DCOPY is NOT public domain! It is sold as shareware -- that means you are free to copy and distribute the program and documentation, but if you use it you are expected to pay for it just as you would for any other commercial program. By selling it as shareware instead of as a commercial program, I eliminate the cost of advertising and distribution, and I let you try it out and see if it's useful to you before paying for it. But it took me just as much work to develop as the commercial programs I have written. Selling DCOPY as shareware is a considerable risk to me -- I must rely soley on your honesty to pay for the hundreds of hours that have gone into developping DCOPY. If you pay for it then I will be able to develop other shareware programs. If you don't pay for it, then I will have to return to writing only commercial programs at a much higher cost to you. The choice is yours. Please send $5.00 (or more) to: Ralph E. Walden 1821 Jefferson Eugene, OR 97402 You will be able to use many of DCOPY's features just by looking at the menu choices it displays. However, there are many capabilities that are not immediately obvious. I strongly encourage you to read the ENTIRE documentation! IMPORTANT: There are a lot of commands - if you hit the wrong command and are asked for a filename, just press RETURN and you will be prompted with "Command" again. When asked for a filename, you only need to enter the drive and folder specification if it is NOT on the default drive. DCOPY displays the default drive and folder at the top of your screen. DCOPY will NOT allow you to use one letter filenames. Any single letter entered as a filename will be converted to a drive specification. For example, if tried to get the directory of "A", DCOPY would convert that to "A:" and give you a directory of all files found on that drive. The letter P is a special case and stands for the printer. For example, if you wanted to print the directory on drive A, you would enter: A:*.* P BUFFER SPACE: At the bottome of DCOPY's menu it tells you how much buffer space it has to work with. The more buffer space, the more efficient DCOPY will be. This is particularly true when ARCing or deARCing files -- a buffer space that is too small will greatly reduce the speed DCOPY works at. To get more buffer space, get rid of unneeded accesories, shrink your RAM disk, etc. ***************************** COMMANDS ************************************* A-archive files. This allows you to combine and compress files into a single .ARC file which can later be extracted with the command. For those of you familiar with ARC.TTP, this command is identical. You will first be asked for the .ARC file to create. You do not need to include the extension, as .ARC is appended automatically. You will then be asked to enter all the filenames you want to add to this archive. If you have given DCOPY a .TOS or .TTP extension, then you may enter up to 3 lines of filenames (wildcards are acceptable). If you gave DCOPY a .PRG extension, then you will be shown a file selector box and can select the files one by one, clicking on CANCEL when you have all the files you want to archive. If the .ARC file you are archiving to already exists, DCOPY will delete any duplicate of the files within the .ARC file, and then append the files on the end. NOTE: Externally, the only change you may notice between DCOPY and ARC.TTP is that DCOPY is about 3-4 times faster. You will also find that many non-text files will end up smaller then they would if archived under ARC.TTP. When DCOPY reads in the file, it analyses it to see if it is a text file. If DCOPY displays then it is using a slightly different compression routine that will usually reduce any non-text file that is over 10K in length. Do not be concerned if a text file gets labled as . This usually means it will be compacted more efficiently. Once in a rare while, this method will be less efficient and the file will end up slightly larger. C-copy files - you may copy a single file or multiple files. You will be asked for the source. Enter the drive if it's not in the default drive. Enter the folder name if it's not in the default folder. Then enter the filename. You may use ? to substitute for any single character, or * to substitute for any filename. Example: A:\AUTO\*.BAT This would copy all files with the extension .BAT from the AUTO folder on drive A:. Once you enter this information, you will be asked for the destination. If you used a wildcard (* or ?) in the source filename, then you can ONLY enter the drive and/or folder for the destination - any filename will be ignored. Example: B:\AUTO\ This would copy all files from the source to the AUTO folder on drive B:. Once this information is entered, DCOPY will display the first file to copy and where it will be copied to. You will then be prompted with "Yes,No,All,Quit". Press Y if you want this file copied. Press N if you do not want this file copied. Press A if you want this and all further files copied. Press Q if you want to stop copying files. If the source filename does not contain any wildcards (* or ?) then the file copy will begin as soon as you enter the destination. You may use a different destination filename if the source name does not contain any wildcard. If you want to shorten the process, then you may enter a space after the source filename, and enter the destination path so that both source and destination are entered on one line. You may also copy a file or files to your printer. Simply use a "P" for the destination (making certain your printer is on first). If the copy command is invoked from the command line using either F10 or passed to DCOPY from GEM (.TTP extension) then you will NOT be asked whether or not to copy multiple files. For example, if you pressed F10 and entered: C A:\*.BAT B:\ DCOPY would immediately begin the file copying without asking for your confirmation. D-directory. You will be asked for a filespec. Press RETURN if you want to list all files in the default folder and default drive. Otherwise, enter the drive and/or folder and file specification. Example: A:\AUTO\*.* This would give you a directory of all files found in the AUTO folder on drive A:. The files will be listed alphabetically in 3 columns. Any file which is locked will be preceded with an '*'. Folders will be preceeded with the "\" character. Folders will be listed first, then the locked files, and then the unlocked files. You may optionally follow the file specification with a space and a "P". This will send the list to the printer. You can also send the list to a file by following the file specification with a space and the drive\folder\filename. When sent to a file, the list will be in a single column. Example: A:\*.* A:\CONTENTS.LST This would send the directory of all files on drive A: to the file CONTENTS.LST. If you only enter a single letter, DCOPY will assume you are referring to a drive. For example, if you entered the letter A, DCOPY would convert that to A:*.* and list all the files on drive A. You may clear the screen before being asked for the directory filespec by pressing control D instead of just D. E-erase files. You will be asked for a filespec. Enter this just as you would for the directory. If you press RETURN, you will be sent back to the Command line. If you enter a filespec, you will be presented with the first matching filename and asked what to do. Enter Y to erase it, N to leave it, A to erase all further files matching the filespec, or Q to stop erasing files. If you select A (all) each filename will be displayed as it is erased. NOTE: if the filespec does not contain any wildcards (* or ?) then the file will be erased immediately without prompting you. F-format. This allows you to format a disk with 9 or 10 sectors per track, 80, 81, or 82 tracks per disk, single or double sided, and "twisted" format. Note that the Z (disk duplication) can automatically format a destination disk in whatever format was used on the source disk (you are also given the option of using "twisted" format on the destination). "Twisted" format is an implementation of David Small's formatting routine which cuts down on the time going from track to track. On large files, it will cut the time to read and write them by about 50%. The standard format option is identical to GEM's format routine. The extended format option will give you an additional 40K per disk side WARNING: If you select Extended format, you will NOT be able to duplicate the disk from the desktop (though DCOPY can duplicate it with no problems). The desktop will act as if it is duplicating the disk, but in fact it is leaving out the 10th sector on every track. You can use the GEM desktop to duplicate a standard "twisted" format, but it unless the destination has been formatted with the "twisted" option, it will be slower. To be safe, use DCOPY for duplicating all disks... DCOPY only gives you a choice of Standard or Extended format. For the bold and daring who don't mind losing files occasionally, you may also enter 1 to get 81 tracks, and 2 to get 82 tracks. Formatting will then default to extended, though you will still have the option to use "twisted" formatting. This formatting option is NOT recommended! And if you do, be SURE you leave write verify on! 81 will give you an additional 5K per side, 82 will give you an additional 10K per side. Some disk drives will not be able to read disks formatted with 81 or 82 tracks. H-hide files. Enter a filespec just as you would for the ERASE command. All files you hide will no longer show up in the directory. They will also not show up in the desktop windows. Some shell programs may still show these files. Most programs will still be able to find the files. This can be particularly useful if you use the file selector box which has such a small window. By hiding .RSC files and other files you would never run or display, you can have only the files you use displayed in the file selector window. I-extract .ARC files with query. This command is for use when you don't want to extract all the files in a .ARC file. It will display each filename within the .ARC file and ask you if you want to extract it. Please read the section under the X command for a complete description of extractin .ARC files. J-directory search. This is for use when you either want to list or print out a directory of all files in all folders, or you need to find a specific file or type of files and have DCOPY search through all folders for it. DCOPY will ask you for which drive you want to search. It will then ask you for the filespec to search for. Enter *.* to list all files, or enter a specific filename that you need to find. DCOPY will search through all the folders on the disk, and list any files matching the filespec you gave it. If you are sending the list to the screen, use control S to pause the listing, and control Q to continue. You can send the list to your printer by following the filespec with a space and a "P", or you could send it to a file by following the filespec with the filename to send it to. Example: A:*.* P This would print a directory of every file in every folder on drive A. K-kill folder. This is used to delete a folder. You will be asked for the folder name, which you may optionally precede with the drive. DCOPY will then show you the folder name and "*.*" which it will use to erase any files within the folder. This is your last chance to abort the command! If you press , DCOPY will erase all the files and then the folder. DCOPY will not be able to erase the folder if any of it's files are locked, or if there is a folder within the folder. L-lock files. Enter a filespec just as you would for the ERASE command. Once you enter the filespec, DCOPY will list out the name of each file as it locks it. Once locked, you can NOT erase the file until you unlock it. Also, when listing a directory from DCOPY, locked files will be listed before unlocked files. If you have files you don't ever want to "accidentally" erase, I strongly suggest you lock them! M-move files. This will copy the file(s) specified and then delete the source (with query). Enter the source filespec just as you would for the copy command. After the files are copied, you will be asked if you want to delete the source files. N-new folder. Enter the name of the new folder and DCOPY will create it. You may optionally precede the folder name with a drive specification. Example: M:\TMP This would create a folder on drive M: (RAM DISK) with the name TMP. This command is particulary useful when you want to create a temporary folder on a RAM disk that you will be extracting .ARC files to. If you had created the above folder, you could extract .ARC files to it by entering: filename M:\TMP\ "filename" would be your .ARC file. Q-quit. This will return you to the desktop, or a shell if DCOPY was run from a shell. R-rename. This allows you to change the name of an unlocked file. DCOPY will ask you for the old name. After entering that, it will ask for the new name. If it can find the old file, it will display what you entered for the old and new names and ask you to confirm renaming the file. If you type Y and an error occurs, it usually means the file is locked, or the disk itself is locked. You may use a wildcard for the old filename. DCOPY will find the first filename that matches and ask you if this is what you want to rename. It will ONLY rename that file - no further files will be renamed. Rename is the only command that will NOT allow you to enter the second filename on the same line as the first. S-free space. When DCOPY asks for a filespec, enter the drive you want to check. DCOPY will tell you the total number of 1K blocks the disk has, and how many are left. This is commonly used to see if a disk has enough space to extract files from an .ARC file. T-type/convert. When you enter the filename to type, DCOPY will load in the file, convert all control characters to spaces, and word wrap the text to whatever your right margin is set to. This makes it possible to view some nonstandard text files such as those created by First Word. STWRITER files will automatically be converted so they can be viewed with word wrap instead of having the text cross over the right side of the screen. CP/M text files that are missing the needed line feed will be properly formatted. USERNET files having a linefeed and no return will be converted, along with those files having a linefeed return instead of a return linefeed (which some word processors will refuse to load). 8 bit text files will automatically converted. ZMAG files will automatically be reformatted to your right margin instead of the 40 columns they are released with. At any time while viewing the file, you can save the converted text to another file. After DCOPY has loaded and converted the file, it will display the first screen of text. At the bottom of the screen will be several options: N-display the next screen - you can also use the space bar to get the next screen. P-display the previous sreen. L-display the last screen. F-display the first screen. W-Where is - allows you to enter a string, and shows you the first screen the string is found in starting with the current screen you are viewing. The string will be in inverse so you can spot it easily. If the string is not found, then DCOPY will convert the entire search string to lower case and try again. DCOPY can search through roughly 150K of text a second, so you won't have to wait long... S-save text - allows you to save or print the converted file. You will be asked for the destination. Enter a filename, or "P" to send it to the printer. T-type (display) a new file. Q-quit - returns you to the main commands. ^T - set margin for Type command. DCOPY uses a default of 80 characters when displaying text. You may want to expand this size for printing purposes, or shrink it if you need a smaller margin. After you enter the right margin size, DCOPY will show it's complete menu. On the lower right side is listed the current right margin. U-unlock/unhide files. Enter a filespec just as you would for the ERASE command. Once you enter the filespec, DCOPY will list out the name of each file as it unlocks it and unhides it. All files matching the filespec will then show up in the directory, and can be erased. V-view filenames in an .ARC file(s). This will ask you for the filespec to check - use wildcards to specify more then one file. It will then list the name of each file within the .ARC file, how much space it will de-arc to, how much the file was compressed by, etc. Most important, it will tell you how many 1K blocks you will need on your disk to extract all the files (use the "S" command to check the free blocks on your disk). You can send the information to the printer by adding a space and a "P" after the filespec, or to a file by entering the filename after the ARC filespe. Example: A:\*.ARC P This would print a list of the filenames and statisics of each file within every .ARC file. You could also just use: A:\* P DCOPY would append the .ARC extension for you. W-working drive\directory. Enter the drive and/or folder you would like to have as the default. Example: A:\AUTO This would make that the current directory - you would no longer need to specify the drive and folder when specifying a filespec on that drive and within that folder. The current default drive and folder appears at the top center of the DCOPY menu screen. X-extract files from .ARC file(s). This is similar to ARCX.TTP. You will be asked for the source filespec and the destination drive\folder. The extension .ARC will be added to the source name if you don't include it. If you use wildcards, you will be prompted as to whether to de-arc each .ARC file. WARNING: DCOPY does NOT check to see if the files it is extracting already exist on the destination disk. You can find out ahead of time what filenames will be used by using the "?" command. DCOPY will not extract files from an .ARC file created on a pre-version 5 archiver (the ST version is 5.2 so only files from an MS-DOS computer are ever likely to have problems. If you only enter a single letter for the destination, DCOPY will assume you are referring to a drive, and automatically append the needed colon. You can also enter a folder name and leave off the trailing back slash and DCOPY will append that as well. DCOPY keeps track of any .DOC, .TXT, or READ.ME filename. If one is found, then when DCOPY has completed extracting the files, it will ask you if you want to display the file. READ.ME has priority, otherwise, DCOPY will use the first .DOC or .TXT file it finds. If you are not sure if you will have room on the destination disk, use the "?" command first to see how much room you will need, and then use the "S" command to show how much space you have on your disk. ^X (control X) - this is for use when the .ARC file and the destination files will not fit on a single disk and you only have one disk drive. It will prompt you as to when to insert the source and destination disks. This will only allow you to extract from a single .ARC file. It will ONLY work if the buffer listed on the DCOPY menu is LARGER then the .ARC source file. To get more room, run DCOPY from GEM instead of a shell, decrease the size or remove any ramdisks, remove accessories, get a 1meg upgrade, etc. Y-verify on/off. This will toggle whether writing to a disk uses verification. Having verification off will speed up disk access, but will be a little less reliable. The current status of write verification is displayed at the end of the command summary. Z-duplicate disk. This will allow you to duplicate a disk that was formatted with 9 or 10 sectors, 80, 81, or 82 tracks, and single or double sided. You may duplicate disks with one or two drives. It is assumed that if you duplicate a double sided disk using two drives, that both drives are double sided. If you choose to have DCOPY format the destination disk, then you will be given the option of "twisting" the destination (see Format command for information on twisting). When DCOPY starts the actual duplication it will display two numbers. The first number is the number of tracks on the source disk, and the second number is the number of sectors per track. On a standard format disk, you would see the numbers: 80/9. If the source disk only uses 9 sectors, then DCOPY will format the destination disk to give you 20% faster I/O on the new disk. F10-command line. This allows you to enter a command line just as if you had called DCOPY19.TTP. It's main use is for ARCing files where you press F10 and enter the entire command (up to 3 lines worth) rather then typing the commands one by one. Many of DCOPY's commands will accept one or two parameters (Dir for example), so you can not string very many commands together. ************************ CONVERSION COMMANDS ******************************* 1 - This converts 16 bit text files to 8 bit format. DCOPY asks for the source and destination filespecs. RETURN/LINEFEEDS are converted to the 8 bit form of RETURNS, "{" is converted to "$(", "}" is converted to "$)", and "~" is converted to "$-". You may specify the same destination as the source. DCOPY reads in the entire source file, closes it, converts the text and opens and writes to the destination file. 2 - This converts 8 bit text files to 16 bit format. It is the exact opposite of the 16 to 8 bit text conversion (see above). NOTE: the TYPE command also converts 8 bit files, however it only converts the RETURNS, and takes an additional step to save the file. 3 - This converts an STWRITER file into standard ASCII text format. Word wrap will occur on the right margin you set with the ^T (control T) command. The default is 80 columns. DCOPY will remove the Do Run Run STWRITER header from the file. If the first character of the text is a control character, then that entire line will be removed (presumably this is the format string). All RETURNS are converted to standard ASCII returns. Any other control characters will be replaced with a space. 4 - This converts the RETURNS in an STwriter file into 8 bit RETURNS. DCOPY will automatically remove the Do Run Run STWRITER header in the file, and if the first character of the text is a control character, it will ignore the entire line (presumably this was the formatting control line). No other conversion is done. 5 - This will strip out most of the returns from a text file allowing you to reformat it with the Type command, or load it into STWRITER. For example, if you wanted to take a normal text file and edit it with STWRITER, you would use this command to strip out all the RETURNS except those between paragraphs. It will also automatically convert 8 bit RETURNS so that you can use it on 8 bit text like ZMAG which is formatted for 40 columns. DCOPY will leave a RETURN untouched if it is followed by a second return, three or more spaces, preceeded or followed with an underline character, or preceeded or followed by an astericks character. ************************** ALTERNATE MENU ********************************** The following commands are accessed by preceding them with a minus. For example, to get a hex dump of a file, you would enter -H. The list of these commands may be displayed by pressing the Alternate key and at the same time. You do not have to display the alternate menu to execute these commands. -A Use this to append one file onto the end of another. The prompts will be the same as the Copy command, only the source file will be copied to the end of the destination file. You may use wildcards for the source, but only ONE file will be copied to the end of the destination file. -D Use this to delete one or more files within an .ARC file. You will be asked for the .ARC filename, and then the file to delete within it. You may use wildcards for the file -- any files matching will be deleted. For example, if you and a file called TEST.ARC and it contained FILE1, FILE2, FILE3, and you wanted to delete FILE2 you would press -D, enter TEST for the ARC name, and FILE2 as the name of the file to delete. NOTE: DCOPY will try to handle the file in memory, but if there is not enough room, it will create a temporary file on your default drive. Ideally, your default drive will be your RAM disk... -F Freshen files in an .ARC file. This will act just like the regular rc command, except that only the files which are newer then the ones in the .ARC file will be added. For example, if you had a file called TEST.ARC with FILE1, FILE2, FILE3 and you wanted to reARC any of those three files which were changed since you created TEST.ARC, you would enter -F and enter TEST, and then FILE*. This would check each FILE? and see if it is newer then the FILE? in TEST.ARC, and if so, the FILE? in TEST.ARC will be deleted, and FILE? added on the end. Freshen will not add any files to the .ARC file, it will only update any files which are newer. If you want to both update newer files and add more files to the .ARC file, then use the Update command. NOTE: Like the -D commad described above, DCOPY will try to handle the .ARC file in memory for maximum speed, but if you didn't give it enough buffer space, it will create a temporary file on your default drive. -G This will change the colors to green letters on a black background. If you exit DCOPY without restoring the colors (-N) then this will become the new default colors. -H This will give you a hex/ascii dump of a file. It will display the file a screen at a time and allow you to go up or down a page, to the first page or to the last page. -N This will restore the colors to the same as when you first ran DCOPY. -O This turns the screen off until you press a key. Once you press a key, the normal colors will be restored. -T test archive integrity. You will be asked for the ARC filespec (wildcards are acceptable) and DCOPY will check all the the .ARC files matching your specification to see if they are valid files. For example, to check all the .ARC files on drive A, you would press -T and enter: A:\* -U update files within an .ARC file. This is almost identical to the freshen command. It will ARC any file which is newer then the file within the .ARC, or if the file does not exist within the .ARC file. For example, if you had a file called TEST.ARC that had FILE1, FILE2, FILE3, and you used the update command using FILE*, DCOPY would update FILE1, FILE2, and FILE3 only if the source was newer, and if there were any additonal FILE?s they would be added (FILE4 for example). Using the freshen option would ONLY update the files within the .ARC file, it would not add any new ones. -W this will give you white letters on a black background. If you exit DCOPY without restoring the colors (-N) then these will become the new default. ***************************************************************************** FOLDERS: To refer to a file within a folder when using DCOPY (or a shell) a '\' follows the folder name to separate it from the file. For example if you wanted to refer to the file MACMENU.PRG in the AUTO folder on drive A, you would enter: A:\AUTO\MACMENU.PRG The '\' indicates that AUTO is a folder name and not a filename. The "\" that follows the "A:" tells GEM to start with the root directory rather then from any current default folder. It is rather important that if you are referring to a file or folder on the root directory, that you follow the "A:" with a "\". There is a bug in GEM that occasionally causes it to use the wrong drive unless the drive and colon is followed by the "\". If you use the file selector box, you will see that the pathname automatically uses this format. WILDCARDS: When entering a filename, if you don't know what a particular letter is, you can use a '?' in place of the letter. This can also be used to refer to several filenames. For example, if you wanted to copy the files TEST.C, TEST.O, and TEST.S, you would enter TEST.? for the filename. You could also use TEST?.? in case you had TEST1, TEST2, etc. A '*' stands for any characters matching. For example, using TEST.* would use all files with the primary name of TEST and ANY extension. *.C would use ALL files with the extension .C. *.* would, of course, refer to all files. T*.* would refer to all files beginning with T. FILENAMES: You should not create a filename with only one letter. Some of DCOPY's commands will allow you to enter only the letter of the drive. For example, to get a directory of all the files on drive B, you could just press D, enter the letter B and press RETURN. DCOPY looks to see if there is only one letter, and if so, it adds the needed colon to make it B:*.*. The same is also true of extracting ARC files. If you only specify a single letter for the destination, DCOPY will assume you were referring to the drive. PRINTING: a "P" is used to signify the printer. You may copy or move files to the printer, list the directory to the printer, save a "Typed" file to the printer, or list out the filenames within an .ARC file to the printer. PROBLEMS: There is a bug in the operating system that occasionally causes the computer to lose track of what drive it is on. This bug will show up in shell programs and in DCOPY. Usually you can get around it by following the drive specification with a "\". Example: A:\. Fortunately, it doesn't happen very often... If it does, it's not a bad idea to reset the computer to restore the Operating System's pointers. MOUSE MESS: You are not supposed to combine TOS functions with the GEM mouse, however there are times when the mouse is a requirement such as when a disk error occurs and you must use the mouse to click on the cancel button, or you want to use the file selector box instead of typing in the name. The problem is that when you move the mouse, you can mess up the menus on your screen. Only the Type command is immune from this problem. It's a harmless problem, it just creates a mess on your screen. P.S. This program was written using the ASSEMPRO assembler from Abacus software - highly recommended! *************** DCOPY19.PRG DCOPY19.TOS DCOPY19.TTP ********************** DCOPY can have one of 3 different extensions. The extension you give it will determine how DCOPY will work. When DCOPY is run, it will look to see if the file DCOPY19.PRG exists in the active window, presumably the window you ran DCOPY from. The existance or non-existance of this file will affect DCOPY's use of the file selector box. .PRG extension: This will default to using the file selector box for file input. For example, if you were to type , DCOPY would open up a file selector box so that you can select the ".ARC" file to extract. Once you have selected the file, DCOPY will ask you to enter the destination. At the top middle of the screen you will see the default drive and folder. If that is where you want the extracted files to go, then just enter the drive letter and press . Enter "drive:\folder\" if you want the files to be extracted somewhere else. .TTP extension: This allows you to pass commands and filenames to DCOPY when it is run, rather then entering them from DCOPY's menu. Once all the commands have been processed, you can continue entering commands from the menu, or exit. For example, if you wanted to extract the file ARCA.ARC on drive A: and send the files to drive B:, you would click on DCOPY and enter the command line: X A:\ARCA B:\ Note the similarity to ARC.TTP. If no single letter command is passed to DCOPY, then it will default to .ARC extraction. Another way to have done the above process would be to enter: A:\ARCA B:\ Note the similarity to ARCX.TTP. If you want to exit after executing a command or commands, then you should end the command line with a "Q". The following would extract all the files in ARCA.ARC and exit. A:\ARCA B:\ Q Another possibility would be to extract all files and display the first documentation file: A:\ARCA B:\ T *.DOC .TOS extension: Use this if you don't want commands passed to DCOPY and you don't want to default to the file selector box. SPECIAL CASE: If you are running DCOPY from PCOMMAND.PRG, you can have all 3 possibilities. In this case you can give it an extension of .PRG to default to the file selector box, or either a .TOS or .TTP (PCOMMAND treats these identically). If you choose .TOS or .TTP, you may use a file selector box any time you are asked for a source file name by typing "? ". WARNING! Whatever shell program you use, it MUST have been run as a .PRG file if you want to use DCOPY's file selector box. WARNING! DO NOT request the file selector box if you run DCOPY as a TOS or TTP file from the desktop. If you do, you'll get the file selector box and the mouse arrow, but the mouse buttons will be disabled. NOTE: Using PCOMMAND or the .TTP box from GEM, you can have DCOPY automatically load a file and search for a specific string. Mixed case will be ignored. When DCOPY first gets the string from GEM or PCOMMAND it will be in all caps (no matter how you type it in). DCOPY will first try to find the all caps string, and if that fails, it will try to find the same string in lower case. For example, let's say you had just downloaded DCOPY.ARC onto your RAM disk on drive M:, and you wanted to extract the files to drive A: and find out what was new. You would click on DCOPY.TTP (I know, you couldn't do this unless you had already extracted DCOPY, but it makes a good example) and enter the command line: M:\DCOPY A:\ T A:\*.DOC W DIFFERENCES DCOPY would extract all the files, load in the first .DOC file found, and display the first screen that has the string "DIFFERENCES". Remember, this is a shareware product. Rather then selling it commercially, I released it as shareware so that you could find out if it was useful to you before paying for it. It also means I don't have to pay for advertising, packaging, etc., hence it's $5 price tag. I am counting on your honesty to pay for it if you use it. Only if people pay for it will I be able to continue writing software for the ST. Shareware can be a viable way to bring you excellent software at very low prices - but only if you pay for the programs you use. Ralph E. Walden, 1821 Jefferson, Eugene, OR 97402