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• SHAREWARE - US$5
◊ This program is distributed as Shareware: if you use it, you should pay the author. You may register:
- with the bundled Register application, or
- directly to me by sending cash (US$ or an equivalent sum with your local currency) or an international (postal) money order; if you would rather pay using a different method, try the Register application.
◊ NOTE: Getting a note, a postcard or anything else is a lot better than getting nothing. I would like to know how far this program has gone, so remember that you can do something nice even if you do not have a couple of $ to spare.
• GENERAL INFO
◊ ChunkJoiner lets you join (concatenate) a group of documents into a single piece. To use it, simply select the documents you want to join, and drag&drop the entire group on top of the ChunkJoiner icon.
◊ The inquiring minds out there (such as Rick Moerschell) will try dropping hundreds of documents onto ChunkJoiner in a single shot, just to witness it failing miserably.
It happens that the System does not call ChunkJoiner when you drop too many items onto it. Thus, I am inclined to think it is not my fault.
◊ If the Finder view is set to by Icon or by Small Icon, the documents are joined in the selection order. That is, click on the first document, shift-click on the second, and so on, then drag&drop. To use the document name alphabetical order, view by Name, Select All, and drag&drop. With this method, you can join also by Size, Kind, Label, Date, Version, or Comments. Any reverse order is possible too.
◊ You may choose the appearance for the newly created document. You may also set the name of the application able to open the resulting document; the Finder 7.x can read this name and show it to the user if the application is not present.
◊ ChunkJoiner physically combines the documents, so using it on segments produced by StuffIt™, Compact Pro™, etc. is meaningless. Future versions may support the StuffIt Engine.
I received several questions about joining Word (and other word processors’) documents together. Sometimes you can accomplish this task by saving the documents in RTF format, join them, then open the resulting document. I say “sometimes” because I’ve been told that the RTF trick works without a hitch with WriteNow 4 and its “RTF (MS Word)” filter; it does not work with WordPerfect 3.1 (the WP RTF filters are very buggy, apparently), nor with Word itself.
◊ You can launch ChunkJoiner multiple times in a networking environment, as well as from a locked disk (CD-ROMs are welcome; by the way, if this application is included on a CD it would be nice to send me a complimentary copy of it).
◊ ChunkJoiner is intelligent enough to use temporary memory (when available), so you do not have to get mad setting its memory partition (unless you want to join many documents). Furthermore, it works even if you have not enough memory to read entirely the documents you want to combine. When virtual memory is active, ChunkJoiner cleverly optimizes its memory allocation scheme in order to minimize disk activity when joining large documents.
◊ ChunkJoiner can only be used under System 7 or later; if you try to start it up under older versions of the System you will get an error message. Sorry, System 6 users!
◊ You cannot double-click the application and open documents one by one; use drag&drop instead!
◊ When joining, you should hear one distinctive sound for each document that is being joined. You can turn this option off. The sound is played asynchronously, so that the Mac is not interrupted when concatenating. If you are working on a Macintosh equipped with an Apple Sound Chip and lots of documents are being gathered, you might hear sounds one over the other. If the Macintosh has no Apple Sound Chip, you might hear only one sound at a time.
◊ ChunkJoiner operates on data forks, because by joining resource forks you would obtain a corrupted resource fork.
• DISCLAIMER
◊ “No warranties at all, either express or implied…” “All trademarks are held by their respective owners…” and all that stuff.
This application should do no damage, but if it does then you will be on your own. Let me know of any bugs you run into, anyway.
• VERSION HISTORY:
◊ 2.1 - Back to PPC optimization level 4 (compiled with CodeWarrior 6.1). Should work on a PowerMac without DragLib installed. Supports InternetConfig. Accepts drag&drop from the System 7.5 Find File window. Additional skipping option.
◊ 2.0.1 - Now is system cache friendly, thanks to an Apple (Jim Luther’s) TechNote. Having read the CodeWarrior 6 release notes, I have recompiled the PowerPC side with optimization level 1. Updated the docs.
◊ 2.0 - Complete user interface redesign. Uses the Apple MoreFiles library. E-mail address update. Makes setext: try getting the excellent EasyView by Akif Eyler or try this URL to learn more:
http://www.bsdi.com/setext/
◊ 1.2.1 - Fixed the user interface in the search&insert strings dialogs.
◊ 1.2 - Native PowerPC code; can join in reverse order; can insert header, separators and footer.
◊ 1.1.1 - Fixes in the docs; fixed a big, big bug: forgot one very important line of C code. Fortunately, Alessandro Levi Montalcini used my code inside his List Files application and found the bug for me.
◊ 1.1 - Various fixes; new handy option if your e-mail gateway splits long messages.
◊ 1.0.6 - Revised the code; now saves its preferences.
◊ 1.0.5 - Fixed an incredible bug, causing ChunkJoiner not to quit after joining.
◊ 1.0.4 - The registration form greedily asked for $10 instead of $5; various minor fixes.
It seems that the new Sound Manager and/or the Speech Manager want too much stack space, so that sound playing often failed. I increased my stack requirements, even if I think that this is a bug in the Apple Managers.
◊ 1.0.3 - Added a nifty registration form.
◊ 1.0.2 - Corrected the check box misinforming that the documents are deleted after joining: the documents are actually deleted while the joining is in progress, that is, the document you dropped is deleted as soon as it is appended to the destination document. Why this “unsafe” behavior? Because sometimes I have to join large segments in a big single document, and my hard disk would not hold both the originals and the joined document; deleting the originals while joining lets me join even if I am short of disk space.
The Command-period key combination is detected in the Apple-approved way; the previous method I adopted, although pretty straightforward, does not work (according to Apple) on some international keyboards.
◊ 1.0.1 - Fixed a silly bug: I was not locking the sound handle because I assumed that the Sound Manager did it for me; nicely indeed, this bug was consistent across all my applications (the advantages of code reusability, you know). Sound Manager 2.x locked the handle for me (I observed that with Swatch), whereas Sound Manager 3.0 does not. The bug was found by Alessandro Levi Montalcini on the phone: «Oh, I am quite sure you are not locking the sound handle…».
You can continue joining if you press esc by mistake.
Fixed a potential bomb (no bashing, please) which could happen if you stopped the process (I forgot to initialize a Handle to nil).
◊ 1.0 - First public release.
• THANKS TO…
◊ Stephen W. Carson suggested the documentation fixes in 1.1.1.
◊ Art Cohen suggested the Join in reverse order option.
◊ Ian Feldman urged me to support setext, the markup language he invented.
◊ Traci J. Ingram suggested the features I added in 1.1.
◊ Alessandro Levi Montalcini, who helped as always.
◊ Jim Luther wrote the fantastic, highly recommended library MoreFiles.
◊ Masatsugu Mark Nagata’s suggestions were invaluable, absolutely.
◊ Mark Nobles suggested the header, separators and footer (digest) option.
◊ Alberto Ricci, for aesthetical suggestions regarding my icons, and beta testing.
◊ Paolo Sasso, whose user interface objections helped a lot in improving this application.
◊ Giuseppe “Peppino” Ventura tested on his lowly Mac Classic.
To report errors, suggestions, or whatever, send e-mail to fab@kagi.com
