License and Registration Information ==================================== This file contains important license and registration information. Please read it carefully before using the program. NOTE: READ THE ONLINE HELP - IT IS WORTH IT! Disclaimer - Agreement ====================== Users of File Viewer must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "File Viewer is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of File Viewer." File Viewer is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and find that you are using File Viewer and continue to use File Viewer after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment of $9.95 to Maze Computer Communications. The $9.95 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of File Viewer must register and pay for their copies of File Viewer within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by contacting Maze Computer Communications. Anyone distributing File Viewer for any kind of remuneration must first contact Maze Computer Communications at the address below for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering File Viewer immediately (However Maze Computer Communications must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of File Viewer). You are encouraged to pass a copy of File Viewer along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. This program does not have any printed documentation - all information on use and capabilities is included in the online help. All registered users receive free technical support for 101 days from the date of registration. Also all registered users receive a free upgrade to the next version of this program when that version becomes available. To report bugs, receive help and bug fixes please send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to: Jurek Makowiecki [70152,1501] or, if you do not have access to CompuServe, write to the address below. Make payment by check or money order to Maze Computer Communications and mail to: Jerzy Makowiecki Maze Computer Communications, Inc. 269 Amethyst Way Franklin Park, NJ 08823 USA Note that you can also register this program using CompuServe facilities: just type GO SWREG at any ! prompt and follow instructions. Definition Of Shareware ======================= Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with printed manual. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee - if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. Release Notes ============= Notes for version 1.3 of File Viewer. ------------------------------------- Selecting text with a mouse causes two-speed automatic scroll when the mouse pointer reaches the top or the bottom of the window. Menu structure has been realigned to accomodate new options and the current Windows application design recommendations. Most recently used files are listed in the File menu. Most recently used search strings are remembered and displayed in a drop down list box. Search now correctly restarts at the top of the file after the bottom of the file has been reached. FVIEW.INI has a number of new administrative options. User-defined menu items added to the File Manager Extension. New command line switches have been added. Color choice dialog has been added. "Common dialog error 0xhhhh" messages for Print & Print Setup has been addressed. This message may be displayed while selecting File/Print, if the printer definition is invalid or has been changed while Fview was running. Simply select File/PrintSetup to select a printer. Screen zoom has been added. Use Ctrl-Z key combinations to zoom-in, zoom-out or reset zoom. Save / Load display setup profile has been added. File Manager Extension DLL can now start an arbitrary program with the selected file name as parameter. In text mode FView will now display form feeds embedded in the file as horizontal dashed lines. Note that only form feeds at the start of a line are recognized as valid page ejects. This help file has been revised to reflect the new features. Notes for version 1.2e of File Viewer. -------------------------------------- "Expression IParam>O," bug fixed. Some other obscure bugs fixed, mostly never even reported by anybody. "Save" now saves bold and italic font properties. Added "Save Window Position" and "Exit on Escape" options. Exit on escape is mainly for those who use FView as a viewer for other programs and need to close FView before coming back to their host application. Added Help buttons to some dialogs. Notes for version 1.2 of File Viewer. ------------------------------------- Broke the promise to never release version 1.2. Search behaviour has been changed: when the text is not found, FView will no longer scroll to the bottom of the file. It will beep and stay at the current location. EBCDIC code conversion has been added. Control over scroll bars has been added. Print will now, optionally, eject pages on form-feeds. FView will now read FVIEW.INI file to obtain startup options. Title Lock has been added. Options to set and reset marks on more than one line at a time have been added. Notes for version 1.1c of File Viewer. -------------------------------------- Corrected font selection. Now fonts are correctly selected on startup based on the last saved value. Corrected "Error Status 102" for cases when file currently displayed by FView gets modified by another application. FView will now reread file information and continue. Notes for version 1.1b of File Viewer. -------------------------------------- Added options dialog box to File Manager extension. Now you can change the File Manager menu text used by File View and specify command line used by the extension to start FView.exe Added two more command line switches to allow starting FView minimized and topmost. Notes for version 1.1a of File Viewer. -------------------------------------- This version concludes development for version 1.x of File View. All major items planned are already in place. Bug fixes and minor enhancements will still be added. The next serious incarnation will be version 2.0. Features will heavily depend on user's feedback. We do not intend to add display of Windows or Windows apps formats. The originators of those files will always make a much better job of displaying them. There will be no WinWord, Paintbrush or Excel file display. What we do consider is low-level display of files in various formats. For example PCX headers, BIFF records or RIFF chunks. We also do consider display of ZIP directories and NTFS/HPFS file attributes. The following has been changed or added in this version: o added multiple line select o added print for selected text o added copy to clipboard o updated help file Notes for version 1.1 of File Viewer. ------------------------------------- The following has been changed or added: o full print support including print setup and page setup o improved scrolling and formatting o extended set of DDE commands for easier integration o native Windows NT(tm) version now exists (WinNT is still in beta therefore File View for Windows NT also stays in beta status) and is available on WinNT forum on CompuServe o some minor errors have been corrected Notes for version 1.0a of File Viewer. -------------------------------------- The following errors have been corrected: o mouse pointer occasionally changed to an hourglass and did not change back o FVIEWDLL did not work with Windows For Workgroups o window background was forced to white instead of color defined in Control Panel o find occasionally pointed one or more lines before the line that contained the found data The following behaviour has been changed: o line highlighted by a left mouse button click or a find (find next) command was unmarked at the first scroll command. Now it will stay highlighted until it scrolls off the window Note: Currently the line is unmarked also when Fview rereads the file to refill the display buffer (mouse pointer momentarily changes to an hourglass). This will be changed in a future version of the program. o "find next" command now does not scroll the window if the next occurrence of the search string is currently visible Future Plans ============ We do not intend to add display of Windows or Windows apps formats. The originators of those files will always make a much better job of displaying them. There will be no WinWord, Paintbrush or Excel file display. What we do consider is low-level display of files in various formats. For example PCX headers, BIFF records or RIFF chunks. We also do consider display of ZIP directories and NTFS/HPFS file attributes. Future plans for this program include the following items. These are plans, They may get changed: dropped if there is not enough interest - read registered users, or expanded according to user's feedback. We reserve the right to change plans at our discretion without giving any reason. See Release Notes, for comments on file formats and bug fixes. The Windows NT version is at this time source-level compatible with Windows 3.1 version but is compiled as native 32-bit WinNT application. Some #ifdef magic was necessary to make this happen. In future versions File View for Windows NT will support some NT specific features (long file names, NTFS gimmicks, Unicode etc.) And here is the wish list as of version 1.3: * Modeless search in large files with Cancel button to interrupt search * Line numbers and file offsets display * Jump to file offset or line number * Fine adjustment if starting address in hex mode * More elaborate search: skipping white space, search in display data, other * Toolbar and status bar * OLE Server mode * Page and screen layout enhancements * Block select in addition to line select * Multiple document interface * ZIP contents display * More elaborate page heading definition (user text with variables for fields)