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Text File | 1991-10-20 | 33KB | 750 lines

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │Documentation of ACD version 1.14, dated Oct. 20, 1991 (c) A. Merckens │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ First, before giving some documentation on ACD, I'll give some background information on WHY I created yet Another Change Directory program. ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ What I liked about ..... │ └─────────────────────────────┘ NCD [Norton Change Directory - (c) Peter Norton] ─── - first program that made "fast" changing directories possible - nice best guess when pathname is incorrectly spelled - possible to remove "current" directory [NCD RD .] - `speed search' when window with directory information appears on screen - possible to rename a directory LCD [Led's Change Directory - (c) Keith Ledbetter] ─── - directory information on more than one drive at a time - change to correctly specified directory EVEN if not in directory database - fast ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ What I disliked about ... │ └─────────────────────────────┘ NCD ─── - only directory-information on one drive at a time - directories are unsorted - updates are unsorted [NCD MD dirname] - messages that are driving me crazy when switching to a correctly specified path [NCD d:\bin\dos40; I know, I know, I should have specified NCD CD d:\bin\dos40] - unwanted updates of directory-information when NCD encounters an unknown directory - cannot write directory-information for network-drives - slow - cannot rename a directory on a network drive LCD ─── - directories are unsorted - updates are unsorted [LCD MD dirname], even worse than NCD - pop-up window is too small when selecting from many directories - not possible to remove "current" directory [LCD RD . ] - not possible to explicitly give a drive name, e.g. LCD d:bi is not allowed - strange "BEST GUESS" when partial directory name could not be found - not DV-aware - if EGA/VGA 43/50 lines/page: on exit, the cursor is positioned at the wrong line - not possible to remove directory-information (locally), without actually removing directories: when network drives are scanned, quite often users have the same directory names (consider: UTILS); however, you may not be interested in these, and wish to remove `useless' directory-information - no `speed search' when pop-up window with directory information on screen [Well, in version LCD 4.0 - 10 days after first release of ACD 1.00 - Mr. Ledbetter implemented this in the same way as ACD....] So, I created Another Change Directory, which is, in my prejudiced opinion, the best of these two worlds. About the program ACD ACD is a program designed to have all the features I liked in LCD and NCD, and also to have the features I thought were missing in these programs. Just like LCD, ACD makes changing directories much easier, especially when you have a large harddisk with lots of different partitions or are hooked on a network drive. ACD works "across all drives" by maintaining the directory database of ALL drives in the file C:\ACD.IDX (by default). This means that you don't have to specify a drive letter when changing to a directory on a different drive. However, you are allowed to specify the drive letter which will be used to consider only the directories on the drive specified. The syntax: ACD [drive:]partial_dir[\] [/i][/c]: change to a directory or present selection ACD ![drive:]partial_dir [/i] : use scrollback history to change directory ACD rd directory_name : delete directory; update database ACD md directory_name : create directory; update database ACD rd directory_name /local : delete directory-information recursively below directory_name from database; do not actually delete directories ACD md directory_name /local : create directory-information; do not actually create directory ACD ren dir1 dir2 : rename dir1 to dir2; update database ACD /create <drivelist> : scan drives and create directory database ACD /qcreate <drivelist> : scan drives (ignore dirs with extensions) and create directory database ACD /add <drivelist> : scan drives and add to directory database; existing info on a drive will be replaced ACD /qadd <drivelist> : scan drives (ignore dirs with extensions) and add to directory database ACD /?, or ACD /h : short help Changing directories: ACD is used to switch quickly between directories across any drive. You simply invoke ACD and give it the full or partial name of the directory you wish to change to. For example, if you have a directory named D:\COMM\KERMIT you could switch to this directory with the command: C:\> ACD ker ACD will first try to do an immediate change to the directory name that you specify. If that change works, ACD simply exits immediately. If it fails, then ACD looks into your directory database and tries to figure out the directory name that you wanted. If more than one directory existed with the same partial name that you gave to ACD, it will display a pop-up window on the screen containing all of the matches found. Simply use the movement keys (PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, Arrow keys) to highlight the directory that you want to change to, then hit <Enter>. If the `current directory' is included in the partial match set, the highlight is positioned on this directory (sort of like "you are here"), otherwise, the highlight is positioned on the first match. Within the pop-up window, a `speed search' is available, i.e. when you press a key which doesn't have a special function (see below), then the character is added to the `partial name' you entered at the command-line, the pop-up window will possibly resized and the new selections will be shown if more than one directory exists with the same partial name: as soon as exactly one directory is selected by speed search, the directory will be selected without further confirmation. By pressing * the method of partial name search is toggled. Normally, ACD matches the partial name at the start of the last part of the directory. When pressing * once, it will match the partial name anywhere in the last part of the directory (see example below). If you press * again, the first method is used again. If you press \, then all subdirectories of the current selection are shown as well; if you press \ again, the previous state is restored. If you press ESC, the operation will be aborted. The + key makes the highlighted line point to the next drive in the selection window, and the Tab makes the highlighted line point to the next directory with the same parents as the currently highlighted line. By pressing <ALT>C simultaneously, the highlighted path will be centered on the screen, allowing you to see the directories above and below the highlighted path. Summary on the action of keys when in pop-up window: F1 : gives help on the special keys Pg-Up : go to top of page, or go one page up Pg-Dn : go to bottom of page, or go one page down End : go to last entry Home : go to first entry Arrow-Up : go to previous entry Arrow-Dn : go to next entry Tab : go to next entry with the same `parent' BackTab : go to previous entry with the same `parent' ALT-C : center highlighted path on screen + : go to first entry of next drive * : toggle search method \ or / : toggle display of all subdirectories of current selection Enter : switch to highlighted entry Esc : abort operation BS, Del : delete character from partial name for `speed search' : : select all drives instead of the one specified other char.: add character to partial name for `speed search' Example: C:\> ACD do If this selects more than one directory, a pop-up window will be show on the screen: ┌─────────────────────────────[F1 help]────────────────[1/2]────────┐ │ c:\bin\dos40 │ │ d:\doreen │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────[do ]─┘ In this case, two directories are selected. By using the arrow-keys and the <Enter>, or by pressing the next character (r or s), a selection can be made. By pressing the *, you will `toggle' the method of string-searching, and you'll get a pop-up window equal to the command: ACD *do So, for example: ┌─────────────────────────────[F1 help]────────────────[1/4]────────┐ │ c:\4dos │ │ c:\bin\dos40 │ │ d:\doreen │ │ g:\utils\seldom │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────── *[do ]─┘ By entering * again, the first screen will be shown again. When you press \, you may get the following screen: ┌─────────────────────────────[F1 help]────────────────[1/6]────────┐ │ c:\4dos │ │ c:\bin\dos40 │ │ d:\doreen │ │ d:\doreen\goodies │ │ d:\doreen\oldies │ │ g:\utils\seldom │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────── *[do*\ ]─┘ By entering \ again, you will get the previous screen again. You can specify from the commandline which search method has to be used, and/or if all subdirectories of the selection have to be shown by starting with a star ("*") and finishing wish a slash ("\"). Note that as soon as exactly one directory is selected by Speed Search, the directory is selected, without further confirmation. By default, all drives that are mentioned in the pop-up window are tested for their existence. This ensures that only directory information of the active drives is displayed. If you don't like this, or if testing your drives is S L O W then you may add the /i option. ACD will then display also the information of the (possibly) non-active drives. If you would like to make this the default, then you could patch ACD (described at the end). If you KNOW you wish to change to a directory on the default drive, you may specify ACD dir /c which will only show you the matching directories on the current drive; If you KNOW you wish to change to a directory on the E-drive (for example), then you may specify ACD E:dir /c which will only show the matching directories on the E-drive. If a selection is shown, and you change your mind about the drive specification, then you may press : which will result in showing the matching directories based on all drives, as if you did not include E: or the /c option from the command-line. Scrollback history: Each time you change to a directory using ACD and using information in the ACD-database, information is written to the ACD-database to remember the directory you just changed to. By default the scrollback history will remember up to 20 directories. Since ACD now writes each time it is used to change to a directory, the performance on a XT might be slow. If you don't want to use the scrollback history function for this or another reason, you may change the history size to zero. See "Limitations and other features " at the end of this document how to proceed. When you changed to a few directories and wish to return to one of them, you may enter: ACD ! Now a pop-up window will appear which will show the directories you have changed to. Once again, you can use speedsearch or the keys mentioned above to make a selection. You may also call speedsearch from the commandline, by specifying, for example: ACD !do which will present a partial match set using ONLY the last "historysize" (=20) directories you changed to. The first entry on screen is the last directory you changed to, etc. The scrollback history is destroyed when you enter CD /add [drive], or CD /scan [drive]. Note that if you change to a directory directly - i.e. ACD does not have to use information from its database - ACD does not add information to the scrollback history. So, for example, if the directory C:\DOS40 exists, and you enter: ACD C:\DOS40 then this information is not added to the scrollback history. However, in this case, if you would have entered ACD DOS and selected C:\DOS40, then the information WOULD be added. Scanning directories: The first time you execute ACD, you must specify the /CREATE parameter ("ACD /create") which instructs ACD to scan all of your hard drives and create a file called ACD.IDX in the root directory of drive C. Depending on how you will create/remove your directories in the near future, it may be necessary to periodically rescan your drives. If you only want ACD to know about certain specific drives (for example: only non-network drives), you can specify a drive list after the /CREATE keyword. To have ACD only scan drives C, E, and G, just enter: C:\> ACD /CREATE CEG If at any stage, you wish to add information about another drive, say drive F, then you could enter: C:\> ACD /ADD F If you are sure that you don't have subdirectories which have an extension in their name (for example, C:\PROGRAMS.OLD\) then you can specify /QCREATE, (/QADD), instead of /CREATE (/ADD). This causes ACD to scan approximately 33% quicker than without the Q. Starting from version 1.03: if you ADD a drive for which already information is stored in the directory database, this information will be replaced by new information at the end of the information database, so no redundant information will be stored. Direct database updating: You can also use ACD to create, remove and rename directories with immediate database updating. This means that you don't have to rescan your drives to update the directory database. ACD will create, delete or rename the directory specified, and then update the ACD.IDX database at the same time. For example, to create a directory on drive F: and put that directory in the database, you'd do: C:\> ACD md f:\temp This ability comes in especially handy for users of command shells that allow aliasing, such as CED and 4DOS. With these utilities, you can change the standard MD and RD commands to invoke ACD instead. With 4DOS, you could set up the aliases like below in a file called, say, C:\ALIASES md ACD md %& mkdir md rd ACD rd %& rmdir rd cd ACD %& rendir ACD ren %& ACD <drive:\dir>ACD.EXE Now you can give in 4DOS the command alias /r c:\aliases Note: the last line - ACD <drive:\dir>ACD.EXE - is not necessary if ACD.EXE is in your search PATH; however, a program which has just a simple task - in this case `change directory' - executes much faster if the PATH does not have to be searched. Another suggestion: if you have defined an alias for CD and wish to change to the previous directory, enter CD.. (without space) instead of CD .. (with space), since in the first case ACD will not be called to execute this very simple task and consequently no loading of the program has to take place, and thus changing to the previous directory will go faster (especially noticeable on an XT), with less typing. Local database updating: You can also use ACD to create and remove directory information only by using the /local switch. ACD will NOT create or delete the directory specified, but only update the ACD.IDX database. For example, to remove the information on a directory and its subdirectories on drive G: C:\> ACD rd G:\users\mally /local Then all information about g:\users\mally is deleted from the database, and all of its subdirectories. This is especially handy for users of network drives, who do not want to this information in their database. Also, you can add local directory information to the database. Eg. if the directory c:\bin\testcase is missing in the database info, but you wish to include it, you can update the database with this database information without rescanning: C:\> ACD md c:\bin\testcase /local Note however that in order for ACD to update the database, the directory c:\bin (the parent) should exist. Renaming directories: You can also use ACD to give a directory another name. ACD will directly rename the directory and update the ACD-database. Directories can only be renamed if the parents of the directory to be renamed are the same as the parents of the new directory specification. For example: ACD ren c:\bin\dos c:\bin\olddos is allowed, whereas ACD ren c:\bin\dos c:\olddos is not allowed, since they have different parents. You can also rename the current directory by specifying ACD ren . olddos The ACD and ACD_color environment variables If you'd rather have ACD keep its ACD.IDX database another place than the root directory of drive C:, you can specify the filename you want in the environment variable named ACD. For example, if you'd like to keep the ACD.IDX file on drive D: in your UTILS directory, you would put SET ACD=D:\UTILS\ACD.IDX in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You can change the colors of the pop-up window. You do this by setting an environment variable named "ACD_COLOR": Set ACD_Color = backgroundcolor foregroundcolor The colors can be chosen from the table below (default is: 0 7) Dark Colors ║ (Foreground & ║ Light Colors Background) ║ (Foreground) ═══════════╤════╬══════════════╤════ Black │ 0 ║ DarkGray │ 8 Blue │ 1 ║ LightBlue │ 9 Green │ 2 ║ LightGreen │ 10 Cyan │ 3 ║ LightCyan │ 11 Red │ 4 ║ LightRed │ 12 Magenta │ 5 ║ LightMagenta │ 13 Brown │ 6 ║ Yellow │ 14 LightGray │ 7 ║ White │ 15 Example: Set ACD_Color = 2 4 Would give you red characters in a green window. The default, lightgray characters on black background works nicely on a monochrome monitor. Some more examples: ACD rd . : Remove current directory ACD rd . /local : Remove information only on current directory ACD cd .... : Just like in 4DOS: go 3 directories back; ACD d:* : Show all paths in the database on drive D ACD s* : Find all paths that start with s; equal to ACD s. ACD s\ : Find all paths that start with s and show all its subdirectories ACD *in : Find all paths that have the word "in" in them. ACD * : Show all paths in the database. ACD ** : Show all paths in the database, and use different Speed Search method. ACD !s : Find all paths in the scrollback history that start with an s. Limitations and other features: . The ACD-database can have a maximum size of approximately 64K bytes. One directory entry takes room for at least 5 bytes, and at most 16 bytes. If we assume that the mean value is about 9 bytes (i.e. on average the length of a directory-name is 5 characters), then about 7300 directories can be stored. . If you have more than 64K-32 bytes of directory information, ACD will abort, and saves the ACD-database up to that point. . ACD without parameters acts just as CD without parameters: show current directory name. . ACD is very primitive on wildcards: it only understands the asterisk ('*') as a wildcard character. . ACD is DesqView aware. If DesqView is active, then for simple screen writes, it uses the BIOS and for intensive screenwrites, it uses the Virtual Screen Buffer of DV. Furthermore, - more important - the pop-up window correctly pops-down, i.e. the DV-screen is correctly restored. . The directories will be presented alphabetically sorted, where the drive order is dependent on how you created the ACD-database. If you ACD /CREATE DCF then first the matching files on drive D will be listed, then the ones on drive C and then on drive F. Note that this is a feature. . When drives do not exist anymore, for example when the network is not loaded, the directories of these invalid drives are excluded from the partial match list. . Because of its database format, ACD can not store a child directory in the database if its parent is not there. Some people may regard this as a feature, others as a limitation. For example, if you do this (with no `aliases' on MD): ACD rd C:\Useless /local ACD md C:\Useless\Junk ACD will create the directory "Junk", but it will not store the name in the database. You won't be notified; the reason for this is that I don't like to be notified all the time. . Some people hate to lose precious environment space, and that's why you are allowed to patch ACD.EXE to have your own preferred colors by default, without setting the "ACD_color" environment variable. However, you are NOT allowed to redistribute this patched version, but only the original version. The easiest way to make the patch is to use PATCH22 from Jurgen A. Doornik (current version: P22V12.zip), which can also be obtained from the SIMTEL20 archives, and is also free of charge. By using the following table: Dark Colors ║ (Foreground & ║ Light Colors Background) Dec Hex ║ (Foreground) Dec Hex ═══════════╤══════════╬══════════════╤════════ Black │ 0 (01) ║ DarkGray │ 8 (08) Blue │ 1 (02) ║ LightBlue │ 9 (09) Green │ 2 (03) ║ LightGreen │ 10 (0A) Cyan │ 3 (04) ║ LightCyan │ 11 (0B) Red │ 4 (05) ║ LightRed │ 12 (0C) Magenta │ 5 (06) ║ LightMagenta │ 13 (0D) Brown │ 6 (07) ║ Yellow │ 14 (0E) LightGray │ 7 (08) ║ White │ 15 (0F) the command patch22 acd.exe ?\h2A2E2A?\h2A2E2A....? will patch the default colors of ACD in the colors you prefer: the four dots must be replaced by the HEX values of the BackGround Color and ForeGround Color. For example: patch22 acd.exe ?\h2A2E2A?\h2A2E2A010E? would give you by default yellow characters on blue background, without using any environment space. You can also modify ACD_COL.P22 to suit your needs and call: patch22 @acd_col.p22 Of course, you can use Norton utilities, or PCTOOLS as well to change the colors. The searchstring to be used is HEX 2A 2E 2A. The two bytes to be changed are positioned after this searchstring (00 0F). . Another patch that is allowed changes the functionality of ACD without parameters: patch22 acd.exe +5?\h2A2E2A?*? which changes the third byte after the searchstring (hex 20). Now ACD without parameters is equivalent to ACD *, just like NCD. You can also modify ACD_PAR0.P22 to suit your needs and call: patch22 @acd_par0.p22 . Another patch that is allowed changes the size of the scrollback history: patch22 acd.exe +6?\h2A2E2A?\h0? which changes the fourth byte after the searchstring (hex 14) in 0, which will yield a history size of 0; patch22 acd.exe +6?\h2A2E2A?\h20? which changes the fourth byte after the searchstring in hex 20, which will yield a history size of 32. You can also modify ACD_hist.P22 to suit your needs and call: patch22 @acd_hist.p22 . The next patch makes sure that the ACD.IDX database will not be updated when ACD encounters an unknown sub-directory with a known parent. patch22 acd.exe +7?\h2A2E2A?\h00? which changes the fifth byte after the searchstring (hex 01) in 0. patch22 acd.exe +7?\h2A2E2A?\h01? which changes the fifth after the searchstring back in hex 01. You can also modify ACD_know.P22 to suit your needs and call: patch22 @acd_know.p22 . The next patch makes sure that by default the drives will not be tested for their existence: all information will be displayed. The /i option will then get the opposite meaning. patch22 acd.exe +8?\h2A2E2A?\h01? which changes the sixth byte after the searchstring (hex 00) in 01. patch22 acd.exe +8?\h2A2E2A?\h00? which changes the sixth after the searchstring back in hex 00. You can also modify ACD_drv.P22 to suit your needs and call: patch22 @acd_drv.p22 . ACD returns detailed ERRORLEVEL conditions, which can be useful if ACD is invoked from batch files. The errorlevels are: 0 : ACD was successful 1 : Escape pressed 2 : No parameters on commandline 3 : Unknown command 4 : Unable to change to directory (directory not found) 5 : ACD-database is full; partial directory-info saved 6 : Unable to create directory 7 : Unable to remove directory 8 : ACD-database is corrupted 9 : Error opening ACD-database 10 : Error reading ACD-database 11 : Error writing ACD-database 12 : ACD_color specification is incorrect 13 : Directory could not be renamed 14 : Directory to be renamed is not a directory 15 : Directories must have equal parent for rename The resulting error message can be redirected by adding >NUL to the ACD command. . For the interested user, here is what ACD does when changing to a directory: 1. Try to change directly from current directory to the directory specified. If this directory does not exist, go to step 2. 2. Look for a match of the last part of the directory entry. For example, if you specify "ACD sou", then all of the following would match: c:\compiler\c\sources d:\database\soup f:\acd\source If more than one match found, display the pop-up window. If none found, go to step 3. 3. At this point, ACD just shrinks the partial string and repeats step 2, until one or more directories are found. This program is FREE of charge and may be used by anyone who wishes to. So, also in a commercial/educational environment. However, you are not allowed to remove the Copyright Statement, or to sell this program, or bundle it with other (commercial) goods. You may give it to anyone you like, but only in its original form with the complete documentation. If you have any (positive/negative) comments or suggestions, I would like to hear from you. Furthermore, I will not be held liable for any misfortune that may or may not happen to you, which may or may not be the result of using or not using this program. In other words, the usual disclaimer applies here. Arjen Merckens Gandhilaan 35 1069 NC Amsterdam The Netherlands Internet: AMBASE@RUG.NL Acknowledgments: David E. Jenkins (DAVE.JENKINS@OFFICE.WANG.COM) has given me numerous useful suggestions, like the scrollback history function, and both he and Jurgen A. Doornik (ECONZ@VAX.OX.AC.UK), author of PATCH22, tested and commented the Beta-release of ACD version 1.10. Thanks! Revision History: version 1.14, Oct 20, 1991 - fixed bug caused by too fast implementation of the /c option: ACD could not recognize /create. - added help from the pop-up window. - /c and /i really toggle: when specified more than once, the toggling on/off continues. Ideal for making /c the default in an alias. - fixed small bug concerning HOME-key. version 1.13, Oct. 15, 1991 - added /c option to use current drive for switching. - added action of the : key when in pop-up window; all drives are selected. version 1.12, Oct. 12, 1991 - added /i option to ignore unlogged drives; a patch can make this the default. Saves (some) time. - renames directories perfectly under NOVELL (NCD can't; LCD partly). version 1.11, Oct. 6, 1991 - automatically adds newly unknown subdirectories with known parents; a patch can disable this automatic function. - fixed some bugs resulting in a corrupted ACD.IDX. version 1.10, Oct. 1, 1991 - added \-function to display all subdirectories of partial match selection. - added scrollback history function; a function to remember and pop-up the last "historysize" (default: 20) directory-names (cd !). - hidden directories are now also scanned. - added ALT-C : center choice. - added BackTab-function for selecting previous directory with same parent. version 1.03, Sept. 14, 1991 - added possibility to patch function of calling ACD without parameters. - if adding information with /[q]add that already exists in the information database, the redundant information is removed. The replaced/added drive information are put at the end of the database. - position the highlight on the current directory if it is included in the partial match set being displayed (sort of like "you are here"). - when drives do not exist anymore, for example when the network is not loaded, the directories of these invalid drives are excluded from the partial match list. - fixed bugs: . when removing a directory which had in the ACD database still some subdirectories, the ACD database would get corrupted. . when creating a new directory in the root, the ACD database would get corrupted. version 1.02, Sept. 7, 1991 - changed REN function to work as in (4)DOS. Example: ACD ren d:\bin\dos olddos now renames d:\bin\dos in d:\bin\olddos in stead of giving an error message. However, if you enter ACD ren d:\bin\dos d:\olddos, you'll still get an error message and ERRORLEVEL 15 will be set. - Some minor code changes. version 1.01, Aug. 8, 1991 - added TAB-function for selecting next directory with same parent. - some minor bugs fixed: . in some instances when creating a directory, the sort order was not kept. . when a subdirectory was created which had the same name as a `sibling' of the parent, the ACD-database would not be updated. version 1.0 , Aug. 7, 1991 - first public release.