@database 6816d178-0 @master MADS.Guide @$VER: 1.3 @author "Alvaro Thompson" @(c) "©1997 Alvaro Thompson" @wordwrap @font XEN.font 9 @remark Created with Heddley v1.1 (c) Edd Dumbill 1994 @node "Main" "Welcome to the MADS v1.4 Guide!!" @next "Intro" @{b}@{fg shine}Multi Archiver/Dearchiver System v1.4@{ub}@{fg text} @{b}©1997 Alvaro Thompson E-MailWare@{ub} - @{" Introduction " link "Intro" 0} How it began, etc - @{" Disclaimer " link "Disclaimer" 0} Copyrights etc - @{" System Requirements " link "Req" 0} What you need - @{" Installing " link "Install" 0} How to install MADS - @{" Usage " link "use" 0} How to use MADS - @{" Goodies " link "goodies" 0} <--- New! (Well, it was) - @{" History " link "history" 0} The History of MADS - @{" The Author " link "author" 0} Me!! - @{" Improvements " link "improvements" 0} LOTS! - @{" Thanks to... " link "thx" 0} Hi and thanks to... - @{" Request... " link "request" 0} I'm looking for... @endnode @node "Intro" "Introduction" @next "install" @prev "Main" A while ago, I finally got on to the Internet. Once I got connected and started to download all these files from the Internet such as the Aminet and places like these, I found that Archive files were one of the most common things on the 'net. I started to search out for some decent programs which would enable me to to quickly extract some files without having to load up massively complicated programs. I failed. I tried all sorts of programs, ranging from ShareWare ones which were crippled as hell, to 1,3 interface ones, which I completely hated! My search seemed in vain... There weren't any decent Extracters on the 'net! But then I stumbled acros a program called GUIArc, which was in fact quite good. It was a FreeWare program from about 1993, which came up with two listers, and you could select the files you wanted, select a file name and there it went! I thought that was brilliant... ... Until I started extracting stuff while I was online. I found that the window took up too much WB space (and this was on a DblPal 784*550 screen too), and was soon getting fed up. I tried E-Mailing the author to ask him if there wwas any way he could make the window smaller, but of course, being 1993, the Author's E-Mail address didn't exist anymore (typical). So at this point, I decided I would make one myself. I had recently purchased Blitz Basic, and knew a little bit about programming, so I decided to have a go. I had to make it easy to use, and fully working too. I had been recently looking at the new BlitzLibs, and found the AppLibrary, and saw that it was possible to create AppIcons with Blitz, so I thought "YES! That's what I'm going to use!" Few days later, I got the first version ready. It was called ArcExtract, and it worked pretty well. It used file extensions as a recognition format. Things like .lha and .lzx which most people put at the end of their archive name. Bit by bit, I started to build ArcExtract up, and I finally got to version 1.6, in which I gave up development on because of the simple reason that I wasn't getting enough support from people (after all, it was E-MailWare, and all that people had to do is send me an E-Mail, so why didn't they?). I put a message on the last version saying that I had given up development on it. From then on, I really did start to get a lot of EMails about it, saying how wonderful it was, and how I should continue development on it. I got quite a lot of ideas from a friend of mine (nick Sh0rN), who really helped me in getting ideas. For quite a while, he kept going at me saying that I should make it Archive stuff too. After a long while of thinking, I decided to make a whole new program all-together. This is how MADS was born. I had to base it on good old ArcExtract, because of its easy drag&drop system and the way it looked. @endnode @node "Disclaimer" "Disclaimer" @next "Req" @prev "Intro" MADS has been designed and developed by Alvaro Thompson, so therefore MADS is Copyright ©1997 Alvaro Thompson. This program is officially part of the EMailSoft group, so it is also Copyright ©1997 EMailSoft. The author takes no responsability on the effects of use of this program. @endnode @node "Req" "System Requirements" @next "install" @prev "Disclaimer" Here are the necessary System Requirements to run MADS: - OS2.04 or more - powerpack.library (Copyright ©1993 Nico François) - reqtools.library (Copyright ©1993 Nico François) - XEN.font - Helvetica.font @endnode @node "install" "Installing" @next "use" @prev "Req" Installing MADS is extremely easy. An Installer Script is supplied with the MADS package for the different languages. However, it requires the Escom Installer v43.3, so if you don't have it, you better search on Aminet, and try and find it there. If you however can't be bothered, you can Install MADS manually. All you have to do is copy the MADS drawer to the desired destination, copy the Libs drawer contents into your LIBS:, and copy the contents of the Fonts drawer into your FONTS: assign. Once that is done, it's ready to go! @endnode @node "use" "Usage" @prev "install" @{" Extracting Stuff " link "extract" 0} - @{" Arc Types " link "filetypes-ext" 0} @{" Archiving Stuff  " link "archive" 0} - @{" Arc Types " link "filetypes-arc" 0} @{" The Preferences  " link "prefs" 0} @{b}MADS is best used with the following specifications:@{ub} - MagicWB - A proportional resolution (eg Pal-Laced 640 x 512) - Some kind of GT Patch like the one in MCP If you have Multiview installed in Sys:Utilities/Multiview, then click below for some examples: @{"Preview-1" system "Sys:Utilities/Multiview Preview-1"} @{"Preview-2" system "Sys:Utilities/Multiview Preview-2"} If you have Viewtek install as C:VT then click below: @{"Preview-1" system "C:VT Preview-1"} @{"Preview-2" system "C:VT Preview-2"} If you have Visage installed as Sys:Utilities/Visage then click below @{"Preview-1" system "Sys:Utilities/Visage Preview-1"} @{"Preview-2" system "Sys:Utilities/Visage Preview-2"} @endnode @node "history" "MADS' History" @next "author" @prev "use" @{b}12/7/97 - v1ß@{ub}. This was the original version of MADS, Beta still, and my god was it bugged. @{b}16/7/97 - v1.1@{ub}. Second public release. This had loads of bug fixes like the About bit which kept having recoverable alerts all the time. It now partly supports Archiving (Disk only), and has improved features in the Extract module, like being able to extract Zoo files, and Zip and Zoo files now extract to the proper destination directory. @{b}20/7/97 - v1.2@{ub}. Finally got the bloody thing to archive files and drawers using Lha and Lzx. Sorted out some more bugs. Added a little bit more to the about requesters. You can now use 4 colour icons by simply selecting it in the Prefs GUI, instead of having to rename the icons. I also added an option to view the contents of an archive before extracting them (suggested by Pussums) @{b}30/7/97 - v1.3@{ub}. A few bug fixes sorted out like the DOpus 5.5 bug where both AppIcons have the same name. Also, the GUI now has a "Use" option, so you don't have to save the settings before testing them out. Now uses a new sort of Saving system using ENV:MADS so that it will be MUCH easier to install future updates (trust me, it will be good). @{b}22/7/97 - v1.4@{ub}. It now uses commands internally, so you don't need them in C: This also means that you hace access to every command which MADS can use :) It can also UUEncode / UUDecode. @endnode @node "author" "The Author" @next "thx" @prev "history" I'm Alvaro Thompson, 15. I enjoy making utils like this one, because I get quite a bit of satisfaction when someone E-Mails me telling me how great my programs are and all that. It's great. I like to do my stuff E-Mailware because I don't reckon my stuff is good enough for ShareWare. Anyway, I hate shareware, so I'd never do it anyway. A good way to get in contact with me, is through IRC. I'm usually on every night on @{"DalNet" link "dalnet" 0} from 22:00 British Time. If you want to send any comments, ideas, or anything else, please don't hesitate to E-Mail me: alvaro@enterprise.net LATEST NEWS: MADS has now gone under the EMS Software group. Why not check out their site? http://www.agima.demon.co.uk/emailsoft/ @endnode @node "thx" "Thanks to...." @next "request" @prev "author" I'd like to say hi and thanks to the following people: Curt Esser (camge@ix.netcom.com) - For all his help on the NewIcons support Chris Turpin (jammz@cturpin.demon.co.uk) - For the cool MagicWB icons! All the guys at @{ "#amigaze" link "dalnet" 0}, including Sweevo, Jammz, Sh0rN, Miracle, Mythral, Wervel_SC, Agima, IcedTea, Pussums, and angel49 @endnode @node "dalnet" "The DalNet network" DalNet is my favourite network of all the IRC networks. It's possibly because all the dudes at IRC that I know, go there! I'm usually on every night from 22:00 British Time. You can find me under the nick AlBiro. These are some of the servers which you can connect to: - dragon.dal.net Port 6667 - wizlink.dal.net Port 6667 - liberator.dal.net Port 6667 - spider.dal.net Port 6667 - irc.dal.net Port 6667 - amsterdam.dal.net Port 6667 @endnode @node "request" "My Request" I'm looking for someone to work alongside me with MADS. I need a skilled Blitz programmer, who understands things better than I do. Of course, this is for free, not paid, as all my programs are EMailWare. If you are interested, contact @{"me" link "author" 0}. I really need someone! @endnode @node "extract" "Extracting Stuff..." Extracting is possibly the easiest aspect of MADS. Because of its unique Drag&Drop system, even a PC user could Extract archives with MADS All you have to do, is go to the @{"Prefs" link "prefs" 0} and set the output path, and once that has been done, simply get an archive and drag it onto the "Extract" icon. It will then start extracting stuff, and a little requester will come up at the end telling you that it had finished. @endnode @node "archive" "Archiving Stuff" Archiving is as easy as Extracting is! To Archive Files: Get hold of as many files as you want, holding down Shift when clicking through them, and then drag them onto the archive icon. It will then ask you for a file name (or a path if you have the Ask option selected). Enter the name, without the file extension (eg .lha), and it will start archiving for you! One note though: If you drag a serious of files, they will all be put into the same archive file. To Archive Drawers: Same procedure than the one above, exceot you are dropping drawers instead of files. When dropping a drawer, all files and directories within that drawer will be included too (recursively). To Archive Disks: Simply drag a Disk icon onto the "Archive Files" disk, and it will come up with a requester asking you which type of archiver you want to use, eg. DMS, PKD, WRP. Select the one you want, and it will then ask you for a name. Please don't put file extension names on it, as MADS already does that. By that I mean don't put .dms at the end of the file name, because MADS will add it automatically. Once the name is selected, off it goes! @endnode @node "prefs" "The Preferences..." Well, I have made sure that there are loads and loads of options for MADS, because that's what I like most about programs - the options... @{b}Archive AppIcon@{ub} - Within this Box you can set the name of the icon, and the X and Y position of the icon within the Workbench. @{b}Extract AppIcon@{ub} - This is basically the same as above, except it will set the name, X and Y positions of the Extract AppIcon. @{b}Info Windows@{ub} - There are several options within this box. If you select the Console tickbox, a whole of new options in the Console box will be enabled. This will let you set the name of the Outout Console, the X and Y poisiton, and the Width and height of it. If you select the Status tickbox, When Extracting stuff, a window will come up in the middle of your WB, giving you information about the current files you are extracting and others. @{b}Paths@{ub} - In here you can select the Archive and Extract Paths. If you select the question mark beside the string gadgets, a Reqtools requester will come up so you can set the path. If you select the Ask option, when extracting or archiving stuff, it will ask you what path you want @{i}every@{ui} time. @{b}Other@{ub} - You can select whether to use 4 colours icons or not, and alsos you can select whether you want to view the contents of an archive before you extract it. When you click on the "View Contents" a box will come up requesting for a viewer. Put something like 'C:PPMore'. @endnode @node "filetypes-ext" "File Types Supported" These are the Arc Types supported by MADS at the moment (Extracting):- (All the commands are used internally by MADS, so you have access to all of them) @{b}Extracting:@{ub} - @{"Lha" link "lha" 0} - @{"Lzx" link "lzx" 0} - @{"DMS" link "dms" 0} - @{"PKD" link "pkd" 0} - @{"UUDecode" link "uue" 0} - @{"Zip" link "zip" 0} - @{"Zoo" link "zoo" 0} @endnode @node "filetypes-arc" "File Types Suppoted" These are the Arc Types supported by MADS at the moment (Archiving):- (All the commands are used internally by MADS, so you have access to all of them) @{b}Archiving:@{ub} - @{"DMS" link "dms" 0} - @{"PKD" link "pkd" 0} - @{"UUEncode" link "uue" 0} - @{"Lha" link "lha" 0} - @{"Lzx" link "lzx" 0} @endnode @node "lha" "Lha Format" Tested with: Lha Evaluation V1.51 - Copyright ©1992 by Stefan Boberg. All Rights Reserved. Not for commercial use. @endnode @node "lzx" "Lzx Format" LZX 1.20 (Evaluation) Archive/Extract utility - 68020/68030 Version Copyright © 1995 Data Compression Technologies. All Rights Reserved Commercial use of this unregistered program is prohibited @endnode @node "dms" "DMS Format" The DISK-Masher: Command Line Version 1.11 TURBO GENERIC Copyright © 1989-91 SDS Software. All Rights Reserved @endnode @node "pkd" "PKD Format" PackDev V1.8 (15-Apr-96), © 1994-1996 by Christian Wasner @endnode @node "uue" "UUEncode / UUDecode" UUhx 1.0 @endnode @node "zip" "Zip Format" UnZip: Zipfile Extract v5.0 of 21 August 1992; (c) 1989 S.H.Smith and others @endnode @node "zoo" "Zoo Format" Zoo archiver, Amiga version 1.71 (J. Brian Waters 1987/12/28) (C) Copyright 1986, 1987 Rahul Dhesi -- Noncommercial use permitted @endnode @node "improvements" "Improvements" I think that all you cool guys out there giving me suggestions about MADS deserve a little bit more credit, so here are the improvements you suggested! - "View Contents" was suggested by Pussums (Catie?), and a bloody good idea it was :) - "Use" That was suggested by a hell of a lot of people, so here it is at last! - It can now UUEncode / UUDecode (Suggested by phoenix_bbs) @endnode @node "goodies" "Goodies!" From now on, I shall be including a drawer of "Goodies" that will included in the MADS archive. These are the following goodies so far: - YAUU = Which stands for "Yet Another Useless Utility", which I wouldn't say is that useless. It's basically a file extracter (Competition for MADS ey? :) which works through Tool Types - MADS.AnimGIF = Advertisement for MADS which can be included on on Web Pages like the IBrowse and Voyager adverts. Check it out! @endnode