******************************* * * * CMFiler -- Version 5.36n * * * ******************************* The following features have been added or improved since the CMFiler Version 5.35 User's Manual on this disk as MANUAL.535: Quick Registration Form: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now CMFiler evaluators who want to take full advantage of the benefits of registration can instantly print a registration form to LPT1 with the key combination Ctrl-R. These benefits include the current CMFiler registered release, a convenient bound 5-1/2x8 user's manual, bonus disk chock full of a variety of outstanding shareware programs by other shareware authors, discount certificates on shareware purchases worth $18, a free future CMFiler upgrade of NoVaSoft's choice, and user technical support for a year. Mouse Support: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Navigation and some commands can now be done with mouse. The mouse features stay dormant until the mouse is moved. In the main module, the tree display and the file list display in the tree module, a five- character mini-mouse menu appears on the same line as the cursor and highlight, showing five operations that can be clicked with the left button: o The left-arrow character (ASCII 27) acts like the Enter key, for directory navigation and file viewing. o The three-line character (ASCII 240) pops a menu into the active window. o The up, down and left or right triangles act like PgUp, PgDn and Left or Right Arrow for navigation. In the cases of file lists, the right button toggles the state of the tag. Several files can be tagged by holding down the right button and dragging the mouse up or down the file list. The left button may in most cases be used to accept the default offering in yes/no choices, same as the Enter key. In the editor/viewer, the left button has the same effect as the Enter key. Mouse movement navigates on the page like the arrow keys. Holding the right button down and moving the mouse up or down activates a variable-speed scroll feature. New Floppy Diskette Copier: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A built-in diskette copier is now accessible with the command Shift-K (for disKopy). Double- and high-density 5.25" and 3.5" floppies are recognized. User specifies hard drive to store master diskette image on, drive to make copies on, number of copies to make and whether each track should be verified as it is written. Number of copies left to go is displayed after each successful copy. New Floppy Diskette Formatter: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Floppy diskettes may now be formatted without leaving CMFiler. The command is Shift-M (forMat). Double- and high-density 3.5" and 5.25" formats are recognized. If an existing format is detected, CMFiler requests confirmation to proceed. Diskettes cannot be "unformatted" after this command is used, so be certain the disk contains no valuable files before using. All data sectors are overwritten with the format "fill" character hex F6, so, unlike the FORMAT.COM of MS-DOS 5 and later, the CMFiler formatter is good for obliterating sensitive data on the diskette. This formatter is also called during operation of the floppy filler, if needed, so unformatted diskettes may now be used for filling. New Cross-Drive File Move: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Previous versions would perform the "move file" command (Shift-C) only if the source and target directories were on the same disk, and would otherwise default to copying the source files to the target. If users wanted to accomplish a file move across drives, it had to be done in two steps: copy the files, then delete them. In Version 5.36a, the command Shift-C works as a cross-drive move, with the additional step of requiring confirmation of the user's desire to hard-delete the source files as the final step of the move. Support for VGA 25/43/50-Line Display: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If your VGA monitor is set up in one of the standard display configurations, CMFiler will recognize it and permit on-the-fly changes to 25-, 43- or 50-line display through the Shift-O user Options screen, last line. The selection is recorded as the default for the next execution of CMFiler. You can also force your VGA into a specific display with one of the explicit command line arguments @V25, @V43 or @V50. Expanded Support for Laptop Displays: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are two classes of laptop computers for which CMFiler has not previously provided adequate support because of their unconventional (compared to desktops) displays with respect to the high-intensity bit of the color attribute. The high-intensity bit is the way a monitor gives you bright white on blue instead of normal white, for example, or bright yellow instead of brown. The high-intensity bit is crucial to many of CMFiler's displays. The first class of these unconventional laptops, of which some Epsons and Packard-Bells are members, do not respond to or show little effect of the high-intensity bit. For this case we have devised an alternative color attribute set, invoked by E (for Epson, the first of these laptops we contended with) on the next-to-last lline of the Shift-O user Options menu, or @E on the command line. The second class responds in inverted sense to the high-intensity bit, and it is found in Tandy black-and-white LCDs and some color LCDs. For this case we have added a switch to the Shift-O Options menu above the monitor type selection. CMFiler -- Errata 1-2 If you have a laptop that is not giving you an easily readable display, try various combinations of color sets and positions of the "high- intensity inverted" switch. If none of these works, please contact NoVaSoft with the symptoms. Choice of Sort Algorithm: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The user may pick between "bubblesort" and "quicksort" sorting algorithms, depending on which proves faster in actual use. The original bubblesort was replaced with quicksort in Ver 5.35a based on a theoretical gain in sort time , but quicksort's performance has proved too variable and is in many cases slower than bubblesort. For this reason, bubblesort was put back in as an alternative sort method. You may toggle between the two by pressing A in the Ctrl-O Order mode screen. Quicksort works particularly well in a large directory where the natural DOS order is nearly the same as the order in which files are being sorted by CMFiler. One way to reestablish a particular order to a large subdirectory is to move all the files. Just create a new directory in the same level as the directory to be reordered, tag and move all the files to the new directory, delete the old one and rename the new to the old name. This has the effect of reconstructing the directory table in the order in which the files are moved. New Floppy-filling Function: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A new function has been added to fill target floppies in A or B drive from a source hard disk directory. Floppies need not be formatted nor completely empty. The function is "smart", in that it looks first to see if any files tagged for filling from the source directory already exist on the floppy, updates them only if needed, and then adds files as tightly as they will fit, untagging files in the source as they are successfully copied. Put the first floppy to be filled in A or B, and set up this drive as the target. Set up the directory with the files to copy as the source, tag all the files to be used as "fill", and press Shift-I. CMFiler first asks how much space you want to reserve for growth on each floppy disk, and then proceeds with filling the first. After each floppy disk is filled, you may either keep going or escape. You may even suspend the operation and, as long as you don't disturb any tags on the source directory, then resume it where you left off. New Method of Clearing Slack Space During Copy: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The old method of ensuring no sensitive or classified information was inadvertently carried into the "slack space" of the last sector written during file copy operations was to clear the DOS input/output buffers before writing. The location of this buffer structure varies somewhat among operating systems. CMFiler's ability to find it in networks was not fully reliable, and DR DOS reacts very badly to this technique. The new method for clearing the last-sector slack space is system- independent, uses standard functions only, and actually results in shorter file copying times. It is always invoked, and the I/O buffer clearing switch in the Shift-O menu has been redefined as a "wipe-file" switch below. CMFiler -- Errata 1-3 Wipe-File Feature: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A wipe-file option has been added which causes all of the data in any file being deleted or overwritten during a copy or move to be completely obliterated before the DOS file delete service is invoked. It is not a widely recognized fact that the DOS delete service simply changes the first character in the filename in the directory listing, and resets the File Allocation Table entries for the clusters previously used by the file, but otherwise leaves the clusters containing the actual data alone. Thus, a disk showing no files may actually have a wealth of data, if one is smart and patient enough to read each cluster and figure out how they fit together. This option may be exercised with the switch on line 3 of the Shift-O user Options menu. Individual Configuration on Networks: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Different users on a network may specify their own .CFG configuration file through a parameter passed in the environment. The parameter is called CF-CFG, and should include the complete file specification. For example, if C:\PROGRAMS is the network common area for programs, and CMFiler is in this directory as CF.COM and CF.OVY, and U is a user's logical drive, and the directory SETTINGS is where that user keeps miscellaneous program configuration data, the batch file: SET CF-CFG=U:\SETTINGS\CF.CFG C:\PROGRAMS\CF will run CMFiler from the common program area, and tell CMFiler to look on U:\SETTINGS for CF.CFG. (The file CF.CFG is created if it is not already there.) Miscellaneous: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. The trash can is renamed ~TRASH~ to put it at the end of the alphabetical directory list. Also, files are no longer redated when they are placed in the ~TRASH~ directory, to better preserve their original identity; however, since the file date/time stamp was previously used to identify how long the file had been in the trash, CF can no longer discriminate "fresh" from "day-old" trash, and now has to throw it all away during purge. Also, RAMDrives of <10M are now treated like floppies with respect to file trashing (i.e., files are always hard-deleted). 2. The directory size limit has been increased from 1200 to 2400 files, if sufficient memory is available. The size limit in the tree mode has been increased from 505 to 1700 directories. 3. In the editor, the Home and End keys now produce the following sequential effect: go to beginning/end of line, top/bottom of page, beginning/end of file. 4. Shift-R (Refresh panel from disk) is added for main module, and reconfigured from Alt-R in tree. 5. The file lists in ZIP, ARJ, LZH, ARC and EXE self-extracting files may now be seen just by putting the cursor on the file and pressing Enter. This facility sees the filenames even when compressed files of different types are packed into a single file. The limit on the number CMFiler -- Errata 1-4 of filenames be displayed is effectively removed. A second press of Enter views the raw file itself. 6. The file date/time facility is expanded to allow mass date/time setting of tagged files. 7. CMFiler protects antivirus signature/integrity data files. The default name assumed for the Stiller Research Integrity Master's integrity data files is updated to the name ZZ##.IM from )(.ID, consistent with Integrity Master's default naming convention in version 1.24a and later. It may be changed with the command Alt-I (for "IDname change"). 8. The date/time stamp of each subdirectory has been added to the directory listing information, and, since directories now have an appearance more like files, a highlighted "bullet" has been added to the left of each directory in the list as a visual cue. 9. The file mask blinks whenever it is set to a string other than *.*, as a visual cue that the displayed contents of the directory are not necessarily all the files that exist. 10. The operators Ctrl-U/L/I have been added to the editor. Ctrl-U forces any alphabetic character to upper case, Ctrl-L forces to lower case, and Ctrl-I inverts -- upper for lower and vice versa. 11. A menu has been added to the print spooler. When you print a file with the command L, a menu allows you optionally to add a form feed at the end of the printing, add a left margin pad of 5 or 10 blanks, send the file to parallel printer 1 or 2, and add a header to the printout showing file name and date/time stamp. 12. The capacity of the notes facility has been extended from being useable in directories of up to only 600 files to directories of up to 1200 files. 13. The wild cards ? and * have been added to the G and Alt-G "go to" functions in the main module, and the wild card ? has been added to the "find text" functions in the editor and tree modules. 14. In the main module, the file name display and the Goto algorithm are now the same (name, then extension) for all sort modes (including those that sort on extension first). 15. The "New drive" prompt now includes a list of all the valid drives. 16. An option is added to the Shift-O menu to specify the European convention for dates (dd-mm-yy), and the command Ctrl-K has been added to adjust cursor height, which is now a savable configuration parameter. 17. Exiting via Esc restores all drives to the directories that were current when CF was started. Exiting via Alt-Q leaves the current directories as-set. 18. When soft-deleting files to ~TRASH~, the date/time stamp is no longer changed to the date/time of the delete, in order to maintain the full identity of the file. However, purging the ~TRASH~ directory CMFiler -- Errata 1-5 results in hard-deleting the entire contents. 19. The escape options in the editor have been revised to reduce the number of keystrokes required to exit using the standard defaults (i.e., save edit, do not reuse original date/time, do not save original as *.BKP, and do not return to editor). The keystroke X or Enter after Escape exits the editor with the standard options. To save the edited file but use one of the non-standard exit options, press Y after Escape, and then pick the options desired. CMFiler -- Errata 1-6