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PPMore 1.8 User Manual
May 11, 1991
Preface
=======
The programs and files in this distribution are freely distributable,
but are also Copyright (c) Nico François. They may be freely distributed as
long as no more than a nominal fee is charged to cover time and copying costs.
No commercial usage is permitted without written permission from the
author. Everything in this distribution must be kept together, in original
unmodified form.
The above is generally known as freeware.
If you have suggestions or remarks about this program, or if you find
any bugs, please let me know.
Write to the following address:
Nico François
Corbielaan 13
B-3060 Bertem
BELGIUM
Contents
========
1. An introduction
2. Usage
3. Control
4. Using PPMore from other programs
1. An introduction
==================
This program was written to complement one of my other utilities,
PowerPacker (a command and data cruncher). It is used to read normal ascii
text files or text files crunched with PowerPacker. The program itself is
about 10K long and when you know you save about 60% when you crunch a text
file, you can see that this could save a lot of space on your disks.
PPMore was written as a more replacement (as you could have guessed :-),
so I tried to keep the keyboard commands the same as well as adding some new.
There are two main differences between PPMore and More, PPMore uses gadgets
and it always loads the complete file in memory (More only loads part of the
file and will load the rest when needed). If you can live with these
differences, you can replace More with PPMore anywhere you want.
If you haven't got PowerPacker you are of course missing one of the main
features of this program. PowerPacker is available as shareware (up to
version 2.3b) or as a commercial program (version 3.0a). Order a copy for
$17.50 (Europe) or $20 (outside Europe) from UGA, P.O.Box 881, 3700 AW Zeist,
The Netherlands (only Eurochecks in Dutch Guilders or cash). The commercial
version offers several enhancements like 40 to 50 times faster crunching and
overlay crunching.
2. Usage
========
PPMore can be used in four different ways.
- First of all via the CLI:
If you enter PPMore without arguments you will get a usage template.
You use PPMore like this:
PPMore [<options>] [<file|dir>]
The program will then load the ascii file and display it. If the file
was crunched using PowerPacker 2.0 or higher PPMore will first decrunch it
for you. If the file was encrypted you will be prompted for the password.
The '-w' option switches on line wrap mode. Line wrap mode determines
how long lines will be displayed. If it is on (default) long lines will
continue on the next line, if it is off they will be cut off. Press 'w' to
toggle it on/off. If a line is cut off a complemented '>' will appear on the
right edge of the display.
The other options are explained in section 4.
PPMore can be made resident so it doesn't have to be loaded every time
you use it, use the ARP ARes command or the c: Resident command for this.
You can't make PPMore resident when it is crunched !! The file is supplied
as an uncrunched command file with the pure bit set.
If you enter PPMore without options, you will be presented with either a
file prompt or a filerequester (if arp.library or asl.library is available).
Entering PPMore with a directory instead of a file as an argument will also
get you a requester, but it will be positioned in the directory you specified.
Enter 'PPMore ?' for a little usage message.
- Via the WorkBench:
There are three different ways of using PPMore via the workbench: you
can set the default tool of the (crunched) text file to 'PPMore', you can
single click the PPMore icon and then double click the text file icon or you
can double-click the PPMore icon and enter the filename in the string gadget
(or the ARP filerequester) you will be presented with.
You set the default tool by single clicking the icon of the text file
and selecting 'Info' from the workbench menu. You will get a window with
several gadgets in it, click in the string gadget where it says 'Default
tool' and enter ':ppmore'. PPMore should be in the root directory of your
disk for this to work, if e.g. it's in the system directory you should enter
':system/ppmore'. Last of all select the 'Save' gadget.
NOTE: - PPMore will add '.pp' to the filename when the file wasn't found.
This is very useful in the WorkBench enviroment: you can make an
icon for 'text.doc' but name the file 'text.doc.pp'. Now the
WorkBench will show an icon with 'text.doc' as name, but if you
doubleclick it 'text.doc.pp' will be displayed. (As long as there
is no 'text.doc' file in the directory !)
- Once you are in PPMore press 'L' to load a new file, this is
especially useful if the arp.library is available.
3. Control
==========
PPMore can be controlled by keyboard or by intuition gadgets. To get a
summary of the keyboard commands press <HELP>, the function of the gadgets
shouldn't be hard to understand.
A few notes on printing:
- The printer.device has to be in the devs: directory for PPMore to be able
to print, you should also have a correct system-configuration for your
printer.
- You can continue to read the text when PPMore is printing (this IS a
multitasking computer ! :-), you can't quit when printing is still in
progress !
4. Using PPMore from other programs
===================================
If you are not a programmer you can skip this section.
PPMore has two power options to make it possible to use it from other
programs. This way you don't have to include a text displayer in your
programs, you just execute PPMore with one (or all) of the following options:
-@mem,len,flags[,name]
If you specify this option PPMore will not load a file but instead it
will display a chunk of memory. You specify the memory addres and
length in the command line as well as some flags. The current version
only has one flag: PPMORE_FREEMEM = bit 0 of the flag-word = 0x1.
When this flag is set PPMore will free the memory after it has
finished, if it isn't set PPMore will just exit and leave the memory
alone. This way your program can start PPMore with the PPMORE_FREEMEM
flag set and exit before PPMore has ended. PPMore will then free the
memory instead of your program.
The address, length and flags must be presented as HEX longwords
seperated by a comma. These options can be followed by another comma
and a string to give the memory chunk a name, if this string is omited
PPMore will use the name 'memory'. This string ends with the end of the
command line so it can contain spaces.
-Sscreen or -S*
With this option you can use PPMore on another screen. You must
provide a screen address in HEX. PPMore will the open the main window
on this screen. If you specify a '*' instead of a screen address the
frontmost screen will be used.
Examples:
o PPMore -@1A000,1D4E,0,my chunk
PPMore will open a window 'Listing of my chunk', start
displaying at address 0x1A000 and stop at address 0x1BD4E. The
memory will not be freed after PPMore exits.
o PPMore -Sc2d8a0 -@1A000,1D4E,1,my chunk
Same as previous but now PPMore will free the memory chunk and
open the main window on the custom screen with the screen structure
on address 0xc2d8a0.
o PPMore -S* myfile
Load and display the file 'myfile' and open window on the front
screen.
NOTE: - The options are case sensitive.
- The @ option must always be the last option on the command line.
- If you open PPMore on another screen PPMore will not check if the
screen closes !! PPMore should always finish before this screen is
closed !
- I advise you to use the ARP 1.3 SyncRun and/or ASyncRun instead of
the AmigaDOS Execute function to execute PPMore from your programs
because the ARP functions also work when your program has been
started from WorkBench. I suppose Kickstart 2.0 will offer some
better ways of executing programs.
- Watch out when using these options, it is very easy to crash the Amiga
if you don't know what you are doing !!!
As always, I hope you find this program useful !
PROGRAM HISTORY:
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.0
First release.
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.1
'.pp' suffix added to filename when file not found, very useful in
WorkBench enviroment.
PPMore now also loads encrypted files. (PowerPacker 2.3a or higher)
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.2
Rewritten some routines in assembler, results in a slightly faster
and smaller PPMore.
Keyboard input improved. Autorepeat of keys is ignored so you can keep
on pressing <page down> without typing it 20 times ahead !
Gadget input also improved, now handles repeat.
PPMore now prompts for a filename when double-clicked from WorkBench.
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.3
PPMore can now be made resident and is reentrant. (provided PPMore is
not crunched)
Improved error reporting, the main window only opens when PPMore is
going to display the file.
File is checked to see if it is an ASCII (text) file.
Two new power-options for use of PPMore from other programs:
-@ to display memory, -S to open window on a custom screen.
Fast assembler search function added.
Display position is displayed in titlebar (percentage).
Goto n% function added, replaced 'Refresh' gadget with this function.
Decrunching is 15% faster.
'Exit PPMore' only selected when button is released on top of gadget.
NO bugs removed because none where found. :-)
Only about 700 bytes larger than version 1.2 !
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.4
Bug fixed: PPMore 1.3 was not 100% pure, version 1.4 is !
ASCII check less strict (e.g. now allows files to contain a '©')
Another 300 bytes shorter than version 1.3 :-)
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.5
Bug fixed: search/goto window always opened on WorkBench screen.
Find previous also implemented.
Load a new file from within PPMore.
PPMore uses ARP file requester if arp.library is available.
Line count, as well as goto line.
Display position as percentage or line number.
Keypad = movement. (for PC-lovers, yek :-( )
PPMore now supports all keymaps !! I think especially german and french
Amiga users will be grateful for this.
Less than 600 bytes longer than version 1.4 (I love this :-D)
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.5a
Decrunching is 40% faster, this was a stupid mistake in 1.3 to 1.5,
I accidently used a slower instead of a faster decrunch routine :-(
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.5b
The Guru isn't with me lately, after using a slow decruncher in 1.3-1.5
by accident I now used a fast but faulty decruncher in 1.5a. It
sometimes didn't decrunch correctly, this has now been fixed. The
decruncher is still 40% faster than the 1.3-1.5 one. (and it's 2 bytes
shorter :^D )
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.6
Bugs in search fixed, didn't work correctly when used in large files and
sometimes didn't work at all :-(
Error output goes to the console when you start PPMore from the CLI,
WorkBench error reporting still in small window as before.
The ASCII check was made less strict (again). I got a lot of complaints
from German users trying to display german documents, this should now
no longer be a problem.
If you deactivated the window when PPMore was loading PPMore would hang
until you resized its window, this has been fixed. (Actually, I
worked around this problem, I think it was an Intuition bug :-)
PgUp, PgDn and the shifted arrow keys now do an immediate page up/down
without scrolling, SPACE and BS still scroll up/down.
Changed some things so PPMore runs better on Kickstart 2.0, next
version of PPMore will probably be a Kick 2.0 only version so I can
make use of all the new goodies of the new OS :^)
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.6a
Small update on special request. Now possible to dump just the visible
page to the printer instead of the entire file.
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.7
No Kickstart 2.0 only version yet. Changed some stuff so PPMore looks
best on Kick 2.0 and still runs on Kick 1.3.
Uses the all new powerpacker.library => shorter code :^D
Starting PPMore from the CLI with a directory as an argument now puts
up the requester positioned in that directory. Extremely useful once
you get used to this :^)
Small bug fixed in search routine, it sometimes missed an occurence.
PPMore filters out form-feeds and replaces them with <FORM FEED>.
If you are running Workbench 2.0 PPMore will use the asl.library
instead of the arp.library (for the filerequester).
Now fully supports system & screen fonts different than topaz 8.
Automatic refresh when you resize the window (only on Kick 2.0,
couldn't be done on 1.3 because of bug in console.device)
Used different technique to find workbench screen size, using
NormalDisplayRows no longer seemed to work on 2.0 ?!?!?
REVISION 1.71
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Percentage background color is now white again on Kickstart 1.3.
Removed read in low memory when the close gadget was used. Thanks to
the enforcer I was able to fix this VERY obscure bug :-)
*****************************************************************************
VERSION 1.8
Nicer new-look 3D gadgets in window border for Kickstart 1.3.
Line wrap on/off implemented. If switched off causes all lines to be
cut off at the right edge of the window.
Seemed that the asl requester no longer worked on the latest
Kickstart 2.0 (release V37). Fixed.
*****************************************************************************
PPMore 1.8 written by Nico François (Yes, Nico is my first name :-)
thanks to Holger Lubitz for the many bug reports :^) and all the
useful suggestions.
(c) 1991 Nico François / PowerPeak
//
Thanks to \X/ Amiga for being the best computer ever !