What's New for ArcAid 1.20, release date 04/12/90 Note to Beta site testers: If you still have version 1.10b lying around, please erase it, or otherwise get rid of it. Release 1.20 supercedes any previous version of ArcAid that you may have. If you are a registered user, feel free to download and use this release. If you are not registered, and you continue to use ArcAid, registration is required. The fee is still only $10.00 and is a one-time for all versions registration. Please note...there was no full release of 1.12. The next is 1.20. Due to the many new features and changes, I decided to raise the release to the next major level (.20). The manual has been revised and updated to not only include the new features, but hopefully to be clearer in operation. New features since 1.00: ArcAid is now being developed using the LARGE 8086 model, which means that it now uses all available memory for directories and so forth...so the 500 file total directory limit with release 1.00 no longer applies. The only limit is the amount of memory available to ArcAid. However, ArcAid does have a 500 file per directory window limit. If there are users out there with greater than 500 files in a particular directory, let me know what you are using and I will expand ArcAid to handle that. Lharc files are now directly accessed for file directory purposes. Lharc.exe is still needed to arc/de-arc the files, but I was able to get the file structure information so I can now access the file header data as in the other formats. Screen operations have changed a bit. I now show the archiver file operations as they happen. This means that you will see each archiver working, then return to ArcAid. This was a compromise I had to make to allow greater flexibility in error checking with the archiving programs. If you really hate this, let me know. I'm not sure what I can do about it, but let me know anyway. Disk drive errors are fully trapped, so you cannot ask for a drive that your machine doesn't have, nor does selecting a non-ready drive mess up the screen. When an invalid path or drive is asked for, ArcAid tries and upon failure will return to the previous path or drive. The new commands are included in the help window display that is shown when is pressed from within the directory view mode. User Specified Work Area Prior to this release, ArcAid would create a temporary directory in the current drive and path for temporary extraction of files for viewing and moving. This caused problems when you were viewing/moving files from/to floppies that were pretty full. You can now specify a default work area that is saved in the ARCAID.DEF file. To specify this area, use the key. At the prompt box, enter the full drive\path specification, INCLUDING TRAILING BACKSLASH!!! For example, say you wanted ArcAid to create a temporary area in the root directory of drive C:, enter this drive\path combination: C:\ If you wanted to have ArcAid create it's work area in your Opus file area (and it was called OPUS and on drive C:), then: C:\OPUS\ is what you need. As with the other areas you can change within ArcAid, pressing or without entering anything leaves the current value unchanged. Multiple File Operations This is the major operational addition to ArcAid. Of the many changes that I have made to the code, this is the one that is the most visible to the user. Multiple file operations are available in two modes: tagged file mode and file mask/wildcard mode. You can now tag/untag multiple files for use with all commands. This extends to arc'd files as well. In other words, you can tag a number of files and create a new arc file and all tagged files will be included in the new file. Or you can tag a bunch of files to extract from an archive file and it will extract them all. Or you can tag a bunch of arc'd files and move them to another file. To tag/untag a file, whether in the directory view or arc contents view, use the key. This is a toggle. Push once and it's tagged. Push again and it's not. To clear all tags press the key. There is a limit to the number of files that you can tag. The limit is dependant upon the length of the filenames that have been selected. DOS has a command line length limit of 127 characters, so the total length of all files cannot be longer than 118 characters (the difference is the length of the archiver file name and it's command option). If you select too many files, ArcAid will tell you so and you can go back and unselect some. Remember, a full file name occupies 12 character spaces, so a good rule of thumb is you can tag about 10 files at a time. To help you keep track of the number of files tagged, as well as the free command line space that is available, 2 new display features have been added. These features are provided for both directory view windows and for the arc file contents view window. These features are [Tagged:xx] and [CmdSpace:xxx]. [Tagged:xx] tells you how many files you have tagged for the currently active window. [CmdSpace:xxx] tells you how many character positions you have left in the DOS command line. This figure includes the archiver file name and option and the full drive\path\filename of a archive file that has the maximum number of letters allowed in the name (12). As the remaining command space is dependant upon the destination drive\path, this figure will change as you move the other destination window, so before you actually execute the function, make sure that you have not exceeded the command line space. ArcAid will let you exceed the command line space so you can pick and choose among files if you have a choice. However, ArcAid will not execute the command if you have exceeded the command line length. When you change to a new directory, the tags for that view window are cleared. File Mask/*.* Selection File Mask/*.* Selection In addition to being able to tag multiple files, you can also select a group of files by using wildcards. For all operations, if no files are tagged when a command key is pressed, you will be asked for a new file mask, with the default value displayed in the window title position. The default value will be the file that was highlighted by the cursor bar when the command key was pressed. The default value is automatically selected simply by pressing without entering anything. However, you can specify any SINGLE file mask at this point. You can enter a complete drive\path\filename, a filename with wildcards, or just *.*. For example, say you had an archive with a bunch of files with a .DAT extension and you wanted to extract only these files. You would press (to extract files) and then enter *.dat and ArcAid would then do the rest. The same is true for other commands as well. Please note: only one file mask (specification) can be entered. Anything else will generate errors. Copy File Operation You can now copy a file or files from source to destination from within ArcAid without having to exit to DOS. To execute this command, select the file or files (using the tag/untag operation described above) and press . ArcAid will then copy the list of files to the destination window. Please note: ArcAid automatically assigns the non-active view window as the destination. Do not 'tab' over to the other window to show ArcAid that this is the destination. You must be in the source window before pressing . If this is confusing (as this is not really consistent with the archive commands), let me know. If you only want to copy one file, you don't need to 'tag' it. Just select it by moving the cursor bar to the desired file and press . You will be asked to enter a file mask. Press to accept the default value, which will be the selected file. Delete File Operation This command allows you to delete one or more files from the current directory view window. This is basically the same as the DOS command ERASE or DEL. You can either move the cursor bar to the file that you want to select, or you can select multiple files as described above. Either way, pressing will prompt you with a "Do you really want to do this?" message. If you answer "Y" (case insensitive), then ArcAid will erase each file entry you have selected in the current directory view window. THIS IS NOT A REVERSABLE COMMAND (unless you have an unerase command). This is a powerful command. Do not be careless with it. Configuration and Default Information If ArcAid cannot find the defaults file, ARCAID.DEF in the directory where it finds itself (ARCAID.EXE), it will prompt you for the program defaults before the main screen is presented. After entering the defaults, ArcAid will save these for future use. You can also change these at any time by using the command. allows you to change any or all of the program defaults, including the file viewer (). As always, I would appreciate your input. Mike Masse 8822 Country View Drive Sparta, MI 49345 Voice: 616-887-9404 E-Mail: Plane Crazy BBS, 616-887-9584, Opus 1:228/22.0 (Mark Spangenberg, Sysop)