The Fred Fish Collection 1.5

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Text File | 1992-02-21 | 14KB | 298 lines

FishCat V1.1 ============ So, Kickstart 2.0 is here, and boy does it look GREAT!! (thanks guys :-)) But all of your applications still open their own screens in hires, non-interlace embarassing you in front of your friends. Once I experienced 2.0 along with its usable Workbench, I wanted EVERYTHING to open a window on the workbench with 3D buttons (no read/blue glasses required). FishCat is intended to be a replacement for Aquarium. Aquarium is one of my more "dog-eared" programs, and although it ran beautifully under 2.0, it was somewhat of an aesthetic shock from my crisp hires, interlace, overscan workbench. I also found myself using Aquarium to look for programs, and writing the items I wanted on a slip of paper. So I said to myself, "HEY!! these are the nineties... and you want to learn 2.0 anyway." FishCat allows you to search a database consisting of the programs on all existing Fish disks. The influence of Aquarium is extremely evident, but I hope there are enough enhancements to make some people happy. REQUIREMENTS ------------ FishCat was designed to be run on a HIRES, INTERLACED, OVERSCAN screen. Its window is 640x200, so it will fit on a hires, non-interlaced screen, but things will be a bit out of proportion (I personally feel that running your Amiga in less than hires, interlaced mode does a disservice to the Amiga and makes it look like a toy although for memory reasons, I realize it can be necessary). You MUST have the HELVETICA font in both 11 and 13 points available for this thing to look suitably impressive. While certainly not required, I would recommend finding a terminal program that opens a public screen (or at least opens on the workbench). TERM 1.9c is my personal choice (but my demands are very reasonable, so it may not meet your needs). FishCat functions very well on my A3000/16, but I can make no performance promises on slower machines. It requires ~290K when running. I have not tested FishCat on a floppy, but I assume performance would be pathetic as in any application of this type. PERFORMANCE ----------- I have spent a reasonable amount of time optimizing many of the searches in FishCat. On an Amiga 3000/16, the entire current database can be searched for an arbitrary string in the description field in approximately 50 seconds compared to 1 minute 30 seconds for Aquarium. Title and flag searches take less than 3 seconds. FEATURES -------- - Reasonably fast searches - Can open on a specific public screen or the default public screen - "Iconifies" (using the 2.0 "zoom" gadget) - Database is generally less susceptible to corruption than other efforts - Internal support for adding new fish disks. - Disks can be added in any order/combination - Supports dropping "contents files" on the FishCat window to automatically add them to the database (AppWindow) - Database corruption is almost always limited to one fish disk - Errors in the database can be corrected by simply re-adding the files - Classy 2.0 look - Supports configuration through tooltypes - Runs from both CLI and Workbench - Tons o' nice thoughtful features to make your life easier Getting Around in FishCat ========================= Starting FishCat ---------------- FishCat can be run from both the CLI and Workbench. If run from the CLI, it accepts a public screen name as its only parameter. If this is not specified, FishCat will open on the default public screen (usually the workbench screen. I would suggest setting the stack to at least 10000 or you may experience problems (this is taken care of automatically when running from the workbench). When run from its icon, FishCat supports the following tool types: ICONIFY - If set to YES, FishCat will be iconified immediately after being run PUBSCREEN - If specified, it is set equal to the name (case sensitive) of the public screen on which to open the FishCat window. USERBUTTON - If specified, the value will be used as the name of the "user" button rather than the default name("User"). Only the first eight characters are used. The Controls ------------ The FishCat window contains several gadgets which are described below: - Item list This is a scrolling list of the items found so far in the current search. It will consist of all of the items on the current disk in the case of a disk search, or all of the items matching the given title, description, and flags as selected in the case of a string/flag search. This list is functional during a search. Clicking on an item in this list during a search terminates the search and displays the item selected. - Backward/Forward buttons These buttons begin a downward/upward search (ie. a search from the current disk to lower/higher disks). In the case of a disk search, this will advance to the next lower/higher disk in the database. - Stop This button will terminate a search in progress. - Goto button (» «) This button (situated immediately to the right of the Forward search button) changes to disk search mode and sets the current disk to the disk on which the current item is located. This is useful if you find a particular item, and you want to see what other items are on that same disk. - Search type These radio buttons select which type of search will be performed by Backward/Forward buttons. Clicking Disk search will immediately take you to the disk number typed in the corresponding string gadget (if in the database). Clicking "String/Flag" search will clear the item window and prepare for a search using the flags specified at the right, and the strings entered in the title and description string gadgets. In order for the title and/or description strings to be considered in the search, the corresponding checkboxes must be checked. - Description box This scrolling box contains the description of the currently selected item. Immediately above it is the disk number and name of the current item. - Match/Show button This button has two states, "Match" and "Show". When in "match mode", the selected flags will be used during any subsequent string/flag searches. When in "show mode", the flags set for the currently selected item are displayed in the flag gadgets. - Set Button This button is only available in show mode. It sets the flags for the current item to those selected using the flag gadgets. -User flag The user flag acts like a normal flag in every respect. It can be set, cleared, and searched for. Although by default this flag is named "User", it can be renamed using the USERBUTTON tooltype (I personally name mine "Download" and use it to mark those files I want to download later). The User flag is different from the other flags in only one respect. There is no need to select the set button to set the state of the user flag. As soon as the user flag is clicked, the entry for that item is changed in the database (it must still be saved to disk if you want the change to be permanent). There is also a menu item that can be used to clear the user flag for ALL items in the database. This flag is intended to be used as a volatile flag to mark items for whatever reason you want to mark them. NOTES: Holding the SHIFT key when clicking on the Backward/Forward buttons, will take you to the first/last disk before performing the specified function. This means that shift-clicking while in disk search simply takes you to the first or last disk, but while performing a string/flag search, the search will merely start from the lowest/highest disk. If a search is interrupted, clicking the Backward/Forward button will continue the search from the disk where the search was stopped (clearing the item list first). Typing in the disk number gadget and pressing enter will auomatically switch to disk search mode and goto the selected disk. Typing in the title or description string gadgets and pressing enter will automatically switch to string/flag search mode and check the entered field. If the window is iconified during a search, the disk being searched is displayed in the ttle bar of the FishCat window. The small buttons to the left of the title and description string gagdets can be used to copy the name of the current item to the corresponding string gadget. Adding New Disks ---------------- Adding new fish disks to FishCat is mind bogglingly simple. You can... A) Drop one or more "Contents.###" files on the FishCat window (this will automatically add them to the database) B) Select "Read New Disks..." from the Project menu. This will bring up the ASL file requester to select a file. The selected "Contents.###" file will be added to the database. If you do not select a file, but click "Okay" in the file requester with only a directory selected, The entire directory will be read and all contents files will be added to the database. If FishCat reports that a file is corrupt, this merely means that it could not decipher the format of the file. Many early fish disks (<100) were poorly formatted at best, and will not be added to the database correctly. If this happens, merely edit the contents file and try again. The file must have the text "This is disk ###" as its first non-blank line, and each item should consist of the item name followed immediately by a description (possibly indented). I had NO problems with ANY disk after 200 (and only a couple between 100 and 200). Also, my algorithm is much more robust than I described above, but the above format is your best bet. The Database ------------ I have opted not to support the aquarium database format. This is largely due to the fact that I had corrupted my database one too many times trying to add new disks. My database consists of an INDEX containing the name, flags, and offset for each entry in the library. There is also a "data" directory containing one directory for every 100 Fish disks. Each disk directory contains upto 100 "Contents" files. These contents files are stripped down versions of the ACTUAL contents files located on the original disks. I realize it may seem absurd to store each disk in its own file rather than one HUGE one, but I have experienced no problems, it dramatically reduces the chance of corrupting the database, and it allows for faster operation in many cases. The only file you really need to backup when adding new disks might be your index file, as it is theoretically possible to trick the program into reading an invalid file. Again, this could only corrupt the index and even this is not likely. To facilitate this, there is a "Save as..." menu item for backing up the index. Possible Future Enhancements ---------------------------- The following are some of the features that might be implemented if I get any support: - Support for more "contents file" formats (including USENET posts, and Aquarium updates) - Better error checking, and limiting of user input at appropriate times to avoid possible confusion regarding the interface. - AREXX support (mostly as a learning experience, but it could be used to force a terminal program to download the selected file for instance) - Faster searches - Support for more system configurations - More tool types as suggested by users Special Thanks -------------- I would be remiss if I did not thank the following people: - Fred Fish for providing an AMAZING and UNPARALLELED service to the Amiga community - B Lennart Olson for Aquarium which I used to find most of the utilities and programs on my system. - Matt Dillon for DICE. An amazing compiler(try it, you'll like it :-)) - John Novak for beta testing, and many helpful suggestions - My girlfriend for allowing me to ignore her long enough to write this program - And FAR FROM LEAST, the Commodore team who gave us and continues to improve this incredible machine (WOW!!) THIS PROGRAM IS SHAREWARE!!! ============================ If you use this program, clear your conscience and motivate further development by sending $10 to the following address: Matt Brown 2403 W. Springfield Ave. Apt.Y-8 Champaign, IL 61821 If 10 bucks is out of your league, at least let me know you're using it, and send me your comments. E-Mail sent to mks22040@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu will also be forwarded to me. Most of all, enjoy this program!! If something is missing that is necessary for this program to be useful to you, LET ME KNOW! I can't change it if I don't know about it. Oh yah... ofcourse, I am not responsible for any damage this program might cause. It has done me no harm in ANY of its incarnations, so I would classify it as "Mostly Harmless" :-)