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File Finder Release Version 1.1 26th Feb 1995 written by Mark Melton email u9326383@radon.sys.uea.ac.uk (until July 96) Contents Copyright Introduction Requirements Installation Usage Problems Future plans Acknowledgements Suggestions/Registration Copyright ©1995 M.D. Melton This product may be freely distributed as long as certain conditions are met. 1. This product may only be distributed in a compleat form this doc file including copyright message must be i ncluded . 2. This product may be freely distributed via the internet or any other non commercial venture. 3. This program my only be distributed by a commercial PD library only with my express permission, for which a charge will be made. 4. No charge may be made for the distribution of this product except for a nominal fee for the media on which it is transmitted, without my permission. 5. This product may not be included on any magazine coverdisk without my written consent except for the Amiga Shopper magazine based in the UK. 6. This product will not be included in any commercial package, unless my written consent is obtained before distribution. By distributing, using or copying the product you indicate your acceptance of the above conditions. Disclaimer This program is provided as is, and no liability is accepted for any dammage caused to you, your machine, or f or that matter anything else. Hey if using this program causes WW3 don't blame me OK. Introduction This program is used for finding things, still you probably worked that out from the name ;-). I wrote it mainly because I have access to several Amigas (TM), with rather large hard-drive's. I found there was a need to quickly find the location of file's on the machines as many of them have files stored in different ways. There was also the article in the Amiga Shopper magazine on a file finding utility. I modified their code a bit and added substantial amounts, and came up with this program. Current features in version 1.1 -> Find any file on a disk, using standard AmigaDos(TM) file matching patterns. -> Fully implemented as a commodity, with user definable hotkey etc. -> Limit search size parameters, only files in a certain size range are checked. -> Limit date range parameters, only files in a ceratain date range are checked. -> Window is now sizable. -> Slightly faster search routine. -> Interface is now an "AppWindow", when a file or directory is droped on the interface its path is entered in the path gadget. + a few bug fixes. -> Stack overflow fixed. Reported by millions (well at least four people :-) -> GUI problems when running on non-interlaced NTSC machines fixed. Reported by a NTSC A500 user, thanks! -> Problems with SoftLinked directories fixed. Well they now work on my machine, if you know different let me know ;-). -> All gadget enteries are remembered even if GUI is hidden. -> Close window gadget now "hides" the interface instead of closing it. Requirements for File Finder. It is essential that you have at least kickstart & Workbench 2.04. Other than that there are no further restrictions, well appart from having an amiga :-). The program has been written on an A1200 with 50MhzGVP A1230-II. It has been tested using enforcer, and does not cause any enforcer hits so it should be OK on all amigas. Tested on plain A1200, A4000/040, A4000/030/ and an A3000. I have had reports of it working on the following:- -> A500 (NTSC) -> A2000 030 I would be grateful for people to confirm its operation on other machines, e.g. A500+, A2000, etc. Usage This program was designed with one goal in mind, to be simple to use. It is for this reason that the standard "lo ok" of the workbench has been used. The program has three main interface area's. The file list at the top (initialy blank ), the search paameter cont rol's, contained within the "raised" box, and the program control functions at the bottom. Firstly the Search parameter gadgets will be described. The status gadget informs the user of the current status of the program. It is not selectable by the user. The Path gadget, keyboard shortcut P, is used to specify the drive or directory in which to look for the file. Limiting the search to a particular directory saves time by reducing the number of files which have to be searched . e.g. DH0: This would search all of DH0:, whereas dh0:utilities/ would only search the directory dh0:utilities. A simpler and quicker method to specify a search path is to drag the icon of the disk or directory that you wish to search on to the FileFinder interface, anywhere will do, and release it. This will enter the path of the icon into the path gadget. The Pattern gadget, keyboard shortcut T, is used to specify the file for which to search. Standard AmigaDOS file patterns are accepted, to save you digging out your AmigaDOS manual, if you even have one, here are the pattern 's ? Matches any single character. # Matches zero or more occurances of . <p1>|<p2> Matches if either <p1> or <p2> matches. - Matches everything but . (<p1><p2>...) Groups items together. % Matches the null string. [-] Determines a character range. Now unless you've used AmigaDOS extensivly, that lot will be about as clear as mud. So here's the english translation. A?B Matches any three letter word begining in A and ending in B. Such as AcB, AzB, ABB, etc. A#BC Matches any name beginning in A and ending in C, with any number of B's in between. Such as ABC, ABBC, ABBB C, etc. ABC#? Matches any name beginning ABC. Such as ABCD, ABCPIC.info, etc. #?XYZ Matches any name ending XYZ. Such as MARK_XYZ, PICXYZ, etc. ABC#?XYZ Matches any name beginning ABC and ending XYZ. Such as ABCXYZ, ABCMARKXYZ, etc. A(B|C)D Matches ABD or ACD. ~(XYZ) Matches anything but XYZ. ~(#?.info) Matches anything not ending in .info. A#(BC) Matches any name begining with A followed by any number of BC's. Such as ABC, ABCBC, ABCBCBC, etc. A(B|D|%)C Matches any name starting with A ending with C with B, D or nothing in between. Such as ABC, ADC or AC . [A-D]#? Matches any name beginning with A, B, C or D. The Size button, keyboard shortcut S, opens the Search Size limit window containing three gadgets. They are the info gadget, which is a small reminder of what to do, the Max Size gadget, keyboard shortcut M, where the maximum file size to include in the search is put, and the M in Size gadget, keyboard shortcut S, where the minimum file size to incul de in the search is put. The search size limit window does not have to be closed after use and can be left open. To ignore a maximum file size limit enter a value of 0. e.g. Max size = 0 Min size = 1000 would only look for files over 1000 bytes (1Kb) in size. Max size = 10000 Min size = 5000 would only look for files over 5000 bytes (5Kb) long but under 10000 bytes (10 Kb). The Date button, keyboard shortcut D, opens the Date Size limit window containing three dadgets. They are the info gadget, which is a small reminder of what to do, the From gadget, keyboard shortcut F, where the earliest date to include in the search is entered, and the To gadget, keyboard shortcut T, where the most recent date to include is entered. The date range limit window does not have to be closed after use and can be left open. To ignore a date limit leave the gadget empty. The date should be entered in a DD-MMM-YY format e.g. 04-Mar-95, also 04-03-95 works equally well. The List Gadget. This is where the list of files that match the search parameters will appear. If the list gadget is clicked on, details of the file selected, will appear in the info window. This provides details such as the creation date of the file, its name, the path to the file and its size. The info window can be left open when selecting other files, there details will replace those already in the info window. Program control gadgets. Quit, keyboard shortcut Q, exits the program immediately. Warning, you will not be asked to confirm a quit request. Hide, keyboard sortcut H, closes the GUI, but leaves the program running, press the hotkey combination to popup the interface, default Shift Alt F. Find, keyboard shortcut F, commences the search with the current search parameters. Abort, keyboard shortcut A, aborts the current search operation. This will stop the search at the point it had reached when the abort button was pressed. Search operations must be allowed to compleat or aborted before any other commands can be used, such as Quit. Print, keyboard shortcut R, print's the current contents of the list to the current prefs printer. Recommendation To make the search as fast as possible, it is recommended that the program window is kept as small as possible. It can easily be enlarged after the search is finished. Installation This couldn't possibly be easier. Simply drag the File Finder icon to wherever you want it to be put. I would recomend either your utilities drawer, tools drawer or preferbly your WBStartup drawer. The documentation consists of the AmigaGuide format doc, and a plain text file. Also there is also a picture of the interface this should ideally be kept in the same place as the amigaguide doc. New to version 1.05. TOOLTYPES (See page 10-23 of the WorkBench 3.0 manual.) CX_HOTKEY="ctrl F" or any other combination you want. This key combination will cause the program to popup its GUI(Graphical user interface) if it is currently "Hidden". Use the tooltype DONOTWAIT if you run the program from the WBStartup drawer. The CX_POPUP tooltype determinew if the program opens its GUI on startup. Problems One problem that you might experience if you have a particularly deep directory structure, is that of a stack overflow. This can be solved by the increasing the stack size of the program. See page 3-19 of the WB3.0 manual for details on how to do this. If you discover any problems with this program send me the details, such as what the problem is, what sort of machine you use machine, you KS and WB version numbers and an address where you can be contacted. Future plans Immplement the type limit feature. This my take a while :-( You never know, some shareware subscriptions might encorage me to get these features implemented :-> Also I would welcome any suggestions for improvements or new features. Contacts Acknowledgements Thanks go to the Amiga Shopper magazine in the UK for providing the inspiration for this program. This program is loosly based on a program that they ran as a C programming tutorial, but has had considreable enhancements, and extra features added. Suggestions/Registration Firstly I can be contacted by Email or snail mail. Email (Bugs, suggestions only) u9326383@radon.sys.uea.ac.uk I will have access to this account until at least summer 1996. Snail mail( registration requests, bugs, suggestions) Mr M D Melton, 1 Hawksmoor close, North Hykeham, Lincoln, England, LN6 9PN Registration What benifits will registration bring you. Well appart from making your pocket/wallet slightly lighter and slimmer :-), firstly it will bring my eternal gratitude, and secondly the very latest version of this program, if you have an email address where I could send it to, or send me a self addessed jiffy bag or similar containing a DSDD floppy. What do I ask for this program, which has been written in my spare time while studying for my degree, as a possible method of suplementing my income :-> Registration is the huge figure of £5, yes thats all, just 5 GB pounds. Sorry but I can only accept GB pounds. This is because the bank would want its huge slice for changing forign currencies :-<.