-> Strip INDEX or RECENT file lists of AMiNet 1.3 <-

			by Feril <hafer@zedat.fu-berlin.de>


1. What it is and what you need

	a) I was fed up with those long AmiNet paths which I hardly could remember for ONE wanted
	file, let alone for a whole bunch of them. Therefore I started creating ARexx scripts 
	for DaFTP by Dan Murrell jr. by copying and pasting those paths - a work for brain
	damaged people. In the end I was annoyed by DaFTP (bugs! :( ) and the poor support one gets 
	from its author and decided to look for a utility that would let me browse through INDEX or
	RECENT files, select wanted files and save them into a script for any other FTP Client. 
	Apart from the very alpha versions of AX by Paul A. Schifferer (that doesn't save marked files
	for reasons probably only known by him) there wasn't any useful util around. So I ended up
	writing this SIMPLE ARexx. 
	Strip_Index.rexx extracts selected filenames and creates an FTPGet script. Of course it won't
	let you browse INDEX/RECENT files, but heck, who needs that? They're just ASCII files, and if
	you're looking for files to suit a special purpose you have to search for the name/description
	anyway - and that can be easily done by any text editor. So here we are.

	b) You need: 
			o FTPGet 1.2 by Simon Dainty
			o a texteditor (such as CED, GoldEd or even ED would do...)
		Recommended:
			o MergeRecent by Alex Tucker to update your INDEX file

			-> FTPGet and MergeRecent both are available on AmiNet

2. Features

	o Checks RECENT or INDEX of AmiNet for [d]ownload or [r]eadme-download flags
   o creates a DOS script for FTPGet to d/l selected (FTPGet *must* be in your PATH!)
	o use any TextEditor to set the flags
	o this script automatically overlays the flags with "ovl" ('   ') as default; *MUST* 
	  be as long as the flags!

	NOTE: At the moment it isn't possible to d/l both the .readme and the archive at once!
			(Not necessary since most archives contain the .readme nevertheless.)

3. Usage

	o simply check the CUSTOM AREA and insert your data
	o load your INDEX/RECENT into any TextEditor and mark the wanted files
	  with either [d] for d/l'ing the FULL archive or [r] for d/l'ing the README

		WARNING! The [d]/[r] tags MUST be the LAST word and separated by at least one SPACE from
		the description of the wanted archive!
	
		NOTE: Those tags are customized, see the CUSTOM AREA. But be warned that they have to be
				of the *same* length, and that the "ovl" variable is of this length too!
				I use [d]/[r] since they are short and most certainly not to be found as the
				last word in any AmiNet description. Keep this in mind! 

	o start this ARexx script with the RECENT or INDEX file name as argument
		(eg. "rexxc:rx rexx:strip_index.rexx amitcp:home/RECENT")

	o connect to your InterNet provider
	o execute the extracted script (name is determined by the "dest" variable in the CUSTOM AREA)

4. Hints

	I usually use DOpus to extract the marked files. Then I have installed ToolManager to execute
	the T:FTPGet.exe (dest) script, and gave it a CON: window for the output. 
	Of course it works with all other launchers (AFAIK).

	After all you should have read the FTPGet dox. ;*)


	Contact me if you have problems (unlikely.... ).

5. History

	1.1:	had a bug, didn't work with sites that had no '/amiga/' link .... fixed
	1.2:  now it displays info of the currently xfered file... (whoa! ;)
	1.3:	was TOO easy to add the INFO arg... SORRY!