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DiskStorageDeluxe_v1.20
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dsd.doc
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1989-04-04
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Disk Storage Deluxe 1.10 By: Khalid Aldoseri.
-----------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION:
-------------
This is a small program that will run from either the WB or CLI. It will
open its own window and display a list of ALL currently mounted devices,
including hard disk partitions.
The window displays the following info:
- Name:
This is the AmigaDOS name for the device. E.G. DF0: DH0: VD0: etc.
- Usage:
Shows a percentage of how full the device is.
- Free:
Shows the amount of free storage left in a device. (in KiloBytes)
- Size:
Shows the total amount of storage a device has. (also in K)
- Volume:
This is the device volume. E.G. Workbench: Boot: etc.
- Alarm:
This is the alarm level for the relevant device. (in K) This will
be explained later.
- Chip:
The amount of free Chip memory in the system.
- Fast:
The amount of free Fast memory.
- Total:
The total amount of free memory.
- Chunks:
The number of free memory chunks available. This gives you an idea of
how fragmented the computer's free memory list is.
- RAM Disk Size:
This is the size of the RAM: disk device in kilobytes.
STORAGE ALARM:
--------------
Disk Storage Deluxe's (DSD) main function is to keep track of how much
free storage is remaining in every device. If the free storage in any device
is less than 5% of its total size, that device will be highlighed. Also, if
the storage drops below 5% while DSD is running, DSD will inform you of the
fact by a 'Storage Alarm.' This can be any of the following types:
1. Flash:
This will flash all the screens in the system five times, while
also flashing the relevant item in its window.
2. Requester:
This will put up a 'requester' informing you of the alarm.
Click into the requester to continue. The requester will pop
up on ANY screen.
3. Beep:
This will beep three times.
4. Speech:
The program will speak to you informing you of the alarm.
(If the translator.library is not in the LIBS: directory, this option
will not work.)
5. No Alarm:
DSD will just ignore the alarm.
ALARM LEVEL:
-----------
The Alarm level normally is 5% of the total capacity of the device
with a minimum alarm level of 50k. You can change the Alarm level by
clicking on the device row you want to change. A gadget will appear at
the bottom of the window. Enter the new Alarm level and hit return.
If you want to turn the alarm off for a specific device, enter a 0 as
the alarm level. Or, if you enter a negative value, a percent of storage
space will be used, e.g. if you enter a -25, the alarm level will be
25% of its total storage space.
UPDATE RATE:
------------
DSD updates it display once every 3 seconds. This can be changed to
anything between 1 second and 15 minutes. To do this, click on the 'update
speed' gadget (it's a tiny block normally in the upper right hand corner
of the window, next to the title line.) To change the update rate, click
on this gadget and hold it down, the window's title will display the current
update rate, move the mouse up or down to change the update rate. Let go
of the mouse button when you find a rate you like.
If you need an immediate update of the display, activate DSD's window and
then click on the mouse menu (right) button. DSD will also update the
display every time a disk is inserted or removed from the drive.
DSD'S WINDOW:
-------------
The window is mostly fairly clear except for the following:
- If a floppy disk has the write-protect tab on, an asterisk (*) will
appear next to the 'Free' number corresponding to that disk.
- Also, if AmigaDOS is currently validating a disk, a 'V' will appear
next to the 'Free' number corresponding to that disk. If this happens,
the info for that disk might not be correct. Be careful. Anyway, you
should not write to a disk as long as it is validating.
- DSD's window will be as tall as it needs to be to display all the
mounted devices. The limit for that is 20 devices.
- The RAM Disk Size display applies to the normal RAM Disk and not VD0:
or RAD: as those would appear with the normal disk list. If the RAM
Disk has not been accessed yet, DSD will start it up and display
'RAM Disk Empty'. If DSD can't start up the RAM Disk for any reason,
it will display 'RAM Disk Not Initialized.'
DEVICE SELECTION AND REMOVAL:
-----------------------------
You can remove devices from the display if you do not need them. This
is accomplished by 'selecting' a device from the list. (To select a device
click on its line TWICE.) Then select 'Remove Selected' from the menu.
(More on this later.) When a device is removed, it will no longer be
checked for its alarm level. There are many 'Remove' options. These will
be discussed in the Menus section.
MENUS:
------
DSD has the following menus attached to it:
- Options Menu:
-------------
- Reset All:
Resets the device list.
- Clear Selections:
Clears all 'selected' disks.
- Memory Display:
Turns the memory display box on/off.
- Time Display:
DSD displays the time and date on its window title. This menu item
will turn this off or on.
- RAM Disk Display:
Turns the RAM Disk size box on/off.
- Go To Sleep:
Selecting this item will put the program to sleep. It wil close its
window and open up a tiny window instead. The program will be frozen
during that time. To return to normal just click into the tiny
window and the original window will be back.
- Pop up to front:
When this option is selected, DSD's window will always 'pop up' on
whatever screen is on front. (Note: If the front screen is not big
enough to display DSD's window, DSD will come up on the screen behind
it and will automatically turn Popup off.)
- Quit:
Guess what this does! :-)
- Remove Menu:
------------
This menu has all the different 'Remove' options. They are:
- Selected:
This will remove just the 'selected' disks. You can have more than
one selected disk at the same time.
- Unselected:
This will remove all the disks except the selected ones. Useful when
you only want to see one or two devices.
- Floppies:
Removes all devices beginning with 'DF'.
- Not Floppies:
Removes all devices not beginning with 'DF'.
- < Alarm Level:
Removes all devices that are below the Alarm Level.
- > Alarm Level:
Removes all devices that are above the Alarm Level.
- Empty Drives:
Removes all drives that have no disk in them.
- Everything:
Removes ALL the devices from the list.
- Alarm Menu:
-----------
This menu allows you to select the Alarm Type.
- Save Menu:
----------
- Save Config:
When selecting this, DSD will save the following settings to a file
called 'S:DSD-Config':
- Memory Display (on/off)
- RAM Display (on/off)
- Time Display (on/off)
- Used/Size Display
- Memory Chunk/Total Display
- Alarm Type
- Volume Name Display (on/off)
- Shrink (on/off)
- Popup (on/off)
- Update Speed
- DSD's Window position. (X & Y coords)
- Sleep Window position. (X & Y coords)
When DSD is first loaded, it will look for this file and change
its settings to what was saved.
- Save Devices:
When selecting the 'Save Devices' option, DSD will save the current
device list and the alarm level selected for each device into a file
called 'S:DSD-Devices'. Everytime DSD is run, it will read this
file and will set the device list and alarm levels to what they
were when the list was saved.
- Screens Menu:
-------------
This menu has a list of the currently available 'screens' in the system,
with the screen on which DSD's window is currently living marked with a
checkmark. (Max screens listed are 10.)
To move DSD's window to any other screen, just select its name from the
menu.
The menu will also tell you what kind of screen you are moving to.
(Either Normal, Workbench, or Simple Screen.) Be careful when moving to
a Simple (i.e. SIMPLE_REFRESH) screen. Some Simple screens may lose
the contents under DSD's window. (e.g. Paint Programs)
GADGETS:
--------
DSD has many hidden gadgets that control the display options. The file
'DSD.PIC' shows exactly where each gadget is. (Use any IFF display program
to see it.) To select a gadget, just click on where it should be.
- Size/Used Gadget:
(Position: First Line, Second Column)
This will toggle the display between % used and actual device size
in k.
- Volume/Free+Alarm Gadget:
(Position: First Line, 3rd & 4th Columns)
This will toggle the display between either Free and Alarm levels or
the device's Volume name.
- Memory Total/Chunks Gadget:
(Position: Memory Box, last column)
- Color Select Gadget:
(Position: Memory Box, 1st & 2nd Columns)
This will rotate the colors of DSD's window.
- Shrink/Expand Window:
(Close Gadget)
This will shrink DSD's window to just the title bar. This will NOT
affect any other operation of the program. I.E. alarms will still
work, unlike the 'Sleep' mode. If you want to quit the program,
select the 'Quit' menu item as the close gadget will only
shrink/expand the window.
COMMENTS:
---------
- The time/date display will only be updated as often as the update
time you selected.
- Be careful when selecting an update rate of 1 second. This can
take too much time from the processor. 2 seconds is okay, but I
find the optimal to be between 10 and 15 seconds if you are not
using drives a lot, and between 3 and 5 if you are.
- DSD's window will always come up as inactive. It will
also turn itself into inactive after a fixed period. (around
10 to 60 seconds, depending on the update rate.)
- DSD knows about WBLace V3.00 or higher (by the same
author), and will close its own window for about 2 seconds when
WBLace requests this from it. This is in order to allow WBLace
to change the Workbench Interlace setting on or off. If you don't
have WBLace, you can find it in the AmigaForum on Compuserve in DL13
as WBLCE3.ARC.
- DSD takes little processor time. For example, with three disks
displayed, DSD will only consume about 1% of processing time (at an
update rate of 5 seconds.) Its memory usage is around 20k. But
be careful if you have more than 10 disks on the list. It can get
very busy.
KNOWN BUGS:
-----------
- If any program takes complete control of a drive, (e.g. DiskCopy,
Format, DiskDoctor, DiskSalv) DSD will not be able to
check that drive, and it will display '- No Disk Present -'
I can't currently find a way around this. (Maybe I shouldn't
mess with the drive when it's busy anyway.)
- If any program closes its screen while DSD is living on that screen,
DSD will pop back up to the current screen, BUT you will lose 704
bytes of memory. If you want to close a program's screen while DSD
is still on it, first move DSD to another screen.
- DSD runs at a priority of 0. So, if there is a lot of activity in
the system, the update rate will not be correct. I.E. An update
rate of 3 seconds will means that DSD will update its display NOT
LESS THAN every 3 seconds. It might take upto 5 or 6 seconds to
update its display.
- DSD currently uses Forbid() and Permit() a lot, this means that at
times, the mouse pointer will freeze for a split-second while it
is moving. Sorry about this, but it's better than getting a guru!
PLEASE! PLEASE!
If you have any ideas on what can be added to this program, easyplex
me with your ideas, as I have run out of them!
Many thanks to the folks on the AmigaTech forum, especially Keith Young
for their help with this.
Any comments, suggestions, complaints, etc. should be sent to me on
Compuserve ID: 75166,2531.
This program is Freely Distributable, you can spread it as much as you
like as long as you keep the files with it, and don't modify any of them.
Please upload it to other networks, BBS's etc.
I hope you find this program as useful as I do.
By: Khalid Aldoseri.
CIS: 75166,2531.
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