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Text File | 1993-10-10 | 42KB | 1,025 lines

kd_freq.library 3.10 File Requester User Documentation --------------------------------- By: Khalid Aldoseri -------------------- A File Requester is used to select a file name from the existing files on a system, or to enter a new file name. This file requester (FR) supports all normal features in a FR plus a lot of special features as desribed below. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BASIC FILE REQUESTER OPERATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The File Requester has three essential parts for its operation: The Path gadget, the File gadget and the File List: The Path gadget contains the path to the currently displayed directory. You can enter any directory name there directly if you like by clicking in it and editing the text there. The FR also changes the Path name in many cases. The File gagdet contains the currently selected file. You can manually edit the filename by clicking in it and editing the text. The File List is a list of file names that covers a major portion of the FR display. This displays the contents of the directory in the Path gadget. This contains both directories and file names. Every time you select a new directory the File List will start displaying the contents of that directory as it reads it from the device that directory exists on. As this is happening, the FR will tell you how many files/dirs it has found so far in the status line at the bottom of the FR. Once the FR has finished reading the directory, it will redisplay the File List starting with directories first and files second. Notes: - The FR stays 'live' while reading the directory, i.e. you can abort the directory read at any time by selecting a new directory. You can also scroll through the file list or resize the window and the FR will keep on reading the directory. - The ':' (colons) in the 'Files: nnn Dirs: nnn' display do not appear while the directory is being read. When they do show up, that means that the FR is done reading in the directory. The File List Display: ---------------------- The File List display contains the following information: test.file * 11381 09-Dec-89 11:50 ----rwed | | | | | | filename | size date time protection filenote bits marker If the entry is a directory, it will be displayed in a different color and it will display '-dir-' instead of the file size. Read the 'Window Resizing' section for more details on the File List display. The job of the File List is to allow you to select an entry from the List. To do that, just click on an entry. That will have one of the following effects: a. If the entry is a file: The FR will copy that file's name into the File gadget and move the marker to that entry. If the file has a file note attached to it (i.e. it has a filenote marker) then the file's filenote is displayed in its place as long as you hold down the mouse button. If you double-click on the file entry, this will select that file and immediately 'ok' the FR and exit it. b. If the entry is a directory: The FR will clear the File List and start displaying the contents of the selected directory. The File List can be in normal or inverted colors. This is intended to create a visual difference for two different functions, like normal for load, and inverted for save. File List Modes: ---------------- The File List can also contain other information. Clicking the right mouse button while the pointer is on the File List area will cycle through one of three modes: a. Normal mode : File List shows the selected directory. b. User List : Your own list of files/directories. Read the User List section for details. c. History List: The last 100 files you selected. d. Device list : File List shows the currently mounted devices by their volume names. e. Assign list : File List shows all assigns. If you return to the Normal mode by clicking several times, then the directory displayed previously will show up immediately. Note that if you had toggled the mode before the directory was completely read in by the FR, it will not be complete when you get back to it and the FR will re-read it. Notes: - The File List display is updated when the FR is done reading the directory. However, if the user clicks on any file before that, the FR will not update the display when it is done reading the directory. The user has to click on the prop gadget or move the list around and the FR will update the display. - If you insert a disk into a drive that has been selected in the Path gadget the disk's directory will automatically be read and displayed. - If the current disk is removed from the drive, the FR will clear the file list and bring up the device name (not the old disk name) in the Path gadget. This means that you can take a disk out of the drive and insert a new one and the FR will keep up with you if the current device is the one that you are using. This only works for devices DF0: to DF3:. The Path: --------- The Path is the string contained in the Path gadget. It shows the name of the currently selected directory. This can be changed in many ways: a. Direct entry: You just click in the gadget to activate it and edit it normally. Hit return when you're done with editing it so that the FR will start reading the directory you selected. If you enter the name of an actual file into the Path gadget, then the name will be split into its path and filename components and handled accordingly. If the selected directory does not exist the FR will ask you whether you want to create it. Read 'Create Directory' below for details. b. File List entry: If you click on an entry in the File List that is a child directory of the current Path, then that child directory is added to the Path name and that directory is displayed. c. Parent: If you click on the Parent gadget (up-arrow to the right of the Path gadget) then the parent of the current Path is displayed, if it exists. This can be clicked several times to go up to the root directory of the current device. You can also use a short-cut to get the root of the device by just clicking the _right_ mouse button on the Parent gadget. d. Disk Icons: These are disk icons that represent the currently mounted storage devices in the system. If you click on any disk icon with the left mouse button the root directory of the selected device will be displayed. You can scroll through the mounted disk list via the 'Disk Scroll Up' and 'Disk Scroll Down' arrow gadgets. (up and down arrows at the top right of the window). These only work if the number of available devices is too big to fit in the current window. If you click on the right mouse button over any disk icon, you will get info about the device displayed in the file list area. The file list is not erased from memory, you just have to click on the prop gadget or the up or down scroll gadgets and the file list will reappear. Note: If there isn't enough space to display 4 lines in the file list area, this function will not work. e. Reset Path Gadget: (the 'Path' text) Clicking on the Path: text will restore the contents of both the Path and File gadgets to what they were when the FR came up. Exiting the File Requester: --------------------------- You can exit the file requester with either an 'OK', which tells the calling program that you like what you selected, i.e. the Path/File selected. Or by a 'CANCEL' which just aborts the FR. You can OK the FR by: a. Clicking on the OK gadget. b. Double-clicking on a filename. c. Typing a filename in the File gadget and hitting return. You can cancel the FR by: a. Clicking on the Cancel gadget. b. Hitting the 'Escape' key. c. Closing the FR window by clicking on the close window gadget. The File Gadget: ---------------- This is the most important gadget in the FR. The selected file name is the contents of this gadget. You can change the contents of the File gadget by any of the following ways: a. You just click in the gadget to activate it and edit it normally. If you hit return when you're done editing it, the FR will immediately exit with an OK status. b. Clicking on a file in the File List. c. Moving the marker around in the File List. A special feature of this string gadget over other string gadgets is that you don't really need to click in it to activate it. This is summarized by the following points: - Hitting any alphanumeric key when no string gadget is active appends the key to the File gadget and activates it. - Hitting the DELETE key when no string gadget is active clears the File gadget and activates it. Hitting the Right Amiga-x key clears the File gadget without activating it. - Hitting the TAB key will just activate the File gadget. - Hitting the BACKSPACE key when no string gadget is active deletes the last character in the File string gadget and activates it. - If the FR is reading the directory, it will not activate the File gadget but you can still type into it and edit it using any alphanumeric character or any of the above keys. Moving Around The File List: ---------------------------- You can move around the File List in many ways. The major control is the Prop (proportional) gadget, which represents the position of the currently displayed files in the File List in relation to the total files in the selected directory. You can move around the list by holding down the Prop gadget with the left mouse button and moving the gadget up and down. You can also you click the right mouse button over the Prop gadget it will move to the top of the File List, unless it is already at the top in which case it will move to the bottom of the list. Another way is to use the Scroll gadgets. These are two gadgets above and below the Prop gadget. The Scroll Up gadget (above the Prop gadget) scrolls the file list up at a slow speed if you click it with the left mouse button, or it will scroll the file list down if you click it with the right mouse button. If you hold down both buttons at the same time, the right button will take priority. The Scroll Down gadget (below the Prop gadget) does the same as the Scroll Up gadget expect that it moves the list a lot faster and the mouse button directions are reversed. Try it, it'll make sense. The Marker: ----------- The marker is a small arrow that points to an entry in the File List. This is used to control the FR via the keyboard. The marker is normally not visible unless you control it in one of the following ways: a. Clicking on any entry in the File List will move the marker to that entry. b. The cursor up/down keys move the marker up/down one entry at a time. c. The shift cursor up/down keys move the marker up/down one page at a time. (a 'page' is the number of files that can be shown in the File List area) d. The alt cursor up/down keys move the marker all the way to the top or the bottom of the File List. As the marker moves outside the currently visible File List entries, the File List will be paged up or down to show more entries. Moving the marker to an entry will have the following effects: a. If the entry is a file, the name of that file will be copied into the File gadget. b. If the entry is a directory name, then the File gadget will be cleared. To display that marked directory, hit the cursor right key to enter it. Window Resizing: ---------------- The amount of data displayed in the File List depends on the size of the FR's window. The FR is resizable by the user. The resize gadget is invisible, but it actually occupies the bottom 5 lines across the window. Just click there and resize the window. The whole requester will resize accordingly. Resizing the window horizontally will make space for more information in the File List to be displayed. This is based on the following method: The FR checks to see the longest file name in the list and it fits in whatever extra data it can starting with the file date, file time and finally protection bits. There are also three small gadgets at the bottom right corner of the FR that immediately resize the FR to small, normal, and full screen respectively from left to right. This action will also automatically centers the FR in the screen. If the FR is already at the requested size, then this request will be ignored. The FR will always try to come back up where it was previously, and in the same size. If it can't do that, it will move/resize to attempt to be as close as possible to what it was. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE RETURN KEY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Return key has so many functions that it is worth devoting a section to it. Normally hitting the Return key while a string gadget is active will 'accept' that gadget and deactive it. The following is a description of the effect of the Return key on each string gadget: General Return Key Functions: ----------------------------- a. Hitting Shift-Return will activate the File gadget or Path gadget alternatively. The cursor is positioned at the end of the current text in the gadget. b. Hitting RightAmiga-Return on any string gadget will just ignore the hit and deactivate that gadget. i.e. if a string gadget was active and you wanted to use the keyboard controls, you just hit RightAmiga-Return. The Path gadget: ---------------- a. Hitting return when the Path gadget is active tells the FR to start reading in a new directory. (Note that if the directory is the same as the one currently displayed and it has not changed since the last time it was read the FR will not re-read the directory) b. Hitting Shift-Return when the Path gadget is active will just deactivate the Path gadget and activate the File gadget. c. Hitting RightAmiga-Return when the Path gadget is active will only deactivate the Path gadget. The File Gadget: (also applies if no string gadget is active) ---------------- a. Hitting Return will OK the requester. b. Hitting Alt-Return will call up Auto-Complete. Auto-Complete: -------------- If you type the first few characters of a file name into the File gadget and hit Alt-Return, the first matching filename from the file list will be used to complete the filename in the File gadget. c. Hitting Control-Return in the Extended Select mode will call up Wildcard Extended Select. (Read 'Extended Select' section for details) d. Hitting LeftAmiga-Return will call up the String Search feature. String Search: -------------- If you type a string in the File gadget then hit LeftAmiga-Return, the FR will search through the files currently in the File list for the string you specified. The actual sequence is as follows: a. all marked files will be unmarked. b. the marker will point to each file as it is being searched through. c. if the requested string is found in the current file, it will be marked and the status line at the bottom will update the marked files count. d. this will continue until the last file is searched thru. Notes: - The string search is case-insensitive. - You can abort the search by hitting the right mouse button or the space bar. This will stop the search at whatever stage it got to. - The search only works correctly with text files so far... binary files don't really work.. this will be fixed. - At the moment, it allocates memory for each file in one chunk, so it may fail if the file it too large. It will only ignore that file and continue with the rest of the files. - This feature works in all modes except when the File List is displaying the device or assign list or the Select List. e. Hitting Shift-Alt-Return will call up the File Finder feature. (see the 'File Finder' section for details.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WILDCARD PATTERNS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wildcard Patterns: ------------------ There are two string gadgets that allow you to specify what files to show in the File List. These are the 'Show Wildcard' gadget and the 'Hide Wildcard' gadget. Both gadgets expect a wildcard pattern (as described below in 'Supported Wildcard Patterns'). As the FR reads a directory's contents, it will apply both wildcards to control what files it will display. The Show pattern tells the FR to 'show only files that match this pattern' and the Hide pattern tells it to 'don't show files that match this pattern'. This allows you to specifically select what files you want to see. Both wildcards default to 'show all files' unless the calling program sets them to something else. Supported Wildcard Patterns: ---------------------------- The supported wildcards in pattern are: 1. Standard AmigaDOS Wildcards: ? Matches any single character #p Match any number of occurences of the pattern p % Matches the null string () Make a group of characters into a single pattern | The OR operator ' Disable wildcard interpretation of next character (unless it is an extended wildcard as shown below.) 2. Extended Wildcards: These are wildcards not supported by the standard AmigaDOS convention, but expand it to make it more versatile. 'd Matches any single digit. (0 to 9) 'a Matches any single alpha character. (a to z) 'n Matches any single alphanumeric character. For examples of standard wildcard usage look up any AmigaDOS tutorial book. Examples of extended wildcards: Pattern Matching possibilities ------- ---------------------- test'n test0, test1, test9, testa, testA, testz, testZ test'd test0, test1, test9 test'a testa, testA, testz, testZ test 'd test 1, test 2, test 9 test#'d test1, test100, test10234 #'a#'d a1, ab12, abc1, abc123, adks34234 (matches any string with some or no alpha characters, then some or no digits.) #'a'd#'d.c a1.c, a203.c, 100.c, 1.c, adsdfs931234.c (matches any string that starts with some or no alpha characters, then at least 1 or more digits, and ends with .c) Note: You can use the '*' instead of '#?'. It will be automatically expanded into '#?'. Size Wildcards: --------------- If the first character of the Show wildcard is an equals, greater than, or less than sign, then that is used to control which files are shown by their size. i.e.. Show: "=232" Shows only files that are 232 bytes in size. Show: ">232" Shows only files that are larger than 232 bytes. Show: "<232" Shows only files that are smaller than 232 bytes. The same applies to the Hide wildcard, only in the opposite manner: Hide: "=232" Hide any files that are 232 bytes in size. Hide: ">232" Hide any files that are larger than 232 bytes. Hide: "<232" Hide any files that are smaller than 232 bytes. You can use both the Show and Hide wildcard size features to specify a range of sizes to show. Reset Wildcards Gadget: ----------------------- If you click on the Reset Wildcards gadgets (click on the 'Show' text) both wildcards will reset to "#?" and "". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE USER & HISTORY LISTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ User List: ---------- The User List is simply a list of directories and files that the user defines and can access quickly. To get to the list, just click the right mouse button once to get the User List, or hit the F2 key. You can then pick any entry in that list to go to that directory, or select that file. The User List is read from a file called "s:kd_freq.user.list", which you create. It is simply a list of directories or files, each on its own line. Each entry must be terminated with a return. A directory must end with a : or a / so that it is recognized as one. A file is any entry which doesn't end with a : or a /. The library will read the user.list file when it FIRST starts up, so any changes to this file won't show up until the next time the library starts itself. (normally at boot-up time). You can also quickly add the current file/directory to the User List, just hit F8 and it will be added to the user list, however, this will only remain for the duration of the current session.. once the library is flushed, these will be lost. As long as the library is not flushed, all programs using the library access the same list, so if you add an entry from the FR in one program, it'll show up in the other, i.e. the User List is global. Note: If the user list is empty, it will NOT show up, and the FR will skip it and go to the next list instead. The User List ignores duplicate entries. History List: ------------- The history list is the last 100 files you OK'd in any invocation of the FR during the current session. (i.e. since the library was loaded). It acts like the User List, except that entries are added to it automatically as you use the FR. If you cancel the FR, the entry will not be stored. To access the History list click on the right mouse button twice, or hit the F2 key twice. Note: If the history list is empty, the FR will skip it and show the storage devices list instead. The History List is NOT sorted, it shows up in reverse order of selection, i.e. last file selected shows up at the top of the list. The History List deletes duplicate entries. When the list is filled up, the new entry pushes out the oldest entry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FILE FINDER ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ File Finder searches through all your devices for a file or directory that matches a wildcard pattern. It is based on a program called 'Find' by Larry Phillips and uses Find's data file. As such, you have to have Find before you can use this facility. The Find package is included in its own arc file. You should follow Find's documentation and try it out before trying to use the FR's File Finder. To invoke the File Finder, type a valid wildcard pattern (or just a filename) into the File string gadget and then hit shift-alt-return. The file list will go blank and you will see a counter showing how many files/directories have been found so far. Once the search is complete, you will see a list of files/directories in the file list. The complete path to each is displayed in the file list. To select a file, just move the marker to it and hit return, or click on it. If you need to see the directory itself, either click on the entry or move the marker to it and hit the cursor left button. To abort the search, hit the right mouse button or the space bar. This will stop the search at whatever stage it got to. Notes: - File Finder is only effective when you have a hard disk. - This mode requires that a file called "FindDB:find.codes" exists. If it doesn't, then it won't operate. This file is generated by a program called "UpdateDB" which is part of the Find package. - Using a wildcard like "test#?" is fairly fast, while "#?test" is slower because of the nature of the pattern matching logic. - There is a maximum limit of 200 matches. You will be informed if the search is aborted because of too many matches. You can then use a more precise pattern. E.g. if you use "inf#?" and you get too many matches, you might then use "inform#?". - The Extended Select mode does not operate in the Find List mode. - CED Pro uses the right alt/right shift/return combination to invoke the editor. If you have CED Pro running, you should use the left alt/left shift/return combination instead. (both work when CED Pro is not running) - Many many thanks to Larry for allowing me to use Find. and: FIND, Copyright © 1989, by Larry Phillips. You will need the Find package. It is included in this package as Find.LZH (it contains 3 files, Find, Find.DOC and UpdateDB) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HELP FACILITY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The FR supports two methods of online help. The first is pointer-relative. All you need to do is move the pointer on top of something in the FR's window and hit the F1 key. As long as you hold down the F1 key you will see a help message telling you what the right mouse button and the left mouse button do in this position. e.g. 'L: do this' 'R: do that' in this case the left button will 'do this' and the right button will 'do that.' If only one entry is shown, then it relates to the left button. The second method just displays a screen that summarizes all the available keyboard commands. To call this up, hit the Shift-F1 key and you will get that screen. You can then hit any key to get back to the FR. You can also access this via the Help gadget. Just click on the Help gadget and the Help screen will show up. Click on that screen again and the FR will return. If you hit the HELP key, you will get a message telling you to use either F1 or Shift-F1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EXTENDED SELECT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In some cases, it is necessary (or desirable) to select more than one file from a single directory. If the Select List mode (see below) is enabled or the Extended Select mode is enabled, then the user can mark multiple files from a single directory for further operation. When this mode is active, there are several ways to mark a file: (In all cases, the file itself is shown in inverted video on the screen to show that it is marked) 1. Clicking on a file (from the file list) while holding down one of the shift keys on the keyboard. (Shift-click) 2. Keyboard methods: a. Wildcard Extended Select: ------------------------- You can mark multiple files by entering a valid wildcard pattern in the File string gadget and hitting Control-Return. This will mark all the files in the File List that match the pattern. For Example: #?.c will highlight all files that end with .c b. The Cursor Right Key: --------------------- If the current entry is a file, then hitting the Cursor Right key will toggle the file between marked and not-marked. c. Alt-Cursor Right and Shift-Cursor Right: -------------------------------------- Alt-Cursor Right clears all marked files. Shift-Cursor Right marks all files. If there is one or more selected files, the number of files selected will be shown at the bottom of the file list. Note: The marked files list is not the same as the currently selected file (the one in the File gadget.) The calling program can (if it so wishes) differenciate between the two types of files. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE SELECT LIST ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The FR can allow the user to select multiple files instead of just one file. This is accomplished by a 'Select List'. It is up to the calling program to decide whether the user is allowed to select multiple files or not. If the Select List mode is enabled, two gadgets will show up at the top right corner of the FR window, labelled 'Select' and 'Show SL'. The Select List is a list of files that the user selects. Each file can be from a different directory, which is why the Select List display shows the full path to each file. You can add a file to the Select List by moving the marker to that file and then clicking on the 'Select' gadget. To view the Select List, click on the 'Show SL' gadget. The Select List Display show the files in the Select List in the File List display. The Select Gadget: ------------------ Adds files marked for selection using the shift-click or the cursor-right key using Extended Select. These are added to a seperate list called the 'Select List'. Files that already exist in the Select List are ignored. All marked files in the current directory are then unmarked. If no files are currently marked, then the current file in the File gadget is added to the Select List. If the File gadget is empty, then nothing happens. The Show SL Gadget: ------------------- 'Show Select List'. Clicking on this gadget will bring up the Select List in the File List display. You can move around this display but you cannot select any files. Hitting this gadget again will return you to the previous display. Selecting a disk icon or any other method of changing the directory will do the same thing as well. Entries in the Select List are shown as path/filename.. i.e. the full path to the file. The Path/Name Gadget: --------------------- When the FR is in the Select List display mode, the Select gadget will change and show either 'Path' or 'Name'. You can toggle between those by clicking on the gadget. This allows you to change the display of the Select List from the full path to a file to only the filename itself and back. Removing Entries from the Select List: -------------------------------------- Clicking on any entry in the Select List will remove that entry from the list. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OTHER KEYBOARD COMMANDS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Cursor Left Key: -------------------- Changes the display to the parent of the current directory. Note: The Parent function (whether called from the keyboard or the mouse) brings up the 'Storage Device List' if the Path was already at the root of a device. Using the Parent function again after that will bring up the 'Logical Device List'. Control-Cursor Keys: -------------------- - Control-Cursor (left, right, up or down): Resizes the window in the direction selected by 24 pixels. - Control-Alt-Cursor (left, right, up or down): Resizes the window in the direction selected all the way to the limit of the screen or the minimum window height/width size possible. - Control-Shift-Cursor (left, right, up or down): Moves the window in the direction selected by 24 pixels. Function Keys: -------------- Normal: F1 Help about gadget/item under pointer F2 Toggle 'File List/Device List/Assign List' F3 Go to next device from disk list F4 Go to Root Directory F5 Go to Parent Directory F6 Restore startup directory and file name F7 Next Buffer F8 Toggle 'Show Info Files' on/off F9 Display info about current device F10 Create Directory Shifted: F1 Display Keyboard Help Screen F2 Delete File F3 (unused) F4 Print Current Directory F5 Reset wildcard pattern to "#?" F6 Tiny size F7 Medium size F8 Full screen size F9 Scroll Device List Up F10 Scroll Device List Down Examples Of Keyboard Usage: --------------------------- - Selecting a specific file from the current directory: a. Using the Cursor up/down keys, move the marker until you find the file, and hit return. b. Type the first few letters of the file name, then hit alt-return. If the file that shows up is the one you want, then hit return. Otherwise, use the cursor up/down keys to track it down. - To display a subdirectory: - Using the Cursor up/down keys, move the marker until you find the directory, and hit the cursor left key. - To display a directory's parent: - Hit the cursor right key. - To display a different device: a. Hit F2 to display the Device List, then use the cursor keys to select the device. Hit the left cursor key to select that device. b. Hit the right cursor key multiple times until you get the Device List. (then same as above.) c. Hit F3 until the device you want shows up in the Path gadget. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OTHER FEATURES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Create Directory: ----------------- To create a directory, enter its name into the Path gadget and hit return. If that directory doesn't already exist, the FR will inform you of that and also asks you to "Hit F10 to create it." If it can't create the directory, it will complain. Hitting F10 on an existing directory has no effect. Note: The new directory requested must have a valid parent. If it doesn't, the FR will tell you that it can't create the directory. Print Directory: ---------------- To get a hard copy of the currently displayed directory onto the printer, click on the 'Prt' gadget or hit the Shift-F4 key. The printout will be sent to the currently selected printer in Preferences. If the printer is busy, the FR will complain and abort the print. (output is sent to PRT:) This function recognizes if the printer is not available and complains instead of just waiting around for it. It recognizes the following cases: printer offline, printer off, paper out, printer not selected. If the current directory is empty, the print will abort. Delete File: ------------ You can delete the currently selected file in the File gadget by hitting Shift-F2. The FR will bring up a requester asking you if you're sure you want to delete the file. Directory Buffers: ------------------ The File Requester has multiple directory buffers. A directory buffer is a temporary storage area for the contents of a directory. Normally, the FR will come up displaying directory buffer # 1. You can use up to 5 buffers to store directory contents. The Next Directory gadget allows you to move to another buffer. If no other buffer exists, it will provide you with a new buffer. As you use the Next gadget, the buffer number will be shown at the bottom of the FR. This is a circular gagdet that moves between buffer 1 to 5 and then back to buffer 1. As you move between buffers, the directory in the buffer to be displayed is shown immediately and does not have to be read back again from the drive, unless the directory has been changed since it was last read, in which case, the FR will re-read the directory. The directory buffers store the following information: - The full path name of the directory. - All the files in the directory along with their sizes, date, time and protection settings, and marked files. - The number of files and directories in the directory. - The position where the scroll bar was in. (This means that when you return to a directory, the file list will be exactly where you left it.) - The current filename in the File gadget. For your information, each buffer used allocates memory in 2k chunks as it needs them. Average memory usage is 70 files for a 2k buffer. The only limit to the number of files per directory buffer is available memory. If the FR runs out of memory, it will inform you that the directory was truncated. Buffered directories between FR calls: -------------------------------------- A special feature of the FR is that it can store all 5 directory buffers between calls to it if the calling program requests it to do so. In this mode, the FR will not clear its buffers upon exit and will come up the next time with all the directories intact. This means that the FR does not need to re-read the directories, unless these directories have changed since the last time they were read. This will only be done for the first buffer that shows up, and will be done later for each other buffer as the Next gadget is used to move between buffers. Sort Mode: ---------- The File Requester sorts the files in the File List display as it reads them from the directory. The files are sorted either alphabetically, or by their size or their date. The 'Sort Mode' gadget allow you to toggle between these modes. The gagdet's text changes between the following states: "FILE" The File list is sorted by the file name. (default mode) "SIZE" The File list is sorted by the file size. (files with matching size are sorted by name) (files are shown largest first) "DATE" The File list is sorted by the file date and time. (files with matching date & time are sorted by name) (files are shown newest first) The No .Info Gadget: -------------------- The No .Info Gadget is a small box with 'I' in it, below the 'Next' gadget. If the No .Info Gadget is active, it will be a blank box, or will have an 'I' in it is it isn't active. This tells the FR not to display files ending with '.info' in the file list. This gadget is actually a toggle switch. In most cases the default setting for this gadget is ON. Note: When moving from off to on, the FR will remove all entries in the File List ending with .info. When moving from on to off, it will re-read the directory. File Requester Look: -------------------- The FR borders have two different looks. One is the standard look that is designed for a normal screen. The second look is designed to match the look that Workbench 2.0 uses and is almost identical to it. The FR automatically detects if it is running under 2.0 and will switch to that look. Error Messages: --------------- If the FR cannot access a device, it will report one of the following errors: - No disk in drive. (drive empty) - Not a DOS Disk. (bad or kickstart disk) - Can't find Path. (bad device or directory name) - Output Device. (device selected is not a disk.) - DOS Error: xxx. (where xxx is the DOS error number.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY OF FILE REQUESTER GADGETS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gadget Name | Gadget Position -----------------------|------------------------------------------------------ Path Gadget | String gadget at top of window File Gadget | string gadget below File List File List | set of gadgets that display the file list OK Gadget | bottom left of window Cancel Gadget | bottom right of window Close Window Gadget | standard close window gadget Show Wildcard Gadget | string gadget below Path gadget Hide Wildcard Gadget | string gadget to the right of Show gadget Scroll Up Gadget | up-arrow above the proportional gadget Scroll Down Gadget | down-arrow below the proportional gadget Prop Gadget | proportional gadget across the center of the window Parent Gadget | up-arrow to the right of the Path string gadget Disk Icons | set of disk icons across the right side of the FR Disk Scroll Up Gadget | top right, up-arrow Disk Scroll Down Gadget| top right, down-arrow Resize Gadget | bottom 5 lines across window Next Directory Gadget | bottom right, marked 'Next' Reset Path Gadget | the 'Path' text Reset Wildcard Gadget | the 'Show' text Print Gadget | bottom right, marked 'Prt' Help Gadget | bottom right, marked 'Help' Sort Mode Gadget | bottom right, marked 'File' 'Date' or 'Size' Preset Resize Gadgets | 3 small box gadgets, below Sort Mode and Next gadgets No .Info Gadget | small box gadget below Next gadget ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quick installation instructions: 1. Copy the kd_freq.library file into your LIBS: directory. 2. Copy the FR_Bypass file into your C: directory. 3. Put the following line into your startup-sequence: FR_Bypass ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Please send any comments, suggestions, bug reports, etc. to me either on Compuserve (75166,2531) or to: /-------------------\ | Khalid Aldoseri | | P.O. Box 3300 | | Manama, Bahrain. | | Fax: (973) 694777 | \-------------------/ Copyright 1990-1992 Khalid Aldoseri. 29 March 1992.