Monster Media 1996 #15

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Text File | 1996-06-21 | 14KB | 325 lines

************************************************************** * * * * * ***** ******* ****** * * ** ** ** * ** ** * * ** ** ** * ** ** * * ** ** **** ***** * * ** ** ** * ** ** * * ** ** ** ** ** * * ***** * **** ****** * * * * * * A Quick File Base Builder * * v 1.09 for Maximus 3.xx (*) * * * ************************************************************** * * * (C) Copyright 1995-1996 by Alberto Pasquale * * * * A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D * * * * F R E E W A R E * * * ************************************************************** * Maximus is a trademark of Lanius Corporation (c) Copyright 1995-1996 by Alberto Pasquale F R E E W A R E LICENSE You may copy, distribute and use this program freely, provided you do not modify the original archive and Copyrights. DISCLAIMER You are entitled to use this freeware program "as is". No guarantee can be given on the performance of the program. The author will not be liable for any damage or loss related to the use of this program. Overview QFB is a substitute for the FB (Dos) or FBP (OS/2) program by Scott J. Dudley for building a Maximus 3.xx file-base (Maximus is a trademark of Lanius Corporation). Main characteristics: - Generates UniFiles.Idx in addition to the standard MaxFiles.Idx; UniFiles.Idx is an index file like MaxFiles.Idx but with no duplicates (in the case of dupes, the file in the first defined area is kept in the index). You can use UniFiles.Idx as a file-request index for your mailer (e.g. BinkleyTerm (c) Bit Bucket Software) - Support for multi-line descriptions. Usually the description of a file in the FILES.BBS is contained in a single physical line: Maximus will word wrap and align when displaying it to the user. The problems come when you import the multi-line file_id.diz descriptions into the FILES.BBS in order to make Maximus show them to the user keeping the original formatting. As a matter of facts, Maximus (partially) supports "continuation" lines that begin with '|' or '+' (second or greater column). However many people like using NO continuation character: they add multi-line descriptions one line after another, indenting the subsequent lines so that Maximus shows them aligned (but it does not recognize them in the case of hurl, kill etc.). File management programs are then used to correctly manage the areas. QFB supports a user-defined continuation character and position, which default to the space ' ' and 31 (columns) respectively (see the -c command line switch). QFB adds continuation lines to the FILES.DMP without loosing formatting. You can verify this by using the L)ocate or N)ewfiles command of Maximus. FB/FBP, on the contrary, concatenate all the lines together (when they area recognized as continuation lines...). There is a side effect, though: The L)ocate and N)ewfiles commands show the continuation lines aligned at left. Since this behaviour is not appreciated by some SysOps, the "-d" command line switch allows to output a unique-line description to FILES.DMP: original formatting is lost (as with FB/FBP) but the entire description is word-wrapped and aligned by Maximus. - Very fast update operation (when a list of areas is specified on the command line or the -n switch is used). - Fast operation even in the full-build. - The -n switch allows to update the filebase by compiling only modified areas, even if you do not have a list of area names available. - Area names can be specified using the '?' and '*' wildcards as per the OS/2 rules. E.G. "*OS2*" includes all areas whose name contains "OS2". - Can be used with CD-ROMs with no need to copy the FILES.BBS to a hard-disk directory, provided you don't really need the DAT/DMP/IDX files for the area: the global indexes (MaxFiles.Idx and UniFiles.Idx) will contain the data for these areas so that File-Request, Global Download and Upload Dupe Check will work anyway. - Does not abort nor prompt user in the case of "drive not ready" or "write protected" errors. - Retries for many seconds in case of a sharing violation. Please note that in the case of protracted inability to open a DAT/DMP/IDX file for write, QFB could report a "Write Protected" area instead of the sharing violation. It will proceed anyway as if the unit were write protected. - All ApWorks programs that access the FileBase use a "FileBase.Bsy" flag in the Maximus system directory to avoid concurrent writes to the same filebase. There is no problem in the case the FileBase.Bsy flag is not deleted due to abnormal terminations or power failures, so you do not need to delete it in the startup.cmd/autoexec.bat as with other programs. Usage The command line parameters are the same as with FB/FBP, with a few exceptions: QFB [<switches>] [<area> ...] If no command line parameter is given, the help is shown. If no <area> is given and the -n switch is not used, all areas are compiled. -a Compile all areas. This is the default, but the switch is needed when no other switches are used (QFB shows help on an empty command). -c[<nn>[<c>|#<nnn>]] The default for continuation column/character is 31/' '. That is, if a line that starts with 31 spaces is found after a description line in the FILES.BBS, then it is taken as a continuation line. Empty lines are also taken as continuation lines, in order to allow correct processing of file_id.diz descriptions that contain blank lines. You can disable multi-line description support by using "-c" alone. e.g. -c (disables multi-line support) You can override the number of blank columns required by using "-c<nn>" where <nn> specifies the number of spaces needed at the start of a line to consider it a continuation line. e.g. -c34 (34 spaces required) If you want to use some special character (not the simple space) as a continuation character, then you must specify it in the -c switch after the <nn>. You can either specify the character directly (<c>) or by its ASCII code (#<nnn>). Please note that the '|' (frequently used) is the symbol for pipe, so it CANNOT be used on a command line: you must either specify its ASCII code or prefix it with an escape character. e.g. -c29+ (the continuation lines start with '+') -c29#124 (124 is the ASCII code for '|') -c29^| (OS/2 escape sequence for '|') Since the continuation lines usually have a space after the continuation character, QFB skips it if present. Example: TEST.ZIP This is a long description | for the file test.zip | | Author: <author> | Shareware US$30 Note: the <nn> number of spaces is essential when the continuation character is not specified (simple space). On the contrary, it is not currently really meaningful when the continuation character is different from space (the only difference is between 0 and >0). For example, if you use "-c29#124", QFB accepts as continuation lines all those whose first non-space character is '|', provided it is NOT in the first column. To make QFB accept a continuation character in the first column you must specify 0 as <nn> ("-c00#124"). -d Output Unique-Line descriptions to FILES.DMP. Avoids multi-line descriptions in FILES.DMP, the file where Maximus looks for the file descriptions when using the filebase (L)ocate and N)ewfiles commands). When multi-line description support is used, QFB outputs the entire description string (line feeds included) to the FILES.DMP, so that the Maximus L)ocate and N)ewfiles commands respect the original formatting. Unfortunately there is a side-effect: the continuation lines are aligned at left, and this is not appreciated by some SysOps. When this switch is used, QFB changes the linefeeds to spaces, so that the DMP description is made of a long unique line: the original formatting is lost but the description will be aligned and word-wrapped by Maximus when the L)ocate or N)ewfiles commands are used. -f<file> Use <file> as farea.dat. This overrides the information from Max.Prm. -g Compile global index only. The DAT/DMP/IDX files of each area are not generated. Do not use this switch if you are not really sure you do not need these files. -n Compile areas with new Files.Bbs. All areas that have a Files.Bbs newer than the Files.Idx will be compiled and the MaxFiles/UniFiles.idx updated; areas marked as "Type CD" are skipped. This switch is meaningless when the -g switch has been used (files.idx not generated). -p<file> Use <file> as the Maximus .prm file. Overrides the MAXIMUS environment var. The .prm extension is added if no extension is given. -q Quiet mode. QFB reports errors only. -s Skip slow areas marked as "Type CD". The indexes are updated after scanning all non-slow areas. -u Scan upload paths. This switch is used by Maximus in RunFB.Cmd (.Bat for DOS) when the update of upload areas is needed. The Upload paths for the listed areas are scanned instead of the download ones, provided the upload path is in a defined Maximus area. <area> can include wildcards ('?', '*') in the OS/2 way. Errorlevels: 7 Out of memory 6 Timeout waiting for a busy FileBase 5 FArea.Dat not found 4 Max.Prm not found: either MAXIMUS environment variable or -p<file> command line switch must point to a valid Max 3.xx PRM file. 3 Abnormal termination 2 Error 1 Help requested 0 OK IMPORTANT NOTE for the Dos version: QFB is a 32 bit application: it requires the Dos4GW.Exe dos extender in your path.