The program is a DEMO VERSION of DiscTrack. It is a fully functional, working copy, with just two differences from the full version. a) It has a notice window at startup, to remind you to register, in case you forget, and b) it is limitted to just 5 discs.
To get yourself a full version, you must send £10 (Cheques payable to Ainsley Pereira), to:
Ainsley Pereira
DiscTrack Registration
'Al Sirat'
Chapel Road
Swanmore
Southampton SO32 2QA
The 'DiscTrack Registration' line *is* important, because it means my parents will register it for you if I'm at University. If you don't include this line, then you may have to wait until the next holiday...
Don't forget to include your own name and address! You can also make any suggestions for modifications to DiscTrack, or ideas for completely new programs.
What is DiscTrack for?
----------------------
DiscTrack enables you to keep track of all the files on your discs. If, like me, you have lots of discs, and you find that you have to search through several discs every time you want to use a program, then this is for you, so read on...
Loading DiscTrack
-----------------
DiscTrack can be loaded by double clicking on the !DiscTrack icon, by dragging the !DiscTrack icon to the iconbar or double clicking on a DiscTrack file.
Using DiscTrack
---------------
Until you have at least one disc catalogued, most of the options are greyed out, so to catalogue a disc, place a disc in drive 0, and click on the DiscTrack icon. (If you want to catalogue a disc in a different drive, bring up the iconbar menu, go to 'Drive' and choose which drive you want).
(Alternatively, you could load the example catalogue provided)
You can now do lots of things, so I'll explain the iconbar menu, option by option, so that I don't forget anything...
The Iconbar Menu
----------------
Info : Leads to a standard program information box, with the current
version number, etc in.
File : Info - leads to an info dialogue box, with the leafname of the
current file, the size, the number of discs, and whether or
not you've saved it since the last change.
Save - Leads to another submenu, from which you can save the file
as either DiscTrack's own file type (which DiscTrack can
load back in later), or as a Text catalogue.
Clear - Delete all the records, as if you've just loaded DiscTrack.
Drive : 0, 1, 2, 3 - Allows you to choose which drive to catalogue. Any
drives which you don't have are greyed out. (I hope this
works, 'cos I've only got one floppy drive!)
Find : File - Allows you to search for a file. Type the (wildcarded)
filename into the "Filename" box, and click on OK.
If the "Inside applications" option is off, then files
inside application directories will not be found, even if
they match the filename.
If you type something into the "On discs" box, then the
search is restricted to discs whose names match the
template, for example, you could search on "Utils_*" (""s
not included), which would look for the file on any discs
with names beginning "Utils_".
The wildcards available are:
# - any one character
* - any number of any character
You can have as many of any sort of wildcard as you like,
(unlike inferior programs which only allow one *), so for
example, d*t*k is fine, (and would match "disctrack",
"dtk", or, in fact, any string starting with d, ending with
k and with a t in it somewhere)
Space - Allows you to find somewhere to put the new program you
just downloaded/were given/wrote/created by manipulating
electrons with mere thought power/etc.
Find the desired size, and type it into the "Size" box, and
ensure that you have selected "bytes" or "kilobytes" as
appropriate, and click on OK.
The "On discs" box works just like in Find File.
The search results window is the same for either Find file
or Find space, and has 3 display fields, showing you the
name of the disc that the file/space was found on, the path
(always just $ for Find space), and the name of the file
(left blank for Find space). There are also 3 action icons:
Abort - Stops search.
View - Opens a directory display containing the found
item, useful if it's buried deep in directories.
Next - Find the next match.
Disc : Add - Adds a disc to the catalogue. (Equivalent to clicking with
select on the iconbar icon)
Update- Similar to Add, but with a subtle difference: The disc will
never be renamed (See Options)
Remove- Removes a disc. You can either remove the current disc (ie
the one currently in the chosen drive), or you can type the
name of the disc to remove, in the writeable field.
Browse- Opens a window showing the contents of the first disc. A
small pane is shown below the main display, the pane shows
the disc name, size and amount of free space. You can also
move forward/backward by one disc by clicking on the
Prev/Next icons.
Double clicking on a file will open a "File info" box,
showing the leafname, filetype, size, and file sprite if
available.
List - Opens a list of the names of the currently catalogued discs.
Double clicking on a discname will open the browser on that
disc, and you can remove a disc by bringing up a menu over
the required discname, and choosing "Remove". (Or double
clicking Adjust whilst holding down Shift, if you're really
lazy)
Choices... : This opens the Options window, from which you can set these
options:
Text Output: Just discnames - If selected, then when you save the
catalogue as text, a list of discs is
saved, with no contents.
Don't print !Application contents - Doesn't include
anything inside application
directories, such as !Run, !Sprites,
etc (This also affects the browser
display)
Dashed line between discs - If selected, then a line
of ----s will appear between each
disc, when the catalogue is saved as
text. (Unless "Just discnames" is
selected)
Colours : Allows you to choose the foreground colours for the
disc list/browser.
Scanning : Allows you to rename the discs as you scan. All these
options only have any effect if "Rename discs" is
selected.
The prefix can be typed into the first writeable icon,
eg. to name the discs Utils_01, Utils_02, Utils_03 etc
as they're catalogued, you type "Utils_" into the
prefix box, and 2 into the "Number width" box (this is
the number of digits to use).
You can also set where to start numbering from, for
example you might already have upto Utils_07, so you'd
want to start from Utils_08.
If you choose "Update" instead of "Add" from the disc
menu, then the disc isn't renamed, but any disc which
currently had the name is replaced with this, so you
can Update a disc which was already catalogued, but
was changed without altering it's number and name.
This field is automatically updated after each disc is
scanned and renamed, so if "Save options when quit" is
selected, then the numbering position will be saved.
The other icons in the Options window are:
Default: Reset to the default options.
Save : Save these options for use in future sessions
(and use them now)
Cancel : Ignore changes made since the Options window
was opened.
OK : Accept the options you've set, and use them
now.
Quit : Quits DiscTrack. If "Save options when quit" was selected, then the
options will be saved for use next time.
Credits:
--------
DiscTrack was written by Ainsley M. Pereira, (aka Amp(y)), of Maelstrom.
Thanks go to:
Guttorm Vik for writing the best editor program (StrongEd)
The DeskLib team for DeskLib (!)
Dick Alstein for TemplEd, and for pointing out the obvious to me :-)
Rebecca Moon and Hannah Corbett for the end of term pressies, which were very much appreciated :-)
Roxette, G&R, Mozart, Elgar, Bach, and Pachelbel for the music I listened to whilst writing this.
Keith Hall for redesigning my templates, rewriting my code, setting up Binkley and NListMgr for me and generally not doing anything :-)
/\/\
The other < >aelstrom members (Gareth Boden and Andrew Pepperell) for sending me their programs.
Plugs:
------ /\/\
Look out for other < >aelstrom products:
APTracker 2 - by Andrew Pepperell. The Ultimate PD tracker program.
TrueANSI - by Gareth Boden. The Best ANSI editor.
Contacting the author:
----------------------
I can be reached at:
'Al Sirat'
Chapel Road
Swanmore
Southampton SO32 2QA
Internet: ampy@digibank.demon.co.uk \ Not during termtime
