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1992-05-12
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Release Notes on DFS.EXE
------------------------
- Current Version : V1.0
(The version number can be found on the
credits panel when you leave the program)
- Author : Denis PHILIPS
Holleweg 5
9320 Erembodegem-Aalst
BELGIUM
- Date Released : May 12th, 1992
* Credits & Public Domain (Try not to skip this section)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First I want to say 'THANKS !' to all those people who have
been so kind to release programs as public domain or as
shareware. Their sources and ideas have inspired me in this
program, and I dare say that some of them contain more valuable
information than commercial programs.
Nobody likes to pay for things, that for sure, but everybody
wants to feel that what they've done is appriciated. That's
why I don't want any money for this program; I enjoyed writing
it and I would even enjoy more if I knew the program is being used.
So I'd like to ask you to send me an ANSICHT-card (a post card)
of the area where you live. It will stimulate me and the people
I know in writing more programs and in sharing our knowledge with
fellow programmers. (My address is mentioned above this section)
Thanks again !
* Purpose of the program DFS.EXE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The name DFS stands for Duplicate File Searcher.
Have you ever had the idea that your hard disk's space
is used to much by different versions of the same file,
or even worse, by identical versions of the same file ?
Well, this program can help you in sorting out
the ones you don't need anymore. All this program does
is scanning the drives you select for files with the same
name. You will be able to scroll through the list of
duplicates and to select files for deletion.
See the Help-panel for controls.
This program can be used by people running out of
hard disk space who want to delete all those HIMEM.SYS drivers
that come with DOS, but also with a lot of other MicroSoft
packages. And don't forget all the UNZIP.EXE files installed
by almost all Borland packages.
You will not only gain hard disk space; the risk of launching
older versions of executables will disappear if you only have
the most recent version on your disk.
Programmers will easily find out where the most recent
source codes of their programs reside, and will be able to delete
the sources they don't need anymore.
* Technical Notes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The program was completely written using an official (really!)
version of Turbo Pascal 6.0 and an official (really!!) version
of MicroSoft DOS 5.0.
The program reads all files from the selected drives into a
binary tree (When a selected drive is not ready it is simply
skipped). The binary tree's search key is the filename so it's
very easy to locate all the duplicates and to transfer them
to a linked list to scroll through.
The problem in building the binary tree can be that there is
not enough available memory to store all the directory entries.
In that case a warning is displayed that only the directory
entries read uptil then will be scanned for duplicates. Future
releases of the program may use temporary files or extended/
expanded memory.
Note that in the program the space occupied by a flagged
duplicate is rounded to the number of bytes occupied by the
clusters for that file on that specific drive.
E.g. : A file of 1653 bytes could be rounded to 2048 bytes
(= 2 clusters on most hard disks) or a file of 720 bytes could
be rounded to 1024 bytes (= 2 clusters on most RAM drives).
This is useful especially for the space occupied by the
selected files, because after all, I think most people will
use the program to regain space on their hard disks.
And what's more important than knowing exactly how much bytes
will be freed up ?
* Future Releases
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I intend to add some features to the program such as
- a more standard user interface (Turbo Vision);
- the use of temporary files or extended/expanded memory;
- ability to configure colors (this version was written
for use with color displays)
- ability to search files with equal - Filenames
- Filesizes
- Filedates
- Filetimes
- Filedates & filetimes
- ...
These things will systematically be added in future releases of
the program. You'll find these updates were you found this copy.
Source codes of earlier versions will also be released.
- Please remember the Ansicht-card.
- Happy Computing (Don't forget your wives and don't spoil your
health by staying up too late) !
- Denis -