3. How much does it cost and how to contact the author?
4. Limitations
5. Legal stuff
6. The story
7. What's new in CDFinder 2.7?
8. The undiscovered country
9. Acknowledgements
1. What is CDFinder?
This easy-to-use and fast application for the Apple Macintosh creates catalog files of CD-ROMs, hard disks, floppies, ZIPs and almost everything that spins. Using the powerful search functions you can easily locate and display files or folders.
While reading this document please keep in mind that English is not my native language. Nevertheless I hope that the translation is acceptable.
CDFinder displays every known catalog in its main window. You can sort the content by name, size, or label. By changing the name of a catalog, you can influence the sort order for a given catalog (put a space in front of the name to let it appear right on top, if you sort by name).
Using drag&drop (if installed) or the "Create Catalog╔" menu item, you can create a new catalog of a volume. To create lots of catalogs at once, try using "Batch Create╔", which will eject any volume afterwards.
To display the content of a catalog, simply double click it or select it and press "return". To obtain more information about any catalog or any object inside a catalog, simply use "Information".
But what is a bunch of catalog files without the ability to search them? Nothing! That's why you should take a very close look at the "Find╔" window. It will allow you to enter the type and content of information you look for, and also narrow the range by including only catalogs with a selected label to the search. You can even search just the already found objects!
CDFinder is absolutely optimized for the PowerPC processor, but runs very fast on the "older" Macs as well. Another positive aspect is the simple fact that you can move the program into the background during time consuming processes to work with other things.
However, CDFinder must handle a real big amount of data, just go and check the size of your catalog folder! A very simple way to improve the performance is to increase the memory partition of CDFinder. Please note that increasing the file system cache using the control panel "Memory" will have no valuable effect at all, on the contrary. CDFinder is using it's own sophisticated caching mechanism that simply knows more about the state and importance of the data than the file system.
Since CDFinder is basically designed to handle huge amounts of huge CD-ROMs and other volumes whose contents will not change very often, the program does not check if anything changes on a volume while the catalog is being created. This can lead to some problems if the volume is in fact changed, which is quite likely to occur for file server volumes. In that case, the content of the catalog may not be completely identical to the content of the volume.
It is possible to change the name of a catalog or a catalog folder by using the "Information" window. You can also add a comment, which is displayed (the first line only) in the main window if you have enabled that column in the preferences window (panel "Appearance").
For more information, please launch CDFinder and select "CDFinder Help" in the "Help" menu. A detailed list explaining the improvements of this new version can be found below.
2. System requirements
CDFinder needs System 7.0 or newer and at least a 68020-CPU or a Power-Mac. Since it also uses Color QuickDraw, it can't run on any of the older Mac Plus, SE, Classic and the PowerBook 100.
I did my tests on many different Power Macs, native and using the 68k emulation.
CDFinder is even fully compatible to MacOS 9!
If drag&drop is installed, the application uses it in some parts (see below).
3. How much does it cost and how to contact the author?
CDFinder has the following pricing:
1- 10 single user licenses, $20 per user
11-24 single user licenses, $16 per user
25-49 single user licenses, $14 per user
50+ single user licenses, $11 per user
A Site License costs $600 (roughly equal to 50 users) and covers all locations for your organization within a 160 kilometer radius of your site (100 miles). One big advantage of a Site License is that you do not need to keep track of how many people at your site are using the software.
A World-Wide License costs $2500 and it covers all locations for your organization on the planet earth.
For additional $10 I will send you a floppy disk containing the next version of the program.
If you want a CD-ROM with the next version, it is $25.
Updates are free and can be obtained at the CDFinder-Homepage:
http://www.cdfinder.de
Japanese version!
There is a separate Japanese version of CDFinder to be found at:
http://www.thinstone.com/UandC/nmd/
Contacting the author:
My email:
Doerner@kagi.com
My new postal address:
Norbert M. Doerner
Mozartstr. 16
D-64546 Moerfelden-Walldorf
Germany
Payment directly to the author (Cash only!)
You can pay Cash by simply adding the money to your registration form. This works quite well if the envelope is made of thick paper. I do also accept cash in different currencies, please contact me! You can either use the SimpleText document enclosed with CDFinder as a registration form or use the "Registration Form" command found in the "Special" menu in CDFinder.
If you fill in your registration form without using the window provided by CDFinder, please print carefully. My brand new biological character recognition system (BRAIN 3.5) still needs some training ;-)
Payment via Kagi (anything else...)
Online:
You can pay for CDFinder online here: http://order.kagi.com/?1UJ
Regular:
Just open the Register program that accompanies CDFinder. Enter your name, your email address, and the number of single user licenses you desire (or Site or Word-Wide licenses). Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi. Kagi handles my payment processing.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are processed by Kagi within a week. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 20 days and if you provide a correct Internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement. If you require a written receipt, please keep in mind that even by airmail it might take a week for a letter to arrive.
After you receive the acknowledgement by Kagi, I will send you the key as soon as possible. Please keep in mind that CDFinder is not my full-time job, so it could be 4 or even 5 days until you receive your key from me. Usually it will only take two or three days.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street PMB #392-1UJ
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical.
If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You might want to highlight the line that mentions that they must include a copy of the form with their payment. Kagi can not invoice your company, you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end.
Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed.
Payments send via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed.
4. Limitations
The unregistered version of CDFinder will annoy you at every launch with a little dialog reminding you of the benefits of paying your shareware fee. The number of catalogs is also reduced to 25, which is surely enough to evaluate the application and its functions.
5. Legal stuff
CDFinder is shareware.
The application "CDFinder" and all included materials are protected by copyright law. You may not disassemble it or modify it with similar tools.
You may copy the program together with all additional documents but without your personal registration keyword as often as you want, as long as you don't modify any part of it! You may not sell it or use it commercially in any other way without my written consent.
If you want to distribute CDFinder on a shareware collection CD-ROM or anything like that, simply inform me with an email or a letter. I'd also like to have a copy of the CD-ROM, if possible...
For a trial period of 30 days you may freely use the program. After that, you need to register it.
In absolute no way am I responsible for any damage occurring by the use of the software.
6. The story
The whole thing started on one of those days that found me frantically searching my zillions of floppies and CD-ROMs for one particular file. Of course, I just found it on the last possible volume.
After this enlightening event I decided to search my huge software collection for a suitable cataloging tool. Most unfortunately, my search turned out empty.
Some of the tools I found required system extensions - which I do not like very much. One even created alias files of the contents of the CD-ROMs, an unfortunate behaviour if you have some million files on hundreds of disks (the Mac OS does not like that!). Some programs were simply too slow or did puke at large CD-ROMs. Some expensive commercial applications were not native or would not run in the background. None of the tools would even use drag&drop!
So I made up my mind and started my own little project. Since some of my friends were quite positive about my ideas, I decided to put the results into a shareware program called "CDFinder". The application should be easy to use, very fast, support drag&drop, work in the background and include powerful search tools.
And here it is!!
7. What's new in CDFinder 2.7?
The most actual version is available at the CDFinder-Homepage at:
http://www.cdfinder.de
If you use Internet Config, you can also use the menu item "Visit the CDFinder-Homepage..." in the "Help" menu.
2.7 (October 31, 1999)
- A brand new Contextual Menu Module tightly integrates CDFinder into the MacOS. You can select any item or text and start a Find operation for similar items. You can also select single or multiple volumes to create or update catalogs and optionally eject these volumes afterwards. You can even set the catalog folder to any currently selected folder directly in the Finder! The CMM will automatically launch the most current version of CDFInder that is avalilable. A preferences setting in the CMM allows you to choose wether you want to start any Find operations immediately, or if you only want to see the Find window and have the proper values set for you. (More in the "Read me CMM" document!)
- All preferences can now be set and read by AppleScript. That not only includes the language, but also the display of columns, the labels and of course the folder that CDFinder uses to store catalog files.
- The Find operation can also be started by AppleScript. As an extra bonus, you can optionally only set the dialog items to a specific value. That allows you to modify details before the actual Find process really begins.
- CDFinder won't delete catalog folders anymore if they contain foreign files.
- If you create a new catalog folder and an existing folder in the main window is selected, the new folder will appear inside that previously selected folder. This saves a lot of time, because you had to create a folder at the top level and move it then to the desired level.
- In any text input fields, Cmd-A now selects the whole text. That is also possible through the menu entry "Select All" in the Edit menu. The Find window now uses Cmd-E to change the catalog selection to Every Catalog...
- If a catalog file is damaged, CDFinder will now report that in several locations.
- If a non-HFS or non-HFS+ volume contains certain incorrect or damaged structures, CDFinder now reports that during the cataloging process and aborts it.
- A new special feature for multi-user environments or CDROM distribution is available upon request. Please contact me, if you are interested.
- To navigate through catalog folders in the main window, you can now also use the shortcuts Cmd-Left-Arrow and Cmd-Right-Arrow, which will open or close the selected folder.
- A few minor bugs and some large bugs have been fixed.
2.6.1 (May 31, 1999)
- CDFinder can now read StuffIt 5 archive files!! Due to the very strange encoding of international characters in these archives and the problems that Aladdin had with it, I had to wait this long time to release this new version.
- Launching CDFinder is now about twice as fast, especially for networked environments, where the catalog files reside on a file server.
- If the catalog files are located on a file server, CDFinder will now display a progress dialog and allow you to move the application into the background. Thus you can continue to work while CDFinder checks the catalog folder.
- To automatically update a volume, there is now a new AppleScript included that simply updates any volumes dropped into it and then ejects them. Put that script on your desktop and eject your volumes by dropping them into that script. The source code of that AppleScript is enclosed!
- You can now enter non roman characters into any text input items. That allows for better integration of Japanese or other WorldScript systems.
- You can now delete items in CDFinder windows by pressing Cmd-Delete, just as you are used to it from the MacOS :-)
- Thanks to my really busy beta testers, I was able to fix some pretty serious bugs. One of them could crash CDFinder when cataloging an ISO-9660 or AppleShare volume.
- This version of CDFinder is now fully compatible to MacServerIP, a very fast
server software for Windoze NT.
- I have added my new postal address to all documentation parts.
2.6 (December 22, 1998)
- Thanks to the great help of Stephane Madrau, author of SwitchRes, CDFinder can now display Finder icons in all catalog windows. Since that slows down drawing a bit, you have to activate this feature in the Preferences window, tab "Appearance". These icons are not the custom icons, but the more generic document icons that are stored in the desktop database of the MacOS.
- Thanks to the wonderful help of Franìois Pottier, author of Disk Wizard, CDFinder can now import existing Disk Wizard catalog files! Use the new Import menu item in the File menu or simply drop a bunch of catalog files into the main window of CDFinder. Because of the difference in the file format, CDFinder cannot detect the file properties invisible or alias. Since Iomega FindIt files have a very similar file format, CDFinder can import these as well!
- Folders in the main window can now be ordered in a hierarchy. In older versions, CDFinder only allowed one level of folders to order catalog files. Now you can have as many as you need. That can improve order very much if you have a large number of catalog files.
- You can now move single folders inside the main window to change the hierarchy.
- Opening new catalog windows is now much more intelligent regarding height and width of new windows.
- The result window will now only be opened as soon as the first result turns up. If there are no results at all, a dialog will state that.
- If you select a different catalog folder in the preferences, that change will now take effect immediately. You don't have to relaunch CDFinder anymore. This will only work if you have registered CDFinder, of course...
- CDFinder will now read any existing labels when a new catalog is created.
- If the paper is not wide enough to print the selected window, a message is displayed.
- Some minor problems have been fixed.
If you want to know more about the other older versions of CDFinder, be sure to visit the CDFinder-Homepage.
8. The undiscovered country
I am planning the following improvements for the next releases of CDFinder:
- Much better memory management
- More improvements for multi-user systems!
- Update catalog folders automatically in the background
- Folders in catalogs might be opened inside the window (just like the Finder does!)
- A much improved help system.
- Find duplicates
But this has yet to be discovered and everything depends on how much time I will be able to spare :-))
9. Acknowledgements
First of all I would like to thank my wonderful wife Silvia. Without her patience, the development process would have been impossible.
Without the help and the support of the following people, CDFinder would surely be a lesser tool now: Erik Ekengren, Doris Wagner, Giorgio Boccalari, John Zetlaoui, David C. Oshel und Thomas v. Landsberg-Velen. Thank you very much!
I also want to thank all of those who help me doing the beta testing and thereby provide invaluable assistance checking the functions and user interface of the software: Wolfgang Warmbold, Martin Girschick, Patrick RÜder, Michael Stunz, Manfred Kunkel, Ralf Schlobinski, Heiko und Manfred Richter, Holger Ruhnke, Henny Rose, Marc Kothe, Claus Sterneck, Marc Mennigmann, Stephane Madrau, Tuukka Ilomaki, Okke Rosen, Ryo Chijiiwa, David Heininger, Doug Anderson, Sebastian Duevel, Dennis, Matthias Kahlert.
Of course, without all of your registrations, I might have ceased development long ago! Thank you very much!
The comments and notes of all registered users also helped a lot.
Please send me ideas, comments, notes and Cocoa Puffs or Star Trek books!
