-------------------------- QFLIST USERS' MANUAL -------------------------- A User-Supported File Browse Utility written by Kenn Flee of Jamestown Software 2508 Valley Forge Drive Madison WI 53719 Version 1.1 - August 29, 1989 Copyright (c) 1989 by Jamestown Software Jamestown Software will not be liable for any damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use QFLIST, even if Jamestown Software has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. Page 2 QFLIST Manual TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------- Introduction and credit . . . . . . page 3 Description of use . . . . . . . . . page 3 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . page 3 Text vs. Binary Files . . . . . . page 4 Screen Layout . . . . . . . . . . page 4 Information Line . . . . . . . . page 5 Status Line . . . . . . . . . . . page 5 Screen Colors . . . . . . . . . . page 6 Finding Text . . . . . . . . . . page 6 Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . page 7 Saving a Config File . . . . . . page 7 Commands and Keys . . . . . . . . . page 8 Cursor keys . . . . . . . . . . . page 8 Function keys . . . . . . . . . . page 8 Alt keys . . . . . . . . . . . . page 8 Letter keys . . . . . . . . . . . page 9 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . page 10 User Support Software . . . . . . page 11 Invoice / Registration . . . . . . page 12 QFLIST Manual Page 3 INTRODUCTION AND CREDIT ------------------------- QFLIST is a file browse utility modeled after the excellent user-supported LIST.COM program by Vernon D. Buerg, (456 Lakeshire, Daly City, CA 94015). However, QFLIST supports only a subset of the many options offered by LIST and is intended primarily for use with QFILER (a popular DOS file manager) and QFMENU (a menu system), both by Jamestown Software. QFLIST may also be run as a stand-alone utility and allows you to select the file you wish to view from a sorted list of available files -- including the ability to change drives and directories from within QFLIST. DESCRIPTION OF USE -------------------- Getting Started --------------- USAGE: QFLIST [drive:][path][filename] QFLIST is used to view or browse the contents of a file, allowing for scrolling and positioning within the file. To use QFLIST, just type the command QFLIST at the DOS prompt, followed by the name of the file you wish to see. For example: QFLIST QFLIST.DOC would display this file. Use of the filename is optional. If you simply type the command QFLIST at the DOS prompt, you are prompted to enter a filename. You may then just press enter without entering a filename, or may enter a path with wildcards. An alphabetical list of files matching your entry will be displayed. When the available files are listed, use the cursor keys to select the file you wish to view. Optionally, you may press the first letter of the desired file and the cursor will be positioned on the first entry starting with that letter. Once the selected file is displayed, you may use the cursor positioning keys to view different parts of the file. The file is displayed in "pages" of 23 lines. To see the next page, press the PgDn key. The PgUp key moves back one page, the up-arrow and down-arrow keys move one line at a time, the home key moves to beginning of the file and the end key moves to the end of the file. When you are done, press the ESCape key to return to the DOS prompt. Page 4 QFLIST Manual You may rename QFLIST to any convenient name, such as V.EXE, READ.EXE or LIST.EXE. If you are using a QFILER version 3.1HD or older, you must rename QFLIST.EXE to LIST.EXE for QFILER to be able to recognize the program and link to it. Text vs Binary Files -------------------- QFLIST may be used to view both text files and binary files. Text files are those which contain text (such as this QFLIST.DOC file) and not binary or control codes. Text characters usually range from a value of 32 through 127. Binary files, such as those with the extension .COM and .EXE, have characters ranging from 0 through 255 and may be viewed conveniently by pressing alt-H, the hex dump display command. Characters below the space character 32 and characters above 127 (graphic characters) are displayed if the "8" command is in effect. To filter out these normally non-text characters, use the "7" command. Screen Layout ------------- The top, or information line of the QFLIST screen displays the file name, file creation time and date, top line number and left offset. The bottom, or status line shows the file size and the status of various options. The middle section between the top and bottom lines, or display window, shows 23 lines of the selected file. If you have an EGA or VGA monitor, you may use the alt-E command to change to EGA 43-line or VGA 50-line mode. Press alt-E again to return to the standard 25-line mode. Each line that is displayed either ends in a line feed or has a length of 1024 characters, whichever comes first. If a line is not fully shown, you may press the cursor right and left arrow keys to scroll right and left. QFLIST Manual Page 5 Information Line ---------------- The top information line has the following format: QFLIST llll nnnn mmmm fileinfo where: QFLIST is name of the program "llll" is the line number of the first line shown in the display window "nnnn" is the total number of lines in the file "mmmm" is the left offset, or number of characters you have scrolled right. fileinfo is either the file name and extension with creation time and date, or optionally (with the alt-A command) the full path name of the displayed file. Status Line ----------- The bottom status line has the format message F1=help X=exit Options: ????? nnnn bytes where "message" can be a command prompt "Find?", displayed in response to the F9 or F command, where you are being asked to enter the text you wish to find, or a status message: "*** Text not found ***" - your text was not found "*** Top-of-file ***" - first line of the file is being displayed "*** End-of-file ***" - last line of the file is being displayed "Options" show the status of toggles -- capital letter means on: "A" means the alternate file display is active (alt-A) "H" means the hex display mode is active (alt-H) "P" means that print is active (P) "T" means tab characters are expanded (alt-T) "7/8" means 7- or 8-bit display is active (7 or 8) "nnnn" is the size of the file displayed. Page 6 QFLIST Manual Screen Colors ------------- There are three colors used by QFLIST: - for the top information and bottom status lines (1/25) - for the text in the middle display window - a "highlight" color for lines containing "find" text There are a pair of function keys assigned to change each of the colors. One of the function key changes the background color and the other function key changes the foreground or character color. Colors may be changed with the use of the following function keys: Top information and bottom status lines: F7 - background color F8 - character color Text in the middle display window: F5 - background color F6 - character color Highlight for "find" text: F3 - background color F4 - character color If you wish to make the color changes permanent, you may use the alt-C configuration command to save your choices. Finding Text ------------ If you wish to locate a character string, you may use the F9 or F "Find new text" command, followed with one or more characters you wish to find within the file. While QFLIST is scanning the file for the text, the bottom status line will display "Searching for ????". If the text is found, the line containing it will be displayed in the "highlight" color. If it is not found, the bottom status line will read "*** Text not found ***". Pressing any key will redisplay the normal bottom status line. To find the next occurrence of the same text, you may use the A or F10 "Find text again" command. QFLIST Manual Page 7 Printing -------- The file may be printed as it is displayed. The P command toggles the default printer on or off. When first entered, the P command causes the current screen to be printed. As new lines are displayed, they are also printed. Printing may be stopped by entering a second P command. Saving a Config File -------------------- If you wish to "permanently" save QFLIST's current screen colors and other options, you may use the alt-C "save current config" command. For this command to function properly, QFLIST must be in a pathed subdirectory. In other words, if you enter PATH at the DOS prompt, the subdirectory in which QFLIST is located must be listed. The list of pathed subdirectories is set up with a "PATH=" entry in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and is read by DOS when your computer is first turned on. If the QFLIST subdirectory is located, the current options will be saved in a configuration file named QFLIST.CFG, which will be located in the same directory as QFLIST.EXE. The options that are saved are: - The current screen colors - alt-A alternate file name display - alt-E EGA/VGA mode switch - alt-H hex file display mode, like the DEBUG format - alt-T tab character expansion - 7/8 7-bit or 8-bit display mode You should save a config file before renaming QFLIST.EXE. Page 8 QFLIST Manual COMMANDS AND KEYS ------------------- Cursor key Function ------------- ------------------------------------------------- up arrow up one (previous) line down arrow down one (next) line left arrow scroll left 10 columns right arrow scroll right 10 columns PgUp scroll up one page PgDn scroll down one page HOME position to first line, left offset 0 (top) END position to end of file (bottom) ctrl-left set left offset to 0 Function key Function ------------- ------------------------------------------------- F1 Help - display summary of commands F2 Exit to DOS F3 change background color for FIND text F4 change character color for FIND text F5 change background color for top and bottom lines F6 change character color for top and bottom lines F7 change background color for main text window F8 change character color for main text window F9 Find new text F10 Find next occurrence of text Alt key Function ------------- ------------------------------------------------- alt-A toggle filename display on top information line alt-C save current options in a configuration file alt-E toggle EGA 43-line or VGA 50-line mode alt-H toggle HEX display mode (for binary files) alt-T toggle tab expansion mode QFLIST Manual Page 9 COMMANDS AND KEYS (continued) ------------------------------- Letter key Function ------------- ------------------------------------------------- A Find next occurrence of text F Find new text H Help - display summary of commands N Get new file P Toggle printing X Exit to DOS T Position to first line, left offset 0 (top) B Position to end of file (bottom) D Down one (next) line U Up one (previous) line 7 Strip hi-bit - don't show graphic characters 8 Leave hi-bit - show all characters LIMITATIONS ------------- QFLIST uses as much memory as is available to store both the text itself and information about the displayed file. If there isn't enough memory to perform the minimum functions, QFLIST will terminate with an error message. Files larger than available memory can be displayed. However, files displayed in text mode can have no more than 10,000 lines and files displayed in hex mode can be no larger than just over 1 megabyte (1,000,000 bytes). QFLIST first scans the file to locate the beginning of each line, then stores several "chunks" of the file in memory. If you scroll into an area of the file that is not currently stored in memory, QFLIST will pause briefly to read another "chunk" of the file and store it in place of the least recently viewed chunk. Page 10 QFLIST Manual MISCELLANEOUS --------------- QFLIST is a very simple alternate to Vern Buerg's excellent LIST.COM utility. If you are a "power" user, get and register Buerg's LIST. Buerg's LIST.COM is small, fast and very affordable, with a suggested registration amount of only $15 (Vernon D. Buerg, 456 Lakeshire, Daly City, CA 94015). If you want something a little simpler, with fewer options but allowing the selection of files from a list of available files, try QFLIST. QFLIST is a good choice for novice users. QFLIST was developed primarily to work with QFILER. QFILER (a popular DOS file manager from Jamestown Software) can interface with both Buerg's LIST and Jamestown's QFLIST. If you are using a version of QFILER that has a version number of 3.1HD or older, you must rename QFLIST.EXE to LIST.EXE so that QFILER can find it. Be sure to save a config file before renaming QFLIST if you prefer different screen colors and so on. If you wish additional features to be included in QFLIST or QFILER, if you discover any program errors (write down any numbers displayed on the screen), or if you wish information on quantity purchases please contact: Kenn Flee Jamestown Software 2508 Valley Forge Drive Madison WI 53719 Voice: 608-271-2090 Compuserve # 74275,745 BBS: 608-271-3685 (Public Technical Support Node) (24 Hr., 300-1200-2400, 8-N-1, no nulls) QFLIST Manual Page 11 USER SUPPORTED SOFTWARE ------------------------- This program is distributed for personal, private use and with the understanding that if it is used and found to be of value, the user will register with a contribution of $15. This action will be appreciated and will encourage further development. Upon receipt of registration, a disk with the most recent version of the registered program(s), plus appropriate supporting programs will be mailed to the user. Commercial and corporate use without registration and license is prohibited. In any case, copy the program and share it with others. For the convenience of corporate users and others, a printed invoice is included on the next page. ------------------------------ INVOICE / REGISTRATION ------------------------------ JAMESTOWN SOFTWARE 2508 Valley Forge Drive Madison WI 53719 Sold to: ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Date: ______________________________ ================================================================= _____ copies of QFLIST 1.1 at $15 each ....... $____________ _____ copies of newest QFILER at $20 each .... ____________ _____ copies of newest QFMENU at $20 each .... ____________ Special bundled prices: _____ copies of QFLIST+QFILER at $30 ........ ____________ _____ copies of QFLIST+QFILER+QFMENU at $45 .. ____________ _____ 3.5" disk (in place of 5.25") at $3 each ____________ Wisconsin residents add 5% Sales Tax ... ____________ TOTAL ENCLOSED....... $____________ Send this invoice and your check to: Jamestown Software 2508 Valley Forge Drive Madison WI 53719 ================================================================= Thank you for your support ............... Jamestown Software For a large number of QFILER packages, contact Jamestown Software for site licensing or quantity pricing.