ÛßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßÛ Û Hello, Û Û Now it's really easy to register ... Û Û And it's only 20 $ Û Û Û Û Û Û CompuServe Shareware Registration Û Û +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Û Û If you are a CompuServe member, GOSWREG and select ID 10138. This registers Û Û you for FF2 V7.4. Û Û Û Û BMT Micro Û Û +++++++++ Û Û For all users having e-mail or www access. See bmtorder.frm for registration. Û Û Û Û Send me the money Û Û +++++++++++++++++ Û Û Send me an email to 100550,1100@compuserve.com. You get my postal adress then. Û Û Û Û Transfer the money to my bank account Û Û +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Û Û Û Û Zuercher Kantonalbank 8952 Schlieren (Switzerland) Û Û Account 1148-998.792, Markus Pfister Û ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß Have a look at the FF2 help in the registration dialog. There you will find URL's where you can get new releases of FF2. I have listed the locations on CompuServe also. And don't get annoyed by the registration reminder. Just get your registration key ..... The FF2 success story.... March 96 FF2 V7.4a appears on a OS/2 Tools Disk 4, issued by Inside OS/2 Germany March 96 FF2 V7.4a is listed among the "must have OS/2 tools in WWW" July 96 FF2 V7.4b appears on a OS/2 Tools Disk issued by OS/2 World Japan Nov 96 FF2 V7.4c appears on the BMT Micro CD rom. All right, so far for the business. FF2 V7.5a release liner notes ============================= Bubble help (Request by users Mike Coane, Ray Falkner and Werner Geiger) ----------- Ok. There is a buble help now. If you don't want it any more, switch it off in the working options menu. Doesn't it look nice? Search results output listbox (Request by user Ray Faulkner) ----------------------------- You can expand the output listbox now with the "Big listbox" check box. The listbox covers then all but the toolbar of FF2. Another click on the check box restores the usual search results listbox size. Registration reminder --------------------- Yes. You will see sometimes and all times at startup and program exit a registration reminder. I hate doing childish stuff like this. But yes, I want to see some money for my program. FF2 V7.5 release liner notes ============================ True WPS (Workplace Shell) interface with drag & drop ----------------------------------------------------- On my FF2 wishes list, this one has always been the topmost, but I didn't implement it because it ment too much work. Well, know I think it is done and you can view your search results in a search results folder, like the one provided in the OS/2 search tool find results WPS folder option. If you want the objects directly put into the search results folder, you have to check the WPS Folder check box. If you want to do the search first and to load afterwards the files into the folder, push the folder pushbutton. There is a WPS folder configuration dialog, which provides options for folder creation, reuse and whether to create shadows or real program objects. Have a look at the help in this dialog for details. Finding associated programs --------------------------- Since I have been into WPS programming, I get the associated program from a file you want to start. (The rocket push button or a double click). If you click on an icon (.ICO) file, the icon will be loaded into the icon editor. Ready for 2000.... ------------------ Now you have to enter the year as 4 digits. This makes the from - to searches more comprehensive. FF2 V7.4f release liner notes ============================= Highlighted searched / replaced Text ------------------------------------ If your are looking for "hello" and replace it by "hi you" you will now find these two words in different colors in the FF2 search context output. The searched string is white, the replaced string is yellow. The already existing hightlighting of the whole line of text is still in action. Note that this highlighting includes GREP searches. So this feature doesn't show you only the location of your searched string in the text. It is an exellent tutorial on the behaviour of GREP search pattern. You see, I don't getting tired about posting the message to everyone: Use them, since they are powerful and save you a great deal of work once you have getting used to them. FF2 V7.4e release liner notes ============================= New user interface ------------------ Some actions have been moved from the menu to FF2's primary window. All these actions can now be started from phushbuttons which now have an icon instead of a text. Looks nice, does it???? It was good fun searching the nicest icons. If you find a better one or want to draw your own icon, send them to me. Search for Last Write, Last Access and Creation of a file --------------------------------------------------------- In the Date/Size dialog you can now choose which date will be examined whilst searching for file dates. Former releases of FF2 only looked at the last write time stamp. All three dates will be listed in the output, the date type you selected appearing first. FF2 V7.4d release liner notes ============================= Show file icons in output listbox --------------------------------- The icons belonging to the found files and directories can be displayed in the output listbox. Since this option demands the loading of the icons from each displayed file which takes some time it can be disabled trough the FF2 main panel. You can execute searches and browsing of the listbox with the option enabled or disabled. You can switch between "show icons" or "no icon display" whenever you want. Once you enable it, the icons belonging to the files displayed in the output listbox are shown. On the other hand, you can search with the icon display enabled and do the browsing of the listbox without showing them (turn the option off). New reboot option ----------------- A new "reboot your system" option allows you to reboot your system directly from FF2. This adds a function to OS/2 which allows you only a shutdown. Before the reboot, FF2 saves it's actual configuration. Monospaced fonts in search/replace entry fields ----------------------------------------------- This fix becomes handy if you have to replace text which should have the same length like the original text. The proportional font requiered counting of characters. With the monspaced font the requierement for adding some blanks to the replace text to match the original text size becomes more obvious. FF2 V7.4c release liner notes ============================= Extremes search option ---------------------- Ever wondered what are your oldest, most recent, smallest or largest files on your system? It's not only a nice game. Suppose you have some troubles on your system. It can be very useful when you get the files last updated, because it gives you hints on the system activities before the problem exists. On the other hand you might delete files which you havn't used for ages. To try out this new options invoke the "Extended search -> Extremes" dialog. There you can specify what kind of extremes you want to search for and how many files you want to be showed in the output listbox. Bugs fixed (Reported from User Mike Coane) ----------------------------------------- With Warp Fix Pack 17 appeared a problem in the file open dialogs which allowed the selection of directories only. The controls appear messed up. Mike did some good research and found the developper of ZC (Frank) who has solved that problem. Frank gave me some pieces of code so I was able to fix the problem. Nice sample of support! Thank you again, Mike and Frank. Second, when an editor was envoked, the environment string passed was corrupt. This is fixed too. FF2 V7.4b release liner notes ============================= Grep repetition expression enabled ---------------------------------- Again an effort to increase FF2's regular expression search capabilities. Now you can enter grep repetitions, e.g. {1,5}a means "there must be at least one and at most 5 "a" in the searched text. Of course you can use the repetitions together with brackets {1,3}[a-z] would say "there must be at least on times and at most 3 thimes a character between "a" and "z" in the searched text. Something like ^hello*{1,3}[d-f]$ works to. It means: - String must start at a line (^) - must begin with "hello" followed by an arbitrary text - must be followed by at least 1 and at most 3 characters between "d" and "f" - then there must be an end of line ($) So this would match: hello this is a new FF2 ee and: hello this is a new FF2 def but not: hello this is a new FF2 xx I suggest that you open the "Regular expression" dialog under the "Config" menu and push the help button. There you get a lot of examples, how to use these really powerful features. Here the repetition samples. Note that you can write {1,3}a or {1-3}a Case sensitive search is assumed! {1,2}a and {1-2}a have the same meaning. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³Pattern ³ Text ³ match? ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³he{1,2}lo ³ hello ³ yes ³ ³he{2}lo ³ hello ³ yes ³ ³he{1}lo ³ hello ³ no ³ ³he{1,5}lo ³ hello ³ yes ³ ³he{3,5}lo ³ hello ³ no ³ ³1{1-5}01 ³ 101 ³ yes ³ ³1{1-5}01 ³ 1001 ³ yes ³ ³1{1-5}01 ³ 10001 ³ yes ³ ³1{1-5}01 ³ 100001 ³ yes ³ ³1{1-5}01 ³ 1000001 ³ yes ³ ³1{1-5}01 ³ 10000001 ³ no ³ ³he{1,2}[a-z]o ³ hello ³ yes ³ ³he{1,2}[A-Z]o ³ hello ³ no ³ ³t{3}*s ³ this this this ³ yes ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Case sensitive search is assumed! {1,2}a and {1-2}a have the same meaning. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³Pattern ³ Text ³ match? ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³{1,2}^ hello ³ a ^ hello ³ yes ³ ³{1,2}^ hello ³ a ^^ hello ³ yes ³ ³^{1,2}^ hello ³ a ^ hello ³ no ³ ³^{1,2}^ hello ³ ^hello ³ yes ³ ³^{1,2}^ hello ³ ^^hello ³ yes ³ ³hello{1,2}$ ³ hello$ a ³ yes ³ ³hello{1,2}$ ³ hello$$ a ³ yes ³ ³hello{1,2}$$ ³ hello$ a ³ no ³ ³hello{1,2}$$ ³ hello$ ³ yes ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Duplicate files --------------- Now the message indicating that a file is contained in a search/libpath distinguishes between one and more files. Now you can either comment the first duplicate file located in a search/libpath or all duplicate files located in a path. Bugs fixed ---------- In environment searches for LIBPATH the first path in your config.sys LIBPATH statement was incorrectly parsed. This is fixed now. FF2 V7.4a release liner notes ============================= Showing duplicate files located on a path/libpath; exlude them from batch file generation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finding duplicate files is one thing, removing them the other. What I missed was the ability to find out whether I need a file or not. A good clue for that kind of check would be the information, whether a file is included in a SET path specified in the config.sys or in the libpath. FF2 V7.4a offers you now that option. From a listbox you select the pathes you want to be informed about and in the search results output listbox you will find either a green or red text saying that the file is ready to be thrown away or should be kept because of it's inclusion in a path. Preserving files located on a path in batch commands ---------------------------------------------------- A new option in the batch generation dialog preserves the "red" files (the ones located in a search or libpath that you choose in the duplicate file dialog) from the generation of batch commands. This means that these files will be commented out. Another option allows you to keep one instance of duplicate files. Again, this instance will be commented out and preserved from batch command generation. Writing search results to a file (Request from user Ray Faulkner) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Now you can write the search results to a file. So far this was only possible when you generated batch commands. With the new write option in the batch menu you can write the search results unaltered to a file. FF2 V7.4 release liner notes ============================ Finding duplicate files ----------------------- Ever wondered how many duplicate files you have on ALL your hard drives? FF2 V7.4 helps you cleaning up. The new feature allows you to search for duplicate files in three ways: 1. Find files having the same name 2. Find files having the same name and size 3. Find files having the same contents (FF2 V7.4 compares them) You find this utility in the extended search menu. Click on "duplicate files" and fill in the appearing dialog. Note that you can't do text search / replaces while search for duplicate files is activated. I hope this feature helps further to give FF2 V7.4 an outstanding place among the OS/2 file search utilities. File names containing blanks (Request from User Mike Coane) Now you can edit a file with names that conatain blanks. Displaying a message when nothing has been found ------------------------------------------------ Now FF2 displays a message when no files have been found. I didn't want you to have to answer a message box, so the message appears in the search results listbox. FF2 V7.3d release liner notes ============================= Passing environment to an executed OS/2 shell programm ------------------------------------------------------ The passing of a user selected environment works now. If you add %PATH%=c:\mypath this path will be added to the PATH statement in the existing environment. If you add only PATH=c:\mypath this will overwrite the old path. So far I don't know a tool providing this service for programm launches. Positioning of FF2 V7.3d window stored in FF2.INI file (Request from user John Hudson) ------------------------------------------------------ Now the position of the FF2 main window is stored in the FF2.INI file. Every time you leave FF2, the new position is stored. Preselected drive in search path seletion ----------------------------------------- If you select a searchpath through the "path" push button, the suggested directory is now the one selected in the drives listbox, thus making your navigating easier. Recompile with Visual Age C++ ----------------------------- Probably you wonder why FF2.EXE has become smaller. For the computer addicts among you, FF2 V7.3d is still statically linked, but the new linker does only include the really used functions from an include library, instead of including the whole library. The result is 70 kilobytes less executable size. (And more speed). Fixed Bugs ---------- In order to reduce the error messages while starting a program, I've made some modifications which reduce the not startable programs effectively. FF2 V7.3c release liner notes ============================= Enhanced interface to editor invocation (Request from user Werner Geiger, Klein + Stekl, Germany) --------------------------------------- Since FF2 now is able to display the found text, the search string or line number passed to your editor are taken from the output listbox. This enables you to double click wherever you want and you get the appropriate line in your editor. This is very useful in searches with special characters, which may produce many different resulting strings. You mustn't even position the cursor on the line containing the found string, FF2 searches it for you. If you replaced strings, FF2 passes the editor the line which contains the replaced string. Try a little bit and you will soon get used to it. A word about search strings: EPM works much better when you pass the linenumer, as is already default in the editor workoption settings dialog. ('%LINE%'). To pass a searchstring to EPM, use '/%SEARCHSTRING%/ + A C F' (Type this as is). So if your editor understands line numbers, use the '%LINE%' option. No more duplicate (system and FF2) error popups ----------------------------------------------- When FF2 encountered an error situation which is reported by OS/2 too (like searching on drive a: with no inserted disk) you had two answer two popups, one generated by OS/2 and one by FF2. Now only the FF2 popup appears. Abort while replacing text -------------------------- When you do an interactive text replace run you will be prompted not only with OK to replace text yes/no. You have to choice to stop the run. (So far you had to answer as many times no as there had been found files). Bugs removed ------------ If you enter a search path this path will be stored automatically into the search path drop down listbox. This is true even when you close FF2. If FF2 isn't able to write to a file while replacing text, a message will be displayed if the option "warn on not accessible files" is set. FF2 V7.3b release liner notes ============================= Going grep like more and more: brackets [a-z][abef][@#] ------------------------------------------------------- Now FF2 allows searches for ranges of patterns. Here are some examples (you find them in the help) to show how it works: Case sensitive search is assumed! ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³Pattern ³ Text ³ match? ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³[wW]orld ³ world ³ yes ³ ³[wW]orld ³ World ³ yes ³ ³19[0-4]5 ³ 1935 ³ yes ³ ³19[0-4]5 ³ 1995 ³ no ³ ³[lh]ook ³ look ³ yes ³ ³[lh]ook ³ hook ³ yes ³ ³[a-z]ake ³ make ³ yes ³ ³[a-z]ake ³ fake ³ yes ³ ³[a-z]ake ³ Sake ³ no ³ ³[a-z]ake ³ sake ³ yes ³ ³[a-zA-Z]ake ³ Sake ³ yes ³ ³[a-zA-Z]ake ³ sake ³ yes ³ ³wo[@#]rld ³ world ³ yes ³ ³wo[@#]rld ³ wo4ld ³ yes ³ ³wa[ab\-z]ter ³ wa-ter ³ yes ³ ³wa[ab-z]ter 5 ³ wa-ter ³ no ³ ³bra[\[]cket ³ bra[cket ³ yes ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ This feature is useful, you may combine it with other special character meanings, e.g. [#@] means a character must be alpha or numeric, supposed you use the default FF2 special character set. Removed Bugs: ------------- Now a range of 1 or 0 context lines works correctly. FF2 V7.3a release liner notes ============================= Stored search pathes (Request from user Tully Steward) -------------------- The last 10 search pathes are stored in the FF2.INI file. Press enter once you have entered a path in the path entryfield to store it. Drop down the list box to select a stored path. Tab expansion ------------- Now you can determine through how many blanks you want to expand a tab. (Printer setup dialog). Removed bugs ------------ Tabbing works now on the environment path combo box too. FF2 V7.3 release liner notes ============================ Context lines ------------- This release brings you a new feature. In the working options dialog you can specify an amount of context lines, which you want to have displayed before and after the found text string. The context lines appear in cyan, and the found line in dark pink. This helps you to identify the found test whithin its context. If you are replacing text, the replaced line appears in green below the found line. This gives you a real good overview of what's been change. If a line containing the found string is too long to be displayed in the listbox it will be truncated in a way to show the string. These lines are marked. New selected line in output listbox ----------------------------------- The current line has now a black background, making it more visible. Removed bugs ------------ When you press the cancel push button, the path entryfield is no more disabled. FF2 V72.c release liner notes ============================= New features: ------------- Some users didn't like the verbose search results report. Now you define in the working options dialog whether you want a long or short search results listing. Default is short. In the attribute, file patterns and text string dialog the "accept" field is red if the settings aren't applied to a search and green if the are used. Directory selection dialog doesn't requiere you to select a file in order to select a path. This has been possible thanks to support from IBM. Bug fixes: ---------- Finally... The zero length FF2.INI file problem is solved. At least on my machine... If you start an editor in an OS/2 window, the window closes now after you quit the editor. And some minor bugs removed. FF2 V7.2b release liner notes ============================= Request from Matthias Goebel The built in formatted printing tool allows now a left margin, which can be entered in "sizes of blanks" in the requested font. If you don't like the FF2 V7.2 default document title, you can change this too. Bugs: "Numeric" (#) instead of "start of line" (^) has been shown in the special chars (grep) definition dialog. This is fixed now. Several minor bugs have been fixed with this release too. FF2 V7.2a release liner notes ============================= Bug reported from Mike Coane ---------------------------- Editor that isn't in the path (set PATH= ) can't be used. This was a bug. Thanks for reporting it. Should be fixed now. Enhancement request from Marcus Sommer -------------------------------------- While generating batch commands, the file names should be surrounded by " (e.g. "c:\config.sys HPFS" to allow HPFS file names with blanks etc. This has been implemented. Reset checks "all" and "hex" checkboxes --------------------------------------- This bug has been fixed. FF2 V7.2 release liner notes ============================ What's been fixed since Version V7.1? Hex search ---------- When the hex checkbox was on, FF2 still uppercased the text to be searched. Because of that, searches didn't show the expected results unless the case sensitive check box was switched on. Now FF2 doesn't uppercase the searched text in hex searches. Printer names ------------- In the prining/printer setup dialog's printer listbox appear now the printer names given to the printer's icon, not the physical name. Several bugs regarding printig fixed. Text search ----------- In rare circumstances the search for text stopped to early. Fixed. What's new in Version V7.2? Going more and more GREP! ------------------------- When you activate the special characters, you can choose in the special characters dialog two characters meaning "start of line" and "end of line". By default, '^' means start of line and "$" means end of line. Look at these interistings things: - match whole line is ^*$ - match empty line is ^$ - match lines containing ^hel*rld$ (got it: hello world, help me, world and so on). - match lines starting with int is ^int By the way, look at FF2's rich set of special characters, which YOU can define, e.g. matching everything is by default an asterisk, '*', but you can define a '+' for this if you please. Printing of search results now threaded --------------------------------------- Printing of the search results happens now in a thread, (like the printing of files) . Thus, no more mouse pointers. When you print a very long listbox, you can't close FF2 until the print thread is done. This is because FF2 allocates a linked list of memory, which you surely like to be freed before FF2 exits. Normally you won't recognize this, since medium size printings (2000 entries) happen very quick. REXX style generation of batch commands --------------------------------------- Now you can choose which command processor will be invoked, the normal interpreter or REXX. ... Don't forget .... your payment makes sure that this product gets new features ...