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- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- M a g i c F i l e R e q u e s t e r
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ⌐ Copyright 1992 by Stefan Stuntz
-
-
-
- Version History
- ---------------
-
-
-
- This file describes all changes from MFR's first release on 24-Jan-92.
-
- It is NO replacement for the Manual!
-
-
-
-
- V2.0c (15-Jul-92)
- -----------------
-
- - About-Window is now visible on a monochrome display.
-
- - reqtools.library patch is now on by default.
-
- - To be Workbench compatible, the menu entry for creating a directory
- changed its name to "New Drawer" with the shortcut <Amiga><N>. File
- Notification can now be toggled with <Amiga><F>.
-
- - Improved icon outfit on oldstyle screens. Nevertheless you really
- should use 'TagScreens' or a similar tool to eliminate oldstyle screens
- completely.
-
- - Included AmigaGuide format manual.
-
- - Fixed file action bug. Now, %s is really replaced with the complete
- path specification, not only with the file name.
-
- - Added semaphore security to string hook handling. This should fix some
- intuition lockups with incredibly fast typing on incredibly slow
- á amigas.
-
- - Added menu item to rescan the device list.
-
- - Optimized some code. MFR should run a bit faster now, especially on
- 68000 based machines.
-
-
-
-
- V2.0b (09-Jul-92)
- -----------------
-
- - Changed distribution archive a little bit. For update reasons, the
- 68030 version now comes with the freely distributable archive of MFR.
- This allows registered users with 68030 processors to update fast.
-
- - Included more detailed update information in the 'Registration' file. I
- á thought update handling was clear, but it seems it wasn't.
-
- - Fixed function key bug. Now the file gadget always gets activated after
- a function was pressed.
-
- - Escape-Key didn't work right together with Shared-IDCMP and
- IDCMP_VANILLAKEY. Fixed.
-
- - Since it seems getting standard that asl.library preserves A4 for
- á callback hooks, MFR now behaves the same way. This makes e.g. MFR work
- á with VLT.
-
- - Fixed nasty 'Zero-Size-File-System' bug which caused MFR to guru when a
- file system with size equal to 0 was mounted. Now, MFR works e.g. with
- á ParNet and XFH:
-
- - Volumes with size greater than 3600 kByte are considered to be a
- harddisk. Smaller volumes will get a disk icon.
-
-
-
-
- V2.0a (06-Jul-92)
- -----------------
-
- - Fixed nasty Cursor-Key-Parent-Dir-Bug.
-
-
-
-
- V2.0 (05-Jul-92)
- ----------------
-
- - MFR is distributed as shareware now. Please refer to the file
- 'Registration' for details.
-
- - Fixed machine lockup with MFR's arrow gadgets (bug introduced in 1.3).
-
- - Got it! MFR eats no more memory, not even a single byte.
-
- - MFR now empties it's AppWindow port before deleting it.
-
- - Search mode <match partial / case insensitive> corrected.
-
- - MFR now handles multiple menu selection correctly.
-
- - The "Goonie" scrollbar design takes care of the screen pens.
-
- - You can now bind 20 directories (or files) to the function keys F1-F10
- and <Shift> F1-F10. Configuration via tooltypes FKEY_1 - FKEY_20.
-
- - The default public screen is brought to front when MFR is called with
- it's hotkey.
-
- - MFR can now be configured to automatically close it's window after a
- á copy operation to clipboard.
-
- - With multi select enabled, MFR will now always use the WbArg return
- method, even if the user only selects a single file. This reflects the
- behaviour of asl.library and should fix some problems.
-
- - Mid mouse button changes to parent directory.
-
- - Added invisible Parent Gadget at the left side of the file list. Ugly
- á but useful!
-
- - Some more config options are resolution dependent (different values for
- hires & lores): Fonts, Scrollbar Design, Default Size, Background
- á Rastering.
-
- - MFR refreshes it's volume list when a volume is inserted or removed.
-
- - Leaving the requester with double click is disabled in save mode.
-
- - Significantly improved caching mechanism: MFR now remembers up to 100
- directories. These directory caches are global, all MFR's can use them.
- If all caches are full, the oldest one will be replaced. A cache is
- automatically invalidated when the date stamp of the associated
- directory changes. Max number of cached directories can be configured
- with a menu item, a value of 0 disables caching completely.
-
- - Replaced ArpToAsl by UnArp.
-
- - MFR automatically detaches when it's installed from CLI, there's no more
- á need to run it.
-
- - The widths of the file and volume lists are configurable now. Just
- click between the both lists and move the appearing bar around. List
- á widths may be different in Lowres and Highres mode. If the volume list
- á is wide enough, some state information will be shown.
-
- - Volume size calculations are now compatible with the info command (1024
- á Bytes per kilobyte and 1024 kilobytes per megabyte).
-
- - Inversion of string gadgets is now configurable (see Window sub menu).
-
- - MFR now supports the ASL tags ASLFR_RejectIcons, ASLFR_UserData,
- á ASLFR_SleepWindow, ASLFR_HookFunc, ASLFR_PrivateIDCMP,
- á ASLFR_IntuiMsgFunc and ASLFR_FilterFunc.
-
- - Since all important tags are supported now, MFR will never drop to an
- ASL requester anymore. This fixes possible crashes when one file
- á requester structure is used for several calls with some of them
- á dropping to ASL.
-
- - Gadget & list handling changed significantly. The file list and the
- á file gadget are attached now, they will be active the same time. Typing
- á something into the gadget will move the list cursor to the appropriate
- á position. Device list and drawer gadget are attached the same way.
- á Side effect: Since cursor left/right are used to move the string gadget
- á cursor, you will have to qualify them with ALT to use them for changing
- directories. Amiga-Space is now used for selecting multiple files.
- á This new method seems to be much more comfortable and useful, I really
- á like it and I hope you will too.
-
- - You can alternatively control the cursor with the numeric keypad, if you
- á activate "Settings/Usage/Numeric Pad Control" menu item. Key <5> can be
- á used to select/deselect files when multi select is enabled.
-
- - Menu layout changed to reflect user style guide. Activation menu became
- senseless, some shortcuts changed.
-
- - MFR now marks file system links with a '╗' in front of the file size.
- This feature is only available for files, not for directories.
-
- - This one's for all CLI freaks: If MFR could not find a .info file, it
- á tries to read it's configuration from "envarc:mfr.prefs". Configuration
- á will also be saved to "envarc:mfr.prefs" in this case.
-
- - Added statistics menu point (senseless, but who cares...).
-
- - To wake up possibly sleeping users, background rastering now looks
- á different when MFR is in save mode. Rastering is done with the two
- á darkest colors of the current palette.
-
- - Icons and arrows look better on one plane screens.
-
- - Directory reading mode changed again. MFR now tries to read as many
- files as possible in a specific timeout (e.g. 0.5 sec). If the timeout
- á expires during reading or the user performs some action, the display is
- á updated for the first time. On the average, most HD or ram:
- á directories can be read during the first timeout period. The result is
- á less rendering and faster loading time. The timeout is configurable
- á with the new menu item <Settings / DOS / Read Timeout>.
-
- - With a timeout value of 0, MFR will always read the complete directory
- before displaying anything. This is MFR's fastest mode for directory
- reading and I strongly suggest you to use it since it is much less
- á confusing and the new reading mode maybe needs some more work. However,
- a timeout of 0 should be no great disadvantage, since MFR's directory
- caching will reduce waiting time to a minimum.
-
- - Multi select is now possible by dragging the mouse around while shift
- á (or caps lock) is pressed. Note that you will have to press shift even
- á for the first file you want to multi select. This is different to asl's
- á multi select and workbench's icon selection, but it seems to be the only
- á convenient way for MFR.
-
- - Recompiled with register parameters and function pragmas. Gained 6 kB
- á and hopefully some speed.
-
- - To avoid loosing the first few keystrokes, the file gadget gets
- activated immediately when the requester opens.
-
- - Instead of two seperate hide & show gadgets, there is only one single
- á pattern gadget now. It will be displayed on demand (when the asl tag
- á ASLFR_DoPatterns is set). You can make it visible/invisible at any time
- with the "DOS / Status" submenu. This menu also contains items to
- á temporarily disable the pattern and to toggle matching of directories.
-
- - The 'Pattern:' gadget label has become an invisible gadget that disables/
- enables pattern matching.
-
- - New memory management system. No more small allocations, no more
- á fragmentation. Note: Because of this and because of directory caching,
- á history list, etc. it may sometimes look as if MFR would loose memory.
- It doesn't!
-
- - Added history list. This list contains the last <nr> files you selected
- since MFR was started. <nr> is configurable with a menu item, a value
- of 0 disables the list completely. The list is not sorted, the last
- á selected file always appears at the top. You can access the history
- á list with the "DOS" / "History List" menu item.
-
- - The 'File:' and 'Drawer:' gadget labels are invisible button gadgets
- now. MFR remembers the initial contents of drawer and file gadget at
- requester opening time and restores them when these gadgets are pressed.
-
- - MFR now works with AssignX.
-
- - Pattern matching is a lot faster now => faster directory reading.
-
- - MFR now supports reqtools.library multi selection.
-
- - The search gadget is a file action gadget now. Reason: When you are
- á searching for a specific file, you are already using your keyboard.
- Thus it's no great deal to press <Amiga><S> to start searching.
-
- - Added reload menu item for those who don't like file notification.
-
- - Added Show/Hide icons menu item.
-
- - Added 'Flush Memory' menu item. With Workbench 2.1, this flush will
- á be done automatically when memory gets low.
-
- - Rewrote manual again. Please read it carefully !!!
-
-
-
-
- V1.3b (10-Apr-92)
- -----------------
-
- I hate that. Bugs over bugs. Thanx to Stefan Becker for reporting and
- fixing.
-
- - MFR's CLI interface had a bad bug. All BOOLEAN options (including
- INSTALL) did not work correct (enforcer hit on 68030, crash on 68000,
- nothing special on my 68020 :-)). This has now been fixed.
-
- - Enforcer hits during display refresh and notify events eliminated.
-
- - Detection of shared IDCMP did not work right. I corrected it and
- suddendly many programs used ASL again. Therefore, I removed detection
- á of shared IDCMP, MFR will always use it's private port. This may cause
- á some problems with some programs in some cases (e.g. IconEdit).
- Remember the REJECT keyword.
-
- - MFR now knows how to display file sizes greater than 9.999.999 Bytes.
-
- - When the application supplies a complete path in the drawer gadget,
- MFR splits it up into drawer and file part.
-
-
-
-
- V1.3a (08-Apr-92)
- -----------------
-
- Since I go on holiday the next two weeks, I release this minor new
- version just for those of you that really hate the reqtools requester.
-
- - MFR now patches reqtools.library (tooltype PATCHREQTL). Several
- á features (e.g. multi-select) are not supported. MFR will drop to
- á reqtools in these cases. See Bugs section for details.
-
- - Fixed bug with monitor identification.
-
- - Included version 1.6 of TagScreens.
-
-
-
-
- V1.3 (06-Apr-92)
- ----------------
-
- Yeah. Not just some bug fixes, a really new version with many
- enhancements.
-
- - Configuration mechanism changed again. No config file support anymore.
- When started from Workbench, MFR reads it's configuration from the .info
- file, as in earlier versions.
-
- - Since there seem to be quite many people out there, who do not use
- workbench, MFR can now be installed from CLI with the command "mfr
- INSTALL". Note that MFR will not detach (I was too lazy), so you should
- put something like "run <nil: >nil: mfr install" in your
- startup-sequence. The configuration will be read from the file
- PROGDIR:mfr.info, thus you must have "mfr.info" in the directory you
- start MFR from. To edit your tooltypes, you will still have to load
- workbench and use the 'Info' menu item. This should be no great problem
- however, because almost all configuration can be done via menu items now
- (see next point).
-
- - MFR can now be configured with various menu items. Have a look at them
- to see how they work. Note that the configuration is global for all
- file requesters, so if you change e.g. the gadget font, every open file
- requester will be informed and updated. Configuration can be saved with
- the <Project/Save Config> menu item to the location it was loaded from.
-
- - MFR now has the ability to use the parent screens default font for
- displaying (see the "Window" submenu).
-
- - If you set the number of EntryBuffers to zero, MFR will read a new
- directory completely before displaying anything. This is MFR's fastest
- directory reading mode, but you will have to wait until all entries are
- read.
-
- - MFR now caches the last directory to speed up subsequent calls with the
- same requester structure.
-
- - If you change to the parent directory, MFR now tries to place the cursor
- on the directory you just left. This makes it much easier and quicker
- to browse through your harddisk.
-
- - MFR can now create directories, delete files/dirs and rename files/dirs.
- With rename, you can even move your files around the volume. See DOS
- menu.
-
- - If MFR is in save mode and you type a non existing directory into the
- drawer gadget, MFR will create it if you confirm.
-
- - Implemented my idea of file selection. Pressing an alpha key in the
- file list (not in the file gadget!) will add this key to the search
- string and jump to the first entry starting with this string. Backspace
- will remove the last character from the search string. I tried several
- versions of file selection via keyboard and this one was my favourite.
- If you have some other (good!) ideas, let me know.
-
- - You can now tell MFR to activate the file list instead of the file
- gadget in some cases (see Activation menu). When MFR is opened for
- saving, activation of the file gadget always has priority.
-
- - MFR now has 18 different methods for sorting the file list (see Design
- menu): name sort, date sort and size sort with directories either
- first, last or within and with sorting order either low to high or high
- to low. Hope this will be enough for everybody. :-)
-
- - Fixed a bad bug that could crash the system if you tried to quit MFR
- with some allocated requester structures.
-
- - The list views are now more style guide compliant (no more extra pixel
- on top and bottom border).
-
- - Concatenation of default hide pattern and application specific hide
- pattern has been removed. Instead, an application specified hide
- pattern simply overrides the default hide pattern.
-
- - If the application specifies a show pattern, the default hide pattern is
- ignored. This avoids problems with mutual exclusive hide and show
- pattern (e.g. IconEdit with a default hide pattern #?.info).
-
- - Removed the 3d effect of the status line text. This was indeed a little
- overpowered.
-
- - Removed the about gadget in the bottom window border. :-(
-
- - More sophisticated calculation of the space occupied by date and time
- column. Should work with any font know.
-
- - Fixed bug with cursor right key in assign list.
-
- - A2024 was again considered lowres. This bug is now hopefully fixed for
- ever. MFR should know which config to use with all known display modes
- defined in "graphics/displayinfo.h". Unknown modes are considered
- highres.
-
- - Centering and mousing the window now also works on screens bigger than
- the maximum display size.
-
- - Added some clipboard support. You can now paste the current directory,
- the current file or the complete path to the clipboard (see Project
- menu).
-
- - If you consider the arrow gadgets as too fast, you may now configure a
- delay for them (see Design/Scrollbar menu)
-
- - You can activate MFR with a hotkey now. Configuration of this key is
- á done with the CX_POPKEY tooltype (only one hotkey activated MFR at a
- time).
-
- - Many tooltypes changed their name and meaning. You should avoid editing
- them directly and use MFR's menus instead.
-
- - MFR is an AppWindow now, you can drag icons in it. This will only work
- with single icons, multiple drag is not supported yet.
-
- - If you encounter a program not working with MFR, you can tell MFR to
- drop to the old file requester when being called by this program. This
- is done via the new tooltype REJECT. MFR tests this pattern against the
- current task name (ExecBase->ThisTask->tc_Node.ln_Name) and drops in
- case of match.
-
- - Rewrote manual to reflect all the new features (I really hate writing
- á manuals).
-
-
-
-
- V1.2 (17-Mar-92)
- ----------------
-
- Sorry again, this is also just a bugfix. I messed up something with the
- file search mechanism in V1.1. Now it should work.
-
- - File searching did not work right in V1.1. Fixed this problem.
-
- - MFR 1.1 could only be started from within sys:wbstartup/. This has been
- fixed.
-
- - MFR now also rejects the german AssignX.
-
- - Due to a strange compiler behaviour, every string was stored about five
- times in the executable. This bug has been fixed.
-
- - MFR now has a second way of configuration. You may write your tooltype
- entries to the file "env:mfr.prefs", and MFR will parse them as usual.
- Entries in mfr.prefs will replace tooltypes in mfr.info with the same
- name. MFR recognizes changes in "env:mfr.prefs" and reloads it
- automatically, so you don't have to restart it every time you change
- your config.
-
- - Included the program "TagScreens" from Martin Berndt to force old style
- screens to use the new Kick 2.x look.
-
-
-
-
- V1.1 (05-Mar-92)
- ----------------
-
- Sorry, I didn't have the time to implement many new ideas. This version
- is just a bug fixed and little enhanced V1.0, so don't expect too much.
- New features will come up in near future.
-
- - Some minor enhancements in design.
-
- - If the specified list font is 9 pixel or smaller, a second set of icons
- is used.
-
- - Because of problems with some programs, MFR will now cut off the slash
- following a directory name before returning.
-
- - An A2024 monitor is no longer considered LoRes.
-
- - The contents of Hide & Show gadgets are now passed back to the calling
- program, so they can be reused at later calls with the same structure.
-
- - The key combination <Alt><Return> now toggles between Drawer and Hide
- gadget or between File and Show gadget.
-
- - Fixed bug with the wrong calculated free disk space.
-
- - Fixed some other strange bugs.
-
- - MFR can now be called from CLI to pop up a file requester and print the
- results to stdout. See section 7.5 for details.
-
- - Added new tooltype NOTIFY to turn file notification on and off.
-
- - You may now select between six different scrollbar designs: Goonie,
- GoonieSym, Stuntzi, StuntziSym, Kick20 and Kick20Sym, configurable with
- the tooltypes SCROLLBAR and SCROLLBARL (lores).
-
- - MFR now uses the system-suggested colors for rendering
- (DrawInfo->dri_Pens). Images are also adjusted accordingly.
-
- - Late- and Nonbinding-Assigns are now displayed.
-
- - Added new tooltype DEFHIDEPAT to specify the a default value for the
- "Hide" gadget. If the application does not specify a hide pattern (ASL
- will never), DEFHIDEPAT is used instead. Otherwise, the given pattern
- and DEFHIDEPAT are concatenated using "(%s|%s)".
-
- - FAST keyword now obsolete. Instead, MFR measures the time for finding
- the next directory entry and increases/decreases its internal entry
- buffer accordingly. Thus, display refresh is rare with fast medias but
- often with slow medias. Maximum number of buffered entries is
- adjustable with the new tooltype ENTRYBUF (1..50). With ENTRYBUF=1, MFR
- behaves just like FAST=OFF.
-
- - Speeded up directory sorting algorithm. This will possibly result in
- faster directory reading on 68000 based machines.
-
- - Since MFR does for some reasons not work with 'AssignX' (I really don't
- know why... any ideas?), the ASL requester will be called when the
- window title matches "Assignment for*".
-
-
-
-
- V1.0 (24-Jan-92)
- ----------------
-
- - Initial release.
-