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+-------------------------------------+ | Manual for ALT-itude Software's !U2 | +-------------------------------------+ This software is FREEWARE. It may be freely distributed so long as no money is exchanged, except to cover costs of distribution ie post & packing or the cost of the disk and ALL the files are included in the distributed version. This software is (C) 1992-3 ALT-itude Software You are not *required* to register your copy, but doing so will enable us to send you any upgrades as and when they become available, and to send us your comments etc. 1. Introduction --------------- !U2 is a RISC OS, multi-tasking binary to ascii convertor, using uuencoding and uudecoding routines derived from those written by the University of California for UNIX-UNIX transfers. The raison d'etre behind such conversions is most e-mailers' inability to reliably handle any non-ascii characters; ie those with hex values outside the range &032-&127. !U2 has two filetypes defined by it (these filetypes are subject to verification by Acorn - we haven't asked them and they might want us to use something else...): &00D - U2Dec - a general (binary) decoded file &00E - U2Enc - a U2Encoded file A U2Enc file is, in essence, no different from an ordinary uuencoded file, but there are some RISC OS specific subtleties which are explained below. A U2Dec file is a binary file whose filetype you're not sure of. No doubt Acorn would argue that this is what the Data filetype was designed for, and we might feel inclined to agree. !U2 requires the !Scrap directory to have been 'seen' before it runs. 2.Usage ------- 2.1 General ----------- Double-click on the !U2 icon to load it, or double-click on an U2Enc file if !U2 has already been 'seen', this will load !U2 and begin decoding the file. To encode a binary file, drag it to the icon; to decode an encoded file, either double-click on it or drag it to the icon. !U2 supports Ian Ashley's uuencoded filetype, &7FE, and treats plain text files (&fff) as encoded. The latter can be loaded either by dragging to the icon or double-clicking while holding down <CTRL>--though it may end up in your favourite text editor instead! !U2 will decode files that have been encoded and then split into several, smaller files. It can do this in three ways, detailed below. 1 Place the files in order in a file and decode in the normal way. 2 Place the files in order in a directory and drag the directory to the !U2 icon. It helps if the directory and the files have similar name: eg. 'Picture' containing Picture/01, Picture/02,... 3 Place the files in any order in a file and choose 'Extract' in the options window before decoding (see below). NOTE: This last is slower than the above methods, makes use of <Wimp$ScrapDir> (but will tell you if it doesn't find enough free space to write to) and makes certain assumptions about the input file, as detailed below. 2.2 Processing Options. ----------------------- All options are set from the 'Options' submenu (unlike earlier versions where there were menu options as well). To make the options current, click on 'OK', to reset them to the previous settings, click on 'Cancel'. Clicking on 'Save Options...' will save the options settings so that they will be loaded as the default settings next time !U2 is loaded. (This makes the settings displayed in the Options window the current settings.) Clicking on 'Load !Help...' loads this file into the default text editor. 2.2.1 Encoding Options ---------------------- o <file>/uue - names the encoded file as a (truncated) form of the original filename, appended with /uue for compatibility with other systems (/ becomes replaced with . on UNIX/DOS systems). **Default=ON** o Enc_xx/uue - names the encoded file with an incremented number. **Default=OFF** o Include Filetype - includes the filetype of the original file in the encoding. **Default=ON** o Split - split the encoding across several files. This is particularly useful if you wish to encode a file which is several hundred kbytes big, as most e-mailers have a maximum size of file which they will mail. If set, !U2 will create a directory (called <file>~) and spread the encoding across files named <file>/01, <file>/02, etc. If the original file starts with '!', !U2 will replace this with a '>' so as to avoid any truck with problems with application shells. **Default=OFF** o Lines, KBytes - toggles the interpretation of the number in the writeable icon below them. 1000 lines is approximately equal to 62 Kb, and is the default. !U2 will default to a value of 4k (66 lines) if a lower value is entered, and 719k (11600) if a higher value is entered. (Don't ask why these sizes were chosen---it was very late one night and they seemed reasonable then...) **Default=Lines, 1000** You should note that RISC OS (3.10 and earlier) allows a _maximum_ of 77 files per directory. !U2 will inform you if you enter a value which would result in more than 77 parts. To understand more the effects of the encoding options, consider the following: A U2Encoded Sprite with 'Split' and 'Include' selected will begin something like this: +--BEGIN-Cut here-[screen part 01 of 03]----------------------+ begin ff9 screen M'0'''!''''#\GP''[)\'''-C<F5E;@'''''''#''''#/'''''''''!,'''"L M''''K'''''P'''''____'/___P#=W=T'W=W='+N[NP"[N[L'F9F9')F9F0!W and end something like this: M=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W "!P!W ' end +--END-Cut here-[screen part 01 of 03]------------------------+ whereas if neither are selected it looks like this: +--BEGIN Cut here [ screen] ------------------------------------+ begin 660 screen M'0'''!''''#\GP''[)\'''-C<F5E;@'''''''#''''#/'''''''''!,'''"L M''''K'''''P'''''____'/___P#=W=T'W=W='+N[NP"[N[L'F9F9')F9F0!W and this: M=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W=W "!P!W ` end +-- END Cut here [ screen] -------------------------------------+ (In both cases the first line is a !U2 specific header line and !U2 will look for this if 'Extract' is selected.) Note: some encoded files don't have a 'short' line before the `-line because the encoding fits exactly into an integer number of M-lines. If you choose a size which is a little too close to a factor of the total encoded size, then the 'cut' lines may say the wrong number of parts, eg they may say 'part 03 of 04' when there _are_ only 3 parts. Don't worry about this - !U2 will do a full encoding or none at all. You might want to choose a different size, though, or inform whomever is receiving the parts that you really have sent all of them! Other uudecoders will treat the hex number in the 'begin' line as the access codes for the file. Other Acorn uudecoders will look for the filetype in an extra line at the start of the file. We decided to have the filetype included in the 'begin' line. However, we recognise that if this file is decoded on a non-Acorn system, or with a different decoder then this might cause problems with file access, which is why you have the choice of including the filetype or not. The filename of the binary file is included in the encoding. To make things as easy as possible for the user, any '/'s in the Acorn filename will be written as '.'s in the encoded file. (!U2 retranslates these characters on decoding.) Not doing this would cause problems with decoding on non-Acorn systems. 2.2.2 Decoding Options ---------------------- o Original - names the decoded binary file from the name included in the 'begin' line of the encoded file. Don't use this if the file doesn't have such a name in the encoding. **Default=ON** o Dec_xx - names the decoded binary file with an incremented number. **Default=OFF** o Set Decoded Filetype - sets the filetype of the decoded file, either by reading it from the encoded file or by having it entered in the writeable icon on the dialogue box. **Default=ON** o Read from input file - will cause !U2 to look for the filetype in the 'begin' line. Don't use this if the file was not encoded by !U2 with the 'Include' option set. Enter the filetype by hand as detailed below. **Default=OFF** o User defined - will cause !U2 to look for the filetype in the writeable icon. This can be entered either by clicking in the icon and entering a 3-digit hex number, or by clicking MENU on the arrowed icon and selecting a filetype from the filetypes menu. **Default=ON, &DDC** o Extract - causes !U2 to attempt to parse the encoded data to determine how many encoded parts are in the file and in what order. If the parts are in the correct order in the file, there's no need to click on this. We thought about this for some time and came to the conclusion that the only time you would have encoded data which had been split and then assembled out of order is if you got it from either an email or netnews reader, in both of which cases there will be a 'Subject: ' line for each part. If there isn't, then we're very sorry, but you'll have to take each piece out by hand. Sorry, but that's the way it goes. ALSO: !U2 assumes that the information in each Subject line contains the part number in one of the following ways. As two numbers separated by a '/' (which appears to be the de facto standard on most binaries newslists) or as 'Part x', 'part x' or 'PART x'. If it doesn't, then either edit it so it does, or extract the files by hand. If !U2 can't find the information it needs, it will offer you the choice of decoding the file as if the parts are in order or forgetting the whole thing. (Well, OK, sometimes, someone might mail you the parts without telling you which are which so !U2 will also look for files of its own by looking for U2Enc header lines.) The Hourglass LEDs will be lit while !U2 parses the input file. **Default=OFF.** (When decoding from a &7FE file, 'Set Type...' should be set to 'Read'.) !U2 will attempt to decode only the lines it sees as containing uuencoded data, so there's no need to strip mail headers or the like from the files. 2.3 Miscellaneous ----------------- o Confirm - when set, !U2 will bring up a window containing the name, icon and size of the dragged file and the processed file, and the process to be performed. Clicking on 'Proceed' will start the coding, 'Cancel' will cancel it. While the processed file's size given is quite a good estimate of the resulting file's size, it is still an estimate and you should ensure there is sufficient space when coding. !U2 will tell you if there isn't sufficient disk space to write the file. Note that an encoded file is approximately 40% bigger than the original file. **Default=ON** o Delete Source - does exactly what it says. Be Careful! **Default=OFF** 3.Filetypes ----------- In the !U2 directory is a file called 'Filetypes' which is read when !U2 starts up. You can customise which filetypes appear by altering the lines as follows: To cause !U2 to skip an existing entry, place a '+' in front of it (see existing file), to include a commented type, remove the '+' and to add a new one, simply place it before the last line (maintaining a numeric order would be nice, but is not essential) in the correct format which should be easy to deduce. !U2 will only take account of the first 50 types. It is important that the last line: '+This line must be here.' is there. If it isn't, !U2 will assume the file is corrupt and generate a new one, but the only entry will be '00D : U2Dec'. Similarly, if the file has been renamed or removed, !U2 will generate one, but it will only have one entry, as above. It is VITAL that the only lines that don't start with '+' are those lines that contain the filetypes. 4.Copyright Notice ------------------ This release of !U2 (v2.6) contains the following files: !Boot !Help !Run !RunImage !Sprites !Sprites22 Filetypes Manual <--- this file Messages Options Templates If the version you've got doesn't contain all these files, then your copy is not a legitimate copy and you should ask whomever you got your copy from "WHY THE HELL NOT?" We were going to include a Versions file but nobody *really* reads those files do they? Known Problems/Niggles: ----------------------- 30th Mar 93: Seems to have a problem with the RAM disc under RISC OS 2. 25th Nov 93: If you change from 'Lines' to 'Kb' or vice versa then you'll also have to enter the number again before clicking on 'OK'. These are the places to send comments, bug reports, compliments, suggestions and registration details: by email: pss@liverpool.ac.uk I.Giblin@.sussex.ac.uk +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ALT-itude is the software house of:- Ian Giblin and Paddy Spencer | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | This software is supplied 'as is' - absolutely no warranty is implied | | nor given. In no circumstances shall the authors be liable for any | | damage, loss of profits, time or data or any indirect or consequential | | loss arising from the use of or inability to use this software. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ⇦------------ © Paddy Spencer, 25th Nov 1993 -----------------------------⇨ 
