
   WELCOME TO FILE COMMANDER!

   This disk contains File Commander 2.0k

   File Commander is an extender for the Win 3.1 File Manager.  It allows
   you to add four (see below) menu items to the File Manager menu bar.
   From each of these top-level menu items, File Commander allows you to
   make up to 99 menu items spread up to 5 levels deep.

   File Commander helps you end the drudgery of day-to-day tasks
   when working in Microsoft Windows.  Its FAST text-based interface
   completely avoids the graphical overhead that often bogs down real
   productivity in Windows.

   How many times have you tired of changing drives, moving through two
   subdirectories, finding an executable file from among 43 other
   filenames, double clicking on it, selecting File/Open, then searching
   for another directory in the listbox because your document happens to
   be in a different directory than the program!  With File Commander you
   can automate that knowledge of where to move around the disk, which
   directories to go to, which files you want to work on, what size you
   prefer your window to be, and so on.



   With almost two hundred functions and commands, File Commander can:


     .  Run Windows and DOS programs.

     .  Send keystrokes directly to applications.

     .  Rearrange, resize, hide, and close windows.

     .  Run programs either concurrently or sequentially.

     .  Display information to the user in various formats.

     .  Prompt the user for any needed input.

     .  Present scrollable file and directory lists.

     .  Copy, move, delete, and rename files.

     .  Read and write files directly.

     .  Copy text to and from the Clipboard.

     .  Perform string and arithmetic operations.

     .  Make branching decisions based upon numerous factors.


   And much, much more.

   Of course, to take full advantage of the flexibility of File Commander,
   one must spend some time with either the manual or the help file and
   become aquainted with the underlying WIL script language.  Of course,
   for those less technically inclined (you mean not everyone is a rocket
   scientist???) the sample menus shipped with File Commander provide a
   great deal of added value with no modifications whatsoever, and (even
   though I hate to admit it) I expect a sizeable portion of File
   Commander users will never actually have the need to modify the File
   Commander menus by hand.

   There are few things you should understand about the File Manager and
   its relationship to File Commander and other File Manager extenders.
   Be sure to read the both this readme file and File Commander manual
   if you have any other File Manager extenders installed.

   SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

   File Commander requires an IBM PC or compatible with a minimum of 2
   megabytes of RAM, running Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or higher.


   ***   SPECIAL BONUS FOR REGISTERED USERS  ***

   Registered users receive our new "Dialog Editor" which allows them to
   graphically construct dialog boxes, (a lot like the Visual Basic dialog
   editor), and other utilities to help make programming File Commander menu
   items a tad easier and faster.


   *** PREMIER SUPPORT NOW AVAILABLE ***

   A fee based extended support system is now available to assist 
   corporate software engineering projects which require high technology
   assistance, custom Windows programming, or custom interfaces to suites
   of Windows applications.  See the README2.TXT file for more information.


   *** LATE BREAKING NEWS ***

   File Commander 2.0 is a FREE major update from the previous version.
   However we have changed all licensing codes from the previous version
   for internal compatibility reasons.  We have sent all registered users
   of the 1.0 version a new copy of the program, new manuals, etc. If you
   are a registered user and did not receive your update packet by the
   time you read this, then we somehow we missed you.
   Call (800)-762-8383 and get this problem straightened out.


   File Commander 2.0 allows you to add upto 4 top-level menus to the
   Windows File Manager menu.  Previous versions only allowed one top-level
   menu.  Each top-level menu can support upto 99 menu items, spread across
   4 levels of drop-downs.  I know this is a tad confusing - the best bet is
   to install File Commander, run File Manager and poke around at the new
   menu items.   Once you see what our sample menu scripts can do for you,
   you will want to write your own menu scripts to add your own menu items
   to the menus.

   File Commander comes with four sample menu files, each of which are
   associated with a new File Manager menu item.  To wit:

       Menu title          Menu File

       Main                WWWFC1.MNU
       Applets             WWWFC2.MNU
       Utils               WWWFC3.MNU
       Demo                WWWFC4.MNU

   Although these files are mainly intended as code samples that you can
   peruse to make your own add-on menu items, a lot of people, especially
   those not willing to plunge in and learn the batch language, will find
   that the sample menu items do all sorts of neat stuff, and may be
   perfectly content to live with the sample menus supplied.

   These sample menus are not exactly documented anyplace, but if you
   browse through the pull-down menus in File Manager, the functions of
   the various menus items should become obvious.  We've carefully designed
   them to run on almost *any* system.  If something does not work for you,
   then its up to you to dig into the sample menu code and rectify any
   imcompatibilities that may be occurring.


   *** NORTON DESKTOP FOR WINDOWS ***

   This version also allows you to add the same menu items to the
   Norton Desktop for Windows File Manager menu.  File Commander will
   attempt to determine if there are any compatibility problems, and,
   if so, will put up a message with further instructions, and then
   exit.

   In some cases, especially with Non-English versions of NDW, there may
   be serious undetectable incompatibility problems.

   To turn off the informational message OR to tell File Commander NOT
   to run with the NDW File Manager, do the following:

       Edit the WINFILE.INI file  ((( NOT WIN.INI !!! )))

       Find the [FileCmdr] Section.  If it does not exist, make one.

       Insert a line containing "NDW=2"

       When you are done it should look something like...

               [FileCmdr]
               NDW=2


   If you experience problems when starting the Norton Desktop (Version 2.0)
   File Manager with File Commander, please contact Symantec's Peter Norton
   Group technical support at (310) 449-4900 for assistance.  Be sure to
   mention "File Commander" clearly, and they will be able take care of you.

   If you add the NDW=2 line to your WINFILE.INI file because of compatibility
   problems, be sure to remove the line when you wish to test to see if the
   compatibility problems got resolved.



   *** GENERAL INFORMATION ***

   File Commander is an extender for the Win 3.1 File Manager.  It allows
   you to add upto four menu items to the File Manager menu bar.

   From each of these top-level menu items, File Commander allows you to
   make up to 99 menu items spread up to 5 levels deep.

   The menu items, when selected, execute our Windows Interface Language (WIL)
   code.  What is the WIL language?  Well, its the Windows batch file language
   developed by Wilson WindowWare, and found in several products, including
   the following:

     Wilson WindowWare: Command Post     - As the menu script language
     Wilson WindowWare: WinBatch         - The Windows batch language
     Symantec:          Norton Desktop   - The Batch Runner/Builder language 

     >>> If you have used Command Post, you will find the menu scripts
     >>> *remarkably* similiar. 

   The WIL language supports zillions (well maybe 200) different functions
   that allow you to do pritnear anything.

   Be sure to check out our new WIL.HLP Windows help file.  It has a
   complete description of the WIL language (Thats the programming language
   found in our products).  It should prove useful.

   NOTE:  The documentation for the Windows File Manager Extender Interface
   states that 5 top-level menus may be added to the File Manager menu.
   However, due to what appears to be a bug, the fifth menu item does not
   work properly.  Any command selected from the fifth menu item becomes
   confused with the adjacent "Windows" menu, and the corresponding command
   from the "Windows" menu is executed instead.  All this is saying is don't
   use more than 4 new top-level menus with the Windows File Manager.

   Norton Desktop for Windows File Manager does support up to
   10 total addon menus.


   INSTALLATION NOTES

   File Manager Extenders are not EXE files.  They are DLL's.  When File
   Manager (either Windows or Norton) starts up, it inspects the WINFILE.INI
   (Note: NOT WIN.INI) file for a special [AddOns] section.  The [AddOns]
   section (when File Commander is installed) looks like the following:

         [AddOns]
         WWWFC1=WWWFC1.DLL
         WWWFC2=WWWFC2.DLL
         WWWFC3=WWWFC3.DLL
         WWWFC4=WWWFC3.DLL

   If you are running the Windows File Manager, you should only have 4 items
   in the [Addons] section (due to the aforementioned bug).  If you run NDW,
   you can have 5, but if you run the Windows File Manager from NDW, remember
   that the 5th added menu item is broken.

   The File Commander install process installs 4 DLL's to allow you to have
   4 menu items.  There are a few other *much less capable* extenders
   available from various sources.  Some of these are:

          a) The NDW extender.
          b) The Windows Resource toolkit File Size extender.
          c) An extender known as "Goodies"
          d) Certain internal corporate extenders
          e) And others likely to show up someplace or another.

   In any case, if you have another extender, you may have to pick and choose
   the extenders that you keep.  In general, File Commander, with just a few
   new menu scripts, can do *anything* and *everything* that any other
   extender imaginable could possibly hope to do.  The only real reason to
   keep any of the other extenders around is if your corporate MIS department
   informs you that if you don't, you might get fired.

   So....the upkeep and maintenance of the [AddOns] section of the WINFILE.INI
   is your responsibility.  You will have to decide what to keep and what goes.

   We do provide four extenders:

       WWWFC1.DLL
       WWWFC2.DLL
       WWWFC3.DLL
       WWWFC4.DLL

   which our installation program will install.  Each one controls a menu
   item.  The menu items will appear on your File Manager menu in the same
   order that the menu items occur in the [AddOns] section.

   The installation process installs, and File Commander refers to an
   additional, new section of the WINFILE.INI file -- The [FileCmdr] section.

   The [FileCmdr] section of the WINFILE.INI file contains the titles of the
   top level menu items, and also contains the file names of the menu script
   files.  You usually do not have to worry about these items, as our sample
   menu scripts maintain this section.  However, in the interest of complete
   documentation, the [FileCmdr] section as it appears immediately after File
   Commander installation is shown below:


       [FileCmdr]
       MenuFile1=WWWFC1.MNU
       MenuFile2=WWWFC2.MNU
       MenuFile3=WWWFC3.MNU
       MenuFile4=WWWFC4.MNU
       MenuTitle1=&Main
       MenuTitle2=&Applets
       MenuTitle3=&Utils
       MenuTitle4=&Demos

  The WWWFC1.DLL extender will refer to the MenuFile1 keyword to determine
  which menu script file to use, and it will refer to the MenuTitle1 keyword
  to determine the title of the desired menu item.

  Likewise, the WWWFC2.DLL extender will refer to MenuFile2 and MenuTitle2,
  and so on.



   HOW-2-ADD YOUR OWN MENU ITEMS

   The Main menu item added to the File Manager menu has a selection to
   assist you in editing menus.  All it really does is to run the Windows
   Notepad editor on one of the four menu files, WWWFC1.MNU, WWWFC2.MNU,
   WWWFC3.MNU or WWWFC4.MNU.

   In order to take full advantage of File Commander, you should read
   through most of the documentation.  It will teach you about the WIL
   script language in an easy step-by-step fashion (We've got stacks of
   letters from non-programmers who said they were a tad scared about
   tackling the WIL language, but once they went through our tutorial,
   can write menu scrips with the best of them.  One guy even decided he
   liked programming, took a few community college courses, and now has
   a job programming for a living!)

   More experienced people, people who are familiar with DOS BAT files,
   people familiar with DOS BASIC or other programming languages, and
   the average unreconstructed hackers may simply wish to plunge in,
   examine the sample menus and wing it.  Although we don't officially
   recommend this kind of thing, it does happen.

   In any case, especially for those trying to "wing it", the menu script
   files ares COLUMN SENSITIVE, especially in the first four columns
   (character positions) which define the menu item titles.  WIL batch code
   should start in column 5 or later (I like col 8).  The structure of a
   menu file (this is the short form, see the docs for a real explanation);

                         111111111122222222223
     Columns    123456789012345678901234567890... etc
                ; Semicolons are the comment symbol.  Everything to the
                ; right of a semi-colon is ignored.  At the top of the file
                ; is the "auto-exec" section which runs on File Manager
                ; startup, and whenever the extenders are reloaded.
                ; Note that the autoexec code starts in column 8 (way past
                ; column 5 so it does not get confused with menu items.
                        TAB=Num2Char(9)        ; Define a TAB char for laters
                        CR=strcat(Num2Char(13),Num2Char(10)) ; Define a CRLF
                ; That was our autoexec section.  It just defined a few
                ; special characters for later use.  Here is our first menu
                ; item...
                NOTEPAD
                        Run("Notepad.exe","")      ;Run Notepad
                ; That was it.  The word NOTEPAD will appear on a menu and
                ; when selected it will execute the command that launches the
                ; Notepad editor.
                ; Now, lets have a drop-down menu that off of a menu item.
                ; (Menu items don't need to be all CAPS, it is just to make
                ; this example a tad clearer.
                ACCESSORIES
                 CONTROL PANEL
                        Run("Control.exe","")
                 CALCULATOR
                        Run("Calc.exe","")
                ; Note that the first level menu, ACCESSORIES started in
                ; column 1, and that the two drop down menu items off of it
                ; both started in column 2.  It is important to remember that
                ; the columns that the menu titles start in control what kind
                ; of menu item it is, and putting a menu item in the wrong
                ; column is the most common error in writing a menu.


   When loading a new menu script, File Commander will report on lines in the
   menu script file that it does not like.  In general it is always expecting
   one kind of line or another, and if the current line does not meet up to
   its expectations, it displays the line with an error message.  Quite often,
   the actual error occurred on the previous line.  Almost all problems on
   load have to do with improper indent in the menu titles.  In addition,
   after an error, the remainder of the menu file is ignored.

   Each menu script file can only support upto 99 menu items.  It you have
   more that 99 menu items, the ones past the 99th item will not appear, and,
   if the 100th item occurs on some sub-level menu, can make its parent level
   disappear too.

   THE WIL.HLP file

   The installation program should have installed an icon in the Program
   Manager File Commander group which will bring up this file.  Or just
   double click on it to make it run.  Its also accessable from our sample
   menus.

   The first menu item you write might be to add a new menu item to access
   the WIL.HLP file to one of your own menus.  Here's one way to do it.

       First, figure out where the WIL.HLP file is.  Lets assume that you
       took the standard installation program defaults.  That would put
       the WIL.HLP file into the C:\FILECMDR\HELP directory.  Verify this.

       Assuming you have File Commander running, select the "Main" menu item.
       The first thing you will see in the drop-down menu that appears is the
       "Edit File Commander Menus".  Select that option.

       Another drop down menu will appear which gives you a choice of editing
       the menu scripts or changing the top-level menu titles.  Choose the
       first selection, "Edit menu scripts".

       Choose the first selection, WWWFC1.MNU, to edit the first menu file.

       This will pop you into the Notepad editor, editing the WWWFC1.MNU
       menu file.  Move to the bottom of the file and add the following
       lines.  BE SURE THAT THE MENU TITLE STARTS AT THE FAR LEFT WITH NO
       SPACES IN FRONT OF IT.  Adjust the DirChange command, if required,
       to point to the directory containing the WIL.HLP file.

              ; This menu item brings up the WIL.HLP help file
              Get WIL Help File
                      DirChange("C:\FILECMDR\HELP")
                      Run("winhelp.exe","wil.hlp")

       Close the note pad editor.  Look at your first menu.  Strange, the
       new menu item is NOT there.  Select one of the menu items, say 
       "Browse".  File Commander will look at the menu file, decide that it
       was modified since the last time it was inspected, and proceed to
       reload it.  Since there's no telling what might have changed in the
       file, File Commander will tell you that the menu files were reloaded,
       and that you should re-select the desired menu item.

       After a short delay while the reload occurs, look at the menu item 
       again.  Lo and behold, it should be there on the bottom of the first
       menu.  Select it.  WinHelp should load with the WIL language help.

       Good Luck.



   The WIL.HLP file was produced and designed by Jim Stiles.  If you need
   or want professional consulting for custom help systems,
   ask for Jim at (206) 937-3141.


  *** FOREIGN LANGUAGE SUPPORT ***

  File Commander now supports some foreign languages.  English is built in,
  and the software attempts to examine your system, and, if you are using
  German or French, will configure itself to use German or French.  More
  languages on the way.  There is also "ValSpeak", which is both a parody
  on Southern California slang, and an example of how *some* messages may
  be modified for the end users.

  If you are using Windows 3.1, File Commander will attempt to determine
  what language Windows you are running and automatically configure itself
  to use that language.

  To access a non-default langauage do the following:

      1) Examine the WWWDLANG.DLL file to determine the languages
         available.  The file has documentation in it that will help you
         figure this out.  (It is not really a DLL, you can look at it.
         It will probably be in your Windows directory.)
    
      2) Edit the WWWBATCH.INI file and add an item to the MAIN section,
         something like:

         WWWBATCH.INI
            [Main]
            Language=ValSpeak

  Restart Windows, and, walla, the new language should appear.

                       PACKING LIST:

 With this version you have the following files:   You will find that
 on your disk or ZIP file, many of the files end in a _ (underscore).  This
 is to be expected.  Some files may have been compressed and will need to
 properly installed to be useful, while other files may be simply copied and
 renamed.  Registered users may find a few other bonus files on the disk.

 README   TXT  Latest news and comments about File Commander  (this file)
 README2  TXT  Readme.txt  ...continued...
 FILECMDR MAN  The documentation for File Commander
 WILDOC   MAN  The technical reference for the WIL language
               (Not always included when we also send a printed copy)
 WIL      HLP  The Windows help file for our language
 FC__VER  ???  Version number file.  The extension shows the version number
 FILE_ID  DIZ  A standard description file to help BBS sysops

 WWWFC1   DLL  The DLL for the first  extender menu item
 WWWFC2   DLL  The DLL for the second extender menu item
 WWWFC3   DLL  The DLL for the third  extender menu item
 WWWFC4   DLL  The DLL for the fourth extender menu item

 WWWFC1   MNU  The Menu file for the first  extender menu item
 WWWFC2   MNU  The Menu file for the second extender menu item
 WWWFC3   MNU  The Menu file for the third  extender menu item
 WWWFC4   MNU  The Menu file for the fourth extender menu item

 WWWFMEAA DLL  The Main File Commander DLL
 WWWBATxx DLL  The WIL script processor DLL (where xx is a number)
 WWWDLANG DLL  Foreign Language support for the WIL script processor DLL
 WWWDEALR DLL  Yet another required DLL
 WWWZIP   DLL  ZIP file processing scripts
 WWWVIRT  BAT  Sample BAT file that changes PATH for DOS apps
 WWWDOS   BAT  DOS BAT file used in some of our menu scripts
 WWWDOSC  PIF  PIF that calls WWWDOS.BAT and pauses
 WWWDOSP  PIF  PIF that calls WWWDOS.BAT and then closes the window
 WWWZIPLS EXE  Zip processor EXE file

 WSETUP   INF  A script file for the setup program
 WSETUP   EXE  The snazzy setup program
 WSETUP2  OVL  More of our setup program.
 WEXPAND  EXE  Manual install file expander (on disks only)
 WEXPAN1  EXE  Manual file expander overlay (on disks only)
 BROWSER  EXE  A handy file browser utility
 BROWLANG DLL  International language support for Browser



  *** Please help us out ***

  If you have received a regular licensed copy of File Commander (what
  we call the retail version), your 3.5" disk might contain a shareware
  ZIP file of the latest version of File Commander.  Iff so, please help
  us spread it around - upload it to your favorite local BBS, send it
  to your company software librarian, or any other place where people
  who might appreciate File Commander can come across it.
  Thank you very much.




  Please see the README2.TXT file for more information
