Disc Commander v2.56 (6th May 2008)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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                       PLEASE READ THE MANUAL BEFORE USING DISC COMMANDER
                       ==================================================

Disc Commander does support Acorn's interactive help, for a limited amount of instruction.
However, full instructions and usage guidelines are given in the printed manual available to
registered users.


Support and Disclaimer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A huge number of hours work has gone into the production of Disc Commander and it is hoped that
there are no bugs present. However, if you do have any queries or suggestions regarding this
application, please feel free to contact me.

Please enclose a SAE if you require a reply and tell me which version of Commander you are
currently using. If you are reporting a bug, please be as descriptive as possible so that I may
reproduce the error here.

However, no responsibility will be taken for any loss, damage or corruption of data caused by
direct or indirect use of Commander. Users use Commander entirely at their own risk. You should
make backup copies of any discs containing important data before experimenting with Disc 
Commanders disc editing functions.


Licence & Copyright Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disc Commander is SHAREWARE. If you continue using it after an evaluation period of 14 days you
should register it by sending 25.00 to the author.

Please make cheques payable to "Digital Phenomena Ltd" and post to the address given below.

By registering you're not only supporting RISC OS Shareware development but you'll also receive
a printed manual and be entitled to email technical support. You also receive future updates.


Getting in contact with me
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can write to me (Paul Vigay) at the following address:

	Digital Phenomena Ltd.
	PO Box 813,
	Portsmouth,
	Hampshire,
	PO1 9EY
	England

You may also email me at: nospam@vigay.com
or check the Disc Commander web page at http://www.vigay.com/software/commander.html
for further information and details of the latest version.

Disc Commander 'potted history'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 2.56 (6th May 2008)
          a) Bug fix: Prevent 'Number too big' errors from occurring when running a Disc Service
             (registered version only)
             
 2.55 (22nd Apr 2008)
          a) Bug fix: Updated filesystem detection in order to load correctly on the A9 Home.
          
 2.54 (12th Apr 2008)
          a) Added PNG to searchable filetypes.
          b) Removed null polls from main WIMP polling routine.
          c) Added email and web site links to 'Info' window.
          d) Added Choices option to disc editor menu (as well as iconbar menu)
          e) Added multi-tasking option to disc search (selectable from choices window)
          f) Amended choices file to be human readable.

 2.53 (27th Mar 2008)
          a) Bug fix: Entering 64-bit addresses in address box doesn't cause 'Bad hex' error.
          b) Added support for DataPower,EPS,Maestro,PDF,ProCAD and Zip file searching.
          c) Tidied navigation window a bit.
          d) Added automatic guessing at correct filetype setting when you save a marked section
             of recovered data.
          e) Store data window position so that if closed and re-opened it opens in the previous
             position.
 
 2.52 (23rd Mar 2008)
          a) Added 'Tab' key support to moving around icons.
          b) Moved 'address' labels in main data window to allow for longer disc addresses.
          c) Made default window size a full sector (up to 512 bytes)
          d) Implemented 'home written' decimal to hexadecimal converter to cope with 64-bit
             addresses.
          e) Added 'Jump to' grabbed sector menu option.
          f) Tidied up code to remove redundant windows.
          g) Removed dependency on !ABC and switched to Squashed BASIC, using StrongBS
          h) Removed registration code so that un-registered copies are fully-functional.
          i) Fixed bugs in RamFS and SCSI reading routines.
          j) Disc Commander now requires BASIC64 for increased accuracy in 64-bit calculations.
          
 2.51 (19th Mar 2008)
          a) Improved handling of long disc addresses, for large disc sizes.
          b) Extended address space to 12 digits.
          c) Amended registration code slightly.
          d) Fixed occasional lockup on the Iyonix when opening main disc editor window.
          
 2.50 (5th Dec 2002)
          a) Re-compiled for 32-bit compatibility.
          b) Bug fix: Calculating size of large disc drives.
          c) Added SHIFT/CTRL multipliers to track/sector navigation to help speed up navigation
             around large drives.
          d) Tested on Iyonix.
          
 2.03 (29th Mar 2001)
          a) Fixed bug in preset filetype search routine, in addition to adding more preset
             filetypes (including ArtWorks, Basic, OvationPro, Zip plus others)

 2.02 (4th Mar 2001)
          a) Removed 'Find file' option from main menu. This is now included in RISC OS itself.

 2.01 (4th Feb 2001)
          a) Re-implemented byte search in disc editor.
          b) Improved support for drives > 4GB by checking 64bit disc sizes.
          c) Improved auto detection for new filecore formats.
          
 2.00 (19th Oct 2000) - EXTENSIVE RE-WRITE TO IMPLEMENT PLUGINS
          a) Took 'Backup', 'Filter', 'FindText' and 'SetType' out of main application and made 
             into plugins, selectable from the Utilities menu.

 1.34 (8th Feb 2000)
          a) Added support for Alsystems parallel port ZipFS.
          
 1.33 (24th Aug 1998) ********** EXTENSIVE MODIFICATIONS
          a) Changed all deletes to FSControl 27's
          b) Added detection for new viruses; BigFoot, MonitorDAT, Nitemare, Simple, Thunder
          c) Added detection for new strains of Icon, DataDQM, BBCEconet, Extend, Icon,
             VanDamme, Module, NetStatus, Jester
          d) Opened status window when a file is dragged to the icon bar icon.
          e) Altered a few text messages.
          f) Made virus scan more thorough when individual files are dragged to Disc Commander.
          g) Made track, head and sector icons auto-repeat in disc editor.
          h) Made disc editor capable of editing drives bigger than 4GB.
          i) Made OS version detection independent of WindowManager module.
          j) Improved virus logging routine.
          k) Amended Reset routine to detect which OS is being used.

 1.32 (24th Mar 1998)
          a) All VZap features up to VZap v1.31
          b) Re-read disc sector data when you write a sector in disc editor.
          c) Extended range of checking in Guess filetype routine, as well as fix small bug
             where it sometimes gave up for no apparent reason.
          d) Amended Julian date conversions so they are no longer country specific.
          e) Extended range of known filetypes for settype menu.

 1.27 (9th Jan 1997)
          a) Speeded up automatic file recovery slightly by block loading bytes rather than
             individually loading them.
          b) Added Iomega Parallel Port Zip drive support (IZipFS).
          
 1.26 (14th Nov 1996)
          a) Added additional support for filecore in use and some severe errors to try and
             stop Disc Commander crashing in severe cases of disc corruption, like completely
             dead/non existant hard drives.
          b) Added support for IDEFS using 'DescribeDisc' and 'DiscOp' calls.
             Thanks to Giles Taylor for providing the relevant OS call details.

 1.25 (14th Aug 1996)
          a) Masked out PC partitions from virus scans (which saves a lot of time if you have a
             PC partition containing 100's of files)
          b) Right aligned the filename icon in the status window, so that filenames nested down
             multiple directories are not visibly truncated.
          c) Added "Text Filter" routine to filter various control codes from text files. See
             manual for more info.
          d) Amended some error messages so that the option to Quit Disc Commander is no longer
             given with minor errors.
          e) Amended some icons definitions to fit in better with Acorn's style
             guide.
          f) 'Default' log path automatically saved back to choices if not found on
             loading. This saves manually having to save choices.
          g) Fixed bug in disc editor search routine where each sector was being
             'found'.
          h) Added 'whole disc format' option to the disc editor. This will allow you
             to format floppy discs from within the disc editor. At present, ADFS style
             maps are correctly setup, but DOS ones aren't. I'm working on this!!!

 1.24 (21st May 1996)
          a) Moved Log file control from "Logpath" file into Choices window to make
             it easier to control. You can now set the file path of the log file and
             the auto-reset options from the Choices window. The filepath icon can
             be dragged to any directory window to set the full filepath.
          b) A couple of error messages have been changed accordingly.
          c) Amended code so that the choices file can be updated correctly, even if
             it is 'locked' or 'protected' by the user. To reset to the 'factory
             default', simply delete the 'Choices' file and re-load !Commander.
             'Choices' will then be automatically created, containing the default
             options.
          d) Added detection for the 'All New ID' virus
          e) Changed inoculation code to improve !Commander's ability to remove suspect
             lines from !Boot files.
          f) Made extensive alterations to !Boot file scanning, so the virus scan
             is a lot more thorough, especially when !Boot files have been infected
             more than once.
          g) Logfile automatically set to the default value if it cannot be created/
             found on loading !Commander.

 1.23 (26th Mar 1996)
          a) Added 'Recover' window to give more control over individual recovery of
             files. You can now recover files and copy them into alternative directories.

 1.22 (20th Mar 1996)
          a) Closed logfile correctly on startup so that the occasional 'file open'
             error is prevented on startup.
          b) Amended so that files can be listed using !Zap or !Edit etc, and a command
             window is only opened if no editor can be found. This applies to listing
             !Boot files when a virus is found or files containing 'found text' after
             performing a Text Search. This 'should' work ok, but again it's difficult
             to predict every eventuality and every text editor. It works with !Edit 
             and !Zap ok on a RISC PC 700, A5000 and A440/1.

 1.21 (1st Mar 1996)
          a) Added inoculation for BBCEconet virus.
          b) Changed Breakfast virus detection slightly.
          c) Made scanning for internal viruses a bit more frequent.
          d) Added support for 'Not open for update' errors, if disc is write-
             protected when you try inoculating a virus.
          e) Error reporting is now output to log file (if on)
          f) Added addition command (AUTORESET) to logpath to enable Disc
             Commander to automatically clear the log file each time Commander
             is run (user optional, see logpath file for more instructions)

 1.20 (19th Feb 1996)
          a) Fixed recursive error bug in 'Find text' routine.
          b) Added support for ArcFS while scanning for viruses although due to
             complexities giving support for so many different archivers which are
             available, !VZap may not work with very old versions of ArcFS.
          c) Added warning message on loading about archives possibly being read-
             only. I can't see an obvious way to detect whether a de-archiver is
             read or write, as there are now so many available.
          d) Another side-effect is that Disc Commander may well display something
             like "scanning 68 out of 11 files". This simply means that one or
             more of the files are archived and Disc Commander has detected more
             files inside the archives. 
          d) Re-wrote 'Find Text' routine to make it work better with multiple
             selections and directories. A slight side-effect is that dragging a 
             multiple selection does not reset the details under RISC OS 2. It
             (should) all work fine under RISC OS 3.1 and greater.
             i) When scanning long files, the hourglass temporarily changes colour
                to reflect the percentage scanned of the individual file.
             ii)The length of each file is also now displayed.
          e) Changed some of the system beeps so that they are only heard when
             the 'Sound' option is on.
          f) Speeded up (and improved) the disc search routine within the sector
             editor. Commander now works in chunks of 8k (unless a disc error is
             detected, in which case it reverts to the sector size).
             Also amended this routine to cope better with sector overlaps and the
             new filecore module.
          g) Added facility to turn on and off the new filecore sector addressing.
             This allows you to examine old-style discs and filing systems 
             installed into newer machines. Eg. old Cumana SCSI interfaces
             connected to RPC700 machines.
          h) Added new utility; SWI name/number conversion. To activate, simply
             click in the top icon in the status bar and enter the name or number
             of the SWI call you wish to convert. The result will be displayed in
             the icon below.

 1.19 (13th Jan 1995)
          a) Fixed bug whereby previous mod (1.16h) messed up the disc
            addressing for floppy disc editing > track 51, head 1.
          b) Still no joy on fixing Kill Task bug in RISC OS 3.5 and greater,
             so added warning to 'kill task' menu.
          c) Amended templates file to be more conformant to the Acorn Style
             Guide.
          d) Added 'Scan memory' option to main menu, to save having to open
             choices menu.
          e) Added a load of new filetypes to the filetype menu.
          f) Added additional checking to ensure Disc Commander itself is not
             virus infected.

 1.18 (3rd Jan 1995)
          a) Code amended to cope with the Jester virus much better, now I've
             had longer to examine it. Disc Commander should now work with all
             occurrances.
          b) Scanning routine amended to cope with 'locked' or 'no user access'
             files, rather than giving an error. 

 1.17 (11th Dec 1995)
          a) Code added to detect and eliminate "Jester" virus. Commander will
             now detect, eliminate and restore affected files. In addition,
             Commander will prevent the Jester virus from loading into the
             computer whilst Commander is installed.
          b) Moved wimpslot detection from 'stat' routine to 'message' routine
             so that changing wimpslots no longer obscure more important info.

 1.16 (5th Dec 1995)
          a) Fixed bug in "Find Text" routine where multiple files containing
             the required text occasionally got 'out of order', resulting in
             the wrong files being displayed in the Find Text window.
          b) 'Clone' is automatically turned off as soon as you enter a new
             value for any of the disc settings in the Disc editor control bar.
          c) Corrected NexusFS_DiscOp SWI call, so weird disc names error is
             prevented. (bug correction)
          d) Tidied up 'Status OK' message a bit, in the disc editor.
          e) Altered display so that any disc editor checksums are displayed 
             BEFORE an error is flagged.
          f) Took out call to function 'DiscType' when editing discs>3.
          g) Took out verify call in disc editor when NexusFS is selected, as
             calling FileCore with verify operation on NexusFS gives "Disc read
             only" error.
          h) Extended width of 'Track' icon in disc editor control bar - to
             allow for bigger hard drives, with more than 9999 tracks.
          
 1.15a (15th Nov 1995)
          a) Fixed potential bug in FNgetstring routine. (very trivial, but I
             thought I'd amend the coding slightly to prevent potential 
             problems in the future).
             
 1.15 (3rd Nov 1995)
          a) Fixed bug where, if a virus scan is carried out whilst the disc
             editor window is open and you then move to a new sector in the
             disc editor, Disc Commander used to give a fatal error.
          b) Changed disc editor control bar window slightly so that the
             error status is now visible as soon as you open the disc
             editor.
          c) Added routine to automatically truncate icon texts to the size
             of the icons, so that if the 'messages' file is altered,
             longer icon texts no longer cause a crash.
          d) Took out error checking while loading a section of disc between
             marked sectors, so that Disc Commander will attempt to re-save
             corrupt portions of the disc, even though there may be a disc
             error in the middle of the marked section. Obviously, this is
             not guaranteed to work, but at least lets you have a try.
          e) Save data window no longer closes if you stop the drag over
             Disc Commanders own windows.

 v1.14 (26th Oct 1995)
          a) Implemented all improvements in !VZap v1.12
          b) Fixed bug where attempting to backup onto a write protected
             disc gave an error and aborted the backup. You can now
             continue.
          c) Added 1.44M option to disc size menu.
          d) Added disc sizes to corruption map display, within Backup.
          e) Disc sector IDs (in Sector Structure window) are now updated
             when you move from head to head in the disc editor.
          f) Disc Backup improved slightly (but still refuses to copy 1.68M
             Microsoft products eg.Windows95!). These seem to be 1.68M
             format with 21 sectors per track, instead of 18.
             I'm currently working on this!
          g) Disc size set to ??? when you first open Backup window.

 v1.13 (23rd Sep 1995)
          a) New title sprite designed.
          b) Modified to scan archives using latest !SparkFS
          c) New feature - Find Text - added.
          d) Hopefully(?) fixed bug where closing the disc sector editor
             window sometimes left the sector editor control window open.
          e) Implemented all improvements in !VZap upto v1.11 (with the
             exception of installing the icon on the far right of the bar
             and closing the status window after a virus scan.
             
 v1.12 (8th Jun 1995)
          a) Implemented all improvements in !VZap upto v1.08
          
 v1.11 (17th May 1995)
          a) Fixed bug whereby multiple 'dodgy' lines in !Boot files failed
             to be picked up (after the first one)
          b) Added 'friendly' message for when "VProtect" is detected.
          c) When dodgy lines are detected in !Boot files, the whole file is
             no longer deleted. The line is merely commented out by
             inserting a | code at the beginning.
          d) Fixed a couple of bugs in archive scanning routine, so that
             the detection for CFS and SPARKFS is a bit better.
          e) Fixed bug where setting RAM: correctly switches to drive 0:
          f) Altered icons to look a bit better on RISC PCs
          g) Tidied up 'Guess size' option to work with selected drive.
          h) Tidied up the size of the disc editor window.
          
 v1.10 (13th Feb 1995)
          a) Fixed minor bug whereby large machine code !Boot files caused
             a fatal error #8 to occur.
          b) Tidied disc sector editor search so that the machine no longer
             (very occasionally) locks up.
          c) Adjusted the compiler directives slightly for improved
             efficiency.

 v1.09 (8th Nov 1994)
          a) Changed default drive to current drive
          b) Speeded up disc sector editor search routine.                                      
          c) Speeded up disc scramble routine.
          d) Fixed bug in disc sector editor find routine.
          
 v1.08 (19th Oct 1994)
          a) Bug fix when auto-selecting drive. It now scans up to 7 and not
             5 as per previously.
          b) Bug fix to allow you to access IDEFS discs from the disc
             editor.

 v1.07 (22nd Sep 1994)
          a) Extended menu allocation block slightly to correct 'lockup' on
             loading caused by extending the menus to cater for Nexus.

 v1.06 (1st Sep 1994)
          - Modified to work with SJ Research NexusFS.

 v1.04 (5th May 1994)
          - Corrected bug in 'recover file' where the incorrect drive was
            detected from the filename. It now reads it from the error
            message. Hence, if no error is flagged the drive will remain
            unaltered.

 v1.03 (28th Apr 1994)
          - correct kill count updated for 'Breakfast' virus, including
            detection in start up routine.
          - Some messages removed from 'Messages' file and put back in
            object code in order to improve speed.
          - bug fix where drive is configured to 4 and you drag a file into
            the edit window in order to recover it. The disc editor will
            now adjust the drive and filer to that of the file being
            dragged.

 v1.02 (23rd Apr 1994)
          - New virus detection added to cope with the 'Breakfast' virus.

 v1.01 (20th Apr 1994)
          - Increased indirected menu memory allocation so that multiple
            tasks don't crash the machine any more. (ie. more than 3 
            'counts')
          - Changed messages slightly to cater for options that only work
            on RISC OS 3.1 and above, rather than 3.0
          - 'Disc Edit.Disc.Service' facility added - to 'service' a whole
            disc by verifying each sector and then re-reading and writing
            if it fails, thereby possibly fixing multiple disc errors.
            N.B. This option verifies 'retries' times.
          - Slight amendment to 'Edit structure' window to generate an
            error is a disc re-format selection is made on versions prior to          
            RISC OS 3.1
          - Pointer to sprite area read via "Read_DynamicArea" rather than
            an absolute value (20*1024*1024), therefore should work on
            RISC PC machines.
          - New demo version produced with all above features
          - File recovery added. If you drag a file into the disc editor
            'control' window, you are given the option to recover a dodgy
            file. This is performed by reading bytes from the file and then
            calling 'Disc Service' if an error is detected.  

 v1.00 (2nd April 1994)
          - Fixed bug where desktop crashes if 'cancel' is clicked in
            registration window.
          - Amended 'sprite memory claim' routine so that other applications
            workspace (ie. !SparkFS) shouldn't be corrupted.

 v1.00 (18th Mar 1994)
	  - As GuardianPro version 5.11
          - Removed 'rounding' bug where 1.6M discs where displayed
            as 2M with clone on.
          - fixed bug in disc editor where pointer got drawn in the wrong
            place if the edit window had been moved.
          - Blank map option added to disc editor 'disc' menu.
          - Messages taken out and added to 'Messages' file.
          - 'Scramble disc' facility added.
          - Some windows and icons changed to give a more 'Acorn'
            consistent feel.

Paul Vigay
