Disco
File-Manager for BeOS
								(This file best viewed with Styled Edit)
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zodsoft@kagi.com
			http://www.digicron.com/zodsoft/beos/disco.html
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			About , Credits , 
				Help , FAQ , 
			 Bugs,	Licence
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About

	Disco is a File-Manager for the BeOS.
	It was designed for people who get frustrated with Tracker springing up windows everywhere ;).
	Other similar utilities exist, including Opus IV and BeTree, hopefully Disco offers something these others don't.

	The current version is 1.0a3.
	This is alpha software. 
	It is NOT feature-complete.
	It contains bugs. Hopefully none of these bugs will do anything bad to your system, but it is within the realm of possibility. You use this software at your own risk

 
Credits

	Disco was written by me, Tim Vernum <zodsoft@kagi.com>.
	Various parts of Disco are based upon code from "Santa's Gift Bag"
		<http://www.be.com/beware/Development/Santa%27s%20gift%20bag.html >
		by Brian Tietz <btietz@biomail.ucsd.edu> 
		Many thanks to Brian.

	Thanks to the folk on bedevtalk, whose comments often prompt me to rethink the way I'm doing things.
	And of course, thanks to Be for giving me a free copy of this very cool OS, now with development tools.


Help

	It's all very simple.
	
	Root
	Disco incorporates a 'root' feature, allowing you to specify which folder is to be at the top of the outline view on the left. You can type in a folder name, use Cut & Paste, or drop a folder on it. 
	Right click (or long left click) to bring up a PopUp. It's a very basic popup right now, it will be enhanced at some point in time.
	By default the root starts with your home directory. If you run Disco from the commandline then you can specify the root  (eg  $ Disco /boot/ ).

	Resizing
	You can click and drag the vertical bar between the outline view and the detail view to resize them. (Sorry that cursor doesn't behave properly)

	Dragging Files
	Drag a file with the left mouse button to move it.
	Hold down option to copy a file
	Hold down shift to create a symbolic link
	Hold down control, or use the right mouse button to get a popup menu
	( NB: This changed between a2 and a3, to bring Disco inline with Tracker )
	Note, that dragging onto a tracker window will always copy. This is a feature in tracker, that I hope to work around for the next release.

	Contextual Menu
	In the detail view, right click (or command-left click) for a contextual menu.
	Clicking on a item gives you options to open, rename, delete, cut, copy or paste.
	Clicking in a blank spot allows you to paste, refresh the view or see the about box.

	Cut & Paste
	Yes, you can.
	Using standard keys (Command-C,Command-X,Command-V), or the contextual menu you can cut/copy/paste files.
	Some people like this feature of Windows, some hate it, but once you start using it, it's hard to stop.

	Manipulating Columns
	Click on a column header to sort by that column.
	Click again to reverse sort.
	Click a third time to turn off sorting.
	Shift click to add this column as a secondary sorting key ( so, eg, you can sort by type, and then name )
	Drag columns to change their order.


FAQ

	Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers)

[0]	What's new since last release?
	v1.0a3
		+	Fixed Delete from within Trash
		+	Fixed bug where files would occasionally refuse to "open"
		+	Switched Modifier keys to correspond more closely to Tracker's
		+	Added Menu for RightMouse Dragging
		+	Reworked the item view refresh to be more efficient
		+	Right Click on "Root:" gives (very basic) popup menu
		+	Warning before moving important directories
		+	Rect-Tracking Selection
		+	Select All
		+	Broken Symlinks now show the "Broken Symlink" Icon

	v1.0a2
		+	Fixed Contextual menus (mostly)
		+	Fixed Create time so it really does show create time.
		+	Fixed Multiple Selection (mostly)
		+	Fixed Cut 'n' Paste.
		+	Put the about box back in
		+	Proper Refreshing via the Node Monitor
		+	Smart Dates
		+	Outline view now does most of what item view does
		+	Renaming is much more usable.
	
[1]	Why haven't you added feature XXX ?
	Probably one of three things.
	[a] I haven't though of it yet
	[b] I haven't got around to it yet.
	[c] I haven't come up with a good way of doing it yet.

	Feel free to send suggestions / feature requests.
	I am planning (in rough order):
		Showing / Hiding columns
		Showing the size of attributes
		Having a status window for copying
		"Open With"
		Alternative detail views (similar to Tracker's Icon/Mini Icon/List view)
		A SendTo system (hopefully better than Window's one though)
		Quick View (via Add-Ons)

[2]	What tools did you use ?
	Eddie, make, egcs(x86), cw(ppc), mkdepend	 

[3]	Why should I pay for an alpha version?
	Because you find it useful.
	If you don't like it then don't use it and don't pay for it.

[3.1]	You've conviced me. So how do I pay?
	Right now you don't.
	I don't have a copy of register for r4, and I haven't gotten 'round to fixing one up for PPC, so for now you get away without being able to pay. Please drop me a line if you use it though.

[4]	How can I get Disco to show all files?
	Unlike Tracker Disco shows all files. (Tracker won't show virtual volumes or the desktop)
	To see folders higher than your home directory, simply change the value for 'root' at the top of the window. ( Note, these is no way to do this automatically, other than via the commandline - it always starts at your home directory. I plan on changing this)
	
[5]	How can I open a second window?
	Just launch Disco again.

[6]	What's with the multiple selection stuff?
	It's mostly fixed. If you find somewhere where it doesn't work, please let me know.

[7]	What's with the "FOLDER"  and "???" stuff?
	BeOS doesn't always set the mimetype of a folder. mimeset doesn't appear to fix it either. (AFAIK you need to manually fix it with copyattr). Obviously it's pretty easy to work out whether something is a folder, so Disco shows the type as FOLDER, to indicate that it isn't set properly. However when using a symbolic link to such a folder, it isn't so easy. Hence the ??? which refers to a link to an unknown type.

[8]	I just registered how do I get rid of "Please Register" in the About box?
	You can't.  Probably next release.

Bugs

	Yeah they exist. Below are the known bugs. If you find any more, please email me.

	1	The cursor doesn't stick when moving the resize bar
	2	The outline view doesn't refresh when a directory is created / deleted (This can cause a crash - expect it to be fixed RSN)
	3	Manually refreshing the outline view does a really bad job of it.

Fixed Bugs
	Adding lots of files to a folder causes it to be updated multiple times. (a3)
	When dragging from one window to another, the first window doesn't refresh (a2)
	Can delete something from the trash. (a2)
	The contextual menus aren't always easy to use (a2)
	Multiple selections aren't honoured for cut/copy/drag etc (a2)
	 
Licence

	Disco is shareware.
	The cost is $7 (US) or $10 (Australian)
	If you really feal like paying then keep your eyes open for the next release.

	You are granted the right to use Disco free of charge for 24 days or until the next release comes out, whichever is longer. If you wish to continue to use the product after this time, please register.

	If you purchase this version, you will be given the rights to use all versions of Disco upto, but not including, version 3.0 ( ie all versions from 1.0 to 2.x ).
	All features listed in FAQ #1 are expected to be included in v 2.x or sooner, so you'll be purchasing those and more.

	The source code is not available at this time, but feel free to ask questions about it if you want.

	Disco is copyright (c) 1998 by Tim Vernum.

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Disco, File Manager for BeOS.
zodsoft@kagi.com
http://www.digicron.com/zodsoft/beos/disco.html
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