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LIGHTNING LOGGER (LLog): The Disk Librarian for the Amiga
© 1988, 1989 by Ron Shaw
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     Lightning Logger (LLog 3.0) is a fast and effective method for
generating library files of disk contents. Its companion program, LLread,
located in this same drawer, offers varied access to what has been saved.
     While these programs can be run from JUMPDISK, it's recommended you
copy them to a Workbench disk copy for sustained use.
     The LLog program will generate icons for your libraries, and these
icons may be selected for reading in connection with the LLRead program.
     The programs require AmigaDOS 1.2 or higher.

USING LLOG
     Let's start with an easy run of the program as it exists on JUMPDISK.
     In the Lightning Logger drawer, open LLog by double-clicking its icon.
This will produce a screen with several gadgets used to run facets of the
program and to give pertinent status information.
     1. Click the colored rectangle (orange in default) to the left of the
INPUT DRIVE window. This produces a requester window with drive choices
listed in it. Click the number of the drive in which JUMPDISK is inserted,
whether DF0:, DF1:, etc. However, if you have a hard drive, DO NOT select
it. The hard drive will be covered later.
     2. Click on the colored gadget at the left of the CLICK ON GADGET TO
ENTER FILE NAME window. Another window opens, asking for the library file
name. Click in its blue section. Type:

ram:hold

. . . and click the DONE gadget that appears.
     3. Click the colored box at the left of the LIBRARIAN FILE message:
<- Press Load Button When Ready.
     4. Answer the requester IS THIS A NEW FILE? by clicking the YES box
that appears.
     5. You are next asked to enter am LLREAD path. Type:

ram:

. . . and click DONE.
     6. Click on the MAN gadget for manual logging.
     The logging process is automatic from this point. When it is complete,
a brief message appears on the screen regarding the status of the logged
file.
     At this point you may quit the program by choosing the QUIT option from
the pulldown PROJECT menu at top left of screen. You might want to read the
LLread documentation to find out how to access the information you have just
saved. Because the test file is in RAM:, you should not turn off or reboot
the computer before you try LLread.

AND MORE
     Let's now look at the program in greater depth.
     You may use more than one drive as the log-in drives. If you have more
than two floppy drives or two floppies and a hard drive, you may elect to
use two floppy drives for logging. Click on the second drives gadget. When
these drives are selected, a DRIVES READY sign will appear in the rectangle
left of the gadget clicked. Selecting ABORT from the devices requester
removes the selected device from the drives item.
     Once you have selected logging drives, click on the LOAD LIBRARY gadget
to load or create a new library. This brings up a string gadget. Enter the
drive:path/name of the file you would like to name your file. The drive
should not be the same as the drive(s) you selected to do the logging. If
the file is non-existent, a requester will ask if this is a new file. If so,
click YES. If not, click NO. If the file is existent, you have evidently
entered an incorrect file name and/or path and the logger could not find the
existing file.
      Once the log file is loaded or you enter the name of the file you wish
to create, you will be asked to enter the path to LLread, if creating a new
file, and to enter the actual VOLUME:PATH to LLread. LLog inserts this
information in the default tool on the icon it builds for your librarian
file. Once this is done, the name you enter should appear in the rectangular
window under the LIBRARIAN note. If it is a new file, the box to the right
of the file will be blank. If the file has previously been created and is
loaded by the logger, the size will be displayed in the rectangle to the
right of name of the file. An existing file will display the number of
previously logged items in the AMOUNT LOGGED rectangle.
     Make sure the bottom left gadget of the logger says "MAN." This is the
manual mode of the logger. Install disks in the drives indicated by the
message center at top of screen and click on the manual log gadget. This
will start the logger.
     The message center will prompt when to insert new disks for logging.

VOLUME NAME ALIAS
     LLog lets you name the disk logged with a name you choose, rather than
actual volume name of the disk. This function is known in LLog as
alias(ing). The program does not write the user-entered name to the disk
itself but saves this alias and the actual name in the librarian file. This
name is used in LLread as the volume name and the user will not see the
actual name of the disk. If the disk being logged is not a DOS disk, the
alias string gadget will appear and the user must enter a name for LLog to
save this entry. Only the alias (name) will be saved from a non-DOS disk. No
files and the like can be saved.
     Example use of alias:
     Actual disk name = "AFS"
     User entered alias = "Flight Simulator"
     If the alias item is selected, each volume logged will bring up the
alias string gadget. If you change your mind and want to use the actual
volume name rather than an alias, press Return on the keyboard instead of
entering any characters in the alias string gadget. If the disk can't be
read by LLog, a blank entry will cause LLog to not record the disk. Default
for aliasing is OFF.

LOG DISK NAME ONLY
     Using the OTHER menu, or associated keys located next to the items in
the OTHER menu, you may elect not to save directories and files. Default
is to log the entire disk. To log volume names only:
     From the menu:
     -- Select FILES (check mark should be off)
     -- Select DIRS (check mark should be off)
     From the CLI or Shell:
     -- Select right AMIGA key and F (to de-select or select files)
     -- Select right AMIGA key and D (to de-select or select files)
     A check mark next to the item indicates the item is on.

AUTO LOG
     Use this with care, because disk insertion is being read by the
program.
     Follow the steps for manual logging except: Rather than clicking on the
MAN gadget, select AUTOLOG from the menu. This will change the MAN gadget to
AUTO. There will be a message displayed in the message center. Click on the
AUTO gadget and then insert the disk(s) to be logged. The logger will
automatically start logging and will prompt you when to change disks.
     After starting the logger in the AUTO mode, you normally never have to
click on the AUTO gadget again. The logger will detect insertion of disks
and start logging again .
      To end the program, select QUIT from the pulldown PROJECT menu at top
left of screen.
     The ABORT gadget is a simple way to stop the auto mode in case you want
to insert a volume for display or reading without being logged. After
clicking on the ABORT gadget, it is necessary in AUTO mode to click on the
AUTO gadget again to re-initialize the AUTO mode before inserting disk(s)
for logging.

LOGGING HARD DRIVES:
     Select LOG HARD DRIVE from menu, and a device requester will appear
for each hard drive detected by the system.
     Click on the hard drive to be logged and it will automatically be
logged, displaying free space in the message window. If your hard drive has
been previously logged, the old volume will be deleted, then relogged.

RELOGGING
      If unsure if a disk has been previously logged, just insert it and log
anyway. If the volume was previously logged and has changed, the old volume
will be deleted with the new log replacing it.
     The program cannot distinguish between a master or a copy created by
a professional backup program such as Marauder. Volume creation dates are
the same on the copy and the original. Lightning Logger uses the creation
date and the last file updated date to determine if a disk has been logged
or changed. Therefore, volumes with the same names can be logged with no
problems and will be treated differently by the logger and reader.

DISK COLLECTION LOGS
      Lightning Logger allows for cataloging a disk collection. It creates
two files. The file with .llg extension is the librarian file. It maintains
the list of volumes logged. The other file is the Data File and holds the
names of the directories, file names, comments and other pertinent
information. Once volumes have been logged with Lightning Logger, you can
use Lightning Reader (LLread) to find files or comments without finding and
reading the actual disk. This alone reduces locating time to a minimum.

DELETE VOLUME
      Allows the user to delete a volume from the volumes entered into the
logger. When scrolling through the volume list, all volumes displayed in red
are deleted. If you delete a volume by mistake, it can be restored by
selecting it again and clicking on DELETE. The restored volume will be
redisplayed in black.
     The actual volume is not deleted until a new library is written. Delete
volume only sets a flag so the LLread program does not load this volume into
memory.
     When exiting the log program, if you have volumes deleted by the user
or by the logger itself, the program will ask if you want to write a new
library. Only at this time are the actual volume and its associated files
deleted. You may elect not to create a new library, thus keeping the old set
of records available for restoring.

ONE-DRIVE USE
     The best way to use the logger on a one-drive system is to make a
directory in ram:L and copy the disk-validater to ram:l and then assign
L: ram:l     -- but do this only if you get repeat messages to insert your
Workbench.

PREPARATION
     Lightning logger can reduce the time needed to find most files to a
minimum, if you follow a few rules.
     Add filenotes to files of given classifications to categorize them:
art, HAM pictures, Basic programs, executables and the like. As you will see
later, the LLread program has options for filtering and seeking strings
within comments.
     The plan is for a future version of LLog to allow users to enter file
notes.

ICON GENERATION:
     The LLog program internally generates an icon to be used with LLread.
This is a recently added feature which makes it unnecessary to maintain an
icon's drawer with a sample llg.info file for use with LLog. Any new lib
file generated with LLog will now build its own icon.
     If you have files created with an earlier version of the program, there
is an easy way to generate the new icon with a path to LLread. Load the LLog
program, set up a test log file in RAM:, log one disk with no files, no
dirs, setting up the path to LLread when the program requests it. Exit
Logger. From the CLI or Shell, copy this icon only to the directory of the
old Logger file, naming the icon the same as the existing icon for that
file, with the .info extension.

SPECIAL ITEMS
    If logging to RAM:, RAD:, or any disk other than the disk on which the
lib files will be kept, move all associated lib files to that disk. It is
not enough to just move the icon for that file. There are still two files
associated with the Logger: the volume file, made up of the volume names and
offsets for records, and the main data file. These files have the same name
except one will have the suffix .llg.

LOGGING
    You can move existing lib files to RAM:, VD0:, VDK:, RAD: and Log to
these devices. Because of discrepancies existing between avail (which uses
the same method of verifying available RAM as programmers) and actual memory
free display on the Workbench screen, the user must make sure enough RAM: is
available before logging or building a clean library using one of these
devices.
     The total size of both library files is shown in the box to the right
of the library file name. If you elect to use the RAM disk, RAD:, or any
other memory device, you will find removal of deleted items from an existing
library will be quicker.

LLREAD PATH
    After entering a library file name for a new file, a string requester
will appear for specifying path to LLread. This is helpful to hard drive
owners (I'm one) who put LLread and LLog in a directory three or four levels
from the root. Enter the path to LLread (an example: SYS:Utilities/Logger).
The LLog program will append the necessary slash if needed and the name of
the Lightning Reader Program (LLread), so the user can click directly on the
created icon to load LLread, no matter where it resides. You can still click
on the Lib file icon and double-click on LLread to boot the reader with the
selected file as default. However, if you constantly use one specific
LLogger file, read the section in the LLread docs about AUTO LOAD OF DEFAULT
FILE. I use it to bring up my source code library containing items such as
Fred Fish's disk collection. Thus, from CLI in any directory I can run
LLread and it will start loading my source code library automatically. All I
have to do is enter the files I'm seeking and and hit the search gadget.

FROM THE AUTHOR
     To be notified of updates to the logger programs or programs that work
in conjunction with the logger, please send a note including your name,
address and telephone number with area code.
     All comments are acknowledged and appreciated.
     There is no implied warranty with this program.
     Many thanks for trying it.
     Lightning Logger and associated programs were compiled with the Manx
Aztec C Compiler 3.6 (16 bit code) on a 2.1 MB Amiga 1000 with Supra 20Meg
Hard Drive.

     Ron Shaw, RTS Electronics, PO BOX 9015, Cocoa, FL 32922. Telephones:
(407) 631-9286 or (407) 639-9123.

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