I'm a student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. A Macintosh convert for years, I byi a lot of magazines and therefore, have a lot of CD's. When I wanted to find the last version of a file or program, I had to scan a big amount of data. That's what got to me to write this program.
If you have questions, bugs to let me know about for or suggestions improvements, you can contact me at the following addresses:
By mail:
Bersier Jacques, Av. Général Guisan 36, 1700 Fribourg, Suisse
By e-mail:
100124.2444@compuserve.com
Jean-Claude.Bersier@com.mcnet.ch (The first name is different, but that's OK)
Please excuse me for the syntax or grammatical errors (thanks to Bart for his help). English is not my mother language.
What is it ?
Catalogue is a program allowing you to track all the removable supports that can be mounted on the Mac. I have written this program because I have not found one that was easy to use.
Support the shareware
This program can be distributed freely. If you use it, please send 10 Swiss Francs (5£ or 10 $) to the indicated address. You will in return receive a serial number that hides the first dialog box.
Catalogue is distributed as is. The programmer is not responsible for crashes or lost data. I have made several tests on the following Macs: Performa 630, Quadra 650, PowerMacintosh 9500 et PowerMacintosh 8500. I found no problems.
Intersting Features
• When you introduce a volume in a driver, you can decide what the program does:
- If the Ctrl key is sunk, you can rename the volume before saving (very useful with pre-formatted volumes).
- If the Option key is sunk, the volume is ejected after saving.
- If the Command key is sunk, Catalogue does nothing.
• If a volume is already mounted when the program starts, you don't have to go to the Finder to eject it. You
can do that from the program.
• The 'Open a catalog' command allows you to select a directory. The program then looks in the directory and
shows the recognized files. This allows you to have many directories, one for each kind of volume, and to
open them easily.
• The search command has a lot of criteria allowing you to find easily a file.
• There is a print command that allows you to print the list of saved volumes and the result of a search,
completly or partly.
• You can launch an application or open a document directly from Catalogue. For that, just double-click on the
element with the command key sunk (the Scriptable Finder has to be installed).
I have tried to make a simple interface, allowing to know in a quick look where you are.
For more informations, look at the Help in the Apple menu.
How to create a new base ?
First, you select the command 'New catalog' in the file menu, that creates a new directory on the hard drive. When you will add a new volume, it will be saved in this directory. You then have two possibilities to add a volume in the base. Either you introduce one in a driver (by maintaining the Ctrl key sunk, you can rename it), or, if it is already mounted, by selecting the command 'Add a volume'.
History
Version 1.0 : • First release.
Version 1.1 : • Modification of the print command, that produce a blank page on some printers.
• Correction of the menu containing the volume name. If the name contained some specific charac-
ters used by the Mac to format the menu, the name was wrong.
Version 2.0 : • Possibility to make multiple selections in lists, to be able to print, delete or search only in the
selected cells.
• The program now recognizes the control strip modules and displays a special icon. For existing
volumes, you have to update them.
• You can delete some elements from a saved volume. This allow you to only keep the interesting
elements
• I have improved the help command.
• The search is now made in the same order as the volumes are sorted.
• The column width can be modified and is saved in the preferences file.
• Modification of the preference file.
• Correction of a bug in the search dialog. An error appeared even if the given date was correct.
Version 2.0.1 : • When you introduce a volume in a driver, you can choose what the program do. If the Ctrl key is
sunk, you can rename the volume before saving. If the Option key is sunk, the program ejects the
volume after it has been saved. If the command key is sunk, the program does nothing.
• The about box have been modified to be correct with every system fonts.
• A Stop button have been added to the search progress dialog.
• A new fonction appears for displaying the search report. It allows you to see the report in the same
window as the one that displays the saved volumes. Therefore, the content of a directory matching the
criteria can easily be displayed.
• You can now launch an application or open a document directly from Catalogue.
• Correction of a bug in the date format.
Version 2.0.2 : • Fix un bug that cause a type 4 error when cataloging some shared volumes.
Version 2.0.3
The version 2.0.3 is under development and will include the following novelties:
• It will be possible to see the content of StuffIt and CompactPro archives. I have e-mailed Aladdin System to
know how to read this archives, but I have had no response to date.
• An Init will allow you to save new volumes directly from the Finder, without launching the program.
• Catalogue will be Drag&Drop.
Thanks to everyone who sent me suggestions. If a feature have not been implemented is this version, please excuse me. It will probably be in the next one.
