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DISK CATALOG SYSTEM (CATDISK) USER'S GUIDE Version 4.50 Mar 11, 1990 Copyright (C) 1986, 1990 By Rick Hillier All Rights Reserved. _______ ____|__ | (tm) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S 1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Licensing And Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Public Domain And Shareware Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 ASP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2. GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 What You Should Have Received . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Initial Note On Archive Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Configuring CATDISK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Upgrading From V3.61 or Later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 General Considerations When Configuring CATDISK . . . . . . . 12 Sample Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 IMPORTANT NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Starting CATDISK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3. USING CATDISK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Using The Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Screen Report Options Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Selecting A Volume ID From A List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Option 1 - Set Drive For Cataloging . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Option 2 - Settings And Toggles Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 1 - Pauses On/Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2 - Set Current Catalog File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3 - Change Printer Report Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4 - File Comments On The Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 5 - Zip File Comment Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 6 - Set Current Report Destination . . . . . . . . . . . 24 7 - Archive Extract Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 8 - Comments When ZIPS Not Extracted . . . . . . . . . . . 25 9 - Aliases On/Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ESC - Return To Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Option 3 - Labeling A Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Option 4 - Cataloging A Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Option 5 - UnCataloging A Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Option 6 - Show Disk Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Option 7 - Show Files For A Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Option 8 - Show Files For An Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Option 9 - Show Selected Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Option 0 - Show ALL Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Option F1 - Add/Change File Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Option F2 - Show Files By Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Option F3 - Temporarily Exit To DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Option <drive_letter> - Show Disk Directory . . . . . . . . 47 Option ESC - Exit To DOS . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Appendix A - The Scroll Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Appendix B - Archive Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Appendix C - Support And Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Appendix D - Questions And Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Appendix E - CATLOOK Command Line Lookup Utility . . . . . . . . 55 Appendix F - CATDISK PLUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Appendix G - Other Products Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 1 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ( C O N T ' D ) CATDISK V4.50 Registration Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 CATDISK V4.50 Site License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 CATDISK V4.50 Vendor Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 2 1. I N T R O D U C T I O N DEDICATION This program is dedicated to the memory of my Grandfather, Earl Hillier (Jan 1, 1909 - May 2, 1989). OVERVIEW Overheard: "I know I have that file in an archive on a disk SOMEWHERE! If only I could FIND it!" Sound familiar? Many people I know are in this predicament. Enter CATDISK, the disk cataloging system. CATDISK can help you organize your disks in such a way that it is easy to find a file from within a large collection by creating a collective directory of all the files contained in your collection. See the FEATURES section below for a listing of CATDISK's capabilities. FEATURES . Completely menu-driven and very easy to use. . Easy to use configuration utility allows customization of many of the program's features. . All screen colors can be customized to your liking. . Command line options can be stored in the DOS environment area negating the need to memorize them. . Cataloging/Uncataloging/Re-cataloging functions are completely automatic. . A disk volume label can be changed from within CATDISK. . You can catalog a disk under an alias instead of the physical volume label. . Can support up to 32,767 files or 2,000 disks per catalog, whichever comes first. . Supports multiple catalog files. . This limit can be reduced through the configuration utility to better optimize memory usage. . Supports sub-directories up to 32 levels deep with an upper limit of 256 directories per disk being cataloged. . Able to read the directory contents of .ARC, .DWC, .LBR, .LZH, .LZS, .PAK, .ZIP, and .ZOO files. See the appendix on ARCHIVE SUPPORT in this user manual for further details. . Can read comments from ZIP, ZOO and DWC files. . ARC, DWC, LBR, LZH, LZS, PAK, ZIP, and ZOO file extraction is optional and can be decided while running the program. . Can extract resolution/color information from GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) files and include it as the default comment. . You can attach a 30 character comment to each file in the catalog. This can be done either while cataloging a disk, or at a later time. . Summary report shows disk capacity, space used and space free on each disk in the catalog to aid in optimization of disk usage. . Files can be viewed by DOS wildcards, Volume ID, ARCHIVE ID, or by keywords or phrases in the file comments. . Reports can be sent to screen, printer, or disk file. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 3 LICENSING AND DISTRIBUTION CATDISK is copyright and has been released for distribution as SHAREWARE. Please note that a great deal of effort and time has been invested in the development of this program. You are granted a license to try CATDISK for a reasonable trial period without risk. If, after this time, you find the program useful and intend to use it in managing your disk collection, you are expected to register. The base registration fee is $20. This will entitle you to continue to use CATDISK beyond a reasonable trial period as well as entitle you to program support. You will find a registration form at the end of this user manual that outlines the procedures for registering your copy of the program. Should you decide that you would like the latest release (or a pending release if you already have the latest) appropriate information is contained on the same form. Please keep in mind that I must have a registration form on file for you before I can offer product support. Operators of electronic bulletin boards (Sysops) are encouraged to post CATDISK for downloading by their users. CATDISK may be uploaded to and downloaded from commercial systems such as CompuServe, the Source, and BIX, so long as the only charge paid by the subscriber is for on-line time and there is no charge for the program. Those copying, sharing, and/or electronically transmitting the program are required not to delete or modify the copyright notice and restrictive notices from the program or documentation; anyone doing so will be treated as a contributory copyright violator. If you are passing this program on to others, uploading it to a bulletin board system, or including it in a users group library, do not separate the files contained in the distribution archive - pass the entire archive on to the intended party. This ensures that those who receive the program will have all the correct configuration utilities and documentation necessary to get CATDISK up and running quickly. A listing of what files you should have and the purpose of each is listed later in this manual. The CATDISK documentation may not be modified by users. The program may not be separated from the documentation when distributed. Printed or Photocopies ("Xeroxed") copies of the CATDISK documentation (i.e., this manual) may not be distributed or sold without the written permission of the author. No other person other than the author, Rick Hillier, may accept payment or royalties for this program. This license to use CATDISK does NOT include the right to distribute or sell CATDISK. Distribution terms are detailed on the next page. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 4 PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SHAREWARE LIBRARIES Distributors of "public domain" or user-supported software libraries must obtain written permission to distribute copies of CATDISK. No one may use CATDISK as a promotion for any commercial venture or as an enticement for the user to pay for any program, product, or service unless they have received the express written permission of the program's author. In order to distribute CATDISK, a dealer or disk vendor must comply with the following conditions: (1) You must obtain written permission from Rick Hillier to distribute CATDISK. Please use the vendor application supplied near the end of this user manual. If you receive no reply, write again: my silence does NOT constitute permission, and you may not distribute "pending" receipt of permission. (2) A maximum disk fee as set by Rick Hillier in the vendor contract must not be exceeded. CATDISK may not be included on any disk sold for more than this maximum. Major CD-ROM or optical disk libraries are exempt from this restriction, provided that they have the author's permission to distribute CATDISK. (3) Vendors may not modify or delete ANY files on the disk. Vendors may add a "GO" program, and/or a reasonable number of small text files designed to assist or provide a service to the user, but these added files must be easily identifiable and end-users must be allowed to delete the added files. (4) Vendors must make a reasonable effort to distribute only the most recent versions of CATDISK. All vendors who have requested and received written permission to distribute CATDISK will receive new MAJOR releases as they are issued. (5) All disk vendors must comply with any and all vendor guidelines vendor requirements set forth by the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP); for more information about ASP, contact its chairman, Jim Button, at Buttonware in Seattle. Violation of any ASP guideline or requirement automatically revokes permission to distribute CATDISK. Until formal requirements are adopted by the ASP, you must comply with the following guidelines: Vendors must make an attempt to educate users on the nature of Shareware. Catalogs, advertisements, order forms, and all disks sold should contain ASP-approved or recommended wording describing the nature of shareware, and should explicitly state that no part of disk sale revenues are paid to the programs' authors. When vendor catalogs or advertisements carry both Shareware and PD programs, the Shareware programs must be differentiated from the public domain programs in some way (in the description, with an asterisk, by listing the registration fee, etc.). ASP CATDISK is a Shareware program conforming to standards as established by the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) located at 325 118th Ave. S.E., Suite 200, Belleview, WA 98005. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 5 2. G E T T I N G S T A R T E D WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED CATDISK is distributed in the form of a self-extracting executable file created with Haruyasu Yokizaki's LHARC utility. This file should contain eight files which are as follows: CATDISK.EXE - The CATDISK program file. CATLOOK.EXE - The CATDISK command line utility (lookup program). CDISKCFG.EXE - The CATDISK configuration program. * CATDISK.DOC - The manual you are now reading. * CATDISK.HST - Revision history for CATDISK since its initial release in October 1986. README.1ST - Urgent program notes - IMPORTANT -- READ THIS FILE! CDISKCVT.EXE - Conversion utility for converting old CATDISK files to the newest format - See the README.1ST file before running. CLEANCAT.EXE - Cleanup utility for catalog entries containing volume labels containing null characters - See the README.1ST file before running. * These two files are distributed in a self-extracting archive called CATDOC.EXE. Simply run it to extract the two files. If you are running on floppy disks, extract these files to a clean disk. See the file README.1ST for further details. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . IBM PC/XT/AT or PS/2 or true compatible computer. . DOS V2.00 or above. . At least one floppy disk drive (Hard Drive Highly Recommended). . 256K RAM - if more is available, CATDISK will have greater internal capacity for reading new files off of the disks being cataloged and will run more efficiently. INITIAL NOTE ON ARCHIVE FILES At various points in this user manual, references to ARCHIVE files are made. This is a collective term describing a file that actually contains more than one file. The contained files may or may not be compressed. Currently, this refers to LBR, ARC, PAK, ZIP, LZH, LZS and ZOO files. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 6 CONFIGURING CATDISK Many features of CATDISK may be permanently set from the configuration program, "CDISKCFG.EXE". When you start this program, please make sure that the correct versions of the program files "CATDISK.EXE", and "CATLOOK.EXE" are in the current drive and directory, otherwise you will get an error message. Upon startup, the configuration program will read the current settings defined in "CATDISK.EXE", after which, the configuration screen will be presented. You may change any given item on this screen by using the <Cursor UP> and <Cursor DOWN> keys to highlight the title of the desired field. The bottom portion of the screen will contain any additional information as well as any instructions on how to change the selected item. A discussion of the 10 items on this list follows: 1) SCREEN UPDATE METHOD You may choose between having your screen updated by using your computer's built in BIOS routines, or by using a faster DIRECT screen update method. Using the BIOS is much slower than using direct access, but maintains compatibility with such operating environments as TopView, Desqview, and DoubleDOS. Choosing DIRECT screen access is much quicker, but will be incompatible with most multitasking programs such as the above mentioned due to the fact that they cannot handle "ill-behaved" programs that write directly to the screen. If you chose DIRECT screen access, a second test is made if you have a GRAPHICS display connected in your system. Some video adapters have the nasty side effect of producing static, or "snow" when the video memory is accessed directly. This test will do multiple direct access to the video ram on your graphics adapter. When you hit a key to stop the test, you will be asked if you saw static on the screen. If you answer "Y" to the prompt, CATDISK will check for horizontal retrace before writing to the display. This will result in a slightly slower screen response than normal, but it is almost negligible. If you are not running under a multitasking system, or are using DoubleDos in dual screen mode, I would recommend that you use DIRECT screen access, as it's much quicker. 2) COLOR OR B & W This option is self-explanatory. The appearance of the setup screen will depend on the setting of this field. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 7 3) DISK CACHE SIZE This field will enable you to set the DISK CACHE size. Setting it to zero will disable the cache (i.e. turn the feature off). Setting it to a number greater then zero will turn it on and will enable CATDISK to keep the most recently read sectors of the CATALOG FILES in memory, resulting in much faster scans through the catalog file when looking for a group of files. Some hard disks use their own device driver, and are incompatible with this caching method. If this is the case, CATDISK will warn you of this condition if caching is enabled, but is incompatible with your hard disk. Under these circumstances, the caching feature will be turned off during that program run... use this configuration option to permanently disable the cache and eliminate the warning at each startup. If you already have a resident disk cache loaded in your system, DO NOT USE CATDISK'S BUILT IN CACHE!!! The two systems will conflict with each other and will probably cause damage to your catalog files. 4) NUMBER OF LINES PER PAGE The number of lines per page field will enable you to tell CATDISK the number of lines of data (EXCLUDING headings) that it should place on each page of printer or disk output. This may be any number between 0 and 255. Entering zero will disable page breaking and the output will be presented in a continuous stream with one title at the top. 5) PRINTER STARTUP STRING The printer start up string is a series of ASCII codes (entered here as their Ascii VALUES) that will tailor your reports to the format you desire. For example, I use an Epson printer and like to set it to 1/8" spacing and get 80 report lines per page. To do this, I send a startup string of "<Esc> <0>" to set this print mode. To enter this string in the configuration program, I would enter it as "027 048" without the quotes. The numbers are simply the ASCII values of the characters I wish to send. If you have a setup string entered here and wish to clear it, simply hit <Return> in response to the prompt in the bottom area of the screen. 6) PRINTER FINISHING STRING The printer finishing string is commonly used to reverse the startup string entered above and is entered in exactly the same way. In the example above, I would use "<Esc> <2>", which would be entered as "027 050" without the quotes. If you have a setup string entered here and wish to clear it, simple hit <Return> in response to the prompt in the bottom area of the screen. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 8 7) DEFAULT ARCHIVE EXTRACT STATE This will control the way CATDISK handles any ARCHIVE files that it might encounter when cataloging your disks. If you set it to OFF, CATDISK will NOT extract any archive files that it finds on your disks. If you set it to ON, CATDISK will expand EVERY ARCHIVE file that it finds on your disks. If you set it to QUERY, CATDISK will ask you for permission to expand an ARCHIVE file each time it encounters one. This can be changed temporarily while running CATDISK. 8) DEFAULT CATALOG DRIVE The default catalog drive is the drive that CATDISK will assume you wish to use for labeling disks and reading them for cataloging purposes. This drive may still be changed at startup time (see STARTING CATDISK), or from the menu when catdisk is running. If you are running on single floppy based system, I would recommend that you set this drive to the same drive ID that CATDISK will be run from. CATDISK will prompt you to enter the appropriate disks at the appropriate time, and will eliminate potential problems with the disk caching feature if enabled (See the file README.1ST). 9) CATALOG FILE DIRECTORY The catalog file directory is the location in your system that CATDISK will look for and create its catalog files. This path may contain a drive designator, so that the catalog files may reside on a different drive than CATDISK itself, such as a ramdisk (in this case don't forget to copy the files to a real disk before you turn off or reboot your machine). If this field is blank, the default drive and directory will be used. 10) DISKS/FILES PER CATALOG The maximum number of disks and files per catalog is simply that. When CATDISK starts, it allocates its work space according to this setting. There are currently four possible settings; which one you pick is largely dependent upon the environment in which CATDISK is to be run. These settings are: DISKS # FILES 2000 32767 (32K) 1500 24576 (24K) 1000 16384 (16K) 500 8192 ( 8K) Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 9 COLOR CUSTOMIZATION If you are running on a color monitor and have the color setting in the main configuration set to COLOR, you may set your own screen colors if you happen to dislike the color scheme that comes with CATDISK. To do so, simply hit <F9> from the configuration screen and follow the menus. Once you have selected this option, you will see a menu that will allow you to select some general colors such as screen background and border color (CGA type displays only - EGA and VGA have no effect), as well as an option to reset the author's (that's me!) colors should you really make a mess of the color scheme and wish to start over. The other options will bring up menus that pertain to the various screens that you might encounter in your usage of CATDISK. When you reach these, there will be an option available for each item that will change its foreground or background color. Selecting an option will step you through the possible color range for that particular item. Sound confusing? Try it for yourself... it's really quite easy. For starters, try setting everything to green on cyan <grin> (if you don't have a strong stomach, don't bother). Once you have set all the fields to your desired settings, you may instruct CDISKCFG to save the current settings by pressing <F10>. CATDISK will save the appropriate information in the CATDISK.EXE and CATLOOK.EXE program files and return to DOS. If you do not wish to save the changes you made, simply hit <Esc>, and you will be returned to DOS, while the previous configuration will remain unscathed. CATDISK is shipped with the following default settings: 1) Screen Update Method: BIOS 2) Color or B & W: B & W 3) Disk Caching: 0 K (Disabled) 4) Output Lines Per Page: 58 5) Printer Startup String: Nothing 6) Printer Finishing String: Nothing 7) Default ARCHIVE Extract State: ON 8) Catalog Drive: A: 9) Catalog File Directory: Default Drive and Directory 10) Maximum Disks/Files per Catalog: 1000/16384 11) Color Scheme: Authors Colors Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 10 UPGRADING FROM V3.61 OR LATER Before copying the new program files to your work disk, you might want to rename the executable file from the previous installation (CATDISK.COM or CATDISK.EXE) to another name. The configuration utility, CDISKCFG.EXE has the ability to read the configuration information from the release that you were using for easy installation into this release. This can save you some time in setting the program up for your preferences, particularly if you've customized all the screen colors. Example - Upgrading from V3.71 to this release: Procedure: 1) Rename your old CATDISK.EXE to CAT371.EXE (this file holds the configuration information from the last installation. 2) Run the configuration utility, CDISKCFG.EXE. 3) Hit <F8>. CDISKCFG will ask you for the file name of the old program file. Answer "CAT371.EXE" (without the quotes). CDISKCFG will search the given file for the appropriate configuration information. If successful, this information will be reflected in the configuration options as displayed on the screen. If you've selected the wrong file, you will get an error message, and the old settings will remain intact on the screen. 4) If successful, press <F10>, and the settings will be saved in the current CATDISK release. 5) Delete CAT371.EXE - it's no longer needed. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 11 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS WHEN CONFIGURING CATDISK When setting CATDISK up, there are a few things you should consider: If you have a hard disk, you should use it for maintaining your catalog files (i.e. set your catalog file directory to somewhere on your hard drive). If possible, set your video update method to DIRECT. CATDISK runs faster in this mode. If you are using a hard drive or a ram disk to hold your catalog files, you should NOT use CATDISK's caching feature. The cache built into CATDISK is meant to aid those with floppy disk based systems when doing multiple searches through the catalog file. Using the cache while updating a catalog files imposes additional overhead on the operation. It is negligible on floppy based systems, as the bottleneck in the operation is the disk itself - on hard drives, it is noticeable. If possible, using one of the commercially available disk caching systems is recommended, as they incorporate features into their programs such as being able to use extended and expanded memory and the like that are not feasible to include in CATDISK. When setting your printer up for printing reports, try to set the printer startup string such that the complete catalog listing (i.e. files, stats and comments) can be printed. The best setting for the default ARCHIVE extract state is QUERY. Many archives do not need to be fully extracted as the name of the archive filename itself is all that is necessary in order to identify what is on that particular disk. By using some discretion in deciding which archive files need be extracted, you can dramatically reduce the size of your catalog files (as well as the time needed to update and search them). Some however, need to be extracted (for example, MISC.ARC). This setting gives you the best of both worlds. When setting the default drive and directory for your catalog files, be sure and include it in your DOS PATH as well. Although this is not necessary, it will enable you to run CATDISK from anywhere in your system without having to change to that directory before running CATDISK. Setting the PATH for this is only beneficial to those using hard drives. When setting the maximum number of disks and files that can be maintained in a catalog file, the best setting should be the LOWEST one that will contain your largest catalog file. This will maximize the amount of free memory left over that CATDISK can use to store file information being read from disks being cataloged, sorting information, caching information, and the like. Keep in mind that, if you should have a catalog file grow to your set maximum, you can always re-configure CATDISK (memory permitting, of course) to accommodate a larger configuration, unless you are already at the highest setting. When you next run CATDISK after making these changes, your catalog file will then be able to grow to the new setting. If you are running on floppy drives, use the 8K setting for disks/files per catalog. Your files will never exceed this limitation. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 12 SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS Scenario: One Hard Disk (C:) and a floppy drive: Make a directory "C:\CATDISK" and copy the files CATDISK.EXE and CDISKCFG.EXE to it. Set the configuration to: 1) Screen Update Method: <your option> 2) Color or B & W: <your option> 3) Disk Caching: 0 K (Disabled) 4) Output Lines Per Page: <your option> 5) Printer Startup String: <your option> 6) Printer Finishing String: <your option> 7) Default ARCHIVE Extract State: <your option> 8) Catalog Drive: A: 9) Catalog File Directory: C:\CATDISK 10) Maximum Disks/Files per Catalog: <your option> 11) Color Scheme: <your option> Add C:\CATDISK to the DOS PATH and you will be able to call up CATDISK or CATLOOK from anywhere in your system. Scenario: Two floppy drives: Take a blank disk and copy the files CATDISK.EXE and CDISKCFG.EXE to it. This will be your CATDISK program disk. Set the configuration to: 1) Screen Update Method: <your option> 2) Color or B & W: <your option> 3) Disk Caching: <your option> 4) Output Lines Per Page: <your option> 5) Printer Startup String: <your option> 6) Printer Finishing String: <your option> 7) Default ARCHIVE Extract State: <your option> 8) Catalog Drive: A: 9) Catalog File Directory: B:\ 10) Maximum Disks/Files per Catalog: 500/8192 11) Color Scheme: <your option> When starting CATDISK for the first time, insert the program disk in drive A: and take a blank formatted disk and insert it in drive B:. This will be your data disk. When CATDISK has loaded and has displayed the title screen, you may remove the CATDISK program disk from the A: drive. This will now be the drive from which disks being cataloged will be read. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 13 Scenario: One floppy drive: Take a blank disk and copy the files CATDISK.EXE and CDISKCFG.EXE to it. This will be your CATDISK program disk. Set the configuration to: 1) Screen Update Method: <your option> 2) Color or B & W: <your option> 3) Disk Caching: <your option> 4) Output Lines Per Page: <your option> 5) Printer Startup String: <your option> 6) Printer Finishing String: <your option> 7) Default ARCHIVE Extract State: <your option> 8) Catalog Drive: A: 9) Catalog File Directory: A:\ 10) Maximum Disks/Files per Catalog: 500/8192 11) Color Scheme: <your option> When starting CATDISK for the first time, insert the program disk in drive A: and start CATDISK. You will need to add the command line option /IP (initial pause - see later in this manual). Once CATDISK has loaded, it will pause and ask you to insert your data disk. If this is the first time you are running CATDISK, use a blank formatted disk. When you catalog a disk, you must first remove the data disk and insert the disk to be cataloged BEFORE activating the catalog function. When CATDISK is done reading the disk, it will ask you to re-insert the data disk. IMPORTANT NOTE If you are running CATDISK on a single drive system, I would recommend the above configuration for two reasons, even though DOS can make the one drive act like A: and B:. 1) Perhaps the most important reason; if you've activated the disk caching feature, is that failure to do so may cause a loss of data on disks other than your data disk, particularly when you label a disk. The reason being that the cache built into CATDISK references the PHYSICAL hardware, not the logical drive that DOS creates (i.e. A: and B: use the SAME piece of equipment). By setting CATDISK to the above configuration, it will be aware that the above situation exists and take the correct action when carrying out critical functions. 2) This will allow CATDISK to prompt you for the appropriate disks, thus avoiding the DOS prompt "Insert disk for drive B:" and the like. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 14 STARTING CATDISK CATDISK is started from the DOS command line by issuing the following: CATDISK parameters - where parameters may include any of the following: /NP - Specifying this command line option will cause CATDISK to eliminate the pause after cataloging/ un-cataloging a disk. It will also eliminate the "Insert a disk in drive X:" prompt unless it is absolutely necessary. /NW - Under normal circumstances, when you catalog a disk containing a Volume ID that already exists in the current catalog, CATDISK will issue a warning to that effect, and will ask you for verification before proceeding to catalog that disk The reason behind this is that there is always the possibility of two different disks having the same Volume ID. Cataloging one would mean that the files from the other would be un-cataloged in the same process. If you specify the /NW option on the command line, this warning will be suppressed, and the disk will be cataloged without further delay. This option will also disable CATDISK's warning before creating any new catalog files when the current catalog file is changed via CATDISK's menus to a catalog set that does not exist. /NS - Suppress status indicators during processing. This speeds up processing time. Status indicators are there simply to indicate that the computer is actually doing something useful. Try it either way and set it to your liking. /AC - Turn the auto comment feature ON at startup. Normally, CATDISK, upon completion of cataloging a group of files from a disk will immediately return to the menu. Activating this feature from the command line (or from the menu) will cause CATDISK to proceed to the section where you may add/modify the file comments for the volume that you just cataloged. /SD - CATDISK can display screen information for your catalog in two different formats. The default is to show the Filename, Volume ID, Arc ID, size, date, time and attributes for each record. There is a second display format that omits the file attributes, but shows the sub-directory that the file occupies on its disk. Setting this option will make the second format the starting report type. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 15 /Ffilename - The default filename that CATDISK uses is "CATDISK" which may be overridden with this parameter. Note that there is no space between the /F and the filename. If you specify /F? on the command line, CATDISK will bring up a point and shoot selection menu of all of the catalogs it detected in your catalog file directory. If none are found, an error message will be displayed and you will be returned to DOS. Hitting the <Esc> key from within this list will also cause you to be returned immediately to DOS. /CO - similar to above, but the third display format that shows file comments will be the default. - *** NOTE: If you specify both /SD and /CO at startup, the LAST one that you specified on the command line will take effect. /Rx - this will allow you to set the initial location that CATDISK will send a report. This location can still be changed from within the settings and toggles menu. x can be any of the following: 1 - Screen 2 - LPT1 3 - LPT2 4 - Disk File 5 - ASK ME (Prompt for location before each report) /Px - Set printer output format to report type x, where x is in the range (0-2). x Value Report Type ------- ----------- 0 Show regular file statistics 1 Show file comments 2 Show file statistics and comments (selecting this report style assumes that your printer is set to produce 132 column reports) /D: - Catalog files from drive D: where D: is one of [A - {last drive in your system}]. /IP - Initial Pause. This parameter will cause CATDISK to pause after it is loaded so that you may remove the program disk (not needed during the session) and insert the data disk. This option is only needed if you are running on a single drive system. /ALIAS - Adding this option to the command line will activate the "ALIAS" feature whereby you will be able to override the name under which a disk will be cataloged. Normally, CATDISK will catalog a disk under the volume label. This will enable you to optionally catalog the disk under a different name without changing the volume label on the disk being cataloged. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 16 /NZ - Normally, when not instructed to read the directory contents of ZIP files, CATDISK will attempt to read in the main comment from any ZIP file that it encounters. Adding this option to the command line will allow you to turn this feature off at startup. Additionally, when CATDISK encounters a GIF file, it will attempt to read in the resolution/color information from it and place it in the comment field. This option will also disable this feature. /NZC - normally, at startup, CATDISK will enable a feature whereby any ZIP files containing a main comment that get expanded will have that main comment inserted into the comment area of any file entry extracted from that ZIP file that does not already have a comment. By adding this option to the command line, this feature will be turned off at program startup. The slash "/" may be substituted by either a dash "-" or a space " ". Examples: CATDISK /FGAMES/NS/AC/CO/P2/ALIAS/B: or CATDISK A: - entering CATDISK ? will bring up a help message indicating the above. NOTE: You may also put the command line options in a DOS environment string using the DOS "SET" command. This command (see examples below), may be placed in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that you will not need to remember which command line options to use to obtain your favorite setup, or for that matter, to type them! - example: SET CATDISK=/FGAMES/NS/AC/CO/P2/ALIAS/B: When you start CATDISK under these circumstances, simply type "CATDISK" <Enter> and the above options will automatically be invoked. Any options entered on the command line will be added to those specified in the CATDISK environment variable. This makes it possible to have a base set of options set in the DOS environment and have an optional set that you can specify at the time you run CATDISK. It is also possible to override some of the options as well (for example, the printed report format, the screen report format, the catalog file, and the catalog drive), as CATDISK will pay attention to the last option of a given type. For example, using the above environment example, entering the command CATDISK /A:/P1 will cause CATDISK to set the catalog drive to A: (overrides the B: option), and the printer report format to show comments (format #1) instead of statistics and comments (format #2). Once CATDISK has been successfully started, a title screen will appear. Hit any key to ascend to the main menu. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 17 3. U S I N G C A T D I S K USING THE MENUS The major options available from CATDISK such as the main functions that you see in the opening menu after the title page disappears can be selected in two different ways. The first, and easiest is just to hit the indicated key beside the desired option. In response to a requests from registered users, I have also implemented a "point and shoot" method of selecting items from a menu. Simply use the cursor keys to position the flashing arrows in the inverse box that indicates the keystroke required to activate the desired option and hit <Return> (or <CR> to you C programmers). This will carry out the same function as if you had struck the key in the inverse box. One advantage that the second approach has to the first is that those of you who do not touch type numbers very well (or have a tendency to hit the key beside the one you are after) have another avenue to use to navigate through the menus of CATDISK. Another is that once you have activated a function such as cataloging a disk, you need only type <Return> to re-activate that function as CATDISK will remember the last option you activated (quite handy if you are cataloging multiple disks, as the <Return> key is larger than most... you aren't as apt to miss it). A special note about the options available in the Settings And Toggles Menu is applicable here. Normally, to change one or more of the settings available in this menu, you would have to select option #2 from the main menu and then select the appropriate option number in the settings and toggles menu to change the desired feature. Although this method of control is intuitive enough, there is a shortcut to these option when you are in the main menu. To change a setting directly from the main menu, simply hold down the <Alt> key and press the number key (from the top row only, not the numeric keypad) that you would normally hit if you were in the settings and toggles menu. CATDISK will act on that keystroke as if you had selected that option directly from the appropriate menu. If the toggled information you changed is not on the top of the screen, the status line will display above the menu title for a second or so before disappearing. You will probably find this method of changing settings preferable to the first method offered as you become more familiar with CATDISK and its operation. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 18 SCREEN REPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE When viewing a report on your screen, there will be several options available to you. The following are available in ALL screen based reports: <Cursor UP> - move up one line in the report. The screen contents will scroll down to make room for the new line appearing at the top. <Cursor DOWN> - move down one line in the report. The screen contents will scroll up to make room for the new line appearing at the bottom. <PgUp> - move up one page (15 lines) in the report. <PgDn> - move down one page (15 lines) in the report. <Home> - move to the beginning of the report. <End> - move to the end of the report. <Grey Plus> - move down through the report 1/15th of the total length of the report (see the appendix regarding the SCROLL BAR later in this manual). <Grey Minus> - move up through the report 1/15th of the total length of the report (see the appendix regarding the SCROLL BAR later in this manual). <Esc> - return to the menu. These options are available in all reports _except_ the SUMMARY REPORT: <N> - change report format to show a standard (normal) file report. This is the default if you do not specify either /SD or /CO when you start CATDISK. <S> - change report format to show sub-directories. If a sub-directory begins with a tilde (~), that means that the sub-directory shown is a sub-directory past the first level (i.e. a sub-directory within a sub-directory). If you wish to have this report format come up by default when starting CATDISK, simply add /SD to your command line with which you invoke CATDISK. <C> - change the report format to any comments you might have entered for the shown catalog entries. If you wish this display format to appear by default, use the /CO option when starting CATDISK. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 19 SELECTING A VOLUME NAME FROM A LIST Other than actually labeling a disk, there are three other locations in CATDISK where you will be prompted for a volume label: un-cataloging a disk; generating a report by volume id; and adding file comments by volume. If you know what volume label is desired at the prompt, you may enter it verbatim. Leaving it blank, however, will cause CATDISK to come up with a point-and-shoot list of all the volume names in the current catalog file. When this list first appears, you will notice that the first volume is highlighted. Selecting a volume from this list is merely a matter of moving the highlight bar to the desired volume and pressing <Enter>. The following options are available: <Cursor UP> - move up one line in the list. If you are already at the top of a column, the highlight bar will move to the bottom of the previous column if available. <Cursor DOWN> - move down one line in the list. If you are already at the bottom of a column, the highlight bar will move to the top of the next column if available. <PgUp> - move back 96 lines in the list. <PgDn> - move ahead 96 lines in the list. <Home> - move to the beginning of the list. <End> - move to the end of the list. <Grey Plus> - move forward in the list 1/15th of the total length of the list (see the appendix regarding the SCROLL BAR later in this manual). <Grey Minus> - move back in the list 1/15th of the total length of the list (see the appendix regarding the SCROLL BAR later in this manual). <Enter> - Select the highlighted volume for the prompt from the previous screen. <Esc> - return to the menu with no further action taken. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 20 OPTION 1 - SET DRIVE FOR CATALOGING This function allow you to set the drive from which the files to be cataloged will be read. Simply select letter from (A - x) to select the drive with that DOS letter designation, where x is the last drive that CATDISK detected in your system configuration. The change will be noted immediately in the status area at the top of the screen. *** NOTE: If you are running with one floppy drive only and have turned the caching option on from the configuration utility, do not set this option to a drive other than the one on which the catalog files reside (probably A:). Failure to do so could cause loss of data on your disks. See the SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS section covered earlier in this section. You have been warned! Users with a hard-disk, single floppy configuration, who are running CATDISK from the hard disk will NOT experience this problem and may proceed as normal. It's ONLY if the same PHYSICAL drive is being used for the CATDISK work files AND the disk to be cataloged that the above precautions must be taken. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 21 OPTION 2: SETTINGS AND TOGGLES MENU The options available in this sub-menu will allow you to control the behavior of some of the features of CATDISK. You can get to this menu by selecting option #2 from the main menu. The options available on this menu are: Sub-option 1 - Pauses On/Off ---------------------------- Under normal circumstances, CATDISK will pause at strategic places, either to allow you to view what has just happened (cataloging and un-cataloging), or to prompt you to insert a disk in drive X: (labeling or reading directories, etc). If you turn this toggle off, CATDISK will only prompt you for a disk when absolutely necessary. In addition, there will be no pause at the end of a catalog update; you will immediately be returned to the main menu, or to the comment entry screen if you have the AUTO COMMENT feature turned on. Sub-option 2 - Set Current Catalog File ---------------------------------------- Although the catalog filename may be set upon starting up CATDISK, is may also be convenient to be able to change the current file from within a CATDISK session. Select option #3 from the main menu, and you will be prompted for a new catalog file to use. Any valid DOS filename will do. Be sure to specify the NAME portion only; do not include the file extension portion. If the name you specify is valid, it will then be used for all subsequent catalog updates and queries (This is reflected at the top of the screen). If not, an error message will be issued and no change will be made to the current catalog file name. If the catalog file set that you specify does not exist, CATDISK will automatically create a new catalog for you. Before doing so, however, CATDISK will indicate that the summary or catalog file does not exist and request your permission to create it before proceeding. If you specified /NW on the command line, this warning will not appear - CATDISK will simply proceed to create any necessary files for the specified catalog set. If you don't enter anything for the catalog filename, a list of all current catalog files in the catalog directory will be displayed on the screen. If the desired catalog is on a removable disk (i.e. floppy disks or removable hard drives), be sure and have that disk in the appropriate drive BEFORE you enter nothing to the prompt so the desired files will appear in the list. This method can be handy when you are not sure of exactly what you called a particular catalog file. To select a file from the list, simply move the highlight bar around the list of filenames with the cursor keys so that it rests on the desired catalog file. At this point, hit the <Enter> key, and that file will be selected as if you had typed it at the prompt. Hitting <Esc> in this screen will abort the operation as if you had pressed <Esc> at the prompt. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 22 If you are switching to a catalog that already exists, and it will not fit into the configuration you defined in the configuration program (maximum disks/files per catalog), you will get an error message and the catalog file setting will be left unchanged. Sub-option 3 - Change Printer Report Type ----------------------------------------- CATDISK currently supports three printer report styles, which are detailed here. The particular report style that you desire may be set with this toggle, and will be reflected in the toggles portion of the menu screen. STATISTICS: This is the default report style (unless overridden on the command line), which is to show the path, filename, volume id, ARCHIVE id, as well as the size, date, time and DOS directory attributes of each file listed. This report style corresponds to the command line option /P0, and will fit on an 80 column printer. COMMENTS: This report style will substitute file comments for the size, date, time, and DOS directory attribute. This report style corresponds to the command line option /P1, and will fit on an 80 column printer. BOTH: This report style will show all of the fields from the two above reports. Please note that it assumes that you either have a 132 column printer, or an 80 column printer set to compressed mode. It corresponds to the command line option /P2. Sub-option 4 - File Comments On The Fly --------------------------------------- If this toggle is turned OFF, CATDISK will proceed back to the main menu upon completion of the process of cataloging a disk. If you wish to add comments for some/all of the files that you have just cataloged, you may turn this toggle ON. When this is the case, CATDISK will catalog files in the normal manner, but upon completion, you will be taken to another screen that will allow you to scroll through the files you just cataloged and add/update the comments for each file shown. See Option F1 - Add/Change File Comments for details on how this section of the program works. Sub-option 5 - Zip File Comment Copy ------------------------------------ If this feature is turned on, CATDISK will take special action when expanding ZIP files. If a main ZIP file comment is found, any file entries extracted that do not have comments will have the main ZIP file comment entry inserted instead. The presence of a "Z" beside the Auto Comments setting in the status information at the top of the screen indicates that this feature is turned on. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 23 Sub-option 6 - Set Current Report Destination ---------------------------------------------- Selecting this option will affect the report destination and whether or not CATDISK will ask you where the report should go. Each time you select option 1, CATDISK will run through a sequence of five possible locations (Screen, LPT1, LPT2, Disk, or ASK ME). Selecting one of the first four will cause CATDISK to immediately generate a report to the selected destination IMMEDIATELY upon selecting it. You will not be prompted any further, unless you have selected DISK, in which case, you will be asked for a filename in which to place the report. If you select ASK ME, CATDISK will prompt you for a report location (one of the first four in the list) each time you ask it to generate a report. I usually leave this setting set to SCREEN as, most of the time, I browse through my catalog files on the screen. You, however, may find it handy to set this to ASK ME, especially if you jump to report locations frequently. If this is the case, you may, if you haven't already, add the command line option /ASK to your current list of options. This will override the default location of SCREEN at startup, negating the need to set it manually each time you start CATDISK. Sub-option 7 - ARCHIVE Extract Setting -------------------------------------- Although this setting is permanently set from the CDISKCFG utility, it is can sometimes be convenient to be able to change it during a CATDISK session. Selecting option 2 will run the Auto ARCHIVE Extract setting through three possibilities, OFF, ON, or QUERY. The current setting is shown near the top of the screen in the status area. If this feature is turned OFF, any file searches through the catalog, with the exception of OPTION #0 - Show All Files, will NOT show any files that reside in an archive file. The archive file's presence will still be shown in the listing. If this feature is turned ON, CATDISK will extract the archive directory of any archive it encounters in its search. If it is set to QUERY, CATDISK will prompt you as to whether it should extract the archive directory of any archive that it encounters in its search before proceeding to do so. Reports generated will act as if the feature is turned ON. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 24 Sub-option 8 - Comments When ZIPS Not Extracted ----------------------------------------------- In the course of its normal operation, CATDISK, when not extracting the directory information from ZIP files, will search each one it encounters for the comment of the ZIP file itself. Under some circumstances, such as those where your particular collection of ZIP files do not contain comments, or where the vast majority of them contain BBS advertisements (not really what they were intended for), this search can be both time consuming and meaningless. This toggle will turn this feature on or off. The presence of a "Z" beside the Archive Extract setting in the status information at the top of the screen indicates that this feature is turned on. Although not related to ZIP files, this feature will also control whether or not the graphic resolution and color information will be extracted from a GIF file to be included as the default comment for that particular file. Sub-option 9 - Aliases On/Off ----------------------------- Activating this option will enable you to override the name under which a disk will be cataloged. Normally, CATDISK will catalog a disk under the volume label. This will allow you to optionally catalog the disk under a different name without changing the volume label on the disk being cataloged. Keep in mind that if you re-catalog the disk at a later time, you must remember the new name that you gave to the disk in your catalog, otherwise, duplication will occur in your catalog. Sub-option <Esc> - Return To Main Menu -------------------------------------- Exactly what it says. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 25 OPTION 3: LABELING A DISK Selection of option #3 on the main menu will allow the VOLUME LABEL of a disk to be set or changed. Upon selection, CATDISK will attempt to read the current label of the disk. If none is present, you will be notified of this, and will be given the opportunity to create a volume label for that disk. See the DOS manual on volume labels for more information. If a label already exists on the disk, its name will be shown as a reminder, and you will be given an opportunity to change the label name. Just enter the new label name and hit <CR>. If the label name was valid, the change will be made, otherwise, an error message indicating such will be issued and you will return to the main menu. If you do not wish to enter or change the disk label, simply hit <ESC> at the volume label prompt and you will immediately return to the main menu with no changed made to the disk label. When the volume label has been successfully changed or created, CATDISK will check to see if the old label, if any was present, exists in the current catalog file. If so, you will be given an opportunity to have CATDISK automatically change the old volume id references to the newly entered one. If the disk that you re-labeled is one that actually is in the catalog, answer <Y>es to the prompt. CATDISK will take care of the rest. This feature can be a great time saver, as it eliminates the need to uncatalog the disk under the old volume id, and re-catalog it under the new name. If the disk is not in the catalog, answer <N>o to the prompt. Answering <Y>es under these circumstances will not damage the catalog file, but will cause confusion as to what disk the altered catalog records reside on. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 26 OPTION 4: CATALOGING A DISK This selection will initiate cataloging of the files on the selected catalog disk as shown in the status area at the top of the screen. The volume label will be read, and if it doesn't exist, you will be given an opportunity to enter a volume label for the disk. If you hit <ESC> at the label prompt, the operation will be aborted and you will be returned to the main menu without cataloging your disk. After entering the label name for that disk, you will be asked if you wish to write that label to disk. If you answer <Y>es, the disk will be labeled and cataloging will continue. If you answer <N>o, the label will not be written, but the disk will be cataloged under the name that you gave it. This will allow easy cataloging of write-protected disks. Please note that volume labels created by Peter Norton's "Volabel" utility may contain lower case characters. CATDISK will convert the labels to upper case before adding them to the catalog. This will enable you to manipulate and uncatalog any of these disks. The physical volume label on the disk will be left unchanged. There are volume label utilities on the market that allow the entry of illegal characters into the volume label. CATDISK will change these offending characters into spaces when it encounters them. This will not affect the physical label on the disk, but rather the way CATDISK stores them in its catalog files. If the label on the disk to be cataloged already exists in the catalog, you will be notified of this situation, and will be given an opportunity to abort the operation. This feature has been added as a safeguard against a situation where two disks of the same volume id may be overriding each other and clobbering the catalog contents of the other disk. If you specified the "/NW" option on at startup, this warning will not be issued. If you specified /ALIAS in your startup options, a screen will appear showing you what the current volume label is on the disk you are about to catalog. A prompt will appear below this asking you for a name under which you would like the disk to be cataloged. The current volume label will be displayed in this area, and you will be allowed to change it before the cataloging process takes place. This can be very handy in certain situations such as vendor disks that insist that the volume label remain unchanged, as the software uses the volume label to identify the disk. The volume label on the disk may not mean anything to you, and using an alias may be desirable in this case. As flexible as the ability to catalog under an alias can be, there are a couple of drawbacks that should be considered before you decide to make the name in the catalog different from the volume label on the disk. Firstly, if you go to re-catalog the disk at a later time and don't provide exactly the same alias that was used initially, you can wind up with duplicate entries in the catalog file, as CATDISK currently has no way of knowing that the disk has already been cataloged. Secondly, if at a later date, you use option #3 in CATDISK to change the volume label on a disk that has already been cataloged, CATDISK will have no way of knowing that it should give you the opportunity to change the entries in the catalog to reflect the new volume label, as the entries are not cataloged under the old volume label. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 27 The best advice would be that if you never intend to re-catalog a disk in the future, then it would be ok to use an alias, otherwise, it's best to stick with a meaningful volume label. Once the name of the disk has been established for cataloging purposes, the directory and any archive or library entries (if the ARCHIVE auto extract feature option is turned on - it is by default) will be read (if the ARCHIVE auto extract is set to QUERY, you will be asked for verification before a given archive or Library will be read). This process will be repeated for each sub-directory on the disk as well. All existing levels of sub-directories will be searched. If the ZIP comment extract feature is turned on (see sub-option #8 in the settings & toggles menu), CATDISK will extract the graphic resolution and color information of any GIF files that it encounters during its operation and place this information in the comment field (if it is a new file, or an existing entry in the catalog file that is blank) as the default comment. For example, a picture contained in a GIF file that has a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels and contains 256 colors will appear as "640x480x256". If CATDISK encounters a ZIP, ZOO or DWC file, any comments that may be stored in that file will be read and included in the catalog file. If the operation is a re-cataloging operation and any extracted filenames already exist in the catalog file with comments attached, the comment from the archive file will be ignored. ZIP files, in addition to supporting comment entries for each file contained, can also have a main comment for the ZIP file itself. When CATDISK reads ZIP files and finds a main comment, it will insert that main comment in the catalog file for any entries in the ZIP file that do not already have comments. This feature of copying the main ZIP file comment can be turned on and off via the menus as desired. Upon completion of this, the catalog summary file and master catalog will be updated to reflect the current directory/directories of the disk. If any files have been added, they will be added to the catalog; if any files have been changed, they will be updated; if any files have been deleted, they will be removed from the catalog. If, while reading the disk, CATDISK cannot find any files there, it will ask you if you would like to add that disk to the catalog anyway. Why would you want to add such a disk to the catalog? The answer to this question can best be explained by an example. You're maintaining a collection of disks for a computer users group. One day, you decide to clean up your collection, eliminating any duplicates that may have crept into the collection. While you're eliminating the duplicates, several of the disks in the sequence become completely empty. In this case, it is desirable to have the disk showing in the summary file as having its capacity completely available to accept new files. Additionally, all the files that were eliminated from that disk will be un-cataloged by CATDISK through its normal function. If the disk has never been cataloged before, this method represents a way to "pre-allocate" the disks to the collection and initialize their entries in the catalog file. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 28 If you would like to have the blank disk included in the catalog, answer YES to the prompt, otherwise, answer NO. If you elect not to include the disk in the catalog file, and it has already been cataloged before, it would be advisable to remove that volume listing from the catalog file using option #5. Keep in mind, that deletion of an ARCHIVE file will cause any files existing within that ARCHIVE file to be uncataloged. Also, turning the Auto ARCHIVE Extraction feature OFF, or answering <No> to a Extract ARCHIVE prompt to a cataloged ARCHIVE will cause any files in an ARCHIVE file on that disk to be uncataloged as well. Should the disk become full when the cataloging process is underway, the process will be aborted with an error message. The old catalog file will remain intact (i.e. no changes made), but the summary file will reflect either the presence of the new disk, or the current status of that disk if it already existed in the catalog. This means that the catalog file will not be accurate as to what's on the disk that you attempted to catalog. If this error is encountered, you should either try to free up some space on disk on which the catalog file exists, or move the .DTA and .SUM files to another disk (see CONFIGURING CATDISK for details on how to access catalog files on other drives and directories) and retry the operation. The cataloging operation is completely automatic and does not require any further input from the operator once started, unless, of course, the ARCHIVE extract state is set to QUERY. If you have turned on the auto-comment feature either from the command line or from the toggles menu, you will be taken to a section of the program that will allow you to add/update file comments. See "<F1> - Adding/Updating File Comments" later in this manual for details. Please keep in mind that CATDISK has an internal limitation of being able to read in only the first 5000 files of the disk being cataloged. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 29 OPTION 5: UNCATALOGING A DISK There may be times when you will wish to remove a disk's files from the catalog. Select option #5 from the main menu, and you will be asked to enter the VOLUME NAME of the disk to be uncataloged. Enter it and hit <Enter>. If the volume label doesn't exist in the catalog, then you will be notified and returned to the main menu. Optionally, you can leave the volume ID blank at the prompt. CATDISK will bring up a point-and-shoot menu from which you can select a volume id from those in your current catalog. See the section entitled "Selecting A Volume Name From A List" previously discussed in this user manual. If the volume label is found in the catalog, its entry will be deleted along with all the file names under it. If you do not wish to carry out this operation, hit <Esc> at the volume label prompt and no action will be taken. Should the disk become full during the catalog update process, the process will be aborted with an error message, and the old catalog file will remain intact. Typically, this error should not occur, unless you have added more files to the disk, or another program has used up more disk space (such as a database expanding a file). Should this error occur, the summary file will no longer contain a reference to the diskette that was uncataloged, but the catalog file will still contain references to that diskette. Should this be the case, you should either free up some space on the disk, or copy the .SUM and .DTA files to another disk (see CONFIGURING CATDISK for details on accessing catalog files on other drives and directories), catalog the diskette in question, and uncatalog it again. This will remove any references to that disk from the catalog file. If you do not have access to that disk any more (you may have erased it), simply take a blank diskette, add one file to it, and label it the same as the diskette you wish to uncatalog. Carry out the above procedure, and you will obtain the same results. In practice, this should not happen, as you would have needed sufficient disk space to create the catalog file in the first place. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 30 OPTION 6: SHOW DISK SUMMARY Selection of option #6 from the main menu will cause CATDISK to display an alphabetical list of VOLUME NAMES and some pertinent statistical information for each. This option is handy if, say, you have a bunch of utility disks and want to add a 14K utility program to one of them. This report can be quite useful in making efficient use of existing working diskettes. All the statistical items shown should be self-explanatory, except one; that is, the Slack % factor. The disks on which DOS stores it files are divided into allocation units called clusters. The size of each cluster varies with the type and size of disk. When DOS allocates space on a disk for a file, it is allotted in one cluster units to the file. Some common cluster sizes are 512 bytes on 160-180K diskettes, and 1024 bytes on 320-360K diskettes. Some hard disks have larger cluster sizes. Anyway, let's say, for example, that you have a file of 256 bytes. On a 360K diskette, DOS will allocate 1024 bytes to the file, even though it is only 256 bytes long. This means that three-quarters of that cluster is unused, or that you have 75% slack for that file. The figure that you see on the summary report is the overall slack percentage of all the files on the disk. Depending on where you have set your output destination, the following options are applicable: Printer: A hardcopy summary report will be printed on your printer. The disk volume names will be echoed to the screen as they are sent to the printer. Hitting <Esc> at any time during report generation will abort it and return to the main menu. Disk: A listing in the same format as the hardcopy summary report will be produced in a diskette file. The default name for this file is one with the same name as the current catalog filename with an extension of ".LST". This may be overridden at the time that the report is generated. Hitting <Esc> at any time during the generation of the report will abort it and return to the main menu. Screen: This will allow you to browse through your summary report on the screen. For a list of options available, please see the section entitled "SCREEN REPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE" in this manual. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 31 OPTION 7: SHOW FILES FOR A VOLUME Selecting option #7 will cause CATDISK to display an alphabetical list of files for a particular disk. If you have the report destination set to "ASK ME", you will be asked for a report location. After the report destination is established, you will be asked for a volume ID. Simply enter it and hit <Return>, or hit <Esc> to return to the menu without producing a report. Once the report location has been determined, CATDISK will ask you for the volume name to match for the report. You can either enter the exact volume name to match, or a wild-card entry to match for the report. If you enter an exact entry, CATDISK will first find it in the summary file. If it does not exist, you will be notified, and the catalog scan will not even take place. If you want to obtain a report for a group of volumes, here's how the wildcard matching works: As CATDISK scans your catalog for matches, it does a character by character comparison of the pattern that you specified and the volume name for each entry in your catalog. As soon as a mismatch occurs, the catalog entry is not included in the report. Two characters have a special meaning in these comparisons. The question mark (?) will match any character in the position which the question mark occupies. The asterisk (*) will match any characters to either the end of the volume name, or the next non-asterisk character in the pattern, if there are any. As a result of this logic, any characters between two asterisks that may occur in the search pattern are ignored. One special case with the asterisk feature is when a pattern is placed in between two asterisks. CATDISK will then match any volume that contains the pattern anywhere in the name. To better illustrate, here are some examples: Pattern Volume ID Match? ----------- ----------- ------ VOLUME 1 VOLUME 1 YES VOLUME 1 VOLUME 2 NO - not an exact match VOL????? VOLUME 1 YES - any 8 char name beginning with "VOL" VOL????2 VOLUME 2 YES - any 8 char name beginning with "VOL" that ends with "2" VOL*1 VOLUME 1 YES - any name beginning with "VOL" and ending in "1" (any number of chars) VOL*1 VOLUME 2 NO - doesn't end in "1" *1 VOLUME 1 YES - any name ending in "1" (any number of chars) *1 VOLUME 2 NO - doesn't end in "1" ???????? VOLUME 1 YES - any 8 char volume name ????????? VOLUME 2 NO - volume ID is not 9 characters long * ANYVOLUME YES - any volume ID, any number of chars AB*CD*EF ABEF YES - "CD" in the middle ignored *MISC* CATMISC1 YES - Contains "MISC" in the volume name. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 32 Note that in the last example, the presence of a leading and trailing asterisk will cause CATDISK to search for the characters enclosed between them as they appear literally. Wildcard characters must not appear between these delimiters, as they cannot exist in a valid DOS filename (i.e. the volume id) and therefore will not be matched. For example," *DI?K*" will cause CATDISK to search for "DI?K" in the volume id. The question mark is not a valid character in a DOS filename, therefore no matches will be found. Optionally, you can leave the volume ID blank. CATDISK will bring up a point-and-shoot menu from which you can select a volume id from those in your current catalog. See the section entitled "Selecting A Volume Name From A List" previously discussed in this user manual. Depending on where you have set your output destination, the following options are applicable: Printer: A hardcopy file report will be printed on your printer. The filenames will be echoed to the screen as they are sent to the printer. Hitting <Esc> at any time during report generation will abort it and return to the main menu. Disk: A listing in the same format as the hardcopy file report will be produced in a diskette file. The default name for this file is one with the same name as the current catalog filename with an extension of ".LST". This may be overridden at the time that the report is generated. Hitting <Esc> at any time during the generation of the report will abort it and return to the main menu. Screen: Upon entering the search spec, scanning of the catalog will commence. If you have status indicators turned on, a counter will increment each time a matching file is found. If at the and of the search, no files were found, an error message will be issued and you will be returned to the main menu. When the search has completed successfully, the file names will be shown alphabetically, along with the volume name, archive name, and other directory information for that file. For a list of options available, please see the section entitled "SCREEN REPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE" in this manual. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 33 OPTION 8: SHOW FILES FOR AN ARCHIVE Selecting option #8 will cause CATDISK to display an alphabetical list of files for a particular archive. If you have the report destination set to "ASK ME", you will be asked for a report location. After the report destination is established, you will be asked for a Archive to list. Simply enter it and hit <Return>, or hit <Esc> to return to the menu without producing a report. If you wish to obtain a report for a group of similarly named archives, you may use wildcards in your search spec. Here's how they work: As CATDISK scans your catalog for matches, it does a character by character comparison of the pattern that you specified and the volume name for each entry in your catalog. As soon as a mismatch occurs, the catalog entry is not included in the report. Two characters have a special meaning in these comparisons. The question mark (?) will match any character in the position which the question mark occupies. The asterisk (*) will match any characters to either the end of the volume name, or the next non-asterisk character in the pattern, if there are any. As a result of this logic, any characters between two asterisks that may occur in the search pattern are ignored. One special case with the asterisk feature is when a pattern is placed in between two asterisks. CATDISK will then match any archive that contains the pattern anywhere in the name. To better illustrate, here are some examples: Pattern Archive ID Match? -------- ---------- ------ MISC1 MISC1 YES MISC1 MISC2 NO - not an exact match MI??? MISC1 YES - any 5 char name beginning with "MI" MI??2 MISC2 YES - any 5 char name beginning with "MI" that ends with "1" MI*1 MISC1 YES - any name beginning with "MI" and ending in "1" (any number of chars) MI*1 MISC2 NO - doesn't end in "1" *1 MISC1 YES - any name ending in "1" (any number of chars) *1 MISC2 NO - doesn't end in "1" ????? MISC1 YES - any 5 char volume name ???????? MISC2 NO - archive ID is not 8 characters long * ANYARCH YES - any archive ID, any number of chars AB*CD*EF ABEF YES - "CD" in the middle ignored *GAME* AGAME001 YES - Contains "GAME" in the archive name Note that in the last example, the presence of a leading and trailing asterisk will cause CATDISK to search for the characters enclosed between them as they appear literally. Wildcard characters must not appear between these delimiters, as they cannot exist in a valid DOS filename (i.e. the archive id) and therefore will not be matched. For example," *DI?K*" will cause CATDISK to search for "DI?K" in the archive id. The question mark is not a valid character in a DOS filename, therefore no matches will be found. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 34 Depending on where you have set your output destination, the following options are applicable: Printer: A hardcopy file report will be printed on your printer. The filenames will be echoed to the screen as they are sent to the printer. Hitting <Esc> at any time during report generation will abort it and return to the main menu. Disk: A listing in the same format as the hardcopy file report will be produced in a diskette file. The default name for this file is one with the same name as the current catalog filename with an extension of ".LST". This may be overridden at the time that the report is generated. Hitting <Esc> at any time during the generation of the report will abort it and return to the main menu. Screen: Upon entering the search spec, scanning of the catalog will commence. If you have status indicators turned on, a counter will increment each time a matching file is found. If at the and of the search, no files were found, an error message will be issued and you will be returned to the main menu. When the search has completed successfully, the file names will be shown alphabetically, along with the volume name, archive name, and other directory information for that file. For a list of options available, please see the section entitled "SCREEN REPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE" in this manual. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 35 OPTION 9: SHOW SELECTED FILES Selecting option #9 will cause CATDISK to display an alphabetical list of files. If you have the report destination set to "ASK ME", you will be asked for a report location. After the report destination is established, you will be asked for a filespec. This filespec follows the conventional DOS filespec search conventions including wildcard searches. Hit <Esc> to return to the menus without generating a report. Examples: *.* - search for everything * - same as *.* *. - search for files with no extension CATDISK*.* - search for files starting with CATDISK and having any file extension CATDISK* - same as CATDISK*.* CATDISK*. - search for files starting with CATDISK and having no file extension *.COM - search for files ending in .COM A*.EXE - search for files starting with A and ending in .EXE CATDISK.EXE - search specifically for CATDISK.EXE *.?Q? - search for files with an extension containing Q as its second character ??.DOC - search for files with two letters as it filename and .DOC as its extension Please refer to the DOS manual for further information on file searching patterns. In addition to the standard DOS wildcard matching specifications, CATDISK adds capabilities similar to the pattern matching discussed earlier in the manual under volume name matching and archive id matching. To apply it to a filename, simply split the filename into its two sections (the part before the period is referred to as the name, and the part after the period is the extension), and apply the principals to each part. A couple of examples would be: *D.* - match any filename whose name ends in "D" and has any extension. C?T*.EXE - match any filename whose name has a "C" in the first position, any character in the second postion, a "T" in the third position, and has an extension of ".EXE". *.*M - match any file with any extension that ends in "M". C*K.* - match any file with any extension whose name starts with "C" and ends with "K". *DISK*.* - match any file whose name contains the characters "DISK". Note that in the last example, the presence of a leading and trailing asterisk will cause CATDISK to search for the characters enclosed between them as they appear literally. Wildcard characters must not appear between these delimiters, as they cannot exist in a valid DOS filename and therefore will not be matched. For example," *DI?K*.*" will cause CATDISK to search for "DI?K" in the files name. The question mark is not a valid character in a DOS filename, therefore no matches will be found. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 36 Although this is a slight departure from the DOS standard for file pattern matching, I'm sure that you will find that these extensions add a little more flexibility and power to CATDISK's reporting capabilities. Depending on where you have set your output destination, the following options are applicable: Printer: A hardcopy file report will be printed on your printer. The filenames will be echoed to the screen as they are sent to the printer. Hitting <Esc> at any time during report generation will abort it and return to the main menu. Disk: A listing in the same format as the hardcopy file report will be produced in a diskette file. The default name for this file is one with the same name as the current catalog filename with an extension of ".LST". This may be overridden at the time that the report is generated. Hitting <Esc> at any time during the generation of the report will abort it and return to the main menu. Screen: Upon entering the search spec, scanning of the catalog will commence. If you have status indicators turned on, a counter will increment each time a matching file is found. If at the and of the search, no files were found, an error message will be issued and you will be returned to the main menu. When the search has completed successfully, the file names will be shown alphabetically, along with the volume name, archive name, and other directory information for that file. For a list of options available, please see the section entitled "SCREEN REPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE" in this manual. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 37 OPTION 0: SHOW ALL FILES This option, if viewed on the screen will product a report in the same manner as option #9, except that ALL files in the catalog will be included in the list. It is similar to choosing option #9 and searching for "*.*". If you have the report destination set to "ASK ME", you will be asked for a report location before any further action takes place. You may sort the full list on various criteria. Currently, you can sort by filename, file extension, subdirectory, volume id, archive id, comment, or file date. Additionally, there are two other "sorting" options here that will show you just the unique files in your catalog file, or just the duplicate files in your catalog. These two items were placed in this menu for lack of a better place to include them in the existing menus. The criteria for these last two reports is based solely on the filename, and optionally, on the file size (you will be asked whether or not you want it to be included before the catalog scan takes place), and not other items such as subdirectory, file date or file size. To start the report, just select one of the criteria from the menu that appears and CATDISK will take care of the rest. If you decide that you do not want to generate a report at this time, you may press <Esc> to return to the main menu without taking any further action. If, during the sorting process (if necessary), CATDISK runs into a disk problem (such as a full disk), or a disk media problem (read or write error), the process will be aborted and no report will be produced. If you opt to view the list sorted by filename, the catalog scan and sort will not take place, as the list is stored by filename anyway. If you opt to view the unique or duplicate file list, a full scan will be made through the catalog file in the same manner as before the equivalent screen report appears before any printing takes place. The reason for this is due to the method that CATDISK uses in comparing filenames to determine whether they are duplicate or unique. Due to the method by which CATDISK scans the catalog, there is a possibility that duplicate files may appear in the unique file reports and vice versa when file size is used as a criteria if the given entries being compared are not right together in the catalog file. An example may make this clearer: Filename.Ext Volume ID File Size TEST .GIF GIF0001 123,456 TEST .GIF GIF0002 123,789 TEST .GIF GIF0003 123,456 In the unique file report, for example, if the file size is ommitted from the search criteria, the report will show none of the above three files, which would be correct. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 38 If, however, the file size is included, all three of the files will show up due to the fact that the second entry in the file list has a different file size. The first file is compared to the second one, and the second one is compared to the third during the sequential search of the catalog. Due to the possibility that there can be many files of the same name occurring in the catalog file, this cannot be currently circumvented. A similar situation can happen in the duplicate files report. Leaving the file size out of the criteria will yield the correct results. Including it may cause all three files to be left out of the report for the same reasons as in the unique file report. Depending on where you have set your output destination, the following options are applicable: Printer: A hardcopy file report will be printed on your printer. The filenames will be echoed to the screen as they are sent to the printer. Hitting <Esc> at any time during report generation will abort it and return to the main menu. Disk: A listing in the same format as the hardcopy file report will be produced in a diskette file. The default name for this file is one with the same name as the current catalog filename with an extension of ".LST". This may be overridden at the time that the report is generated. Hitting <Esc> at any time during the generation of the report will abort it and return to the main menu. Screen: When the screen is selected and a sorting option of filename is selected, the list will appear immediately, as the catalog file itself is arranged in that order and no physical sorting is necessary. + name, archive name, and other directory information for that file. When all is ready, the file names will be shown alphabetically, along with the volume name, archive name, and other directory information for that file. For a list of options available, please see the section entitled "SCREEN REPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE" in this manual. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 39 OPTION F1: ADD/CHANGE FILE COMMENTS There are two places from which this feature can be activated; either at the conclusion of the cataloging process, or from the main menu. If you select <F1> from the main menu, you will get a sub-menu that will allow you to specify one of two methods for deciding which files to bring up on the screen for commenting, or to be able to bring in comments from an external file. If you select sub-option #1, you will be asked to specify a disk volume. Upon entry of such, CATDISK will go through the catalog and bring up a list of files that currently reside on that disk volume. Optionally, you can leave the volume ID blank at the prompt. CATDISK will bring up a point-and-shoot menu from which you can select a volume id from those in your current catalog. See the section entitled "Selecting A Volume Name From A List" previously discussed in this user manual. If you select sub-option #2, you will be asked for a filespec on which to base the search. It functions quite similarly to option #9 (see it for details). If during the cataloging process (option #4), you have the auto-comment feature turned on (either from the command line or the toggles menu), this section will be activated after cataloging a disk, just as if you had specified the Volume ID of the disk that you just cataloged; those files will appear on the screen. Once CATDISK has found a group of files for commenting, they will appear on the screen in a format similar to the "COMMENT" screen output format, the main difference being that one of the comments (or blanks) are highlighted in an inverse field. To change a comment, simply move the highlight to the file that you wish to comment, and start typing. When you are done, hit the <Return> key. Other editing keys are as follows: <Left Arrow> - move cursor one character to the left. <Right Arrow> - move cursor one key to the right. <Home> - move cursor to the beginning of the line (once you have started typing). <End> - move cursor to the end of the line (once you have started typing). <Ctrl>-<End> - erase from the cursor to the end of the line. <Del> - delete the character at the cursor and shift the characters on the right to the left. <Backspace> - delete the character before the cursor and shift the characters on the right to the left. <Ins> - toggle insert/overstrike mode - in insert mode the cursor will be slightly fatter than the one in overstrike mode. <Esc> - cancel the changes and restore the line to its original contents. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 40 In some (and probably most) cases, the file list will be too large to fit on the screen. The list may be browsed through by using the keys on the cursor keypad. Their functions: <UP> & <DOWN> will move the highlight bar up or down one file. If you at a screen margin, and there are still more files to be browsed, the listing on the screen will scroll in the appropriate direction. If you can't move any more, you will hear a short beep. <PgUp> & <PgDn> will move you 15 files forward or backward in the list If you can't move any more, you will hear a short beep. <Home> & <End> will move you to the beginning or end of the group of files respectively. <F9> will repeat Last Entered Comment: This is handy if you want to repeat a single comment at different places in the list where <F10> (see below) won't suffice, as the comment desired is not directly above the current position. If no comment was previously entered, or the last entered comment was blank, no action will be taken. <F10> will "Ditto": Pressing this key will copy the comment from the entry above. It is handy if you want to copy a comment down a consecutive list of files, or one that was already previously entered at an earlier time, if it is directly above the current position. If the comment above is blank, or you are at the top of the list, no action will be taken. <Grey Plus> move down through the list 1/15th of the total length of the list (see the appendix regarding the SCROLL BAR later in this manual). <Grey Minus> move up through the list 1/15th of the total length of the list (see the appendix regarding the SCROLL BAR later in this manual). <Tab> This will toggle the information shown on the left of the comment area between showing the subdirectory, archive and volume information and showing the archive, file size and date information. This option is not shown at the bottom of the screen due to lack of room on the instruction line. <Esc> Return to the main menu when you are done. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 41 Sub-Option #3 - Merging Comments From A Text File ------------------------------------------------- Sub-option #3, import comments from a text file, will allow you to bring in file comments from an external source, be it a bbs listing that you've either downloaded or captured with your communications package, or any file that contains plain text. This file can contain anything: filesizes, dates, times, etc. The only limitations are that the file contain no tabs, and that each line be no longer then 255 characters. Many utilities such as Norton's fileinfo (FI) utility can re-direct their output to a text file simply by appending ">TEXTFILE" (without the quotes) to the command. Using Norton's FI utility as an example, you could use "FI A: /C/L >TEXTFILE" to produce a file called TEXTFILE that would contain comments for many of the files on a floppy disk. Please refer to your Norton Utilities manual for details on how to maintain those comments with FI. Once you select sub-option #3, a screen containing the controlling settings for the expected text file will appear. These settings can be stored in a setup file (profile) for later retrieval. To avoid disk clutter, profiles are stored in the same directory as your catalog files. This eliminates the need for having to remember the settings for, say, the file dump from Norton's FI as described earlier on. You can enter the settings once, save them to a profile and be able to recall them later on. The first item on the screen indicates what file that the current settings came from. The second item is the filename of the textfile from which the comments will be read. The next 8 settings will depend on the characteristics of the file being read. The pre-filled numbers assume that you are reading comments from CATDISK's own report printed to disk showing both statistics and comments. The first setting is the beginning and ending character positions of the filename as it appears on each line. These settings are critical for CATDISK to be able to identify where to put each comment, and must contain a value greater than zero. The second setting is the beginning and ending character positions of the subdirectory, if it exists in the text file. If the text file contains the subdirectory in which each file resides, you may include it with these settings, or if either the file does not contain subdirectory information, or you do not wish to use it, you may set the beginning and ending positions to zero. CATDISK will then ignore them. The third setting is the beginning and ending character positions of the volume id, if it exists in the text file. If the text file contains the volume id for the disk on which each file resides, you may include it with these settings, or if either the file does not contain this information, or you do not wish to use it, you may set the beginning and ending positions to zero. CATDISK will then ignore them. Finally, the last setting is the starting and ending character positions of the file comment. These values must also be set to something that is greater than zero, as CATDISK needs a comment to insert for each file that it finds in your catalog file. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 42 The easiest way to determine the appropriate settings for the text file you will be importing is to first load it into your favorite text editor. Place the cursor on the beginning and ending characters of the various items discussed above, and note what column the editor indicates that the current cursor position is. These will be the values that you will fill in to the control screen. Here are a few important notes regarding the text file. There is really no need to edit blank lines and headings out of the file before processing, as the chances of CATDISK matching a filename, subdirectory and volume id found in the appropriate character positions in a heading with a file entry in the catalog file are quite slim. It is important that each data line (not the headings) in the file be structured the same way (i.e. all the columns line up as in a report). If this is not the case, chaos in the comments fields in the affected files will result. Lastly, CATDISK has an internal limitation of being able to read in only the first 32,767 non-blank lines in the file. The rest will be ignored. All this said, changing the settings is a matter of using the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys to highlight the desired setting, typing the new information for that setting and hitting <Enter>. Pressing <Esc> when not editing a setting will return you to the menu with no further action taken. Retrieving and saving profiles is a simple matter of typing in the desired filename on the first line of the screen. When you do so, you will be asked if you would like to read settings in from that file, or save the current ones to that file. If you attempt to read in a profile that does not exist, you will be given an error message and no settings will be changed. If, however, the file does exist and either a disk read error occurs or it is determined that the file is not a valid profile, the default settings (that which were supplied the first time you used this feature) will be brought in. If you wish to save the current settings to disk, CATDISK will first check to see if the file already exists. If so, you will be given a warning to enable you to abandon the operation before you accidentally over-write a valuable program or data file. Any changes made in the settings during an import session will automatically be saved to the current profile on exit from the settings modification screen (via <Esc> or <F10>). Again, if the file named in the first line exists, you will be given an overwrite warning in case you don't actually want to overwrite the current saved settings with the new ones (i.e. the import operation is a one-time shot in this case). Once you have all the desired settings ready, press <F10> to initiate the insertion of comments in the catalog file. Here's what CATDISK does to accomplish this. First, it will read and sort all the entries in the text file. If CATDISK cannot find the text file, if there is an error in reading the text file, or there is an error in sorting the entries, the process will be aborted. If the sort is successful, CATDISK will scan your current catalog file for matching entries from the text file. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 43 For each match that CATDISK finds, it will determine if the comment field from the catalog file is blank (CATDISK will not overwrite previously entered comments for the sake of integrity). If so, the first 30 characters of the comment from the text file will be inserted into the comment field for that file in the catalog file. Once this process has completed, a list of the modified entries will be brought into the comment editor for "massaging" if you would like to clean up any entries. It is highly recommended that you at least go through the list just to make sure that everything went ok. Below is a discussion on how you can view and change the comments of the modified entries. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 44 OPTION F2: SHOW FILES BY COMMENT Selecting option <F2> will cause CATDISK to display a list of files in accordance with a comment search spec that you supply. After selecting a report destination, you will be asked for a comment search spec that you wish the report to be based on. Just enter the string that you want to search for in the catalog's comments section and hit <Enter>, or hit <Esc> to abort the process without generating a report. Here's how the comments are sourced for your search spec. You enter a "phrase" or "substring" that you want to search for in the file comments. The "phrase" may be an entire comment that you want, it can be just one word, or even just one letter. When catdisk compares your "phrase" to a comment, it checks to see if that "phrase" is contained anywhere in that comment. If it does, that file will appear in your report. Example: "SOURCE" would match: CATDISK V4.13 source code CATDISK V4.13 Source code CATDISK V4.13 SOURCE CODE Source ... etc ... Please note: I have had some of my beta-testers ask for wild cards in the comment search (for example, they might not know whether they had "Word Processor" or "Word Proc" for a comment). This is not really necessary in this case, as, in the above case, entering "PROC" would match both comments. Depending on where you have set your output destination, the following options are applicable: Printer: A hardcopy file report will be printed on your printer. The filenames will be echoed to the screen as they are sent to the printer. Hitting <Esc> at any time during report generation will abort it and return to the main menu. Disk: A listing in the same format as the hardcopy file report will be produced in a diskette file. The default name for this file is one with the same name as the current catalog filename with an extension of ".LST". This may be overridden at the time that the report is generated. Hitting <Esc> at any time during the generation of the report will abort it and return to the main menu. Screen: Upon entering the search spec, scanning of the catalog will commence. If you have status indicators turned on, a counter will increment each time a matching file is found. If at the and of the search, no files were found, an error message will be issued and you will be returned to the main menu. When the search has completed successfully, the file names will be shown alphabetically, along with the volume name, archive name, and other directory information for that file. For a list of options available, please see the section entitled "SCREEN REPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE" in this manual. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 45 OPTION F3: TEMPORARILY EXIT TO DOS This option, although not really necessary, has been added in response to the numerous requests that I have had for this feature (shows that I am really paying attention to those suggestions, eh?). By selecting this option, CATDISK will be temporarily suspended and you will be returned to the DOS prompt. You may carry out any normal function that you would ordinarily be able to carry out from DOS, provided that there is enough memory remaining in which to run your desired program. When you are done, simply type "EXIT" and hit <Return> to return to CATDISK. Please note that due to the fact that this option will in all probability not be invoked all that often, it does not show on any of the menus. It is, however available from the main menu by pressing <F3>. Please note that if you have the disk cache active at the time you use this function, the contents of the cache will be pitched before calling DOS. When you are finished with DOS, and wish to return to CATDISK, simply type "EXIT" and hit <Return> to return to CATDISK. Please be sure and replace any disks that you had in your drives before returning to CATDISK. Possible errors that you may encounter when you use can vary greatly. Possibilities are: 1) There is not enough memory to load a second copy of the command interpreter (usually COMMAND.COM), or that memory has been corrupted by a resident program. 2) If you get an error after returning from DOS, it usually means that you've loaded a resident program while out in DOS. You should refrain from doing so. 3) Generally, this means that CATDISK was unable to find COMMAND.COM on the drive and directory defined by the SET COMSPEC= environment string (see the DOS manual for details on the SET command). This is usually set to the location from which COMMAND.COM was loaded when the system was booted. If COMMAND.COM was not found at the boot location, the root directory of the current drive is attempted. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 46 OPTION <drive_letter>: SHOW DISK DIRECTORY To activate this feature, simply type the drive letter of the disk whose directory you wish to view. If you haven't included the /NW option in your command line when you started CATDISK,you will be prompted to insert a disk for drive D where D is the drive letter that you typed. You will then be asked for a filespec to match. This is the same as the filespec prompt in OPTION #9 - SHOW SELECTED FILES. Upon doing this, the label and directory contents will be read just like they would if they were about to be cataloged, but instead of adding them to your catalog, they will be shown directly on the screen in the same format as option #7 - Show Files For A Volume. The archive scanning feature functions as normal throughout the program. Upon entering the search spec, scanning of the catalog will commence. If you have status indicators turned on, a counter will increment each time a matching file is found. If at the and of the search, no files were found, an error message will be issued and you will be returned to the main menu. When the search has completed successfully, the file names will be shown alphabetically, along with the volume name, archive name, and other directory information for that file. For a list of options available, please see the section entitled "SCREEN REPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE" in this manual. OPTION ESC: EXIT TO DOS Select this option when you are finished with CATDISK to terminate its operation. Upon exit, you will be returned to the DOS prompt. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 47 APPENDIX A - THE SCROLL BAR When bringing up a screen report, you may have noticed a hatched bar on the left border of the screen with an inverse 'T' at the top of it and an inverse 'B' at the bottom. This is a scroll bar, which indicates roughly where you are located along the full length of the current report. Additionally, this feature will allow you to roughly position yourself in the report by hitting the <Grey Plus> and <Grey Minus> keys. These keys will move you forward and backward respectively along this scroll bar. These moves correspond to a move of one fifteenth of the total length of the report in the selected direction, as will be reflected in the page number which will be automatically set. The scroll bar position will also wrap from the top to the bottom if you are at the top and hit the <Grey Minus> key. The reverse is also true for the <Grey Plus> key. In a long report, this represents a much nicer way of getting to, say, the files beginning with "R" without having to hit the <PgDn> key a hundred times. Remember... the scroll bar is used to ROUGHLY position yourself among a group of files in a screen report. This scroll bar will appear in the point-and-shoot volume id selection screen as well. Its functionality is much the same as that discussed above for reports. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 48 APPENDIX B - ARCHIVE SUPPORT This version of CATDISK currently supports the archive utilities from System Enhancement Associates and PKWare, PAK files (similar to ARC files) created by the PAK utility from NoGate Consulting, ZIP files created by PKWare's PKZIP utilities, LZH files created by the LHARC utility from Haruyasu Yoshizaki, LZS files created by the LARC utility from K. Miki, DWC files created by the DWC utility from Dean W. Cooper, and the public domain Library Utility (LU). CATDISK can extract directory information from archives created with SEAWARE'S ARC utility, version 5.30 or earlier, PKWare's PKPAK version 3.61 or earlier, or any compatible archive generating program. These files commonly have a file extension of .ARC, and any files with this extension will be examined by CATDISK to see if it is a valid archive. If so, the directory information of each file in the archive will be extracted and added to the catalog if the Auto Archive Extraction feature is turned ON. Files extracted from an ARC file will have a file attribute of "*ARC". Similar to the above, any files with a .PAK extension will be examined, and if appropriate, the directory information will be extracted from the file in question. Files extracted from a PAK file will have a file attribute of "*PAK". ARC or PAK files created with utilities other than the ones listed above should work with CATDISK, but are not guaranteed. Files created with PKWare's PKZIP family of utilities are fully supported. These files usually have an extension of .ZIP, and any file found with this extension will be examined by CATDISK to see if it is a valid ZIP file. If this is so, and the Auto Archive Extraction Feature is turned ON, the directory information of each file in the library will be extracted and added to the catalog. Files extracted from a ZIP file will have a file attribute of "*ZIP". If the ZIP file contains comments, the first 30 characters will be extracted and included in your catalog file. ZIP files, in addition to supporting comment entries for each file contained, can also have a main comment for the ZIP file itself. When CATDISK reads ZIP files and finds a main comment, it will insert that main comment in the catalog file for any entries in the ZIP file that do not already have comments. Although ZIP files can contain subdirectory information, this is not the subdirectory that will appear in the catalog listing. The reason for this is due to the fact that the primary purpose of CATDISK is to be able to locate a given file. In order to be able to do so, the subdirectory of the ZIP file itself is shown. The destination of the file when being UNZIPPED is not relevant. Additionally, files created with Haruyasu Yoshizaki's LHARC utility are fully supported. These files commonly end with a .LZH extension. Any files with this extension will be examined by CATDISK to see if it is a valid LHARC file. If so, and you wish the directory contents to be extracted (via the program setting), the process will be carried out. Files extracted from a LZH file will have a file attribute of "*LZH". Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 49 Files created by the LARC utility from K. Miki are supported in the same way as those created by the LHARC utility mentioned above. Files extracted from these files will have a file attribute of "*LZS". Files with a .ZOO extension will be examined to determine whether they are a valid ZOO file. If so, and Archive extraction is enabled, the directory contents of the file will be read and included in the catalog file. Files extracted from ZOO files will have the attribute "*ZOO". If the ZOO file contains comments, the first 30 characters will be extracted and included in your catalog file. Files with a .DWC extension will be checked to determine whether they are a valid DWC file. If so,and archive extraction is enabled, the directory contents of the file will be read and included in the catalog file. Files extracted from DWC files will have the attribute "*DWC". If the DWC file contains comments, the first 30 characters will be extracted and included in your catalog file. Files created by the Library Utility (LU) and conform to the fifth revision of the formal definition of the library file format are also fully supported. These files commonly have a file extension of .LBR, and any files with this extension will be examined by CATDISK to see if they are valid .LBR files. If this is so, and the Auto ARCHIVE Extraction Feature is turned ON, the directory information of each file in the library will be extracted and added to the catalog. Files extracted from a LBR file will have an attribute of "*LBR". Although not an archive file in the sense of the word, a GIF file (stands for Graphics Interchange Format) is a special file format that was developed by CompuServe in order to allow many different types of computers to be able to view a graphics image without having to modify the file itself. GIF viewers are available on a wide variety of hardware platforms to allow you to look at the images contained within a GIF file. These files can come in a very wide variety of resolutions and color combinations. CATDISK can look into a GIF file and extract this resolution and color information and include it as a default comment for that GIF file. For example, a picture that may be 640 by 480 pixels with 256 colors would have a comment entry of "640x480x256". Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 50 APPENDIX C - SUPPORT AND UPDATES As I said in the introduction, I will only offer advice and technical support to those who contribute via the SHAREWARE concept. Users who do contribute will be notified when updates and new products are available. Anyone wishing to offer advice and suggestions are most welcome to do so. I may be reached on CompuServe at I.D. # 73307,333, or on The PEARL BBS in WATERLOO, Ontario, Canada, under my name, Rick Hillier. You may also correspond via your FAX machine, if you have access to one. My FAX number is (519)-884-4887. This is the best daytime number at which to get an immediate response. Telephone support (or any support for that matter) is available to registered users only. My voice line is (519)-888-6763. Best time to reach me at this number is in the evening hours (6 pm to 10 pm Ontario Time). Those of you who register your copy of CATDISK and wish to receive an update to the latest version (from me and not The PEARL), please include an extra $10.00 with your registration to cover materials and shipping costs. I will send you the latest version of CATDISK upon receipt of your registration. Please specify the version of CATDISK that you currently have, or better yet, use the registration form at the end of this user manual. If there have not been any updates made since your version, I will wait until the next release of CATDISK to send your update. To receive CATDISK on a 3.5" diskette, please add an additional $2.50. Optionally, you may include a diskette and diskette mailer with your registration fee plus $5.00 to cover shipping costs, and I will send you the latest version of CATDISK. ATTENTION OUT OF TOWN CATDISK USERS The most up to date version of CATDISK is always available on The PEARL, which may be reached at (519)-576-6754, 24 hrs. a day. Please note that The PEARL is a pay board (normally $25/year), but I have made arrangements with the owners to obtain memberships for CATDISK subscribers who include an extra five dollars with their subscription, along with their first name, last name, and a password to use on the board. One restriction must be made on this offer... you must live at least 50 miles outside the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada area in order to qualify. You will be validated immediately upon my receiving your check or money order. Please note that if you are not a regular member of this BBS, or haven't taken advantage of the above upgrade offer, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE PROGRAM. Even if you do not wish to have a PEARL membership, you can still see what changes and revisions have been made to date by going to the bulletins section of the board. You do not have to be a registered PEARL user to use this feature. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 51 If you do have a question, or a bug report, or whatever, in your correspondence, please indicate the following: 1) The version of CATDISK that you are using. 2) The version of DOS that you are using. 3) Your hardware configuration (Model, memory size, printer, etc.) 4) Any resident software that you have loaded in memory at the time. (i.e. Sidekick, SuperKey, Disk Caches, Print Spoolers, Ramdisks, etc.) This information will help me to track any problems and to suggest reasonable solutions to your problems. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 52 APPENDIX D - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS As CATDISK has developed over the past while, I have received many questions regarding the operation of CATDISK. The most common are addressed in this section of the manual. Q. When I go to catalog a new disk, CATDISK aborts the catalog file update with an error message that the disk is full, even though there is still room on the disk containing the catalog files. A. When CATDISK updates a catalog file, it does so by merging the new information in with the old, building a new file from the old in the process. The catch here is that, at the end of the catalog file update, BOTH files actually exist, thereby taking up roughly double the size of the original catalog file. At the end of this procedure, if successful, CATDISK deletes the old file and renames the new temporary file to what the original catalog file was called. The reason this is necessary is that, while re-cataloging a disk, there is a possibility that files were removed from that disk. This method of updating the catalog provides a convenient mechanism for removing those files from the catalog. Q. CATDISK currently supports archive file comments in ZIP, ZOO and DWC files. Would it be possible to extract those from ARC files as well? A. ARC file comments were a non-standard extension provided by PKWare's PKARC/PKPAK series of archivers, and as such will not be supported at this time. Q. Would it be possible for CATDISK to support ARCHIVES within ARCHIVES? A. Unfortunately, the answer is no. In order to read the directory of an archive within another archive file, the original one must first be expanded into its separate files. Firstly, with the ever evolving compression methods employed with new versions of the archive utilities, this would be beyond the scope of this program. Secondly, there would always be the possibility of overwriting an existing file of the same name. It's just not feasible. Q. In the summary report, I see disk entries for which the amount of free space and the amount of space used adds up to more than the capacity of the disk itself. The % slack factor is also wrong. A. You probably have a corrupted file allocation table on that disk, and could be in for some serious trouble. Format a fresh disk and transfer the files to it, and re-catalog it from that new disk. Q. After starting the cataloging process on a diskette, I discovered that the label on the diskette was wrong. Would it be possible to abort the process, change the label and start over? A. Once the cataloging process is started, it cannot be stopped. If you've run into a situation like that above, let CATDISK finish the task, and use option #3 to change the label on the diskette. CATDISK has a mechanism to automatically change the old volume label to the new one throughout the catalog files. It's quick and painless. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 53 Q. We have file comments for each file entry in the catalog file. Would it be possible to have comments for each disk in the summary file? A. At present, no, although this is not carved in stone. The main reason for this is that CATDISK keeps the entire disk summary in memory at all times. A comment on each disk would significantly increase the memory requirements of CATDISK. Q. I have some self-booting games. Would it be possible to create a dummy entry for that disk in the catalog? A. Doing this would defeat the purpose for which CATDISK was written. Self-booting games (those that CATDISK won't read) do not have a directory in the conventional sense. As there are no files per se there is nothing to look for on the diskette. You need only locate the disk itself in order to use it. Q. I have many disks with numerous insignificant files on them such as printer drivers, etc. Would it be possible to catalog only selected files from these disks? A. Unfortunately, not at this time. In order to keep the shareware version of CATDISK as simple to use as possible, all files get cataloged hands free. However, CATDISK PLUS, a commercial release of this program with many enhancements described in more detail in a later appendix, will handle this type of operation. Q. When cataloging my hard drive, CATDISK appears to be scanning for all the files, but I list the files for it, some are missing. A. Although CATDISK appears to be scanning all of your directories and archives for file entries, it has an internal limitation of being able to remember only the first 5000 files that it sees. After it reaches this number, it simply skips over the remaining entries. Q. Why does CATDISK slow down as my catalog files grow larger. A. As CATDISK catalogs each disk, it must make a pass through your data file to determine whether or not any files have been deleted or changed, so that the catalog file can be updated accordingly. Many other disk catalogers on the market that outperform CATDISK in their cataloging operation retain the entire catalog in RAM. While this is fast, there are two problems with it. Firstly, this imposes an extreme limitation on their ultimate capacity in terms of how many disks and files you can catalog. If you are serious at all about maintaining a catalog of all your files and that your library will possibly grow to many files, these types of catalogers are not at all suitable for your usage. Secondly, if you should experience a power outage before you've saved your work, you can kiss that work good-bye. By manipulating data on-disk, CATDISK does catalog your disks at a slower rate than the above mentioned type of cataloger, but it guarantees the integrity of your work. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 54 APPENDIX E - CATLOOK - COMMAND LINE LOOKUP UTILITY CATLOOK is a stand alone reporting utility provided with CATDISK. It can come in handy on occasions when you either need to generate a quick and dirty report without having to run CATDISK itself, or when you need to generate a report after shelling out to DOS from within an application and there is not enough free memory left over to run CATDISK itself. CATLOOK will run in 64K of free memory. A summary of the usage of CATLOOK follows: CATLOOK parameters (each must be separated by a slash or a space) /Ffilename - Use this file for the catalog (Default is CATDISK). NOTE: No space is allowed between the filename and the /F. /Px - Set printer output format to report type x, where x is: 0 - Filenames + Statistics 1 - Filenames + Comments 2 - Filenames + Statistics + Comments /S - Show a summary report. /Vvolume - Show files for a volume report for the volume label specified. /Aarchive - Show files for an archive report for the archive specified. /Wpattern - Show files for a DOS wildcard spec based on the pattern given. /Ccomment - Show files containing the comment substring specified. /U - Show all files that are unique in the catalog file. /D - Show all files that have duplicates in the catalog file. /SIZE - Use file size as an additional criteria in generating the unique/duplicate file reports. /Ex - Show everything sorted by x, where x is: 0 - File Name 1 - File Extension 2 - Subdirectory 3 - Volume Name 4 - Archive ID 5 - Comment 6 - Date/Time Due to the simplicity of this utility, the reports generated by CATLOOK are not paginated, but rather produced with one heading at the top of the report followed by the appropriate listings (equivalent to setting the number of lines per page equal to 0 in the configuration utility). The output from CATLOOK can be redirected to a printer or disk file by using the standard DOS method if I/O redirection. For example: "CATLOOK /S >PRN" (without the quotes) - this will send a summary report to your printer. "CATLOOK /S >LISTING.TXT" - this will send the summary report to a disk file called "LISTING.TXT". Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 55 APPENDIX F - CATDISK PLUS Since its initial release in October of 1986, CATDISK has gone through many changes and has received tremendous support from the many corporations and individuals who have sent in their registration fees. CATDISK is currently in use world-wide in more applications than I could have possibly dreamed of. Judging from this response, I can safely say that the SHAREWARE system is alive and flourishing as a viable means of making quality software available at reasonable cost. Along the way, many individuals have requested features in the program that are not feasible in the current design of CATDISK. In creating this program, I set out to make the operation as simple and automatic as possible. Those requests that melded in with the current design have been implemented, and those that will compliment same will be implemented in the future. However, there have been numerous requests for features that would complicate the design of the shareware version of CATDISK - good requests. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I am able to announce that a commercial release of the program, CATDISK PLUS, which will be produced by my software company, The DATAMEN Inc. The initial release date is expected to be in the spring of 1990. Please keep in mind that this shareware version will continue to be enhanced and supported - it's still "my baby"! Some of the features include: . A windowed desktop environment with pull down menus for ease of use. . Online context-sensitive help. . Support for the 43 line EGA and the 50 line VGA screen modes. . Full color customization. . All the functional features of the current shareware release. . The ability to selectively catalog files from your disks via three methods, all of which can be used at once: inclusion filespecs, exclusion filespecs, and a point and shoot list of files read. . A greater variety of reporting features will be available as well as a custom report generator where you can design your own reports. . Comment entries for each disk in the catalog. . Longer file comments. . Greater capacity for catalog size. . A full blown disk manager supporting all the archive file formats that CATDISK currently does. . The ability to print user-defined disk labels and jacket inserts. . Plus many more! One major consideration is that CATDISK PLUS will require a hard disk. Suggested retail price for this product is $69.95 Cdn + $8.00 for shipping and handling. Dealer inquiries are welcome. Please address all inquiries to: The Datamen Phone: (519) 888-6763 405 Barrington Lane FAX: (519) 884-4887 Waterloo, ONTARIO Canada N2T 1H9 Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 56 APPENDIX G - OTHER PRODUCTS AVAILABLE For all you avid golfers out there, my software company, The DATAMEN, Inc. has a golf handicap system available, called HANDICAP II, that goes way beyond just calculating a simple golf handicap. Among the many features of this program are: . Pull down menus for ease of use. . On line context sensitive help. . Storage capacity for up to 100 different golf courses. . Storage capacity for up to 32767 rounds of golf. (score and number of putts on each hole can be logged) . Instant retrieval of past played games, and the ability to browse through them. . An expanded handicap card that is more informative than a standard handicap card. . A report showing your average score on each hole on each course. - good for spotting habitual trouble holes. . A report showing your average putts on each green on each course. - good for spotting habitual troublesome greens. . A report showing how often you hit each green in regulation. - good for analyzing your tee-to-green game on each hole. . Many more statistical reports of interest to you. . Full housekeeping routines to correct mistakes (but I'll bet that you never make any, right?!?) . Support for most popular printers. . ALL reports may be viewed on the screen or printed on your printer. . Pop up windows are used extensively, adding to the ease of use of the program. We also have a clubhouse version available with all of the above plus: . A simple date-differential entry system for those who do not wish to have all the detail of the enhanced reports. . Capacity to maintain handicaps for up to 32767 members (you are only limited by disk size). . Full system manager functions available only to authorized users. . A handicap listing (in alphabetical order by member name) of the handicaps of all the members in the system. . This version of HANDICAP II may be used on multi-user systems without user file conflict. Ordering Information The GOLFERS version of HANDICAP II is available for $69.95, and the CLUB HOUSE version is available for $295.00. Please note that these prices are in Canadian funds. They may be ordered from: The Datamen, Inc. 405 Barrington Lane Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2T 1H9 Phone: (519)-888-6763 FAX: (519)-884-4887 Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 57 CATDISK V4.50 REGISTRATION FORM ------- ----- ------------ ---- Name: ______________________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Phone: _______________________ CompuServe ID Number (If applicable) ___________ ____ Registration(s) of CATDISK @20.00 ea ___________ ____ Registration(s) on The PEARL BBS @ 5.00 ea ___________ (See "OUT OF TOWN CATDISK USERS" in appendix C) If the above offer is taken, specify desired password ___________ ____ CATDISK Upgrade(s) (You Supply Diskette & Mailer) ___________ @ 5.00 ea ____ CATDISK Upgrade(s) (I supply 5.25" Diskette & Mailer) ___________ @ 10.00 ea ____ CATDISK Upgrade(s) (I supply 3.5" Diskette & Mailer) ___________ @ 12.50 ea ONTARIO Residents Add 8% Provincial Sales Tax) ___________ Total ___________ YOU MUST BE REGISTERED TO QUALIFY FOR AN UPGRADE Type of PC Used: ________________________ DOS Version: _______ Hardware Configuration: ______________________________________________ What Resident Software Do You Run: __________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Comments and Suggestions: ____________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Check or money order should be made payable to: Rick Hillier 405 Barrington Lane Waterloo, ONTARIO Canada N2T 1H9 Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 58 CATDISK V4.50 SITE LICENSE ORDER FORM ------- ----- ---- ------- ----- ---- Name: ________________________________________________________________ Named person above will be responsible for obtaining all program support and upgrades. Company: _____________________________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Phone: _____________________________________________________________ ____ Registrations of CATDISK @ $__________ ea ........... __________ (see fee schedule below) ____ Copies & Registrations of CATDISK @ $__________ ea .. __________ (see fee schedule below) ____ CATDISK Upgrades @ $__________ ea ................... __________ (see fee schedule below) (Ontario Residents Add 8% Provincial Sales Tax) ..... __________ Total __________ SITE LICENSE FEE SCHEDULE FOR CATDISK | Price per | Price per | Price per * Quantity | Disk & Registration | Registration Only | Upgrade --------------+---------------------+-------------------+------------ | | | 2 - 5 | $ 24.25 | $ 19.50 | $ 4.75 6 - 19 | $ 22.50 | $ 18.00 | $ 4.50 20 - 99 | $ 20.00 | $ 16.00 | $ 4.00 100 - 299 | $ 17.50 | $ 14.00 | $ 3.50 300 - 499 | $ 15.50 | $ 12.50 | $ 3.00 500 - + | $ 12.50 | $ 10.00 | $ 2.50 | | | --------------+---------------------+-------------------+------------ * Please note that in order to receive upgrades under this agreement, you must have purchased the same number of either registrations only or the disk & registration combination previously. The address at which to send any orders or correspondence is: Rick Hillier 405 Barrington Lane Waterloo, ONTARIO Canada N2T 1H9 Please make any cheques payable to Rick Hillier. Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 59 CATDISK V4.50 VENDOR APPLICATION FORM ------- ----- ------ ----------- ---- Company Name: _________________________________________________________ Address: _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Phone: _________________________________________________________ Contact: _________________________________________________________ What price are planning to charge for CATDISK? ________________________ Would you like to receive major upgrades as they become available? ____ I certify that the above named company is a legitimate shareware disk vendor, and that the above named company will adhere to the policies set forth in the "Public Domain and Shareware Libraries" section of the CATDISK User Manual. Signature: ____________________________________ Date: ________________ NOTE TO ALL PROSPECTIVE DEALERS: In order that I can verify that you are a legitimate shareware vendor, I request that you include a copy of your product catalog with this application, along with a blank diskette and mailer. Once you have been approved, you will receive written permission from myself to include CATDISK in your library for distribution. Additionally, you will receive your diskette back containing the latest CATDISK release. I am also requesting that you send me revisions of your catalog as they are published. The main reason behind this is that a mailing list of active vendors will be maintained. My continued receipt of your catalog will both enable me to verify that you have the most recent CATDISK release (within reason), as well as know that your business is still active. When major revisions are made to the program, I will send you the latest upgrade such that your library is kept up to date. Send this application to: Rick Hillier 405 Barrington Lane Waterloo, ONTARIO Canada N2T 1H9 Disk Catalog System (CATDISK) V4.50 Copr (C) 1986,1989 by Rick Hillier Page 60