mco
 Help information about: Object Command
 ^Attributes ^WhyCallThemObjects
 
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              E║                CObject CommandE                  ║
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 CObjects

   Once you've gotten into the directory in which you want to work, you need
   to see what's there.  What you'll see there are CfilesB, but the term used
 ZmcowB  for them in InContext is "CobjectsB" (CJ Why do we call them that? CB).

   If your Cmain displayB contains Objects information (this is under your
 ZmcmofB  control; see CJ Changing the Main Display Format CB), you will immediately
   see at least some of the objects as soon as you enter the directory.  For
   example, the figure below is from a directory containing the objects
   "document.arc", "lwv.arc", etc.

                            E▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
                            E█A                  A  E█
                            E█A  B                A  E█
                            E█A  EssB   EObjectsB   EAA  E█
                            E█A  CLB document.arc eA  E█
                            E█A  Bc      lwYBv.arc vA  E█
                            E█A  Bc  admnnot.doc zA  E█
                            E█A  Bt  afhsmin.doc zA  E█
                            E█A  Bs C afhsnot.docB cA  E█
                            E█A  Br   bksale.doc rA  E█
                            E█A  Br   edcord.doc dA  E█
                            E█A                  A  E█
                            E▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

   In order to work on an object, you have to CselectB it.  The selected object
   is highlighted in the object list, as shown above, and is also displayed
   in the context area, as shown below.  In both figures, the selected object
   is "afhsnot.doc".

     E▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
     E█A                                                                A  E█
     E█A  B EDir:B CAlice Ramsey Personal Center -- alice                   A  E█
     E█A  B EDrive:B CcB   EView:B CALL     B  EClass:B CALLB   EObject:B Cafhsnot.doc B A  E█
     E█A                                                                A  E█
     E▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

   You can CselectB an object from the main display by placing the cursor on it
   and pressing either CENTERB or the Cleft mouse buttonB.  Thus, pressing
   ENTER in the first figure, above, will change the selected object to
   "lwv.arc".

 CThe Objects Command and Its Display

   Sometimes, the Objects area of the main display is insufficient, either
   because it doesn't have enough space or because it doesn't provide enough
   information about each object.  In such cases, the CObjects commandB and
   its associated Objects display are used.  This command is shown on the
   command line as F ODbject B, and can be selected in any of the usual
   ways.  Selecting it results in a display like the following.

  E▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
  E█A                                                                      A  E█
  E█A  B                                 G  Object (Full mode, Class order)  A  E█
  E█A  D      Modes:  FªFDull  FªBDrief     Orders:  FªCDlass  FªNDame  FªSDize  FªDDateA  E█
  E█A  E│B                                                                   A  E█
  E█A  E│B   EFilenameB       ESize Attr   Date    TimeB                         A  E█
  E█A  E│B document.arc     7933 ....  3/20/89  17:33                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B      lwvYB.arc    15846 ....  9/24/86  21:49                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B  admnnot.doc      599 ....   1/9/89  11:47                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B  afhsmin.doc    16366 .... 12/16/89  18:03                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B C afhsnot.docB  C   1050 a...  1/23/90   9:12B                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B   bksale.doc     9316 ....  10/3/88  18:52                        A  E█
  E█A                                                                      A  E█
  E▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

   As you can see, additional information is now available about the objects
   in the current directory.  For example, the object "afhsnot.doc" was last
   changed at 9:12 A.M. on 1/23/90, has a size of 1050 bytes, and is a normal,
 ZmcoaB  writeable file with its archive bit set (see CJ Object Attributes C
   for more information on the latter).

   The Objects display can be used to Cselect objectsB, either with the mouse
   (place cursor on the object and press the left mouse button) or with the
   keyboard (type the first letter of the desired object's name; if there are
   two or more that start with the same letter, keep pressing the key until
   the right one is highlighted).

 CDisplay Modes

   The Objects display allows you to see all the objects in the current
   directory.  While they may not all fit in the window, the window is
   scrollable.  Also, in addition to the (default) CFull ModeB, you can
   select the CBrief ModeB for displaying objects, and get a display with
   greater capacity like the following.

  E▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
  E█A                                                                      A  E█
  E█A  H Space  Time  Plans   View  ClassG  Object (Brief mode, Class order) A  E█
  E█A  D      Modes:  FªFDull  FªBDrief     Orders:  FªCDlass  FªNDame  FªSDize  FªDDateA  E█
  E█A  E│B                                                                   A  E█
  E█A  E│B   EFilenameB                                                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B  document.arc    pubhear.doc       temp.lis                       A  E█
  E█A  E│B       lwvYB.arc     pubmin.doc   votrguid.lis                       A  E█
  E█A  E│B   admnnot.doc     recrep.doc        bee.ltr                       A  E█
  E█A  E│B   afhsmin.doc   recycedp.doc    monxmas.ltr                       A  E█
  E█A  E│B  C afhsnot.docB   recycg&o.doc     ambres.lyr                       A  E█
  E█A  E│B    bksale.doc   recyclan.doc        doc.rec                       A  E█
  E█A                                                                      A  E█
  E▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

 CDisplay Orders

   The Objects display can easily be made to display the object list in any
   of several orders, by selecting the desired order from the command bar.
   The object list can be sorted by: CClassB, CDateB, CSizeB, or CNameB.
   Each time you select the Objects display, it will initially display the
 ZmcmomB  objects in the order specified by your CJ Objects Option Setting CB.
mcoa
 Help information about: Object Attributes

 
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              E║              CObject AttributesE                 ║
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   DOS file attributes are displayed as four characters, each of which 
   may be a letter indicating a particular property of the object, or 
   a period ('.') indicating that the object does not have that property. 
   The properties are:

        CaB  archive bit set; this means that the file has been 
           updated since the last time you did a system backup to tape
           or diskettes.

        CdB  directory; this indicates that the object is a directory 
           rather than a simple file. (A future version of InContext
           may treat some directories as objects; you won't see this
           attribute with the current version.)

        CrB  read-only; this object cannot be altered without first
           resetting this attribute.

        CsB  system file; ordinarily, this applies only to two files
           in the root directory. You should probably leave these objects 
           alone.

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  E█A                                                                      A  E█
  E█A  B                                 G  Object (Full mode, Class order)  A  E█
  E█A  D      Modes:  FªFDull  FªBDrief     Orders:  FªCDlass  FªNDame  FªSDize  FªDDateA  E█
  E█A  E│B                                                                   A  E█
  E█A  E│B   EFilenameB       ESize Attr   Date    TimeB                         A  E█
  E█A  E│B document.arc     7933 ....  3/20/89  17:33                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B      lwvYB.arc    15846 a...  9/24/86  21:49                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B  admnnot.doc      599 ....   1/9/89  11:47                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B  afhsmin.doc    16366 .... 12/16/89  18:03                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B C afhsnot.docB  C   1050 a...  1/23/90   9:12B                        A  E█
  E█A  E│B   bksale.doc     9316 ....  10/3/88  18:52                        A  E█
  E█A                                                                      A  E█
  E▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

   The object afhsnot.doc in the display above is just an ordinary file
   (i.e., its attribute description is "a...").  It has been modified since
   the last disk backup.
mcol
 Help information about: Viewing Archive Files

 
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              E║            CViewing Archive FilesE               ║
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   InContext provides internal support for several archive/compression
   programs.  These are programs that compress a collection of files into
   a single file, thereby

      CB  conserving space, and

      CB  collecting them into a single file for easy storage or
         transport.

   Archive formats and archivers supported by InContext include:

      CARCB  An archive format for which several archivers are supported:

              ARCA/ARCE -- Freeware programs with limited functionality

              ARC -- SEA's archive program

              PKPAK/PKUNPAK -- Phil Katz's earlier archiver programs.

      CARJB  ARJ -- Robert Jung's relatively new archive program

      CLZHB  LHA -- Haruyasu Yoshizaki's free archiver.

      CPAKB  PAK -- NoGate Consultings archiver, also used for distribution by
           the Software Distribution Network.

      CZIPB  PKZIP/PKUNZIP -- Phil Katz's more recent archive programs.

   You may use InContext to manage archives in any of these formats, using
   any of these archivers.  With the exception of LHA, none of these
   archivers are provided with InContext.  You must obtain them separately.

 CInContext Makes Special Use of LHA

   You may, or may not, choose to use the LHA program to manage archives
   of your own.  Regardless of that decision, InContext sometimes makes use
   of LHA to manage certain archives of its own.  For that reason, LHA is
   distributed along with InContext, to insure that you have it on your
   system.  The files produced by LHA, incidentally, usually have the
   filename extension (class) "lzh".

   If you choose, you can keep several kinds of InContext artifacts in LHA
   archives in order to minimize the disk usage of InContext itself.
   By placing help files in the archive "help.lzh", object templates in
   "template.lzh", and action definitions in "actions.lzh", you cause
   InContext to extract them only when needed.  This takes more time, but
   uses much less disk space.

 CViewing Archives

   InContext allows you to view archive files of any of the supported types
 ZmcoB  using an internal viewer similar to that used for CJ Objects CB.  An
   example display is shown below.  You can see this much about an archive
   of a supported type even if you don't have the associated archiver,
   since this display is produced by InContext alone.

    E▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
    E█A                                                                 A  E█
    E█A  B EDir:B CInContext Artifacts -- INCONTXT                          A  E█
    E█A  B EDrive:B CCB   EView:B CALL     B  EClass:B ClzhB   EObject:B Ctemplate.lzhB  A  E█
    E█A  B                                             G  Action    B      A  E█
    E█A  G  Viewing archive "template.lzh"                               A  E█
    E█A  G      FªADrchiveOp  Modes: FªFDull FªBDrief  Orders: FªCDlass FªNDame FªSDiA  E█
    E█A  E│B                                                              A  E█
    E█A  E│B   EFilenameB       E Size    Date   Time   CmpSize Method  PathB A  E█
    E█A  E│B      act.tpl YB       83   2/5/90 18:30        60 FROZEN       A  E█
    E█A  E│B      apt.tpl       566   4/6/91 12:03       312 FROZEN       A  E█
    E█A  E│B      asm.tpl       667  3/23/89 18:02       297 FROZEN       A  E█
    E█A  E│B      bat.tpl      1463   3/7/90  9:42       388 FROZEN       A  E█
    E█A                                                                 A  E█
    E▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

   Aside from the usual object information, you can see that the object
   "bat.tpl" is 1463 bytes in size when it resides normally on the disk,
   but it has been compressed to 388 bytes in the archive, using a
   compression method called "freezing".  You needn't be concerned about
   compression methods, since they are handled automatically.

   If you select an object from this display, InContext will present a menu
   containing actions relevant to objects in an archive.  In general, you
   can perform these actions only if you have the associated archiver.

 E▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
 E█A                                                                       A  E█
 E█A  G  What action do you want to take with "bat.tpl"                     A  E█
 E█A  E│ CVBiew  YB  -- View file                                             E │A  E█
 E█A  E│ CDBelete  -- Delete object from this archive                       E │A  E█
 E█A  E│ CFBreshen -- If corresponding disk file is later, freshen archive  E │A  E█
 E█A  E│ CKBill    -- Remove corresponding file from disk                   E │A  E█
 E█A  E│ CXBtract  -- Extract copy of this object from archive to disk      E │A  E█
 E█A  E└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘A  E█
 E█A                                                                       A  E█
 E▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

   This menu allows you to view the object, delete it, update its image in
   the archive, remove the corresponding disk file, or extract the object
   to disk (without removing it from the archive).

   You may also select the F ªADrchiveOp B command from the command line, in
   order to select among actions that affect the whole archive, rather than
   a single file in the archive.  These resulting menu is shown below.

      E▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
      E█A                                                              A  E█
      E█A  G  What action do you want to take with this archive?        A  E█
      E█A  E│ CFBreshen AllYB  -- Freshen archive from all corresponding disA  E█
      E█A  E│ CKBill All     -- Remove all corresponding files from disk  A  E█
      E█A  E│ CMBake Self-X  -- Convert archive to self-extractor, if suppA  E█
      E█A  E│ CPEath Extract -- Extract all files to indicated paths, if sA  E█
      E█A  E│ CXBtract All   -- Extract copies of all files to current dirA  E█
      E█A  E└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────A  E█
      E█A                                                              A  E█
      E▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

   To perform these actions, too, you must have the associated archiver
   properly installed on your system.  In the example shown above, the
   "Path Extract" action is not supported for the particular archiver in
   question, but the other actions are all available.

   For more information about using the various archivers, see the
 ZmuB  ARCHIVER.APP Application Note (AppNote) in the CJ APPNOTES.LZH archive CB.
   If you wish to make special use of archivers to customize your
 ZmcaelB  environment, read about the internal CJ "!viewArchive" CB command.
mcow
 Help information about: What Are Objects?

 
              E╔════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
              E║              CWhat Are Objects?E                 ║
              E╚════════════════════════════════════════════════╝


   When we talk about CobjectsB here, we're really talking about CfilesB,
   and sometimes sets of files. They're called "objects" because, when you
   use InContext, they exhibit some of the properties you naturally associate
   with objects in the physical world.

   Objects in the real world are naturally associated with the Cactions
   you can take with them.  You can drink from a coffee cup, or fill it up,
   or even throw it, but you can't write with it or drive it to the grocery
   store.  And we tend to think in terms of actions rather than the Ctools
   that are used in the actions. When you toss a salad, the emphasis is on
   the action, "toss", and not on the fork and spoon used to do the tossing.

   In the computer world in general, and MS-DOS in particular, the emphasis 
   has been on the tools.  There are (data) files, and there are programs 
   (tools).  You invoke a certain program on a certain file, perhaps with 
   special arguments, and a desired action results.  But the user has to
   remember CwhichB program, with CwhichB arguments, performs a particular
   action on CwhichB kind of file.

   With InContext, selecting an object gives you a list of CactionsB that are
   applicable to the object.  Common examples are edit, copy, rename, delete,
   and print.  Selecting the action causes execution of the appropriate
   procedure to perform the action.

   The term Cobject-orientedB is commonly used for computer software that
   exhibits this kind of behavior.
