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READ.ME
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┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│F(ile) M(anager)/2 copyright (c) 1993-97 by M. Kimes (Barebones Software)│
│ All Rights Reserved │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ READ.ME file -- read before installing │
│ See end of document for contact info and license details │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
File Manager/2 (FM/2) is a shareware OS/2 3.0 (Warp)+ PM 32-bit
file/directory/archive maintenance utility (a sort of super-Drives
object, something midway between the Drives objects and a more
traditional file manager) with plenty of bells, whistles and utilities,
drag and drop, context menus, toolbars and accelerator keys. If you
know how to use OS/2, you already know how to use most of FM/2. You can
easily glean the rest from the extensive online help, including
tutorials.
This document explains how to install FM/2, including upgrading from
previous versions. It explains command line syntaxes and how to get the
program(s) running. The online help tells you how to actually use FM/2.
A separate document (history.txt) lists changes for this version.
Another (register.txt) tells you how to register FM/2. If you're
interested, there're well over 110 printed pages of documentation in
this package, counting only this file and the online help -- did I write
all that?
The license agreement and author contact info is at the bottom of the
file.
FM/2 2.x installation instructions:
==================================
1. Unpack the FM2*.ZIP archive in a private directory (UNZIP.EXE
works nicely). FM/2 2.x requires its own home directory (FAT or
HPFS, doesn't matter). I recommend that it _not_ be your old FM/2
1.x directory (and don't delete the old 1.x version until after
you install, so the install program can migrate some of your old
settings and registration first). If upgrading from 2.x, just
unpack the files in the FM/2 2.x directory and go (be sure to
overwrite old files -- you might want to skip ARCHIVER.BB2 if
you've customized it). Note: don't attempt to unpack using FM/2
into the directory in which FM/2 is already running -- OS/2 locks
in-use files and the upgrade won't be completed properly; not all
files will be unpacked.
2. Run the provided INSTALL.CMD (a simple REXX program) in that
directory to build a folder and program objects and migrate some
old INI information. Rerun INSTALL.CMD if you later move the FM/2
directory. (If you later decide to remove FM/2, run UNINSTAL.CMD
in the FM/2 2.x directory and follow simple directions. Both
installation and deinstallation are no-brainers. UNINSTAL will
help you quickly and easily remove all traces of FM/2 from your
system if you don't like it for some reason. All OS/2 programs
should be so nice.) INSTALL sets up some associations for you
unless you give it /NOASSOC as an argument (INSTALL /? for help).
3. Run it -- double-click the "FM/2" or "FM/2 Lite" object in the
File Manager/2 folder. Have fun. Full help is available from
within the program. If you're unfamiliar with OS/2's WPS, please
take the time to run the OS/2 Tutorial before attempting to use
FM/2, as FM/2 uses many of the same conventions. It'll save you
time in the long run.
4. If you'd like to review all the documentation on FM/2 before
running it, you can. Unpack FM3.HLP from the archive, then type
VIEW FM3.HLP.
Starting FM/2:
=============
If you start File Manager/2 (filename FM3.EXE) with no command line
arguments, it opens the Drive Tree window but no directory windows
(unless the "Save state of dir windows" toggle is checked -- see online
help).
File Manager/2 optionally accepts names of directories on the command
line; it'll open a directory window for each one. Hint: If you often
do different specific things with FM/2, you might set up a WPS object
customized to start up ideally for each activity. For example, if you
wanted to maintain your BBS areas, you might have one object like:
"FM3.EXE D:\BBSDIR D:\BBSDIR\MAILIN D:\BBSDIR\MAILOUT", and if you also
like to use FM/2 to set icons on files, you might have another object
like: "FM3.EXE E:\MYICONS D:\NEWFILES". The State userlist can also be
used for this within FM/2 itself -- see online help.
You can exclude drives on the command line by prefacing the drive letter
with "/", and there can be more than one drive letter behind the "/"
(i.e. "FM3.EXE /BH" to exclude both drives B: and H:). Hint: Many
people like to use /B to exclude "phantom" drive B: if they have a
single-floppy system. Similarly, you can cause drives NOT to be
prescanned by the Drive Tree by prefacing the drive letter with ";",
drives NOT to load icons for objects by prefacing the drive letter with
",", drives NOT to load subjects for objects by prefacing the drive
letter with "`" and drives NOT to load longnames for objects by
prefacing the drive letter with "'". This can be handy if you have a
very slow drive like a CD-ROM or Zip drive. FM/2 Lite recognizes
these switches, too. See also the Drive Flags dialog in FM/2.
If you place the argument "+" (alone) on the command line, FM/2 will
log, to FM2.LOG, delete, rename, move and copy operations that are
performed by drag-and-drop or with the menus. FM/2 Lite recognizes this
switch, too.
The command line argument "-" (alone) causes FM/2 to ignore, not load or
save, the previous state of directory windows (see the "Save state of
dir windows" toggle under Config Menu->Toggles in the online help) for
that invocation.
You can specify the name of an alternate INI file with "-<inifilename>"
-- for example, "FM3.EXE -C:\FM2\MYINI.INI".
Installation notes:
==================
Please read the following sections in the online help when you start
FM/2 for the first time: "How to use FM/2's Help," "Terminology" and
"General Help," then "Hints." The rest you can browse as you get
time/feel the need; for instance, if you want to know what a toggle
does, read the help under Settings notebook for that page (each
Settings notebook page has its own Help button).
If you prefer hardcopy help, print this file, run FM/2, press Ctrl + F1,
click the "Print" button at the bottom of the help window that appears
and then print both the "Contents" and "All sections" (keep an eye on
the printer, after page 100 of "All sections" as the Help Manager will
begin printing its own help then -- you may want to abort printing at
that point). Advanced and/or curious users may also want to print
FM3TOOLS.DAT and ARCHIVER.BB2. Be sure you have plenty of paper and ink
handy -- the package is well documented. You'll probably also want a
three-ring binder and hole punch to get it bound, as staples aren't
going through that puppy. You can, of course, print only the sections
that are of particular interest to you.
You may want to either move ARCHIVER.BB2 (the data file containing
information about archiver programs and archive files) to a directory in
your PATH= statement or erase this one if you've customized an old one.
FM/2 can still find, use and maintain ARCHIVER.BB2 on the PATH; it
doesn't have to be in FM/2's directory (this allows it to be used by
other programs as well, like XGroup, XBBS/2, LA, AV, ZTreeBold, etc.).
Remember, FM/2 works best with OS/2, not DOS, archivers.
If FM/2 refuses to run, the most likely culprit is CONFIG.SYS. Your
LIBPATH statement should contain "." or ".\" (shorthand for "the default
directory"), as in: LIBPATH=.;C:\OS2\DLL;C:\OS2\MDOS;<etc.> This is
the default OS/2 installation, but a few folks, or programs they've
installed, have changed it.
I've separated many of the standalone utilities that I used to include
with FM/2 into another archive (FM2UTILS.ZIP, or FM2UTL.ZIP on CIS).
Since I update the utilties far less frequently than FM/2 itself, this
allows you to download less and still keep up to date. To get the
maximum use out of FM/2, you should pick up the package. If you can't
find it where you found this archive, bug your sysop to pick it up.
Bonus programs:
--------------
You'll note the extra objects that the Install program creates in the
File Manager/2 folder. FM/2 is modular, so that you can get directly to
some of its components without running the entire ball of wax. This may
allow you to enhance the behavior of some of your other applications in
the WPS tradition. You don't _have_ to keep these around, of course --
FM/2 itself contains all their functionality.
Archive Viewer/2: Intended for drag-and-drop operation (or WPS
association) with WPS objects or other
applications. Drag an archive onto it, drop it,
get an archive listing box. FM/2's installation
program sets up some associations between archive
files and this program by file extension (run
INSTALL with "NOASSOC" as an argument if you don't
want them). AV/2 will try to display whatever
you give it as sensibly as it can. Filename AV2.EXE.
EA Viewer: Drag a file system object onto it and it'll show
you the object's extended attributes. Filename
EAS.EXE.
INI Viewer: Drag an .INI file onto it and it'll show you its
contents. Filename INI.EXE.
Bookshelf Viewer: Shows all .INF files in a listbox and lets you
pick the one(s) you want to view. If you give any
command line argument, the .HLP files on the HELP
path will be shown instead (the Helpfile Viewer
object calls VIEWINFS.EXE with "dummy" for an
argument, for example). Filename VIEWINFS.EXE.
Process Killer: Lets you kill off renegade processes. An English
version of PSTAT.EXE must be on your PATH.
Filename KILLPROC.EXE.
Undeleter: Lets you undelete files (via interface with
UNDELETE.COM). Drag a file system object onto it
and it'll let you undelete files for that drive.
Filename UNDEL.EXE.
Visual Tree: Opens a Drive Tree window (like the WPS Drives
object with more horsepower). Filename VTREE.EXE.
Visual Directory: Opens a Directory Container window; drag a file
system object onto it and this will open its
directory (like a WPS directory Folder with more
horsepower). Filename VDIR.EXE.
Collector: Opens a Collector window. Filename VCOLLECT.EXE.
Two other objects, "See all files" and "Seek and
scan" are created which call up the Collector and
go directly to dialogs for the appropriate
purpose.
Global Viewer: Opens a global view of a drive or drives. Filename
GLOBAL.EXE.
Databar: Opens a databar showing some system information.
Filename DATABAR.EXE.
SysInfo: Shows information about your system. Filename
SYSINFO.EXE.
DirSize: Shows where drive usage is concentrated. Filename
DIRSIZE.EXE.
MakeArc: Puts whatever's dropped on it into an archive.
Filename MAKEARC.EXE.
FM/2 Lite: A simplified interface for dummies. Filename
FM4.EXE.
FM/2's install creates FM2.CMD, AV2.CMD, VDIR.CMD, VTREE.CMD,
VCOLLECT.CMD, UNDEL.CMD, KILLPROC.CMD, INI.CMD, EAS.CMD, DIRSIZE.CMD,
VIEWINFS.CMD and VIEWHELP.CMD files for you in a directory
"utils" off the install directory. You should add this directory to
your PATH= statement in CONFIG.SYS (type HELP PATH at a command line for
more info). If you prefer, FM/2's INSTALL builds a SETENV.CMD in the
FM/2 directory which you can call to set the PATH for FM/2 in any given
session without modifying CONFIG.SYS.
You will probably want to find a copy of the FM/2 Utilities (FM2UTL.ZIP
on CI$, FM2UTILS.ZIP on the internet). This archive of free-for-the-using
utilities contains a few used by FM/2 "out-of-the-box": FM2PLAY.EXE for
playing multimedia files (WAV, MID, AVI, etc.), IMAGE.EXE for quickly
displaying image files, disk optimizers, etc. You can always plug in
your own favorites for these, of course, using FM/2's Associations.
Additional documentation:
========================
Register.txt: How to register FM/2.
FM/2 isn't free, it's shareware:
===============================
To register FM/2, fill out REGISTER.TXT and send to the address listed
in it, together with the purchase price or credit card information
(commercial users, there's a 5% discount for each ten commercial
licenses, up to one hundred licenses, where the price flattens, so you
get a total 50% discount on each license for one hundred or more
licenses in one order -- see REGISTER.TXT for a table). Registration
gets rid of the initial about box and closing screen, eases your
conscience and makes the world safe for truth, justice, the democratic
way and further FM/2 updates, not necessarily in that order. I also
include some things that might be useful with FM/2 if you order the
disks.
Registrations are good for one year or one full version change (i.e.
2.00 -> 3.01), whichever comes last. Versions before a full version
change stay registered forever. Considering the price, the program and
the upgrade policy, I don't think you can beat FM/2 with a stick. But
then, I'm a prejudiced jerk.
(Someone asked me why registrations are cheaper for personal use than
for commercial use. I thought it was obvious, but I guess it's not. I
feel that individual, private use of software should be cheaper than
use in an environment where it's contributing to making money. I feel
that much software is already priced far too high for individual,
private users as it is, and therefore I give individual, private users
a break (commercial users can get price breaks based on quantity -- see
REGISTER.TXT). It just seems fair to me, and I've got to live with
myself.)
You can also register FM/2 at the OS/2 Supersite (os2ss.com), or you can
register online via Compuserve's Shareware Registration service (GO
SWREG) as #2859 for personal registrations or #4228 for commercial. The
price is a bit higher on CIS to give CIS a cut (CIS will show it to you
first). Support is currently being provided in the CIS OS/2 Shareware
forum (GO OS2SHARE, library 18 of OS2BVEN).
Speaking of updates, I tend to put them up _very_ regularly
(incrementing the version number by .01 each time, with occassional
letter increments between). I'm one of those fellows who likes to
always have some new software to play with, so I figure others might,
too. Besides, it's fun. And finally, FM/2 benefits from a unique
ongoing feedback from regular users that causes new functionality not
only to appear frequently but to be tweaked to user preferences with
each release. Don't feel obligated to get each new release if you don't
like updating -- keep an eye on the HISTORY.TXT and upgrade only when
something you need appears.
You can always get the latest version of FM/2 from bmtmicro.com, though
it makes the usual rounds fairly quickly.
Technical stuff:
===============
There are some limitations to FM/2, imposed by OS/2's remaining 16-bit
subsystems (hopefully future versions of OS/2 will remove some or all of
these -- some have already been eliminated since OS/2 2.0).
If FM/2 won't run, the probable culprit is CONFIG.SYS. Your LIBPATH
statement should contain a ".\" entry. If yours doesn't, add it in.
It's standard for an OS/2 installation, but some ill-tempered install
programs accidentally knock it out. What this does is allow a program
to find and use .DLL files in the program's current directory.
LAN troubleshooting:
-------------------
FM/2 has been tested by users with the following LAN software:
LAN Server: No known problems.
TCP/IP: No known problems.
Novell: Earlier versions had problems that have been corrected.
If you encounter problems, upgrade.
LANtastic: Somewhat buggy -- contact Artisoft and ask for a fix.
They know about the problems but could use some "guidance"
from their users.
Fixpack troubles:
----------------
Fixpack 17 for OS/2 Warp is the second buggiest fixpack in IBM history
(fixpack 16 was first). There are several bugs in FP17 that may bite
you: REXX not working right, video glitches, and focus problems are the
most prevalent. All in all, if you don't need the additional
functionality of FP17 (which you probably don't, unless you're building
Opendoc objects), back the fixpack off the system. If you need one of
the actual _fixes_ in the fixpack, install fixpack 10 instead (which
also has its problems, but they can be overcome by backing out some
files, in particular IBM1S506.ADD for many installations, and the
HLP/INF viewers, which are broken). Don't forget to reinstall any new
video drivers after installing a fixpack -- they invariably put the old,
buggy ones back on the system.
Merlin notes:
============
FM/2 has been tested under the Merlin beta and works fine (as does the
Merlin beta, for the most part).
+----------------------------------------+
| IMPORTANT! Read before distributing! |
+----------------------------------------+
Simple license statement:
========================
You are granted a license to try this shareware program (FM/2) for up to
thirty (30) days, after which you must register or discontinue its use.
Permission is granted to redistribute the unaltered shareware archive
for a reasonable (read nominal, small) copying charge. FM/2 may
specifically not be packaged with a commercial book without requesting
and obtaining permission (common courtesy -- remember, "copyright" means
literally "the right to control who copies the material"). Such
permission is usually granted shortly after receipt of the request. If
you write a review on FM/2, I'd certainly appreciate a courtesy copy of
the review -- my wife collects them. All rights are reserved by the
author. That's me.
There is NO warranty. Support is NOT guaranteed to unregistered users.
Contact info:
============
Mark Kimes (mkimes@ibm.net; CIS 74601,1327; (318)222-3455)