File Manager App!

[Glen]

how about a file manager app........

we could use some of the features of zdos there right?

in the file manager app, the user would be able to delete a database, archive, unarchive, etc.........

it would be a lot better and faster rather than going to 2nd , mem.............

its would be also nice if it is user friendly and has a friendly user interface!

right?

[David]

NimbusOS APP 1 will serve these purposes when finished
From a graphical interface you will be able to

• (Un)archive
  
  
• (un)lock
  
  
• (un)hide
  
  
• delete
  

every program on the calculator.

[Pascal]

Yea glen, what you just said + a gui (which it would have) is essentially the same thing as a shell except for not being able to run programs and a few other bells and whistles. But I think it would be cool to have a simple manager. But then again, a shell does it quite nicely as well.

[yugniht]

I once had an idea for an app that could share the same name. I was tired of all the sub programs that came with basic programs. I wasn't even sure which one to run first. I thought there could be an app to hide all the sub programs and if you wanted to see them or edit them, you could press some other button twice or something. That way, you would have all of the ".exe" programs under the program menu, seperate. Since I don't know asm, I couldn't do it, nor do I know if it can be done exactly like this, but if anyone wants to make it, I would use it.

[NETWizz]

When NimbusOS is done, I am actually going to write a File Manager App wich will do all the same things as NimbusOS, but it will offer to recover deleted programs that were archived, well be organized to treat the Archive and Ram as different devices. e.g. Move to Ram/Move to arch.

Lastly, I will hopefully build in compression.

Perhaps, I should skip this idea and simply put some options into NimbusOS.

I found something interesting today.

When a program in ram is deleted, the data still exists in ram. Put simply, the sym table has an item deleted.

So, to rename, a program, it would be easiest to delete it if it is in ram, then simply create new program and leave it empty. Then edit the sym table entry and change a few pointers.

[Adm.Wiggin]

so, if i delete a program in my ram, then its still there? WHAT THE HECK TI! i thought i deleted it! does it adjust the free ram too?

[62 52 53 53]

it counts that space as free, but the data is still there. It will be overwritten when the calculator needs to put something there, but until that happens the bytes stay the same.

[Adm.Wiggin]

ya, thats weird! i never knew it just moved some pointers!

[62 52 53 53]

takes less time for it, and less coding I'm sure.

[Adm.Wiggin]

oh, so they were bein lazy? ok! sounds good! (if it is faster, who cares!)

[AlienCC]

Perhaps they weren't being lazy but had planned it on purpose for the sake of adding new features later on as undelete?

You'll find through computer studies that most OS's do much the same.

--AlienCC

[Adm.Wiggin]

ah, so memory recovory is possibe on any calculator, not just SE? but in the prgm, u would have to specify the beginning, the end, and the name...

[NETWizz]

The most difficult part of recovery of a program that was deleted from ram would be figure out where it is located, becaue it could be anywhere.

Not only that, there is no name, type, or anything telling you what it is.

Here is the structure of a program deleted from ram:

03 00 BB 6D C9

As you can see, it contains two size bytes with LSB (least significant byte) first, then it contains data bytes. That is it. In reality, you have no idea what it was called, if it was a progobj, protprogobj, appvarobj, et cetera.

I guess all you can do is undelete it without knowing what it is. The best method would be to create a new progobj and set the address to point to the correct place.

You then open the progobj via edit in the programs list. If all goes well, you will either recognize the data, or if you run it as an asm program, you will realize that it works correctly.

Now, you must absolutely not modify the contents of the program until you are sure what you undeleted becaue if it points to the wrong place, you would actually be editing the ram of your calculator Furthermore, you will need to scroll all the way to the top before exiting unless you are sure what you undeleted should have been undeleted.

If it turns out that you should not have undeleted it, by all means, do not re-delete it because that would result in a crash. You must first change the pointer of the sym table to a safe place e.g. 00 00, so the program appears to have no size. Now, you can delete it.

An easier method would be to archive everything but the undeleted program and reset your ram.

[Arcane Wizard]

I don't think ti was being lazy since the same method is used for deleting files on pc's (or so I've been told) so I figure it's just a standard (faster and more easy) way of deleting files.

Could it be that those values it removes are just to tell that there's a file coming up and that after that there's data to tell what kind of file it is ?

[Adm.Wiggin]

I think it just deletes the symbol table entry... Jbirk, couldn't u add an optional recycle bin in Nimbus? that way, Nimbus would remember the type and name, and where the data was!

[Justin W.]

Well here's my thought's. If the actual data does not move from it's position in RAM when deleted you could have a program store the address,size,and name of the program. Then upon deletion of that program you could simply get your pointers and recreate the program.

I do not know if the same holds true when your RAM gets reset. Whether all values are reset or stay the same. If they were to stay the same you could easily restore all the files on your calculator. This would be an effective technique in Nimbus OS if the RAM stays in tact. I will discuss this train of thought later if the values stay the same after a ram reset.

[Arcane Wizard]

Keeping track of all that info could heap up in memory, maybe add a 'defragment' option to clean this up (and thus the previously removed programs could no longer be unremoved).

[NETWizz]

[NETWizz]

[Adm.Wiggin]

ya, the hidden group thing sounds like a good idea Jbirk... it could be Recycle... (lowercase allowed if not using TI-OS ) and the R would be changed to 40 lower... it could be rockin!