The Easy Install installs the version (680x0 or PowerPC) optimized for your computer. Custom installs let you pick the version to install.
Documentation
File Buddy邃｢ 4.3.1 Read Me - An expanded version of what you are reading now, contact information, and the usual Read Me stuff.
FileBuddy4.31ReadMe.html - An HTML version of File Buddy邃｢ 4.3.1 Read Me (with links to the topics) which can be viewed in Netscape Navigator邃｢ when double-clicked. To have it open in Internet Explorer邃｢, use File Buddy to change the creator signature of 'FileBuddy4.31ReadMe.html' to that of Internet Explorer.
Upgrading/Registering FB - How to register File Buddy 4, or upgrade from a prevous version.
Read These FAQs - Some questions I am frequently asked by users.
Other Items
File Buddy Help - The online help file is installed in the File Buddy folder. It must be in the same folder as File Buddy for File Buddy to use it.
A log of what is installed is placed at the root level of the drive on which File Buddy is installed.
A few problems were found with 4.1.1 running under Mac OS 8. Anything serious has been fixed and File Buddy 4.3.1 has been tested with Mac OS 8. The verdict so far is that File Buddy runs fine under Mac OS 8. The only exception is rebuilding desktops, and this is discussed in the section Known Problems in File Buddy 4.3.1.
68K, PowerPC native, and fat binary versions now available!
Starting with version 4.2, File Buddy is distributed by way of an installer that will install your choice of 68K, PowerPC native, or fat binary versions. The installer for File Buddy 4.3.1 was created using Installer VISE Lite from MindVision Software. For more information on Installer VISE Lite, contact:
File Buddy is shareware. Shareware is try-before-you-buy-software. It is not use-it-as-long-as-you-like-for-free software. That kind of software is called freeware. If you like it and use it more than 10 days, please read the document Upgrading/Registering FB and register.
Label menus now display the color of the label next to the text. Thanks to Joe Zobkiw for that bit of code.
Some important information about using File Buddy to rebuild the desktop has been added to the online help topic Rebuilding the Desktop.
Fixes
A bug caused File Buddy to display a messages like "There is not enough room on the disk 窶弩arpdrive窶 to copy 窶弯1窶 (an additional 5.1 MB is needed)." when trying to copy multiple items to a disk with insufficient space. The message now reads "There is not enough room on the disk 窶弩arpdrive窶 to copy the selected items (an additional 5.1 MB is needed)."
Updating a locked alias to a new target had no effect. Locked aliases are now unlocked, updated, and relocked.
Canceling a Find when there was a file list window already open could result in a new file list window that contained the items from the old window, and the items in the old window would just have junk in them. Fixed.
A minor change was made to simplify localizing to other languages.
The wrong Balloon Help was showing up in the window for reporting empty items. Fixed.
Changed File Buddy's behavior when launched by dropping a file onto File Buddy's icon and it comes up in the Get Info window. In prior versions, trying to drop a second file produced an alert that said "Only one Get Info window is allowed when File Buddy is opened by dropping files to the Get Info window.", and File Buddy would quit when the window was closed. Dropping a second file opens another Get Info window, and sets File Buddy to not quit when they close.
File droplets created by the Get Info window now have the option to launch files dropped on them after making changes. Double-click a droplet to set this capablility.
The Find Window
As before, if a folder in the Find window's folder list is not available, the icon next to it is dimmed (or blank). Now, instead of ignoring clicks on dimmed icons, one of two alerts will appear. If the item resides on a volume that is not available, an alert asks you to insert the disk on which the folder resides. If the folder has been deleted, a different alert is displayed.
In the destination popup (the one above the OK and Cancel buttons), the last two items are only available if a file list window is available. Previously they were always available, but did nothing if there were no file list window open.
File List Windows
The Rename Sequentially... command (in the Special popup menu in file list windows) has a new feature. If the base name entered begins with an asterick '*', the rest of the base name and number are appended to each file's original name instead of replacing the original file name with the base name.
You can now drag the selection from a file list window to a File Buddy window in front of it without bringing the file list window to the front. The current selection is now outlined when the window in not in front.
Copying Files
File Buddy now supports multiple copy operations, and the copy progress dialogs are no longer modal.
Copying files is more responsive to canceling, faster, and more accurate in predicting whether or not there is adequate space to complete the copy.
There are several changes to what is seen when copying files with the Replace Different option: First, only the number of items that will actually be copied is shown, not the number of items that would be copied in a normal copy operation. Second, the progress bar now reflects only the progress of files actually copied. Third, while skipping files that don't need to be copied, the only feedback is the spinning watch cursor. It may appear that nothing is happening when you look at the progress window at those times, but File Buddy is actually working hard at identifying files and folders that don't need to be copied. The two improvements that result from these changes are that a Replace Different copy operation is much faster if there are a lot of files to skip, and the information in the copy progress window is more indicative of what File Buddy is really doing.
Misc
Volumes over 4GB are now fully supported.
When selecting disks to search, the label "<custom set>" has been replaced with the number of disks currently selected, for example "< 3 disks >".
Find Duplicate Files... has been rewritten. Previously, a duplicate file scan could only be run on whole volumes, and as a consequence of the design, the volumes had to be unlocked (no CDs, for instance). The new implementation allows running a duplicate file scan on any files you choose. The command gives you a window with a list into which files, folders, and disks can be added. Read the online help for more details about the new implementation, which should be faster. In addition, the window that displays the progress of a duplicate file scan is no longer modal, so you can do other things while it runs in the background.
Added a Window menu for accessing windows hidden behind other windows.
Multiple windows of the same type are now offset if necessary to prevent a window from being created in the same place as an existing window.
The Get Info, online help, Find, preferences scan reporting, unattached aliases reporting, empty files reporting, and duplicate files windows remember their last size and location and reopen there next time.
Sorting code was rewritten to make if require less memory and be a tiny bit faster. Many features sort one thing or another, so there should be fewer "out of memory" messages.
Some alerts always came up on the main screen, even if the window to which the message applied was on a different monitor. Fixed.
Window and dialog positioning is improved..
The caps lock key is now ignored when checking for drop keys.
Fixes
A bug introduced in v4.2 kept File Buddy from being able to access all the memory it had available to it. Fixed.
You couldn't type into the text fields in the Preferences window (under File Finding). Fixed.
After renaming a group of files with either of the multiple file renaming commands in the file list special popup menu, if any items could not be renamed (it was locked, had its name locked, etc.), File Buddy would crash when trying to tell you some files could not be renamed. Fixed.
Rectangles zoom out when some windows open (such as the About... box). There were not always zooming to the right place. Fixed.
On rare occasion, File Buddy could fail to pick up which keys were held down when something was dropped on it even though the cursor indicated otherwise. Fixed.
I have endeavored to make File Buddy as reliable and stable as possible. Nevertheless, it undoubtedly has bugs of which I am currently unaware. I don't know of any bad ones, but just about every piece of software with more than 20 lines of code has bugs. I use File Buddy all the time. However, you--as I--use it at your own risk.
Please contact me if you find any bugs, unexpected behavior, or have a suggestion for a new feature. I welcome ideas, but please keep in mind I can't use them all, or File Buddy will need over 4 megs of disk space, and the interface will suffer terribly. Only features which have wide appeal can make it in.
Well, that's all for now folks. PLEASE let me know if you find any bugs, so I can fix them asap.
I want to thank the people who registered a prior version of File Buddy for their financial and moral support. Without their appreciation, File Buddy 4.1 would never have been done.
Thanks to those users who reported bugs so I could fix them and you could have a better product.
Thanks to everyone on CompuServe that helped me with technical questions, now too numerous to mention. Thanks to everyone who tested some version of File Buddy to see if I had been successful in fixing a bug I couldn't reproduce.
Thank you,
Laurence Harris
17 Old University Station Rd
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-1572
919-933-9595
Contact Information:
Web: <http://www.skytag.com/>
E-mail:
filebuddy@skytag.com
A few e-mail requests:
1. Please do not e-mail files without asking first, and if I okay a file, please send it to <skytag@mindspring.com>.
2. E-mail me jusdiciously. Since the same guy designs the software, writes the software, processes registrations, and answers e-mails, the more e-mail I get, the less time I have for other activities like writing code.
