NOTE: HyperView now also comes in a PM edition. THIS USER REFERENCE GUIDE APPLIES ONLY TO THE TEXT MODE EDITION. For the PM edition, context sensitive help is available from within the program by pressing F1.
[WHAT IS HYPERVIEW?]
HyperView is a high performance file viewer with special features for isolating and extracting information from word processing and text files. It reads popular word processing formats, ASCII text files, and files compressed in the ZIP format. HyperView is blazingly fast and easy to use.
HyperView lets you focus quickly on pertinent information by automatically tagging lines that match search criteria. Lines of text may also be tagged and untagged manually. There is no limit on the number of lines that can be tagged. Tagged lines may then be viewed in condensed or split screen views. These powerful features let you easily create a hyperview into your document.
There is no learning curve involved in trying the program. Its power is packaged in a deceptively simple package. From a user's perspective, it works like other file viewers.
Note: An easy way to view this documentation is with HyperView. From the OS/2 command line, change to the directory containing HV.EXE and HV.DOC. Then type HV HV.DOC. Alternatively, open the folder containing HV.EXE and HV.DOC from the drives object on the OS/2 desktop. Now drag the icon for HV.DOC and drop it on the icon for HV.EXE.
To get a quick feel for HyperView's capabilities, try this one paragraph tutorial. (If you have not already done so, load this file into HyperView.) Press "F" (or "f") to start a search in the forward direction. In the text box type "example". Now press Ctrl+Enter (or F9). Scroll through the text using the Up, Down, Home, End, PgUp and PgDn keys. Notice that each line containing the search phrase "example" is highlighted. Press Enter to switch to condensed view. HyperView will isolate only those lines containing the search phrase. From condensed view you may (among other things) press (1) Escape to return here (or wherever else you were when you left full screen mode), (2) Enter to jump to the highlighted line, or (3) Ctrl+Enter (or F9) to switch to split screen mode. You may also search for and tag additional lines, or tag lines manually with the space bar. Press "C" to untag all lines.
You now have a good idea the reverse hypertext capability that distinguishes HyperView.
Note: From time to time this documentation refers to ASCII files. The term "stripped ASCII" refers to ASCII files in which a paragraph consists of a single long line. Stripped ASCII is comparable to the way a word processor treats a paragraph--as one long line with a hard return at the end. The stripped ASCII format is to be distinguished from standard text files with a hard return at the end of each line.
For your convenience, each of the major headings in this document is enclosed in square brackets ([]). To create a quick table of contents, (1) press "F" to perform a forward search, (2) type "[" in the text box, (3) set the "Start from:" radio button to "Top of document" by either (a) pressing "Alt+T" or (b) tabbing out of the text box and pressing "T", and (4) press Ctrl+Enter. (As with so many things, this is much easier to do than to describe.) By the way, you will note several extraneous lines in condensed view, including two from this paragraph. Simply move the cursor bar to the offending lines and press the space bar to remove them from condensed view.
[REGISTRATION]
HyperView is user supported software. It is not free and it is not public domain. In brief, there is a $35 fee to register HyperView. One registration fee covers both the PM and text mode editions. For business use, each person using HyperView must be registered. Volume discounts and site licenses are available--please write for details. More information concerning registration and licensing may be found in the file REGISTER.FRM.
For your convenience, individuals may also register by credit card through BMT Micro. BMT accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Diner's Club, American Express, Optima, and Eurocard. BMT accepts registrations by mail, phone, fax and e-mail. See the file BMT.FRM for details.
[INTRODUCTION]
Besides serving as a fast and flexible file viewer, HyperView offers powerful tools for isolating and extracting information from text and word processing files.
To appreciate HyperView's power, add the property of the "tagged line" to the features associated with traditional file viewers. A line may be tagged in one of two ways. You can have HyperView search through a text file and tag all lines matching your search criteria. For instance, if you took the one-paragraph tutorial, you tagged all lines containing the phrase "example". Alternatively, a line may be tagged manually by pressing the space bar. As you read through a document, you may manually tag relevant lines to create a customized outline of pertinent information. Lastly, you may combine the two methods.
From HyperView's full screen view, a tagged line is simply a line with a different color. The full power of HyperView can be exploited with its condensed and split screen views. The condensed view is restricted to tagged lines. In split screen view, tagged lines are displayed in the upper screen. The lower screen shows the highlighted line in context.
Tagged lines are persistent. This means that a line remains tagged until it is untagged. For example, you may have instructed HyperView to tag all lines containing the phrase "example". You may now go back and tag all line lines containing the word "extract". In condensed view, all lines containing either "example" or "extract" will be displayed. (This is essentially a boolean OR search, except that (i) you do not need to remember any special syntax, (ii) there is no limitation on the number of searches that can be ORed, and (iii) you can mix case sensitive with case insensitive searches.)
In addition, lines that do not easily lend themselves to easy detection by a search may be tagged manually. Inevitably, the results of any search will be over-inclusive. Therefore, a line may be untagged by pressing the space bar. The result is a form of reverse hypertext, allowing you to quickly isolate information from a document.
Who might benefit from HyperView's unique capabilities? Writers, scientists, programmers, lawyers--in fact anyone who works with text. Here are a few examples.
Example 1. You have a propensity for overusing the adverbs "however" and "therefore". You know these words appear too frequently in a lengthy letter you are writing. To decide where additional editing would be most appropriate, you would like to see where each word is used. Just tell HyperView to search and tag each line containing the word "however". Then search again for all lines containing "therefore". Now switch to HyperView's condensed mode to see all lines containing either "however" or "therefore". Switch to split screen mode to see each line in context. Please note that you can open a HyperView window to review the letter while it is still active in your word processor.
Example 2. You are reviewing a collection of mail messages. You search and tag all lines containing the subject heading ("Subj:", "Topic:", etc.). This gives you a quick list of topics from which you can easily extract messages of interest.
Example 3. You are a scientist specializing in research on sickle cell anemia. A colleague asks you to review a paper she is writing about genetic disorders. You do not have to worry that her paper is formatted as a WordPerfect document and you shun DOS based word processors--HyperView reads WordPerfect. Moreover, you do not need to read the whole paper. Instead, you use HyperView's search and tag feature to perform three successive searches for (1) "sickle", (2) "hemoglobin", and (3) "HgB". Press Ctrl+Enter (or F9) to switch to HyperView's split screen view. In the top screen are all lines containing one of the three words you searched for. As you move the cursor through the upper screen, the line is shown in context in the lower screen. Extraneous lines may be untagged by positioning the cursor over the offending line and pressing the space bar. When you need to read a section more thoroughly, you press Enter to return to the full screen view and jump automatically to the section that interests you. You use Gather to save one or more sections of text to another file, or List Tags to save all tagged lines to a file.
[INSTALLATION]
There are no special requirements for installing HyperView. Simply copy HV.EXE, HVAUX.EXE and HV.ICO to a convenient directory. Please note that all three files *must* be located in the same directory. You will probably find it most practical to place HyperView in a directory on your path. If you are upgrading from an earlier version of HyperView, be sure to replace the older copies of both HV.EXE and HVAUX.EXE.
To view a compressed file in a ZIP archive, you must have a copy of the OS/2 version of Info-ZIP's UNZIP.EXE. UNZIP.EXE must be located in a directory on your path. For additional information about UNZIP.EXE, please see the section entitled "Viewing ZIP files".
You may also wish to create a HyperView object on your desktop.
[STARTING HYPERVIEW]
The easiest way to start HyperView is from the Workplace Shell. Drag the icon of a file you wish to view and drop it on the HyperView icon. Before starting HyperView, you may add any command option to the parameters field of the HyperView object. (See the section entitled "Command Line Options" below.)
You may also start HyperView from any OS/2 command prompt. The full syntax for starting HyperView is:
HV [options] [filespec]
Filespec refers either to (1) a file name, in which case HyperView will load the file at startup, or (2) a path, in which case HyperView will display a directory of files in the designated directory at startup. The path may be further limited by supplying a file mask. For example, the path "C:\DeScribe\Data" would result in a directory list of all files (*.*) in the C:\DeScribe\Data directory. Alternatively, the path "C:\DeScribe\Data\*.doc" would result in a directory list of all files with the .DOC extension (*.doc) in the C:\DeScribe\Data directory.
HyperView recognizes long file names and names with spaces. There is no need to place quotes around long file names with embedded spaces. If you do use quotes (through force of habit) place them around the entire file specification--not just the file name.
If a filespec is omitted at startup, HyperView will open with a display of the current directory. If HyperView cannot locate a file specified on the command line, rather than give a "file not found message", it will display a listing of the directory in which the file should be located.
[Command Line Options]
For your convenience, the following options are available when starting HyperView. Notice that each option consists of a slash ("/") followed by a letter. The letter may be upper- or lower-case. All options must precede the filespec on the command line.
/F Start HyperView in a full screen OS/2 session
/W Start HyperView in a windowed OS/2 session
/M Force HyperView to use monochrome
/C Force HyperView to use color (when it mistakenly
thinks you have a monochrome monitor)
/A Use alternative color scheme
/E Escape = exit from text window
/I Disable high intensity background colors
/R Raw (do not convert word processing files)
/B- Force clipboard feature off
/B+ Force clipboard feature on
/Lnn Lines of text, where "nn" is a number from between 25 and 60.
The "/L" command option is used to set the number of lines of text on screen. This option takes the form "/Lnn", where nn is a number between 25 and 60. Thus, to set HyperView to display 30 lines of text, the appropriate option would be "/L30". When running HyperView in a window, any value in the range is acceptable. Depending on the display driver, not all values in the range may be permissible in a full screen session. If an impermissible value is entered, HyperView will try to round up to the next highest acceptable value. You may wish to experiment with the OS/2 MODE command to determine which values are acceptable for your system.
If the "/L" command option is not employed, HyperView will automatically adjust to the number of lines on your display. The number may be any value from 25 to 60 that is supported by your system.
[Starting HyperView From a DOS Session]
HyperView may also be started from an OS/2 DOS session (i.e. from a VDM). The same syntax is used to start HyperView from a VDM as from the OS/2 command line. When started from a VDM, HyperView will default to OS/2 full screen display mode. If you prefer to start HyperView in an OS/2 window, add the "/W" option to the command line.
If you start HyperView from inside a DOS application, you may notice that the DOS program does not realize HyperView is active. Usually, when you start one DOS application from within another, the first application remains inaccessible until the second application ends. In contrast, when you start HyperView from a DOS session, HyperView begins its own OS/2 session. If you like, use the Window List (Ctrl+Escape) to switch between the DOS program and HyperView.
Note: Under DOS, drives and directories may be given aliases with the ASSIGN, JOIN, and SUBST commands. These aliases are not recognized by OS/2. Therefore, you must give the full path name of the file you wish to view, when the file resides on an aliased drive or directory.
[USING HYPERVIEW]
Although HyperView offers advanced features, it uses a conventional user interface, requiring little, if any, effort to learn. In deference to those who have difficulty using shifted keystrokes, almost all HyperView commands can be accessed with one unshifted keystroke. Sometimes a shifted keystroke (e.g. Ctrl+Enter) may be suggested as the primary means of effectuating a command because it is the most logical alternative. In each instance, however, there is an unshifted alternative. In the case of Ctrl+Enter, the alternative is always F9. Thus, wherever the program suggests Ctrl+Enter, pressing F9 is always an acceptable alternative.
The main HyperView screen consists of a viewing area, a status line, and a scroll bar. The status line displays the name of the file you are viewing, the number of lines in the file, and the number of the current line. If the file name consists of more than 12 characters, HyperView will add a diamond character to the end, to signify that only part of the file name is being displayed. Note: To see the full name, press the backslash key '\'. This will quickly transfer you to HyperView's directory listing. The cursor bar will highlight the full name of the current file. Press Escape to return to the file.
HyperView has two types of scroll bar, a conventional one and a virtual one. Which scroll bar is used depends on the right margin setting and the number of columns in your video mode. When the right margin is set to a value that is less than the number of columns, HyperView employs a conventional scroll bar consisting of a vertical track and a scroll box indicating the relative position in the file. When the right margin is greater than or equal to the number of columns, only the block representing the file position is displayed. The vertical track is omitted because it would obscure a column of text. Since the most common video mode is 80 columns, this means that for most people when the right margin is 79 or less, there will be a conventional scroll bar. The scroll box showing the file position contains a down arrow when the cursor bar is at the top of the file and an up arrow at the end of the file. In virtual mode, the scroll box is transparent--the color changes but the underlying character is visible. Please note that the scroll bar is only active in full screen view.
HyperView displays in one of three views. In full screen view, all lines of text are displayed. Tagged lines are differentiated with a distinctive color. Condensed view is restricted to lines that have been tagged. In split screen view, tagged lines are displayed in the upper screen. The lower screen shows in context the line that is highlighted in the upper screen. The latter two views (condensed and split screen) are only available when one or more lines have been tagged.
Lines may be tagged either (1) automatically with the search and tag feature of the Search Dialog, or (2) manually with the space bar. Once a line is tagged, it remains tagged until untagged with the Clear Tags command or with the space bar. Available command options are summarized below. HyperView letter commands may be either upper- or lower-case.
The following commands are available:
Key Function
File Functions
<N> New File
<F5> Directory (Dialog)
<\> Directory (Express)
<F3> Exit (Confirm)
<Alt+F4> Exit (Leave screen)
<Alt+X> Exit (& CLS)
Edit Functions
<G>* Gather text to file or clipboard
<L> List tagged lines to file or clipboard
<Space> Tag/Untag line
<C> Clear tagged lines
Search Functions:
<S> ) Search Search
<F> ) Dialog Search Forward
<B> ) Search Back
<+>, <=> Repeat Last Search Forward
<-> Repeat Last Search Back
<J> Jump to line number
View Functions
<Enter> Full Screen
<Enter>/<F10> Condensed
<CtrlEnter>/<F9> Split Screen
<H> Hex toggle
<R> Right Margin
<W> Word wrap toggle
<T> Tab expansion toggle
Cursor Movement
<Up> Cursor Up
<Down> Cursor Down
<PgUp> Screen Up
<PgDn> Screen Down
<Home>** Top of File
<End> End of File
<Left> Screen Left 1 column
<Right> Screen Right 1 column
<CtrlLeft> Screen Left 5 columns
<CtrlRight> Screen Right 5 columns
* Gather operations may also be commenced by holding down the shift key in combination with one of the cursor keys (Up, Down, PgUp, PgDn, Home or End).
** When the screen has been scrolled right, the home key first returns the display to the beginning of the line.
[HYPERVIEW DIALOGS]
Where appropriate, HyperView uses dialogs to solicit user input. Although the dialogs operate in the conventional manner, it may be beneficial to summarize their operation.
Dialog Controls
HyperView dialogs use four different types of controls: (1) Text Boxes, (2) Check Boxes, (3) Radio Buttons, and (4) Command Buttons. These controls are described in detail below. To move within a dialog box simply press the highlighted letter of the control you want to select (from a Text Box, press Alt + the highlighted letter) or Tab to move forward, Shift+Tab to move in reverse.
Text Boxes
You type information in a Text Box. This information might be a search string, the name of a file, or a line number to which you wish to jump.
The following rules apply to Text Boxes:
(a) There may be text already in the box, either as a default, or the previous entry at that box.
(b) If you simply start typing, without doing any editing (cursor movement or deleting), then the default text will automatically be deleted.
(c) The following keys are available when editing text:
<Home> Move cursor to beginning of text
<End> Move cursor to end of text
<Right> Move cursor right
<Left> Move cursor left
<Ctrl+Left> or <PgUp> Move cursor word left
<Ctrl+Right> or <PgDn> Move cursor word right
<Del> Delete character under cursor
<Backspace> Delete character to left of cursor
<Ctrl+Backspace> or <F6> Delete word
<Ctrl+End> or <F7> Delete to end of line
<Ctrl+Y> or <F8> Delete all text
<Insert> Toggle insert and overstrike
Notice that each of the shifted keys (Ctrl+Left, Ctrl+End, etc.) has an unshifted alternative (PgUp, F7, etc.). When editing a path name, a subdirectory is considered a word. In other words, when the cursor is positioned on a subdirectory (including the backslash to the right of the subdirectory), the delete word command will excise the subdirectory name from the path.
(d) Tab (or Shift+Tab) accepts input, and moves to the next (or previous) field. Alt + the highlighted letter of a control also accepts text input, then moves directly from a Text Box to the control. Pressing the key associated with a command button initiates the command button action.
Check Boxes
Check boxes allow you to turn options on and off. A "X" indicates an option is on; otherwise, the option is off. To toggle a check box on and off: (a) press the highlighted letter of the control you want to select (from the Text Box, press Alt + the highlighted letter), or (b) Tab (or Shift+Tab) to the field, then press the space bar.
Radio Buttons
Radio buttons are used to select one of two or more mutually exclusive options. Only one radio button in an option group may be selected at one time. To select a radio button: (a) press the highlighted letter of the control you want to select (from the Text Box, press Alt + the highlighted letter), or (b) Tab (or Shift+Tab) to the field, then press the up/down keys to select an option in the group.
Command Buttons
Command buttons are used to initiate an action immediately. The button describes the action followed by a key name in angled brackets. For example Search<Enter> or Cancel<Esc>. This means that you press the Enter key to start a search or the Escape key to cancel a dialog. You may also Tab or Shift+Tab to a command button and press Enter, but that is less efficient than pressing the key directly. Command buttons are generally located at the bottom of the dialog box.
[SEARCHING FOR TEXT]
Searches are initiated with the Search Dialog. Follow-up searches may be performed most conveniently using the "+" (forward) and "-" (back) keys. The gray "+" and "-" keys on the numeric keypad are particularly useful for this purpose. The "=" may also be used for repeat searches in the forward direction.
Note: It may be helpful to read the section entitled "HyperView Dialogs" together with this section. To summarize, a dialog consists of some or all of the following parts. The Text Box is where you enter the text for which you are searching. For your convenience the Text Box offers an array of keys for editing the text (described in the section entitled "Text Boxes"). The Tab (and Shift+Tab) keys move you forward (or backward) to the next (or previous) control. Any control may be accessed by pressing the highlighted letter associated with the control. (To move from the Text Box directly to a control, press Alt + the highlighted letter). Each of the Command Buttons on the bottom of the dialog is associated with a key. Press the key to immediately initiate the action associated with the Command Button.
"S" is the principal command for calling the Search Dialog. The "S" command brings up the Search Dialog, leaving the settings unchanged from the last time the dialog was invoked. For your convenience the "F" and "B" commands are also available to call the Search Dialog. The "F" command sets the Search Dialog to perform a forward search starting from the current position. Similarly, the "B" command sets the Search Dialog to perform a backward search starting from the current position. The setting for Case Sensitive remains unchanged by any of these commands. Notice that you need remember only one command for calling the Search Dialog, since any setting may be changed within the dialog.
The Search Dialog offers the following options:
Search for:
Type a word or phrase (up to 76 characters long) in the Text Box.
Case Sensitive:
Check this box to make searches case sensitive. A case sensitive search for the word "Check" will ignore "CHECK" and "check".
Direction:
"Forward" searches search forward to the end of the file. "Backward" searches start at the current position and search backward to the beginning of the file.
Start from:
A forward search may be started from the current position or from the beginning of the file. This setting has no relevance to backward searches and is ignored when searching backward.
Tag:
Pressing Ctrl+Enter or F9 (or tabbing to the "Tag" action button and pressing Enter) will initiate a Search and Tag operation. HyperView will tag each line in the file that matches the search criteria in the dialog settings. Where found text occupies more than one line, only the first line will be tagged.
Upon the successful completion of a Search and Tag operation, HyperView will display the message "To see condensed view, press ENTER (full screen) or Ctrl+ENTER (split screen)". This message is simply a reminder, you are free to perform another search or any other HyperView operation.
Tagged lines are persistent. If you do another search, the lines tagged by the first search will remain tagged, until you untag them all with the Clear Tags command or untag them individually with the Space Bar.
Search:
Pressing Enter will initiate your search. HyperView will look for the next occurrence of your search text depending on the dialog settings (forward, backward, case sensitive, etc.). When a match is found, HyperView will move the cursor to the matching line if it is on the current screen, or to the fifth row, if the matching text is off-screen. This allows you to view search results in context, without the need to scroll back to view preceding text.
Cancel:
Press Escape to cancel the Search Dialog.
Special Characters:
You may also search for special characters such as tabs, symbols, and accented characters that are not assigned to a key on your keyboard. Special characters may be entered into the search Text Box by (a) holding down the ALT key, (b) typing the ASCII code number of the character on the numeric keypad, then (c) releasing the ALT key. For example to search for a word containing the letter "Ç" (ASCII 128), hold down the ALT key, type the numbers "1", "2", and "8" on the numeric keypad, then release the ALT key. The ASCII codes for some common special characters are:
Tab 9
Line feed 10
Carriage return 13
Paragraph symbol 20
Section symbol 21
Repeating Searches:
You may repeat your last search without reopening the Search Dialog. To repeat a search in the forward directions, press "+". Press "-" to repeat a search in the backward direction. It does not matter whether the last search was a conventional search or a search and tag operation. When you use "+" or "-", HyperView searches for the text in the Text Box the last time any kind of search was performed. The settings for Case Sensitive will be honored, but the other settings are ignored. The gray "+" and "-" keys on the numeric keypad are most convenient for repeating searches.
A search may be initiated from a full screen view or from one of the two condensed views. If you initiate a search from one of the condensed views, HyperView will revert to full screen view when the search is successful. When a successful search and tag operation is initiated from a condensed view, the cursor line moves to the top of the screen for a forward search (or to the bottom of the screen for a backward search), and the rest of the screen if filled with tagged lines. Please note it is possible that a matching line from the most recent search may not appear on screen. Whether a matching line is shown will depend on the number of tagged lines there are between the cursor line and the newly added line. To move directly to the first matching line, press the "+" (forward) or "-" (back) key.
[TAGGING AND CLEARING LINES]
There will be occasions when HyperView tags too many lines or when it is more appropriate to tag a line manually.
To untag a single line, position the cursor bar on the line, then press the space bar. In full screen view the color of the line will change back to the untagged color. In condensed view the line will be removed from the condensed display.
Similarly, to tag a line, position the cursor bar on the line and press the space bar. The line will be tagged and text on the line will change color to reflect the change.
To clear all lines, press "C", then confirm that you wish to clear all tagged lines.
[SAVING TEXT: GATHER AND LIST]
HyperView lets you save text to a file or copy it to the OS/2 clipboard in two different ways--each of which is described in detail below. Use the Gather command to save one or more contiguous lines of text. Gathering is like blocking or selecting text in a word processor. In contrast, the List command only copies tagged lines: lines that are visible in condensed view. Listing is loosely analogous to extracting a table of contents or an index from a word processing file.
As you can see, Gather and List perform two different functions. You should also be aware of a difference in the way they save text. List is line oriented--it saves lines of text from different parts of your file. If the tagged line does not end with a hard return, HyperView will add one to the end.
In contrast, Gather is block oriented. It saves contiguous blocks of text. HyperView does not modify Gathered text. This is generally only relevant with word processing files, which will have hard returns only at the ends of a paragraphs. This means that you can gather text from an Ami Pro document and paste it into the Golden Compass editor without having to remove extraneous hard returns from the ends of each line.
As described below, HyperView suggests different file name extensions for gathered and listed text. If you prefer, however, you may save both kinds of text to the same file.
[GATHERING TEXT]
Text may be gathered and copied to the OS/2 clipboard or saved to a file. The process of gathering text is similar to blocking text in a word processor or editor. To gather text, first move the cursor line to the beginning of the text you wish to save. Now press "G" or hold down the shift key and press one of the following cursor keys: Up, Down, PgUp, PgDn, Home or End. Move the cursor to the end of the text you want to gather. The area will be highlighted as you move around.
While gathering text you may use any of the functions available in full screen view, including the cursor keys, jump to line, and search functions. An on-screen prompt guides you to the completion of Gather operations: press F9 to save text to a file, Ctrl+Insert (or Insert) to copy text to the clipboard, or Ctrl+Shift+Insert to append text to the clipboard. You may also press Enter for a menu of options.
When you copy gathered text to the OS/2 clipboard, the previous contents of the clipboard are overwritten with the new contents. In contrast, appending text to the clipboard preserves the current contents of the clipboard and adds the gathered text to the end. Gathered text may then be transferred from the clipboard to your OS/2, Windows, or DOS application. Please note that the OS/2 clipboard is apparently limited to 64K of text. If a clipboard operation would exceed 64K, HyperView gives a warning, followed by the option to save the material to a file. Bear in mind that attempting to append a small amount of text to the clipboard may cause the 64K limit to be exceeded, if the current contents of the clipboard are already close to the limit.
If you select "File", HyperView will prompt you for a filename to save the gathered text. The first time you gather text, HyperView suggests a file name with the same root name as the file you are viewing and the extension ".HVG" (i.e. HyperView gather). Thus, if you gather text in NEWSLET.TXT, HyperView will propose the filename NEWSLET.HVG to hold the gathered text. Either accept this suggestion or edit it as you please. One easy way to change the proposed filename to NEWSLET.SAV is to use the editing keys in the Text Box of the Gather Dialog. Press End, then Ctrl+Backspace (or F6) to delete the last word (i.e. the extension "HVG"), then type "SAV". HyperView will remember the file name the next time you wish to save gathered text in the same session. To reset the default suggestion, clear the text box and press Enter.
By default, HyperView appends gathered text to the end of an existing file. If you prefer to overwrite the contents of a file, then turn off the append check box in the Gather dialog. Long file names may be used when saving to an HPFS drive.
Gathered text from word processing files will be saved in stripped ASCII format, i.e. with a carriage return/line feed combination at the end of a paragraph. Gathered text from ASCII files will be saved in the same format as the original file.
[LISTING TAGGED LINES]
Tagged lines may be copied to the OS/2 clipboard or saved to a file. Press "L" to initiate Listing tagged lines. HyperView will ask whether you wish to save the tagged lines to a file, or copy or append them to the OS/2 clipboard.
When you copy tagged lines to the OS/2 clipboard, the previous contents of the clipboard are overwritten with the new contents. In contrast, appending to the clipboard preserves the current contents of the clipboard and adds the tagged lines to the end. Tagged lines may then be transferred from the clipboard to your OS/2, Windows, or DOS application. Please note that the OS/2 clipboard is apparently limited to 64k of text. If a clipboard operation would exceed 64K, HyperView gives a warning, followed by the option to save the material to a file. Bear in mind that attempting to append a small amount of text to the clipboard may cause the 64K limit to be exceeded, if the current contents of the clipboard are already close to the limit.
If you select "Clipboard", all tagged lines will be copied to the clipboard and ready for you to transfer to your OS/2, Windows, or DOS application.
If you select "File", HyperView will prompt you for a filename to save the list of tagged lines. The first time you use the "L" command HyperView suggests a file name with the same root name as the file you are viewing and the extension ".HVL" (i.e. HyperView list). Thus, if you wish to list tagged lines in NEWSLET.TXT, HyperView will propose the filename NEWSLET.HVL. Either accept this suggestion or edit it as you please. One easy way to change the proposed filename to NEWSLET.SAV is to use the editing keys in the Text Box of the List Dialog. Press End, then Ctrl+Backspace (or F6) to delete the last word (i.e. the extension "HVL"), then type "SAV". HyperView will remember the file name the next time you wish to list tagged lines in the same session. To reset the default suggestion, clear the text box and press Enter.
By default, HyperView appends tagged lines to the end of an existing file. If you prefer to overwrite the contents of a file, then turn off the Append check box in the List dialog. Long file names may be used when saving to an HPFS drive.
[USING THE OS/2 CLIPBOARD]
HyperView lets you copy or append text directly to the OS/2 clipboard. After you have Listed tagged lines or copied Gathered text to the clipboard, you may paste it into your OS/2, Windows, or DOS applications.
To paste text into an OS/2 application, either select "Paste" from the "Edit" menu or press Shift+Insert.
To paste text into a Windows application, you must first enable sharing between the OS/2 and Windows clipboards. Open the settings notebook for the Windows application and select the Session tab. Now click on the Win-OS/2 settings button and set "WIN_CLIPBOARD" to "On". After clipboard sharing has been enabled, the process of pasting text into your Windows application is the same as for OS/2 applications: either select "Paste" from the "Edit" menu or press Shift+Insert.
To paste text into a DOS or text mode OS/2 application, running in a window, first click on the icon to the left of the title bar or tap the ALT key. Now select Paste from the menu. If the application is running full screen and was started from a desktop program object, first return to the Desktop. Now click on the program object with mouse button 2 (right click) and select Paste from the menu.
Whereas OS/2 and Windows applications can retrieve text from the clipboard in a single operation, DOS applications must retrieve text letter by letter. Please understand that this is not a limitation of HyperView or OS/2. It is an inherent limitation of DOS programs. If you wish to paste a substantial amount of text into your DOS application, you may, therefore, wish to avoid the clipboard. First use the Gather or List command to save the text as a file, then retrieve the file into your DOS program.
[HVAUX.EXE: HYPERVIEW AUXILIARY PROGRAM]
HyperView uses a small auxiliary program called HVAUX.EXE to provide an interface between the OS/2 clipboard and all instances of HyperView. HVAUX is functionally equivalent to a .DLL. It is launched by the first HyperView session and automatically terminated with the last. (Of course, the first and the last could be the same.) There is never more than one session of HVAUX active at one time.
Some may wonder whether a separate program is really necessary for a character mode application to access the clipboard. The answer is yes. Although there are techniques by which a character mode application can access the clipboard directly, some PM and Windows programs will not recognize when the clipboard is updated using these methods.
HVAUX should be located in the same directory as HyperView. It is not intended to be run as a stand-alone application; it will be launched by HyperView when required. If HyperView is unable to start HVAUX, you will receive an appropriate message if you attempt to copy from HyperView to the OS/2 clipboard.
HVAUX is a Presentation Manager (PM) program. It should not be executed when running OS/2 without PM. This might occur if you boot OS/2 from a floppy, you run CMD.EXE with a CALL command from CONFIG.SYS, or you use TSHELL. HyperView is smart enough to know when the Presentation Manager is present, in which case it will not load HVAUX and will not offer a clipboard alternative. The "/B-" startup option is available if HyperView mistakenly believes PM is present when it really is not. The "/B+" startup option may be used when HyperView thinks PM is not present but it really is. The "/B+" and "/B-" are intended as fail-safes, to offer a measure of protection against unforeseen eventualities. Please let me know if need to use either.
[WORD WRAP AND SETTING THE RIGHT MARGIN]
HyperView employs true word wrap. Word wrap may be toggled on and off by pressing 'W'. The state of word wrap is maintained separately for ASCII and word processing files. Thus, you may have word wrap enabled for one and disabled for the other. Press 'R' to determine whether word wrap is on or off.
HyperView will preserve the state of any tagged lines when disabling word wrap. The same is not true, however, when you enable word wrap. Here's why. When word wrap is disabled, two or more lines are combined to form one long line. If one of the constituent lines was tagged while word wrap was enabled, HyperView knows to tag the resulting line. Going in the reverse direction, HyperView has no way of knowing which of the component lines should be tagged. In this situation, HyperView will present the 'Clear Tagged Lines' dialog before proceeding to enable word wrap.
The screen column at which HyperView wraps text to the next line may be set with the "R" command. The default right margin for ASCII files is equal to the screen width. For word processing files, it is screen width minus five. In the case of the typical 80 column screen, the right margin will thus be 80 for ASCII files and 75 for word processing files. Separate right margin settings are maintained for ASCII and word processing files.
Please note that a side-effect of altering the right margin is to cause any tagged lines to be cleared. This happens because the new margin will result in changes to line lengths and the number of lines.
Please note that the right margin setting will affect the type of vertical scroll bar HyperView uses. When the right margin is set to a value that is less than the number of columns, HyperView employs a conventional scroll bar, consisting of a vertical track and a scroll box indicating the relative position in the file. When the right margin is greater than or equal to the number of columns, only the block representing the file position is displayed. The vertical track is omitted because it would obscure a column of text. Since the most common video mode is 80 columns, this means that for most people when the right margin is 79 or less, there will be a conventional scroll bar.
[JUMPING TO A SPECIFIC LINE OR OFFSET]
In text view, the Jump command ("J") prompts you for a line number, then moves the cursor to that line. The number of lines in a file is given on the far right side of the status line at the bottom of the screen.
While in hex view, the Jump command prompts you for an offset. Offsets should be given in hexadecimal notation. Leading zeros are not required.
[TOGGLING TAB EXPANSION]
Pressing "T" toggles tab expansion on and off. When tab expansion is on, HyperView will align text following the tab on the next column that is a multiple of five. Thus, if a tab is the twelfth character on a line, the next text will print on column fifteen (the next column that is a multiple of five). When tab expansion is off, tabs appear in their native form--a character resembling a tiny "o".
[OPENING A NEW FILE]
To view a new file, press "N". HyperView will prompt you for the name of the new file. For your convenience, the name of the current file will be displayed in the Text Box. You may either edit the name of the current file or start typing a new name to clear the Text Box. If the new file is in the current directory, you do not need to type the full path name; the file name will be sufficient. HyperView will also recognize shorthand path entries using the ".." notation for opening files in parent or sister directories. If you cannot remember the file name, press F5 to access the Files dialog.
[READING FROM STANDARD INPUT]
When started from the command line without a filespec, HyperView will read any piped or redirected information from standard input. In this case, the "file name" on the status line will STDIN. If there is nothing waiting in standard input, then the startup directory will be shown.
Using HyperView to read from standard input is useful in situations where you wish to redirect the output of those programs or commands that write to standard output (the screen). Redirection refers to the process of diverting program or command output from its customary destination to another venue. In the context of this discussion, the alternative destination would be HyperView's input. Thus, we say that a program's standard output is being redirected to HyperView's standard input.
Redirection is commonly effectuated by means of a pipe, which is signified by the '|' character. In general, HyperView is a good substitute in any situation where you might be tempted to use the MORE command. For example, to get comprehensive information about the contents of ANYFILE.ZIP, you might use the following:
UNZIP -Zv ANYFILE.ZIP | HV
Another use would be to get a list of all the files on a hard drive by using the following command:
DIR C:\ /S | HV
This terse command says: Give me the contents of the root directory of drive C (DIR C:\), include the contents of all subdirectories (/S), instead of printing the output to the screen, make a pipe (|), send the contents of the pipe to HyperView (HV). Note that HyperView will not display the results until OS/2 has completed the DIR command.
HyperView's condensed view can be used with good effect in conjunction with such a directory listing. From the top of the listing, search and tag all lines containing the phrase "Directory of". Now search and tag all lines containing the phrase "bytes used". Switching to condensed view, you will see a listing that begins something like this:
Directory of C:\
28 file(s) 106895 bytes used
Directory of C:\Nowhere
3 file(s) 22867 bytes used
Directory of C:\OS2
133 file(s) 4197852 bytes used
Directory of C:\OS2\APPS
51 file(s) 2668404 bytes used
Directory of C:\OS2\APPS\DLL
13 file(s) 1039626 bytes used
The List command lets you save the condensed view output.
You should be aware that piping can be relatively slow. Nonetheless, it may still be faster than the alternatives.
Please note that you cannot redirect output to HyperView when it is started from a DOS session.
[FILES]
HyperView's directory listing lets you select a file to view. The directory listing may be accessed by pressing "\" or by pressing Escape from full screen view. In either case, HyperView takes you directly to the directory of the current file, positioning the cursor bar on the current file. As described below, you may also access a directory listing by pressing F5, in which case the Files dialog will prompt you for a filespec. In addition, at startup, HyperView will open with a directory listing when no file name is specified on the command line. The same is true if the program is started by double clicking on the HyperView icon from the Workplace Shell (assuming no file name is specified in the parameters setting for the HyperView object).
[Directory Listing]
The directory listing looks and performs like other directory listing tools you may have used. If the current directory is a subdirectory, then the ".." notation at the top of the listing signifies the parent directory. Any subdirectories of the current directory are listed next. Files are listed in a distinctive color after the subdirectories.
To accommodate long file names, HyperView positions file information (size, time, and date) to the right of the screen. A diamond at the end of a file name indicates part of the name has been truncated because it is too long. Use the right arrow to scroll the rest of the file name.
By default, file listings are sorted alphabetically in ascending order by name. Press F6 to sort by extension, size, or time/date. Files may be sorted in ascending or descending order. Note that the sort dialog is divided into two lists: sort type (name, extension, size, time/date) and sort order (ascending, descending). Selections are made by pressing one of the highlighted letters. Selecting the sort order also dismisses the dialog.
Pressing the first letter of a directory or file name will advance the cursor bar to the next entry beginning with that letter. This accelerator feature works cyclically. In other words, pressing a letter will advance the cursor bar to the next matching entry in the display. When there are no more files starting with that letter, the accelerator will start again with the directories.
To load a file, position the cursor on the file name and press Enter. To prevent HyperView from automatically recognizing and converting word processing and ZIP files, press F12. This will cause HyperView to load the file in raw mode, i.e. in its native binary format. Loading a file raw is generally most useful in conjunction with HyperView's hex viewer.
If you do not wish to abandon the file you are currently viewing, you may also start a new HyperView session to read a file. This is known as spawning a new session. Position the cursor on the file name. Instead of pressing Enter, press Ctrl+Enter (or F9). The new session will inherit the same settings as the original session (i.e. colors, lines of text, etc.), except that if raw mode was on, it will be turned off.
You may also navigate through the file system directly from the directory listing. To change to a new directory, position the cursor bar on the appropriate directory name and press Enter. To move to the parent directory (if any) of the current subdirectory, press Backspace or position the cursor on the ".." entry and press Enter. To change to a new drive, press Ctrl and the key of the drive (i.e. Ctrl+A, for drive A:, Ctrl+C, for drive C:, etc.).
[Files Dialog]
When you press F5, the Files dialog prompts you for a filespec. (Note: You can avoid the Files dialog and go directly to the directory of the current file, by pressing "\" or Escape from full screen view.) A filespec consists of a drive, directory, and file mask. The initial filespec will be for all files (*.*) in the current directory on the current drive. The filespec may be changed by editing the current filespec or by typing a new one. As explained below it is not necessary to enter a full filespec. HyperView makes assumptions about any missing information.
The last component of a filespec (after the drive and subdirectories) is known as a file mask. A mask consists of one or more wild card characters and may also include a partial file name. The commonest file mask is "*.*", which is interpreted as all files. A file mask in the form of "*.doc" would limit the listing to all files with the ".doc" extension.
HyperView will remember any changes you make to the mask component of the filespec. Thus, if you change the mask to "*.doc", HyperView will remember the change each time you change a directory from the Files directory listing or call the Files dialog. To change the mask again, or to revert back to "*.*", edit the mask appropriately or simply type the new mask by itself. The file mask is limited to 30 characters. Any excess characters are truncated. On FAT drives, a mask with characters in excess of 8.3 (base.extension) is considered invalid by the system.
Note: If you are accustomed to the peculiar operation of the "*" wild card under true DOS, you may not have realized that it operates differently under OS/2. DOS ignores any letters that appear after a "*". Thus, under DOS the mask "n*k.*" will match all files beginning with the letter "n", regardless of the last character in the root name. Under OS/2 (and OS/2 DOS emulation), only root names beginning with "n" and ending with "k" will match (e.g. notebook.doc, but not notes.doc). As a corollary, you may also use a "*" more than once in a mask to match one or more characters in each position. For example, the mask "n*b*k.*" will be correctly interpreted by OS/2. Since HyperView is an OS/2 program, it follows the OS/2 convention.
The logic of the filespec entry field parallels that of the OS/2 (and DOS) DIR command. This permits you to enter a minimal amount of information to change the filespec. HyperView makes the same assumptions about the missing information that the DIR command would make. If you are comfortable at the command line, then the following examples will make sense to you. On the other hand, if the command line bewilders you, then the logic may present itself as a set of incomprehensible rules, each of which must be memorized independently. In this case, you it may be more sensible to edit the filespec prompt than to learn a series of recondite rules.
From the Files dialog:
To change to the current directory on another drive, type "d:", where "d" signifies the letter of the new drive.
To change to the root directory on another drive, type "d:\", where "d" signifies the letter of the new drive.
To change to the root directory of the current drive, type "\".
To change to a sister directory of the current directory called UTILS, type "..\UTILS".
To change the file mask from "*.*" to "*.doc", type "*.doc". To change the mask back to "*.*", type "*.*".
These are only examples, and not an comprehensive listing of available shortcuts. In an excess of caution, let me also say that you do not type "DIR" in the Files dialog, nor do you type any of the switches that are available with the DIR command.
[READING WORD PROCESSING FILES]
HyperView automatically recognizes and reads the following word processing formats: Ami Pro, Clearlook, DeScribe (versions 2 through 5), Microsoft Word for Windows (all versions) and WordPerfect (versions 5.x and 6.x). Please let me know if you feel I have omitted a word processor with a substantial following among OS/2 users. As described below, HyperView also recognizes ZIP files. Any file that HyperView does not recognize document will be treated as if it were ASCII text.
HyperView's mission is to allow you to isolate and extract information from word processing and text documents. Accordingly, when converting word processing files, it generally ignores most formatting such as headers, footers, centering, etc. It also ignores footnotes, endnotes, and graphics boxes that may contain text.
When possible, HyperView will convert those characters that the word processor treats as special characters to their ASCII equivalents. If HyperView is unable to convert the character, it will substitute a space. Should you find that HyperView fails to convert a significant number of word processing characters, you may wish to have your word processor perform the conversion, then use HyperView to isolate information in the document. HyperView will perform best if the file is saved in stripped ASCII format-- with a hard return at the end of a paragraph.
To disable HyperView's automatic recognition and conversion of word processing files, use the "/R" startup option, (i.e. HV /R) or press F12 from the directory listing. HyperView will then load the file raw--in its native binary format. To cause HyperView to convert a file that was loaded raw, return to the directory window and press Enter. (Note: When you return to a Zip directory, be sure the 'Select' command button is active.)
The following notes apply to the conversion process:
Text contained in tables in word processing documents are typically converted to a series of discrete paragraphs on a cell by cell basis.
Hidden text in WinWord documents is treated as ordinary text. In WordPerfect 6.x documents, hidden text is enclosed in square brackets, i.e. [This is how WordPerfect hidden text is converted.].
Microsoft Word for Windows offers a fast save option in which only the changes to a document are saved. HyperView does not recognize these "fast saved" documents. For most users, it is advisable--for a variety of reasons--to disable Word's fast save option.
As of the current release of HyperView, Microsoft had only partially documented the Word for Windows 6.0 file structure. Consequently, there is a small possibility that HyperView will not correctly convert a WinWord6 document.
Encrypted WordPerfect and WinWord files are not readable. When HyperView encounters an encrypted document, it will offer you the opportunity to load another file.
DeScribe uses a sophisticated frame structure. HyperView converts DeScribe text frames in the order they are stored in the document. Headers and footers are contained in frames, and HyperView displays the first instance of a header and footer.
[VIEWING ZIP FILES]
HyperView automatically recognizes compressed archives in the ZIP format. When you select a ZIP file, HyperView will present a directory listing the contents of the ZIP file.
By default, ZIP archives are sorted first by path and then by file name. The path of the compressed file (if any) will be displayed at the top of the screen. The sort order may be changed by pressing F6. HyperView maintains separate sort order preferences for file and ZIP listings.
The ZIP directory features function similarly to those in HyperView's conventional directory listing. Pressing the first letter of a file name advances the cursor bar to the next file beginning with that letter. Escape returns you to the disk directory.
To view a compressed file, position the cursor bar on the file name and press Enter. Working in tandem with the Info-ZIP group's UNZIP.EXE, HyperView will load the file just as it would an uncompressed file. A compressed file in one of HyperView's supported word processing formats, will be converted automatically. To load the file raw (i.e. to bypass auto-recognition and conversion), press F12.
If a file in a ZIP archive has been encrypted, HyperView will pause while you enter your password. UnZip gives you three tries to enter the correct password. As a security precaution, the password is not displayed on the screen. If you don't know the password, press Enter alone at the prompt to return to HyperView. You should be aware that some versions of UnZip do not support decryption. See below for instructions about determining whether your version of UnZip has this feature.
After loading a compressed file, you may return to the ZIP directory by pressing Escape from full screen view or '\' from either full screen or from one of HyperView's compressed views. When you go back to a ZIP directory from viewing a compressed file, the cursor bar will be positioned on the name of the file currently being viewed. For your convenience, the active action button defaults to "Return". This permits you to resume viewing a text file immediately by pressing Enter. Pressing any other button while in the ZIP directory will set the default action to "Select".
From the ZIP directory, you return to viewing a file by pressing F7 (or by tabbing to the active button and pressing Enter). Alternatively, you may return to a conventional directory listing by pressing Escape. From the conventional directory, you return to viewing a file (assuming one is loaded) by pressing Escape again.
To view compressed files, you must have a copy of the Info-ZIP group's UNZIP.EXE. UNZIP.EXE must be located in a directory on your path. It is especially important to remember this requirement when you run HyperView after booting from a floppy or after using Warp's Alt+F1 startup option. In either case, the system uses an alternative CONFIG.SYS, which may not include your customary path statement. To add the directory containing UNZIP.EXE to your path, type the following at the OS/2 command line:
PATH=%PATH%;[unzip directory]
Thus, if UNZIP.EXE is located in E:\OS2UTIL, you would type:
PATH=%PATH%;E:\OS2UTIL
As of the date of this release, the most current version of UnZip is 5.12. To determine whether you have the current version, open an OS/2 command window and type UNZIP -v. UnZip will display information about itself which should include a statement similar to the following: "UnZip 5.12 of 28 August 1994, by Info-ZIP". Use the same method to determine whether your copy of UnZip supports uncompressing encrypted files. Look for a statement along the following lines:
UnZip special compilation options:
[decryption]
Note: To obtain the UnZip version number--and nothing but the version number--type UNZIP -vqqqq.
If you don't already have a copy of UnZip the current version is unz512x2.exe and is available from many sources including the OS/2 Shareware BBS, ftp-os2.nmsu.edu and ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip/os2. You may also want to pick up its companion: zip201c2.exe.
Please note HyperView does not currently support multi-volume archives or nested zip files. (A nested ZIP file is one that is zipped inside ZIP file.) Zero-length files are not displayed in HyperView's ZIP directory.
[HEX VIEW]
Press "H" to switch between text view and a conventional hexadecimal (or hex) view. In the case of word processing files, switching to hex view will show HyperView's conversion of the document. If you wish to see the document in its native format, press '\' to return to the directory, then press F12 to load the file raw (i.e. without conversion).
You may initiate searches while in hex view as you would in full screen text view. If the search is successful, HyperView will move the line containing the first letter of the search string to the top of the screen. Please note that a search string may extend across several lines in hex view. Following a successful search and tag operation, HyperView will switch to full screen display.
When switching to and from hex view, HyperView will attempt to preserve the position in the file. It is common, however, for the display to shift slightly because the notion of a line is different in hex and text view. In hex view a line is 16 characters. In text view, a line takes into account the 'meaning' of those characters, e.g. line feeds, carriage returns, and tabs.
[GETTING HELP]
A Help summary listing available commands may be obtained by pressing F1 while viewing a file or from a conventional or ZIP directory. Pressing F1 again from the Help screen tells you "About" HyperView. An effective way to get more detailed help is to open a second copy of HyperView to read this document.
[EXITING HYPERVIEW]
There are three ways to exit HyperView. Press F3 to exit with confirmation and Alt+F4 without confirmation. As a convenience, when you exit while viewing a file, HyperView leaves the last screen of text on the display and moves the cursor to the bottom row. If you prefer to exit to a clear screen, use Alt+X. These distinctions are probably meaningful only if you run HyperView from the command line. Users running HyperView from the Workplace Shell will probably set the HyperView window to close on exit, in which case it does not matter what was on the screen when the program ended.
[NATIONAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT]
Using OS/2's built-in language support, HyperView will support case insensitive searches in any language, based on the currently selected code page. Please note, however, that special characters in word processing files may not be converted to their proper ASCII equivalents.
HyperView will also correctly sort directory listings containing accented characters.
[TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS]
There may be occasions when you wish to edit a document in one window and view it with HyperView in another. Each time you save the file in your editor or word processor, you can refresh HyperView by pressing "N" (for new file), then pressing Enter when HyperView prompts you with the name of the current file.
To quickly convert a file to stripped ASCII from one of HyperView's supported word processing formats: (a) load the file into HyperView, (b) press "G" (for gather), (c) press End (move to the end of the file), then (d) press Enter (finish gathering). Please note you can combine steps (b) and (c) by pressing Shift+End.
When running HyperView in a window, it may be convenient to decrease the size of the right margin. (The minimum length is 35 characters.) The width of the window can then be resized, leaving more room on the desktop without obscuring any text. This is recommended only when working with word processing and stripped ASCII files.
The line length of programming source code files may exceed 80 columns. To prevent HyperView from wrapping the end of a long line to the next line, set the right margin to an arbitrarily large value that is greater than the longest line.
[PROGRAM NOTES]
HyperView is written entirely in assembly language. Charles Petzold's articles in PC Magazine provided an informative introduction to assembler programming for the OS/2 platform. These articles are still relevant and exciting many years after their original publication. Petzold's recently revised OS/2 Presentation Manager Programming proved helpful in tackling the issues related to HyperView's clipboard capability. In addition, the assembly language programs and articles published in PC Magazine (some of which were republished in Ray Duncan's Power Programming with Microsoft Macro Assembler) frequently provided a starting point for attacking similar tasks in OS/2. Crescent Software's documentation and the assembly language source code for their BASIC language libraries were also useful. Finally, sample code demonstrating multithreading OS/2 applications by Monte Copeland provided a valuable reference for the design of HVAUX.
Information about the structure of ZIP files is contained in an Application Note published by PKWARE. The source code for UnZip from the Info-ZIP Group is an invaluable source of information about ZIP files. Because of the efforts of the Info-ZIP Group, OS/2 users have the benefit of the most popular archive format.
Zen of Assembly Language and Zen of Code Optimization by Michael Abrash are continuing sources of insight. Programmer's Technical Reference: The Processor and Coprocessor by Robert L. Hummel is another valuable reference.
Pete Norloff's OS/2 Shareware BBS (703-385-4325) is an outstanding OS/2 resource--for developers and end users alike. Browsing through the list of files can be like rummaging through someone's attic, except that Pete's BBS has a much higher percentage of treasures.
For others desiring to write assembly language programs for OS/2, MASM version 6.11 will run in an OS/2 DOS session with DPMI_DOS_API set to ENABLED and DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT set to 10. For $15, Microsoft will downgrade owners of MASM 6.1 or greater to MASM 6.0b (the last version to run as a native OS/2 application). Programs assembled with MASM may be debugged with IPMD (the IBM PM debugger).
Some details regarding the file structures of Ami Pro and Word for Windows were derived from Jay Munro's article in PC Magazine (June 29, 1993). WordPerfect's file structure is documented in the WordPerfect Developer's Toolkit. Microsoft provided partial documentation of the WinWord6 file structure. Allan Katzen, then President, and John Serences, Vice-President for Research & Development, were particularly generous in taking time out from the development of version 5.0 of DeScribe, to supply information on DeScribe's file structure. Lotus Development Corporation, Word Processing Division provided documentation of Ami Pro's file structure. Helmut Gassner of Clearlook Corporation graciously took time out from a busy development schedule for version 2.0 of Clearlook to supply information about its file structure.
Herb Tyson--author of many outstanding books including Your OS/2 Warp Version 3 Consultant, Navigating the Internet with OS/2 Warp, and Word for Windows 6 Super Book--generously offered his advice on HyperView's features and assisted the author in procuring information on the file structures of DeScribe, WinWord and Ami Pro.
