settings can defined in a config file called ENV:next.prefs. @LIB/@CON/@PUR (see also chapters 19 and 20) -------------- These options influence the display mode of AmigaGuide files. @CON and @PUR also effect the display mode for following file types: HTML, MSWord, MSWrite and DosText. @LIB: Guides are displayed using amigaguide.library. This is the default behaviour. So, using this option makes sense only if you have defined another mode in the config file. HTML files will be converted in this mode. @CON: Files belonging to one of the menshioned types are converted to readable text. All special instructions will be stripped or replaced by equivalent ESC-sequences. In case of guides this mode will be activated automatically if @LIB-mode is on but amigaguide.library can't be used for some reason. @PUR: All files are displayed pure (no conversion) ROWS(=R) n ---------- This option sets the maximal number of text rows (columns) to be displayed on screen (default 79). This will also be the maximal print width. Valid values are 40-105. Smaller values will be set to 40, larger ones to 105. LINES(=L) n ----------- Sets the number of text lines to be displayed at start, is ignored later on. Smallest value accepted is 8. WX, WY n -------- x- and y-positions (in pixels) at which window will open. CENTER ------ Centers the window at start. This can only be done if you have defined window dimensions by ROWS and/or LINES which are smaller than the screen. FONT(=F) name/n --------------- "name" is the fontname WITHOUT suffix ".font", n is the size of the font. Example: FONT Courier/13 or F Courier/13 The font must be of fixed width, otherwise it will not be accepted. Fontnames should be written case sensitive, especially if you want to use topaz/8 or topaz/9. TABS n ------ Defines the tab width (n=2-16). Default 8. LHA <path>, LZX <path>, UNZIP <path>, GZIP <path> ------------------------------------------------- Defines where an archiver will be looked for in case an archive has to be extracted or viewed. Example: lha c:lha. Paths which contain spaces must be enclosed by "". You should define the paths in ENV:next.prefs otherwise you will be asked when an archive occurs. RES --- Makes unpackers LHA, LZX und UNZIP resident when needed the first time (GZIP is not residentable). This increases speed of archive operations and decreases number of disk accesses. All unpackers are removed from resident list (and memory) when leaving NEXT. ED <path> --------- Path of the editor to be called if you want to edit the current file. A path containing spaces must be enclosed in "". TEMPDIR path ------------ Defines the directory where the archivers will write their temporary files to. The directory must exist. It should be in RAM if you have enough memory. Default is T:. Within TEMPDIR a subdirectory "x" will be created if it doesn't exist. NOFLUSH (Option FLUSH is obsolete) ------- After quitting the program all temporary files including subdirectory "x" will be deleted by default. You can prevent this by choosing NOFLUSH. ASK --- If defined a requester will appear every time before loading a file by "LOAD next". The advantage is that you can see which file will be the next one (normally you don't know this) and you can decide between Load, Skip and Cancel. Options are treated in the following order: 1. Shell or Workbench options > next.prefs > internal defaults 2. FONT > ROWS,LINES > WX,WY > defaults That means: A given font will be used, even if a given number of rows can't be realized. ROWS has priority above WX and default rows. If the number of given rows is too big, NEXT tries to show as many rows as possible. topaz/8 will be used if the default font is bigger. The following table gives some examples of usable fonts and the maximal number of rows on a standard screen with 640 pixels. fontwidth rows font/size -------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 105 thinpaz/8 Courier/11 7 90 Courier/13 8 79 topaz/8 topaz/11 pearl/8 look/8 SanS/11 9 70 Courier/15 10 63 topaz/9 3.Configuration When started NEXT looks for two files: ENV:Next.prefs ENV:Next.files Next.prefs contains information about configuration. Next.files may contain a list of frequently accessed files and directories which can easily be loaded after start of programm by pressing "+" (see chapter 17). Both files can be written with an editor and must be saved to ENVARC: and ENV:. Each entry must be placed on a separate line. Comments must start with a semicolon. Paths containing spaces have to be set in "". ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ;example for next.prefs font=Courier/13 rows=90 lha=lha ;no path if LhA is resident lzx="work:"my archivers/lzx" ;path contains a space ed=c:dme @con ;convert guides and HTML files res ;make unarchivers resident ;end of config file ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The first line in next.files has a special meening: If NEXT is started without a file argument it takes the first name within Next.files and loads it. If you want NEXT to behave as usual (opening a filerequester) you should write "\" on the first line. Next.files may contain options, too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ;example for next.files \ ;show current directory on start cd0:aminet/biz/dbase ;for AMINET CD's cd0:aminet/pix \#?.readme ;wildcards are allowed \#?.bbs \#? \ ;actual directory, for better arrangement work:school/bio/tests/bi#? work:pd/DiskSalve/Locale/docs/english/disksalv.doc ;EOF ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.Moving through text Main window ----------- As mentioned above key commands for moving are like those of other common textviewers. Space goes down one page, Backspace up one page. With cursor keys the text can be scrolled up or down. Keys of numeric keypad can be used, too. Text can be also moved by the scroll gadget at the bottom border of the window. Press Help in case of need. Goto (G) jumps to the text position you want. You have to provide a percent value if the status field in the window bar displays percent otherwise a line number. Jump (J) jumps to the position where you jumped from with one of the commands Top, Bottom, Search or Jump to mark. If you are e.g. somewhere in the text and you jump to the bottom you'll get back to the previous position by pressing "J". Jump back stores the position every time before a jump is performed. A jump must be longer than one page. List windows ------------ The commands RELOAD, LOAD myfiles and VIEW archive display file lists in their own window. You can move through these lists with the same keys as in the main window (cursor keys, BS and Space). A file is selected by double click or by moving through a list with cursor up/down and pressing Return afterwards. You can search through the lists by pressing "S" or "."and entering a string or pattern (see chapter "Search"). "N" continues search. 5.Messages and input Error messages and informations are given by requesters which can be closed in most cases by pressing any key. If there two or more gadgets Return ist equivalent to a click on the leftmost gadget (OK, Continue..). Several commands afford an input (Search, Load, Print..) which is done into an input window with a string gadget. Empty input (nothing typed and Return pressed) aborts the respective command. Apart from printable chars following control chars are accepted if the filter for string gadgets in Prefs/IControl is disabled: TAB Tab key ESC Esc CSI Alt-Esc Linefeed(LF) Ctrl-J Formfeed(FF) Ctrl-L Return(CR) Ctrl-M 6.Search (Search ci/cs, Next, Previous) Strings can be searched case sensitive (cs) or case insensitive (ci). They can contain control chars like LF. This enables e.g. searching of strings which continue on next line or finding only words at beginning of a line. NEXT marks all occurrences with background color 2. Control chars in a search string are converted to visible chars. In contrast to most text readers NEXT marks ALL occurrences on screen, not only the first match. This is faster and gives much better survey. Search starts from current position (displayed text included) if a new string has been given or if search direction changes. Searching forward the first match will be displayed 2 lines below top of window (if possible). Backsearch displays it 2 lines from bottom. So you can see what is above/below. Usually search goes downward after string input. But you can force immediate backsearch by clicking on the gadget "Search back" or by using the shortcut Right Amiga-B. Pattern search ============== From V1.8 on strings to be searched may contain wildcards which are equivalent to the AmigaDos wildcard "?". They replace any alphanumerical character. Input of wildcards is done by Help key. EXAMPLE: Input is "b?g". As result bug, big, bog, bag... will be found. If a pattern contains nothing but wildcards NEXT will look only for words with the same length as the pattern. (It wouldn't make much sense to display all occurrences without this restriction.) In order to search for words with length n the input can be "[n]". Example: [15] starts search for words which contain 15 chars. ============== The special search abilities of NEXT may give nice effects. EXAMPLES: 1. Please press following keys in the same order: S, TAB, Return. ; Result: All TABs are marked (see line above). 2. Marking of spaces: Press S, Space, Return. Press R (=Refresh) to get a normal display again. 3. Pattern search: Press S, type "th??" and Return. Input of "??" by Help key. that they others whether through the pathname either 4. Press S, Alt-Space, Return. *°¿°* /=\ This image is composed of spaces with Code 160. 7.Search by mouseclick (MSearch) Occurrences of any word on screen can be simply searched by holding down Ctrl and clicking on the first (visible) char. This is a nice feature not offered by other text readers. Search is ci if you press Ctrl alone but will be cs if another qualifier is pressed additionally. Direction of search depends on the mousebutton pressed: Ctrl-LMB (left mousebutton) -> forward search Ctrl-RMB (right " ) -> backward search The selected word will be inverted as long as buttons are held down. Except the first char all others must be alphanumeric. Point, underscore and hyphen are treated as chars if they are placed within the word. EXAMPLES: clicked marked/searched ------------------------------------ Workbench: Workbench: A600/1200 A600/1200 ;comment ;comment ; comment ; comment Nölle-Neumann Nölle-Neumann 12.5.94 12.5.94 8.Searching text in binary files (XSearch) This function finds any readable ASCII text in programs and other binary files. It may be useful e.g. if you want to know which libraries, devices or files a program needs to work. Strings are considered as ASCII if they consist of at least 4 alphanumeric chars. Change of upper case to lower case may occur only at beginning of a string, otherwise it will not be marked. There are of course many char combinations within a program which are senseless, but hitrate of this function is quite good. XSEARCH starts at current position and can be continued by pressing "X". Backsearch is not possible. If Shift-X is pressed words consisting of 3 chars only can be detected. Of course, much more "garbage" is found in this mode. 9.Marking a block/line (Mark 1/2) A line can be marked with Shift-RMB or Shift-LMB. The positions are stored and indicated by special signs at start of line ( 1 for LMB, 2 for RMB). You can jump back to a marked position by simply clicking in the window with that mousebutton you used for marking. Marks can be shifted by simply Shift-clicking at another line. Two marks define begin and end of a block, marked lines included. The order of marks (1/2 or 2/1) is unimportant. If only one line has been marked this line will be taken as a block. A block can be printed or saved. It is also used by the function "Word statistics" (see below). Marks can be removed by pressing Del or by Shift-clicking on them a second time. The following operations can be applied to a block: - Print - Save - Word statistics - Jump to mark 1/2 - Count block 10.String count (Count ci/cs, Count old) This function counts all occurrences of a string or a single char within current file. With "C" count is case insensitive, with Shift-C case sensitive. The result of count is displayed in a requester. The title of the requester window shows whether count was ci or cs. Count can be restricted to an existing block. Press the "Count block" gadget in this case after input. A counted string can be searched later on with "N" (NEXT) or "P" (PREVIOUS). On the other hand a previously searched string can be counted by pressing Amiga-C or Amiga-Shift-C (block). The mode (cs/ci) will be the same. If the counted string is a pattern consisting of ??? only the number of words having the same length will be reported, e.g. "word[3] found 34 times". [3] indicates that length was 3 chars. The count function is mainly for analysing texts. You can also use it to check whether a certain string occurs in a file without leaving current text position. 11.Word statistics (Count words) This command is started by "W". It counts the words of the whole text or within a block (if defined). Words which are separated by a hyphen at lineend are recognized as ONE word. The result is presented by requester: The first line shows total number of words and average word length. The table below presents the occurring lengths, number of words (n) with same length and portion of words with same length (%) in text. Maximal word length is 30. Longer words - they occur very rarely - will be added to length 30. Word definition is the same as explained in chapter 6. EXAMPLES: print/save 2 words Next.doc 1 word A-Z 1 word A - Z 2 words 4711 1 word 12.Print/Save (Print) This function saves the text or part of it to PRT: or to a file. Pressing Shift-P will save the whole file, pressing "*" will save the currently marked block. NEXT checks if printer is online (for parallel port only). If printer is online PRT: will be the default output, else you have to enter the filename you want to save to. "PRT:" can be replaced by a filename if you don't want to print. A block can also be saved to clipboard (Unit 0). The input window has a gadget "Snip". Click on it or use the shortcut Amiga-S for clipboard copy. If the file you want to save to already exists, you'll be asked whether it should be overwritten or whether text should be appended. Press "O" to overwrite or "A" to append. Any other key will abort. The append mode may be useful if you only want to collect some important parts of a text file. If output goes to PRT: the number of pages and sheets needed are calculated and shown in a requester. You may start printing now by pressing Return or abort with any other key. While printing NEXT uses the page length defined in printer settings and sends a formfeed to the printer after each page (except last page). This is NOT the case if the text already contains formfeeds or if output goes to a file. 13.Print with page numbers (Print pagenum) If you want to print/save with page number and a title line on each page press Amiga-P or Amiga-* (for block). You'll be asked for the text of the title line. Default is the filename, which can be taken over by Return. After that you'll be asked for page length, which must be at least 3 lines. Default is page length in printer settings. The title line looks like this by default: Next.dok 1 Here comes the first line of text... Modifying page header ===================== 1. Empty input for title text will cause NEXT to print without a title line but with the page length you have entered. So you can use other page lengths than default length. 2. If you only type one or more spaces as title text, title header will be filled with spaces but page numbers will be printed. 3. Style and position of header text can be influenced by a number of options which can be switched on or off by clicking in the settings window. Press "`" to open the settings window. BOLD, UNDERLINED and ITALIC can be chosen for text style. They can be combined. Default is UNDERLINED. The new option CENTERTITLE centers the title (surprise). If the title consists of spaces only the pagenumbers will be centered. 14.Print modes In the settings window (opened by "`") four different print modes can be selected by a click (or unselected by a second click): SMARTPRINT BOOKMODE ODDSFIRST PAUSE (1) SMARTPRINT tries to be intelligent and varies the pagelength a bit according to structure of text. That means: If at pageend only one line of a paragraph is left that normally would be printed on next page, it will be printed on the same page. If at end of page the first lines of a new paragraph or a heading appear, they will be printed on the next page. Thus, a printed page may be 1 line (max.) longer than defined by printer prefs or input. It may also be several lines shorter. The smart_print mode is DEFAULT, because it gives the better results in most cases. If smart_print is switched off, all pages will be printed with constant page length. Minimal page length for smart_print mode is 11 lines. For shorter pages the normal print mode will be used. HINT: Print a file with pagetitle and pagenumbers to ram:test first, load ram:test and look at the result. Then print it to PRT: if all is OK. Use Shift-P (NOT Amiga-P) this time. (2) BOOKMODE can be used if a text is printed with page numbers or page heading. If this mode is on the heading of pages with even number will be printed in reverse order. Page numbers will appear on the left side and the title string on the right side. Thus, page numbers will always be at the outer margin as in books. (3) If ODDSFIRST is on all pages with odd number will be printed first, after that the pages with even number will follow. This may be useful if you use a printer which loads single sheets automatically. After odd pages have been sent to printer a requester will appear. Wait until printer has stopped, then turn the stack of sheets and feed them back into the printer. Press the gadget to start printing of even pages. (4) PAUSE stops every time a page has been sent to printer and opens a requester. Printing will continue if you press any key or the "Print"- gadget. To abort printing you have to press "C" or the Cancel-Gadget. 15.Initializing printer (Init printer) After pressing "=" NEXT will try to initialize your printer according to printer settings. Printer must be online. This function may be useful if printer was switched off for some time or after aborting a print. 16.Changing window size and position (Size/Move window) Pressing F1/F2 keys changes size of window. 3 sizes are available: maximal, minimal and middle. F1 toggles between min. and max. size, F2 between middle and max.. By default middle size is half as high as maximal, but can easily be changed by dragging the size gadget. NEXT remembers the new size und will use it on next occasion. MOVE window (F3) moves the window down if it was in the upper half of screen or up if it was in the lower half. If the window is as big as the screen nothing will happen. 17.Loading a new file (Load/ReLoad) NEXT offers several variants to load a new file: 1. Load req(uester) (L) -------------------- Opens the filerequester and presents the directory of current file. 2. Load man(ually) (Shift-L) ------------------------- The complete path of the directory or file wanted has to be entered into the input window. If the path contains spaces, you must place it in "". The current directory may be abbreviated by "\". You can also give a pattern instead of the filename and use the same options as in shell commandline. E.g. if input was "font topaz/11" this font will be opened and the current file will be reloaded. 3. Load newwin (Amiga-L) --------------------- Input as described for Load man(ually). NEXT will create a new process which opens its own window or presents a filerequester if a directory has been entered. Empty inputs are ignored. 4. ReLoad (<) ---------- Enables you to load a file again which already had been viewed during a session. NEXT saves the names of previously loaded files into a buffer of 800 bytes. If size of buffer is not sufficient older names are replaced by newer ones. After pressing "<" a small window which presents all names saved will open. You can select a name by doubleclicking or by moving through the list of names with cursor keys (Up/Down) and finally pressing Return. If nothing has been selected Return aborts this function. ESC, Space and closegadget can be used, too. 5. Load next (>) ------------- What happens when you press ">" depends on what you have done before. If you have previously loaded a file by using a pattern (e.g. work:source/#?.s) NEXT will scan the same directory (work:source) and look for the next file matching the pattern (#?.s). An existing pattern is indicated by a "*" in the status field (window title bar). If no pattern exists the current directory will be scanned using the pattern "#?.<suff>" where <suff> is the suffix of the current file. If there is no suffix the pattern will be "#?". By repeatedly pressing ">" you can view all files in the scan directory matching the current pattern. .info-files will be skipped. Which file will be loaded next depends on how the files are arranged on disk. It's NOT in alphabethical order! I recommend to use the Option ASK if you wish to decide whether the next file is to be loaded or not. If you press ">" in combination with Alt or Amiga keys the current directory will become the new scan directory and a new pattern - depending on the suffix of the current file - will be defined, e.g. "#?.readme" if the suffix is ".readme". This is especially useful when looking into directories on AMINET CDs: Load a .readme file, press Alt+> and the next .readme will be loaded. 6. LOAD myfiles (+) ---------------- Opens a window which shows the files, directories and options defined by you in ENV:next.files. They are selected as described under RELOAD. 7. Load by appwindow ----------------- Drop an icon or a filename within a workbench window on NEXT's window and the corresponding file will be loaded. If the icon belongs to a directory the filerequester will open. 18.Highlighting a line (Show line) After pressing Alt-MB (left or right) or Amiga-Alt the line at mouse position will be inverted. This makes reading of tables etc. easier. The line number is displayed in the titlebar. 19.File conversion The following file types are automatically converted to readable text if @PUR-mode is not switched on: HTML, WORD, WRITE and PCText (for guide files see below) HTML ---- Web pages are written in HTML (HyperText Markup Language). These files can be recognized by their suffix .htm or .html. They contain a lot of instructions for WWW-browsers (so called tags and entities) which make HTML files almost unreadable. NEXT converts and formats HTML files by default. Conversion does not take place if @PUR mode is on. If the current file is a HTML file and @PUR mode is switched on or off the file will be relaoded automatically using the new display mode. If option ASK is on you'll be asked before. Some hints: * All tags and entities of HTML 3.2 (the current standard) are converted if possible. * Some HTML file contain very little or no text at all. So, don't be afraid if you see an empty window after conversion. * Text is formatted according to window width. Make the window as wide as possible before loading a HTML file. * The title of a Web page is displayed in [] in the upper left corner. * Conversion of tables is nearly impossible and therefore done in a very simple manner. * Headings (h1...h6) are indented and followed by a blank line. Main headings (h1,h2) are display in colour 2, h1 additionally in bold style. WORD/WRITE ---------- NEXT extracts the pure text from files produced by Microsoft programs Word and Write (suffixes .doc and .wri). DosTEXT ------- Texts using the MSDos charset (codes $80 to $9F) are converted to ANSI (=Amiga) codes. It's not easy to detect which charset has been used. So errors may occur. Use the Switch conv(ersion) command in this case: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Switch conv (started with "!") loads the current file again and uses the opposite conversion mode. A DosText will be converted to ANSI and vice versa. This applies also to GUIDE, HTML, WORD and WRITE. So you can see very easily what's e.g. `behind' a converted HTML file by pressing "!" and switch to converted mode back by another key press. 20.AmigaGuide, datatypes (AsGuide once, AsGuide all) The display modes for AmigaGuide files (@LIB, @CON, @PUR) have briefly been explained above. They can be used as commandline options or tooltypes, but can also be selected later on in the settings window. The @LIB mode uses the amigaguide.library (like Multiview or AmigaGuide). If the amigaguide.library can't be used for some reason (low memory, no library present, crunched AmigaGuide files) the @CON-mode will be used. The @CON-mode converts AmigaGuide files to readable text. This means, all instructions (@NODE etc.) are stripped off and replaced by equivalent escape sequences. LINKS will be rendered in color 2. The end of a NODE is marked by a "#". Using the @CON-mode can be advantageous, because the text is not presented in small pieces and you can use the search and print functions of NEXT. The converted file is shorter than the original and can be saved, of course. The @PUR-mode finally shows AmigaGuide files with all the special instruc- tions. AsGuide once (A) ---------------- If the current file is an AmigaGuide file and displayed in @CON or @PUR mode and you want it to be displayed by means of amigaguide.library, press "A". Starting with OS3.0 not only AmigaGuide files can be viewd with this function but every filetype which is represented by datatype (binary datatypes excluded). Since amigaguide.library V39+ uses datatypes itself NEXT simply passes the file to the library. In case of pictures NEXT uses its own routine (see following chapter). AsGuide all (Shift-A) --------------------- This command switches the permanent mode on or off. If switched on the mouse pointer changes (looks like a smiley) and ALL files loaded afterwards will be displayed by amigaguide.library or picture datatypes. Which one is used depends on the file type. You need OS3+ to activate this mode. You can switch "AsGuide all" on or off when a list window is active. There is no need to close the window before. 21.Viewing pictures All types of pictures including icons can be displayed if respective datatypes are available. There are different ways to display a picture: 1. Load a picture (AsGuide all is off) and press "A". Disadvantage: The file must be loaded by NEXT and the datatype as well. This consumes time and memory. 2. Switch ASGUIDE all on (Shift-A) and select a picture file by one of the LOAD functions. The picture will be immediately displayed. The previously loaded text file will stay in memory and can be viewed again after the picture has been left. 3. If you want to see all pictures within a directory switch AsGuide all on and use a pattern, e.g. work:pics/#?.iff or work:pics/#?. By pressing ">" repeatedly you can now view all pictures matching the pattern. You can get some information about a currently displayed picture by pressing "I". A requester appears showing datatype, width, height, depth, number of colors and screenmode. The picture stays in the background meanwhile and comes back to front by key press. The currently displayed picture can be quitted by pressing any non-qualifier key or the mousebuttons. If nothing happens (shouldn't occur) click into the upper left corner of the screen to activate the small invisible window situated there. 22.Info, filenote (Info/Filenote) Info ---- Pressing "I" pops up a requester with following informations: - date of creation/last change of file - protection bits - file type (GUIDE, HTML, WORD, WRITE, DosTEXT, TEXT, BIN) - information if crunched and name of cruncher (PPData, XPK compressor, SZDD) - number of bytes removed by text conversion. This is mainly debug information for me. Small numbers are due to stripping off carriage returns and trailing spaces. - :filenote - number of lines and longest line ("rows") - number of lines and size of block if marked ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After a separating line the pattern used to scan a directory will be shown if there is any. All other informations found here in previous versions can now be found in the settings window (see chapter 27). Filenote -------- If you press Shift-I a filenote can be entered for the current file. You must put it in "" if it contains spaces. A previous comment will be deleted by typing "". Simply pressing Return without any input doesn't change anything. 23.Delete current file (Delete file) If you decide that the current file is no longer needed you can delete it by pressing Amiga-Del. You will be asked whether it is really to be deleted. Press OK-gadget to confirm. The deleted file will stay in memory, and you can undo deleting by saving it again. But due to formatting there may be slight or big differences to original file. Don't try to recover a deleted executable in this way!. [7m24.%-Display (Switch %) The display of text position in the status field can be switched between percentage and line number by pressing "%". If you are in %-mode the GOTO command will only accept %-values, otherwise line numbers. 25.Archives (View archive, Flush tempdir, Unpack all/select) For viewing and extracting archives the following programms are needed: archiver/unpacker | suffixes of archives ------------------------+-------------------------- LhA 1.38e | .lha, .lzh, .run LZX 1.21 changed! | .lzx UnZip 5.12 | .zip GZip 1.2.4 (18.8.93) | .gz, .z, _Z, .tgz, .taz You may use UnLZX (V1.21) and LHX instead of LZX and LhA respectively. Paths of archivers must be known to NEXT. I recommend to write the paths into ENV:Next.prefs otherwise NEXT will promt for a path when needed. For TAR archives no external unpacker is needed. All (de)archivers menshioned above can be made resident (exception GZip). If you choose the option RES this will be done automatically by NEXT when an archiver is needed the first time. I recommend to do this if you have enough memory. Performance of archive extraction will encrease remarkably. NEXT recognizes archives by internal signs, not by the name suffix. If an archive has been detected a list of its contents will be created and displayed in the list window. Moving through the list and selecting a file is described above (see chapter 4). A selected file will be extracted to TEMPDIR/x and displayed afterwards. If the selected file happens to be an archive again another list will be created. There are 5 functions dealing with archives: Flush tempdir (Shift-Del) deletes all temporary files in TEMPDIR/x if there are any. So you'll get back the memory or disk space they occupied. A requester will pop up if there are any files to delete and inform you about the number of files and their total length in Kb. View old archive (V) displays the contents of last archive selected and enables extraction of files as described above. View (from) readme This feature is especially useful for AMINET archives. If you have loaded a .readme file press Shift-V and a list of files within the corresponding archive will be presented. If there is no archive but another file which corresponds to the .readme you'll be asked whether to load or not. Unpack all (U) extracts all files within the current archive to a directory which must be specified by you. Paths of archived files can be preserved by clicking on gadget "whith path". Unpack select enables unpacking of one or more selected files. You get into select mode by pressing "V" two times. The first "V" opens the list window and displayes the archive contents (if an archive has been read before). The second "V" switches the mode. Filenames are now displayed with color 2. Select the files you want to be extracted by click. A second click will unselect a file. After selection press Return and enter the destination directory. You can unpack an archive without loading a file before. The main window of NEXT must not be open. Simply type >next <archive>. Press Return to extract the whole archive after the list window appeared. You'll be asked for the destination directory, then. Extraction of single files works as described above. 26.Tabs (Tab width) After pressing the TAB-key a new tab width can be entered. The change will be visible immediately if the current text contains tabs. It may be necessary to reload the file in order to adjust the line length according to the new width. After reloading NEXT displays the same text position as before. For prints tabs will be expanded by spaces if tab width is different from 8. 27.Megafiles If a file is too large to fit into one memory block (that's while I name it megafile) NEXT will split it into several parts and will use half of the largest memory block available in this case. XPK- und powerpacked files can't be splitted. Within a splitted file you can quickly move to next or previous part by repeatedly pressing the cursor keys (<- and ->). NEXT will automatically switch to next/previous part if you are at top or bottom of current part and you use one of the MOVE commands (LINE up/down, PAGE up/down). SEARCH, COUNT, GOTO, PRINT are allways restricted to the current part. This may change in a future version. 28.Settings The settings window is opened by "`" and looks like this: +--------------------------+ | Settings | +--------------------------+ | 1 @LIB | | 2 @CON | | 3 @PUR | | F FLUSH | | A ASK | | P PAUSE | | S SMARTPRINT | | K BOOKMODE | | O ODDSFIRST | | B BOLD | | U UNDERLINED | | I ITALIC | +--------------------------+ Active modes are highligthed. They can be deactivated by click and reactivated by another click. In case of @LIB, @CON and @PUR you have to click an the mode you want. You may use the key shortcuts in front of each mode, too. The changes will be saved by pressing Return. You can quit with Q, ESC and Space. 29.Editing current file (Edit file) By pressing Shift-E an external editor can be started with the current file as argument. The path of the editor can be defined by option ED, either on shell command line or in ENV:next.prefs. Otherwise you have to enter the path the first time you call this function. The editor is started asynchronously and gets a stack of 6000. I hope this will be sufficient in all cases. If the current file is a pure text file the editor will be called with its path. If the current file is binary, compressed or allready deleted you'll be asked if you want to edit the current (formatted) buffer. A positive response will NEXT cause to copy the buffer to TEMPDIE/<file> and then start the editor with this path as argument. You can easily reload the edited file with "E" (no Shift this time). 30.Copy files This command works like c:copy. But it only copies files which have been previously viewed by NEXT. After pressing Shift-Y a list window will open with these files. After selection of a file you'll be promted for the destination. This may be either a filename or a directory. In contrast to PRINT file this command copies the original file and not the more or less modified buffer of NEXT. The sense of Copy file is that you don't need to quit NEXT if you want to get a useful programm or text file on your hard disk. 31.Font selection (Select font) The font requester of reqtools.library can be called by pressing Shift-F. If the selected font is of different width than the old one, the current file will be loaded again, otherwise the new font will be used immediately. 32.Changes meaning: + new, ^ improved, * changed, - removed V2.4 ==== + Fonts can now be selected by font requester (reqtools.library) + Within list windows (archive lists, ReLoad, MyFiles, Help) strings can be searched for. "S" or "." starts search, "N" continues search. + Data files produced by Microsoft Word and Write are now converted to readable ansi text. + Conversion of unreadable chars within MSDos text files to Amiga chars. + Command "Switch conv(ersion)": shows converted text files (guides, html, MSWord, MSWrite, MSDosText) unconverted and vice versa. + Internal detar routine to list or extract TAR archives. + Help window can now be used as popup menu. + Option RES: makes dearchivers lha/lhx, lzx/unlzx and unzip resident when needed for the first time. This increases speed of archive operations. + Internal routine for unpacking SZDD files (frequently found on CDs for MSDos computers) ^ Conversion of HTML files slightly improved. ^ NEXT asks for path of editor if not defined in next.prefs. ^ File requester remembers last file selected. ^ File requester has a pattern gadget now. ^ List window for archive lists remembers last file selected and displays it selected when the window is opened anew. ^ Unpacking of whole archives or selected files within an archive is now possible without opening the main window. ^ GZip and compress archives are now treated like other archive types. A list window will open and display the archive contents. ^ Functions Goto, Jump, Search with increased speed. - Print screen: block must be defined now. - Automatic reloading of current file after changing from/to @PUR mode. Use "Switch conv" instead. - Several harmless bugs. V2.3 ==== + HTML files are now converted by default to readable ansi text. + Text blocks can be copied to clipboard (Unit 0) ^ Settings with shortcuts. ^ Display of very small pictures improved ^ Better handling of filenames containing wildcards, they don't cause a directory scan any more ^ Abbreviation for current directory '\' can be used with 'Load newwin' - BUG: 'Print pagenum' without title didn't work. Fixed ^ V2.2 ==== + Settings window for selection of print modes etc. + `UNPACK select' mode for extracting selected files + Unpacking of archives with or without path can now be selected + Option ASK asks (what else) before loading next file within a directory + Command `COPY file' + Command `MOVE window' moves window down/up by key press + Command `JUMP back' jumps to the position you previously jumped from + CENTERTITLE, BOLD, UNDERLINED, ITALIC: new modes for prints with page numbers and title + Information about displayed pictures + xpk- and powerpacked file are decrunched now before displaying them my means of amigaguide.library or datatypes ^ Patterns for filename no longer restricted to basename, wildcards can be anywhere in the path ^ Requesters now appear centered on screen ^ Inputline replaced by inputwindow with gadtools surface ^ List windows (Reload, View archive...) now adapt their width to longest filename ^ Help now displayed in own scrollable window ^ more (localized) dos error messages * for extraction of LZX archives LZX V1.21 or UnLZX V1.21 are needed. Older versions will not work * Next no longer tries to use amigaguide.library to display text files and executables if in `AsGuide all' mode. Didn't make much sense - Option FLUSH, is default anyway - Help II, no longer needed - some smaller bugs V2.1 ==== + Option ED added. Editor can be called by pressing Shift-E ^ pictures now horizontally centered - 2 enforcer hits ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many thanks to - Nico Francois for publishing his decrunch routine and reqtools - Charlie Gibbs for A68k. NEXT has been assembled with it. - Matt Dillon for DME und dlink - Hajo Stengert for betatesting and many valuable suggestions - Andreas Neumann for uploading every new version of NEXT into Aminet and several hints - Georges Goncalves for new ideas, most of which are now implemented Bug reports and suggestions may be sent to following address. Don't use the email address of Andreas Neumann. Jürgen Klawitter Marschnerstr. 22 D-12203 Berlin Germany