* * * Color File Operations GUI v1.0 * * * for the Tandy Color Computer 3 by Robert Emery copyright (c)2003, 2004 all rights reserved Strangiato Software, somewhere in Texas theother_bob@yahoo.com http://www.geocities.com/theother_bob Color FOG v1.0 README.TXT - July 4, 2004 --------< QUICK START >-------- 1.First, make a backup of GENR8FOG.DSK either to a real floppy disk or to another DSK file in a separate folder. Burn the original to CD. ;-) Always keep an *unmodified original* for distribution to different CoCos. 2.Mount the disk (real or emulated). We'll assume drive 1 3.At the CoCo 3’s OK prompt, type: RUN”INSTALL:1[Enter] The installer will analyze your system and copy or create the appropriate files to the drive you specify. Installation takes about three minutes. SETUP will automatically run after installation is complete. 4.Set your monitor type, your drive configuration, choose a color scheme & font 5.Click the Save button or type S when you're done. FOG will launch. This is a unified installer for DECB 1.1 and RGB/HDB-DOS. The installer creates a file named INSTALL.LOG on the setup disk, which may be deleted after a successful installation, or emailed to me if you have difficulty. Play around! Lots of KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS! Use CTRL key to select multiple files or to remap drive button assignments. Please let me know if you plan to make this software available for download from your website, so that I can keep you informed and up-to-date. Please, only distribute an unaltered original zip file as downloaded from my website. I would prefer that you provide a link to: www.geocities.com\theother_bob\coco.html If you feel something should be added (ie: additional fonts, graphics, whatever), let me know, I might want to share it too! For further assistance, email me. theother_bob@yahoo.com --------< Requirements >-------- Color FOG requires a 128K CoCo3 Disk Basic 1.1 mouse or joystick (semi-optional) at least one floppy drive for Hard Drive access: a hard drive and interface RGBDOS or HDBDOS available from Cloud-9 www.cloud9tech.com -or- equivalent CoCo3 emulator with RGBDOS for emulators available from Robert Gault's website. http://home.att.net/~robert.gault/Coco/CoCo_main.htm Recommended: 2 button mouse* Hi-res joystick interface (either type) more than one floppy drive! hard drive and RGB/HDBDOS *In Color FOG, You can usually use F2 in place of the second button if you only have a one-button mouse. --------< Disclaimer >-------- No Warranty is made that this program will not thrash your data into tiny shards of broken bytes. I didn’t design it to do that, but ‘defecation occurs’. Always make backups of your software and data, and frequently save work in progress. I will not be responsible or liable for any loss of data or media or sleep or any other tangible or intangible entity either as a result of using this program, or anything else. Now, be excellent to each other... and party on, dudes! --------< About Color FOG >-------- Color FOG(tm) is a BASIC GUI tool designed to make it easier to manage files on multiple disk drives, especially under RGBDOS and HDBDOS which, including floppy drives and hard drive "partitions", can make use of over 260 drives. That's a lot to keep track of, so I made this interface to minimize typing (read: "typos"!) and enhance ease-of-use. Most file functions such as DIR, COPY, RENAME or KILL can easily be accomplished with a few keystrokes and/or mouse clicks. I've tried to keep it as flexible as possible. BAS and BIN files can be executed, but no guarantees as to what will and won't work from FOG... lots of games I've tried work, but many don't. Multiple files can be selected for en'masse operations... (copy, kill, *GROUP*) The GROUP function will create a .FOG file (File Organizer Group - haha!) which is basically like a hyper-directory pointing to files that can be on any drive. When you Group files, you will be prompted for a filename. If your "filename.FOG" already exists you will be asked whether you want to Append or Overwrite the file. With Append, you can add files from several different drives (up to 72 filenames per group) by moving the FOG file after adding files from each drive, one drive at a time. Better tools are planned, but this works for now! NOTE: in the text entry dialogs which ask you to enter a drive number or filename, leaving the field blank will Cancel the operation. For more technical info on how the program works, including line-by-line comments, variable lists, etc... see the file "Color FOG Unravelled.txt". --------< Keyboard Shortcuts >-------- (May not *all* be listed here... experiment) Enter - Select file / with Ctrl, add to selection Space - Open Context Sensitive menu / select Arrow keys - File navigation Shift+Up - move to top of page / prev 1/2 page Shift+Down - move to bottom of page / next 1/2 page Shift+Left - move to first file in DIR Shift+Rt - will go to last file in DIR... someday S - Setup (or if in Setup, Save & return to FOG) C - Cassette operations** see note below. X,Break,Q - Quit FOG, Return to Basic. Q is a quick exit, no prompt (preserves variables) [F1] - Help, or something like it. [F2] - Same as left clicking the mouse. This will bring up the pop-up command menu, can also be used to cancel most menus. menu keys - Horizontal menus feature hotkeys. Generally the first letter of the desired choice works. 0-9 - switch to drive #(see below!), refresh dir [Ctrl]+0-9 - remap the selected drive button. Ctrl+# ALWAYS \/\/\/\/\/\/ uses the button numbering shown below, but >Important!< WITHOUT Ctrl, 0-3 will select that floppy /\/\/\/\/\/\ regardless of which button it is mapped to. The ten CTRL+# mappable drive buttons: ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ | 0(f) | 2(*) | 4(*) | 6(h) | 8(h) | ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ | 1(f) | 3(*) | 5(*) | 7(h) | 9(h) | ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ * can be floppy or hard drive, depends on number of drives in SETUP. All unused floppy buttons are given to HD or hidden. Each vertical pair represents two sides of one physical FDD. -> BASIC's drive lookup table is modified to match the button layout when FOG runs, but not SETUP. SETUP adjusts FOG.CFG to tell FOG your layout. ** Cassette operations are handled separately, by Roger Schrag’s Tape to Disk file transfer utility as it appeared in the Rainbow, Feb 1987, p.73. The file TAPEXFER.BIN is included with this distribution with Roger's kind permission. --------< Miscellaneous Details >-------- After installation, the first time Color FOG is run you may see an error message, and a new configuration file (FOG.CFG) will be created and then Setup will run. FOG.CFG should not be included in any distribution of Color FOG. Users should be sent to Setup to configure FOG for *their* CoCo. Once Color FOG is running... Hold CTRL while mouse-clicking files to select up to 24 files at a time for batch copy or kill operations. I’ve had overall good results with batch copies and groups, but YMMV. FOG is still a work in progress. Click the pie-chart for disk statistics (I know... some actual info would be nice!) File Info and Un-Kill are still not implemented. Have patience. In Setup, user-palettes are not yet available, only presets. Some other stuff probably doesn't work. Menus (horizontal ones anyway) now feature hotkey support. Cool. Something else I forgot goes here. Keep watching www.geocities.com/theother_bob /coco.html for updates. It's gonna just keep getting bigger and better. If you need assistance with your emulated HD or FOG, email me or ask on the coco mailing list: coco@maltedmedia.com This is a moderated, spam-free list, and well worth joining if you haven't yet and still care about CoCo's. You can view the list archives online To subscribe to the mailing list send an email to coco-request@maltedmedia.com with just the word "subscribe" in the subject line (no quotes). You will recieve further instructions from the moderator, none other than CoCo Guru Dennis B. Kitsz. --------< Credits & stuff >-------- Special thanks: Robert Gault for RGBDOS, Boisy Pitre for HDBDOS Alan DeKok, whose Custom Color Basic made the first RSDOS version of FOG better, stronger and faster! Roger Schrag, whose Tape to Disk file transfer utility makes a worthy addition to the tools supported (and he was quite surprised to hear that the CoCo still has a following!) Thanks also to Rodney Hamilton for posting some great tips to the CoCo groups. Also thanks to Fred Provoncha and others who have taken the time to give some feedback or support. Keep it coming, as it keeps me going. Greetings and thanks go out to everyone who reads this and tries the program out. I hope you find it useful and fun. If you have suggestions or modifications for Color FOG, let me know. Your ideas (and/or code) may end up in a future release. Peace everybody, Bob Emery theother_bob@yahoo.com http://www.geocities.com/theother_bob/coco.html