NAME

vuefile − the TriTeal VUE File Manager

SYNOPSIS

vuefile [−options ...]

DESCRIPTION

The TriTeal VUE File Manager (vuefile) is  TriTeal VUE’s  primary interface to the file system.   It provides application execution and file manipulation. 

The File Manager can display many main windows called file view windows, each which contain the files of a single directory.  Each file is presented as a labeled icon.  The menu bar and popup menus provide file operations. 

The File Manager also controls the file/directory icons which can be placed on the Desktop.  The Desktop is defined as the users work area.  The File Manager treats each workspace backdrop as a Desktop.  The number of workspaces a user has defined equals the number of Desktops a user has. 

A direct manipulation paradigm is used to perform operations on files/directories displayed in a file manager view and files/directories placed on the Desktop.  Double-click performs a specified action on a file or directory.  Selection and multiple selection activate a file or a set of files.  This is primarily used to indicate the active object for menu operations.  Multiple selection is also used by drag for defining the set of files to be dragged.  Drag is used to copy, move, or link a file or files between directories.  Drag is also used to transfer data to other cooperating clients. 

The File Manager also supports popup menus.  By positioning the cursor over a file/directory in a File Manager view or on a Desktop and pressing mouse button 3, a popup menu will post.  This popup menu will provide a list of actions the user can perform on that particular file/directory or the group of selected files. 

OPTIONS

vuefile defines a number of command-line options which allow the user to configure a file view window for the user. Command-line options have a higher precedence than resources.  By using command-line options a user can override anything specified in a resource file. 

-noview
This runs vuefile in "server mode", which means that no directory views are initially displayed.  vuefile waits for a cooperating client to tell it to display a view (i.e. the window manager via the front panel). 

-session <session_file>
This option takes the name of a session file as an additional parameter. vuefile is run with the specified session file name.  This session file is a file that was previously saved by vuefile during a session shutdown. 

-dir <directory>
OR

-directory <directory>
This option takes a one or more directory specifications as an additional parameter.  This specification is of the form hostname:path, hostname:path,... or path,path,... or any combination of the two (no spaces are allowed in the additional parameter string). This option runs vuefile and causes it to display a directory view for each directory specified.  If this command-line option is not used, the user’s current directory is displayed.  The current directory is the directory vuefile was started in. 

-view <view_type>
This option takes an additional parameter which graphically determines how the files will be displayed in the File Manager’s directory view. If this option is not specified the default view is large_icon.  Possible values for the additional parameter are:
no_icon: display the files with no graphical representation of the files type. 
large_icon: display the files with the large icon as its representation of the files type. 
small_icon: display the files with the small icon as its representation of the files type. 
attributes: display the files in their long listing form similar to what you would get if you did an ls -l on that directory.  It also uses the small icon as its graphical representation of the files type. 

-order <order_type>
This option takes an additional parameter which determines the order in which the files will be laid out in the File Manager’s directory view. If this option is not specified the default order is alphabetical. Possible values for the additional parameter are:
alphabetical: display the files in alphabetical order. 
file_type: display the files according to their filetypes.  Within the File Manager’s directory view the files will be grouped according to their filetypes. 
date: display the files according to the date they were last modified. 
size: display the files according to the size of the files. 

-direction <direction>
This option takes an additional parameter which determines the direction in which the files will be laid out in the File Manager’s directory view. This option can be real useful when used in conjunction with the -order option. If this option is not specified the default direction is ascending.  Possible values for the additional parameter are:
ascending: lay out icons in ascending order according to the order resource. 
descending: lay out icons in descending order according to the order resource. 

-grid <on/off>
This option along with its additional parameter determines whether the files will always be laid out in a grid or they can be randomly placed anywhere within the File Manager’s directory view.   If the additional parameter is on, the files will be always laid out in a grid.  If the additional parameter is off, the files will be kept where they are put (i.e. randomly placed).

-restricted
This option forces the File Manager view to be in restricted mode. This means that the user can’t navigate above the specified directory. It uses the directory specified by the -dir option.  If no -dir option is specified vuefile uses the user’s current directory (i.e. the directory vuefile is started in) as its restricted directory. 

-title <title_name>
This option allows the user to specify a title for the File Manager view. All views and dialogs propagated from this view will use this title.  If this option is not specified the title of each File Manager view is the directory name the view is showing.

-help_volume <help_volume_name>
This option allows the user to specify a help volume to use with this File Manager view.  It is useful if the user is using the File Manager to display a specific directory and wants to have specific help for that directory.  Note: All new File Manager views that are created from this directory will also use this help volume. 

Both the -noview and the -session options are normally used by the session manager to start vuefile.  The -view, -order, -direction, and -grid all can also be set by 1) using the View menu pulldown and selecting Set Preferences or 2) resources (See RESOURCES section below).  The -title and -help_volume can also be set via resources.  (See RESOURCES section below). 

FILETYPES and ACTIONS

Each File Manager view  displays a set of icons, each representing a single file/directory.  Each file/directory has an associated filetype which is determined by the a set of filetypes defined in filetype files.  The default filetypes are: data, executable, or directory. The set of filetypes defined for the File Manager are contained in the user’s and system’s filetype files. 

Each filetype has a set of actions defined for it.  An action is an executable or application that can be run with a file of that type.  To make the action readily available, each of the actions defined for a filetype are displayed in an Actions menu pane in the File Manager’s main window.  The set of actions defined for the File Manager are contained in the user’s and system’s action files. 

Refer to the TriTeal Visual User Environment System Administration Manual for a description of filetypes and actions files. 

RESOURCES

The File Manager supports a number of resources which make it much more configurable. Following is the list of supported resources and their default values. 

Vuefile∗dirWidth:
Specifies the width of a File Manager view.

Vuefile∗dirHeight:
Specifies the height of a File Manager view.

Vuefile∗toolWidth:
Specifies the width of a File Manager view of a tool box.

Vuefile∗toolHeight:
Specifies the height of a File Manager view of a tool box.

Vuefile∗rereadTime:
Sets how often the File Manager rereads the open directories and monitors the Desktop objects.  This resource is specified in seconds.  If this resource is set to 0, the reread of the directories is turned off, and the user needs to manually reread the directories. This can help keep vuefile from using too many processor cycles but can cause views to become stale. 

Vuefile∗checkBrokenLink:
Sets how often the File Manager checks open directories for broken links. This resource is specified in seconds. If this resource is set to 0, the check for broken links is turned off.

Vuefile∗showFilesystem:
This resource determines whether the user sees the path name of the current directory the user is in or not. The default is to have the user see which directory they are in. If False, no current directory line in a file manager view will be shown.  This resource can be used to hide the file system from the user.  Note: when this resource is False the Fast Change To capability is lost. 

Vuefile∗openDir:
This resource determines how a directory is opened when a user double clicks on a folder. The default is current which uses the current File Manager view to open the directory.  This is the same as using the action OpenInPlace.  If the resource is new a new File Manager view will be opened for each directory opened and only one view of a directory can be opened at once.  Another feature provided when this resource is set to new is the icon for a directory can change state to indicate that it has an open directory somewhere in the user’s environment.  To take advantage of this feature, the user must define a filetype with the same name as the normal filetype for the directory but precede the name with OPEN_.  In this OPEN_ definition, put the icon name for the "open" icon the user wishes to show when this directory is "open".  Possible values:
current: open the directory in the current view. 
new: open the directory in a new view or move an existing open view of this directory to this workspace and raise it. 

Vuefile∗restrictMode:
The resource, if set to True, restricts the user to their $HOME directory and below.  All capabilities to change directory become relative to their $HOME directory. The complete filesystem except for the users $HOME and below is hidden from the user.

Vuefile∗rootTitle:
Sets the title of the root (i.e. "/") directory. This title will appear in the title bar of a File Manager view which is showing the root directory. It also will be the name shown in the icon representing the root directory on the Desktop.

Vuefile∗moveThreshold:
This is the number of pixels the cursor can move while a button is down before the drag controller recognizes the button down as a drag.

Vuefile∗view:
This resource allows the user to change the default for the way the icons are represented within a view. The default is "large_icon". Possible values are:
no_icon: display the files with no graphical representation of the files type. 
large_icon: display the files with the large icon as its representation of the files type. 
small_icon: display the files with the small icon as its representation of the files type. 
attributes: display the files in their long listing form similar to what you would get if you did an ls -l on that directory.  It also uses the small icon as its graphical representation of the files type. 

Vuefile∗order:
This resource allows the user to change the default order in which the files are laid out within a File Manager view. The default is by alphabetical. Possible values are:
alphabetical: lay out icon order by alphabetical order. 
file_type: lay out icon order by filetype
date: lay out icon order according to the date the files where last touched. 
size: lay out icon order according to the size of the files. 

Vuefile∗direction:
This resource allows the user to change the default direction in which the file icons are laid out within a File Managers view. The default is for ascending. Possible values are:
ascending: lay out icons in ascending order according to the order resource. 
descending: lay out icons in descending order according to the order resource. 

Vuefile∗grid:
This resources allows the users to change whether the grid placement is on or off by default. The default is for the grid to be on. The possible values are either "on" or "off".

Vuefile∗desktopIcon:
Determines whether the icons on the Desktop will appear with large or small icons. Possible values:
large: use the large icons. 
small: use the small icons. 

Vuefile∗objectPlacement:
This resource specifies the object placement scheme to be used by the Desktop to place objects on the Desktop (i.e. root window). The resource value has the following syntax:
 primary_layout  secondary_layout
The layout values are one of the following:

A horizontal (vertical) layout value should not be used for both the primary_layout and the secondary_layout. The primary_layout indicates whether, when an object placement is done, the object is placed into a row or a column and the directory of the placement.  The secondary_layout indicates where to place new rows or columns. This resource has the same format as the icon placement resource used by the window manager. The default is top right. 

Vuefile∗title:
This resource allows the user to set the title for all File Manager views. If NULL (the default), the title of each File Manager view is the directory name the view is showing.

Vuefile∗help_volume:
This resource allow the user to set a help volume to use when invoking help from a File Manager view.  The default is NULL meaning it will use the standard File Manager help.

FEATURES

Desktop
The File Manager supports Desktops.  A Desktop is a place where users can store commonly used files or directories for easy access.  Within the TriTeal VUE environment, each workspace is considered a different Desktop.  The user may place any file or directory directly on the background of a workspace and the file or directory will "stick" there.  The user then can access actions for that file or directory via a popup menu activated by mouse button 3. 

Opening a File
Double-clicking a file causes the default action defined for the filetype of the file to be run.  By default, opening an application will execute it, opening a directory will cause the contents of the directory to be displayed, and opening a data file will cause a text editor to be run with the data file being edited.

Dragging a File
A file or set of files can be dragged to another File Manager view or to any other cooperating client.  This provides for file copy, move, link, and execution. The File Manager supports both mouse button 1 and mouse button 2 drag-drop.

Popup Menu Support
The File Manager supports popup menus for files and directories within a File Manager’s view or on the Desktop.  To access the popup menu for a particular file/directory, position the cursor over the file/directory and press mouse button 3 and hold it.   A popup menu will appear with a list of actions which can be performed on that particular file. If multiple files/directories are selected, the cursor is positioned over one of the selected files/directories, and the user presses mouse button 3, a popup will post which reflects actions which can be done on all of the selected files/directories at once.

File Filtering
Directories can contain files of many different types.  The File Manager’s filtering mechanism provides the means by which the user can selectively display sets of files.

Directory Traversal
Simple directory traversal is available by double-clicking a directory icon. This displays the contents of the directory.  The File Manager provides a display mode that displays the directory hierarchy as a graph that can be easily traversed.  A Find dialog  is also available that can search the file system for a directory or directories matching user-supplied search criteria.   The Change To dialog can be used to list directories frequently used; a double-click on a directory in that list changes to that directory. 

Setting Display Preferences
Both iconic and non-iconic visual representations for file display are provided.  The non-iconic form can be used to display directories with large numbers of files or where display space is at a premium.  A directory of files can be made to be laid out in a grid or as placed. This allows the user to organize their directory views any way they like. If the user has write permission in a directory they have randomly placed files, the positioning information will be saved when the user leaves that directory so that each time the user reenters that directory the files will be positioned as they were placed.

Find Files
Directories can be searched for a file or set of files which match search criteria.  When files are located, a File Manager window can be opened to display the directory which contains the file.  The file can also be put directly onto the Desktop.

Find Files with certain Contents
The Find dialog also provides the capability of find files which contain certain character strings.  When files are found which contain certain strings, a File Manager window can be opened to display the directory which contains the file.  The file can also be put directory onto the Desktop.  The contents search is always case insensitive. 

Smart Trash Can
The File Manager provides access to VUE’s smart trash can.  The user can place files into the trash can, but they are not permanently removed until the user asks that the trash can be emptied or the TriTeal VUE session is terminated at logout.  Files dragged to the trash can also be restored, but only during the current session (before logout) and before being permanently removed.

Click and Type File Renaming
The user can click mouse button 1 on the text portion of a file and an edit box will appear allowing the user to rename that file.

Quick Help
The File Manager provides quick help via F1 through out the application. This includes quick help on file and directory icons.  To access quick help, position the cursor over the item you wish to get quick help on and press the F1 key on the keyboard.

Support For Textual Annotations
The File Manager provides full support for files which contain textual annotations.  It provides support for moving or copying files which contain annotations.

Filename Completion
The File Manager supports file name completion in text edit areas which make sense.  Just press the space bar and the filename will complete as far as it can.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1994 TriTeal Corporation. 
Copyright 1992 Hewlett-Packard Company.

ORIGIN

Hewlett-Packard Company
 

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