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──────────────────── FCOMP █▀█ █ Gamma Software ──────────────────── COPYRIGHT _____________________________________________________________________ COPYRIGHT --------- Copyright 1991 by Gamma Software. All rights reserved. TRADEMARKS ---------- IBM PC, PC/XT,PC/AT and PS/2 are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc. DISCLAIMER ---------- Users of FCOMP must accept this disclaimer of warranty: FCOMP is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or conse- quential, which may result from the use of FCOMP. DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE ----------------------- Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with printed manual. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. _____________________________________________________________________ i REGISTRATION _____________________________________________________________________ REGISTRATION AGREEMENT ---------------------- FCOMP is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. This is not free software, if you continue to use FCOMP after a reasonable trial period, you MUST make a registration payment of $15.00 to Gamma Software or discontinue use. In order for Gamma Software to be able to continue developing this product we must receive support from those people who use it. We receive no portion of any fees paid to shareware distributors. See the next section, "How To Register", for details on how to register. If you do not continue to use the program, but would like to offer suggestions for future changes/enhancements to the program that would make it useful to you then send them to the address below. If any of your suggestions are implemented and you would like to be notified when they are made then indicate such and also include your address or Compuserve ID. The $15.00 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of FCOMP must register and pay for their copies of FCOMP within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-Licenses available. See the "How To Register" section, below. FCOMP cannot be distributed for any kind of remuneration. It is permissible for distributors to charge a nominal fee (usually not more than $5) for the disk that FCOMP is shipped on plus shipping and handling. No fee can be charged for the FCOMP software itself. Gamma Software must be advised by any distributor charging any fee for its distribution and the amount of such fees. This will insure that the distributor is kept up-to-date with the latest version of FCOMP. Gamma Software reserves the right to withdraw distribution rights from any and all distributors. You are encouraged to pass a copy of FCOMP along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of the FCOMP shareware system and a printed manual. _____________________________________________________________________ ii REGISTRATION _____________________________________________________________________ HOW TO REGISTER --------------- When you execute the shareware version of the FCOMP program a shareware registration screen is displayed at the beginning of the program. This screen describes the registration policy and at the bottom of the screen there are 3 options. To register FCOMP press the down arrow key to highlight the second option "Print Registration Invoice". Then press Enter and the invoice will be printed to your printer (make sure your printer is on and on-line). If for some reason the invoice does not print then type the following command: "PRINT FCINVOIC.DOC" at a DOS prompt (while in the FCOMP directory). The next step is to fill in the invoice and mail it to: Gamma Software P.O. Box 8191 Fort Collins, CO 80526 along with a check or money order for $15 or fill in the required credit card information. A quicker way to register FCOMP is to call: (800) 747-9960 and we will take your credit card information over the phone and ship your order. Purchase orders and COD orders are not accepted. If you wish to purchase a site license then you will also need to print and fill in the form contained in the file "FCSITE.DOC". Mail that form along with the invoice to the address above. We will ship 10 copies of the software with each site license. You may, of course, install the software on all computers at the given site when you purchase a site license. _____________________________________________________________________ iii INDEX _____________________________________________________________________ Contents -------- Page Introduction ........................................ 1 Getting Help ...................................... 1 System Requirements ............................... 1 Manual Conventions ................................ 2 Use of a Mouse .................................... 2 Getting Started ..................................... 3 Command Syntax (batch) .............................. 4 Command Syntax (interactive) ........................ 5 The File Selection menu ............................. 6 The Comparison menu ................................. 8 Display next difference .......................... 8 Save to file ..................................... 8 Print ............................................ 8 New compare ...................................... 8 Help ............................................. 8 Quit ............................................. 8 Error Messages ...................................... 9 _____________________________________________________________________ iv INTRODUCTION _____________________________________________________________________ The FCOMP program compares two text files and displays their differences. It can be run interactively or in batch mode. This program is especially useful to programmers who want to determine what changes were made in a source file from one version to the next. The files to be compared must be pure ASCII text. In other words word processor files that contain binary formatting information cannot be used. In batch mode the files to be compared and the file to be used as the output for the comparison are placed on the command line. No other input is required from the user. This mode is suitable for use in a batch file. In interactive mode the program will prompt for 0 to 2 files (depending on whether any were input on the command line) to use in the comparison. The files are input using a file selection menu similar to the one used in Windows. Once the files have been compared the comparison is displayed in a scrollable window. Options within this menu include: displaying the next difference, saving the comparison to a file, printing the comparison, Starting a new comparison, help and quitting the program. About This Manual ----------------- The FCOMP program is intended to be as easy to use as possible, but you should take a few minutes to go through the "Getting Started" section of this manual. The sections following "Getting Started" describe the different features available in the program. Getting Help ------------ If you have a problem with the FCOMP then support may be obtained by writing to: Gamma Software P.O. Box 8191 Fort Collins, CO 80526 Please describe the problem in sufficient detail so that it can be reproduced by us. Support may also be obtained by calling (303) 667-9960, 8am-5pm Mountain time (Mon-Fri). It can also be obtained by sending mail to [73737,1721] on Compuserve. Support is currently free and unlimited. We do reserve the right to change these policies in the future. Requirements ------------ - DOS 2.0 or later. - IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or compatible. - 512k ram _____________________________________________________________________ 1 INTRODUCTION _____________________________________________________________________ Manual Conventions ------------------ When two keys need to be pressed simultaneously to perform a given operation they are separated by a plus (+). For example Shift+Tab means to press the Shift key and hold it down while the Tab key is pressed. The arrow keys are denoted as Right, Left, Up and Down. File names are in all capital letters. There is an implied Enter at the end of most commands (i.e. you must press the Enter key after typing in the command). Using The Mouse --------------- This section describes the various mouse actions that are referred to in the rest of this manual. If the program detects a mouse driver then the mouse will automatically be used by the program. All the keyboard functions still work unchanged. If the mouse has been initialized then a rectangular mouse cursor should appear on the screen when the program is loaded and move when the mouse is moved. If a mouse cursor does not appear and you have a mouse make sure the mouse driver is loaded and the mouse has been installed properly (see the instructions that came with your mouse). When the manual says to "click on ..." then you should place the mouse cursor over the field described after the text "click on" and press the left mouse button. For example "click on the OK field" means to position the cursor over the field that contains the text "OK" and press down and then release the left mouse button. When the manual says to "click and drag ..." then you should move the mouse cursor over the object mentioned after the text "click and drag" and then press and hold down the left mouse button. Then move the mouse until the desired result has been obtained. Then release the button. For example "click and drag the scroll bar up or down" means to move the mouse cursor over the scroll bar, press down and hold the left mouse button and then move the mouse up or down. Release the left mouse button to end the operation. When the manual says to "double click on ..." then you should perform the same operation as "click on ..." except that you should press the left mouse button twice in rapid succession. _____________________________________________________________________ 2 GETTING STARTED _____________________________________________________________________ This section will run you through a brief example demonstrating how to use the program. First change to the drive and directory containing FCOMP. For example type commands similar to: C: CD \UTILS at the DOS prompt. The drive and directory will vary depending on where you installed FCOMP. The next step is to load the program by simply typing FCOMP at the DOS prompt. Once loaded the program first displays a copyright screen and then displays a shareware information screen (in the shareware version). Press Enter (or click on "Continue") to continue to the file selection menu. Press Alt+f to switch to the "Files" sub-menu and then press the down arrow key until FCTEST1.TXT is highlighted. Then press Enter. You can also double-click on FCTEST1.TXT to select it with the mouse. Another file selection menu will appear to allow you to select the second file to use in the comparison. Select FCTEST2.TXT. The program will then compare the 2 files and display the compari- son. At this point you can have the program highlight the differences between the 2 files by pressing the "d" key or clicking on "Display next difference". This is useful for locating the differences in large files quickly. The display can be scrolled up and down and right and left with the arrow keys or by clicking on the arrows at the end of the scroll bars. The comparison displays the lines that are the same to both files in the middle. Lines unique to the first file are displayed to the left and lines unique to the second file are displayed to the right. You can save the comparison to file by pressing "s" and entering an output file name in the file selection menu. If you want to better understand what the display represents, print it by pressing the "p" key and then exit by pressing the "q" key. When you are back at the DOS prompt type the following commands: PRINT FCTEST1.TXT PRINT FCTEST2.TXT and then compare the two files just printed with the comparison you printed in the program. _____________________________________________________________________ 3 COMMAND SYNTAX _____________________________________________________________________ Batch ----- To run this program in batch mode type the following command at a DOS prompt. FCOMP file1 file2 outfile The parameters "file1" and "file2" should be replaced with the complete path specification for the two files that are to be compared. The parameter "outfile" should be replaced with the path specification for the file that is to contain the output of the comparison. This file is overwritten if it exists so care should be taken to give the proper path specification. The following is an example of a batch FCOMP command. FCOMP file1a.txt file1b.txt file1.cmp This command would compare FILE1A.TXT to FILE1B.TXT and place the comparison in FILE1.CMP. In batch mode the program requires no further input from the user after the command has been issued. The two files are compared and the output is placed in "outfile" automatically. If one of the files cannot be opened then the program issues an error and terminates. The comparison in "outfile" lists the lines that match from the two inputs in the middle. Those that are unique to "file1" are listed to the left and those that are unique to "file2" are listed to the right. There is a header at the beginning of the comparison which lists the files used and where their respective lines start in the comparison. The remainder of this manual deals with the interactive mode of FCOMP. _____________________________________________________________________ 4 COMMAND SYNTAX _____________________________________________________________________ Interactive ----------- To run this program in interactive mode type the following at a DOS prompt. FCOMP [/vxx] [file1 file2] The parameters enclosed in brackets are optional. The switch /vxx sets the video mode. There are two forms of this switch: /v43 and /v50. The switch /v43 tells the program to use the 43 line mode of EGA display devices and the /v50 switch sets the program to use the 50 line mode of VGA display devices. The parameters "file1" and "file2" specify the two files to use in the comparison. You may specify just "file1" or "file1" and "file2". You cannot specify "file2" unless you also specify "file1". The program will prompt you for the file(s) you do not specify on the command line. See the next section "The File Selection Menu". The following are valid forms of the FCOMP command. FCOMP /v43 file1.txt file2.txt FCOMP /v50 file1.txt file2.txt FCOMP file1.txt file2.txt FCOMP /v43 file1.txt FCOMP file1.txt FCOMP /v50 FCOMP In the shareware version of the program a registration reminder screen appears after the FCOMP command is issued. Press Enter or click on "OK" to continue. After the filenames for the two files to use in the comparison are entered the program will display the comparison. If the comparison is too large to be completely displayed in the amount of memory currently available to the program then the following message will be issued. "Not enough memory to display entire comparison" Only a portion of the comparison will be displayed but the entire comparison can still be printed or saved to a file. See the section "The Comparison Menu" for more details. _____________________________________________________________________ 5 The File Selection Menu _____________________________________________________________________ This menu consists of 6 sections: the "Filename" field, the "Directory" field, the "Files" list, the "Directories" list, the "OK" button and the "CANCEL" button. If a new file is being selected then the "Files" list is absent. To move to the next field press the Tab key. To move to the previous field press Shift and Tab at the same time. To move to another field using the mouse place the mouse cursor over the desired field and click the left mouse button. You may also move directly to the "Filename" field by pressing Alt+n. You may move to the "Files" and "Directories" lists by pressing Alt+f and Alt+d, respectively. The "Filename" field is used to enter a filename directly or a wildcard specification to set the files displayed in the "Files" list. For example if you want to display all files in the current directory with the extension ".DOC" then enter "*.doc" in the "Filename" field and press Enter or click on the "OK" button. The "Files" list should then be updated. If you specify a drive and/or directory in this field then the "Directories" list will also be updated when Enter is pressed. This field recognizes the standard DOS wildcards "*" and "?". See your DOS manual for an explanation of wildcards. The "Directory" field displays the current directory. You cannot edit this field directly. It is updated when a new drive or directory is selected from the "Directories" list or entered in the "Filename" field. The "Files" list displays the files with the wildcard specification set in the "Filename" field and the directory listed in the "Directory" field. The up and down arrow keys and Page UP and Page Down keys are used to highlight different files in the list. Click on a filename to highlight it using the mouse. The "Filename" field is updated with the currently highlighted filename. Click on one of the scroll arrows on the right border to scroll the list with the mouse. To scroll the "Files" list more quickly using the mouse, click and drag the scroll bar on the right border of the "Files" list. When the desired file is highlighted press Enter or click the mouse on the "OK" button or double click on a file in the list to select it. This ends the file selection. The "Directories" list displays the subdirectories and if one exists the parent directory (denoted by "..") of the current path specified in the "Directory" field. It also displays the drives installed on the system at the end of the list. You may scroll through this list in the same way as the "Files" list, above. The currently highlighted directory is prefixed to the file specification in the "Filename" field. To select a drive or directory highlight it and press Enter or click on the "OK" button or double click on the desired selection. The "OK" button is selected by moving to it with the Tab or Shift+Tab keys and pressing Enter or by clicking on it with the mouse. _____________________________________________________________________ 6 The File Selection Menu _____________________________________________________________________ The "CANCEL" button is selected by moving to it with the Tab or Shift+Tab keys and pressing Enter or by clicking on it with the mouse. This exits the file selection menu without making a selection. The Escape key does the same thing. Selecting "OK", pressing Enter in the "Filename" field, selecting a file in the "Files" list or selecting a drive/directory in the "Directories" list does the following. The contents of the "Filename" field is read and if a new drive, directory or file specification has been entered then the "Directory" field, the "Directories" list and the "Files" list are updated to reflect the values in the "Filename" field. The "Filename" field is then updated to contain only the file specification that was entered. If the "Filename" field describes a unique file (i.e. no wildcards) then the program checks to see if the file exists. If it does and an existing file is to be opened then the file selection ends. If the file exists and a new file is to be selected then the program asks you if you want to overwrite it. The space bar (or clicking on the yes/no field) toggles between yes and no. Tab to the "OK" field and press Enter or click on "OK" when the desired choice has been made. Responding yes ends the file selection. Responding no returns you to the file selection menu. For example to open an existing file using the keyboard press Tab 4 times to get to the "Directories" list. Press the down arrow key until the desired drive is highlighted. Press Enter. Press Tab 4 times again and highlight the desired directory. Press Enter. Press Tab 3 times to get to the "Files" list and highlight the desired file. Press Enter. This will exit the file selection menu. If the "Directory" field already contains the proper path then you can skip the first two steps and go straight to the "Files" list and select the desired file. You can also type in the desired filename in the "Filename" field and press Enter to select it. To open an existing file using the mouse, double click on the desired drive from the "Directories" list. Then double click on the desired directory from that list. Then double click on the desired file from the "Files" list. This will exit the file selection. If the path in the "Directory" field is already correct then you can simply double click on the desired file to select it and skip the first two steps. To open a new file then select the proper path if the one in the "Directory" field is not correct by selecting a drive and directory in the "Directories" list. Then type in the desired file name in the "Filename" field and press Enter. If the file does not exist then the file selection menu will be exited. If it does exist then the program will prompt you to determine if it should be overwritten. Answering yes will select the file and exit the file selection menu. _____________________________________________________________________ 7 The Comparison Menu _____________________________________________________________________ The comparison lists the lines that match from the two inputs in the middle. Those that are unique to "file1" are listed to the left and those that are unique to "file2" are listed to the right. There is a header at the beginning of the comparison which lists the files used and where their respective lines start in the comparison. Scrolling --------- You may scroll through the comparison using the arrow keys and Page Up and Page Down keys. Pressing the Ctrl key and the End key at the same time causes the comparison to be scrolled to the bottom. Pressing Ctrl+Home causes the comparison to be scrolled to the top. Placing the mouse cursor over one of the vertical or horizontal scroll arrows on the border and clicking the left mouse button causes the comparison to be scrolled in the direction of the arrow. To scroll the comparison more quickly place the mouse cursor over the vertical scroll bar (on the right border) or over the horizontal scroll bar (at the bottom). Then click the left mouse button and hold it down. Then move the mouse in the direction you want to scroll (left/right if over the horizontal bar or up/down if over the vertical bar). Release the left mouse button when the comparison has been scrolled to the desired position. Searching --------- You may search for a given text string within the comparison by pressing Alt+f. This will bring up a menu that prompts you for the string to search for. Enter the desired string and press Enter or press Esc to terminate the command (clicking the left mouse button while the mouse cursor is outside the pop-up menu also terminates the command). The previous search string is remembered so if you want to search for the same string again press Alt+f and the pop-up menu should contain the last text string entered. If you press Enter to accept this string then the next occurrence of the string will be found. If the given text string is found then it is highlighted. If the string is not found then the following message will be displayed along the bottom border. "Pattern not found." The comparison is always searched from the current position towards the end. Therefore if the string you are searching for lies above the currently displayed position in the comparison the string will not be found. _____________________________________________________________________ 8 The Comparison Menu _____________________________________________________________________ Options ------- The menu bar at the top of the comparison lists the options available. To select an option press the first letter of the desired option or place the mouse cursor over the desired option and click the left mouse button. The following sections describe the available options. Display next difference ----------------------- This option is selected by pressing the "d" key or clicking on this option in the menu bar with the mouse. The file is then positioned to the next difference in the comparison. If there are no more differences then the following text is displayed in the bottom border. "No more differences" Save to file ------------ This option is selected by pressing the "s" key or clicking on this option in the menu bar with the mouse. The file selection menu is then displayed. Enter the name of the file you want to output the comparison to. See the section "The File Selection Menu" for more details. Once a file name has been entered the program writes the current comparison to that file. Print ----- This option is selected by pressing the "p" key or clicking on this option in the menu bar with the mouse. The current comparison is then printed. If the program detects an error sending the comparison to the printer then the following message will appear. "Make sure printer is ON LINE" Press Enter to continue if the above error message is displayed. The printer needs to be hooked up, powered on and on-line when this command is invoked. New compare ----------- This option is selected by pressing the "n" key or clicking on this option in the menu bar with the mouse. The program will then bring up the file selection menu so that you may enter two files for a new comparison. Help ---- This option is selected by pressing the "h" key or clicking on this option in the menu bar with the mouse. A help screen is then displayed. Press Enter or click on the OK field to return to the comparison menu. _____________________________________________________________________ 9 The Comparison Menu _____________________________________________________________________ Quit ---- This option is selected by pressing the "q" key or clicking on this option in the menu bar with the mouse. The program then terminates. _____________________________________________________________________ 10 Error Messages _____________________________________________________________________ Error messages are either displayed and the program terminates or they appear in a pop-up dialogue box. In this second case press Enter or click on the "OK" field to continue. The following is a list of errors issued by the program, what they mean and what can be done to correct them, if anything. "Can't find match at file1 line nnn file2 line nnn" The program searched thru the maximum number of lines in each file without finding a match. The files are too different to be compared. The "nnn" values give the line numbers where the program could no longer find a match. "Can't open compare temporary file" The program stores the comparison in a temporary file named CMP#0001.TMP when run in interactive mode. This file is created in the current directory. For some reason this file could not be opened. For example: out of disk space or program is run from a floppy disk that is write protected. "Can't open first compare file" The program could not open the first compare file as specified on the command line or as input in the file selection menu in interactive mode. Check to make sure the path is correct. "Can't open compare output file" The program could not open the compare output file specified on the command line in batch mode. Check the path specification for this file to make sure it is valid. Check to make sure there is enough disk space on the given drive. Make sure the floppy is not write protected if outputting to a floppy. "Can't open second compare file" The program could not open the second compare file as specified on the command line or as input in the file selection menu in interactive mode. Check to make sure the path is correct. "Could not open file." This error is issued by the file selection menu. It is usually caused by entering a filename in the "Filename" field that does not exist. "Filename too long" This error occurs if the complete path specification for a file input in the file selection menu is longer than 128 characters. "First filename too long" This error occurs if the path specified on the command line for the first file is longer than 128 characters. _____________________________________________________________________ 11 Error Messages _____________________________________________________________________ "Invalid /v switch" The program issues this error if a /v switch other than /v43 or /v50 is input on the command line. " Invalid path specification! " This error is issued by the file selection menu. It is usually caused by entering an invalid path in the "Filename" field or clicking on an invalid drive in the "Directories" list. For example clicking on "[-A-]" when there is no disk in the A: drive. "Line nnn is too long" This error is caused by a line in one of the two comparison files being longer than 511 characters. Check to make sure that both input files are text files with each line terminated by a carriage return and a line feed. "Make sure printer is ON LINE" The program issues this error when the "Print" option is selected from the menu bar and an error is detected writing the current comparison to the printer. Make sure the printer is connected, turned on and on line when the print option is invoked. "Not enough memory to display entire comparison" When comparing large files there may not be enough memory to display the entire comparison in the comparison menu. When this error is issued as much of the comparison as possible is displayed in the comparison menu. The entire comparison can still be printed or saved to a file using the "Print" and "Save to file" options, respectively, from the menu bar. Freeing up more memory by removing any TSR's currently loaded may eliminate the problem. "Out of memory" This error is only issued in extreme cases where there is not enough memory to create one of the menus. Free up more memory by removing any TSR's that are not needed. "Output filename too long" This error occurs if the path specified on the command line for the output file is longer than 128 characters. "Second filename too long" This error occurs if the path specified on the command line for the second file is longer than 128 characters. "Unknown switch" The program issues this error when a switch is input on the command line which it does not recognize. The only switches that are currently valid are /v43 and /v50. _____________________________________________________________________ 12