F-Finder ~~~~~~~~ Copyright (c) 1992 Markus Aalto Version: 1.11 Release Date: 25.10.92 CONTENTS ------------ 1 ... COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER 2 ... DESCRIPTION 3 ... INSTALLATION 4 ... MAIN WINDOW 5 ... FIND WINDOW 6 ... INFO WINDOW 7 ... PROJECT MENU 8 ... SEARCH MENU 9 ... CONFIG MENU 10 ... PRINT WINDOW 11 ... DATE ADJUST WINDOW 12 ... TIME ADJUST WINDOW 13 ... CLI PARAMETERS 14 ... QUICKFILE SUPPORT 15 ... MISC INFO Copyright Disclaimer ********************* This program is FreeWare. You may use it without charge and also distribute it freely as long as no more than minor copying fee is taken. So you may not make any profit by selling it. You may also include this program to PD libraries such as `Fred Fish Collection'. Also because `F-Finder' is free, I take no responsibilty about the program itself, its functionality, its documentation or possible damages it may cause. The only wish I have from you - as a user - is that you send me a post-card with your name and name of the town you live. This is just to inform me that there is actually someone using this program and keeps me programming new versions! This copyright applies to following files. `F-Finder' - Executable program. `F-Finder.info' - Icon for `F-Finder'. `F-Finder.doc' - This document. `F-Finder.readme' - Short description file. `F-FinderHistory.doc' - History of `F-Finder'. `QuickFileManager' - Executable program to create `QuickFiles'. `QuickFileManager.doc'- `QuickFileManager' documentation. These files must always be distributed in a same package and they may not be modified in any way! To this release I have included two freely distributable libraries. They are copyrighted by their authors. Please read their document files for further information. `pattern.library' is Copyrighted (C) 1992 by Angela Schmidt. `reqtools.library' is Copyrighted (C) 1991/1992 by Nico François. Also I have added two new icons for `F-Finder'. One for KS1.x colors and one for KS2.x. You can find them from Icons directory. They are Copyrighted by Mika Saastamoinen. The reason I added them is because I thought they were better than the one I designed, but the reason I still want to distribute my own designed icon is that the new ones are quite big, so all users may not like them. Description ************ `F-Finder' is a file and/or directory finder utility for Commodore Amiga computer line. It works at least with KS1.2, KS1.3 and KS2.0x versions of operating system software. It's sole purpose is to provide an easy to use intuition interface connected to fairly powerfull finder utility. With the "powerfull" I mean it's ability to quickly find files and/or directories with very different characteristics. Here are the main features. * 3D-look with both KS1.x and KS2.x operating systems. * Almost everything can be done with just a click of the mouse. * Finds files/directories from multiple devices/volumes in one search. * Finds files/directories according to creation date and/or time. * Finds files/directories according to state of archive flags. * Scans recursively all directories or only base directory. * Can be case sensitive if wanted. * Outputs to file or almost every writable device - such as `PRT:' or `CON:'. Also, output string format is modifiable by the user. * Settings can be saved to configuration file. * Main window can be zoomed (zipped) to small window so that almost no screen space is reserved when `F-Finder' is not in use. KS2.0x users have also ability to hide to Workbench's AppMenu. * Links recognized - althought support is still limited! * Support for QuickFiles for very fast searching. * And a lot more... Installation ************* Installing `F-Finder' is very easy. You don't have to make any changes to startup-files, so you can just place it almost anywhere. However if you want to use `QuickFiles' then you have to make little changes. I'll explain them little later. If you are going to use `F-Finder' from CLI then you might want to place it somewhere along the system path. If you don't know what is your systems path, you can just put `F-Finder' to your startup disk's `C'-directory. Workbench users can just drag the `F-Finder' icon to any directory they want. Users with KS2.0 may want to put `F-Finder' to `WBStartup'-directory so that `F-Finder' is started every time `Amiga' is booted. If you do this then you must insert `DONOTWAIT' tooltype to its icon. Note that users of KS2.04 or greater don't need any additional libraries to get all features active. For users with KS1.x, I have included two libraries you may wish to install to `libs:' directory. You can find `pattern.library' and its companion files from `Pattern'-directory. Also there is a `reqtools.library', which can be found from `ReqTools'-directory. Follow their own install instructions to make sure everything is going to work OK. For novice users I have also included a small script file which installs `F-Finder' and one of its icons to `C:' directory. If you really have no idea of how you could install `F-Finder', then please use this script by double clicking its icon. Now there is also a `QuickFileManager' program in a `QFM'-directory. You should put this somewhere along the path if you want to use `F-Finder''s `QuickFile'-feature. See `QuickFileManager.doc' for more info. If you want to use `QuickFiles' then users of KS1.x have to add `Assign QUICKFILES: DirName' to your S:Startup-sequence (DirName is name of the directory you want `QuickFiles' to be saved). And users of KS2.x or later can add `setenv QUICKFILES' DIRNAME to your S:User-Startup (assign works too). Main Window ************ This is a interface you can see after you've started `F-Finder' either from Workbench or CLI. Most of your work will be done here. I'll now explain every gadgets purpose from main interface. Starting from TOP-LEFT corner. Pattern Gadget =============== This is a normal string gadget where you can write the name or pattern of file/dir you're searching for. Default pattern is *. Normally searched devices/volumes are selected from `DRIVELIST'-gadget, but you can override those selections by putting pathname before pattern name. So searching starts where your path points to. For example filling `PATTERN'-gadget with, `DH0:WBStartup/Blanker' means that searching is started from `DH0:WBStartup' directory and the searched file is called `Blanker'. Now you may ask what kind of pattern you can write there. Well, it depends what kind of configuration you are using. If you are using KS2.04 (V37) or greater then you can use normal `AmigaDOS' patterns. You should look more from your *Amiga: Using the system software*-book. If you are using some of the old KS2.0, KS1.3 or KS1.2 versions then I would suggest you to install Angela Schmidt's `pattern.library' to your `libs:' directory, because it gives you the same functionality as KS2.04 pattern matching routines. For more info see Installation. If you don't want to use `pattern.library', then you have to be content with my very limited builtin routine. It provides only one special character, which is *. So as you see, you really should either upgrade to KS2.04 or use `pattern.library'. Examples for `F-Finder''s builtin routine. `*.cfg' = (F-Finder.cfg or My.cfg or ...) `Turbo*Loader' = (TurboLoader or TurboTLoader or ...) `*Test*' = (TestScript or TextTest or ...) Zoom Gadget ============ This button gadget is used to make (zoom, zip ...) `F-Finder''s window small. Thus it won't take much screen space when `F-Finder' is not used. There is also a special feature for users of KS2.0x. You can optionally hide `F-Finder' to Workbench's `Tool'-menu. This can be selected from `Config/Zoom Placement'-menu by selecting `AppMenu'. This should be ghosted when KS1.x is used, so that it isn't selectable. There is couple of settings you can configure from menus. So pay special attention to `Zoom Placement' and `AutoZoom' menuitems in `Config'-menu. To wake `F-Finder' up when it has been zoomed, you have to make `F-Finder''s `zoom'-window active by pressing left mouse button. After that press right (menu) mouse button. If you have zoomed to `AppMenu' then just do the normal menu selection from Workbench's `Tool'-menu. Drivelist Gadget ================= This is a group of gadget's in left side of the window. There are 4 normal button gadgets and a listview gadget with scroll-gadget and 2 arrows. At the top there are 2 button gadgets called `Node' and `All'. If you press `None' then every item in a `DRIVELIST'-gadget will be unselected. And by pressing `All' you can select all of them. You can also activate/deactivate names from `DRIVELIST' just by clicking left mouse button over one of the names. Also you can move in a list either with scroll or arrow gadgets. In the bottom there are 2 button gadgets called `Vols' and `Devs', and by pressing `Vols' you can get list of the volumes currently configured to your system. And by pressing `Devs' you get list of devices. Remember that these are mutual-exclude gadgets and thus old selections will be destroyed. By default `Vols'-gadget is active! Files Gadget ============= This is a "ON/OFF"-gadget below `PATTERN'-gadget. It indicates whether you want to search files or not. If this gadget is pressed down (remember the 3D look) then files are going to be checked. Default is ON! Dirs Gadget ============ This is a "ON/OFF"-gadget immediately right from `FILES- GADGET'. This one indicates if you want to search dir names. Note however that this button DOES NOT indicate whether you want to examine current directory or its subdirs. This just means that even if the pattern name matches with directory name it won't be added to list of found objects. Default is ON! Recur Gadget ============= If this button is selected then your directory structure is going to be searched recursively. So if this isn't selected then only base directory is examined. Default is ON! First Gadget ============= If this button is selected then after first match, searching is paused and you will be asked if you want to stop or continue searching. Default is OFF! Case Gadget ============ If this button is selected then every matching is made in case-sensitive manner. Note however that `AmigaDOS' is not case-sensitive, so you propably don't want this option to be active all the time. Default is OFF! Arc Gadget =========== If this button is selected then `F-Finder' checks files/dirs archive bit. You have to make the selection whether you want it to be ON or OFF from `ARCFLAGSET'-gadget. Default is OFF! Arcflagset Gadget ================== So if `ARC'-gadget is selected and if this gadget is ON then `F-Finder' tries to find files/dirs with archive flag ON. And if gadget is OFF then match is made to files/dirs with archive flag OFF. Note that this button is ghosted when `ARC'-gadget is unselected. Default is ON! Filelist Gadget ================ This is a bit similar to the `DRIVELIST'-gadget. Now there are 4 button gadgets attached below the listview gadget. The 4 buttons below listview are `Find', `Info', `None', `All'. Pressing `Find'-gadget starts searching. If you haven't specified path to `PATTERN'-name then paths are taken from `DRIVELIST'-gadget. If no devices/volumes are selected then default WB/CLI directory is used. For more info see Find Window. `Info'-gadget shows more info from selected files/dirs. You should check chapter 6 for more info although all the gadgets found from `INFO WINDOW' are quite self-explanatory. `None'-gadget unselects all items from `FILELIST'-gadget and `All'-gadget selects all of them. When you have found files/dirs after using `Find'-gadget. Names of items will be shown in listview. Supported types are Files, Dirs, Hardlinks to files and Hardlink to Dirs. Here is a brief explanation how different types can be separated from each other. File: `size' NAME Dir: `' NAME HLINK to File: `' NAME HLink to Dir: `' NAME As you can see size of the `LFILE' is not shown. You have to select wanted item and use `Info'-gadget to get more info. Infotext Area ============== There is a small text area for all kinds of information. For example, every gadget/list selection you make, you get a small text to explain your action. Find Window ************ After you have made your selections and pressed `Find'-gadget in `MAIN WINDOW', you get to see `FIND WINDOW'. This window keeps you informed all the time through whole searching process. There are 5 gadget's at the bottom of window. The three lowest are `OK', `Continue' and `Cancel'. Over them are two gadgets called `Quiet Dir' and `Quiet Name'. When `F-Finder' is in searching process, gadgets `OK' and `Continue' are ghosted, so they are not selectable. Normally you want to make whole searching without stops, but sometimes - for some reason - you might want to stop or pause searching. Then by pressing `Cancel' you can pause searching and after that pressing `OK' lets you exit and go back to `MAIN WINDOW', and pressing `Continue' lets you continue search. In top of the window, there are few lines of text which show what is current searched root dir. Below that is pattern what is searched for and below that there is current dir. This is always without the root dir. So if `Root:' shows `Main:' and `Dir:' shows `Wordprocessing/TeX' then currently examined directory is - `Main:Wordprocessing/TeX/'. You can toggle these texts ON/OFF by pressing `Quiet Dir'-gadget. Note that when searching is done from QuickFiles then `Dir:' text is always empty and in the bottom of the window is a text `Examining QuickFile for XXXX:'. Where XXXX is the volume name. Below those lines are three separate fields which describe found files/dirs. They show objects name, type and size. You can toggle update of these fields by pressing `Quiet Name'-gadget. Info Window ************ After you have selected files from `FILELIST'-gadget, you can get more information about objects you have found by pressing `Info'-gadget in `MAIN WINDOW'. This lets you get in to `INFO WINDOW'. It is filled with 4 button gadgets in window's right corner and one `Return To Main Window'-gadget which lets you do just what it says. Those 4 buttons in a right are controlling the movement in a selected objects list. `Top'-gadget always shows object from top of the list. `Next'-gadget moves one object forward and `Previous'-gadget moves to previous object - just as they say. `Bottom'-gadget moves to end of the list. Rest of the `INFO WINDOW' is reserved to text fields. At the top, there is a text describing how many dirs and files were selected from all available objects in a list. Below that appears object's name without the path. In the next row there are fields to describe object's type (`File, Dir, LDir, LFile') and states of its protection bits. Below them you can find object's size and how many blocks it reserves. These are shown only if object's type is either `File' or `LFile'. And below them you can find its creation time and date. If object has some kind of note attached to it, then it is displayed in next two rows. Also after filenote, two rows are reserved to object's path (root included). Project Menu ************* In `PROJECT MENU', there are 3 menuitems called `Print', `About' and `Quit'. Print ====== When you have searched and found objects, you might want to print info about them to printer, file or some other type of device. Then you can use one of this menus subitems to print all information you want. Topmost subitem called `Selected' prints only selected objects from `FILELIST' and subitem `All' prints all objects. For more info on printing see Print Window. About ====== Not much to explain! Just usual copyright ramblings, with my name and address. Feel free to send comments, bug reports, (money, computers `:^)') to address given. Quit ===== This just quits the execution of `F-Finder'. If `QuitCheck' option is ON then you'll be asked with a requester, if you really want to quit. If `QuitCheck' is OFF then quitting is made immediately. For more info see Config Menu. Search menu ************ This menu contains 5 items which I thought were better off the `MAIN WINDOW'. They control searching dates and times and `WILDSTAR' bit found from `dos.library' versions 36 or greater. Two items replace `MAIN WINDOW' with their own ( `DATE' and `TIME WINDOWS' ) and two items are controlling if data given in `DATE/TIME WINDOWS' is used in search procedure. Last item toggles `WILDSTAR' bit. Adjust date info ================= When this menuitem is selected, `DATE WINDOW' will replace the normal `MAIN WINDOW' and you can use your mouse to control the objects you want to find, by their creation date. see Date Adjust Window. Adjust time info ================= When this menuitem is selected, `TIME WINDOW' will replace `MAIN WINDOW' and you can control the objects you want to find, by their creation time. For example, if you want to found all files created between 11.00 PM and 11.59 PM, you can do it with this function. see Time Adjust Window. Search by date =============== This is ON/OFF type menuitem. When this option is ON, then information you have entered in `DATE WINDOW' is used to search files. Search by time =============== This item is similar to `SEARCH BY DATE', but this one controls if information given in `TIME WINDOW' is used. Toggle Wildstar ================ This should be selectable only for users of KS2.0 or later. If this item is ON, then you can use * in your search patterns instead of #?. Note that this bit affects whole `AmigaDOS' operating system, not just operation of `F-Finder'! Config Menu ************ These menuitems control different user selectable/modifiable aspects of `F-Finder'. Most important is ability to save selected settings to config file which is automatically read when `F-Finder' is started. All these menu settings are saved to configuration file. But there are some other things as well. Here is a list of all settings saved. * Things found from `Config'-menu. * State of `Vols' and `Devs' gadgets. * State of `Files', `Dirs', `Recur', `First', `Case', `Arc' and `Arc flag set' gadgets. Save Config ============ With this menuitem you can save your settings to config file, which is placed to `S:FFinder.cfg'. When this is selected, requester appears with a text `Are you sure you want to save config file' with options `Yes' and `No'. Pressing `Yes' saves new configurations. Placement ========== This menuitem has two subitems - `Default' and `Snapshot'. They control where `MAIN WINDOW' should be opened when `F-Finder' is started or waked up from Zoom. If you have selected `Default' then window is opened to coordinates (40,40). If `Snapshot' is selected then window is opened to the place where it have previously been. Also if config is saved when `PLACEMENT' is `Snapshot' then current coordinates are saved to config file. So that next time you start `F-Finder', window automatically opens to desired location. Zoom Placement =============== This menuitem is similar to the `PLACEMENT' menuitem, but this one controls Zooming function. There are three subitems - `Lower Right', `Snapshot' and `AppMenu'. Only first and second subitems are selectable for users of KS1.x. When `Lower Right' is selected then Zoom window is located to lower right corner of visible Workbench screen. When `Snapshot' is selected then window is located to previous placement. And if config file is saved while this is active then coordinates are saved to disk. If you are using KS2.x, you have possibility to hide `F-Finder' to Workbench's Application menu with `AppMenu' subitem. Note: Remember that these options are settings which don't come active before `Zoom' gadget is pressed in `MAIN WINDOW'. Colorstyle =========== This controls `F-Finder''s 3D-look. As you may know KS1.x and KS2.x operating systems have changed color pen numbers 1 and 2. So programs made for old systems have scrambled look in new systems. With this menu's subitems you can change colors used to construct that fancy 3D-look. Note: This option activates immediately! Search Pri =========== This menu and its subitems control `F-Finder''s priority used while searching disk. Priorities goes from -5 to 5 and default is 0. You should not use different priorities lightly. Be sure you know what you are doing before setting priority to something like 5, because it may take almost all processor time. And that isn't a very nice thing in a multitasking system such as `Amiga'. Note: This option activates as soon as `Find' is pressed in `MAIN WINDOW'. Search from ============ This menu has two subitems - `QuickFiles' and `Drives'. If `QuickFiles' is selected then `F-Finder' searches from `QuickFiles' and if `Drives' is selected then normal drive searching is made. Note: This option activated as soon as `Find' is pressed in `MAIN WINDOW'. Autozoom ========= This flag indicates whether you want `F-Finder' to Zoom itself automatically when started. For example, if you start `F-Finder' from `S:user-startup' (or `S:Startup-sequence' in KS1.x) with `AUTOZOOM' option ON then it won't open that whole-screenspace-reserving `MAIN WINDOW' immediately, instead it opens a small `Zoom Window' (or goes to `AppMenu', if selected from `ZOOM PLACEMENT') which doesn't take much room from your WB screen. Note: This option activates only when `F-Finder' is started. Quitcheck ========== If this flag is set then you'll be asked if you want to quit, when you have either pressed `CLOSEWINDOW' gadget or selected `Quit' from `Project'-menu. Note: This option activates only when `F-Finder' is quitted. Use default drives =================== This flag indicates whether you want to save to config file drive names currently selected from `DRIVELIST'. If this is set and when `F-Finder' is started, those vols/devs you have saved as default drives will automatically be selected. Note: This option is checked when configuration file is saved, and read when `F-Finder' is started. No .info files =============== This prevents `.info' files to be shown as found files even if they would otherwise match to pattern searched. Print Window ************* After you have selected to print files you have found, you'll be presented `PRINT WINDOW'. This window has 1 string gadget and 5 button gadgets. Lets first examine the topmost gadget called `Format String'-gadget. When I decided to add printing function to `F-Finder' I couldn't decide what kind of format printed objects should have. So that no-one should get too much or too little information. That gave me an idea to make printing format user-configurable, so that everyone could print any info they needed, in any format they wanted. I took most of printing commands from List command's LFORMAT option. However they are not exactly same. `%P' Path `%N' Name `%Y' Type `%B' Size in blocks `%A' Protection `%C' Comment `%T' Creation Time `%D' Creation Date `%L' Size in bytes `%S' Path and Name Also you are not limited to plain commands, you can also give field width infos ala C. Here are two examples. However note that strings can extend over fields. `%-30P' Path printed to field containing 30 chars. Also it is located to field's left side. `%10A' Protection bits printed to field containing 10 chars and located to field's right side. Also if you want to print special chars such as % and ", you must close them between quotation marks. So everything you fit inside quotation marks is goind to be printed normally. Also some of you might want to use RETURN'S and maybe even ESC-sequences for BOLD text or something like that. Then you can use `*N' for RETURN and `*E' for ESC-code. In default string there are quite a many different commands used, so also look at it as a sample sequence to learn from. Below `Format String'-gadget is a text field describing how many objects are printed. Below `Set Output To'-string there are 3 button gadgets - `Printer', `File' and `Other'. Usually printing goes to normal preferences supported printer and that's why `PRT:' is default output stream. Also by pressing `Printer'-gadget you can quickly reset output to it again. Sometimes you may like to print information to file and that's why `File'-gadget is provided. If you press it you get one of the following 3 possibilities. 1. If you have `asl.library' (comes with KS2.x) normal system filerequester is opened. You just select file to write to. 2. If `asl.library' weren't available then `reqtools.library''s filerequester is opened. 3. If either one weren't available, then requester with a string gadget is opened. Then just type in path and filename. If you want to use some other kind of output stream, then select `Other' and you get a requester with a string gadget to write your output stream. For example you can output infos to console (`CON:'), pipe (`PIPE:') or almost any other device. I even got my output to one of the workbench drawer windows. Sadly, I think it's not a very friendly trick for OS, because my `Amiga' experienced quite a nice crash after printing was over. `:^|' Below stream selector gadgets is a text indicating your output stream selection. Remember that default output is to `PRT:'! The bottommost gadgets - `Print' and `Cancel' - are quite self-explanatory. By pressing `Print' printing is started and a window showing current status is opened. There is also a `STOP'-gadget in it and if you press it, you end up to the `MAIN WINDOW'. Date Adjust Window ******************* When you are for example looking really old files from your harddisk you might want to take advantage `F-Finder''s ability to search files according to their creation date. You can easily achieve 3 different possibilities of settings dates. You can search files created before desired date, between desired dates or after desired date. These combinations can be achieved by `SINCE'- and `UPTO'-date options. When you look at the `DATE ADJUST WINDOW', which you can see by selecting `Adjust Date Info'-menuitem from `Search'-menu, you can see two gadgets in top-left corner with dates in their right side. By default (ie. when you first time enter this window) `Since'-gadget is selected and you are free to use other gadgets to modify its date. You can click `Upto'-gadget any time and this way be able to modify `UPTO'-date. Here are couple of examples for different searching scenarios I explained above. 1. You want to search files created before 10th of June 1991. * First if `SINCE-date' isn't 1st of January 1978 (01-Jan-1978), you must press `SINCE'-gadget active (Note: It may be already) and press `Clear'-gadget to set `SINCE'-date to first possible date in `Amiga'. * Second go to the `UPTO'-gadget and select it. This way you modify only `UPTO'-date and leave `SINCE'-date without modifications. * Go to `DATE'-gadgets (there are 31 of them, so you are bound to find them) and select desired date. In this example this means pressing gadget with number 10 in it. * Go to `Month scroller' gadget and slide it carefully so that `Month' text above it shows "June". * Go to `Year scroller' gadget and slide it so that `Year' gadget above it shows "1991". * Now you have `SINCE'-date 01-Jan-1978 and `UPTO'-date 10-Jun-1991 and you are ready! 2. You want to search files created after 10th of June 1991 and before current date. * I hope you didn't destroy selections you made in 1st example. If you did, then go back to it and re-adjust those settings. * Now check that `UPTO'-gadget is active, and if it is then press `Copy'-gadget to copy `UPTO'-date (10-Jun-1991) to `SINCE'-date. * Press `Today'-gadget to get current date. * That's it! Now you have `SINCE'-date 10-Jun-1991 and `UPTO'-date is same as your `Amiga''s system date. 3. You want to search files created after 29th of May 1990. * Make `SINCE'-gadget active. * Select date (29), Month (May) and Year (1990) using gadgets explained in first example. (Note: If `UPTO'-date was smaller than 29-May-1990 then after modifications to `SINCE'-date, `UPTO'-date is also changed to same because it can't be smaller than `SINCE'-date. `F-Finder' makes this change automatically) * Make `UPTO'-gadget active. * Press `Clear'-gadget to set `UPTO'-date to 31st of December 2113. Although you may have had quite a good picture of gadgets in `DATE ADJUST WINDOW' with examples I provided above, I still explain them again. `SINCE' This gadget is a toggle gadget which works in conjunction with `UPTO'-gadget. Both of them can't be active at the same time. When `SINCE'-gadget is active you can use other gadgets to modify its dateinfo. `UPTO' Same as `SINCE'-gadget but allows you to modify `UPTO'-date. `COPY' When `SINCE'-gadget is active, copies its date to `UPTO'-date and vice versa. `CLEAR' Clears active dateinfo to its initial state. `SINCE'-dates initial state is 1st of January 1978 and `UPTO'-dates state is 31st of December 2113. `UNDO' Undos active dateinfo to the date which was set when `DATE ADJUST WINDOW' was opened. `TODAY' Sets active dateinfo to current date. `DATE GADGETS' There are 31 of them. Each have its own number and they are used to set date. Months which haven't got as many days as there are gadgets, have last gadgets ghosted. `MONTH' Scroller gadget with 12 different positions. One for each month. `YEAR' Scroller gadget with years ranging from 1978 to 2113. These are the years OS is currently supporting. `OK' Did you guess already? `:^)' This one lets you go back to `MAIN WINDOW' and saves your settings to memory. `CANCEL' This one also lets you back to `MAIN WINDOW' but all changes made to settings are lost. [Remember that these settings are NOT used before `Search By Date'-flag is ON.] Time Adjust Window ******************* Please read chapter 11 (see Date Adjust Window). before this chapter because its usage is similar in many ways. These settings are used to search files according to their creation time. There are also 3 different possibilities of how to set times, like `DA WINDOW' (`DATE ADJUST WINDOW') had. Using time and date searching at the same time you can even narrow searching to the files created at the same minute of the same day. This is a feature you may not need often, but it's there if you need it. This time I didn't made any examples because the principles used in examples in chapter 11 are the same. `TA WINDOW' (`TIME ADJUST WINDOW') also has similar `SINCE'- and `UPTO'-gadgets as `DA WINDOW' has. This time they are controlling timeinfos, not dateinfo. Smallest change you can make to time is 1 minute, so seconds are not used, even though OS uses them. `Copy'-, `Clear'- and `Undo'-gadgets also provide same functionality as in `DA WINDOW', but `Today'-gadget have been replaced by `Time'-gadget which gives you current time. Here are all explanations anyway! `SINCE' This gadget is a toggle gadget which works in conjunction with `UPTO'-gadget. Both of them can't be active at the same time. When `SINCE'-gadget is active you can use other gadgets to modify its time. `UPTO' Same as `SINCE'-gadget but allows you to modify `UPTO'-time. `COPY' When `SINCE'-gadget is active, copies its time to `UPTO'-time and vice versa. `CLEAR' Clears active timeinfo to its initial state. `SINCE'-time is set to 00:00 (00:00 AM) and `UPTO'-time is set to 23:59 (11:59 PM). `UNDO' Undos active timeinfo to the time which was set when `TIME ADJUST WINDOW' was opened. `TIME' Sets active timeinfo to current time. `HOURS' Scroller gadget with positions from 0 to 23. One for every hour of the day. `MINUTES' Scroller gadget with positions from 0 to 59. One for every minute of the hour. `OK' This one lets you go back to `MAIN WINDOW' and saves your settings to memory. `CANCEL' This one also lets you back to `MAIN WINDOW' but all changes made to settings are lost. [Remember that these settings are NOT used before `Search By Time'-flag is ON.] Cli Parameters *************** At the moment there are parameters only for CLI users, and there aren't many of them because I don't think they are really necessary because you can always use configuration file. Usage is `F-Finder [Pattern] [-S1] [-S2] [-Z] [-D Name] [-A]' Note: If you specify more that one pattern then only latest is used. `-S1' ColorStyle is KS1.x `-S2' ColorStyle is KS2.x `-Z' AutoZoom ON! `-D NAME' Tries to select Volume/Device Name! There can be multiple `-D' options in command line. `-A' AutoStart! If you set this then searching is started immediately, without having to press `Find'-gadget first! `Example: F-Finder *.cfg -S2 -D DH0: -D DH1: -D DH2:' QuickFile Support ****************** `QuickFiles' are files containing information about devices you have in your system. Their purpose is to speed up searching. `QuickFiles' are stored to `QUICKFILES:' assignment directory. If you haven't got `QUICKFILES:' assigned then `F-Finder' isn't able to use `QuickFiles'. Optionally users of KS2.0 or later can use `QUICKFILES' environment variable to hold `QuickFiles' home directory name. For example write in CLI, `setenv QUICKFILES WORK:QuickFiles' At the moment `QuickFiles' contain information about files and directories you have in your devices - for example `DH0:' or `DH1:'. They don't contain any more information - just the names. This brings few advantages and one disadvantage. *Advantages* * `QuickFiles' don't know about sizes, dates, times etc... This makes it possible to use all kinds of searching methods even with `QuickFiles'. * `QuickFiles' aren't too big. * Searches are very quick when only few objects are found. *Disadvantages:* * The more `F-Finder' finds objects the slowlier is searching. For example if you make a '*'-search so that every file in a `QuickFile' is taken, then searching is slowlier than directly from the disk. This is because when `F-Finder' meets a filename that is suitable it examines that object's properties from the disk to get info about size, creation date etc... And this can be quite slow. Normal speed advantages are about 4 or 5 times compared to normal HD drive searching when `QuickFiles' are used. And this is with stock A500. So with a 030 or 040 accelerator speed improvement is even better. Note that the more you change contents of your HD, more often you need to re-create your `QuickFiles'. I suggest that you make it always before you close your system or if you don't normally close your system ever then make for example `cron' to do it automatically. At the moment `QuickFiles' are created with `QuickFileManager'-program. You should read `QuickFileManager.doc' for more info. Misc Info ********** Still to do =========== * Not much ideas. Please suggest a feature you might want. * New KS2.04 or greater only version with font-independent interface. * Better `QuickFileManager' program. Maybe even attach it directly to `F-Finder' and make it intuitionized. My contact information: Address: Markus Aalto Muurahaisentie 11a 01490 VANTAA FINLAND internet: s37732v@vipunen.hut.fi ( I can be reached almost daily by email! ) Thanks to team who made SAS/C, which is the compiler this program was developed. It was running in a humble A500 with 5 MB of memory and HD. So there is life below 680(20|30|40) too! `:^)' Also thanks to Mika Saastamoinen who provided additional icons and Reinhard Spisser for `Texinfo' docs. And of course to rest of the betatesting group. Have fun!