source: trunk/README@ 1147

Last change on this file since 1147 was 1147, checked in by Gregg Young, 17 years ago

Updated readme for 3.13 release

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1 ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
2 ³ F(ile) M(anager)/2 is free software from Mark Kimes ³
3 ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄŽ
4 ³ READ.ME file -- read before installing ³
5 ³ See end of document for contact info ³
6 ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
7
8FM/2 3.13: Many of the changes in this release are related to
9the toolbars. A new feature is that the current toolbar, along
10with the current Target directory, are now saved and restored
11with states. Toolbar code and documentation has been improved, new
12toolbar button bitmaps have been added and bugs have been fixed.
13The delete = move to trash can is off by default (turn it on on the
14General settings notebook page). FM/2 now checks for adequate disk
15space to avoid data loss.
16
17The installation of FM/2 will not replace existing user
18customization files like the toolbar files. So, if this is not
19your first installation of FM/2, some of these improvements will
20not be available because of the old, pre v3.13 toolbar files. It
21is therefore recommended that you run the following:
22
23 CFGMGR /INSTALL /DEFAULTS /TOOLBARSONLY /UNATTENDED
24
25CFGMGR is a REXX program located in the FM/2 installation directory.
26If run as given above it will copy your existing toolbar files into
27a "User_config_backup" subdirectory and then install FM/2 default
28toolbar files. If you have done some customizations of FM/2 toolbars
29you can use a text editor and/or file comparison utility like GFC
30to "merge" your changes, now found in the backup subdirectory,
31with the default files now found in the FM/2 directory. If you want
32more control over the operation of CFGMGR, then leave off the
33/UNATTENDED parameter. Without the /UNATTENDED parameter CFGMGR
34will ask your permission before replacing each file.
35
36We also fixed some additional bugs and provide some performance
37enhancements. If you have had trouble with "broken pipe" errors
38copying to a netdrives samba drive let me know if it now works
39better. I have built in some retries for this error but can't test
40it since I don't see the problem. Also please report back to us anytime
41you see the Debug error report to author box with as much detail about
42what you were doing as possible. Thanks
43
44FM/2 3.12 Fixes a bug introduced in 3.11 (trap when viewing
45multiple files from an archive at the same time). It also adds
46Open Default, Open Settings and via an accel key ctrl + l Open
47Multimedia (using FM2play.exe) to the archive viewer. FM/2 now
48uses the system TMP/TEMP directory for it temporary files and
49cleans up after a crash on the next restart. FM/2 creates a
50subdirectory of the pattern $FM2*.*. The settings notebook can
51now be closed using esc, F3 or enter; the last 2 save any
52changes that have been made. You can now select which environment
53variables to show when using show the environment in the drive
54tree. Just add or remove from the list on the "Tree" page of
55the notebook. It defaults initially to the current list. You can
56now save/append either a full pathname or just a filename or a
57list of either to the clipboard. We have changed the wording
58in the menus to make this easier to find. We fixed a few other
59minor issues see the history for more details.
60
61FM/2 3.11 adds the option of having delete move the objects
62to the Xworkplace trashcan. Undelete will open the trashcan
63so you can restore deleted files. The only short coming is you
64will need to rescan in order to see the restored file.
65We also added a reserved state which allows you to return
66FM/2 to the state it was in on start up (the shut down state).
67We have improved the filtering of file names that contain
68multiple periods and fixed FM/2's failure to always follow
69the details settings from the setup notebook. The primary
70task achieved for this release was the addition of fortify
71support which allowed us to fix a handful of memory usage
72related bugs. We fixed a few other minor issues see the
73history for more details.
74
75Fm/2 3.10 adds the ability to set the command line length
76to correspond to the command shell you are using. We have
77moved some menu items to submenus to reduce menu clutter
78while adding "unhide" to reveal previously hidden items and
79adding a settings notebook submenu to allow selection of the
80page you wish to visit. We have updated the look of several
81dialogs and containers including adding the ability to remember
82size location and presentation parameters. We have reworked
83the save state on close so it will save the different states
84of multiple directory containers and in greater detail. This
85state can also be restored at anytime during a session by
86selecting it from the "States" drop down. We have provided better
87progress indicators to update the progress of long operations.
88We now provide both the SYM & MAP files in a separate warpin
89package. This will allow interested individuals the tools needed
90to assist with analysing any problem that may occur. This
91package is not needed to run FM/2. As always this update
92provides some performance enhancements and defect fixes.
93
94FM/2 3.09 adds "mailto:" so you can configure the ability to
95double click an email address in the new viewer and have it
96open a new email using that address. The viewer page in the
97settings notebook was split into 2 pages to facilitate the
98change. Additionally, We fixed some defects and enhanced
99performance in some areas such as commandline quoting.
100
101FM/2 3.08 has had changes to its file filtering logic.
102It now searches for the last extension if a mask like *.zip
103is used. This change was made to over come the problem with
104associations failing on files with multiple ".". You can
105also seach for a complete string within the file names by
106using the pattern *stuff* (stuff can't contain an * or ?).
107If "stuff" contains an * or ? the old method of searching
108(character by character)is used.Large (>4GiB) file support
109has been added.
110
111FM/2 3.07 had changes made to its ini file structure.
112These changes mean that the ini file is not backward
113compatible. Please backup you FM3.INI file before installing
114so you can revert to an earlier version without losing some
115of your customizations. Please note you need to leave a copy
116of the fm3.ini file in the install directory in order to keep your
117customizations in 3.07. The temp file fm3.!!! will not update
118the new ini as it is only used when fm2 is running.
119
120File Manager/2 (FM/2) starting with version 3.6 is being
121built with OpenWatcom. Changing compilers can introduce
122unexpected problem so you may want to backup your current
123install, or at minimum have a working copy of the FM/2
124version 3.5.9 warpin available for reinstall if problems arise.
125To backup your current install simple zip up your install
126directory with its subdirectories or copy them to a different
127location.To restore simply copy the old FM/2 back to the
128its original location. Remember you can't use the new FM/2
129to do this since if it is running some files will be locked
130and won't be replaced. If you didn't backup and need to go
131back just install the 3.5.9 warpin package over the new
132install. It will warn you that the install is newer but just
133tell it to install anyway. The warpin install process is
134designed to save all your customizations. Don't delete the
135new install if you don't have a backup since this will result
136in the loss of any custom changes you have made. If you need
137to delete it to get the reinstall to work. Backup up the new
138install and then copy the *.bmp, *.tls, *.dat, *.cmd & *.ini
139files back to the install directory after the reinstall.
140Don't copy the *.str files as they are version specific.
141If you have problems be sure to report it (See Support
142at the end of this file).
143
144File Manager/2 (FM/2) is a free OS/2(Warp)/eCS Presentation
145Manager 32-bit file/directory/archive maintenance utility
146(a sort of super-Drives object, something midway between the
147Drives objects and a more traditional file manager) with plenty
148of bells, whistles and utilities, drag and drop, context menus,
149toolbars, bubble help and accelerator keys. If you know how
150to use OS/2, you already know how to use most of FM/2. You
151can easily glean the rest from the extensive online help,
152including tutorials.
153
154This document explains how to install FM/2, including
155upgrading from previous versions. It explains command line
156syntaxes (parameters in a program object) and how to get the
157program(s) running. The online help tells you how to
158actually use FM/2. I'll try to keep this brief.
159
160This program is free software; you can redistribute it
161and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
162License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
163version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
164version.
165
166This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
167useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
168warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
169PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
170details.
171
172You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
173License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
174Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330,
175Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
176
177
178FM/2 3.x installation instructions:
179==================================
180
181Pre-requisite:
182 WarpIN 0.9.20 or higher must be installed.
183
184Install (or re-install) from a FM/2 ZIP file distribution
185---------------------------------------------------------
186
1871. Unpack the FM2*.ZIP archive in a private directory (for
188example, C:\TMP). (UNZIP.EXE works nicely to unpack the
189file.) Two WPI files, FM2.WPI and FM2UTILS.WPI will be
190unzipped.
191
1922. Follow the instructions for installing from WPI file(s)
193below.
194
195
196Install (or re-install) from a FM/2 WPI file distribution
197---------------------------------------------------------
198
1991. Open the WPS folder containing the WPI file(s).
200
2012. Double click on FM2.WPI. Since WarpIN associates itself
202with WPI files this will start WarpIN with FM2.WPI as the
203parameter.
204
2053, You may then install FM/2 to a directory of your choice
206and, if FM2UTILS.WPI is present, install FM/2 Utilities to
207a directory of your choice.
208
209NOTE: If you double click on FM2UTILS.WPI instead of
210FM2.WPI, you will only be able to install the FM/2
211Utilities. It is recommended that, even if you only want to
212install FM/2 Utilities, that you do so using FM2.WPI.
213
214
215Moving FM/2 and/or FM/2 Utilities:
216----------------------------------
217
2181. Copy your existing installation directory to the new
219location.
220
2212. If you have added your own icons to any of the FM/2
222folders, then you should move them elsewhere temporarily.
223
2243. Follow the instructions for de-installing below.
225
2264. Re-install the package using the installation
227instructions above. This will update the WarpIN database and
228reset your icons to the new locations.
229
2305. Move the icons you saved in step #2, back into the FM/2
231folders if you wish.
232
233
234De-installing FM/2 and/or FM/2 Utilities:
235-----------------------------------------
236
2371. Run Warpin without parameters.
238
2392. Right click on a package you want to de-install and
240select "de-install all packages".
241
2423. Click on OK in the "De-install Packages" window that
243appears.
244
245
246
247=================
248First-time notes:
249=================
250
251Starting FM/2 -- how it works, customizing parameters:
252
253If you start File Manager/2 (filename FM3.EXE) with no
254parameters, it opens the Drive Tree window but no directory
255windows (unless the "Save state of dir windows" toggle is
256checked -- see online help).
257
258File Manager/2 optionally accepts names of directories in
259the parameters field of its program object; it'll open a
260directory window for each one. Hint: If you often do
261different specific things with FM/2, you might set up a WPS
262object customized to start up ideally for each activity. For
263example, if you wanted to maintain your BBS areas, you might
264have one object with parameters like: "D:\BBSDIR
265D:\BBSDIR\MAILIN D:\BBSDIR\MAILOUT", and if you also like to
266use FM/2 to set icons on files, you might have another
267object with parameters like: "E:\MYICONS D:\NEWFILES". The
268State quicklist can also be used for this within FM/2 itself
269-- see online help.
270
271You can exclude drives in the parameters by prefacing the
272drive letter with "/", and there can be more than one drive
273letter behind the "/" (i.e. "/BH" to exclude both drives B:
274and H:). Hint: Many people like to use /B to exclude
275"phantom" drive B: if they have a single-floppy system.
276Similarly, you can cause drives NOT to be prescanned by the
277Drive Tree by prefacing the drive letter with ";", drives
278NOT to load icons for objects by prefacing the drive letter
279with ",", drives NOT to load subjects for objects by
280prefacing the drive letter with "`" and drives NOT to load
281longnames for objects by prefacing the drive letter with
282"'". This can be handy if you have a very slow drive like a
283CD-ROM or Zip drive. FM/2 Lite recognizes these switches,
284too. See also the Drive Flags dialog in FM/2.
285
286If you place the plus sign "+" (alone, separated from
287anything else by spaces) in the parameters, FM/2 will log,
288to FM2.LOG, delete, rename, move and copy operations that
289are performed by drag-and-drop or with the menus. FM/2 Lite
290recognizes this switch, too.
291
292The parameter "-" (alone, separated from anything else by
293spaces) causes FM/2 to ignore, not load or save, the
294previous state of directory windows (see the "Save state of
295dir windows" toggle under Config Menu->Toggles in the online
296help) for that invocation.
297
298You can specify the name of an alternate INI file with
299"-<inifilename>" -- for example: "-C:\FM2\MYINI.INI".
300
301You can also specify the INI file location with the
302environment variable FM2INI -- for example:
303 SET FM2INI=C:\FM2\MYINI.INI.
304
305
306------------------------------
307How to get started using FM/2:
308-----------------------------
309Please read the following sections in the online help when
310you start FM/2 for the first time: "How to use FM/2's Help,"
311"Terminology" and "General Help," then "Hints." A peek at
312the labelled "Window Layouts" pictures would probably be a
313good idea, too. The rest you can browse as you get time/feel
314the need; for instance, if you want to know what a toggle
315does, read the help under Settings notebook for that page
316(each Settings notebook page has its own Help button).
317
318If you prefer hard copy help, print this file, run FM/2,
319press F1, click the "Print" button at the bottom (IBM View)
320or top (Newview)of the help window that appears and then print
321both the "Contents" and "All sections" (keep an eye on the printer,
322after page 100 of "All sections" as the Help Manager will
323begin printing its own help then -- you may want to abort
324printing at that point). Advanced and/or curious users may
325also want to print FM3TOOLS.DAT and ARCHIVER.BB2. Be sure
326you have plenty of paper and ink handy -- the package is
327well documented. You'll probably also want a three-ring
328binder and hole punch to get it bound, as staples aren't
329going through that puppy. You can, of course, print only the
330sections that are of particular interest to you.
331
332Additional documentation:
333------------------------
334 FM3.HLP: FM/2's online help file.
335
336Look in the FM/2 Docs subfolder of the File Manager/2 folder
337for easy access to all documentation.
338
339
340Bonus programs:
341==============
342
343You'll note the extra objects that the Install program
344creates in the FM/2 Tools subfolder of the File Manager/2
345folder. FM/2 is modular, so that you can get directly to
346some of its components without running the entire ball of
347wax. This may allow you to enhance the behavior of some of
348your other applications in the WPS tradition. You don't
349_have_ to keep these around, of course -- FM/2 itself
350contains all their functionality.
351
352ARCHIVE VIEWER/2: Intended for drag-and-drop operation (or
353WPS association) with WPS objects or other applications.
354Drag an archive onto it, drop it, get an archive listing
355box. FM/2's installation program sets up some associations
356between archive files and this program by file extension.
357AV/2 will try to display whatever you give it as
358sensibly as it can. Filename AV2.EXE.
359
360EA VIEWER: Drag a file system object onto it and it'll show
361you the object's extended attributes. Filename EAS.EXE.
362
363INI VIEWER: Drag an .INI file onto it and it'll show you its
364contents. Filename INI.EXE.
365
366BOOKSHELF VIEWER: Shows all .INF files in a listbox and lets
367you pick the one(s) you want to view. If you give any
368command line argument, the .HLP files on the HELP path will
369be shown instead (the Helpfile Viewer object calls
370VIEWINFS.EXE with "dummy" for an argument, for example).
371Filename VIEWINFS.EXE.
372
373PROCESS KILLER: Lets you kill off renegade processes. An
374English version of PSTAT.EXE must be on your PATH. Filename
375KILLPROC.EXE.
376
377UNDELETER: Lets you undelete files (via interface with
378UNDELETE.COM). Drag a file system object onto it and it'll
379let you undelete files for that drive. Filename UNDEL.EXE.
380
381VISUAL TREE: Opens a Drive Tree window (like the WPS Drives
382object with more horsepower). Filename VTREE.EXE.
383
384VISUAL DIRECTORY: Opens a Directory Container window; drag a
385file system object onto it and this will open its directory
386(like a WPS directory Folder with more horsepower). Filename
387VDIR.EXE.
388
389COLLECTOR: Opens a Collector window. Filename VCOLLECT.EXE.
390Two other objects, "See all files" and "Seek and scan" are
391created which call up the Collector and go directly to
392dialogs for the appropriate purpose.
393
394GLOBAL VIEWER: Opens a global view of a drive or drives.
395Filename GLOBAL.EXE.
396
397DATABAR: Opens a databar showing some system information.
398Filename DATABAR.EXE.
399
400DIRSIZE: Shows where drive usage is concentrated. Filename
401DIRSIZE.EXE.
402
403FM/2 LITE: A simplified interface for "dummies." Filename
404FM4.EXE.
405
406FM/2's install creates FM2.CMD, AV2.CMD, VDIR.CMD,
407VTREE.CMD, VCOLLECT.CMD, UNDEL.CMD, KILLPROC.CMD, INI.CMD,
408EAS.CMD, DIRSIZE.CMD, VIEWINFS.CMD and VIEWHELP.CMD files
409for you in a directory "utils" off the install directory.
410You should add this directory to your PATH= statement in
411CONFIG.SYS (type HELP PATH at a command line for more info).
412If you prefer, FM/2's INSTALL builds a SETENV.CMD in the
413FM/2 directory which you can call to set the PATH for FM/2
414in any given session without modifying CONFIG.SYS.
415
416
417Troubleshooting:
418===============
419
420FM/2 seems much slower than previous versions.
421The Find Buffer in FM/2 has been reworked to make it user
422settable in more place and significantly enlarge it. This
423significantly increases the loading speed for large directories
424However, most users will need to reset the buffer by going
425to the settings notebook scanning page and setting FindBuf.
426The new default for clean installs is 10240. We recommend you
427change to this setting (or higher) unless you have very limited
428hardware (less than 32 meg of memory original Pentium or earlier).
429
430If FM/2 won't run, the probable culprit is CONFIG.SYS. Your
431LIBPATH statement should contain a ".;" entry. If yours
432doesn't, add it. It's standard for an OS/2 installation, but
433some buggy install programs knock it out because they
434translate entries to their full pathname before rewriting
435(so ".;" gets translated to whatever the current directory
436is for the buggy install program). What this ".;" entry does
437is allow a program to find and use .DLL files in the
438program's current directory -- obviously something you want
439programs to be able to do, otherwise you'd have to put every
440application's .DLLs into directories already on the LIBPATH,
441or add the directories of all applications to the LIBPATH, a
442rather huge pain in the, uh, neck.
443
444If things in FM/2 are suddenly acting strange after an
445upgrade, first check the integrity of the install using
446using WarpIN. If it shows a problem rerun the install
447package. If that fails try installing to a new directory
448or backup your existing directory so you can save any changes
449you made to the template files then uninstall and reinstall.
450Once you have FM/2 working migrate the *.ini, *.dat, *.tls,
451*.bb2 and *.cmd from your old install/backup to recover your
452custom settings
453
454If the "FM/2 Online Help" object in the "FM/2 Docs"
455subfolder won't work properly, you've got a version of
456VIEW.EXE that won't directly display help (.HLP) files. Use
457SEEHELP.EXE from the FM/2 Utilities package to get around
458this problem (or upgrade your version of OS/2).
459
460Don't drag files over Netscape -- it will lock up if files
461(not WPS objects; there's a subtle difference) are dragged
462over it.
463
464If you get a popup dialog that needs to be reported to the
465maintainer, you can either take a screen shot or you can
466capture the information from STDERR with:
467
468 FM3 2>STDERR.LOG
469
470This technique works for all the FM/2, FM/2 Lite and all the
471standalone applets.
472
473If you are having trouble with Drag and Drop operations, try
474the + command line switch described above. The content of
475FM2.LOG may be helpful.
476
477
478Known problems/shortcomings:
479===========================
480
481- FM/2 does not properly report sizes of some files with
482long name resident on Win95/NT drives.
483
484- File List Container fails to fill after drive change
485SYS0039 error.
486
487- Tree switching on Focus/Directory Change appears to be
488slower than expected.
489
490- Access to LS120 and FAT32 drives may be slower than expected
491
492- Icon display in Directory Container does not always match
493WPS icons
494
495- Spurious WPS Objects Handles may be created during some
496operations
497
498- Trying to run Global.exe from the command line in 4OS2
499(perhaps other shells) results in the execution of 4OS2's "Global"
500command. Global.exe can be run by placing it in quotes or
501prefixing it with *. See 4OS2's documentation for more information.
502
503- As with any OS/2 program significant changes (such as our
504change to OpenWatcom) will result in the incompatibility of
505older (VAC) exes with new dlls and vice versa. Attempting to run
506OpenWatcom exes with a VAC dll loaded in memory or in your
507libpath ahead of the new version will result in a SYS3175 in
508popuplog.os2. The reverse gives a SYS2070. If you experience these
509problems search your libpath for fm3dll.dll and remove or rename
510it. Your libpath should have "." (without the quotes) as your
511first entry to minimize the likelihood of this problem. FM/2's
512installer does not add the FM/2 directory to the libpath.
513
514- See http://svn.netlabs.org/fm2/report/1 for a complete list of
515currently active bugs
516
517
518
519About FM/2:
520==========
521
522FM/2 was originally written by:
523
524 Mark Kimes
525 <hectorplasmic@worldnet.att.net>
526
527He has kindly allowed me to take over maintenance and
528support of FM/2 and to release the program under the GNU GPL
529license. I'm sure he would appreciate a Thank You note for
530his generosity.
531
532Support:
533=======
534
535There is a Yahoo group devoted to fm/2 at:
536
537 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fm2user/
538
539You will find lots of friendly folks ready to help.
540
541FM/2 is moving to Netlabs (thanks Adrian).
542
543Check it out at
544
545 http://svn.netlabs.org/fm2
546
547Not everything is in place yet, but this is the place to
548enter defect tickets and enhancement requests (username netlabs,
549password guest; please include a valid email so we can contact you
550if we need more information). Eventually, the mailing list and the
551file archives will all move to the Netlabs server where you can
552find the source code.
553
554You can reach us directly at:
555
556 Steven H. Levine
557 steve53@earthlink.net
558
559 or
560
561 Gregg Young
562 ygk@qwest.net
563
564We also monitor the comp.os.os2.apps newsgroup and several
565others in the comp.os.os2.* hierarchy.
566
567Thanks and enjoy.
568
569$Id: README 1147 2008-09-01 22:07:30Z gyoung $
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