If you are viewing this from Archives, click the F6 button located below HELP on Archives menu. (All of those other button color objects are buttons too! Read TUTOR.TXT for a quick description of the buttons and features of Archives.) CAUTION: There is one major change. Added two Quick checkout options located under the Decompress menu!!!! To Checkout ! (your checkout directory is here, ie \CHK\) To Normal ! (your normal decompress to directory is here) Following standard Windows conventions, the exclamation point means that these functions will execute without a confirmation! When you click the menu, the function executes right then and there... The directory that these two functions decompress to is setup under the Configuration + Setup Register. Any files that you decompress with these 2 new functions will overwrite any existing files in the decompressed to directory that have the same name as a file being decompressed. Unless you turn the 'Always Overwrite' Off under [Configure] [Setup Setup or Register] Setup Part C. The 'old decompress' dialog box is still available under 'Details...' This also follows windows conventions, ie the three ... means that a dialog box or confirmation follows. User Request for Version 3.09 (Not released yet) This version may have a user modifiable dialog box or menu for running programs, decompressing, or whatever. I want to know what you want to do with this menu so I can do my best to give it the flexibility you need. Please drop me a note. Unfortunately, I can't tell you more about Version 3.09. In my opinion, Version 3.08 is very good. Version 3.09 is exciting. You won't believe what Version 3.09 is going to do. I will be supporting *.ARJ compressed files in version 3.09. Changes: Version 3.08 6/19/1991 - 06/26/1991 MAJOR CHANGES / BUG FIXES: A. Fixed the problem where sometimes the several of the drive buttons would simultaneously be highlighted. B. The MOUSE and the ENTER key work the same in the Files Window and the Viewer Window. (Or nearly the same considering that the Viewer Window will display the contents of the compressed file and the Files Window cannot.) C. Added a basic PRINT TEXT file(s) function and print your Viewer Window selection if viewing the contents of a file. (I'll have to add some additional printer options later. eg. margins, fonts,...) The print function works similar to the copy function. You can print multiple DOS files if you select multiple DOS files in the Viewer Window when the FileStats are showing. (The FileStats are showing when FileStat button is highlighted.) If you open a file for viewing in the Viewer Window, you can highlight portions of this file for printing. The only restriction is that Archives cannot (yet) select rows greater than the 2000th. If you want to print something that is greater than the 2000th row, your only option (at this time) is to print the whole file. The print function was written to print TEXT files and not BINARY files. The non-text characters are omitted if you print a binary file. D. Now if you open a compressed file and select File+Copy or File+Delete, the decompress dialog box opens. Saves you a step if you forgot that the file was a compressed file. E. Changed SCAN to start up always ON. You can turn it OFF (look under the Decompress menu, but the OFF setting is not saved to ARCHV.INI). This automatic scan only works when you decompress a file. Additionally, if your virus protection program reports an errorlevel of 1 or greater when a virus is found (like SCAN does), then Archives will beep and pause if a virus is found even when the Archives' BEEP and PAUSE function is turned off for decompression. F. Archives will select files or rows for printing, file copying, etc up to the 2000th row. I made this change to improve the print feature. G. Note to the Beta Testers, the final release of Version 3.08 includes some extra error checking in the print function in case formfeeds are imbedded in the document, and added a left margin setting. Since Windows already has a top margin, Archives strips off the linefeeds enbedded in a text document at the top of each page until a row with text or spaces exists. I printed many, many text documents and found this to be the best option to get Windows print to match a DOS print function as closely as possible. And finally, the Right Margin dialog box gives a best guess of the number of characters to lead the right margin with based on the length of the single longest line of the whole document if the document is opened in the Viewer Window. This assumes that your printer prints 80 characters per line. If you want to change this number, you'll have to manually edit the ARCHV.INI line beginning with CharWidthPrn=80 to whatever number you wish. Like Windows Archives normally requires to be closed and reopened before any manual changes to the INI file take affect. G. Note to the Beta Testers, the final release of Version 3.08 eliminated SCAN from the Compress Dialog box since I added it as a decompress menu item (where it belongs). To scan a file select a file in the viewer window when the FileStats are diaplayed and chose scan from the Run Dialog box. The Accelerator Key for this is Shift+F11. To scan a directory, or drive select the Full menu and look under the Run menu item on the main menu. The Accelerator Keys for these functions are Shift+F12 and Ctrl+Shift+F12 respectively. To scan a file immediately after decompressing the file, check the Decompress + Always Scan main menu item. Changes: Version 3.07 05/22/1991 - 6/19/1991 Note: Version 3.07 was issued only to the Archives Beta Testers. MAJOR CHANGES / BUG FIXES: A. Eliminated Arcsetup.exe and added Archv.INI. Arcsetup.exe was used to configure Archives. Using an INI files allows Archives to configure itself. This increased the size of Archives; however, ALL users polled kept ArcSetup on their computers uncompressed. The net result is that Archives is now nearly as small as the previous version's ArcSetup plus Archives, even with all of the enhancements in this version! Unregistered users can now also run Archv286.exe. B. Added Dynamic Data Exchange. Located under the [Configure] menu of Archives. Link 2 Archives and copy files from one Archives to the other. Compress or decompress from one Archives to the other,..., etc. C. Archives is improving it algorithm for determining program types when you double click on a non-compressed file and Now looks in the WIN.INI file for "EXTENSIONS" AS WELL. Excluding this 'feature' was an oversight on my part. NOW WHEN YOU WANT TO RUN A PROGRAM OR FILE SELECTED IN THE FILES WINDOW: - Click anywhere in the Files Window with the RIGHT MOUSE Button, or use the Ctrl+ENTER key when the Files Window has the focus, or press the F9 function key, or CLICK the [Run] Button. (Whew, why so many different ways to do this? Because I'm trying to make Archives work the way you think it should, and each one of you think different things. Don't memorize all of the ways, just use the one(s) that make sense to you.) Double click with the left mouse button on an *.EXE or *.COM file now, and instead of dumping the file contents to the Viewer Window if it is not a compressed executable file it will write the best guess of the type of program to the Viewer Window. eg, Windows, Definitely Windows 3.0, DOS, etc. Archives will still read binary type files so you can view the contents of your Word Processor. If for some reason you want to view the contents of the *.EXE program, click on the [read] button with the left mouse. D. Greatly improved the function, appearance, and definitions of the BUTTONS on the main program. Added drive selector buttons. Now, I need to develop something for the folks running DOS 4.0 or DOS 5.0 with one large drive. (The [dir] button may help some.) Reverse highlighted the buttons to show the user's current selection as appropriate. E. MAJOR, MAJOR problem was corrected. If a user had 2 copies of ARCH.PIF on their computer and both were in their path or the one was in the path statement and the other in the same directory as Archives, then the %$$&#* program would cycle, telling them that they did not change ARCH.PIF. Dumb procedure problem on my part. Now Archives does the normal Windows look for program. The 1st look is in the directory where Archives.exe or Arcv286.exe is executed, then the users path. F. Added support for the new LHA.EXE compressed files. You can use either LHARC or LHA.EXE with Archives for *.LZH compressed files; although I would get a copy of the LHA format since it is significantly better. G. Added support for Always running your virus protector when you decompress a file. Eventually will make this a configurable & saved setting along with other settings. Look under the Decompress menu. H. Added [Chain Checkout] and [Chain Checkin]. Look under the Decompress menu for [Chain Checkout] and under the Compress Menu for [Chain Checkin]. These functions were available under the last version, but was burried in the Details... dialog boxes for Compress and Decompress. To Chain Checkout a compressed file, first double click on the compressed files so you are showing its contents. Then select chain checkout. After the file is decompressed, a second copy of Archives will open showing that files contents. Selecting Chain Checkin will close that Second copy of Archives and open the 1st copy. The temporary files and directory are automatically deleted. MINOR CHANGES / BUG FIXES: Version 3.07 1. Bug fix - Fixed the Mask Window so that the user could enter a ? as a substitution character and not have the Viewer Window select all of the files at the same time. (Why would you want to change the Mask? Read TUTOR.TXT) Also fixed the Mask Window so that the user could enter a backslash and not have the Viewer Window select all of the files at the same time. 2. Modified a few of the dialog boxes to make them more quickly readable (Copy, Rename, Run). And, added the Accelerator Keys (Hot Keys) to the Dialog Boxes that would execute that function from the Main Window as reminders, to help users learn these keys. Although, as you probably can tell from the the features of the program, I prefer to use the mouse. 3. Added additional error checking to protect checkout data. 4. Although Archives was not written to be a menu program, several users requested to add to Archives a method to execute Windows Control Programs. Archives also has an option to look first to see if they are already running and then switch to them if already running, else Archives will execute the program. These include, switching to the users shell, found in SYSTEM.INI; and running Control Panel, Print Manager, etc. Look under the RUN menu and select Control Programs. The Accelerator Key (Hot Key) is F4 for the 'Run Control Programs Menu'. This also helps when I'm trying to assist a user with setting up Archives. This added very little code to Archives since most of the LOOK and if not already running then EXECUTE functions were already written for Archives DDE functions. PS, I want to add the features you need, but if you don't call or write to tell me what you need.... 5. Users can switch to their start up program, normally their menu, by pressing F10 in Archives. Run with _DEFAULT.PIF use to be F10, now is F11. Run with ARCH.PIF use to be F11, now is Ctrl+Enter or Right Mouse click in the Files Window if the program listed in the Files Window is a DOS program. 6. Also changed Alt+F10 to alternate between Maximized and the normal Windows Restore versus restoring to the Start up window position. For those who liked the Start up Restore, this Accelerator Key (Hot Key) is Alt+Ctrl+F10. All of the Accelerator Keys are visible from the Full Menu. 7. Oh yeah, Archives now has two menus. A Full Menu and a Short Menu. Reason: The Short Menu uses less system resources, but the long menu shows you all of the accelerator keys. 8. Modified the dialog boxes slightly so that the underlines on Accelerator Keys (Hot Keys) are displayed on CGA thru better than super VGA systems. 9. Gave the user the option to have DOS 'BEEP & PAUSE' ON or OFF when compressing & decompressing files. With the DOS 'BEEP & PAUSE' OFF the DOS window will open and close automatically if you check the Close Window on Exit checkbox in your _DEFAULT.PIF and ARCH.PIF files. With the DOS 'BEEP & PAUSE' ON, you will get a beep and have a message to 'Hit a key when Ready'. 10. ArcSetup use to append the extensions and everything following the extensions from programs entered in Setup-Part-A. This prevented one user from entering special switches in his virus protection program. First of all, ArcSetup doesn't exist any more. Now you can enter the switches in Archives [Configure] [Setup or Register] and Archives will display and use these switches in your Run dialog box. This also allows users to use programs like LIST as their 'Windows Browser (Viewer). Entered in Setup-Part-B. Example: Using the [Configure] [Setup or Register] menu, select [Setup Part B]. In the [Use Windows Browser (Viewer)] edit text box, enter: drive:\directory\ARCH.PIF LIST.EXE And if you are running in Enhanced Mode, then your DOS LIST program will run in a DOS Window. You don't need to add the drive:\directory\ARCH.PIF if you run Windows in Standard or Real Modes and the DOS LIST.EXE will execute Full Screen. 12. Added test integrity for ARC, LZH and ZIP files to the run dialog box. Hot Key is Ctrl+F11. PS to Version 3.07 Archives uses many Accelerator Keys. If any of these interfere with existing programs that you are using, please call me. I'm not aware of any problems to-date, but I can easily add options to the configuration of Archives to turn off Accelerator Keys. *************************************************************** HIGHLIGHTS OF PREVIOUS VERSION CHANGES: Changes: Version 3.06 05/10/1991 - 05/22/1991 1. Added a one level directory create during file copies and moves if the directory didn't exist and the user confirms that the directory should be created. Changes: Version 3.05 05/06/1991 - 05/10/1991 1. First Market copy. Changes: Version 0.94 04/29/1991 - 05/03/1991 1. Added several options for running DOS applications using either ARCH.PIF or the users _DEFAULT.PIF files. I have the ARCH.PIF set up to execute in a Window and my _DEFAULT.PIF is setup for exclusive operation. (see ARCHIVES.HLP _DEFAULT.PIF) This provides more options for executing DOS programs from Archives or just getting a DOS command line. 2. If a second copy of Archives is called, a few of the user modified parameters from the first copy is inherited. (My 2nd attempt using Windows DDE. I have more a significant DDE idea in the works; although, it will probably not be included in the first public release of Archives.) 3. Added several options for Changing Date & Time of files, including updating the compressed file with the date & time of the latest internal file. 4. Added changing file attributes. Hidden, Read/Write, and the archive bit. Changes: Version 0.93 03/22/1991 - 04/26/1991 1. Significantly changed the memory management. The program as stored on your hard disk is larger than before, but the memory used by the system is much smaller ~ 35K. This version requires significantly less memory to run, almost all of the code is discardable. 2. Allowed the system to make the filename AND DIRECTORY during the compress procedure. 3. Compiled a 286 version named ARCHV286.EXE. Run this version if you never run Archives while Windows is in the REAL mode. This version will run in both Standard & Enhanced Modes of windows (PROTECTED). It is slightly smaller, and slightly faster to run versus the REAL mode version. This version will require the user to be registered before it will run. You cannot run both programs at the same time!!!!!!!! 4. Added a maximize Task Yield function to the Configure menu. When activated, the application will yield windows time to other applications. This feature is very useful when running Archives while running a communications program in the background. This feature is activated from the Configure menu. To see this function work, you'll need to have at least windows clock running or download/upload a file using a Windows communications program. Archives even starts from File Manager without stopping the clock for the complete start-up, and without a significant delay in start up appearance to the user. Although, if your communications program is busy, the yielding to the communications program slows some of Archives functions 2 to 6 times versus when the yield is off. Whether or not you use yield depends on your priorities, personal time or communications speed. 5. Modified the functions to work with foreign characters in file names and directory names. Changes: Version 0.92 03/19/1991 - 03/21/1991 1. This was a special release that went only to one Beta tester. Thanks again, Phil. Changes: Version 0.91 03/19/1991 - 03/21/1991 1. Added Ctrl+character HOT KEY to change the drive that Archives is viewing (similar to File Manager). For example, Ctrl+A will change the drive viewed to A: Ctrl+C will change the drive viewed to C: etc. 2. Made Archives more user friendly if a floppy drive was selected & a disk wasn't in the drive. 3. Fixed an "improvement" that limited the number of files allowed in Copy, Delete, Move/Rename, compress, and decompress operations to less than the 700 (now 2000) files advertised. Thanks to the contributors; especially, Phil, Don, Steve, Michael, and Jeffry and ... PS In one of the versions of the future, I'm going to work on reducing the code size. I've been concentrating on reducing the Window's resources and amount of Windows memory and adding features in the above versions. The code can be reduced by approximately 10%.