source: trunk/README@ 908

Last change on this file since 908 was 866, checked in by Gregg Young, 18 years ago

History, readme, *.def etc files updated for 3.8 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 3.08 has had changes to its file filtering logic.
9It now searches for the last extension if a mask like *.zip
10is used. This change was made to over come the problem with
11associations failing on files with multiple ".". You can
12also seach for a complete string within the file names by
13using the pattern *stuff* (stuff can't contain an * or ?).
14If "stuff" contains an * or ? the old method of searching
15(character by character)is used.Large (>4GiB) file support
16has been added.
17
18FM/2 3.07 had changes made to its ini file structure.
19These changes mean that the ini file is not backward
20compatible. Please backup you FM3.INI file before installing
21so you can revert to an earlier version without losing some
22of your customizations. Please note you need to leave a copy
23of the fm3.ini file in the install directory in order to keep your
24customizations in 3.07. The temp file fm3.!!! will not update
25the new ini as it is only used when fm2 is running.
26
27File Manager/2 (FM/2) starting with version 3.6 is being
28built with OpenWatcom. Changing compilers can introduce
29unexpected problem so you may want to backup your current
30install, or at minimum have a working copy of the FM/2
31version 3.5.9 warpin available for reinstall if problems arise.
32To backup your current install simple zip up your install
33directory with its subdirectories or copy them to a different
34location.To restore simply copy the old FM/2 back to the
35its original location. Remember you can't use the new FM/2
36to do this since if it is running some files will be locked
37and won't be replaced. If you didn't backup and need to go
38back just install the 3.5.9 warpin package over the new
39install. It will warn you that the install is newer but just
40tell it to install anyway. The warpin install process is
41designed to save all your customizations. Don't delete the
42new install if you don't have a backup since this will result
43in the loss of any custom changes you have made. If you need
44to delete it to get the reinstall to work. Backup up the new
45install and then copy the *.bmp, *.tls, *.dat, *.cmd & *.ini
46files back to the install directory after the reinstall.
47Don't copy the *.str files as they are version specific.
48If you have problems be sure to report it (See Support
49at the end of this file).
50
51File Manager/2 (FM/2) is a free OS/2(Warp)/eCS Presentation
52Manager 32-bit file/directory/archive maintenance utility
53(a sort of super-Drives object, something midway between the
54Drives objects and a more traditional file manager) with plenty
55of bells, whistles and utilities, drag and drop, context menus,
56toolbars, bubble help and accelerator keys. If you know how
57to use OS/2, you already know how to use most of FM/2. You
58can easily glean the rest from the extensive online help,
59including tutorials.
60
61This document explains how to install FM/2, including
62upgrading from previous versions. It explains command line
63syntaxes (parameters in a program object) and how to get the
64program(s) running. The online help tells you how to
65actually use FM/2. I'll try to keep this brief.
66
67This program is free software; you can redistribute it
68and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
69License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
70version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
71version.
72
73This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
74useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
75warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
76PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
77details.
78
79You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
80License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
81Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330,
82Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
83
84
85FM/2 3.x installation instructions:
86==================================
87
88Pre-requisite:
89 WarpIN 0.9.20 or higher must be installed.
90
91Install (or re-install) from a FM/2 ZIP file distribution
92---------------------------------------------------------
93
941. Unpack the FM2*.ZIP archive in a private directory (for
95example, C:\TMP). (UNZIP.EXE works nicely to unpack the
96file.) Two WPI files, FM2.WPI and FM2UTILS.WPI will be
97unzipped.
98
992. Follow the instructions for installing from WPI file(s)
100below.
101
102
103Install (or re-install) from a FM/2 WPI file distribution
104---------------------------------------------------------
105
1061. Open the WPS folder containing the WPI file(s).
107
1082. Double click on FM2.WPI. Since WarpIN associates itself
109with WPI files this will start WarpIN with FM2.WPI as the
110parameter.
111
1123, You may then install FM/2 to a directory of your choice
113and, if FM2UTILS.WPI is present, install FM/2 Utilities to
114a directory of your choice.
115
116NOTE: If you double click on FM2UTILS.WPI instead of
117FM2.WPI, you will only be able to install the FM/2
118Utilities. It is recommended that, even if you only want to
119install FM/2 Utilities, that you do so using FM2.WPI.
120
121
122Moving FM/2 and/or FM/2 Utilities:
123----------------------------------
124
1251. Copy your existing installation directory to the new
126location.
127
1282. If you have added your own icons to any of the FM/2
129folders, then you should move them elsewhere temporarily.
130
1313. Follow the instructions for de-installing below.
132
1334. Re-install the package using the installation
134instructions above. This will update the WarpIN database and
135reset your icons to the new locations.
136
1375. Move the icons you saved in step #2, back into the FM/2
138folders if you wish.
139
140
141De-installing FM/2 and/or FM/2 Utilities:
142-----------------------------------------
143
1441. Run Warpin without parameters.
145
1462. Right click on a package you want to de-install and
147select "de-install all packages".
148
1493. Click on OK in the "De-install Packages" window that
150appears.
151
152
153
154=================
155First-time notes:
156=================
157
158Starting FM/2 -- how it works, customizing parameters:
159
160If you start File Manager/2 (filename FM3.EXE) with no
161parameters, it opens the Drive Tree window but no directory
162windows (unless the "Save state of dir windows" toggle is
163checked -- see online help).
164
165File Manager/2 optionally accepts names of directories in
166the parameters field of its program object; it'll open a
167directory window for each one. Hint: If you often do
168different specific things with FM/2, you might set up a WPS
169object customized to start up ideally for each activity. For
170example, if you wanted to maintain your BBS areas, you might
171have one object with parameters like: "D:\BBSDIR
172D:\BBSDIR\MAILIN D:\BBSDIR\MAILOUT", and if you also like to
173use FM/2 to set icons on files, you might have another
174object with parameters like: "E:\MYICONS D:\NEWFILES". The
175State quicklist can also be used for this within FM/2 itself
176-- see online help.
177
178You can exclude drives in the parameters by prefacing the
179drive letter with "/", and there can be more than one drive
180letter behind the "/" (i.e. "/BH" to exclude both drives B:
181and H:). Hint: Many people like to use /B to exclude
182"phantom" drive B: if they have a single-floppy system.
183Similarly, you can cause drives NOT to be prescanned by the
184Drive Tree by prefacing the drive letter with ";", drives
185NOT to load icons for objects by prefacing the drive letter
186with ",", drives NOT to load subjects for objects by
187prefacing the drive letter with "`" and drives NOT to load
188longnames for objects by prefacing the drive letter with
189"'". This can be handy if you have a very slow drive like a
190CD-ROM or Zip drive. FM/2 Lite recognizes these switches,
191too. See also the Drive Flags dialog in FM/2.
192
193If you place the plus sign "+" (alone, separated from
194anything else by spaces) in the parameters, FM/2 will log,
195to FM2.LOG, delete, rename, move and copy operations that
196are performed by drag-and-drop or with the menus. FM/2 Lite
197recognizes this switch, too.
198
199The parameter "-" (alone, separated from anything else by
200spaces) causes FM/2 to ignore, not load or save, the
201previous state of directory windows (see the "Save state of
202dir windows" toggle under Config Menu->Toggles in the online
203help) for that invocation.
204
205You can specify the name of an alternate INI file with
206"-<inifilename>" -- for example: "-C:\FM2\MYINI.INI".
207
208You can also specify the INI file location with the
209environment variable FM2INI -- for example:
210 SET FM2INI=C:\FM2\MYINI.INI.
211
212
213------------------------------
214How to get started using FM/2:
215-----------------------------
216Please read the following sections in the online help when
217you start FM/2 for the first time: "How to use FM/2's Help,"
218"Terminology" and "General Help," then "Hints." A peek at
219the labelled "Window Layouts" pictures would probably be a
220good idea, too. The rest you can browse as you get time/feel
221the need; for instance, if you want to know what a toggle
222does, read the help under Settings notebook for that page
223(each Settings notebook page has its own Help button).
224
225If you prefer hard copy help, print this file, run FM/2,
226press F1, click the "Print" button at the bottom (IBM View)
227or top (Newview)of the help window that appears and then print
228both the "Contents" and "All sections" (keep an eye on the printer,
229after page 100 of "All sections" as the Help Manager will
230begin printing its own help then -- you may want to abort
231printing at that point). Advanced and/or curious users may
232also want to print FM3TOOLS.DAT and ARCHIVER.BB2. Be sure
233you have plenty of paper and ink handy -- the package is
234well documented. You'll probably also want a three-ring
235binder and hole punch to get it bound, as staples aren't
236going through that puppy. You can, of course, print only the
237sections that are of particular interest to you.
238
239Additional documentation:
240------------------------
241 FM3.HLP: FM/2's online help file.
242
243Look in the FM/2 Docs subfolder of the File Manager/2 folder
244for easy access to all documentation.
245
246
247Bonus programs:
248==============
249
250You'll note the extra objects that the Install program
251creates in the FM/2 Tools subfolder of the File Manager/2
252folder. FM/2 is modular, so that you can get directly to
253some of its components without running the entire ball of
254wax. This may allow you to enhance the behavior of some of
255your other applications in the WPS tradition. You don't
256_have_ to keep these around, of course -- FM/2 itself
257contains all their functionality.
258
259ARCHIVE VIEWER/2: Intended for drag-and-drop operation (or
260WPS association) with WPS objects or other applications.
261Drag an archive onto it, drop it, get an archive listing
262box. FM/2's installation program sets up some associations
263between archive files and this program by file extension.
264AV/2 will try to display whatever you give it as
265sensibly as it can. Filename AV2.EXE.
266
267EA VIEWER: Drag a file system object onto it and it'll show
268you the object's extended attributes. Filename EAS.EXE.
269
270INI VIEWER: Drag an .INI file onto it and it'll show you its
271contents. Filename INI.EXE.
272
273BOOKSHELF VIEWER: Shows all .INF files in a listbox and lets
274you pick the one(s) you want to view. If you give any
275command line argument, the .HLP files on the HELP path will
276be shown instead (the Helpfile Viewer object calls
277VIEWINFS.EXE with "dummy" for an argument, for example).
278Filename VIEWINFS.EXE.
279
280PROCESS KILLER: Lets you kill off renegade processes. An
281English version of PSTAT.EXE must be on your PATH. Filename
282KILLPROC.EXE.
283
284UNDELETER: Lets you undelete files (via interface with
285UNDELETE.COM). Drag a file system object onto it and it'll
286let you undelete files for that drive. Filename UNDEL.EXE.
287
288VISUAL TREE: Opens a Drive Tree window (like the WPS Drives
289object with more horsepower). Filename VTREE.EXE.
290
291VISUAL DIRECTORY: Opens a Directory Container window; drag a
292file system object onto it and this will open its directory
293(like a WPS directory Folder with more horsepower). Filename
294VDIR.EXE.
295
296COLLECTOR: Opens a Collector window. Filename VCOLLECT.EXE.
297Two other objects, "See all files" and "Seek and scan" are
298created which call up the Collector and go directly to
299dialogs for the appropriate purpose.
300
301GLOBAL VIEWER: Opens a global view of a drive or drives.
302Filename GLOBAL.EXE.
303
304DATABAR: Opens a databar showing some system information.
305Filename DATABAR.EXE.
306
307DIRSIZE: Shows where drive usage is concentrated. Filename
308DIRSIZE.EXE.
309
310FM/2 LITE: A simplified interface for "dummies." Filename
311FM4.EXE.
312
313FM/2's install creates FM2.CMD, AV2.CMD, VDIR.CMD,
314VTREE.CMD, VCOLLECT.CMD, UNDEL.CMD, KILLPROC.CMD, INI.CMD,
315EAS.CMD, DIRSIZE.CMD, VIEWINFS.CMD and VIEWHELP.CMD files
316for you in a directory "utils" off the install directory.
317You should add this directory to your PATH= statement in
318CONFIG.SYS (type HELP PATH at a command line for more info).
319If you prefer, FM/2's INSTALL builds a SETENV.CMD in the
320FM/2 directory which you can call to set the PATH for FM/2
321in any given session without modifying CONFIG.SYS.
322
323
324Troubleshooting:
325===============
326
327FM/2 seems much slower than previous versions.
328The Find Buffer in FM/2 has been reworked to make it user
329settable in more place and significantly enlarge it. This
330significantly increases the loading speed for large directories
331However, most users will need to reset the buffer by going
332to the settings notebook scanning page and setting FindBuf.
333The new default for clean installs is 10240. We recommend you
334change to this setting (or higher) unless you have very limited
335hardware (less than 32 meg of memory original Pentium or earlier).
336
337If FM/2 won't run, the probable culprit is CONFIG.SYS. Your
338LIBPATH statement should contain a ".;" entry. If yours
339doesn't, add it. It's standard for an OS/2 installation, but
340some buggy install programs knock it out because they
341translate entries to their full pathname before rewriting
342(so ".;" gets translated to whatever the current directory
343is for the buggy install program). What this ".;" entry does
344is allow a program to find and use .DLL files in the
345program's current directory -- obviously something you want
346programs to be able to do, otherwise you'd have to put every
347application's .DLLs into directories already on the LIBPATH,
348or add the directories of all applications to the LIBPATH, a
349rather huge pain in the, uh, neck.
350
351If things in FM/2 are suddenly acting strange after an
352upgrade, first check the integrity of the install using
353using WarpIN. If it shows a problem rerun the install
354package. If that fails try installing to a new directory
355or backup your existing directory so you can save any changes
356you made to the template files then uninstall and reinstall.
357Once you have FM/2 working migrate the *.ini, *.dat, *.tls,
358*.bb2 and *.cmd from your old install/backup to recover your
359custom settings
360
361If the "FM/2 Online Help" object in the "FM/2 Docs"
362subfolder won't work properly, you've got a version of
363VIEW.EXE that won't directly display help (.HLP) files. Use
364SEEHELP.EXE from the FM/2 Utilities package to get around
365this problem (or upgrade your version of OS/2).
366
367Don't drag files over Netscape -- it will lock up if files
368(not WPS objects; there's a subtle difference) are dragged
369over it.
370
371If you get a popup dialog that needs to be reported to the
372maintainer, you can either take a screen shot or you can
373capture the information from STDERR with:
374
375 FM3 2>STDERR.LOG
376
377This technique works for all the FM/2, FM/2 Lite and all the
378standalone applets.
379
380If you are having trouble with Drag and Drop operations, try
381the + command line switch described above. The content of
382FM2.LOG may be helpful.
383
384
385Known problems/shortcomings:
386===========================
387
388- FM/2 does not properly report sizes of some files with
389long name resident on Win95/NT drives.
390
391- File List Container fails to fill after drive change
392SYS0039 error.
393
394- Tree switching on Focus/Directory Change appears to be
395slower than expected.
396
397- Access to LS120 and FAT32 drives may be slower than expected
398
399- Icon display in Directory Container does not always match
400WPS icons
401
402- Spurious WPS Objects Handles may be created during some
403operations
404
405- Trying to run Global.exe from the command line in 4OS2
406(perhaps other shells) results in the execution of 4OS2's "Global"
407command. Global.exe can be run by placing it in quotes or
408prefixing it with *. See 4OS2's documentation for more information.
409
410- As with any OS/2 program significant changes (such as our
411change to OpenWatcom) will result in the incompatibility of
412older (VAC) exes with new dlls and vice versa. Attempting to run
413OpenWatcom exes with a VAC dll loaded in memory or in your
414libpath ahead of the new version will result in a SYS3175 in
415popuplog.os2. The reverse gives a SYS2070. If you experience these
416problems search your libpath for fm3dll.dll and remove or rename
417it. Your libpath should have "." (without the quotes) as your
418first entry to minimize the likelihood of this problem. FM/2's
419installer does not add the FM/2 directory to the libpath.
420
421- See http://svn.netlabs.org/fm2/report/1 for a complete list of
422currently active bugs
423
424
425
426About FM/2:
427==========
428
429FM/2 was originally written by:
430
431 Mark Kimes
432 <hectorplasmic@worldnet.att.net>
433
434He has kindly allowed me to take over maintenance and
435support of FM/2 and to release the program under the GNU GPL
436license. I'm sure he would appreciate a Thank You note for
437his generosity.
438
439Support:
440=======
441
442There is a Yahoo group devoted to fm/2 at:
443
444 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fm2user/
445
446You will find lots of friendly folks ready to help.
447
448FM/2 is moving to Netlabs (thanks Adrian).
449
450Check it out at
451
452 http://svn.netlabs.org/fm2
453
454Not everything is in place yet, but this is the place to
455enter defect tickets and enhancement requests (username netlabs,
456password guest; please include a valid email so we can contact you
457if we need more information). Eventually, the mailing list and the
458file archives will all move to the Netlabs server where you can
459find the source code.
460
461You can reach us directly at:
462
463 Steven H. Levine
464 steve53@earthlink.net
465
466 or
467
468 Gregg Young
469 ygk@qwest.net
470
471We also monitor the comp.os.os2.apps newsgroup and several
472others in the comp.os.os2.* hierarchy.
473
474Thanks and enjoy.
475
476$Id: README 866 2007-11-12 18:01:48Z gyoung $
477
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