Manual for MapIt v1.3 15th Mar 98 By David Sharp
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I am writing this program in anticipation of the arrival of the PC my dad is buying, as it is going to have a modem with it, and I am then going to get sole use of the A5000, I want to be able to download files for the Acorn from the PC. The problem is that these files will not be filetyped properly for the acorn, and so won't work easily.

This is where this program steps in. What MapIt does is, when you drag a PC file ie. with filename of the type "PICTURE/GIF" is to look through its list of mappings that it understands and if it finds one for that particular filetype in this case GIF or &695 it will settype the file accordingly, or inform you if it doesn't find a filetype corresponding to the dos type. The program will warn you if the file is already correctly settyped.

This program can be particularly useful is used in conjunction with Guesser, another of my programs which guesses the type of the file from the content of it rather than any OS settings such as filetype.

Customise
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The format of the data in the 'mappings' file inside the mapit application, is that the number at the start of the file is the number of filetypes recognised, after that, each line is the dos extension, and the line after is its respective acorn hex filetype. Feel free to add more filetypes, but please email me to keep me informed of them if possible.

Using mapit
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MapIt has configurable options, they are changed from the icon bar menu. The three items between the dotted lines are the options:

 * Automatic - when a file/files is loaded, automatically settype them, and carry out the other options if required. This is particularly useful if you have a lot of files to be mapped across. Note, if this option is not selected, and you drag multiple files to the icon, only the first will be settyped correctly.

 * No Extension - if this option is selected, any file dragged to the icon, will have it DOS extension removed so that it fits in better to the acorn environment.
NB: in DOS, you can have two files of the same name, as long as they have a different filetype, when you remove the extension, the file may ahve the same name as another file, if this occurs then you will be notified, and the extension for tjat file will not be removed.

 * Case Check - all DOS files are uppercase filenames, if this option is selected, then the file is renamed to all lower case, except the first alphabet character after the pling (exclamation mark), which remains uppercase, according to acorn standards.

 * Load Action - the official acorn filetype for dos files is &FE4, if you have one of these files that you wish to be retyped, extension removed etc. once the filer has 'seen' mapit, simply double click on the file as if you wished to load it, and MapIt will act just as though you dragged it to the icon bar icon. 

These options can be saved to disk, by clicking on the 'Save setup' menu option.

If the automatic option is not selected, then a window will appear informing you of the filetype that it is to be converted to, and you can then click on Ok to proceed or Cancel to stop.

History
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July 96
version 1.0 - knocked up in an afternoon, removed the extension and settyped

early Nov 96
version 1.1 - knocked up in an hour or two more, added save feature, and case check, and a few more mappings.I reckon about 6 hours must have gone into this so far, not bad at all!

17th Nov 96
version 1.15 - the next night, i was trying to convert a jpeg file in the depths of my hard disc, it kept saying no extension found, yet when i tried it in the root dir it worked perfectly, i then discovered that the extension to be checked for was taken as being after a / 3 leafnames into the file, anyway fixed it now.

25th Nov 96
version 1.2 - decided it would be an improvement if the user didn't have to drag the file to the icon bar, and could just double click it, to have it acted upon. Corrected size of icon bar so that it was redrawn properly. Also about to start bug checking, after a possible error report on the risc pc.

15th March 98
version 1.3 - added in a nice little mapping editing window to make things simple for me to add information, and added some more mappings. Added ability to recognise lowercase filetype extensions. Now laods filesprites from TypeInfos database if available. Added loads more extensions - now 206 in total!

Freeware
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This program is freeware. This means that it can be copied for use on another computer or by another person or persons, but not for any charge except that of transit or material costs. This software must not be altered in anyway, except for the data in the headers file. 

MapIt is and remains copyright David Sharp 1996.

Contact
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My address is:

Software Stuff
David Sharp
11 Woodlands Drive
Grantham
Lincs
NG31 9DJ

email:
davidsharp@thepentagon.com

www:
http://www.come.to/david.sharp

OI YOU! Keep me updated, and you'll get better versions as I will compile all filetypes into the program from each of you and distribute the full version. If you want a reply via snail mail, include an SAE!!!!!


