home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Night Owl 6
/
Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
/
033a
/
wafsrtr2.zip
/
FILESORT.DOC
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-10-21
|
8KB
|
147 lines
FILESORT.EXE (10/20/91) by Brad Brown (6/8/91)
MS-DOS WAFFLE (512k mem)
Version 2.0
Well! Quite a bit has changed since the release of version 1.0... the
first (and most significant) change is the ability to run this from remote
as well as the local console. See below for more details...
Introduction
------------
Basically, in a nutshell, our problem was this. We run a WAFFLE node down
in the San Diego area with a hefty download section, and trying to maintain
the @FILES description file with a text editor was a pain in the butt...so...
I came up with this little utility program to help in the maintenance of
the description file. It has imbedded utilities to view GIF files (using
your favorite viewer program... I happen to like VPIC), and also the ability
to view text files (using the internal lister or an external program/editor
such as Vernon Buerg's excellent LIST.COM program).
New for 2.0...
1 - Remote usage. For those of you familiar with version 1.0, the
program lacked the ability to be run from anywhere but the local
console. This is due to something within Turbo Pascal that I couldn't
figure out (yes, I tried DIRECTVIDEO=FALSE... but it still wouldn't
work...). So, with this version, and the help of a few comm
routines, you can now use this program from remote.
2 - Fixed bugs. A comment was made about the \ to / conversion only
working with CD, and not with any other command (like MOVE)... well,
I've fixed it so that the conversion will work with all commands.
Also, there was a bug that allowed you to use the MOVE command on
a directory (with indeterminate results...) That was removed.
The EDIT command has been fixed to only allow 44 chars in
the description.. rather than just truncating the line down to
44... (or was it re-prompting for the new description??).
Also, a few folks asked for the program to start up in the current
directory, rather than the top directory in the STATIC file...
Ok... I fixed that too. Lastly, there was a bug where you could
use the TYPE command with EXE or COM files... this was bad. I
have set an error trap to check the files for any illegal characters,
and will abort the listing automatically if it finds any.
3 - New features. The DIR command is now much more versatile... and
much more like the dos DIR command. Screen pausing is no longer
automatic (in DIR requests, that is... the TYPE command still does
auto pausing), so you'll need to add the /p switch in your DIR
requests. Also, limited wildcards and filenames are allowed (similar
to the MS-DOS DIR command.) By limited, I mean *.ext or filespec.*.
I tried writing the code for the true * or ? wildcard searches, but
after two nights of headaches, I gave up and left it where it is.
If anyone has a cute piece of TPas5.5 code to do this, e-mail
it to me... Lastly, the /w command for wide directory is now
supported.
The use or ^S/^Q for the XON/XOFF protocol (screen pausing) is now
supported, as well as being to abort listings using any of the
SPACE, ESC, or ^C keys.
As for how to use the program, just remember that either ? or HELP will
get assistance from anywhere within the program (well, almost anywhere).
So, for the most part, what ya see is what ya get. So just play around,
you should figure it out REAL quickly (hell, if you figured out how to
set up WAFFLE... this should be a cinch!).
Just a couple of notes for installation purposes...
1st -> You need to put a text file called FILESORT in your EXTERN directory
(i.e. COPY CON FILESORT)). Use an entry similar to this...
/priv=9 /local /command="D:\WAFFLE\BIN\FILESORT.EXE %d"
If you ever need to run FILESORT from the command line, you need to add
the extention LOCAL (or local, or -l) to the filename (i.e. FILESORT LOCAL)
in order to keep the modem from kicking on...
2nd -> If you want to use the GIF viewing function of FILESORT, you'll need
to add the line "VIEWER : <path>" to your STATIC file. Include the
full pathname to the viewer program you wish to use. Also, if you'd rather
use an external text reader/editor program (rather than my incredible version
of DOS - "TYPE <filespec> | MORE" command), add the line "READER : <path>"
to the STATIC file as well...(omit the quotes...) In addition, you can also
specify any switches to pass to those programs after the path to the program
(i.e. VIEWER : C:\UTIL\VPIC\VPIC.EXE /v .. the /v is now needed with the
newer versions of VPIC in order to do auto size detection...). Please note,
the external reader/pic-viewer functions are available only when running
FILESORT in local mode (for fairly obvious reasons..).
3rd -> On systems (especially XT's), don't try to run the GIF viewing function
from within the program IF you run FILESORT out of the WAFFLE shell. XT's
just don't have the upper memory to handle the larger GIF's, and your system
might hang... Then again, our betatest machine was running on an OAK VGA
card...
4th -> The CD command works much the same as the DOS counterpart, with one
exception... You can specify a drive as well as a path that you
want to change to (i.e. CD c:\waffle\bin or CD d:\public\ibm).. the
\ or / are ambigious to FILESORT (either will work...).
That's about it. I've got a few more features I'd like to add to it (such
as sorted directories and the like), but those will (or perhaps may...) be
available in the next release... ( 3.0??? I dunno...).
A note to FOSSIL driver users... One problem I've noticed is that the program
is not well behaved when using a FOSSIL type driver (X00, BNU, etc.) I
haven't personally been able to play around with FILESORT when a FOSSIL is
installed (do I really need one at 2400 baud?!?!), so, you might need to run
FILESORT out of a batch file that first turns off the FOSSIL (I know this
is possible with the BNU driver, as for X00... beats me!), then run
FILESORT... upon exit, it should then restart the FOSSIL before exiting
back to WAFFLE. As I said, I haven't tried this personally, but theoretically
it should work... that is, if when you disconnect the FOSSIL, it really
disconnects. If someone has any hints on how to disconnect it from within
a Turbo Pascal program, I'd sure be happy to listen!!
If you have any comments/suggestions/feedback/bug reports/etc. please send
them to bbrown@ziggys.cts.com. Be gentle though... I don't program for
a living, and the source for this thing (if you were ever to see it) would
prove it!
One last thing... This program was originally released as freeware... it
cost me nothing to put it out (a little time and foul language not
withstanding...), however, the routines to run the modem did cost a few
pennies (about 3500 pennies to be exact), so if you like FILESORT (or even
don't like it!) and are feeling a little generous, drop a few bucks in the
mail to me... I'd sure appreciate it (starving student on this end...).
Send to:
Brad Brown
12177 Avenida Consentido
San Diego, CA 92128
-Brad Brown (courier)
Ziggy's - The Den of Iniquity
619/262-6384
P.S. I'd like to thank the dedicated (dedicated?) following of folks that
use this program and who sent me their comments and suggestions. You make
the effort worthwhile.