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- Short: Excellent MagicWB GUI front-end for DMS
- Author: Pat Seguin
- Uploader: golly@dircon.co.uk
- Type: util/arc
-
- DMS-Face by Pat Seguin, Copyright 1994
- Version 1.1 - February 25, 1994
-
- Welcome to DMS-Face v1.1, the ultimate DiskMasher interface! Alot of work has
- gone into making this program a GUI-lover's dream! No longer do you have to
- type long lines of commands to decompress, compress, view, or test your DMS
- archives. Everything can be achieved with the mouse.
-
- I crashed my hard drive a while back and lost some of my most useful utilities
- which included a DMS GUI. I had the resources to make my own interface to do
- the work for me so I decided to take on this project. I decided that the usual
- 4-color interfaces for many Amiga utilities were kind of boring so I decided to
- use the MagicWB XEN style and colors. Because of the wide exceptance of
- MagicWB, I felt that leaving this program's GUI as is would be exceptable to
- most users. If there is a call for it, I will release another version with a
- standard 4-color interface.
-
- Features of DMS-Face:
- --------------------
-
- * Enhanced 8-color custom GUI using the popular MagicWB XEN style.
-
- * Full support for all command-line arguments of DMS.
-
- * Preferences editor for defining DMS command and default directories.
-
- * Full GUI for every DMS function; Write, Read, Test, View
-
- Requirements for DMS-Face:
- -------------------------
-
- * OS 2.04 or better (designed under OS 3.0)
-
- * An Amiga with 1MB of RAM
-
- * Workbench running at least 3 bitplanes (8 colors) with MagicWB palette
- scheme (supplied in archive). NOTE: Will work with less than 3 bit-
- planes but will be hard to read.
-
- * DMS v1.11
-
- Installation:
- ------------
-
- 1.) 'Antique' font is no longer needed as in v1.0. You do however need to have
- XHelvetica and XEN fonts that were supplied with MagicWB. These are NOT
- included in this archive.
- 2.) Copy DMS-Face anywhere you like.
-
- That's it! The program will use it's internal defaults until you change the
- settings in the prefrences editor. See PREFERENCES for more information.
-
- The Program:
- -----------
-
- Double-click the DMS-Face icon and you will be presented with the (pain-in-
- the-butt) DeckRunner delay window and then the DMS-Face window in WRITE mode.
-
- If you have never used DMS-Face before, then the internal defaults will be used
- to locate DMS, and for all of the default directories. You should go right to
- the preferences editor before using DMS-Face and define your paths. See the
- PREFERENCES section.
-
- Note: When you first start the program, or if there is no filename selected,
- certain buttons and gadgets in every mode will be 'ghosted' or unavailable.
- You must select a DMS file before you can change any options or click 'Start'.
-
- Also Note: DMS-Face 1.0 had editable text-string fields for filenames. DMS-
- Face 1.1 does NOT. I wanted to use only XHelvetica font and CanDo does not
- support proportional fonts in string gadgets. I can justify this by saying
- that if you want to type, use DMS from CLI!
-
- WRITE MODE
- ----------
-
- The SOURCE field is where the name of the file you wish to decompress should go.
- Youuse the popfile gadget to the left of the text field to get the name.
- You will be presented with an ASL file requester asking for the filename and
- only filenames ending with '.DMS' will be shown.
-
- NOTE: The source field only displays the filename you are working with. If you
- want to see the full filename with the path, double-click on the filename and
- a window will open giving you pertitnent information.
-
- The OPTIONS area corresponds to the available options for DMS in WRITE mode.
- Please read your DMS documentation for more information on these options.
- When the option is active, there will be a checkmark displayed next to it.
-
- The DEST area displays the device where the file will be decompressed to.
- The gadget is a popup gadget, not a popfile gadget. This means that when you
- click on it, a list will pop up giving you four choices for the destination:
- DF0:, DF1:, DF2:, and RAD:. Clicking the popup gadget again or any other
- gadget will make the popup window go away, changing nothing.
-
- The CONTROL area contains the buttons PREFS, START, QUIT, !, and the mode switch
-
-
- START
- -----
-
- START will prompt you to insert a disk in the device you have selected. MAKE
- SURE YOU DO THIS NOW. If you hit 'OK' and there is no disk present, DMS will go
- ahead and start writing and possibly damage your drive. After inserting your
- disk and clicking 'OK', a console window will open and DMS will start
- decompressing the file. Depeneding on you preferences settings, the console
- window will either close right away or stay open, waiting for you to close it.
- If RAD: is your selected drive, then a requester will pop up and tell you to
- make sure you have mounted RAD: already. It will also mount RAD: for you when
- you click 'Mount'. If you click 'OK' and RAD: is mounted, DMS will start
- decompressing the DMS file to RAD:. If RAD: is not mounted and you click 'OK'
- anyways, DMS will start writing to DF0:. This is the way DMS works so make sure
- you either mount RAD: first or click 'Mount'. After clicking 'Mount', RAD: will
- be mounted and you will return to DMS-Face. Click start again and click 'OK' and
- away you go.
-
- Every mode of DMS-Face has the following buttons:
-
- PREFS
- -----
-
- Clicking the PREFS button will take you to the preferences editor. See the
- PREFERENCES section for information.
-
- TOGGLE MODE
- -----------
-
- This is the gadget that that looks just like a switch. Clicking on this switch
- will toggle between WRITE mode and READ mode, bringing up the proper interface.
- The '!' button above this switch will switch you to TEST/VIEW mode.
-
- READ MODE
- ---------
-
- The DESTINATION field works the same as WRITE mode's SOURCE field. In READ
- mode, the DESTINATION field selects the path and filename you wish to compress
- the disk to. You use the popfile gadget to select the filename. If you select
- or type in a filename that exists already, a requester will ask you before
- overwriting it. You may double-click on the name in the destination field
- to get more information on the file.
-
- The TEXT FILE field lets you select and optional text file to compress with
- your new DMS file. By default, the requester will look first in your S:
- directory or else it will look in the directory specified in the preferences
- editor under 'Text File Path'. You may double-click on the name in the text
- file field to get more information on the text file.
-
- The LOW TRACK and HIGH TRACK slider gadgets correspond to the LOWTRACK and
- HIGHTRACK options of DMS. This allows you to split your disk into more than
- one DMS file.
-
- The OPTIONS area corresponds to the available options for DMS in READ mode.
- Please read your DMS documentation for more information on these options.
- When the option is active, there will be a checkmark displayed next to it.
-
- The SOURCE field displays the drive specified in the preferences files. This
- is where DMS will read from.
-
- The CONTROL area contains the same buttons as write mode. Start will begin the
- DMS READ operation. This operation brings up the same requesters as the START
- button in WRITE mode. See WRITE mode for an explanation. Clicking OK will
- open a console window and DMS will begin compressing right away from the defined
- LOWTRACK to the defined HIGHTRACK.
-
- VIEW MODE
- ---------
-
- The SOURCE filed contains the name of the DMS file to view. If you have
- previously selected a filename in WRITE mode, that filename will be displayed
- here. Manual entry or the popfile gadget can get a new filename to view.
-
- The START button will begin the DMS VIEW operation right away.
-
- TEST MODE
- ---------
-
- TEST MODE works identically to VIEW MODE except the START button will begin
- the DMS TEST operation right away.
-
- STATUS SECTION
- --------------
-
- This is a simple window that gives you messages about what DMS-Face is doing.
-
- PREFERENCES EDITOR
- ------------------
-
- Here is where you define all of the variable needed by DMS-Face to operate
- properly on your system. You may only use the popfile gadgets here. Manual
- text entry will have no effect except for in the Source/Dest drive field.
-
- DMS COMMAND is where you tell DMS-Face what command to use for DMS. The
- default is c:DMS but not everybody keeps DMS in their C: directory, so
- that may be changed here. This should contain the path and filename of
- DMS. Note that DMS v1.52 and up may not function properly at the moment.
-
- DMS FILES DIRECTORY tells DMS-Face where to look first for your DMS files.
- The ASL file requester will open to this directory with the #?.DMS pattern.
- This is SYS: by default.
-
- TEXT FILES directory tells DMS-Face where to look first for your text files
- to compress with a DMS archive in READ mode. This is S: by default.
-
- DEST/SOURCE drive is where you tell DMS-Face what device to use for WRITE
- and READ operations. WARNING! If what you enter here is not a valid
- trackdisk device, like DF0:, DF1:, RAD:, the DMS will use DF0: by default,
- regardless if there is a disk in DF0: or not. So, make sure you enter the
- name of a device that you have or that is active. If you enter RAD:, make
- sure RAD: is mounted. DMS-Face will give you the option to mount RAD: when
- you click START if RAD: is entered here. In the future, there will be
- support for DMS v1.53 which allows you to use a hard disk location instead
- of just trackdisk devices.
-
- CONSOLE AUTO/CLOSE section contains a row of switches labeled with the diff-
- erent DMS-Face operations. These switches control whether the output console
- windows will close automatically or manually by the user. The upright position
- (A) is for AutoClose, the down position (C) is for Close(manual). By default,
- all windows AutoClose.
-
- SAVE will save everything currently displayed in the text fields to
- S:DMSFACE.CFG.
-
- USE will remember what was entered in the text fields but not save them to
- disk. This is useful for temporarily changing some of your default paths
- and DEST/SOURCE drive.
-
- CANCEL will exit preferences and return to the last remembered settings.
-
- Clicking any of the above buttons will return you to the window you just left
- from when you clicked the preferences button.
-
- Clicking the right mouse button will load the last saved preferences settings
- from disk. If there are none on disk, then the internal defaults will be
- restored.
-
- KNOWN PROBLEMS
- --------------
-
- Clicking 'OK' from the START operation will launch DMS and it will start doing
- its thing even if there's no disk in the drive. This is potentially dangerous
- but hitting CTRL-C in the output window will break the operation. I am working
- on this but as it is, DMS has enough safeguards so there should be no problems.
- I won't take any responsibililty for any damaged incurred while using DMS-Face.
- If the program's instructions are followed, there will be no problems. I should
- have this problem eliminated in the next release.
-
- The console window displayed at startup is not under my control. Innovatronics
- has a new licensing policy for software written with CanDo. I received a
- freely distributable version of DeckBrowser (which is bound into DMS-Face)
- which displays this message. It's not too long and only displays upon
- startup. Hopefully, they will take out the console window in a future version.
-
- Bug reports can be sent to me via FidoNet at 1:260/158 (Pat Seguin).
-
- DMS-Face is FREEWARE. It may be distributed anywhere as long as the archive is
- left intact with all current files. No money can be made from its dist-
- ribution with the exception of copying fees for PD collections (i.e. Fred Fish)
-
- CREDITS
- -------
-
- Many thanks go to David Czaya for testing this for me and for all of his
- suggestions. Without his help, this program may never have seen the light
- of day.
-
- MagicWorkbench is by Martin Huttenloher. Thanks Martin!
-
- HISTORY
- -------
-
- v1.0 (2/15/94) First version released to public.
-
- v1.1 (2/25/94) Second version released to public.
-
- Changes:
-
- * Overhauled interface to blend better with MagicWB. Used XHelvetica.font and
- XEN.font where appropriate.
-
- * Changed text button imagery (Start, Prefs, etc.) to use new XEN style and
- XHelvetica font.
-
- * Changed checkmark gadget imagery.
-
- * Changed 'Switch' imagery. Bigger and better, IMHO.
-
- * Changed slider knob imagery in READ mode. LowTrack and HighTrack text is now
- displayed in white on dark grey in the XEN font.
-
- * Changed drive popfile gadget to a popup gadget. This now pops up a list of
- drives you can choose from to use with DMS. Most people will not have more
- than 3 drives so I put in DF0:, DF1:, DF2:, and RAD:. DMS won't let you
- write to anything other than a trackdisk device so I saw no need to have a
- file requester anymore.
-
- * ALL string gadgets are gone now. I did this because the string gadgets ONLY
- use topaz.font and I wanted everything to be in 'XEN' fonts. Everything is
- achieved using mouse only now. I think that's the way it should be. If you
- want to type, use DMS from CLI. ;)
-
- * Added double-click function to all filename fields to give more information
- to the user.
-
-
- ============================= Archive contents =============================
-
- Original Packed Ratio Date Time Name
- -------- ------- ----- --------- -------- -------------
- 2273 559 75.4% 25-Feb-94 11:47:32 DMS-Face1.1.info
- 434 114 73.7% 11-Feb-94 23:21:24 DMS-Face1.1/ClickForColors
- 3135 416 86.7% 25-Feb-94 11:18:50 DMS-Face1.1/ClickForColors.info
- 262472 100843 61.5% 25-Feb-94 11:16:30 DMS-Face1.1/DMS-Face
- 12999 5220 59.8% 25-Feb-94 11:46:08 DMS-Face1.1/DMS-Face.doc
- 4666 1382 70.3% 25-Feb-94 11:18:50 DMS-Face1.1/DMS-Face.doc.info
- 4351 1368 68.5% 25-Feb-94 11:18:50 DMS-Face1.1/DMS-Face.info
- -------- ------- ----- --------- --------
- 290330 109902 62.1% 11-Apr-95 19:21:42 7 files
-