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PMCAT+
A Disk File Cataloging Program
by
Patrick Michaud
&
William C. Scott
Version 5.0
1 November, 1989
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
Copyright 1989 by William C. Scott
Page 1
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
PmCat+, copyright 1989 by William C. Scott PmCat+ is NOT
public domain software. You may use, copy and distribute it
freely, but you MAY NOT RESELL PmCat+. A modest fee for
copying may be charged, not to exceed $3.00 exclusive of the
cost of disk, mailer and postage. (See "About Our Marketing
Process" for more details)
DISCLAIMER:
By using this product, the user agrees that neither William C.
Scott nor Patrick R. Michaud are severly or jointly liable for
any damages, direct or consequential, that might arise from
the use or misuse of PmCat+.
i
About Our Marketing Process ... (Shareware)
The term "shareware" has come to refer to a class of computer
software that is marketed, basically, on an honor system.
Hopefully, you noticed the logo of ASP, the Association of
Shareware Professionals, on the cover sheet of this
docementation file. <ASP> is an organization that was formed
and is supported by software authors and businesses with an
interest in seeing shareware remain a viable means of
marketing high quality software at reasonable prices.
An author's membership in ASP guarantees you, the end user, at
least some protection from the vagaries of earlier and present
'public domain' software. By becoming a member of ASP the
author has promised his/her intention to support the product
after licensing has taken place and already demostrated to ASP
the product does in fact do what it is advertised to do and is
a fully functional piece of software (not crippled or
restricted).
(See the file OMBUDSMAN.ASP for further info)
The end user benefits from being able to actually try the
software before paying for it, ensuring compatibility with the
system it is intended for use upon.
Both the author and the consumer benefit from the fact that
neither has had to bear the burden of the enormous cost of
adequate advertising. The consumer benefits directly from the
lower cost of the software, the author somewhat more
indirectly in that he most likely would never have been able
to make the product widely available because of a lack of
capital. In many cases you will find the support offered by
ASP authors more comprehensive than would ever be possible
from a large company.
Finally, these ASP authors' products, like PmCat+, are not
public domain nor intended to be free. They are offered in
good faith that they are as good as their commercial
counterparts and the authors do expect to be paid for their
efforts.
Frankly, it is a difficult thing to offer one's work to others
with the understanding you will be compensated *only* when the
customer is convinced your product is worth purchasing.
Please realize that PmCat+ didn't just "happen". We have
spent a great deal of money for compilers, language tools and
hardware that is specifically dedicated to the development of
PmCat+, not to even begin thinking about the many hours of
sitting at the keyboard, tearing out hair trying to figure out
why the obviously simple, isn't! We must, at the very least,
recover our investment so that we can continue to develop
programs of this quality.
ii
Strictly speaking, if you do like and use PmCat+, we request
you license the program after a reasonable trial period (about
30 - 45 days). We also realize there are those persons to
whom even the $25 license fee would be a burden. For those
persons, please continue to use PmCat+ for as long as you
wish, with our blessing. Obviously, whether or not you can
afford to license PmCat+ is not a consideration we would be so
bold as to decide. We will trust that everyone is being
honest with themselves and us about that matter and will, to
the best of our ability, answer any questions by anyone who
wishes to inquire.
For $25.00 you will receive:
1. A copy of the very latest version on 5.25 inch floppy
disk. ( 3.5 inch is also available see NOTE below )
2. Be placed on our mailing list to be notified of signi-
ficant future updates to PmCat+ or new products that we
have presently have under development.
3. One of the disks (of your choice) from the PMCAT.CAT
catalog which we included to aid your quick evaluation
of PmCat+.
The present cost of obtaining updates is $7.00. (This includes
persons who registered PmCat before the PLUS release)
PLEASE NOTE:
We can provide registered copies of PmCat+ on 3.5" inch
double density disks or high density disks as well. There is
an additional $1 charge for the 720K and $3.00 for the 1.44M
because of the higher cost of the 3.5" media.
If you wish to register PmCat+, please send check or Money
Order to the address below:
William C. Scott
#22 Cary Annex
Coalgate, OK 74538
Ph: (405) 927-3840
See the file PM-ORDER.FRM for an invoice type order form.
If you need a copy as a invoice, please include two copies
when you order and we will mark it PAID, date it and return
it to you with your disk(s).
Page 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About Our Marketing - Shareware and ASP i
I. Introduction
A. The Story of PmCat+ 3
B. Features of PmCat+
1. List of features 6
2. Explanation of features 7
II. Getting Started
A. System requirements. 5
B. Installation 8
III. Cataloging functions
A. Create a new catalog 10
B. Add to existing catalog 10
C. Update an existing catalog 10
D. Save present catalog 10
IV. Browse functions
A. File information (InfoWindow) 11
B. Read contents of cataloged files 11
C. Volumes listing 11
D. Directories 11
E. Search 12
F. Sort 12
G. Change catalogs 12
H. Masks 12
V. Printing functions
A. Formatting output 13
B. Printing 14
C. Printer set up string 14
D. Saving to ASCII disk file 14
VI. Misc functions
A. Delete volume 14
B. Erase (delete) file 14
C. Commenting 15
D. Shell 15
E. Change volume label 15
F. Using the .DEF file 15
VII. Using Wildcards in PmCat+ 16
Page 3
INTRODUCTION
PmCat+ is a floppy and hard disk file cataloging and
browsing program intended for use on PC/XT/AT and compatible
systems.
The Story of PmCat+ ...
PmCat+ is a direct descendent of PmCat which was a disk
file cataloging program intended for use only with floppy
disk files. So many users just naturally began using it to
catalog their hard drive files that many requests were made
for features that were obviously hard drive oriented. So, we
decided PmCat+ should accomodate hard drives gracefully.
PmCat was originally written by Patrick Michaud for my
personal use when I first came into the MS-DOS world. Like
so many others, I couldn't find a cataloger that addressed
my personal habits adequately (simple, fast and useful were
some of my prime requisites).
The basic cataloging engine that still drives PmCat+ is
Patrick's original code, a tribute to its efficiency and
speed. It does, for now, restrict us to a catalog that can
be retained in memory, but the speed gained thus far seems
to be worth remaining at that point. A plan for the future
is the possible inclusion of support for either one or both
of expanded memory and extended memory.
When Patrick first wrote PmCat, it was so good we
decided to pat it on the rear and send it out into the 'real
world' as a shareware product ... as an 'experiment' we
decided, just to see what happened.
Well, about three months later a phone call came to me
from Alfred Glossbrenner who was writing a book about PC
shareware products and wanted to include PmCat in his book
... which did occur when it was published. My thought at
this point was ... "here's a professional in the PC world
who thinks highly enough of PmCat to choose it over all
those others...gee whiz!" Both Patrick and I were deeply
flattered.
When we came down off the cloud that put us on, we
realized our experiment had told us we had something in
PmCat so we set about making the necessary improvements to
make it palatable to as many people as possible.
As it turned out, Patrick's studies kept him from doing
much more with PmCat except correcting and cleaning up my
early code <grin>. (He is working on a PhD in Computer
Science at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, and
will finish that work this fall and recieve his PhD in
January, 1990 at the ripe old age of 24.)
Since late 1987, most of the changes made to PmCat have
been a result of my meanderings through Turbo Pascal and the
PmCat code in response to users requests for changes/fixes
and improvements.
Page 4
April of 1988 brought about a medical tragedy/blessing
for me, personally. I was diagnosed as having mulitiple
sclerosis on the heels of about 4 months of various bizarre
symptoms of paralysis and other stuff that goes along with
the beast.
I had to move to where I had help in getting the basic
things of life, like groceries and where I ended up was in
a small town (of 2000) in Oklahoma.
At this point the influence of the contributions of
another excellent programmer, Gil Yoder, entered PmCat. Gil
was directly responsible for the original inclusion of
archive file reading into the PmCat code and gave invaluable
support with some mouse objects that are making their
premiere appearance in PmCat+.
Since I presently live on only $425 a month from my
Social Security disability check, it became painfully
apparent that I *had* to make some money from PmCat+. The
$10 and $15 registration fees I was getting for the original
PmCat were not covering expenses. Granted, they were
expenses I was incurring anyway in the early days, but no
longer. So I begrudgingly decided to fix the registration
fee for PmCat+ at $25, which still struck me as an excellent
bargain.
So here it is, PmCat+. I am calling it version 5.0 in
deference to its PmCat heritage, but it has been
substantially rewritten in many ways, including the use of
overlays, but retains the familiar look of the original
PmCat.
Page 5
Minimum System Requirements:
IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible, 640K RAM, one floppy disk
drive. Hard drives and subdirectories are supported.
Suggested extra system features:
Color monitor - either CGA, EGA or VGA makes fuller use of
the different menu options easier.
Mouse - these rodents are down in price to about $30 on
the bottom line of pricing and make a lazy man's
use of a computer much more palatable.
Disk caching - these programs are fairly common and many are
either public domain or shareware. This can
speed up PmCat+ because of its use of
overlays.
Page 6
FEATURES
* Catalog contents of archived files
* View files, archived or not while in PmCat+!
* Context sensitive help
* Mouse support included
* Include and/or exclude files (read/view/print)
* Delete individual files from catalog
* Delete volumes from catalog
* Find Free Space on cataloged diskettes
* Assign a DRIVE:\PATHNAME to be a VOLUME
* Read subdirectories and labels, too
* Comment each file with up to 80 characters
* "Rubber-stamp" for comments for duplicate files
* Sort catalog by filename, ext, size, path or date
* Supports WILDCARD ("*" and "?") searches files
and comments
* User configurable printer formatting
* Automatic update of catalog when disks are reread
* User customizing of color, catalog name, ASCII filename
* Relabel diskette if desired
* Create ASCII disk file with user-assigned name
* Multiple catalogs with your specified names
Page 7
Explanation of features:
The detailed explanation of each menu function is listed
in the later part of the catalog. This portion explains
the general use of the keyboard and/or mouse to access
those options.
The HELP function is toggled ON/OFF by pressing the 'H'
key on the keyboard or the right AND left buttons of the
mouse at the same time.
Each menu can be accessed through three functions, the
HOT KEY, the MENU BAR or the mouse.
On each menu item, one letter is capitalized. Pressing
that letter on the keyboard will select that menu item
and cause it to be executed.
On each menu, one item is indicated at a time by the bar
selector or MENU BAR. The MENU BAR is moved using the
RIGHT and LEFT keyboard arrow keys. When the bar is on a
item, pressing <ENTER> on the keyboard will select that
item and cause it to be executed.
Where appropriate the RT/LT, UP/DN arrows, PgUp/PgDn and
Home and End keys are active for the screen, as well as
functions available to do the same things on the menu
with the mouse.
The cursor within the menu area (which you will see if a
mouse is present) is the mouse cursor. Use your mouse
to select an item by placing the cursor on the item name
or within 1 space on either side and pressing the left
mouse button. If HELP is turned on, another click of
the left button is necessary to execute the function.
This was done to allow you to see what the operation
does before you execute it. When HELP is turned off,
the second click is not necessary.
Pressing the RIGHT mouse button is the same as pressing
the <ESC> key on the keyboard.
Page 8
INSTALLING PmCat+
Two files are required for PmCat+ to run, the
PMCATPL.EXE file and the PMCATPL.OVR file. The overlay
file, (.OVR extension) must be either in the same directory
from which PmCat+ is run or in a directory which is in your
DOS path definition.
You MUST retain the overlay filename of PMCATPL.OVR.
The executable file of PmCatPL.exe may be renamed as you
wish.
The following items are essential only to the browsing and
archive extraction functions of PmCat+.
The defaults installed in PmCat+ will look for the other
files it may require, in the current directory. (The
directory you are in when you run PmCat+). The defaults
referred to involve the following programs and locations.
1. Text viewer/editor - PMLIST.COM (which is really a
public domain program called R.COM)
( Note use of R.COM -> ) is included for simple viewing of
text files. You may be able to use
your favorite text viewer/editor in
place of this (such as LIST or QEDIT)
2. ARC extractor - program for extracting the contents
of .ARC files. ARCE.COM is default.
3. ZIP extractor - program for extracting the contents
of .ZIP files. PKZIP.EXE is default.
4. ZOO extractor - program for extracting the contents
of .ZOO files. ZOO.EXE is default
5. PAK extractor - program for extracting the contents
of .PAK files. PAK.EXE is default
6. LZH extractor - program for extracting the contents
of .LZH files. LHARC.EXE is default.
7. Scratch path - a drive/directory path where the
files extracted from an archive will
be written while you view them. You
cannot edit files from within an
archive and update the archive with
the changed file from PmCat+.
8. Target drive - This is the drive on which PmCat+ will
try to find the file chosen, using
the pathname information stored in
the PmCat+ catalog. The default is
drive 'A'.
Page 9
NOTE: NO decompressing code is in the PmCat+ program. It is
assumed if you have files stored with a compression
program, that program can be excuted from the DOS
command line and thereby used to extract files.
PmCat+ just acts as a messenger between you and the
archiving program by sending the filename to extract
to the program you have said will extract it.
If you don't know how to configure your system using
PATH and don't want to deal with it (for whatever reason),
just place copies of the appropriate programs from the
above list in the same directory as your PmCat+ files and
catalog.
Page 10
CATALOGING FUNCTIONS
CREATE A NEW CATALOG: <R>ead, <W>rite on MENU 1 and MENU 2
Any time PmCat+ <R>eads a catalog from disk, you are shown
the current catalog name and prompted for a catalog name. If
you wish to use the catalog name shown, just press <ENTER>.
If using a mouse, place the mouse cursor on the ENTER menu
item and press the right button.
To specify a name of your choosing just start typing it in
and press <ENTER> or press the left mouse button when
complete. A filename with wildcards is acceptable and will
place you in the 'pick list' with the appropriate files to
choose from.
To select a catalog from the files on disk, select or type
the asterisk ('*') and press <ENTER>. This will present
you with a 'pick list' from which to choose.
This sequence of events first occurs when you run PmCat+. It
also happens each time you <R>ead from or <W>rite to the
disk.
ADD FILES/UPDATE CATALOG: <U>pdate menu option on MENU 1
<U>pdate appears only on the first menu (MENU 1) you
encounter in PmCat+. Choosing this option takes you to a
window where you may
1) Read files from a drive which you specify by pressing
the appropriate letter on the keyboard or choosing it
from the menu ... or
2) Change the volume label of a disk drive by using the
'#' symbol on the menu or from the keyboard.
SAVE CURRENT CATALOG TO DISK: <W>rite on MENU 1 or MENU 2
<W>rite will save the current catalog to disk from
either MENU 1 or MENU 2.
Page 11
BROWSE FUNCTIONS: <I>nfo, <V>olumes, <D>ir, <SPACE> on MENU 2
These are the functions you will use to find files and view their
statistics, comments and contents of the actual file if desired.
<I> key from MENU 2 will toggle the Comment and Info windows
open/closed. The Info window contains such information about
the file as the volume on which it is located, the path to it
on that volume and its size amd date. If the entry is a
directory, it is so indicated and if it is a volume name, the
free space on the volume is displayed.
<V> menu selection from MENU 2 will cause a list of volumes
contained within the current catalog to be displayed. The
volumes may be sorted just as though they were filenames (which
really is what a DOS volume label is ... with the appropriate
attribute set).
<D> on MENU 2 will show the list of files contained within that
directory-type object. If it is a directory then the files are
shown. If it is a compressed file then the contents of the
archive are shown if you cataloged the disk with archive reading
turned on.
<SPACE> - pressing the spacebar will allow you to view the
contents of the file that is currently being pointed to by the
selector bar in the window. Check to make sure the file is
located on the drive indicated on the line just above the menu.
If it needs to be changed, just press the appropriate key to
select the right drive and then press <ENTER>. What happens at
this point is partly dependent on which program you have chosen
to run (the text viewer/editor you specified or accepted in the
Set Defaults area).
Page 12
SEARCH: <F>ind, <N>ext on MENU 2
These functions are use to find files by filename, an entry in
the Comments field and they are also used to find free space on
a volume when the list of volumes is displayed.
<F>ind will first prompt you to select whether you wish to
search for a file based on filename, comments or free
space. The free space choice is an invalid choice if a list
of volumes is not being displayed.
<N>ext will find the next entry matching the search
criterion you provided for the <F>ind command.
SORT: <S>ort on MENU 2
<S>ort can be selected from only MENU 2 while PmCat+ is
running. However, turning autoSort ON while setting default
filenames and paths will cause a sort by filename when you
move from MENU 1 to MENU 2 to occur automatically.
After selecting <S>ort from MENU 2, you will be prompted to
choose among filename, ext, size, date and path as the
options on which to sort. Select one..
Then you will be prompted for sort order - ascending or
descending. Descending puts the largest value first whick
would be appropriate for volume free space (that's the Size
of volumes) but not for alphabetically arranged data.
CHANGE CATALOGS: <R>ead on MENU 1
This procedure is identical to the initial reading of a
catalog when you enter PmCat. It first clears the memory
of the existing catalog and then prompts you for a new
catalog name which you may enter using the keybored or pick
list function.
MASKS: <M>ask-set on MENU 1a3 (arrow keys disabled in menu)
The Mask function consists of two portions, Include and
Exclude and act as a filter. It works on those files you
wish to View, Print or Catalog using PmCat+ when either of
its actions are turned ON.
Include and Exclude may be toggled ON or OFF independently
of each other by selecting them from MENU 1a3.
Page 13
If both are selected, Include takes precedence. Remember,
if you turn both ON, NOTHING will be INCLUDED, except what
you specify and the same goes for EXCLUDE. This can be
tricky until you get used to it. Page 14
The menu (1a3) for changing the MASK functions is buried
with the set colors, set print formatting and set default
paths, all of which are accessed thru the <S>et defaults
option of MENU 1.
At MENU 1a3:
Exclude - toggles the exclude list ON/OFF
Include - toggles the include list ON/OFF
Clear - clears the item pointed to by the bar cursor
<ENTER> - allows you to input a new or change the old item.
PRINTING: <P>rint on MENU 2, <P>rint on MENU 1a4, <D>isk from print
FORMATTING OUTPUT: (arrow keys disabled in menu)
<P>rint selected from MENU 1a4 opens a window to allow the
format parameters for your printed catalog.
Start-col is the column of the printed page on which the
field will begin.
Width is how many characters the field will occupy on
the printed document. This can be any width you desire,
but if it is less than required for any field except
comments, it will be truncated (chopped off).
Comments will print on the next line at the same start
col for the width you specify and repeat until all
actual comments for that file are printed. Then it
will begin printing the next entry. Comments are left
justified.
Filename is a 12 character field consisting of the
filename, a period and the file extension. It is right
justified.
Size is a number that will occupy 10 spaces. It is right
justified.
Date will occupy 10 spaces, MM/DD/YY format.
Path can be up to 65 characters and is the path to the
file on its particular volume.
Volume is the volume name from which the file was read.
It may be up to 11 chars and is left justified.
Page 14
PRINTING: <P>rint on MENU 2
PRINTER SET UP STRING: <*> on Print window menu
<*> - will prompt you for a new string of characters
which will be sent to your printer before printing
of the catalog starts.
Each character must be in decimal form and
preceded by a '#' and followed by a space.
e.g., #27 #15
Up to 20 characters may be used here.
ASCII DISK FILE: <D> on Print window menu
<D> - will cause the output which would normally go to
your printer, to be sent to the disk as a file with the
name you specify in ASCII format. It can be easily
edited and/or printed at a later time.
MISC FUNCTIONS:
DELETE VOLUME:
<D> - chosen at MENU 1 will open a window with all the
volumes in your current catalog. To delete a volume, use
the UP/DN arrow keys and select it with the bar and press
<ENTER>. You will still be given an opportunity to abort
the operation at this point by answering Y/N on the menu.
Obviously this operation is not final till you save the
modified catalog to disk...but at that point, it is
permanent.
ERASE FILE:
<E>rase a file from MENU 2. It is the same process as
deleting a volume from MENU 1. The difference in the two
operations is, when you Erase a file, the slot it occupied
on the screen is shown >>DELETED<< instead of removed
altogether. As with volume deletion, the operation is not
final until you save the modified catalog to disk.
Page 15
COMMENTING FILE:
<C>omments may be added to files *and* volumes. To comment
a volume you just select the <V>olume list from MENU 2 and
select <C> from the menu. A small editor aids you in the
input of your comments. A 40x2 window accepts your
comments. The UP/DN arrow keys will move between the
lines, the HOME/END keys are active and INSERT is the
standard mode (there is NO overstrike mode). DELETE works
as well. PgUp/PgDn will accept your comments and
immediately place you in the comments field of the
preceding or succeeding file, ready to type more comments.
OPERATING SYSTEM (Shell):
<O> - from MENU 2 will execute a call to create a temporary
shell in DOS so you can copy, delete, inspect and otherwise
wreak havoc on your poor unsuspecting system. If enough
memory is not available, this feature will refuse to work.
CHANGING VOLUME LABEL:
<#> - chosen when in the <U>pdate section, will read the
present disk label, tell you what it is and ask you if you
wish to change it. You MUST have a drive selected for this
feature to function.
USING THE .DEF FILE:
This option, frankly can be tricky if you want a different
name than PMCAT.DEF. PmCat+ will *always* look for
'PMCAT.DEF' when it is run, if it isn't found the internal
defaults are used. The option of providing the alternative
.DEF files was to cover the possibility that someone might
want an alternative color set or other defaults on
occassion. Frankly, I use PMCAT every day and never use
this option, but it was an option that was so simple to
offer and doesn't get in the way of anything else, that it
was put in.
Page 16
USING WILDCARDS:
PmCat+'s wildcards are a bit more flexible than DOS's.
E.g., if you type *ca*.* with DOS's dir command, it will
show ALL files. It sees the first '*' and then looks for
the '.' and extension wildcard. If you used that same
wildcard in PmCat+ it would find all files with 'ca'
anywhere in their filename (not extension).
When searching for a string in Comments, don't forget to
precede it with a '*' unless you are certain the first
character of the comments you want will match the first
character of the string you search for.
Where '*' assumes ALL characters match, '?' assumes the
match of only a SINGLE character.
