TraceTech's Falcon030 ToolKit (F030TKIT) ----------------------------- [released October 1, 1994] Copyright ½ 1994 Trace Technologies Programs by Keith Gerdes Files contained in this archive: TKITDEMO.TXT - this file TOS4TRAP.PRG - TOS4 Trap v1 [shareware, $5 -- released April 4, 1994] TFMTDEMO.CPX - demo of Trace Formatter Jr CPX CFGNDEMO.APP - demo of Falcon030 NVRAM Configurator Files contained in the F030TKIT: TOS4TRAP.PRG - TOS4 Trap v2 TRACEFMT.CPX - Trace Formatter Jr CPX CFGNVRAM.APP - Falcon030 NVRAM Configurator + RESETNVR.PRG - Reset NVRAM + DO_BOOTN.PRG - Reset NVRAM executable boot sector creator RUN_COFF.PRG - Run with Cache OFF User feedback ============= I have found that using TOS4TRAP v2 seems to have smoothed out some 'out of memory' problems with Calamus SL. SL, 109n and Outline Art like to see a lot of contiguous memory. TOS4TRAP v2 works great. I'm a heavy user of both MaxiFile and NeoDesk, and being able to delete folders is worth the price of admission. CFGNVRAM is a breath of fresh air and it is a pleasure booting up in high res. I've got CFGNVRAM set to a 5 second bootup delay - no memory check and no spin up delay. Works perfect! There are at least 5 other NVRAM config programs that I am aware of. None are as simple, safe, and English as yours. The Formatter Jr. CPX is very useful. I find I am using it all the time now. I have forgotten about FastCopy Pro (at least for formatting; it uses too much RAM). Diamond Format, UIS III and of course TOS, are all extremely s-l-o-w compared to Formatter Jr. The CPX seems to format DD and HD disks (9/10 or 18/20 tracks), in fast or regular format, at a constant 66 seconds on my system. Diamond Format and TOS could not do better than 96(!) seconds - a full half- minute slower. That is remarkable. UIS III was only slightly faster than DFormat and TOS, at 90 seconds. FastCopy Pro was almost identical at 65 - 67 seconds...but like I said, for straight up, fast formatting, it uses far too much RAM. At the office, all disk formatting has now been given over to Formatter Jr. CPX. I have several employees (who own home-based Ataris), who would love to get their hands on that CPX! General info ============ o What does the Falcon030 ToolKit do? The F030TKIT is a multifaceted utility package: o TOS4Trap v2 addresses changes in TOS4's GEMDOS to improve software compatibility. o Trace Formatter Jr CPX gives you quick and easy access to a floppy disk formatter which has flexible options such as # of tracks, DD/HD format, faster I/O, etc. o The NVRAM Configurator allows you to setup your F030's hardware and system software with simple user preference selections. o DEMOWARE What's Demoware? Demoware is a class of software which falls between 'Shareware' and 'Commercial'. You get a quality, commercial-level product without the frills and overhead associated with Commercial products, such as a printed manual and advertising. You order directly from the author as you would with Shareware, but there is more incentive to register Demoware due to its design. You test drive Demoware for a hands-on evaluation before purchase. Here are some details about this demo version: o TOS4 Trap v1 was released as a sneak preview of this package and is included in this demo archive as a user convenience. v1 is shareware, with a suggested registration fee of $5 which can be applied toward the purchase of the F030TKIT- see the DEMOWARE section for details. o The Format CPX demo WILL NOT WRITE to the floppy. During the format operation, a time delay is used for demonstration purposes only- not a representation of format speed. o The NVRAM Configurator demo is fully operational EXCEPT for the 'Set NVRAM' feature. After evaluating this demo version, you can purchase the "real" thing. See the 'Contact Info' and 'DEMOWARE' sections for further details. o TOS4TRAP.PRG v2 TOS 4.0x (TOS4) is the operating system shipped in all Atari Falcon030's. v2 is an upgrade to the v1 shareware release which set the standard for bridging the gap of TOS4 GEMDOS software compatibility. * Description o What does TOS4Trap do? Monitors certain GEMDOS calls to make passed parameters "TOS4 GEMDOS compatible". When it runs, it checks the version of TOS and will not install in memory if you do not have TOS 4.xx. o Which programs are indirectly addressed by this system patch? Currently I am aware of: STalker - print block in terminal window (NOTE: pre-STalker 3.03) - w/o TOS4TRAP, an error alert NeoDesk - delete folder (NOTE: pre-NeoDesk 4) - w/o TOS4TRAP, contents are deleted but the folder is not MaxiFile - delete folder - w/o TOS4TRAP, contents are deleted but the folder is not Desk Manager - file renaming - w/o TOS4TRAP, files are not renamed Some GFA compiled programs - printer output - w/o TOS4TRAP, no output and others I would think. * Operation TOS4Trap installs a routine in the GEMDOS system vector, checking for certain system calls matching specific input conditions. * Installation Copy TOS4TRAP.PRG to your AUTO folder. It should run early in the bootup sequence to allow monitoring of other AUTO programs. This does not mean first or second or any particular location, just as long as it can do its job. * Usage When you run TOS4Trap in the AUTO folder, it will stay resident after execution. You can run TOS4Trap from the desktop, but the ideal location is the AUTO folder with the rest of your Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs. * Configuration None... * Errors If you do not have TOS 4.xx in your computer, TOS4Trap will not be installed in memory after it runs- ie. no "program info" will be printed on screen while TOS4Trap runs. * Troubleshooting You should not run into any problems with TOS4Trap installed in your system. However, if you do find a conflict, try changing the run order of your AUTO folder. * Misc The above list of programs is by no means complete. To keep it up-to-date, please send feedback. * Technical stuff :v1: 1) Wildcard characters in Fopen(), Pexec() and Frename() TOS4TRAP allows you to specify a wildcard (ie. ? or *) in a GEMDOS Fopen [file open], Pexec [execute a process] or Frename [file rename] system call. All TOS versions prior to TOS4 allowed wildcards to be used in a filename passed to these calls. This was not supposed to happen, so TOS4 corrected the oversight- breaking some programs. For example, a common operation I used to perform was saving info to a program which could be named either APP or ACC- ie. Fopen(FILENAME.A??). The correct method is to find a file match then open that file- ie. Fsfirst(FILENAME.A??), Fopen(found filename). Another example: At the GEM NewDesktop, try 'loading the desktop INF' file with a filename NEWDESK.IN?. The GEMDOS in TOS2 and TOS3 allowed this. TOS4 won't. 2) Ddelete() with trailing backslash Under TOS4, you can delete a folder's contents without problem. However, deleting the folder itself changed in TOS4. If a Ddelete [delete directory] call is made with a trailing backlash, '\', the backslash is removed from the path spec by TOS4TRAP; enabling you to delete a folder in certain programs- ie. NeoDesk and MaxiFile. NOTE for 1) & 2): Changes are made by copying the path spec to local memory, processing the path for TOS4 compatibility and then passing this new path on to GEMDOS. 3) Fwrite() [send data to the printer] TOS4 broke one type of GEMDOS printer output. Using TOS4TRAP enables output in certain programs- ie. STalker. :v2: 1) Fattribute() Supports passing a pathspec with a wildcard to the GEMDOS Fattribute() call. This is an addition to v1's wildcard monitoring of Fopen(), Pexec() and Frename(). 2) Memory loss Fixes the "memory loss" problem you encounter when closing directory windows at the GEM NewDesktop. Please note, those are the only windows affected and that's the only place it happens. For example, a) Close all directory windows at the desktop. b) Go up to the 'Options' dropdown menu and select 'Desktop Configuration...'. Note the value given in 'System Free Memory: xxxx bytes'. c) Open a drive window. d) Note the new amount of free memory- see b). e) Close the drive window. f) Compare the values in b) and d). d) should be less, demonstrating the memory loss. This is a permanent memory loss until you reboot or change screen resolution. And this loss can be compounded by fragmenting memory- ie. having a desk accessory open while closing a directory window or countless other methods. o TRACEFMT.CPX * Description fka DC Formatter Jr: A CPX-based floppy disk formatter originally scheduled for release in the DC CPXtensions package a few years ago. TraceTech Formatter Jr (FMT Jr) has been updated to be compatible with Atari's Ajax floppy controller, Atari's Falcon030 and high density formatting. Here are some of the features you will find in FMT Jr- skewed format for faster I/O, extended format (# sectors and/or # tracks) and zero disk. As with floppies formatted by the GEM Desktop, floppies formatted by FMT Jr can also be used as data disks on a DOS-based PC. Available options: 1) Tracks a) 0 = "zero" the contents of the floppy by clearing the FATs and Root directory, this is the same as deleting the entire contents of a disk but much quicker NOTE: Clearing the FATs also unmarks bad sectors. b) 40 = format 5-1/4" floppies c) 80 = standard format d) 81-85 = extended format NOTE: 3-1/2" drives are guaranteed to format a total of 80 tracks. By using a program like DC MaxTracks, you can see how far your drive can reliably format. Extreme CAUTION is advised concerning the use of extended format due to some hardware risks involved, and software and hardware compatibility issues. 2) Sides a) 1 = single-sided b) 2 = double-sided 3) Sectors per track a) 9 = standard Double-Density (DD) format b) 10 = extended DD format, use to store more information on a disk c) 18 = standard High-Density (HD) format d) 20 = extended HD format, use to store more information on a disk NOTEs: o Some copiers, such as the one built in to the GEM Desktop, can not duplicate by sector copying extended (# Tracks and/or # Sectors/Track) formats. o High-Density formats are enabled when a HD '_FDC' cookie is found in the cookie jar. 4) Drive a) A = Drive A: b) B = Drive B:, only available on a system with 2 floppy drives 5) Format Type a) Normal = standard format type b) Skewed = enhanced-speed format type, disk read and write operations are faster with a skewed format NOTE: Some non-Atari computers may not like skewed disks. * Installation Place in the CPX folder. Due to the limited scope of this text, further installation information should be obtained in the instructions supplied with Atari's Extensible Control Panel (XCONTROL). * Usage 1) Configure the settings you want to use for a format operation- tracks, sides, sectors, drive and type. As a user convenience, you can save one set of default parameters by choosing the [Save] button. Each time you run FMT Jr, these settings will be used. 2) Select the [Format] button. A dialog will appear with the following prompts: a) Insert disk in Drive x (where x is A or B) b) [Label] xxxxxxxx.xxx Select the [Label] button if you want to write a disk label to the Root directory of the disk after formatting. To enter your own disk label, clear the editable field located to the right of [Label] by pressing the Escape key, then enter your disk label. This label can be seen when you 'Show Info' on the disk at the desktop. It is basically a filename- 8 character max root name and a 3 character max extender name. c) [Format] button and [Cancel] button Choose the [Cancel] button if you DO NOT want to format a disk. You will return to the Main dialog. Choose the [Format] button to begin the format operation. 3) If you chose [Format], you will see a track number indicator box start from the last track and work its way to the beginning of the disk. For example, step once per track from track 80 to track 1. NOTEs: o As a safety measure, the target disk is formatted backwards from the last track to the first track. By using this method, there is less potential of losing data if you find that you have accidentally inserted the wrong disk. The "worst" that can happen is losing a file or two, not the entire disk which would happen using a 'forward format' method. o If you need to 'Abort' the format, press the Escape key as indicated in the dialog box. An alert will be given prompting 'Abort or Continue'. a) Choose [Continue] to continue formatting the disk. b) Choose [Abort] to stop the format operation. 4) When the format operation is completed, a free disk space readout (measured in bytes) will be shown. o CFGNVRAM.APP/ACC Falcon030 NVRAM Configurator * Description CFGNVRAM lets you configure various NVRAM (Non-Volatile RAM) settings used by TOS4. A TOS Note: CFGNVRAM contains a unique bootup setting option for TOS 4.04. If you are unsure of your TOS version, it is shown as #.## above the [Set NVRAM] button on the righthand side of the Main dialog. Available options: 1) System Bootup Delay - Time (0-80 seconds) Big NOTE: Only available on TOS 4.04. This option is disabled when using earlier TOS4 versions. This is the TOTAL amount of time TOS delays after a cold start bootup in order to allow your storage devices to become active. A cold start occurs when you power on a computer or do a system reset with the keypress 'Control+Alternate+RightShift+Delete'. The delay time consists of two steps: a) A basic memory check to determine the RAM amount. ie. Memory Test: ------------------ xxxxx KB b) A spinup delay for the storage devices. ie. XXXX [a shrinking horizontal bar] The default NVRAM setting is 32 seconds. During testing of CFGNVRAM, a value of 7 was found to be enough time for a stock system with a single internal IDE drive to bootup with no keypress being necessary to abort the bootup delay. Going above 7 seconds required the keypress. Note, because of the different timing requirements of drives, this value may not work for other IDE drive types and/or if you have external SCSI drive(s). 2) System Bootup Video Mode - ST Low, ST High or No Change If your video device can handle ST High and you want a more legible 80-column display on bootup, select the ST High button. Please note, other modes are available on bootup. However, due to the possible problems involved with choosing a "bad/wrong" mode, I chose not to allow the additional options. The [n.c.] button is used if another mode has already been configured. The default NVRAM setting is ST Low. 3) International Time [_IDT] You have 2 choices for the Time format used by TOS: a) 12-Hour b) 24-Hour This setting is used by the GEM NewDesktop, in directory displays for example, and by other programs which check the '_IDT' cookie. 4) International Date [_IDT] You have 4 choices for the Date format used by TOS: a) MM-DD-YY b) DD-MM-YY c) YY-MM-DD d) YY-DD-MM You can also configure the 'Date Separator' character. This text character separates the three date components. For example, the '-' in MM-DD-YY. The default NVRAM setting is a backslash, '/'. See #3 for _IDT usage. 5) Keyboard Preference [_AKP] You have 8 choices: a) USA b) Germany c) France d) UK e) Spain f) Italy g) Swiss French h) Swiss German 6) Desktop Language Preference [_AKP] You have 5 choices: a) USA b) Germany c) France d) Spain e) Italy * Installation Copy to your utilities folder. * Usage NOTE: Before running CFGNVRAM, see the 'Special NOTEs' section below for a couple of precautions. 1) Configure the various settings you want to use. 2) Select the [Set NVRAM] button when you are done. To reset the NVRAM to its default configuration, select the [Reset NVRAM] button. NOTE: If you should encounter an error alert while modifying the NVRAM, try selecting [Reset NVRAM] and starting over. If the problem persists, reboot your computer and try again. * Extras Additional programs related to restoring NVRAM default settings: o RESETNVR.PRG Reset your NVRAM to default configuration. Same as [Reset NVRAM] in the CFGNVRAM program. You can run this program either from the desktop or in the AUTO folder. When you run RESETNVR from the desktop, you will be presented with a program information alert. The next alert will be: [Reset NVRAM?][Yes|No] If you choose YES, one of the following alerts will appear: [Error resetting NVRAM. See manual.][OK] [All done!][OK] o DO_BOOTN.PRG Writes an executable boot sector to a floppy which will reset the NVRAM to default configuration on bootup. When you run DO_BOOTN from the desktop, you will be presented with a program information alert. The next alert will be: [Please insert a floppy in Drive A:][OK|Exit] If you choose OK, one of the following alerts may appear: [Read error!][OK] The current boot sector has a problem. [Executable boot sector detected. Overwrite it?][Yes|No] The current boot sector is executable. Choose [Yes] to overwrite the contents. Choose [No] to return to the 'Insert' alert. After writing the boot sector, one of these two alerts will appear: [Write error!][OK] The current boot sector has a problem. [All done!][OK] The new boot sector data was correctly written. To use this 'Reset NVRAM' boot sector, simply insert the disk containing the boot sector into floppy drive A and 'cold' reset your computer by pressing Control+Alternate+RShift+Delete or cycling the power Off and back On. A bell will sound when the boot sector has completed its job, then the following text will be displayed on screen: NVRAM reset done. 1) Remove floppy from drive. 2) Press a key or hit reset. * Special NOTEs o Before using CFGNVRAM, you may want to write a boot sector to a formatted floppy with DO_BOOTN.PRG. Also, create an AUTO folder on this floppy and copy RESETNVR.PRG to the AUTO folder. This will give you two choices of how to reset the NVRAM if you ever run into a problem on bootup. o TOS 4.04 allows you to reset the NVRAM while the system is being initialized at bootup. During the 'memory sizer' or 'spinup delay' routine, press Control+Alternate+Undo. The system will first reset the NVRAM then automatically reset the computer for you. o RUN_COFF.PRG/TTP/GTP * Description Some programs do not work properly when the 68030 cache is ON. One example is FCopy3 -- during some disk operations, you will encounter a crash due to the cache being ON. RUN_COFF will turn OFF the 68030 cache before running a program you choose. After exiting that program, the old cache setting will be restored automatically. * Installation Copy to your utilities folder. * Usage You have several choices of how to use RUN_COFF: 1) Installed application Install Application... Default directory: Top Window Parameter: Full Path Setup RUN_COFF to be run when a certain extender is doubleclicked at the GEM Desktop. This extender is your choice. 2) Drag and drop Available in TOS2 and up, and some alternative desktops. At the desktop, DRAG the file (text or icon) you want to run, via RUN_COFF, to the RUN_COFF executable (text or icon) and DROP the file on RUN_COFF. After turning the cache OFF for you, the dragged file will be run by RUN_COFF. For TOS's NewDesktop, you should configure RUN_COFF's 'Installed Application' DEFAULT DIR/PARAMETER options as TOP WINDOW/FULL PATH. For NeoDesk, you should configure RUN_COFF's 'Install Application' SET PATH TO option as DOCUMENT. 3) Commandline Pass the complete pathspec of the application to run- ie. in the TTP/GTP dialog. Support ======= Great strides are taken to make sure the F030TKIT will not cause problems as a new addition to your system. If you do run into any difficulties, report them to me ASAP. You can reach me by phone, GEmail (includes Internet) and GEnie's ST-RT, CAT2 TOP12. - Keith Gerdes GEnie: K.GERDES Internet: k.gerdes@genie.geis.com Tech support: (713)771-8332 [weekdays 1PM-5PM Central Time] DEMOWARE ======== Obtaining the real thing is easy: **** TOS4Trap v1 registered user notice **** Registered users of the TraceTech shareware product, TOS4Trap v1, can apply that paid fee toward this order. For example, if you sent in $5, deduct $5 from the total owed for the F030TKIT. [NOTE: Canadian users- please see specific F030TKIT order info below.] As an introductory special, order BEFORE November 16, 1994 and save $5! Send US$25, which includes shipping & handling. o Outside the U.S. - add $5 o For priority mail in the U.S. - add $3 To get this discount, your letter MUST be postmarked NO LATER than November 15, 1994. Orders postmarked AFTER November 15, 1994: Send US$30, which includes shipping & handling. o Outside the U.S. - add $5 o For priority mail in the U.S. - add $3 If you haven't picked up the new FastPath utility yet, it is ONLY $10 when ordered with the F030TKIT. And not to forget MORE MONEY SAVING discounts, contact TraceTech for special direct order prices on our commercial products. Texas residents must add 8.25% sales tax. Please make payment by check (issued by a U.S. bank), U.S. funds money order (drawn on a U.S. bank), or postal money order. [NOTEs: GEnie gifts of time are not accepted. And no credit card order capability.] Payable to: Trace Technologies or Keith Gerdes Send to: Trace Technologies [F030TKIT] PO Box 711403 Houston, TX 77271-1403 What else do you get for your investment? -> Tech support and bug fix updates! -> Plus special discounts on future products. ==== Canadian users ==== In order to save you money and offer you quicker turnaround, I started a registration service with Howard Carson, a member of the Toronto Atari Federation User Group. Howard will take care of processing all Canadian orders- including user registration, money transactions and software distribution. Please note, tech support and all other support will still be the sole responsibility of TraceTech. F030TKIT orders before November 16, 1994: The Canadian registration fee is $40 Cdn, total amount. To get this discount, your letter MUST be postmarked no later than November 15, 1994. F030TKIT orders after November 15, 1994: The Canadian registration fee is $48 Cdn, total amount. If you haven't picked up the new FastPath utility yet, it is ONLY $16 Cdn when ordered with the F030TKIT. You can contact Howard for MORE MONEY SAVING discounts on TraceTech commercial products. Send all Canadian registrations to: Howard Carson #601-2904 St. Clair Ave. East Toronto, Ontario Canada M4B 1N7 And make all Canadian payments to: Howard Carson Howard accepts personal cheques and current account cheques drawn on Canadian banks and trusts, as well as MO's, drafts and cash. He will try to service registrants within 72 hours (for cash, M.O and draft/certified cheque customers), and within 10 days for personal cheque customers. '72 hours' and '10 days', refer to the actual elapsed period before an item is mailed/registered/applied (as appropriate). ==== Other currencies ==== If you wish to setup a distribution point for other currencies, please contact me. TraceTech products ================== TraceTech's products are compatible with all Atari ST/TT/Falcon computers and all TOS versions. Projects in the queue: * Flex Menu [3 of 4 DEMOWARE release in '94, Date TBA] NOTE: This is the working title. Name may change. o Run programs Includes an easy to configure menu for running programs under all versions of TOS and under AES4- MTOS & Geneva. o Menu bar Convenient, instant access to the current menu bar in a floating windowed-dialog. You can also think of this as a tear-away menu feature, but available under any environment, not just with Geneva. o Startup tasks When an application runs, you can trigger 2 startup tasks, consisting of dropdown item(s) and/or keypress(es). o CodeKeys .KEY tracking Maintains the KEY file belonging to the current process under AES4. * Missouri [4 of 4 DEMOWARE release in '94, Date TBA] The 'show me' state-of-the-art file viewer. o SHOWTEXT.PRG View text files, including formatted "1st Word" DOC files. o SHOWPICS.PRG View picture files, 18+ file formats. o SHOWHEX.PRG View binary data files. o SHOW_ME.xyz Access memory resident show modules. ShowText installs a handler for the 'DC Shower' chain. Pics and Hex install themself into this chain. The chain is accessible by Show_Me, UIS3.3x and others. Show_Me is the "frontend" access point for file viewing. Although, you can run each viewer from the desktop as a standalone application. The SHOW_ME module can be run as: * ACC Giving you access to the 3 file view modules in any program with a menu bar. ie. a DTP user could quickly preview a graphic or text file that they want to import * APP/PRG Inserted in the DESKTOP.INF/NEWDESK.INF file as the default file viewer instead of the desktop's built in Show|Print|Cancel routine; as an installed application you can access the 3 viewers by double- clicking on a file; install as an icon on the NewDesktop for drag- and-drop operation; or configure it as NeoDesk's supplemental file viewer. * TTP/GTP - accepts a pathspec to view SHOW_ME performs a non-recursive batch search if you specify a wildcard in the filename. Available Commercial products: * Data Diet v2 (++) A realtime file compression system. Use files the same as always, but have them occupy MUCH less disk space! The programs you use don't know Data Diet is trimming away the fat, but you'll notice the difference right away. Also includes DD Tools, DD INFo Editor and Squish v1. A complete system for saving megabytes of storage space. Flexible user options put you in control of your data. You can exclude files, folders and drives which you don't want compressed. You can even specify the compression type to use by several methods- filesize, extender, path name and program name. And you have the choice of compressing your data in three modes- offline, realtime or program transition. Data Diet - simple to install, easy to use and flexible enough to adapt to your system needs. New for v2: Reserve memory, VROdisk, 3 more INF sections, DDINFOED, DD Tools operation filters, improved compression speed and percentage by utilizing available memory, etc. (++) An upgrade from Data Diet v1 is available. Contact TraceTech. * Data Rescue The complete realtime data recovery solution. [NOTE: Compatible with DATAlite2.] o Realtime tracking ALL file and folder deletions are monitored so you can immediately rescue accidental deletions, or at any timespan afterwards assuming the associated data is still valid. o Efficient resident program The memory resident portion of Data Rescue occupies less than 10K of RAM. o Two delete tracking modes 1) DAT tracks file AND folder deletions by using a small data file. 2) RESCUEfolder is a trashcan system which moves files to \RESCUE upon deletion, with each folder intelligently maintained. o Intelligent maintenance Any time GEMDOS encounters an out of storage space error, the RESCUE folder is automatically purged of the oldest files and the aborted operation completed. And on bootup each RESCUE folder is maintained by two criteria- file age and/or content size. o RESCUEfolder You can set any temporary paths used by programs to a RESCUE folder so that the temp files are automatically maintained for you. o Small DAT size The size of the DAT tracking file is constant and can be computed by taking the size of the drive in bytes and dividing by 512 for a hard disk or by 682 for a floppy disk. [ie. a 5Meg partition would have a 10K DATARESC.DAT file] o Deleted fragmented data Rescuing fragmented data is a breeze requiring NO user interaction! o Partial data recovery If part of a deleted file is overwritten, you can still rescue the available data. o Rescue Data And not to forget this user convenience- the first character in a name is encoded so the user does not have to remember it or even enter it when rescuing a file/folder. A specialized solution, not just another feature. * Squish II (++) An executable file compression system. Save storage space quick and easy by compressing your programs and accessories. Multitasking operation. Advanced windowed graphical user interface. Memory efficient design. Transparent, on-the-fly file uncompression in memory. Flexible user options. You control the system! Recursive batch mode. Commandline support. Converts several "packed" formats: ie. PFX, Ice, Fire, BA, Pompey, Squish v1, etc. Faster and better compression than v1. Compression Factor is a user adjustment for the compression routine, ranging from 0 to 9. CF0 gives ~Squish v1.4 compression percentage, ~3x faster. CF3 gives ~PFX compression percentage, ~3x faster. Squish II includes these options: Turbo, Compression Factor, Set Fast bit, Clear Fast bit, Clear Heap, Recursion, Skip Squished, Squished Only, No CF Update, Keep TimeDate, Keep Backup, Specify Destination, Show Alerts, Excluded Filename List, Included Extender List, Excluded Root Folders and Exclude Filesize > xxxxK. Definitely NOT just another "packer"! (++) An upgrade from Squish v1 (aka DC Squish) is available. This includes owners of DCUtilities, Data Diet v1 and Data Diet v2. Contact TraceTech. Available Demoware product: * Fast Path Are you struggling with the system file selector, clicking here and there to get to your word processing folder or that favorite game? Sure, using an alternative file selector can be better, but have you found yourself wishing it had more predefined paths and extenders? Wish no more! o Provides 34 user-definable paths in an attractive graphical user interface. Call FastPath as needed or have it automatically appear before the file selector. Select a path via the mouse or keyboard and you're instantly there, reaching distant points of your hard disk with ease. Paths can be defined, copied, moved, deleted or edited with point-and-click ease. Displays the current path being sent to the file selector along with the file selector prompt and filename specifications. o Remembers the last 4 paths used in the file selector, for instant recall. Combined with the above, you have 38 paths at your disposal. o Provides 38 user-definable extenders, one of which can be passed to the file selector to narrow the range of files displayed. o Save your favorite paths and extenders to disk for future use. o Full mouse and keyboard control. o Convenient Help screen. o FastPath can access CodeHead's powerful file maintenance utility, MaxiFile III, by a simple keypress if MaxiFile is resident as a desk accessory. o Works in all color or monochrome graphic resolutions except ST Low. 100% assembly. Uses as little as 22K of RAM. Compatible with all TOS versions and ST/STe/TT/Falcon models. Available Shareware products: * Load Aladdin Use ST Aladdin on your Falcon030. Use the extra serial ports on your MSTe or TT in ST Aladdin. Frees up the serial port on all Atari computers when not online. Enabling other programs to access the serial port when running ST Aladdin. And save connect charges with the included Idle Guard feature- automatically hangs up the modem after serial I/O has been idle X minutes. * TOS4 Trap v1.0 o Wildcard characters in Fopen(), Pexec() and Frename() TOS4TRAP allows you to specify a wildcard (ie. ? or *) in a GEMDOS Fopen [file open], Pexec [execute a process] or Frename [file rename] system call. o Ddelete() with trailing backslash Under TOS4, you can delete a folder's contents without problem. However, deleting the folder itself changed in TOS4. If a Ddelete() [delete directory] call is made with a trailing backlash, '\', the backslash is removed from the path spec by TOS4TRAP; enabling you to delete a folder in certain programs. o Fwrite (send data to printer) TOS4 broke one type of GEMDOS printer output. o Which programs are indirectly addressed by this system patch? Currently I am aware of: STalker - print block in terminal window - w/o TOS4TRAP, an error alert NeoDesk - delete folder (NOTE: pre-NeoDesk4) - w/o TOS4TRAP, contents are deleted but the folder is not MaxiFile - delete folder - w/o TOS4TRAP, contents are deleted but the folder is not Desk Manager - file renaming - w/o TOS4TRAP, files are not renamed Some GFA compiled programs - printer output - w/o TOS4TRAP, no output and others I would think. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This program is supplied in the belief that it operates as specified, neither the company (Trace Technologies) nor the authors shall be liable in any circumstance whatsoever for any direct or indirect loss or damage to property incurred or suffered by the customer or any other person as a result of any fault or defect in the goods or services supplied by the company and in no circumstances shall the company be liable against consequential damage or loss of profits -whether or not the possibility thereof was separately advised to it or reasonably forseeable- arising from the use or performance of such goods or services. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This archive contains a DEMO version of the TraceTech F030TKIT package. You may freely distribute this archive in its _entirety_, but you cannot charge for it or alter the programs or contents of the documentation in any manner. Trace Technologies retains all copyright exclusive rights except exclusive distribution of this DEMO version. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++