BRANCH Version 0.983545

BRANCH is the ultimate in hard disk directory
management currently available in the Public Domain
Libaries. This program was inspired by the high cost
of commercial software. Of course, this is an
Australian produced computer software. It is a Public
Domain software program, and normal Public Domain
rules apply.  The programmer would like to thank all
involved in this project.

Most functions of the program is fairly self-
explanatory. This help screen is available to provide
information and instructions regrading the use of
BRANCH.

Basics of using BRANCH

A pull-down menu has been is use in BRANCH to make it
easy to operate. Most of the functions in BRANCH are
accessible from the pull-down menu. To activate a
pull-down menu, press the first letter of the item on
the top menu bar. Use the cursor keys to move about in
the menu area.

Function Keys

F2   Change Drive, it only works when viewing the
     directory tree.

F3   Execute a single line of DOS command.

F8   Configure BRANCH to suit your needs. Allows you
     to select you favourite text-editor, and many
     other available options .

F9   Switches between 43/50 lines and 25 lines mode
     if you are using a EGA/VGA display.

     F10  Allow for temporary exit to DOS by executing a
          DOS shell, type `exit' to return to BRANCH


*    The Directory Tree
     When look at the directory tree structure of you
     drive, use the cursor keys to move up and down the
     tree. To Enter a directory, just position the cursor
     on that directory and press <ENTER>.

     There also several functions associated with
     directories available from the 'Dir' Menu. You can
     also logged by to another drive by choosing 'Log Disk'
     from the Menu.
     The File Display

     This display the files in the directory. When looking
     at the files, use the cursor keys to move around in
     the file area. The file are display just like they are
     when you use 'DIR' from DOS. In addition, the file
     attribue is also shown, so are all hidden files.

     To select (tag) a file, press the space bar.  Another
     way would be to go to the TAG menu.  Selected files
     are differentiated by a pointer on the left of the
     filename. The file(s) will still be tagged even if you
     accidentally (or intentionally) go to the the tree
     diagram.

     There are 3 ways to view a file, as a text file, a hex
     dump, as *.GIF graphics file or as a *.LZH archive
     file.
     To view a GIF file, an external GIF viewer is needed.
     Place the GIF viewer in anywhere on your hard drive
     and use the Configure option to enter the full path
     name of your chosen GIF viewer. When the cursor is at
     a GIF file, simply press ENTER to see the file.

     If the cursor is position on a LZH file. Its contents
     will be shown. Refer to the Archiving Section for more
     information.

*    Changing File Attribute

     To change the file attributes of a single file or a
     group of files, tag them first and then choose Change
     Attrib from the File menu.

     Press the keys H,S,R,A to toggle a particular
     attribute on or off.  Pressing `Enter' will change the
     attribute of all the tagged files. Press `ESC' to
     abort.

 *   View File
     To view a file, move the cursor to that file and then
     choose View File from the File Menu. There are two
     ways of viewing a file, as a binary file or a text
     file. BRANCH automatically attemps to check if a file
     is a text file or a binary file and invoked the
     corresponding viewer.

 *   Viewing Binary File

     A hex-editor is also included. Use the cursor keys to
     move the cursor to the required position. Typing
     anything on the keyboard will replace the character
     under the cursor. Items that have been modified will
     be shown in a different colour.

     Key             Effects
     ----------------------------------------------------------
     ESC   Quit viewing.
     TAB   switches you between HEX and ASCII mode.
     F2    brings you to the block number you specify.
     F3    lets you find a single or group of characters,
           starting from the cursor and working downwards.
           Only available for the characters on the
           keyboard.
     F4    searches for the next string of text as
           specified in F3. Saves you typing it in again.
     F5    writes current block to disk. If you wish to
           abort, get out by ESCaping before you press F5.
           This will revert the block to its last save.
     F6    lets you switch to viewing a text file, much
           like a word processor.
     F8    Lets you highlight a particular HEX/ASCII byte
           without doing anything to it.
     PgUp/PgDn Move the next/previous block.


 *   Viewing Text File
     When viewing a text file, use the Up-arrow/Dn-Arrow to
     scroll through the file. The moving scroll bar at the
     right hand side of the screen shows you roughly which
     part of the file you're in.

 *   Renaming File

     Use the function to rename files. The files must be
     tagged first before they can be renamed.

     eg. renaming *aaa.* to *bbb.*
            will rename all files with names ending with
            aaa to files with names ending with bbb
            regardless.

         renaming *.aaa to *.bbb
            will rename all files with extension aaa to
            file with extension bbb.

 *    Copying Files

      This function allows copying of files from one
      directory to another. When copying files to floppy, if
      the floppy disk is full, BRANCH will prompt for the
      next disk.

      Using Copy:
          After tagging files to be copied, chose this
          option.  It will prompt for the drive and path to
          be copied to.  If the subdirectory is not there,
          it will create whatever is missing from the path
          automatically and then copy the tagged files over.

      Using Xcopy:
          Same as above but also copies the directory
          structrue of source disk. Can only xcopy to a
          different drive.

 *    Backup Tag Directories

      Copy all the files in the tagged directories to
      another drive while maintaining the directory
      structure.  Only tagged directories can be backup.
      When the target floppy disk is full, please insert
      next disk. If the target hard disk is full, please get
      a bigger one.

 *    Changing Drive

      To change drive, select Change Drive from the Log Disk
      Menu or press the F2 key.

      To change from the current drive to a new one. If it
      is a floppy drive, BRANCH will automatically relog it
      every time it changes into the drive. If it is a hard
      disk, the old drive's directory structure if shown if
      it has already been logged, otherwise it will log it
      and store the information for later use.

      If you use Relog Drive, the drive will be re-read
      regardless. This is useful in the directory tree
      represented a drive is out-dated. Possibly cause by
      the creation/removal of directories when you shell to
      DOS or run another program from within BRANCH.

      Two other keys + and - can also be use to change
      drive. Pressing '+' simply go the the next drive while
      '-' select the previous drive.

      Change drive only works when in the directory tree
      area.  Does not work when looking at files.
      Run Another Program / Shelling to DOS

      To run a file from inside BRANCH, Move the cursor to
      the desired file and activate this function. You will
      be asked to enter the parameters for the program.
      After the program has finished, it will bring you back
      to where you left off. BRANCH will still reserve about
      67K of memory when runing another program. If there
      isn't enough memory for your program, then exit branch
      first.

      To shell to DOS, press F10. Similar to executing
      another program, some memory will be reserved by
      BRANCH. When in DOS, type "EXIT" to get back to
      BRANCH. To execute only a single DOS command, use F3
      (DOS command) instead.

 *    File Archiving

      A file archiving utility has been provided by Branch,
      using LZSS and Adaptive Huffman Coding technique, the
      same as the file format for Lharc (*.LZH files).

      Special thanks goes to Haruhiko Okumura and Haruyasu
      Yoshizaki for their work on Lharc. BRANCH always
      compress files to smaller or equal size compare to
      Lharc 1.13. The compression routine in BRANCH is
      optimised to always produce the smallest possible
      file using the LZSS and Adaptive Huffman Coding.

      When compression binary files and graphics file
      (*.PIC, *.MAC), using BRANCH usually results in
      smaller file than using PKZIP 1.01. Text files are
      usually better handled by PKZIP.

 *    Pack File
      First, tag the files you want to be compressed, then
      select Pack-File form the File menu. Enter the name
      of the archive file, eg. MYDATA.LZH. All tagged
      files will be compressed into the file MYDATA.LZH.
      This is the same as the 'a' option in Lharc.

 *    Unpack File
      Use this option to expand the archive file to their
      orginal files. Same as the 'e' option in Lharc.

 *    Viewing LZH file
      This is same as the 'v' option in Lharc. First move
      the cursor to the specific LZH file and press
      <ENTER>, the archived file information will be
      shown.

 *    Functions available from the Dir Menu.

      Backup Directory:
            Explained elsewhere.

      Create Directory:
            To create a new (sub)directory, use the cursor
            keys to highlight the (sub)directory you want
            the new (sub)directory to be linked to, activate
            this command and type in the new
            (sub)directory's name. Unlike the MKDIR/MD
            command in DOS, you can entered any path name to
            be created.
                Example:  "C:\AAA\BBB\CCC\DDD\EEE"
                          "..\CCC\GGG\LLL"

      Erase Directory:
            erases a directory only if it is empty.
      Hide/Unhide Directory:
            allows the user to hide or unhide a directory.
            When a directory is hidden it doesn't show up
            using the `DIR' command from DOS.

      Rename Directory:
            Change the name of a directory.

      Relog Directory:
            Relogs the directory at the cursor only.

      Functions available from File Menu. These functions
      mainly relate to file operations.

      Copy:   Explained elsewhere.
      Erase:  Deletes all tagged files.
      Change Attributes:   Explained elsewhere.
      View:   Explained elsewhere.
      Rename: Explained elsewhere.
      Run:    Explained elsewhere.
      Xcopy:  Copies file, but keeps directory structure
              as well. Can only be copied to a different
              drive.
      Text Editor:  execute an external editor the edit
             the file at the cursor. use F8 (Configure) to
             choose you own external editor.
      Pack:   Explained elsewhere
      Unpack: Explained elsewhere

      Sorting Files

      The files being displayed can be sorted in several
      different ways.

      Extension:  sorts by extension.
      Date/Time:  sorts by date and time.
      Name:       sorts by filename.
      Size:       sorts by size.
      Un-sort:    restore to orginal order
      Reverse:    re-sorts the file in reverse order.

      Tagging Files or Directories

      SPACE-BAR:
           Tags the file or directory at the cursor bar and
           advance the cursor to the next item.

      Global:  Tags all files in directory.
      Clear:   Untags all tagged files.
      Invert:  Tagged files become untagged and vise
                 versa.

      Tag Selected:
            Tags files with similar names or extensions.

            eg. using `*.EXE' will tag all files with
                extensiion `EXE'.

      Untag Selected:
            Same as above but untages the matching files.

      Configure BRANCH

      There are several options that can be configure by the
      user. Use the up/down cursor keys to move the "-->"
      to the item you want to configure and press "ENTER".

      Change Colours
      Since everyone has different preference for screen
      colours, you can choose you own colour combinations.
      use the 4 cursor keys to change to a different colour,
      and the PgUp/PgDn keys to select colours for dirrerent
      fields.

      Change Colour Palette
      This is available in the presence of EGA/VGA display.
      There's a choice of 16 colours out of a possible 64
      colours. Use the Up/Down cursor to move to the
      particular you wish to modify, then use the PgDn/PgUp
      keys to change the palette colour. If you do modify
      the colour palette, BRANCH will revert to the original
      default palette when you run another program, shell to
      DOS or exit from BRANCH.

      External Editors
      Press "Enter" and type in the path name of you
      favourite text editor.

      External Gif Viewer
      Choose your GIF viewer to view GIF files from within
      BRANCH.

      Screen Blanker
      Use this option if you want BRANCH to black out the
      screen when there's no keyboard activity for a
      specified duration. Enter the number of seconds you
      want to wait before the screen blanks out. A value of
      "0" indicates no screen blanker. Note: if you set the
      black colour to some other colour (using change
      palette) then the screen will not be black when
      blanked.

      Data Entries
      Selet the amount of memory BRANCH will use to store
      directory/file entries. Press Enter to type in a
      value between 300 and 2700. The new value you
      specified for the data entries will take effect the
      next time you run BRANCH.  Note that you must allocate
      at least more entries than the maxinum number of
      directories in a drive plus the maxinum number of
      files in one directories.

      When you've finished the modifications, press ESC.

      Technical Information

      This program is the result of weeks of hard work by
      James Chao. The entire program is written in Borland's
      Turbo Pascal Version 5.5 (with OOPS), consisting more
      than 8000 lines of PASCAL code. The archiving routine
      is written in 8086 assembley (about 1000 lines), and
      compiled using Borland's Turbo Assembler version 1.0.

      The aim of of BRANCH is to make it easy to use,
      therefore the entire program occupies only a single
      file BRANCH.EXE. The same cannot be said for many
      other MS-DOS programs which are spread over several
      files.  This Help screen is always on hand when
      pressing F1.

      Branch can only be run from a hard disk.  It uses an
      overlay manager to reduce memory overhead.  When you
      shell to DOS or run another program, BRANCH still
      occupies some memory (depending on the number of data
      entries you choose).  BRANCH is not a TSR program,

      Like many other Hard Disk Utilities, a limit exists on
      the size of the data. A data entry can be either a
      file entry or a directory entry. Branch only works if
      the total number of directory on a drive plus the
      number of files in you biggest directory (the one with
      the most files) is less than the number of data
      entries specified in the Configure option.

      As long as the above condition is fulfilled branch
      will work, even if you have 10000000 files on your
      disk. If you enter a directory, all the files entry
      are read into memory. A LSU (least recently use)
      algorithm is used to decide which files entry should
      be left in memory if you have more than 600 files. If
      you have more than 600 files in one of you directory,
      then you have to start removeing them or move some of
      them to another directory.

      Your Wish Lists

      Since Branch is a public domain program, please DO
      sent in your wish list for additional features you
      wanted in BRANCH. If you discovered any bugs or
      problem, please sent a message to James Chao.
      Your help and support will be very much appreciated.
      The programmer can be contacted via:

                          James Chao
                          P.O. Box 3201
                          Parramatta
                          NSW 2150
                          Australia

                << *** End of Help Screen *** >>
