Informática Multimedia 1995 April/Informatica Multimedia CD - Epimundo.iso/DOS/FILEFIND/WHENIS.ZIP/WHEN-IS.DOC

Text File | 1989-12-06 | 10.6 KB | 246 lines

                          WHEN-IS

                    A file search utility
                Copyright (C) 1989, by Tony Rein
                  Release 1.2, December 1989

WHAT IS WHEN-IS FOR?
  WHEN-IS is a directory search program which can find files by date
or time criteria.  If you've lost track of a file - you can't remember
what it's called or what directory it's in, but you do know about when
it was created or last updated - this program can help you find it.
  You should have three files: WHEN-IS.DOC (this file), WI.EXE and
WINB.EXE (two versions of the program file itself; see "SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS"
below for information).

WHEN-IS can search for files:
    *created or updated on a certain date
    *created or updated after a certain date
    *created or updated before a certain date
    *created or updated before one date or after another,
    *and several other combinations...

HOW TO USE IT
  All information you want WHEN-IS to use must be entered on the command
line.  The simplest command line results when you only want to search
for files relative to one date.  Let's say you want to find all files
dated after May 25, 1989; type in:
  "WI after 5/25/89 <cr>"
         ("<cr>" is the "carriage-return," or "enter" key.)

  You will then see a listing of all the files on the current drive
dated on or after May 26, 1989.  The listing will pause when the screen
gets full and prompt you to hit a key.  If you see what you're looking
for you can break out of the program in the middle by hitting Control-C
or Escape when the program finishes displaying a screenful.
  You can specify two dates.  Suppose you want to see a list of all
files dated between 3/31/89 and 4/10/89, inclusive; enter:
  "WI after 3/30/89 and before 4/11/89 <cr>"

  If you want to specify all files EXCEPT those between two particular
dates, type:
  "WI before 5/2/89 or after 5/5/89 <cr>"

  If you want to look at the information at your leisure, and not just
while it's up on the screen, redirect the output of the program to a
file.  For example:
  "WI on 5/9/89 or on 5/10/89  > DATED.JNK <cr>" will send the
information to the file "DATED.JNK", overwriting that file if it already
exists.  You could also send the stuff to your printer by specifying
"> LPT1" or "> LPT2" (for printer #1 or #2).  If you're not familiar with
redirection, see your DOS manual.



  You can specify times as well as dates.  For example:
"WI after 5/25/89 3:30pm and before 5/25/89 5:00pm <cr>"

(Note that you have to give the date twice if you give two times, even
if it's two times on the same day.  Also, you may enter times in 24-hour
format if you wish.)

  In addition to the date and time information, you can give WHEN-IS
several other commands:

  "/Fxxxx", where "xxxx" is a file specification.  For example, enter
"/F*.DOC to tell the program to look only for "*.DOC" files meeting the
date criteria.

  "/Ddrive", where "drive" is a drive letter.  "/Db", for example, to
search on drive B:.

  "/N" means No Subdirectories.  If you enter this, WHEN-IS will search
only in the current directory.



SYNTAX
  The complete syntax for WHEN-IS  is:

"WI [/Ffs] [/Dd] [/N] [rel date1 time1] [log rel date2 time2] <cr>"

where:
  "fs" is a DOS file specification (wildcards are allowed)
  "d"  is a drive letter
  "/N" means No Subdirectories
  "rel" is a relational word: "before," "after," or "on."  "=" can be
    substituted for "on," and "before" and "after" can be abbreviated
    to their first two letters.

  "log" is a logical word: "and" or "or."  You may use "&" in place of
    "and."

  Dates must be in the format MM/Day/Year.  The month must be a number,
and not a name.  The year can be either all four digits, or just the
last two digits. You can use almost any non-digit character to separate
the components, if you don't want to use the slash.  Just don't use a
space, tab, or other "whitespace" character.
  NOTE: When you specify a search AFTER or BEFORE a given date/time, a
file exactly ON that date/time will not be found.  If you want to specify
"on or after" a certain date, use the format: "on 4/30/89 or after 4/30/89."



  Times must be in the format "HH:MM."  WHEN-IS ignores seconds.  You
can give times either in normal civil format ("4:30pm") or in 24-hour
format ("16:30").  If you give an "am" or "pm" the "a" or "p" must
come immediately after the last digit of the minutes; any spaces or
any other character will confuse the program, and it will abort.  It
won't hurt anything; you'll just have to type in your command again.
(The listing of files you get back from the program will be in 24-hour
format, in order to save computing time  and make the search run a
little faster.)
  The time can be separated from the date by either a comma or by one
or more spaces or tabs: "3/30/86,2:00pm" or "3/30/86 2:00pm."
  As with the date, you can use any non-digit, non-whitespace
character to separate the hours from the minutes.

  All command line parameters can be upper-case, lower-case, or any
combination.
  All command line parameters are optional.  However, if you enter
any dates you have to have a relational word for each one, and
if you enter any times you have to have a date before each one.
If you give a second date you have to have a logical word before it.
All "/" switches ("/F," "/D," and "/N") must come before all other
parameters, but the "/" switches can be given in any combination (as
long as you don't have more than one of each) and any order.

  NOTES:
   1)If you don't enter any date at all, WHEN-IS will assume you're
looking for all files dated January 1, 1980 or later; in other words,
all files.  Use this feature to use WHEN-IS as a simple file-locating
program - just enter a file spec, and no time or date.
For example: "WI /F*.BAK <cr>" to find all "*.BAK" files on the disk.
  2)There must be at least one space seperating all switches; that is,
"WI =5/10/89" won't work.



SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  WHEN-IS should work fine on any computer running PC- or MS-DOS, version
2.0 or later.  It's actually been tried, to my knowledge, on 2.1, 3.1,
3.3, and 4.?.  If you try it with any other versions and it doesn't work
(or even if it does) I'd be curious to hear about it.
  If WHEN-IS fails on your computer it may be because of an incompatible
BIOS; that's why WINB.EXE is provided:  WI.EXE assumes your computer is
100% IBM-BIOS compatible, at least as far as video display functions are
concerned.  WINB.EXE is slightly slower, but makes no such assumptions.
If WI.EXE doesn't work properly use WINB.EXE: save WI.EXE on a floppy disk
in a safe place and rename WINB.EXE to WI.EXE.


SPEED
  WHEN-IS takes about two minutes to search through a 30-Megabyte hard
disk with about 1,700 files.  If you specify a file specification
(e.g. "*.COM") the search will run a little faster.




COPYRIGHT INFOMATION
  WI.EXE, WINB.EXE (the two versions of the executable program) and
WHEN-IS.DOC (this file) are copyrighted (C) 1989 by Tony Rein.  Anyone
is welcome to try them out and pass them along to others, as long as
the following conditions are met:
  1)If you give, lend, or otherwise transfer any of these files to
anyone else, you must transfer them all together.  However, they may
be combined into one archived file (".ARC" or ".ZIP" format) to save
space or time.
  2)No money may be charged for these files.  There may be a materials
or handling charge if the transfer is by diskette, as long as the
total charge does not exceed $6.00 per diskette.
  3)Anyone who uses these files assumes all liability for loss of data
or any other damage or injury which may result from their use,
misuse, or non-use.

  If you use WHEN-IS  and find it useful, I'm soliciting a
"registration" fee of $5.00.  If you register, you'll get on my mailing
list and be among the first to know if WHEN-IS is improved or if any
bugs are discovered.  This registration fee is optional.
  If you have any comments or suggestions on the program, I'd like to
hear from you, whether or not you register.  If you contact me, please
let me know where you got the program.
  I can be reached by mail at: Tony Rein
                               2605 Eden Ave., #8
                               Cincinnati, OH  45219
  or on Compuserve (ID #76276,2662).



VERSION HISTORY

Release 1.2 Decembar 1989
    1)Bug fixed: Earlier versions would sometimes cause the computer
      to hang up if Control-C was pressed.

    2)WINB.EXE provided for BIOS-incompatible computers.

    3)Changes in documentation to reflect 1) and 2) above.


Release 1.1 December 1989
    1)Bug fixed: Now the "on" and "=" switches work properly.
      This bug pointed out by Mr. James Appier.

    2)Minor changes in documentation: Notes added about using
      WHEN-IS as a file locating program and about requirement
      for space between all switches; author's new address.

Release 1.0 July 1989
    Original release

         ----------------end-of-author's-documentation---------------

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