From: ted@isgtec.com (Ted Richards)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps
Subject: Re: Archive Viewer 1.33 (was Re: I guess there is no way to start zip/zoo from Icon)
Date: 20 Nov 92 14:03:49 GMT
Organization: ISG Technologies Inc. Mississauga Ont. Canada
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]

Chris Waters (xtifr@netcom.com) wrote:
: In <1992Nov16.175622.20614@midway.uchicago.edu> sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples) writes:
: 
: >There's a PM app called ArchiveViewer (version 1.33) which implements
: >a PM front end (at least for viewing, I think).  It is available via
: >anonymous ftp from ftp-os2.nmsu.edu.
: 
: Hmm, I have to comment at this point: I looked at this program, and it
: is *really* wierd!  The author(s) seem to have used the wrong system
: calls for implementing menus, resulting in a system that is almost
: counter-intuitive.  The "menus" are disguised as settings.  There's
: other quirks to (no _easy_ way to specify the extract directory, can't
: handle spaces in dir/file names, etc.).  All in all, I have to judge
: this program as not-ready-for-prime-time.  I'm still using the
: command-line to view/extract/create archives.

I agree that it's a wierd interface, but it's actually pretty easy to
specify the extract directory:  All you need to do is:

    1. Double click on the archive you want to extract.  This will pop
       up a window showing its contents.  Move the window out of the way.

    2. Change the directory to the one you want the files extracted to.

    3. In the contents window, highlight all the files you want to
       extract from the archive (or click on the "+All" button to select
       all of them) and select "Extract" from the menu in that window.

You need to have selected "follow" in the configuration screen.  I
don't think that's the exact wording, but it's something like that.

The reason that I like this program is that it handles nested archives
nicely.  If you pop up a window showing an archive's contents, and they
include other archived files, you can double click on those and pop up
windows showing _their_ contents.  Double clicking on a text file pops
up a viewer for it, and if I remember correctly, double clicking on an
executable file will even execute it from inside the archive.

The other great thing about this program is that it's extensible.
There is a configuration file that allows av to support any new
archivers that come along.  You just specify the extension of the
archive file and the commands that will list, extract, create, add,
etc. for that archiver.

The main drawbacks are the rather strange interface, and the fact that
there doesn't seem to be any way to change the font size in the
program's windows, which is way too small at 1024x768 resolution.

On the whole, I'd say it has great functionality and a lousy
interface.  The interface is bad enough that I'm hoping something with
a better interface and similar functionality will come along before the
evaluation period is up and I have to decide whether to register it or
not.

--
Ted Richards            ted@isgtec.com             [...!uunet.ca!isgtec!ted]
ISG Technologies Inc.   3030 Orlando Dr. Mississauga  Ont.  Canada   L4V 1S8
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps