Subject: REVIEW: AmigaUtil II
From: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Moderator <[email-masked]>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

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AmigaUtil II is another one of them disk utility programs that allow
you to manipulate files and directories with a mouse.   It is listed
as shareware,  but there was no  documentation in the archive,  so I
haven't the faintest  idea where to send shareware  fees or even how
much to send.

[This was sent to me by Charles Hill of AMReport fame.  The last working
address I have for him is: Charles Hill/InfoTrak
<[email-masked]>. -JLT3]

The author is  Marc Lafontaine and the  ABOUT says  support is by  a
Maurice Lapierre.  The ABOUT lists the version number as 2.0 but the
title bar says it is version 1.84.   I think the former is  correct.

AmigaUtil  was in an LZH  archives with three files:  AmigaUtil, the
corresponding .info file and a .def configuration file.  The archive
is small so download time is quick.

                                 STATISTICS
                                 ~~~~~~~~~~
AmigaUtil II is only 83028 bytes long and is pure code, so there is
no problem  making it a  resident process.   The configuration file
goes in the S: directory, but is not necessary unless you want some
custom functions.  There are six configurable device gadgets and 76
configurable custom gadgets.

                                 APPEARANCE
                                 ~~~~~~~~~~
The Workbench 2  look is in.  AmigaUtil II (AU2) opens a four-color
screen with  default  colors being  light  grey (10, 10, 11), white
(14, 14, 15), black (0, 0, 0) and medium blue (0, 3, 13).  The text
is black on a grey background turning to white on a blue background
when selected. Gadgets and display windows are highlighted for that
3-D look that is ever so popular with Commodore.

The display is the norm for this type of program:  two side-by-side
windows with a small, vertical strip of gadgets in between; a group
of control gadgets below each window and a strip (or three) of user
definable gadgets on the bottom.

The color  palette is user  definable through the standard  palette 
requester  accessable  from the  menu strip or an  Amiga-key combo.
The screen type can be set to  lores (640 x 200), hires (640 x 400)
or half-height. Lores and hires open full screens while half-height
opens a hires screen that pulls  up from below to cover 1/2 of your
Workbench screen. Grabbing the title bar lets you adjust just where
the half-height screen goes, just like a normal screen.

To the left of each display window, there is a slider bar for those
cases  where  the file/directory  list is  bigger than  the window.
Directly below  is a  string gadget  for inputting the  device name
manually and directly above is  another one for the subdirectories.

Grouped below each window are the  action gadgets.  A small cluster
of six list the devices selectable.   I have  them set to DF0, DF1,
DH0, DH1, RAM  and DEV.   Changing them is easy, just CTRL-click on
the one to  change and fill in the blanks! The word DEV is special,
bringing up a list of all AmigaDOS devices.

The next three are ALL, CLR and COPY.  ALL selects all FILES in the
window and CLR unselects all files.  COPY is special because it can
do more  than just that.   If no file is  selected, clicking on the
COPY gadget  cycles it through  its functions:  COPY, COPY AS, MOVE
and DUPLICATE.  Select a  file (file group/directory)  and click on
the modified  gadget to  perform that  function.   COPY performs  a 
standard  file copy;  COPY AS allows you to  rename the file first;
MOVE deletes the  original file after copying and  DUPLICATE copies
not only the file, but also the protection bits, comment and date
stamp depending on the setting in the menu.

The final three are  PARENT,  MD and DELETE,  which all act normal.

Between the SOURCE and TARGET  windows is a strip of 12/13 gadgets.
The  first  is a  double-headed arrow for  swapping  the source and
target  window contents.   The second and third are  left and right
arrows  for moving the  source to the  target and  vice-versa.  The
next five tell the directory what attributes to show for the files.
The options are: size, time, protection bits, nothing and something
starting with the letter "c".   The "c" option  doesn't do anything
apparent,  and since  there is no  documentation....I'm stuck.  The
last four gadgets (one a appears when the  final one is clicked on)
are for cycling through the user-definable functions.

AU2 has provisions for automatically listing, extracting and adding
files to and from arc, LHarc and Zoo archives.   Directory listings
can be sorted by name, size, extension, date or time.   The program
even has an ICONIFY option  in the menus.   Most menu  options have
keyboard alternatives.

                                  FUNCTIONS
                                  ~~~~~~~~~
AU2 has the ability to put in 76 user-definable functions and comes
with four  built in.   The four built in  are  excellent and  quite
useful.  The first is TYPE, which can be changed to a HEX output by
clicking on it without a file selected.   It can also be shifted to
an ASCII setting,  which breaks the lines into 40  columns and adds
a hex character count.

The second  built in function  is ATTRIBUTE which is similar to ZIP
in the requester  it brings up.  You can review  and alter the  key
protection bits of any file.

The third function is my favorite -- PICTURE.  Picture will display
any IFF  file (though  I've not tested IFF-24).   The neat  part is
that by hitting the "I"  key you toggle the  interlace.  Interlaced
pictures are mapped to non-interlace and you scroll around with the
mouse.   Non-interlaced pictures are  mapped to interlace.  You can
also hit the "H"  key for hires to  lores mapping.  Hires  pictures
are mapped to lores and you can scroll around  them with the mouse.
This function DOES NOT work  in HAM (for obvious reasons).  You can
use both toggles at once  to zoom in on pictures, etc.   Some hires
b&w pictures I  have are really  excellent when mapped  to a lores,
noninterlaced screen -- it is like a zoom function.

The final function  is RENAME.  It works  like it should.   It will
not rename  files to  different directories -- use the  MOVE option
for that.

Loading and saving config  files is very easy -- just use  the menu
options or the Amiga-key equivalents.

                                   FINALLY
                                   ~~~~~~~
I don't normally use these types of programs, as  I am pretty handy
with the CLI and most of them  I've run across  are too  obtrusive.
AU2's half-height option combined with  the iconify is a real plus.
AU2 is a  program that I will  keep around and use  when performing
operations on large groups of files.   Too bad there is  no address
included for the author.