OS/2 Shareware BBS: 35 Internet/35-Internet.zip/pmuue144.zip/PMUUE.DOC

Text File | 1996-08-10 | 14KB | 311 lines

                              PMUUE 1.44
            Presentation Manager Unix-to-Unix Encoder/Decoder
                            August 12, 1996


What is PMUUE?
==============

PMUUE stands for Presentation Manager Unix-to-Unix Encoder/Decoder.
It is used to encode and decode Unix-to-Unix encoded files (commonly
known as UUencoded files.)

Using text only mail readers, it is not possible to send binary
files through E-mail because of the possibility of non-ASCII
charaters being lost or converted to other characters.  A utility,
such as PMUUE, will convert a binary file into a set of ASCII
characters (UUencoded format) which can be sent through E-mail and
converted back into binary format once the destination is reached.


The Disclaimer
==============

There is no warranty, expressed or implied, with this program.  THE
AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES INCURRED BY THE USE OF THIS
PROGRAM.  Use at your own risk!


Distribution
============

This program may be freely distributed as long as:

a)      The archived file from which the program came from is distributed
        and not altered in any way.
b)      This program is not distributed with any commercial program except
        for shareware or freeware collections of programs.


Quick Start
===========

Here are the basic steps to DECODE a UUencoded file:

1.  Select "File|Decode..." from the menu or press Ctrl-D.

2.  Select ALL the files you want to decode.  If a binary file is split
    between more than one UUencoded file, you must make sure that those
    files appear in the correct order and consecutively in the list box.
    You can only decode one directory at a time.  Press Ctrl-/ in the file
    list box to select all files in the current directory.

3.  Select the "OK" button.

    NOTE: If the decoding did not work properly, you may have to change some
          of the settings in the "Preferences|Settings..." dialog box.

Here are the basic steps to ENCODE a binary file:

1.  Select "File|Encode..." from the menu or press Ctrl-E.

2.  Select ALL the files you want to encode.  You can only encode one
    directory at a time.  Press Ctrl-/ in the file list box to select
    all files in the current directory.

3.  Select the "OK" button.

    NOTE: The format of the UUencoded file is dependent on the current
          settings of the "Preferences|Settings..." dialog box.


Parts of the PMUUE display
==========================

Besides the normal OS/2 system windows, such as the title bar, the
minimize and maximize buttons and the menu bar, there are two windows
controlled by PMUUE: the log window and the status bar.

The log window is where any significant event is recorded that has occured
while encoding or decoding a binary file.  Specifically, an entry is placed
into the log window when:

   - A file is opened
   - The process of encoding or decoding a file is started or finished

By default, the log window keeps the last 500 events that have occured
and deletes any log entries, starting from the oldest entry, that exceed
the maximum number of entries allowed.  The log window automatically
scrolls down to always show the latest event.

The status bar shows the last message sent to the log window, but this
might change in future versions to include a progress indicator.

If selected in the Settings notebook, a dialog box pops up with the
message that the process is finished whenever an encoding or
decoding process is completed.


Drag and Drop Encoding and Decoding
===================================

PMUUE can UUencode or UUdecode files by dragging a file or a group of
files from the folders inside the Drives icon into the Log Window using
Mouse Button #2 (usually the right mouse button).  Depending on the
settings in the Settings Notebook, the files will be UUencoded, UUdecoded,
or prompt the user to choose between UUencoding or UUdecoding.

You can also drag the files to be UUencoded or UUdecoded directly onto the
PMUUE program icon itself without opening the program.  However, this
method is FAR less flexible than the first method because dragging the
files onto the program icon is like using the command line method to
UUencode and UUdecode files.  Furthermore, PMUUE will NOT prompt the user
to choose between UUencode or UUdecode when the user drags the files onto
the program icon.  Another disadvantage of dragging files onto the program
icon is that each file must contain entire binary files (ie. you cannot
UUdecode files that have several parts).  You can set up two program
icons, one for UUencode and one for UUdecode, by having a "-e" parameter
for the UUencode icon and a "-d" parameter for the UUdecode icon and
having both icons point to the same PMUUE program file.  Both icons can
open PMUUE normally.


The Menu Options
================

The File Menu
-------------

The file menu allows the user to encode a file, decode a file, or exit
the program.

When the user selects the "Encode..." menu option or presses Ctrl-E on
the keyboard, the user is presented with a dialog box.  This dialog
box allows the user to select the binary file to be encoded into
UUencoded format.  The user can select one or many files.
If the user selects "Cancel", the operation is aborted.  If the user
selects "OK", the encoding process is started.  A message box can be
selected to pop up when the encoding process is completed.  Select "OK"
to dismiss the dialog box.

The way the program encodes files can be determined by the Settings
notebook.

When the user selects the "Decode..." menu option or presses Ctrl-D on
the keyboard, the user is presented with a dialog box.  This dialog
box allows the user to select the encoded file to be decoded back into a
binary file.  The user can select one or many files.  If the user selects
"Cancel", the operation is aborted.  If the user selects "OK", the
operation is started.  A message box can be selected to pop up when the
decoding process is completed.  Select "OK" to dismiss the dialog box.

An encoded file does NOT have to be stripped of extraneous text in
order for PMUUE to decode it.  Also, the encoded file also does NOT
have to be split up if it contains more than one UUencoded file.
Even if the binary file is split into many UUencoded files, these
UUencoded files do NOT have to be joined together into one file.
PMUUE will (hopefully) be smart enough to determine which lines are
encoded and which are not and when an encoded file starts and ends.

When the user selects "Exit," or double-clicks on the system menu icon
or selects "Close" from the system menu, the program will terminate.

The Preferences Menu
--------------------
The preferences menu has only one option, "Settings..." which will tell
the program how to act in particular situations.  For a full
explanation of the "Settings..." option, see "The Settings Notebook"
elsewhere in this file.

The Help Menu
-------------
When the user selects "Help index...", the user is presented with all
the major topics in the help file.

When the user selects "General Help...", the user sees the definitions
of the major functions of this program.

When the user selects "Using Help...", a window with instructions on
how to use help is presented.

When the user selects "Keys Help...", a window with valid keystrokes
for the main window appears.

When the user selects the "Product Information..." menu option, PMUUE
will show a dialog showing the program name and version, as well as
other pertinent information about itself.


The Settings Notebook
=====================

The settings notebook is divided into five pages: Notification, End of
Line, Directories, Multi-part, and Miscellaneous.

The "Notification" page allows the user to select which output methods
are used by the program.  The "Log" option specifies if the log window
should be active.  The "Status Line" option specifies if the status
line window should be used.  The "Message Box" option specifies if
message windows should be used by the program for notification
purposes.

The "End of Line" page specifies what an end-of-line marker should be
in a UUencoded file.  The "OS/2" option says that lines should end with
a carriage return followed by a linefeed.  The "Unix" option says that
lines should end with only a linefeed.

The "Directories" page specifies where the binary and UUencoded files
should be and be placed.  The "Default Binary Directory" indicates
where the binary files should be placed after decoding a UUencoded
file.  The program will also look at that directory, by default, when
starting up the "Encode..." menu option for the first time in the
current session.  The "Default UUENCODE Directory" indicates where the
UUencoded files should be placed after encoding a binary file.  The
program will also look at that directory, by default, when starting up
the "Decode..." menu option for the first in the currect session.

This page also has a "Default File Extension" field.  This field is
used to add an extension to a UUencoded file when creating a UUencoded
file except when the "Create multiple part encoding" option is used.

The "Multi-part" page specifies if multi-part UUencoded files should
be created or not.  The "Create multiple part encoding" option
indicates if PMUUE should split binary files into multiple UUencoded
parts.  If this option is checked, then the rest of the options on the
page are enabled.  The "Max. part size in KB" option specifies that
the maximum size of each part should be limited by its size in
kilobytes.  The maximum size should be entered to the field
immediately to the right of this option.  The "Max. part size in
lines" options specifies that the maximum size of each part should be
limited by its size in the number of lines it has.  The maximum size
should be entered to the field to the right of this option.

The maximum number of parts for either method of partitioning the file
is 99 parts.  Each part of the encoded file will have an extension of
".u##" where ## is a number between 01 and 99.

The "Allow Multiple Part Decoding" checkbox specifies if PMUUE should
assume that a binary file will be spread across multiple UUencoded
files.  If this checkbox is not on, then one UUencoded file should
contain complete binary files.

The "Drag and Drop" page indicates how the program should treat dropped
files using the Drag and Drop feature of OS/2.  The "Decode" radio
button specifies that dropped files should be automatically decoded.
The "Encode" radio button specifies that dropped files should be
automatically encoded.  The "Prompt" radio button specifies that
a dialog will appear asking the user if the files should be encoded
or decoded.

The "Sort file names" checkbox specifies if the list of dropped files
should be sorted before they are encoded or decoded.  If this checkbox
is checked, the files will be sorted.  If this checkbox is not checked,
the files will not be sorted.

The "Miscellaneous" page has two fields and a checkbox on it.  The
"INI File" field indicates the name of the INI file that PMUUE should
create and use to hold the settings from the Settings notebook.  The
"Max Log Length" field is the maximum number of lines that should be
allowed in the log window.  The "Allow Lowercase Characters" option
specifies if PMUUE should allow lowercase characters as valid UUencoded
characters.  Normally, lowercase characters are not part of the code but
some encoders allow lowercase characters as part of the encoding.  This
could be troublesome if PMUUE decodes an ordinary line of text into the
binary file.  If garbage appears in the binary file and this option is
on, try turning this option off if no lowercase letters show up in the
code or delete all the non-encoded lines of text in the source file.


Command Line UUencoding and UUdecoding
======================================

PMUUE can be started by using the OS/2 command line. If no command line
arguments are provided, then PMUUE will start up in interactive mode.
If only filenames are used as parameters to PMUUE, the files specified
will automatically be UUdecoded no matter what is specified in the
Settings notebook.

These are the current command line options that PMUUE will recognize:

-c:[NO|{delay}]

This switch will determine how long PMUUE will wait until it automatically
closes itself after running.  Use "-c:NO" if PMUUE is not supposed to
close after encoding or decoding.  Use "-c:{delay}" to tell PMUUE how
long to wait before closing, where {delay} is the number of milliseconds
to wait.  If this switch is not specified, PMUUE will wait five seconds
before closing itself.

If the user clicks in the log window or selects a menu item before the
window closes, PMUUE will NOT close itself automatically.  PMUUE will beep
through the PC's internal speaker to indicate that it will no longer close
by itself.  This is handy if errors occur and the user wants to take a
closer look at them.

-d

This will decode any files (including wildcard searches) appearing on
the command line after this point, or until the next "-e" switch is
encountered.

-e

This switch will encode any files (including wildcard searches) appearing
on the command line after this point, or until the next "-d" switch is
encountered.

Happy encoding

Colin Vernon
[e-mail]