home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Magnum One
/
Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso
/
d2
/
qfil31le.arc
/
QF-HIST.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-02-14
|
40KB
|
710 lines
MANUAL ADDENDUM
NEW FEATURES IN QFILER VERSION 3.1
QFILER 3.1 (QF3) is a major upgrade to QFILER versions 3.0-3.0E
which had previously replaced QFILER 2.x versions. As noted
below, the 3.x series are a rewrite of the 2.x series and
generally add substantial new features to this popular program.
The following features are new to version 3.1 and are not covered
in the QFILER "DOC" file:
May 9, 1990 (version 3.1L)
LHARC SUPPORT ADDED. If a file has a "LZH" extension, QFILER will
will assume you wish to use Yoshi's LHARC utility to Zoom, View
or Test the compressed file and will attempt to invoke LHARC.
When compressing files, you may press Ctrl-A, and QFILER will
search your pathed directories and offer ARC, ZIP and/or LZH
depending on what compression utilities are available. If you
KNOW you wish to use LHARC, then use Ctrl-L to invoke your com-
pression utilities. Remember, you may continue to simply press
ENTER when the current file is an ARC, ZIP or LZH file, and
QFILER will immediately invoke the ARCZoom function. Note: QFILER
was tested with LHARC version 1.13. To use QFILER's LHARC support
just copy LHARC.EXE into a pathed subdirectory.
TAG DUPLICATE FILE(S) FUNCTION ADDED. If you have two directories
displayed, you may press Alt-T to tag duplicate files. You will
be asked if you wish to tag all duplicate files or only duplicate
files that are newer. Press "A" for all duplicates, or "N" (the
default) for only newer files. QFILER will scan the directories,
tag duplicates as appropriate, position the current file pointer
to the first of the duplicate files on each side, and advise you
which side(s) has duplicate files tagged. If you select "newer",
then when QFILER finds duplicate files, it tags only the file
with the more recent time-date stamp.
QFIND and QFLIST AUTOMATICALLY SELECTED. QFIND is a replacement
for FINDIT, and will search all logical directories on your hard
drive(s) for files if you begin your search string with a ":".
Otherwise QFIND works just like FINDIT. QFILER will use QFIND if
it is in a pathed directory. If QFIND is not found, QF will try
to run FINDIT. QFLIST is a replacement for Buerg's LIST (for
those who wish to license their software from a single source).
Again, QFILER will use QFLIST if it is in a pathed directory,
otherwise QF will try to run Buerg's LIST. If you prefer to use
LIST and FINDIT, then DO NOT copy QFIND and/or QFLIST into a
pathed directory.
August 24, 1989 (version 3.1Hd)
MINOR CHANGE TO SUPPORT PKZIP101. PKZIP version 1.01 uses a dif-
ferent format to show files within the compressed file. QFILER
detects the use of this version of PKZIP and properly interprets
the listing when performing QFILER's "ARCZOOM" function.
MAXIMUM FILES INCREASED to 1200 files per side.
DEFAULT SET TO IGNORE MOUSE. QFILER still includes mouse support
but now defaults to "ignore mouse" to avoid annoying conflicts
with certain display adapters. To configure QFILER to recognize
a mouse, run QFINST with "/mouse" on the command line -- enter:
"QFINST /mouse" and return.
March 18, 1989 (version 3.1H)
(QFINST 1.7 must be used to modify 3.1H defaults)
NOGATE PAK SUPPORT ADDED. If a file has a "PAK" extension, QFILER
will assume you wish to use NoGate's PAK utility to Zoom, View or
Test the compressed file and will attempt to invoke PAK--
regardless of what you have installed as your default file
compression utility. If you wish to create "PAK" compressed
files, run QFINST and select NoGate PAK as your default file
compression utility.
DELETE FILES FROM WITHIN A COMPRESSED FILE when using QFILER's
Zoom feature. This option is always offered for ZIP and PAK
files, and for ARC files if using Katz's PKARC and PKPAK or
NoGate's PAK.
INSTALLED MOUSE CAN BE IGNORED by QFILER. Just enter "QFINST
/MOUSE" from the DOS prompt and you will be shown whether QFILER
is currently recognizing or ignoring the mouse. You may change
this default if you wish. This option has been added for people
who prefer their own external mouse menus to QFILER's internal
mouse support.
DEFAULT SORT ORDER FOR SIZE AND DATE may be changed by entering
"QFINST /I" from the DOS prompt. Normally QFILER sorts by size
and date in ascending order (smallest to largest, and oldest to
newest, respectively), but you may choose to have size and date
sorted in descending order so that largest or newest files are on
top. Regardless of how you set the default sort, you may continue
to invert the sort order by pressing "I" from within QFILER.
THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF FILES DISPLAYED IN ZOOM has been increased
from 200 to 400. Apparently some of you have some really BIG
compressed files.
PICK NOW EXPECTS ONLY A DRIVE LETTER, usually saving a keystroke
from earlier versions. To display a graphic tree for any drive,
simply press "P" (Pick) followed by the letter of the drive you
wish shown. Previous versions required you to answer "N" (no, not
THAT drive) followed by the drive letter you really wanted.
MISCELLANEOUS PROGRAM ERRORS (BUGS) CORRECTED. "Jumping"
selection bar corrected when using a mouse and performing
functions which shell out of QFILER. ZIP and PAK files may be
Zoomed when using a mouse and clicking on the right half of the
current selector bar. You may now attempt to delete and rename
files on write-protected floppy disks without strange things
happening (neither should be successful on a write-pretected
disk). No "pick" file will be stored on removable disks.
February 20, 1989 (version 3.1G)
KATZ'S PKZIP/PKUNZIP SUPPORT ADDED. PKZIP now co-exists with
whatever "ARC" utility you have installed as your default. There
is no need to do anything special, since QFILER will generally
guess your intentions. If you invoke your "compression" utility
with Ctrl-A (intending to do anything except ADD a compressed
file), then QFILER will select ARC or ZIP utilities based upon
the extension of the current file. If you are ADDing to a
compressed file (and have PKZIP/PKUNZIP installed in a pathed
subdirectory) then QFILER will allow you to select whether you
wish to "ARC" or "ZIP" marked files. If you KNOW you want to use
PKZIP, then use Ctrl-Z to invoke your compression utilities--
the choices are the same, but you will not be asked whether you
wish to use ARC or ZIP. Remember, you may continue to simply
press ENTER when the current file is an ARC or ZIP file, and
QFILER will immediately invoke the ARCZoom function.
January 26, 1989 (version 3.1F)
INTERNAL MOUSE SUPPORT ADDED. Virtually all QFILER options may
now be selected by use of a mouse in addition to the standard
keyboard commands. The following descriptions will help to
explain the various mouse-active areas:
The left mouse button is used to select most options. Other
actions are interpreted as follows:
"YES" - Left button. "NO" - Right button.
"ENTER" - Left button. "ESCAPE" - Right button.
A vertical "scroll bar" has been added to the right of each
directory window. If there are more files in a directory than
can be displayed in a single window, there is a bar displayed
within this scroll bar. Its size and position gives you an
idea of the relationship the displayed files have within the
selected directory. You may click on this bar and slide it up
and down to quickly display different files. If there is a
small arrow displayed above or below the scroll bar, you may
click on each to move the file selection bar towards the top
or bottom of the directory, respectively. Clicking above or
below the bar is similar to pressing PgUp/PgDn on the
keyboard.
The second line from the top of the screen (used to display
the path name) may be used to rapidly scroll the window down
(selection bar moves toward the top), or the line just below
the directory window (displaying the directory size, tagged
file size and remaining disk space) may be used to scroll the
window up (selection bar moves toward the bottom).
Help may be displayed by clicking on the prompt line just
above the bottom menu bar. To activate any of the bottom menu
bar actions, just click on the displayed word. For all other
QFILER functions (function keys, alt and control keys, and
normal keyboard assignments), click on the top line (used to
display the volume name) and a full drop-down menu will be
displayed.
Within the directory window, select a file or directory by
moving the mouse cursor to the desired file and pressing the
left mouse button. To tag or untag a file, simply click on the
selected file a second time. NOTE: to simplify some special
QFILER functions, some file types are treated in a extended
manner as described below:
DISPLAYING DIRECTORIES ON LEFT OR RIGHT: If a subdirectory
has been selected as the current file, you may click on
the left half of the selected line to display the
subdirectory on the left side of the QFILER screen, or on
the right half to display on the right side. The ">" in
the word "<DIR>" is the dividing character.
".ARC" FILES: If an ".ARC" file is the current file,
clicking on the left side of the line will tag the file;
clicking on the right side will invoke ARC-Zoom for
extracting and listing of files within the ARC. Within
ARC-Zoom, clicking left will tag the file and clicking
right will list the file.
If you press a key while the standard QFILER screen is
displayed, the mouse cursor will "park" itself in the lower
right corner of screen -- so as not to interfere with your
keyboard commands. But both the mouse and keyboard are always
active. Use whichever is most suited to the task you are
performing.
If it's not clear what you should click on the screen to
perform a particular function, first try clicking on the
appropriate word. If all else fails, the right button is your
"NO" or "ESCAPE" button. PLEASE BE CAREFUL UNTIL YOU ARE
FAMILIAR WITH THE MOUSE ACTION! The mouse is very responsive,
and it's easy to inadvertently select an undesired file--
especially when moving to the bottom and top menu areas. READ
the displayed prompts before clicking "YES". As always,
QFILER does a minimum of hand-holding.
If you have a mouse installed and would prefer to just use the
keyboard, you may choose to disable the mouse by selecting
DOS/MISC-Disable Mouse in the drop down menus. The mouse will
be ignored until you exit QFILER or enable it.
DROP-DOWN MENUS ADDED. Although implemented primarily for mouse
users, the drop-down menu is useful for people with those darn
101-key keyboards (the one where the function keys are all in the
wrong place). To invoke the drop down menu, just press "/", then
use your cursor keys to select one of the various options.
ENTER will select an option and ESCAPE will return you to the
standard display.
QFILER NOW DEFAULTS TO 25-LINE CGA MODE. If you wish to have
QFILER default to 43/50 line mode, run QFINST with "/EGA" on the
command line (enter "QFINST /EGA" at the DOS prompt). After
QFILER is running, you may toggle between 25 and 43/50 line modes
by pressing Ctrl-D.
TAGGED FILES FLAGGED. Tagged files now have a diamond character
displayed in the first column so they can be more quickly
identified.
GREY PLUS KEY MAPPED TO F10 (TAG AND ADVANCE). The minus key is
mapped to F9 -- again for convenience of those people who have
keyboards where the function keys are unreachable.
ALT-X MAPPED TO "Q" (QUIT AND RETURN TO DOS). As requested by a
programmer-type whose fingers automatically use the Borland exit-
sequence.
TAGALL NOW REPORTS CORRECT NUMBER OF FILES. A program error was
corrected that included subdirectories in the count of files to
be tagged.
QFILER AVAILABLE IN AN OVERLAID CONFIGURATION. If memory usage
must be kept to a minimum, QFILER is available (on special order)
in a configuration where an overlay file "QF3.OVR" is used.
Program execution is only slightly slower and QFILER uses about
20K less available memory when using an overlay. If using the
overlay version, you may continue to rename QFILER.EXE to
QF.EXE, but do NOT rename QF3.OVR or QFILER will complain and
make you tell it what the overlay file's new name is -- every
time you run QFILER!. Just copy both QFILER.EXE and QF3.OVR to a
pathed directory, and everything should work fine.
December 20, 1988 (version 3.1E)
DIRECTORIES MAY NOW (AGAIN) BE HIDDEN. This restores an option
that was previously in version 2.x. Further, if you hide an
already hidden file or directory, it becomes a system file or
directory. We've never seen a system directory, but it does seem
to work.
VERSION NUMBER ON HELP SCREENS. The version number is now shown
on the top line of each help screen.
SMALL ADJUSTMENTS MADE. Several minor cosmetic changes have been
made to recent new features.
November 4, 1988 (version 3.1D)
QFINST 1.5 must be used to change CGA <-> EGA/VGA
EGA/VGA MODES USER CONFIGURABLE. QFILER defaults to the greatest
number of lines available on your monitor. If you have EGA/VGA
and the type is too small, you may change the QFILER default to
25 lines by running QFINST version 1.5 with "/CGA" on the command
line. In other words, at the DOS prompt, type: QFINST /CGA
You may press Ctrl-D to switch between EGA/VGA and CGA while in
QFILER. QFINST should be in the same subdirectory as QFILER.
"FILL" FUNCTION A LITTLE SMARTER. Before offering the option of
FILLING disks, QFILER now checks the target drive for files that
will be overwritten. FILL will be offered only if the disk space
on the target drive appears to be insufficient to accept the
files you wish to copy.
PKUNPAK COMMAND LINE PROBLEM CORRECTED. The QFILER screen will
no longer scroll up one line when selecting PKUNPAK, extract ALL
files.
INVERTED SORTS ARE MAINTAINED WHEN READING NEW DIRECTORIES. If
you have selected inverted (descending) sorts, the sort will
remain in inverted order more consistently when changing
directories.
November 1, 1988 (version 3.1C)
EGA 43-LINE AND VGA 50-LINE MODES SUPPORTED. QFiler will adjust
to EGA/VGA mode when loaded. If you wish to switch to CGA 25-line
mode (or back to EGA/VGA), press Ctrl-D (Display Toggle). On
exit, QFILER will restore the video mode active when QFILER was
loaded.
"FILL" FUNCTION ADDED. If you have tagged one or more files, are
copying to drives A: or B: (assumed to be a floppy disk), and
QFILER believes the tagged files will not fit on the target
drive, you will be given the option of FILLING disks. If
selected, QFILER will fill the disk to within 1K of maximum
capacity (selecting largest files first, then smaller files as
appropriate), then prompt you to swap disks. When all tagged
files have been copied, you will be offered several choices of
how you wish to redisplay the source directory. NOTE: QFILER does
not compare files to see if any will be overwritten, but simply
disk space free. If you wish to override the FILL function, just
answer "N" to the prompt displayed, and QFILER will revert to
it's "normal" copy.
KATZ'S PKPAK and PKUNPAK SPECIFICALLY SUPPORTED. Use QFINST to
select Buerg ARCx, Katz PKARC, or Katz PKPAK as you desire.
TWO OPTIONS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE ARCHIVE SUBMENU. You may now
press "T" to test the integrity of an archive, or "Z" (zoom) to
display the contents of an archive and list or extract
individual files. While the contents of an archive are
displayed, you have the following options:
Up or Down - Use cursor arrow keys to select current file.
F9 - Tag or UnTag the current file.
F10 or T - Tag or UnTag the current file and advance.
U or Enter - UnTag all files.
E - Extract tagged files, or current if none tagged.
L or S - Browse (using LIST) current or tagged files.
Q or ESC - Quit Archive Zoom and return to the main display.
The number of files in the archive are now displayed at the
bottom of the archive box, along with the total size of tagged
files. The files within an archive will remain displayed for
action until "Q" or <ESC> is pressed. If files are extracted to
the current directory, that directory will be redisplayed.
FREE MEMORY (after QFILER is loaded) IS DISPLAYED at the far
right of the prompt line (above the bottom menu bar) when the
UnTagAll option is active (most of the time). The number will
change as QFILER runs, indicating QFILER's usage of this "free"
memory.
YOU MAY INVERT THE SORT ORDER OF A SIDE by pressing "I"
(Invert). QFILER defaults to ascending order, but "I" will
toggle between descending and ascending. If a side is displayed
in descending order, a small arrow will be displayed in the
right corner of the top line indicating the current sort
direction. QFILER remembers the current sort direction, and will
display new directories in that direction.
FILES ARE NOW COPIED IN LARGER BLOCKS, resulting in faster
copies, with fewer disk accesses. And Qfiler is now SMALLER,
taking just under 115K of memory.
BUILDING OF GRAPHIC DIRECTORY TREE (PICK) IS NOW FASTER, because
a file is stored in the root directory of each logical drive
containing the last tree built by QFILER. If you ONLY add and
remove subdirectories from within QFILER, the displayed tree will
be correct. If you have made subdirectory changes ouside of
QFILER (perhaps by installing a new application), or you suspect
the displayed tree is incorrect, you may press "C" (Clear) when a
tree is displayed, and a new tree will be built. If your printer
supports the IBM character set, you may also press "P" to print a
hard copy of the displayed tree.
June 20, 1988 (version 3.1B)
June 22, 1988 (version 3.1Ba)
GOTO (JUMP) COMMAND ADDED. If you have especially large
directories, you may press "G", followed by the first letter of a
filename you wish to locate. QFILER will scan the current
directory and position the highlight bar on the first occurrence
of a file whose name begins with the character you indicated.
Automatic forward and reverse scans will be performed, and
subdirectory names are ignored. (Minor bug corrected by 3.1Ba)
LIST INDIVIDUAL FILES WITHIN AN ARCHIVE WITHOUT EXTRACTING! An
earlier QF release added the ability to extract individual files
from within an ARChived file. Now you may select and view
individual files (using Buerg's LIST.COM), without actually
extracting them and cluttering up your hard drive. This feature
is intended primarily for reading "DOC" files within an ARChive
and expects Buerg's LIST to be used for the "list" utility, so
those of you who have substituted other editors or browse
utilities may have some problems. To use, press ALT-A (Archive
utilities), followed by "L" (List). The individual files within
the current ARC file will be listed. Tag those files you wish to
view and press <ENTER>. All tagged files will be extracted and
piped to LIST so you may browse through them. Exit LIST, and
you'll be back in QFILER. WARNING: If Buerg's LIST.COM is not
used, selecting this option will have unpredictable results.
DIRECTORY POSITION MAINTAINED WHEN DELETING FILES. The highlight
bar will be positioned either on the file immediately before or
after a deleted file. Previously, the first filename was
highlighted after deleting one or more files. If you have marked
files and choose to delete only the current file, your markings
will be lost, but the highlight bar will be above or below your
deleted file.
FILES MAY BE COPIED FROM A WRITE-PROTECTED DISKETTE. A program
error prohibited copying files from a diskette that had a
write-protect tab attached.This error has been corrected.
SET-BLOCK ERRORS EXPLAINED. You should NEVER execute a TSR
(terminate-and-stay-resident) program from within a program that
allows you to "shell" to DOS. To do so messes up the way DOS
manages your memory. QFILER is no exception. Except that in
QFILER's case, QF does some memory management before executing a
external program (or "shelling" to DOS). If you execute a TSR
program and return to QFILER, QF determines that something has
messed up the memory it thought it had available to it and
complains of a "SET-BLOCK" error. Sorry... this is something
that occurs outside of QF's control and there's nothing QF can do
to recover gracefully. Don't do that!
February 14, 1988 (version 3.1A)
EXPLICIT SUPPORT FOR BOTH BUERG AND KATZ ARCHIVE UTILITIES. You
may select which of these two popular user-supported archive
utilities you wish to use though the use of QFINST (Buerg is the
default). If PKARC has been selected, then the selection of
Ctrl-A, A (Add or Update an ARC), will result in fewer calls to
PKARC since multiple files are communicated to it by QFILER.
ADDITION OF INDIVIDUAL FILE EXTRACTING from an ARC'd file.
Selection of Ctrl-A, E (Extract files from an ARC) now offers the
choice "<A>ll or <I>ndividual files?". Pressing "I" will display
a window in which all the files of the selected ARC are
displayed. You may select one or more files to be extracted and
the drive/directory to which they should be written. QFILER will
send the appropriate commands to your selected ARChive utility
and extract only those files you have tagged.
SINGLE KEY INVOCATION OF LIST AND FINDIT. Although you may
continue to invoke both LIST and FINDIT by using the "List"
submenu, the single keystroke keys "S" and "F" have been mapped
to perform these functions without having to press "L" first. "S"
= Show a file (using Buerg's LIST). "F" = Find file(s) (using
FINDIT).
COMPOSITE VIDEO MONITOR SUPPORT has been added. Just run QFINST
with a /M on the command line, then write the changes to QFILER.
This solves the problem of a composite video monitor attached to
a color video card by substituting normal mono "colors" for the
default color table and runs QFINST in monochrome as well.
REFRESH OF SCREEN AFTER ARCA/ARCE. In most cases, the proper
target directory of an ARC-Add/Update or ARC-Extract will be
shown even if your selected target drive is other than the
current drive/directory. Files are no longer "UnTagged" after an
ARC-Add/Update.
"NOVICE" MODE ADDED. QFILER includes several advanced and
potentially dangerous features especially in the hands of a
novice computer user. There is now a procedure whereby Corporate
Micro Managers or Trainers can disable a number of these more
advanced features. (You are licensing those corporate copies,
aren't you?) If QFINST is run with a /NOVICE on the command line,
you will be shown the current level of QFILER and may toggle
modes between Novice and Intermediate. Selection of the Novice
mode will result in the following:
Set/Clear Attribute Bits (sht-F1/F2) disabled.
Hide/Unhide (sht-F3/F4) disabled.
Protect/UnProtect (sht-F5/F6) disabled.
Set File Time/Date (sht-F9) disabled.
Shell to DOS (ctrl-S) disabled.
System/Hidden/ReadOnly files are NOT displayed and consequently
may neither be copied nor deleted.
EXIT TO CURRENT DIRECTORY added through the use of Ctrl-Q.
In summary, <ESC> and <Q> will exit QFILER and return to the
original directory -- Ctrl-Q returns to the directory currently
active and displayed on the QFILER screen.
SIZES NOW DISPLAYED "CORRECTLY". Well, they weren't really wrong
before, but they are now shown as a multiple of 1000 bytes
rather than 1024 bytes. In other words, an empty DS/DD floppy
will show 362K free and be less confusing.
FLASHING POINTER RESTORED. It's tricky, but if someone REALLY
wants to go back to the QF2.x-style flashing pointer instead of
the inverse video for current and tagged files, it now happens
automatically if you run QFINST and set the tagged color to the
same as the current color. Suggest gray on blue for current (same
as the normal display); white on blue for both tagged and
tagged+current. Write the new defaults and rerun QFILER.You
should now see a flashing pointer in the left margin.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VERSIONS 2.X AND 3.X
QFILER version 3.x (QF3), is a major upgrade to previous
2.x versions of the program the last version being 2.3F,
released in the late summer of 1987. All of the features of the
earlier versions have been retained or improved, plus some major
new features added. The changes are summarized below, separated
into two groups; Minor things that are slightly different, and
Major those features that are either new or substantially
different from previous versions.
MINOR CHANGES
MARK / UNMARK is now TAG and UNTAG. This change was made to
allow the use of [M] to be used for Move. You will have to get
used to pressing [T] instead of [M] to tag-all-files. To ease
the confusion somewhat, when selecting an option that operates on
either current or tagged files, you may press either [T] or [M]
to select all-tagged-files. For example, to copy all tagged files
you could press the sequence [C]-[T]/[M]-[Y] meaning "copy all
tagged files yes, do it".
HELP is now displayed on the non-active side of the screen, and
is contained in two screens. When the first screen is displayed
(showing function key assignments), press [N] to see the next
screen (alt- and control-key assignments) or [ESC] to return to
the normal display. When the next, or second screen is displayed,
press [P] to view the previous screen. Prompts are at the bottom
of the help screen.
YES/NO questions now have a default value which may be accepted
by pressing [ENTER]. The default will be indicated by the
bracketed letter, for example [Y]/N which will be interpreted as
YES if you press either [Y] or [ENTER]. To abort an operation,
press [ESC], which will be interpreted as NO.
CURRENT FILE POINTER (the triangle with flashing cursor) is gone
and has been replaced (on a color monitor) with a moving colored
bar. Tagged files are normally shown in inverse video. If the
moving bar is placed on a tagged file, the characters will flash
indicating the file is both marked and current.
ARCHIVE BIT is now shown as a small "a" next to file time. QF3
will now set the archive bit on all copied files. In addition,
shift-F1 can be used to set the archive bit on selected files,
while shift-F2 may be used to clear the archive bit on selected
files.
"DOT" and "DOUBLE-DOT" FILES are no longed displayed as the top
two files in a subdirectory, and are replaced with a single
"PARENT DIR" entry. Selecting the "PARENT" entry and pressing F3
or F4 will move "up" one level in your subdirectory tree. You may
move immediately to the "PARENT" of the current directory by
pressing alt-F3 (to display on the left) or alt-F4 (on right).
COMPLETELY EMPTY directories (such as on a newly-formatted
floppy disk) will be displayed with the message "NO FILES"
displayed in the middle of that side.
DELETION of HIDDEN, READ-ONLY and SYSTEM files now require
operator confirmation before deletion. Attempted deletion of
SYSTEM files will also result in a warning and second operator
confirmation before the deletion will be performed. (Too many
folks who had never seen IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM before,
decided to "clean up" their hard drives with some
disastrous results!)
CRITICAL ERRORS, such as selecting a floppy drive with no disk
inserted, are now trapped more consistently and reported as
"selected drive does not respond...".
USE OF ARCE and ARCA will result in the current side being
reread and redisplayed after the ARChive utility has been run the
assumption being that something has now changed in the current
directory. The currently selected file will remain selected.
ESCAPE pressing the [ESC] key will usually abort an
operation. You may "quit" QF3 by pressing either [Q] or [ESC].
DRIVE/DIRECTORY COMMAND LINE CHOICES will now be immediately
displayed the QF3 signon screen will not be displayed and no
beep will be played. For example, invoking QF3 by entering "QF A
C:" at the DOS prompt will result in the root directory of A:
being displayed on the left side, and the current directory of
drive C: being displayed on the right side.
ALL OTHER COMMAND LINE SWITCHES have been removed. See QFINST
below for information on how to modify QF3 to fit your favorite
configuration. SPEED of operations, especially sorts, has been
improved. In many cases, it may be done without you noticing
anything has occurred!
BOTTOM MENU OPTION-LETTERS are now highlighted (on a color
monitor). Each of the options may be selected by either pressing
the key letter, or by changing the selected option by pressing
the spacebar or tab key, then pressing [ENTER].
A FILE MAY BE COPIED TO A DIFFERENT NAME by pressing alt-C. You
will be prompted for a new file name. If a file exists with the
new name, the copy will not be performed.
MAJOR CHANGES
SORT CHOICES (name, extension, size, date, and unsorted) are now
"remembered" when selected and will remain in effect for both
sides of the screen until changed. The current sort choice is
displayed at the top right corner of each side to show how that
side is sorted (no display means unsorted). QF3 now defaults to
sorted-by-filename instead of unsorted. If you wish to change
this default, you may see QFINST below. In addition, if you
change the sort option on a side, the currently selected file
will remain selected after the sort and will be highlighted in
the middle of the screen.
MOVE has been added to the bottom option menu. If a true move
can not be performed (where both the source and target
directories are on the same drive) then the user is given the
option to perform a "pseudo-move" a copy, followed by a delete.
Move has been extended to DOS 2.1 users.
DIRECTORY MASKS may be entered by pressing shift-F10. QF3
defaults to all files (*.*), but you may enter some other mask,
or return to the default (press shift-F10, then [ENTER] without
entering a new mask). If the current mask is not *.*, then it
will be displayed at the top left corner of each side. Masks
remain in effect until changed. For example, if you wish to
display only "BAK" files, press shift-F10 and enter " *.BAK".
Only those files whose extensions are "BAK" will then be
displayed until you enter a different mask.
PICK has been added to the bottom option menu. Selection of this
option will display an alpha-sorted, visual tree of
subdirectories on a drive displayed on the non-current side of
the screen. You may scroll through the directories, then press
[ENTER] to display the selected directory on the opposite side of
the screen. Pressing cursor-right and cursor-left will move the
tree display to the opposite side of screen. The currently
displayed directory will be highlighted in the tree.
ARChive UTILITIES OTHER THAN BUERG'S ARCE, ARCA and ARCV may be
used by running QFINST (see below) and changing the default, then
creating QFARCE.BAT, QFARCA.BAT, and QFARCV.BAT files with
appropriate replaceable parameters to invoke your favorite
ARChive utility.
QFINST, a QF3 configuration utility, has been furnished so that
you can easily change several of QF3's defaults to your liking.
You may change:
SORT CHOICE Select sort by file name, extension, size,date or
unsorted. Normally by file name.
FILE MASK Normally all files (*.*).
ARChive UTILITY Buerg's ARCA, ARCE and ARCV or Katz's PKARC
and PKXARC.QFILER optimizes it's interface with your selected
utility. Normally Buerg's utilities.
DIRECT SCREEN WRITES Normally QF3 will write directlyto video
memory, but if you wish to redirect through BIOS calls (at a
substantial loss of speed), you may.
CHECK SNOW ON CGA Turn ON if you wish direct screen writes to
be made only during horizontal retrace intervals (reducing
"snow"on most CGA monitors). Normally OFF (since EGA's are
becoming more common).
CONFIRM EXIT If you wish to confirm you really want to return
to DOS after pressing the [ESC] or [Q] key. Normally quit-to-
DOS is NOT confirmed.
QF3 COLORS You may select new colors for the various
combinations of QF3 foreground/background colors resulting in
some really garish screens, or to optimize for your
particular monitor. If you really get things messed up, you
can easily restore the original default color combinations.
A QF3 program that has been modified by running QFINST will have
a message displayed on the second of the "help" screens
indicating that it has been user modified.
QFILER (c) copyright 1986, 1987, 1988 by
Jamestown Software
2508 Valley Forge Drive
Madison WI 53719
BBS: 608-271-3685
Quantity purchase and site license information: 608-271-2090