Browser 1.6 -- A Shareware Windows Application Copyright 1988, Morrie Wilson Browser is a MS Windows application designed to allow users to browse files in a MS Windows environment. In addition to the browse capability, it supports printing, clipboarding, and a hex dump display. Browser also features the new and unusual Hide & Seek information extraction technique. Table of Contents Licensing and Duplication Information Duplication Restrictions....................... 3 General Licensing Information.................. 4 Shareware Licensing Information................ 5 Shareware Update Information................... 6 Commercial Licensing Information............... 7 Using Browser Getting Started with Browser................... 8 Moving Around in Browser....................... 9 With the KEYBOARD........................... 9 With a MOUSE............................... 10 Browser Commands.............................. 12 FILE....................................... 12 HIDE & SEEK................................ 14 PRINT...................................... 15 CLIPBOARD.................................. 16 OPTIONS.................................... 17 GET HELP WINDOW............................ 18 System Menu Extensions........................ 19 Appendices Appendix A - Hide & Seek Tutorial............. 20 Appendix B - Shareware Questions & Answers.... 22 Appendix C - Browser Version Information...... 23 BROWSER 1.6 2 Licensing and Duplication Information Duplication Restrictions Browser is a shareware product. It may be freely copied and distributed for evaluation as long as four basic rules are followed. These rules are: 1) The program and this documentation may not be modified in any way. 2) A copy of this documentation is provided with the program. 3) No charge, other than a media and handling charge, (not to exceed $5.00) is made. 4) Users of the program are encouraged to purchase a license for its use. If a copy of this program is retained, an obligation to purchase a license for its use is incurred. A license for use of this program costs only $15.00. BROWSER 1.6 3 General Licensing Information Browser may be either licensed as a shareware or as a commercial program. The shareware option is for general use by private individuals and most businesses. The commercial option is available to businesses whose accounting systems cannot adapt to the shareware software distribution method. A purchase of a shareware license assumes that a copy of the software has already been obtained, and that the user wishes to retain the copy for future use. Licensed shareware users may purchase an update at any time for a $5.00 handling fee. If you wish to purchase a share- ware license and do not have a copy of this program, be sure to purchase an update at the same time. With the purchase of each commercial license, a copy of the software and documentation will be shipped to any U.S destination. BROWSER 1.6 4 Shareware Licensing Information In order to purchase a shareware license, enclose the following items in an envelope and mail to the address given below: Enclose: 1) A check for $15.00 2) The serial number of the copy of Browser being used (See initial screen display of Browser for this information) 3) Name and address Mail to: Wilson WindowWare 3377 59th SW Seattle WA 98116 One license per usable copy of Browser is required. Archive and backup copies do not count. Please note that no copy of the software will be sent to you. If you want or need the latest copy of Browser, be sure to also purchase an update as explained later on. Please note that if you purchased a disk containing this software from a public domain/shareware software distributor you have paid the media and handling charges as permitted in the "Duplication Restriction" section. You have not purchased a license. A canceled check made out to Wilson WindowWare is the standard proof of a paid license. The accuracy of the information supplied here and the fitness of the Browser program for any purpose may change without notice, and should not be construed as any kind of a commitment. No responsibility is assumed for any errors or problems that may be encountered with use of this product. There are no warranties whatsoever associated with this product. BROWSER 1.6 5 Shareware Update Information In order to purchase an update to Browser, (assuming you have a shareware license) enclose the following items in an envelope and mail to the address given below: Enclose: 1) A check for $5.00 2) The serial number of the copy of Browser being used (See initial screen display of Browser for this information) 3) Name and address Mail to: Wilson WindowWare 3377 59th SW Seattle WA 98116 BROWSER 1.6 6 Commercial Licensing Information In order to purchase the commercial versions of this package, enclose the following items in an envelope and mail the the address given below: Enclose: 1) A check for $40.00 2) Company name and shipping address Mail to: Wilson WindowWare 3377 59th SW Seattle WA 98116 The following materials will be shipped via UPS. 1) The Browser software on a 5 1/4" DD diskette. (3 1/2" versions are not yet available, however you may copy the program to 3 1/2" diskettes if desired.) 2) Printed copy of applicable documentation, with softcover binder. 3) Shipping paperwork identifying contents of package. One license per usable copy of Browser is required. Archive and backup copies do not count. The accuracy of the information supplied here and the fitness of the Browser program for any purpose may change without notice, and should not be construed as any kind of a commitment. No responsibility is assumed for any errors or problems that may be encountered with use of this product. There are no warranties whatsoever associated with this product. BROWSER 1.6 7 Using Browser Getting Started with Browser Browser can be invoked in a number of ways, detailed as follows: 1) Via the MS-DOS menu in Windows. 2) Via the Point and DoubleClick capability. Selected file extensions may be defined within the WIN.INI [extensions] section file to start various Window Applications. Browser may be defined in this section. For example, to initiate Browser whenever a .TXT file is doubleclicked in the MS-DOS menu, the following would be entered: TXT=BROWSER.EXE ^.TXT Other extensions may also be entered to allow Browser initiation by simple doubleclicking. See the Windows documentation for a more detailed explanation of this topic. 3) Browser may also be initiated by various Windows Menu products that are available. See the applicable product documentation for further information. 4) Browser may also be started in a Window running a copy of COMMAND.COM (Yes. It runs quite nicely in a window) by entering BROWSER from the DOS prompt. Once started, Browser will display its copyright notices and indicate that additional information may be obtained by selecting "About...". See the section on the FILE command for more information. BROWSER 1.6 8 Moving Around in Browser With the KEYBOARD Once a file is select for browsing, the following keys become active, thus allowing the user to navigate throughout the document. (There are no surprises here, things work pretty much as one might expect.) Pg Dn - Moves down one screen Pg Up - Moves up one screen End - Moves to end of file Home - This one is tricky. If the window on the file has been shifted to the right (i.e. column 1 is no longer visible) then Home will shift the window to the left back so that column 1 becomes visible. If column 1 is visible, then Home causes a move to the beginning of the file. Up Arrow - Moves up one line Down Arrow - Moves down one line Left Arrow - Moves left one column Right Arrow - Moves right one column BROWSER 1.6 9 With a MOUSE The usual Windows scroll bars appear at the right and bottom (except for HEX DUMP mode) of the Browser Window. These are called the Vertical and Horizontal scroll bars. Each scroll bar consists of the following parts: Arrows - One arrow at either end pointing in opposite directions. The arrows are at either end of the "Elevator Shaft". Elevator Shaft - An area the "Elevator" moves in (usually colored red). Elevator - A small box which moves around in the Elevator shaft. The position of the elevator in the shaft gives a visual cue to the approximate portion of the file currently being displayed (usually colored white). Browser recognizes three types of mouse activity when the mouse is pointing to one the special areas as defined above. These activities are: 1) Mouse clicking. When the primary mouse button (usually the left) is quickly pressed and released, Browser considers this a mouse click. 2) Mouse holding. When the primary mouse button is held down, Browser considers this a series of mouse clicks (at a rate of several per second). 3) Mouse Dragging. When pointing to one of the elevators, and the primary mouse button is held down and moved in the elevator shaft, the elevator will follow the mouse pointer (as long as it stays in the shaft). BROWSER 1.6 10 The following mouse actions are recognized: Clicking the Up Arrow - Moves up one line Clicking the Down Arrow - Moves down one line Clicking the Left Arrow - Move left one line Clicking the Right Arrow - Moves right one line Clicking the shaft above the Vertical Elevator - Moves up one screen Clicking the shaft below the Vertical Elevator - Moves down one screen Clicking the shaft left of the Horizontal Elevator - Moves left a bunch of columns Clicking the shaft right of the Horizontal Elevator - Moves right a bunch of columns Dragging Vertical Elevator to any position - Instant reposition to any line in the document Dragging Horizontal Elevator to any position - Instant reposition to any column in the document BROWSER 1.6 11 Browser Commands FILE The FILE pull down menu contains five options. These are: OPEN - Used to select file to browse. When selected, a listbox will appear. The files in the current directory will appear at the top of the list, followed by allowable disk drive entries (e.g. [A]), the parent directory entry ([..]), and the list of subdirectories of the current directory (e.g. [SUBDIR]). Any item in the list may be selected. If a file is selected, browser will open that file for display. If a disk drive or a directory-type entry is selected, the listbox will be updated with information from that drive/directory. In addition, search specifications may be entered in the editbox found just above the list of filenames to limit the display to particular groupings of files. (e.g. the default entry in the editbox is *.*, which causes all files to be listed. You may enter *.bak to list only files ending in .bak for selection. CLEAR - Clears previous file, if any, from memory. This is useful for reclaiming memory used by browser in the display of files. ABOUT... - Selecting the ABOUT... command will display some information about Browser. BROWSER 1.6 12 FILE (Continued) EXIT - Exits Browser and closes the window. FILE STATS - Various bits of information about the file are displayed in a pop-up window. DELETE FILE - Allow immediate deletion of the file currently being viewed. If this item is selected, a popup window will appear asking the user to confirm the deletion request. BROWSER 1.6 13 HIDE & SEEK The HIDE & SEEK feature allows a user to control the shown (displayable) and hidden (non-displayable) lines of text, based upon whether or not a given line contains specified text strings. Appendix A contains a short tutorial on the HIDE & SEEK function. The HIDE & SEEK pull-down menu reveals a number of options. These are FIND - Allows specification of up to a 32 character string to search for. A forward search for the string is performed, and, if found, the file pointer will be positioned to that point, and the line will be displayed in inverse video. (If the line was previously hidden, it will be shown.) FIND NEXT - Finds the next occurrence of the string last specified in the Find command. (If the line was previously hidden, it will be shown.) HIDE ALL - Marks every line of the file as hidden (non-displayable). Generally used immediately prior to a FIND or SHOW IF command. HIDE IF - Allows specification of up to a 32 character string to search for. The entire file is searched. Any line on which the string is (or is NOT - depending on selection) found will be marked as hidden (non-displayable). SHOW ALL - Marks every line of the file as unhidden (displayable). Undoes effects of HIDE commands. SHOW IF - Allows specification of up to a 32 character string to search for. The entire file is searched. Any line on which the string is (or is NOT - depending on selection) found will be marked as unhidden (displayable). INVERT - Swaps the hidden status. All lines previously hidden will become unhidden and all lines previously unhidden will become hidden. BROWSER 1.6 14 PRINT Text may be printed, either as text or a hex dump. Browser will attempt to approximate the currently selected font for printing. A choice of the entire file, or just unhidden (displayable) lines may be made. PRINT ALL - The entire file is spooled to the default printer. PRINT SHOWING - Displayable lines are spooled to the default printer. PRINT PAGE ADVANCE - Default printer is advanced one page. Note 1: Browser will print on the system default printer. You may change the system default printer by: 1) Get Windows Control Panel, via Browser System Menu (that's the little box in the upper left hand corner) 2) In the control panel, get the SETUP menu and select the PRINTER... option. 3) Select the printer you want. Note 2: If you want Landscape (sideways) print, you can: 1-3) See Above 4) If the printer driver is smart enough, a panel will appear on which you can select Landscape print. BROWSER 1.6 15 CLIPBOARD Text may be sent to the clipboard. A choice of the entire file, or just unhidden (displayable) lines may be made. If the Hex Dump option is currently selected, then the Hex Dump will be copied to the clipboard. CLIPBOARD COPY ALL - Replaces clipboard contents with the entire current file. CLIPBOARD COPY SHOWING - Replaces clipboard contents with the displayable lines of the current file. BROWSER 1.6 16 OPTIONS The OPTION pull-down menu allows control for the display format. The following options are available. ASCII TEXT - MS-DOS default text style. Used to view most files. Exact display may differ with machine used. ANSI TEXT - Windows default text style RULER - If selected a display of line and column numbers will appear at the top of the file display. The Ruler may turned on and off by repeated selection of this command. EXPANDTABS - If selected (default) the tab characters encountered in the file will be expanded. Tab stops occur every 8 characters. The ExpandTabs function can be turned on and off by repeated selection of the command. ADD LF AFTER CR - If selected, a Linefeed will be appended to each carriage return encountered. Useful for viewing certain files in non-standard formats. 7 BIT TEXT - High bit of each character is ignored. Used to display files usually made by word processors that set the high order bit of characters to encode word-processor specific information. If the file you are viewing seems to contain some garbage, try this option. HEX DUMP - A Hex dump of the file is provided. The ASCII/ANSI selection and the 7-Bit Text selection are used to display the "non-hex" data at the right of the hex dump. BROWSER 1.6 17 GET HELP WINDOW The Get-Help-Window menu item displays a special Browser Quick Reference Window. Any menuitem selected in this special window will provide a short description of its actions in the window text area. The normal Browser window is still active, and can be used to actually execute the command. This is a good way to become familiar with Browser. Once the Get-Help-Window command has been selected, the command changes to Close-Help-Window. The Close-Help- Window command, if selected, will close the Quick Reference Window. The two system commands available in the System Menu, Move and Close, do not provide help, but instead allow you to move the Quick Reference Window, or to close it (as an alternative to the Close-Help-Window menuitem). BROWSER 1.6 18 System Menu Extensions A number of additional menu items have been added to the basic Windows system menu. These are: RUN ANOTHER BROWSER It is often found that it is useful to browse two files at once, especially to compare two similar files to examine the differences. The Run-Another-Browser function will start another browser on the screen. RUN CONTROL PANEL The Run-Control-Panel function will bring up the Windows Control Panel. The Control Panel may be used to setup the default printers for the Browser print function, and also to select Landscape (sideways) print if desired. RUN CLIPBOARD VIEWER The Run-Clipboard-Viewer function will bring up the Windows Clipboard Viewer. This is handy to verify the contents of the Clipboard after Browser clipboard operations. RUN NOTEPAD EDITOR The Run-Notepad-Editor function will bring up the Notepad Editor. This is a convenience item. BROWSER 1.6 19 Appendices Appendix A - Hide & Seek Tutorial The Hide&Seek capabilities may seem a bit strange for users unfamiliar with the Hide&Seek concept. A few simple examples should shed some enlightenment on this subject. First of all, a few simple examples: 1) Source code for a program resides in a text file. It is desired to view all all lines in the file where the variable "SnorkleGrassCounter" occurs. Simply perform a HIDE IF command. A popup window will appear, The window will request a text string, and whether to hide the lines containing the string, or the lines that do NOT contain the string. Specify "SnorkleGrassCounter" in the HIDE IF Dialog Box, and also select the "do NOT" option. Either push the return key, or select the HIDE pushbutton. Voila. 2) To temporarily view the remainder of the file, without having to re-specify the HIDE IF command, the INVERT command may be used to flipflop the hidden and displayed lines. BROWSER 1.6 20 Appendix A - Hide & Seek Tutorial (Continued) A sample file, BROWSER.DAT, has been provided for your perusal. It contains a list of fictitious people and some attributes of those people. It is intended to be used when experimenting with the Hide&Seek capabilities. Perform the following operations on BROWSER.DAT for more insight into the Hide&Seek capabilities. A charity basketball game is to be organized. There are a number of tasks to perform. Referring to a list of friends in BROWSER.DAT. 1) To select members of the basketball teams, perform a HIDE IF operation, selecting those lines that do NOT contain the word "tall". 2) Some radio, TV and print ads must be made. First, perform a HIDE ALL operation to hide the entire file. Then do a SHOW IF to find lines containing "ad", do additional SHOW IF operations for "radio", "TV", "model","write". 4) Someone will be required to help with the organization of this project. Do a HIDE ALL followed by a SHOW IF "organize". 5) Funds to rent the gym will be required up front. Show the "rich" people. 6) Tickets will need to be sold to local businesses, and other "fund" raising activities will be required. Good Luck. It is recommended that some time is spent simply playing with the Hide&Seek capability, since this capability, and a text file of information, can sometimes completely replace data base processors costing hundreds and hundreds of dollars more. BROWSER 1.6 21 Appendix B - Shareware Questions & Answers A number of common questions concerning shareware software are often asked. Provided below is a short list of some of these questions with the answers. Q: What kind of people actually pay for shareware software that they already have. A: Honest people. Q: Is the obligation, for private individuals, to pay for shareware software enforceable. A: Not in this life. Q: Is the obligation, for businesses and corporations, to pay for shareware software enforceable. A: Yes. Unauthorized commercial use of copyrighted material is a violation of federal copyright laws. The main means of detection of this kind of activity are disgruntled employees. BROWSER 1.6 22 Appendix C - Browser Version Information Version Information for Browser 1.6 Immediately below is a list of differences that this version of Browser has when compared to previous releases of Browser. This is generally only of interest when updating to a new copy of Browser from a previous release. Changes first appearing in Browser 1.6 1) Fixed problem that caused the "WIN BROWSER" incompatibility with Windows 2.0x 2) New icon (Helps with 2.0x) and cosmetic changes as dictated by 2.0x Changes first appearing in Browser 1.5 1) A few cosmetic changes to improve Browser's appearance under Windows 2.x. It is not yet a true 2.0x application, however it is still compatible with older versions of Windows. 2) Fixed a bug which caused an inability to scroll when using hex mode with large files. BROWSER 1.6 23 Changes first appearing in Browser 1.4 1) Print and Clipboard capabilities. 2) Improvement in screen display of formfeed's, and standalone carriage-return's and linefeed's in a file. 3) Procreate (Make Another Browser) bug that occasionally hung systems running with DOS 2.x 4) Get-Another-Browser, Get-Clipboard-Viewer, Get- Notepad-Editor and Get-Control-Panel commands now in system menu (ala Brand-Name software). 5) File Delete Capability. 6) Modified mechanization of ANSI/ASCII, 7-bit, and Hex Dump option selections. 7) Browser Help Window available to provice a quick summary of each Browser menuitem. Changes first appearing in to Browser 1.3 1) Point & DoubleClick capability via the WIN.INI file. 2) Browser can now understand filenames passed from Windows. 3) Improved Documentation BROWSER 1.6 24 Changes first appearing in Browser 1.2 1) Handling of short files (less than 1 screen) modified to fix Find and Find Next bug. 2) Ignore case option added to Find, Show, and Hide commands. Changes first appearing in Browser 1.1 1) Expand Tabs function fixed. Version 1.0 - Initial non-test release. BROWSER 1.6 25