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README_E.TXT
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1994-06-14
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The most important facts about HFM version 4.00 from 14. june 94
Copyright: Andreas Helke, Steckelsgasse 14, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany
Email: andreas@sirius.mgen.uni-heidelberg.de
What is HFM?
HFM is a shareware file-manager. The licence fee is 30 DM or the
equivalent in another currency. At the same time it is a frontend
for using archiving programs. The aim in devoloping HFM was
to minimize the keystrokes and mouse actions necessary for the
maintanance of a PC filesystem. HFM is very easy to use, once you
have learned the necessary commands. But due to the lack of a
complete menu system, it is not quite as easy to learn the full set
of available commands. The tutorial describes the most important
tricks of HFM usage.
HFM does not quite follow current user interface standards. Alt-keys
are used for drive switching, the mouse dragging technic is very
functional but quite unique. If you don't get intimidated by this
lack of standard behaviour, you will find HFM to be a very convenient
to use and yet powerful file manager.
HFM has two special features, wich set it apart from the many file
managers wich I know. The first is, it constantly compares the
filelists in the two windows and highlights files, wich are equal
(same name, time and size) or similar in the two directorys. I can no
longer imagine to maintain a PC LAN with a filemanager which does not
have this feature .
The second Feature is the use of dragging a direcotry entry with the
mouse to start a action. This combines in one step the selection of
the desired file and the selection of the desired action. With this
method you can copy, move, delete, show, start a program and you can
navigate in the directory tree.
Who needs HFM most?
Everybody who has to maintain the filesystem of a computer.
especially network administrators and people who user several
computers concurrently and have to synchronize their file systems.
Everybody who uses archive programs regularly and wants a convenient
access to the archived data.
The special capabilitys of HFM:
1. HFM shows two windows for showing two directorys. Both
filelist will be compared and identical or similar files
will be shown in a different colour.
2. Archives of diverse archiving programs like ARJ, LHA,
PKARC, PKZIP, ZOO are shown as simulated subdirectorys.
These can be uses like normal subdirectorys with few
exceptions. Starting of programs, showing and altering
files, copying to normal subdirectorys and other archives
and deleting are all possible. The moving and renaming in
archives is not supported.
3. HFM can start other programs and give them the total
available RAM.
3b. HFM has now the command W to start a Windows program from a DOS
box. (see new Features in Version 3.19)
4. For the command lines, filenames, directorys and search
phrases exists a permanent buffer for the last 10 entries.
5. Showing the content of files is a integrated part of HFM.
The file display option has a delete command. This allows a
convenient last look at the content of a file before
deleting. Display programs for special formats for example
VPIC for bitmap pictures can be integrated.
6. HFM warns before copying if the target file already exists.
7. HFM can copy, delete and if used with DRDOS 6 also move
complete directory trees including their hidden and system
files and subdirectorys.
With the U option only files wich exist in an older version
in the target directory will be copied, with the S option
newer files in the target directory will not be overwritten.
8. HFM supports a mouse for selecting files, paging, and
starting the most important commands.
The right button is an alternative to the RETURN key.
The most important file operations can be invoked by
dragging the file. Dragging into the other window will copy
the file, dragging to the lower border of the current
window will delete the file and dragging to the lower
border of the other window will move the file.
Moving a little to
left - Start a program which belongs to this datafile
right - Show the file or show the directory in the other window
down - Show the file, start the program or show the directory
up - go to the last directory
9. The F find command allows fast moving to the desired
position in the file list.
10.HFM has two different methods of deleting, either real
deleting or moving to a trash subdirectory, from where the
file can easily be recovered.
11.While starting, HFM does not examine the whole drive. This
allows a rapid start even in big partitions.
The subdirectorys are shown at the begin of the file list
and not in an extra window. This simplifies the access to
the required subdirectory. (F(ind) and Return to go down,
ESC and Backspace to go up in the directory tree)
12. The date in the file list can be changed between european
and american style.
Screen shot:
dOs ESC chdir Next Find Copy Del Edit print Ren Show stArt Inc sort Help Quit
A B C D 29.09.92 0:31:35
Vol: HFM H: 107 KB M: 302 KB Vol: D+ V+
A:\HFM\*.* D:\*.*
▌HFM PAS 2911 5.09.92 22:32 a ▌DRDOS <DIR> 26.09.92 17:18
▌HFMVIEW PAS 7315 11.08.92 0:42 a ▌LMOUSE <DIR> 26.09.92 17:39
▌HFM_DN4 PAS 3994 3.09.92 21:12 a ▌MB <DIR> 24.09.92 23:34
▌HFM_EU_3 PAS 7350 24.08.92 18:36 a ▌TEMP <DIR> 26.09.92 14:18
▌HFM_FDIS PAS 26134 28.09.92 21:18 a ▌DCONFIG BAK 342 26.09.92 17:16 a
▌HFM_I202 PAS 38806 28.09.92 20:56 a ▌COMMAND COM 52998 27.03.92 6:00 a
▌HFM_MA2 PAS 13959 2.09.92 0:34 a ▌DEVSWAP COM 1631 29.08.91 6:00 a
▌HFM_MI1 PAS 12424 6.09.92 2:12 a ▌IBMBIO COM 24618 27.03.92 6:00 ahsr
▌HFM_MIX5 PAS 58008 28.09.92 21:25 a ▌IBMDOS COM 39239 27.03.92 6:00 ahsr
▌HFM_M_3 PAS 14792 28.09.92 21:32 a ▌DISKMAP DAT 127728 28.09.92 12:13 a r
▌HFM_R_13 PAS 21066 1.09.92 19:36 a ▌386SPART PAR 3.1 MB 28.09.92 12:14 ahs
▌HFM_SDA PAS 85194 24.09.92 1:11 a ▌SSPARTSS SWP 119 MB 24.09.92 23:19 ahsr
▌HFM_SDX PAS 66935 28.09.92 21:19 a ▌DCONFIG SYS 143 26.09.92 18:01 a
▌HFM_VAR1 PAS 12090 9.09.92 20:58 a ▌SSTORDRV SYS 36646 27.03.92 6:00 a
▌HFM_WD1 PAS 5200 1.09.92 20:02 a
▌ZEILE PAS 198 16.08.92 2:16 a
▌_HFMVIEW PAS 7176 7.08.92 3:57 a
▌_HFM_SD PAS 4575 3.08.92 3:35 a
▌TURBO TP 2183 2.09.92 18:41 a
▌2 TST 82 3.09.92 15:48 a
48 Files, 174 of 1185 KB free. 14 Files, 3148 of 127226 KB free.
Screen Colours:
HFM comes with three different preselected colour palettes.
Those can be chosen with Ctrl-F1, Ctrl-F2, Ctrl-F3 or altered
with the command Y. For the monochrome text mode only the
combination 3 (Ctrl-F3) is usable, because only with these
colours you can see the scrollbar and the colours used for
showing identical files.
INI Files:
HFM requires some INI files for the integration of other programs.
It begins to search for the file HFM4.INI in the directory
c:\hfm.ah then in the directory \hfm.ah on every drive and then
in the current directory. If HFM and its additional files are
not located in c:\hfm.ah the path descriptions in HFM4.INI
have to be modified for correct operation of some features.
Integration in Microsoft Windows:
With the program pair SCHED and RUN in the archive RUN18.ZIP you can
start Windows programs from a dosbox. This allows to use HFM as an
alternative to the windows program manager.
Possible extension in future releases:
HFM has more than 50 commands and in addition 26 Alt-key
combinations for switching the drives. For beginners it would
be useful to have a menu system including all available
commands. HFM has at present no menu systems. It has however a
button line which shows the most important commands for the
selection with a mouse. If HFM is successful as a shareware