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The Datafile PD-CD 5
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DATAFILE_PDCD5.iso
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utilities
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filer
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!Filer-
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1994-09-08
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!Filer- version 2.0
___________________
1.1 -> 2.0 changes
==================
pinboard menu items changed from text to 'pointer sensitive' sprites.
looks nicer, but the sprites must go into the Wimp sprite pool and
if you add new devices to the pinboard menu you'll have to find
appropriate sprites for them
the pinboard menu configuration stuff has been moved out of !RunImage.
a dedicated program is used to create needed data from a list of
device/sprite pairs. see !Filer-.PinBrdMenu.!Help
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 Stuff.small_diro.high res (don't forget to rename it). Still better
put both into ResoIcons/IconSwitch, whatever your low/high res icon
switcher's name is. if you are a RiscPC, you can do even better: delete
small_diro from !Filer-.PinBrdMenu.Sprites)
the 'missing hand' feature (see below) has been added
(it's about opening directories, something a filer does ?)
--
2.0 !RunImage is 14071-13420 bytes longer than 1.1 and it adds 3640 bytes to
your Wimp sprite pool. so, it comes with the 1.1 !RunImage in Stuff.Greyish
bug fixes
=========
when you got the 'Too menu menus' error (RISC OS' 8 menus limit) and
clicked on 'OK' in the error box, Filer- fell into the infinite
'Not a heap block' error loop, which you could leave only by quitting
Filer- (clicking 'Cancel'). this has been corrected in both 1.1 and 2.0 .
you still get the error box, but can safely click upon 'OK' to ignore
the error.
the modified 1.1 !Help follows
{ stuff in {} brackets applies to 2.0 only }
--
Who's that girl ?
=================
'Filer' in its name tells us that it's a kind of a filer
'-' in its name tells us 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 three ways of getting a Filer- menu.
1) If there's an opened directory viewer on your desktop,
position the pointer over it and click MENU while holding down
the Alt key (either the left or the right one). The menu that
appears shows the contents of the directory (the viewer is already
displaying...) and looks like
+------------+
| dir name | the title holds the name of the directory
+------------+
| Up ⇨ | leads to the parent dir
| 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'.
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)
{ in 2.0, you can use a 'long SELECT click': click on an 'application
item' with SELECT and hold the button down for a while. you MUST NOT
'long ADJUST click' upon a Filer- menu item; see 'Problems' below }
2) 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 $.Apps menu, just like
when you click SELECT over the Apps icon.
3) To get the 3rd method to work 100% you most probably will need to do
some reconfiguration, as !Filer- as you've got it is configured to
run on my machine which is very likely to be different to yours.
Some things will work though so let's try it...
Click MENU over the Pinboard. You'll get:
+----------+
| Filer- | menu title
+----------+
| Floppy ⇨ | leads to ADFS::0.$
| HDrive ⇨ | IDEFS::4.$
| RAM ⇨ | RAM:$
| ROM ⇨ | ResourceFS:$
| Memfis ⇨ | MemFS:$
+----------+
{ in 2.0, you have sprites instead of text. the sprites are in Sprites
in the directory !Filer-.PinBrdMenu . see !Help in the same place }
Now you see why it could fail to work properly on your system.
If you haven't got a filing system from the above list and follow
the ⇨ in 'its' menu entry, the 'Filing system not present' error
will be generated which Filer- will trap and open a submenu with
a greyed out 'Not present' entry.
This is curable by
Customising the pinboard menu
=============================
!Filer- comes with 2 variants of the same module: Alt_No and Alt_Yes
(in the !Filer-.PinBrdMenu directory. the module is titled
FiPiFi: FIler PInboard FIlter)
If Alt_No is being used you get Filer-'s 'pinboard (alias desktop) menu'
when you click MENU over the Pinboard window.
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 !Filer-.!Run (see there, it's easy...)
To adapt the pinboard menu to your system involves hacking the source code
a bit, but because of various important reasons i've already forgotten i
decided to do it this way...
{ no hacking needed in 2.0, read !Filer-.PinBrdMenu.!Help }
--
(1.1 only, but read it anyway)
The menu layout and the physical devices associated with the menu
items are specified in two ¹ DATA lines at the start of !Filer-.!RunImage:
DATA pmi 1, pmi 2, ... , pmi N,
DATA dev 1, dev 2, ... , dev N,
Remember that spaces BEFORE a , are prepended to a DATA string but spaces
BEHIND a , are not : reading 'DATA a , b' yeilds the strings "a " and "b".
This is important when specifying device names.
Both lists (must) end in the invisible (of course) empty string
If you don't like invisible things put a "" after the final ,
• a pinboard menu item (1st DATA line) can be any string you like, except:
- it must not contain the full stop (.) character
- only the first 12 characters are 'significant'
('' for it's a stupid word; but not all ''-words are)
• a device specification (2nd DATA line) is of the form
FilingSystemName:[:DriveNumber] or
FilingSystemName:[:DriveName]
(stuff in square brackets [] is optional)
These are prepended to the $.etc part of an object's path name and
thus must follow the given format
Note: the code that builds the pinboard menu assumes it has at least one
item in it. To get the exotic '< 1 item' case do not doubleclick over the
!Filer- icon when you see it in a directory viewer window
Examples
--------
1) You have one ADFS floppy (yeah) and one IDE hard drive called IDEDisc4
So you say:
DATA Advanced FS, I Do Easy,
DATA ADFS:, IDEFS::IDEDisc4,
On a(n) (Alt)MENU Filer- pops up:
+---------------+
| Filer- |
+---------------+ when you go right and click over, for instance
| Advanced FS ⇨ | $.dir.file -> (a)
| I Do Easy ⇨ | $.dir -> (b)
| ... ⇨ |
then Filer_Run ADFS:$.dir.file (a)
IDEFS::IDEDisc4.$.dir (b)
will be executed.
In (a), the filer looks for the object on the *Configure'd ADFS drive,
which is drive 0 on a 1 FD machine (at least on mine)
Now imagine this scenario:
- you get a job (hey! congrats!)
- you add the second floppy to your system
- you *Configure drive 1
- but you still want: Advanced FS = ADFS::0
See it? You must change ADFS: into ADFS::0 .
So, why not do it right right from the start? Specifying the drive number
(name when applicable) makes the existing menu 'constant' and any changes
are due to new items only - just add a new menu entry for drive 1:
DATA old stuff, Rockefeller, old stuff,