-----------------------[Comment Manager V.0.3 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. You can freely use it till April the 30th
1997. After that date the program will cease to work.
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.

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

What is new with this release

  - The main window has been enlarged
  - Has been added an entry field for editing the .SUBJECT extended attribute
  - You can set your favourite font for the main window
  - You can choose between single file selection mode and extended selection
    setting the same attribute to all selected files
  - You can avoid displaying the startup logo.
  - If the has been minimized on the desktop, it will be properly displayed
    with its icon
  - Now you can move through the various controls by pressing Alt + the
    underlined character


Introduction

The program allows to easily add, edit or delete the .SUBJECT, .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!
Now you can set some options by specifying some parameters through the
command line or in the "Parameters" entry field of the settings notebook
of the program. You can create various "Comment manager" objects with
different settings each. See the "Options..." section for more detail about
the available options.


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.
If you chosed to work with the Extended selection flag on (see "Options")
you can select one or more files in the same way you do that with other
WPS objects:
 - swiping the mouse pointer on the "File:" list box while pressing down MB1
   (mouse button one)
 - clicking with MB1 while keeping the "Ctrl" key pressed down for selecting
   not-contiguous files
 - clicking with MB1 while keeping the "Shift" key pressed down for selecting
   all files betwen the previous selection and the current selection
The file specifics and attributes showed concern the topmost selected file.
If you want to set the same attribute for all selected files you must click
on the "Save" button in the main window. A dialog box will then be displayed
to allow you to choose which attributes to set for all the selcted files.
For instance if the selected files have different "comments" and you want them
to share the same "key phrases" without affecting "comments" or any other
attribute, you must select only the "Key phrases" check box in the "Multiple
File Save" dialog.
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.


Options...

Now you can override some default settings by specifying in any order one or
more of the options described below. Options are case insensitive and may be
introduced either form the dash "-" or from the slash "/" characters.
In case of an invalid option a dialog box will appear showing a short list
of the valid options and the program will start using only the valid options.
Valid options are:
   -N (-n | /N | /n) lets start the program without showing the "About Comment
                     Manager" dialog.
   -E (-e | /E | /e) sets the Extended selection mode
   -FfontSpecs (-f | /F | /f) where fontSpecs is the font size and name as
                     specified in the Font Palette. If the font name enclose
                     some blank character you must enclose the whole option
                     between double quotes.
                     Example:
                     "-f5.System VIO"



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 so it is better
    to use a small font ("-f5.System VIO").
-4) I've used standard "list box" controls so there could be problems if
    you have large amounts of files in your folders (32765 of files with
    OS/2 Warp 3 or 4 - I'm not sure about OS/2 2.x).
-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!
-6) If multiple files are selected, selecting a new file (and deselecting
    previously selected files) will display the "Save..." dialog. Clicking
    on the "Save" button in this dialog will allow to save only the topmost
    of the previously selected files. So in order to set the same attribute
    for multiple files it is necessary to click on the save button in the
    main window.

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) Import or copy any other kind of comment like those created by 4DOS or
    4OS/2.
-5) Controls for changing the date and time of one or more files in one
    directory and/or all subdirectories.
-6) Access to every kind of standard and not standard extended attribute.
-7) A powerful routine to search for Files based on their content, or the
    content of their attributes.
-8) Pop up menu for basic editing features (cut/copy/paste, select/deselect,
    etc.) in the extended attributes editing fields.
-9) Help with some notes about extended attributes.
-10)Better organization of the folder listbox.
-11)Option for displaying file and folder icons.
-12)Option for storing in a separate file attributes of files residing on
    not writeable media like CD ROM or floppy disk with no available space
    in order to create a data base of all available files.
-13) Different language versions (I would need your help).
-14) Any other feature you would like...

Version 1.0 will probably be avaliable as shareware in March-April 1997.

Well for any suggestion or bug report write to me:

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