ARC Shell Documentation
Version 2.3
Copyright 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 Charles F. Johnson
and Little Green Footballs Software
Last revision: Monday, January 8, 1990
Part One - Introduction
-----------------------
ARC Shell is a GEM program which is designed to work with the
popular ST archiving utility ARC.TTP. Essentially, ARC Shell adds a
GEM interface to the ARC program, letting you point and click to
select the various options instead of typing a command line. (I
don't know about you, but one of the main reasons I bought an ST was
to get away from all that MS-DOS/Unix command line silliness.)
ARC Shell also contains a complete GEM-based disk utilities
package, that lets you copy files (with wildcards and with query),
delete and rename files, create and delete folders, show the free
space on any connected drive, and even run other programs...all
without exiting to the desktop. ARC Shell's current configuration
can be saved at any point, so that the options and settings you use
most often will be selected when you run the program. In addition,
you can use the ST desktop's "Install Application" feature to set
things up so that ARC Shell will automatically run when you
double-click on a file with an extension of ARC.
This documentation will focus primarily on the operation of
ARC Shell; it's not intended to teach you how to use ARC. However,
I've included the manual for version 5.20 of ARC in the archive which
contains this file and the latest version of ARC Shell. Refer to
this manual if you have any questions about the ARC program itself,
such as "What's the difference between Updating and Freshening?" or
"What does Convert Archive do?" The original version of ARC for the
ST was version 5.12, ported by Harvey Johnson. The most recent
version is ARC 5.21, ported to the ST by Howard Chu. Version 5.21 is
available on Compuserve, Delphi, and GEnie, and on many local ST
BBSes.
(Note: Since the ARC 5.21 documentation is quite lengthy, I
stopped including it in version 1.98 of ARC Shell. It should be
easy to find this documentation on the major info services, if you
still need it.)
PLEASE NOTE: At the end of this document is the revision
history of ARC Shell, including any new changes implemented in the
current version.
Part Two - The usual shareware plea
-----------------------------------
Versions 1.95 and above of ARC Shell are "shareware," which
means that if you like and use my program you're expected to pay
for it just as you would be expected to pay for a "commercial"
program. The registration fee for ARC Shell is $15.00 ... or
more if you happen to be struck by a random philanthropic impulse.
I've been continually updating and improving ARC Shell since it
was first written, and I think you'll be pleased with the result;
letters with checks in them would please me equally! If you end up
using ARC Shell regularly, please send a check to:
Charles F. Johnson (ARC Shell)
P.O. Box 1250
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
If you'd like me to acknowledge that I've received your
shareware payment, please include a self-addressed stamped
envelope.
Thanks for your support! And remember -- if you'd like to see
more shareware programs like ARC Shell, you have to do your part
and pay for the shareware programs you use.
Part Three - Using ARC Shell
----------------------------
When you run ARC Shell, make sure you have the ARC program
(ARC.TTP) in the same directory with ARCSHL23.PRG. The very first
thing ARC Shell does is look in the current directory for ARC.TTP.
If a file with this name cannot be found, ARC Shell will show you a
file selector asking, "Where is ARC.TTP?" and you will be able to
locate the ARC program with the file selector. When ARC Shell finds
the ARC program, it will then display a large dialog box, with
buttons representing the available options.
What you're looking at.
In the upper left of the main dialog box is a box containing
buttons labeled "ADD to Archive," "EXTRACT from Arc," etc. The
buttons in this box are the main ARC commands; you'll notice that the
default ARC command is "EXTRACT from Arc." Only one of these buttons
can be selected at a time - if you click on a button to select it,
the previously selected button will be turned "off." (These are
known as "radio buttons.")
To the right of the ARC command box is a box containing the
ARC "flags." The button labeled "Hold Screen" is selected by default
when you first run ARC Shell. The buttons in this box can be turned
off and on individually; unlike radio buttons, more than one can be
selected at a time. The button labeled "Encrypt/Decrypt" is a
special case; when you turn this button on, the code word entry line
beneath it becomes active and the edit cursor (the thin vertical
line) is placed on the entry line, allowing you to type in an
encryption keyword. The code word can be up to eight characters
long.
Directly underneath the ARC command box is a box containing
buttons to let you select the device which will be used for LIST and
VERBOSE LIST commands, and the drive for ARC and DATA files. The
drive buttons can be operated in two ways; you can either type in the
drive letter by hand, using the up and down arrows to move from one
button to another, or use the mouse to click on the button. If you
click the button, a box with 16 buttons representing the 16 possible
logical drives will pop up, allowing you to select the drive with the
mouse. Only active drives will be selectable in this box, and
hitting Return will exit without changing the current drive.
Finally, along the bottom of the main box are buttons labeled
"Info," "ARC," "Disk," "Config," and "Exit." The Info button will
display a copyright message, and a gentle reminder to send in your
shareware contribution.
OK, let's do something.
When you've set all the options in the ARC Shell dialog box
the way you want them, click on the "ARC" button to start things
going. NOTE: You may also double-click on any of the buttons in the
ARC command box (Extract, Add, List, etc.) to execute that command
immediately without the extra step of clicking the "ARC" button.
Depending on which ARC command you've selected, what happens
next will vary slightly. In all cases however, the first thing ARC
Shell will do is display a file selector to allow you to choose an
ARC file. If you're creating a new archive file with the ADD or MOVE
commands, simply type in a name for the new file on the file
selector's "Selection" line, and hit Return or click on OK. If
you're using any of the other commands (which all operate on
previously-created archive files), click on the name of the ARC file
you're working with and click OK. The file selector's "Cancel"
button always returns you to the main ARC Shell dialog box.
The LIST, VERBOSE LIST, or TEST commands only take one
parameter - the name of an ARC file - so they will be acted upon as
soon as you exit the file selector. Any of the other commands will
now require a second parameter, the name of the DATA files on which
you're operating.
If you're ADDing files to an archive and you leave the
"Selection" line in the DATA file selector blank, ARC Shell
interprets this as "all files," and passes a search spec of *.* to
the ARC program. If you type in a name on the selection line or
click on a filename, only that filename will be passed to ARC. Also,
when ADDing files, you will always return to the DATA file selector
when ARC is finished adding a file or files, so that you can choose
more files to add without having to select "ADD to Archive" every
time. You must click on the file selector's "Cancel" button to exit
back to the main dialog box.
If you leave the "Selection" line blank when you're EXTRACTing
files from an archive, you'll be faced with the following choices
about how to extract the files:
ALL - Extracts all files from the archive into the
specified directory. When the operation is complete,
ARC Shell will ask if you wish to delete the original
ARC file.
To Folder - First creates a folder (a subdirectory)
with the same name as the archive file (minus the .ARC
extension) in the specified directory, then extracts all
files from the archive into the folder. Again, when the
operation is complete, you'll be given the chance to
delete the original ARC file.
W/ Query - When you select the "Query" option, ARC Shell
reads through the entire ARC file and gets the name of
every file it contains, then displays all the names in a
large dialog box. There is room in the box for 80
filenames; if an archive contains more than 80 files a
page indicator will become visible in the lower left of
the box and you can page forward and back to see the rest
of the filenames. (The maximum is 720.) The Query box
lets you mark individual files or groups of files for
extraction by clicking on them with the mouse. You can
click and hold down the button while dragging the mouse to
select or deselect files, and double-click on any file to
select it in one step. (Note: if you double-click on a
file when other files are selected, it begins the
extraction process for the entire group of selected
files.) If you want to abort a multiple extraction after
the process has already started, press and hold down the
Alternate key. (Another note: the Query box is also
available for the "Delete from ARC" and "Copy to StdOut"
commands. Just choose "w/ Query from the alert box that
appears afters selecting either of these commands.)
Cancel - Lets you change your mind and return to the
main ARC Shell dialog box.
The "COPY to StdOut" command can be used to view text files
contained within an archive without extracting them first. When this
command is selected, ARC Shell will display an alert box with the
choices "ALL" and "w/ Query." The Query option works in the same way
as with the EXTRACT command; the filenames will be read from the
archive, and you can choose which file(s) to view using the Query
dialog box. When you use "COPY to StdOut" to view text files, you
can pause the scrolling by typing Control-S and resume by typing
Control-Q. The COPY operation can also be aborted at any time by
typing Control-C.
The LIST and VERBOSE LIST commands are used to display the
files contained within an archive. You can direct the output from
the LIST commands to the screen, to the printer, or to an ASCII disk
file by clicking on the buttons labeled "List Device" in the main ARC
Shell dialog box.
There are two buttons in the ARC Shell dialog box which are
intended to be used only with ARC version 5.21; "Overwrite Existing
Files" and "Squash." Earlier versions of ARC will report an error if
either of these two buttons are selected. The buttons labeled
"Crunch" and "Squash" are used to choose between two different types
of data compression schemes used by ARC 5.21 -- only the "Crunch"
option is supported by earlier versions. So bear in mind that if you
use the "Squash" method, people who don't have ARC 5.21 will be
unable to extract those files.
Part Four - The ARC Shell Disk Utilities
----------------------------------------
To access the ARC Shell Disk Utilities, click on the button
labeled "Disk" at the bottom of the main ARC Shell dialog box. The
Disk Utilities are a complete GEM-based file maintenance system - you
won't have to exit ARC Shell to copy files, delete files, etc. You
can even use the ARC Shell Disk Utilities to run other programs.
When you click on the "Copy File(s)" button, a file selector
appears to let you choose the source file(s) for the copy. You can
use any combinati If you type in a name on the selection line or
click on a filename, only that filename will be passed to ARC. Also,
when ADDing files, you will always return to the DATA file selector
when ARC is finished adding a file or files, so that you can choose
more files to add without having to select "ADD to Archive" every
time. You must click on the file selector's "Cancel" button to exit
back to the main dialog box.
If you leave the "Selection" line blank when you're EXTRACTing
files from an aQuery." The
Query option will prompt you whether or not to copy each file that
matches the wildcard specification. You can also delete groups of
files by using wildcards in the same way.
If the destination filename already exists when a copy
operation is being performed, a box will appear with the warning
"Name Conflict During Copy." You can either click OK to write over
the existing file or type in a new name for the copied file and hit
Return.
The "Run Program" command lets you execute a program from
within ARC Shell, and return to ARC Shell when the program
terminates. If the program you choose to run has the extension .TTP
(Tos Takes Parameters), a box will appear to let you enter a command
line to pass to the program.
The operation of the other disk commands should be fairly
self-explanatory. You can rename files, show the free space
remaining on a disk, create and delete folders, and format a floppy
disk. The format command lets you use drive A or B, and formats
either single or double sided. No fancy format options here - you
get the straight ahead standard format, 80 tracks, 9 sectors per
track.
At the bottom left of the Disk Utilities dialog is a box
titled "Copy/Delete Prompts" containing buttons labeled "On" and
"Off." When this option is set to "Off," you'll get no warning when
you delete a file or copy a file to an already existing name.
The Exit button returns you to the main ARC Shell dialog box.
Part Five - Configuring ARC Shell
---------------------------------
Clicking on the button labeled "Config" at the bottom of the
ARC Shell dialog box will take you to the configuration screen. This
screen lets you specify a pathname for both a "default" ARC utility
and an "alternate" ARC utility, and also set the directory to which
ARC's numerous temporary files will be written (the latter option is
only valid when ARC Shell is used with ARC 5.21). You can save these
options, as well as every other ARC Shell setting, with the button
labeled "Save Configuration"; after you do this, ARC Shell will
remember the settings the next time you run it.
The default ARC utility is the one which will be searched for
when the program first runs. If you haven't specified a default ARC
utility, ARC Shell looks in the current directory for a file named
ARC.TTP (see above). However, using the Config option, you can set
it so that ARC.TTP can be located anywhere when you run ARC Shell.
Click on the button labeled "Locate Default ARC Program" and use the
file selector to specify a new file and pathname.
Next, you can select an alternate ARC utility which can be
enabled by clicking on the button labeled "Use Alternate." To
specify the pathname for the alternate ARC utility, click on the
button labeled "Locate Alternate ARC Program" and use the file
selector. The purpose of the "Alternate" option is to allow you to
switch easily between two different ARC programs; for example, some
people prefer to use a shareware program called DCOPY (by Ralph
Walden) to do their ARC operations because it's quite a bit faster
than ARC.TTP.
When ARC is adding files to an archive, it creates quite a few
temporary work files on the disk. With ARC Shell, you can choose to
have these files written to either the ARC drive or the DATA drive,
or to another directory altogether. (Hint: directing the temporary
files to a RAMdisk can really speed up ARC, especially if you have a
floppy-based system.) When you click on the button labeled "Set
Directory" a file selector lets you choose the directory for the
temporary files. (NOTE: this option is only valid when used with ARC
5.21.)
There is one small difference in the way the two versions of
ST ARC handle redirection to the printer. ARC 5.12 uses the device
name "PRT:" while ARC 5.21 uses "PRN:." If you're going to be
redirecting the output from the LIST commands to a printer, you
should choose the appropriate "Printer Device Name" at the lower left
of the Configuration box.
When you have ARC Shell set up the way you want it (including
all of the options in the main dialog box), you can click on the
"Save Configuration" button to make this arrangement your new
default....in other words, after saving your configuration, ARC Shell
will always start out with your settings when you run it.
Versions of ARC Shell prior to 1.96 saved their configuration
data in a separate file called ARCSHELL.CNF. This was changed in
version 1.96; the configuration is now saved directly into the ARC
Shell program file, which makes a separate data file unnecessary.
When you choose to "Save Configuration," ARC Shell will first look in
the directory from which it ran for a file called ARCSHL23.PRG. If a
file by this name is found, ARC Shell will attempt to write the new
configuration data to this file. If for some reason, a file by this
name exists and is NOT the ARC Shell program, you will be warned and
the configuration save can be retried or aborted. If ARC Shell
cannot find a file named ARCSHL23.PRG (perhaps you changed the
name?), you'll be given a chance to use a file selector to locate the
program file no matter which name you've given it.
Part Six - Installing ARC Shell as an Application
-------------------------------------------------
Using the desktop's "Install Application" feature, you can set
things up so that whenever you double-click on a file with the
extension .ARC, ARC Shell will automatically load and run. To do
this from the desktop, click once on ARCSHL23.PRG to select it, then
move to the "Options" menu and select "Install Application." In the
box that appears, enter a document type of "ARC," and then click on
the button labeled "Install." (DON'T hit Return after entering the
document type....Return will exit without installing!) Now save your
desktop, so this setting will be remembered the next time you boot
up.
If you double-click on an ARC file after ARC Shell has been
"installed" in this way, a dialog box will appear showing the name of
the ARC file you selected. You can extract files from this archive,
do a verbose list of its contents, or cancel the operation by
clicking on one of the three buttons in the box. If you choose to
extract, you'll be given the same extract options as explained above
in the section titled "Using ARC Shell." When the extract or list
operation is complete, you can either enter ARC Shell (to do some
more archive maintenance) or quit back to the desktop.
Part Seven - Update Notes
-------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.97b
ARC Shell 1.97b adds compatibility with the modified "Install
Application" feature of Neodesk, while retaining compatibility with
all currently released versions of the TOS desktop (as of January 2,
1989).
Another new feature of 1.97b -- when you extract ALL files from
an ARChive, ARC Shell will ask if you wish to delete the original
ARC file when the extraction is complete. (This feature was
previously only available after extracting "To Folder.")
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.97c
Version 1.97c fixes a bug in the 'Delete' option which was very
hard to track down. ARC Shell 1.97c will now properly delete the
original ARC file (if you choose, of course) after an 'Extract'
operation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.98
ARC Shell 1.98 has several substantial improvements. All of
the options in the main dialog box can now be selected with
keypresses, as well as with the mouse. The active keys are:
Control A - Add to Arc
Control M - Move to Arc
Control U - Update Arc
Control F - Freshen Arc
Control D - Delete from Arc
Control T - Test Arc
Control X - Extract from Arc
Control R - Run from Arc
Control C - Copy to StdOut
Control L - List
Control V - Verbose list
Control O - Convert Arc
F1 - Info
F2 - ARC
F3 - Disk
F4 - Config
F5 - Exit
Undo - Exit (same as F5)
To help you remember the keypresses, the letter corresponding
to the active key is capitalized in the first word of each option.
(e.g. eXtract, cOnvert, Add, etc.)
Another new feature is the 'Buffer Screen' option in the
Configuration dialog box. When this option is set to YES, ARC Shell
will keep a copy of the main dialog box in memory, and very quickly
'blit' it to the screen every time it needs to be redrawn. This
speeds up the operation of ARC Shell (a lot), but it costs 32K of
RAM. If you'd like to free up that 32K, just set the 'Buffer
Screen' option to NO. This may enable you to run ARC Shell in tight
memory situations where you previously couldn't. The status of
'Buffer Screen' is saved (along with everything else) when you save
your configuration.
Still another new feature: when you save your configuration
with ARC Shell 1.98, the full paths of the ARC and DATA drives are
saved, not just the drive letter.
And yet another new feature: the 'Copy to StdOut' option will
now copy to the printer as well as the screen. This is very handy -
it lets you make hardcopy listings of files contained in archives
without first extracting them. To 'Copy' to the printer, the button
labeled 'Printer' must be selected in the 'List/Copy Device' box.
('Copy to StdOut' cannot be directed to a file -- that would be the
same as 'Extract'ing the file!)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.98.1
This version (released April 11, 1989) fixes a small bug in the
"Save Config" option, that only showed up after following a certain
sequence of steps. Thanks to Tim Hitchings for pointing this one
out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.99
Version 1.99 adds the ability to configure ARC Shell so that
each ARC option (Extract, Add, Move, etc.) can use EITHER the
default ARC utility OR the alternate ARC utility. (The default and
alternate ARC utilities are defined in the 'Config' screen.) When
you first run ARC Shell 1.99, all options are set to use the
default ARC utility (usually ARC.TTP or ARC521.TTP). To change any
option, just hold down the Control key while clicking on the
option; a dialog box will pop up with two buttons labeled 'Default'
and 'Alternate.' Choose which ARC utility you wish to use for this
ARC option, and click the OK button. You can go through and set
all the ARC options this way, and when you save your configuration
this information will be saved along with everything else.
Notice in the 'Config' screen, that the Alternate ARC Utility
box no longer has a button labeled 'Use Alternate.' This is because
you now set each ARC option individually.
The most common use for this feature is to set something like
DCOPY or David Ramsden's KWIKARK.TTP as the 'Alternate' ARC
Utility, then set the 'Extract' option to use the Alternate utility
(by holding Control while you click on 'Extract'). Now you can
have the compatibility of using ARC.TTP for all your archiving
work, combined with the speed of DCOPY or KWIKARK for extractions,
without having to go to the 'Config' screen and change the 'Use
Alternate' button.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 2.0
ARC Shell 2.0 is now compatible with the new LHARC format,
which uses a file extension of LZH. In testing, I've found that
LHARC provides a significant increase in compression over ARC 5.12
or 5.21; in one case, a 217K text file compressed to less than
57K, or just over a quarter of its original size! By comparison,
the original ARC.TTP produced a compressed file of over 100K, or
just about half the file's original size. In another case,
several program and text files totalling over 130K were compressed
into an archive that ended up being only 45K...a mere 35% of the
original size of the files. Impressive results indeed.
When you first run ARC Shell 2.0, it looks for a file called
ARC.TTP in the same directory. If ARC.TTP is found, you'll be
delivered immediately to the main ARC Shell dialog box. If ARC
Shell can't find this file, it will ask you 'Where's ARC.TTP,' and
present you with a file selector. Use the file selector to locate
the program you use to manage files that have an extension of ARC
(probably ARC.TTP or ARC521.TTP). It doesn't have to be in the
same directory with ARC Shell.
Looking at the main screen of ARC Shell 2.0, you'll see two
new buttons directly underneath the options (Add, Move, Delete,
etc.), labelled 'Def:' and 'Alt:'. These two buttons are used to
tell ARC Shell which archive utility goes with which option. (See
the revision history for ARC Shell 1.99, above, for an explanation
of the 'Default' and 'Alternate' archive utilities.) Note that
the 'control-click' feature of ARC Shell 1.99 no longer exists in
version 2.0; you now set the archive utility for each option
simply by clicking on one of the 'Def:' or 'Alt:' buttons. As you
click on different options, the 'Def:' and 'Alt:' buttons will
become selected and deselected, to show you which options go with
which utilities.
Using version 2.0 with LHARC
----------------------------
As mentioned above, the LHARC program uses a file extension
of LZH instead of ARC. In the main ARC Shell dialog box, you'll
see a new option called 'File Type,' with two buttons labelled
'ARC' and 'LZH.' When you select the LZH button the ARC Shell file
selector will use an extension of LZH. Also, and more
importantly, selecting either ARC or LZH switches between two sets
of 'Default' and 'Alternate' archive utilities. This way you can
set up ARC.TTP and DCOPY (for example) as your 'Default' and
'Alternate' utilities, and still use LHARC and some other
LZH-oriented utility simply by clicking the LZH button.
The first time you click on the LZH button, both 'Default'
and 'Alternate' utilities will be blank. To install LHARC as the
default utility for LZH files, first select the LZH button, then
enter the Config screen (by clicking on the Config button or by
typing function key F6), and click on the button labelled 'Locate
Default Archive Utility'. Use the file selector to locate
LHARC.PRG (or whatever it's called on your system). When you do
this, its full pathname will appear in the first box in the Config
screen. When you exit the Config screen to the main ARC Shell
dialog box, the button labelled 'Def:' will now contain the name
of the LHARC program. If you also have some other utility for
managing LZH files, you can follow the same procedure for setting
up an 'Alternate' utility.
That's all there is to it; you are now set to use either the
standard ARC.TTP (or DCOPY or ARC 5.21) or the new LHARC program,
simply by clicking on the ARC or LZH buttons. If you'd like to
make this your default configuration, be sure to click on the
'Save Config' button in the Config screen (see above).
PLEASE NOTE: All ARC functions are not implemented in the
current version of LHARC, so some ARC Shell options may not work.
ALSO, the LHARC format and the formats used by ARC.TTP are _not_
compatible; you should not pass the name of an ARC file to LHARC,
or pass an LZH file to ARC.TTP. ARC.TTP acts very strangely when
passed the name of an LZH file, and it may even crash and do nasty
things to your disk directory. Be careful. (Unfortunately,
there's nothing ARC Shell can do to prevent crashes here -- the
problem is in ARC.TTP.)
The other important new feature in ARC Shell 2.0 is the
ability to 'globally' set all ARC Shell options to use either the
'Default' or 'Alternate' Archive utility. Immediately to the
right of the ARC button at the bottom of the screen are two
buttons labelled 'DEFAULT' and 'ALTERNATE.' Click on either button
to change all ARC Shell options to use that utility; this only
affects the settings for the current file type, ARC or LZH. When
you switch from one file type to another, the option assignments
are preserved.
The function key mapping has been changed in ARC Shell 2.0 to
reflect the two new options at the bottom of the main box
('DEFAULT' and 'ALTERNATE'). The new function keys are:
F1 - ARC
F2 - DEFAULT
F3 - ALTERNATE
F4 - Info
F5 - Disk
F6 - Config
F7 - EXIT
Undo - EXIT (same as F7)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 2.1
Support for ARC 6.02
--------------------
The latest version of ARC (6.02) has been ported to the ST by
Darin Wayrynen. This new version offers two big improvements over
previous versions. First, ARC 6.02 is MUCH faster both at adding
and extracting files from an archive. And second, ARC 6.02 now
allows you to add entire subdirectories to an archive, along with
any and all nested subdirectories. A subdirectory shows up in a
verbose list as only one entry in the archive file; it can be
extracted to any path and the directory structure will remain
intact.
*** IMPORTANT: if you want to use ARC 6.02's subdirectory ***
*** feature with ARC Shell, please read the following ***
*** paragraph before continuing! ***
To use ARC 6.02's subdirectory feature, just select the
button labeled 'Include Subdirectories' at the right side of the
ARC Shell dialog box. When the 'Data' file selector appears
(where you select the files to add), you should type in the name
of the folder you wish to add on the file selector's 'Selection'
line. (Since clicking on a folder name in the file selector opens
it.) Wild cards may be used, just as with all other ARC
operations.
As of this date (December 28, 1989), ARC 6.02 does not
support redirection of its 'List' or 'Copy' commands, so those
features of ARC Shell will not work with ARC 6.02. When used with
ARC 6.02, the 'Copy to StdOut' command will only send a file to
the printer, not to the screen; and the 'List' and 'Verbose List'
commands will only send a file to the screen, not the printer. If
you need to redirect these commands to other devices, you should
use an earlier version of ARC. (I've found that ARC 5.12 [the
first one for the ST] seems to handle redirection the best.)
Improved support for LHARC
--------------------------
I've improved ARC Shell 2.1's compatibility with LHARC quite
a bit, and added support for LHARC 0.51's 'comment' feature (which
allows you to add comments to files in an LZH archive).
The 'Query' operations now work correctly with LZH files.
You can extract, delete, and copy files from an archive by
selecting the 'w/ query' option; when you do this a large box will
appear, displaying the names of all the files in the LZH archive
and allowing you to select the ones you wish to act upon. (See
'W/ Query' in Part Three above.)
The Copy to StdOut feature of ARC Shell is now compatible
with LHARC, allowing files in an LZH archive to be sent to the
screen or printer without actually extracting them.
Unfortunately, LHARC 0.51 still does not support redirection of
the 'List' or 'Verbose List' commands to a printer or to a file.
If you wish to add comments to the files in your LZH
archives, select the button labeled 'LZH Comments' at the right
side of the ARC Shell dialog box. (This button is grayed out when
you're in ARC mode.) LHARC will prompt you for the comment when
it is invoked by ARC Shell.
PLEASE NOTE: I've found that the current version of LHARC
will always go into "Comment" mode if any file in the archive
being added to contains a comment, whether the 'LZH Comments'
button is selected or not. This is a "bug" in LHARC 0.51 and
unfortunately there's nothing ARC Shell can do to fix or prevent
it.
Alternate Command Lines
-----------------------
ARC Shell 2.1 allows you to enter your own command line for
any of the Archiving options in the main dialog box. Each of the
12 buttons ('Add,' 'Update,' 'Delete,' 'Extract,' etc.) has its
own alternate command line that can be used to access features of
archiving programs that ARC Shell itself does not directly
support.
(The command line is the line you see at the top of your
screen whenever ARC Shell calls an archiving program such as
ARC.TTP or LHARC. Please refer to the documentation for your
archiving program for more details about how to use its command
line options.)
To enter an Alternate command line, just hold down the
Alternate key while you click on the ARC button, or while you
double-click the ARC option you wish to execute, or while you type
the option's keyboard equivalent. A dialog box will appear, with
two editable fields in which you can enter both a title for the
alternate command line and the command line itself. You should
enter the entire command line up to the point at which the name of
the archive file will appear. If your archiving program requires
a blank space before the name of the first archive file, be sure
to include it at the end of the alternate command line.
For example, ARC 5.21C has a special option which allows
compression with 13, 14, 15, or 16 bit token tables. This feature
allows you to generate smaller archive files; the higher the bit
value, the smaller the resulting file. (Usually.) The downside
of this feature is that archives compressed in this way can only be
extracted with ARC 5.21C, since no other version can handle them.
You can use the Alternate command line feature of ARC Shell 2.1 to
experiment with these extended compression methods and see if
you'd like to use them. (I don't recommend uploading files to
networks or BBS'es in any of these extended formats, by the way.)
'Change Default' button in 'Extract' box
----------------------------------------
A new feature has been added to the box that appears when you
extract files from an archive (either in ARC or LZH mode). This
box contains buttons labeled 'All,' 'To Folder,' and 'W/ Query';
ARC Shell 2.1 now lets you set which of these buttons will be the
'default' button. (In other words, the one that is selected when
you type the Return or Enter key.) To do this, click on the
button labeled 'Change Default' at the bottom of the box, then on
the button you wish to make the default. This new default status
is also saved with the rest of the ARC Shell configuration data.
Buffer Screen Option compatible with "big screen" monitors
----------------------------------------------------------
The 'Buffer Screen' option of ARC Shell 2.1 (which allows for
super fast redraws of the main dialog box) has been updated to
handle large screen monitors and the PD BIGSCRN program.
Depending on the size of the monitor being used, this option can
require quite a bit of memory; if memory is tight, turn screen
buffering off and redraws will take place at their normal speed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 2.1b
Copy to StdOut Fixed for Older Versions of ARC
----------------------------------------------
While adding the code to allow "Copy to StdOut" to work with
LHARC, I inadvertently introduced a bug that made it fail when used
with older versions of ARC. This bug is fixed in ARC Shell 2.1b.
(Thanks Ralph, for bringing this to my attention.)
All Other Reported Bugs Fixed
-----------------------------
Version 2.1b also fixes all reported bugs in version 2.1. I
can't even remember all of them; but if you had a problem with ARC
Shell 2.1, chances are it's fixed now.
NEW FEATURES:
Right-Click to Select Options
-----------------------------
ARC Shell 2.1b allows you to instantly select any of the 12
main ARC options (in the upper left of the box) by clicking on it
with the right mouse button. If you hold down the Alternate key
while you right-click on any option, its "Alternate Command Line"
box will appear (see above, "Alternate Command Lines".)
Prompt for Delete Configurable
------------------------------
After calling ARC (or LHARC) to extract the files from an
archive, ARC Shell displays an alert box that asks if you want to
delete the archive file you've just extracted from. If you find
yourself always clicking on the "Cancel" button in this alert box,
you may want to turn "Prompt for Delete" OFF. This button is
located in the ARC Shell Config screen; if it is not selected, the
"Delete" alert box will not appear after extracting. (Good
suggestion, Lloyd.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 2.3
Compatible with Atari TT030 and ISAC hi-res color board
-------------------------------------------------------
Version 2.3 of ARC Shell is now compatible with Atari's new
68030-based TT computer. This version also displays correctly when
used with the ISAC hi-res color board.
'Include Subdirectories' Active in LZH Mode
-------------------------------------------
This version of ARC Shell lets you select the 'Include
Subdirectories' option in LZH mode. (Previous versions only allowed
this in ARC mode.) However, there are currently quite a few
different versions of LHARC in circulation, and 'Include
Subdirectories' does NOT work with all of them. This option will
not work with LHARC060 or LHARC051 (by Jon Webb); it will work with
LHARC102 (by Bill Shroka). To add subdirectories to an LZH archive
with LHA121 (by Roger Burrows), you'll need to use the 'Alternate
Command Lines' feature (see above, under the section for version
2.1) to specify a command line for the 'Add' button that looks like:
ax <-- one trailing space after the 'x'
To extract archives which contain subdirectories (and maintain
the original directory structure) with LHA121, set up an alternate
command line for the 'Extract' button that looks like:
xx <-- again, one trailing space after the 'x'
To install these alternate command lines permanently in ARC
Shell, make sure to save your configuration before exiting the
program.
Known Bug
---------
This version of ARC Shell has one small known bug; if you
choose the 'Extract w/Query' or 'Delete w/Query' option, sometimes
ARC Shell will fail to display all the files contained within the
selected archive. I wanted to release this new version for TT
owners as soon as possible, and haven't had time to look into this
bug yet -- next version!
*********************************************************
* *
* This document and all versions of ARC Shell are *
* Copyright 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 Charles F. Johnson *
* and Little Green Footballs Software. *
* All Rights Reserved. *
* *
* ARC Shell may NOT be sold. It may, however, be *
* freely distributed as long as this document is *
* included and neither program nor document are *
* altered IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER. This document *
* may not be reprinted without permission. *
* *
* While every effort has been made to ensure that *
* this program is free of bugs, I cannot be *
* responsible for any damages or loss of data *
* resulting from the use or misuse of ARC Shell. *
* *
*********************************************************