ANTIC PRESENTS...
CRYSTAL
INTRODUCTION
The GEM desktop provides a very friendly interface between the
computer and the user, however the desktop commands are not
always there when you may need them. As Crystal was developed
there were two goals in mind. The first goal was to enhance the
features available with the GEM desktop. By adding features for
printing, and allowing easy selection of multiple files, file
maintenance has become an easier task.
The second and main goal was to provide the features of the GEM
desktop from within any GEM application. CRYSTAL is a desk
accessory that meets these two goals. At any time while running
another GEM application program, CRYSTAL can be activated and
used to:
-- Format a disk
-- Look at a disk Directory
-- Copy files
-- Move files
-- Delete files
-- Print files
-- Print a disk directory
-- Make folders
-- Delete folders
I hope that you find as much use for CRYSTAL as I have.
Antic is a trademark of Antic Publishing, Inc.
Crystal is a copyrighted work by Jim Thompson
Copyright (c) 1986 Jim Thompson
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CRYSTAL is provided on an uprotected disk because the authors and
Antic both believe that the buyer should be able to make backup
copies for his or her use ONLY. Because it is unprotected, we expect
you to respect the copyright and NOT give, sell or even lend copies
of this program to anyone else.
The author spent many hours designing, writing and testing this
product. His income depends on its sales. The unauthorized
reproduction of the CRYSTAL diskette is illegal. Please help us
to protect and enforce the author's rights in this product so
that we may continue to provide you with unprotected software.
No part of this product may be reproduced and/or distributed in
any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Antic.
This is a powerful program and its potential for misuse and error is
greater in the hands of a novice. Please make sure you know how to
use this product properly before attempting to do important work with
it. Antic and the author disclaim responsibility for any damages
resulting from the use or misuse of this software product, and
disclaim liability for losses of any kind or nature, financial or
otherwise, incurred or alleged to have been incurred as a result
of the purchase and use of this product.
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LOADING CRYSTAL
CRYSTAL must be used as a desk accessory within the GEM operating
enviornment. This disk contains five files. These are:
CRYSTAL.ACC CRYSTAL program.
CRYSTAL.DOC Documentation for CRYSTAL.
CRYSTAL.RSC Resource file for color monitor.
CRYSTALH.RSC Resource file for monochrome monitor.
INSTALL.PRG Installation program to set up printer codes.
In order to use CRYSTAL, at least two files must be on the disk
you use to turn on your computer (the boot disk). If you have a
monochrome monitor attached to your computer, copy CRYSTAL.ACC
and CRYSTALH.RSC to your boot disk. If a color monitor is
attached, copy CRYSTAL.ACC and CRYSTAL.RSC to the boot disk. IF
you plan on using both monitors at times, copy both of the .RSC
files to your disk. If you wish to set up special printing codes,
also copy the INSTALL program to your boot disk.
STARTING CRYSTAL
When the ATARI ST computer is turned on, the CRYSTAL files must
be on the disk in the boot disk drive. On a floppy disk system,
this is usually drive A. As the computer comes to life, CRYSTAL
is automatically loaded as a desk accessory. When using the GEM
desktop, point to the DESK menu option and a list of desk
accessories will pull down. Point to CRYSTAL and click the left
mouse button. A window will open and show CRYSTAL. When CRYSTAL
starts, the source drive will be accessed to read the files on
that drive. When first started, this defaults to the last drive
specified as the default drive. For example if the desktop had
just displayed the directory for drive A, then drive A would be
the default.
Manipulating the CRYSTAL window
CRYSTAL runs inside a window on the GEM desktop. The same
controls that are available when controlling a desktop directory
window are available on the CRYSTAL window. These include:
-- Moving the window.
-- Sizing the window.
-- Using the slider bars to view the directory list displayed.
-- Using the Arrows to scroll the directory list displayed.
-- Open icon to toggle window to full size and back.
-- Close icon to close CRYSTAL and remove it from the desktop.
NOTE: When some application programs are loaded, they erase any
existing windows from the screen. If CRYSTAL is erased in this
manner, there is no way to access CRYSTAL again until the
computer is rebooted. Because of this it is a good idea to close
the CRYSTAL window before loading a new application program.
USING THE CRYSTAL WINDOW
The CRYSTAL window consists of the following parts.
-- ICON bar.
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ALL NONE FORMAT TRASH COPY MOVE PRINT LABEL MAKE ERASE
-- Disk drive designation line.
Source Drive = A< Dest. Drive = B
-- Pathname designation line.
A: B:
-- Directory display area.
The basic operation for CRYSTAL would include the following four
steps:
1. Choose a source and destination disk drive and folder.
(destination drive is only used for copy, move, and make
folder commands)
2. Select the desired files on the source drive to act on.
(Selecting is available ONLY on the source drive)
3. Choose an ICON that represents the desired command.
(Function keys F1-F10 also select the ICONS.)
4. Answer any dialog boxes presented for the command.
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SELECTING SOURCE AND DESTINATION DRIVES
The directory display area is at the bottom of the screen and
displays either the source or destination disk drive directory.
At any time you can determine which directory is being displayed
by looking at the disk drive designation line. A "<" character is
displayed next to the drive being displayed. For example, a
screen display of:
Source Drive = A< Dest. Drive = B
would indicate that the display is for the source drive which is
drive A. On a color monitor, the source disk drive directory is
displayed in black, and the destination disk drive directory is
displayed in red. To change the display to the destination drive,
either press TAB on the keyboard or click the mouse button when
pointing to "Dest. Drive = B".
When a directory is displayed, the files listed reflect the
contents of a disk when it was last read. This may not be the
current contents of the disk. To update the display for the disk
which has the "<" character next to it on the disk drive
designation line, either hit RETURN or ESC on the keyboard or
press the mouse button when pointing between the equals sign and
the "<" characters. At the end of the file list, a space to
display the amount of free disk space is displayed. Clicking on
this line will calculate and display this information. Clicking
the mouse anywhere in the directory window below the displayed
filenames will cause the disk directory to be updated and is the
same as typing RETURN on the keyboard.
To change the drive that has the "<" character next to it,
press the letter of the desired drive on the keyboard, or press
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the mouse button when pointing to the left of the equals sign
nearest to the "<" charater. When the mouse is clicked, a dialog
box will be displayed allowing you to select disk drive a,b,c,d,e
or f. After selecting the letter, select the DISPLAY button to
read the drive directory.
In order to leave as much room in memory for your primary
application, CRYSTAL only will display the first 150 filenames in
any directory display. If a folder has more files than this
limit, only the first 150 filenames will be displayed.
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SELECTING PATHS
When a directory is displayed, any folders within the current
folder are displayed in bold and have a symbol designating them
as a folder. Click the mouse on a folder name to open that folder
and display its contents. The PATHNAME designation line will show
the source and destination folder names.
When a folder is open, there are two special folders
displayed in the directory list. One is a single dot, and the
second is two dots. If the mouse is clicked on the single dot
filename, the directory will display the files in the root
folder. This is a quick way to move from within many levels of
folders to the root. Click the mouse on the ".." folder name to
display the directory of the parent folder. This would change the
directory list and display the folder you were just in as a
folder name in the current directory list.
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SELECTING FILES
After the drives and pathnames are selected, the files you wish
to work with must be selected. This can be done one at a time by
pointing to the filename in the source disk directory list and
clicking the mouse button. The name will be displayed in bold,
and a check mark will be displayed to the left of the name. Click
on all filenames that you wish to work with.
If you need to select all the files on a disk, the ALL icon
in the ICON line can be clicked. This will display all files in
bold and add a check mark next to each filename.
Clicking the mouse on a file that is in bold with a check
mark next to it will cause the file to be de-selected. It will
return to the normal font and the check mark will dissappear.
Clicking on the NONE icon in the ICON line will cause all
selected filenames to be de-selected.
A second method of selecting files that are similar in their
names is available by double clicking the mouse on "Source Drive
= ". When this is done, a dialog box will be displayed allowing
you to enter a mask to be used in the selection of filenames.
Type in the selection mask using the following special
characters:
* = Match any characters to the end of the first or second part
of the filename.
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? = Match any character at this character position.
SPACE = same as ?
ex. *.LET will find all files with an extension of LET.
?d*.* will find all files with a second character of "D".
After typing in the mask, strike RETURN on the keyboard, or click
on the OK exit button. Any files that match the mask will be
displayed in bold and check marks will appear next to their
names.
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ICON SELECTION
Each Icon in the Icon display line executes a specific function.
An Icon is selected by either clicking the mouse button on the
icon or by typing a Function key on the keyboard. The function
keys are assigned as follows:
F1 - ALL
F2 - NONE
F3 - FORMAT
F4 - TRASH
F5 - COPY
F6 - MOVE
F7 - PRINT
F8 - LABEL
F9 - MAKE
F10- ERASE
The following will describe the use of each Icon:
ALL
This is used to select all the files in the current source drive
directory list.
NONE
This command will de-select all files in the current source drive
directory list.
FORMAT
Selecting format will display a dialog box that allows you to
format disks. The dialog will allow you to enter the disk drive
that you wish to format, assign a name to the disk, and select
either single or double sided formatting. The CANCEL button can
be selected to abort the format command.
TRASH
This command will delete any selected files on the source disk
drive (files displayed in bold, with check marks).
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COPY
Selecting COPY will cause any selected files on the source drive
to be copied to the destination drive. The source and destination
drives can be the same if the folders selected are different. If
a file being copied exists on the destination drive, an alert box
will give you the choice of replacing the file with the new copy,
or skipping over the file.
MOVE
Selecting MOVE will cause any selected files on the source drive
to be moved to the destination drive. The source and destination
drives can be the same if the folders selected are different.
Moving the files is accomplished by copying the files one at a
time, and erasing the file from the source disk only after the
file exists on the destination disk. If a file being moved exists
on the destination drive, an alert box will give you the choice
of replacing the file with the new copy, or skipping over the
file. If the source and destination drives are the same, then the
files will just be renamed to save time. This allows files to be
moved within a disk without the need for free disk space.
PRINT
The PRINT command gives you a method of printing text files with
some basic formatting. After selecting PRINT, a dialog box gives
you the choice of sending the file to the printer, or the screen.
The screen option is given as two choices, one to display only
the ascii codes of a file, the other to display all codes in a
file. If the screen is selected for the output, the marked files
will be displayed a screen at a time inside the CRYSTAL window.
Auto word wrap will keep a word from starting on one line and
finishing on the next. After a screen full of text is displayed,
a prompt line at the bottom of the window will give the options
of continuing with the listing or quitting. Point to the desired
choice using the mouse and press the left mouse button. The
keyboard can also be used to control the display. Press the space
bar to continue with the listing. Press the ESC key to quit.
If the printer is selected as the output device, a dialog box
will be displayed allowing you to set up the following formatting
commands before the printing starts:
ASCII, ALL - Two radio buttons are used to choose if only ascii
codes are sent to the printer, or if all codes should
be sent.
Line Length - Length of the printed line. If longer lines are in
the file, word wrap will re-format the file.
Header - A header is a line that is displayed at the top of
every printed page.
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Footer - A footer is a line that is displayed at the bottom of
every printed page.
A Header or a Footer is made up of three parts. Words can
either be flush left on the line, centered on the line, or flush
right on the line. Three lines are available for each the Header
and the Footer to enter the desired text. When typing in this
text, there are two special characters that can be used. A "@"
anywhere in the text will be expanded to print the filename of
the file being printed. A "&" will be expanded to print the page
number.
EX.
HEAD Line Length: 65 FOOT
L:Printout Of @___________________ L:_________________________
C:________________________________ C:Page &___________________
R:Final Printout__________________ R:_________________________
This setup would print lines 65 characters wide. The Header
printed when the file "A:TEXT" is printed will be:
Printout Of A:TEXT Final Printout
The Footer would be:
Page N
Where N is the page number.
After setting the print setup commands, clicking on the OK button
will cause all selected files on the source disk drive to be
printed using the parallel printer port on the ST. If you wish to
interrupt the printing after it has begun, hit the ESC key on the
keyboard.
NOTE: When the ASCII display or printing command is selected, all
ascii characters will be output. In addition three non-ascii
codes are processed to make popular word processor files appear
more readable. These special codes are -
Decimal 0 - Translates to a carriage return
Decimal 28 - Translates to a space
Decimal 30 - Translates to a space
LABEL
The label command is used to print disk directory labels. A
dialog box allows you to set up a printer initialization string
that will be sent to the printer before the filenames are
printed. There are two defaults set up, one for printing labels
for a disk, and a second for printing the directory on paper. The
only difference is with the initialization string. The PAPER
selection will print "DISK #1" in expanded type on an EPSON
printer, and default type will be used for the filenames.
Selecting the LABEL radio button will cause "DISK #1" to be
printed in the default type style and the filenames to be printed
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in condensed print. These strings can be modified to meet your
needs by running the INSTALL program. This procedure is described
at the end of this document.
Either of the initialization strings can be modified to produce
any desired results. The format of the string is as follows:
-- Any text to be printed must be enclosed in double quotes.
-- All number entries are decimal numbers that will be sent to
the printer.
-- All entries will be seperated by commas.
After selecting either the PAPER or LABEL button, select the
number of columns that you wish printed. This can be set from one
to nine. When all the parameters are set up, click on the OK
button and the directory will be printed. In order to allow
selective directory printing, only the folders and selected files
will be printed. To print a complete listing, click on the ALL
icon before selecting the LABEL icon.
MAKE
This command is used to make a new folder on the disk drive which
has the directory list displayed. When selected, a dialog box
will be displayed allowing you to enter the name of the folder
that is to be create. Type in the name and hit RETURN or click on
the OK button. A folder will be created on the currently active
drive and within the currently active folder. The command allows
folders to be created on both the source and the destination
drives.
ERASE
This command allows you to erase folders on either the source or
destination drives that do NOT contain other folders. To erase a
folder, display the directory of the folder that you wish to
erase. Select the ERASE command and the folder will be erased.
The directory display will be updated to reflect the parent
folder. If any files exist in the folder to be deleted, you will
be asked if you really wish these files to be deleted. If the
files are not deleted, then the folder will not be erased.
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Viewing file statistics and Re-naming files
By double-clicking on a filename, a dialog box will be displayed
showing details about that file. This will include:
Filename
Size in bytes
Creation Date
Creation Time
At this time, you may press RETURN on the keyboard or click on
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the OK button to erase the dialog box. If before doing this, you
change the filename field, the file will be renamed to the
revised name.
If many files with similar names need to be renamed, a mass
rename can be requested. There are two steps to this procedure.
First, all the files that are to be renamed are selected. This
can be done by clicking on each file or by using the selection
mask described above. After the files are selected, double click
on "Source Drive = " and a dialog box will be displayed. Click on
the rename radio button and enter into the Rename Mask field the
new name. The following special characters can be used for this
rename field:
* - Leave the rest of the characters in this part of the
filename
as they are.
| - Erase any characters from this point to the end of the
filename. If a "." immediately follows this character, then
only the characters up to the "." will be erased.
SPACE - Leave the character in this position as it is.
Any other character will replace the existing character.
EX.
*.GEM Will rename all selected files with the extension GEM.
C*.* Will change the second character of all selected files
to a "C".
|*.* Truncate the filename after the first two characters.
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INSTALLATION PROGRAM
The installation program can be used to change the defaults used
in the printing dialog boxes. These include:
- Header Line
- Footer Line
- Number of characters in a line
- Label initialization strings
- Number of columns for label printing
To use the installation program, insert the disk containing the
installation program into drive A and open the disk onto the
desktop. Double click on the file INSTALL.PRG and a window will
open displaying the installation main menu. At this time there
are three commands available in addition to the normal window
manipulation commands. These commands are:
F1 - Used to display and change the Print dialog box
F2 - Used to display and change the Label dialog box
F3 - Select Display of Verify Dialogs
F10 - Used to end the installation program
When F1 or F2 is pressed, a dialog box is displayed, which is the
same as that used by CRYSTAL. Change any of the commands to show
the defaults that you wish. Use the OK or CANCEL buttons to
return to the main menu. Pressing F3 will display an alert box
giving you the choice of having the safety dialog boxes displayed
by CRYSTAL.
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When F10 is pressed from the main menu, a dialog will ask if you
wish to save these changes. Select "Yes" to write the changes to
the file CRYSTAL.ACC (Make sure that the file CRYSTAL.ACC is on
the disk that contains the install program or the changes will
not be made). Select "No" to not save the changes and to exit the
installation program. Select "Cancel" to return to the main
menu.
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Good Luck in using CRYSTAL, I hope you find many ways to use the
power in this desk accessory.
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