@database 00246f38-0 @$VER: 1.3 @author "Per Bratt - perbratt@canit.se" @index Main @node "Main" "Index2Guide - View Aminet-index/recent in an easy way!" @{b}@{u}Index2Guide V 1.3 by Per Bratt@{ub}@{uu} @{b}with help and betatesting by Barry Holmes@{ub} @{b}Abstract@{ub} @{" Why was this program created?    " link "Document_0" 0} @{" What does this program require?  " link "Document_7" 0} @{b}Concrete@{ub} @{"   How do I use this program?     " link "Document_1" 0} @{"   Which files can it convert?    " link "Document_3" 0} @{b}Negative@{ub} @{"     What are the known bugs?     " link "Document_4" 0} @{"     What is left to be done?     " link "Document_5" 0} @{b}Interesting@{ub} @{"       The Authors & Thanks to    " link "Document_2" 0} @{"     The history of Index2Guide   " link "Document_6" 0} @endnode @node "Document_0" "Why was this program created?" @{b}@{u}Why this program was created.@{ub}@{uu} Nowadays AmiNet is important for all Amiga owners to share files through. With such a great shareware base, however, there are many files. With a Ftp-client like MuiFtp by Michael Neuweiler you can easily choose among them in their divided drawers, but what happens if you don't have a wallet the size of Bill Gates' and can't stay online all day? Then you can examine the files at home by downloading the enormous indexfile from AmiNet. This file is pretty hard to handle and difficult to search in - and that's why Index2Guide were created! Index2Guide makes an easy to read .guide-file out of the indexfile, which can be read by any program that supports the hypertext format AmigaGuide such as Multiview that comes with AmigaOS 3.0+. In the created AmigaGuide file you can click your way through the drawers and see which files is in each drawer - which is much easier than examining the whole index at a time, and the guide-file gets smaller! With version 1.3 you can convert RECENT files to AmigaGuide format to. @endnode @node "Document_7" "What does this program require?" @{b}@{u}What this program requires.@{ub}@{uu} Well... first you got to have an Amiga, and that's about it! But if you would like to view result of this program you must have a program that supports the hypertext format AmigaGuide. ie: AmigaGuide or Multiview. This program requires a lot of memory. 2 * the size of the Indexfile you are converting or 12 * the Recent file (Recent-files are small, though). If you have problem with this, write to me, and I will consider releasing a less memory-hungry version. @endnode @node "Document_1" "How do I use this program?" @{b}@{u}How to use the program.@{ub}@{uu} The using of the program is very simple, just double-click on it's icon or start it from Shell/Cli. It no longer takes arguments from cli. @{b}The mainwindow@{ub} When starting the program, a window appears. It has two buttons at the bottom, a progress indicator and some information about the choosen file. Name - The name of the file. Size - The size of the file. Type - What type the file is of. (Recent or Index) Status - What the program is doing at the moment. About - Button for showing information about the program. Convert - Start converting your file. If you have got the "TREE" file in the drawer you start the program from, or in S:, "The TREE-file was found" is shown between the buttons. Otherwise "The TREE-file was NOT found" is shown. The "TREE" file can be found on any AmiNet site or on any AmiNet CDs. @{b}When converting@{ub} Pick a correct INDEX file or RECENT file found on AmiNet, or on one of the AmiNet CD's, by clicking on the "Convert"-button to the right of the main- window. If the file is an proper Index/Recent-file the program will start to analyze it, showing progress on the progress indicator. If "The file is NOT an AmiNet-file" is displayed, the program is sure you have not given it a AmiNet Index/Recent-file. Maybe you have forgotten to unpack it, or you picked the wrong file. If "The file is probably not an AmiNet-file. Continue anyway?" is shown, the program does not think you have choosen a correct file. It is an ASCII-file, but does not start with "|" as it usually does. Deciding to continue here may hang your computer if the file is in an incorrect format. When the the program is finished, the file created can be found in the same drawer as the source, but with the extension ".guide". View the new .guide file with any program that supports AmigaGuide, and you will soon see how useful this program actually is. @{b}When viewing@{ub} At the start you see a list of the maindrawers at Aminet with, if the "TREE"-file was present when the file was converted, descriptions of them are on the right. If you go ahead and click on one, the subdrawers of the drawer are shown. These can also have descriptions. If you click on one of them, their files are displayed. You can go back by clicking on the retracebutton. In the filelist you can see @{i}the name of the file@{ui} (Oh yeah!;), @{i}its size@{ui}, @{i}its age@{ui} and @{i}a short description@{ui} of the file. If the description has a '+' in front of it, there is a longer description available on AmiNet. The age is, depending on if it's a RECENT or INDEX-file, in days or weeks present on AmiNet. A '.' before the age means it is in days. If you think the abbreviations of the drawers (like 'comm' or so) are cryptic, you are strongly recommended to download the TREE-file from an AmiNet site or CD. Then you will get an easy to understand description of the directories. @endnode @node "Document_3" "Which files can it convert?" @{b}@{u}Which files it can convert.@{ub}@{uu} This program can convert both Index-files and Recent-files of AmiNet. These files can be converted as long as they look like they do today: @{i} The token '|' in front of the non-file-lines 19 charaters filename <11 charaters directory max 6 charaters size max 6 charaters age Less than 80 charaters descriptions An extra linefeed between the days in Recent-files.@{ui} As soon as this is changed, the program must unfortunately change - I would really appreciate if someone told me when ;). @endnode @node "Document_4" "What are the known bugs?" @{b}@{u}The known bugs.@{ub}@{uu} There are no real bugs, but there may exist some unsupported type of Index or Recent files, as reported by Christer Bjarnemo (I didn't find that one, however). Please write to me if any kind of bug is encountered including unsupported types of AmiNet lists. @endnode @node "Document_5" "What is left to be done?" @{b}@{u}To do.@{ub}@{uu} Well, here's a list of things: * Be able to download through the AmigaGuide-file, as suggested by Christer Bjarnemo. He has also sent me the software for it - but it would make the AmigaGuide-files enormous. Please write and tell me what you think. * Make size and numbers of files appears next to the drawers. * Make everything optional. Please write to me if you have anything to add! @endnode @node "Document_2" "How do I contact the author?" @{b}@{u}How you can contact the author.@{ub}@{uu} The main author of this program is named @{b}Per Bratt@{ub} and lives in Uppsala of beautiful sweden. If you want information about how the program was written, want to give away money or just encourage me to write more programs for the Amiga, write to me. You can now also register freely, by sending me a letter/email. You will then get a notice when a new version of this program is released. Snailmail: Per Bratt Döbelnsgatan 10A 752 37 Uppsala Sweden Email: perbratt@canit.se IRC-Nick: Flair (When there, that is) The Canadian @{b}Barry Holmes@{ub}, was the betatester of this program and helped me a lot with usefull suggestions and stuff. He can be reached by email: @{b}B_HOLMES@cariboo.bc.ca@{ub} I would also like to say thanks to a lot of guys and girls who helped me out: @{b}Linn Nordin@{ub} - My source of inspiration. Just by existing, she made this program possible. Thanks for making the world a better place to live in, Linn - I love you (though you don't know, and never will know :'( ) @{b}Anders Bjerin@{ub} - One of the greatest in the history of Amiga. I wouldn't be programming without him. @{b}Per Helldahl, Stig Bratt, Henrik Anniko, Max Epstein@{ub} - Moral support and suggestions when I most needed it. Thanks for the BBS "Satisfaction" Max! @{b}Teachers at the Eriksbergsschool in Uppsala, Sweden and especially Lars-Ove Johansson and Olof Sand@{ub} - Thanks for teaching me what I know, and for the motivating good marks. ;) @{b}Pupils in 9E of Eriksbergsschool@{ub} - Thanks for being there when I needed you. I won't forget it. And Johan Ericsson - Stop being a jerk. Also thanks to all of you who apreciated the recent version and to those who reported bugs and made suggestions for it - Especially @{b}Steve Bridges and Christer Bjarnemo@{ub}. @endnode @node "Document_6" "The history" @{b}@{u}The history of Index2Guide@{ub}@{uu} @{b}1.3@{ub} A lot of things were done: *Bugs were fixed *Now allocates memory instead of opening files in RAM *Faster (than it would have been if files were opened in RAM) *Now converts Recent-files as well as Index-files *Nice GUI was added *Writes descriptions of drawers if the TREE-files is present *Program checks if the file actually is an AmiNet-file or not @{b}1.0@{ub} First public release @endnode