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The Datafile PD-CD 3
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utilities
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utilsd
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filer
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!Filer-
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1995-02-07
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!Filer- , version 2.2
---------------------
What is it
==========
'Filer' in its name tells you that it's a kind of a filer
'-' in its name tells you that it's less than a filer
Like the Filer it allows you to 'walk' through the directory tree
of a filing system and manipulate objects.
Unlike the Filer it does the first very quickly because it's 'menu driven',
but is not very good at the latter - it only Filer_Run's objects which means
that files can be run and loaded and directories opened; you still need the
'right' Filer to change file types, stamp files etc.
How to use it
=============
There are four ways of getting a Filer- menu:
• If a Filer window is displaying the contents of some directory,
- position the pointer over the window and click MENU while holding
down the Alt key (either the left or the right one)
- position the pointer over the window's the title bar and click MENU
(users of MouseAxess, please read 'Problems')
The menu that appears shows the contents of the displayed directory
and looks like
+============+
| dir name | the menu title is the name of the displayed directory
+============+
| Up ⇨ | leads to its parent dir or to the 'FS::Disc' submenu
+------------+
| some dir ⇨ | go right to get further down the tree or click to open
| some file | click to run/load somewhere
| etc... |
If you're in the root directory ('dir name' = $ ), there's no parent and
so 'Up' leads to a 1-item submenu named 'FS::Disc' holding the name
of the Filing System and the name/number of the Disc the dir is 'on'.
• Click ADJUST over any of the FS Filers (eg ADFS floppy, RAMFS).
You get a menu similar to the above for the root directory of the device.
The ResourceFS is an exception: here you get the menu for Resources:$.Apps,
just like when you click SELECT over the Apps icon.
• Click MENU over the Pinboard.
Filer-'s 'PinBoard menu' appears:
+==========+
| Filer- | menu title
+==========+
| Floppy ⇨ | leads to ADFS::0.$
| HDrive ⇨ | IDEFS::4.$
| RAMFS ⇨ | RAM:$
| Apps ⇨ | Resources:$
| MemFS ⇨ | MemFS:$
+----------+
This is customisable and is described in !Filer-.PinBrdMenu.!Help,
but in short: you must provide a list of devices you want Filer-
to 'support' and a sprite for each device. If you supply two sprites,
"device" and "device'", the latter will be used by the Wimp to show
the device is 'selected'. 2click on !Make to make the PinBoard menu.
If a filing system from Filer-'s PinBoard menu isn't present and you
follow the ⇨ in 'its' menu entry, Filer- will open a submenu with
a greyed out 'Not present' entry.
The behaviour of Filer- on a MENU click over the Pinboard is determined
by a module titled 'FiPiFi' (FIler PInboard FIlter) and located in
!Filer-.PinBrdMenu under the names Alt_No and Alt_Yes:
If Alt_No is being used you get Filer-'s PinBoard menu when you
click MENU over the Pinboard window. The click won't be intercepted
if you hold down Alt or Shift.
If Alt_Yes is being used you get the menu when you click MENU over the
Pinboard window AND are holding down the Alt key (either left or right).
You tell Filer- which one to use in its !Run file (see there; it's easy)
What can it do besides?
=======================
• To get into an application directory
- click SELECT/ADJUST over its menu entry while holding down Shift.
(Clicks with ADJUST keep the menu alive, of course)
- use the 'missing hand' (a 'long SELECT click'):
click on an 'application item' with SELECT and hold the button down
for a while. A 'long ADJUST click' over an application-item in a
Filer- menu works not quite as expected (see 'Problems' below)
• If a 'normal' menu item is a directory, the icon won't invert when
the pointer's over it, but RiscPC's small_diro (o=open) sprite will
be displayed instead. (Low res small_diro is used. If you mostly work
in a high resolution mode, replace !Filer-.PinBrdMenu.Sprites.small_diro
with !Filer-.small_diro.high res, but don't forget to rename it. If you
are a RiscPC, you can delete small_diro from !Filer-.PinBrdMenu.Sprites)
• When the Filer- menu gets deeper than 8 (submenus) and RISC OS complains
about 'Too menu menus', the first 8 subs are discarded and a new tree is
started with the 9th submenu as the root.
• If a submenu has the 'Up ⇨' item and you click over it with
- SELECT : the parent directory will be opened and the Filer- menu gone
- MENU : only the menu of the parent directory will be created
- ADJUST : the parent directory will be opened and its menu built
• If you click MENU over the vertical/horizontal scroll bar of a window,
the slider will jump so that its upper/left-hand end will be (roughly)
aligned with the pointer and the window's contents scrolled appropriately.
This is very usefull with large documents that are slow to redraw and will
work with any application that has its work area origin in the upper left
corner. Many 'object based drawing programs' a la !Draw haven't so this
feature won't work with them, but !Draw is 'important' enough to get a
special treatment. Also it won't work with !Edit, cause !Edit does real
wild things to its work area (to implement its weird sliders).
• If the system variable Filer-$Options is defined and contains the
string '+center' then submenus will be positioned vertically centered
about the pointer:
| title
+---------+
| item x0 |
| ... |
| ... | item xA |
| item x ⇨ | item xB |
^ | item xC |
pointer over the 'right' arrow | ... |
If you want the submenu to be built as usual ('item x0' at the same level
as 'item x'), ensure that '+center' doesn't occur in Filer-$Options
• If the system variable Filer-$Options is defined and contains the
string '+move' then, if a submenu is going to overlap the menu tree,
the whole of the Filer- menu will be moved left by an appropriate amount.
This feature is currently broken: after the menu has been moved, you can't
access objects from the new submenu or any other apart from the root. As
this isn't very useful, Filer-$Options shouldn't contain the string '+move'
• Quit from Task Manager
• Runs on a RiscPC (but isn't mentioned in !Products)
Warning
=======
If you RMKill FiPiFi and RMRun it again, the 'MENU over a Filer window's
title bar' option may stop to work, when FiPiFi has changed it's position
in the RMA. This is because FiPiFi holds a poll word for Filer-, whose
address is calculated only once, when Filer- starts to run
Problems
========
• When your Archi is very busy it can happen that the Filer- doesn't
'get' an ADJUST over a FS Filer icon (this often happens when you're
reading a DOS floppy). Just hold the button down for a while
• Some 'editor-applications' (even some by Acorn) conform to Acorn's guide
lines (or whatever it's called) and open the parent directory of a file
being edited when you close editor's window displaying the file by clicking
on the close icon with ADJUST (uff!). If you hold the button a tiny bit
longer than 'normal', Filer- catches the 'event' and doesn't let it through
to the Filer, ie. you don't get a display of the document's parent dir but
a Filer- menu of it instead. So if you want the directory displayed,
don't stick to ADJUST
• If the Filer/Pinboard died and you revived it
(*RMReinit Filer/Pinboard, *Desktop) but don't get the FS/pinboard menu,
issue a *RMReinit FiPiFi. Filer- listens for the TaskInitialise message
and does itselt the reinit when the Filer or the Pinboard restart, but
sometimes it doesn't work...
• A 'a long ADJUST click' over a Filer-'s menu application-item is expected to
- open the app's dir
- keep Filer-'s menu
Due to the way Filer- works, the 'open dir' message from a click with ADJUST
over a menu (application-)item is seen