-----------------------[Comment Manager V.0.2 beta]-------------------------

-------------[(c) 1997 Alessandro Cantatore * Team OS/2 Italy]--------------

This program is freeware and it is beta code. Anyway it should be safe and
not able to cause any loss of data. As a standard disclaimer:

Under no circumstances the author is liable for any loss or damage.
The use of the program implies acceptance of the conditions stated above.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The program allows to easily add, edit or delete the .COMMENTS and .KEYPHRASES
extended attributes of your files.
I have a lot of archived files I downloaded from the internet and often cannot
remember their content or cannot find a particular file. Comment manager
allows to add a small description (it can be as long as about 32 KB) and
some "Key Phrases" you can use when searching files.
Even if the "Find" button is not yet operative in this release, the OS/2
built-in Find utility allows file search based on the content of the
"Key Phrases" extended attribute.
Suppose you run a BBS and have archives of various kind of applications for
different operating system, you could use various key phrases describing for
example:
-1) the author of the application
-2) the operating system it is designed for
-3) kind of application (file manager, game, etc.)
-4) your evaluation (good application, useful, etc)
-5) anything else
This way, through the object find utility, you could automatically create
folders containing all your "OS/2 text mode file managers", or all
applications of your favourite software author and so on...


Installation...
Just put it where you like and run it. It doesn't need any runtime library
(i.e. DLL files) other than the operating system DLLs and won't mess with
your INI files!


How it works...
It is like a file dialog box: just select a file and edit the attributes.
If you have changed some attribute and select a new file or directory
a dialog box will ask you if you want to save or discard what you modified.
Click on the Save button to avoid that.
The Find routine has not yet been implemented so do not expect any action
from the Find button.
The Quit button allows you to terminate the program. If some attribute of
the current file have been changed you will be prompted for saving,
discarding them or cancel quitting.


Limitations

-1) There is no exception handler for "drive not ready" so if you click on
    the ID letter of an empty drive you can just terminate the program or
    insert a floppy in the drive.
-2) The behaviour of the list box is not consistent: 1 mouse click is enough
    for changing drive or file, but a double click is needed for changing
    directory.
-3) If the path is too long it could not be entirely displayed.
-4) I've used standard "list box" controls so there could be problems if
    you have large amounts of files in your folders (i.e. more then 6-7000
    files. I'm not sure).
-5) The code has not yet been optimized, neither for size not for speed.
    The program works very well with my P100 machine, and I think the speed
    could be acceptable even with a 386 (let me know if you have any problem).
    The program has not been packed, it isn't that large (about 35 KB) but
    if you have warp 3 or 4 you could shrink it up to about 20 KB by LXLITE.
    (It is a free utility by Andrew Zabolotny. You can download it from
     hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/archiver as lxlt115.zip).
    The C language may require a lot of coding work, but it does produce fast
    and small executables! 


What will be in the next release?

If anybody would be interested in that I could easily add:
-0) Get rid of above mentioned limitations.
-1) Setting notebook for changing presentation parameters (font, colors)
    and setting the default behaviour of other functions.
-2) Resizeable window border. You will be able to choose the size and
    position of the window. The inner controls will be resized accordingly
    and size, position and other preferences will be stored in an INI file.
-3) Display or copy the content of file_id.diz files from archives into
    the .COMMENTS ea.
-4) A powerful routine to search for Files based on their content, or the
    content of their attributes.
-5) Pop up menu for basic editing features (cut/copy/paste, select/deselect,
    etc.) in the extended attributes editing fields.
-6) Help with some notes about extended attributes.
-7) Different language versions (I would need your help).
-8) Any other feature you would like...
-9) A feature you surely would dislike... <GRIN> If add all the above
    (and some more) features I will probably make it a shareware application,
    but I'll make it as cheap as possible.

Well for any suggestion or bug report write to me:

Alessandro Cantatore
  Team OS/2 Italy
alexcant@mbox.vol.it