ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/UTILITY/FILE/CDPSW51D.ZIP/VERS-501.ME

Text File | 1991-02-04 | 8.3 KB | 204 lines

                                01/17/91


    Summary of new commands & options:

    SET CDP43L=0        suppresses 43- & 50- line modes.

    SET CDPSNO=0        speeds up display on "snowless" monitors.

    SET CDPXCLD= specs    excludes CDP consideration of directories
                specified, allowing CDP to operate on disks
                containing more than 2800 files.

    The first two of these commands may also be enabled by letters on
    the CDP command line.

    CDP .... X ....        is equivalent to SET CDP43L=0.

            and

    CDP .... W ....        is equivalent to SET CDPSNO=0.

    This does imply that "CDP d", where d is "X" or "W" is now invalid
as a command that CDP start up on disks X: or W:. That was already true of
Y: and Z: also. Sorry about that, but it's no big loss even to the few
people who have such disks.

    The comments below about version 430 apply to version 501 also. It
represents the overcoming of the problem mentioned below about being able
to save and restore all of a 50-line screen. Vesion 501 does require 2 kb
more of memory than the 43-line version and 7 kb more than the 25-line.

                                10/17/90
                Version 430

    This version breaks the previous version number sequence. It starts
with 43 because it supports 43-line video mode on an EGA as its default mode.
That is to say, if the mode is 25 lines, CDP will change the mode to 43 lines
while it is up.

    If it is popped up over a 35-line screen, it will assume that mode
also. If popped up on a VGA screen in 50-line mode, it use 43 lines while CDP
is up, and restore those lines when it goes resident. There is not sufficient
spare room in CDP at the moment to save & restore the other 7 lines.

    There are two methods to avoid the above changes (in which case CDP
will operate in 25 line mode as formerly).

    On the command line,

        specification of an X will suppress 50- and 43-line modes.

Or you can use the DOS SET command thus:

        SET CDP43L=0

    The version of CDP with two directory trees is not available in
43-50-line mode at this time. The space to hold the extra direcrory data is
used to save the extra screen lines.

    An interesting side note: CDP functions correctly if you pop it up
over one of the 40-char per line modes, or over top of CGA graphics screens.
It cannot be popped up over EGA graphics, however (unless the EGA is in CGA
emulation mode).

          --------------------------------
              New Screen Feature
          --------------------------------

    An additional option has been added for those who have a CGA screen
that does not show "snow" when the screen is manipulated fast in text mode.

    CDP will handle the screen considerably faster if you

        put a W on the command line of CDP.

Or you can use the DOS SET command thus:

        SET CDPSNO=0

    The easiest way to find out if this will work for you is simply to
try it. The worst that can happen is that there will be snow on your screen.
That's certainly not as bad as snow down your neck.

          --------------------------------
            Enhanced Comparisons
          --------------------------------

    An additional enhancement is to be found in the various file COMPARE
commands. The extra fast "by Time & Size Only" mode now details whether both
time and size differ, and in what way.

    The compare by binary contents comparison also states whether time
and/or size differ, when the files are either completely identical (by
contents) or almost identical (one is same as other, but longer).

          --------------------------------
              Oddball Disk Letters
          --------------------------------

    An attempt has been made to please people who have odd configurations
where a floppy disk is assigned to some letter such as C:, D:, etc., in
contradiction of the number of floppy disks indicated to be present by the
BIOS switch settings. For some reason these people seem to think their
configuration is perfectly normal; in spite of the fact that only a very
small number of machines are configured in such a way (usually by the use
of DRIVER.SYS).

    The "problem", if you want to call it that, was that during its
initialization, CDP checks all disks to gather information about them; except
that it does not check floppy disks because doing so in a natural fashion
requires spinning the disk spindle for a while to determine that no diskette
is present. That is a DOS deficiency. DOS doesn't have sense enough to know
that no diskette is there, without spinning the damned thing (true of early
versions of DOS and not fixed until DOS 3+).

    If you avoid trying to read the disk with an "undocumented" DOS call
to get information, DOS perversely spins the disk anyway, and additionally
puts out the annoying "abort, retry, ignore" message. These are DOS
deficiencies and/or bugs.

    What happened to people with odd configurations was that CDP would
assume that disk letters which would be above those covered by the number of
floppy disks that DOS erroneously reports that it has, would be hard disks.
CDP would make the "undocumented" call & get the "abort, retry, ignore" jazz.
It didn't hurt anything if you said ignore (or "fail" in later versions of
DOS). Nor did it even occur if a disk was present in the drive.

    Nevertheless, it is a well-known fact to repairmen, etc., that the
most abusive and aggressive customers are usually those with the cheapest,
most out-of-date, oddball, or abused equipment.

    I have done what I could do. CDP will now not let DOS spit out its
stupid "abort etc.". Instead, it will spin the disk for 10 seconds or so, and
when no response occurs, assume it is a misplaced floppy. Note that there may
be a possible side effect that CDP will malfunction on some ungodly RAM drives
that falsely format themselves as floppy disks, but are too stupid to function
properly when called directly with INT 13H, as CDP does.

    One is caught between a rock and a hard place. Unless one wishes to
devote an inordinate amount of code just to disk configuration analysis (which
is not supplied adequately in versions of DOS before 3.1, and even then does
not always function correctly because not all drives supply the required
signals), the best way to figure out the disk is just to go ahead and read
the thing -- since DOS won't tell you in any decent way just what is there
(and it may be impossible for DOS to do so, I must add -- DOS is not totally
culpable).


          --------------------------------
              More File Capacity
          --------------------------------

                                01/17/91

                Versions 431 & 501

    These versions allow CDP to operate on disks containing more than
2800 files, the former maximum.

    Because of memory limitations CDP can still keep track of only 2800
files at a time, but by the use of a DOS SET statement, directories may be
selected which CDP is to EXCLUDE from consideration. CDP simply behaves as
if those directories did not exist; EXCEPT that the actual space that they
and their files occupy is inviolate, and will not be used in any fashion
by CDP. So long as the total number of files in the non-excluded directories
is less than 2800, CDP will behave in its normal fashion.

    The syntax is best given by example:

    SET CDPXCLD=C:a/dz,g/mZ;d:r/Tz,m/pz;g:F/mz
            (notice that the case of alphabetics does not matter)
    says

    on disk C:, ignore directories ( & their subdirectories) at the root
            level, whose names sort between the strings "a" & "dz"
            and those with names between "g" & "mz"

    on disk D:, ignore directories with names between "r" & "tz" and
            between "m" and "pz"

    on disk G:, ignore directories with names between "f" and "mz".

    There are no restrictions or exclusions on other disks. Also, CDP
can export to any directories on the restricted disks, even the excluded
directories. The exclusions apply only to the disk that CDP is currently
"logged" to. It is important to note that the exclusion specifications apply
only to root-level directories and all the descendants of those excluded
root-level directories. In the above example, the directories

    C:\ALPHA\FARFLE\ and C:\GLOTZ\FARFLE\ would be excluded, but

    C:\FARFLE\ALPHA\ and C:\FARFLE\GLOTZ\ would be ok.

    All four directories would be allowed on disk D:.

    Directories G:\FARFLE\GLOTZ\ & G:\FARFLE\ALPHA would be excluded.

    The only limit on the number of exclusions that may be made is the
DOS limit on the length of a SET statement.