Please read through this entire document. I know it's not super exciting, but I've edited and supplemented several items, and it may save you and me time in the long run. Thanks.
The file 'FileBuddy4.3ReadMe.html' included in this package is an HTML version of this document (with links to the topics) which can be viewed in Netscape Navigator™ when double-clicked. To have it open in Internet Explorer™, use File Buddy to change the creator signature of 'FileBuddy4.3ReadMe.html' to that of Internet Explorer.
Registering File Buddy
File Buddy is shareware. Shareware is try-before-you-buy-software. It is not use-it-as-long-as-you-like-for-free software. That kind of software is called freeware. If you like it and use it more than 10 days, please read the document Upgrading/Registering FB and register.
Overview
File Buddy is a general utility for working with files and folders. It can:
Obtain and set a wide range of file and folder information.
Find files using an extensive set of search criteria.
Find files containing specified resources.
Modify a batch of file names, e.g., remove ".txt" from several file names at once.
Rename a batch of files sequentially.
Create custom icons: from PICTs on the clipboard; from other icons; for folders; with blank icons; using only small icons.
Create aliases easily in you favorite places.
Create volume and folder inventories that can be compared to report new, deleted, and modified files and folders.
Find empty files and folders, duplicate files, unattached aliases, and unused preference files.
Rebuild desktops, even on floppies.
Move and copy files.
Delete resource forks and data forks.
Erase files and unused disk space.
Note that all dragging features of File Buddy require that you have Macintosh Drag and Drop installed, either as an extension, or as a part of system 7.5 and above.
See the Latest Changes and Fixes topic for a description of release version bugs that have been fixed since v3.4.8.
Mac OS 8 Compatibility
A few problems were found with 4.1.1 running under Mac OS 8. Anything serious has been fixed and File Buddy 4.3 has been tested with Mac OS 8. The verdict so far is that File Buddy runs fine under Mac OS 8. The only exception is rebuilding desktops, and this is discussed in the section Known Problems in File Buddy 4.3.
68K, PowerPC native, and fat binary versions now available!
Starting with version 4.2, File Buddy is distributed by way of an installer that will install your choice of 68K, PowerPC native, or fat binary versions. The installer for File Buddy 4.3 was created using Installer VISE Lite from MindVision Software. For more information on Installer VISE Lite, contact:
MindVision Software
7201 North 7th Street
Lincoln, NE 68521-8913
Voice: 402-477-3269
Fax: 402-477-1395
Internet: mindvision@mindvision.com
http://www.mindvision.com
Changes and Fixes in v4.3
21 September 1997
Changes
The Get Info Window
Changed File Buddy's behavior when launched by dropping a file onto File Buddy's icon and it comes up in the Get Info window. In prior versions, trying to drop a second file produced an alert that said "Only one Get Info window is allowed when File Buddy is opened by dropping files to the Get Info window.", and File Buddy would quit when the window was closed. Dropping a second file opens another Get Info window, and sets File Buddy to not quit when they close.
File droplets created by the Get Info window now have the option to launch files dropped on them after making changes. Double-click a droplet to set this capablility.
The Find Window
As before, if a folder in the Find window's folder list is not available, the icon next to it is dimmed (or blank). Now, instead of ignoring clicks on dimmed icons, one of two alerts will appear. If the item resides on a volume that is not available, an alert asks you to insert the disk on which the folder resides. If the folder has been deleted, a different alert is displayed.
In the destination popup (the one above the OK and Cancel buttons), the last two items are only available if a file list window is available. Previously they were always available, but did nothing if there were no file list window open.
File List Windows
The Rename Sequentially... command (in the Special popup menu in file list windows) has a new feature. If the base name entered begins with an asterick '*', the rest of the base name and number are appended to each file's original name instead of replacing the original file name with the base name.
You can now drag the selection from a file list window to a File Buddy window in front of it without bringing the file list window to the front. The current selection is now outlined when the window in not in front.
Copying Files
File Buddy now supports multiple copy operations, and the copy progress dialogs are no longer modal.
Copying files is more responsive to canceling, faster, and more accurate in predicting whether or not there is adequate space to complete the copy.
There are several changes to what is seen when copying files with the Replace Different option: First, only the number of items that will actually be copied is shown, not the number of items that would be copied in a normal copy operation. Second, the progress bar now reflects only the progress of files actually copied. Third, while skipping files that don't need to be copied, the only feedback is the spinning watch cursor. It may appear that nothing is happening when you look at the progress window at those times, but File Buddy is actually working hard at identifying files and folders that don't need to be copied. The two improvements that result from these changes are that a Replace Different copy operation is much faster if there are a lot of files to skip, and the information in the copy progress window is more indicative of what File Buddy is really doing.
Misc
Volumes over 4GB are now fully supported.
When selecting disks to search, the label "<custom set>" has been replaced with the number of disks currently selected, for example "< 3 disks >".
Find Duplicate Files... has been rewritten. Previously, a duplicate file scan could only be run on whole volumes, and as a consequence of the design, the volumes had to be unlocked (no CDs, for instance). The new implementation allows running a duplicate file scan on any files you choose. The command gives you a window with a list into which files, folders, and disks can be added. Read the online help for more details about the new implementation, which should be faster. In addition, the window that displays the progress of a duplicate file scan is no longer modal, so you can do other things while it runs in the background.
Added a Window menu for accessing windows hidden behind other windows.
Multiple windows of the same type are now offset if necessary to prevent a window from being created in the same place as an existing window.
The Get Info, online help, Find, preferences scan reporting, unattached aliases reporting, empty files reporting, and duplicate files windows remember their last size and location and reopen there next time.
Sorting code was rewritten to make if require less memory and be a tiny bit faster. Many features sort one thing or another, so there should be fewer "out of memory" messages.
Some alerts always came up on the main screen, even if the window to which the message applied was on a different monitor. Fixed.
Window and dialog positioning is improved..
The caps lock key is now ignored when checking for drop keys.
Fixes
A bug introduced in v4.2 kept File Buddy from being able to access all the memory it had available to it. Fixed.
You couldn't type into the text fields in the Preferences window (under File Finding). Fixed.
After renaming a group of files with either of the multiple file renaming commands in the file list special popup menu, if any items could not be renamed (it was locked, had its name locked, etc.), File Buddy would crash when trying to tell you some files could not be renamed. Fixed.
Rectangles zoom out when some windows open (such as the About... box). There were not always zooming to the right place. Fixed.
On rare occasion, File Buddy could fail to pick up which keys were held down when something was dropped on it even though the cursor indicated otherwise. Fixed.
Fixes in v4.2.2
25 August 1997
How do you release two versions in the same day? Easy. Fix two different bugs that will affect your registered users. This has not been the best day. 4.2 had a serious bug that I scrambled to fix before too many people downloaded it. During the day, some other problems came to light:
Another serial number problem. This one kept File Buddy from reading the serial number at launch. Fixed.
Someone reported that the copy of File Buddy being installed did not have its BNDL bit set. CodeWarrior is supposed to take care of that, but apparently File Buddy isn't the only piece of software around with a bug. The BNDL bit is set in 4.2.2.
Some people had a problem with the custom installs options of 4.2.1. Fixed.
To my registered users who downloaded 4.2 and/or 4.2.1:
My apologies for the inconvenience and frustration these bugs have caused you. I appreciate your honesty and support, and work hard to justify that support by providing an ever-better product. I believe we are back on track with 4.2.2. Special thanks to all those who reported problems quickly.
Fix in v4.2.1
25 August 1997
A really dumb programming error caused File Buddy 4.2 to think all serial numbers are bogus. My most sincerely and humble apologies on this one, especially since it only affected registered users.
Changes and Fixes in v4.2
24 August 1997
Changes
Bug reports from v4.1.1 have been extremely light, so there has been time to work on other things. They are:
The Get Info Window:
The icon popup menu has changed. The Make Folder Icon... command has been replaced by Make Sys 7 Folder Icon... and Make MacOS 8 Folder Icon... commands.
When the Get Info window changes an item's info, any file list windows containing that item are updated.
The icon is now marked if a custom icon is to be added, changed, or removed.
Setting one of the dates to the other using the Creation Date or Modified Date items in the date popup menus works a little differently now. Read the online help for details.
Dates can be copied from a file in the finder to the item in the Get Info window by dragging the file from the Finder to the date you want to change.
There is no longer an alert asking to save changes if the window is dismissed with the Cancel All button.
The Find Window:
The folder list section of the Find window has been completely reworked. Read the online help topic Finding Files for details. I never really liked the old implementation, and I'm much happier with this one. It's easier to use, looks better, and tends to be faster, especially when searching a single folder.
The layout of the Find window has been adjusted to provide a neater appearance.
Other Changes:
The Get Info drag&drops are now referred to in documentation as "droplets", and their code has been rewritten (at last), so they will no longer mistakenly complain that File Buddy hasn't been registered when if fact it has. They may occasionally launch File Buddy briefly to see if you've registered. This is normal. This way they keep working even if you upgrade to a later version. Droplets created by previous version of File Buddy will still be confused and complain. Also, the droplets have a new icon. You may have to trash any old droplets and rebuild your desktop to see the new icon.
Versions of File Buddy prior to 4.2 will not run if the current startup disk is locked (such as a CD-ROM) because they cannot create a preferences file. Starting with 4.2, File Buddy will create a preferences file in the folder containing the File Buddy application if it cannot create one on the startup disk.
The preferences window is no longer modal.
There is a now a preference to open an empty file list window at launch.
Added an Empty Trash command to the Special menu.
There is a new icon and file type for the FB Prefs preferences file. The file type was changed to conform to standard practice, and the icon was changed to improve it and make it more consistant with other File Buddy icons. Note: The change in file type will cause versions of File Buddy prior to 4.2 to complain that there is a problem with the preferences file and refuse to run.
There is a new icon and file type for the File Buddy Help file.
Fixes
Fixed a bug in the Desktop>Update command so that it works now. It is still the case that the other two options (Rebuild and Replace) will still lose comments in info windows, no matter what version of the system software you are using (I will look into this).
The icons of some system files and folders were not being found correctly. This has been fixed.
The Unattached Aliases window could be resized small enough to put part of one button outside the window. This has been fixed.
Creating a custom icon with a non-square picture larger that 32 pixels on either side would fail. Fixed.
Several minor fixes, most of which fix things that have probably never affected anyone.
The Restart Finder command was not working under Mac OS 8. Finder would quit as intended, but not restart. Fixed. Since the code to rebuild desktops also quits and restarts the Finder, that code has been changed as well.
Known Problems in File Buddy 4.2.2
Some users have reported crashing when clicking on the little magnifying glass in the lower left corner of some of the file directory boxes. I have never been able to reproduce the problem, though it now seems it is a problem with the FaxAction Extension.
After dragging a file from one file list window to another file list window without the option key down, File Buddy moves the file to the other window. Or so it should. Seems it copies on some computers. I don't know why.
On some computers, if you drag a file from a file list window to a location in the Finder that is on a different volume than the item, the Finder will put up an alert about error -1,708 and do nothing. On others it will copy the file. If the file and the destination folder are on the same volume, the Finder will move the file to that location. I'm still looking into the problem. If it happens to you, switching immediately to the Finder after releasing the drag seems to help.
When you drag text out of the File Buddy Help window, the style information gets lost.
It has been reported that the help window can't be accessed from the Apple Guide menu if you are using Apple Guide 2.1. This is a bug in that version of Apple Guide. The problem does not show up in versions 2.0.2 or 2.1.1.
The Finder of Mac OS 8 has been known to not show the correct icon for some files after rebuilding the desktop of non-floppy drives. Specifically, sometimes an icon is blank or the 1-bit (black and white) icon is used even though a color icon is available. This may be a bug in Finder 8.0 (not the only one I've found), as the correct icon is available (File Buddy can get it from the desktop). Restarting Finder doesn't correct the problem, though they always appear correctly after restarting the computer. I will be studying this one and hope to have it fixed by v4.3.
The memory allocation fields in the Get Info window are not PPC savvy. When virtual memory is off on a PowerPC Mac and you do a Get Info in the Finder for a PPC native application, the suggested, minimum, and preferred values in the window are the sum of the size of the application's data fork (where PowerPC code is stored) and the memory values stored in the application. When virtual memory is turned on, the size of the data fork is not included. File Buddy does not include the size of the data fork in either case. This will be fixed by v4.3. It would have bben fixed in this version, but it will require redesigning the info window-no small thing.
4.1.1 11 July 1997
Fixed a bug for users of ObiWan that caused a crash when the PPC version of File Buddy was switched to the background.
Fixed a related bug that would cause a crash when the PPC version of File Buddy received a 'quit' Apple Event while in the background.
4.1 27 June 1997
While copying files, the progress bar reflects skipped files when using the Replace Different option.
Rebuilding the desktop is now an option for an action on a dropped disk. Added this to make it easier to rebuild a floppy's desktop by dropping it onto File Buddy. The default keys to hold down are Command + 'd', but you can set them to your preference. Also added Rebuild Desktop button to the dialog that lets you choose the action to take on dropped items, and the Balloon Help has been corrected for that dialog.
The File Path Popup Menus topic now works in the help window.
Fixed several minor bugs.
First PPC native version.
Some users have reported crashing when clicking on the little magnifying glass in the lower left corner of some of the file directory boxes. I have never been able to reproduce the problem, but it seems to have been traced to an extension called the FaxAction Extension.
4.0.4 23 May 1997
There is now an Erase Files command in the file list special popup menu.
A DebugStr() call unintentionally left in at the end of the code that erases the unused space on a disk would cause a crash if no debugger were installed. Fixed.
The first time a file list window was opened after a new preferences file was created, the default button marker (little black line under the default button) appeared as a gray line spanning the width of the window. This has been fixed.
File directory dialogs used to select applications now display aliases to applications as well as actual applications.
4.0.3 17 May 1997
When the registration form was saved to disk, the file was not closed until File Buddy quit. This has been fixed.
Some machines would crash when doing a Find that did not use a name in the search criteria. This has been fixed.
Moving a folder to a different volume would sometimes copy without deleting the original. This has been fixed.
The code to save a file list to a text file has been reconnected.
The drag & drop applications for setting file info have not been rewritten yet. Those created by 4.0.3 will show a little more current information, but will still not be able to recognize a valid 4.x serial number. This will hopefully be addressed soon.
File and free disk space erasing are new to version 4.0.3.
Fixed a bug that would cause finds using More Options and searching for exactly one file name with the "is any of" setting to ignore the name.
4.0.2 12 April 1997
Version number is correct in registration form.
Fixed some minor bugs when pasting a picture that isn't square into an icon in the Get Info window.
Registration will now persist after quitting.
Some searches that shouldn't report folders would report them anyway. This has been fixed.
The Erase commands have been removed from the Cleaning menu. The code is written but is not currently "hooked up" since it hasn't been tested enough. They will be back soon.
4.0.1 27 March 1997
There were beta alerts that prevented access to the registration form. These should have been removed as of version 4.0b4, when registration was allowed, but I forgot the alerts and no one reported them. Now they're gone.
Bugs in 4.0b6 that are fixed in 4.0
There were some problems when doing certain name-based searches such as "starts with any of". That code has been reworked. It now works correctly, and in many cases is faster.
Moving a file to a different volume-essentially a copy followed by a delete-was only copying and not deleting the original. This has been fixed.
Canceling a resource file search while the Cancel button was the default would not really cancel. This has been fixed.
Fixed a bug that would result in folders being reported in certain searches intended to find only files.
Fixed a bug in setting the label of a file using the Get Info window.
Select All now works correctly in the file directory dialog when it is available.
Fixed a bug in the Find Empties reporting window that caused a crash if you marked something to not be reported and then trashed something else.
Bugs in 3.4.8 that are fixed in 4.0
The get file directory boxes with finding capability now look for extra space added at the bottom when using SuperBoomerang's Get Info and clean up the info when expanding.
Canceling out of making a folder icon in the Get Info window is now respected.
The Find Duplicates code has been rewritten. There were some problems with it that are now fixed.
Fixed an apparently long-standing bug when restricting a find to or excluding specific folders using the list in the Find window. This feature now works.
Sped up searches that use the Intersect with Existing List option.
When viewing the results of a Preferences folder scan, Command-"." and the escape key were clicking the button to trash the current file. This has been fixed. Now the window goes away.
Fixes a bug that could happen when expanding the Find window while it's spanning 2 monitors.
What the Future Holds:
There are a few things I wanted for 4.3 that didn't quite make it, but will appear sometime. They are:
A better multiple file select dialog.
Making the preferences file more resistant to damage.
Other stuff.
Disclaimer:
I have endeavored to make File Buddy as reliable and stable as possible. Nevertheless, it undoubtedly has bugs of which I am currently unaware. I don't know of any bad ones, but just about every piece of software with more than 20 lines of code has bugs. I use File Buddy all the time. However, you--as I--use it at your own risk.
Please contact me if you find any bugs, unexpected behavior, or have a suggestion for a new feature. I welcome ideas, but please keep in mind I can't use them all, or File Buddy will need over 4 megabytes of disk space, and the interface will suffer terribly. Only features which have wide appeal can make it in.
Well, that's all for now folks. PLEASE let me know if you find any bugs, so I can fix them ASAP.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the people who registered a prior version of File Buddy for their financial and moral support. Without their appreciation, File Buddy 4.3 would never have been done.
Thanks to those users who reported bugs so I could fix them and you could have a better product.
Thanks to everyone on CompuServe that helped me with technical questions, now too numerous to mention. Thanks to everyone who tested some version of File Buddy to see if I had been successful in fixing a bug I couldn't reproduce.
Thank you,
Laurence Harris
17 Old University Station Rd
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-1572
919-933-9595
Contact Information:
Web: <http://www.skytag.com/>
FTP: <ftp://ftp.skytag.com/skytag.com/>
E-mail:
CompuServe: 76150,1027
Internet: <76150.1027@compuserve.com> (preferred) or <larry@skytag.com>
A few e-mail requests:
1. Please do not e-mail files without asking first, and if I okay a file, please send it to <skytag@mindspring.com>.
2. E-mail me jusdiciously. Since the same guy designs the software, writes the software, processes registrations, and answers e-mails, the more e-mail I get, the less time I have for other activities like writing code.
