The file finder can be used to find files (surprise!) and directories
(because I couldn't be bothered telling it not to).

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The file finder will search through your hard disc trying to find the file
you enter in its window.

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The window is in two sections. The inner scrollable bit contains all the
options. When the window first opens, the basic options are visible. By
scrolling the window down you can see the advanced options. Gosh, isn't it
exciting...? The outer bit of the window contains the all-important 'GO'
button and also an area which will display what BlackHole is doing (or what I
think it thinks it's doing) as the search proceeds.

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The 'Search From' icon tells the File Finder where to start the search from.
This defaults to the root directory of your hard disc, so you probably
won't need to change this unless you want to search somewhere else.

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Enter the path you wish to search in the 'Search From' icon. This directory
and all its subdirectories will be searched for files and directories with
names and/or filetypes matching those specified in the 'Search For:' section.
Multiple search paths (including the names of floppy discs) can be specified
by separating them with a backslash (a "\"). For example, you could enter
adfs::4.$.Apps\adfs::4.$.Games. The filer will prompt for disc insertion if
necessary. I hope.
Dragging a directory to this window will add it to the path list, putting a
"\" in if one is not already there.

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The 'Name(s)' box is where you type the name of the file you want to search
for. You can enter more than one filename by separating them with a "\"
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Similarly, you can enter multiple search names in the 'Name(s) :' box. Again
use "\" as a separator.
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A maximum of 10 names can be entered, and they can contain wildcards. The
wildcards accepted are the standard RISC OS ones - # for any one character,
* for zero or more characters.

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The filetype box is used to restrict the search to files of a particular
type. Filetypes are the computer's way of knowing what each file is. Each
filetype has a different icon, e.g. a Sprite file has a filetype of 'Sprite'.

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If you want to search for one particular file type, this can also be entered.
You can enter either the number (eg AFF) or the name (eg draw) of the
filetype.
Unlike earlier versions of this program, the Filetype box is no longer case
sensitive and will now accept, for example, both 'draw' and 'Draw'.

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The filetype search works both separately and in conjunction with the
Name(s) search.
Dragging a file to the window will make the type of that file the current
search type. The filetype menu can be opened by clicking on the arrow icon.

The 'size' box allows you to search for files of a particular size, or files
less than or greater than a certain size. The default setting is '>0 bytes'
which will list all files >=0 bytes in size, i.e. everthing. This is useful
if you want to find out which files are taking up all the space on your hard
disc, for instance. You must specify an operator to go with the number, i.e.
<, >, or =. The program will compare the size of the found files (bytes) with
your entry in the size box: <size of file>.<user entry>. If the mathematical
statement is TRUE (ie 50000>400) then the file will be included in the list.
If the statement is mathematically invalid or false (ie 500000<=>=400 or
4>100)  then the file will be ignored. If you omit an operator, the program
inserts an =. Leaving this box blank makes the program default to >0.
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You can use other standard operators, such as AND or NOT, but this will,
I imagine, be of somewhat limited use.
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The button icons in this window control the following:

Case Sensitive:  If this is selected, then the search becomes case sensitive,
                 i.e. entering 'Help' as the filename will find files called
                 'Help' but not 'help'.
                 
Open Viewer:     Will open the directory viewer containing the found file.

List Details:    Will list the files found, their types and sizes in a
                 window.
                 Clicking SELECT on a filename in this window will open the
                 parent directory of that file. Clicking MENU over an entry
                 produces a menu with five options:
                 Open Parent               : The same as clicking 'SELECT'
                 Run File/Run App/Open Dir : Context sensitive to the type of
                                             item clicked over.
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                 Squash/Unsquash           : If you have Acorn's Squash
                                             program, you can use it to
                                             compress files. If not, don't
                                             fret.
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                 Squash/Unsquash           : Acorn's 'Squash' thingy again.
                                             This only works on files.
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                 Bin File/Bin App/Bin Dir  : Perform action on the item
                                             exactly as if it had been
                                             dragged to the iconbar icon.
                                             There is a confirmation window
                                             first.
                 Destroy                   : Confirmation window followed by
                                             unconditional deletion.
                 This menu is also available when you do a Contents=>Info
                 from the iconbar menu, except that the 'Bin' option is
                 unavailable.

Move to Bin:     This acts only on files, not directories. It will move found
                 files into the current Bin Directory, overwriting any file
                 already exisiting with that name. Note that this can be
                 rather dangerous, and that because of this there is a
                 confirmation window before the search actually starts.

Fast Search:     Normally, Black Hole informs you of what it is doing during
                 a search - it shows the directory it is currently searching
                 and the number and total size of files found. Displaying
                 this information slows the program down a tad, so by
                 selecting 'Fast' you can stop it wasting its time.

Archive Information:
====================

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Archives are a way of compressing groups of files into one single file.
Black Hole is capable of searching through archives as if they were normal
directories, provided you have the correct archiving software. This is fully
automatic and you don't need to let it worry you.

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David Pilling's 'SparkFS' and Mark Smith's 'ArcFS' both allow archives to be
read like directories and hence to be searched. ArcFS allows you to read
'Spark' archives, while SparkFS allows a wide range of different archives to
be read. If one of these two is running, Black Hole will inform you that it
will use that program to search archives.

NOTE : This has been tested with ArcFS 2 version 0.57 (as distributed on
Acorn User cover discs) and SparkFS 1.25. I CANNOT guarantee that it will
work with earlier or later versions, although it should work with later
versions. In particular, it will not work with ArcFS 1.

NOTE 2 : This has been changed from previous versions, which allowed you to
specify what you wanted to do. There are several reasons for this:
  i)  The way ArcFS works has changed to be like SparkFS, so the way I
      used to handle ArcFS was redundant and I wanted to chop it out (it
      was very messy).
  ii) I was trying to neaten up the code. The trouble with supporting third-
      party products is that they keep changing. Doing it this way should
      future-proof Black Hole for a bit.
  iii)The way ArcFS and SparkFS work these days, it's not a valid option
      to be able to choose which one to use because if one is running, it
      gets used - no choice in the matter.
  iv) SparkFS can do an archive called 'Spark Dir'. This will not be
      correctly searched, because SparkFS doesn't do it like that.

('Spark' and 'SparkFS' are copyright David Pilling and have no connection
with Fat German Productions.)
('ArcFS' is copyright Mark Smith and has no connection with Fat German
Productions.)

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An Example
==========

Suppose you want to search your entire hard disc for any text files with
names containing 'text':
Type
  *text*
  (the two *'s are wildcards)
into the Name box and select case sensitivity as appropriate. Now type
  FFF (or Text)
into the type box. Finally hit RETURN or click on GO.

The GO button becomes an Abort button for the duration of the search.
Clicking on this button at any time during a search will stop the search
and display the results.

If you leave both the name and type boxes blank, then all the files in the
specified search path(s) will be listed - Black Hole defaults to a "*" for
the search name.

The number of files found is displayed during the search at the bottom of the
window. Unless you have selected 'Move to Bin', this also includes
directories.
