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Text File | 1987-10-24 | 63KB | 1,311 lines

Arcmaster by John J. Newlin -- NOTE: The | symbol beside text in this file denotes documentation that references the Plus version features only that are not present in the distribution copy of Arcmaster. -- What is Arcmaster? Arcmaster is a full-featured Archive file management system that is designed to take some of the pain out of remembering the usage syntax for Archive system programs. Specifically, Arcmaster fully supports the PKARC and PKXARC system (Copyright by Phil Katz) and the ARCA and ARC-E system (Copyright by Vern Buerg). Both of these systems are supurb implementations of file compression and decompression techniques. Use of either of these two systems results in the saving of a lot of time and money in transferring files over public phone lines and a lot of disk space on private systems. The problem is that both systems offer so many options and switches that it is difficult to remember them when you need to ARC or DeARC a set of files. Arcmaster removes that difficulty and adds a fast, powerful search feature so that you can always find that file you need even though you may have stuffed it in an .ARC file some months ago. Here are some of Arcmaster's features: - View an .ARC file directory listing at the touch of a key. - DeARC multiple files. - Selectively extract (or delete) files from an .ARC file. - Search any (or all) drives in your system for a file that resides in an .ARC file. - Browse ARCed files using Vern Buerg's outstanding LIST program. - Quickly and easily select ARC or DeARC switches and options. - Specify a target directory for file extraction. - Specify a target directory as host for created .ARC files. - Swiftly search entire system for any file. - View any file through Buerg's LIST program. -- Version History. 1.0 released 08/01/87 08/02/87 fixed uninitialized variable bug that prevented proper screen update upon return from F1 function. fixed bug that reset file tag counter when PgUp or PgDn used while tagging files. fixed bug that allowed tag counter to be decremented even when file was not tagged. fixed bug (nasty!) that caused system crash on any system using FANSI or NANSI console drivers. This caused "delete string error" crash. 1.1 released 08/15/87 fixed bug in PgDn function when viewing an ARC directory. added designation of .HLP file directory in the .CFG file changed the display of file names to split the name from the extension to effect a more readable display. added designation of location of .CFG file on command line when loading ARCMASTR.EXE. implemented work-around to problem of lack of space on floppy drive for DOS temporary piping files. added critical error trapping for drive-not- ready errors. added optional sort to sort files by date/time. 1.2 released 09/15/87 various minor bug fixes. added capability to use DOS environment to set configuration options. 1.3 released 10/03/87 various tweaking, peaking, and bug fixes. abandoned .CFG file and SET command for configuration. Configuration redesigned to be stand alone at runtime. added capability to jump alphabetically while viewing files. added capability to search an ARC file directory while listing it. added provision for creating ARC and de-ARC directories from the set configuration menu. 1.31 released 10/14/87 fixed bug in the help file facility. added wild card specifiers to general file search function. 1.32 released 10/22/87 fixed problem that prevented running from batch files. added wild card specifiers to ARC search function. space bar added as a tag/untag file key. -- Distribution Disk Files. The distribution .ARC file contains the following files: ARCMASTR.EXE ARCMASTR.HLP ARCMASTR.DOC The Arcmaster Plus disk contains the following files: ARCPLUS.EXE ARCPLUS.HLP ARCPLUS.DOC LIST62.ARC PKX35A.EXE READ.ME (May not be included) | LIST62.ARC is provided as a courtesy by Vern Buerg. It is his | property and subject to the provisions contained in the | accompanying documentation. PKX35A.ARC is provided as a | courtesy by Phil Katz. It is his property and is subject to | the provisions contained in the accompanying documentation. | I strongly urge you to support both of these outstanding | authors! | De-ARC LIST62A.ARC and be sure to rename LIST62A.COM to LIST.COM | for use with Arcmaster. PKX35A.ARC is self extracting. Simply | run this program and it will extract its own files. Both packages | contain complete documentation and registration information (don't | forget to register!). -- Arcmastr License Terms. Arcmaster is copyrighted by John J. Newlin, all rights reserved (1987). It is offered to IBM PC/XT/AT (and clones) personal computer users as Shareware. This means that you, the consumer, get to try out the proram and evaluateits usefulness before risking a purchase. User's who find it useful should remit a registration fee of $40.00 to: John J. Newlin 4060-228 Rosenda Ct. San Diego, CA 92122 I am offering two incentives to promote registration of Arcmaster. The first involves filling out the form that I have included at the end of the user's manual. If you fill in the form completely and include it with your registration, I will accept a registration fee of $30.00. In addition to saving $10.00, you avail yourself of the opportunity to critique the program and to make an important contribution to the design of future versions. I feel very strongly that submitted critiques will be just as important to me as the registration fees. The second incentive is that by registering with me you will recieve Arcmaster Plus, a program incorporating additional advanced features. Some of the features of Arcmaster Plus are: - Print an Archive directory listing. - Batch move, copy, deletion of files. - Renaming of files. - Assignment of function keys to file masks. - An optional date/time sort. - Optionally use different file names for ARCA, ARC-E, PKARC, and PKXARC. - Use DOS wild card masks for ARC and de-ARC operations. -- Arcmaster Plus License Terms. | Arcmaster Plus is copyrighted by John J. Newlin, all rights | reserved (1987). It is licensed specifically to the | registered owner. The registered owner's name and serial | number are displayed on the main Arcmaster Plus screen. The | registered owner is licensed to operate Arcmaster Plus on | his/her personal computer. The registered owner is | authorized to make copies of Arcmaster Plus for two purposes. | The first is for back-up (or archival) purposes. The second | is to transmit a copy of Arcmaster Plus to a friend, | associate, or other person for the purposes of evaluation. | The copying of Arcmaster Plus for the purposes of placing it | in a Bulletin Board System (BBS), Information Service, or any | storage location accessed by paying or non-paying members is | strictly prohibited. | PKX35A.EXE and LIST62.ARC are copyrighted by Phil Katz and | Vern Buerg, respectively. Use, distribution, and licensing | of these supurb programs are in accordance with the provisions | contained each package. | Arcmaster Plus may not be sold, licensed, or otherwise | distributed to any person, entity, or company without my | expressed written permission. | BBS operators please note: ARCPLUS.EXE is NOT authorized for | public distribution! Under no circumstances may it to be | posted for public access. I explicity reserve all rights to the distribution and sale of Arcmaster (both versions), both in and outside of the United States. I also claim copyright of the various screens and displays embodied in Arcmaster. Distribution of Arcmaster Plus by any means other than registered user to prospective user (for trial) is prohibited. Arcmaster may be copied and distributed for non-commercial use providing that NO FEE IS CHARGED FOR ITS USE, COPYING, OR DISTRIBUTION. Disk dealers should contact me directly for permission to distribute Arcmaster. BBSs that charge a fee for access and download priveleges may post Arcmaster (but not Arcmaster Plus) for download. -- Special Offer If any person registers Arcmaster and includes the name and serial number of a registered Arcmaster Plus owner, I will send the registered owner $5.00. So, for each friend, associate, or acquaintance that the registered owner persuades to register Arcmaster, that owner earns $5.00. Registered owners are advised that their name is encrypted in the Arcmaster Plus code so that it cannot be altered. -- Warranty This program is provided AS IS without any warranty, expressed or implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular purpose. The author is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). -- Support I support my software! Unfortunately, I cannot support a toll free line but I will accept letters, phone calls, carrier pigeon drops, or whatever form of communication suits you in asking for support. You can reach me at the address above or at one of these two numbers: Work - (619) 543-4072 08:00 - 17:00 PST Home - (619) 455-6225 17:00 - 23:00 PST I can also be reached via CIS EMAIL or IBMSW SIG message. My CIS user id is 71535,665. My GENIE address is JNEWLIN. My home address is: John J. Newlin 4060-228 Rosenda Ct. San Diego, CA 92122 I have yet to write any non-trivial software that did not contain bugs. Maybe others can, but I know I cannot. I'm sure Arcmaster is no exception. Some of those little beasts will probably never be found by me because of my bias as the author. Therefore it is important to all who use Arcmaster to let me know of any problems. If I know about them, I can probably fix them. Ideas and suggestions as how to improve the program are also most welcome. -- Technical Information. Arcmaster was developed and initially tested on an AST Premium/286 running MSDOS 3.1 and using monochrome monitor driven by a Hercules + board. It has been beta tested on the following machines: IBM XT stock with mono board/monitor. IBM AT (8mhz) EGA board emulating Hercules. Leading Edge model "M" with CGA. TANDY 1000 with CGA It is written in Marshal Language Systems' Marshal Pascal (70%) and assembly (30%) using Eric Isaacson's marvelous A86 assembler. I strongly urge assembly language programmers to obtain a copy of Isaacson's A86/D86 package. Arcmaster will support up to 400 files per directory and 300 files per Archive directory. If anyone needs increased capability, contact me and I will provide you a custom version that will meet your needs. I expect Arcmaster to support the Lotus, Intel, Microsoft (LIM) Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) as soon as Steve Marshal gets his act together and provides the compiler support. -- Credits. Arcmaster is an interface that automates most of the command line entry typing required to utilize the supported ARC programs and LIST. Without Vern Buerg's and Phil Katz's brilliant efforts, there would be no need for Arcmaster. It does not employ any file compression or decompression techniques and does not offer any intrinsic file viewing capability. Tied together with ARCA (or PKARC), ARC-E (or PKXARC) and LIST, I believe it will save much time and effort normally required to manage .ARC files. Special thanks to Steve Marshal and the folks at Marshal Language Systems for their support. PKARC and PKXARC are copyrighted by Phil Katz. ARCA, ARC-E, and LIST are copyrighted by Vern Buerg. | Phil Katz and Vern Buerg deserve your support for granting | permission for me to include PKARC and LIST files on this | disk. Please support them with registration!!!! -- Installing Arcmaster. -- Getting Online Help. Press ^H or Alt-H from almost anywhere to bring up a context sensitive help window. Each window contains specific information pertaining to the functional area active at the time. -- Hardware Requirements. Arcmaster should operate properly on any IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible having 256k of RAM or greater. It supports monochrome and color monitors and colors for the CGA/EGA are user configurable. While Arcmaster was designed primarily for a fixed disk environment, there is no reason it cannot be useful when used from a floppy disk. When changing drives via the F6 function to a floppy drive (drive A or B), Arcmaster will check to see if the drive is ready and inform you if it is not. Once a floppy drive is the default, you will not be informed of any DOS critical errors (disk removed, etc.) but you will not crash nor see the dreaded "drive not ready" message from DOS. Testing has shown that you will need approximately 125k of free RAM above Arcmaster when it is running in order to successfully invoke the archive system programs and/ or LIST. Arcmaster takes about 90k of RAM, DOS 3.1 takes about 70k (varying greatly, depending upon loaded device drivers), so you will need at least 256k. If you usually keep RAM resident software (like SCOUT) loaded, then you'll need more. -- Floppy disk system users note: Arcmaster invokes the DOS piping feature to pipe the output of the de-ARC program to LIST. When the pipe is used, DOS needs to create temporary files in the root directory of the default drive. If you are working on a crowded floppy and are having trouble listing a file with Arcmaster, this is most likely the problem. To alleviate the problem, execute Arcmaster from a nearly empty floppy or RAM disk and then use the F6 command to change to the floppy containing the ARC files. Arcmaster will use the drive from which you orginally started Arcmaster from and if it's nearly empty, DOS will have enough room for the temporary piping files. -- ARC-E users note: A system crash may ensue when viewing an ARCed file. This sometimes happens when several LIST operations are performed in succession. Vern Buerg is aware of the problem and is working on a fix to it. -- Software Requirements. PC DOS/MSDOS 2.0 or higher. If you haven't switched to DOS 3.x, I strongly urge you to do so. Arcmaster was designed specifically to interface with three of five of the most popular Shareware programs available. In order that Arcmaster provide the maximum utility in managing ARC files, the following software is required: PKARC or ARCA PKXARC or ARC-E LIST PKARC and PKXARC are archiving and de-archiving utilities by Phil Katz. ARCA and ARC-E are equally excellent archive products of Vern Buerg. LIST is a superb file view/browse/list utility by Vern Buerg. It is absolutely mandatory that one of the two archival systems listed above be present when Arcmaster is operated and it is highly recommended that LIST also be included. -- Configuring Arcmaster. Arcmaster is configured from the program at runtime. Simply place ARCMASTR.EXE and ARCMASTR.HLP in the same directory and execute Arcmaster. Pressing F10 at the main menu will bring up an auxilliary menu in the right hand box of the screen that looks like this: F1 - Change ARC Directory F2 - Change DeARC Directory F3 - Change .HLP Directory F4 - Change Drive List F5 - Change Squash Setting F6 - Change ARC/deARC System F7 - Change Comment Setting F8 - Change Sort Order F9 - Change Pause Setting F10 - Save settings/set colors The defaults, as received, are as follows: ARC directory = current directory DeARc directory = current directory .HLP directory = current directory drive list = DOS last drive down to C ARC/DEARC system = PKARC/PKXARC Squash setting = OFF Comment setting = add comment is OFF Sort order = alphabetic Pause setting = ON Default colors are (given in HEX byte values): Item Mono Color --------- ---- ----- border 00 01 main 0F 1F bars 70 4F cursor bar 70 4F message box 0F 1E entry box 0F 1E status box 0F 1E error box 0F 1C time display 0F 1E date display 0F 1E -- Changing the Defaults. Press any one of the 10 function keys or use the arrow keys to move the cursor bar to move to the desired selection and press return to change a specific item. -- ARC directory. This is the directory Arcmaster will use as a repository any new ARC files. It also uses this directory for all other ARC operations. To change it, press F1 and enter the name of the desired directory. Examples are: \MAINARC\MYARC D:\SUB1\ARCFILES\ARCHOST If you desire that Arcmaster use the current active directory as a default each time it is loaded, simply press ENTER with typing anything. Then Arcmaster will use whatever directory you are in when you load it. For example, suppose you are in C:\DOWNLOAD and want to run Arcmaster using C:\DOWNLOAD as the ARC directory. Make sure ARCMASTR.EXE is in the DOS path then enter ARCMASTR. Arcmaster will load and use C:\DOWNLOAD as the default ARC directory. Arcmaster will check to see if the entered directory name exists. If it does, then it will become the default. If it does not exist, you will be asked if you desire to create it. If you elect to create a directory with the name you entered, Arcmastr will create the directory (if possible--an error message will appear if the name is illegal) and it will become the default. If not, Arcmastr will retain the current default. This is also applicable to the de-ARC directory (see below). -- DeARC directory. This is the directory that Arcmaster will use to place any files extracted from an ARC file. To change it, press F2 and follow the same instructions as for F1 above. -- Help directory. This is the directory where Arcmaster will look for its .HLP file. If it cannot find it, it will notify you of that fact if you press "h" to view the help file. To change it, press F3 and enter the directory name where ARCMASTR.HLP will reside. -- Change drive list. The drive list is a list of alphabetic (A,B,C, etc.) drive designator characters that Arcmaster will use for file searches. The default is a list built from drive C up to the last drive in your system as reported by DOS. To change it, press F4 and enter a new list. The list can be in any order as long as each character in the list is a designator for a drive in your system. Suppose you have two floppies, two hard disks, and one RAM disk. You might enter a list like ECDFB. When directed to use a multi-drive search, Arcmaster would search drive E first, C second, and so on until finally drive B was searched. -- Change squash setting. Phil Katz's programs sometimes use a compression technique that Phil has dubbed as squashing. ARC-E does not support squashing and many bulletin boards have banned it. Press F5 to toggle squashing either on or off. This feature is of no use to you if you are using ARCA. Note: The latest version of ARC-E, ARC-E 3.1b, supports squashing. -- ARC/DeARC system change. This is very important to set the first time you run Arcmaster. Arcmaster, by default, will use PKARC and PKXARC. If you desire to use ARCA and ARC-E, then press F6 to change it. Don't forget to use F10 to make it permanent. -- Adding comments. This is not applicable to ARCA. PKARC allows the addition of comments for each file added to an archive. The default is off. Press F7 to toggle it on. -- Sort order. Arcmaster performs a sort when viewing files. The sort may be alphabetic by file name or by file date. The file date sort is in inverse order so that the newest files are listed first. Press F8 to toggle the type sort desired. -- Pause setting. The pause setting is used by Arcmaster when performing mult-drive searches. Set this to on if you desire that Arcmaster pause after each drive is searched. This allows you to abort the search between drives, otherwise the search is carried out to the end of the drive list with no pause. -- Setting colors. To customize the screen colors used by Arcmaster, press F10 and then press C in response to the prompt. The following menu will appear: F1 - Border F2 - Main screen F3 - Top & bottom bars F4 - Cursor bar F5 - Message window F6 - Entry window F7 - Status window F8 - Error window F9 - Time display F10 - Date display Select the desired item by pressing the associated function key or move the cursor bar to the item and press ENTER. You will be prompted to enter a TWO DIGIT HEX NUMBER. Use the following table to build a two digit hex number that is comprised of a background color (1st entry) and a foreground (second entry) digit. Foreground colors Background colors ----------------- ------------------ 0 - black 0 - black 1 - blue 1 - blue 2 - green 2 - green 3 - cyan 3 - cyan 4 - red 4 - red 5 - magenta 5 - magenta 6 - brown 6 - brown 7 - light gray 7 - light gray 8 - gray 9 - light blue A - light green B - light cyan C - light red D - light magenta E - yellow F - white For example, two change the cursor bar color to a green bar (background) with yellow text (foreground), press F4 and enter 2E and press ENTER. The 2 gives a green background and the E gives a yellow foreground. Just remember that you cannot use colors greater than 7 for background colors and you'll be all right. Arcmaster will show you the current color of each configurable in the status window as you move the cursor from item to item but the colors WILL NOT TAKE EFFECT until you save the settings and re-run Arcmaster. -- Saving your configuration. You may save your configuration to disk so that it will be set for you each time you execute Arcmaster. Just press F10 from change configuration menu and then respond to the prompt by pressing "S". The configuration can be changed any time you desire and you can even keep multiple copies of Arcmaster on your system, each configured differently. By the way, you must be in a directory in which ARCMASTR.EXE resides in order to save the configuration. If Arcmaster cannot find ARCMASTER.EXE in the current directory, you will be prompted to enter the path name of the directory where ARCMASTER.EXE resides. -- The DOS Path Command It is vital for the operation of Arcmaster that you correctly set the DOS environment path string. The directory or directories containing PKARC, PKXARC (or ARC, ARC-E), and LIST must be included in the DOS path string. For example, suppose you are using ARC and ARC-E and they reside in D:\UTIL\ARC. And suppose that LIST resides in C:\GOODPROG\LISTER. You must ensure that, as a minimum, the path command (entered from the DOS prompt or from a batch file) looks like this: PATH=C:\GOODPROG\LISTER;D:\UTIL\ARC This is critical and is the first thing you should check if Arcmaster is not functioning properly. You can check the path by typing SET at the DOS prompt. DOS will respond by displaying the elements of the environment, one of which will be the PATH= string, as above. RAM disk users can speed things up a bit by placing a copy of COMMAND.COM on the RAM disk and then placing the following command at the beginning of the autoexec.bat file (assuming the RAM disk is drive D): SET COMSPEC=D:\COMMAND.COM PKARC users should insure that the DOS program MORE.COM is in the path string. MORE.COM is invoked when viewing a PKARC verbose listing of an ARC file directory with file comments. Also, if you desire to start Arcmaster from a disk or directory other than the one on/in which it resides, ensure that ARCMASTR. EXE host directory is also named in the path. | Note: There is an alternate method of operating Arcplus so | that it is not necessary to have the location of your | ARC system files (PKARC/PKXARC or ARCA/ARC-E) specified | in the DOS PATH= string. Just start Arcplus with the | path\file name of the ARC program file and then the | de-ARC program path\file on the command line with Arcplus. | Example: | | ARCPLUS C:\ARCFILES\PKARC D:\DEARC\PKXARC | | The name of the ARC program must come first, followed | by the name of the de-ARC program. You CANNOT mix | ARCA with PKXARC or vice versa. Be sure to set the | ARC system you are using from the main program so that | it matches the ARC files on the command line. -- Operating Arcmaster. Arcmaster is easy to operate! It is almost entirely driven by one-keystroke menu options, displays a one-line explanatory message for each menu option, and offers extensive on-line help. Help is available almost anywhere by just pressing the "h" key. Normally, the .HLP file must be in the same directory as Arcmaster when it is executed but you can specify its location by using the configuration setting menu described above. -- Starting Arcmaster. Just remember that you need to have accomplished four small tasks prior to running Arcmaster. Did you do these? 1. Run Arcmaster and set/save the configuration. 2. Ensure the archive system programs and LIST are properly named. 3. Ensure that the DOS environment PATH string includes the directories containing the archive programs and LIST. 4. Place ARCMASTR.HLP in the directory that you specified when configuring the program. Ok, just type ARCMASTR at the DOS command line and away we go! -- Exiting Armaster to DOS. The Esc key is used to exit almost all routines and sublevels of Arcmaster except from the main program. Pressing Alt-X almost anytime will exit Arcmaster to DOS. -- The Main Arcmaster Screen. The main screen is divided into windows (or boxes, if you will). The top window displays the label of the current disk drive and the name of the active directory. The next window contains boxes which display the system time and date and the total and tagged file counts. The next ten lines are divided into to two equal size boxes. The left box contains the ten main menu selections. The right box contains a smaller box that has my Shareware notice in it. This notice will not be present in the version sent to registered owners. Below the two large boxes are four windows where various items of information are displayed. All required user entries will be made through the window labeled Entry. -- The Main Menu. There are ten menu selections to choose from. A menu item may be selected by its associated function key or by moving the cursor bar to that item and pressing return. The up and down arrow keys move the cursor up and down one item at a time. The Home key homes the cursor bar to item number 1 and the End key homes it to item number 10. As the cursor bar is moved, a one line explanatory message appears in the Entry window. Help on any menu item is available by pressing the "h" key with the cursor bar over that item. The double box area of the screen will clear and be replaced by a help message pertaining to the selected item. Arcmaster is exited by pressing ESC from the main window. The ESC key is used throughout the program to abort an operation and return to the previous operational level. -- Tagging File Names. Some Arcmaster functions support tagging file names for batch operations. For example, after pressing F1 you may tag multiple .ARC files for de-ARCing operations. File names are tagged by moving the cursor bar to the desired file name with the arrow keys and then pressing either "+" key or the space bar. A diamond symbol will appear to the left of the tagged file name. As each file is tagged, the display will update running tallys for number of files tagged and total bytes tagged. File names may be untagged by moving the cursor bar to a tagged file name and pressing either "-" key or the space bar. Pressing ^U or Alt-U at any time will untag all tagged files and display the first page of files. -- Main Menu Selections. -- F1 - DeARC Archive Files. This selection is used for de-arcing one or more archive files. If any .ARC files are present in the current directory, the middle area of the screen will clear and a list of up to 40 .ARC file names will appear. If there are more than 40 .ARC files in the directory, you can page through them using the PgUp and PgDn keys. A cursor bar is available to move with the arrow keys to select file names. The Home key homes the cursor to the first file on the page and the End key positions it to the last file on the page. Pressing the plus (+) key will tag an .ARC file for de-arcing and the minus (-) key is used to untag. Pressing ESC will return you to the main window display. If you tagged any .ARC files for de-arcing, the Shareware notice box will be replaced by the following sub_menu: F1 - Extract no option F2 - Extract /r option F3 - Extract /c option F4 - Extract /p option F5 - Test /t option This example is for PKXARC - a similar menu appears for ARC-E. I won't go into the specifics of each de-arcing function--Katz and Buerg both do a fine job of that in their documentation. When you make a selection, the screen will clear and either PKXARC or ARC-E will take over and de- arc ALL of the tagged .ARC files. The extracted files will be placed in the directory that you designated as the unarc directory in the configuration file. If none was specified, extracted files will be placed in the current directory. Don't forget that help is available on these functions by pressing the "h" key. PKARC system users may press the TAB key with the cursor over a .ARC file and view a listing of the ARC file directory that shows the user added comments file by file. Ensure that MORE.COM is in the DOS path string. Back in the ARC directory display now, pressing return will clear the filename display and replace it with a display of the selected .ARC file's directory listing. The directory is presented in the following format, 10 file names at a time: # name date time size <length> method # is an index number, date and time are file date and time, size is actual uncompressed size of the archived file, length is the compressed size of the file, and method is a two character abbreviation of the compression method used, as follows: CR = crunched PA = packed SQ = squeezed ST = not compressed QU = squashed (PKXARC only) The cursor bar is moved through the file with the up and down arrows and the PgUp and PgDn keys. In this case, the Home key homes to the top of the directory and the End key moves to the end of the listing. Now here's the neat part. If you have Buerg's LIST program, press return with the cursor bar over a file entry. LIST will be invoked, take control, and you can now browse the arced file without having to de-arc it! | You may print the directory listing of any .ARC file | by pressing the "p" (or "P") key while viewing it. | Another feature that is available while viewing an | ARC file directory, is the search feature. This is | especially useful when viewing a large ARC file. | Pressing the "S" key while viewing an ARC file | directory listing will bring up a prompt in the | message box asking you to enter a search string. | Enter any 12 character or less string that is part | or all of a file name you are looking for and press | return. If it is in the directory, Arcmaster will | display that portion of the directory that lists the | file with the cursor bar positioned over the file | name. -- F2 - Create or Add to ARC This function is the logical reverse of the de- arc function. You will be prompted to enter a DOS file mask. Press ENTER to see all directory files. If you press the TAB key at this point, Arcmaster will set up to automatically ARC all the files in the current directory. You will see the ARC operations menu in the right hand box instead of the file names. Or you can press any function key associated with a DOS file mask and Arcmaster will show all files matching that file mask. In this case the middle portion of the screen will clear and the display will contain file names of all files in the current directory. Simply move the cursor to the files you desire to archive and press the plus (+) key to tag them. The minus (-) key untags. You can tag an .ARC file and you can press return with cursor bar over an .ARC file name and view the contents of its directory and browse any file in the list with Buerg's LIST program. When you are finished viewing or tagging, press ESC. If you tagged files, you will be presented with the following sub-menu in the right-hand box: F1 - Archive no option F2 - Archive f option F3 - Archive u option F4 - Archive d option F5 - Archive m option F6 - Comment x option F7 - Comment c option Again, this is the menu for PKARC and a similar menu will appear if you're using ARCA. Consult the operating manual of either program for more specifics on these options. The "h" key provides a summary explanation of each item. When an item is selected, you are prompted for the .ARC file name. The name you enter can be a for a new, non-existing .ARC file or for one that already exists, but if it exists, it must reside in the directory you specified as the host directory for .ARC files in the configuration file. If you didn't specify one, Arcmaster will use the current directory. Remember, most of the selections available are applicable to existing .ARC files. Arcmaster can make .ARC file management much, much easier but it cannot think for you or anticipate your desires. If the .ARC file you entered exists in the specified ARC host directory (or current directory, if no host is specified), then you will be warned that you are about to add files to an existing archive. At this point you may press <A> to continue, in which case Arcmaster will add the tagged files to the existing .ARC file, or you may abort by pressing the <Esc> key. When you make a selection, the screen will clear and you will see PKARC or ARCA swing into action. -- F3 - Selectively DeArc Files. This option provides you with the capability to enter an archive directory listing and select individual files in the directory to operate on. The screen will clear and the display will contain all (if any) .ARC files in the current directory. Move the cursor to the desired .ARC file and press return. The directory listing of that file will be displayed. You can now move the cursor to specific files and tag (or untag) those files for specific de-arcing operations. When you're through tagging, press ESC, and a sub-menu will appear in the right hand box that looks like this: F1 - Extract no option F2 - Extract -r option F3 - Extract -c option F4 - Extract -p option F5 - Delete -d option These are PKXARC options. Similar options are offered for ARC-E. Extracted files will be placed in the unarc directory specified in the configuration file or in the current directory, if unspecified. When a selection is made, the screen will clear and PKXARC or ARC-E will take over an perform the indicated operation. -- F4 - ARC Wild Card Ops. This selection permits you to invoke PKARC or ARCA with wild card designators if desired. You will be prompted to enter a file mask. Either type one in | or press a function key associated with a pre-defined | mask. Next, you will be prompted for the name of the desired .ARC file. Arcmaster will either place this file (if it is new) in the pre-defined ARC directory or add to an ARC file in the ARC directory. Then you will be presented with an ARC operations menu in the right hand box. Make your selection and Arcmaster will ARChive the files that match the file mask you entered. -- F5 - DeARC Wild Card Ops. This works exactly the same as F4 above except that it invokes PKXARC or ARC-E. Arcmaster Plus will expect the ARChive file that is being de-ARCed to be in the pre-defined ARC directory. All extracted files will be placed in the pre-defined unarc directory. -- F6 - Change Drive/Directory. Here you have the facility to move around the drives and/or directories in your system. Enter a valid directory path name and Arcmaster will make that directory the current directory. To change drives, enter the drive letter and a colon (:) alone (i.e., D:) and Arcmaster will change to the default directory on the specified drive. Or enter both the drive and target directory name (i.e., C:\GOODPROGS\LEVEL2). Pressing return without typing anything in will command Arcmaster to return to the drive and directory from which you loaded and executed it. Pressing ESC aborts the command and returns main menu cursor control. Pressing the F1 key at the prompt for a directory name will automatically take you to the default ARC directory. Pressing F2 will take you to the default de-ARC directory. The home key takes back to the directory from which you started Arcmaster and the End key will place you in the root directory. Pressing the TAB key at the prompt for a directory name will display the current F-key assignments. Each F-key may be assigned a directory name. Pressing the associated key while this display is active allows you to change the setting. These settings are saved permanently to disk when you save the rest of the configuration settings. Press Esc to exit back to the prompt for a directory name. Pressing any of the F-keys will enter the associated directory name for you. -- F7 Search for ARCed File. Now we are into some neat stuff! Arcmaster can find any archived file anywhere in your system. You will be prompted for a file name. Enter the full file name with extension. Arcmaster will then search every .ARC file it finds on the current drive for the target file. If it finds it, the middle area of the screen will clear and you will see some portion of the .ARC file's directory listing with the bar cursor on top of the file you wanted to find!!! You can now press return and call Vern's super LIST program to browse that file. Press ESC to leave that display and the search will continue until all .ARC files on the drive have been searched. If you desire to search a specific drive, precede the file name with the drive character and a colon (i.e., D:TARGET.DAT). Remember the drive sequence list item you put in the configuration file? Enter the target file name with a star and a colon (i.e., *:TARGET.DAT) and Arcmaster will search the drives you placed in that list in the order that you placed them. I think this feature alone is well worth the price of Arcmaster. You may also you DOS wild cards ("?","*") in a target string. Only one asterisk is allowed in in the file name and one is allowed in the file extension. You may mix the wild card "?" with the "*" in the file name only. Examples are: *XY.COM ok AB*XY.C?M ok *.* what's the point? MYPROG.* ok *MY*??.COM won't work (two stars) MYPROG.*?? won't work (mix in ext) AB??EF.* ok *.DOC ok Arcmaster will pause with the cursor bar over the first file found that matches the target string. -- F8 - Search for Any File. More neat stuff! This works just like the F7 selection except that now you can search for any file anywhere in your system. Enter a target file name using the same rules as given above. When the file is found, the middle portion of the screen will clear and a portion of the directory the file was found in will appear with the cursor bar sitting on top of the target file!! Want to view it? Press return and let LIST do its magic! -- F9 - Display Files. Use this selection to bring up a display showing up to 40 file names from the current directory. You will be prompted for a DOS file mask. Press ENTER (for *.*) if you wish to view all files in the current directory. Or press any of the function keys to automatically enter the preset files masks. See the section on changing the preset masks. Press the Tab key to view and/or change the current settings. | Pressing control "R" (^R) with the cursor bar over | a .COM, .EXE, or .BAT file will execute that program. | When the program terminates, you will be returned to | Arcplus. When viewing files, pressing ^Home returns to the first page of the directory and ^End goes to the last page. | You may jump the cursor to an alphabetical group of | files by pressing any one of the 26 letter keys. For | example, suppose you are viewing a large directory and | you know that the file you wish to operate on begins | with the letter T. Just press the "T" key and the page | containing the first file in the directory beginning with | the letter T will be displayed and the cursor will be | over the first T file. You can page up and down through the directory and view any file by pressing return with cursor | bar highlighting its name. You may also tag files | with the plus (+) key and untag with the minus (-) | key. Tagging files sets you up for batch move, | copy, or delete operations. When you press ESC, a | batch mode sub-menu will appear in the right hand | box if any files were tagged. You may select from | the following options: | | F1 - Copy tagged files | F2 - Move tagged files | F3 - Delete tagged files | F4 - View tagged files | | Batch move allows you to move files from the current | directory to the directory of your choice. Batch copy | will copy files from the current directory to the | directory you specify. Batch delete will delete all | tagged files. If you select either batch move or | batch copy, you will be prompted for the destination | directory. For move operations, the directory you | enter must be a valid directory on the curren drive. | For copy operations, it may be a valid directory on | any drive. Just precede the path name with the | drive specifier and a colon (i.e., C:\myprog). If | you select batch delete, you will receive a query as | to whether or not you really want to delete the | files you tagged. Upon completion of the batch | operation, you will be advised as to how many tagged | files were actually moved, copied, or deleted. One | or more files may not be moved because files of the | same name already exist in the destination | directory. Files may not be copied because you | exceeded the capacity of the destination drive. And | files may not be deleted because they were marked by | DOS as "read only". | Option F4 permits you to preview the files you tagged | before invoking one of the other options. -- F10 - Change Config Settings. See the section above for details on how to change and save the default configuration items. -- TAB Key While Viewing files. PKARC users may view the directory listing of an ARC file by pressing the TAB key with the cursor highlighting an ARC files. This listing is the listing produced by PKARC and shows files comments instead of the normal directory display (PKARC with the /VC switch piped to MORE.COM). -- Additional Main Menu Keys (Arcmaster Plus only). -- TAB key | Pressing the TAB key from the main menu will clear the | viewing area and display the following: | | F1 *.PAS | F2 *.BAS | F3 *.C | F4 *.COM | F5 *.EXE | F6 *.BAT | F7 *.WKS | F8 *.DBF | F9 *.TXT | F10 *.DAT | | These are the supplied defaults, but each can be changed | by pressing the associated function key. When the key | is pressed, you will be prompted to enter a new mask. | Enter any legal DOS 12 character mask (e.g., MY???.A?C, | SCOUT.*,ABC*.??X, etc.). When you are prompted to enter | a file mask, you can simply press one of the function | keys to save keystrokes. These settings will be | automatically saved for you when you use the save option | from the configuration menu. -- INS key | Pressing the INS key from the main menu will display a | list of predefined directory path names for use when | changing directories. The first two, assigned to F1 and | F2, are automatically assigned to the current ARC and | de-ARC directories, respectively. These cannot be changed. | The other eight, F3 through F10, can be assigned path names | of directories in your system. When changing directories | via F6 on the main menu, use of these keys is like invoking | a macro. Simply press the desired F-key and the assigned | directory path name will be entered for you. When the INS | key is used to show the current assignments, pressing any | key except F1 and F2 allows you to change that assignment. | Key assignments are saved to disk along with other default | settings (see the F10 command). As delivered, ArcPlus | contains the following default assignments: | F3 - '\' | F4 - 'C:\PROCOMM' | F5 - 'C:\ARCM' | F6 - 'C:\ARCPLUS' | F7 - 'C:\SCOUT' | F8 - 'C:\ZAP' | F9 - 'C:\ARC' | F10 - 'C:\DOWNLOAD' -- Key Points to Remember. ++ Be sure include the host directory names of your ARC system, LIST, and ARMASTR files in the DOS path. ++ Ensure that you have used the set configuration menu to set the proper ARC system anF3 other F3esireF3 F3efaults. -- Arcmaster Registration Form Remember, if you fill out this form in its entirety, you may register for $30.00. Registrants will receive Arcmaster Plus on F3isk. ------------------------------------------------------- Name:_______________________________________ Address:____________________________________ City:_______________________________________ State:______________________________________ Zip:________________________________________ What do you like about Arcmaster? Please take as many lines as necessary to express your opinion: What don't you like about Arcmaster? How could Arcmaster be improveF3? From what source did you acquire your copy of Arcmaster? | Serial number of the copy you evaluated_________________ | Registered owner's name_________________________________ Computer type/name_______________________________________ Operating System____________ Total memory on board_______________________ Monitor/board type______________________________________ Favorite ARC system (PKARC OR ARCA)_____________________ Thank you very much for considering Arcmaster!