We've corrected a few minor bugs. In addition, we include a new version of DataViz's MacLink Plus™/Bridge, for use with MacLink Plus™ PC. To ensure compatibility, we advise current owners of MacLink Plus™ PC to upgrade to Version 4.5. (When purchased separately, MacLink Plus™ PC allows you to use On Location to view files created by various IBM PC-compatible applications.)
What's New in On Location 1.0.1
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In response to customer feedback, we’ve removed the RTF and WordPerfect file translators from the Claris folder on this disk. Only a small number of On Location users have reported irregular results with these translators, but we’re working with Claris Corp. to improve their performance.
If you don't ordinarily use RTF or WordPerfect files, you won't need these translators. When new versions become available, we’ll post them on CompuServe and AppleLink. Or contact ON Product Support to receive them by mail on disk.
Contacting ON Product Support via AppleLink
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Feel free to send your questions and comments to ON.SUPPORT, our AppleLink address.
Additional shortcuts
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Command-slash (/) switches between the Search and View windows.
Command-W closes the View window.
Opening and printing documents under MultiFinder or Finder
The On Location manual states that if an application is already open under MultiFinder, you must use the application's Open command instead of On Location's Open Files command. We're happy to say that On Location can open files even if the application is already open (under either MultiFinder or Finder).
Also, you can open the file you are viewing from the View window (even if the file is still being read in).
However, you can't open a file if its application resides on a remote volume. On Location will not be able to find the application.
If an application is already open and you try to use On Location's Print Files command, you will get an alert telling you that you must open the document to be printed. Use On Location's Open Files command and then use the application's Print command.
Changes to files on your original On Location disk
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The file 'Claris XTND RunTime' is no longer needed and is not included in the Claris folder on your original On Location disk. As noted above, the files "RTF" and "WordPerfect" are not included in the Claris folder either. Two additional file readers are included: WordPerfect PC 4.2 and WordPerfect PC 5.0.
XTND-compatible file readers/translators can be located either in the Claris folder or in a folder called Claris Translators in the Claris folder in your System Folder. If you already have file readers/translators in one of these folders, you should check them before installing On Location or any other product that contains XTND-compatible file readers/translators, to ensure that only the most recent versions are installed. Earlier versions of file readers/translators should be removed.
Indexing on a 1 megabyte Macintosh
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If you are planning to run On Location on a 1 megabyte Macintosh, we recommend that you do not install OL Startup in your System Folder until after you have created your index. This is to insure that you have the maximum amount of memory available for indexing. If you find that indexing is running very slowly due to lack of available memory, you should consider temporarily removing other Inits when creating your index.
Auto-updating on a 1 megabyte Macintosh or in low memory situations
If On Location cannot obtain enough free memory, auto-updating will not always pick up your changes and your index may not always be up-to-date. If you find that auto-updating is not picking up your changes, you should consider removing other Inits that make demands on memory.
Responsiveness of your Macintosh during auto-updating
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Under most circumstances, when On Location is running in the background and auto-updating, it will respond to keyboard or mouse actions very quickly. On some occasions, when many changes need to be written to your disk, it may take a few seconds to respond.
Screen savers
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Certain screen savers can take significant time away from On Location during index creation, reindexing, or auto-updating. This will increase the elapsed time to complete indexing. We recommend that you turn off your screen saver before using the On Location desk accessory to create an index or to reindex if you expect there to be a large amount of new information for reindexing. If auto-updating does not complete updating your index(es) in a timely fashion, you may want to consider using a different screen saver or setting the timing parameters of your current screen saver to allow On Location time to finish auto-updating before the screen saver activates. Pyro 3.0 is an example of a screen saver that takes minimal time away from On Location.
Number of open files
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The Macintosh operating system sets a limit on the maximum number of files that can be open at any one time. Each index used by On Location is a separate file and must be open to search its corresponding volume. When you select an index in the search list, the index is opened (and closed when you deselect it). Therefore, when searching across multiple volumes (by selecting and thus opening a set of indexes simultaneously) you may exceed the open file limit. On Location will alert you when this happens. To increase the limit on the number of open files you can use one of the following programs: Set File Count from Sun Microsystems (contact TOPS customer support), Disk Express II from ALSoft, Inc., or Suitcase II from Fifth Generation Systems (or any other program which performs a similar function).
More than one mounted volume with the same name
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On Location uses volume name to recognize a volume and associate it with an index. We therefore recommend that you choose unique names for all your volumes, renaming volumes that have duplicate names.
Using On Location with TOPS
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To use a shared index located on a Macintosh running TOPS, if the index is located in an On Location Indexes folder in the System Folder of a published volume, you must mount the volume as Read only otherwise the index will not be visible in the search list.
If the index is located in an On Location Indexes folder in the root directory, you can mount the volume containing the folder as either Read/Write or Read only.
Compatibility with other programs
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• Rapport disk drive:
There is a problem running On Location with the Rapport disk drive from Kennect Technologies, due to a bug in the Init supplied with the disk drive. You should contact Kennect Technologies directly to receive an upgrade or a fix which solves the problem.
• Radius tear-off menus:
Some versions of Radius tear-off menus do not work correctly with On Location. You should contact Radius, Inc. directly for more information.
• Apple Desktop Manager:
Opening documents with On Location does not work if you are using the Desktop Manager Init supplied with the AppleShare File Server disk.
• Comment 2.01/AutoLoader 2.01:
Background indexing does not work while running the Comment 2.01 desk accessory and AutoLoader 2.01 INIT from Deneba Systems, Inc. It appears, though, that version 2.03 of this software corrects the problem.
Display of icon during auto-updating
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The On Location manual states that an icon appears on your screen during auto-updating. No icon will appear during auto-updating.
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TECHNICAL NOTES
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THESE NOTES ARE NOT NEEDED FOR NORMAL USE OF ON LOCATION. THEY PROVIDE ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION FOR USERS WHO WANT TO CUSTOMIZE ASPECTS OF THE PRODUCT OR WANT TECHNICAL DETAILS OF ITS OPERATION.
Technical Note 1: Product limitations
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On Location only indexes the text in the data fork of a file.
When indexing text in files, On Location will index the first 20,000 unique words in each file.
On Location can search up to 32,000 files at a single time.
On Location can copy up to 32,000 characters to the clipboard.
Technical Note 2: How auto-updating works
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Auto-updating is the process of updating an index in the background based on changes made to files. On Location uses two techniques for detecting changes: recording changes to files as they are made and directory scanning. The combination of recording changes and directory scanning guarantees that all changes will eventually be picked up by On Location. Here is how the auto-updating process works:
(1) Whenever a file is created, deleted, or modified, a record is made
and kept in memory. During idle time, On Location processes these
records and makes the appropriate changes to the index. Once these
records are processed, they are removed from memory and space
becomes available for more. About 150 file changes can be recorded
before they must be processed. Any changes not picked up through this
process will be picked up through directory scanning.
(2) Whenever the On Location desk accessory is opened, any remaining
records are processed and the index is updated for changes in
filename, file location, etc. (You are given the option of deferring
this operation through an alert.)
(3) Periodically (every 4 hours but see below, Technical Note 4), the entire
directory of your disk is scanned to see if any changes were made that
were not picked up through recording changes. This is one reason you
might hear your disk operating even though you are not doing anything.
(4) Part of processing changes is to mark files in the index that must be
indexed for text. Periodically, a complete pass is made through the
index and any marked files will be indexed for text.
Reindexing manually will always pick up any changes immediately, including indexing the text of changed files. Indexing the text of files in the background takes longer to finish than recording changes in filename, file location, etc.
Technical Note 3: Customizing the OL File Kinds file
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The OL File Kinds file contains information used by On Location to determine which kinds of files get indexed for text and how a file's kind is displayed in the Search window. This is a TEXT file, and may be edited with any text editor.
Internally, the Macintosh uses two 'signatures' to specify a file's kind - its type and creator. Each is four characters long. For example, MacWrite II documents have a type 'MW2D' and a creator 'MWII'. Each line in the OL File Kinds file contains an entry for a kind. An entry can specify a type, a creator, or both. Certain file types are generic, such as APPL for application or INIT for startup document.
An entry consists of three parts, separated by spaces or tabs.
The form of the FIRST part of an entry is one of:
type
/creator
type/creator
There is at least one space or tab between this part and the second part of an entry.
The SECOND part of an entry specifies whether the kind is standard, should never be indexed for text, or is indexed for text only if you specify that it should be when creating a custom index. If the kind is considered standard (i.e. files of that kind will always get indexed unless you create a custom index that explicitly excludes them), this part of the entry is an asterisk (*). If the kind should never be indexed (because files of that kind do not contain ascii text), this part of the entry is a minus sign (-). If the kind is indexed for text only if so specified when creating a custom index, this part of the entry is a space or a tab.
There is at least one space or tab between this part and the third part of an entry.
The THIRD part of an entry is the text string that will be displayed in the Search window for files of that kind.
Examples:
APPL - application
STAK * HyperCard stack
MW2D * MacWrite II document
/MWII MacWrite II miscellaneous
WDBN/MSWT * MS-Write document
To customize the OL File Kinds file you can add, modify, or remove entries. For example, if you have an application called 'Custom' that creates documents which you want to be indexed for text as standard with the type 'CUST' and creator 'MINE', you would add the entry:
CUST/MINE * Custom document
An index retains the information about which kinds of files to index for text from the options chosen when the index is created. Changing the OL File Kinds file will change how the kind is displayed in the Search window, but will NOT change whether a kind is indexed for text or not for an existing index. You must create a new index to change that option.
Note: If a file kind is unknown, its kind is displayed as 'document'.
You can replace the existing OL File Kinds file in the System folder as long as the On Location desk accessory is not running. When you do this, the next time you open On Location, the message 'Initializing settings file' will appear. If you have changed entries, you will see the changes reflected in the Search window.
You can change the entry for 'Other documents' by modifying the entry ????/????. You can make this standard or never indexed for text.
Technical Note 4: Changing timing parameters for auto-updating
On Location determines when various aspects of auto-updating take place by using a set of resources in the file OL Startup. There is a template resource (TMPL) which specifies the form of the resource that has the data. This resource, OLBP, specifies five timing parameters. (All times are in seconds.)
Note: You must restart your Macintosh to have any changes take effect.
(1) Idle time to begin a directory (or disk) scan (900). This entry specifies
how long your Macintosh must be idle before On Location will begin its
directory scan. If the scan is interrupted, it must wait the same
amount of time before beginning the scan again. (see 4 below).
(2) Idle time to begin a text scan (600). This entry specifies how long
your Macintosh must be idle before On Location will begin indexing
of text files that have changed. A complete pass through a new or
changed file is required to actually update the index for that file. If the
scan is interrupted before a file has a chance to complete, the file will
be indexed from the start again.
(3) Idle time to begin processing change records (180). This entry specifies
how long your Macintosh must be idle before On Location will begin
processing the records of changes that have been recorded (see
Technical Note 2 above). Once a change is recorded in the index,
the change record is removed from memory.
(4) Minimum interval between completed directory scans (14400).
This entry specifies the duration between the last complete directory
scan and the next one.
(5) Minimum interval between text scans (600). This entry specifies
the duration between the last completed pass through the index,
indexing those files requiring indexing for text, and the next one.
In addition, there is a boolean parameter which specifies if the OL Startup icon is shown at startup time.
Note: For correct operation, the idle time for processing change records must be less than the idle time for directory or text scans. On Location will correct any set of values that violates this constraint.
