source: trunk/README@ 957

Last change on this file since 957 was 915, checked in by Gregg Young, 18 years ago

Version.h .def updated readme and history for release 3.9

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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 3.09 adds "mailto:" so you can configure the ability to
9double click an email address in the new viewer and have it
10open a new email using that address. The viewer page in the
11settings notebook was split into 2 pages to facilitate the
12change. Additionally, We fixed some defects and enhance
13performance in some areas such as commandline quoting.
14
15FM/2 3.08 has had changes to its file filtering logic.
16It now searches for the last extension if a mask like *.zip
17is used. This change was made to over come the problem with
18associations failing on files with multiple ".". You can
19also seach for a complete string within the file names by
20using the pattern *stuff* (stuff can't contain an * or ?).
21If "stuff" contains an * or ? the old method of searching
22(character by character)is used.Large (>4GiB) file support
23has been added.
24
25FM/2 3.07 had changes made to its ini file structure.
26These changes mean that the ini file is not backward
27compatible. Please backup you FM3.INI file before installing
28so you can revert to an earlier version without losing some
29of your customizations. Please note you need to leave a copy
30of the fm3.ini file in the install directory in order to keep your
31customizations in 3.07. The temp file fm3.!!! will not update
32the new ini as it is only used when fm2 is running.
33
34File Manager/2 (FM/2) starting with version 3.6 is being
35built with OpenWatcom. Changing compilers can introduce
36unexpected problem so you may want to backup your current
37install, or at minimum have a working copy of the FM/2
38version 3.5.9 warpin available for reinstall if problems arise.
39To backup your current install simple zip up your install
40directory with its subdirectories or copy them to a different
41location.To restore simply copy the old FM/2 back to the
42its original location. Remember you can't use the new FM/2
43to do this since if it is running some files will be locked
44and won't be replaced. If you didn't backup and need to go
45back just install the 3.5.9 warpin package over the new
46install. It will warn you that the install is newer but just
47tell it to install anyway. The warpin install process is
48designed to save all your customizations. Don't delete the
49new install if you don't have a backup since this will result
50in the loss of any custom changes you have made. If you need
51to delete it to get the reinstall to work. Backup up the new
52install and then copy the *.bmp, *.tls, *.dat, *.cmd & *.ini
53files back to the install directory after the reinstall.
54Don't copy the *.str files as they are version specific.
55If you have problems be sure to report it (See Support
56at the end of this file).
57
58File Manager/2 (FM/2) is a free OS/2(Warp)/eCS Presentation
59Manager 32-bit file/directory/archive maintenance utility
60(a sort of super-Drives object, something midway between the
61Drives objects and a more traditional file manager) with plenty
62of bells, whistles and utilities, drag and drop, context menus,
63toolbars, bubble help and accelerator keys. If you know how
64to use OS/2, you already know how to use most of FM/2. You
65can easily glean the rest from the extensive online help,
66including tutorials.
67
68This document explains how to install FM/2, including
69upgrading from previous versions. It explains command line
70syntaxes (parameters in a program object) and how to get the
71program(s) running. The online help tells you how to
72actually use FM/2. I'll try to keep this brief.
73
74This program is free software; you can redistribute it
75and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
76License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
77version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
78version.
79
80This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
81useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
82warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
83PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
84details.
85
86You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
87License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
88Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330,
89Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
90
91
92FM/2 3.x installation instructions:
93==================================
94
95Pre-requisite:
96 WarpIN 0.9.20 or higher must be installed.
97
98Install (or re-install) from a FM/2 ZIP file distribution
99---------------------------------------------------------
100
1011. Unpack the FM2*.ZIP archive in a private directory (for
102example, C:\TMP). (UNZIP.EXE works nicely to unpack the
103file.) Two WPI files, FM2.WPI and FM2UTILS.WPI will be
104unzipped.
105
1062. Follow the instructions for installing from WPI file(s)
107below.
108
109
110Install (or re-install) from a FM/2 WPI file distribution
111---------------------------------------------------------
112
1131. Open the WPS folder containing the WPI file(s).
114
1152. Double click on FM2.WPI. Since WarpIN associates itself
116with WPI files this will start WarpIN with FM2.WPI as the
117parameter.
118
1193, You may then install FM/2 to a directory of your choice
120and, if FM2UTILS.WPI is present, install FM/2 Utilities to
121a directory of your choice.
122
123NOTE: If you double click on FM2UTILS.WPI instead of
124FM2.WPI, you will only be able to install the FM/2
125Utilities. It is recommended that, even if you only want to
126install FM/2 Utilities, that you do so using FM2.WPI.
127
128
129Moving FM/2 and/or FM/2 Utilities:
130----------------------------------
131
1321. Copy your existing installation directory to the new
133location.
134
1352. If you have added your own icons to any of the FM/2
136folders, then you should move them elsewhere temporarily.
137
1383. Follow the instructions for de-installing below.
139
1404. Re-install the package using the installation
141instructions above. This will update the WarpIN database and
142reset your icons to the new locations.
143
1445. Move the icons you saved in step #2, back into the FM/2
145folders if you wish.
146
147
148De-installing FM/2 and/or FM/2 Utilities:
149-----------------------------------------
150
1511. Run Warpin without parameters.
152
1532. Right click on a package you want to de-install and
154select "de-install all packages".
155
1563. Click on OK in the "De-install Packages" window that
157appears.
158
159
160
161=================
162First-time notes:
163=================
164
165Starting FM/2 -- how it works, customizing parameters:
166
167If you start File Manager/2 (filename FM3.EXE) with no
168parameters, it opens the Drive Tree window but no directory
169windows (unless the "Save state of dir windows" toggle is
170checked -- see online help).
171
172File Manager/2 optionally accepts names of directories in
173the parameters field of its program object; it'll open a
174directory window for each one. Hint: If you often do
175different specific things with FM/2, you might set up a WPS
176object customized to start up ideally for each activity. For
177example, if you wanted to maintain your BBS areas, you might
178have one object with parameters like: "D:\BBSDIR
179D:\BBSDIR\MAILIN D:\BBSDIR\MAILOUT", and if you also like to
180use FM/2 to set icons on files, you might have another
181object with parameters like: "E:\MYICONS D:\NEWFILES". The
182State quicklist can also be used for this within FM/2 itself
183-- see online help.
184
185You can exclude drives in the parameters by prefacing the
186drive letter with "/", and there can be more than one drive
187letter behind the "/" (i.e. "/BH" to exclude both drives B:
188and H:). Hint: Many people like to use /B to exclude
189"phantom" drive B: if they have a single-floppy system.
190Similarly, you can cause drives NOT to be prescanned by the
191Drive Tree by prefacing the drive letter with ";", drives
192NOT to load icons for objects by prefacing the drive letter
193with ",", drives NOT to load subjects for objects by
194prefacing the drive letter with "`" and drives NOT to load
195longnames for objects by prefacing the drive letter with
196"'". This can be handy if you have a very slow drive like a
197CD-ROM or Zip drive. FM/2 Lite recognizes these switches,
198too. See also the Drive Flags dialog in FM/2.
199
200If you place the plus sign "+" (alone, separated from
201anything else by spaces) in the parameters, FM/2 will log,
202to FM2.LOG, delete, rename, move and copy operations that
203are performed by drag-and-drop or with the menus. FM/2 Lite
204recognizes this switch, too.
205
206The parameter "-" (alone, separated from anything else by
207spaces) causes FM/2 to ignore, not load or save, the
208previous state of directory windows (see the "Save state of
209dir windows" toggle under Config Menu->Toggles in the online
210help) for that invocation.
211
212You can specify the name of an alternate INI file with
213"-<inifilename>" -- for example: "-C:\FM2\MYINI.INI".
214
215You can also specify the INI file location with the
216environment variable FM2INI -- for example:
217 SET FM2INI=C:\FM2\MYINI.INI.
218
219
220------------------------------
221How to get started using FM/2:
222-----------------------------
223Please read the following sections in the online help when
224you start FM/2 for the first time: "How to use FM/2's Help,"
225"Terminology" and "General Help," then "Hints." A peek at
226the labelled "Window Layouts" pictures would probably be a
227good idea, too. The rest you can browse as you get time/feel
228the need; for instance, if you want to know what a toggle
229does, read the help under Settings notebook for that page
230(each Settings notebook page has its own Help button).
231
232If you prefer hard copy help, print this file, run FM/2,
233press F1, click the "Print" button at the bottom (IBM View)
234or top (Newview)of the help window that appears and then print
235both the "Contents" and "All sections" (keep an eye on the printer,
236after page 100 of "All sections" as the Help Manager will
237begin printing its own help then -- you may want to abort
238printing at that point). Advanced and/or curious users may
239also want to print FM3TOOLS.DAT and ARCHIVER.BB2. Be sure
240you have plenty of paper and ink handy -- the package is
241well documented. You'll probably also want a three-ring
242binder and hole punch to get it bound, as staples aren't
243going through that puppy. You can, of course, print only the
244sections that are of particular interest to you.
245
246Additional documentation:
247------------------------
248 FM3.HLP: FM/2's online help file.
249
250Look in the FM/2 Docs subfolder of the File Manager/2 folder
251for easy access to all documentation.
252
253
254Bonus programs:
255==============
256
257You'll note the extra objects that the Install program
258creates in the FM/2 Tools subfolder of the File Manager/2
259folder. FM/2 is modular, so that you can get directly to
260some of its components without running the entire ball of
261wax. This may allow you to enhance the behavior of some of
262your other applications in the WPS tradition. You don't
263_have_ to keep these around, of course -- FM/2 itself
264contains all their functionality.
265
266ARCHIVE VIEWER/2: Intended for drag-and-drop operation (or
267WPS association) with WPS objects or other applications.
268Drag an archive onto it, drop it, get an archive listing
269box. FM/2's installation program sets up some associations
270between archive files and this program by file extension.
271AV/2 will try to display whatever you give it as
272sensibly as it can. Filename AV2.EXE.
273
274EA VIEWER: Drag a file system object onto it and it'll show
275you the object's extended attributes. Filename EAS.EXE.
276
277INI VIEWER: Drag an .INI file onto it and it'll show you its
278contents. Filename INI.EXE.
279
280BOOKSHELF VIEWER: Shows all .INF files in a listbox and lets
281you pick the one(s) you want to view. If you give any
282command line argument, the .HLP files on the HELP path will
283be shown instead (the Helpfile Viewer object calls
284VIEWINFS.EXE with "dummy" for an argument, for example).
285Filename VIEWINFS.EXE.
286
287PROCESS KILLER: Lets you kill off renegade processes. An
288English version of PSTAT.EXE must be on your PATH. Filename
289KILLPROC.EXE.
290
291UNDELETER: Lets you undelete files (via interface with
292UNDELETE.COM). Drag a file system object onto it and it'll
293let you undelete files for that drive. Filename UNDEL.EXE.
294
295VISUAL TREE: Opens a Drive Tree window (like the WPS Drives
296object with more horsepower). Filename VTREE.EXE.
297
298VISUAL DIRECTORY: Opens a Directory Container window; drag a
299file system object onto it and this will open its directory
300(like a WPS directory Folder with more horsepower). Filename
301VDIR.EXE.
302
303COLLECTOR: Opens a Collector window. Filename VCOLLECT.EXE.
304Two other objects, "See all files" and "Seek and scan" are
305created which call up the Collector and go directly to
306dialogs for the appropriate purpose.
307
308GLOBAL VIEWER: Opens a global view of a drive or drives.
309Filename GLOBAL.EXE.
310
311DATABAR: Opens a databar showing some system information.
312Filename DATABAR.EXE.
313
314DIRSIZE: Shows where drive usage is concentrated. Filename
315DIRSIZE.EXE.
316
317FM/2 LITE: A simplified interface for "dummies." Filename
318FM4.EXE.
319
320FM/2's install creates FM2.CMD, AV2.CMD, VDIR.CMD,
321VTREE.CMD, VCOLLECT.CMD, UNDEL.CMD, KILLPROC.CMD, INI.CMD,
322EAS.CMD, DIRSIZE.CMD, VIEWINFS.CMD and VIEWHELP.CMD files
323for you in a directory "utils" off the install directory.
324You should add this directory to your PATH= statement in
325CONFIG.SYS (type HELP PATH at a command line for more info).
326If you prefer, FM/2's INSTALL builds a SETENV.CMD in the
327FM/2 directory which you can call to set the PATH for FM/2
328in any given session without modifying CONFIG.SYS.
329
330
331Troubleshooting:
332===============
333
334FM/2 seems much slower than previous versions.
335The Find Buffer in FM/2 has been reworked to make it user
336settable in more place and significantly enlarge it. This
337significantly increases the loading speed for large directories
338However, most users will need to reset the buffer by going
339to the settings notebook scanning page and setting FindBuf.
340The new default for clean installs is 10240. We recommend you
341change to this setting (or higher) unless you have very limited
342hardware (less than 32 meg of memory original Pentium or earlier).
343
344If FM/2 won't run, the probable culprit is CONFIG.SYS. Your
345LIBPATH statement should contain a ".;" entry. If yours
346doesn't, add it. It's standard for an OS/2 installation, but
347some buggy install programs knock it out because they
348translate entries to their full pathname before rewriting
349(so ".;" gets translated to whatever the current directory
350is for the buggy install program). What this ".;" entry does
351is allow a program to find and use .DLL files in the
352program's current directory -- obviously something you want
353programs to be able to do, otherwise you'd have to put every
354application's .DLLs into directories already on the LIBPATH,
355or add the directories of all applications to the LIBPATH, a
356rather huge pain in the, uh, neck.
357
358If things in FM/2 are suddenly acting strange after an
359upgrade, first check the integrity of the install using
360using WarpIN. If it shows a problem rerun the install
361package. If that fails try installing to a new directory
362or backup your existing directory so you can save any changes
363you made to the template files then uninstall and reinstall.
364Once you have FM/2 working migrate the *.ini, *.dat, *.tls,
365*.bb2 and *.cmd from your old install/backup to recover your
366custom settings
367
368If the "FM/2 Online Help" object in the "FM/2 Docs"
369subfolder won't work properly, you've got a version of
370VIEW.EXE that won't directly display help (.HLP) files. Use
371SEEHELP.EXE from the FM/2 Utilities package to get around
372this problem (or upgrade your version of OS/2).
373
374Don't drag files over Netscape -- it will lock up if files
375(not WPS objects; there's a subtle difference) are dragged
376over it.
377
378If you get a popup dialog that needs to be reported to the
379maintainer, you can either take a screen shot or you can
380capture the information from STDERR with:
381
382 FM3 2>STDERR.LOG
383
384This technique works for all the FM/2, FM/2 Lite and all the
385standalone applets.
386
387If you are having trouble with Drag and Drop operations, try
388the + command line switch described above. The content of
389FM2.LOG may be helpful.
390
391
392Known problems/shortcomings:
393===========================
394
395- FM/2 does not properly report sizes of some files with
396long name resident on Win95/NT drives.
397
398- File List Container fails to fill after drive change
399SYS0039 error.
400
401- Tree switching on Focus/Directory Change appears to be
402slower than expected.
403
404- Access to LS120 and FAT32 drives may be slower than expected
405
406- Icon display in Directory Container does not always match
407WPS icons
408
409- Spurious WPS Objects Handles may be created during some
410operations
411
412- Trying to run Global.exe from the command line in 4OS2
413(perhaps other shells) results in the execution of 4OS2's "Global"
414command. Global.exe can be run by placing it in quotes or
415prefixing it with *. See 4OS2's documentation for more information.
416
417- As with any OS/2 program significant changes (such as our
418change to OpenWatcom) will result in the incompatibility of
419older (VAC) exes with new dlls and vice versa. Attempting to run
420OpenWatcom exes with a VAC dll loaded in memory or in your
421libpath ahead of the new version will result in a SYS3175 in
422popuplog.os2. The reverse gives a SYS2070. If you experience these
423problems search your libpath for fm3dll.dll and remove or rename
424it. Your libpath should have "." (without the quotes) as your
425first entry to minimize the likelihood of this problem. FM/2's
426installer does not add the FM/2 directory to the libpath.
427
428- See http://svn.netlabs.org/fm2/report/1 for a complete list of
429currently active bugs
430
431
432
433About FM/2:
434==========
435
436FM/2 was originally written by:
437
438 Mark Kimes
439 <hectorplasmic@worldnet.att.net>
440
441He has kindly allowed me to take over maintenance and
442support of FM/2 and to release the program under the GNU GPL
443license. I'm sure he would appreciate a Thank You note for
444his generosity.
445
446Support:
447=======
448
449There is a Yahoo group devoted to fm/2 at:
450
451 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fm2user/
452
453You will find lots of friendly folks ready to help.
454
455FM/2 is moving to Netlabs (thanks Adrian).
456
457Check it out at
458
459 http://svn.netlabs.org/fm2
460
461Not everything is in place yet, but this is the place to
462enter defect tickets and enhancement requests (username netlabs,
463password guest; please include a valid email so we can contact you
464if we need more information). Eventually, the mailing list and the
465file archives will all move to the Netlabs server where you can
466find the source code.
467
468You can reach us directly at:
469
470 Steven H. Levine
471 steve53@earthlink.net
472
473 or
474
475 Gregg Young
476 ygk@qwest.net
477
478We also monitor the comp.os.os2.apps newsgroup and several
479others in the comp.os.os2.* hierarchy.
480
481Thanks and enjoy.
482
483$Id: README 915 2008-01-10 03:44:44Z gyoung $
484
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