Software of the Month Club (Business) 1997 November

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┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │Documentation of ACD version 2.21, dated May 23, 1993 (c) A. Merckens │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ First, before giving some documentation on ACD, I'll give some background information on WHY I created yet Another Change Directory program. ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ What I liked about ..... │ └─────────────────────────────┘ NCD [Norton Change Directory - (c) Peter Norton] ─── - first program that made "fast" changing directories possible - nice best guess when pathname is incorrectly spelled - possible to remove "current" directory [NCD RD .] - 'speed search' when window with directory information appears on screen - possible to rename a directory LCD [Led's Change Directory - (c) Keith Ledbetter] ─── - directory information on more than one drive at a time - change to correctly specified directory EVEN if not in directory database - fast ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ What I disliked about ... │ └─────────────────────────────┘ NCD ─── - only directory-information on one drive at a time - directories are unsorted - updates are unsorted [NCD MD dirname] - messages that are driving me crazy when switching to a correctly specified path [NCD d:\bin\dos40; I know, I know, I should have specified NCD CD d:\bin\dos40] - unwanted updates of directory-information when NCD encounters an unknown directory - cannot write directory-information for network-drives - slow - cannot rename a directory on a network drive LCD ─── - directories are unsorted - updates are unsorted [LCD MD dirname], even worse than NCD - pop-up window is too small when selecting from many directories - not possible to remove "current" directory [LCD RD . ] - not possible to explicitly give a drive name, e.g. LCD d:bi is not allowed - strange "BEST GUESS" when partial directory name could not be found - not DV-aware - if EGA/VGA 43/50 lines/page: on exit, the cursor is positioned at the wrong line - not possible to remove directory-information (locally), without actually removing directories: when network drives are scanned, quite often users have the same directory names (consider: UTILS); however, you may not be interested in these, and wish to remove 'useless' directory-information - no 'speed search' when pop-up window with directory information on screen [Well, in version LCD 4.0 - 10 days after first release of ACD 1.00 - Mr. Ledbetter implemented this in the same way as ACD....] So, I created Another Change Directory, which is, in my prejudiced opinion, the best of these two worlds. ACD is very flexible: you can configure ACD to act as you prefer. Due to many suggestions since the first public release, ACD is still getting better. The most important changes since version 1.0 are: - graphical display of paths - scrollback history (i.e. ACD remembers the last few directorychanges) - menu for fast selection of directories in pop-up window - substituted drives support - removable drives support About the program ACD ACD is a program designed to have all the features I liked in LCD and NCD, and also to have the features I (and many others) thought were missing in these programs. Just like LCD, ACD makes changing directories much easier, especially when you have a large harddisk with lots of different partitions or are hooked on a network drive. ACD works "across all drives" by maintaining the directory database of ALL drives in the file C:\ACD.IDX (by default). This means that you don't have to specify a drive letter when changing to a directory on a different drive. However, you are allowed to specify the drive letter which will be used to consider only the directories on the drive specified. The syntax: ACD [drive:]partial_dir[\][options]: change to a directory or present selection ACD =[drive:]partial_dir : use scrollback history to change directory ACD rd directory_name : delete directory; update database ACD md directory_name : create directory; update database ACD rd directory_name /local : delete directory-information recursively below directory_name from database; do not actually delete directories ACD md directory_name /local : create directory-information; do not actually create directory ACD ren dir1 dir2 : rename dir1 to dir2; update database ACD /create <drivelist> : scan drives and create directory database ACD /qcreate <drivelist> : scan drives (ignore dirs with extensions) and create directory database ACD /add <drivelist> : scan drives and add to directory database; existing info on a drive will be replaced ACD /qadd <drivelist> : scan drives (ignore dirs with extensions) and add to directory database ACD /recreate : rescan the drives which are mentioned in the directory database ACD /qrecreate : rescan drives which are mentioned in the directory database (ignore dirs with extensions) ACD /reverse : reverse the colors ACD /?, or ACD /h : short help Options: /c[x] , x = 0..2 : select Current drive [toggle between 3 values]; see below. /e[x] , x = 0..1 : Exact match [toggle]: switch to directory if exactly one directory name is found in the ACD database with this exact name. /i[x] , x = 0..1 : test Inactive drives [toggle] /g[x] , x = 0..1 : Graphical display of paths [toggle] /l[x] , x = 0..1 : highlight selection Line [toggle] /m[x] , x = 0..1 : show Menu with choices [toggle] /s[x] , x = 0..2 : Shrink speedstring [toggle between 3 values]: see below /u[x] , x = 0..4 : How to act when Unknown directories are encountered. [toggle between 5 values, see below] /w[x] , x = 0..1 : 0 = switch to directory as soon as one directory matches. 1 = when in popup, switch to directory only if a menuchoice has been given, or the <Enter>-key has been pressed. /0[x] , x = 0..2 : default commandline (0 pars) [toggle between '*', '=' and empty] /x[address] : ONLY if ACD is called from within another program; see "Calling ACD from another program" for details. These switches can also be set without toggling, by adding a digit, say [x]; 0 means OFF, 1 means ON. E.g. the /i toggle can be set to be ON by /i1, independent of the previous value. In the case of the /0 option, /00 means empty /01 means '*' and /02 means '='. The /c[x] option tells ACD which drive-information it has to consider: 0: (/c0) consider all drives mentionted in ACD.IDX. 1: (/c1) only consider the current drive using ACD.IDX; if the current drive is removable, use the ACD.IDX on the removable drive. 1: (/c2) consider all drives mentioned in ACD.IDX, except if the current drive is a removable drive: consider the current drive and use the information on the removable drive itself! The /s[x] option will change ACD's behaviour when the no directories are found that match the original searchstring: 0: (/s0) do not shrink searchstring; abort with an error 1: (/s1) shrink searchstring and try again 2: (/s2) shrink searchstring and try again. Always show popup, even if only one directory matches the shrunk searchstring. The /u[x] option will change ACD's behaviour when ACD encounters an Unknown directory: 0: (/u0) do not add unknown directories to ACD-database 1: (/u1) add when parent is in the ACD-database 2: (/u2) add when parent is in the ACD-database, and add also all subdirectories. 3: (/u3) if parent is NOT in the ACD-database, go back until parent IS in the ACD-database; add all unknown directories starting from this directory. 4: (/u4) rescan complete drive (of course, only if information on this drive is in the ACD-database) Changing directories: ACD is used to switch quickly between directories across any drive. You simply invoke ACD and give it the full or partial name of the directory you wish to change to. For example, if you have a directory named D:\COMM\KERMIT you could switch to this directory with the command: C:\> ACD ker ACD will first try to do an immediate change to the directory name that you specify. If that change works, ACD simply exits immediately. If it fails, then ACD looks into your directory database and tries to figure out the directory name that you wanted. If more than one directory existed with the same partial name that you gave to ACD, it will display a pop-up window on the screen containing all of the matches found. Simply use the movement keys (PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, Arrow keys) to highlight the directory that you want to change to, then hit <Enter>. If the 'current directory' is included in the partial match set, the highlight is positioned on this directory (sort of like "you are here"), otherwise, the highlight is positioned on the first match. Within the pop-up window, a 'speed search' is available, i.e. when you press a key which doesn't have a special function (see below), then the character is added to the 'partial name' you entered at the command-line, the pop-up window will possibly resized and the new selections will be shown if more than one directory exists with the same partial name: as soon as exactly one directory is selected by speed search, the directory will be selected without further confirmation. By pressing * the method of partial name search is toggled. Normally, ACD matches the partial name at the start of the last part of the directory. When pressing * once, it will match the partial name anywhere in the last part of the directory (see example below). If you press * again, the first method is used again. If you press \, then all subdirectories of the current selection are shown as well; if you press \ again, the previous state is restored. If you press ESC, the operation will be aborted. The + key makes the highlighted line point to the next drive in the selection window, and the Tab or ArrowRight makes the highlighted line point to the next directory with the same parent as the currently highlighted line. If you press the Ctrl-key and the Arrow-Left key simultaneously, then the highlight will go to the parent of the currently highlighted path. By pressing ALT-C simultaneously, the highlighted path will be centered on the screen, allowing you to see the directories above and below the highlighted path. By pressing ALT-T simultaneously, the highlighted path will be put on top of the screen. Summary on the action of keys when in pop-up window: Note: sibling means entry with the same 'parent' F1 : gives help on the special keys Pg-Up : go to top of page, or go one page up Pg-Dn : go to bottom of page, or go one page down End : go to last entry Home : go to first entry Arrow-Up, ^E : go to previous entry Arrow-Dn, ^X : go to next entry Tab : go to next sibling Shift Arrow-Up : go to next sibling BackTab : go to previous sibling Shift Arrow-Dn : go to previous sibling Arrow-Left : go to 'parent' of currently highlighted path Ctrl Arrow-Left: go to 'parent' of currently highlighted path ALT-C : Center highlighted path in popup-window ALT-E : Execute External program (see 'patches') ALT-G : toggle Graphic display ALT-L : toggle method of highlighting current selection; the whole Line is highlighted, or only the last subdirectory ALT-M : Make new directory in highlighted path ALT-N : reName highlighted directory ALT-P : Print current selections to printer or file ALT-R : Remove highlighted directory tree (locally) Alt-S : Scan highlighted directory for missing info ALT-T : put highlighted path on Top of popup-window + : go to first entry of next drive * : toggle search method = : toggle scrollback history \ or / : toggle display of all subdirectories of current selection : : toggle drive selection: all drives/highlighted Enter : switch to highlighted entry A..Z : when the path's are preceded by capital characters, then these can be chosen to select a directory (see the /m option how to disable this menu) Esc : abort operation BS, Del : delete character from partial name for 'speed search' other char. : add character to partial name for 'speed search'; '?' has the common wildcard meaning Example: C:\> ACD do If this selects more than one directory, a pop-up window will be shown on the screen: ┌───╥─────────────────────────────[F1 help]────────────────[1/2]────────┐ │ A ║ c:\bin\dos40 │ │ B ║ d:\doreen │ └───╨──────────────────────────────────────────────────────[do ]─┘ In this case, two directories are selected. By using the arrow-keys and the <Enter>, or by pressing the next character (r or s), or by pressing a menu choice (the capital characters A or B), a selection can be made. By pressing the *, you will 'toggle' the method of string-searching, and you'll get a pop-up window equal to the command: ACD *do So, for example: ┌───╥─────────────────────────────[F1 help]────────────────[1/4]────────┐ │ A ║ c:\4dos │ │ B ║ └─ bin\dos40 │ │ C ║ d:\doreen │ │ D ║ g:\utils\seldom │ └───╨──────────────────────────────────────────────────── *[do ]─┘ By entering * again, the first screen will be shown again. When you press \, you may get the following screen: ┌───╥─────────────────────────────[F1 help]────────────────[1/6]────────┐ │ A ║ c:\4dos │ │ B ║ └─ bin\dos40 │ │ C ║ d:\doreen │ │ D ║ ├──────── goodies │ │ E ║ └──────── oldies │ │ F ║ g:\utils\seldom │ └───╨──────────────────────────────────────────────────── *[do*\ ]─┘ This is the so called "graphic" presentation; if you press ALT-G, you will get the following screen: ┌───╥─────────────────────────────[F1 help]────────────────[1/6]────────┐ │ A ║ c:\4dos │ │ B ║ c:\bin\dos40 │ │ C ║ d:\doreen │ │ D ║ d:\doreen\goodies │ │ E ║ d:\doreen\oldies │ │ F ║ g:\utils\seldom │ └───╨──────────────────────────────────────────────────── *[do*\ ]─┘ If you prefer the non-graphic presentation, you may add the /g switch, or or use the /g switch in the environment variable ACD, or configure ACD with ACD_CFG. By entering \ again, you will get the selection screen with 4 matches again. You can specify from the commandline which search method has to be used, and/or if all subdirectories of the selection have to be shown by starting with a star ("*") and ending with a backslash ("\"), for example: ACD *do\ will yield the previous screen directly from the commandline. Note that as soon as exactly one directory is selected by Speed Search, the directory is selected, without further confirmation. By default the last subdirectory of the path that indicates the current selection is highlighted; if you want the whole line highlighted, you can add the /l option to ACD, or press ALT-L in the pop-up window. By default, all drives that are mentioned in the pop-up window are tested for their existence. This ensures that only directory information of the active drives is displayed. If you don't like this, or if testing your drives is S L O W then you may add the /i option. ACD will then display also the information of the (possibly) non-active drives. If you would like to make this the default, then you could configure (=patch) ACD using ACD_CFG, or use the environment variable ACD. If you KNOW you wish to change to a directory on the default drive, you may specify ACD dir /c which will only show you the matching directories on the current drive; If you KNOW you wish to change to a directory on the G-drive (for example), then you may specify ACD G:dir which will only show the matching directories on the G-drive. If a selection is shown, and you change your mind about the drive specification, then you may press : which will result in showing the matching directories based on all drives, as if you did not include G: or the /c option from the command-line. Note that if G: is a substed drive or a network drive equal to, say, F:, then the information on drive F is used to display the paths in G: Removable drives: Starting from version 2.20, if you have set the option /c1 or /c2, ACD will know about removable drives. Suppose B: is a removable drive, and you give the command ACD B:*, then ACD will first search for the file B:\ACD.IDX. If it does not exist, it will create one. Then it shows the popup on this drive only. If the information is outdated, you can also recreate the B:\ACD.IDX like this: B:> ACD /CREATE B B:> ACD /RECREATE or: anydrive:> ACD /CREATE B: (Note the ":") ACD will update the B:\ACD.IDX if you create/rename/remove directories using ACD, and the /c-option has a value of 1 or higher. If the current drive is the B drive, but you wish to switch to a directory on another drive, you can do this by adding <drive:>, or by adding /c0 (or /c if the default value of /c equals 2) Scrollback history: Each time you change to a directory using ACD and using information in the ACD-database, information is written to the ACD-database to remember the directory you just changed to. By default the scrollback history will remember up to 20 directories. Since ACD now writes each time it is used to change to a directory, the performance on a XT might be slow. If you don't want to use the scrollback history function for this or another reason, you may change the history size to zero. You can use ACD_CFG to make this patch. When you changed to a few directories and wish to return to one of them, you may enter: ACD = Now a pop-up window will appear which will show the directories you have changed to. Once again, you can use speedsearch or the keys mentioned above to make a selection. You may also call speedsearch from the commandline, by specifying, for example: ACD =do which will present a partial match set using ONLY the last "historysize" (default: 20) directories you changed to. The first entry on screen is the last directory you changed to, etc. You can also toggle easily between two directories by entering ACD == which will let you jump directly to the second directory in the history list: the directory you just came from. You can also jump to the third directory in the history list directly by entering: ACD =3 or in general to the "number"th directory in the history list. ACD ="number" However, if, for example, the directory 4DOS is in the history list, and you enter ACD =4 then the directory 4DOS is selected, and not the fourth directory in the history list. The scrollback history is destroyed when you enter CD /add [drive], or CD /[re]create [drive]. This shortcoming can be used as a feature: to clear the history just add a non-existing drive, for example: ACD /add @ Note that if you change to a directory directly - i.e. ACD does not have to use information from its database - ACD does not add information to the scrollback history. So, for example, if the directory C:\DOS40 exists, and you enter: ACD C:\DOS40 then this information is not added to the scrollback history. However, in this case, if you would have entered ACD DOS and selected C:\DOS40, then the information WOULD be added. Scanning directories: The first time you execute ACD, you must specify the /CREATE parameter ("ACD /create") which instructs ACD to scan all of your hard drives and create a file called ACD.IDX in the root directory of drive C. Depending on how you will create/remove your directories in the near future, it may be necessary to periodically rescan your drives. If you only want ACD to know about certain specific drives (for example: only non-network drives), you can specify a drive list after the /CREATE keyword. To have ACD only scan drives C, E, and G, just enter: C:\> ACD /CREATE CEG If at any stage, you wish to add information about another drive, say drive F, then you could enter: C:\> ACD /ADD F If you are sure that you don't have subdirectories which have an extension in their name (for example, C:\PROGRAMS.OLD\) then you can specify /QCREATE, (/QADD), instead of /CREATE (/ADD). This causes ACD to scan approximately 33% quicker than without the Q. From version 1.03: if you ADD a drive for which already information is stored in the directory database, this information will be replaced by new information at the end of the information database, so no redundant information will be stored. From version 2.10: if you are using DOS 3.0 or higher, then ACD will not include SUBSTed or ASSIGNed drive information, or include network mappings which have already been included in ACD.IDX, unless explicitly entered, because ACD can deduce it from the "real" drive; e.g. if you have defined E: with the DOS-command SUBST E: C:\SOURCES then drive E: will not be scanned with a ACD /CREATE Information on the C: drive will be stored in this case and the SUBSTed E: drive won't be stored. However, if you enter: ACD E:PAS then ACD searches for a match using the information it has on the subdirectories of C:\SOURCES. The main advantages of this method is, that if you create a directory C:\SOURCES\ARCHIVE, then the database will be directly up to date. Furthermore, even if you use a different E: drive SUBSTitution, the information is directly updated. A disadvantage might be, that by default only the original directory-names will be taken into account when searching for a match (in this case C:) are shown, unless you add the /C1 switch, or explicitly add <drive:>. Of course, you can still use the "old" method (i.e. the method use by ACD version <=2.01), by entering ACD /CREATE CE You can also recreate the update ALL information in the ACD.IDX file by entering ACD /RECREATE The drives mentioned in the ACD.IDX file will then be scanned again. Direct database updating: You can also use ACD to create, remove and rename directories with immediate database updating. This means that you don't have to rescan your drives to update the directory database. ACD will create, delete or rename the directory specified, and then update the ACD.IDX database at the same time. For example, to create a directory on drive F: and put that directory in the database, you'd do: C:\> ACD md f:\temp This ability comes in especially handy for users of command shells that allow aliasing, such as CED and 4DOS. With these utilities, you can change the standard MD and RD commands to invoke ACD instead. With 4DOS, you could set up the aliases like below in a file called, say, C:\ALIASES md ACD md %& mkdir md rd ACD rd %& rmdir rd cd ACD %& rendir ACD ren %& ACD <drive:\dir>ACD.EXE Now you can give in 4DOS the command (or add to your AUTOEXEC.bat) alias /r c:\aliases Note: the last line - ACD <drive:\dir>ACD.EXE - is not necessary if ACD.EXE is in your search PATH; however, a program which has just a simple task - in this case 'change directory' - executes much faster if the PATH does not have to be searched. Another suggestion: if you have defined an alias for CD and wish to change to the previous directory, enter CD.. (without space) instead of CD .. (with space), since in the first case ACD will not be called to execute this very simple task and consequently no loading of the program has to take place, and thus changing to the previous directory will go faster (especially noticeable on an XT), with less typing. When the pop-up window is on screen, you can also use the ALT-R combination to remove the highlighted path by answering the question "REMOVE <subdirspecification> (L/Y/N)" with Y(es). Furthermore you can also Make or reName a directory when the pop-up window is on screen by pressing ALT-M and ALT-N respectively. When ALT-S is pressed, the highlighted directory will be (recursively) scanned for directories. Local database updating: You can also use ACD to create and remove directory information only by using the /local switch. ACD will NOT create or delete the directory specified, but only update the ACD.IDX database. For example, to remove the information on a directory and its subdirectories on drive G: C:\> ACD rd G:\users\mally /local Then all information about g:\users\mally is deleted from the database, and all of its subdirectories. This is especially handy for users of network drives, who do not want this information in their database. You can also use the ALT-R combination in the pop-up window to remove the highlighted path and all of its subdirectories locally, by answering the question "REMOVE <subdirspecification> (L/Y/N)" with L(ocal). Also, you can add local directory information to the database. Eg. if the directory c:\bin\testcase is missing in the database info, and you wish to include it, you can update the database with this database information without rescanning: C:\> ACD md c:\bin\testcase /local Note however that in order for ACD to update the database, the directory c:\bin (the parent) should exist. Probably an easier method is to call ACD, highlight the C:\BIN directory and press ALT-S: missing drive information will be added. Renaming directories: You can also use ACD to give a directory another name. ACD will directly rename the directory and update the ACD-database. Directories can only be renamed if the parents of the directory to be renamed are the same as the parents of the new directory specification. For example: ACD ren c:\bin\dos c:\bin\olddos is allowed, whereas ACD ren c:\bin\dos c:\olddos is not allowed, since they have different parents. You can also rename the current directory by specifying ACD ren . olddos You can also use the ALT-N key combination in the popup window. Printing a tree: When you have a selection of the ACD database on screen you can print this selection to a file or to a printer by pressing ALT-P. This question will appear on screen: Print tree to: prn.................................... You can fill in a filename or PRN (or LPT1/LPT2) for the printer. The output on file/printer will depend on the current selections you have made: graphical display of the paths or not, partial match or not, scrollback history or not, etc. The ACD and ACD_color environment variables If you'd rather have ACD keep its ACD.IDX database another place than the root directory of drive C:, you can specify the filename you want in the environment variable named ACD. For example, if you'd like to keep the ACD.IDX file on drive D: in your UTILS directory, you would put SET ACD=D:\UTILS\ACD.IDX in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Furthermore, you can add the options to the environment variable: for example, if by the default configured /C value is zero, and the /0 also, then: SET ACD=/c/0 would set the default options to "current drive", and if the commandline (except for options) is empty, the default commandline will be '*'. Of course both options and a different path for the ACD.IDX can be specified in this environment variable. Note that the switches are real toggles, that is, if you have defined the ACD environment variable as above, then by calling ACD /c/c all the drives will be considered again. You may toggle as much as you like... From version 2.10 you can overrule the toggling by adding a digit to the switches, e.g. /c1. Then the fixed value 1 (=ON) will be used. You can also use ACD_CFG to set your preferred defaults. You can change the colors of the pop-up window. You do this by setting an environment variable named "ACD_COLOR", or use ACD_CFG to make permanent changes. Set ACD_Color = backgroundcolor foregroundcolor The colors can be chosen from the table below (default is: 0 7) Dark Colors ║ (Foreground & ║ Light Colors Background) ║ (Foreground) ═══════════╤════╬══════════════╤════ Black │ 0 ║ DarkGray │ 8 Blue │ 1 ║ LightBlue │ 9 Green │ 2 ║ LightGreen │ 10 Cyan │ 3 ║ LightCyan │ 11 Red │ 4 ║ LightRed │ 12 Magenta │ 5 ║ LightMagenta │ 13 Brown │ 6 ║ Yellow │ 14 LightGray │ 7 ║ White │ 15 Example: Set ACD_Color = 2 4 Would give you red characters in a green window. The default, lightgray characters on black background works nicely on a monochrome monitor. NOTE: Since version 2.10 you can also use the configuration utility ACD_CFG to set the colors you prefer, and also all switches. Some more examples: ACD rd . : Remove current directory. ACD rd . /local : Remove information only on current directory. ACD cd .... : Just like in 4DOS: go 3 directories back. ACD d:* : Show all paths in the database on drive D. ACD s* : Find all paths that start with s; equal to ACD s. ACD s\ : Find all paths that start with s and show all its subdirectories. ACD *in : Find all paths that have the word "in" in them. ACD * : Show all paths in the database. ACD ** : Show all paths in the database, and use different Speed Search method. ACD =s : Find all paths in the scrollback history that start with an s. ACD /qrecreate : Create a new ACD.IDX, using information on the drives named in the current ACD.IDX file and use the fast method. Patches: All patches can now be made with the confiration program ACD_CFG. Call: ACD_CFG This program searches the current directory and the PATH for ACD.EXE. A configuration menu appears on the screen; please read the information on the switches to understand the meaning of all possible patches. One possible patch using ACD_CFG will be discussed below: execute program with ALT-E. Below are some examples for letting ALT-E execute a program or command from the ACD popup-window. The highlighted directoryname can be included in the parameters, by specifying %dir% in the "parameterpatch". Example 1: If you want to delete all files in the highlighted directory using ALT-E: Give as program Name "COMMAND.COM" Or, if you are using 4DOS, give: "4DOS.COM" .... and let command.com/4dos.com delete all files in this directory! By giving as parameters: "/c del %dir% " So, the complete command is: COMMAND.COM /C DEL %dir% or 4DOS.COM /C DEL %dir% As said above, %dir% has a special meaning: use currently highlighted directory as parameter. E.g. if the highlighted line is currently "c:\archives\temp", then ALT-E executes the command COMMAND.COM /C DEL C:\ARCHIVES\TEMP which deletes (after confirmation) ALL files from this directory! Example 2: To call Directory Freedom (the default value), or 4FILES, you can enter either "DF" or "4F" as program name, and "%dir%" as parameters So, the complete command is: DF.COM %dir% or 4F.COM %dir% It is assumed that the program names (e.g. COMMAND.COM and DF.COM) can be found in the PATH statement; otherwise, nothing happens. Calling ACD from another program: Starting from version 2.20 ACD can be called from another program and give return the chosen path in a string. The address of the string has to be given to ACD by using the /X option. The stringsize must at least be of length 66, or, in other words, must be able to contain at least 67 bytes. The first three characters of the string itself must contain "ACD" when calling ACD. Note that since ACD is programmed in Turbo Pascal, that the "pascal definition" of a string is used. So, if you use C to call ACD, you must know how a Pascal string is defined: the first byte of the string indicates the length of the string. For example the string "ACD" in Pascal, can be defined in C as: "\3ACD\0", so PASCAL recognizes it. ACD returns a "normal" pascal string, but included at the end for convenience of C programmers a \0. Suppose the chosen path is "C:\BIN", then in C the string "\6C:\BIN\0" is returned, while in Pascal "C:\BIN" is returned. The string "ACD" can have some more switches: /wx , x >= 1 : Windowsize of x. /b : show window at Bottom of screen /c : show window at Center of screen /t : show window at Top of screen (except 2 lines) The FIRST parameter with which ACD has to be called is the /X option, followed with the memoryaddress of string (in decimal). ACD returns the chosen path or "FAILED" in this string. If the address is incorrect (checked with the first 3 characters "ACD"), then the selection is NOT returned. For further details see the example program TEST_ACD.PAS. Appendix - Limitations and other features: . The ACD-database can have a maximum size of approximately 64K bytes. One directory entry takes room for at least 5 bytes, and at most 16 bytes. If we assume that the mean value is about 9 bytes (i.e. on average the length of a directory-name is 5 characters), then about 7300 directories can be stored. . If you have more than 64K-32 bytes of directory information, ACD will abort and save the ACD-database up to that point. . ACD is still rather primitive on wildcards: it acts almost like plain DOS. ACD only understands the asterisk ('*' - multiple characters match) on the first or last position and the questionmark ('?' - one character match) on any position. . ACD is DesqView aware. If DesqView is active, then for simple screen writes, it uses the BIOS and for intensive screenwrites, it uses the Virtual Screen Buffer of DV. Furthermore, - more important - the pop-up window correctly pops-down, i.e. the DV-screen is correctly restored. . The directories will be presented alphabetically sorted, where the drive order is dependent on how you created the ACD-database. If you ACD /CREATE DCF then first the matching files on drive D will be listed, then the ones on drive C and then on drive F. Note that this is a feature. . When drives do not exist anymore, for example when the network is not loaded, the directories of these invalid drives are excluded from the partial match list, except if the /i option is set OFF. . Because of its database format, ACD cannot store a child directory in the database if its parent is not there. Some people may regard this as a feature, others as a limitation. For example, if you do this (with no 'aliases' on MD): ACD rd C:\Useless /local ACD md C:\Useless\Junk ACD will create the directory "Junk", but it will not store the name in the database, except if the /u switch value is larger than 2. You won't be notified; the reason for this is that I don't like to be notified all the time. . You might want to check all the patches you have made. By entering ACD /? you get a help screen where the switches are indicated by OFF (0) or ON (1). . Note that starting from version 2.00 all switches can be set by the environment variable ACD; from version 2.10 all preferred values can be configured by using ACD_CFG. . ACD returns detailed ERRORLEVEL conditions, which can be useful if ACD is invoked from batch files. The errorlevels are (NOTE: they have changed in version 2.10!) 0 : ACD was successful 1 : No parameters on commandline 2 : Unknown command 3 : Unable to change to directory (directory not found) 4 : ACD-database is full; partial directory-info saved 5 : Unable to create directory 6 : Unable to remove directory 7 : Escape pressed 8 : ACD-database is corrupted 9 : Error opening ACD-database 10 : Error reading ACD-database 11 : Error writing ACD-database 12 : ACD_color specification is incorrect 13 : Unable to rename directory 14 : File to be renamed is NOT a directory; not renamed. 15 : Directories must have equal parent for rename 16 : Not enough memory 17 : Read-only (or: write-protected) ACD.IDX. The resulting error message can be redirected by adding >NUL to the ACD command. . For the interested user, here is what ACD does when changing to a directory: 1. Try to change directly from current directory to the directory specified. If this directory does not exist, go to step 2. 2. Look for a match of the last part of the directory entry. For example, if you specify "ACD sou", then all of the following would match: c:\compiler\c\sources d:\database\soup f:\acd\source If more than one match found, display the pop-up window. If none found, go to step 3. 3. At this point, ACD just shrinks the partial string and repeats step 2, until one or more directories are found. This last step can be disabled by setting the /s switch to OFF (/s0). This program is FREE of charge and may be used by anyone who wishes to. So, also in a commercial/educational environment. However, you are not allowed to remove the Copyright Statement, or to sell this program, or bundle it with other (commercial) goods. You may give it to anyone you like, but only in its original form with the complete documentation. If you have any (positive/negative) comments or suggestions, I would like to hear from you. Furthermore, I will not be held liable for any misfortune that may or may not happen to you, which may or may not be the result of using or not using this program. In other words, the usual disclaimer applies here. Arjen Merckens Veldlaan 16 2111 VN Aerdenhout The Netherlands (until july 1993: Gandhilaan 35 - 1069 NC Amsterdam - The Netherlands) Internet: A.Merckens@PPSW.RUG.NL BBS: Gaasper RBBS +31 20 6978493/6913890 Acknowledgments: David E. Jenkins (DAVE.JENKINS@OFFICE.WANG.COM) has given me numerous useful suggestions, like the scrollback history function, and both he and Jurgen A. Doornik (ECONZ@VAX.OX.AC.UK), author of PATCH22 and HPP, tested and commented the Beta-release of ACD version 1.10. Duncan Murdoch (DMURDOCH@MAST.QUEENSU.CA) has given me numerous useful suggestions and tested the Beta-release of ACD version 2.00. Many improvements are also due to suggestions of users like you. Without this feedback ACD would never have evolved to what it is now. Thanks for your feedback! Plans for a future release: - more novell-support: using "truename" (e.g. WHV\SYS:) instead of drive-name (e.g., G:) - remove all files from directory before removing directory; possibly recursively. [probably NOT, can be handled by installing an external command] - Graft and Prune..... [maybe, on the long term...] Other software which can be freely used: amSpell - Checks and automatically corrects your ASCII or TeX text files. Offers alternatives for unknown words and can learn new words. Tools for creating/editing dictionaries are included. Current version AMSPEL20.ZIP - date August 1, 1992 Revision History: version 2.21, May 23, 1993 - changed mail and email address - better recognition of subsets of previously included Novell mappings. Example: MAP ROOT G:=WHV\SYS: MAP ROOT H:=WHV\SYS:USERS\MERCKENS then ACD /SCAN will only include information on G: (WHV\SYS:) and ACD will use this information to display information on drive H: version 2.20, March 1, 1993 - the patch-files (*.P22) are not included anymore. - fixed bug: renaming a directory sometimes resulted in an incorrect 'scrollback history', and in a corrupt ACD.IDX. - added memory support when calling ACD from another program: /x option. - extended the /c option: 0 = display all drives, 1=display current drive, 2 = display current drive if it is removable (new default). - added removable media support. - ACD can now also handle a read-only (or: write-protected) ACD.IDX. added errorlevel 17 to indicate this has happened. - fixed bug: if a drive contained no directories but the root directory, the drive would not be included in the ACD.IDX file. - added ^X (equals ArrowUp) and ^E (equals ArrowDown). - /reverse : use "reversed" colors. - added /w option: 0 = jump to directory as soon as one possible directory remains 1 = if menu pops-up: wait until enter or a menuchoice (capital character) has been given. - extended the /s option: 0 = do not shrink searchstring 1 = shrink searchstring 2 = shrink searchstring, but always show popup when it is shrunk (new) - fixed bug: now ACD correctly remembers history of substed drives version 2.10, Aug. 1, 1992 - added a configuration program for ACD; the patch-files (*.P22) are now obsolete, but included for completeness. - the switches can be set without toggling, by adding a digit; 0 means OFF, 1 means ON. E.g. the /c toggle can be set to be ON by /c1, independent of the previous value. The toggle method still works however. - added ACD /[q]recreate, which re-creates the ACD database based on all drives mentioned in the ACD database. - scanning from the pop-up window now ensures that the information of unknown directories is removed from the ACD database. - speeded up scanning from popup-window. - changed "add unknown directories" option: specifying /u[x], or the /u switch x times, with x= 0: (/u0) do not add unknown directories to ACD database 1: (/u1) add when parent is in the ACD database 2: (/u2) add when parent is in the ACD database, and add also all subdirectories. 3: (/u3) if parent is NOT in the ACD database, go back until parent is in ACD database; scan for directories starting from this directory. 4: (/u4) rescan complete drive (if this drive is in the ACD database) - ACD now recognizes substituted drives (using SUBST or ASSIGN) and network drives. If D: is a substed drive of C:\PROGS, you now no longer need to scan D:, as ACD will use the information of the C: drive (in particular C:\PROGS). Even if you create, rename or remove directories using the substituted drive, the ACD.IDX file will be properly updated. ACD will only show the information on the substituted drives if you explicitly give the drive on the commandline, or use the /c option. Because ACD now recognizes these substitutions, ACD /create (or /add, etc) will not scan the directories of substed or assigned drives, nor will it scan double network drive information, unless explicitly specified on the commandline. - Added possibility to call an External program using ALT-E, for example COMMAND.COM, DF.com or 4FILES.com; see patches on how to proceed. - Changed errorlevel-codes on a special request of the author of 4FILES. - Because a dash could also be a switch character (undocumented), changing to directories containing a dash did not work properly. Fixed. - ACD == and ACD =<number> would not work when /s option was specified. Fixed. - ACD <drive:> now follows the /0 switch applied to this drive, instead of changing to the root directory of <drive:>. version 2.01, Jan. 12, 1992 - changed ALT-S function to allow for recursive scan. - added ACD == for toggling to previous directory. - added ACD =<number> for jumping to previous <number> directory. - added /e - Exact match toggle: switch to directory if exactly one directory name is found in the ACD database with this exact name. - added /s - Shrink speedstring toggle: ACD does not try to guess what is meant if no match: step 3. in the appendix is skipped. - added ALT-P for Printing tree to file/prn when in pop-up window. - fixed bug which made displaying tree slow in some cases. - changed cursor-left to be more logical. - added SHIFT cursor up, SHIFT cursor down. version 2.00, Nov. 21, 1991 - added menu (and corresponding /m option) for even faster selection of directories in the pop-up window. - possibility to specify default options in the environment variable ACD. - added ALT-M for Making new directories when in pop-up window. - added ALT-N for reNaming directories when in pop-up window. - added ALT-R for Removing directories (locally) when in pop-up window. - added ALT-L for toggling method of highlighting current selection. - added /l option for toggling method of highlighting current selection. - added ? as wildcard, like in DOS. - previously, the videomode was automatically reset to textmode 3 (if unequal to 0/1/2/3/7; due to TurboPascal 6.0), now the current videomode is kept. The maximumsize of the pop-up window is dependent on the row-maximum of the videomode. Note however that ACD is unable to correctly display the pop-up window when a graphics mode is used. - fixed problem due to any graphics program using HERC.BGI under Desqview. - added Ctrl Arrow-Left for going to parent of currently highlighted path. - added Arrow-Right/Arrow-Left to equal function of TAB/BACKTAB. - added = for toggling scrollback history function in pop-up window. - scrollback history function can also be called by ACD = instead of ACD ! . - added ALT-T for displaying highlighted path on top of screen. - added ALT-G for toggling "graphic" display. - added "graphic" for displaying paths; see also new /g option. - added /u and /0 options, so patches are not necessary when using ACD in an alias; when /0 is specified twice, then the scrollback history will be used. version 1.14, Oct. 20, 1991 - fixed bug caused by too fast implementation of the /c option: ACD could not recognize /create. - added help from the pop-up window. - /c and /i really toggle: when specified more than once, the toggling on/off continues. Ideal for making /c the default in an alias. - fixed small bug concerning HOME-key. version 1.13, Oct. 15, 1991 - added /c option to use current drive for switching. - added action of the : key when in pop-up window; all drives are selected. version 1.12, Oct. 12, 1991 - added /i option to ignore unlogged drives; a patch can make this the default. Saves (some) time. - renames directories perfectly under NOVELL (NCD can't; LCD partly). version 1.11, Oct. 6, 1991 - automatically adds newly unknown subdirectories with known parents; a patch can disable this automatic function. - fixed some bugs resulting in a corrupted ACD.IDX. version 1.10, Oct. 1, 1991 - added \-function to display all subdirectories of partial match selection. - added scrollback history function; a function to remember and pop-up the last "historysize" (default: 20) directory-names (acd !). - hidden directories are now also scanned. - added ALT-C : center choice. - added BackTab-function for selecting previous directory with same parent. version 1.03, Sept. 14, 1991 - added possibility to patch function of calling ACD without parameters. - if adding information with /[q]add that already exists in the information database, the redundant information is removed. The replaced/added drive information is put at the end of the database. - position the highlight on the current directory if it is included in the partial match set being displayed (sort of like "you are here"). - when drives do not exist anymore, for example when the network is not loaded, the directories of these invalid drives are excluded from the partial match list. - fixed bugs: . when removing a directory which had in the ACD database still some subdirectories, the ACD database would get corrupted. . when creating a new directory in the root, the ACD database would get corrupted. version 1.02, Sept. 7, 1991 - changed REN function to work as in (4)DOS. Example: ACD ren d:\bin\dos olddos now renames d:\bin\dos in d:\bin\olddos in stead of giving an error message. However, if you enter ACD ren d:\bin\dos d:\olddos, you'll still get an error message and ERRORLEVEL 15 will be set. - Some minor code changes. version 1.01, Aug. 8, 1991 - added TAB-function for selecting next directory with same parent. - some minor bugs fixed: . in some instances when creating a directory, the sort order was not kept. . when a subdirectory was created which had the same name as a 'sibling' of the parent, the ACD-database would not be updated. version 1.0 , Aug. 7, 1991 - first public release.