------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CatchDisk: User Guide ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CatchDisk version 1.00 16-Oct-1993 Copyright © 1993 By Alessandro Sala Requires AmigaOS v2.04 ( Kickstart v37 ) or later and WBStart-Handler v1.4 or later (by Stefan Becker) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents - Legal info - The distribution archive - Introduction What is CatchDisk ? Installation - Configuration and usage - Terminating CatchDisk - Contact Addresses - Revision history ---------- Legal info ---------- ------------ Disclaimer ------------ This program is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. Though every care has been taken to make this program system-friendly and bugs-free, the entire risk as to the results, reliability and performance of this program is assumed by you. ------------------ Copyright notice ------------------ This program is "FreeWare": it can be freely copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided that no file is added to or removed from the distribution archive and no charge, beside a nominal fee, is requested. Nevertheless the program remains COPYRIGHT of the Author: you cannot patch, reverse engineer or otherwise modify the program, the documentation and every other file found in the distribution archive except where explicitly allowed. Compressing in executable form is allowed for personal use but not for distribution: LHARC'ing in an archival form is explicitly allowed for distribution convenience. Furthermore you cannot embed the program in any other software without the written permission of the author. ------------------------ The distribution archive ------------------------ ------------------------------------ Contents of the distribution archive ------------------------------------ CatchDisk : The main program CatchDisk.info : Related '.info' file with pre-set tooltypes Italiano Leggimi : General information in italian language Documentazione CatchDisk.doc : Italian documentation in ASCII format CatchDisk.guide : Italian documentation in AmigaGuide format Installazione Installa : Installation program in italian language (see Leggimi) English Readme : General information in english language Documentation CatchDisk.doc : English documentation in ASCII format CatchDisk.guide : English documentation in AmigaGuide format Installation Install : Installation program in english language (see Readme) Catalogs CatchDisk.ct : Empty translation file italiano CatchDisk.catalog : Italian language support file Various '.info' files ------------ Introduction ------------ What is CatchDisk ? ------------------ CatchDisk is a simple commodity: its purpouse is to detect when a new disk is inserted in any drive and check if it is properly formatted: if not, CatchDisk executes the Format program with the drive, in which the disk was inserted, already selected. The user has only to choose the format options and start or abort the operation. IMPORTANT --------- To use CatchDisk you must have the WBStart-Handler in you L: directory. You need VERSION 1.4 OR LATER of the handler. WBStart-Handler is a freely distributable software by Stefan Becker: you can find it as 'WBStart1_4.lha' in many FTP sites or from PD distributors. Please note that the version required is at least v1.4, because previous versions had problems when dealing with null locks. Installation ------------ To install CatchDisk, if you have the 'Installer' utility from Commodore (see Readme), you can simply double-click the 'Install' icon found in the 'English' drawer. Differently, you can simply copy CatchDisk in some drawer, typically your SYS:WBStartup drawer. If you have OS 2.1 or later and you want to take advantage of localization, you must also copy the 'catalogs' drawer, found in the CatchDisk distribution archive, into the same drawer as CatchDisk, or you can copy the 'CatchDisk.catalog' file ( found in the 'catalogs//' drawer ) into your 'LOCALE:catalogs//' drawer. If your language is not currently available, you can fill in the empty translation file found in the catalogs drawer ( catalogs/CatchDisk.ct ) and send it to me by E-Mail ( see the Contact Addresses section ). I will create a new '/CatchDisk.catalog' file and E-Mail it to you as soon as possible, and the next version of CatchDisk will support one more language. You can also translate the documentation files and send them to me for inclusion in the distribution of CatchDisk. You must also have WBStart-Handler in you L: directory for CatchDisk to work (see 'What is CatchDisk'.) ----------------------- Configuration and usage ----------------------- To start CatchDisk simply double-click its icon or type 'run CatchDisk' from a CLI. To have it activated on every bootstrap, place it in your SYS:WBStartup drawer with the 'DONOTWAIT' tooltype, or insert 'run CatchDisk' in your S:user-startup file. CatchDisk recognizes the following ToolTypes or CLI arguments: CX_PRIORITY= : The priority of CatchDisk in the commodities network. Default value = 0. Range = -128 to 127 DEVICE= : It describes a group of alternative drives for a single physical drive. The number identifies the group of alternative drives, and can range from 0 to 9. The parameter is the name of a drive followed by ':', and you can list any number of drives, without in-between spaces. Example: 'DEVICE0=DF0:PC0:' tells CatchDisk that for a disk to be considered properly formatted, it must be readable accessing the drive as 'DF0:' or as 'PC0:'. If neither can read the disk, it will be formatted as 'DF0:' (the first drive in the list). If you specify instead: 'DEVICE0=PC0:DF0:' if the disk in unreadable it will be formatted as'PC0:'. If one or more of the specified drives is not mounted, it will be simply ignored. BREAK_WARN : When CatchDisk terminates because of a ^C signal, it displays a requester informing you of the event only if BREAK_WARN is set. Once CatchDisk is active you can use the Commodities Exchange program to control its activities. --------------------- Terminating CatchDisk --------------------- As a commodity, CatchDisk can be terminated in three ways: a) Run CatchDisk a second time. b) Use the Commodities Exchange program. c) Send CatchDisk a 'control-C' signal (see also BREAK_WARN): c.1) If you started CatchDisk from workbench (or WBStartup drawer) use a task control utility such as TaskX by Steve Tibbet. c.2) If you started CatchDisk from a CLI (or user-startup) do the following: 1) Open a CLI 2) Issue the 'STATUS' command and note the process number of CatchDisk 3) Issue 'BREAK C' where is the process number noted above ----------------- Contact Addresses ----------------- Criticism and suggestions ------------------------- I hope you will find CatchDisk useful, and if you have any criticism, suggestions, bug report, ideas for enhancements in possible future versions, you can write ( in Italian or English ) at the following address: Alessandro Sala Via A. Grandi, 16 20014 Nerviano (MI) Italy If you have E-Mail capability you can also contact me at the following Internet address (at least until the end of January 1994): tser1506@cdc835.cdc.polimi.it ---------------- Revision history ---------------- ********************************************************************************** History ********************************************************************************** ------------ Version 1.00 ------------ First release.