trb@stag.UUCP (05/26/87)
The following is a very loosely thrown together set of documentation/update
notes for the HDSCAN Shareware version 1.3 that I just posted to the net.
Have fun....
-Todd Burkey
...ihnp4!meccts!zeke!stag!trb
-------C--U--T-----H-E-R-E---------------------------------------
HDSCAN Shareware Ver. 1.3
(The ST Hard Disk Utility)
(c) 1987
by Todd Burkey
Note: This documentation must be included in an ARC file with the HDSCAN
program if you wish to distribute the program on BBS's or Club Disks.
Any modification of the program or this document is expressly forbidden.
HDSCAN 1.3 is Shareware. HDSCAN Professional is not! This documentation
covers the features of both the shareware version as well as the
Professional one to give you an idea of the different features.
DISCLAIMER: I spend all my money on computers that outdate themselves within a
year, so I really don't need a disclaimer...although with GEMDOS
and the XBIOS occasionally doing undocumented things, I should say
that "LET THE USER BEWARE". There. Safe.
INTRO:
Whew, even with the bugs and poor documentation on the ST, I think this program
was easier to write on the ST than any computer I have had (MAC, AMIGA, IBM PC,
and CP/M). Basically, HDSCAN started out with my developing a set of window
region scrolling routines and then trying to figure out what to do with them.
I had been waiting for a product to come out like XTREE or PCTOOLS (IBM PC
programs), or even a PD program like SWEEP. Anything to make dealing with
my hard disk easier. Since I had a lot of requests to make DISKTOP support
hard disks (and I really didn't think that would be useful), I decided to go
ahead and try to write my own utility. Special thanks to whoever wrote BLASTER,
since seeing it scan the hard disk so quickly got me on the right track for
this program (HDSCAN will typically read a 30 meg drive...all partitions...in
around 3 seconds or so, gathering file names, sizes, dates, paths, etc.)
I will keep this file short, since HDSCAN does have a help key. HDSCAN is first
and foremost a utility that lets you tag files throughout your hard disk and
then copy (or erase) them in one pass. Because I got carried away, HDSCAN also
lets you hexdump any file on the hard disk, view any file (even binary files
if you like), rename a file, show the free space on drives A and B, select for
display files matching a specific string (i.e. to just see all file names that
have NEO in them), select just files in one directory, select all the files on
all partitions of the hard disk to scroll through, and more that will make
sense when you try out the program.
Recently added features allow you to view the contents of arc files, arc all
Tagged files together into one file, edit a file at the press of a key using
your own favorite .tos/.ttp editor (i.e. me.tos), and even run any TOS program
you want by pressing a user-definable function key (F1 to F10). This latter
feature really opens up a lot of possibilities. You can, for example, assign
LESS.TTP to the F10 key and then every time you press F10, HDSCAN will pass the
full path of the file you are currently scrolling over to the LESS.TTP program.
Or, you could assign PCOMMAND to the F1 key and drop into a PC DOS like shell
at the touch of a key. My favorite is assigning TINYLOOK.TTP to the F10 key.
That progam loads in a tiny picture, switchs resolution, shows the picture, and
then pops me back into HDSCAN where I can Tag the picture for future deletion
or mass copying! Get enough auxillary programs set up under HDSCAN and you
won't spend much time searching through the desktop again!
And all that is Shareware. I am really trying hard to put as much into the PD
version to give people a useful tool. Version 2.3 is not public domain (I have
to make a living some way or other) and has some embellishments that I think
most of you will appreciate. In 2.3, you can sort by date, name, and size all
the selected files in ascending or descending order. For example, you can
select all PAS files (all partitions), sort them by reverse date, then easily
tag all the new files for copying to floppies. Or maybe sort the entire drive
by name to help find duplicate files (this will make more sense when the 40
folder limit get fisxed). The sort in 2.3 is a recursive quicksort, so even a
thousand items will be sorted in a few seconds. Even already sorted stuff won't
slow down my version of the qsort (Quicksort'ing sorted data is usually
horribly inefficient unless it is randomized first.) 2.3 also has a file compare
capability, just in case you can't remember if a file is really a duplicate.
Finally, 2.3 will better support people who want to use HDSCAN to reorganize
their hard disks...with stuff like auto regeneration of the arrays after a mass
copy from hard disk to hard disk, and hard disk 'DISKINFO' style info updated
on the fly to keep things organized.
USING HDSCAN:
HDSCAN works best if you have a hard disk. After a bit of soul searching I
added floppy support as well. If you don't have a hard disk, or do and want to
read off of floppies as well as the hard disk, create a file called:
HDSCANAB.DAT
in the directory you run HDSCAN from (the file can be empty or have data in it,
HDSCAN just looks to see if the file exists so that it knows whether to bother
you with prompts or not). If you plan on looking at arc files while in HDSCAN,
be sure ARC.TTP is in the directory as well. Also, if you want to do any file
editing, copy me.tos into the directory as well (the name is hardcoded-you can
rename your favorite editor to that name or simply reassign one of the function
keys to call up your editor.) If you want to use external programs, modify the
file called HDSCAN.KEY which is included in the HDSCAN release. The format is
very simple, one function key per line in the format of:
F1=C:\BIN\WC.PRG
F2=D:\PICTURE\TINYLOOK.TTP
etc..
If you don't own a hard disk, the best thing to do is to create a RAM disk on
drive C and copy HDSCAN.PRG, HDSCANAB.DAT, HDSCAN.KEY, ARC.TTP, ME.TOS, and all
of the 'External' programs you plan on running to it. This makes everything
lightning quick and should make perusing your floppies a breeze. I even do
the same thing if I plan on looking at pictures. To run HDSCAN, double click on
HDSCAN.PRG and a screen will appear in front of you. I don't use GEM windows
for speed reasons, so I will explain here what you are looking at.
Most noticable on the screen will be a tall box near the right of the screen
filled with file names. That is the 'selected file' window and you can scroll
up and down through all selected files with the arrow keys and the [HOME] and
SHIFT [HOME] keys to quickly get to a file. The file you are currently
selecting will be highlighted.
As you scroll through the files, you will notice that the directory the file is
in, its' size, and its' date, are automatically updated in windows near the top
left of the screen.
Next to the file size window is a window that will make more sense later. It
displays the total size of all tagged files. This proves useful when you are
moving around the hard disk, deciding which files will fit on which floppies.
Below the these two windows is a long window used for prompts. Look in this
window if you aren't sure why something isn't happening...it might be asking
you a question.
Below the prompt window is a big free space which I am sure will eventually get
filled up. Right now it is useful as a billboard.
Below that is a status line that basically tells you 1) what you have selected
(i.e. ALL will appear if all partitions are chosen, DIR will appear if you have
selected a single directory to work in, and a string of 1-8 characters will
appear if the selection was made using a wildcard string search), 2) the sort
order (always RANDOM for 1.0 users, although, if your hard disk isn't too
fractured, the files will be somewhat alphabetical), and 3) the number of
selected files.
TAGGING STuff:
A few more things and you will be all set to go. First, tagging. To tag a file,
simply scroll to the file you want and press the 'T' key. You will see a '*'
appear in a little scrolling region next to the file name and the file window
will scroll to the next file (so you can just keep pressing T to select a bunch
of file.) sAs each file is tagged, you will see the total tagged size increase
in the TOTAL TAGGED window. To untag, a file, just use the 'U' key. To untag
all files, type ALT U. For my own sanity, I chose to show the directory names
in the file window as well (they have a 'D' next to them, so you can't
accidentally tag or delete them.)
SEARCHING AND SELECTING STuff:
Most of the time, you will probably just want to search out a few files for
tagging and don't want to scroll over all 1000 or so files on the hard disk. To
save some time, if you press the 'S' key, you will be prompted for a <9
character string to search for (you can enter stuff like NEO, PRG, READ, etc
but no *, ? wildcards are supported...also it doesn't allow you to enter a '.'
as part of the string.) Also, you might only want to select the files in one
directory. To do so, pressing the TAB key will turn the PATH: window into a
little scrolling region allowing you to use the arrow keys (up/down) to quickly
choose the appropriate directory. When exitting the TAB key option, you are
given the choice of pressing TAB (to select all the files in the currently
selected directory) or A (to select all the files in all directories below and
included the currently selected directory.)
Every once in a while, you may want to regenerate the list of files (i.e. you
have been doing some heavy deletes and don't care to see the 'X'ed out deleted
files on the file list anymore). To do so, just press the ! key. Note that
this command will let you switch floppies and also will let you see the results
of all the copying TO the harddisk you have been doing. Note, this command
automatically deselects everything.
DANGEROUS STuff (Copy/Erase all Tagged files):
Once you have everything selected, pressing the 'M' key will invoke the mass
copy routine. This will prompt you for the destination path and allow you to
copy all tagged files (with or without an interactive query on each file). Once
copied, the '*' next to a file name will become a '#' to show that the copy
was successful. If you later want to re-tag the '#' files, possibly for mass
erase ('E' key), you can do so by pressing the ALT T keys. Note: to erase just
one file, place the scroll bar over the file and press the D key.
VISUAL STuff (Viewing and Dumping files):
One nice feature of HDSCAN is that by pressing the 'V' key, you can view the
file that you are currently selecting in the file window. The view option does
a character by character analysis of the file, just displaying the ascii
printable characters on the screen, so it can be used for looking for strings
in a binary file. Note that because I chose to allow looking at binary files,
I also turned off highliting (ESCp/ESCq) and tabbing that sometimes appears
in files. If you want to get a HEX dump, press the 'H' key and you will get
a page by page listing of your file in both HEX and ASCII. If you have ME.TOS
in the same directory that you ran HDSCAN from, you can invoke the editor on
the file you are currently pointing at in the scroll window by pressing the
'*' key (shifted 8). ME.TOS will load in, read in the file, allow you to edit
and save the file, and then return you to HDSCAN when you are done.
ARC STuff:
To get a verbose listing of the contents of an ARC file, move to the file you
want to look at and then press the = key. While the verbose listing is being
displayed, you can press the CTRL-S key to pause the listing and the CTRL-Q
key to continue the listing.
To add all Tagged files to an ARC file, just move the scroll bar over the arc
file you want to add the Tagged stuff to and hit the + key. You will be asked
for a path name (in case you want to add to an ARC file that doesn't exist)
and you can either hit return (to select the file you were scrolling over, or
type in the full pathname of the file you want to create or add to (i.e.
C:\TEST\PICT1.ARC is a full pathname). The tagged files will then be arc'ed
together.
NEAT STuff:
These features are, of course, found in the non-PD version of HDSCAN. HDSCAN
Professional allows you to sort all selected files (don't confuse tagged with
selected...selected files are simply everything you can currently scroll past
in the file name window, whereas tagged files are those you have tagged with
the T key for some future purpose.) By pressing the O key, you will tell
HDSCAN that you wish to sort the selected files. HDSCAN will prompt you for
the sort key (S-Size, N-Name, D-Date) and then for whether you want to see
the sort in ascending or descending order (descending date is a useful way
to tag what has changed since your last backup...specialy if you are currently
selecting all partitions of your hard disk at once!) Ascending name is useful
to find all those duplicate files. One note on sorting: I always fall back
to RANDOM order when you do a new selection by either search (S) or directory
select (TAB). This provides the fastest response assuming you aren't always
wanting to see the stuff sorted. The other important feature added to the
Professional version is the file compare option. This feature allows you select
a file for comparing by pressing the ALT-C keys. When you do so, a C will
appear next to the file name and you will be prompted to go find another file
to compare it against. When you have the scroll bar over the other file, press
ALT-C again and the two files will be compared. For sanities sake, I will just
show the first 15 differences (byte locations and values) that the program
finds. Note that you can do any number of file searches and directory matches
in between selecting the first and second compare files. Other features will
be added to the Professional version as people convince me that they need them.
POWERFUL STuff:
Because I got tired adding features to the program and it was getting big, I
decided to add one more feature. This is probably the most powerful feature
(and the most confusing) as well. I decided to make the F1-F10 keys into
user definable keys. I have mentioned already how to create the HDSCAN.KEY
file, so will only mention here that to use the program you have assigned to
the key, just press the appropriate function key. If you forget what the
key assignments are, just press the ? key and you will be given a listing of
the keys (along with a summary of disk space). Be very careful not to run a
GEM window type program from within HDSCAN, as you could end up totally
garbaging up the HDSCAN display upon return from the program. Currently, I have
run the following programs from within HDSCAN with no ill effects: ARC.TTP,
ME.TOS, TINYLOOK.TTP, WC.PRG, OD.PRG, LESS.TTP, MORE.TTP, GALAXY.TTP,
LINE3.PRG, DCOPY17.TOS, PCOMMAND.PRG, and a variety of other shells and even
a few terminal programs. This is just using the GEMDOS Pexec call, so no fancy
code is involved. NOTE: if you are writing an utility to use as a HDSCAN
'External' program, remember that the string that is passed in from HDSCAN
contains the complete directory path with the file name you are pointing to,
so be sure to allow sufficient character space (127 chars max).
FINAL Stuff:
Finally, to rename a file, just hit the 'R' key and type in the new name. The
file name you are currently selecting in the file window will be renamed. I
hope that I have covered all the basics about the commands in this short
document. Check out any Read.me files for further information.
Three words of caution before you continue. First, while copying,
HDSCAN does not check to see if the destination file already exists...it will
just overwrite the destination file. Second, I don't do any bounds checking on
input, so if you feel you must have long directory names that require you to
type in over the scroll window graphics, go ahead. You can't hurt anything
that pressing the HELP key twice won't solve. I know that I should really go
in and prevent that from happening, but this program was designed not to be
restrictive and should allow you to use it in ways I haven't planned for yet
(planning for the unplanned?) Also, be careful about using the 'E' key.
If you tag some files in one directory, then do a search for some other files
and tag some of them, be aware that the previously tagged files will also get
erased (unless you un-tagged them of course). Just because you can't see the
file anymore in your currently selected subset of the disk does not mean it
isn't tagged (that will be obvious, actually, if you look at the total tagged
window). Happy computing...
HDSCAN 1.2/2.2 RELEASE NOTES - New Features:
The 'B' Key option - I added a 'B' key option that goes through
and groups all files into disk order, rather than the RANDOM order that you
will see files in upon running HDSCAN. The RANDOM order is actually the same
tree order the files appear in your FAT tables, so they are actually already
clustered together within their respective subdirectories. It is just that as
your hard disk gets more fractured due to erasing and moving files around, your
FAT tables will get messier and messier (I am not being personal, FAT stands
for File Allocation Tables). After you get used to viewing the disk via
using the match, directory select, and/or sort (hint, hint) options, you will
probably never even bother using the 'B' key.
Currently known bugs/limitations:
1) if you run a gemdos program, or anything that uses with the mouse, via the
user-definable function key options, HDSCAN may have wierd things happen
to its' graphics. This is a feature/bug of GEM's pexec and GEM itself as
far as I can tell, so until someone explains what is up, HDSCAN will retain
this limitation. (Actually, this won't be a problem for most users.)
2) if you have a directory path (i.e. C:\PICTURES\DEGAS\ELITE\TINYED\...) that
is more than 127 characters long, you won't be able to run any external
programs on that file. This is a Pexec limit and you will probably run into
problems with other things if you keep it that long anyway, so I have no
workaround plans for that.
3) one other limitation is that if you have more than 2500 files on all your
hard disk partitions, HDSCAN will tell you so and stop. I have a messy hard
disk, and even on my PC with 40 megs of ST BBS stuff, I would only have
around 1800 files, so I am sticking with this limit until people start to
complain. (Actually, the ST starts doing wierd things when you get too many
files in a set of folders anyway...try opening up 4 folders on the desktop,
each with 100 files in it, and then adding files to the folders...strange
TOS errors.)
HDSCAN 1.22/2.22 RELEASE NOTES - New Features:
Well, as luck would have it, some people out there are braving the 40 folder
limit and using 120-150 folders on a hard disk. So this version has been set
up with the following features:
1) You can have up to 199 folders.
2) You can have up to 2500 files.
3) You can now tell HDSCAN what drives to read and in what order (so even
if you have more than 199 folders, you can still use HDSCAN....)
4) Some new hidden options to create directories and to turn write
verify on/off.
Two new commands:
Write verify-To turn write verify on, press the 'w' key. To turn verify off,
press the 'W' key (uppercase w).
Create Dir - To create a directory, just press the ~ key. You will be prompted
for a directory name. You can type in the complete path of the
directory you want created (i.e. D:\DEGAS\PICTURES) or if you
are already inside the directory you want to create the new dir
in, just prefix the name of the new directory with a ~ character
(i.e. if you see D:\DEGAS up in the PATH window, just type:
~PICTURES
to achieve the same thing as typing D:\DEGAS\PICTURES).
And one new option:
Drive select-HDSCAN normally selects the drives by searching from drive 'C' up
to the first drive that doesn't appear in the drvmap. (ala old IBM
PC programming style). Some people out there decided to make their
hard disks C, D, G, H, etc and were surprised to find out that
HDSCAN only found drives C and D. To solve this, create a file
called HDSCAN.DRV and put one line of letters in the file-each
letter indicating the respective drive you want loaded. For
example, the following line in file HDSCAN.DRV:
HABCDG
would load my ramdisk contents (drive H) first, then my two floppy
drives would be scanned, followed by drives C, D, and G. Crude,
but it is something you won't be changing often, so it's better
not to have to be prompted for it by the program...
ps...if you are using an non-standard hard disk driver (i.e. aythinng not
apropved by Atari) and HDSCAN fails, please drop me a line explaining the
configuration. All this program does is perform sector reads to obtain the
standard drive cluster info, so more programs than this one may end up giving
you grief if that is the case. I do know it will fail if you have an
unreadable ram disk (i.e. it is deleted, but still in your drvmap).
HDSCAN 1.3/2.3 RELEASE NOTES - New Features:
1) Pressing O (instead of o) for ordering the file names by size, date,
or name will maintain that sort option through all the subsequent file
reselects...until another O or o option is used.
2) Pressing M (instead of m) will mass copy files as before, but the file
attributes and file date of the source file will be transferred to the
destination file (better for backups).
3) Pressing S (instead of s) will allow you to Set a file match as before,
but S will cause the match to occur only within the currently selected
subset of files. This will allow you to easily narrow in on a set
of file names.
4) The s/S (Set match) option also now allows you to type in * to select
all Tagged files and even supports an 'extension' search option. If you
type in .pas or .c after selecting the Set match option, hdscan will
search for whatever extension you typed after the '.'. Note that the `.`
must be the very first character.
5) Copying files now features a mechanism whereby you will be prompted to
insert a new disk if your destination drive gets full. Only if you are
copying to drives A or B, of course. 6) The R option (Rename file) has
been extended to allow viewing and changing of the file attributes (Read
only, Hide file, System file). I kept this simple by showing the old
(default) values in brackets, so you just hit return through the option
for now change.
7) Some other diddly stuff like showing how much space is left on the hard
disks in the info section, revamping the Help and Info displays to a) fit
all the options in, and b) allow those of you with 10 or so drive
partitions to see the info on all of them, etc. I didn't come up with a
reliable solution to the problem of reading from subdirectories on 'changed'
floppies (i.e. if you stick a floppy in the drive after running HDSCAN, the
file open process in hdscan will not see the files in subdirectories during
copy, even though hdscan itself will show the files!) Hdscan will always
show the files on a drive, because it does direct sector reads of the
floppies/hard disks, but Gem has this serious problem with not handling
changed media very well. To read from a subdirectory on a floppy, just
be sure to open up that floppies window prior to running hdscan. Note:
hdscan was not originally intended for copying from floppy to hard disk.
It is better suited for handling the massive structure of a hard disk and
moving files to floppy or other hard disk areas.
Send Contributions/Orders to:
Todd Burkey
c/o Mindtools
3546 Pilgrim Ln
Plymouth, MN 55441
If you like the program, use it, and want to help fund further
development, please send $10. If you want to order the product
version (2.3), it is only $20 (plus 6.00% tax in Minnesota). I
will mail it anywhere in the USA/CAN at no extra charge ($3.00
shipping for overseas orders).
5/15/1987 - hdscan ver.1.3 (shareware) and 2.3 (professional)