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-> !SparkInfo.!Help 2.20 - 13-01-93 - Paul John Murphy
Copyright © 1990,1991,1992,1993 Murphsoft - Paul John Murphy
Read this document carefully before using SparkInfo.
Program Description
===================
SparkInfo is an application which I have written to provide quick analysis
of an Archive. The program *should* cope with anything which Spark (up to
version 2.14) can create, and is based on information included with Spark on
the format of Archive files. The program *should* work on any Acorn
Archimedes.
Program Purpose
===============
To provide full information on files in an archive, even if it is corrupt or
truncated, and to aid recovery of files from a corrupt or truncated archive.
Program Distribution
====================
SparkInfo may be freely distributed, providing that the contents of the
archive remain the same, and no files are added to or modified in the
archive. The actual archiving method may be changed, as I have no desire to
force people to use Spark (even although it is excellent). I reserve all
other rights to SparkInfo, and it remains Copyright © 1990,1991,1992,1993
Murphsoft - Paul John Murphy. This software costs nothing, but I still
retain all rights to it. This type of software is often called freeware, and
it is NOT the same as public domain (PD).
The distribution archive should contain the following files:
Filename Length
-------- ------
!!ReadMe!! 77 bytes
!SparkInfo.!Boot 282 bytes
!SparkInfo.!Help 14389 bytes
!SparkInfo.!Run 663 bytes
!SparkInfo.!RunImage 28847 bytes
!SparkInfo.!Sprites 2364 bytes
!SparkInfo.!Sprites22 4496 bytes
!SparkInfo.Messages 3590 bytes
!SparkInfo.ORunImage 4049 bytes
!SparkInfo.Sprites 4712 bytes
!SparkInfo.Sprites22 9192 bytes
!SparkInfo.Templates 5341 bytes
The original distribution archive was created using Spark 2.14 in Compress
16-bit mode.
ORunImage is the only non-essential file, and is v0.03 of SparkInfo which is
non-multitasking, in BASIC, and does not use the wimp. It may be of use to
some as an aid in recovering corrupt Sparkives.
If you are short of space, then the 22 variants of the Sprite files may
safely be removed from your working copy (or used to replace the ordinary
sprite files). However, the software must not be passed on without these
files, under any circumstances.
Program Guarantee
=================
Sorry, no guarantee (of any sort), if the program works, and saves your
life, great, I'm happy for you. If the program fails miserably, crashing
your machine, and trashing your hard disk, then hard luck, but not my
problem. The program works fine on my machines (A400/1 series, 4Mb RAM, 40Mb
ADFS hard disk, 46Mb SCSI hard disk, RISC OS 3.10; & A4, 4Mb RAM, 60Mb IDE
hard disk, RISC OS 3.10), and may work on others.
Unfortunately, I can no longer test under RISC OS 2, so correct operation is
even less guaranteed there!
Disclaimer
==========
I accept no responsibility for ANY problems with this software, or any
problems which this software may create.
Use is entirely at the risk of the user.
Instructions
============
SparkInfo is loaded by double-clicking on the application, and will do no
more than initialise and install itself on the icon-bar at this point. To
examine an archive, simply drag the file onto the SparkInfo icon (a spark on
top of a question mark), and a window will open with the first entry in the
archive being displayed.
Moving between files in the archive is done by clicking one of the
tape-recorder style icons at the top-left of the SparkInfo window. The
tape-recorder icons perform the following tasks (from left to right): start,
back, forward, end. Clicking SELECT on one of the icons performs that
action, and clicking ADJUST on one of the icons performs the opposite of
that action. There is also an option on the window menu to jump straight to
an individual file in the archive, if you know which it is relative to the
start (it is Goto=>File number).
You can also work with files in "offset mode". This is automatically entered
when you jump to a file by its offset (Goto=>Offset on the window menu).
Only the forward and start icons work in offset mode. Offsets are to the
archive marker character, from the start of the file.
You can save an individual file in a Sparkive by going to it (ie making it
the one being displayed), and using the save option on the window menu. It
will be saved as a Sparkive containing one entry (the file being examined
when save was selected).
SparkInfo may be terminated in the usual way (i.e. Quit on the Icon-Bar
Menu).
Once loaded, SparkInfo will try to grab any double-clicks on a file of type
&DDC, and act as if the file was dragged onto its icon. Also, if the RunType
environment variable is not set, then it will be set load SparkInfo when a
file type &DDC is executed.
When a Sparkive is opened (ie the SparkInfo window is open), the archive
headers may be altered. This can be done by turning off the "Safe" option
(using either the window icon, or the menu option), and simply changing the
values as required. Once the header has been updated as desired, it can be
written back to the Sparkive by choosing the "Write" option.
It is possible to do basic searches for files within Sparkives, based on
combinations of the information which can be displayed about a file within a
Sparkive. This is achieved using the Find menu option. The "Master Find
Spec" field is used to specify which of the other fields should be
considered in the search. If a field is included in the search, then it must
be EXACTLY matched for the a particular file to be found. "Go" will find the
first file after the current position in the Sparkive, using the movement
method selected (Headers/Search). "Count" will count the number of files
after the current position matching the search specification.
Comments
========
I wrote this program because I had a corrupted archive, and wished to
recreate as much of the contents as I could. The archive turned out to be
truncated, so I ended up making it the right length, with the correct
format, and this enabled Spark to accept it, so I could get all but the last
file (the one short of data) back. I leave it up to you to solve your own
problems, but hope that SparkInfo is helpful to you.
Information on the archive file format can be found in the !ReadMe for Spark
on the Spark disk from David Pilling (Spark's author and the only source of
Spark at the moment). SparkInfo is probably only of use to the more
technically minded, so please remember that if something is not broken, then
you cannot fix it, and should not attempt to do so.
I may in future improve SparkInfo to make it have an attempt at fixing
broken archives, as far as possible, but this and any other support is not
guaranteed.
Sub-directories of Archives (just an Archive within an Archive, effectively)
are not dealt with, just ignored. If you want info on a sub-directory, then
it must be extracted to a "normal" filing system, and then have SparkInfo
run on it (cannot easily be done with Spark, but is easy with Arc).
Alternatively, you can tell SparkInfo to go to the archive data offset for
the archive sub-directory in question, and this will allow examination of
the sub-directory, although some of the normal movement functions will not
be available.
SparkInfo in "Safe" mode only opens archives for input (i.e. OPENIN), so
should not corrupt or modify in any way any archive passed to it, unless
instructed to do so by the user.
Offsets are relative to the start of the file.
Only one archive may be open under SparkInfo at a time.
SparkInfo will only touch files of type DDC (Archive).
If any items displayed in the main SparkInfo window seem duplicated, or in a
strange order, then that is because they appear in that order in the archive
header.
SparkInfo knows nothing of the new ArcFS format which is probably a better
format from certain points of view.
SparkInfo also knows nothing of the Computer Concepts Compression format.
When I refer to a Sparkive, I basically mean an archive file which Spark is