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1992-03-07
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Version 2.4
By Mitchell Ross
Welcome to the latest and greatest verson of STREE! Well, what's new with 2.4?
- There's now two versions: Shareware and Registered. The Registered
version has a few more "bells & whistles".
- Less mememory usage for memory buffered reads.
- Disk buffered read for monster size drives. (S-L-O-W)
- Drive mapping/redirection information is shown when selecting
the drive to read. Users addicted to SUBST and Novell users will
love this new feature!
- A primitive, but very usefull file viewer has been added to
the file view window of the registered version. Just press ENTER
on the file to view.
- You can now shell to DOS from the main screen of the resistered
version. See below for details on how it works, and some tips for
power users.
- Better documentation! As time goes by, it WILL get better, but
this a giant step in the right direction.
- On a single file delete, a drive re-read is done upon exiting the
file view window instead of after each delete.
- The file bar now stays near last delete, just like the directory bar.
- Monochrome PC's now default to LCD color set.
- Speed-read is dead. If anybody really used it, let me know.
- After a KILL, the screen dosen't do a "down scroll", it just
jumps straight there. That one's been anoying me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What's STREE anyway?
STREE (say "ESS-tree") is a utility that reports information about your hard
drive's tree structure, and provides a quick and easy way to delete directories
that contain many files and subdirectories. Before you say "Oh no, another
shell", fire up STREE and see what it can do. STREE was never designed to be a
DOS shell type program, but rather a "what's on this drive anyway?" and a "I
need disk space NOW!" utility. As the Senior Programmer for a consulting firm,
this utility was the result of "there's gotta be a better way."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basic Usage
Using STREE is easy! If you like to use command line parameters, type STREE /?
for a help list. STREE will run completly interactive otherwise, starting with
the drive to use. Press the letter of the drive to scan, and STREE will read
all the information off your drive that it needs. After it is done reading,
you will enter the directory view mode. On screen is a report that shows the
directory tree along with information about each directory. On-line help is
available by pressing F1 from here, as shown on the top line along with some
of the functions available from this area.
Here's a summary of these functions:
View a Directory - You can view a list of files in any directory by pressing
ENTER on the directory you want to see. From this window,
you can delete single files, and view the contents of
files by pressing enter on that file.
Print - - - - - - - The report you see on screen can be saved to a disk file
or sent to a printer. If your printer cannot support the
IBM line draw characters, you have the option of
converting them to "vanilla ASCII" characters.
Kill A Directory- - This is the most powerful, and possibly dangerous,
feature of STREE. If your drive had a tree structure
like this:
ROOT
└- UTILS
├─ MACE
├─ NORT
│ └─ NC
├─ OTHER
└- PUBLIC
And you KILL'ed the NORT directory, all files in the
directories NORT and NC would be deleted, along with the
directory listings themselves. This would leave the drive
looking like this:
ROOT
└- UTILS
├─ MACE
├─ OTHER
└- PUBLIC
New Drive - - - - - Use this if you want STREE to examine another drive. If
you pressed "N" by mistake, the ESC key will back you out
without re-reading the current drive.
Find a Directory- - If the current drive is quite large, STREE can find a
directory for you with a search. The search is done on
the names of directories only, not by file names. (Well,
not yet...)
Shell to DOS- - - - Executes a DOS command in the selected directory. Memory
is swapped to EMS or a disk file. Great for moving files
to an archive, like ZIP's or ARC's.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Important Information On Shelling To DOS
STREE by nature is a memory hog in an attempt to be as fast as possible, BUT
in order to be able to do a DOS shell, we must have some memory free for DOS
to use. The solution? Swap a large portion of used memory out to EMS memory or
a temporary disk file. There's some restrictions on doing this, though.
- To swap to EMS, you'll need around 600k of EMS free.
- If there's not enough EMS free, you'll need about 600k of disk space free.
- Durring the DOS shell, the swap file on disk is left open (but hidden).
It is therefore VERY important NOT to run any programs that change low-level
information on disk, like CHKDSK or de-fragmenters.
- As in all DOS shells, loading TSR's is a big no-no. This will almost always
lead to a system crash upon returning to STREE.
If you stay within these rules, you can do just about anything you want in the
shell. If you enter the name of a program that is not in the current directory,
STREE will automatically search the path for you. The main reason for having a
shell in STREE is to free up space by using a data compression program, like
PKZIP, ARC, and the like. Here's a sample shell command I might enter:
PKZIP -M OldGames *.*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Networks, low RAM, and other topics
---- Networks
STREE is network friendly, and has been tested on Novell Netware, Netware Lite,
Lantastic, and others. In order to get accurate reports, you'll need to have
network rights to at least read the file listings in each directory. If you'll
be deleting anything, you will obviously need to have network rights to delete
those files.
---- When you run out of Memory
When STREE gives you an "Error: Out of Memory" message, there are a few things
you can try:
- Run STREE straight from the DOS prompt, as opposed to another program's
"Shell to Dos" function.
- Release as many TSR's as you can, or load them high with QEMM or a
similar class program.
- Add /D to the command line when starting STREE. This will force the read
buffers to be on disk, using a lot less memory. The major drawback is
that the time to read a drive will be 2 or 3 times longer.
--- How To Increase STREE's Performance
Some common ways to speed things up:
- A disk cache program, if you're not on a network. If you're not using
a disk cache already, then by all means go out and buy Super PC-Kwik.
It's the best one on the market, and is well worth the price. Networks
often have built-in caching on the server, so adding one to a
workstation will actually slow network access down.
- Don't the the /D option unless you have to. Disk buffering is 2 or 3
times slower than memory buffering.
- Use the SUBST command to create a logical drive. If you're only going
to use the directories off of \PUBLIC, then you might set up a drive
using this command:
SUBST Z: \PUBLIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why YOU should register your copy
For one thing, you'll be using STREE legally if you decide to use it on a
regular basis. After registering your copy, you will get:
- A registered copy of the latest version by mail. The registered copy
has more options than the shareware release.
- Free, unlimited support. You'll also have a higher chance of your
enhancement "wish list" items being used in future releases.
- You'll be entitled to FREE upgrades, just mail me a disk (any size)
and a stamped mailer. I'll fill the disk up with other programs you
might enjoy (some by me, some not...)
- Once registered, always registered.
Once you register, you will have 2 versions of STREE. The Shareware version
is the one you can copy and give away. The Registered version is for your own
use. Please don't give out this copy to anyone who has not yet sent in the
registration fee.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update history (since 2.3, when this list began)
STREE 2.3 "what's new?" list:
- This file, for one. It'll get better, don't worry.
- New and improved help system, with an index page.
- LCD color set! Now you can see what you're doing. Just add /LCD
to the command line. See the on-line help for more options.
- File count for each directory is now given.
- The LOOK function has been spiced up with a better "feel".
- That annoying "Save the SpeedRead file?" question is now gone.
It's been replaced with a smarter auto-detect method. See the
on-line help for details on how it works.
- The date and time are now displayed at the top of the report.
- Total drive size is now displayed next to the space free.
- You can now KILL single files from the LOOK window.
- After a directory KILL the pointer bar stays near where it was
before, instead of jumping back to the top.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits
Many people have helped to make STREE what it is today. Special thanks go to:
Robert Lane - Beta testing, Bug Reports, Enhancement requests, Moral support.
"Why can't STREE do ______?"
Dan Ross - Enhancement requests, Moral support.
"Put it in Shareware!"
Ronald Lane - Beta testing, Bug Reports, Enhancement requests.
"Don't delete C:\ !"
Borland Inc - The world's greatest Pascal compiler. Let's all be thankfull
that we're not stuck with Mircosoft's languages!
Compu$erve - An easy way to get 250+ downloads in 2 days, and sometimes a
registed user too. :)