Monster Media 1996 #15/Monster Media Number 15 (Monster Media)(July 1996).ISO/os2/b_dir131.zip/CHANGES.TXT

Text File | 1996-04-07 | 12KB | 188 lines

B.EXE  Changes / Bug Fixes

Version 1.1      all done around November 26, 1994.
     Fixed a bug that incorrectly reported a directory with even megabytes of
files as multiples of .1 Meg of files.  This had to do with the fact that, in
computing the number of Megs of files, I do not actually do any floating
point dividing, but instead do integer math, and the error came from trying
to round the numbers.  I dropped the number rounding.
     I changed the program so that it will read its "name" from the command
line, so that if you change its name, such as from B.EXE to PROGRAM.EXE, it
will "know" itself as PROGRAM.EXE.  The help text ( /? for the switch ) will
reflect this, as will the system variable that must be set.  Thus, if you
don't like the name B.EXE, you can change it for all practical purposes.
However, the .EXE ending needs to be kept.
     I fixed the counting for when and where to pause when the number of
files and directories would be off the screen so as to take the bar along the
top that OS/2 creates in command line sessions by default into consideration.
     I added a way to stop the directory scroll at a certain point, so as to
get back to the command line.  All one has to do is hit the 'Esc' key now,
and you immediately get the command prompt, and all of the entries that were
on the screen stay on the screen.
     If one used the system variable, there was no way to clear switches that
were already set, from the command line.  Now all the switches, except for
the ones which control how many columns appear on the screen ( /w /n /d /l )
and the one that changes the highlighting extensions ( /c ), will now toggle,
so that if you use them twice, they are negated.  The reason I don't do this
for the ones that control the columns is that the /n switch effectively
clears both /w and /d already.  I don't know if anyone will actually use this
toggle 'feature', but it's there.

Version 1.11      all done around December 5, 1994.
     When rewriting internal stuff for 1.1 fix, I screwed up the /D switch so
that it does not show the size of files.  I fixed this so that you can see
the sizes now.  This was corrupted in both versions, DOS and OS/2.

Version 1.2       all done around March 18, 1995
     I am not including IBM Works versions of the text since I don't have it
installed since I have Word Perfect 6.1 now to use.
     I brilliantly realized that having two separate source files for the two
versions was a little stupid, since I can use the #ifdef directives in C to
add in specific code.  Now I don't have to worry that I forgot to change in
one version something I changed in the other.  This was a big problem before.
     I cut out a lot of dumb code, by thinking up clean and compact C++ code.
I am now utilizing unions to the maximum.
     Fixed a lot of bugs.  Fixed /S not working in OS/2.  Fixed a problem
with /C being the last parameter in the environment variable.  If /C was the
last thing in your environment variable, the next thing on the command line
would be looked at as if it was an extension for /C; this was fixed.  I fixed
a few other /C problems.
     Due to user demand, I have added /A to allow one to change the default
colors of my program.  Why did I put it as a switch?  Accessing a file is WAY
too slow, and file access adds a lot of code.  Another environment variable
would be too weird.  A switch is fast, and it allows one to use it in
aliases.  Obviously, I wouldn't expect anyone to type in /A with all 9 colors
every time.
     Due to user demand, I added in sorting (with reverse sort also).  You
can sort by name (default), extension, time, and size.  You can choose to not
sort.  The directories stay grouped together out of the way; files and
directories are separate classes in my program, and I didn't feel like
messing with ungrouping them.
     I changed the /O switch from showing only files, to the sort switch, to
be like DOS (sort of), and the old /O became /K instead.  (From "files
O'nly" to " K'ill subdirectories", I guess.)
     Due to user demand, I added more extensions to the /C switch.  I added
one more color (dark green by default) for the sixth extension, then
extensions 7 - 12 take on the same colors as extensions 1 - 6.  Hopefully
twelve extensions are enough.
     I allowed /L for the DOS version to work. /L will now show explicitly
what attributes the file has, especially since files consisting only of
numbers can not be capitalized for read-only files.  I also added, for
laughs, the time up to a half-second on the files and directories; why anyone
would need this is beyond me.
     Due to user demand, using .ZIP for instance as an argument would be
transformed to *.ZIP, as in MSDOS.  Also, the DOS version would transform
ABC* as ABC*.* (the OS/2 version doesn't need it).

Version 1.3       all done around July, 1995
     Moved the  -' sign from the back to in front of the second letter in /O,
i.e. to reverse sort such as in size, you must now use  /O-S', instead of
/OS-'.
     Changed /S to /JD, and /K to /JF ( just directories' and  just files'),
as they make more sense, and I wanted /S to make it mean the same thing as
DIR's /S switch.
     Using /OS will automatically bump you up to /N from /W so that you can
see the sizes automatically.  Using /OD will automatically bump you up to /D
from /N or /W.
     I made it so that the switches were now absolute, instead of toggling.
If you use the same switch twice, such as "/F /F", it will stay as /F,
instead of just disappearing.  Instead, I now added the ability to just add a
'-' in front to disable the switch, such as /-F to disable /F.  This makes
more sense, and is consistent with DIR.
     I made the switch processing  engine' much less forgiving, and if you
don't use the right switches as shown in the help, it will generate an error.
     Killed the lines that would be left behind after pauses, as they were
annoying.
     I fixed the bug in /L, where I show  half-seconds'.  I misread the
Borland C++ help files, as what I thought were half-seconds were (seconds)/2,
as in seconds/2 = x, or seconds = 2x.  What I thought were half-seconds were
two-second intervals.  Oh well.
     You do not to put spaces between switches now, as in UNIX.  This applies
to all switches except for /C where the spaces are still needed.
     Added the volume label to the /F switch.  It is a little flaky, as it
has problems with keeping spaces in the right places if they are near
positions 8 or 9 in the label.
     Specifying B as the file mask will automatically be transformed to B.*,
as with the MS-DOS DIR.
     You no longer have to specify every color with /A anymore.  You can skip
colors you want to leave alone, such as /A,,5,3 if you wanted.  You now can
specify up to 12 highlighting colors now, if one wanted, as the colors no
longer cycle any more after 6.  I used the remaining colors for the last 6
default extension colors.  Also, you can specify a background color if you
want by using  :' after the foreground color, such as by /A,11:5,,:3,,14.
The background color can only be from 0 to 7.   You can just specify the
background without specifying the foreground.  You can't specify the
background of the first parameter for /A (information), as it would have been
annoying to make it work.
     I added /T for teletype mode, as some wanted to redirect the output to a
file or printer.  What this does is effectively kill the colors, by using
printf instead of cprintf.  I did this easily with a function pointer.  The
output does not pause, however, and is not broken by the breaks subsequently.
Just use "B > PRN" or "B > filename" to print or capture to file.
     I added 4 switches in the process of adding the /B switch. /I is the one
responsible for showing the number of files and directories and the directory
size. /P is the one responsible for showing the current directory and mask.
/G is for grouping the directories away from the files.  These 3 are all on
by default, and can be turned off. /H is responsible for how tall a column
must be before a new one is started.  If /H is set to 4, if there are four
directory entries, there is only one column.  If there are 5 entries, a
second column is started.  These switches might all seem dumb, but they were
essentially free as they took very little code.
     I added a switch to take out all the extraneous information in one
swoop, /B, similar to DIR's.  It turns off /Z, /F, /E, /I, /P, and sets /H to
1.  This is useful to fit only the essentials on the screen.
     I added to the help screen (/?) what switches are already in use, except
for /A and /C which would take up too much room.  This is just so people can
tell what actually is turned on.
     I added a new /S switch which does the same as DIR's.  It recursively
searches through the subdirectories.  THIS SWITCH WAS A BIG PAIN IN THE BUTT
TO WRITE.  It has a few quirks that I am going to iron out, but it works
okay.
     I added 4 more extensions, making 16 extensions available to set.  Go
bananas with extensions!
     In this version, I cut out a lot of extra code that wasn't needed.  I
combined my two classes into one, as it actually saved on code.

Version 1.31       all done around October, 1995
     I screwed up the DOS version's environment variable buffer thing
inside the program.  If it is too long, the program freaks out.  This is
from writing over unallocated memory areas!  Oops!  I kept forgetting to
release this.
     I did not change the OS/2 version.

Future Changes:
     All of this is up to time constraints.  I am working on my PhD in
physics, so I have little time for programming!
     I just bought Watcom C/C++ 10.0, and I plan to rewrite B with this
compiler.  I plan to rewrite the OS/2 version with true API calls, adding
EA's to it with the /L switch.  I have been stating this since 1.0, but I now
have the tools to do it.  I have to figure out the API calls for colored
text in a command line session.
     If I get REAL bored, I might write a seperate program which will patch
default settings right into B, by putting labels in my program for it to look
for.  This way, you won't need monster switch statements for your default
settings, and this way is actually faster.  No more parsing down the switches
and interpreting them.  I hate setting all the damn switches, too!  I don't
configure B to my preferences, as I am sure they would not be universally
accepted.
     (Very iffy) I plan to add the ability to read ZIP files if they are
given as an argument, and list the files as if they were in an actual
directory.  This will take some time since I know nothing about how ZIP files
are set up, still.  With this option, I won't need to use UNZIP -v to read
ZIP file directories.


If you find any bugs in my program, or want to suggest a change,
email me at:          [e-mail]
or mail me at:        Dohn Arms
                      Loomis Laboratory of Physics
                      1110 West Green Street
                      Urbana, IL  61801-3080

I am rather open to suggestions to improve my program if it doesn't take a
lot of effort to hack it into my code or if it doesn't get in the way of this
being mainly an alternative for the DIR command.  ("B now will answer your
EMAIL for you, write your physics doctoral thesis, generate the Great
American Novel, and prove Fermat's Last Theorem, while still giving you the
contents of a directory, which is what you've come to expect from B!!!")