FilerMate
by Alan Wrigley

RISC OS 3.10 ONLY

FilerMate provides several useful facilities which speed up certain Filer
operations. These are described below.
  
  1. When formatting a disc, if it is already in ADFS "E" format, FilerMate
     enables you to "format" it again in a matter of seconds by writing a
     fresh disc structure to the first four sectors, making it appear to be
     empty.
  
  2. When formatting a number of floppies one after another, FilerMate
     allows you to do this with a single mouse click over its window,
     instead of the usual process of opening menus, choosing selections and
     then activating the Format window for each disc in turn.
  
  3. Creating a number of sub-directories from one parent can be done in a
     similar way, avoiding the need to open the Filer menu and choose
     options each time.
  
Running the application installs an icon on the icon bar. The icon bar menu
has 6 options: Info, Dir create, Multiform, Format, Intercept and Quit. Info
and Quit perform their usual actions of providing information about the
program, and terminating it, respectively.

Choosing Intercept will switch intercept mode on or off (indicated by a tick
to the left of the menu item). When it is on, requests to the ADFS Filer to
format a disc in drive 0 by choosing the Format option from the icon bar menu
for drive 0 (or ADFS E from the submenu) will be intercepted. The disc in the
drive will be examined, and if it is already in ADFS E format, FilerMate will
open a window offering you the option to use Quick format. This creates a
fresh floppy structure on the first four sectors of the disc to make it appear
empty to ADFS. This is a quick way of wiping a disc ready for further use. It
does not wipe any of the rest of the information from the disc as with a full
format operation, though the old information cannot be accessed since the
catalogue is re-initialised.

If you select the No icon, or if the disc is not already in the default
format, the format request will be passed back to the ADFS Filer, which will
open its Format window in the usual way.

Choosing the Format option from FilerMate's icon bar icon will perform roughly
the same actions as the interception routine described above. If the disc is
ADFS E format already, it will be fast-formatted, after a warning message has
been displayed allowing you to abort the process if required. If it is not, a
request will be sent to the ADFS Filer to format it in the usual way.

Choosing the MultiForm option opens a window from which you can format a
number of discs in succession without having to go through the process of
opening the ADFS Filer menu structure each time. An on/off icon at the top of
the window enables you to select the quick format process for any disc already
in ADFS E format. If this is off, the formatting will be done in the usual
way, but the process is automated so that all you have to do is put each disc
into the drive in turn and click on the Format icon in the FilerMate window.
You can also type a disc name into the writable icon in the window, and this
will replace the default disc name when formatting.

Choosing the Dir create option opens a window entitled Create directories. To
set the parent directory within which the sub-directories are to be created,
drag the directory icon into a Filer window. The pathname of the parent
directory will now appear in the writable icon below. You can also type a
pathname directly into this icon, or edit the one already there. You can now
enter the name of the new sub-directory in the second writable icon. Pressing
Return while the caret is in this icon, or clicking over the Create & clear
icon, will create the sub-directory and clear the writable icon ready for the
next name. Clicking over Create will create the sub-directory but leave the
name in the writable icon, while clicking over Clear willclear the name but
not create the sub-directory. You can thus continue creating sub-directories
with little effort until the window is closed.

 RISC User 1993
