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LogiCat Disk Cataloger "Software Solutions that make Sense" Copyright (c)1990, By Curtis Little All Rights Reserved For IBM PCs, XTs, ATs, PS/2s and 100% Compatibles Table of Contents License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 How to Contact the Support Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Required Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Using Logicat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Starting Up LogiCat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 LogiCat Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 LogiCat Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Editing String Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Global Command Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Using Regular Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Sorting Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Selecting Specific Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 LogiCat Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Add Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Log Floppy Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Dummy Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Add/mod Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Delete/replace Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Replace a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Rename a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Delete a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Zap Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Search Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Browse Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 String Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Comment Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Keyword Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 File Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Case Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Reports Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Volume Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Quick Volume Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 File/Ext Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Quick File/Ext Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Duplicate Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 43/50 Line Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Catalog Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Printer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Color Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Logging Drive(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Read New Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Write Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Library Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Maximum Files Etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Load Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Save Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Reset to Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Utilities Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Import Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 DOS Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Quit Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 License You are granted a license to evaluate this software on A SINGLE COMPUTER for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days. If, on or before this time expires, you wish to continue using this software, you must register by sending the registration fee to the author "Curtis Little" for EACH COPY to be used. The shareware version of this software may be freely distributed as long as the following conditions are met: 1) All files are distributed as is and in unmodified form. 2) No more than a $5.00 handling fee can be charged without the PRIOR written consent of the author "Curtis Little". 3) LogiCat may not be distributed with or as a part of any other product or software package without the prior written consent of the author "Curtis Little". Registered copies of this software may be used by the REGISTERED OWNER on a single computer. If you desire to use the software on more than one computer you must purchase a site license. Business and government users of LogiCat must register in order to legally use LogiCat. The 30 day evaluation privilege is only extended to non-business users. By using LogiCat you acknowledge that you have read this agreement, understand it and agree to be bound by it's terms and conditions. LogiCat License 1 Warranty With respect to the physical diskette sent to registered owners, the author warrants the same to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 60 days from the date of registration. In the event of notification within the warranty period of defects in material or workmanship the author will replace the defective diskette. The remedy for breach of this warranty shall be limited to replacement and shall not encompass any other damages, including but not limited to loss of profit, and special, incidental, consequential, or other similar claims. The author specifically disclaims all other warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and the program license granted herein in particular, and without limiting operation of the program license with respect to any particular application, use, or purpose. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT, LOST SAVINGS, COMMERCIAL DAMAGE, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE LOGICAT EVEN IF THE AUTHOR (Curtis Little) OR AN AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTOR OF LOGICAT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the state of California. 2 Logicat Warranty Acknowledgments In this manual several products are referred to: MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Brief is a registered trademark of Underware, Inc. IBM PC, XT, AT, and PS/2 are trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc. ARC is a trademark of System Enhancement Associates PKZIP is a trademark of PKWARE, INC. How to Contact the Support Board An electronic bulletin board is used to support LogiCat. You may contact the support board 24 hours a day. The support board is: Lost At C BBS (209) 521-2143 In addition you may contact the author (Curtis Little) on (209) 522-9269. Be aware that if I need to call you back I will do so as a collect call. Don't leave a message for a call back if you don't desire to be called collect. If you have any questions/suggestions regarding LogiCat feel free to call. The support board is open to the public, however, registered users will receive priority service. Required Equipment IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or 100% Compatible MDA, CGA, MCGA, EGA, or VGA display adapter Hard disk (not required, but highly recommended) MS-DOS 2.0 or above LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 3 Introduction How many times have you wanted to use that "special" file, only to find you have to search through hundreds of disks searching for the one file you need? LogiCat is the solution! With LogiCat in your corner you'll beat the lost file blues, determining the location of files with the touch of a few keys. LogiCat goes well beyond what a standard disk cataloging program does. With LogiCat you're using state of the art in cataloging software. Just look at a few of the advanced features supported by LogiCat: o Multi-line comments. You will no longer be limited to a single line comment. LogiCat supports a memo style comment, allowing up to 500 characters describing each file in the database. o Advanced word processing features are supported in the comment editor. LogiCat has a built in comment editor that supports word wrap along with *many* commands similar to those used by the Brief Editor. o LogiCat supports FULL REGULAR EXPRESSION searching. Once you see how powerful regular expressions are for searching you'll wonder how you ever got along without them. o LogiCat supports multi-level sorting. In addition any field can be sorted in ascending or descending order. o LogiCat supports the extended 43/50 line mode for EGA/VGA monitors in the report mode. o LogiCat supports automatic disk naming. This includes use of a "template" name. o Advanced memory management in LogiCat handles *many* of the possible memory shortage problems without aborting the program! These are just a *few* of the many features that set LogiCat apart from other cataloging programs. After trying LogiCat I'm sure you'll agree that LogiCat is setting a new standard for disk cataloging software. 4 LogiCat Users Guide This manual explains how to use LogiCat. The two main sections to the manual as follows: Using LogiCat LogiCat Reference The next section covers the use of LogiCat in detail. LogiCat was designed to be simple to use, however, for those who desire extra features, there are many hidden features in LogiCat. Each of the features will be explained in the following sections. Using Logicat This section details the use of LogiCat. If you are a new user you should read the tutorial section followed by the reference section. Experienced users may wish to skip directly to the reference section. This documentation assumes that LogiCat was installed on a hard disk in it's own subdirectory. If you installed LogiCat different than described in the "Installation" section to follow there will be slight differences from the instructions. Installation To install LogiCat you should create a subdirectory to contain LogiCat and it's data files. In this manual it will be assumed that LogiCat is installed in the C:\LC directory. To install LogiCat you should create a subdirectory on your hard drive and then copy all the LogiCat files to that directory. After you are finished installing LogiCat the directory should contain the following files: LC.EXE LC.CFG If you desire to execute LogiCat without having to be in the LogiCat directory you need to modify your path statement (in AUTOEXEC.BAT). For instance, assume the following statement is already in C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT: PATH=C:\DOS3_3;C:\BIN;C:\WP After adding the LogiCat directory the statement should appear as: PATH=C:\DOS3_3;C:\BIN;C:\WP;C:\LC That's all there is to installing LogiCat! LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 5 Setup When you first start LogiCat it is setup with the default values that were supplied by the program's author. Since you may wish to change the settings a configuration utility is built into LogiCat. In particular you may wish to change the default maximum number of files, directories, and disks (which are normally 3000, 300, and 300 respectively). All setup information can be accessed through the 'Options' menu. For a full description of the Options menu refer to the section titled "Options Menu" on page 33. Tutorial This section goes into an overview of starting up and using the LogiCat Disk Cataloger. If you are an experienced user you should skip this section and go directly to the reference section of this documentation. Starting Up LogiCat To start using LogiCat simply type the following command at the DOS prompt: LC (This assumes that you are either in the LogiCat directory, or that the LogiCat directory is in your path). There are several optional parameters that can be specified on the startup command line. The optional parameters allowed are as follows: /B Specifies to use black and white mode. If you specify this option LogiCat will only use black and white colors (with the exception of the opening and end screens in the shareware version). /C CFG_FILE: Specifies the name of the configuration file. If you don't specify this option LogiCat looks for a configuration file named LC.CFG. /D DATA_BASE: Specifies the name of a data base file. If you don't specify this option LogiCat looks for the data base named in the configuration file (if there wasn't a 6 LogiCat Users Guide configuration file LogiCat uses a default data base name of LC.DB). /M ADAPTER_TYPE: Specifies the type of adapter to use. Normally you shouldn't use this option since LogiCat is able to detect the adapter properly on startup. If you're not having problems with the LogiCat video output DON'T specify this option. If you do need to specify the adapter type you should report your adapter type to the support board so future versions of LogiCat will automatically detect the adapter type. The valid adapters are: MDA, CGA, EGA, and VGA. WARNING: Setting the adapter to an invalid type will cause unpredicatable results! /N This option specifies color mode without snow protection. You should use this option if you have a CGA that doesn't require snow control. /O This option specifies color mode with snow protection. Video output is slower with this option than with the /N option. After starting LogiCat the registration notice is displayed on the screen (this notice doesn't appear in the registered version of the program). After a 15 second delay, you will be allowed to press a key to get past the notice screen. Next, the main LogiCat menu screen is displayed. This screen appears as follows: Add Delete/replace Search Reports Options Utilities Quit + Volume Labels ------------------------------------------------+ | Use disk name as label? No Delete existing label? No | | Use existing label as name? No | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ + Catalog Options ---------------------------------------------------+ | Automatic disk naming? Yes Template: XX999999999 Last: LC000000000| | | | Keep subdir names? No Backup database? No | |Extract library members? Yes Extract library comments? Yes | | Flag duplicate records? Yes Memory for DOS shell? 256K | |Ask for select criteria? Yes Ask for sort criteria? Yes | | Case sensitive search? Yes | | | |Printer Name: SCREEN | | Report Dest: PRN | LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 7 +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Log Drive(s): A: | C:LC | 2 Disks | 1168 Files | 436K Free LogiCat Disk Cataloger Copyright (c)1990 By Curtis Little All Rights Reserved You will notice there are 5 parts to the main screen as follows: 1) Main menu bar (the top line of the screen) 2) Volume label options window 3) Catalog options window 4) Status line (just below the catalog options window) 5) Program title and copyright message The main menu bar is the bar displayed on the top line of the screen. This is a pull-down type menu that allows you to access the other submenus within LogiCat. To access one of the submenus you would press the ALT key at the same time as the first letter of the desired submenu. The following submenus are provided: 1) Add - This submenu allows you to add disks (scans the files), add comments, and add disk volumes to the database. 2) Delete/Replace - This submenu allows you to delete disks, replace an existing disk, and rename disks in the database. 3) Search - This submenu allows you to browse and search the files for desired entry(s). 4) Reports - This submenu allows you to choose and print any of the supported reports. 5) Options - This submenu allows you to configure LogiCat, load/save configuration files, load/write databases, and set the colors used. 6) Utilities - This submenu allows you to use the utility programs that are a part of LogiCat. Currently this consists of a comment import utility. In addition you can shell to DOS from this menu (but as you'll learn later, LogiCat allows you to shell to DOS from ANYWHERE in the program by use of a hotkey!). 8 LogiCat Users Guide 7) Quit - This submenu allows you to exit LogiCat. (Pressing ESCape enough times allows you to exit the program as well). The option settings window area of the main screen shows most of the LogiCat configuration settings. Since the defaults are good in most cases a discussion of the various option settings will be delayed until the reference section of the manual. Refer to the section titled 'Options Menu' on page 33 for details. The status line contains a mixture of configuration data, and miscellaneous data. The status line is near the bottom of the screen and appears similar to the following: Log Drive(s): A: | C:LC | 2 Disks | 1168 Files | 436K Free ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | | | (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 1) Logging drive(s) - the drives that are scanned for logging files to the database. 2) Database name - this is the name of the database that is currently being operated on. 3) Number of disks in the database that's in memory. 4) Number of files in the database that's in memory. 5) Approximate amount of free memory. Ok, now lets go through the steps needed to add disks to the database. For this tutorial it will be assumed that automatic disk naming is turned off. To log your floppy disks you should press ALT-A (while on the main screen) to get to the Add menu. From there choose the first option 'Log a disk'. After choosing 'Log a disk' you will be prompted to insert a disk in the logging drive. After inserting the disk press the ENTER key to start. LogiCat will prompt for the disk name and then automatically add the disk contents to the database. After scanning the disk LogiCat prompts for the next disk. You can continue logging disks by continuing the procedure described above. After you're finished logging disks press the ESCape key to get back to the add menu. You'll find that the ESCape key is used as a general purpose "quit/abort" key. Pressing the ESCape key will always drop you back a level in LogiCat. LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 9 Now you can try some of the other program options. Press ALT-R to go to the reports menu, and then press the 'E' key to select the quick file/ext report. After pressing the 'e' key a report will be displayed on the screen showing the files that were on the floppies that you just logged (the list will be sorted in file name order). If the listing is longer than one page you can use the PgUp and PgDn to move between the report pages. There are other options available at the report page as well, to see one of these press the 'S' key to ask for a search. A window will be displayed asking for the search data. Type in the name of a file that was on one of the disks that you logged, and then press the ENTER key. LogiCat will automatically move to the page that has the file and highlight the matching file for you! Pressing the ESCape key will bring you back to the report submenu again, or if you're on the last page of the report pressing any key will take you back to the menu. Now, lets quit out of the program. Press ESCape two times (from the report menu) to exit out of LogiCat. Note that the database is automatically saved when you exit LogiCat. You can also save the database at any time by using the 'Write database' option on the Options menu. You now have a general feel for using LogiCat! You may wish to read the reference section, paying particular attention to the section dealing with the options allowed in LogiCat. As you've already seen, using LogiCat is pretty easy. LogiCat smoothly blends state of the art in power with ease of use to provide you with the best cataloger available! 10 LogiCat Users Guide LogiCat Reference This section of the manual goes into detail about the various commands and options available in LogiCat. If you're new to LogiCat you may wish to read the tutorial (above) before reading the reference. Before covering each of the menu options in detail we'll go over a few of the windows that are used in multiple parts of LogiCat. In this chapter the "global" command keys will be explained followed by a section covering regular expressions, and sections on all the menu options currently available in LogiCat. LogiCat Files LogiCat maintains several files to keep track of things such as the settings and the databases. You can generally tell what a file is used for by the extension. This isn't a set rule since you can override *some* of the extensions, but it is suggested that you accept the default extension. Anytime you save a file with LogiCat, if you don't specify the extension the default for that type of file will be used. The various file types are: Extension File is used for --------- ---------------- .DB Database (Can't override) .CFG Configuration file (Can override) .IMP Import comment settings (Can override) .BAK Backup database files (Can't override) When you scan a disk LogiCat actually maintains two databases instead of one. The information about the file names, sizes, etc are in one database, and the comments are stored in a separate one. In order to make the use of multiple databases as transparent as possible, LogiCat only asks for one database name and tracks both databases from that. The comment database has the same name as the "main" database with a '1' appended. Editing String Fields There are many places where LogiCat needs to obtain an input string from the keyboard. With the exception of the comment editor, all field input goes through the LogiCat string editor. To help you better use the string editor the following is a list of the commands available while you're entering input: BackspaceHas the traditional meaning of a backspace (traditional for the PC). This deletes the character to the left of the cursor and moves the cursor one position left. LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 11 CTRL U Press CTRL U to abort all changes you made to the input field. This restores the original contents of the string. CTRL Y This key combination deletes the entire contents of the input field. DELete This deletes the character that is under the cursor. Down arrow - Moves to the next field in multi-field input. END Moves the cursor to the end of the field. ESCape Abort input losing changes to the string you where editing. HOME Moves the cursor to the home position (1st position) of the input field. Left arrow - moves the cursor to the left. Right arrow - moves the cursor to the right. Up arrow In multi-field input this moves the cursor to the previous field. RETURN Press the return/enter key when you are finished editing the string. If there is a default value for the string the cursor will be positioned after the last character in the string. If you desire to edit the "default" value you should press one of the commands listed above as the first key. Pressing a valid letter/number as the first key causes the default value to be replaced by the typed letter. After the first key you can type whatever you like. Global Command Keys There are several global command keys provided in LogiCat. The first is the ESCape key. Pressing the ESCape key causes LogiCat to abort the current operation and return to the previous "level". For instance, if one of the submenus is displayed, pressing the ESCape key will cause the submenu to disappear and you will be returned to the main menu level (until you press one of the ALT letter keys to activate a submenu again). Anytime you want to back out of whatever you're doing in LogiCat you should press the ESCape key. If aborting the current operation would cause changed data to 12 LogiCat Users Guide be lost you will be prompted before the abort is performed. Pressing the ESCape key at a yes/no question is treated the same as answering the question 'No'. LogiCat also provides a global DOS shell command. *Anywhere* LogiCat is waiting for a keystroke you can press ALT-Z to shell to DOS! The DOS prompt will be modified to remind you you're shelled out of LogiCat. Typing EXIT at the DOS prompt will return you back to LogiCat. Note that LogiCat uses Switch! allowing you to specify how much memory to make available for the DOS shell. It is possible to make virtually *all* the memory used by LogiCat available for the shell since Switch! is used. The Switch! feature is covered in the options section of this manual. Using Regular Expressions LogiCat has the most powerful regular expression facilities available in a disk cataloging program at any price (as of the time of this writing). Those familiar with Brief will feel right at home with LogiCat's regular expressions, since the LogiCat regular expression facilities are virtually identical to those in the popular Brief editor. Any time you're searching for something you're allowed to use regular expressions (this includes the selection criteria and search data to be discussed later in this manual). For those not familiar with regular expressions, they will be defined here. Basically, even if you don't know it yet, you most likely know about some regular expressions. For instance, have you ever typed a DOS command similar to: DIR *.DOC DOS supports a very limited set of regular expression characters, but those who know about wildcard characters such as the '?' or '*' use a type of regular expression already. In short, a regular expression is a pattern that represents character sequences. A regular expression can be thought of as having two basic types of characters in it. A regular expression is composed of normal characters (such as letters and numbers), and regular expression "metacharacters". The metacharacters are what gives regular expressions their power. LogiCat supports virtually the same regular expression metacharacters as the Brief editor. These metacharacters are: LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 13 * Matches any number of occurrences (0 or more) of any character. The * matches as few occurrences as needed to make the rest of the pattern match. g*d matches god, good, egad, and gillard but not: dog, goat ? Matches any single character. c?t matches cat and cut, but not cant @ Matches 0 or more occurrences of the preceding character or pattern. Note that with @ the fewest possible occurrences of a pattern will be considered a match. go@d matches gd, god, good, goood, gooood, etc.. + Matches 1 or more occurrences of the preceding character or pattern. This is the same as the @ except that one or more occurrences are needed to match. go+d matches god, good, goood, gooood, etc... but not gd, ggdoddd | Matches either the preceding pattern OR the following pattern. b|c matches either b or c this|that doesn't match what you might think, it matches either thishat or thithat. To see how to do a search for either of the words (this or that) see the next category of regular expression characters. {} Groups characters or patterns together for a search. Grouping characters provides several features: 1) Provides a way to control how regular expressions are evaluated (i.e. like parenthesis in a mathematical equation). 2) Groups a set of text together. For example, in the discussion of the or operator (|) you saw the expression: this|that didn't match the words this 14 LogiCat Users Guide or that as might be expected. Using grouping you can make this work as follows: {this}|{that} The example above would find occurrences of this or that. {ok}+ Matches one or more occurrences of the word ok. [] This creates a "set" of characters to search for. There are several powerful forms of the set operator. [~] Matches a character if it IS NOT any of the characters between the [~ and the ]. [-] Matches a RANGE of characters. For example, [a-z]. The beginning range character must have a lower value than the upper value. [a-z0-9A-Z] This example matches all letters (upper and lower case) and numbers. This would match: abra12, 123x134, 23, and hello but not: it's and "first" [~a-zA-Z] This example matches everything that isn't a letter. \ Override character. The backslash allows you to override the normal meaning of a character. \* searches for the actual character * instead of treating the * as a regular expression as it normally would be. \\ allows you to search for the backslash in a string. \[ allows you to search for the left bracket, overriding the standard usage of the left bracket as the opening of a set definition. The precedence for evaluating regular expressions is as follows (going from highest precedence to the lowest): LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 15 {} Groups have the highest precedence. Characters inside a group are treated as a single expression. |, @, + Matches from the left to the right. These have the second highest precedence. All other characters have equal precedence with each other. Searching There are several places in LogiCat where you can enter data to search for. Anytime you specify you want to search for something the search window is popped up to get the search options. The search window appears as follows: + Search Data ----------------------------------------------------------+ |> | | | | Search: ( X ) File/Ext ( X ) Disk ( X ) Keywords ( X ) Comments | | ( ) Search Backward | | | | | <-+ to Search, TAB: Next Field, BackTAB: Prev Field, ESC: Abort | | (Regular Expressions Are Allowed) Case IS significant. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ When the search window is displayed the cursor is put in the input field waiting for you to type the data to search for. You'll note that there are several "fields" in the search window. You can get to the other fields by using the TAB, BACKTAB, UP ARROW and the DOWN ARROW. All other fields in the window with the exception of the input field are toggles. Pressing the space bar toggles the setting of the associated option. When it is blank it is off. Pressing the ENTER key starts the search. Note that you can use regular expressions in the search data. LogiCat automatically appends a '*' to the beginning and the end of the data to search for (this allows LogiCat to find the data within a string). If you want the search to be fast, don't search the comment field since the comments must be read from disk. Sorting Records LogiCat provides the user with one of the most flexible and powerful sorting routines available in a cataloging program. One 16 LogiCat Users Guide of the LogiCat options controls whether or not you are prompted for the sort options when you select a menu item that allows sorting. For this discussion it is assumed that you have LogiCat optioned to ask for the sort options (the default). If you wish to know more about the LogiCat options you should refer to the section titled 'Options Menu' on page 33. Picking one of the following menu items causes LogiCat to prompt you for the sort options: 1) Add/mod comments 2) Browse files 3) File/ext report (There is one more menu item that causes a different sort options window to be displayed. This sort window is covered later in this section). When you pick one of the menu items listed above the following window is displayed when LogiCat is ready to get the sort options: + Sort Options ----------------------------------------------+ | [-]1 - File Name [-]6 - Comments | | [-]2 - File Ext [-]7 - Date & Time <-----+ | [-]3 - Subdir [-]8 - Size | | | [-]4 - Disk Name [-]9 - Library Name | | | [-]5 - Keywords [-]10 - Library Ext | | | | | | Enter sort fields separated by spaces (ESC to abort) | | | Use - to specify descending order for a field | | | 0 or BLANK list for no sort | | |> | | +---- ^ -----------------------------------------------------+ | | | Field list input string List of field numbers you can sort on. The cursor is placed in the input field and LogiCat waits for you to type a list of field numbers to sort. If you wish to sort on more than one field you should type in the list of field numbers separated by spaces. Preceding a field number with a minus sign indicates you wish to sort the specified field in descending order (no spaces should be between the - and the field number). For example to sort in ascending order on the file name, and descending order on the extension the list you type would be as follows: 1 -2 LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 17 Assuming you had the following files/extensions, the chart below lists the sorted results using the field list from above: File Names Sorted File Names ---------- ----------------- LC.EXE AUTOEXEC.BAT AUTOEXEC.BAT LC.PRN LC.CFG LC.EXE LC.PRN LC.CFG PKZIP.EXE PKZIP.EXE A special purpose sort options window is displayed if you choose the Volume report menu item. The special sort window appears as follows: + Sort Options ----------------------------------------------+ | [-]1 - Disk Name [-]5 - Free Space | | [-]2 - Keywords [-]6 - Total Space | | [-]3 - Comments [-]7 - Date Indexed | | [-]4 - Used Space | | | | Enter sort fields separated by spaces (ESC to abort) | | Use - to specify descending order for a field | | 0 or BLANK list for no sort | |> | +------------------------------------------------------------+ This sort selection window works like the one discussed above. The only difference is that the items on this window are specific to disks instead of files (since the volume report only lists the disk names in the database). Selecting Specific Records LogiCat provides the user with an extremely flexible method of selecting special/specific records through the use of "selection criteria". One of the LogiCat options controls whether or not you are prompted for the selection criteria when you select a menu item that allows selecting specific records. For this discussion it is assumed that you have LogiCat optioned to ask for the selection criteria (the default). If you wish to know more about the LogiCat options you should refer to the section titled 'Options Menu' on page 33. Picking one of the following menu items causes LogiCat to prompt you for the selection criteria: o Add/mod comments o Browse files 18 LogiCat Users Guide o File/ext report o Duplicate files When you pick one of the menu items listed above the following window is displayed when LogiCat is ready to get the selection criteria: + Selection Criteria ----------------------------------------+ | [-]1 - File Specs [-]6 - Date Range | | [-]2 - Subdirs [-]7 - Size Range | | [-]3 - Disk Names [-]8 - Library Members | | [-]4 - Keywords [-]9 - Files with keywords | | [-]5 - Comments [-]10 - Files with comments | | | | Enter selection options separated by spaces (ESC to abort) | | Use - to exclude files based on the associated option | | 0 or BLANK list for All Files | |> | +------------------------------------------------------------+ The cursor is placed in the input field and LogiCat waits for you to type a list of field numbers to perform the selection of special records on. You may select files by any combination of the above listed fields. If you wish to specify more than one field to enter selection criteria for you should type in the list of field numbers separated by spaces (order is not significant). Preceding a field number with a minus sign indicates you wish to exclude files by the selection data for the associated field. Using the negative field causes LogiCat to reject those records that match the criteria to be entered about the field (no spaces should be between the - and the field number). Depending on the fields you wish to specify selection criteria for, LogiCat prompts you for the selection options. For the fields that require you to specify the selection criteria there are two main methods of input. The first method of entering criteria is in the form of a list of data fields. This type of input method continually prompts you for additional selection criteria for the field until you press return without typing any data. In this type of mode the only limit on the number of different criteria you can specify is the amount of available memory to store the data. The following fields use this type of input method: o File specs o Keywords o Subdirs o Comments LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 19 o Disk names You can make full use of regular expressions when entering selection data for any of the above fields. Refer to the section titled 'Using Regular Expressions' for details on the regular expression facilities provided in LogiCat. The second method of input for selection criteria is a range. If you specify one of the following fields you'll be asked for a SINGLE range to use as the selection criteria for the field: o Date o Size When entering selection criteria you enter values that you want to match in the associated field. For example let's say you want a report listing all executable files, you would enter the following as the selection field list: 1 Next, LogiCat would prompt for the selection criteria for the filespecs. To select executable files the following would be the file specs: +--------------- Selection Data : ESCape to Abort ---------------+ | Enter selection File Specs, one per line. Blank line to end. | | | |File Specs (1): *.exe | |File Specs (2): *.com | |File Specs (3): | | ^ | | | | | | | +--------------- | ----------------------------------------------+ | This is the prompt issued by LogiCat for the selection data. Note that pressing return without entering anything gets you out of input mode. LogiCat would then select only the records that have an extension of EXE or COM when the above criteria is entered. If you had specified other fields LogiCat would prompt for the criteria for those fields, and then select on those fields as well. NOTE: The criteria entered are INDEPENDENT. If you enter selection criteria for more than one field, the selected records will only 20 LogiCat Users Guide have to match something out of ONE set of selection data. You should use the "rejection" criteria to block undesired records. LogiCat Menu Options When you first start up LogiCat you are in the main menu mode. LogiCat's menu is a pull-down type menu. You can press the ALT key at the same time as the first letter of the menu item you desire, and a submenu will be displayed. Once you have a sub-menu pulled down you can use the arrow keys to change submenus (the ALT key combinations still work as well). Once a submenu is displayed you can choose a menu item by using the up/down arrow keys to highlight the desired item and then pressing the ENTER key to select the item. You may also select a submenu item by pressing the highlighted letter for the desired item. LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 21 The following chart illustrates the various menus available in LogiCat: +-------------------------< Main Menu >--------------------------+ | Add Delete/replace Search Reports Options Utilities Quit | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | | +-+ | Pressing ALT-A \ Pressing +-------+ \ Pressing ALT-U selects the \ ALT-S \ \ selects the Add submenu. \ selects the \ \ Utilities menu \ Search submenu + \ +---< Add Menu >---+ | +--< Search Menu >-+ | \ +<Utilities Menu>+ | Log floppy disks | | | Browse files | | | | Import comments| | Dummy entry | | | String search | | | | DOS Shell | | Add/mod comments | | | Comment search | | | +----------------+ +------------------+ | | Keyword search | | | | | File search | | | | | cAse sensitivity | | | | +------------------+ | | | | | Pressing ALT-D Pressing ALT-R | selects the selects the \ Delete submenu Report submenu. | +-< Delete Menu >+ +----< Report Menu >----+ | | Replace a disk | | Volume report | | | rEname a disk | | Quick volume report | | | Delete a disk | | File/ext report | | | Zap database | | quick file/Ext report | | +----------------+ | Duplicate files | | | 43/50 line mode | | +-----------------------+ | | Pressing ALT-O selects the Option submenu. +----< Options >-----+ | Catalog options | | Printer options | | color opTions | | Logging drive(s) | | Read new database | | Write database | | library Extensions | | Maximum files, etc | | lOad configuration | | Save configuration | | reset to Defaults | +--------------------+ 22 LogiCat Users Guide Each of the various submenus will be covered in detail in the following sections. Add Menu This section of the manual explains the options that are located in the add submenu. This is the menu that allows you to add new records to the database and add/modify comments for the database entries. Log Floppy Disks This menu option is used to scan a disk adding the file names found to the current database. After picking this option you are prompted to insert a disk in the logging drive. After inserting the disk press the enter key to tell LogiCat to scan the disk. If you don't have the options set in a way that LogiCat can automatically name the disk, you will be asked for the disk name. There are two ways that LogiCat can automatically name the disk. First, if you have automatic disk naming turned on, and second if you have LogiCat set to use the volume name as the disk name (this causes automatic naming if the disk has a volume label). After LogiCat finishes scanning the disk you are prompted to insert the next disk. After you finish logging disks press the ESCape key to return to the add submenu. Dummy Entry This option is almost like the 'Log floppy disks' option. The difference is this one creates a "dummy" entry (volume name only) in the database. Using this option you can record the existence of a particular disk when you don't want to include the file names. One good example of this would be for logging a master program disk. A program disk is likely to contain many various files, however they are all related to the main program. Add/mod Comments This option allows you to add/delete/modify the comments and keywords for each of the entries in the current database. After choosing this option you will be asked for the selection criteria and sort options (if LogiCat is configured to ask for them). Using LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 23 the selection criteria you can limit the list of files brought up to those desired (see the section titled 'Selecting Specific Records' on page 18 for details on selection criteria). Next, the comment entry screen is displayed for the first file. While adding/modifying the comments and keywords there are two basic modes. The first, is the view mode (this is the mode you're in when you first choose the add/mod comments menu item). The second mode is the edit mode. In the view mode you are able to view the keywords and comments, but changes can't be made to them. In view mode it is expected you will page through the files to find the one you desire to change, and then enter edit mode. While you are in view mode the following commands are available (as listed at the bottom of the screen): F1 Toggle edit mode. Pressing the F1 key while in view mode puts you in edit mode. Pressing the F1 key while you're in edit mode puts you back in view mode. S Search. Pressing the S key while in view mode causes the search window to pop-up and allow you to specify the data to search for. This allows you to quickly find a desired file or files. F2 Copy comments to scrap. This copies the current file's comment to the scrap comment buffer. F3 Copy keywords to scrap. This copies the current file's keyword(s) to the scrap keyword buffer. F4 Delete comments. Pressing F4 will delete the current file's comment. F5 Copy scrap comments. This copies the comment that is currently in the scrap buffer to the file that is being displayed. If the scrap buffer comment is blank this command will delete the current file's comment. F6 Copy scrap keywords. This copies the keyword(s) that are in the scrap buffer to the file that is currently displayed. If the scrap keyword buffer is empty this will delete the current file's keywords. F7 Delete keywords. This deletes the current file's keywords. 24 LogiCat Users Guide F8 Previous file (without saving current). Pressing this key causes LogiCat to display the previous file. Any changes to the current file are discarded (after you confirm you want to abort changes). F9 Next file (without saving current). This advances to the next file. Changes to the current file are discarded (after you confirm you want to abort changes). F10 Save and advance. This advances to the next file after saving the changes to the current file. PgUp,PgDn, Up, Down These commands move to the previous/next file after saving any changes that were made to the current file. Once you press F1 to enter edit mode, the keyword field is highlighted, and the cursor is placed waiting for you to start editing the field. While you're in the keywords field the standard LogiCat editing keys are active. In edit mode the list of available commands goes from the list above to the following: F1 Toggle edit mode. Pressing F1 puts you back in view mode. F8 Previous file without saving current. F9 Next file without saving current. F10 Save current changes and advance to the next file. Beyond those commands you also have the editing commands available. While you're in the keywords field the editing commands are the standard commands provided by LogiCat (see the section titled 'Editing String Fields' on page 11 for a review of the editing keys available). When you press the enter key (or the down arrow) you will be in the memo field to enter comments about the file that is currently displayed. While you're editing the comment field a whole new set of editing commands are available. The editing keys provided while in the comment field are more suitable for editing the large field (i.e. similar to a word processor with automatic word wrap). There are many similarities between the keys in the LogiCat comment editor and the Brief editor. The memo editor commands are as follows: LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 25 Backspace Deletes the character to the left of the cursor and moves the cursor left one position. (This is the classic PC action for the backspace key). Delete Deletes the character currently under the cursor (if mark mode is off). When mark mode is turned on pressing the delete key causes the marked block to be deleted. Insert Toggles insert mode on and off. Arrow Keys Moves the cursor the direction of the arrow. Control Right Moves right to the next word. Control Left Moves left to the previous word. Control Space Puts a "hard" space in the document. This is used to insure two words aren't split by the automatic word wrap. Home Moves to the start of the current line. Home Home (2 homes in a row) Moves to the start of the currently displayed window. This is the same in effect as pressing Control Home. Home Home Home (3 homes in a row) Moves to the start of the edit buffer. This is the same in effect as pressing Control PgUp. End Moves to the end of the current line End End (2 ends in a row) Moves to the end of the current window. This is identical in effect to pressing Control End. End End End (3 ends in a row) Moves to the bottom of the comment. This is identical in effect to pressing Control PgDn. PgUp Moves the screen up by a page full (where a page is defined as the maximum amount of data that can be displayed in the edit window). PgDn Moves the screen down by a page full. Control Home Moves to the start of the currently displayed edit window. 26 LogiCat Users Guide Control End Moves to the end of the currently displayed window full of text. Control PgDn Moves to the end of the edit buffer. Control PgUp Moves to the top of the edit buffer. ALT C Centers the current line of text. ALT D Deletes the current line of text. ALT I Inserts the contents of the editor scrap buffer at the current cursor location. Note that the scrap buffer used here is particular to the editor, and has nothing to do with the comment/keyword scrap buffers described in the view mode section. ALT K Deletes from the cursor location to the end of the cursor line. ALT L, ALT M Toggles mark mode (allows marking a block of text). Keypad Minus If mark mode is off this cuts the current line to the scrap buffer. If mark mode is on this cuts the currently marked block to scrap. Keypad Plus If mark mode is off this copies the current line to the scrap buffer. If mark mode is on this copies the currently marked block to scrap. Control Y Deletes the current line. (Same in effect as ALT D). Delete/replace Menu The delete/replace menu is where you should go if you desire to delete, replace, or rename a disk that's currently in the database. This section goes over these three options as well as a forth option that allows you to ZAP the database. Replace a Disk You should use this option when you need to replace a disk that is already in the database. This is needed if you modify (i.e. add or delete files) a disk that was already cataloged. Instead of LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 27 forcing you to delete the old disk and then add a new one, LogiCat allows you to simply tell it you wish to replace the disk; LogiCat will do the work for you. Now there's no reason to avoid changing the contents of a disk once you've cataloged it! When you choose this option LogiCat will prompt for the name of the disk that is being replaced. After you give LogiCat the name it will do the rest. Rename a Disk This option allows you to change the name of a disk that is in the database. You will be prompted for the existing disk name (the old name) and then you will be prompted for the name that you want to use. The new name must be a name that isn't already in the database. Delete a Disk This option allows you to delete a disk from the database. You are prompted for the name of the disk to be deleted after choosing this option. Zap Database Choosing this option zaps the entire database (deletes all disks in the database). Because of the potential for massive data loss you will be asked if you are sure before LogiCat zaps the database. Search Menu The search menu allows you to easily search for and find files with ease. The options in this menu all relate to browsing the files allowing you to search for a file based on any of the following: o File name o Disk name o Keywords o Comments 28 LogiCat Users Guide Browse Files This option allows you to enter browse mode without entering data to search for. Unlike the other options on the search submenu, this option is the only one that allows you to enter a complete set of selection criteria as well as sort options (providing LogiCat is optioned to ask for the options). Once you're in browse mode there are several commands available (all are listed on the status line near the bottom of the screen). The commands include keys such as pgup, pgdn, up arrow, and the down arrow for "browsing" through the files that matched the selection criteria (if you specified selection criteria). In addition you can press the letter 'S' to cause LogiCat to prompt you for search data. After pressing 'S' the search window is displayed. You are prompted to enter the string to search for. In addition to entering the search string you can change any of the standard search options by using the tab key to move to the option you want to toggle, and then press the space bar to toggle the option. Note that the search data you enter is only checked against the files that weren't excluded by selection criteria. String Search The string search is the next option. This is just another way to enter the browse mode that was discussed above. The difference is that unlike using the browse files menu option, this option doesn't give you a chance to specify selection criteria or sort options. Instead, the search window is displayed, and you are prompted for the search data and options. When you use the string search option the search window has the defaults set to search ALL fields searching is allowed on. You can manually override the fields to search by tabbing to the option and toggling it's value with the space bar. Comment Search The comment search option is just like the string search option except at default the options are set to only search the comments for the data you type. As with the string search, you can override the fields to be searched by manually changing the options. LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 29 Keyword Search The keyword search is like the other search options except at default only the keyword field is searched for the data. File Search The file search is like the other search options except at default only the file name is searched for the data you enter. Case Sensitivity This option toggles the case sensitivity of the searches in a case sensitive field (the filename and the directory aren't case sensitive). When the case sensitivity flag is turned off a match isn't found if there is a difference in case. You can tell the setting of this option by looking at the menu item (OFF is displayed next to this option if it's OFF, and ON is displayed if it is on). Note: the case sensitivity flag setting is also displayed on the main screen in the options window. Reports Menu The reports menu contains all the menu items to choose for the various types of reports available in LogiCat. Before going into the various reports there are several features of the reports that will be overviewed. One of the first things that you may notice about the reports is the use of the printer name 'SCREEN'. Anytime the name of the printer is SCREEN the printer path (from the options) is ignored and the output is directed to the screen. When you send a report to the screen you have some special commands available at the end of each display page. When you're at the end of a page of output directed to the screen the following commands are available: ESCape Aborts the report and returns you to the report submenu. S Initiates a search. If the search data you type is found LogiCat automatically displays the page of data the matching file is on, and highlights the match to make it easy to pick out of the list. PgUp/Up arrow - Moves to the previous page of the report. 30 LogiCat Users Guide Any other key moves you to the next page of the report (if you were already on the last page of the report you will be returned to the report menu). NOTE: If the fields you have set to print can cause a record to occupy more than one line on the report, LogiCat will not go up by an exact page when you press the PgUp/Up arrow. You can control the fields to print along with the size of the printed page by using the Options menu to change the printer options. Note that the page setup doesn't effect output that goes to the screen. One last note about the reports menu is that when you select one of the "quick" reports you won't be prompted for sort data or selection criteria regardless of the LogiCat settings. The quick reports automatically sort the data in a predefined manner (as noted in the discussion of the individual menu options). Volume Report The volume report is a report that lists all the disk volumes that are in the database. The individual files aren't listed on this report. When you select the volume report you will be asked for the sort options (providing LogiCat is set to ask for the sort options). The following is an example of the volume report: Logicat Disk Volume Report - 12:12 am December 23, 1990 Pg 1 Disk Name Used Space Free Space Total Space Files Indexed --------- ---------- ---------- ----------- ----- ------- LC000000001 222,208 140,288 362,496 0 12/22/89 LC000000002 197,632 164,864 362,496 1 12/22/89 LC000000003 240,640 81,920 322,560 2 12/22/89 LC000000004 361,472 1,024 362,496 13 12/22/89 LC000000005 196,608 165,888 362,496 6 12/22/89 LC000000006 351,232 11,264 362,496 74 12/22/89 LC000000007 360,448 2,048 362,496 22 12/22/89 LC000000008 353,280 9,216 362,496 39 12/22/89 LC000000009 220,160 142,336 362,496 31 12/22/89 LC000000010 230,400 132,096 362,496 12 12/22/89 LC000000011 23,439,360 10,004,480 33,443,840 1,104 12/22/89 Note that the comments and keywords are printed for the volume report if you have the options set to print comments and keywords. (See the discussion of the Options Menu printer options on page 39 for details). LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 31 Quick Volume Report The quick volume report is identical to the volume report with the exception that it automatically sorts the volumes by disk name. File/Ext Report The file/ext report is a report that lists all the files that are in the database. When you select the file/ext report you are prompted for the selection criteria as well as the sort options (providing LogiCat is set to ask for the options). The following is an example of the file/ext report: Logicat File/Ext Listing Report - 12:12 am Dec 23, 1990 Pg 7 File Name Disk Name Size Date Time Library --------- --------- -------- ---- ---- ------- CATOPT.BAK LC000000011 8,042 12/06/89 09:08:48 pm CATOPT.C LC000000011 8,029 12/06/89 09:12:34 pm *CATOPT.C LC000000011 6,015 09/11/89 08:21:42 pm *CATOPT.C LC000000011 8,042 12/18/89 05:05:24 pm This is the current version of the source for the LogiCat Options Menu handler. All of the options are handled in this module. *CATOPT.C LC000000011 6,032 09/05/89 09:18:34 pm CATOPT.OBJ LC000000011 7,901 12/18/89 05:08:02 pm CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 09/04/89 01:26:50 pm *CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 09/11/89 08:20:42 pm *CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 12/18/89 05:05:24 pm CB.EXE LC000000011 37,322 09/15/89 03:00:00 pm CBERR.H LC000000011 6,773 09/28/88 04:17:10 pm CBFIND.C LC000000011 1,192 08/20/89 12:18:28 am CBKEYCMP.C LC000000011 12,349 09/11/89 08:20:42 pm *CBKEYCMP.C LC000000011 12,334 09/05/89 07:29:06 pm CBL. LC000000011 2,026 08/07/89 06:23:32 pm CBL.BAK LC000000011 2,065 08/07/89 06:28:00 pm CBL.CM LC000000011 2,484 10/23/89 05:19:54 pm CBL.M LC000000011 3,693 10/23/89 05:09:16 pm *CBL.M LC000000011 3,732 10/23/89 05:19:50 pm CBL.OLD LC000000011 1,338 05/01/89 02:00:34 pm Quick File/Ext Report The quick file/ext report is identical to the file/ext report except when you choose the quick file/ext report you aren't 32 LogiCat Users Guide prompted for the selection criteria or sort options. The files are automatically sorted by file and extension. Duplicate Files This report gives you a listing of the files that are possible duplicates. LogiCat considers files to be duplicates if the name and extensions match. Just because you have two files with the same name doesn't necessarily mean you have duplicate files, but the odds are high identically named files will turn out to be duplicates. The duplicates report looks identical to the file/ext report (the fields that are printed as well as the layout). 43/50 Line Mode This option toggles the use of 43/50 line output for reports going to the screen. Note that you can only turn this option on if you have an EGA/VGA or equivalent adapter. Options Menu The options submenu has all the items that allow you to change the settings in LogiCat. This section of the manual explains each of the menu items available via the options submenu. Catalog Options This menu choice allows you to set most of the LogiCat options. The options you can set by choosing Catalog Options are the options on the main screen in the windows titled 'Volume Labels' and 'Catalog Options'. When you choose the catalog options menu item the first field on the screen is highlighted, and the bottom status line changes to list the commands available. You should use the arrow keys to move the highlight bar to the item that you wish to change. Once the item you want to change is highlighted press the enter key to change the item. (Note: the items that have Yes/No values are toggled by pressing the enter key). The following describes each of the options available: 1) Use disk name as label? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should write the disk name to the disk as a volume label. If you set this option to 'Yes' LogiCat will automatically create a volume label on the disk using the LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 33 disk name (if a volume label already exists it will be deleted first). Note that the volume name creation will fail if you specify a disk name that doesn't obey the rules for naming a volume (as explained in your DOS manual). At default this option is set to 'No'. 2) Delete existing label? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should automatically delete existing volume labels as it logs disks. At default this option is set to 'No'. 3) Use existing label as name? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should treat an existing disk volume label as the disk name. If you set this option to 'Yes' LogiCat automatically names disks that have a volume label. This has precedence over automatic disk naming using the template (described next). At default this option is set to 'No'. 4) Automatic disk naming? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should automatically name the disks using the template name. When automatic disk naming is on LogiCat will use the template to generate a unique name for each disk as it's logged. The method LogiCat uses to generate a name is by sequentially increasing the last name used (using the template) until a unique name is generated. Examples of this will be provided in the description of the template and last name used option. At default this option is set to 'No'. 5) Template. This is the template that is used to generate a disk name when you are using automatic disk naming (the option explained above). The template should be composed of Xs and 9s. The X character is essentially a place holder, and the 9 character is a character that LogiCat can sequentially increment. For example, consider the following template: XX999 This template specifies a template for a five character name. The first two positions represent characters that are fixed (not changed by LogiCat when it generates a name). The last three positions represent numeric characters that are subject to change by LogiCat when a name is generated. At default this option is set to: XX999999999. 6) Last. This is the name of the last disk that was added to the database by automatic naming. The name here is used in conjunction with the template described above. To see how 34 LogiCat Users Guide it works consider the following examples to see how LogiCat would generate a disk name: Template Last Generated Name Disk -------- ---- -------------- ---- XX999 LC000 LC001 1st LC001 LC002 2nd ... LC099 LC100 100th X9XX9 L0DB0 L0DB1 1st L0DB1 L0DB2 2nd L0DB9 L1DB0 10th If LogiCat is unable to generate a unique name an error message will be displayed, and you will be prompted to enter the disk name manually. At default this option is set to: LC000000000. 7) Keep subdir names? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should collect subdirectory names. If this option is set to 'Yes' LogiCat tracks the directory names that the files are found in. At default this option is set to 'Yes'. 8) Backup database? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should backup a database before opening it. As was already discussed, LogiCat keeps the changes to the main database resident in memory until you specify to write them or exit the program. However, the comments are implemented in a disk based database that changes as modifications are made to the comments. If backups are turned on LogiCat will copy the contents of the main database and comment database to .BAK files if a change was made. For instance, if you are using LC.DB (the default database): Physical Databases Backup Databases ------------------- ---------------- LC.DB LC.BAK LC1.DB LC1.BAK (Remember from the introduction to how LogiCat stores data that the comments are stored in a database with the same name as the main database, with a '1' appended. That's why database names can only be seven characters long). At default this option is set to 'No'. 9) Extract library members? This option specifies whether LogiCat should look inside ARChives to determine the names of the files contained in the archives. When you have this LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 35 option set to 'Yes', LogiCat adds the names of all the files inside the archive to the database (flagging them as members of the archive). LogiCat is capable of viewing files in the following formats: LHARC ZIP ARC PAK ZOO LogiCat only checks to see if a file is an archive if it's extension matches one of the extensions LogiCat is configured to check. See the discussion on ARChive extensions on page 41 for details. At default this option is set to 'No'. 10) Extract library comments? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should attempt to pull comments out of archives. LogiCat is capable of extracting the comments out of all supported formats that allow comments in the archive. This allows you to add comments to files without having to type them, by using the comments contained in the archive. At default this option is set to 'No'. 11) Flag duplicate records? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should flag "duplicate" records on the reports. When you set this option to 'Yes' LogiCat will display a * beside entries that appear to be duplicates. The way records are sorted (and the report layout) affect the way LogiCat finds duplicate records. LogiCat considers a record to be a duplicate if the first field on the report matches that of the previous record. The following is a sample of a report with duplicate flagging turned off, and then with it on: With Flag duplicate records set to no: Logicat File/Ext Listing Report - 12:12 am Dec 23, 1990 Pg 7 File Name Disk Name Size Date Time Library --------- --------- -------- ---- ---- ------- CATOPT.BAK LC000000011 8,042 12/06/89 09:08:48 pm CATOPT.C LC000000011 8,029 12/06/89 09:12:34 pm CATOPT.C LC000000011 6,015 09/11/89 08:21:42 pm CATOPT.C LC000000011 8,042 12/18/89 05:05:24 pm CATOPT.C LC000000011 6,032 09/05/89 09:18:34 pm CATOPT.OBJ LC000000011 7,901 12/18/89 05:08:02 pm CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 09/04/89 01:26:50 pm CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 09/11/89 08:20:42 pm 36 LogiCat Users Guide CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 12/18/89 05:05:24 pm CB.EXE LC000000011 37,322 09/15/89 03:00:00 pm With Flag duplicate records set to yes: Logicat File/Ext Listing Report - 12:12 am Dec 23, 1990 Pg 7 File Name Disk Name Size Date Time Library --------- --------- -------- ---- ---- ------- CATOPT.BAK LC000000011 8,042 12/06/89 09:08:48 pm CATOPT.C LC000000011 8,029 12/06/89 09:12:34 pm *CATOPT.C LC000000011 6,015 09/11/89 08:21:42 pm *CATOPT.C LC000000011 8,042 12/18/89 05:05:24 pm *CATOPT.C LC000000011 6,032 09/05/89 09:18:34 pm CATOPT.OBJ LC000000011 7,901 12/18/89 05:08:02 pm CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 09/04/89 01:26:50 pm *CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 09/11/89 08:20:42 pm *CATOPT1.C LC000000011 2,924 12/18/89 05:05:24 pm CB.EXE LC000000011 37,322 09/15/89 03:00:00 pm At default this option is set to 'Yes'. 12) Memory for DOS shell. This option is the amount of memory that you want to make available for the DOS Shell. Note that LogiCat uses Switch! to allow you to free as much memory as you like for the DOS shell. Thanks to Switch! LogiCat is capable of freeing virtually all memory that is used by LogiCat making the memory free for the DOS shell. Switch! saves the memory used by LogiCat to EMS if enough EMS memory is available, otherwise the memory used by LogiCat is saved to a disk file. If you don't want LogiCat to use Switch! specify the amount of memory to make available for the shell as 0K. At default this option is set to 256. Remember that the DOS shell can be invoked *any* time LogiCat is waiting for a keystroke by pressing the ALT-Z key. 13) Ask for select criteria? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should prompt for the selection criteria when you choose a menu item that allows selecting special records. The following menu items allow selecting special records: o Add/mod comments o Browse files LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 37 o File/ext report o Duplicate files At default this option is set to 'Yes'. 14) Ask for sort criteria? This option specifies whether or not LogiCat should prompt for the sort options. If this option is turned off LogiCat will never ask you for the sort options. When this option is turned on the following menu items cause LogiCat to prompt for the sort items: o Add/mod comments o Browse files o Volume report o File/ext report o Duplicate files At default this option is set to 'Yes'. 15) Case sensitive search? This option is the case sensitivity flag. When case sensitivity is on LogiCat doesn't match a string being searched for unless the string and case match. If you turn on the case flag Hello is considered to be different than hello. At default this option is set to 'Yes'. 16) Printer name. This option is where you can specify the printer name to LogiCat. The name SCREEN is a special case of the printer name. If you specify the printer name as SCREEN the report will go to the screen instead of the path that is specified (the printer path is the next option to be discussed). Any other printer name causes LogiCat to use the specified printer path. In the future LogiCat may have a database of printers, and use the printer name to locate the control codes that allow LogiCat to take advantage of the printer's capabilities for custom reports. At default this option is set to: SCREEN. 17) Report Dest. This option is the path of the printer. The report destination is where the output of the report is sent 38 LogiCat Users Guide (unless the printer name is SCREEN). You can specify any DOS device/file for the report output. For example: Printer path Sends output to ------------ --------------- LPT1 First parallel port. Normally this is where your real printer is. COM1 First COM port. This is where a serial printer or a modem is attached. C:\TEST.PRN This specifies to send the output to a file in the root directory of drive C: called TEST.PRN. At default this option is set to: PRN. Printer Options The printer options item allows you to change the fields to be printed as well as the page setup information. After choosing this menu item you will be in a multi-field input mode where the following options can be changed: Left margin This is the left margin of the report (in character spaces). At default this option is set to 5. Right margin This is the right margin of the report (in character spaces). At default this option is set to 78. Note that the right margin must be less than or equal to the actual physical right margin on the printer. Top margin This is the number of lines to leave blank for the top margin. At default this value is 2. Bottom margin This is the number of lines to leave blank for the bottom margin. At default this value is 1. FormFeed ok This option specifies whether or not a formfeed character is allowed by the printer. If this option is set to 'Yes' LogiCat will send a formfeed to advance to the next page. If you set this option to 'No' LogiCat prints line feeds to LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 39 advance to the next page. At default this item is 'Yes'. Action for a new line: This option specifies what character or character sequence is needed to advance the print head to the next line (at the start print position). The possible values are: CR (carriage return), LF (linefeed), or CRLF (both a carriage return and a linefeed). At default this option is set to CRLF. Lines per page This option specifies how many lines there are on the page. At default this option has a value of 60 (which works properly on LaserJet printers and dot matrix printers if you FormFeed OK is on). Note that the default value leaves a few extra unused lines on the bottom of a dot matrix page which can generally hold upto 66 lines. If you don't have a LaserJet you may wish to change this option. (Note: Specifying zero causes the output to be continuous). Pause at the end of a page: This option allows you to use LogiCat with a single sheet printer. If you set this option to 'Yes' LogiCat will prompt you to press a key after each page is printed. At default this option is set to 'No'. The next items on the printer options input allow you to specify which fields to print on the report. The values you specify for the fields to print don't effect the Volume report (with the exception of the keywords and comments fields). Since the various fields should be self explanatory they won't be gone over in detail here. You should be aware that the order selected fields are printed in is fixed. All fields that you wish to print will be printed in the order the field names are shown on the printer options input window. Briefly, if you set all fields to be printed they would be printed in the following order: File name, subdirectory, disk name, file size, modification date, modification time, library name, keywords, and comments. The last option on the printer options window specifies whether or not you want long lines truncated. If you specify 'Yes' LogiCat chops off all fields after the right margin has been hit (with the exception of keywords and comments which are printed beginning the second line). At default lines aren't truncated. 40 LogiCat Users Guide Color Options The color options item allows you to change the colors used by the LogiCat disk cataloger. When you pick this item you are prompted via menus for the colors to change. Logging Drive(s) Choosing this menu item allows you to change the drive(s) that LogiCat uses for logging disks. If you specify two different drives LogiCat alternates between them for logging the disks. Read New Database This option allows you to read a new database into memory. If there were any changes made to the database that was already in memory the changes will be saved before reading the new database. NOTE: The extension is forced to .DB, all other specifications are ignored. Write Database This option writes the current database to disk. If no changes were made since the last time the database was written a message will be displayed. Library Extensions Choosing this option allows you to edit the list of extensions that LogiCat considers to be archives. If you have the options set to extract archive contents, or extract archive comments LogiCat will attempt to look inside all files it scans that have an extension listed in the list of library extensions. The following extensions are used at default: ZIP ARC LZH ZOO PAK PKA Maximum Files Etc. LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 41 This option allows you to change the maximum number of files, disks, and subdirectories LogiCat can handle. The greater the maximum for each of these, the greater the amount of memory required is. If there isn't enough memory currently available to change to the specified amount you are given the option to save the amount in a configuration file. Note that if you exceed the amount that can be allocated at program startup it will take LogiCat longer to initialize since it will have to adjust memory usage during initialization. You should be aware that each disk you configure will use one of the file slots as well (the file slot is where the disk name is held). So, if you ask for 3000 files and 300 disks you will only be able to use 2700 of the file slots for actual files. At default there are 3000 files, 300 disks, and 300 dirs. Note that if LogiCat runs out of memory and all the allowed files/disks/dirs aren't in use LogiCat will adjust the amounts allocated to overcome the memory shortage (a message window will inform you memory allocation was adjusted). Load Configuration This option allows you to load a new configuration file. You should note that if the maximum number of files, disks or directories is less than the number that are already in memory (or if LogiCat can't rearrange the memory settings due to a memory shortage), a warning will be issued, and the maximum numbers will be left as they were before you loaded the configuration file (all other options will be set as indicated in the configuration file). Save Configuration This option allows you to save the current configuration to a file. When you pick this option you will be asked for the name of the file to save the configuration to. Reset to Defaults Picking this option causes LogiCat to reset the options to the default values. Note that this doesn't change the maximum number of files, disks, or directories. 42 LogiCat Users Guide Utilities Menu The utilities menu contains the utility type functions. Currently there are only two options on the Utilities submenu: Import comments and DOS Shell. There are many more utility functions planned. New utility functions will be added to the menu as they are created. This section of the manual documents the options available on the utilities menu. Import Comments This option allows you to import comments from an ASCII text file. This provides a convenient way to add comments to the database without having to manually type them. Now you can easily incorporate the descriptions from BBS listings into the database. Listings to be imported must meet several conditions in order to be imported. The following conditions must be met: o The listing must be in columnar form. That is the file names must always start in the same column, and the comment field must always start in the same column. o For multi-line comments, the comments must remain in an even column. PCBoard and Auntie are two BBS systems that produce listings with multiline comments that will work with the import comment routine. For example: TEST.ARC 12212 12-12-89 This is an example of a multi-line comment that can be imported by LogiCat without problems. TEST.ARC 12212 12-12-89 This is an example of a multi-line comment that can't be imported by LogiCat. The first example can be imported by LogiCat while the second example can't. RBBS produces multi-line listings that can't be imported by LogiCat. o Tab size is assumed to be eight characters (this is the usual case for editors). When you choose the import option the following screen is displayed: LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 43 + Import Comments ---------------------------------------------------+ | | | Comment setup file: C:\LC.IMP | | | | File with the comments to import: C:\LOSTATC.DIR | | | | LogiCat database to use: C:\LC.DB | | | | Starting column of file name: 1 end column 12 | | | | Starting column of comment: 32 end column 65 | | | | Replace existing comments (Y/N/Ask): Ask first | | PgUp/PgDn: Change windows, F10: Proceed | +- Sample comment file text -----------------------------------------+ | 1 | 2 3 | 4 5 6 | 7 123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789. LC10 ZIP 189110 12-26-89 DS LogiCat V1.0 is the premiere of the *best* cataloger available. Has powerful features including multi- line comments, auto disk naming, and *many* other unique features! 123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789. ^ 1 ^ 2 3 ^ 4 5 6 ^ 7 | | | | The cursor is positioned asking you for the name of the comment setup file. If this file exists the rest of the settings are read in (so as to default to the last values used). If the file doesn't exist LogiCat will ask if it is ok to create the file. If you answer 'Yes' the file will be created when you exit (if you abort out before importing the comments the settings file isn't created/modified). The fields that are available are as follows: o Comment setup file. This is the name of the file that is used to hold the defaults for importing comments. LogiCat allows you to have multiple setup files (i.e. you could have one with the defaults set properly for each type of listing you import). In addition, LogiCat automatically saves any changes made to the settings if you don't abort out of the import utility. o File with the comments to import. This is the name of the file that contains the comments you want to import. You have to enter the name of an existing file here to get past this field. As soon as you enter the name of an existing 44 LogiCat Users Guide file the bottom of the screen is filled in with the ruler lines. Part of the file will be displayed between the ruler lines. Note: You can scroll through the file to be imported by pressing the PgUp or PgDn keys to switch windows to the bottom window. Once you go to the bottom window you can use the up and down arrow keys to scroll through the file. This method of scrolling is slow, but is handy when you need to do so. Pressing PgUp or PgDn returns you to enter the fields for the import settings. o LogiCat database to use. This is a field that is automatically populated with the name of the current database to remind you where the comments will be imported to. You can only import comments to the database that is currently being used. o Start and end columns of the file. These two fields allow you to define where in the file listing the file name is. LogiCat can handle names with the extension separated by spaces or a single period. Note that these two types can be intermixed without problems. As you adjust the start and end columns the arrows on the ruler lines move to show you where the file name is expected to be. The start MUST be before the end value or LogiCat will issue an error message. o Start and end columns of the comments. These two fields allow you to define where in the file listing the comment is located. As you adjust the values, the arrows on the status line move to show where the comment field is expected. The start column MUST be before the end column or LogiCat will issue an error message. o Replace existing comments? This field can have one of three values (each selected by pressing the first letter of the desired value). The values allowed are: Yes - If you set this value LogiCat will replace existing comments without asking first. This means that if a comment in the listing conflicts with an existing comment LogiCat will discard the existing comment and replace it with the comment from the file listing. No - If you set this value LogiCat will not replace any existing comments. This means that if a file in LogiCat already has a comment LogiCat will discard the comment from the listing. LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 45 Ask - LogiCat will prompt when it finds a comment that conflicts with an existing one. This allows you to choose whether or not to replace the old comment on a one by one basis. When you're ready to import the comments press the F10 key, and LogiCat will start importing the comments. DOS Shell This menu item allows you to shell to DOS. Note that you can also use ALT-Z to shell to DOS from *anywhere* in the program LogiCat is waiting for an input key. Quit Menu This isn't really much of a menu, but is a second way to quit out of the program. After selecting the Quit menu you can press return (as prompted) to exit the program. Note that pressing ESCape enough times will get you out of the program as well. 46 LogiCat Users Guide Index LogiCat, Disk Cataloger 47 43/50 line mode 3, 4, 22, quit menu 4, 46 33 read 1, 4, 5, 10, 11, 16, 22, add menu 3, 9, 22, 23 41, 44 add/mod comments 3, 17, 18, regular expressions 3, 4, 11, 22, 23, 24, 37, 38 13, 14-16, 20 browse files 3, 17, 18, 22, rename a disk 3, 22, 27, 28 29, 37, 38 replace a disk 3, 22, 27 case sensitivity 3, 22, 30, reports menu 3, 10, 30, 31 38 reset to defaults 4, 22, 42 catalog options 4, 7, 8, save 4, 8, 10, 11, 22, 25, 42 22, 33 search menu 3, 22, 28 color options 4, 22, 41 searching 3, 4, 13, 16, 29 commands 4, 11, 12, 24, 25, setup 3, 6, 31, 39, 44 29, 30, 33 string search 3, 22, 29 comment search 3, 22, 29 tutorial 3, 5, 6, 9, 11 comments 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, utilities menu 4, 22, 43 16, 17-19, 22-25, volume report 3, 18, 22, 31, 28, 29, 31, 35, 32, 38, 40 36-38, 40, 41, 43, write 4, 8, 10, 22, 33, 35, 44-46 41 configuration 4, 6-9, 11, 22, 42 delete a disk 3, 22, 28 delete/replace menu 3, 27 dummy entry 3, 22, 23 duplicate files 3, 19, 22, 33, 38 editing 3, 11, 12, 25 editing string fields 3, 11, 25 file search 3, 22, 30 file/ext report 3, 10, 17, 19, 22, 32, 33, 38 import comments 4, 22, 43, 44, 45 installation 3, 5 keyword search 3, 22, 30 library extensions 4, 22, 41 load 4, 8, 22, 42 log floppy disks 3, 22, 23 maximum files 4, 22, 41 multiline 43 Options Menu 4, 6, 9, 10, 17, 18, 31-33 quick file/ext report 3, 10, 22, 32 quick volume report 3, 22, 32 48 LogiCat Users Guide