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- 9Jul95
-
- 4 U U TTTTT I L SSSSS
- 4 4 U U T I L S
- 4 4 U U T I L S
- 4 4 U U T I L SSS
- 44444 U U T I L S
- 4 U U T I L S
- 4 U U T I L S
- 4 UUUUU T I LLLLL SSSSS
-
- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection
-
- Binary created using Turbo Pascal 7.0 (c) Borland International 1992
-
-
- Note: This document has been formatted and is ready for printing.
- (60 lines per page, up to 75 characters per line.)
-
-
-
- Table of contents:
- ──────────────────
-
-
- 0. Legal Status, Warranty ............................... 2
- 1. Distribution Policy .................................. 2
- 2. Introduction ......................................... 3
- 3. Getting started ...................................... 4
- 4. 4DESC - a simple 4DOS-description editor ............. 5
- 4.1 Command line switches and parameters ................ 5
- 4.2 Editing and changing descriptions ................... 5
- 5. 4FF - a simple file finder ......................... 7
- 5.1 Command line switches and parameters ................ 7
- 6. Customizing 4DESC and 4FF - the 4UTILS.INI file ...... 9
- 7. (Re)Compiling 4DESC or 4FF............................12
- 8. Bugs and Comments.....................................13
- 9. How to reach the authors..............................15
- 10. Acknowledgements......................................15
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- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 1
-
-
- 0. Legal Status, Warranty
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ ║
- ║ Since 4UTILS is licensed free of charge, the authors, David Frey ║
- ║ and Tom Bowden, provide absolutely no warranty of any kind, either ║
- ║ expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied ║
- ║ warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. ║
- ║ ║
- ║ 4UTILS is provided "as is"; the entire risk as to the quality and ║
- ║ performance of the program is with you. Should the program prove ║
- ║ defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair ║
- ║ or correction. ║
- ║ ║
- ║ In no event will any copyright holder, or any other party who may ║
- ║ modify and/or redistribute the program as permitted below, be liable ║
- ║ to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental ║
- ║ or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use ║
- ║ the program (including but not limited to loss of data or data being ║
- ║ rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by you or third parties or a ║
- ║ failure of the program to operate with any other programs), even if ║
- ║ such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of ║
- ║ such damages. ║
- ║ ║
- ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
-
- These programs are freeware: you are allowed to use, copy and change them
- free of charge, when the following conditions are met:
-
- * 4DESC or 4FF may not be sold or hired.
-
- * Never change copyright statements: the copyright remains in our hands.
-
- * If you make any (considerable) changes to the source code, please let
- us know (send us a copy or a listing). We would like to see what you
- have done.
-
-
- 1. Distribution Policy
- ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- You can distribute these utilities under the following conditions:
-
- * You ask no contribution from the receiver of this package except
- from a nominal copying charge not to exceed US $6. (SFr. 10).
-
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- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 2
-
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- * This archive must be left intact (repacking allowed). That means the
- receiver of this package must receive the following files:
-
- Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Name
- ------ ------ ---- ----- ---- ---- ------ ----
- 49296 Deflate 24644 50% 09-07-95 17:50 d1c3fd2f 4desc.exe
- 38597 Deflate 8775 77% 09-07-95 17:50 d1ffa4b1 4desc.pas
- 1799 Deflate 817 55% 09-07-95 17:50 fe0cdf9e 4desc.txt
- 49552 Deflate 24607 50% 09-07-95 17:50 4bafe410 4desc86.exe
- 47568 Deflate 22260 53% 09-07-95 19:00 6b56ce04 4ff.exe
- 17592 Deflate 5333 70% 09-07-95 19:00 e73a78a9 4ff.pas
- 1932 Deflate 812 58% 09-07-95 19:00 33cf4f89 4ff.txt
- 47728 Deflate 22222 53% 09-07-95 19:00 2dd040d7 4ff86.exe
- 32881 Deflate 11246 66% 09-07-95 17:50 80674160 4utils.doc
- 4023 Deflate 1585 61% 09-07-95 17:50 2d5a4fee 4utils.smp
- 1997 Deflate 579 71% 09-07-95 17:50 9d8a949e desc.btm
- 22364 Deflate 6181 72% 09-07-95 17:50 e8833674 descript.pas
- 12229 Deflate 3687 70% 09-07-95 17:50 4cbc21d9 displayk.pas
- 3195 Deflate 1239 61% 09-07-95 17:50 1f60796b dmouse.pas
- 401 Deflate 274 32% 09-07-95 15:38 3bab006d file_id.diz
- 1462 Deflate 666 54% 09-07-95 17:50 515f0ad0 fix.pas
- 5842 Deflate 2088 64% 09-07-95 19:00 02be5b7f globals.pas
- 8497 Deflate 2848 66% 09-07-95 17:50 f11584a6 handlein.pas
- 1648 Deflate 591 64% 09-07-95 17:50 99f6d947 packing.lst
- 9654 Deflate 2991 69% 09-07-95 19:00 1010a54e scanarjf.pas
- 6496 Deflate 1983 69% 09-07-95 19:00 b8477542 scanlzhf.pas
- 9160 Deflate 2533 72% 09-07-95 19:00 cdd57f08 scanzipf.pas
- 13559 Deflate 3374 75% 09-07-95 17:50 84f8dfaa stringda.pas
- 4692 Deflate 2106 55% 09-07-95 17:50 3212e82c whats.new
- ------ ------ --- -------
- 392164 153441 61% 24
-
- 2. Introduction
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- 4UTILS is a small collection of 4DOS *) utilities. I have created
- them for my needs and I'm releasing them as freeware.
-
- *) 4DOS is a trademark of JP Software Inc,
- PO Box 1470
- E. Arlington
- MA 02174
- USA
-
- I'm a happy (and registered) user of 4DOS and I could not return to plain
- COMMAND.COM. In course of time I began to write tools which were aware of
- an important 4DOS feature: file descriptions.
-
- These file descriptions are very handy; when I was searching some files
- (with `FF read.me' for example) I've often missed them. So I decided to
- write a 4DOS aware file finder.
-
- 4DESC was written because 4DOS's `describe' is not able of cutting and
- pasting. As a (hobby) programmer, I need this feature quite often, since
- the executables and the source code often get similar descriptions.
- Getting bored of retyping similar descriptions I wrote 4DESC.
-
- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 3
-
-
- 3. Getting started
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Installing 4UTILS is simple. Do the following:
- (In this example I assume you install the 4UTILS package in C:\4UTILS;
- please change the directory name if this does not apply.)
-
- i) create a new directory where 4UTILS should reside,
- and change into it:
-
- CDD C:\
- MKDIR 4UTILS (or MD 4UTILS)
- CD 4UTILS
-
- ii) unzip the contents of 4UTILSx.ZIP:
-
- UNZIP C:\TEMP\4UTILSxy.ZIP
-
- ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^
- | | |
- | | The newest version of 4UTILS, the version
- | | number is coded in the last letters,
- | | e.g. 4UTILS86.ZIP
- | |
- | The directory where 4UTILSxy.ZIP resides
- |
- UNZIP is the unzipper you are using. You can either use UNZIP
- from the InfoZip Group (free) or original PKUNZIP.
-
-
- iii) Append the directory 4UTILS to your path.
-
- ESET PATH
- Press <End> and type ';C:\4UTILS'
-
- or
-
- SET path=%path%;C:\4UTILS
-
-
- iv) Run DESC.BTM to describe your newly extracted files.
-
- v) Adapt (or create) a suitable 4UTILS.INI file, if needed.
- (see section `Customizing')
-
- A sample 4UTILS.INI file has been provided, it's name is
- 4UTILS.SMP. It contains the default values 4DESC/4FF would
- use and a few explanations of the parameters.
-
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- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 4
-
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- 4. 4DESC - a simple 4DOS-description editor
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- 4.1 Command line switches and parameters
- ─────────────────────────────────────────
-
- The Syntax of 4DESC is : 4DESC [/help] [/mono] [/dontask] [d:][\path]
-
- There are three command line switches:
-
- /help jumps directly into the help screen, after a key press you can
- start editing.
-
- /mono 4DESC automatically detects on startup whether you are using a
- monochrome or a color monitor. This switch is intended to
- override this detection (useful on EGA/VGA displays only).
-
- /dontask suppresses the `May I save ?' questions. The descriptions will
- always be saved. This feature eases navigation in directory
- trees, but may save unwanted changes too.
-
- When supplying a path specification, 4DESC will read the description file
- residing in the path you specified.
-
-
- 4.2 Editing and changing descriptions
- ──────────────────────────────────────
-
- The following keys have special meanings:
-
- Arrow Keys, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End moves bar resp. cursor
-
- Ctrl-PgUp moves to first line | Ctrl-PgDn moves to last line
- Ctrl-Left moves to previous word | Ctrl-Right moves to next word
- Ctrl-Home deletes from cursor to | Ctrl-End deletes from cursor to
- start of line | end of line
- Backspace deletes character | DEL deletes character
- before cursor | under cursor
- INS toggles from insert mode |
- to overwrite mode and |
- vice versa. |
- |
- Alt-D deletes current |
- description entirely |
- Alt-C copy current description | Alt-M or move current description
- to buffer 2) | Alt-T to buffer 2)
- Alt-P pastes the buffer to |
- current description |
- |
- Alt-S or |
- Shift-F10 Shell to (4)DOS |
- |
- ESC Exits 4DESC, i.e. saves | Alt-X Exits 4DESC, i.e. saves |
- the descriptions and | the descriptions and
- returns to the directory | stays in the currently
- where it has been started| selected directory.
- from. |
- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 5
-
-
- Alt-Q Quits 4DESC, i.e. |
- discards the changes and |
- returns to the original |
- directory |
- |
- F3 or |
- Alt-V View highlighted file | Alt-E Edit highlighted file
- F4 or Change into highlighted | F5 or Change into highlighted
- ENTER on dir directory. | ENTER on .. directory.
- (one level down) | (one level up)
- F6 or |
- Alt-L Change drive |
- |
- Ctrl-N sort directory by name | Ctrl-R Ctrl-N reverse sort by name
- Ctrl-E sort directory by extension| Ctrl-R Ctrl-E reverse sort by ext.
- Ctrl-S sort directory by size | Ctrl-R Ctrl-S reverse sort by size
- Ctrl-D sort directory by date | Ctrl-R Ctrl-D reverse sort by date
-
- Shift+Cursor selects part of text
-
- Shift+INS Paste current selection | Ctrl+INS Copy current selection
- Shift+DEL Cut current selection | Ctrl+DEL Delete current selection
-
- 1) A "Edit" flag will appear on the bottom right side of the screen
- 2) " "Buf" " " " " " " " " " " "
-
- Remark: When changing directories/drives the question
- "Descriptions have been edited. Shall they be saved (Y/N) ?"
- will appear; you need therefore not to worry about your
- description's actuality.
- (should you regard the questions as annoying, use the /dontask
- switch, as described above.)
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- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 6
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- 5. 4FF - a simple file finder
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- 5.1 Command line switches and parameters
- ─────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Syntax of 4FF is:
-
- 4FF [/a:[[+|]-]rash][/z-alz][/s][/b][/ddesc][/x][/f][/n][/p][/?] [dir] {file}
-
- This time there is a bunch of command line switches, but they are rather
- simple.
-
- /a followed by a combination of
- r (read only), -r (not read only)
- a (archive) , -a (not archived)
- s (system) or -s (not system)
- h (hidden) -h (not hidden)
-
- searches for files which have these attributes set resp. reset.
-
- Examples:
-
- . 4ff /a:-r *.exe *.com
- searches for executable, writeable files.
-
- . 4ff /a:a *.*
- searches for files which have not been backed up yet.
-
- /zx do search in the archive type denoted by the letter x. x my be
- one of the following:
- - : do not scan archives at all.
- a : do scan .ARJ archives only
- l : do scan .LZH archives only
- z : do scan .ZIP archives
-
- By default 4FF scans .lzh, .zip and .arj archives, using /zx will
- will speed 4FF up.
-
- Example: 4FF /z- *.bak
-
- Searching for *.bak files in archives is not very intelligent !
-
- /s scan only subdirectories of given path `start-dir'
-
- 4FF will begin scanning the subdirectory you specified in start
- dir and will recurse to the deeper levels. This will speed your
- search up, if you roughly know where your files reside.
-
- /b bare listing (omits size, date, and descriptions)
-
- This switch is intended for producing "bare" file listing (file
- names only) for batch files or piping into other programs.
-
-
-
-
- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 7
-
- /ddesc Display all files which contain the (sub)string 'desc' in their
- descriptions.
-
- /x scan all fixed drives (floppy drives excluded)
- Example: 4FF /x *.bak *.swp *.tmp
-
- Locates backup, swap and temporary files, which generally may be
- deleted before backing up your hard disk.
-
- /f similar to /x but scans all drives (floppy drives included)
-
- /m:nn set right margin to nn.
- When printing direct to your line printer, you can set the printer
- width by this switch.
-
- Example: 4FF /m:132 *.pas > prn:
-
- [Note: Putting your printer in 132 column mode is your duty!]
-
- /p page output
-
- pages the output, i.e. prints a "-- more --" message and waits for
- key to be pressed.
-
- /? shows a small help display.
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- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 8
-
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- 6. Customizing 4DESC and 4FF - the 4UTILS.INI file
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- This section is only for people interested in customizing 4FF or 4DESC.
- You need not to worry about all the options described below if you "just"
- want to use 4DESC/4FF _and_ if you are happy with the country settings
- and the colors.
- If you are familiar with the SSTOOLS.INI file (as a FRACTINT or PICLAB
- user) or if the 4DOS.INI has already been changed by you, you shouldn't
- have problems with the 4UTILS.INI file.
- A 4UTILS.INI file consists of several sections, enclosed in square
- brackets ([ and ]). The case of the keywords is (at least for 4DESC/4FF)
- not relevant.
-
- Remark: The following examples have been taken out of 4UTILS.SMP - a
- sample 4UTILS.INI file.
-
- In this release a new feature has been introduced (thanks to Jorj Strumolo
- for this suggestion):
- The 4DOS.INI file will be evaluated too, so you are allowed to place all
- this stuff into the 4DOS.INI file too (instead of creating a separate
- 4UTILS.INI file)
- [ but you should use 4DOS version 5.0 or above, the old version does not
- (officially) support the presence of "foreign" sections. It may support
- it unofficially, but this has not been tested. ]
-
- To be precise, 4DESC reads first the contents of the 4DOS.INI file (first
- searched in the directory where 4DOS resides (via COMSPEC) and then in the
- root directory of the boot drive, i.e C:\). Afterwards the contents of the
- 4UTILS.INI file (searched in the directory where 4DESC/4FF has been star-
- ted from, in the path or via the 4UTILS-environment variable) will be
- appended. The consequence is, that you can put 4DOS-Statements in a
- 4UTILS.INI file (e.g. ampm, Editmode, CursorIns, CursorOver etc). This
- "trick" is handy for 4DOS 4.02 users, who want to set the EditMode
- variable.
-
- I suggest you one of the following strategies:
- 0) Live with the defaults.
-
- 1) put everything into a 4UTILS.INI file and forget 4DOS.INI.
- Put the 4UTILS.INI file in the same directory where 4UTILS resides or
- set the 4UTILS environment variable.
-
- If you are working on a (hard)diskless PC or if you are the network
- administrator you'll prefer this method. Reason for this strategy:
- it is not always easy to locate the "right" 4DOS.INI file in a net-
- worked environment, since it is not easy to tell where it resides (The
- question is, where 4DOS looked for it settings, there is even the
- possibility to put the @4dos.ini-entry into CONFIG.SYS!)
-
- 2) On a stand-alone PC running 4DOS 5.0 you can put the settings into the
- 4DOS.INI file. You may even split the information into a 4DOS.INI-part
- and into a 4UTILS.INI part.
-
- 3) Recompile 4DESC/4FF with the proper settings (cf Chapter 7)
-
-
- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 9
-
- [DateAndTimeFormats]
-
- ! The section title has been renamed from [Date & Time Formats]. This was
- ! necessary to appease the 4DOS parser (Sorry, but you may have to change
- ! your .INI file)
-
- The following entries are possible:
-
- DateFormat = mmddyy | ddmmyy | yymmdd | ddMMMyy
- 7.10.92, 10-07-92, 92/10/7, 7Oct92.
-
- DateSep = -
-
- Date separator is a hyphen (mm-dd-yy)
-
- TimeFormat= 12
-
- valid entries are: 12 (am/pm) or 24 (24 hours).
- (you can also use 4DOS's am-Flag)
-
- TimeSep = :
-
- Time separator is a colon (hh:mm). Fill in what you like.
-
- MilleSep = '
-
- Fill in what you like for the thousands separator.
-
- NOTE: 4DESC / 4FF detect on startup where you live. (provided that
- your COUNTRY= settings in CONFIG.SYS has been properly set.)
- The switches above are merely cosmetic.
-
- [ColorDisplay]
-
- That is the place where you may change the colors!
- The following colors are available (case not significant)
-
- Black , DarkGray
- Blue , LightBlue
- Green , LightGreen
- Cyan , LightCyan
- Red , LightRed
- Magenta , LightMagenta
- Brown , Yellow
- LightGray, White
-
- StatusFg = Blue ; Status line foreground color
- StatusBg = Cyan ; " " background "
- DirFg = LightBlue ; Directories are shown in DirFg on NormBg
- SelectFg = Blue ; Select bar foreground color
- SelectBg = Cyan ; " " background "
- HighFg = LightRed ; Highlighted foreground,
- used for "Edit" and "Cut" marks
- NormFg = LightGray ; normal foreground color
- NormBg = Blue ; " background "
- WarnFg = Yellow ; foreground for warning messages.
- WarnBg = Cyan ; background " " "
-
- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 10
-
- [MonoDisplay]
-
- The same for monochrome displays...
-
- StatusFg = Black
- StatusBg = LightGray
- DirFg = White
- SelectFg = Black
- SelectBg = LightGray
- HighFg = LightGray;
- NormFg = LightGray
- NormBg = Black
- WarnFg = Black
- WarnBg = White
-
- [GeneralDisplay]
-
- Justify= Left | Left.Left | Right.Left
-
- Determines the arrangement of the filenames and their extensions.
- Left = xxxxxx.yyy
- Left.Left = xxxxxx .yyy
- Right.Left= xxxxxx.yyy
-
- ! This variable replaces the old LeftJust = Y|N entry.
-
- FullSize = Yes | No | Y | N
-
- Set FullSize=Y to get the `full' size display (x'xxx'xxx [Bytes])
- instead of (xxxK).
-
- Viewer = any-viewer-you like
-
- Let Viewer point to your favorite viewer (defaulting to list).
-
- Editor = any-editor-you prefer
-
- The same settings for your favourite editor (default: edit), but I
- suggest TPE (Turbo Powers Editor).
-
- Hidden = Yes | No | Y | N
-
- Setting Hidden=Y enables display of hidden files. System files have the
- hidden attribute often set, so be sure to turn the Hidden=Yes line, if
- you plan to describe system files.
-
- SortCriteria= name | ext | size | date |
- rev-name| rev-ext | rev-size | rev-date
-
- Sets the (initial) sort criterion for 4DESC. Defaults to name.
-
-
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- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 11
-
- [Misc]
-
- Delimiters=<list of separators>
- Delimiters=,.();:-!?/[]{}+*='`"@%&$_£
-
- This separator list is used by the Ctrl-Left, Ctrl-Right algorithm.
-
- PasteMovesToNextIndex= Y | N
-
- When pasting a description line, the bar "normally" moves to the next line
- (this ist at least the old behaviour). Set PasteMovesToNextIndex=No to
- suppress this.
-
- [Mouse]
-
- UseMouse = Y | N
-
- Switch the mouse autodetect off. Set UseMouse=N if you have a mouse
- connected, but do not want to use it.
-
- VMickeysPerKeyPress = 2
- HMickeysPerKeyPress = 2
-
- These 2 parameters control the "jumpiness" of the cursor when using the
- mouse. The cursor follows the mouse movements in x- or y-direction when
- more than VMickeysPerKeypress in x resp HMickeysPerKeypress in y direction
- were made.
-
- NOTE: These two parameters are _hardware-dependent_, strictly speaking
- speed dependent. Play around with these values till you get a
- smooth scrolling.
-
-
- The following parameters are originally 4DOS parameters and are typically
- found in a 4DOS.INI file. They can nevertheless exist in a 4UTILS.INI file,
- but then they count only for 4DESC/4FF. Put them in a blank section or in
- a [primary] section.
-
- ampm = y | n
- EditMode = Insert | Overstrike
- CursorOver = nnn
- CursorIns = nnn
-
- Please refer to 4DOS's help for further explanation of the meaning.
-
- [4FF]
-
- These options concern only 4FF.
-
- DoPage = Yes | No | Y | N
-
- Set DoPage = Y if you want to have permanent paging.
- (Remark: Redirecting output is still allowed, in this case the paging
- parameter will be ignored.)
-
- HilightMore = Yes | No | Y | N
-
- Choose whether to hilights the "-- more --" message (Y) or not (N).
- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 12
-
- 7. (Re)Compiling 4DESC or 4FF
- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-
- Some hints about (re)compiling 4DESC or 4FF:
- (Recompiling 4DESC might be useful if you want to change the default
- colors *and* want to save the space a 4UTILS.INI file would occupy.)
-
- . 4DESC and 4FF have been written in Turbo Pascal 7.0
- . They use the features Turbo Pascal 7.0 provides, i.e.
-
- * Inline Assembling ( ASM ... END )
-
- If you don't have an inline assembler, recode the parts containing
- ASM-statements.
-
- ! * The description handling is done in the DESCRIPT.PAS unit.
- ! It uses a TSortedCollection to maintain a sorted list of directory
- ! entries plus their corresponding descriptions.
- !
- ! This unit is used both from 4DESC and 4FF.
- !
- ! It would be hard work to throw out the object-oriented part:
- ! You'd have to rewrite the whole unit.
-
- * 4FF uses the FormatStr-procedures, that implies the following:
-
- 4FF uses the Objects and the Drivers-Unit shipped with Turbo Pascal
- 6.0/7.0 sinces it uses the FormatStr procedure. (FormatStr is hidden
- in the Drivers unit, which needs Objects in order to work).
-
- * The TEST286.PAS unit shipped with Turbo Pascal 6.0/7.0 is needed to
- detect the processor type. This is used in conjunction with the {$G+}
- compiler directive to prevent lock ups on PCs and XTs.
-
- Remove the G+ directive, if you don't have (or find ;-) the
- TEST286.PAS unit.
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- 8. Bugs and Comments
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- Known bugs, comments and deficiencies:
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- . Non-standard VGA-modes are now supported by 4DESC (Thanks to Robert
- Juhasz for his FIX.PAS!)
- However, you may encounter problems with your ANSI.SYS driver under DOS.
- (I, David, had the usual trouble with the DOS-5.0 ANSI.SYS when running
- an 132x60 screen - the driver recognized only 25 rows.)
-
- . Diacritics in filenames are not handled in a logical way: they are not
- down-cased. This is necessary for DOS; if they were down-cased (in the
- description file) DOS/4DOS would not find the corresponding description
- line anymore! This deficiency is not relevant for english-speaking people,
- and it should not be relevant for the others too; special characters in
- DOS filenames are not a good idea, anyway. (It is not guaranteed how
- DOS treats special-characters in filenames, legal DOS filenames consist
- of the letters A-Z plus the characters "!#$%&'()-@^_`{}" and "~".
- 4DOS (and other programs) use "%^@()" and "`" internally, so they should
- be avoided.)
-
- . 4DESC does not support file filtering (e.g. `4desc *.pas'). It would be
- awkward to implement this. It is not as easy as it looks: Currently I'm
- reading the whole directory and the whole description file. Fine.
- Masking out some directory entries is easy, but what happens with the
- excess descriptions ? On the one hand, they must be read in, or you'll
- loose descriptions, on the other hand, they should not be displayed
- (the user supplied *.pas, so (s)he doesn't want to see the descriptions
- for the *.bak files). To make things more complicated, the indexing -
- on the screen - is done directly; if you introduce a visible switch
- 4DESC would loose its speed.
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- Since I have implemented sorting, is file filtering IMO superfluous.
-
- . I'm not going to write yet another Norton Commander, so if you really
- want to delete or rename files in 4DESC go ahead, but do not forget
- to change the description file.
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- If you find any bugs not listed above drop us a note. Please
- describe your system you are working on (which CPU, 4DOS version
- specialities etc).
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- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 14
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- 9. How to reach the authors
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- Our addresses are:
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- David Frey, & Tom Bowden
- Urdorferstrasse 30 1575 Canberra Drive
- 8952 Schlieren ZH Stone Mountain, GA 30088-3629
- Switzerland USA
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- eMail: eMail:
- david@eos.uu.ch 73247.3571@compuserve.com
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- 10. Acknowledgements
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- The following people - in alphabetical order - helped to improve 4DESC
- resp. 4FF by supplying suggestions, bug reports and hints.
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- Gateau Alain - Empty Drive bug.
- Jan Brentved - 4FF Piping bug. (4ff 1.83 was not able
- to pipe its output into LIST/s)
- Peter C. Broekhuizen - Arrow right stops after last character.
- - Arrow left scrolls as last as possible
- - Display of current column
- - Cut & Paste via shift-keys.
- Miguel Farah F. - ^Home erases from cursor to beginning
- of line,
- - ^PgUp moves bar to .. instead of .
- - Querier mode suppresses save-messages.
- - suggested Sorting
- Charles Goldie - reported bugs in the localisation code
- - suggested that entabbing of 4utils.ini
- should be allowed
- Robert Juhasz - contributed his FIX.PAS unit in order
- to support the Super VGA modi.
- Tobias Oetiker - inspired me to put this software on the
- net.
- José Joäo Colen Marques da Silva - suggested Sorting (among others)
- Jorj Strumolo - ESC escapes into startup directory,
- while Alt-X exits into the selected one.
- - Overstrike, Block cursor question.
- - Additional reading in the 4DOS.INI file
- - suggested Sorting
- Antti J Tuominen - suggested the /d flag in 4FF: /d scans
- the descriptions for a given string.
- - pointed out that the scrolling in 4DESC
- wasn't coherent (jumpy scrolling up vs.
- smooth scrolling down)
- Andreas Tranquillini - beta testing and editing improvements
- - Justify options
- - UseMouse switch
- - and a lot more...
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- 4UTILS - A small 4DOS Utility Collection Page 15
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- Silvano Sgrignoli - /x switch,
- - single drive support
- - /h supersedes any options
- - no scan inside archives when looking
- for descriptions
- Frank Zago - Range bug in 4FF,
- - directory name parsing
- pi - Insert/Overwrite cursor question
- - BUG: When a description is empty,
- pressing the right key moves one
- position left.
- - .INI file will be read in dynamically,
- so it can be as big as 64KB.
-
- ...and other people I forgot to mention.