Shareware Super Platinum 8/Shareware Super Platinum 8.iso/mac/DATABASE/WSSI525B.ZIP;1/WSSI525.DOC

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                             Wssindex

                      Disk Indexing Software

                  Version 5.25 for MS/PC-DOS and
       Wssindex/Extended Version 5.25 for AT Class Machines


        Programs and documentation copyright (c) 1985-1993
           by Robert W. Babcock and WSS Division of DDC
                       All Rights Reserved


                      +-------+
                 +----+--+    |               (tm)
               --+       |    +-------------------
                 |  +----+--+ |  Association of
                 |  |       +-+  Shareware
                 +--+   o   |    Professionals
               -----+   |   +---------------------
                    +---+---+    MEMBER

                          License Terms

The shareware  version of  WSSINDEX and  associated files  may be
freely  distributed  provided that  the  entire  package is  made
available  and only  a reasonable  copying fee  is charged.   The
shareware version  is fully functional but  displays a commercial
message  on startup.  Purchasers of the complete package will re-
ceive the shareware package, a replacement for WSSINDEX.EXE with-
out  the opening  screen,  and instructions  for suppressing  the
opening  screen  in future  shareware  releases.   Purchasers  of
WSSINDEX/EXTENDED will also receive  a protected mode  executable
and setup files.  Files not included in the shareware package are
licensed for use by a single user,  or on one machine at a  time,
and  are not  to  be distributed.   Site  license  users may,  of
course,  use as many  copies as specified  in their  license.  If
there  is any  question  about multiple  machines  or users,  the
"like-a-book" rule applies: it should be impossible for more than
the licensed number of copies to be used simultaneously.

                     90 Day Limited Warranty

The software in the complete package is warranted to perform sub-
stantially as documented for a  period of 90 days from  your date
of receipt.  The media on which either the complete or evaluation
version  of this software is provided is warranted to be readable
for 30 days.   All  other warranties relating  to this  software,
whether expressed  or implied, are disclaimed.   Determination of
the  suitability of this software for a particular purpose is the
responsibility of the  user.  In no  event shall WSS  Division of
DDC  or Robert  W. Babcock  be liable  for damages  exceeding the
price paid to license this software.












                        Table of Contents

Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   1

Installation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   1

Wssindex/Extended Installation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2

Microsoft Windows Installation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3

Unlocking Demo Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

Overview and Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5

Setup and General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

Starting up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

Pop-up File Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

Command Defaults  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

Aborting commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

The Dreaded Abort, Retry, Fail? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

Archive and Graphics Files  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
    Archive Formats Supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
    Graphics Formats Supported  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14

Navigating through the menus  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14

Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
    Add or label disks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
    Quick Find  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
    Print and other output menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
    Write database on disk  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
    Display statistics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
    List directory  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
    Get or merge a database from disk . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
    Get configuration file and matching database  . . . . . .  18
    Change cOnfiguration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
    Add/modify Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
    Import comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
    ReName a disk in the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
    ReName a disk with a mixed case label . . . . . . . . . .  21
    Remove a disk from the database . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
    Remove all disks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
    Purge duplicate Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
    Push to DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21

Wssindex 5.25                   i               Table of Contents












    Quit and return to DOS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
    Quick Quit and return to DOS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22

Print menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
    Print (and sort)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
    Find a file in the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
    Quick Find  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
    Zippy text search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
    List Duplicate files  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
    List Unique files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
    List files which are not Backed up  . . . . . . . . . . .  27
    List Volume names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
    Quick list of Volume names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
    Multi-column listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
    MulTi-column listing  of duplicate, unique or  not backed
        up files  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
    Disk Covers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
    Disk Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
    Read a printer definition file  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
    COnfiguration menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
    Return to main menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31

Indexing Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
    Start Indexing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32
    Add Dummy entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
    IndeX ignoring labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
    List directory  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
    Label a disk on the labeling drive  . . . . . . . . . . .  34
    COnfiguration menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
    Return to main menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
    First indexing drive  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
    Second indexing drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
    LaBeling drive  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
    Indexing sTarts from  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
    Auto-category strinG  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
    Ask before replacing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
    Auto-Comment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
    AUto-category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
    Make .ID entries  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
    DummY entries include subdirectory tree . . . . . . . . .  36
    Query archive extraction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  36
    Index Hidden files  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  36
    Ignore bacKed up files  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  36
    Extract archive comments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  36

Primary Configuration Menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  36
    Printer configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37
    SiZe limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37
    Indexing options  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37
    Screen, keyboard and Miscellaneous  . . . . . . . . . . .  37
    Default sorting/selection options . . . . . . . . . . . .  37
    Keyboard macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37

Wssindex 5.25                   ii              Table of Contents












    Configured Exception list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37
    Which fields to print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  38
    Output Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  38
    Load configuration file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  38
    Save configuration file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  38
    Return to previous menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39

Printer Configuration Menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39
    Paper Width to right margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39
    Paper Length  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39
    Left Margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
    Top margin  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
    Bottom margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
    Use Form feeds  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
    Pause at page breaks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
    Printer port Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
    POstscript printer setup  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40

Postscript Printer Setup Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
    Use Postscript printer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
    Disk output also postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  41
    Landscape output  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  41
    Font Size (points)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  41
    Extra line spacing (points) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  41
    Database Size Limits  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  41
    Maximum number of Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  42
    Maximum number of Subdirectories  . . . . . . . . . . . .  42
    Maximum number of Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  42
    Allocate Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  42
    Longest allowed Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  43
    Longest allowed category  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  43
    Return to primary configuration menu  . . . . . . . . . .  43

Indexing Configuration Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  43
    Indexing drive number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  44
    Make .ID entries  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  44
    Ask Before replacing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  44
    Auto coMment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  44
    Auto caTegory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  44
    Ask before eXtracting archive info  . . . . . . . . . . .  44
    Extract comments from archive files . . . . . . . . . . .  44
    Extract comments from 4DOS/NDOS description files . . . .  44
    Auto cateGory string  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  44
    File extensions for Archive information extraction  . . .  45
    File extensions for graPhics information extraction . . .  45

Archive file extraction configuration menu  . . . . . . . . .  45

Graphics file extraction configuration menu . . . . . . . . .  45
    Extension for extraction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  45

Miscellaneous Configuration Menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  46

Wssindex 5.25                  iii              Table of Contents












    Perform automatic inteGrity check . . . . . . . . . . . .  46
    MaNual cursor motion in menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  47
    Function key layout matching IBM  . . . . . . . . . . . .  47
    Use BIOS to read Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
    Inverted meaning for PgUp/PgDn  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
    Create .BAK files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
    Enable Alarm sound  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
    Change Prompt in DOS shell  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
    Strip High-bit when viewing files . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
    Use color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  49
    Use Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  49
    Mouse Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  49
    Set Colors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  49
    Video board configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  49
    Return to primary configuration menu  . . . . . . . . . .  49

Default Sorting and Selection Options Menu  . . . . . . . . .  49
    Selection list  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50
    Sort Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50
    Return to previous menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50

Output Fields Configuration Menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50
    DuPlicate flag  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50
    Size  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50
    Date  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50
    Time  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51
    Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51
    Volume  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51
    SuBdirectory  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51
    Archive file name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51
    Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51
    CateGory  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51

Output Format Configuration Menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51
    Number of Blank lines between headers . . . . . . . . . .  52
    Number of blank lines after Headers . . . . . . . . . . .  52
    File name style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52
    Date style  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52
    Archive file delImiter  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52
    DeliMiter around first of comment/category  . . . . . . .  52
    Field width for Subdirectories  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52
    Field width for Archive name  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52
    Field width for Comment or category . . . . . . . . . . .  52
    Print comments bEfore categories  . . . . . . . . . . . .  53
    Always start New line for comment/category  . . . . . . .  53
    MaX wrapped print lines per file  . . . . . . . . . . . .  53
    Return to primary configuration menu  . . . . . . . . . .  53

Video Board Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  53
    Screen writing method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  54
    Use DOS calls for prompts (for screen readers)  . . . . .  54
    Suppress snoW on CGA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55

Wssindex 5.25                   iv              Table of Contents












    Raw Mode on screen output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55
    Use BIOS call to set screen size  . . . . . . . . . . . .  55
    AX value for BIOS call  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55
    BX value for BIOS call  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55
    Screen wIdth  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55
    Screen Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55
    AX value for BIOS call on exit or push-to-DOS . . . . . .  55
    BX Value for BIOS call on exit or push-to-DOS . . . . . .  55
    Return to previous menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55

Color Selection Menu  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55

The Add-Comments Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  56

WSSINDEX Utilities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  60
    IDADD Conversion Utility  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  61
    WSSMERGE Database Merging Utility . . . . . . . . . . . .  61
    SPLIT Database Splitting Utility  . . . . . . . . . . . .  62
    Database Conversion Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  63

Problems and Solutions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  64
    Hard/software requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  64
    Known incompatibilities with other software . . . . . . .  64
        Disk Cache Warning  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  64
        Incompatible TSR  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  65
    Answers to Common Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  65

Command Line Parameter Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  68

Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  68

The Distribution Package  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  69

Ordering Information  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  71
    WSSINDEX Price schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  71
    WSSINDEX ORDER FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  74

Appendix A - Forcing Video Board Type if Autodetection Fails   75

Appendix B - ANSI.SYS Screen Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . .  76

Appendix C - Expanding the DOS Environment  . . . . . . . . .  77

Appendix D - WSSINDEX Database Format . . . . . . . . . . . .  78

Appendix E - Printer Definition Files . . . . . . . . . . . .  79

Appendix F - Character Code Conversion Table  . . . . . . . .  84

Appendix G - WSSINDEX for DEC Rainbow . . . . . . . . . . . .  85

Appendix H - WSSINDEX for TI Professional . . . . . . . . . .  86

Wssindex 5.25                   v               Table of Contents












Appendix I - Parameters for setting screen sizes  . . . . . .  87




















































Wssindex 5.25                   vi              Table of Contents












                           Introduction

Have you ever  had to  search through dozens  of disks trying  to
find a  program or data  file which  you knew you  had somewhere?
WSSINDEX.EXE is a program  designed to help keep track  of MS-DOS
files  stored on  floppy or hard  disks.   A database  is created
which  contains, for all of  your disks, the information normally
available  from the DOS DIR command, as well as optional comments
and categories  describing  each file.   The  information in  the
database may be printed  with various sorting options, or  may be
searched  for specific  file names  with wild  cards in  case you
don't remember the exact  name of the  file you are looking  for.
Additional functions include listing files without current backup
copies and  extracting  directory information  from  archive  and
graphics files of various types.  Don't be frightened by the size
of  this documentation.   The program is menu  driven and easy to
use without referring  to the  documentation.  Mostly  this is  a
reference manual to use when the details of some program function
aren't clear.  If you are a new user, you should read the Instal-
lation, Overview and Tutorial sections.

                           Installation

Before you do anything else,  make sure that the disk(s)  you re-
ceived are write  protected, and  then make at  least one  backup
copy.   The disks are not  copy protected.  WSSINDEX  and related
routines, including a machine readable version of this documenta-
tion file,  are  shipped as  compressed,  self-extracting  files.
This  lowers the number of  disks required, and  also provides an
automatic check during the installation that the disk(s) have not
been damaged.  The steps required for program extraction may vary
from release to release; you will find an instruction sheet pack-
aged with the distribution disks.

The extracted files generally include  the version number as part
of the file  name.   For example, the  main program  WSSINDEX.EXE
becomes WSSI525.EXE.   To  avoid  confusion, I  suggest that  you
rename  the  executable  files  to  WSSINDEX,  IDADD,  SPLIT  and
WSSMERGE (.EXE  in all cases).   If you are running  DOS 2.x, you
must rename the program files this way if you want  to use either
the overlaid version  of WSSINDEX or the virus checking code.  Of
course, you can  name the files whatever you like,  but the above
numbers  will  be  used   throughout  this  documentation.    The
WSSINDEX/Extended executable is named WSDPM525.EXE; the suggested
generic name  is WSSIDPM.EXE.   Since WSSINDEX/Extended  does not
run  under DOS 2.x, the integrity check does not require renaming
the executable.

All purchasers receive the  shareware evaluation version which is
fully functional, but the main program, WSSINDEX.EXE, displays an
opening  commercial.  The evaluation routine has a "D" (for demo)
as the last  character of the file name, i.e. WSSI525D.EXE  (Note

Wssindex 5.25                   1                    Introduction












that the file names vary slightly for the DEC Rainbow  and TI Pro
versions.  Generally, a single letter is appended, and where this
makes the file name  longer than 8 characters, another  letter is
dropped.)   If  you  purchased the  complete package,  additional
self-extracting files are  included which contain WSSI525.EXE,  a
replacement   executable   without   the   opening   screen   and
WSSI525.DOC, this documentation in ascii format.

                  Wssindex/Extended Installation

The  extended version  of Wssindex  uses a DOS  extender licensed
from  Ergo Computing to  allow access to  up to 16MB  of extended
memory with  an 80286, 80386 or 80486 CPU.  This requires switch-
ing the CPU into what is called "protected mode".  However, it is
necessary  to switch back to "real mode" before any DOS functions
can  be used.   Since  Intel originally  envisioned that  the 286
would be used with  an operating system which switched  into pro-
tected  mode immediately and never came back, getting out of pro-
tected mode was  made very  difficult.  But  MS-DOS has  remained
popular, so motherboard manufacturers have used various tricks to
allow switching back to real mode.  Generally these involve send-
ing  a  special command  to the  keyboard controller,  which then
sends a reset to the CPU.

The significance of all this is that the DOS extender has to test
your system to find out which  way of switching back to real mode
works  best.  This  testing is done  once using  a program called
TUNE which  stores its results in the  protected mode executable.
If TUNE tries something which doesn't work with your hardware, it
may crash  your system,  probably disabling  the keyboard  in the
process.   If  this happens,  use your  hardware reset  button or
power switch to reboot  and try again.  TUNE writes  a checkpoint
file and will continue from the point of failure.  If you have an
expanded  memory manager  such  as QEMM  or 386-to-the-Max  which
supports  the VCPI standard, TUNE  will detect this  and tell you
that no tuning is  necessary.  TUNE has  an internal database  of
common  machines and may recognize  your machine and  not need to
run any  tests.  TUNE  may also generate  a small file  with your
machine configuration  and ask you to upload  it to the Ergo Com-
puting BBS.   Of course,  doing this is  optional, especially  if
TUNE  did not crash your  machine.  TUNE  configuration files can
also be sent to WSS/DDC for forwarding to Ergo.

Instructions   for   running   TUNE   are   included   with   the
Wssindex/Extended disk.  Basically, you type

    TUNE -k filename

where filename is  WSDPM525.EXE (if not  renamed) and follow  the
screen prompts.  TUNE'ing a 386  or 486 is usually a quick, pain-
less task, but 286  processors are sometimes a problem.   If TUNE
reports that it  is unable  to characterize your  machine, or  is

Wssindex 5.25                   2                    Installation












unable  to  control the  A20 line,  try  again with  a simplified
CONFIG.SYS  file.  286 expanded  memory drivers may  to be incom-
patible with the Ergo extender (but XMS drivers are usually help-
ful).  If all else fails, try the command

    TUNE -f 0/0/0/2/2 -k filename

This  writes generic  286 tuning  parameters into  the executable
without running any tests.  Then try running WSDPM525.EXE; if you
are lucky, it may work.

                  Microsoft Windows Installation

The DOS version of Wssindex requires no special  installation for
running under  Windows 3.0  or 3.1 (earlier  versions of  Windows
have not been tested).  From the program manager click on

    File
    New
    Program Item (OK)

and  enter the program name  (with a full path  if not on the DOS
path) in the command line field, and the directory where you wish
to store database files in the working directory field.

To install  Wssindex/Extended under  Windows, proceed as  for the
DOS version, but instead  of entering the program name  and path,
enter the name of a Program Information File (PIF).  A sample PIF
file with the name  WSDPM525.PIF is included in the  distribution
package.  The PIF file includes  the path C:\WSSINDEX and an  8MB
XMS memory  limit.   These can  be changed  with the  Windows PIF
editor.   Windows 3.1 in 386 enhanced mode provides virtual memo-
ry,  so database  size is  limited by  a combination  of physical
memory and disk swap space.

Wssindex/Extended requires that file LABELDLL.DLL be available on
the DOS  PATH or in the  current directory.  If this  file is not
found,  you will get  an error  message, but  if you  are running
under Windows, the message may be cleared from the before you can
read it.

One  software combination which is not guaranteed to work is QEMM
plus Windows 3.0 in standard mode plus Wssindex/Extended.  Alter-
natives  are to replace QEMM  with HIMEM.SYS, run  Windows 3.0 in
386  enhanced mode,  run Windows  3.1  in any  mode, or  only run
Wssindex/Extended under DOS.

                        OS/2 Installation

Wssindex runs in a DOS window under OS/2 2.0 (earlier versions of
OS/2 have  not been tested).   Neither the  DOS nor the  Extended
versions  know about the long  file names possible  with the High

Wssindex 5.25                   3                    Installation












Performance File System.  DOS settings for Wssindex/Extended must
set the  DPMI_DOS_API to  enabled; the  default  setting of  AUTO
doesn't work.   The  DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT setting controls  how much
memory is available for database storage.   OS/2 provides virtual
memory,  so database size is limited by a combination of physical
memory   and   disk   swap    space.      EMS_MEMORY_LIMIT    and
XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT  can be set to 0 if desired; only DPMI memory is
used.

                     Unlocking Demo Releases

The  acknowledgement letter  sent to  full purchasers  includes a
personal  password which can be used to suppress the opening com-
mercial of the  evaluation demo.  The DOS SET  command is used to
define two  environment variables, WSSUSER and  WSSPASS, whenever
the demo version  is run.   The first of  these is typically  the
user name, the  second a 7 or 8-digit number.   For example, John
Q. Public might include the lines

    SET WSSUSER=JPublic
    SET WSSPASS=12345678

in his AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  The program retrieves the value of the
WSSUSER  variable, does  some  arithmetic operations  on it,  and
checks to see whether the result matches the value of the WSSPASS
variable.   If so, the  opening commercial screen  is suppressed.
The WSSUSER variable must be entered exactly as specified in your
registration letter; changing the case or including spaces around
the  equal signs will cause  the program to  either not recognize
the password or  will change the expected value of WSSPASS.  Pur-
chasers of versions released  before the password scheme  was im-
plemented may contact WSS/DDC to receive a password.  The maximum
database size will be slightly reduced by the memory  used by the
code  which checks the password;  otherwise an unlocked demo ver-
sion will be  indistinguishable from the standard  release.  This
password scheme is probably  not very hard to  defeat; if you  do
so, please keep the technique to yourself.

The  password does not turn  the evaluation version  into the Ex-
tended version.  In the future, it may allow you  to download the
Extended version from our BBS without requiring manual validation
by the system operator.

Demo releases  sent to various  online and disk  copying services
are compressed  using  PKWare's PKZIP.   These  files include  an
authenticity check which is  difficult, but apparently not impos-
sible, to defeat.  When such files are extracted using PKZIP, you
should  see the  message  "Authentic files  Verified!   #  RLQ256
Software by WSS Division of DDC."  If there is any change in this
message, particularly in the serial number RLQ256, it  means that
the  file has been modified  and should be  treated with caution.
Various BBS's may add a ZIPfile comment; this will not change the

Wssindex 5.25                   4                    Installation












authenticity check.  On the other hand, the self-extracting files
I send to purchasers may be created by another compression utili-
ty such  as LHARC.   A ZIP  file with no  authenticity check  may
merely  be a repackaging of files I  send to purchasers.  At this
writing, PKWare is scheduled to soon begin shipping a new version
of PKZIP which will include a strengthened authenticity verifica-
tion scheme;  it isn't clear  what effect this  will have on  the
text displayed when a program is extracted from a ZIPfile.

                      Overview and Tutorial

This section is an  introduction to WSSINDEX  for new users.   It
contains enough  information to  get you started,  but eventually
you  will probably want to  browse through the  Setup and Command
Reference sections.

What is  it?  WSSINDEX creates and  maintains a database with all
the information about your disks available from  the DIR command,
plus  optional  descriptive comments  and  categories.   You  can
search the  database interactively, or you can print reports with
various  sorting  and selection  options.    Output option  allow
printing disk labels and disk covers.  The most common use of the
program  is to  keep track  of  files on  a collection  of floppy
disks, but you can index anything which looks like a disk to DOS,
including hard disks, RAM  disks and some tape cartridges.   (Un-
fortunately, almost  all tape  systems use special  formats which
Wssindex cannot read.  But  if your tape software makes the  tape
look like a  disk to DOS,  Wssindex can probably  read it.)   One
option allows hard disk users to make a listing of all files on a
hard disk which do not have backup copies on another disk.

What hardware  and software do I  need?  For the  DOS version, an
IBM-PC or moderately compatible  MS-DOS machine (versions for the
Dec Rainbow  and Texas  Instruments Professional are  also avail-
able), DOS-2 or higher  and either an IBM compatible  video board
or support for ANSI escape sequences.  If you lack both of these,
the screen  display will be hopelessly garbled;  more details be-
low.   The program will run  in 256K of memory,  but the database
size will be extremely limited; 640K is recommended.  A mouse may
be used.   Wssindex/Extended, which can  handle larger databases,
requires an AT  class machine (286 or higher CPU), DOS-3 or high-
er,  and a disk  larger than 360KB  for saved databases.   1MB or
more of extended memory is recommended.

How  many disks can I  index?  With  the DOS version,  there is a
hard limit (set by the 64K segment size of the Intel 80x8x series
CPU's) of approximately 16K  files (or disks, or subdirectories),
and a practical limit of 10-12K files if you have 640K of memory.
Extended  or expanded memory is  not used, but  DOS memory beyond
640K is used  if your system  supports it.  The  extended version
does use extended  memory and  the maximum database  size is  in-


Wssindex 5.25                   5                    Installation












creased  accordingly.   For example, with  6MB RAM,  over 100,000
files can be indexed.

How do  I run the  program?  Start it  up by typing  WSSINDEX (or
WSSInnn if you haven't  renamed the executable file and  it still
includes the version number).  If you are not running  the regis-
tered  version, read the opening commercial screen and hist a key
to continue.   You will get a message that the configuration file
was not  found; hit return and you will  get a prompt for a data-
base  name.  You haven't created a  database yet, so just hit es-
cape.

"Help!  my screen is all messed up.   I see funny numbers, square
brackets  and other  garbage mixed  in with  normal text."   This
isn't  supposed to happen  any more, but  if it does,  you may be
able  to recover by hitting escape 2  or 3 times followed by con-
trol-Q.  Then, read appendices A  and B for a description of what
is happening and how to fix it.

At  this point you are  running with default  option settings in-
cluding white-on-black colors and mouse disabled.  You can change
options  at this point or later; simply select the change cOnfig-
uration option  on the  main menu by  typing "O".   Probably  the
first thing to check is the video output method; CGA, MDA, EGA or
VGA  are much faster than DOS and  enable boxes around the menus.
(Drawing  the menu boxes with DOS calls would be painfully slow.)
To get to the menu screen which sets this option from the primary
configuration menu, select  M and then  V.  This  menu option  is
buried several menus deep  because you only need to  set it once,
and you lose your screen display if you accidentally change it to
the wrong  value.  You may also  want to enable use  of the mouse
from the screen, keyboard and miscellaneous configuration menu.

From the main menu hit A to move to the indexing menu.  If neces-
sary, hit F and S to  enter the first and second indexing drives.
If you have  two drives, you can select A and  B and use then al-
ternately; otherwise just select the same  drive twice.  Hit I to
start indexing.   You will be told  to insert a disk  and hit the
space bar; do so.  If the disk was previously labeled (by  the /V
option of  FORMAT or by  some other utility),  the label will  be
displayed and the disk directory information will be added to the
database.   If the  disk was not  labeled, you will  be given the
options to  write a label  on it, enter a  label to use  (but not
write on  the disk), list  the directory on screen,  or return to
the menu.  WSSINDEX  will spend a  few seconds reading the  disk,
and will then prompt you  to hit the space bar to  index the next
disk.  Feed  in a few disks this way, then  hit return instead of
space to stop indexing, and then R to return to the main menu.

Now you can  try some of the program options.   Hit D and see how
many files  and disks  you have entered.   Hit P  to move  to the
File/volume listing menu, and then P again to print the database.

Wssindex 5.25                   6                        Overview












When asked  for selection/rejection  options, just hit  return to
select everything.  When asked for sorting options, enter 1,2 and
hit return.  And  when asked to select  printer, screen, disk  or
export output, hit S.  You should now get a screen listing of all
files in the database, sorted by name and extension.  If the list
does not fit on a  single screen, you can page forward  and back-
ward with the PgDn and PgUp keys.  At the top of the list will be
dummy entries for  each disk and subdirectory.   See page  23 for
how to control whether or not these appear.  If you don't want to
see the entire listing  you can interrupt it by hitting  ^C (con-
trol-C) while  the screen is  being painted, or  hit Q  after the
screen fills.  When  the listing finishes  and you return to  the
menu display,  enter ^F for quick  find.  When  prompted for file
specs, enter wildcard specifications one per line, ending with an
empty line.  For example, *.COM  and *.EXE will match all execut-
able files.  All files which match these  specs will be displayed
on screen in the same format as before.

There are four different types of disk files which can be written
by WSSINDEX:  (1) configuration files (default name WSSINDEX.CNF)
which contain setup information and are short, (2) database files
(default  name WSSINDEX.DIR)  which  contain  the disk  directory
information  and can be quite large, (3) printer files which con-
tain output which could instead have been sent to the screen or a
printer, and (4) export  files which can be read by database pro-
grams.  Only the first two of these can be read by WSSINDEX.

From the main  menu, select option  W to write  a database  file.
You will be prompted with a default name of d:\path\WSSINDEX.DIR.
You can  hit return to accept  this default, or you  can edit it:
use the cursor keys, insert, delete,  control-arrow for word tab-
bing, etc.  You can also hit TAB to get a pop-up list of database
file names, but usually doing this doesn't make much sense unless
you want to check  whether a database name already  exists before
saving a new database.

Select option Q (or ^Q) and return to DOS.  Verify that the data-
base file was written where you expected.

Restart  the program.  If you saved a configuration file with the
default  name (the instructions above didn't tell you to do this,
but you might  have done so anyway if you  were adventurous), no-
tice that it is  automatically restored and you are  prompted for
the name of a database file to read.   Otherwise, after configur-
ing, select the G option  to get a database from disk  and reload
the  database you  just saved.   From the  print menu,  use the V
option to list the  volumes in the database, sorted by name, free
space, date indexed or unsorted.

Now you have  a feel for how the program  operates and you should
read  at least  up until  the detailed  menu descriptions.   Some
important things you  will find are instructions for changing the

Wssindex 5.25                   7                        Overview












default names for the  configuration and database files, detailed
explanation  of all  the  program options,  and  how to  use  the
add-comments section.   Also look  at the Problems  and Solutions
chapter  for the answers to some commonly asked questions, and at
the  Utilities chapter  for descriptions  of the  various utility
routines.  If you want  to print disk labels or disk  covers, see
the documentation for the print menu.

                  Setup and General Information

Before running WSSINDEX, there  are several DOS environment vari-
ables  which you may  want to set  to establish defaults  for the
configuration file name, the  database name, and your  video dis-
play  type.  Doing this  is optional, but  recommended for smooth
operation.

The DOS environment  is just a  list of character strings  of the
form

        VARIABLE=value

You make,  view or delete entries  in this list with  the DOS SET
command.   From the  DOS prompt, type  SET to  view your  current
settings.   You should see something  like COMSPEC=d:COMMAND.COM,
and probably other items  used by other software packages  or the
PROMPT command.  You will probably  find it convenient to put SET
commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  If you  get an error message
that you have run out of environment space, see appendix B.

When issuing SET commands, do not include any blank spaces around
the equals signs.  The four commands:

    SET X=Y
    SET X =Y
    SET X= Y
    SET X = Y

mean different things.

The environment variables used by WSSINDEX are

    WSSDISP = default display type
    WSSICNF = default configuration file name
    WSSIDIR = default database name
    WSSPRINT = default printer definition file

WSSINDEX and  the utility routines attempt to determine what type
of video card  you have, but you can manually  override the auto-
matic selection.  This  might be necessary on machines  with more
than one  video board or when smart  hardware tries to sense what
type of video board the software is trying to address.  The video
type  is saved  in  configuration files,  but  you can  also  use

Wssindex 5.25                   8                        Overview












WSSDISP to specify this; legal values are D, C, M, E or V for DOS
calls, color graphics adapter, monochrome display adapter, EGA or
VGA.   (Actually, only the first character is used, so you can be
more mnemonic.)

If you do  not specify  the configuration file  or database  file
names  on  the command  line,  they default  to  WSSINDEX.CNF and
WSSINDEX.DIR  on the current drive in the current directory.  You
can change these defaults  with the environment variables WSSICNF
and WSSIDIR.  Even  if you use multiple databases  and configura-
tions, you can still use these variables to specify the drive and
path.  For  example, if  you keep the  program and  configuration
files in  subdirectory C:\WSSINDEX, and databases in subdirectory
C:\WSSINDEX\INDEXES, you might specify

    SET WSSICNF=C:\WSSINDEX\
    SET WSSIDIR=C:\WSSINDEX\INDEXES\

(Remember, no spaces around  the equal signs.)  The  startup code
will use the specified paths and fill in the default file names.

The  WSSPRINT  environment variable  specifies  the  name of  the
printer  definition file  which is  used by  some options  on the
print menu.


                           Starting up

Type
          WSSINDEX <config name> <database name>

where the  angle brackets indicate  optional parameters.   If the
configuration file (first command line argument or default or de-
fined by WSSICNF)  is read successfully, the program will immedi-
ately ask for the name of  an existing database to read, and will
prompt  you with the default name.   If you don't  want to read a
database, you  can hit escape to  cancel.  On the  other hand, if
you  specify the database name  as the second  command line argu-
ment, it is read without confirmation.  If the configuration file
and database have the  same name (but the usual  extensions), you
can specify = (an equal sign) for the database  name.  In a batch
file, DOS treats an equal sign like a blank or comma, so Wssindex
won't  see it.  A - (hyphen)  can be substituted.  Either command
line  name can be replaced by  an * (asterisk) as an abbreviation
for the default name.








Wssindex 5.25                   9                           Setup












                      Pop-up File Selection

When entering names for  input database, configuration or printer
definition files, you can hit TAB to switch to a list of possible
files.  These lists are  generated using the drive, path and  ex-
tension  of the default file name which was displayed just before
you hit TAB; the wildcard used is displayed at the  bottom of the
screen.   Also listed, surrounded  by brackets, are  the names of
subdirectories, including  the parent directory in  the usual DOS
notation [..].  Move  the highlight bar to the desired  entry and
hit enter, spacebar  or a mouse button.  If  no path is specified
in the wildcard and  you select the parent directory,  the selec-
tion is interpreted to mean fill in the current directory, but do
not move up the directory tree.  Once this has been done, you can
move up the directory tree by selecting  [..] again.  If you want
to  change to a different drive, edit  that part of the file name
before hitting TAB.

                         Command Defaults

In many places, WSSINDEX  gives you a default which will  be used
if you just hit enter.   For text input, you can edit the default
with normal  editing keys: left, right  cursor arrows, backspace,
insert,  delete, control-arrows  for  word tabbing.   File  names
generally  have default  drive, subdirectory, name  and extension
components which are established at program startup and change to
match the last user input.

                        Aborting commands

At most  points you can hit  ESCAPE (CANCEL on a  Dec Rainbow) to
abort a command  when you are prompted  for text strings such  as
file name,  disk name, etc.  ESCAPE also backs up one menu level,
or forces a screen rewrite from the top level menu.   ESCAPE will
not stop print  operations, use  control-c instead.   If you  hit
ESCAPE when numeric input is expected, you will still see a "com-
mand aborted" message,  but all  this means is  that the  default
value has been used.

                 The Dreaded Abort, Retry, Fail?

Certain disk errors will produce a DOS error message, followed by
an "Abort, Retry, Fail?" prompt (Fail is replaced by Ignore under
DOS 2), possibly in  an inappropriate screen location if  you are
using direct video  writes for  screen output.   To minimize  the
chance  of triggering such a  message, WSSINDEX now  has an error
handler which  will intercept such messages during indexing or if
they are  triggered on the first  access of a disk,  and give you
the opportunity to correct  the problem or cancel  the operation.
The usual problems which can be detected this way are  disk write
protected,  not ready  or not  formatted.   Disk full  errors are


Wssindex 5.25                   10                          Setup












handled properly, but at  a different level.  In  future releases
the error handling will be extended to catch all disk errors.

The current coding will not detect the various failures which can
occur in the middle of reading or writing a file, but such errors
generally indicate a serious problem which may not be recoverable
in any  case.  If you  do get the "Abort,  Retry, Fail?" message,
you must  be careful how  you respond.   If you respond  "A", you
return to DOS and lose whatever you were working on.  But, that's
not the worst thing that can happen.  If the failure happens on a
write operation,  and you swap  disks before responding  "R", DOS
will  probably write the directory  and file access  table of the
original disk onto the second disk.  This is really a design flaw
in MS-DOS, not a  WSSINDEX problem, and most any program can suf-
fer from it.  It is  generally safe to fix the problem  and retry
with  the same disk.  The result  of failing an error will depend
on  exactly what operation failed, but you can usually recover by
responding fail, although you may have to do so several times.


                         Acknowledgements

WSSINDEX started out as an exercise  to learn C for my "real job"
and to  fill my needs for  a disk indexing package,  and ended up
growing into a major  project.  Two special software  tools which
have  proved invaluable  in  producing various  releases of  this
package are OPUS MAKE (D. G. Kneller & J. F. Thomason, Opus Soft-
ware, 1032 Irving  St. Suite 439,  San Francisco, CA   94122) and
the PD M4 macro preprocessor (Ozan S. Yigit with modifications by
John Levine).  The video  board configuration information is pri-
marily from  DOSREF17 Programmer's Technical Reference  for MSDOS
and the IBM PC, Copyright 1990 by  Dave Williams.  Special thanks
to  Paul St. George, Nate Horowitz, Don Wetzel, and other members
of the Sanyo  New England Users Group for  encouraging me to dis-
tribute my  early efforts as shareware.  Also thanks to all those
who  have registered the shareware version, and to those who sug-
gested  program  enhancements.     And  finally,  thanks  to  the
countless bulletin board sysops who provide the distribution net-
work for shareware programs.

                    Archive and Graphics Files

The idea of combining files into an  archive or library, and pos-
sibly  compressing them at the  same time, is  older than MS-DOS.
WSSINDEX can peer into certain types of archive files and extract
directory information.  Note that it is only the directory infor-
mation which  is extracted; file  viewing and extraction  are not
implemented.   WSSINDEX can also extract  useful information from
graphics formats, namely the image size and number of colors.

Archive files are identified  by their file extension.   Since it
is possible for a non-archive file to have a name  which makes it

Wssindex 5.25                   11                          Setup












appear to be an archive, you may get warnings when indexing  that
such files are  either not archives or are corrupted.   If such a
message  is given for  a file which  you think is  a archive, you
should use the appropriate archive utility  to test the integrity
of the file.

In  most but not all cases, extraction of information from an ar-
chive file is noticeably slower  than reading a directory because
the  information is  scattered throughout  the file,  rather than
being concentrated in one place.  You  will probably notice a lot
of disk activity when extracting archive information.

Some of the  archive formats  may be used  on non-MS-DOS  systems
which  allow file  names which  are illegal  under MS-DOS.   When
WSSINDEX  extracts information from such an archive, the two com-
ponents of the file name are truncated to 8 and  3 characters but
retain their original case.   If you transfer archive  files from
another operating system to MS-DOS, remember that these are bina-
ry files and  improper character translations  can make them  un-
readable.  Some of  the archive formats can include  subdirectory
information; WSSINDEX will ignore this  information.  Some of the
archive formats allow entries  to be marked as  deleted; WSSINDEX
will  ignore such entries.  If an archive format allows inclusion
of comments,  and the WSSINDEX configuration  selects comment ex-
traction, the  leading characters of the  comment (after removing
any leading or trailing blanks, unprintable characters, box form-
ing  characters or strings  of more than  two consecutive blanks)
are included in the  database.  The maximum number  of characters
extracted used  to be fixed at  64 but is now  configurable up to
1023.

Archive files introduce two complications in the operation of re-
placing a commented disk  in the database.  First,  which comment
should be used if  a comment has  been extracted from an  archive
and the  file already  had a  comment in the  database?   Current
choice is to accept  the comment extracted from the  archive, but
I'm  not certain  that this  is the  best choice.   Second,  what
should be done if a member of an archive file matches the name of
an  ordinary, commented  file in  the same  subdirectory?   Quite
probably the files  are identical, but  they could be  completely
different, and WSSINDEX  has no reliable way to tell which is the
case.  The  current program version uses the  following algorithm
to decide whether to  copy a comment after it has  found matching
file and subdirectory  names: if both files  are archive members,
the archive file names must match, and if only one of the pair is
in an archive file, the size and date must match.   I am not com-
pletely  satisfied with this algorithm and am open to any sugges-
tions for a better technique.





Wssindex 5.25                   12     Archive and Graphics Files












The formats of  various archive files  sometimes change with  new
releases  of  archiving  programs.    Such  changes  may  prevent
WSSINDEX from  extracting information.   For example,  LHARC 2.0x
writes by default files which are  not readable by LHARC 1.xx, or
by  any version  of Wssindex  older than  5.1.   Fortunately, new
compression methods  usually do not require  changing header for-
mats, so WSSINDEX is usually not broken by archiver changes.

                    Archive Formats Supported

ARC, ARK, PAK, PKA, SDN -  As far as WSSINDEX is concerned, these
extensions all refer to variants of the same type of archive.  An
extraction program might not be  able to handle all of  these be-
cause some of them may use unrecognized compression  methods, but
the header  information has the same format in all four.  The ARC
extension  is used with the archive format which is currently the
most popular.  ARC files may be created by ARC  (Systems Enhance-
ment  Associates, 21 New Street, Wayne, NJ  07470) or PKARC/PKPAK
(PKWare  7545 N.  Port Washington Road,  Suite 205,  Glendale, WI
53217).   ARK is the  extension used by a CP/M  port of ARC.  The
PAK  extension is used by PAK (NoGate Consulting, P.O. Box 88115,
Grand Rapids, MI  49518).  When a version of PKARC was introduced
which  had a compression method not recognized by ARC, some users
recommended changing  the extension to PKA.  SDN is a format used
by  the Software Distribution Network,  essentially the same as a
PAK file.

ARJ - Files  with this extension  are created by  ARJ (Robert  K.
Jung,  2606 Village Road West, Norwood, MA 02062).  ARJ files can
span volumes,  in which case  the continuation files  have exten-
sions A00,  A01,...  Wssindex recognizes  the continuation files,
but does not record  whether an archive member spans  two archive
files.  A  recent ARJ  release allows more  than 99  continuation
files,  in  which  case   the  extensions  are  3-digit  numbers.
Wssindex does not test whether  files with 3-digit extensions are
ARJ files because too  many other files are  likely to have  this
type of  extension.   The only  conceivable use  for an  ARJ file
which occupies more than 100 disks  is a hard disk backup, and if
your backups take more than 100 disks, you really should consider
getting a tape drive.

HYP - Hyper is a German program by Peter Sawatzki and Klaus Peter
Nischke.  An October 15, 1991 PC Magazine comparison of archiving
programs rated Hyper best at compressing spreadsheet files.

LBR - This format was defined by Gary Novosielski for use on CP/M
and  MS-DOS systems and many programs exist which can create this
type  of archive.  Although no longer popular, this format allows
quick access to any archive member because the directory informa-
tion is  all in one  place at  the beginning of  the file.   Time
stamps stored  in a LBR file are relative to 1/1/76, but are con-
verted to the MS-DOS standard by WSSINDEX.  This means that files

Wssindex 5.25                   13     Archive and Graphics Files












dated before 1/1/80  will appear to be dated  1/1/80.  There also
exist LBR utilities which do not fill in the date and time infor-
mation; these will also produce file dates of 1/1/80.

LZH,  LZS - Files with these  extensions are created respectively
by the Japanese  programs LHARC (Haruyasu Yoshizaki) or  LARC (K.
Miki, H. Okumura, K. Masuyama).

ZIP  - ZIP files are  created by PKWare's  PKZIP (address above).
ZIP  files extending  across multiple  volumes are  not currently
supported by WSSINDEX (or by the current release of  PKZIP).  ZIP
files may  be created  on non-MS-DOS operating  systems; WSSINDEX
should be  able to handle such  files, except for  the above men-
tioned  truncation of file names.  A  volume name stored by PKZIP
will appear as a zero-byte file.

ZOO - The ZOO archive utility (by Rahul Dhesi) is available under
many different operating systems, and the file format is supposed
to be the same on all of them.

                    Graphics Formats Supported

The  image size and  number of colors  for graphics files  can be
placed in  the category field in the format width x height x col-
ors.   If an image appears to  be black and white, either because
of a  flag in the file or because the  color table has equal red,
green and blue intensities for all colors,  the category includes
the string "monochrome".   When reindexing, this information will
not replace an existing category.

BMP  - Bitmapped images used by Windows  3.0 and OS/2.  I believe
that  earlier versions of Windows  used the same  extension but a
different file format, but I have no examples for testing.

GIF - Stands for  Graphics Interchange Format, a service  mark of
Compuserve.  The GIF format allows for files which do not contain
an image, but it is likely that only test files will use this op-
tion.  Such files will trigger a warning message.  A GIF file may
also contain  multiple images; WSSINDEX  will only see  the first
one.   I've seen one example  of what a viewing  program called a
GIF file with a MAC header.  Wssindex will reject such a file.

PCX - Zsoft format commonly used by paint programs.

TIF - Tagged Image Format from Aldus.

                   Navigating through the menus

Wssindex  is controlled  by  a series  of  menus and  data  entry
screens.  The  overall structure  is shown in  the figure  below.
For the most part, related functions are put on the same menu.  A
few items which might logically be used in different contexts are

Wssindex 5.25                   14     Archive and Graphics Files












repeated  on multiple menus.  The appearance of the menus depends
on whether  screen writing is done  by DOS calls  or direct video
writes.  In DOS-calls mode, menus are not surrounded by boxes and
there is no highlight  bar because displaying these in  this mode
is very time consuming.

Operation of the menus is fairly straightforward.  A menu item is
selected  by either hitting a trigger key which is highlighted in
the menu,  or by hitting return  or space when the  highlight bar
and cursor are positioned on the desired item.  The highlight bar
can be moved with the  cursor keys or with a mouse; HOME  and END
move the selector bar  to the first  and last menu items  respec-
tively; ESCAPE returns  to the  previous menu,  or refreshes  the
screen if at the top-level menu.  The left mouse button is equiv-
alent to the space bar, the  right button to the return key.   If
you hit a  key which is  not the trigger  for any displayed  menu
item, it is assumed that you are entering a value for the current
item.  The area below a menu box is used for  message display and
user entry of items such as file names.

After a menu item has been selected,  and any processing for that
item  is completed,  an attempt  is made  to make  an intelligent
choice whether to leave the cursor positioned on the same item or
to advance  to the next item.  The method used to select the menu
item  affects the decision whether to advance  to the next.  If a
menu item is  selected by hitting return or the  right mouse but-
ton, the  cursor will always advance  to the next menu  item.  On
the other hand, if a menu item is selected by hitting the trigger
key, the  space bar or  left mouse button,  the cursor will  only
advance to  the next menu item if it seems unlikely that the cur-
rent item will be reselected.  For example, if you have toggled a
YES/NO value or  typed in a  numeric value  for a parameter,  you
probably want to advance to the next item.  If you don't like the
automatic cursor advance,  there is a  menu selection to  disable
it.


















Wssindex 5.25                   15                          Menus












      +---------------------------------------------------+
      | Main menu                                         |
      |     Listing menu                                  |
      |     Add disks menu                                |
      |     Add comments menu                             |
      |     Primary configuration menu                    |
      |          Printer configuration                    |
      |               Postscript printer setup            |
      |          Database size configuration              |
      |          Indexing options                         |
      |              Default sorting/selection options    |
      |              Archive file extraction selection    |
      |              Graphics file extraction selection   |
      |          Screen, keyboard, miscellaneous          |
      |              Color selection                      |
      |              Video board configuration            |
      |          Keyboard macros                          |
      |          Exceptions list                          |
      |          Fields to print                          |
      |          Output format                            |
      |                                                   |
      +---------------------------------------------------+
          Figure 1. Structure of the Wssindex menu tree

Figures show menus as  they appear on screen, or  slightly edited
to fit within the margins of this document.

                            Main Menu
 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                     Wssindex Main Menu                      |
 |                                                             |
 | Major functions                 Database maintenance        |
 |   Add or label disks              Add/modify Comments       |
 |   ^F quick find                   Import comments           |
 |   Print and other output menu     ReName a disk in database |
 |   Write database to disk          ^N rename with mixed case |
 |   Display statistics              Remove disks              |
 |   ^D - list directory             ^R remove all disks       |
 |   ABout Wssindex                  Purge duplicate Volumes   |
 |                                                             |
 | Configuration                   Terminate/suspend           |
 |   Get or merge database           Push to DOS               |
 |   ^G get database and CNF file    Quit                      |
 |   Change cOnfiguration info       ^Q quick quit             |
 +-------------------------------------------------------------+

Figure 2. Wssindex Main Menu.  This top level menu provides imme-
diate access to some of the more commonly used functions, as well
as entry to the output, indexing and configuration menus.




Wssindex 5.25                   16                          Menus












A - Add or label disks
    This option leads to the indexing menu.

^F - Quick Find (control-f)
    This is the option to use if you are looking for a particular
    file by name  and want unsorted  screen output.  You  will be
    prompted to  enter one or more  wildcard file specifications.
    This option  is duplicated  on the  Print sub-menu  (page 22)
    where it is discussed in more detail.

P - Print and other output menu
    This option leads to the print sub-menu.

W - Write database on disk
    The  in-memory database is saved  on disk.   The default file
    name is the first of

    1.  The last file name used in a Get or Write command
    2.  The second command line argument
    3.  The  DOS environment  variable WSSIDIR  (DOS  command set
        WSSIDIR=filespec)
    4.  WSSINDEX.DIR

    which is defined.  The default file name is displayed and may
    be edited in the  usual way.  A previously existing file with
    the same name will either be renamed with a .BAK extension or
    overwritten (with verification), depending on  which configu-
    ration option you have  selected.  If creation of  .BAK files
    is enabled, you will not be  allowed to use a filename with a
    .BAK extension.

D - Display statistics
    This option displays the  number of files, subdirectories and
    disks in the  database, and the  amount of contiguous  memory
    remaining for  additional entries.   There will always  be at
    least one subdirectory listed,  since the root directories of
    all  disks are treated as  one subdirectory.   Also listed is
    the current  database name,  either from the  last read/write
    operation or the default name.

    Some points about the  reported memory remaining: this number
    will only decrease when the number of subdirectories increas-
    es, or when  comments and  categories are added.   Space  for
    other  information is  allocated  during the  initial  setup.
    (This was  not true in versions older than 3.30.)  It is only
    the  contiguous space remaining which is reported.  If a disk
    with  subdirectories or  comments is  removed or  replaced, a
    "hole" may created in the memory space which will be used for
    comments, etc. which  are added later.   Some operations  may
    create  fragments of memory too small to be useful, hence the
    space  remaining may change slightly if you save the database
    on disk  and then reload it.   You will receive  a warning if

Wssindex 5.25                   17                      Main Menu












    the available space  drops below  4K.  The  program tries  to
    recover  gracefully from  out of  memory errors, but  doing a
    save to disk is  strongly recommend if you get  this warning.
    Also note that opening a file  requires at least 2K for buff-
    ers, so  you may not  even be able  to save your  database if
    there is too little memory free.

^D - List directory (control-d)
    This  command lists  the directory  of a  disk to  the screen
    (file names only).   There are two options after  hitting ^D:
    either hit  return and the complete subdirectory tree is dis-
    played for the  disk in the first indexing  drive, or enter a
    wildcard file  specification including disk and  path and see
    everything which  matches that  specification.  Note,  if you
    enter a  file specification without specifying  the disk, the
    default  is the currently logged drive, not one of the index-
    ing drives, and to see all  files on a disk (in one subdirec-
    tory) you  must use the *.* wildcard, not just d:.  The list-
    ing can be terminated  by hitting control-c.  You  might want
    to use  this option to find  out what's on a  disk before you
    label it,  or to refresh your memory of the names of your da-
    tabases.    This option  is duplicated  on the  Indexing menu
    (page 32).

B - ABout Wssindex
    Displays version number and copyright information.

G - Get or merge a database from disk
    Enter the name of  a file previously saved with  the "W" menu
    option. The default name is the first of

    1.  The last file name used in a Get or Write command
    2.  The second command line argument
    3.  The  DOS environment  variable WSSIDIR  (DOS  command set
        WSSIDIR=filespec)
    4.  WSSINDEX.DIR

    which is defined.  The default file name is displayed and may
    be edited  in the usual way, or you can  hit TAB and select a
    file from a full-screen  display.  If you have  a database in
    memory, you will be  warned and given the options  of merging
    or replacing.   You will also be warned if you ask to replace
    a  database  which  has  been changed  without  being  saved.
    Merged databases are  tested for duplicate volume  names.  If
    any are found, the "V" option should be used to delete them.

^G - Get configuration file and matching database (control-g)
    This  option prompts for the name of a configuration file and
    loads it without displaying the configuration menu.  If there
    are  no problems  configuring, the  default database  name is
    changed  to be the same  as the configuration  file name, but
    with a DIR  extension, and a get-database function is execut-

Wssindex 5.25                   18                      Main Menu












    ed.  This same function can also be executed from the command
    line when  starting up  by specifying the  configuration file
    name as  the first argument and an equal sign (=) as the sec-
    ond.

O - Change cOnfiguration
    This option leads to the primary configuration sub-menu.

C - Add/modify Comments
    This options leads to the add-comments screen.

I - Import comments
    This option reads a text file containing file names, comments
    and  categories and  assigns the  comments and  categories to
    matching  file names in  the currently loaded  database.  The
    text file might be a  listing of files from a bulletin  board
    or the ascii output from another disk indexing program.  This
    option  does not create a database from scratch from an ascii
    input file, so  it is not what  is normally called  an import
    routine.   In releases prior to 5.1, this function was imple-
    mented by a stand-alone utility called WSIMPORT.  That utili-
    ty is now obsolete.

    Features:

    1.  Filename format may  be either  FILENAME.EXT or  FILENAME
        EXT (but not a mixture).
    2.  File names, comments and categories may be in any order.
    3.  Filenames may be in mixed case.
    4.  Tabs are expanded.
    5.  Processing speed is around 1000 lines per minute, depend-
        ing on the database size and your CPU speed.
    6.  Header or other garbage lines are ignored.

    Requirements on the input file:

    1.  Anything appearing after the comment/category (except the
        file  name or  category/comment) will  be interpreted  as
        part of the comment or category.
    2.  File names,  comments and categories must  begin in fixed
        columns.
    3.  Comments and categories must  be on the same line  as the
        file name.
    4.  Lines must end with line feeds (if you can type the file,
        it meets this requirement).

    Before starting  the program, you should  examine the comment
    file, either by typing it or with a text editor, to determine
    in which columns the file names (and extensions if the format
    is not FILENAME.EXT), comments  and categories begin.  Number
    the columns starting with  one, not zero.  This  step may not
    be  necessary since Wssindex will show you the first 15 lines

Wssindex 5.25                   19                      Main Menu












    of the import file with a ruler line before asking you  about
    the  file, but if the  comments start after  these lines, you
    won't see them, and  if the lines are longer than your screen
    width, the display may not be  very readable.  In general, it
    is not necessary to remove headers or other  extraneous lines
    from the input file; they will simply not match any  files in
    the database and will thus be ignored.  But, if there are any
    control characters embedded in the comments (such as might be
    introduced by line noise in a downloaded file) they should be
    removed or else  they will be interpreted  as the end of  the
    comment.  You can be a little sloppy with the starting column
    for comments  since the program  will remove any  leading (or
    trailing) blanks.

    You are  prompted for the  name of  the comment file  and the
    format (FILENAME.EXT  or FILENAME EXT  and starting columns).
    You will be given  the option to override or  keep previously
    existing  comments in the database if a new comment is found.
    If the input file  does not include categories, you  can also
    specify a category string which will be applied to every file
    which has a new comment assigned (unless you prohibit replac-
    ing comments  and the file  had a category but  not a comment
    previously assigned).

    After  initializing, the database is  sorted by file name and
    extension.  You already know about how long this will take if
    you  have used any  of the sorting options  in WSSINDEX.  The
    program remembers the sequence number where each letter first
    appears, and  starts searching for  matching files there.   A
    fancier hashing algorithm and a  binary search could be used,
    but my testing indicates that the sorting time will typically
    be  as long or longer than the processing time for reasonable
    sized input files, so not much can be gained here.

    The comment file is read line-by-line, and lines which appear
    to contain a filename and a comment are processed.  Note that
    the same comment may be applied to multiple database entries,
    since disk and subdirectory names are not checked.

    When  the program  finishes processing  the comment  file, it
    prints out a few statistics (number of input lines, number of
    comments applied, etc.)   and gives you the option  of making
    another pass  with a  different comment  file.  The  database
    does  not need to be resorted  for multiple passes, so if you
    have  multiple comment files,  it saves time  to process them
    together.

N - ReName a disk in the database
    You  are prompted for old and new  names and the disk name in
    the database is changed.  Names  are forced to upper case.  A
    carriage return aborts back to the main menu.


Wssindex 5.25                   20                      Main Menu












^N - ReName a disk with a mixed case label (control-n)
    This is the same as  option "N" except that it  accepts lower
    case characters.

R - Remove a disk from the database
    The volume name to remove may be either typed in or read from
    disk.   When typing in  a name, you  can either let  WSSINDEX
    force your input to upper case or use mixed case.

^R - Remove all disks (control-r)
    This option clears the database currently in memory.  A warn-
    ing  is given if  the database has  not been saved  since the
    last modification.

V - Purge duplicate Volumes
    If  you merge two databases,  you may end  up with duplicated
    volume names.   Selecting this option purges  duplicates.  To
    decide  which entry to  discard, the  dates indexed  are com-
    pared.  If the dates are  different, the oldest entry is  de-
    leted.  Otherwise, the number of files on disk is checked and
    the entry with the larger  number is kept.  If the  number of
    files  also matches,  the first  entry is  kept.   Deleting a
    small number  of duplicates  doesn't take terribly  long, but
    deleting  many duplicates from  a large database  can be time
    consuming.

S - Push to DOS
    Load a secondary copy of COMMAND.COM (or alternate processor)
    and  temporarily pass control to  it.  Return  to WSSINDEX by
    typing EXIT at the DOS prompt.  To remind you that you are in
    a secondary shell, the configuration can be set to change the
    DOS  prompt to  "EXIT  to return  to Wssindex  <newline> <old
    prompt>".   You can do  anything you can  normally do  at DOS
    level,  but you will have less free  memory to work with.  It
    is best not  to load  a terminate and  stay resident  program
    here because it will  fragment the memory space.  The DOS en-
    vironment variable COMSPEC is used to locate the command pro-
    cessor, so this option will work even if you have renamed, or
    are using a replacement for, COMMAND.COM.  COMSPEC is normal-
    ly set up  correctly during  the boot process  and you  don't
    need  to worry  about it  unless you  have done  something to
    change it.   If COMSPEC is not defined, an attempt is made to
    load COMMAND.COM from the root directory of the logged drive.

    You must have some free memory to use this option, and insuf-
    ficient space is the usual cause when this command fails.  On
    a DOS 2.11 system, I need about 17.5K (as reported by the "D"
    option);  later DOS's are larger  and will require  more.  Of
    course, if you want to run a program  in the secondary shell,
    you   must    also   consider   its    memory   requirements.
    Wssindex/Extended leaves considerably more memory free for  a
    DOS shell.

Wssindex 5.25                   21                      Main Menu












Q - Quit and return to DOS
    You will be warned if the in-memory database has been changed
    without being saved, and in any case you must verify that you
    really want to exit.  For your protection, the default option
    is  N (don't  quit) if  the in-memory  database has  not been
    saved.

^Q - Quick Quit and return to DOS (control-q)
    If  the in-memory database  has not been  changed since being
    saved, this option returns to DOS without asking for  verifi-
    cation, otherwise it's the same as option "Q".


                            Print menu
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|                   File/volume listing Menu                    |
|                                                               |
|   Select/sort/Print   Options requiring printer config file   |
|   Find a file                                                 |
|   ^F quick find           Multi-column printing               |
|   Zippy text search       MulTi-column dup/unique/no backup   |
|   Duplicate files         Disk Covers                         |
|   Unique files            Disk Labels                         |
|   Files not Backed up     REad printer definition file        |
|                                                               |
|   List Volumes            COnfiguration menu                  |
|   ^V quick volume list    Return to main menu                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Figure 3. Wssindex print menu.  The options marked as requiring a
printer configuration file are intended for printer or  disk out-
put.  You  can direct their output to the  screen, but there will
not be pauses when the screen fills.


P - Print (and sort)
    The print option first  allows you to select what  files will
    be listed.   Files to be  listed may be selected  by combina-
    tions of

      1. names and extensions  10. category
      2. subdirectory          11. date range
      3. disk name             12. size range
      4. names starting from   13. exclude configured exceptions
      5. extensions from       14. exclude archive file members
      6. subdirs starting from 15. only archive files and members
      7. disks starting from   16. archive members by arc name
      8. disk numerically from 17. zippy search
      9. comment               18. select from previous subset

    You tell the program  which selection criteria to use  by en-
    tering a list of  numbers separated by commas.   Depending on
    which options  you chose,  further prompts  will be made  for

Wssindex 5.25                   22                      Main Menu












    file  names, etc.    Each file  in  the database  is  checked
    against all of the selection criteria, and is included in the
    listing  only if it passes all tests.   This means, for exam-
    ple, that while  you can select files in which  are in subdi-
    rectory \ABCD and match *.DAT, you can not select files which
    are either in the subdirectory or match the file spec.   This
    restriction does not interfere with most  selection requests;
    the  occasional odd request can often be built up with multi-
    ple passes.

    Files in the database  can also be excluded from  the listing
    by the first 10 options  in this list.  You indicate  this by
    using a negative selection option number.   Option -1, rejec-
    tion by file name,  is essentially the same as option 13, ex-
    clusion of configured exceptions, except that different lists
    of names are used.   The recommended mode of operation is  to
    put the file names which you always want to exclude  into the
    configured exceptions list (which is semi-permanent and rela-
    tively awkward to  revise), and  use the option  -1 list  for
    special cases.  For example, depending on the sort order, you
    may or  may not want to  see the .ID entries  for volumes and
    subdirectories.  The option -1 rejection  list is the obvious
    way to get rid of these  entries, although you can also do it
    by selecting only files larger than 0 bytes.

    Selection  option  numbers are  entered in  a comma-delimited
    list; the order is not significant.  All  but options 13, 14,
    15 and 18 lead to prompts for more information.   Options -1,
    1 and 17 accept  multiple items, one per line,  ending with a
    null  line.  All selection options are case insensitive.  The
    default list of options is configurable, and can be edited in
    the usual way.

    When entering  a list  of wild-card file  specifications, you
    can  switch to full-screen editing  mode by hitting  tab.  If
    you immediately tab into  full-screen after having previously
    entered  file selection specifications, the previous specifi-
    cations are remembered and  displayed for editing.    You can
    make  up to  100 entries  (5 columns  of 20  specifications).
    Normal editing commands are available.   Any cursor arrow mo-
    tion off the left or right  end of an entry is interpreted as
    a move  to the next column.  Hitting HOME moves the cursor to
    the beginning of the current entry, or  if already there,  to
    the first entry in the list.  Similarly, hitting END moves to
    either the  end of the current  entry or to the  last item in
    the list.  ^E deletes  the current entry, ^A deletes  all en-
    tries, ^R redraws the  screen (useful after deleting entries)
    and F10 indicates that all entries are completed.

    If you want archive  file members, but not the  archive files
    themselves, include *.ARC,  *.LBR, etc. in one of  the excep-
    tion lists.

Wssindex 5.25                   23                     Print Menu












    When character string  input is required,  you can enter  two
    different  types of wildcard.   The first is  similar to what
    the  DOS DIR  command accepts:  a question  mark matches  any
    character and an asterisk  matches all characters to  the end
    of the string.  A few examples:

        * or *.*    matches any file.
        *.          matches any file with no extension.
        xy*         matches any subdirectory, disk name, comment,
                    or category which begins with the letters xy.
        ???         matches anything 0 to 3 characters long.
        return      matches absence of comment or category.

    The  second type of wildcard allows you to search for charac-
    ters when you  don't know their position in the  string.  Es-
    sentially, this  is a  keyword search,  except that parts  of
    words can  also be matched.  Simply  begin the string with an
    asterisk  and put the text immediately after it.  The primary
    use  for this type of wildcard is for searching comments, but
    it also works for other string items.  For example:

        *LOTUS   matches a string containing the substring LOTUS.
        *123     matches a file name containing characters 123.
        **       matches any string which contains an asterisk
        ?*123.*  doesn't  work because  the  asterisk  isn't  the
                 first character.   123 will be  ignored; this is
                 equivalent to *.*.

    Options  4-8  select ranges  of  file,  subdirectory or  disk
    names.  For  example, using  option 4, "select  by file  name
    starting  from"  and the  wildcard FI*  would all  select all
    files with names beginning with FI, as  well as all files be-
    ginning with G,H,...   Suppose you have disks filed  in boxes
    of 100 and you want to make separate listings of the contents
    of each  group.  If the  disks have numbers as  part of their
    volume labels, either of the form 321UTILITY or MISC123, then
    combining options 8 and  -8, you could select files  on disks
    numbered  100 or  greater, and  reject disks numbered  201 or
    higher, thus effectively selecting range 100 to 200.

    Option 17, the zippy search, is a wildcard search which looks
    almost everywhere: file name, extension, comment  and catego-
    ry.  A leading asterisk is assumed; you must not add another.
    The more  comprehensive search  options are slower  than just
    looking  at the beginning of each string, but they aren't too
    bad.   The name zippy search is taken from a similar function
    in the PC Board bulletin board program; it's actually one the
    slowest selection options.

    Option 18,  select from previous  subset, is only  offered if
    you have previously selected files and have not done anything
    to invalidate the  selection list.  Possible uses include ed-

Wssindex 5.25                   24                     Print Menu












    iting the  previous selection if it included  too many files,
    printing  the  same set  of files  that  were just  viewed on
    screen, or re-viewing with different sort keys.

    The selected files are optionally sorted in ascending  or de-
    scending order by any combination of

        1. file name                7. date and time
        2. extension                8. category
        3. disk name                9. comment
        4. disk name as number     10. archive file name
        5. subdirectory            11. archive file extension
        6. size
    When  prompted, enter or edit a  comma-separated list of sort
    key numbers,  changing the sign for  any key you want  in de-
    scending order.  (The default list is configurable.)  Most of
    the keys are self-explanatory, but the last two need a little
    explanation.  If you have elected to extract information from
    archive files, the file  name and extension used with  keys 1
    and 2 for members of an archive file are those of the archive
    file member.   Thus, with only keys 1 and 2, the archive file
    members  sort by their own names.   Keys 10 and 11 select the
    archive file name for members of an archive file, or the usu-
    al name  for ordinary files.  In addition, there are two spe-
    cial conditions checked:

    1.  If sort keys 10 and 11 are used  and have higher priority
        than 1 and 2, the archive file itself will sort  ahead of
        any of its members;
    2.  If keys 1 and 2 have higher priority than 10 and 11, then
        archive members (and other files) are sorted by their own
        names.

    An  interleaved list of keys  such as 1,10,2,11 will probably
    not do anything useful.   If there are multiple copies  of an
    archive  file, you will probably want to have the disk and/or
    subdirectory  as an  intermediate key  when sorting  first by
    archive file name.  To summarize, 10,11,3,4,1,2 will list ar-
    chive  members following  the containing archive  file, while
    1,2 will list all files alphabetically.

    Sorting by  category and  comment is case  insensitive.   Any
    votes  on whether  this should  also be  true for  disk name?
    There is a noticeable  time penalty for making the  sort case
    insensitive.

    The sort is done  using the Quicksort algorithm. The  sorting
    time for a randomly ordered database of N files is O(N*logN),
    i.e., for large number of files, the sort time is proportion-
    al to N*log(N).



Wssindex 5.25                   25                     Print Menu












    If you elect not to sort (sort key equal zero or just hit re-
    turn), the selected files  will appear in the order  they are
    found  in the database, unless the files were selected from a
    previously  sorted subset,  in which  case the  previous sort
    order is preserved.

    When  the sort is finished, you can select whether the output
    goes to  your printer,  screen, a disk  file or export.   For
    disk output you will be given the options of suppressing page
    headers and margins.  Disk output might be massaged by a text
    editor to change the format, read by another program, printed
    by a background printing utility  while you do something else
    in  the foreground,  or  transported to  another machine  for
    printing; it is  not readable  by the "G"  menu option.   For
    printer or disk  output, you will be given the  option to in-
    sert a variable number of blank lines whenever the first sort
    key changes (for screen output one blank line is inserted).

    Export  output is  in "Mailmerge"  format, a  standard format
    which can be read by many database programs.  Fields are sep-
    arated by a user-selected  character, normally a comma, hence
    this format  is often  called comma-delimited.   Fields which
    contain the separator character are surrounded by quotes, and
    fields which contain  a quote receive special handling.   For
    some database programs,  in particular Lotus 1-2-3, it may be
    necessary  to enclose all fields in quotes; you are given the
    option to do this.

    Information in the configuration file is used to select which
    fields  are printed  for each  file, and  to control  paging.
    When  screen  output is  selected, you  can page  forward and
    backward with  the PgUp and PgDn  keys, go to the  top of the
    list with the HOME key (PF1 key for DEC Rainbow) or return to
    the main menu by hitting Q (or escape).  Control-s will pause
    any screen display; control-c will abort printing.

F - Find a file in the database
    Find is equivalent to  Print (described above) to the  screen
    unsorted.

^F - Quick Find (control-f)
    Quick  find is  equivalent to  Print  with screen  output and
    files selected by name only.

Z - Zippy text search
    This option is equivalent to Print, with selection option 17,
    unsorted,  with output  to  the screen.    That is,  you  are
    prompted for a  string to  search for in  file names,  exten-
    sions, comments and categories.




Wssindex 5.25                   26                     Print Menu












D - List Duplicate files
    This option  lists all files which match the selection crite-
    ria  and have duplicates (which  also match).   Only the file
    name and extension,  and optionally the  time stamp and  file
    size, are  used to decide  whether two files  are duplicates.
    The dummy entries for volumes and subdirectories are automat-
    ically excluded.

U - List Unique files
    This option lists all files which match the selection  crite-
    ria and  do not have  duplicates which also  match.   This is
    similar to the "B" option, but checks all files in a database
    rather than just those on  a single disk.  The  dummy entries
    for  volumes and  subdirectories are  automatically excluded.
    As with the  "D" option, you can optionally  require matching
    time  stamps or sizes before  two files are considered dupli-
    cates.

B - List files which are not Backed up
    This option is intended primarily for listing files on a hard
    disk which have not been  backed up, but can also be  used on
    floppies.   A file is  considered to be backed  up if another
    file with  the same name  and the same  or later time  tag is
    found on another disk  (possibly in an archive file).   Exact
    time and size matches are not required because some copy pro-
    grams do  not preserve the time  stamp, or even the  size for
    files which are not padded to a full disk sector.

    When you select this  option, you are given the  usual selec-
    tion options  (described under  the "P"  option).   These are
    applied to both the disk being checked for backups and to all
    other  files in your database.   Thus, selecting  by some op-
    tions,  such as disk name, doesn't make much sense.  However,
    to  allow checking a subdirectory  rather than an entire disk
    for backups, any subdirectory selection criteria  are applied
    only to files on the  disk being checked for backup.   On the
    other hand,  subdirectory rejection criteria  are applied  to
    all files.  Since only files from a single disk will be list-
    ed,  you might as well set the configuration to skip printing
    the  disk name (it will be listed  in the title anyway).  You
    will  almost certainly want to  use an exception  list to ex-
    clude *.BAK  (or whatever your favorite  word processing pro-
    gram names its backup files).  The dummy .ID entries for vol-
    umes and  subdirectories are automatically excluded.   If you
    are using the configured exception list, don't  forget to re-
    quest selection option 13 to use the list, otherwise you will
    have to stop the listing and try again.  After selection, the
    database is  sorted using an  internally defined set  of sort
    keys.

    If you have  a hard  disk which is  logically partitioned  so
    that it looks like multiple disks, you probably don't want to

Wssindex 5.25                   27                     Print Menu












    consider a file to  be backed up  just because it appears  in
    two partitions.   To avoid this problem you can either load a
    database  with only  floppies included,  then index  a single
    partition  before checking it for backups, or you can use the
    "R"  option to remove all  but one partition  from your data-
    base.

    See also the  "U" option for checking backups on all disks at
    once.

    If you use a backup utility which creates special files which
    only it can  read, you probably will not  find the "B" option
    useful.

V - List Volume names
    The  volumes in the database are listed to printer, screen or
    disk, sorted by name, by  decreasing free space, backwards by
    date  indexed, or unsorted (which  will be about  the same as
    forward by date  indexed unless the  database was created  by
    merging two databases).

    When sorting by volume name, you can either treat the name as
    a text string or  you can extract  any numerical part of  the
    name and use that as  the key.  As a text  string, "DISK 100"
    would  sort before "DISK 2", but if the numerical part is ex-
    tracted, "DISK 2" sorts first.  If  a disk label has two dis-
    tinct numeric parts, only the first is used as a numeric sort
    key.

    The printer configuration information is used to control pag-
    ing  for printer output; for screen output, you can page for-
    ward and backward  with the PgUp and PgDn keys,  or hit Q (or
    escape)  to return to the menu.   The display for each volume
    includes the volume name, the number of free bytes, the total
    number  of bytes  available, the  number of  files (excluding
    hidden files),  the number  of subdirectories other  than the
    root directory, the date the disk was last added to the data-
    base,  whether or not the disk is bootable and optionally any
    comments entered  describing the disk.   The disk  is assumed
    bootable  if it has a  COMMAND.COM file, the  presence of the
    hidden  system files is not verified.  You may abort printing
    by hitting control-c.

^V - Quick list of Volume names (control-v)
    This option lists the  volume names to the screen,  sorted by
    name and without comments.

Output options  on the right half  of this menu are  designed for
printer output.  Output may be directed to  the screen (or disk),
but will not pause when the  screen fills.  Control-s may be used
to pause screen output.   A printer definition file  is automati-
cally  read the first time you select  one of these options.  See

Wssindex 5.25                   28                     Print Menu












Appendix  E if you need information on creating a printer defini-
tion file.

M - Multi-column listings
    Similar to the "P"  option, but an additional prompt  is made
    for the  number of columns used for  the printed output.  The
    output page width  (from the printer definition file) will be
    divided into the requested number of columns, separated by at
    least two spaces.   Comments and categories will go  to sepa-
    rate lines if necessary and so configured.

    Note: if the  fields prior to the  subdirectory name selected
    for printing do not fit  in the column width, output  will be
    truncated, probably in the middle of a field.

    In order to  produce columnar output running down rather than
    across the page, an entire page is formatted in memory before
    printing anything.  On slower machines, this leads to a delay
    of a few  seconds at the start  of each page.  A  hardware or
    software print spooler may  enable you to drive your  printer
    more efficiently.   You  must have  enough memory  left after
    loading  the  database  to  hold  an  entire  formatted  page
    (slightly more than page width times page length bytes).

    You  can  include a  printer  initialization  command in  the
    printer definition  file which will  be sent to  your printer
    before multi-column output is started.

T - MulTi-column listing  of duplicate,  unique or not  backed up
    files
    This  option selects duplicate or unique files, or files on a
    particular disk which are not duplicated on another disk, and
    lists them in multiple columns.

C - Disk Covers
    A disk cover is a listing of all the files  on a single disk,
    small enough to fit into a disk envelope or be  pasted on the
    front of the envelope.  (You could even  define a small cover
    format and print it on  a label as an alternative to  the "L"
    option format labels.)  The edges are marked by a box to make
    cutting to size  easy.  You can  select which disks  to print
    covers for by  volume name (with wildcards), date  indexed or
    disk  size.  (3.5", 5.25"  and other sizes  are recognized by
    disk capacity.  Odd  disk formats may not be  identified cor-
    rectly.)   The output  format is similar  to the multi-column
    output described above, plus  a header with information about
    the disk.   You will  be prompted for  the desired number  of
    print columns.

    The fields  printed are  selected by the  usual configuration
    menu.  The disk name and subdirectory names are printed sepa-
    rately,  so you  should not  include them  in  the configured

Wssindex 5.25                   29                     Print Menu












    print fields.  If you use the printer definition in the  sup-
    plied file GENEPSON.DEF, you can fit file size, date and time
    in 2 columns, date or  size in 3 columns, or file  names only
    in 4 or  5 columns.  In  a single column, you  could even fit
    comments  of moderate length.  The  characters which are used
    to form  the box around the cover  when printing may not look
    at all like  box forming characters  on your monitor  screen.
    The supplied file SCREEN.DEF has more appropriate box charac-
    ters, and also sets the  width to fit on an 80  column screen
    (which might  not be what you  want to do if  you are experi-
    menting to  see what will  fit on a  printer).  To  avoid the
    necessity  of changing  the  configuration by  hand (and  the
    probability of forgetting which parameters work best) whenev-
    er you print covers, you will almost certainly want to have a
    special configuration  file to  control the printing  of disk
    covers.

    Note: as  with multi-column  output, if the  configured print
    items do not fit in the column width, they will be truncated,
    probably in the middle of a field.

    When sorting files for disk covers, the disk name must be the
    primary sort  key.  Cover printing  enforces this requirement
    and the prompt for sort  options shows 3 as the first  key in
    the list, followed by  any configured sort keys.   You cannot
    print covers without sorting,  so you might as well  add file
    name and extension  or other  sort options in  the order  you
    prefer.

    If you want to print disk covers for any disks with subdirec-
    tories, and these disks were added to your database by a ver-
    sion  of WSSINDEX  older than  3.2, then  you should  run the
    IDADD utility on your database first.  If you do not do this,
    the disk cover will not include subdirectory names.

L - Disk Labels
    Disk labels are meant  to be printed on small,  self adhesive
    forms and pasted on your disks.  Suitable forms are generally
    1 by 3 inches or smaller, so there is only room for a limited
    amount of information.   WSSINDEX prints the disk  volume id,
    total and free space, date indexed, number of files (and sub-
    directories, if  any), descriptive comments for  the disk and
    subdirectories (if found in database), and directory info for
    as many  files as will  fit, starting from the  largest.  You
    can also specify one  line of text in the  printer definition
    file, such  as your name, which will be printed at the bottom
    of  every label.  You can select  which disks to print labels
    for by a wildcard name, by date indexed or by size.

    Blank label forms which are one or several labels wide may be
    used.   You can  also direct output  to the screen  or a disk
    file.

Wssindex 5.25                   30                     Print Menu












    Another option for printing disk labels is the shareware pro-
    gram Disk  Labeling System, DLS, (Jim  Clark, 2130 Knollshire
    Road, Cedar Rapids, Iowa   52402).  Version  2.0 or later  of
    this program can print disk labels  from a Wssindex database.
    DLS can be downloaded from the WSS/DDC Tech Support BBS.

    I am occasionally asked  for a source for blank  disk labels.
    One vendor I have dealt with is Disks & Labels to Go, Rte 206
    Eastampton Business  Park, Mount  Holly, NJ   08060, 800-426-
    3303.

R - Read a printer definition file
    Normally, a printer definition file is read automatically the
    first time you select a print operation which requires a def-
    inition file,  so this option is  only needed if you  want to
    use  two different configurations in  the same session, or if
    you have  used the S  option to run  an editor to  change the
    definition file.  The default name of  the printer definition
    file is the first of

    1.  The last printer definition file read
    2.  The DOS  environment variable  WSSPRINT (DOS  command set
        WSSPRINT=filespec)
    3.  WSSPRINT.DEF

    which is defined.  The default name may be edited in the usu-
    al manner,  and  TAB brings  up  a full-screen  selection  of
    printer definition files.

    See Appendix E for a discussion of the format of printer def-
    inition files.

O - COnfiguration menu
    This  option takes  you  to the  primary configuration  menu.
    From  there, you  can make  changes or  save a  configuration
    file.

R - Return to main menu
    Returns to previous menu.

                          Indexing Menu

Additions to the database are made from  this menu.  Many control
options are found here, but a  few are only available on the con-
figuration menus.








Wssindex 5.25                   31                     Print Menu












 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                    Wssindex Indexing Menu                   |
 |                                                             |
 | Start Indexing            Ask before replacing           NO |
 | Dummy entry index         Auto-Comment                   NO |
 | IndeX ignoring labels     AUto-category                  NO |
 | ^D list directory         Make .ID entries              YES |
 | Label disk                DummY entries inc subdir tree  NO |
 | COnfiguration menu        Query archive extraction       NO |
 | Return to main menu       Index Hidden files             NO |
 | First indexing drive   A  Ignore bacKed up files         NO |
 | Second indexing drive  A  Extract archive comments       NO |
 | LaBeling drive         A                                    |
 | Indexing sTarts from   (none)                               |
 | Auto-category strinG   (none)                               |
 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
                 Figure 4. Wssindex Indexing Menu


I - Start Indexing
    Insert the first disk  to be indexed into the  first indexing
    drive and hit the space bar when ready.   The processing time
    is roughly proportional to  the number of files on  the disk,
    and will typically be only  a few seconds for a  floppy disk.
    If  the disk is not labeled, you  will be given the option to
    either  write  a label  on the  disk,  enter an  11 character
    string to be used in place of a label, list the disk directo-
    ry or abort back to the menu.  See the "L" option below for a
    discussion  of "legal" volume names.   If the  Ask before re-
    placing option is  YES, you  will be informed  if the  volume
    name matches a volume  already in the database and  given the
    option  to replace the previous  entry or not  enter the disk
    into  the database.  Wssindex will  also look at the time tag
    of the label, compare  it to the  time tag of the  previously
    indexed disk, and tell you whether the disk appears to really
    be the same one  or a different one  with a duplicate  volume
    label.  This test  is not foolproof; a DISKCOPY'ed  disk will
    have the same time tag.  Versions of  Wssindex older than 5.2
    did not record  the time tag  for volume labels,  so you  may
    also be told that the time tag is not available.   The infor-
    mative  message "NO FILES MATCH d:\*.*"  will be generated if
    there  are no files in the root directory, along with similar
    messages for other  empty directories.  When prompted you may
    either insert  another disk (in the  alternate indexing drive
    if  configured to alternate drives) and hit the space bar, or
    hit any other key to return to the menu.

    An  important feature: if you replace a disk in the database,
    any comments or categories which have been previously entered
    are not  lost, they are copied  over to the new  entry if the
    file and subdirectory names match.  Thus you should feel free
    to re-enter a disk into the database after even small changes

Wssindex 5.25                   32                  Indexing Menu












    have  been made.  During a replacement operation, the old and
    new entries are temporarily  in memory at the same  time, and
    both  count toward the limits  on the number  of files, disks
    and subdirectories.

    There is one  circumstance which could make replacing  a disk
    in the database very  time consuming.  The code  which copies
    old comments to new entries is a straightforward doubly nest-
    ed loop, which means that the running time is roughly propor-
    tional to the square of the number  of commented files.  This
    is not a problem with floppy disks which seldom have even 100
    files, but on a hard disk with a few thousand files, the pro-
    cessing time could stretch  to several minutes.   The obvious
    solution is to  sort both  sets of names  first, which  would
    reduce  the processing time  for commented disks,  at the ex-
    pense  of increasing it for non-commented ones, and I may im-
    plement this in  a future release.   Comments from registered
    users are  solicited.   (Does anyone actually  comment enough
    files on their hard disk to  make this a problem?  So far  no
    one  has complained  about replacement  time.)  It  may prove
    worthwhile to go back to the main menu and delete a huge disk
    from the database before reindexing it.

D - Add Dummy entries
    This option is similar to the "I" option, but does not make a
    complete database  entry.   Instead, the database  entry will
    show that there is only the dummy zero-length file named .ID.
    (The  volume name, free space and total disk space will match
    the  actual disk directory.)   This allows you  to record the
    existence of a disk when you  don't want to include the  file
    names, say for  a program master  disk which contains  driver
    files for many different printers, graphics cards, etc.   The
    .ID file is a place to hang a descriptive comment and catego-
    ry.  Older  versions of WSSINDEX used DUMMY_EN.TRY instead of
    .ID; the auxiliary routine IDADD will translate such entries.
    The  Make .ID entries option must be  set to YES before dummy
    entries can be made.

X - IndeX ignoring labels
    This option allows indexing of disks  with manual override of
    the volume name.  The volume  name is displayed, and you  can
    either accept it or type in  an alternate (so the label isn't
    really ignored).  The label on the disk is not  altered.  The
    mode of operation is suggested for things like write-protect-
    ed master disks which  might all have  the same label (or  no
    label at all).

^D -List directory (control-d)
    This  option performs the  same way on  this menu  as it does
    from the main menu (page 18).



Wssindex 5.25                   33                  Indexing Menu












L - Label a disk on the labeling drive
    A volume label is an optional entry in a disk directory which
    looks much like a  file name, but is given  special treatment
    by DOS.   If present, it can  be displayed by the  DOS DIR or
    VOL commands.  Labels are usually written when a disk is for-
    matted,  but  can  be   added  later  by  various  utilities.
    WSSINDEX uses the volume name to distinguish different disks.

    This  option displays the  current volume label,  if any, and
    prompts you for a  new label.  A carriage return  aborts back
    to  the menu without changing anything.  The labeling is done
    by  a DOS call, so DOS restrictions on allowed characters ap-
    ply (in particular, your  input will be forced to  upper case
    because lower  case letters are  not allowed, but  blanks are
    ok).  If in doubt, try the label you  want to use; an illegal
    name  will be rejected with no harmful consequences.  I would
    suggest  that you not trust  a copy protected  master disk to
    any  disk labeling program; who knows what sort of games they
    might  have  played with  the  directory.   I  also recommend
    against writing on  a 360K disk in a 1.2  MB drive since this
    could make it unreadable on some 360K drives.

    Note: if you  have a disk with a mixed  case label (which you
    can easily  create with  the Norton Utilities  or some  other
    programs), WSSINDEX will not be able to change the label (DOS
    rename call fails).  If you need to change such a label while
    Wssindex  is running, you can  use the DOS  Shell option from
    the main  menu to run a labeling  utility.  Disks with labels
    differing only  in case are  considered to be  different when
    adding  disks to  the database,  but cannot  be distinguished
    when selecting by volume name.   If you use really weird vol-
    ume  labels, such  as ANSI  cursor positioning  commands, you
    probably deserve whatever happens to you.

    Technical  note: disk labeling  in Wssindex/Extended uses the
    LABELDLL.DLL  file.  This is a real mode program which inter-
    faces with DOS to write or change labels.  No other method of
    manipulating labels seems to work under all DPMI hosts.

O - COnfiguration menu
    This  option takes  you  to the  primary configuration  menu.
    From there, you can make changes or save a configuration file
    including the control settings from the indexing menu.

R - Return to main menu
    This option returns you to the main menu.

F - First indexing drive
S - Second indexing drive
B - LaBeling drive
    These  three options select the drive letters used for index-
    ing or labeling  disks.  If you  only have one  floppy drive,

Wssindex 5.25                   34                  Indexing Menu












    the three  drive letters will usually be  identical, but they
    can be changed to index or label hard disk partitions.

T - Indexing sTarts from
    This option allows for  partial indexing of a disk.   Instead
    of  starting from the root directory and including all files,
    only  files in or below  the specified directory are indexed.
    (The disk volume  label is  read from the  root directory  as
    usual.)  The format of the subdirectory specification will be
    adjusted  to canonical form so  you need not  worry about de-
    tails like whether a leading or trailing backslash is needed.
    Making a partial  index might be useful as  the first step in
    checking a critical subdirectory  for backups, or as  a means
    of indexing a CD  ROM or very large  disk which contains  too
    many files to fit in a single database.

G - Auto-category strinG
    This  is the string which is used for the category if config-
    ured to add categories automatically.

A - Ask before replacing
    This  flag controls the action  taken when a  volume label is
    found which matches one already in the database.  If YES, you
    are  asked whether to replace the existing database entry; if
    NO,  the entry  is replaced  automatically.   Generally, this
    flag  should be YES when  indexing a collection  of disks for
    the  first time  since  duplicate volume  names on  different
    disks  are easy to generate.  On  the other hand, if you have
    not kept track of which disks have been changed without being
    re-indexed and are re-indexing disks  you know are already in
    the database, you can set the  flag to NO and replace without
    verification.

C - Auto-Comment
    If YES, you are transferred  to the add-comments screen after
    each disk is indexed.  All files on the disk just entered are
    selected for commenting.

U - AUto-category
    If  YES, all files on disks indexed are assigned the category
    shown in  the auto-category string.   Assigning categories to
    everything uses  up database  storage space, so  don't enable
    this option unless you need it.

M - Make .ID entries
    In  order to record the subdirectory structure of a disk, and
    to allow comments to be assigned to disks and subdirectories,
    it is necessary to make special database entries for the vol-
    ume label and  each subdirectory.   These  entries look  like
    files with the (illegal)  name .ID.  These entries  count to-
    wards the limits on the number of files, so if you don't want


Wssindex 5.25                   35                  Indexing Menu












    to assign comments  to disks or  subdirectories, you can  set
    this option to NO and decrease the database size slightly.

Y - DummY entries include subdirectory tree
    If this option is set  to YES, dummy entry indexing will  in-
    clude  the entire subdirectory tree;  if set to  NO, only one
    entry will be made for the volume id.

Q - Query archive extraction
    You may  want to extract file information  only from selected
    archive  and graphics files.  If  this option is YES, you are
    asked before file information is extracted from any file with
    an extension in one of the extraction lists.

H - Index Hidden files
    Bootable disks have two  hidden files which are not  shown by
    the DOS  DIR command.   If this option  is set to  YES, these
    files are included when a disk is indexed, otherwise they are
    ignored.   (Indexing of any  other hidden files  is also con-
    trolled by this flag.)

K - Ignore bacKed up files
    One version of Wssindex had a  bug which caused it to not see
    files which had the  archive bit clear when indexing  a disk.
    (The archive bit is a flag in the directory entry  for a file
    which is set  when a file is created or  modified and cleared
    by some backup programs.)  One user felt that this was a fea-
    ture and asked that it be made a program option.   Most users
    will  want to set this option to NO, but a YES setting can be
    used in  conjunction with the  DOS ATTRIB command  to control
    which files are indexed.

E - Extract archive comments
    Some of the archive formats allow comments for the archive or
    members.  If this  option is YES, and extraction  of informa-
    tion from the appropriate archive file type  is enabled, such
    comments are extracted, filtered to remove unprintable  char-
    acters, and assigned to database files.  On the indexing con-
    figuration menu, you can elect to extract comments describing
    the archive files without  extracting file information.  This
    flag does not control whether image size and number of colors
    are extracted from graphics files.

                    Primary Configuration Menu

Most of  the items in this  menu lead to sub-menus  which are de-
scribed in detail below.   The exceptions are the options to load
or save a  configuration file, and, of course, the  option to re-
turn to the previous menu.   When loading or saving a  configura-
tion file, the  prompt shows the file name which  will be used by
default.  You can  accept this default by hitting  return, or you
can edit the file name using cursor keys, insert/delete, etc.

Wssindex 5.25                   36                  Indexing Menu












              +------------------------------------+
              |    Primary Configuration Menu      |
              |                                    |
              | Printer configuration              |
              | SiZe limits                        |
              | Indexing options                   |
              | Screen, keyboard and Miscellaneous |
              | Default sorting/selection options  |
              | Keyboard macros                    |
              | Configured Exception list          |
              | Which fields to print              |
              | Output Format                      |
              |                                    |
              | Load configuration file            |
              | Save configuration file            |
              |                                    |
              | Return to previous menu            |
              +------------------------------------+
          Figure 5. Wssindex Primary Configuration Menu


P - Printer configuration
    Leads to a menu describing printer characteristics.

Z - SiZe limits
    Leads to a menu to set database size limits.

I - Indexing options
    Leads to a menu of options controlling behavior when indexing
    disks.

M - Screen, keyboard and Miscellaneous
    Leads to a menu of miscellaneous items.

D - Default sorting/selection options
    Leads  to a menu  for entering default  sorting and selection
    options.

K - Keyboard macros
    This option displays the 26 keyboard macros available by hit-
    ting Alt-letter in the add-comments section (or anywhere else
    that multi-character text input is allowed) and allows you to
    change them.   These macros are  stored in the  configuration
    file,  not the database file.   If you make any changes here,
    you  will be given the  option to save  a configuration file.
    (In  earlier releases, keyboard macros were called predefined
    categories  and  could  only  be  used  in  the  add-comments
    screen.)

E - Configured Exception list
    The  exception list is list  of up to  100 special case names
    which can be excluded  from printing.  By default,  this list

Wssindex 5.25                   37     Primary Configuration Menu












    consists  of only COMMAND.COM, but you might also want to add
    *.BAK, AUTOEXEC.BAT or anything else you have many copies of.
    Wild card names are  allowed.  List entries are made in full-
    screen mode (the same as is optionally used for entering file
    specifications when selecting files).  This list is only used
    if you  ask for it  as one  of the selection  options.   This
    semi-permanent list  serves the same purpose  as the one-shot
    rejection list which you can enter whenever selecting files.

W - Which fields to print
    Leads to a menu for selecting what information to print.

F - Output Format
    Leads to a menu for controlling output format.

L - Load configuration file
S - Save configuration file
    Configuration files  hold the option settings  entered in the
    various menus,  including the keyboard macros.   You can save
    or load a configuration file at  any time, but a newly loaded
    configuration file cannot change  the database size limits if
    a database  is currently in  memory.   If you  attempt to  do
    this, you will be given the option to clear the loaded  data-
    base.  If  you decline, all configuration options  except the
    changed size limits will take effect.

    If  you read or save  a configuration file,  the default file
    name is the first of

    1.  The last configuration file saved or read
    2.  The first command line argument
    3.  The DOS  environment variable  WSSICNF  (DOS command  set
        WSSICNF=filespec)
    4.  WSSINDEX.CNF (with  drive and  path whatever was  current
        when the program was loaded)

    which is defined.  The default name can be edited in the usu-
    al  manner, and TAB brings up a full-screen selection of con-
    figuration  files.  If an error is encountered when reading a
    configuration file, WSSINDEX will assume the worst and revert
    to  using the  screen  output method  set by  the environment
    variable  WSSDISP, or determined  automatically if WSSDISP is
    not defined.

    The format of the configuration file often  changes from ver-
    sion to version; compatibility is not guaranteed.  Usually  I
    try to arrange  things so  that most information  can be  ex-
    tracted from an older configuration  file before a read error
    occurs, but major program upgrades always  seem to require so
    many new  configuration items that  maintaining compatibility
    with  older configuration files is not always possible.  Gen-
    erally, Wssindex will  realize that it is reading an obsolete

Wssindex 5.25                   38     Primary Configuration Menu












    format before very many  garbage values have been read.   One
    of the  first things you should  do with a new  version is to
    review your configurations settings.

R - Return to previous menu
    Returns to higher level menu.


                    Printer Configuration Menu

Items in this menu  define the characteristics of your  printer.
They are  also used for disk output, but have no effect on screen
output.   Distances on a printed page are expressed in characters
and  lines.  Proportionally spaced fonts  are not supported; they
will cause misaligned columns.

            +---------------------------------------+
            |      Printer configuration menu       |
            |                                       |
            | Paper Width to right margin        80 |
            | Paper Length                       66 |
            | Left Margin                         0 |
            | Top margin                          3 |
            | Bottom margin                       8 |
            | Use Form feeds                    YES |
            | Pause at page breaks               NO |
            | Printer port Name                LPT1 |
            |                                       |
            | POstscript printer setup              |
            |                                       |
            | Return to primary configuration menu  |
            +---------------------------------------+
Figure 6. Wssindex Printer Configuration Menu.  Some commands use
additional printer controls from the printer definition file.


W - Paper Width to right margin
    This  is the width of  the paper, less  any desired allowance
    for a right margin.  (The number entered here does not depend
    on the left margin  setting.)  If your printer  does an auto-
    matic carriage return and linefeed when a character is print-
    ed in the rightmost column, you  should set the width to pre-
    vent  using this column.  Page numbers are right justified to
    the page width setting.

L - Paper Length
    This is the length  of the paper, typically  66 lines for  11
    inch paper at  6 lines per inch, but slightly  smaller (60 or
    62) for laser printers which can't print on the first or last
    few lines of a page, or larger for A4 size paper.



Wssindex 5.25                   39     Primary Configuration Menu












M - Left Margin
T - Top margin
B - Bottom margin
    The number of spaces or lines  to leave blank in each margin.
    Note that a right margin allowance is made by using a smaller
    paper width specification.

F - Use Form feeds
    Most, but not all, printers respond to a form feed command to
    eject  the current page.  For printers which do not recognize
    form feeds,  set this option  to NO and page  advance will be
    done by inserting blank lines.  The disadvantage of disabling
    this option  is that if some glitch messes up the line count-
    ing, the  error will   propagate to following  pages, whereas
    doing a line feed resynchronizes the program and printer line
    counting.   Depending on  your printer,  if you are  printing
    with zero bottom margin, it may be necessary to set  this op-
    tion to NO to prevent printing every other page blank.

P - Pause at page breaks
    If  a manual-feed sheet printer  is used, set  this option to
    YES so that output will pause for paper change.

N - Printer port Name
    The  default printer port is device PRN, which is usually the
    same as LPT1.   You may select PRN, LPT1,  LPT2, LPT3 or EPT.
    If you have a serial printer, and port  PRN doesn't work, use
    the  DOS mode command to redirect LPT1 to the appropriate COM
    port.

O - POstscript printer setup
    Leads to menu for selecting postscript options.

                  Postscript Printer Setup Menu

            +---------------------------------------+
            |       Postscript Printer Setup        |
            |                                       |
            | Use Postscript printer            YES |
            | Disk output also postscript        NO |
            | Landscape output                   NO |
            | Font Size (points)                 10 |
            | Extra line spacing (points)         2 |
            |                                       |
            | Return to previous menu               |
            +---------------------------------------+
Figure 7. Wssindex Postscript Printer  Setup Menu.  Some commands
use additional printer controls from the printer definition file.

P - Use Postscript printer
    Select YES  if you want  to use a  postscript printer.   Note
    that  Wssindex does  not take  full advantage  of power  of a

Wssindex 5.25                   40     Printer Configuration Menu












    postscript printer.   In  particular, only Courier  fonts are
    supported because that's the only non-proportional font which
    all postscript printers contain.

D - Disk output also postscript
    Select  YES if output directed  to disk should  also be post-
    script format.

L - Landscape output
    Select YES for  landscape (90 degree  rotated) output.   Note
    that for non-postscript  printers, landscape output  can only
    be selected by commands in a printer definition file.

S - Font Size (points)
E - Extra line spacing (points)
    Print size  and inter-line  spacing are specified  in points;
    there  are approximately 72 points in one inch.  Typical font
    sizes would  be  10-12 points  for ordinary  text, perhaps  7
    points  or smaller for disk  covers or labels.   Wssindex ex-
    pects  integral point  sizes.   Spacing between lines  is the
    font size plus  the extra spacing.   Word processing programs
    often default to 2 points more for spacing than  for the font
    size, but you may find that 1 or even 0 points looks better.

                       Database Size Limits

The entire Wssindex database is kept in memory.   Thus, the maxi-
mum database  size depends on available memory,  and under MS/PC-
DOS, that usually means less than 640K.  (However, if your system
provides  more  conventional  memory,  Wssindex  will  use   it.)
Wssindex/Extended also  keeps the entire database  in memory, but
it can use  up to 16  MB of  extended memory.   The overhead  for
memory management is  greatly reduced if space for  certain fixed
sized  items is allocated  in a few  large chunks rather  than in
small  pieces as  a database grows.   Also, the  DOS Shell option
requires  some memory which could otherwise be used for the data-
base.  These considerations  mean that the program must  know the
maximum database  size before the  database is loaded.   However,
these limits can be  changed before a database loaded  from disk,
so numbers entered here do not restrict future database growth.













Wssindex 5.25                   41     Printer Configuration Menu












          +-------------------------------------------+
          |           Database size limits            |
          |                                           |
          | Maximum number of Files              3000 |
          | Maximum number of Subdirectories      600 |
          | Maximum number of Disks               300 |
          |                                           |
          | Allocate Memory and display status        |
          |                                           |
          | Longest allowed Comment                64 |
          | Longest allowed category               64 |
          |                                           |
          | Return to primary configuration menu      |
          +-------------------------------------------+
       Figure 8. Wssindex Database Size Configuration Menu


F - Maximum number of Files
S - Maximum number of Subdirectories
D - Maximum number of Disks
    These  options set the limits on the numbers of files, subdi-
    rectories and  disks in a  database.  In  the DOS  version of
    Wssindex, each must be less than 16,384, regardless of avail-
    able memory.  In  practice, it's usually the number  of files
    which  is most constricting.   10-12,000 files can usually be
    accommodated in  640K, provided that a  significant amount of
    memory  is not also  being used for  comments and categories.
    With Wssindex/Extended  and 16 MB of RAM,  you could probably
    handle 300,000 files.   The number of bytes used  is given in
    the table below.   In addition, each  subdirectory name takes
    some space.

          Bytes per           DOS       Extended
                            version     version
          File                36           42
          Subdirectory         6            8
          Disk                27           29

    A maximum length  comment or category takes  up more database
    memory  than 3 file  entries, so a heavily commented database
    could run into memory space problems even at 3000 files.

M - Allocate Memory
    Memory is not allocated  until you either leave this  menu or
    select  this item.   When you select  this item, you  get the
    same  summary of size limits and available memory as is given
    by the display statistics option from the main menu.  So, you
    can make repeated adjustments  and check status without leav-
    ing this menu.   If there  is not enough  memory for the  re-
    quested  size limits, you will  get an error  message and the
    option  to give up and  return to DOS;  the default answer is
    no.  The size limits revert to the last successfully allocat-

Wssindex 5.25                   42           Database Size Limits












    ed values, but the display will still show the last requested
    values.  Insufficient memory  for variable length items (sub-
    directory names, comments and categories) will be detected as
    a database is read or expanded.

C - Longest allowed Comment
L - Longest allowed category
    Comments and  categories extracted from archive  files or en-
    tered on the add-comments screen can only be as long as spec-
    ified here.  The longest comment allowed is 1023  characters;
    the longest category 64.   (Prior to version 5.2,  both maxi-
    mums were fixed at 64.  Comments longer than this will make a
    database unreadable by  older versions  of Wssindex.)   If  a
    comment  or category  longer than  the configured  maximum is
    found when a database is loaded, it will be truncated to this
    maximum  and a warning issued.   Setting the  maximum to zero
    forces removal of  the comment or category  when the database
    is read.  Setting the  maximum has no effect on a  comment or
    category already in memory.

R - Return to primary configuration menu
    Returns to the previous menu.

                   Indexing Configuration Menu

Items in this menu control program behavior during disk indexing.
Many of these items are duplicated on the indexing sub-menu.

    +-------------------------------------------------------+
    |             Indexing configuration menu               |
    |                                                       |
    | Indexing drive number 1                             A |
    | Indexing drive number 2                             B |
    | Make .ID entries (allows disk/subdir comments)    YES |
    | Ask Before replacing                               NO |
    | Auto coMment after disk indexed                    NO |
    | Auto caTegory for all files                        NO |
    | Ask before eXtracting archive info                 NO |
    | Extract comments from archive files               YES |
    | Extract comments from 4DOS/NDOS description files YES |
    | Auto cateGory string        (none)                    |
    |                                                       |
    | File extensions for Archive information extraction    |
    | File extensions for graPhics information extraction   |
    |                                                       |
    | Return to primary configuration menu                  |
    +-------------------------------------------------------+
      Figure 9. Wssindex Indexing Options Configuration Menu





Wssindex 5.25                   43           Database Size Limits












1,2 - Indexing drive number
    If you have two  drives, Wssindex will read from  them alter-
    nately when indexing so that you can be swapping disks in one
    drive while  the other is being  used.  If you  have only one
    drive (or if you only want  to use one drive), just enter the
    same letter for both drives.

I - Make .ID entries
    In  order to record the subdirectory structure of a disk, and
    to allow comments to be assigned to disks and subdirectories,
    it is necessary to make special database entries for the vol-
    ume label  and each  subdirectory.   These entries  look like
    files with the (illegal)  name .ID.  These entries  count to-
    wards the limits on the number of files, so if you don't want
    to  assign comments to  disks or subdirectories,  you can set
    this option to NO and decrease the database size slightly.

B - Ask Before replacing
    If  a disk is encountered  while indexing which  has the same
    volume label as one already in  the database, it could be ei-
    ther a different disk with a duplicate  name or the same disk
    being re-indexed.   This option controls  whether any warning
    is given before a duplicate disk is replaced.

M - Auto coMment
    If  YES, automatically  go to  the add-comments  screen after
    each disk is indexed, with all files from the disk selected.

T - Auto caTegory
    If YES, assign the auto-category string to all files as disks
    are indexed.

X - Ask before eXtracting archive info
    You  may want to extract  file information only from selected
    archive and graphics files.   If this option is YES,  you are
    asked before file information is extracted from any file with
    an extension in one of the extraction lists.

E - Extract comments from archive files
    Some of the archive formats allow comments for the archive or
    members.  If this option is YES, such comments are extracted,
    filtered to remove unprintable characters and  excess blanks,
    and assigned to database files.

4 - Extract comments from 4DOS/NDOS description files
    4DOS and NDOS are COMMAND.COM replacements which support file
    descriptions in each directory in a file called DESCRIPT.ION.
    This flag enables extraction of comments from these files.

G - Auto cateGory string
    This string is  used for  the category if  configured to  add
    categories automatically.

Wssindex 5.25                   44    Indexing Configuration Menu












A - File extensions for Archive information extraction
P - File extensions for graPhics information extraction
    These  two options lead to menus to  select what types of ar-
    chive and graphics files  should be processed to  extract di-
    rectory, comment or image size information.


            Archive file extraction configuration menu
        +------------------------------------------------+
        |   Archive file extraction configuration menu   |
        |                                                |
        |     ARC     YES            LZS    YES          |
        |     ARJ     YES            PAK    YES          |
        |     ARK     YES            PKA    YES          |
        |     HYP     YES            SDN    YES          |
        |     LBR     YES            ZIP    YES          |
        |     LZH     YES            ZOO    YES          |
        |                                                |
        |   Return to indexing configuration menu        |
        +------------------------------------------------+
  Figure 10. Archive file types from which information can be ex-
tracted.


           Graphics file extraction configuration menu

       +-------------------------------------------------+
       |   Graphics file extraction configuration menu   |
       |                                                 |
       |       BMP                               YES     |
       |       GIF                               YES     |
       |       PCX                               YES     |
       |       TIF                               YES     |
       |                                                 |
       |   Return to indexing configuration menu         |
       +-------------------------------------------------+
 Figure 11. Graphics file types from which image size information
can be extracted.

Extension for extraction
    Files with extensions marked  YES on these two menus  will be
    processed as  archive or  graphics files when  disks are  in-
    dexed.   Archive types  which allow  archive comments can  be
    marked "Only comments", meaning  that file information is not
    extracted,  but an archive  comment will be  extracted if Ex-
    tract comments is YES.







Wssindex 5.25                   45    Indexing Configuration Menu












                 Miscellaneous Configuration Menu

This menu  includes a  variety of miscellaneous  items, including
the paths to  the color selection  and video board  configuration
menus.

    +-------------------------------------------------------+
    |   Screen, keyboard and miscellaneous configuration    |
    |                                                       |
    | Perform automatic inteGrity check                  NO |
    | MaNual cursor motion in menus                      NO |
    | Function key layout matching IBM                  YES |
    | Use BIOS to read Keyboard                          NO |
    | Inverted meaning for PgUp/PgDn                     NO |
    | Create .BAK files                                 YES |
    | Enable Alarm sound                                YES |
    | Change Prompt in DOS shell                        YES |
    | Strip High-bit when viewing files                 YES |
    | Use color                                         YES |
    | Use Mouse                                          NO |
    | Mouse Sensitivity                                  50 |
    |                                                       |
    | Set Colors                                            |
    | Video board configuration                             |
    |                                                       |
    | Return to primary configuration menu                  |
    +-------------------------------------------------------+
    Figure 12. Wssindex  Screen,  Keyboard and  Miscellaneous
    Options Configuration Menu


G - Perform automatic inteGrity check
    A  disk indexing program  infected by a  computer virus could
    spread the infection to every write-enabled disk indexed.  To
    provide partial protection, Wssindex will read its executable
    file from disk and  perform a checksum test.  If the expected
    checksum  is not found, a warning will be displayed the first
    time you enter the main menu.  Since this test requires read-
    ing  the program from disk, it requires about the same amount
    of time as loading the program.  With a fast  hard disk, this
    time  is negligible, but on  a floppy it  could be annoyingly
    long, hence the option of disabling the test.

    This type of integrity test is far from foolproof.  First, it
    only tests whether the program itself is infected, not wheth-
    er a  virus from a previously run program is active.  Second,
    viruses exist which detect that a program is reading its disk
    image and feed back  the uninfected image.  Finally,  a virus
    targeted   against  a  specific   program  could  remove  the
    checksumming  code entirely.  I intend  to change the details
    of  the integrity check from  release to release  in order to
    make  this last attack more difficult.  There are now several

Wssindex 5.25                   46    Miscellaneous Configuration












    programs available  which attempt  to check for  virus infec-
    tions  by known  viruses,  or to  block destructive  actions.
    Since I  have never  actually encountered  a virus,  I cannot
    comment on how  effective such programs might be.   I do know
    that  computer  scientists have  demonstrated that  writing a
    "universal virus detector" is not possible.

    In  order to perform the checksum test, the program must know
    its name  and where it  was loaded  from.  Under  DOS 3.0  or
    higher, this  is trivial, and under previous  DOS versions it
    is  impossible.  When running under DOS 2.x, the program name
    is assumed to be WSSINDEX.EXE,  and the current directory and
    the PATH  are searched for this  name.  Thus, if  you wish to
    use  the integrity check under  DOS 2.x, you  must change the
    program  name from  the distributed  name which  includes the
    version number.

    There are various utilities  available which compress an exe-
    cutable file  on disk  and automatically decompress  when the
    program is loaded.   If such a utility is  used, the disk im-
    age, and  hence the  checksum, is  changed, so  the integrity
    check will fail.   However,  such a  compression utility  may
    provide an equivalent checksum test.  Except for this consid-
    eration,  the DOS  version of  WSSINDEX  has been  tested and
    found to be  compatible with the  program LZEXE version  0.91
    (Fabrice Bellard, 451 chemin du mas de Matour, 34790 Grabels,
    France) and  the LZESHELL program (Pete  Petrakis, 1236 River
    Bay Road, Annapolis, Maryland 21401) which translates LZEXE's
    messages  into  English.     LZEXE  compresses  the  unpacked
    WSSI525.EXE by  about 50%  and the  reduced disk  access time
    more than compensates for the decompression overhead.  PKLite
    (PKWare)  and  DIET   (Teddy  Matsumoto)  perform  similarly.
    Wssindex/Extended cannot  be compressed by any  of these pro-
    grams.

N - MaNual cursor motion in menus
    When you  select menu items, Wssindex tries  to guess whether
    you will want  to keep the cursor on that  item or advance to
    the next item.  Set  this option to YES to disable  this fea-
    ture.

F - Function key layout matching IBM
    The function key  help in the add-comments screen is arranged
    in  two columns, just as the function keys on many keyboards.
    If you have an unusual keyboard which has F2 below F1  rather
    than beside it, such as  is found on your author's  old Sanyo
    555,  set this option to  NO and the  help screen arrangement
    will  match the key arrangement.   If your  function keys run
    across the  top of  the keyboard, pick  whichever arrangement
    seems best.



Wssindex 5.25                   47    Miscellaneous Configuration












K - Use BIOS to read Keyboard
    If YES, the keyboard is read  using a BIOS call rather than a
    DOS call.  Select YES here if you have used ANSI.SYS to rede-
    fine keys and  do not  want Wssindex to  use these  redefini-
    tions.  Select NO if your  machine is not IBM compatible.  If
    neither  of these applies,  the setting of  this flag doesn't
    really   matter.     This  option   is  forced   to   YES  in
    Wssindex/Extended to avoid a known problem in the DOS extend-
    er.

I - Inverted meaning for PgUp/PgDn
    Your author became  accustomed to an hp  terminal long before
    he  ever saw a PC keyboard.   The hp keyboard had NEXT SCREEN
    and  PREVIOUS SCREEN keys in  the same positions  as PgUp and
    PgDn, but the positions were interchanged relative to meaning
    most  programs assign to the  PC keyboard keys.   Your author
    sets this option to  YES and goes through contortions  to get
    other programs  to do  the  equivalent translation;  probably
    everyone else will set it to NO.

B - Create .BAK files
    When a  database is saved,  and an existing file  of the same
    name is found, the old file can be either overwritten or  re-
    named  with a .BAK extension.  The latter option is obviously
    safer  since the old file remains if  the save fails, but the
    output disk might not have enough room for two databases.  If
    you elect not to create  .BAK files, you will be warned  that
    an old file of the same name exists and must confirm that you
    really want to overwrite  it.  If creating .BAK  files, a two
    generation  old .BAK file will be erased so that the previous
    database file can be renamed.

A - Enable Alarm sound
    Some error messages include  a beep.  This option  allows you
    do disable all such sounds.

P - Change Prompt in DOS shell
    The prompt when shelled to DOS can be either changed to "EXIT
    to  return to Wssindex" followed by a newline and your origi-
    nal prompt to  remind you that  you are in  a shell, or  left
    unchanged.

H - Strip High-bit when viewing files
    Files created by WordStar, and possibly other files, have the
    high-bit  set on some  characters.   When viewing  such files
    from the add-comments screen, it is desirable to turn off the
    high-bit to make the  text readable.  On the other hand, lan-
    guages other  than English  use characters with  the high-bit
    set.  So, generally this option should be set to YES for Eng-
    lish language users and NO for other languages.



Wssindex 5.25                   48    Miscellaneous Configuration












U - Use color
    By default, the program  will run in monochrome.   (This does
    not refer  to the type of video board which is a separate se-
    lection.)  To get color, set this option to YES  and also se-
    lect set Colors to get a color-selection menu.  Actually, the
    setting  of this control is only important if using DOS calls
    for screen output.   With  direct video writes,  you can  get
    colors even if this option is set to NO.

M - Use Mouse
    Set this  option to YES to  enable the mouse.   There are two
    possible  reasons why you might  not want to  do this: first,
    the standard method  of testing  whether a  mouse is  present
    causes some  non-compatible  machines to  crash, and  second,
    when the mouse  is active, the program sits in  a loop alter-
    nately checking for  keyboard or mouse input rather than sim-
    ply asking DOS to read the next keystroke.  In  a multi-task-
    ing environment this wastes CPU cycles which could be used by
    tasks in other  windows.  (Wssindex will detect if it is run-
    ning under DESQview and will give  up its time slice if there
    is no keyboard or mouse input pending.)

S - Mouse Sensitivity
    A smaller number here means less mouse motion is necessary to
    move the highlight bar.

C - Set Colors
    This option leads to the color selection menu.

V - Video board configuration
    This option leads to the video board selection menu.

R - Return to primary configuration menu
    Returns to the previous menu.


            Default Sorting and Selection Options Menu

        +-------------------------------------------------+
        |     Default Sorting and Selection Options       |
        |                                                 |
        | Selection list (none)                           |
        | Sort Keys      (none)                           |
        |                                                 |
        | Return to main menu                             |
        +-------------------------------------------------+
  Figure 13. Wssindex Default Sorting and Selection Options Menu






Wssindex 5.25                   49    Miscellaneous Configuration












S - Selection list
K - Sort Keys
    When  listing files with the  Find or Print  options, you are
    prompted  for selection and sort options.  The two menu items
    here  allow you to specify the default selection and sort key
    lists.  If present, each will be a list of numbers, separated
    by commas.  These lists may be edited at the time of use, but
    such editing does  not change the defaults.   If you  want to
    erase one of these lists, just delete the characters.  Do not
    type  "none" else  you will find  that the  characters "none"
    become the default, which isn't what you want.

R - Return to previous menu
    Returns to the primary configuration menu.


                 Output Fields Configuration Menu

This  menu is used to  select what information  is displayed when
files are listed.   Note that displaying all items  requires con-
siderably more than  80 characters.   The output  format menu  is
used to control how long lines are handled.


    +-------------------------------------------------------+
    |           Output fields configuration menu            |
    |                                                       |
    | Print File name and extension plus                    |
    |                                                       |
    |      DuPlicate flag  NO    Volume            YES      |
    |      Size           YES    SuBdirectory      YES      |
    |      Date           YES    Archive file name YES      |
    |      Time           YES    Comment           YES      |
    |      SEconds        YES    CateGory          YES      |
    |                                                       |
    | Return to primary configuration menu                  |
    +-------------------------------------------------------+
       Figure 14. Wssindex Output fields configuration menu


P - DuPlicate flag
    An asterisk following  the file name if the name  is the same
    as the previous  file listed.   Note that  whether a file  is
    flagged depends on the sort order and selection options.

S - Size
    File size in bytes.

D - Date
    Date of  last modification; date  format is  selected in  the
    output format menu.


Wssindex 5.25                   50           Sort/select Defaults












T - Time
    Time of  last modification;  always omitted  if  date is  not
    printed.

S - Seconds
    Seconds field of modification time; always omitted if time is
    not printed.  Since  MS-DOS only stores the file  time to the
    nearest two seconds, this will always be an even number.

V - Volume
    Disk volume label.

B - SuBdirectory
    Subdirectory name or "Root" for root directory.

A - Archive file name
    The name of the containing archive file, if any.

C - Comment
    File comment, if any.

G - CateGory
    File category, if any.

                 Output Format Configuration Menu

  +------------------------------------------------------------+
  |             Output format configuration menu               |
  |                                                            |
  | Number of Blank lines between headers               0      |
  | Number of blank lines after Headers                 1      |
  |                                                            |
  | File name style                                   FN  EXT  |
  | Date style                                        mm/dd/yy |
  | Archive file delImiter                             [...]   |
  | DeliMiter around first of comment/category         (...)   |
  |                                                            |
  | Enter 0 width to use variable field size                   |
  |                                                            |
  |    Field width for Subdirectories                     0    |
  |    Field width for Archive name                       0    |
  |    Field width for Comment or category                0    |
  |                                                            |
  | Print comments bEfore categories                     NO    |
  | Always start New line for comment/category info      NO    |
  | MaX wrapped print lines per file                      2    |
  | Indentation for Wrapped lines                        10    |
  |                                                            |
  | Return to primary configuration menu                       |
  +------------------------------------------------------------+
       Figure 15. Wssindex output format configuration menu


Wssindex 5.25                   51    Output Fields Configuration












B - Number of Blank lines between headers
H - Number of blank lines after Headers
    File  and volume listings have  two header lines,  one with a
    title, the second with column headings.  These options select
    how many blank lines  to insert between header lines,  or be-
    tween  the header lines and the data lines.  These parameters
    are ignored for screen output.

F - File name style
    Selecting this option  will toggle the  file name format  be-
    tween FN EXT and FN.EXT.

D - Date style
    Selecting  this option  will cycle  through the  various date
    formats: mm/dd/yy, dd/mm/yy, yy/mm/dd or 01-Jan-80.  The day,
    month,  year order selected here  is used for  both input and
    output.   The date format  implied by the  COUNTRY= option in
    CONFIG.SYS is not used.

I - Archive file delImiter
    The name of the  archive file containing the listed  file can
    be  printed surrounded by (),  <> or [];  selecting this item
    cycles through the possible delimiters.  One of these markers
    is recommend to distinguish the archive name from the follow-
    ing field if a fixed field width is not used.

M - DeliMiter around first of comment/category
    The same  sets of delimiters can be  used to mark comments or
    categories  as are  used to  mark archive files.   It  is the
    field which is configured to  print first which is surrounded
    by this delimiter.

S - Field width for Subdirectories
A - Field width for Archive name
C - Field width for Comment or category
    Displaying all  possible file  information on a  single line,
    neatly arranged in columns and allowing for the maximum  pos-
    sible length of all fields, would require well over 200 print
    positions  even if  comments were  restricted to  the old  64
    character  length limit.    Perhaps some  printers can  print
    lines this long, but generally some compromise must  be made.
    The  possibilities are  to  not print  everything, limit  the
    field widths, not require  columnar alignment for potentially
    long, variable length items,  or print multiple lines.   If a
    field width is specified as 0, as many spaces as needed  will
    be  used  and line  wrapping will  be  done, subject  to line
    length constraints.   Non-zero widths should  be specified if
    neat columns are desired; overly long items will be truncated
    at the field width.




Wssindex 5.25                   52    Output Format Configuration












E - Print comments bEfore categories
    Either comments or categories can be printed first.

N - Always start New line for comment/category
    If YES, a  new print line will be started  for any comment or
    category.

X - MaX wrapped print lines per file
    Specifies the maximum number  of continuation lines which may
    be printed  for a single file.   Subdirectory names, comments
    and categories are word-wrapped if they don't fit on the cur-
    rent print  line.   A zero here  means only  one line,  which
    probably isn't enough to  print comments or categories unless
    you are using a small font or a wide-carriage printer.

W - Indentation for Wrapped lines
    Specifies the  number of  spaces that continuation  lines are
    indented.   You can reasonably enter a small number like 5 or
    10 here, or  you can use a number sufficient to align wrapped
    comments with the first character of the comment.

R - Return to primary configuration menu
    Return to the previous menu.


                    Video Board Configuration

This  menu selects the screen  output method.   This selection is
buried in  this menu because it  only needs to be  made once, and
because  accidentally configuring  for  the wrong  type of  video
board is  likely to cause an  immediate crash.  Any  changes made
here take effect when you leave this menu.





















Wssindex 5.25                   53    Output Format Configuration












    +-------------------------------------------------------+
    |            Video board configuration Menu             |
    |                                                       |
    | Screen writing method (changes only on menu exit) CGA |
    | Use DOS calls for prompts (for screen readers)     NO |
    | Suppress snoW on CGA                               NO |
    | Raw Mode screen output                             NO |
    |                                                       |
    | Use BIOS call to set screen size                   NO |
    | AX value for BIOS call                              0 |
    | BX value for BIOS call                              0 |
    | Screen wIdth                                       80 |
    | Screen Height                                      25 |
    | AX value for BIOS call on exit or push-to-DOS       0 |
    | BX Value for BIOS call on exit or push-to-DOS       0 |
    |                                                       |
    | Return to previous configuration menu                 |
    +-------------------------------------------------------+
        Figure 16. Wssindex video board configuration menu


S - Screen writing method
    Screen  output may be done  using either DOS  calls or direct
    video writes.   The former is slower, and on most systems re-
    quires that ANSI.SYS  be installed (see Appendix B, page 76).
    However, if running  in a background window,  using DOS calls
    may prevent screen output from bleeding through  to the fore-
    ground  window.  The direct  write methods are  MDA for Mono-
    chrome Graphics Adapter, CGA  for Color Graphics Adaptor, EGA
    for  Enhanced Graphics  Adapter, and  VGA for  Video Graphics
    Array.   EGA and VGA differ (here)  from CGA only in the com-
    mands to set  the border color.   A Hercules board should  be
    configured as an MDA.

    Normally the value here  is determined automatically, but you
    might need to change it if the auto-detection fails or if you
    change  your hardware.   If  you enter  the wrong  video type
    here,  you will likely have to reboot after leaving this menu
    because the screen will no longer be updated properly.

D - Use DOS calls for prompts (for screen readers)
    This option  is for blind  users.   If YES, prompts  for user
    input,  status reports  and error  messages are  displayed by
    temporarily switching  to DOS-calls video  display, then  re-
    turning to the configured screen-writing method.  This allows
    screen-reading programs to  separate important messages  from
    menu  displays.  Note that in all  cases, the DOS cursor fol-
    lows  the highlight  bar, so  screen readers  should have  no
    problem in telling where Wssindex thinks the cursor is locat-
    ed.



Wssindex 5.25                   54      Video Board Configuration












W - Suppress snoW on CGA
    Older CGA boards cannot display properly while they are being
    written to.  If  this option is YES,  writes to video  memory
    will be synchronized with  the horizontal retrace to minimize
    screen disruption.  This will slow down the updating.

M - Raw Mode on screen output
    Raw  mode means do not check for control-c or control-s after
    every character of screen output.  Setting this option to YES
    will speed DOS calls screen output slightly, but the  differ-
    ence will probably not be noticeable.

B - Use BIOS call to set screen size
    If yes, a BIOS interrupt 10H is used to set the screen dimen-
    sions.  This option should only be enabled on a machine which
    is at least moderately IBM compatible.

A - AX value for BIOS call
B - BX value for BIOS call
    If non-zero, the  values passed  in the AX  and BX  registers
    when the video interrupt is generated.  Most boards need only
    AX;  set BX=0 unless you need  another value.  See the manual
    for your video board or appendix I, page 87 for a listing  of
    values for various boards.  Manuals may give hex values; con-
    vert them to decimal for this menu.

I - Screen wIdth
H - Screen Height
    The screen width and height in characters, either on entry or
    after the video interrupt to set the screen size.

X - AX value for BIOS call on exit or push-to-DOS
B - BX Value for BIOS call on exit or push-to-DOS
    These parameters,  if non-zero,  are used  to set the  screen
    dimensions before exiting or pushing to DOS.  Typically an AX
    value of 2,3 or 7 would be used here to return to 80x25 mode.

R - Return to previous menu
    Returns to the miscellaneous configuration menu.














Wssindex 5.25                   55      Video Board Configuration












                       Color Selection Menu
     +-----------------------------------------------------+
     |                  Attribute   Foreground  Background |
     |                                                     |
     | Normal text      none        white       blue       |
     | Highlights       bold        yellow      blue       |
     | Status info      bold        white       white      |
     | Selector bar     bold        yellow      magenta    |
     | Border color     none        blue                   |
     +-----------------------------------------------------+
            Figure 17. Wssindex color selection screen

Use + and - keys to cycle forward and backward through colors, or
left mouse button to  advance colors.  Cursor arrow keys or mouse
select which item is to be changed.  Hit ENTER or the right mouse
button  when done.  A selector bar is not used if using DOS calls
for  screen output,  so this option  may not  be displayed.   The
border color control is not functional on all systems, in partic-
ular, EGA cards may not allow colored borders.  Also, while there
is an ANSI  escape sequence  for setting the  border color,  most
implementations  of ANSI.SYS  do not  support it,  so the  border
color selection will  usually not  work in DOS-calls  mode.   The
actual screen colors  may not match the labels  exactly.  For in-
stance,  on a monochrome system,  blue on black  will give under-
line, and non-bold  yellow may  display as brown.   As you  cycle
through colors, the labels at the left will change to the select-
ed colors.

                      The Add-Comments Menu

The  add-comments menu  screen displays  each matching  file name
along with the  disk and subdirectory it is found  on, as well as
the containing archive  file for archive file members.   Starting
with  version 3.2, each disk  and each subdirectory  will cause a
dummy database entry to be made with a blank file name and exten-
sion  of "ID".   These entries,  which receive  special treatment
when  printing, give you a  place to hang  comments describing an
entire disk or subdirectory.















Wssindex 5.25                   56           Color Selection Menu












 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                       Add comments menu                     |
 |                                                             |
 | Disk id: MS-RAMDRIVE File name:   .ID                       |
 | Subdirectory:  Root                                         |
 |                                                             |
 | Copy buffer:                                                |
 |                                                             |
 |                                                             |
 | Current file:                                               |
 |                                                             |
 |                                                             |
 | New comment:                                                |
 |    category:                                                |
 |                                                             |
 |                                                             |
 | F 1 - copy comment               F 2 - delete comment       |
 | F 3 - copy category              F 4 - delete category      |
 | F 5 - copy both                  F 6 - chng srch direction  |
 | F 7 - skip to next               F 8 - view file            |
 | F 9 - add comment and advance    F10 - return to main menu  |
 | ENTER  - comment/category toggle INSERT  - insert/overtype  |
 | Alt-F1 - toggle help             Ctrl-END - delete to end   |
 |                                                             |
 |                               Searching  forward INSERT OFF |
 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
             Figure 18. Wssindex add-comments screen


The ten  function keys, alt-letter keys,  plus BACKSPACE, INSERT,
DELETE, ENTER, HOME, and the left/right cursor arrows are used to
control this part of the program.  Two different sets of function
key  assignments can be  selected from the  configuration menu to
support  different keyboard layouts.  (A third set of key assign-
ments is used in the  Rainbow version.)  While it  doesn't really
matter which arrangement you use, the placement  of the functions
and the position of the on-screen help  are more  rational if you
select the  layout which matches your keyboard.  The descriptions
below assume  that you are using the IBM layout, which is now the
default if no configuration file is found (early program releases
supported only the alternate layout).












Wssindex 5.25                   57              Add-Comments Menu












                       Function Key layouts

          F1   F2        F1   F6       PF1          F17
          F3   F4        F2   F7       PF2          F18
          F5   F6        F3   F8       PF3          SELECT
          F7   F8        F4   F9       NEXT SCREEN  FIND
          F9   F10       F5   F10      PF4          EXIT

            IBM          Alternate         Dec Rainbow
             (Function keys may be labeled Fn or PFn)


A help menu and three sets of information are displayed:

Copy buffer -  a comment/category  pair which can be  copied into
               the new comment field.
Current file - the comment/category currently in the database for
               the displayed file.
New comment/category  - the comment and  category currently being
               entered.

The special functions available are:

F1 -   Copy comment:  if the file has  a comment, copy  it to the
       new comment field; otherwise, copy the comment in the copy
       buffer.  If you  want to replace an existing  comment with
       one  from the copy buffer,  you must first  delete the old
       comment  (F2). Note that this does not actually add a com-
       ment to the file until you hit F9.

F2 -   Delete comment: any  comment for the  current file is  de-
       leted  immediately.  If you have  entered something in the
       new comment field, and decide that you do not want to have
       any comment associated with  the file, just hit F2  to de-
       lete the old comment, followed  by F7 to skip to  the next
       file without adding the  contents of the new field  to the
       database.  It is  not necessary to clear the  text entered
       into the new comment field.

F3 -   Copy  category: if the file has a category, copy it to the
       new category  field; otherwise,  copy the category  in the
       copy buffer.   As with  F1, this  does not actually  add a
       category until F9 is hit.

F4 -   Delete category: any category for the current  file is de-
       leted immediately.   Proceed as described under  F2 to de-
       lete a  category after  having entered something  into the
       new category field.

F5 -   Copy both: the same as hitting both F1 and F3.



Wssindex 5.25                   58              Add-Comments Menu












F6 -   Change search direction: toggles  the search direction for
       the next matching file between forward and backward.

F7 -   Skip to next: advance  to the next file,  without changing
       the current comment and category fields.

F8 -   View file: the  first indexing drive  is searched for  the
       current file.  The  disk volume name must match  (an unla-
       beled disk will be accepted).  If the file is found, it is
       displayed on the bottom half of the screen.   Non-printing
       characters are translated to periods, so there is no prob-
       lem with viewing a non-ascii  file.  The configuration may
       be  set to  clear the high  bit of each  character to make
       WordStar files  printable.   Lines longer than  the screen
       width  are truncated.   This function will  fail and claim
       that  the file could  not be found if  there is not enough
       free memory to open a file.

F9 -   Add comment and advance: the new comment and category  (if
       any) are added to the current  file and copied to the copy
       buffer.   Blank  fields will  not be  copied and  will not
       change the record for the current file.

F10 -  Return to the main menu.

BACKSPACE - (or Delete key on  Rainbow)  Delete character to left
       of cursor.

DELETE - (Remove key on Rainbow)  Delete character under the cur-
       sor.

INSERT  - (Insert  Here on  Rainbow)   Toggle between  insert and
       overwrite mode.

ENTER - Toggle between comment and category.

Left/right cursor arrows - Move around in the comment or category
       strings for editing.

Control-left/right cursor arrows - Move the cursor in word rather
       than character steps.

PgUp/PgDn  - (Prev/Next  screen on  Rainbow) Move  the  cursor in
       steps  5 characters less than the field width.  These keys
       are primarily useful if you are entering long comments.

HOME - (PF1 Screen on Rainbow)  Move the cursor to the  beginning
       of the current field.

END -  (F19 key on  Rainbow) Move the  cursor to the  end of  the
       current field.  (Hitting return twice will also do this.)


Wssindex 5.25                   59              Add-Comments Menu












Control-END -  (F4 key on Rainbow) Delete  characters from cursor
       to end of field.

Alt-F1 or Shift-F1  - (Help  key on Rainbow,  control-1 on  Sanyo
       550) toggle help display between function key descriptions
       and list of keyboard macros.

^R -   Redraw the  entire screen.   It shouldn't be  necessary to
       use this key very  often, if ever, but occasionally  a DOS
       error message or a program problem can scroll or otherwise
       mess  up the parts of  the screen which  are normally con-
       stant.

Alt-letter - Append one of the 26 keyboard macros to the category
       field, along with a comma and a space if anything was pre-
       viously  entered there.   (The  behavior here  is slightly
       different than  in other  parts of  the program  where the
       macro strings are simply  appended to any previous input).
       Note that changing the keyboard macros will not change the
       categories which  have already been assigned  to files; it
       is the actual string which is saved  for each file.  Also,
       the macros are stored  in the configuration file,  not the
       database.  (In  the DEC Rainbow version, F20  is used as a
       substitute for the Alt key.   On a 100A, you can  also use
       the Compose key.)

When all files which match the selection  criteria specified have
been processed, you normally  return to the previous menu.   This
would make it inconvenient  to apply corrections to a  previously
commented database, or otherwise  process several groups of files
selected by  name.  So,  if the  only selection criterion  is the
filename, you will be  prompted for a new list of  filespecs when
all  matching files have  been processed, and  the selected files
will automatically be sorted  using the same sort keys  (if any).
At this point, you can also just hit ESCAPE to return to the main
menu.

Comment and category  lengths are  limited to values  set in  the
configuration.  If you use  the category field as it is  named it
will usually be one or more relatively short phrases.  Some users
may want  to use this field  as a version number.   WSSINDEX will
not  allow control  characters  in comments,  but anything  else,
including  high-bit ascii, is acceptable.   If the comment length
is larger than will fit on screen, the display  will scroll left-
right in steps as you move the cursor through the comment.

                        WSSINDEX Utilities

All of the utilities read a standard configuration file, although
in  some cases the only  information actually used  is the screen
writing method and screen colors.


Wssindex 5.25                   60              Add-Comments Menu












                     IDADD Conversion Utility

WSSINDEX version 3.2  introduced a new option  to assign comments
to disks and subdirectories  in addition to files.   This feature
was implemented by making dummy database entries (which look like
files  with name .ID) for  each disk and  subdirectory.  However,
databases  created by older versions of the program will not have
these entries, and WSSINDEX  would only create them if  the disks
were re-indexed.   Also, it is  now possible to configure  to not
generate .ID entries for volume names.

IDADD is a  utility for adding these dummy  entries to a database
without re-indexing.  It will also insert a .ID entry in place of
the DUMMY_EN.TRY  file which  older versions of  WSSINDEX created
when a disk was indexed with  the control-a option (and will pre-
serve any comment associated with the old entry).  It will recog-
nize disks which already have .ID entries and just copy  them, so
you  can use this utility on any database (except old version 1.x
databases  which must  first be converted  by loading  and saving
with WSSINDEX).

IDADD  reads  a standard  configuration file,  mostly to  get the
video output mode and screen colors.  You can specify the config-
uration and input  database file  names on the  command line,  or
allow IDADD to  prompt you  for them.   The output database  name
must be entered interactively.

                         *** Warning ***

The name of the output database must not be the same as the input
database, else the output will overwrite the input during the up-
dating process.

One small quirk: if you have a subdirectory with no  files in it,
IDADD  will not  create a  dummy entry  for it,  whereas WSSINDEX
would if the disk  were reindexed.  It would be moderately diffi-
cult to change this, so I won't do it unless I get complaints.


                WSSMERGE Database Merging Utility

WSSMERGE merges  two WSSINDEX databases.   Only databases written
by WSSINDEX version 2.0 or higher can be merged.  Older databases
can  be converted  by  loading them  into  a current  version  of
WSSINDEX  and resaving them.  Since WSSINDEX itself can now merge
databases, this utility is almost obsolete.

WSSMERGE reads a  standard configuration file, mostly  to get the
video output mode and screen colors.

When  merging, you can elect  to assign a  common category to all
files from the  first database,  and a second  category to  files

Wssindex 5.25                   61                          Idadd












from the second database.  This might be useful if  you had small
databases  organized by category, and wanted to merge them into a
single database.  You can suppress either common category by just
hitting  return when  prompted for  the category.   In  any case,
previously entered categories are not changed.

The names of  the configuration file, input and output databases,
merged database, and common categories can be entered on the com-
mand line (in this order).   If some or all are omitted, the pro-
gram  will prompt you for them.  The WSSICNF environment variable
is used  for the default  configuration file name, and  if you do
not  specify file extensions, .CNF or .DIR is assumed, but other-
wise there are no defaults for the names.  If you want to specify
a null category, enter a hyphen.

                         *** Warning ***

The name of the output database must not be the same as either of
the  input databases,  else the output  will overwrite  the input
during the merging process.

The disk space required for the output file will be approximately
the sum of  the input sizes, but the  entire merged database will
not be in core  at once, so you may be able  to create a database
larger than you can restore.  If the output file would exceed the
16K  file limit,  you will  be warned  that WSSINDEX/Extended  is
required to read the file.

One error which the  program may warn you about  after completing
the merging operation is duplicate  volume names in the database.
The duplicate entries  are not deleted  from the merged  database
because that  operation is  difficult to perform  without loading
the  entire database into memory.   WSSINDEX has an option to de-
lete these duplicate volumes.

                 SPLIT Database Splitting Utility

SPLIT  takes a WSSINDEX database  and splits it  into two smaller
databases.   This function is something you might want to do if a
database  is pushing against the memory limits.  The output data-
bases will be  written in the format compatible with the DOS ver-
sion unless the number of files exceeds 16K.

SPLIT accepts  4 optional command  line parameters: configuration
file  name, input database  name, and two  output database names.
If specified, the  database names become  defaults which must  be
confirmed by hitting return.

After entering the database  names, you are shown all  the volume
names on one or a  few screens with volumes which will go  to the
second database highlighted.   (Initially, all volumes are marked
as going to  the first database.)   Move the cursor  (allowed mo-

Wssindex 5.25                   62                       Wssmerge












tions summarized below) to  the volumes which  you want to go  to
the second output database and hit the spacebar.  The volume name
will be  highlighted to  indicate that  the disk  will go to  the
second database, and  the cursor will move to the  next volume in
the list.  If you change your mind, just tag the volume again and
it will toggle back.

At any time,  you can sort the list of volumes  by name, date in-
dexed, free disk space or numeric part of volume name.  (It's not
clear how useful  some of these sort  keys are, but they  already
existed from other places.)   After marking volumes, you  can ei-
ther abort the program or write the two databases.

This is a  rather crude utility in that it  doesn't give you very
much  information to  help you  decide how  to divide  the disks.
However, because it is  simple, it can handle large  databases in
limited memory, hence it can be used to break up a database which
is too large to loaded on some machines.

     Cursor motions       Standard keyboard    Rainbow keyboard

     up/down/left/right   arrow keys           arrow keys
     first volume shown   home                 Help
     1st column           ctl left arrow       ctl left arrow
     last column          ctl right arrow      ctl right arrow
     bottom of column     end                  Insert Here
     last volume shown    ctl end              Select
     next page            PgDn                 Next Screen
     previous page        PgUp                 Prev Screen

                  Database Conversion Utilities

There has been  surprisingly little demand for utilities  to con-
vert  databases from  other  disk indexing  programs to  WSSINDEX
format.  The following conversion programs, not normally included
in  the distribution package,  can be  supplied with any order at
no extra charge.

Backup  Master -  not exactly  what I  had in  mind when  I first
thought about conversion  utilities.  This  is a commercial  disk
backup  program which  produces  a "history  file" listing  where
backup copies of files are stored.  The history file is converted
into a WSSINDEX database.

Fastback  Plus (under development)  - Backup  Master was  sold to
Fastback, and the author  wrote Fastback Plus.  Backup  log files
similar  to those produced by  Backup Master can  be written, and
the Backup Master  conversion utility is being  revised to handle
these files.

Dos File Tracker - this is a disk cataloguer sold by IBM; a fair-
ly straightforward conversion.

Wssindex 5.25                   63                          Split












Other formats are under consideration for future releases.

                      Problems and Solutions

                    Hard/software requirements

You  must have MS- or PC-DOS level  2.0 or higher to run WSSINDEX
(3.0 for extended version) because  it uses operating system fea-
tures not supported  by DOS-1.  If configured for  DOS video out-
put, WSSINDEX requires only a moderate level of IBM compatibility
to  run, but your system  must support ANSI  escape sequences for
cursor  positioning and  highlighting.   This support  may be  an
integral part  of your system (as  is the case for  the Sanyo 55x
series  without the video board option), but is often provided by
an installable device driver  called ANSI.SYS (ANSI55.SYS for the
Sanyo 55x with the video board).  If your system does not support
ANSI.SYS  commands, you  will see  the control  sequences on  the
screen;  they begin with a left arrow and  a [.  If you find that
you are having this problem, read about ANSI.SYS in Appendix B.

Many  MS-DOS machines which are not fully IBM compatible are able
to run WSSINDEX,  although often only  with the slower  DOS-calls
video  option.  Such machines often have hardware or software IBM
emulators;  these may enable WSSINDEX to run.  Machines with suf-
ficiently incompatible keyboards cannot run the standard version.
Versions for the  DEC Rainbow  and TI Professional  exist or  are
under development and will be released shortly after the IBM ver-
sion.


           Known incompatibilities with other software

                        Disk Cache Warning

WSSINDEX may not be compatible with the disk cache utility Light-
ning,  (old) version 4.2 (not to be confused with Borland's Turbo
Lightning).  Based  on user reports, it appears that  if two non-
system  disks (with labels  but no files on  them) are indexed in
succession,  the volume  name and  directory of  the second  will
appear to be identical  to the first.  This is not a WSSINDEX bug
because it can be reproduced using  the DOS VOL and DIR  commands
when Lightning is active.  I'm not sure exactly what circumstanc-
es will trigger the bug, and I don't have a copy of Lightning for
testing, but it is potentially catastrophic if directory informa-
tion is improperly buffered  when you write  to a disk.   Similar
problems could conceivably also occur with other disk cache util-
ities, although none have been reported.






Wssindex 5.25                   64                     Conversion












                         Incompatible TSR

A user reports that if the Word Perfect program SHELLDOS is load-
ed, the Alt-letter  keys are  not functional in  Wssindex on  his
Tandy  2000.  This  is an ancient report,  quite likely no longer
true, but it  does point  out that memory  resident programs  can
cause unexpected side effects.


                   Answers to Common Questions

Q.  Help, my  screen is filled  with garbage, mostly  numbers and
    square brackets, but also some text.

A.  You  are configured to use  DOS calls for  screen output, but
    have not installed ANSI.SYS.  If your video  board is not IBM
    compatible, see  Appendix B  for information  about ANSI.SYS,
    otherwise read  about selecting  video mode in  the introduc-
    tion.

Q.  The menus would look better if they were enclosed in a box.

A.  They are boxed if you configure for direct video writes.  The
    menu  boxes are suppressed  when using DOS  calls because the
    large number  of cursor  positioning calls makes  drawing the
    boxes really slow.


Q.  Is Wssindex compatible with Microsoft Windows 3.x?

A.  WSSINDEX (DOS version)  will run under  Windows, but it  will
    not take advantage of any Windows features and  the available
    memory for database  storage will  be less than  if run  from
    DOS.  WSSINDEX/Extended will run under Windows in real, stan-
    dard or 386 enhanced mode.  To find out which mode Windows is
    in,  click on Help,  About Program  Manager from  the Program
    Manager window.  In  386 mode under Windows 3.1,  the Windows
    DPMI server will provide  virtual memory so that the  maximum
    database size will be set by a combination of free memory and
    disk swap space.


Q.  I set up a big RAM disk to increase storage capacity, but I'm
    still getting out of memory errors.

A.  WSSINDEX keeps  a database entirely in memory.  A RAM disk in
    conventional memory  will only  serve to decrease  the memory
    available to the program.  If  you are running out of memory,
    try removing any memory resident programs such as Sidekick.




Wssindex 5.25                   65                       Problems












Q.  When  I print my  database, I get  all the volume  names (and
    subdirectories) first.

A.  These are the "dummy entries" which  give you a place to hang
    comments about  disks and subdirectories.   You probably want
    to  exclude them when sorting first by file name, and include
    them when  sorting first by  disk name.   The easiest way  to
    exclude them is  to use  selection option -1  to reject  file
    name .ID.


Q.  I don't  have any  subdirectories on  my disks,  yet WSSINDEX
    won't  let me configure for 0 subdirectories, and it tells me
    I have one, even if there are no disks in the database.

A.  Internally, the root  directories of all disks are treated as
    a single  subdirectory, and this pseudo-directory  is the one
    you see.


Q.  When I print,  every other page is  either blank or has  only
    one or a few lines printed on it.

A.  Check your configuration.  The number of lines on the printer
    is the number  of printable lines  with no margin  allowance.
    So, if you  are using 8.5x11" paper at 6  lines/inch, and ask
    for 66 print lines, your  printer will have just gone to  the
    top of a new page when WSSINDEX sends out a form feed.


Q.  My laser printer only prints 60  lines/page.  How can I print
    your documentation file which is formatted for 66 lines/page?

A.  I can  supply replacement documentation formatted for differ-
    ent page lengths,  or WordPerfect 5.1 files.   Although Word-
    Perfect  will attempt to convert  the document to  5.0 or 4.2
    format, some of the formatting does not survive conversion to
    5.0,  and even some  of the text gets  lost converting to 4.2
    format.


Q.  Some or all of the environment variables don't seem to work.

A.  Are you  setting them in  your AUTOEXEC.BAT file  and running
    out  of  environment  space?   Often  other  programs  run in
    AUTOEXEC  will clear the screen before you can read the error
    message.


Q.  When  I try to make multi-column listings or disk covers, the
    last item printed for each file is partially cut off.


Wssindex 5.25                   66               Common Questions












A.  WSSINDEX builds  up a  print  line containing  all the  items
    specified in  the configuration, and then truncates it to fit
    in  the available number of  columns.  You  need to configure
    for fewer items printed, wider paper, or fewer columns.


Q.  Why don't  you  extract directory  information from  self-ex-
    tracting files?

A.  Because that would require  reading every EXE file to  see if
    it  was a  self-extractor, and  would greatly  slow indexing.
    This function may  be added as an option  in a future release
    if I can figure out  the necessary file formats (not  all are
    documented).


Q.  When  I print disk covers or multi-column listings for a disk
    with subdirectories, the separator line which should have the
    subdirectory name just says "Subdirectory".

A.  You are  configured to print  the subdirectory name  for each
    file,  so the name is not shown  a second time.  However, the
    page  is too  narrow  to display  the column  of subdirectory
    names, so  it is truncated.   The same thing  can happen with
    volume labels.   The solution  is not to  configure to  print
    items which are truncated due to page width.


Q.  I use ANSI.SYS to  redefine my function keys.   Wssindex sees
    these redefinitions so I can't use F10 to get out of the add-
    comments screen.

A.  If  your machine is  reasonably IBM compatible,  set the "Use
    BIOS to read keyboard" option to YES.


Q.  I can't seem to  make the push-to-DOS option work,  even with
    lots of memory free.

A.  Does  the  COMSPEC environment  variable  specify  a complete
    path?  If COMMAND.COM  (or whatever) is in the  root, COMSPEC
    says  d:COMMAND.COM rather then  d:\COMMAND.COM, and  you are
    logged into a subdirectory, COMMAND.COM will not be found.


Q.  I have  an ARC file which  PKXARC or PKUNPAK says  is ok, but
    WSSINDEX says it is corrupt.

A.  The  PKWare extraction  program will  silently skip  over any
    ascii text which is prepended to an ARC file.  SEA's ARC will
    warn you  that it is  doing this.  The  one file I  have seen
    with  this  problem had  the text  "Ready  to send  file with

Wssindex 5.25                   67               Common Questions












    XMODEM protocol"  prepended.  The solution is  to extract the
    files and recreate the archive.

                  Command Line Parameter Summary

The various programs in the WSSINDEX package accept optional com-
mand line parameters.  Summarized below are the parameters recog-
nized by each program.  Names  in upper case are the default file
names, other abbreviations are:

cnf  - a  configuration file.   Default  name set  by environment
variable WSSICNF, otherwise WSSINDEX.CNF.

dir - a database  file,  Default name set by environment variable
WSSIDIR, otherwise WSSINDEX.DIR.

* - use default.

= or - - generate database  name from configuration file name  by
adding .DIR extension.

cat1,2 -  categories to be  assigned to all  files from  first or
second  database.   Hyphen  means  none.   Multi-word  categories
should be enclosed in quotes.

WSSINDEX  cnf  dir
          *    *,=

IDADD     cnf  dir
          *    *

SPLIT     cnf  dir  1ST_HALF.DIR  2ND_HALF.DIR
          *    *,=  *             *

WSSMERGE  cnf  1ST_HALF.DIR  2ND_HALF.DIR  MERGED.DIR  cat1  cat2
          *    *             *             *           -     -

                             Support

The  DOS version  of WSSINDEX  is distributed  as shareware.   In
various past releases, the shareware program file has ranged from
identical to the  registered version  to limited to  a 1000  file
database.  Currently, the  shareware executable displays an open-
ing commercial, but is otherwise identical to the version sent to
purchasers (and as  an ASP member, I have  pledged not to release
crippled software).   If you purchase  the complete package,  you
will  receive the demo package  which you can  distribute, plus a
replacement for WSSINDEX.EXE without  the opening commercial  and
instructions  for removing whatever  limitations are  included in
future demo releases.  See page 71 or the file ORDERFRM.DOC for a



Wssindex 5.25                   68        Command Line Parameters












fee  schedule and  order form.   Orders  and inquiries  should be
directed to:

Robert W. Babcock
WSS Division of DDC
4 Reeves Road
Bedford, MA  01730
USA
Phone: [phone] or 9104
Support BBS: 617-275-5834
Email addresses:
    BIX:       rbabcock
    BitNet:    babcock@cfa
    Internet: [e-mail]
    Compuserve:     >INTERNET:[e-mail]
(babcock@cfa...  goes to a server  machine which forwards mail to
my current  address.  Mail I  send out may have  a return address
which is only valid for a limited time.)

The  1183 number above has an answering machine which serves both
my  business and household, so don't be surprised if the recorded
announcement says you  have reached the  Babcock household.   The
9104 number does not have an answering machine, so that's the one
to try first if  you want to talk to a real person.  I don't mind
receiving phone calls, but  you will probably only get to leave a
short message before my answering machine cuts you off.  I do try
to respond to all correspondence.  If you do call, the best times
to try would  be early weekday  mornings, weekend afternoons,  or
evenings  8:45-10:00 (Eastern time) any day but Thursday.  If you
don't get a call back within a  few days, it usually means that I
called and got no answer.  Please try again or send a letter.

If  you have a bug report,  please mention the version number and
describe your machine and operating environment in as much detail
as  seems appropriate.   If I  am unable to  reproduce a reported
problem I may ask you to send a copy of your database, but usual-
ly this is not required.  Reports of incompatibility with partic-
ular brands of machine will always be accepted even from unregis-
tered users  (I can hardly ask you to buy the complete package if
the program doesn't work on your machine).

                     The Distribution Package

You should  have received the following  files, possibly combined
in one or more self-extracting or archive files.  Version numbers
for the  various executables (nnn in the names below) may not all
be the same.  Demo versions of executables will have a D appended
to the file  name, Rainbow and TI Pro versions  will have respec-
tively an  R or T  appended to the  file name (and the  name will
vary slightly if this would make it longer than 8 characters).



Wssindex 5.25                   69                        Support












BUGLIST.DOC -  a list of  known bugs in  previous versions and  a
               summary of enhancements.
CGA.CNF -      configuration file selecting  CGA (color  graphics
               adapter)  video, other options set to default val-
               ues.
CUTPAST3.COM,.DOC  - a public  domain cut and  paste utility, re-
               quires a somewhat higher degree of IBM compatibil-
               ity than WSSINDEX.  RPN.COM substituted with Rain-
               bow version.
DOSCALLS.CNF - configuration file selecting all  default options,
               including DOS calls video output.
IDADDnnn.EXE - a utility to modify old WSSINDEX databases so that
               comments may  be assigned  to disks and  subdirec-
               tories, not just files.
LATEST.VER -   list of current version numbers.
MDA.CNF -      configuration file selecting MDA  (monochrome dis-
               play adaptor) video, other  options set to default
               values.
PRNDEF.DOC -   a  description of  the  various  included  printer
               definition files.
*.DEF -        printer definition files.
README.DOC -   a very brief description of the other files.
SCREEN.DEF -   printer definition file  optimized for screen out-
               put (used by CUSTPRNT)
SITELIC.DOC -  a sample site license agreement.
SPLITnnn.EXE - database splitting utility.
TUNE.EXE -     (WSSINDEX/Extended only) utility to  configure DOS
               extender for your hardware.
VIEW.COM -     a simple, public domain document viewing utility.
VIEW.DOC -     documentation for VIEW.COM
WHATMEM.EXE -  (WSSINDEX/Extended only) utility which reports how
               much extended memory is available.
WSDPMnnn.EXE - (WSSINDEX/Extended only) protected mode  main exe-
               cutable.
WSSInnn.DOC -  this documentation file in ascii form.
WSSInnn.WP -   (registered  version  only) this  documentation in
               Word Perfect 5.1 format.
WSSInnn.EXE -  (registered version only)  WSSINDEX, the main exe-
               cutable program.
WSSInnnD.EXE - evaluation version of  WSSINDEX, the main  execut-
               able.
WSSMnnn.EXE -  WSSMERGE, a utility for merging  WSSINDEX databas-
               es.










Wssindex 5.25                   70           Distribution Package












                       Ordering Information

                     WSSINDEX Price schedule

This fee schedule replaces any previous editions, except for site
license  agreements previously in effect.   All prices  are in US
dollars.  Extended version includes the DOS version.

Registration Level       Wssindex (DOS)      Wssindex/Extended

Level 1  Single user     $35                 $50
Level 2  2-10 users      $10 + 25 per user   $15 + 35 per user
Level 3  11-20 users     $60 + 20 per user   $115 + 25 per user
Level 4  21-50 users     $160 + 15 per user  $215 + 20 per user
Level 5  51-100 users    $410 + 10 per user  $465 + 15 per user
Level 6  101-500 users   $910 + 5 per user   $965 + 10 per user
Level 7  >500 users      $3410               $5965

Evaluation copy (DOS versions only)   $5.00
  (cost credited towards purchase of complete package)

Upgrade (plus shipping)
     DOS                               5.00
     Extended                          5.00
     DOS to Extended                  15.00

Printed manuals (including postage)
     USA or Canada                    10.00
     Other countries                  16.00

Media, shipping and handling, required for all orders
     USA and Canada                    2.50 ($2 evaluation)
     Other countries                   4.50 ($4 evaluation)

Check not drawn on US bank
     Canada                            1.00
     Elsewhere (avoid if possible)    15.00

Registration level upgrade
     price differential between old and new  levels plus $10 ser-
     vice charge

Please include sales tax or exemption number for orders delivered
in Massachusetts.

Software  upgrades: your  license covers  all future  versions of
WSSINDEX and related utilities.   Level 2 registrants will  auto-
matically  be  sent one  copy of  the  next release  of WSSINDEX.
Level 3, 4, 5, 6 and  7 registrants will be sent one copy  of all
new releases made,  respectively, in  the 6 month,  12 month,  18
month, 2 year or 3 year period following purchase.


Wssindex 5.25                   71                     Order Info












Notes:

1.  The  DOS version  of  WSSINDEX is  distributed as  shareware.
    WSSINDEX is not  and has never  been public domain  software.
    If you have received the evaluation version, you  are granted
    a  limited license  to evaluate it  to see  if it  meets your
    needs.  After a 60 day evaluation period, you are expected to
    either register or stop using the  program.  With a paid reg-
    istration (and postage) you  will receive a copy of  the cur-
    rent evaluation release, plus a replacement for the main rou-
    tine which does not display the opening screen and a personal
    password for disabling the opening screen from future evalua-
    tion releases.  The evaluation version  may be distributed to
    other users for their evaluation.

2.  WSSINDEX is mainly written in Turbo C (with a little assembly
    language  code), but it uses a few routines derived with only
    small  modifications from the Computer Innovations C86 source
    library.  This makes it essentially impossible for me to sell
    source code, although something  could probably be worked out
    if someone had a sufficient need.

3.  I recognize that determining the exact number of users is im-
    possible in a large  organization.  A good faith  estimate is
    sufficient.  When  counting users, you  may use the  "like-a-
    book" rule: just as a book can only be read by one  person at
    a time, it should not be possible for  more than the licensed
    number of users to use the software simultaneously.

4.  This price schedule is continuous at the price breaks.  It is
    never true that the total cost decreases when you add another
    user, but  the marginal  cost  declines, eventually  reaching
    zero at the highest registration level.

5.  The question may arise in this era of multi-national corpora-
    tions,  who can be covered under a  single site license?  The
    answer is a single  company including wholly owned subsidiar-
    ies.  For complicated situations, please contact WSS Division
    of DDC for a price quote.

6.  If you have needs which might  be met by a special version of
    WSSINDEX, or a related custom utility, please contact the au-
    thor at the  address below for estimates of feasibility, cost
    and development time.

7.  To register  or to upgrade, you may print copies of the order
    form below or use  any convenient form.  Please pay by check;
    I can handle purchase orders, but I cannot take credit cards.
    Checks  may be made  payable to Robert  W. Babcock  or to WSS
    Division of DDC.  If you have any comments about the program,
    please attach them and indicate which version they apply to.


Wssindex 5.25                   72                     Order Info












8.  The charge for  bug correction upgrades  (only last digit  of
    version number changed) is only the shipping and handling fee
    ($2.50 US and Canada,  $4.50 elsewhere), or free if a bug be-
    ing fixed substantially interfered with your  use of the pro-
    grams.

9.  If you need a  receipt for tax or accounting  purposes, check
    the appropriate  box.  Otherwise,  you will receive  a letter
    with your personal password.












































Wssindex 5.25                   73                     Order Info












                       WSSINDEX ORDER FORM

To: WSS Division of DDC                         Date: ___/___/___
    4 Reeves Road                  Version registered ___5.25____
    Bedford, MA  01730

Name      _____________________________  Phone ____________

Company   _____________________________

Address   _____________________________

          _____________________________

City      _________________  State ________  Zip _________


Check appropriate boxes: [ ] Printed manual (else docs on disk)

   [ ] Full registration  [ ] Evaluation copy (DOS only)   [ ] Upgrade

   [ ] Site license       [ ] Bug fix upgrade, postage fee only

   [ ] Please send receipt (in addition to letter with password)

Disk format:   [ ] 5.25", 360K            [ ] 3.5", 720K
               [ ] 5.25", 1.2MB           [ ] 3.5", 1.44MB

Version:  [ ] IBM PC & most compatibles [ ] Extended for 286/386/486

          [ ] DEC Rainbow (MS-DOS)      [ ] TI Professional

Description                   Price    Total

WSSINDEX/Extended New Reg.   $50.00
          or upgrade           5.00
DOS to Extended upgrade       15.00
WSSINDEX Registration         35.00
          or Upgrade           5.00
Demo evaluation copy           5.00
Printed manual (US/Canada)    10.00
          elsewhere           16.00
Massachusetts sales tax                               (Mass only)
Postage US/Canada              2.50     2.50     ($2.00 for demo)
          other countries      4.50
Non-US bank check
   (see fee schedule)
Site license for ___ users
                                      ------
Amount due:
















   Appendix A - Forcing Video Board Type if Autodetection Fails

Wssindex attempts to identify the type of video adapter installed
so that  it can update  the screen  by writing directly  to video
memory.  If  Wssindex does  not recognize your  video adapter  it
will  instead use ANSI escape sequences for highlighting and cur-
sor  positioning.  If your system is not configured to respond to
these sequences, the  screen display will be  unusable.  Instruc-
tions  for adding  this capability  to your  system are  given in
Appendix B, but for most machines performance will be much better
if you tell Wssindex which video driver to use.   Available driv-
ers  support  monochrome  display  adapter (MDA)  color  graphics
adapter (CGA),  EGA and VGA.   Since Wssindex is  strictly a text
mode  application, other types of video  board will normally emu-
late one of these.  As part of the standard distribution package,
you should find  configuration files MDA.CNF and CGA.CNF.  Figure
out  which  one is  appropriate  for  your hardware,  and  invoke
WSSINDEX by

    WSSINDEX CGA
or  WSSINDEX MDA

(note that  the extension .CNF  is supplied automatically  if you
leave  it off.   You can specify  a drive or  path if necessary.)
Use CGA.CNF for initial  setup with an EGA  and VGA; these  cards
are  compatible with  a  CGA except  for  setting border  colors.
Alternatively,  before starting you can issue one of the DOS com-
mands

    SET WSSDISP=monochrome
    SET WSSDISP=color
    SET WSSDISP=ega
or  SET WSSDISP=vga

as appropriate  to set the default screen writing method.  If you
select the  wrong  display type,  you may  find yourself  "flying
blind" and a reboot  will likely be necessary although  you might
be able  to recover by hitting  escape a few times  and then con-
trol-q.  Once you get running with the proper video  type select-
ed, save a configuration file with the default name WSSINDEX.CNF.

Some non-IBM-compatible machines, such as the Sanyo 555, may hang
when Wssindex attempts to determine the video  type.  If you want
to force Wssindex to use ANSI escape sequences without performing
the video type checks, use SET WSSDISP=doscalls.  (Any recognized
setting of WSSDISP prevents  the video type checking.)   There is
also a  DOSCALLS.CNF configuration file included  in the standard
distribution, but the configuration file  is read after the video
type checks.




Wssindex 5.25                   75                     Appendix A












               Appendix B - ANSI.SYS Screen Driver

MS/PC-DOS 2  and higher  allow  you to  install software  "device
drivers"  when  you boot  your computer.   These  are essentially
extensions  of the operating system to  handle specific pieces of
hardware.  If WSSINDEX is configured to use DOS calls  for screen
output, most systems will need to use the screen driver ANSI.SYS,
otherwise  the control  sequences  which are  supposed to  select
colors, position  the  cursor or  clear the  screen will  instead
appear as characters on the screen.

Installation  of ANSI.SYS is simple:   Check your  boot disk with
the DIR  command to see if  you have a file  called CONFIG.SYS in
the  root directory.  If  not, use your  favorite word processing
program to create such a file, and include in it the line

          DEVICE=ANSI.SYS

Either  upper or lower case is allowed,  but if you use an editor
such as WordStar which  can encode formatting information in  the
text,  be sure  to  specify  non-document  mode.    If  you  TYPE
CONFIG.SYS, you shouldn't see any funny  graphics characters.  If
you already have a CONFIG.SYS file, simply add the above line  to
it with a word processor, again in non-document mode.

Make sure that  the file ANSI.SYS is on your  boot disk, then re-
boot your system.  Watch  for any error messages during the  boot
process.  The display  should now be much more  intelligible when
you run WSSINDEX in DOS calls mode.

Notes:

1.  The  Dec Rainbow and the  Sanyo 555 (without  the video board
    option) don't need ANSI.SYS because these functions are built
    into the operating system.  There are probably other machines
    for which  this is also true.  It is verrrrrry obvious if you
    lack ANSI support.

2.  ANSI.SYS is not  particularly fast at screen  display.  There
    are alternative commercial, shareware and  public domain pro-
    grams with names like FANSI.SYS, NANSI.SYS, which do  a some-
    what  better job on IBM-PC compatibles.  Also, different ver-
    sions  of ANSI.SYS  and replacements  support different  com-
    mands.  I believe  that WSSINDEX now uses only  commands sup-
    ported by all  ANSI.SYS variants,  but this was  not true  in
    early releases.

3.  A  user once  complained that  ANSI.SYS interfered  with some
    other applications software, but normally having it installed
    all the time will do nothing worse than use up a little memo-
    ry.   However,  ANSI.SYS also  supports control  sequences to
    redefine keys.  A  rogue program could play games  like rede-

Wssindex 5.25                   76                     Appendix B












    fining some key to mean DEL *.* or FORMAT C:  with the appro-
    priate confirmation.   PC Magazine published  an ANSI.SYS re-
    placement which could be configured  to not allow key redefi-
    nitions; other  ANSI.SYS replacements  may  have similar  op-
    tions.

            Appendix C - Expanding the DOS Environment

MS-DOS versions 2.0 and  higher reserve an area of  memory called
the environment space  which can be used  to hold strings of  the
form

     VARIABLE=value

You can view the environment variables  by typing SET, or you can
change them by typing SET something=whatever.  DOS puts the PATH,
PROMPT and COMSPEC variables  here.  Wssindex looks in  the envi-
ronment  for WSSICNF,  WSSIDIR, WSSDISP  and WSSPRINT,  and other
programs do similar things.  By default, the environment space is
only 160  characters long (256  in DOS 5),  and if you  have more
than one or  two programs using the  environment, you may get  an
"out of environment space" error from DOS.  This  message is most
likely to occur  when the SET commands are in  a BAT file because
DOS is  able to expand the  environment beyond 160  bytes only if
there  is nothing  in the  way.   Running a  BAT  file (including
AUTOEXEC) gets in the way until the BAT file exits, as does load-
ing a terminate-and-stay-resident program.

The  initial environment size can be increased easily, if you are
using  DOS  3.0  or  higher,  by  the  SHELL  directive  in  your
CONFIG.SYS file.  The syntax is

     SHELL = [path]COMMAND.COM [path] /P /E:nnn

where nnn specifies the environment  size.  For DOS 3.0  and 3.1,
nnn is in paragraphs (16 bytes); for  DOS 3.2 or higher it is  in
bytes, and  is rounded up to  a multiple of 16.   Don't forget to
include the /P or else your AUTOEXEC.BAT file will not be execut-
ed.   The  second [path]  tells COMMAND.COM  where to  reload its
transient  portion from.  Typically both paths are the same.  Any
change will not take effect until you reboot.

The DOS 2.x SHELL directive does not  recognize the /E option, so
the only way to increase the default environment size is to patch
COMMAND.COM.  Also, under any DOS version, if you load a  second-
ary command processor (S option from Wssindex), the size environ-
ment you  will have until you  exit is the larger  of the current
environment  and the 160 or 256 byte default.  Microsoft supplies
a utility called SETENV with some of its  compilers to change the
default environment  size, but it does  not recognize COMMAND.COM
from all  vendors (for example, it  doesn't recognize COMMAND.COM
for my old Sanyo 555).  It isn't too difficult to do the patch by

Wssindex 5.25                   77                     Appendix B












hand; details are given  in an article  by Richard Hale Shaw,  PC
Magazine, April 14, 1987, page 295.

              Appendix D - WSSINDEX Database Format

This is a description of the format of a WSSINDEX database.  This
information  is not needed for  normal program operation, but may
be useful if  you want to write a program  to convert an existing
database into a WSSINDEX database, read the database with another
program  to produce  a customized listing,  or recover  a damaged
disk file.   This description may be easier to  follow if you use
it as a guide while examining a small database with DEBUG or some
other utility.

Dates and times are stored in the same format  as used in an FCB.
Date  has 7 bits for  years since 1980, 4 bits  for month, 5 bits
for day.  Time has 5 bits for hour, 6 bits for minute, 5 bits for
second.

The database is  stored with disks in the order  they are indexed
and files in the order of the disk directories.

Wssindex/Extended can write two formats, the "small" format which
is compatible with the  DOS version and the "large"  format which
allows for more than 16K files.

Notation:
    \n   - a newline, that is an ASCII linefeed, hex 0A
    \EOS - end of string marker, hex 0
    *    - a field dependent on the WSSINDEX version
    var  - variable length

    Length Contents
    (bytes)

Header:

    9      "WSSINDEX\n"  (small  format)  of "WSEXTEND\n"  (large
           format)
    4-6*   version number\n
    2 or 4 number of disks in database, 4 bytes if large format
    2 or 4 number of subdirectories (including root), 4  bytes if
           large format
    2 or 4 number of files, 4 bytes if large format

Disk record, repeated for each disk:

    11     volume name, blank padded to 11 chars (no \n or EOS)
    4      bytes on disk
    4      free bytes on disk
    2 or 4 number of files on disk, 4 bytes if large format


Wssindex 5.25                   78                     Appendix C












    2 or 4 number of subdirectories on  disk (not counting root),
           4 bytes if large format
    2      date indexed
    1      "Y" or "N" for bootable or not, "?" for dummy entry

Subdirectory record, repeated for each subdirectory:

    2 or 4 disk number,  count starts at  zero, 4 bytes  if large
           format
    var    subdirectory name\n

File record, repeated for each file:

    9      file name\EOS    there may be garbage after  the \EOS.
           \EOS is 1st character if this is a .ID record
    4      extension\EOS   there may be garbage after the \EOS
    2      date
    2      time
    4      size
    2 or 4 disk number,  high bit set if  file is a member  of an
           archive file, 4 bytes if large format
    2 or 4 subdirectory  number (root  is 0)  for ordinary  file,
           file  number of  containing  archive file  for archive
           member, 4 bytes if large format
    1      "C" (if commented), else blank
    var    comment\n   if comments flag is "C"
    1*     "C" (if categorized), else  blank; field only  present
           if written by version 2.00 or later
    var*   category\n  if category flag is "C"

Note  that there is not a control-Z to  mark the end of file, and
there may  be embedded control-Z's  in the  binary fields  (date,
time, size, etc.).

This information is subject to change in future releases.  Howev-
er, I  do guarantee  that WSSINDEX  will always  be able to  read
databases written by older versions of the program (possibly with
a conversion utility).   Note that this guarantee does  not apply
to configuration files.

              Appendix E - Printer Definition Files

Some of  the Wssindex output options  need to be able  to set the
print pitch and line spacing on your printer (e.g., printing disk
covers  or labels  which  require small  print).   Unfortunately,
there is  no standard way to do this; all printers are different.
So, Wssindex must be told how  to control your printer.  You sup-
ply this information in a printer  definition file.  (I'd call it
a configuration file, but that term is already  being used.)  The
name of the  printer definition  file is set  by the  environment
variable  WSSPRINT, analogous  to WSSICNF  and  WSSIDIR.   If not
specified,  the default name is  WSSPRINT.DEF.  The  file is read

Wssindex 5.25                   79                     Appendix D












the  first time a print operation which needs the definition file
is requested, or when you select "E" from the print menu.

The standard distribution  package includes definition  files for
several  popular printers.   Some  of these  have been  tested on
printers  available to me, some  have been donated  by users, and
some were created by  looking at printer manuals or  driver files
from  word processing programs.  The comments at the beginning of
each  file indicate  whether or  not the  file has  been properly
tested.  If none of the supplied definition files is adequate for
your printer,  you will need  to look  up control  codes in  your
printer manual and  modify one of the supplied  files.  I realize
that it would be better  if I supplied definition files  for hun-
dreds  of different printers, but  I don't have  the resources to
create and test them.  Registered users who have problems config-
uring  should send me a  photocopy of the  appropriate pages from
their printer manual (usually the control codes are summarized in
a few pages) and I will try to assist.  Of course, it may be that
your printer does not accept any commands, in which case you must
make any necessary selections manually.

The format of the  definition files is designed for  easy editing
with  a word processing  program.  The  file begins with  as many
lines of comments as desired, until a line beginning with ---- is
encountered.  After this, alternate lines are comments and param-
eters.  The comment lines are  ignored when the file is read, but
since  they tell you what  the parameters mean,  the only changes
you should make are to add more detail.  Printer  command strings
can be omitted, but  other parameters should have a  value filled
in.

Characters in the printer definition (other than the printer name
and  owner id) are interpreted  as a series  of tokens optionally
separated by blanks or commas.  Each token may be an octal, deci-
mal,  or hex number, an  ascii character, or  a special abbrevia-
tion.   Blank or comma  delimiters are only  necessary to resolve
ambiguities about where one  token ends and the next  begins, but
are recommended to improve human readability.

Octal numbers - begin with a 0, contain only the  digits 0-7, and
are not larger than 377.  Terminated by a comma, blank or special
abbreviation.

Decimal numbers - begin with a non-zero digit and  are not larger
than 255.   Of course, zero  is entered  as 0.   Terminated by  a
comma, blank or special abbreviation.

Hexadecimal numbers - begin with 0x or 0X and are not larger than
0xff.  Letters A-F (if used) can be lower or  upper case.  Termi-
nated by a comma, blank or special abbreviation.



Wssindex 5.25                   80                     Appendix E












Ascii characters  - any  normal  character other  than a  number,
comma, blank or backslash.  No terminator needed.

Special abbreviations (may also be upper case) -

   \digit - number as a character rather than a binary value
   \b     - backspace
   \c     - comma
   \e     - escape
   \f     - form feed
   \n     - newline (linefeed)
   \r     - carriage return
   \s     - blank (space)
   \t     - tab
   \\     - \

Be careful of numbers; 1 means  the binary value 1 while \1 means
the ascii character one which  has the binary value 31 hex  or 49
decimal.   Printer manuals often are unclear  about this distinc-
tion.

To make the entries in the printer definition file more readable,
I have adopted the convention that entries which code for a  sin-
gle output  byte are separated by blanks, and the groups of char-
acters which make up a single command to the printer are separat-
ed by  commas.   For example:  suppose you want  to set  an Epson
printer to

   8 lines per inch           (command ESC "0")  (character 0)
   12 characters per inch     (command ESC "B" 2)
   double strike              (command ESC "G")

The printer definition file entry could be:  \e \0,\e B 2,\e G

To  continue a sequence on the following line, terminate the cur-
rent line with a backslash.   There is a conversion table  in Ap-
pendix E which may be useful in creating definition files.

Margins, width  and length  specifications in this  file override
those found in WSSINDEX.CNF when printing labels or covers.

The definable items are:

Printer name  - echoed to  the screen during  initialization, but
otherwise not used.

Three  sets of  printer initialization  commands - 50  chars max.
(That's 50 characters after converting  to internal form.  Multi-
digit numbers count as  one character, and blanks don't  count at
all.)  The first set is used for multi-column printing,  the sec-
ond  for disk labels, and  the third for  disk covers.  Typically
this would include  commands to select  the number of  characters

Wssindex 5.25                   81                     Appendix E












per  inch printed and line spacing.   You may also be able to get
very small characters by selecting subscript or superscript mode,
although  some printers (like mine) are slow  in this mode and do
not print characters  with descenders  very well.   You can  also
include any other necessary initialization commands here, such as
bold printing or form length.

Printer deinitialization  command - 50  chars max.   This command
string is  sent to the printer  after a print task  is completed.
It could include a form feed to eject the last  page from a laser
printer, or could reset default printer options.

Left margin for labels - number of print positions to leave blank
before printing the first column of labels.

Number of columns for labels - the number  of blank labels across
a row of your forms.

Width of labels  - The number of characters which will fit across
a  label (starting from the  left margin).   This effectively de-
fines the right margin.

Number  of characters  between labels  - for  multi-column forms,
this is  the number of characters between the right margin of one
label and the left margin of the next.

Length of label in lines  - label size, including top and  bottom
margin lines which you don't want to print on.

Number of  usable lines  for label -  maximum number of  lines to
print on a label.

Left margin for disk covers - number of print  positions to leave
blank  before printing left side of box which surrounds disk cov-
ers.

Width of paper for disk covers  - number of characters which will
fit in 5.25 inches (or 3.5 or whatever disk size you use).

Length  of page in lines for disk  covers - number of lines which
will fit in 5.25 inches (or 3.75 inches for paste-on size).

Position for the  next disk cover -  70 characters max.   Printer
command to  position the paper  for the  next disk  cover.   This
could be a form feed, or a number of line feeds.  A 0 (zero) here
is  interpreted to mean manual  positioning, with a  pause at the
end of each cover.

Command  to use for sides of disk  cover box - 70 characters max.
Disk cover  listings have a border drawn  around them.  The sides
of  this border could be  a vertical stroke,  or your printer may
have a better graphics character available.  If no suitable char-

Wssindex 5.25                   82                     Appendix E












acter  is available,  or for  faster printing,  just use  a blank
(32).   Characters which form boxes on a printer may display very
differently on screen.

Command  to use for  top and  bottom lines  - 70  characters max.
Probably a hyphen or a graphics character.

Command to use for top left corner - 70 characters max.  If  your
printer has box forming characters in its graphics character set,
use them for  the corner  characters, otherwise you  can use  the
same character as the top or sides, or a blank, or a plus, which-
ever you think looks best.

Command to use for top right corner - 70 characters max.

Command to use for bottom left corner - 70 characters max.

Command to use for bottom right corner - 70 characters max.

End of printer definition file
----------

Additional items may be added to this file in future releases  if
users report that  there are printers which cannot  be adequately
defined.  If you  create a definition file for a different print-
er, especially  a laser printer,  I would appreciate  receiving a
listing so that I will have it when the inevitable cries for help
come in from other users.

Registered users are encouraged to  suggest the custom print for-
mats which they would like to see added to Wssindex.






















Wssindex 5.25                   83                     Appendix E












           Appendix F - Character Code Conversion Table

  ascii decimal hex     ascii decimal hex     ascii decimal  hex

   NUL     0      0       +     43     2B       V      86     56
   SOH     1      1       ,     44     2C       W      87     57
   STX     2      2       -     45     2D       X      88     58
   ETX     3      3       .     46     2E       Y      89     59
   EOT     4      4       /     47     2F       Z      90     5A
   ENQ     5      5       0     48     30       [      91     5B
   ACK     6      6       1     49     31       \      92     5C
   BEL     7      7       2     50     32       ]      93     5D
   BS      8      8       3     51     33       ^      94     5E
   TAB     9      9       4     52     34       _      95     5F
   LF     10      A       5     53     35       `      96     60
   VT     11      B       6     54     36       a      97     61
   FF     12      C       7     55     37       b      98     62
   CR     13      D       8     56     38       c      99     63
   SO     14      E       9     57     39       d     100     64
   SI     15      F       :     58     3A       e     101     65
   DLE    16     10       ;     59     3B       f     102     66
   DC1    17     11       <     60     3C       g     103     67
   DC2    18     12       =     61     3D       h     104     68
   DC3    19     13       >     62     3E       i     105     69
   DC4    20     14       ?     63     3F       j     106     6A
   NAK    21     15       @     64     40       k     107     6B
   SYN    22     16       A     65     41       l     108     6C
   ETB    23     17       B     66     42       m     109     6D
   CAN    24     18       C     67     43       n     110     6E
   EM     25     19       D     68     44       o     111     6F
   SUB    26     1A       E     69     45       p     112     70
   ESC    27     1B       F     70     46       q     113     71
   FS     28     1C       G     71     47       r     114     72
   GS     29     1D       H     72     48       s     115     73
   RS     30     1E       I     73     49       t     116     74
   US     31     1F       J     74     4A       u     117     75
          32     20       K     75     4B       v     118     76
   !      33     21       L     76     4C       w     119     77
   "      34     22       M     77     4D       x     120     78
   #      35     23       N     78     4E       y     121     79
   $      36     24       O     79     4F       z     122     7A
   %      37     25       P     80     50       {     123     7B
   &      38     26       Q     81     51       |     124     7C
   '      39     27       R     82     52       }     125     7D
   (      40     28       S     83     53       ~     126     7E
   )      41     29       T     84     54       DEL   127     7F
   *      42     2A       U     85     55

Three letter combinations are non-printing control characters.




Wssindex 5.25                   84                     Appendix F












In WSSINDEX versions for non-IBM compatible machines, all of  the
executable files  are different,  but this documentation  file is
unchanged.  Beware of trying  to transfer configuration files be-
tween versions  of WSSINDEX  for different machines.   Generally,
this is only safe if  DOS-calls video is selected, and even  then
you should  examine the transferred configuration  for any anoma-
lies.   Printer definition  files and databases  are transferable
between versions.


              Appendix G - WSSINDEX for DEC Rainbow

I  now own  a minimally  configured Rainbow  100A for  testing so
Rainbow  and IBM releases should be  roughly coincident.  Rainbow
versions will normally be sent on RX-50 format disks, which I can
write  either on the Rainbow or on a 1.2 MB drive using a special
device driver.

The  Rainbow  version of WSSINDEX is the same as the IBM  version
with the following exceptions:

1.  Color  is not supported but fast video display and 132 column
    screens are supported.  For fast video, specify SET WSSDISP=V
    or use the included RAINBOW.CNF configuration file.

2.  The add-comments menu uses a different set of keys, which are
    shown  in the menu.  Keyboard macros are triggered by COMPOSE
    CHARACTER or F20 followed by a letter rather than Alt-letter.
    For hardware reasons, the  COMPOSE key can only be  used as a
    function  key  on a  100A,  so  I have  dropped  it from  the
    on-screen menus.

3.  Use the CANCEL key rather than the ESCAPE key  to cancel com-
    mands.   If the  screen gets messed  up, the MAIN  SCREEN key
    forces a screen reset the next time the screen is cleared.

4.  HELP, F19 and F4 substitute for Alt-F1, END and control-END.

5.  Line editing  uses the delete  key rather than  the backspace
    key (actually either can be used).

6.  The version number has an "R" appended.  A database stored on
    disk will be one byte longer, but  readable by an IBM version
    of the program (assuming  you can get around disk  format in-
    compatibilities).

7.  The cut-and-paste program CUTPAST3 doesn't work on a Rainbow.
    I instead include  RNP.COM, but it is  not really equivalent.
    VIEW.COM doesn't work either, and I do not  know of an alter-
    native viewer.



Wssindex 5.25                   85                     Appendix G












            Appendix H - WSSINDEX for TI Professional

I now own a minimally  configured TI Pro for testing, so  Pro and
IBM releases should be roughly coincident.

The  Texas Instruments  Professional computer  does not  have IBM
compatible video, so the standard version cannot run using direct
video writes.   Also, there is  a bug in the  TI ANSI.SYS support
which prevents color selection from working properly.  Patches to
fix this are available, but they depend  on the DOS version being
used.   They should not  be necessary if direct  video writes are
enabled.  (While  I have some of  the patch files, I  do not have
one for the version of DOS which came with my TI Pro.  However, a
user verifies  that color selection  works properly in  DOS calls
mode.)

The major difference  in the TI  Pro version is  that the  screen
output  routines know how to  access the TI  video hardware.  Ad-
justments are also  made for IBM  keys not found  on the TI  key-
board.

The built-in default colors are not appropriate for the TI Pro; I
suggest  using the included TI.CNF  file as a  starting point for
configuring.   Set WSSDISP=V  for fast screen  updating by direct
video writes.




























Wssindex 5.25                   86                     Appendix H












         Appendix I - Parameters for setting screen sizes

Video board BIOS's often  support text modes beyond the  usual 80
columns    25 rows.   Unfortunately, there are  few standards for
selecting  these modes.  In  particular, the modes  wider than 80
columns,  which can be very  useful when viewing  a database with
comments,  cannot be set without knowing what brand of video card
is in use.  The table below lists the AX values which need  to be
entered into the Video Board Configuration menu and the resulting
screen sizes.  (BX value is also listed for the Vega VGA.)  Modes
are color unless specified as mono.  Available modes  may be lim-
ited by the amount of video memory on your board, or by the capa-
bilities of your monitor.  If your board is not listed here, your
manual may include the  necessary information.  Note that  the AX
value listed  here is decimal  and the  selected mode must  be an
alpha mode, not a graphics mode.

The  first 5  entries should  work with  almost any  video board.
AX=2,3 or 7 is usually what you want to set when exiting or push-
ing to DOS.

Board     AX    Screen size       Board     AX    Screen size

CGA (or    2    80x25  mono       AT&T      84    132x43
  higher)  3    80x25               VDC600  85    132x25
MDA        7    80x25  mono                 86    132x43 2-color
EGA     4370    80x43                       87    132x25 2-color
VGA     4370    80x50

2-the-Max 34    132x44 2-color    ATI EGA   35    132x25
  VGA     36    132x28 2-color      Wonder  39    132x25 mono
          37    132x25 2-color              51    132x44
          38    80x60  2-color              55    132x44 mono
          42    100x40 2-color              88    80x33

Ahead Sys 34    132x44            ATI VIP   35    132x25
  EGA2001 35    132x25                      39    132x25 mono
          80    132x25 mono                 51    132x44
          82    132x44 mono                 55    132x44 mono
                                            85    80x66
Allstar   34    132x43                      88    80x33
  Peacock 35    132x28                      89    80x66
          36    132x25
          38    80x60             ATI VGA   51    132x44
          42    100x40              Wonder  35    132x25
                                            55    132x44 mono
AST VGA   84    132x43                      39    132x25 mono
  Plus    85    132x25
                                  Hewlett-  84    132x43
                                    Packard 85    132x25
                                    D1180A


Wssindex 5.25                   87                     Appendix I












Board     AX    Screen size       Board     AX    Screen size

Lava      80    80x34             Tseng     24    132x44 mono
  Chrome  81    80x30               Labs    25    132x25 mono
  II EGA  82    80x60               EVA     26    132x28 mono
          83    132x43                      34    132x44
          84    132x25                      35    132x25
                                            36    132x28
NSI Smart 86    132x43                      38    80x60
  EGA+    87    132x25
                                  VEGA VGA  BX    AX=28421
Paradise  81    80x30                       64    80x43
  EGA-480 84    132x43                      65    132x25
          85    132x25                      66    132x43
                                            67    80x60
Paradise  84    132x43                      68    100x60
  VGA     85    132x25                      77    120x25
          86    132x43                      78    120x43
          87    132x25                      79    132x25
                                            80    80x43  mono
Tatung    64    80x43                       81    132x25 mono
  VGA     65    132x25                      82    132x43 mono
          66    132x43
          67    80x60             Video 7   64    80x43
          68    100x60              V-RAM   65    132x25
          69    132x28                      66    132x43
                                            67    80x60
Taxan 565 84    132x43                      68    100x60
  EGA     85    132x25                      69    132x28
          86    132x43 mono
          87    132x25 mono

Tecmar    23    132x25
  VGA/AD  64    80x43



















Wssindex 5.25                   88                     Appendix I