Brotikasten/BROTCD01.iso/c128/c148.d64/arcdocs1.cbm

Text File | 1995-08-09 | 15KB | 486 lines

 ┴╥├ ─OCS
 (╨ART 1/2)


 ╞ILE ┴RCHIVE ╒TILITY

 ┴╥├ ╓ERSION 1.34 ╥ELEASED ╩ULY 86


 ┴╥├  IS THE COPYRIGHTED PROPERTY OF ┴MPERE ═ETAL.  ┘OU ARE GRANTED A LIMITED
 LICENSE TO USE, COPY, AND DISTRIBUTE ┴╥├ PROVIDED THAT THE FOLLOWING
 CONDITIONS ARE MET:

 1)   ╬O FEE MAY BE CHARGED FOR COPYING OR DISTRIBUTION. ╔F YOU GIVE A COPY TO
 A FRIEND OR ASSOCIATE OR LET HIM DOWNLOAD IT FROM YOUR BULLETIN BOARD, IT MUST
 BE DONE FREE OF CHARGE. ╔NDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS WHICH CHARGE A 'MODERATE
 COPYING FEE' FOR  COPYING AND DISTRIBUTION ARE ENCOURAGED TO MAKE A 'MODERATE
 CONTRIBUTION' TO THE AUTHORS OF ┴╥├.

 2)   ┴╥├ MAY ONLY BE DISTRIBUTED IN ITS ORIGINAL, UNMODIFIED STATE INCLUDING
 ALL DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED.

 3)   ╔F YOU ARE USING ┴╥├ IN A NON-COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENT, THEN YOU ARE
 ENCOURAGED TO MAKE A VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION. ╔F YOU ARE USING ┴╥├ IN A
 COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENT, THEN THAT CONTRIBUTION IS NOT VOLUNTARY.


 ╘HE SUGGESTED CONTRIBUTION FOR PERSONAL  USE IS $10.00-$20.00
 ╘HE SUGGESTED CONTRIBUTION FOR ORGANIZATIONS IS $35.00-$50.00

 ┴NY CONTRIBUTIONS WILL BE APPRECIATED AND SHOULD BE MAILED TO:


 ┴MPERE ═ETAL
 80 ╚ALE ╥OAD UNIT 4
 ┬RAMPTON, ╧NTARIO
 ╠6╫ 3═1


 ┴NYONE CONTRIBUTING $20.00 OR MORE WILL RECIEVE PRINTED DOCUMENTATION, AND A
 1541/4040 DISKETTE CONTAINING THE LATEST VERSION OF ┴╥├. (╨LEASE BE SURE TO
 INCLUDE YOUR CORRECT ADDRESS AND POSTAL CODE.) ╞EEL FREE, HOWEVER, TO
 CONTRIBUTE ANY AMOUNT YOU LIKE. ╘HE WHOLE IDEA BEHIND USER SUPPORTED SOFTWARE
 IS THAT YOU THE USER PAY WHAT THE SOFTWARE IS WORTH TO ┘╧╒. ╫E LOOK FORWARD TO
 HEARING ANY COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS THAT YOU HAVE. ╔F WE FEEL THEY ARE WORTH
 WHILE WE WILL CONSIDER THEM IN FUTURE VERSIONS OF ┴╥├.

 ╘HERE ARE MANY WAYS IN WHICH ┴╥├ CAN BE IMPROVED. ╓ERSION 1.00 USED ONLY
 STRAIGHT STORAGE AND ╚UFFMAN SQUEEZING. ╥UN-LENGTH ENCODING WAS ADDED IN
 VERSION 1.30.
 ╠EMPEL-┌EV COMPRESSION RESULTS IN SHORTER OUTPUT FILES IN MOST CASES AND IS
 SLATED FOR FUTURE VERSIONS OF ┴╥├. ╨┼╘ AND FAST SERIAL ├128 VERSIONS WILL ALSO
 BE AVAILIABLE, AS WELL AS ROUTINES DESIGNED FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH ONLY A
 SINGLE 1541 DRIVE. ╥ELATIVE FILES, ╥ANDOM ACCESS FILES, RUNNING PROGRAMS FROM
 AN ARCHIVE...
 THE LIST OF POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS IS ENDLESS.

 ╨ROGRAM DEVELOPMENT TAKES TIME. ╠OTS OF IT. ╘HE MORE SUPPORT WE GET FROM YOU
 IN THE FORM OF CONTRIBUTIONS AND CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, THE MORE MOTIVATED WE
 WILL BE TO SPEND OUR TIME ON IMPROVING ┴╥├.

 ******************************************************************************


   ┴╬┘╫┴┘....   ABOUT ┴╥├

     ╔NTRODUCTION......................

 ┴╥├ WAS INSPIRED BY THE PROGRAM OF THE SAME NAME WHICH HAS BEEN AVAILIABLE TO
 ═╙-─╧╙ USERS FOR SOME TIME NOW. ┴╥├ ALLOWS YOU TO TAKE SEVERAL RELATED FILES
 AND BACK THEM UP INTO A SINGLE ARCHIVE FILE. ╘HE RESULTING ARCHIVE IS
 GENERALLY 10% TO 50% SMALLER THAN THE COMBINED LENGTHS OF THE ORIGINAL FILES.

 ╫HEN HUFFMAN CODING IS USED TO SQUEEZE FILES, THE COMPRESSION RATIO (THE
 ORIGINAL LENGTH DEVIDED BY THE SQUEEZED LENGTH) IS ABOUT 1.11 FOR PROGRAMS,
 1.6 FOR TEXT FILES, AND CAN BE 2.0 OR MORE FOR GRAPHICS SCREENS. ╚UFFMAN CODED
 FILES SHOW UP AS 'SQUEEZED' ON AN ARCHIVE DIRECTORY. ╥UN-LENGTH  SQUEEZING
 ('PACKING') IS SOMETIMES MORE EFFECTIVE, PARTICULARLY ON GRAPHICS SCREENS.

 ┴╥├ MAKES TWO PASSES THROUGH EACH SOURCE FILE. ╧N THE FIRST PASS ┴╥├ COUNTS
 THE NUMBER OF BYTES IN THE FILE AND CALCULATES A TWO BYTE CHECKSUM WHICH IS
 LATER USED TO VERIFY THE FILE'S INTEGRITY. ┴╥├ ALSO PREPARES A FREQUENCY
 DISTRIBUTION OF THE BYTES USED IN THE FILE AND USES IT TO GENERATE THE ╚UFFMAN
 CODES. ╔T THEN CALCULATES WHAT THE RESULTANT LENGTH WOULD BE USING EACH OF THE
 THREE STORAGE METHODS. (STORE, SQUEEZE, OR PACK) ╨ASS TWO THEN WRITES THE FILE
 TO THE ARCHIVE USING THE MOST EFFICIENT OF THESE METHODS.

 ╘HE PRIMARY ADVANTAGE OF ┴╥├ IS AS A BACKUP TOOL. ╫ORD PROCESSING FILES,
 ASSEMBLER SOURCE CODE, DATABASE FILES, GRAPHICS AND MUSIC FILES SQUEEZE RATHER
 WELL. ╔N FACT, DUE TO THEIR HEAVY USE OF GRAPHICS PICTURES, EVEN GAMES CAN
 SQUEEZE DOWN QUIT WELL IN SOME INSTANCES. ╬ORMALLY A 1541/4040 DISKETTE HAS A
 CAPACITY OF 664 BLOCKS OF STORAGE. ╒SING ┴╥├, YOU CAN INCREASE THIS TO THE
 EQUIVALENT OF ABOUT 800 BLOCKS FOR GAMES, AND 1000 OR MORE FOR TEXT AND
 GRAPHICS DISKS.

 ┴NOTHER BIG ADVANTAGE OF ┴╥├ IS THE FACT THAT SEVERAL FILES CAN BE COMBINED
 INTO A SINGLE FILE. ╘HIS MAKES IT SIGNIFICANTLY EASIER (AND FASTER) TO
 TRANSFER INFORMATION FROM ONE COMPUTER TO ANOTHER VIA THE TELEPHONE LINES. ╔F
 YOU USE A MULTIPLE FILE TRANSFER PROGRAM, YOU CAN STRATEGICALLY NAME YOUR
 ARCHIVES SO AS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PATTERN MATCHING AND THUS FURTHER SIMPLIFY
 THE PROCESS. ╔F THE BULLETIN BOARD YOU ARE CALLING USES ┴╥├ FILES, YOU WILL
 SPEND LESS TIME READING DIRECTORIES AND TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHICH, AND HOW
 MANY FILES YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD TO GET THE PROGRAM YOU WANT TO WORK!


 ┴╥├ ALSO ALLOWS YOU TO SPECIFY A PASSWORD WHEN CREATING AN ARCHIVE. ╘HIS IS
 ANALOGOUS TO PUTTING A COMBINATION LOCK ON IT. (╘HIS CAN BE HANDY WHEN SENDING
 LOVE LETTERS TO ╠ULU ON ├OMPUSERVE) ╔F YOU ARE A PROGRAMMER YOU MAY WANT TO
 PROTECT YOUR SOURCE CODE BACKUPS THIS WAY, IF YOU ARE A BUSINESSMAN YOU CAN
 KEEP YOUR ACCOUNTING DATA CONFIDENTIAL AS WELL.

 ╔N ORDER TO ACHIEVE SOME OF THE FLEXIBILITY AND EASE OF USE OF THE ═╙-─╧╙
 VERSION WE HAD TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT ├OMMODORE ─╧╙. ┴FTER ALL ISN'T:

 DEL A:SCRAPFILE1 C:SCRAPFILE2 <RETURN>

 A HECK OF ALOT EASIER THAN:


    OPEN 15,8,15
    PRINT#15,'S0:SCRAPFILE1'
    CLOSE 15
    OPEN 15,9,15
    PRINT#15,'S0:SCRAPFILE2'
    CLOSE 15


    OR WHAT ABOUT:

 MOVE A:ARC.EXE B:ARC.ASM C:USQ F:

 ╘HAT WOULD TAKE SOME DOING! ┴ND YET IT'S THE TYPE OF THING YOU WANT TO DO
 QUITE EASILY WHEN YOU'RE MANIPULATING YOUR DISK LIBRARY.

 ╔N GENERAL DRIVE LETTERS ARE BOTH EASIER AND MORE PRECISE THAN DRIVE NUMBERS.
 ╔F YOU'RE FAMILIAR  WITH ═╙-─╧╙ OR ├╨/═ YOU PROBABLY  PREFER DRIVE
 LETTERS. ╔F NOT, THEY MAY TAKE SOME GETTING USED TO. ╫HAT WE'VE DONE IS
 ASSIGNED EACH  DRIVE A LETTER ACCORDING TO THE TABLE BELOW:


   DRIVE LETTER   DEVICE NUMBER  DRIVE
   ------------   -------------  -----
        A               8           0
        B               8           1
        C               9           0
        D               9           1
        E              10           0
        F              10           1
        G              11           0
        H              11           1



 ╘HUS IF YOU WANT A PROGRAM ON DRIVE 1 OF UNIT 10, YOU CAN DO ANY ONE OF THE
 FOLLOWING:

 DLOAD 'PROGRAM',D1 ON U10    (BASIC 4.0)
 LOAD '1:PROGRAM',10          (BASIC 2.0)

 OR
 LOAD 'F:PROGRAM'             (WITH ┴╥├)


 ╔F YOU WANT TO LOAD AND RUN THE PROGRAM JUST TYPE:

 F:PROGRAM  <RETURN>

 ┴╥├ WILL LOAD IT AND RUN IT (OR SYS TO IT IF ITS MACHINE LANGUAGE)


 ╔N ANY CASE WE FELT THAT DRIVE LETTERS WERE SUFFICIENTLY USEFUL THAT THEY
 WOULD BE WORTH THE BOTHER OF GETTING USED TO. ╔F YOU'RE STILL NOT CONVINCED
 THINK ABOUT THIS EXAMPLE AFTER YOU'VE READ ON.

 ARC/C D:ARCFILE A:ASM.?? B:ED.?? C:*

 ╫E THINK YOU'LL GROW TO  APPRECIATE THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH ┴╥├ IS
 AVAILIABLE. ═OST OF THE COMMANDS THAT YOU WILL OFTEN REQUIRE TO VIEW
 DIRECTORIES, MOVE  FILES ABOUT, DELETE FILES, RENAME FILES, OR EDIT SIMPLE
 TEXT FILES  ARE AT  YOUR DISPOSAL. ╞UTURE VERSIONS OF ┴╥├ WILL HAVE EVEN MORE
 COMMANDS. ╫E FELT  THAT THIS IS THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH ┴╥├ WOULD PROVE MOST
 USEFUL.

 ******************************************************************************

 ┴NYWAY WITHOUT MUCH FURTHER ADO WE'LL GIVE YOU A RUN DOWN OF THE COMMANDS
 AVAILIABLE.....



        ─╧╙ ├OMMANDS.......................

 [SQUARE BRACKETS]   ARE USED TO INDICATE OPTIONAL PARAMETERS
 <ANGLE  BRACKETS>   ARE USED TO INDICATE REQUIRED PARAMETERS
 D:                  IS A DRIVE LETTER...USUALLY A DESTINATION DRIVE
 S:                  IS A DRIVE LETTER...USUALLY A SOURCE DRIVE




 1) GENERAL ─╧╙