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• SHAREWARE - $5 - CASH ONLY
◊ This program is distributed as Shareware: this means that if you like it or use it regularly you should send $5 (more or less, depending on how much you like this piece of software) to the author at the address above. Since collecting international cheques is VERY expensive, please send CASH ONLY. VERY expensive means that the banks can charge a sum which varies between $15 and $30. Thus, DO NOT send cheques.
◊ NOTE: Getting some (usually very few) bucks is what you write shareware for, but getting a note, a postcard or anything else is a lot better than getting nothing. I would like to know how far this program has gone, so remember that you can do something nice even if you do not have a couple of $$$ to spare.
• GENERAL INFO
◊ ChunkJoiner is a small utility that lets you join (concatenate) any number of files in a single chunk. To use it, simply select the files you want to join, and drag&drop them onto ChunkJoiner. You will be asked the “type” and “creator” for the newly created file. You will be also asked for the name of the application which can open the resulting file; I have added this because the Finder 7.x can read this name and show it to the user if the application is not present.
◊ ChunkJoiner operates on data forks, because by joining resource forks you would obtain a corrupted resource file.
◊ You can launch ChunkJoiner multiple times in a networking environment, as well as from a locked disk (CD-ROMs are welcome).
◊ ChunkJoiner is intelligent enough to use temporary memory (if available), so you do not have to get mad setting its memory partition. Furthermore, it should work even if you have not enough memory to read entirely the files you want to combine. If the System 7 virtual memory is active, ChunkJoiner cleverly optimizes its memory allocation scheme in order to minimize the disk activity when joining large files.
◊ ChunkJoiner can only be used under System 7 or later; if you try to start it up under older versions of the System you will get an error message. Sorry, System 6 users!
◊ You will notice that you cannot double-click the application and open files one by one, which is rather cumbersome; use drag&drop instead!
◊ When joining, you should hear a distinctive sound for every file that is being joined. The sound is played asynchronously, so that the Mac is not interrupted when concatenating. If you are working on a Macintosh equipped with an Apple Sound Chip and lots of files are being gathered, you might hear sounds one over the other. If the Macintosh has no Apple Sound Chip, you might hear only one sound at a time.
◊ If you change your mind while ChunkJoiner is working, press esc or Command-period to stop it.
◊ ChunkJoiner was written for me. I needed it to rejoin segmented tar archives made on a Unix® system, passed through WC-DOS disks. I wrote the “skip last byte” feature because I had to use a nasty Unix program named ibmwrite, who added a byte to the end of every file written (slooowwly!) to 360K WC-DOS 2.11 disks (yes, ibmwrite does not like disks formatted with newer versions).
• DISCLAIMER
◊ “No warranties at all, either express or implied…” “All trademarks are held by their respective owners…” and all that stuff.
This application should not do any damage, but if it does then you will be on your own. Let me know of any bugs you run into, anyway.
• VERSION HISTORY:
◊ 1.0.1 - Fixed a silly bug: I was not locking the sound handle because I assumed that the Sound Manager did it for me; nicely indeed, this bug was consistent across all my applications (the advantages of code reusability, you know). Sound Manager 2.x locked the handle for me (I observed that with Swatch), whereas Sound Manager 3.0 does not. The bug was found by Alessandro Levi Montalcini on the phone: «Oh, I am quite sure you are not locking the sound handle…»
You can continue joining if you press esc by mistake.
Fixed a potential bomb (no bashing, please) which could happen if you stopped the process (I forgot to initialize a Handle to nil).
◊ 1.0 - First public release.
For errors, suggestions, and others send e-mail to simula3@di.unito.it
