home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
17 Bit Software 3: The Continuation
/
17-Bit_The_Continuation_Disc.iso
/
arug
/
arug 1
/
arpreadme
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-01-27
|
21KB
|
727 lines
CONTENTS
Installing ARP....................................... 1
1. How compatible are the ARP Commands?................. 1
Wildcards............................................ 2
Environment Variables................................ 3
2. ARP Command Enhancements............................. 4
Assign and Mount speed up your startup sequence...... 4
Let ARP Copy Quick................................... 5
Rename-ing, Copy-ing, and Move-ing files............. 5
AShell: Three commands in one........................ 6
Type, Join and Protect............................... 6
Search and Sort...................................... 6
CD and PATH.......................................... 7
ASH.................................................. 7
3. Disclaimer, warranty and distribution................ 8
4. CREDITS.............................................. 8
- i -
Overview of the 1.3 ARP Release
AmigaDOS Resource Project
c/o Microsmiths, Inc.
PO Box 561
Cambridge, MA 02140
Electronic Mail:
BIX, People Link: cheath
CIS: 76004,1766
All software, manuals, install programs and associated material are
Copyright (c) 1987,88,89 by Arp Authors. All Rights Reserved.
The ARP Installation program and accompanying documentation may be
freely distributed provided no changes or additions to the materials
are made.
AmigaDOS is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
Unix is a trademark of AT&T Information Systems.
Installing ARP
To install the new 1.3 ARP commands on your system you use
the ArpInstall program. This program can be run from either
the Workbench (by clicking on its Icon) or if you prefer,
from the CLI. This program uses a simple mouse driven
interface to install the ARP CLI style commands on your
system. You can select the commands you want, and where you
want them placed on your disk, or you can elect to accept
the default setup.
Normally, you will want to install the ARP commands on
your bootdisk or in the appropriate drawers on your hard
disk. However, if you wish to install the ARP commands on
another disk, please insert this disk before you begin
answering the questions that ArpInstall will be asking you.
1.
How compatible are the ARP Commands?
Every effort has been made to make the ARP commands 100%
compatible with the AmigaDOS V1.3 commands. You can use the
documentation in the AmigaDOS Users Manual and the AmigaDOS
V1.3 enhancer manual with the ARP commands, and read further
for a brief discussion of the more important enhancements
made to each command.
Page 1
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
Wildcards
The standard AmigaDOS pattern matching abilities are present
in ARP commands as described in the AmigaDOS Users Manual.
In addition to these basic capabilities, ARP provides the
following enhancements in pattern matching:
- Use of the star ('*') to match any pattern. This
corresponds to the AmigaDOS pattern '#?'. This use of
the star character is so common as to be almost a de
facto industry standard. Note that the AmigaDOS pattern
matching is implemented as well: use the one that you
like the best.
- The ability to match a class of characters. You
specify the class of characters to be matched by
enclosing them within square brackets. For example,
the pattern 'file.[ch]' will match file.c or file.h,
but not file.o or file.ch (you match only one of the
characters in the class). To specify a range of
characters, you can use [a-z], which will match any
character between a and z inclusive.
- The ability to match 'anything but' a pattern. To do
this, precede your pattern with the tilde ('~')
character. For example, to list all files except those
which end in .info, use this pattern: '~*.info' or
'~#?.info'.
- Smart 'tick' matching. The tick (single quote) is used
by AmigaDOS to remove the special meaning of any
wildcard character. For example, to refer to a
literal, actual question mark in a filename, you would
use "'?". The AmigaDOS (and ARP) commands will interpret
that two character sequence as a single question mark.
Problems arise with filenames that contain a single
quote, quite a common occurance. ARP commands try to be
clever about when to tick and when not to tick. For
example, "Mike's Drawer" will be understood by the ARP
commands to be "Mike's Drawer", but an AmigaDOS command
will think it is "Mikes Drawer". To do this under
AmigaDOS (and it works with ARP as well) you can use
"Mike''s Drawer".
While these extra features add additional power welcomed by
most users, they are also a potential compatibility issue,
since they are not supported by the current AmigaDOS
commands. Fortunately, the problems are minor, and rarely
occur. Here are some of the potential problems, and their
solutions, roughly in order of frequency of occurance:
( The ARP Eval command uses C-language Printf format, such
as "%lx", rather than the BCPL "%X" formatting. )
Page 2
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
- Conflicts with the use of '*' as a wildcard and as a
filename or as an escape character. AmigaDOS uses the
star (*) as a filename (referring to the current
window) and as an escape character. This is used most
commonly with the Type and Copy commands. If you run
across an old script that does this, or if you wish to
use this yourself, you can issue the command "SET BCPL
TRUE", which will cause Type and Copy to revert to the
older behavior. Conflicts with '*' as an escape
character are less likely, but possible. We suggest
you add the statement "SET ESCAPE \ BCPL FALSE" in your
Startup-Sequence, and use the "\" character as the
escape character.
- OR patterns in ARP follow the AmigaDOS documentation.
OR patterns are AmigaDOS patterns which look like this:
(File1|File2|File3). This will match any one of File1
or File2 or File3. AmigaDOS commands allow you to
leave out the parenthesis under certain circumstances,
ARP commands implement the specification in the
AmigaDOS manual: You must use parenthesis with the OR
patterns in ARP commands.
- Funny characters in filenames: The AmigaDOS commands
don't recognize the extended pattern matching
characters of ARP (*[]~) as special. This means that a
non-ARP using friend could create a file called
"[LIST]", for example, using an AmigaDOS command that
could cause you difficulty. The short term solution to
this is to use the tick (') character in front of these
special characters. So to delete the "[LIST]" file,
you could type: Delete '[LIST']. The long term solution
is to give your friend a copy of the ArpInstall
program.
Environment Variables
Before Commodore released 1.3, the only environment variables
available on the Amiga were the MANX/Rokicki variables,
which former ARP releases were compatible with. With
AmigaDOS 1.3, Commodore introduced environment variables
officially, but unfortunately not compatibly. The current
ARP implementation is designed to help ease the conversion
to the new implementation of environment variables as
endorsed by Commodore.
Environment variables using ARP read both the old style
environment, and the new ENV:, however, we write only the
older format. This means, essentially, that you can use any
format you prefer with ARP programs, and they will be able
to find the value of the environment variable you assigned.
Page 3
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
Some programs (for example, older Manx programs) do not use
the ARP library function calls and so will work only with
the older style variables.
2.
ARP Command Enhancements
Most of the ARP supplied commands have added capabilities
when compared with their AmigaDOS cousins. In this section,
we present a brief overview of the more significant
enhancements, for a full description of each command,
consult the complete ARP documentation (distributed
separately at a later date as ARPDOC3.ZOO).
One thing common to all the ARP commands is an extended
help template. As you may already know, the AmigaDOS
commands provide help in the form of a 'command template' in
response to a question mark as an argument. ARP also
provides these commands, and, in addition, provides an
extended help feature if you type another question mark once
you are presented with the template. For example, typing:
Search ?
brings up the normal command template, which in this case
is:
From/a,Search,ALL/s,NONUM/s,QUIET/s,QUICK/s,FILE/s,CASE/s:
If you were to now enter another "?" in response to the
template prompt, you would get more information, in this
case:
Usage: Search <wildcards | STDIN> [Searchstring] [ALL]
[QUIET | QUICK] [FILE] [CASE]
This extended help often prevents trips to the manual.
Assign and Mount speed up your startup sequence
ARP's Assign and Mount commands accept multiple assignments
or Mounts on one command line. By taking advantage of this
to specify all your assignments or Mounts in one stroke, you
can avoid running each command several times in your
startup-sequence, thus speeding things up. Here are two
Page 4
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
example command lines:
Mount dh0: dh1: dh2: pip:
Assign C: dh0:c LIBS: dh0:libs DEVS: dh0:Devs Fonts: dh0:Fonts
Let ARP Copy Quick
The new ARP Copy command has an option which will
automatically skip a copy when the source and destination
files are identical. The Copy command considers files
identical when they have the same date and length. It will
also compare Filenotes if you have enabled Filenote copying.
This can dramatically speed up directory or disk copies from
place to place. You can use it on request by using the QUICK
keyword on Copy's command line, or you can make it a default
by setting the "copyflags" environment variable. The
copyflags variable lets you specify many default actions for
copy, see the ARP manual page for Copy for complete details.
As an example, to have Copy always use the QUICK option and
also to copy the protection bits and date you can use:
Set copyflags=CQ
To specify a copy to or from the current directory, you can
use a single dot (.) character. This is similar to the
convention found on other operating systems, such as Unix.
(Search and CMP also allow this usage).
Rename-ing, Copy-ing, and Move-ing files
The new ARP Move command is an enhanced version of Rename.
Move can do everything Rename can, and will also move a file
from disk to disk. This is cleaner and easier than doing a
Copy and then a Delete, especially when transferring
multiple files. Both Rename and Move can use wildcards as a
source pattern, so you can Rename or Move multiple files
with one command. (Note: this is an enhancement: The
Commodore Rename command will not accept a wildcard
pattern.)
ARP's Rename, Move and Copy commands also allow you to
specify a simple substitution in the destination name, for
example:
Page 5
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
Rename *.c *.cBAK
See the complete ARP documentation for more information on
replacement patterns.
AShell: Three commands in one
AShell is a replacement for NewCLI, SYSTEM/CLI and NewSHELL,
this one small command takes on the functions of all three.
It's default action is to always provide you with the 'best'
shell available. You can also request a CLI by using the CLI
keyword, or by copying it or renaming it "NewCLI", in which
case it will do its level best to act like the standard
NewCLI command.
By editing the tool type for the Shell icon to refer to
this file, you will also be able to eliminate the SYSTEM/CLI
file from your disk. See the manual page for AShell for
more information on this versatile little command.
Type, Join and Protect
Type, Join and Protect allow wildcard patterns unlike their
AmigaDOS cousins. ARP Type also has two new options: B (for
Banner) and F (for formfeed). B prints a small header at
beginning of each file containing the name of the current
file, F prints a formfeed (which clears the screen or
advances the printer paper) at the end of the file. These
options are most useful when typing multiple files. Specify
these with the OPT keyword:
Type *.c OPT BF
If you do not provide a source filename to Type, it
will read from the keyboard. This allows it to be used as
part of a pipeline. If typing from the keyboard, use
CONTROL-\ to exit type.
Search and Sort
Search allows you to specify a wildcard pattern as a search
string, instead of the simple literal string which the
AmigaDOS Search allows. You can also select to have a case
sensitive search using the CASE keyword (default is to
ignore case). The ARP Search command will store the last
Page 6
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
search string used in the environment variable "Search".
Running Search again with no search string will use the
value of the "Search" environment variable. Text editors or
databases which use ARP can also examine this variable.
You can also use patterns to specify a range of files
to search, you can specify a directory, or you can use dot
(.) to mean the current directory (see Copy and CMP for
another example of this use of dot).
ARP's Sort is quite safe, it will not crash, even with
large files and the default stack, unlike AmigaDOS's Sort.
Both Search and Sort can read from the keyboard instead of
from a file, which allows them to be used in pipelines. To
use Sort in a pipeline, just omit the input filename. To use
Search, you must use the filename STDIN (and it must be
capitalized, as shown here). For more information on
pipelines, see the ASH (Arp's shell) manual.
The ARP Search command is three times faster than the
AmigaDOS Search, and ARP's Sort is about five times faster
than the AmigaDOS Sort, which are nice enhancements
(compatible too!).
CD and PATH
Enhancements here are mainly allowing specification of
directories using wildcards. This is a big help when typing
long directory pathnames!
NOTE: Old friends of ARP should note that the %P
support has been removed from CD. (New friends of ARP who
don't understand this shouldn't worry.) It is now in the
shell where it belongs.
ASH
ARP is now distributing a shell replacement for Shell-Seg,
the 1.3 Commodore supplied shell. It is reasonably
compatible with Shell-Seg, and also provides some very
significant enhancements. The best way to get acquainted
with Ash is to read the short users manual included in this
zoo file.
One of the most significant features of ASH is it's use
of the arp.library process functions and resident features.
ARP's resident is superior to AmigaDOS's in terms of safety
and memory usage. Other features include command
substitution and piping, built-in batch language, and more!
Page 7
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
3.
Disclaimer, warranty and distribution
We make no warranty for fitness of use of any of the ARP
commands, arp.library, Installation program (ArpInstall) or
the accompanying documentation. The user assumes all
responsibility related to his or her use of any portion of
the ARP distribution. We have made considerable efforts to
insure that ARP works reliably and as documented but cannot
assume any liability for problems that may be related to any
use of ARP.
ARP V1.3 may be freely redistributed in the form of the
ZOO files which will be initially distributed by ARP Support
onto BIX, Compuserve and People Link. These files may be
placed on other BBS's without charge provided the original
contents and organization of these ZOO files are not altered
in any way.
You may make up to fifty (50) printed copies of the ARP
documentation without specific permission from ARP Authors.
ARP Authors reserve all commercial rights for printed
versions of the documentation.
For users groups and other vendors of public-domain
diskettes, we request that you contact us to get the
complete ARP release diskette. The V1.3 ARP release
diskette is not complete as of this writing, please send
a SASE with your request and we will let you know when the
complete V1.3 diskette is available.
For applications developers who would like to use
arp.library or include the ARP commands with their
commercial software packages: We encourage this use of
arp.library and place only minimal restrictions on your
distribution intended to help insure that you distribute
verified copies of the latest version of the ARP library and
command programs. If you would like to be registered as an
ARP developer, please send a SASE to ARP Support and we will
send you further details. You are also welcome to use
arp.library without registering for support, but we request
that you register with us if you want to include a copy of
any part of the ARP distribution with your release.
4.
CREDITS
ARP - The AmigaDOS Resource Project - is a cooperative
effort by a group of Amiga developers to enhance the Amiga.
ARP has three main goals:
Page 8
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
- Provide enhanced commands for Amiga users.
- Provide a resource for Amiga developers to help build
smaller, more consistent, more powerful applications
using "arp.library"
- Make this work available to Commodore in order to
encourage enhancements to AmigaDOS.
ARP V1.3 represents our third major release. The first
release was made in October 1987 (called V1.0). The second
release was in March 1988 (V1.1). With Version 1.3 of ARP,
we have addressed the limitations and incompatibilities of
the ARP V1.1 commands compared with Commodore's V1.3
enhancer release, also providing a much more complete
command set, several new commands not found in the Commodore
V1.3 set, and an ARP Shell. At this time we do not have any
specific plans for the next release of ARP, and we welcome
feedback from users and developers which will help us choose
our future directions.
The ARP commands and arp.library were written in
assembler, using Innovatronic's "CAPE" and Manx's "AS" for
development. The ArpInstall program was written in Modula-2,
using M2S Ltd's "M2Sprint".
ARP is not ShareWare. If you would like to support the
ARP project, the best ways to do it are to spread the word
about ARP to other Amiga users, to write and distribute
programs which use ARP, and to support the commercial and
shareware products which take advantage of ARP's
capabilities, many of which are also written by members of
the ARP team. These include (but are not limited to):
- the TxEd Plus package from Microsmiths (this includes
a printed version of the ARP manual).
- Cape, a 68010 macro assembler from Innovatronics.
- M2Sprint, an implementation of Modula-2 from M2S Ltd,
which provides a full interface to arp.library.
In addition, you might want to investigate Bill Hawe's
products. Bill has not been personally involved with ARP,
but his work complements ARP, and he was also one of the
first to distribute the ARP command set with his products.
There have been many people who have helped with the
development and testing of ARP, and I am sure I will miss a
few who should be mentioned here. The team has a rare
quality of cooperation and excitement and it has been a joy
to work with this group.
Page 9
Arp 1.3 Overview March 30, 1989
Charlie Heath, VP of Microsmiths, Inc. - ARP Coordinator
Scott Ballantyne - one of the original ARP hackers.
Martin Taillefer - wrote ArpInstall program (among other things).
Ken Salmon - programmer for portions of V1.1 of ARP
Willy Langeveld - developer and beta tester
Bill Barton - beta tester for arp.library
Les Noland - beta tester for ARP commands
Chuck McManis - provided prototypes for V1.0 of ARP
John Toebes - provided prototypes for arp.library
Wes Howe - programmer
Bill Hawes - contributed "LoadLib" for V1.3 of ARP
Steve Tibbett, Joanne Dow, Justin McCormick, Andy Levy,
Mike Scalora, John Spadafora, Jeff Blume,
Marvin Weinstein, Warren Block, Eric Haberfellner,
Michael Sinz, Paul Ockenden, Larry Phillips,
Brian Waters - beta testers for V1.3 of ARP.
Page 10