Magnum One/Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso/d22/wssi338a.arc/OVERVIEW.DOC

Text File | 1988-09-16 | 11KB | 265 lines

         Copyright (C) 1988 by Robert W. Babcock and WSS Division of DDC
                               All Rights Reserved


                                WSSINDEX Overview

        This  is  an introduction to WSSINDEX for new users.   After  you
        have  read this file and tried out the program,  you should  read
        the complete documentation.

        What is it?   WSSINDEX creates and maintains a database with  all
        the  information about your disks available from the DIR command,
        plus  optional  descriptive comments  and  categories.   You  can
        search  the  database  interactively,  or you can print  it  with
        various  sorting  and selection options.   An  auxiliary  routine
        allows printing disk labels and disk covers.  The most common use
        of  the  program  is to keep track of files on  a  collection  of
        floppy disks,  but you can index anything which looks like a disk
        to DOS, including hard disks, RAM disks and some tape cartridges.
        One  option allows hard disk users to make a listing of all files
        on a hard disk which do not have backup copies on another disk.

        What  hardware and software do I need?   An IBM-PC or  moderately
        compatible  MS-DOS  machine  (a  Dec  Rainbow  version  is   also
        available),  DOS-2  or higher and either a video board compatible
        with  an  IBM monochrome display or color  graphics  adapter,  or
        support  for ANSI escape sequences.   If you lack the  last,  the
        screen display will be badly garbled; more details below.

        How  many disks can I index?   There is a hard limit (set by  the
        64K segment size of the 8088 CPU chip) of approximately 16K files
        (or  disks,  or subdirectories),  and a practical limit of 10-12K
        files if you have 640K of memory.  Extended or expanded memory is
        not  used,  but  DOS memory beyond 640K is used  if  your  system
        supports it.

        How  do  I run the program?   Start it up by typing WSSINDEX  (or
        WSSInnn  if you haven't renamed the executable file and it  still
        includes the version number).   You will see a few messages which
        require  yes or no answers (if you just hit return,  you get  the
        defaults  shown in the prompt),  and then you will get  into  the
        configuration  section of the program.

        "Help!  my screen is all messed up.   I see funny numbers, square
        brackets  and other garbage mixed in with normal text."  Did this
        happen  to  you?   If  so,  it  means that  your  system  is  not
        configured  to recognize ANSI escape sequences  for  highlighting
        and  cursor  positioning.   The separate file  ANSISYS.DOC  gives
        instructions  for adding this capability to your system,  but for
        most  machines,  there's a better (faster) alternative.   If  you
        have a monochrome display adapter (MDA) or color graphics adapter
        (CGA),  or another video board which can be made to respond  like
        one of these,  you can tell WSSINDEX to do screen input/output by
        writing  directly  to  video memory.   As part  of  the  standard
        distribution package, you should find configuration files MDA.CNF











        and  CGA.CNF.   Figure  out  which one is  appropriate  for  your
        hardware, and invoke WSSINDEX by

             WSSINDEX CGA
        or   WSSINDEX MDA

        (note  that the extension .CNF is supplied automatically  if  you
        leave it off.  You can specify a drive or path if necessary.)

        If  you did not find it necessary to specify a configuration file
        on the command line,  the program will not find one,  so it  will
        initialize  with default options and will display those  defaults
        for you.   You can change options at this point or later;  simply
        follow  the  instructions given on-screen.   Notice  that  almost
        every  configuration  option  has a default value  which  can  be
        selected  by just hitting return.   If you did not use one of the
        supplied  configuration files listed in the  previous  paragraph,
        you  will probably want to change the video output method to  CGA
        or MDA.   This will increase the screen writing speed by a factor
        of  5 or so.   Exit from the configuration section by replying no
        when asked if you want to make any changes.

        You  will  now see a menu with a multitude of  options,  many  of
        which you can ignore at this point.   Hit I to select which drive
        or drives to use for indexing.   If you have two drives,  you can
        select  A and B and use then alternately;  otherwise just  select
        the same drive twice.  Hit A to start indexing.  You will be told
        to insert a disk and hit the space bar;  do so.   If the disk was
        previously  labeled (by the /V option of FORMAT or by some  other
        utility),  the  label  will be displayed and the  disk  directory
        information will be added to the database.   If the disk was  not
        labeled,  you  will be given the options to write a label on  it,
        enter  a  label  to use (but not write on  the  disk),  list  the
        directory on screen,  or return to the main menu.   WSSINDEX will
        spend a few seconds reading the disk, and will then prompt you to
        hit  the space bar to index the next disk.   Feed it a few  disks
        this way,  then hit return instead of space to return to the main
        menu.

        Now you can try some of the program options.   Hit D and see  how
        many  files  and  disks you have entered.   Hit P  to  print  the
        database.   When asked for selection/rejection options,  just hit
        return  to  select  everything.   When asked to  select  printer,
        screen, disk or export output, hit S.  And when asked for sorting
        options,  enter 1,2 and hit return.  You should now get a listing
        of  all  files in the database,  sorted by  name  and  extension,
        pausing until you hit a key whenever you fill the screen.  At the
        top  of  the  list  will  be dummy  entries  for  each  disk  and
        subdirectory.   In  the  main  documentation file you  will  find
        instructions  for various methods of controlling whether  or  not
        these  appear.   If you don't want to see the entire listing  you
        can  interrupt  it by hitting ^C (control C).   When the  listing
        finishes and you return to the menu display,  enter ^F for  quick
        find.    When   prompted   for   file   specs,   enter   wildcard
        specifications  one per line,  ending with an  empty  line.   For











        example,  *.COM  and *.EXE will match all executable files.   All
        files which match these specs will be displayed on screen.

        There  are  three  different types of disk  files  which  can  be
        written  by  WSSINDEX:  (1)  configuration  files  (default  name
        WSSINDEX.CNF) which contain setup information and are short,  (2)
        database files (default name WSSINDEX.DIR) which contain the disk
        directory  information  and can be quite large,  and (3)  printer
        files  which  contain output which could have been  sent  to  the
        screen or a printer instead.   Only the first two of these can be
        read by WSSINDEX.

        Select  option  W to write a database file.   Note that  you  are
        prompted with a default name of WSSINDEX.DIR.  You can hit return
        to  accept  this default,  or you can modify any  of  the  drive,
        subdirectory,  name and extension.  For example, if you enter B:,
        the output file will still be called WSSINDEX.DIR, but it will be
        forced  to drive B.   Or if you enter \TESTING\TRY1,  the  output
        will  go  to subdirectory TESTING,  file TRY1.DIR on the  default
        drive.  (One quirk, you can't specify a subdirectory name with an
        extension, even though this should be allowed.)

        Select  option  Q (or ^Q) and return to  DOS.   Verify  that  the
        database file was written where you expected.

        Restart the program.   If you saved a configuration file with the
        default name (note that the instructions above didn't tell you to
        do  this,  but  you  might  have  done  so  anyway  if  you  were
        adventurous),  notice  that it is automatically restored and  you
        are prompted for the name of a database file to read.  Otherwise,
        after  configuring,  select the G option to get a  database  from
        disk and reload the database you just saved.  Use the V option to
        list  the volumes in the database,  sorted by name,  free  space,
        date indexed or unsorted.

        Now  you have a feel for how the program operates and you  should
        read the complete DOC file.   Some important things you will find
        there  are  instructions for changing the default names  for  the
        configuration and database files, detailed explanation of all the
        program options,  how to use the add-comments section, and how to
        register  your copy of the program.   Also look at file  WSSITIPS
        for  the answers to some commonly asked questions,  and the other
        DOC  files for descriptions of the various utility routines.   If
        you  want  to  print  disk  labels  or  disk  covers,   see   the
        documentation for CUSTPRNT.

        Register?   What's that mean,  I thought this was free (or, but I
        already paid $5 to company X for the program  disk)?   Well,  not
        exactly.   WSSINDEX  is shareware,  and you can evaluate  it  for
        free.   Also,  you  may freely copy the distribution package  and
        give copies away,  and public domain copying services can provide
        copies for a nominal fee,  but if you use the program  regularly,
        you  are required to pay a registration fee.   Not only will this
        clear  your conscience,  it also gives you an opportunity to  ask
        the  author to add features to the program.   And as long as  the











        registrations  keep  trickling in,  I won't stop  supporting  the
        program (there's always another bug to kill),  and I won't resort
        to distributing a crippled or demo version.  The registration fee
        is $25; for full details see file INVOICE.DOC or WSSInnn.DOC.

        Robert W. Babcock
        WSS Division of DDC
        4 Reeves Road
        Bedford, MA  01730
        USA
        617-275-1183