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Text File | 1985-10-27 | 14.0 KB | 272 lines

This is the user documentation for the disk directory utility GETDIR.COM. GETDIR.COM is a load and stay resident in RAM program that operates much like Borland's SideKick. If you find this program useful, you are requested to send $25.00 to: JOHN J. NEWLIN 4060-228 ROSENDA COURT SAN DIEGO, CA 92122 Contributors will receive free future updates of this program plus customization of the program, if requested. GETDIR is a utility that will allow one to access any file in any directory on disk from an application program and return to that program without disturbing it. GETDIR.COM should be loaded and operated as the last stay resident program in memory. It operates fine on top of SideKick and may be removed from memory successfully as long as it is the last resident program loaded. This program has been tested on an IBM PC with a color graphics board and a Leading Edge Color computer. It should run fine on any true compatible and has been thoroughly tested on monochrome monitor machines. It is designed primarily as a utility for hard disk based machines but will work fine with floppies. To date (version 3.25), GETDIR may or may not work on the AT. To load the program, type GETDIR at the dos prompt or load in from a batch file. GETDIR is activated by pressing the Alt, Ctrl, or Shift key in conjunction with one of the ten function keys. The default keys are F7 thru F10. The user may specify up to four key combinations (total of 26 available) by placing key codes on the command line (from DOS or in a batch file) as follows: GETDIR aa az s2 c0 In this example the user has specified Alt-A, Alt-Z, Shift-F2, and Ctrl-F10 as activation keys. The order that the keys appear on the command line determine the type of alphabetic sort used as follows: Posit on CMD line Type Sort ----------------- --------------------------- 1st by file name 2nd by file extension, then name 3rd by file extension, then date 4th no sort (fastest display) In the above example, Alt-A would sort by file name, Alt-Z would sort by extension, then by name, Shift-F2 would sort by extension, then by date, and Ctrl-F10 would be no sort (fastest display). In the case of the Alt key, six combinations are available. They are: Alt-Q Alt-W Alt-A Alt-S Alt-Z Alt-X Upper or lower case is acceptable. Note that these six keys are on the left side of the keyboard near the Alt key. A copywrite notice and a message showing the amount of ram occupied by the program will be displayed. To activate the utility, press one of the following default key combinations (or your own specified activation keys): Alt-f7 ==> current directory, no sort Alt-f8 ==> current directory, primary sort on extension, secondary sort on date Alt-f9 ==> current directory, primary sort on extension, secondary sort on name Alt-f10 ==> current directory, sort on name A window will pop up showing a maximum of 56 file, volume label, and subdirectory names sorted according to the alt-function key pressed. If more than 56 files are in the directory, you can page through the files 56 at a time by pressing the Page Down key. If more than 2 pages exist then use the 'B' or 'b' key to go back one page at a time. If no files or subdirectories are in the directory, a message to that effect will appear. Pressing Ctrl-H (or the Backspace key) will cause a help window appear that summarize the commands listed below. A cursor will appear over the first entry in the directory. The cursor may be moved from entry to entry by using the arrow keys (make sure num-lock is not active). Volume label and directory names will blink. Pressing return with the cursor highlighting a directory entry will move to that directory. You can return to the parent directory by pressing PgUp. Pressing return with the cursor highlighting a file name will pop-up a window showing the time, date, and attribute status data for that file. Pressing Ctrl-A will permit changing the file attribute for the file currently under the cursor. Pressing the DELETE key with the cursor highlighting a file name will pop-up a window asking for confirmation to delete the file. Pressing 'Y' or 'y' in response will delete the file and replace the file name under the cursor with [ DELETED ]. If the name under the cursor is a directory name, nothing will happen and the pop-up window will disappear. Note that you cannot delete a read- only, hidden, or system file. Pressing the INSERT key with the cursor highlighting a file name will pop-up a window asking for a new file name. Pressing return at this point will remove the window with no action. Entering a file name will cause the file to be renamed. The new name will appear under the cursor. This also applies to sub-directory names. You may re-name a subdirectory using this feature or you may even rename a volume label. Renaming a sub-directory will not require rescanning the disk. GETDIR automatically updates the directory catalog (see Ctrl-Z). Pressing Ctrl-V with the cursor highlighting a file name will pop-up a window requesting entry of a destination directory. This feature allows moving a file from one directory to another without actually copying it. Press return to exit. Otherwise type in a valid directory name and the file will be moved and [ MOVED ] will appear under the cursor. If you entered an invalid directory name or if a file of that name already exists in the destination directory, an error message will appear and all will be as before. Pressing Ctrl-B will cause all the files in the current directory to be moved to the destination directory. This will empty the current directory of files (but not of subdirectories); Pressing Ctrl-I will pop-up a window menu that will allow you to create or remove a sub-directory. Just follow the DOS rules about directory creation/removal. Pressing return or escape at the menu will return to the directory window. If you are creating a new subdirectory, entering the name of the new subdirectory preceeded by a backslash (i.e., \NEWNAME) will cause that subdirectory to be added to the root directory. Omitting the backslash (i.e., NEWNAME) will add the new subdirectory as a child of the active directory. Subdirectory additions and deletions cause the directory catalog to automatically updated. Pressing Ctrl-D will pop-up a window that will permit you to move from drive to drive. CAUTION!! If no disk is in the drive selected, the program will fail and DOS will be hung up. Any time a drive change is made, GETDIR automatically catalogs the new disk directories if Ctrl-Z or Ctrl-Y are activated. Pressing Ctrl-L will permit you to create a volume label--providing the disk or diskette doesn't already have one. You may tag individual files in a directory for moving or deleting by pressing the '+' key (for deletion) or the '*' key (for moving) with the cursor over the file. The appropriate symbol will appear next to the file name. A file may be untagged by pressing the '-' key with the cursor on a tagged file. You may also untag all files by pressing Ctrl-U. The limit on the number of files that may be moved or deleted at one time is 36. After files are tagged, pressing Ctrl-E will pop up a window showing a list of the files tagged for deletion and asking permission to go ahead and delete them. Pressing 'y' or 'Y' will cause the files tagged for deletion to be erased, 1 by 1, WITHOUT INDIVIDUAL CONFIRMATION. Pressing Ctrl-F will pop up a window with a list of files to be moved. Pressing 'y' or 'Y' will cause a prompt asking for the destination directory to be displayed. If the entry is legal, the files be moved, one at a time, to the new directory. DIRECTORY CATALOG & FILE SEARCH - Get dir will scan a disk, find all directories, and display a list of them. This feature is limited to a maximum of 30 directories. It takes about 12 seconds to find and list 21 directories on a 20MB hard disk with 12.8MB of data on it. Press Ctrl-Z to activate the cataloger. When it is finished, a window will open displaying all of the directories on the default disk. This is automatically done whenever Ctrl-Z or Ctrl-Y are used after a default disk change is made. You can recall the window at any time with Ctrl-Z and move to any directory on the disk by entering the listed number associated with that directory. Number entries are two digits. As soon as the second digit is entered, the indicated directory is activated. An invalid number will return to the main display. ^P will give you a print out of your current directory catalog for the default disk. Pressing return or ESC will exit the window without changing directories. Pressing Ctrl-Y will activate the file search feature. A prompt will appear asking for the file name to search for. DOS wild cards are acceptable. For example, if you wanted to know where every .COM file on your disk was and how many of them there are (144 on my disk!) just enter *.COM. If the disk hasn't been cataloged yet then there will be a slight delay while the directories are found and cataloged (same as pressing Ctrl-Z). All matches to the entered file name string will be displayed on the screen 16 at a time with a pause for a key press between groups of 16 (you can use ^P at this point to get hard copy of files found). At the end of the search, the total number of matches found will be displayed along with a search complete message. If no match is found then a message to that effect will be displayed. Search will look at ALL files on the disk - hidden, system, or whatever. A search of 12.8MB for a file in a 4th level sub-directory on a 20MB hard disk takes 5.8 seconds! Incidentally, the routine to find and catalog the directories is a recursive procedure utilizing DOS function calls 4Eh and 4Fh similar to the routine in C outlined by Mark Ackerman in the October 1985 issue of Tech Journal. It's slower than a non-recursive routine but is very compact and easily implemented. The search routine is not coupled with the recursive routine. Instead it uses the knowledge of what directories currently exist on disk to search each for a match. That's why it's so fast. The same search using a routine coupled to the recursive directory catalog routine would take about three times longer. CAUTION -- THERE IS A FINE UTILITY CALLED SEARCH THAT IS ALSO A MEMORY RESIDENT PROGRAM. SEARCH.COM PROVIDES A MEANS TO LOCATE NON-EXECUTABLE FILES FROM PROGRAMS THAT DO NOT SUPPORT DOS PATHS (LIKE WORDSTAR). IF SEARCH IS ACTIVE AT THE SAME TIME AS GETDIR, GETDIR'S PERFORMANCE MAY BE DEROGATED AND IN FACT MAY HANG OR CRASH. THE ADVICE IS TO DEACTIVATE SEARCH WHENEVER USING THE FILE SEARCH OR CATALOGING ROUTINES IN GETDIR. You can go to the root directory of the current disk at any time by pressing the HOME key. You can vertically traverse directories by pressing return with a directory name highlighted. If you wish to return to the parent directory, just press PgUp. Pressing Ctrl-P will cause a print out of the files in the selected directory. CAUTION!! If no printer is on line, the program will hang and you will have to reboot. This will may corrected in the next version. The problem is that many print spoolers appear as printers to the system. Pressing the escape key will return you to DOS or you application program with the screen restored as it was. If you wish to remove GETDIR from memory, just press Ctrl-Home from DOS. But make sure this program is the last resident program in memory or DOS will lose its way. Some known problems & limitations are: 1. This version is limited to 200 files max per directory. Any more than this will cause run-time failure. 2. Max of 36 files can be tagged for either deletion or moving at one time. All files in a directory can be moved with the ^B command. 3. A maximum of 30 directories is supported by the directory cataloger. 4. Have experienced problems running MSDOS 2.11 on both Leading Edge and Sperry machines. Recommend using PC-DOS 2.0 or higher (it's faster). 5. May not support the PC AT. (AT people. I need to know two things in order to have a shot at getting it going on the AT. 1) What is the set of USER interrupt numbers for the AT? 2) What is the address used in the AT for video ram (both mono & color)). This version uses a different user interrupt number to process key strokes and may load ok on the AT. 6. GETDIR file search and directory catalog routines are not compatible with SEARCH.COM. This program has run properly on an IBM XT (with Hercules mono card), a Leading Edge PC (color monitor/adaptor & PC DOS), a Sperry PC (color monitor/adaptor & PC DOS), and on several PCs running Bernoulli Boxes with PC DOS 3.1. GETDIR contains an error handling routine that is designed to exit GETDIR gracefully and not disturb the parent application program in the event a fatal error occurs. When a fatal error does occur, a window will open notifying the user of the error type and a signed integer that represents the IP value where the error occurred. I would appreciate it if you notify me with these values if a fatal error occurs. Also, try to recall what was happening when the error message popped up. You will have to reboot your machine in order to get GETDIR going again after a fatal error. User suggestions or comments are welcome. Please contact me at the address below, via Compuserve E-mail, or by message in the IBMPC SIG. John J. Newlin 4060-228 Rosenda Court San Diego, CA 92122 (619) 455-6225 CIS User No: 71535,665