4EDIT USER'S GUIDE SEPTEMBER 1991 _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER XD SYSTEMS 1014 SHIPMAN LANE MCLEAN, VA 22101 CONTENTS Limited Warranty 1 Background 2 4EDIT Usage 2 Regarding Registration 3 4EDIT Version History 4 4ZIP/4UNZIP 5 Software Registration Form and Order 6 LIMITED WARRANTY XD Systems warrants the physical diskette enclosed herein to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 60 days from the date of purchase. In the event of notification within the warranty period of defects in material or workmanship, XD Systems will replace the defective diskette. XD Systems specifically disclaims all other warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall XD Systems be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages arising out of the use, the result of use, or inability to use this product. This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman, 70007,3536. The ombudsman may also be contacted by FAX by sending to the ASP FAX number: (616) 788-2765. In communication with the Ombudsman, please include a telephone number and/or FAX if possible. 4DOS is a trademark of J.P. Software. PKZip and PKUnzip are trademarks of PKWare. 4EDIT and all the files and documentation distributed with it are copyright 1990 by Iram J. Weinstein. All rights reserved. -1- 4EDIT User's Guide Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 I.J. Weinstein A. BACKGROUND In 1988, I wrote and distributed a shareware program, XDIR, which was one of the first DOS directory programs to attach a comment to each file. When I first saw 4DOS, I loved it, but I wanted to have the same sort of full-screen editor for directory comments (or, in 4DOS terms, Descriptions) that I had in XDIR. 4EDIT provides this feature. I think you will find it very useful. Its good practice to comment your files, and often it is handy to see the descriptions attached to other files, while you are writing a new one. 4EDIT reads the DESCRIPT.ION files produced by 4DOS and allows you to modify them, or creates a new file if 4DOS has not already provided one. You should know that the DESCRIPT.ION file is a hidden file. You will not see it in the DOS directory unless you change the file attribute or use the 4DOS DIR /A:h (Dir /h in Version 3.x) option. B. 4EDIT USAGE 4EDIT Usage is: 4EDIT [/12 | /24] [d:][path][filespec] [; filespec] [;..] A directory display similar to that of SELECT will appear showing all of the files meeting any of the filespecs. This use of include lists is like the 4DOS DIR and SELECT usage. Filespecs can freely use the wildcard characters '*' and '?'. For example the filespecs c:\wp\*smith*.*; *. xyz would display all the files in the c:\wp directory that either have the letters smith in the name part or have xyz as the extension. Note that only the first argument in an include list can have a pathname; subsequent arguments default to the same path. 4EDIT implements International date and time formats. The display will automatically be consistent with your country=xxx command in config.sys. Since some users prefer different time formats, 4EDIT provides command line overrides for the time format. They are: /24 Use 24 hour time /12 Use 12 hour time (e.g., 10:35p) -2- You can cursor around the screen using , , , , and . At any row, you can start typing, and a cursor will appear. Typing will start at the beginning of the description in Insert mode. The editor is WordStar compatible and also supports the following: Restore original contents of current line, if in the midst of editing it. Otherwise quit 4EDIT without saving.(If you want to exit 4EDIT before you do any editing, it may be necessary to press Esc twice.) , End edit. Save changed Descriptions Cursor back one screen Cursor forward one screen Cursor to top of first screen Cursor to end of last screen Cursor left one character Cursor right one character Cursor left one word Cursor right one word Cursor to beginning of line Cursor to end of line Delete character at cursor Delete character to left of cursor Delete to end of line , Delete entire line Delete from beginning of line Delete word to right of cursor Restore original contents of line Toggle INSERT on and off. Thin cursor indicates overwrite mode; thicker cursor indicates insert mode (default). , Copy description to clipboard , Copy from clipboard to description -3- C. REGARDING REGISTRATION 4EDIT is ShareWare. The law requires that if you use this program, you must register and obtain a license for it. The registration fee is $15. Registered users will receive the latest version of the program and will be notified of major upgrades to 4EDIT as they are released. Online help is available through CompuServe, by EasyPlex. Help is also available by mail. I will try to answer all letters within 48 hours. Non-registered users must include a SASE for a reply. The degree of help available to non-registered users is purely discretionary. Registrations and inquiries should be sent to: Iram J. Weinstein XD Systems 1014 Shipman Lane McLean, VA 22101 Voice (703) 821-3215 CIS [70741,3711] A registration form is included at the end of this manual. Commercial use of 4EDIT without payment of the registration fee is prohibited. Site licenses are available for users with multiple machines. Please contact me for information. The program and its associated documentation are the copyrighted property of the author. Shareware distributors and Users Groups may charge a nominal fee for copying and distributing this program and Bulletin Board may likewise carry it. Please see the files VENDOR.DOC and DESCRIBE.DOC for complete information. -4- D. 4EDIT VERSION HISTORY Ver 0.90 (Beta Test) 12/01/89 This is the original release. It used batch files to drive 4EDIT and could only run under 4DOS. Ver 0.91 (Beta Test) 12/20/89 4EDIT now stands alone, and can be run under DOS. Ver 0.92 (Beta Test) 1/18/90 Corrected error causing highlighted row to blink on some machines. Modified so that EDIT function is always active. Correct command line parser so that C: ==> C:*.* and ABC ==> ABC\*.* if ABC is a directory but ABC.* otherwise. Ver 0.93 (Beta Test) 2/04/90 This is mostly bug cleanup. 1. Entering the editor with a right arrow positioned the cursor to the second character of an existing description, but to the first character of an empty description. Fixed to always go to the first character position. 2. Cursor size in Insert mode made larger and easier to distinguish from overstrike mode. 3. 4EDIT lost descriptions on some files in big directories. Now fixed. 4. Use of wildcard symbols * and ? changed to match 4DOS extended features. 5.Ver 0.92 tried to correct command line parser so that C: ==> C:*.* and ABC ==> ABC\*.* if ABC is a directory but ABC.* otherwise. Got it right this time! 6. The default state of the editor is insert mode. This used to be reset on each line. Now 4EDIT remembers if you toggle insert mode and starts the next line in the state you left it. Version 1.0 3/11/90 First public release -5- Version 1.01 3/21/90 Minor changes in documentation. Version 1.02 4/01/90 Changed file access to run on networks reliably. Added name and serial number on registered copies. Version 1.03 6/10/90 Modified to correct for 4DOS 3.0 quirk. Entries in DESCRIPT.ION are sometimes delimited by LF instead of CRLF. Earlier versions of 4EDIT misread these lines. Version 1.04 8/03/90 Added Error Messages for Drive unready and Disk write-protected. 4EDIT a: is now equivalent to 4EDIT a:*.* Version 1.05 10/21/90 A problem with include lists that caused the same file to be selected more than once has been corrected. For example, 4EDIT *.txt+4*.txt would show the file 4zip.txt twice. Many users have complained about my use of ENTER to mean EXIT. So I have changed the key usage as follows: F10 - Exit 4EDIT, saving all Description changes. ENTER - Same as cursor down Esc - If current line has been edited, restore it to original. Otherwise, Exit 4Edit without saving changes. The cursor is now ON at all times. In addition, you can now copy the description from one line, using CTRL-C, and paste it into another line, using CTRL-P. Version 1.06 12/02/90 4EDIT would hang up if used on a directory that contained only subdirectories. Now fixed. -6- Version 1.07 6/22/91 This version caused many machines to lockup and was immediately removed from distribution Version 1.08 9/21/91 Errors in handling of extended wildcards fixed. *.t would formerly accept 4edit.txt, for example. SAA compliant keys for cut(CtrlIns),paste(ShiftIns), Del (shift-del) and exit-with-save (AltF4) were added. International date and time formats were implemented. E. 4ZIP/4UNZIP Also take a look at 4ZIP and 4UNZIP. These are also utilities for use with 4DOS. These programs are shells that use the PKWare programs PKZIP and PKUNZIP. They provide a facility for ZIPping and UNZIPping selected files along with the 4DOS directory comments. Both provide a full screen SELECT screen, allowing you to easily pick the files to enter or remove from the ZIP file. The 4ZIP/4UNZIP package is shareware, available on Bulletin Boards and from shareware distributors. Registration is $15. See the order form at the end of this manual. -7- SOFTWARE REGISTRATION FORM AND ORDER Check all that apply: [ ] 4EDIT registration _____ @ $15.00 [ ] 4ZIP/4UNZIP registration _____ @ $15.00 Postage and Handling $3.00 TOTAL ENCLOSED: $______ If you already have copies of the programs you are ordering , where were they obtained? [ ]CompuServe [ ]Friend [ ]Employer [ ]BBS ______________________ [ ]ShareWare Distributor________________________________________ Payment is by check [ ] or money order [ ] (Sorry - no COD or charges) Foreign Customers - Use $US check drawn on US Bank or Postal Money Order. NAME ___________________________________________ COMPANY ___________________________________________ ADDRESS ___________________________________________ CITY ___________________________________________ STATE __________________________ZIP _____________ Send your registration form and payment to: XD Systems 1014 Shipman Lane McLean, VA 22101