The file finder can be used to find files (surprise!) and directories (because I couldn't be bothered telling it not to).
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The file finder will search through your hard disc trying to find the file you enter in its window.
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The window is in two sections. The inner scrollable bit contains all the options.
Gosh, isn't it exciting...? The outer bit of the window contains the all-important 'GO' button and also an area which will display what BlackHole is doing (or what I think it thinks it's doing) as the search proceeds.
{subhead}Basic Search Options
{subsub}Search From
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The 'Search From' icon tells the File Finder where to start the search from. The default for this is 'All Hard Discs" which means that all your hard discs will be searched.
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Enter the path you wish to search in the 'Search From' icon. This directory and all its subdirectories will be searched for files and directories with names and/or filetypes matching those specified in the 'Search For:' section. Multiple search paths (including the names of floppy discs) can be specified by separating them with a backslash (a "\"). For example, you could enter adfs::4.$.Apps\adfs::4.$.Games. The filer will prompt for disc insertion if necessary. I hope. Dragging a directory to this window will add it to the path list, putting a "\" in if one is not already there. The default for this is 'All Hard Discs" which means that all your hard discs will be searched.
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{subsub}Name
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The 'Name(s)' box is where you type the name of the file you want to search for. You can enter more than one filename by separating them with a "\"
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Similarly, you can enter multiple search names in the 'Name(s) :' box. Again use "\" as a separator.
A maximum of 10 names can be entered, and they can contain wildcards. The wildcards accepted are the standard RISC OS ones - # for any one character, * for zero or more characters.
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{subsub}Filetype
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The filetype box is used to restrict the search to files of a particular type. I wouldn't worry about this is I were you.
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The filetype box is used to restrict the search to files of a particular type. Filetypes are the computer's way of knowing what each file is. Each filetype has a different icon, e.g. a Sprite file has a filetype of 'Sprite'.
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If you want to search for one particular file type, this can also be entered. You can enter either the number (eg AFF) or the name (eg draw) of the filetype. Unlike earlier versions of this program, the Filetype box is no longer case sensitive and will now accept, for example, both 'draw' and 'Draw'.
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Dragging a file to the window will make the type of that file the current search type. The filetype menu can be opened by clicking on the arrow icon.
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{subsub}Size
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The 'size' box allows you to restrict the search to files of a particular size, or files less than or greater than a certain size. The default setting is '>=0 bytes' which will list all files >=0 bytes in size, i.e. everthing.
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The 'size' box allows you to restrict the search to files of a particular size, or files less than or greater than a certain size. The default setting is '>=0 bytes' which will list all files >=0 bytes in size, i.e. everthing. This is useful if you want to find out which files are taking up all the space on your hard disc, for instance. You must specify an operator to go with the number, i.e. <, >, or =. The program will compare the size of the found files (bytes) with your entry in the size box: <size of file>.<user entry>. If the mathematical statement is TRUE (ie 50000>400) then the file will be included in the list. If the statement is mathematically invalid or false (ie 500000<=>=400 or 4>100) then the file will be ignored. If you omit an operator, the program inserts an =. Leaving this box blank makes the program default to >0.
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You can use other standard operators, such as AND or NOT, but this will, I imagine, be of somewhat limited use.
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The button icons in this window control the following:
{subsub}Case Sensitive
If this is selected, then the search becomes case sensitive, i.e. entering 'Help' as the filename will find files called 'Help' but not 'help'.
{subsub}Sounds Like
Will search for all files that 'sound like' the search string. Ie. if your search string is 'Messages', then selecting the 'Sounds Like' option will also find "mussages' 'Misages', etc. Note that Case Sensitivity still operates if you have 'Sounds Like' selected.
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Note also that doing 'Sounds Like' is not very helpful if you use wildcards in your search string - just how exactly do you pronounce 'M#s*es'?
Note Note also also, that the 'sounds like' routine is English-oriented and will probably not function too well in other languages (although I've never tried it).
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{subsub}Fast Search
Normally, Black Hole informs you of what it is doing during a search - it shows the directory it is currently searching and the number and total size of files found. Displaying this information slows the program down a tad, so by selecting 'Fast' you can stop it wasting its time.
{subsub}Create List
Turning this ON will make the File Finder create a list of all the files found and display that list in a window. You will normally want this to be on.
{sprite}found
You can run the file by double-clicking on it. This will behave exactly as if you had double-clicked on it in a filer window. You can copy the file to another directory by dragging it from the window to that directory, or you can load it into an application by dragging the file to that application on the iconbar.
Clicking MENU over an entry produces a menu with five options:
{tab}
Open Parent : The same as clicking 'SELECT'
Run File/Run App/Open Dir : Context sensitive to the type of item clicked over.
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Squash/Unsquash : If you have Acorn's Squash program, you can use it to compress files. If not, don't fret.
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Squash/Unsquash : Acorn's 'Squash' thingy again. This only works on files.
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Bin File/Bin App/Bin Dir : Perform action on the item exactly as if it had been dragged to the iconbar icon. There is a confirmation window first.
Destroy : Confirmation window followed by unconditional deletion.
{notab}
This menu is also available when you do a Contents=>Info from the iconbar menu, except that the 'Bin' option is unavailable.
The file list will open as soon as the search has finished, or after 1 second, whichever comes first. If you close the file list while the search is in progress, the search will stop.
{subhead}The Iconbar Menu
The File Finder icon on the iconbar has a menu with three options. The top one opens an information window, the bottom one quits the File Finder and the middle one allows you to open the previous list of found files if you have closed it.
{subhead}Action
In addition to finding files, the File Finder can be told to do a variety of things with the files it finds. The Action it takes is controlled under the 'Action' section of the window. Click SELECT on the 'menu' icon to get a menu of possible actions.
The default action is:
{tab}
{subsub}No Action.
This basically does nothing - it just allows the file finder to create a list of the found files. You should leave it at this for normal operation. It will ensure that 'Create List' is enabled before it starts, otherwise you won't be able to see what files have been found. This would be rather silly.
{notab}
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I wouldn't worry about the others I were you.
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Other available actions are:
{tab}
{subsub}Open Viewer
Will open the directory viewer containing the found file.
{subsub}Move to Bin
This acts only on files, not directories. It will move found files into the current Bin Directory, overwriting any file already exisiting with that name. Note that this can be rather dangerous, and that because of this there is a confirmation window before the search actually starts.
{subsub}Remove DOS Extension
People who transfer files from PCs will find that all the files have a filename extension on them - i.e. they all have names like 'CRAPOS/TXT'. This file finder Action will remove all the extensions from the files. Thus the above file would be renamed to 'CRAPOS'.
{subsub}Set File Type
This one sets the filetype of all the found files. If you select this one, a new writable icon will appear in the window. You should enter the file type to set into this icon. Sorry, but you can't use the filetype menu for this.
{subsub}Search File Contents
This will search through the contents of all the found files looking for a specified string. It will display the found string and the line number in the results window. If the file contains more than one copy of the string, only the first will be displayed.
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BASIC files will be detokenised and the displayed line number will be the BASIC line number.
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{subsub}Find Duplicate Files
This one will check each file found against the previous found files and will flag any that are identical. It will create a list of ALL the found files. Any files that are identical to earlier files will be identified by an extra line of information in the List window. There are lots of options associated with this Action. The first allows you to move any duplicate files to the Bin directory. The rest control whether names, filetypes, size, contents, and datestamps are compared.
{notab}
The actions work separately from the 'Create List' option - thus you can Move to Bin all found files AND create a list of them.
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{subhead}An Example
Suppose you want to search your entire hard disc for any text files with names containing 'text':
Type
*text*
(the two *'s are wildcards)
into the Name box and select case sensitivity as appropriate. Now type
FFF (or Text)
into the type box. Finally hit RETURN or click on GO.
The GO button becomes an Abort button for the duration of the search. Clicking on this button at any time during a search will stop the search and display the results.
If you leave both the name and type boxes blank, then all the files in the specified search path(s) will be listed - Black Hole defaults to a "*" for the search name.
The number of files found is displayed during the search at the bottom of the
window. Unless you have selected 'Move to Bin', this also includes directories.
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{subhead}Extending the file finder
Programmers with a knowledge of BASIC may write new Actions for the file finder. This has its own separate help.
