Acorn PD Software ....

This program follows in the footsteps of previous applications such as !FileTypes (Mark Thompson) and !FileIconz (Jon Noble). If you have a file that is unrecognised by the system and hence does not have an icon, drop it onto the !File_ID window or iconbar icon. If the filetype is one of the 1764 types currently recognised by the program then appropriate information will be displayed together with the corresponding icon - much as the previous programs did. The advantage of this program is that all known alternative uses of the filetype are also displayed - clicking on their icons then gives the relevant information about them. If your hand does not want to leave your mouse, then a hex keypad is available for numeric input - just click on the small keypad icon. A fairly unsophisticated search facility is available as a menu item - just type in the word or phrase that you want to search the database for (max 24 characters) and click on 'search'.... The search starts with the current datafile, and displays the first 20 matches found. Click on a result to view information in the main window. Some of the data originates from the list maintained by Denis Howe in the Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing - http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/acorn/doc/filetypes.

Use the program at your own risk - extensive testing has not been carried out and many bugs are no doubt present. It is known to work on both an A410 and a RiscPC (with or without StrongArm) without major problems and should be fairly intuitive to use. The data is stored as a series of sprite files, with the corresponding textual information stored in CSV files. The format of these is more or less self explanatory if you want to add further filetypes. The filetype information is thought to be reasonably accurate, but there are no guarantees :-). The sprite data is all held as mode 20 sprites, so if you don't have a high resolution monitor, the display is not too wonderful. As the program was written for my own use, many of the sprites have been adapted to suit my personal idea of what they should look like - apologies to anybody who is upset by this. Any e-mailed additions or corrections to the database (or bug reports) are welcome, as are suggestions for improvements and better programming technique. (The sprite handling routines are a bit of a kludge at the moment...) The most recent version will be at http://www.valleyfield.demon.co.uk

This program is public domain, and no warranty, express or implied, is given of the suitability of this software for any purpose whatsoever. Under no circumstances will liability for any damage or indirect or consequential loss arising out of use of the software be accepted etc.

The MenuUtils module was written by Alex Petrov. (APetrov@misis.msk.su)

Tony Snell
August 1998

Brief History
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v0.11ß - put on web site, Aug 1996
v0.17ß - can now cope with 10 variations of one filetype
v0.18ß - MenuUtils module added
v0.19ß - simple search procedure added
v0.22   - hex keypad added
v0.23   - can now flag registered filetypes
v0.25   - search procedure improved again
v0.27   - checks data file sizes