source: trunk/README@ 1143

Last change on this file since 1143 was 1143, checked in by John Small, 17 years ago

v3.13 README, 2nd draft

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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.
13
14The installation of FM/2 will not replace existing user
15customization files like the toolbar files. So, if this is not
16your first installation of FM/2, some of these improvements will
17not be available because of the old, pre v3.13 toolbar files. It
18is therefore recommended that you run the following:
19
20 CFGMGR /INSTALL /DEFAULTS /TOOLBARSONLY /UNATTENDED
21
22CFGMGR is a REXX program located in the FM/2 installation directory.
23If run as given above it will copy your existing toolbar files into
24a "User_config_backup" subdirectory and then install FM/2 default
25toolbar files. If you have done some customizations of FM/2 toolbars
26you can use a text editor and/or file comparison utility like GFC
27to "merge" your changes, now found in the backup subdirectory,
28with the default files now found in the FM/2 directory. If you want
29more control over the operation of CFGMGR, then leave off the
30/UNATTENDED parameter. Without the /UNATTENDED parameter CFGMGR
31will ask your permission before replacing each file.
32
33FM/2 3.12 Fixes a bug introduced in 3.11 (trap when viewing
34multiple files from an archive at the same time). It also adds
35Open Default, Open Settings and via an accel key ctrl + l Open
36Multimedia (using FM2play.exe) to the archive viewer. FM/2 now
37uses the system TMP/TEMP directory for it temporary files and
38cleans up after a crash on the next restart. FM/2 creates a
39subdirectory of the pattern $FM2*.*. The settings notebook can
40now be closed using esc, F3 or enter; the last 2 save any
41changes that have been made. You can now select which environment
42variables to show when using show the environment in the drive
43tree. Just add or remove from the list on the "Tree" page of
44the notebook. It defaults initially to the current list. You can
45now save/append either a full pathname or just a filename or a
46list of either to the clipboard. We have changed the wording
47in the menus to make this easier to find. We fixed a few other
48minor issues see the history for more details.
49
50FM/2 3.11 adds the option of having delete move the objects
51to the Xworkplace trashcan. Undelete will open the trashcan
52so you can restore deleted files. The only short coming is you
53will need to rescan in order to see the restored file.
54We also added a reserved state which allows you to return
55FM/2 to the state it was in on start up (the shut down state).
56We have improved the filtering of file names that contain
57multiple periods and fixed FM/2's failure to always follow
58the details settings from the setup notebook. The primary
59task achieved for this release was the addition of fortify
60support which allowed us to fix a handful of memory usage
61related bugs. We fixed a few other minor issues see the
62history for more details.
63
64Fm/2 3.10 adds the ability to set the command line length
65to correspond to the command shell you are using. We have
66moved some menu items to submenus to reduce menu clutter
67while adding "unhide" to reveal previously hidden items and
68adding a settings notebook submenu to allow selection of the
69page you wish to visit. We have updated the look of several
70dialogs and containers including adding the ability to remember
71size location and presentation parameters. We have reworked
72the save state on close so it will save the different states
73of multiple directory containers and in greater detail. This
74state can also be restored at anytime during a session by
75selecting it from the "States" drop down. We have provided better
76progress indicators to update the progress of long operations.
77We now provide both the SYM & MAP files in a separate warpin
78package. This will allow interested individuals the tools needed
79to assist with analysing any problem that may occur. This
80package is not needed to run FM/2. As always this update
81provides some performance enhancements and defect fixes.
82
83FM/2 3.09 adds "mailto:" so you can configure the ability to
84double click an email address in the new viewer and have it
85open a new email using that address. The viewer page in the
86settings notebook was split into 2 pages to facilitate the
87change. Additionally, We fixed some defects and enhanced
88performance in some areas such as commandline quoting.
89
90FM/2 3.08 has had changes to its file filtering logic.
91It now searches for the last extension if a mask like *.zip
92is used. This change was made to over come the problem with
93associations failing on files with multiple ".". You can
94also seach for a complete string within the file names by
95using the pattern *stuff* (stuff can't contain an * or ?).
96If "stuff" contains an * or ? the old method of searching
97(character by character)is used.Large (>4GiB) file support
98has been added.
99
100FM/2 3.07 had changes made to its ini file structure.
101These changes mean that the ini file is not backward
102compatible. Please backup you FM3.INI file before installing
103so you can revert to an earlier version without losing some
104of your customizations. Please note you need to leave a copy
105of the fm3.ini file in the install directory in order to keep your
106customizations in 3.07. The temp file fm3.!!! will not update
107the new ini as it is only used when fm2 is running.
108
109File Manager/2 (FM/2) starting with version 3.6 is being
110built with OpenWatcom. Changing compilers can introduce
111unexpected problem so you may want to backup your current
112install, or at minimum have a working copy of the FM/2
113version 3.5.9 warpin available for reinstall if problems arise.
114To backup your current install simple zip up your install
115directory with its subdirectories or copy them to a different
116location.To restore simply copy the old FM/2 back to the
117its original location. Remember you can't use the new FM/2
118to do this since if it is running some files will be locked
119and won't be replaced. If you didn't backup and need to go
120back just install the 3.5.9 warpin package over the new
121install. It will warn you that the install is newer but just
122tell it to install anyway. The warpin install process is
123designed to save all your customizations. Don't delete the
124new install if you don't have a backup since this will result
125in the loss of any custom changes you have made. If you need
126to delete it to get the reinstall to work. Backup up the new
127install and then copy the *.bmp, *.tls, *.dat, *.cmd & *.ini
128files back to the install directory after the reinstall.
129Don't copy the *.str files as they are version specific.
130If you have problems be sure to report it (See Support
131at the end of this file).
132
133File Manager/2 (FM/2) is a free OS/2(Warp)/eCS Presentation
134Manager 32-bit file/directory/archive maintenance utility
135(a sort of super-Drives object, something midway between the
136Drives objects and a more traditional file manager) with plenty
137of bells, whistles and utilities, drag and drop, context menus,
138toolbars, bubble help and accelerator keys. If you know how
139to use OS/2, you already know how to use most of FM/2. You
140can easily glean the rest from the extensive online help,
141including tutorials.
142
143This document explains how to install FM/2, including
144upgrading from previous versions. It explains command line
145syntaxes (parameters in a program object) and how to get the
146program(s) running. The online help tells you how to
147actually use FM/2. I'll try to keep this brief.
148
149This program is free software; you can redistribute it
150and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
151License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
152version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
153version.
154
155This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
156useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
157warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
158PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
159details.
160
161You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
162License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
163Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330,
164Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
165
166
167FM/2 3.x installation instructions:
168==================================
169
170Pre-requisite:
171 WarpIN 0.9.20 or higher must be installed.
172
173Install (or re-install) from a FM/2 ZIP file distribution
174---------------------------------------------------------
175
1761. Unpack the FM2*.ZIP archive in a private directory (for
177example, C:\TMP). (UNZIP.EXE works nicely to unpack the
178file.) Two WPI files, FM2.WPI and FM2UTILS.WPI will be
179unzipped.
180
1812. Follow the instructions for installing from WPI file(s)
182below.
183
184
185Install (or re-install) from a FM/2 WPI file distribution
186---------------------------------------------------------
187
1881. Open the WPS folder containing the WPI file(s).
189
1902. Double click on FM2.WPI. Since WarpIN associates itself
191with WPI files this will start WarpIN with FM2.WPI as the
192parameter.
193
1943, You may then install FM/2 to a directory of your choice
195and, if FM2UTILS.WPI is present, install FM/2 Utilities to
196a directory of your choice.
197
198NOTE: If you double click on FM2UTILS.WPI instead of
199FM2.WPI, you will only be able to install the FM/2
200Utilities. It is recommended that, even if you only want to
201install FM/2 Utilities, that you do so using FM2.WPI.
202
203
204Moving FM/2 and/or FM/2 Utilities:
205----------------------------------
206
2071. Copy your existing installation directory to the new
208location.
209
2102. If you have added your own icons to any of the FM/2
211folders, then you should move them elsewhere temporarily.
212
2133. Follow the instructions for de-installing below.
214
2154. Re-install the package using the installation
216instructions above. This will update the WarpIN database and
217reset your icons to the new locations.
218
2195. Move the icons you saved in step #2, back into the FM/2
220folders if you wish.
221
222
223De-installing FM/2 and/or FM/2 Utilities:
224-----------------------------------------
225
2261. Run Warpin without parameters.
227
2282. Right click on a package you want to de-install and
229select "de-install all packages".
230
2313. Click on OK in the "De-install Packages" window that
232appears.
233
234
235
236=================
237First-time notes:
238=================
239
240Starting FM/2 -- how it works, customizing parameters:
241
242If you start File Manager/2 (filename FM3.EXE) with no
243parameters, it opens the Drive Tree window but no directory
244windows (unless the "Save state of dir windows" toggle is
245checked -- see online help).
246
247File Manager/2 optionally accepts names of directories in
248the parameters field of its program object; it'll open a
249directory window for each one. Hint: If you often do
250different specific things with FM/2, you might set up a WPS
251object customized to start up ideally for each activity. For
252example, if you wanted to maintain your BBS areas, you might
253have one object with parameters like: "D:\BBSDIR
254D:\BBSDIR\MAILIN D:\BBSDIR\MAILOUT", and if you also like to
255use FM/2 to set icons on files, you might have another
256object with parameters like: "E:\MYICONS D:\NEWFILES". The
257State quicklist can also be used for this within FM/2 itself
258-- see online help.
259
260You can exclude drives in the parameters by prefacing the
261drive letter with "/", and there can be more than one drive
262letter behind the "/" (i.e. "/BH" to exclude both drives B:
263and H:). Hint: Many people like to use /B to exclude
264"phantom" drive B: if they have a single-floppy system.
265Similarly, you can cause drives NOT to be prescanned by the
266Drive Tree by prefacing the drive letter with ";", drives
267NOT to load icons for objects by prefacing the drive letter
268with ",", drives NOT to load subjects for objects by
269prefacing the drive letter with "`" and drives NOT to load
270longnames for objects by prefacing the drive letter with
271"'". This can be handy if you have a very slow drive like a
272CD-ROM or Zip drive. FM/2 Lite recognizes these switches,
273too. See also the Drive Flags dialog in FM/2.
274
275If you place the plus sign "+" (alone, separated from
276anything else by spaces) in the parameters, FM/2 will log,
277to FM2.LOG, delete, rename, move and copy operations that
278are performed by drag-and-drop or with the menus. FM/2 Lite
279recognizes this switch, too.
280
281The parameter "-" (alone, separated from anything else by
282spaces) causes FM/2 to ignore, not load or save, the
283previous state of directory windows (see the "Save state of
284dir windows" toggle under Config Menu->Toggles in the online
285help) for that invocation.
286
287You can specify the name of an alternate INI file with
288"-<inifilename>" -- for example: "-C:\FM2\MYINI.INI".
289
290You can also specify the INI file location with the
291environment variable FM2INI -- for example:
292 SET FM2INI=C:\FM2\MYINI.INI.
293
294
295------------------------------
296How to get started using FM/2:
297-----------------------------
298Please read the following sections in the online help when
299you start FM/2 for the first time: "How to use FM/2's Help,"
300"Terminology" and "General Help," then "Hints." A peek at
301the labelled "Window Layouts" pictures would probably be a
302good idea, too. The rest you can browse as you get time/feel
303the need; for instance, if you want to know what a toggle
304does, read the help under Settings notebook for that page
305(each Settings notebook page has its own Help button).
306
307If you prefer hard copy help, print this file, run FM/2,
308press F1, click the "Print" button at the bottom (IBM View)
309or top (Newview)of the help window that appears and then print
310both the "Contents" and "All sections" (keep an eye on the printer,
311after page 100 of "All sections" as the Help Manager will
312begin printing its own help then -- you may want to abort
313printing at that point). Advanced and/or curious users may
314also want to print FM3TOOLS.DAT and ARCHIVER.BB2. Be sure
315you have plenty of paper and ink handy -- the package is
316well documented. You'll probably also want a three-ring
317binder and hole punch to get it bound, as staples aren't
318going through that puppy. You can, of course, print only the
319sections that are of particular interest to you.
320
321Additional documentation:
322------------------------
323 FM3.HLP: FM/2's online help file.
324
325Look in the FM/2 Docs subfolder of the File Manager/2 folder
326for easy access to all documentation.
327
328
329Bonus programs:
330==============
331
332You'll note the extra objects that the Install program
333creates in the FM/2 Tools subfolder of the File Manager/2
334folder. FM/2 is modular, so that you can get directly to
335some of its components without running the entire ball of
336wax. This may allow you to enhance the behavior of some of
337your other applications in the WPS tradition. You don't
338_have_ to keep these around, of course -- FM/2 itself
339contains all their functionality.
340
341ARCHIVE VIEWER/2: Intended for drag-and-drop operation (or
342WPS association) with WPS objects or other applications.
343Drag an archive onto it, drop it, get an archive listing
344box. FM/2's installation program sets up some associations
345between archive files and this program by file extension.
346AV/2 will try to display whatever you give it as
347sensibly as it can. Filename AV2.EXE.
348
349EA VIEWER: Drag a file system object onto it and it'll show
350you the object's extended attributes. Filename EAS.EXE.
351
352INI VIEWER: Drag an .INI file onto it and it'll show you its
353contents. Filename INI.EXE.
354
355BOOKSHELF VIEWER: Shows all .INF files in a listbox and lets
356you pick the one(s) you want to view. If you give any
357command line argument, the .HLP files on the HELP path will
358be shown instead (the Helpfile Viewer object calls
359VIEWINFS.EXE with "dummy" for an argument, for example).
360Filename VIEWINFS.EXE.
361
362PROCESS KILLER: Lets you kill off renegade processes. An
363English version of PSTAT.EXE must be on your PATH. Filename
364KILLPROC.EXE.
365
366UNDELETER: Lets you undelete files (via interface with
367UNDELETE.COM). Drag a file system object onto it and it'll
368let you undelete files for that drive. Filename UNDEL.EXE.
369
370VISUAL TREE: Opens a Drive Tree window (like the WPS Drives
371object with more horsepower). Filename VTREE.EXE.
372
373VISUAL DIRECTORY: Opens a Directory Container window; drag a
374file system object onto it and this will open its directory
375(like a WPS directory Folder with more horsepower). Filename
376VDIR.EXE.
377
378COLLECTOR: Opens a Collector window. Filename VCOLLECT.EXE.
379Two other objects, "See all files" and "Seek and scan" are
380created which call up the Collector and go directly to
381dialogs for the appropriate purpose.
382
383GLOBAL VIEWER: Opens a global view of a drive or drives.
384Filename GLOBAL.EXE.
385
386DATABAR: Opens a databar showing some system information.
387Filename DATABAR.EXE.
388
389DIRSIZE: Shows where drive usage is concentrated. Filename
390DIRSIZE.EXE.
391
392FM/2 LITE: A simplified interface for "dummies." Filename
393FM4.EXE.
394
395FM/2's install creates FM2.CMD, AV2.CMD, VDIR.CMD,
396VTREE.CMD, VCOLLECT.CMD, UNDEL.CMD, KILLPROC.CMD, INI.CMD,
397EAS.CMD, DIRSIZE.CMD, VIEWINFS.CMD and VIEWHELP.CMD files
398for you in a directory "utils" off the install directory.
399You should add this directory to your PATH= statement in
400CONFIG.SYS (type HELP PATH at a command line for more info).
401If you prefer, FM/2's INSTALL builds a SETENV.CMD in the
402FM/2 directory which you can call to set the PATH for FM/2
403in any given session without modifying CONFIG.SYS.
404
405
406Troubleshooting:
407===============
408
409FM/2 seems much slower than previous versions.
410The Find Buffer in FM/2 has been reworked to make it user
411settable in more place and significantly enlarge it. This
412significantly increases the loading speed for large directories
413However, most users will need to reset the buffer by going
414to the settings notebook scanning page and setting FindBuf.
415The new default for clean installs is 10240. We recommend you
416change to this setting (or higher) unless you have very limited
417hardware (less than 32 meg of memory original Pentium or earlier).
418
419If FM/2 won't run, the probable culprit is CONFIG.SYS. Your
420LIBPATH statement should contain a ".;" entry. If yours
421doesn't, add it. It's standard for an OS/2 installation, but
422some buggy install programs knock it out because they
423translate entries to their full pathname before rewriting
424(so ".;" gets translated to whatever the current directory
425is for the buggy install program). What this ".;" entry does
426is allow a program to find and use .DLL files in the
427program's current directory -- obviously something you want
428programs to be able to do, otherwise you'd have to put every
429application's .DLLs into directories already on the LIBPATH,
430or add the directories of all applications to the LIBPATH, a
431rather huge pain in the, uh, neck.
432
433If things in FM/2 are suddenly acting strange after an
434upgrade, first check the integrity of the install using
435using WarpIN. If it shows a problem rerun the install
436package. If that fails try installing to a new directory
437or backup your existing directory so you can save any changes
438you made to the template files then uninstall and reinstall.
439Once you have FM/2 working migrate the *.ini, *.dat, *.tls,
440*.bb2 and *.cmd from your old install/backup to recover your
441custom settings
442
443If the "FM/2 Online Help" object in the "FM/2 Docs"
444subfolder won't work properly, you've got a version of
445VIEW.EXE that won't directly display help (.HLP) files. Use
446SEEHELP.EXE from the FM/2 Utilities package to get around
447this problem (or upgrade your version of OS/2).
448
449Don't drag files over Netscape -- it will lock up if files
450(not WPS objects; there's a subtle difference) are dragged
451over it.
452
453If you get a popup dialog that needs to be reported to the
454maintainer, you can either take a screen shot or you can
455capture the information from STDERR with:
456
457 FM3 2>STDERR.LOG
458
459This technique works for all the FM/2, FM/2 Lite and all the
460standalone applets.
461
462If you are having trouble with Drag and Drop operations, try
463the + command line switch described above. The content of
464FM2.LOG may be helpful.
465
466
467Known problems/shortcomings:
468===========================
469
470- FM/2 does not properly report sizes of some files with
471long name resident on Win95/NT drives.
472
473- File List Container fails to fill after drive change
474SYS0039 error.
475
476- Tree switching on Focus/Directory Change appears to be
477slower than expected.
478
479- Access to LS120 and FAT32 drives may be slower than expected
480
481- Icon display in Directory Container does not always match
482WPS icons
483
484- Spurious WPS Objects Handles may be created during some
485operations
486
487- Trying to run Global.exe from the command line in 4OS2
488(perhaps other shells) results in the execution of 4OS2's "Global"
489command. Global.exe can be run by placing it in quotes or
490prefixing it with *. See 4OS2's documentation for more information.
491
492- As with any OS/2 program significant changes (such as our
493change to OpenWatcom) will result in the incompatibility of
494older (VAC) exes with new dlls and vice versa. Attempting to run
495OpenWatcom exes with a VAC dll loaded in memory or in your
496libpath ahead of the new version will result in a SYS3175 in
497popuplog.os2. The reverse gives a SYS2070. If you experience these
498problems search your libpath for fm3dll.dll and remove or rename
499it. Your libpath should have "." (without the quotes) as your
500first entry to minimize the likelihood of this problem. FM/2's
501installer does not add the FM/2 directory to the libpath.
502
503- See http://svn.netlabs.org/fm2/report/1 for a complete list of
504currently active bugs
505
506
507
508About FM/2:
509==========
510
511FM/2 was originally written by:
512
513 Mark Kimes
514 <hectorplasmic@worldnet.att.net>
515
516He has kindly allowed me to take over maintenance and
517support of FM/2 and to release the program under the GNU GPL
518license. I'm sure he would appreciate a Thank You note for
519his generosity.
520
521Support:
522=======
523
524There is a Yahoo group devoted to fm/2 at:
525
526 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fm2user/
527
528You will find lots of friendly folks ready to help.
529
530FM/2 is moving to Netlabs (thanks Adrian).
531
532Check it out at
533
534 http://svn.netlabs.org/fm2
535
536Not everything is in place yet, but this is the place to
537enter defect tickets and enhancement requests (username netlabs,
538password guest; please include a valid email so we can contact you
539if we need more information). Eventually, the mailing list and the
540file archives will all move to the Netlabs server where you can
541find the source code.
542
543You can reach us directly at:
544
545 Steven H. Levine
546 steve53@earthlink.net
547
548 or
549
550 Gregg Young
551 ygk@qwest.net
552
553We also monitor the comp.os.os2.apps newsgroup and several
554others in the comp.os.os2.* hierarchy.
555
556Thanks and enjoy.
557
558$Id: README 1143 2008-09-01 21:20:21Z jbs $
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