SYMANTEC LOCALISATION GROUP IRELAND README.TXT-- Copyright 1998 Symantec Corp. All Rights Reserved. NORTON COMMANDER Version 5.5 Welcome to Norton Commander Version 5.5 ! ------------------------------------------ Please read this document carefully, it contains important information not included in the documentation. Topics covered in this note include: * Files that come with Norton Commander 5.5 * Memory Requirements <> Commander Memory Requirements <> Launching Commander with Small and Tiny memory configurations. * Compressed File Support <> Compressing Hidden Files <> Password protected Compressed files <> Limitations in Compressed Files * Viewer Support <> Internal Viewer <> Defining Viewers * Filters * Commander File Transfer <> Cloning using SHARE.EXE <> Pin layout of Commander cables - Pin layout of the serial cable - Pin layout of the parallel cable * Special Characters in the Commander Editor * Norton Commander Environment Variables * Limitations in Changing Drives * Accented characters in file and directory names * Installing Commander under Windows 3.1 * Datex.p File * Windows 95 and OS/2 Compatibility * Copy Diskette Utility * Playwave Utility * Telephone Book Conversion Utility (DIR2DIR) * NC_EXIT Utility * Novell NDS * Useful advice when running Commander on a 1MB or less system * Running Norton Commander from a shared Network Drive * Creating a user defined tools menu * Using screen savers under Windows Norton Commander 5.5 File List ------------------------------ Diskette 1 : Installation Diskette install.cfg Installation Configuration File install.exe Installation Program installd.exe Installation Program nc.cfg Configuration program for Viewers nc.exe NC Loader nc.fil NC Filters Database nc.hlp NC Main Help File nc.msg NC Message File ncclean.exe NC Cleanup Utility ncclean.ini NC Cleanup Utility INI File ncedit.exe NC Internal editor ncedit.msg NC Internal editor Message File ncff.exe NC File Finder ncff.msg NC File Finder Message File ncmain.exe NC Main Shell nczip.exe NC Compression Engine nczip.msg NC Compression Engine Message File packer.set NC Compression Configuration File readme.txt Readme File whats.new List of what's new in Commander 5.5 Diskette 2 : Program Diskette 2 123view.ex! Spreadsheet Viewer 4372ansi.set Conversion Table CP437->ANSI 8502ansi.set Conversion Table CP850->ANSI 8632ansi.set Conversion Table CP832->ANSI 8652ansi.set Conversion Table CP852->ANSI 8662ansi.set Conversion Table CP866->ANSI ansi2437.set Conversion Table ansi2850.set Conversion Table ansi2863.set Conversion Table ansi2865.set Conversion Table ansi2866.set Conversion Table arcview.ex! Compress File Viewer bitmap.ex! Bitmap Viewer bug.ns! Screen Saver bungee.ns! Screen Saver clp2dib.ex! Viewer Conversion File dbview.ex! Database Viewer draw2wmf.ex! Viewer Conversion File drw2wmf.ex! Viewer Conversion File evileye.ns! Screen Saver faces.ns! Screen Saver flip.ns! Screen Saver ico2dib.ex! Viewer Conversion File message.ms! General Message File mouse.ns! Screen Saver msp2dib.ex! Viewer Conversion File nc.ic! Icon File for NC 5.5 norton.in! INI File for NCSF, NCDD packer.ex! Compression Converter Engine pct2dib.ex! Viewer Conversion File q&aview.ex! Q&A Database Viewer refview.ex! Reflex Viewer saver.ex! Screen Save Utility term95.gt! Terminal Emulation File term95.hl! Terminal Emulation Help File term95.in! Terminal Emulation INI File term95.re! Terminal Emulation Message File tif2dib.ex! Viewer Conversion File tornado.ns! Screen Saver vector.ex! Viewer Conversion File wpb2dib.ex! Viewer Conversion File wpv2wmf.ex! Viewer Conversion File wpview.ex! Wordprocessor Viewer Diskette 3 : Program Diskette 3 dir2dir.ex! Telephone Book Conversion Utility fish.ns! Screen Saver ncdd.ex! NC Disk Copier ncff.hl! NC File Find Help File nclabel.ex! NC Label Utility ncnet.ex! NC Network Utility ncpscrip.hd! NC Postscript Header File ncsf.ex! NC Diskette Format ncsi.ex! NC System Information nc_exit.co! NC_EXIT Utility nc_exit.do! NC_EXIT Documentation paraview.ex! Paradox Viewer playwave.ex! WAV Sound File rbview.ex! Database Viewer term95.ex! Terminal Emulation Program term95.sc! Term95 Scripts Memory Requirements -------------------- <> Memory requirements for Commander. Norton Commander needs at least 512K conventional memory in order to run all its external viewers. Some of the viewers need additional memory to run in quick view mode. <> Launching Commander with Small and Tiny memory configurations In some low memory situations, you will not be able to quickview large files using the Commander built-in viewers. In order to help you get around this problem, Norton Commander 5.5 comes with two additional memory configurations that can be selected from the command line. Each memory configuration limits the number of files that can be stored in each Commander File Panel. The command line syntax of these memory configurations are :- Command Line Description ------------------- -------------------------------------------- nc /s Launch Commander with SMALL memory configuration. Number of files per panel is 700. nc /t Launch Commander with TINY memory configuration. Number of files per panel is 300. Compressed File Support ----------------------- <> Compressing Hidden Files If a hidden file is compressed using Norton Commander Compression, it will loose its hidden file attribute. This is to keep the Commander Compression File format compatible with PKZIPs. PKZIP at this time does not support hidden compressed files. <> Password protected Compressed files While the Norton Commander Compression Engine is compatible with PKZIP 1.x and PKZIP 2.x compress file formats, Commander only allows a single password for each compressed file to be active. <> Limitations in Compressed Files If the current panel contains an open compressed file, then it is not possible to change the drive of that panel. This compressed file should be closed first and then the drive selected in the normal manner. Due to the wide range of different compression utilities on the market today and the major differences in behaviour, you may find some features of Norton Commander impossible to implement using your compression utility. This is especially true of some compression utilities that do not support the decompressing of files into a destination location other than the current directory. In addition to this not all compression utilities support the storing of full pathnames and directories. Consult the instructions at the top of the Packer.Set file for ways to program Commander's compressed file support. Viewer Support -------------- <> Internal Viewer To launch the internal viewer contained within NCMAIN.EXE, type ALT+F3. <> Defining Viewers All viewers that are supported by Norton Commander v5.5 are defined in the file NC.CFG. You can modify the list of files that are associated with viewers. For example, if your word processor documents have a special file extension such as .DCC, then you can change the list of files that the wpview.exe file handles by simply adding this file specification to the list of files that are defined underneath WPVIEW.EXE. For example, the WPVIEW section of NC.CFG would look similar to :- ~wpview.exe $*.exe,p $*.com,p $*.dll,p $*.dcc,p <----- Line added here to support $*.* *.dcc files Filters ------- The definitions for the Panel Filters used in Norton Commander Version 4.0 were stored in a file called NC.CFG. In the new Commander, Panel Filters (and indeed File Operation Filters) are stored in a binary file called NC.FIL. You will need to convert your existing Commander 4.0 filters to this new filter file by creating the filters from within Commander 5.5. Refer to your User's Guide for instructions on how to define Filters. Commander File Transfer ----------------------- <> Cloning using SHARE.EXE A problem exists when you are trying to clone to a COM port on a machine that has SHARE.EXE installed. A conflict exists between the Clone software opening the device COMX and SHARE granting exclusive rights to this port to the Clone Bootstrap loader. This results in sharing violation errors occurring during a cloning session. To get around this problem use the CTTY AUX command instead of CTTY COM1:. <> Pin layout of the cables. You can order a special Commander Cable to link any two computers together. A special order form is included in the Norton Commander 5.5 box. Please refer to it for further details on this offer. <> Pin layout of the serial cables. 9 - 9 Serial 9 - 25 Serial 25 - 25 Serial 2 ======= 3 2 ======= 2 2 ======== 3 3 ======= 2 3 ======= 3 3 ======== 2 4 ======= 6 4 ======= 6 4 ======== 5 5 ======= 5 5 ======= 7 5 ======== 4 6 ======= 4 6 ======= 20 6 ======== 20 7 ======= 8 7 ======= 5 7 ======== 7 8 ======= 7 8 ======= 4 20 ======== 6 <> Pin layout of the parallel cable. 1 ======= 7 2 ======= 15 3 ======= 13 4 ======= 12 5 ======= 10 6 ======= 11 7 ======= 1 8 ======= 14 9 ======= 16 10 ======= 5 11 ======= 6 12 ======= 4 13 ======= 3 14 ======= 8 15 ======= 2 16 ======= 9 17 ======= 17 18 ======= 18 19 ======= 19 20 ======= 20 21 ======= 21 22 ======= 22 23 ======= 23 24 ======= 24 25 ======= 25 Special Characters in the Commander Editor ------------------------------------------- To enter special European characters, it is sometimes necessary to use the CTRL+Q key first followed by the character you wish to enter. For example, to enter the German paragraph character, type CTRL+Q followed by SHIFT+3. Norton Commander Environment Variables --------------------------------------- Norton Commander searches your environment for the following three environment variables in order to determine where to locate and store temporary work files :- TEMP, TMP, NC. Accented characters in file and directory names ----------------------------------------------- On a Novell network, using NDOS, it is possible to create different files or directories using upper case or lower case accented characters. For example : MD „Ž MD Ž„ creates two new directories. For this reason, Commander does not convert accented characters in file names or directories to upper or lower case. Installing commander under Windows 3.1 -------------------------------------- Go to the section headed "Installing Commander under Windows" of the user manual. Perform steps 1 to 7. Select the Change Icon button. Type in the full path name of the NC.ICO file, e.g. C:\NC\NC.ICO, or use the browse button if you are not sure of the path. Select the OK button. The Norton Commander is now installed on your desktop. Datex.p File ------------ The file DATEX.P contains a list of telephone numbers that can be used when running the script file CMPSRV.SCX. This file is used by the Terminal Emulation Program. The format of this file is a follows :- Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 <300 ><1200/75 ><1200 ><2400 ><9600 > The telephone numbers that are stored in this file correspond to the numbers that are used to connect to the CompuServe Bulletin Board System. The numbers specified after position 25 are the different numbers to be used depending on the baud rate that you wish to connect at. You can add in you own telephone numbers easily by modifying this file using the Commander Editor. Windows 95 and OS/2 Compatibility --------------------------------- Under Windows '95 and OS/2 2.x and 3.x you may experience difficulty in running some of the Disk Utilities. This is especially true of Disk Format and System Information. In addition to this, copying files with long filename on a Windows '95 machine using Commander will result in the long filename associated with the file being lost. This is also true for Long Filename under OS/2. Copy Diskette Utility --------------------- The Option to Skip Bad Sectors is never saved in the Commander INI file. It defaults to OFF automatically when the utility is launched. All other options in Copy Diskette will be saved. Playwave Utility ---------------- Norton Commander 5.5 comes with a viewer for playing WAV files. Since this viewer does not rely on additional sound hardware on your machine, the quality of play back may be poor on some machines. Telephone Book Conversion Utility (DIR2DIR) ------------------------------------------- The DIR2DIR.EXE utility can be used to convert your phonebook files from NC 4.0 to the new format in NC 5.5. Type DIR2DIR at the command prompt for more details on this utility. NC_EXIT Utility --------------- This useful utility unloads the Norton Commander kernel without the use of a TSR program. It can also be used to optionally stuff up to an 11 character command for processing after. See the NC_EXIT.DOC file for more information on this utility. Novell NDS ---------- The Norton Network Utilities will operate on Netware 3.x and 4.x. The login component will have problems attaching to Netware 4.x servers running Novell's Directory Services(NDS). Useful advice when running Commander on a 1MB or less system ------------------------------------------------------------- The memory management system that Commander uses to run its external utilities is to swap the Kernel (NCMAIN) into extended or expanded memory. If your system has less then 1 megabyte of memory, Commander will swap NCMAIN to a disk file. This Commander SWAP file is stored in a temporary directory which is located by searching for the following environment variables TEMP, TMP, NC, NORTON. If you are running Commander from a floppy disk on a 1 Megabyte system, to ensure maximum performance, you should set one of these variables to a temporary directory on your hard disk, otherwise Commander will attempt to create its SWAP file on your floppy diskette. Running Norton Commander from a shared Network Drive ---------------------------------------------------- Norton Commander can be run from a shared network drive as follows :- 1. Installation on shared network drive. - Log into your server as the Supervisor. - Create a directory called NC5NET. - Install the Norton Commander software into this account using the standard installation diskettes. - Create an User account called NC5NETUSER. - Ensure that this account has only Read/File Scan rights to the NC5NET directory. 2. Installation of NC 5.5 on User machine. - Copy only the INI files from the NC5NET account to the NC directory on the users machine. - Modify the autoexec.bat file and set the following environment variables :- SET NC=c:\NC5 SET NORTON=c:\NC5 - Login into the network as NC5NETUSER and ensure that the NC5NET directory is in the user's DOS PATH. - Type NC at the command prompt. Creating a tools menu --------------------- It is possible to add a user defined Tools Menu to the Norton Commander's main menu. To define a Tools Menu create a file called TOOLS.MNU and store it in the same directory as the NC.INI file. Each line within the TOOLS.MNU file corresponds to a single menu item. To define a Menu item use the following format :- Menu_Item_Name;Command_to_be invoked_when_selected For example a simple Tools Menu may look like :- File Date;fd.exe Norton Control Centre;ncc.exe Norton Disk Doctor;ndd.exe Norton Disk Editor;de.exe Text Search;ts.exe The number of menu items that can be defined in the TOOLS.MNU file is limited only by the amount of free memory. Using screen savers under Windows 3.1 ------------------------------------- When Commander is running in a DOS box under MS-Windows, its graphical screen savers will be disabled even if one is selected from the configuration panel. In circumstances like this, Commander's default screen saver will be invoked instead.