BCI NET/BCI NET Dec 94.iso/archives/utilities/guide/masterguide12a.lha/Guide.End

Text File | 1994-09-23 | 8.2 KB | 218 lines

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                           @{b}MasterGuide©@{ub}



This script is postcard/emailware. This means that f you use it, you are
obliged to send me a postcard, or a least an email. It is NOT allowed to
charge more that a nominal fee for this program. What compares to 1/20 of a
disks price. You are allowed to include it in other distributions, as long
as you get the PGP-signed written permission from the author to do so.


A short explanation of MasterGuide©, and how to use it.

MasterGuide© is an Arexx-script that collects alle your AmigaGuide©-files under
one guide. It does not do this by including them, but by linking them using
Amigaguide©'s own linking. This way, Masterguide© will not make a very big doc.

If you have a drawer containing all your guides (can be highly recommended)
it soon becomes hard to find the right guide. I, for example, have a compres-
sed partition (XFH) where I store all my doc's, guide's etc. off course this
is compressed with a library that does good work on textfiles.

This is where MasterGuide© enters. MasterGuide© will examine this drawer,
including sub-drawers if asked, to find guide-files to include in a master-
guide©.

After completion just view the masterguide with your favourite guideviewer,
and call your guide's from there.
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                           @{b}How To Use MasterGuide©@{ub}

MasterGuide©.rexx is an arexx script, and therefore you should call it using
the doscommand 'rx'.

It will take up to three arguments.

MasterGuide PATH/A OUTFILE ALL/S TXT/S

PATH:    Where to search for AmigaGuide©-files
OUTFILE: The name, including path, of the resulting AmigaGuide©-file.
ALL:     A switch to tell whether all subdirs should be checked as well.
TXT:     A switch which tells the MasterGuide to include all ASCII files
         as well, *** This only works under OS3.+, as it uses the data-
         types.library

When searching through a directory, MasterGuide will take some time with no
diskactivity, this is not an error, this is due to the implemented sorting
routine. Thought it's a quick-sort, it does take time to perform in arexx.


I got an idea the other day, in a tool like ToolManager, make a entry for the
Masterguide guide to be shown when pressing the HELP-key. Under OS3+ it is
sufficient to do a 'Multiview <path and guide>'.


If you use this script on @{b}pre-V39@{ub} system, please do a search-and-replace on
rexx:guide.head, so '\\' are replaced with '\'!


@{"Bugs known" link "Bugs"}
@{"Future features" link "New"}
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                    @{b}Bugs know, and not corrected at present@{ub}

There is as far as I know only one 'bug' in the script. If there are subdrawers
and the switch 'ALL' is given, drawers which have no guide's or subdrawers are
included, despite the uselessness of them
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                    @{b}Features I'm thinking of including@{ub}

A bold or the like to mark which of the included files are guides, and which
are texts.
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                             @{b}The Humble Author?@{ub}

The author of this program is:
Kenneth Fribert

My address is:
C. T. Barfoeds Vej 2, 3. tv
DK-2000 FRB
Denmark

(This is also where you should send all your postcards, oh, and when sending
postcards, remember to say hi to my fiance, Lian  :-).


A short resume:
I'm a student of computer-science at University of Copenhagen. I'm 26 years
old (/young), and live at Frederiksberg in Denmark.
I've had an Amiga since 1988, where I bought my A2000. In 1993 this was re-
placed with my current A4000, as I had the choice of upgrading to a faster
processor (I was still using 68000) or buying a new machine. I'm not too
experienced a programmer in the Amiga's way of doing things, and as Arexx is
sooo easy to program, it was tempting to do this program in that.
During the course of programming this little script (took only 2 days) I got
more and more surprised of all the powerfunctions arexx has. It's really easy
to do proper programs (and easy to doo dirty one's too).
If there are any error's in the AmigaGuide© file produced byt this program
please let me know, I haven't read the doc's for AmigaGuide©, I just did this
script reading other AmigaGuide© files.


I have several email-accounts, I'll mention them here in preffered order:

[e-mail]             (This is checked daily)
[e-mail]     (The link from InterNet to ADSP seems to
                                    have gone haywire during C='s problems,
                                    this is the developer's net.)
[e-mail]                    (This is checked more seldom, it's at my
                                    University).

I love receiving email, so if you have any feature's that are missing, bugs or
the like, let me know.

A minor complaint:
Having a powerfull computer like the Amiga, has it's ups and downsides here.
Most of the time it is acknowledged that all computers has good and bad points
(as is with Amiga's too), but with a concentration of computerusers like at
the University, it's impossible to avoid the more aggressive PC-users. Off
course the opposite appeares too (Amiga-users being aggressive). Please accept
that your computer, being an Amiga, a Mac or a PC, is not the greatest comp-
uter in the world, but as everything else, it has its strong points and weak
points. Find the computer that suits your needs, and meets your financial
requirements, and everything should be fine, it doesn't matter if it uses a
100-MHz 80(xx)86, a 7.15 MHz 68000 or a 4.77 Mhz 8088, as long as it does the
job.
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                              @{b}Acknowledgements@{ub}



WOW, I thought it was a good idea to make this script, but I didn't think that
too many other would think so, but I've had quite a lot of responses.

Jean-Michel Bezeau ([e-mail]) gave me a routine to use
datatype.library to test whether the file was a Guide, and not the archaic
method I used, the old method is kept though along with the new one, to remain
compatibel with pre-V39 systems. Jean also helped with some case-sensitivity,
and got me to use the RexxDosSupport.library.

Klaus Alexander Seistrup ([e-mail]) gave me a feature request of
multiple paths.

Finn Kettner ([e-mail]), my good budy, have been very helpfull in
the course of doing this, gave a lot of input, and enthusiasm.

They were all misused for betatesting of this release.

Lian Marcher (no email), my fiance, for complaining that I was working too much
at the computer, and thus, I got it finished sooner :-)


If @{b}you@{ub} have any suggestions for further enhancement of this little script, let
me know, I'd love to make it better, and I've got a lousy imagination :-).


There were a lot of other users asking this or that, all reported the bug
with filenames which included spaces (which I had already found :-).
Not many send regards to my fiance, READ THE DOCS, I asked you to :-), this
program is only made possible with her 'permission'.
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                           @{b}History of MasterGuide@{ub}

@{b}V1.0@{ub} First public release, I thought it was done...
@{b}V1.1@{ub} Not released.
     3/9-94 It's now possible to include multiple paths to be searched
            for Guides.
     4/9-94 A misspelling was removed :-)
     5/9-94 I was given a routine to check the file for guide, by
            using datatypes.library.
     6/9-94 A bug concerning filenames with blanks in them is
            eliminated.
@{b}V1.2@{ub} Public release 2 20/9-94
     7/9-94 RexxDosSupport.library installed, also is a better checking for
            libraries correctly loaded installed. All cases are now kept.
    15/9-94 datatypes.library finally working properly.
    15/9-94 Made a switch, so it will include normal ascii files, works only
            under OS3+
@{b}V1.2a@{ub} Public release 3 22/9-94
    22/9-94 Oh darn, I just HAD to rearrange some lines in the last second,
            so people would get an 'syntax error' or 'unknow function' or
            something like that, it's corrected.
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