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- 06601030305800
- 1
- 2 P J England (me!)
- F0110030
- 9[............................................................]001
- Ŵ ***** IMPORTANT NOTICE *****
-
- This and all subsequent versions of !!DisCat and !!ReadCat can no longer handle
- squeezed files. If you have saved you catalog files using the squeeze option,
- you will have to convert them to unsqueezed files by loading them in via an old
- version and resaving.
-
-
- Vaguely sensible information for !!DisCat.
- €
- ⇩Boring Copyright/Disclaimer message€
-
- The application Ŵ!!DisCat€, together with the following files contained
- therein, are copyright P J England, 1992.
-
- !RunImage
- TypeMod
- MakeType
-
- This application is Ŵnot€ to be distributed throughout the general Public
- Domain, by any means electronic or otherwise. The program is available FREE
- by sending a 3.5" ADFS formatted disc + SAE the the address at the end of
- this file. This has been done so I can establish if there is any need for a
- program of this sort, and if it's worth developing the idea.
-
- The following application/modules are Public Domain and can be distributed by
- any means, fair or foul, providing that no alterations have been made to the
- copyright notice contained within.
-
- !!Request
- !!ReadCat
- 1stType (Module)
-
-
- The modules ŴArcFS€ and ŴArcFSfiler€ are © Mark Smith and are available through
- the general Public Domain.
-
- The module ŴMSDOS Filer€ is © Minerva Software Ltd. With this module installed
- !!DisCat allows you to catalog MSDOS discs as well as ADFS (etc).
-
- No responsibility will be taken by myself for any loss or damage caused by
- these programs, so don't say you haven't been warned.
-
- ⇩Right, that's that over, now on to: How to use !!DisCat€
-
- Having loaded the program, oh... work it out for yourself...
- ☓(or double click on !!Info)€
-
-
-
-
- ŴNotes:
- € Improvements:
-
- €V1.22 Added nice new information window so you can see what's going on
- while the program is cataloguing a disc. This 'sort of' multitasks,
- but it's not really worth doing much else because it takes 99% of the
- computers time.
- Added option to change file system (ie Ram,SCSI.. CFS#ADFS..) and
- select drive numbers I hadn't dreamed of. This is (was) handled in
- the writeable sections of the Ŵdrive€ and Ŵfilesys€ menu(s).-☓ but it
- isn't handled like this any more !
- € Jiggled about with the squeeze option, this seems to be one byte off
- somewhere, quick hack added so it works, but my recommendation is ŴNOT
- to use the squeeze option€ unless you really have to.
-
- (☓If you have any files saved using the old Squeeze option.. tough
- because they won't work!.. You'll need to save them (via an old
- version of the program) as normal un-squeezed files..load them into
- this version... etc€..)
-
- If anyone needs a decent squeeze file option, please let me know and
- I'll try and add the LZW module on..
-
- Jiggled around slightly with the menu structure (Yes your right,
- having the save option on the menu bar was a pain.. I often thought
- that myself..)
-
- V1.22c Quick (?) jiggle about with a few things. Restructured the catalog
- options menu. Provided a 'prompt' option for dir's and app's.
-
- Added a 'quick search'.. which is actually dead slow.. Use Ctrl-F to
- init the search window...This needs a menu entry. (and f4 key...)
-
- Ah! FINALLY got around to the printout option. Wrote a nice LONG
- drawn-out piece of code.. tried it out.. didn't like it.. deleted it.
- Page up/Page down now works, as does Ctrl-up and Ctrl-down.
-
- Discovered some bug or another that causes archives in Applications
- to be catalogued twice.. I'll try and sort the out next time...
-
- Ŵ17th July This does seem to be a bug in ARCFS. The old versions of the program
- have the same 'bug' in them. ARCFS seems to get confused with the
- Ŷ offsŴet of the catalog entry using OS_GBPB.. This probably didn't
- come to light before because a) all my archive's are within the root
- directory, and b) the offset to the next file was done 'by hand'..
- This however, doesn't work with the MSDOS filer..So much for
- compatibility...
- I'll have to look into this a bit more when time allows.. (Perhaps
- even write some basic to do the job..)
- €
- Changed the colour of ARCHIVE text.. Didn't like the old idea much..
- Still not tooo happy about this one.. but it's better than it was.
-
- Got fed up.. went to bed.
-
- Ŵ19th July€ Stuffed on a quick 'export' option on the 'select.disc' menu. This
- allows you to have 2 !!DisCat programs running and export discs from
- € on to another.. (Well... it might come in useful one day!)
- Re-included an old option that allows you to merge catalog files
- together by dragging them onto the DisCat icon. Somewhere along the
- line this had been removed. This only works with ☓catalog€ files, not
- directories with ☓catalog€ files within them.
-
- Had a quick fiddle with the redraw 'cause it was leaving lines
- between archive entries on a Multi-Stink monitor! Mmm.. (Why didn't I
- notice this before now ??)
-
- ***************************
- Ŵ
- 7th Sept €Finally got around to re-writing the program. This is the 'final'
- useable version of !!DisCat. Any other additions will have to wait
- for more pressing matters.
-
- ŴThe following 'improvements' have been added:€
-
- * Re-jiggled window handling.. actually not much different but it makes
- life a hell of a lot easier for the wimp.
-
- * Slightly more user-friendly scan options. Now handled via a window
- with option buttons.
-
- * Sensible handling of 'doing' window which avoids windows popping up
- and down like a pair of whores draws when using the 'prompt' scan
- option(s).
-
- * 'Quick search' (HA!) added. This is ☓dead slow€ at present. May
- possibly speed this up sometime when I'm feeling bored.
- You can either use the menu to start the search, or if the window has
- the input focus, press f4. Searching starts from wherever the cursor
- is (or was).
-
- * File info now attempts to read some information from the files. With
- BASIC programs it default to the second line if this is a REM.
-
- * Checks are made to see if you have already catalogued a disc of the
- same name when you start to catalog (..?) Options are then given to
- either delete the old entry, or add the new disc on as per normal.
- (.. hope that makes more sense to you than it does to me..)
-
- * Print out option using the printer drivers is now ½ supported. To
- print out a file, load your printer driver and drag a catalog file
- onto the drivers icon. This will load !!DisCat and print to a file,
- and then the printer driver prints the file.
- This does mean that the file <Printer$Temp> must be writable. If you
- get errors try Ŵ*Set Printer$Temp Adfs::0.$.TempFile€ or similar.
-
- One small‘ €problem with this concerns the use of Elite text for the
- printout. Personally I use a 15CPI text for printing out 90% of my
- rubbish.. this is a sort of 'enlarged compressed' text and gives me
- 110 chars per line with room to spare. !!DisCat screen layout was
- designed with this in mind - hence the 55 chars in the text field..
- € Unfortunataly.. not all printers can support this font size, leaving
- the only options as being:
- a) Use compressed font at 18CPI. This works fine but the text looks a
- bit 'lost' on the page.
- b) Use elite font at 12CPI. This looks great but means that the last
- 5 chars of the text field are spilled over onto the next
- line....aghghghhg! However, this is a fairly minor problem and if
- kept in mind shouldn't be tooo much of a pain.
-
- You can set the font used by editing the '☓PtrSet€' file within
- !!DisCat/!!ReadCat. Instructions are included within this file, but
- it may be useful to refer to your ☓PrData€ file within your printer
- driver for more help.
-
- * Loading of files called 'Catalog' within applications via double
- clicking on the application now seems to have stopped throwing up the
- odd error from !StrongEd2. I'm not really sure where this error
- (Unexpected DataLoad..) is coming from. !StrongEd2 seems to be mainly
- to blame for it....
- This is all the more confusing because the handling of filing
- messages is EXACTLY the same code as the previous version and that
- causes the error occasionally!.. Weird or what ?
-
- ŴThe following are missing, presumed dead:€
-
- * Disc Export option. This was another idea that never really got
- anywhere. If you want to edit the order of discs you have to delete
- what you don't want, save it, then merge it together by dragging the
- file to the icon on the icon bar... very long winded I know..
-
- * 'Squeeze' option. This has gone for good. It was proving to to be
- more of a pain than it was worth. If you want to squeeze your files,
- use ARCFS read/write or similar.
-
- * Programers Brain.
-
- ŴIts worth pointing out that the 'bug' in ARCFS mentioned above
- doesn't seem to be present in ARCFSr/w. V1.09
- €
- ŴIt's also worth pointing out that this version of !!DisCat has been
- wrote to make use of ArcFS 2. This is MUCH faster than the older
- version - appears to be bug free (at least for !!DisCat's purposes)
- BUT does mean that you can close an archive from ArcFS 2's menu while
- !!DisCat is busy.. All I can say is.. ŵDON'T!Ŵ
- €
- ŴPossible Improvements: (perhaps..but you'll be lucky..)
- €
- Ŵ TRY€ and get the screen redraw up to some sort of speed. Possibly M/Code
- it, but I don't think that'll make an enormous difference..
-
- Improve !!Request to bring that up to some sort of standard. It's still at
- the original version that was bashed out in about ½ hour.
-
- Include an 'extra info' option so you can give a bit more information
- € about files if you want to.
-
- * If anyone reading this knows how to tell the Printer Drivers that a file
- is ready to be printed, I'd be Ŵvery€ happy to know how this is done! It
- would be nice to have a ☓print€ menu option but I can't get the Printer
- Drives to print the file after it's been created!.. Hmmmmm...
-
- Any other suggestions ??
-
-
- ***************************
-
- All comments, bug reports, ideas, blank cheques, false teeth etc. should be
- address to :
-
- Paul England
- 38 Blackbrook Court
- Durham Road
- Loughborough
- LE11 0UA
-
-
-
