Version 3.0

By Mitchell Ross

Welcome to the latest and greatest verson of STREE! Well, what's new with 3.0?

- STREE is faster!
- Signifigantly less memory used durring the disk scan. You'll never have
to use disk buffering again!
- The main screen has been redesigned, giving general drive information at
the top and help keys at the bottom.
- You can now select directories for complex size information and
deletion.
- STREE now has a configuration file (STREE.CFG) to change defaults.
- Starting with 3.0, registered users will add a password to the .CFG file
instead of having a seperate copy of the program.
upgrades much easier

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What's STREE anyway?

STREE (say "ESS-tree") is a utility that reports information about your hard
drive's tree structure, and provides a quick and easy way to delete directories
that contain many files and subdirectories. Before you say "Oh no, another
shell", fire up STREE and see what it can do. STREE was never designed to be a
DOS shell type program, but rather a "what's on this drive anyway?" and a "I
need disk space NOW!" utility. As the Senior Programmer for a consulting firm,
this utility was the result of "there's gotta be a better way."

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Basic Usage

Using STREE is easy! If you like to use command line parameters, type STREE /?
for a help list. STREE will run completly interactive otherwise, starting with
the drive to use. Press the letter of the drive to scan, and STREE will read
all the information off your drive that it needs. After it is done reading,
you will enter the directory view mode. On screen is a report that shows the
directory tree along with information about each directory. On-line help is
available by pressing F1 from here, as shown on the bottom line along with
the other functions available.

Here's a summary of these functions:

- View a Directory
You can view a list of files in any directory by pressing ENTER on the
directory you want to see. From this window, you can delete single files, and
view the contents of files by pressing enter on that file.

- Select/Deselect
Pressing "+" will select a directory, and all of it's subdirectories. Pressing
"-" will deselect them, and the INS key will toggle between selected and
deselected. For example, say you had a directory structure like the one below
and wanted to delete everything under UTILS except NORT and NC. You would
first press "+" on UTILS, and then "-" on NORT.

ROOT
UTILS
MACE
NORT
NC
OTHER
PUBLIC
- Print
The report you see on screen can be saved to a disk file or sent to a printer.
If your printer cannot support the IBM line draw characters, you have the
option of converting them to "vanilla ASCII" characters.

- Kill A Directory
This is the most powerful, and possibly dangerous, feature of STREE. All of
files in the the currently selected directories will be deleted, along with
the directories themselves.

- New Drive
Use this if you want STREE to examine another drive. If you pressed "N" by
mistake, the ESC key will back you out without re-reading the current drive.

- Find a Directory
If the current drive is quite large, STREE can find a directory for you with
a search. The search is done on the names of directories only, not by file
names. (Well, not yet...)

- Shell to DOS
Executes a DOS command in the selected directory. Memory is swapped to EMS or
a disk file. Great for moving files to an archive, like ZIP's or ARC's.

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Important Information On Shelling To DOS

STREE by nature is a memory hog in an attempt to be as fast as possible, BUT
in order to be able to shell to DOS, we must have some memory free for DOS
to use. The solution? Swap a large portion of used memory out to EMS memory or
a temporary disk file. There's some restrictions on doing this, though.

- To swap to EMS, you'll need around 600k of EMS free.
- If there's not enough EMS free, you'll need about 600k of disk space free.
- Durring the DOS shell, the swap file on disk is left open (but hidden).
It is therefore VERY important NOT to run any programs that change low-level
information on disk, like CHKDSK or de-fragmenters.
- As in all DOS shells, loading TSR's is a big no-no. This will almost always
lead to a system crash upon returning from the shell.

If you stay within these rules, you can do just about anything you want in the
shell. If you enter the name of a program that is not in the current directory,
STREE will automatically search the path for you. The main reason for having a
shell in STREE is to free up space by using a data compression program, like
PKZIP, ARC, and the like. Here's a sample shell command I might enter:

PKZIP -M SOURCE *.*

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Networks, low RAM, and other topics

---- Networks
STREE is network friendly, and has been tested on Novell Netware, Netware Lite,
Lantastic, and others. In order to get accurate reports, you'll need to have
network rights to at least read the file listings in each directory. If you'll
be deleting anything, you will obviously need to have network rights to delete
those files.

---- When you run out of Memory
When STREE gives you an "Error: Out of Memory" message, there are a few things
you can try:
- Run STREE straight from the DOS prompt, as opposed to another program's
"Shell to Dos" function.
- Release as many TSR's as you can, or load them high with DOS, or using
another memory manager program.

--- How To Increase STREE's Performance
Some common ways to speed things up:
- A disk cache program, if you're not on a network. If you're not using
a disk cache already, then by all means go out and buy Super PC-Kwik.
It's the best one on the market, and is well worth the price. Networks
often have built-in caching on the server, so adding one to a
workstation can actually slow network access down.
- Use the "Quick Mode" option (/Q on the command line). This will
force STREE to skip rereading the drive after deletes and DOS Shells.
While the report will not reflect your deletes, you won't have to wait.
- Use the SUBST command to create a logical drive. If you're only going
to use the directories off of \PUBLIC, then you might set up a drive
using this command:
SUBST Z: \PUBLIC

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Why YOU should register your copy

For one thing, you'll be using STREE legally if you decide to use it on a
regular basis. A registration form is at the end of this file. After
registering your copy, you will get:

- A registered copy of the latest version by mail. The registered copy
has more options than the shareware release.

- Free, unlimited support. You'll also have a higher chance of your
enhancement "wish list" items being used in future releases.

- You'll be entitled to FREE upgrades, just mail me a disk (any size)
and a stamped mailer.

- Once registered, always registered.

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Update history (since 2.3, when this list began)

STREE 2.5 "what's new?" list:
- STREE is now fully able to handle 2 gigabyte partitions. If anyone
on this planet needs STREE to handle more, drop me a note.
- A disk buffered read on a drive other than the default drive caused
some totals to read 0, now fixed.
- Shell to DOS is now also available from the file view window.
- The drive selection window now defaults to the current drive.
- Minor changes to HELP, and pressing a number will jump to that page.
- Quick Mode from command line, to avoid long rereads. See the "How to
increase STREE's performance" section below. (Registered version only)
- File viewer is LOTS faster.
- STREE can now show the contents of ARC, PAK, and ZIP files!
- Lower memory usage! This should allow many users to switch to memory
buffering.

STREE 2.4 "what's new?" list:
- There's now two versions: Shareware and Registered. The Registered
version has a few more "bells & whistles".
- Less mememory usage for memory buffered reads.
- Disk buffered read for monster size drives. (S-L-O-W)
- Drive mapping/redirection information is shown when selecting
the drive to read. Users addicted to SUBST and Novell users will
love this new feature!
- A primitive, but very usefull file viewer has been added to
the file view window of the registered version. Just press ENTER
on the file to view.
- You can now shell to DOS from the main screen of the resistered
version. See below for details on how it works, and some tips for
power users.
- Better documentation! As time goes by, it WILL get better, but
this a giant step in the right direction.
- On a single file delete, a drive re-read is done upon exiting the
file view window instead of after each delete.
- The file bar now stays near last delete, just like the directory bar.
- Monochrome PC's now default to LCD color set.
- Speed-read is dead. If anybody really used it, let me know.
- After a KILL, the screen dosen't do a "down scroll", it just
jumps straight there. That one's been anoying me.

STREE 2.3 "what's new?" list:
- This file, for one. It'll get better, don't worry.
- New and improved help system, with an index page.
- LCD color set! Now you can see what you're doing. Just add /LCD
to the command line. See the on-line help for more options.
- File count for each directory is now given.
- The LOOK function has been spiced up with a better "feel".
- That annoying "Save the SpeedRead file?" question is now gone.
It's been replaced with a smarter auto-detect method. See the
on-line help for details on how it works.
- The date and time are now displayed at the top of the report.
- Total drive size is now displayed next to the space free.
- You can now KILL single files from the LOOK window.
- After a directory KILL the pointer bar stays near where it was
before, instead of jumping back to the top.

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Credits

Many people have helped to make STREE what it is today. Special thanks go to:


Robert Lane - Beta testing, Bug Reports, Enhancement requests, Moral support.
"Why can't STREE do ______?"

Dan Ross - Enhancement requests, Moral support.
"Put it in Shareware!"

Ronald Lane - Beta testing, Bug Reports, Enhancement requests.
"Don't delete C:\ !"

Borland Inc - The world's greatest Pascal compiler. Let's all be thankfull
that we're not stuck with Mircosoft's languages!

Compu$erve - An easy way to get 250+ downloads in 2 days, and sometimes a
registed user too. 🙂


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REGISTRATION FORM
FOR
STREE VERSION 3.0


Name ___________________________________________________________


Address ___________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________


City _________________________ State ___________ Zip ________


Compu$erve ID or BBS Number __________________________



Preferred Disk Size (circle one)

5 1/4" 1.2 Meg 5 1/2" 360k 3 1/2" 1.44 Meg 3 1/2" 720k



What Kind Of Computer Do You Have? (optional, circle all that apply)

8088 80286 80386 80486 80586(Pentium)

Mono CGA EGA VGA

MS-DOS DR-DOS OS/2 Windows Windows NT

5 1/2" drive 3 1/2" drive CD-ROM Tape Drive

Local Hard Drive Size ____________________________

Network Drive Size ____________________________

Network Type _____________________________________


What would you like to see added to STREE? (use back of page if needed)


_____________________________________________________


I am registering __________ coppies of STREE at $20 each.


Total amount enclosed: __________


SEND TO: Mitchell Ross Thank you for supporting
3670 Road 5-1 the Shareware concept!
Delta, OH 43515