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		     * UTIL Version 2.04   *
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**FIRST**  Yes,  UTIL  is  user supported software, and yes, I do
encourage you to copy and distribute the  program.  BUT....  cor-
porate	users  should consider this commercial software... I will
take and process invoices, and one "contribution" per company  is
hardly acceptable! I will gladly accept invoices!

This  edition of the documentation (version 2.0) has been changed
around so that it is more amenable to sending partial  documenta-
tion  updates.	This  will reduce the required cot of future up-
dates. Full documentation is currently costing me more	than  the
disk and mailing combined.

Thank  you  for  your  interest in program UTIL. I sincerely hope
that you can put it to good use, and that it will save	you  many
hours in time. If you cannot use it, perhaps a friend can.

UTIL  is most useful when kept on RAM disk. It is of the greatest
benefit to users with hard disks, but can be used effectively  by
any IBM PC owner.

If  you  do  not  have either a RAM disk or a hard disk, you will
probably not find UTIL of as great use, due to the  size  of  the
file,  and  the  time  it takes to load from floppy. If you are a
patient person, though, you may still find it useful.

		      What is in This File

This README file exists to allow you to quickly come up to  speed
on  what is new in UTIL. If you have one of the older versions of
the program, you should be able to come up to  speed  quickly  on
what  has  been  added to the program since the version you have.
This way, you won't have to reread the entire documentation.

Versions of the program are listed from earliest  to  latest,  so
that the updates read in chronological order. Merely start at the
version you currently have, and read forward.

			   VERSION 1.3

Version  1.3  fixes  many  bugs  found in earlier versions of the
program. Due to a rush to release the program, many options  were
not tested as thouroughly as they should have been.

I  had	the program out to several people for Beta test, but they
apparently did	not  exercise  several	of  the  options  in  the
program.

			   VERSION 1.4

Version  1.4  incorporates  many  new features from previous ver-
sions, and fixes a few bugs. These are described below.

Return to UTIL	    At the request of several users, I have added
		    the ability to automatically return  to  UTIL
		    in	several  ways.	See the new documentation
		    sections under SD relating to alt-E and  alt-
		    W. Hitting F3 is now an alternate to ESC, and
		    will   cause  you  to  return  to  DOS,  then
		    reexecute UTIL.

H Option	    In SD, the H option has been added. Check the
		    documentation.
Renaming Files	    In SD, the alt-R option has been added.  This
		    option  allows  you to rename a file. You are
		    prompted for what to rename the file to.

Find Option	    In SD, the F option  has  been  added,  which
		    will  search  the  file  for  a user supplied
		    substring.

File Size	    In SD, the size (in bytes) of  the	file  the
		    cursor is pointing to is displayed. File size
		    was not displayed in earlier versions.

ESC		    Everywhere	in  UTIL  that a prompt is given,
		    hitting ESC will  cause  you  to  leave  that
		    option.  This  was	not  true in earlier ver-
		    sions.

Environment	    New environment variables  have  been  added.
		    The  are UT*RD and UT*NA. Check with Appendix
		    A to see what these do, and how to use them.

DO$$$.BAT	    The annoying DO$$$.BAT file, which is created
		    by UTIL to	build  and  execute  intermediate
		    processing,  can  be  put  on RAM disk, which
		    results in faster  operation,  and	does  not
		    clutter  up  your directories. See Appendix A
		    for RAM disk mode of operation (UT*RD).

Bug in L Option     When users used the L option of  SD,  it  was
		    immediately  switching  directories, and for-
		    getting to check for files flagged for  dele-
		    tion,  copying,  and special processing. This
		    has been repaired.

Speed		    The SD option of UTIL has been sped up.  This
		    was  done  by adding more intelligence to SD,
		    especially	regarding  the	reading  of   the
		    volume  label  and the determination of bytes
		    available on the disk.

Documentation	    Several  errors  in  the  documentation  were
		    fixed.  You  would	be well advised to reread
		    the documentation, especially if you  had  an
		    earlier  version  of  the  program, and there
		    were some things you couldn't figure out  how
		    to do.

Appendices	    Appendices have been added to attempt to help
		    users in utilizing UTIL most effectively.


			   VERSION 1.5


Bug Fix 	    Users  were  experiencing  excellent  to poor
		    response times to requests in the  SD  option
		    of UTIL. This bug was traced and repaired. In
		    fixing this bug, another bug was fixed in the
		    handling  of  environment variables (this was
		    actually a SERIOUS error).

Screen Copy	    If UTIL is invoked with the SC (screen  copy)
		    option,  the  current  screen being viewed is
		    copied to the other screen.  This  option  is
		    only  useful  if  you  have  two displays, of
		    course.
New SD Options
			 f2,f4,f6,f8 and f10 are used to move the
			 cursor in 3 entry increments within  the
			 current column.

			 Home  returns	you  to  the  very  first
			 screen of a directory listing

			 End takes you to the very last screen of
			 a directory listing

			 - will give you an  inverse  date  sort,
			 wherein the latest entries will be shown
			 first.

			 /  followed  by  a  letter positions the
			 cursor over  the  first  file	beginning
			 with  that  letter if you are viewing an
			 alpha sort. If you are viewing an exten-
			 sion sort, the cursor	will  go  to  the
			 first	file  beginning  with that exten-
			 sion.

			 Global undo has been added as an  option
			 to the global function. Merely hit * (to
			 get  the global prompt) followed by alt-
			 U.

			 F1 or alt-H brings up a help menu in SD.
			 The number of available options probably
			 warrants this.  Due  to  the  number  of
			 options  availabl,  the  help screen is
			 rather abbreviated. If it is not  enough
			 to jog your memory, consult the documen-
			 tation.


			   VERSION 1.6


Size & Speed	    Recompiled	program  with  version 2.1 C com-
		    piler from Computer Innovations. This  change
		    alone shrunk the size of the UTIL.EXE file by
		    almost  9K	bytes. UTIL is also significantly
		    faster, since the I/O code generated  by  the
		    new compiler is much better.

Environment	    Another    item   can   be	 put   into   the
		    environment... UT*OP (OP for  options).  Cur-
		    rently,  only  one option is available, which
		    is to  display  directories  in  lower  cae,
		    rather than the default of upper case.

Color support	    Color  monitors  are  now supported in COLOR.
		    Also, a few minor bugs related to  the  color
		    monitor  were  fixed (specifically, problems
		    with the cursor).

Display Sort	    The sort  type  is	displayed  under  the  SD
		    option of UTIL.

Remember sort	    The  directory  sort  mode is remembered when
		    switching around directories.

Specify sort	    You can now specify the sort you desire  upon
		    invocation of UTIL.
BROWSE features     A  couple  of bugs in the BROWSE feature were
		    fixed. Added to the BROWSE were  the  ability
		    to	send  (or  append)  the marked portion of
		    text to a disk file rather than the printer.

COPY anywhere	    The COPY operation	is  now  done  inside  of
		    UTIL.  It  is  very fast... almost as fast as
		    DOS can do it.  Additionally,  you	can  copy
		    files ANYWHERE!

FIND option	    Additionally,  an  option was added in the SD
		    option of UTIL. When using the  FIND  command
		    to	search a file for a character string, you
		    may hit <ENTER> to tell FID to look for  the
		    same  character  string you looked for on the
		    last invocation of FIND. Give the <ENTER>  in
		    response  to  the prompt after hitting "F" to
		    invoke FIND.

TYPE buffered	    The TYPE option (type  directly  to  printer)
		    now  buffers  each	line before sending it to
		    the  printer.  Earlier  versions  sent   each
		    character  as it was typed, which left little
		    room for errors.


			  VERSION 1.61

Minor update... only sent out to a couple of people.

			  VERSION 1.62


New Browse Option   While browsing a file, you	can  hit  "S"  to
		    copy  the screen you are viewing to the other
		    screen (provided you have  two  monitors,  of
		    course).

New Option	    Under UT*OP (see above, version 1.6), you may
		    also  specify  a "BW" option. Use this option
		    if you have a non-color monitor driven by the
		    color card. A couple of users  had	this  set
		    up,  and  the color commands sent out by UTIL
		    were creating unreadable displays on  a  non-
		    color  monitor.  By  setting  UT*OP=BW in the
		    environment, color commands are inhibited.

More Options	    Since multiple options have been added to the
		    UT*OP environment variable, I am well advised
		    to clue you in on  how  to	specify  multiple
		    options.  All  you	have to do is put a comma
		    between the options in the SET  command!  For
		    example, you might say SET UT*OP=LC,BW.

Tab Expansion	    There  was a bug in the tab expansion routine
		    used by BROWSE. This has been fixed.


			   Version 2.0


Help Windows	    On many of the options, help windows now  pop
		    up	automatically  in  reverse  video  in the
		    center of the screen.  This  gives	you  more
		    info than the terse 1 line prompt.

Apply commands	    You  may  now  supply  any commands to be ex-
		    ecuted on files.

SC to a file	    Screen copy can now be done to a file

Stay in subdir	    You may now exit  UTIL,  and  remain  in  the
		    subdirectory you were viewing.

=		    Hitting  =	in will cause the last command to
		    be repeated.

Cursor jumps	    After hitting several of the alt  keys  in	,
		    the  cursor  automatically	jumps down to the
		    next file in the list.

SD filespec	    You can now give the  SD  option  of  UTIL	a
		    filespec  to  cut  down on how much directory
		    info you have to look at. This  also  greatly
		    speeds   up   the	display.  (e.g.  UTIL  SD
		    \LIBR\*.c)

PIPE option	    UTIL can now act as a DOS pipe  "filter"  for
		    the  output  of  DIR or TREE, allowing you to
		    apply a number of programs	to  a  number  of
		    files  or subdirectories. For example, to run
		    JET (a program from Tall Trees)  to  back  up
		    your hard disk, do the following:
			 TREE  |  UTIL	PIPE pause Backing up $ ^
			 jet $ /d/era ^

CHMOD		    From the DOS prompt, you  may  run	with  the
		    CHMOD  option to change the file mode of disk
		    files (e.g. make a file hidden, or read-only)

Browse changes	    You can now  do  a	screen	copy  in  BROWSE.
		    BROWSE  now  shows the name of the file being
		    browsed, and can send a TOF to  the  rinter.
		    Handling  of  writing  text to files has been
		    enhanced.

Move Option	    UTIL now allows you to do a MOVE rather  than
		    a  COPY. A MOVE is similar to a COPY followed
		    by a DELETE, except  that  the  file  is  not
		    actually   copied.	Rather,  the  destination
		    directory merely gets the directory info from
		    the  source  directory,  and  the  entry   is
		    removed  from the source directory. Thus, the
		    operation is very fast (MUCH  faster  than	a
		    COPY)!  MOVE  can  only  be  done on the same
		    drive.

Verify		    If you are a real stickler	for  security  in
		    your  file	transfers  (e.g.  COPY),  you can
		    *optionally*  tell	UTIL  to  "turn  on"  the
		    VERIFY  switch while doing the file transfer.
		    You do this via the UT*OP  environment  vari-
		    able.

Check copies	    An additional protection mechanism during the
		    COPY operation is the ability to tell to warn
		    you  if  a	copy is attemted which will write
		    over a file which already  exists.	Like  VE,
		    this  is done via the UT*OP environment vari-
		    able.

Disk full	    Copy will alert you if the	destination  disk
		    is full.


			  VERSION 2.01


*   Minor  bug	in COPY fixed... if user had "check copy" on, and
    declined to overwrite the file, UTIL put up a message  saying
    "error writing to file". Fixed.


			  VERSION 2.02


*   When  I  went  to  2.0,  I	rewrote  how  the  directory  was
    redisplayed after deleting files. In previous  versions,  the
    directory  was  being  reread.  Beginning with version 2.0, I
    merely adjusted my list in memory. A bug crept in, though. If
    you marked several files for deletion, then hit E  or  W  (to
    edit  a  file)  later  in  the  list, UTIL wouldcall up your
    editor or wordprocessor on the wrong file! Fixed.

*   There was a problem when UTIL was run after the  JET  program
    from  Tall	Tree  Systems. It seems to be fixed now.... wierd
    bug! I could only get the problem to occur after running JET.


			  VERSION 2.03


*   Hitting HOME often took a while  to  perform...  problem  was
    that I was accidentally resorting directory.


			  VERSION 2.04


*   The  PIPE option of UTIL had a problem when run from the root
    directory of any drive. During the DOS  pipe  or  redirection
    operation,	files  named  %PIPEx.$$$  are created to hold the
    intermediate outputs of programs. These files are created  in
    the  root  directory,  and	are read by a DIR when piping the
    output of DIR into UTIL. And since they were  read	by  UTIL,
    your  commands  were  being applied to these %PIPE files too!
    Fixed.

*   Another problem with the PIPE option was that I was  inadver-
    tantly  letting  subdirectory  names  pass into UTIL and have
    your commands applied to them. If you do a DIR |  UTIL  PIPE,
    you should only have commands applied to files, NOT subdirec-
    tories. Fixed.


			  Documentation

Documentation  resides	on  your  distribution diskette under the
name UTIL.DOC. You can print it with:

     A>COPY UTIL.DOC PRN:
umentation  res