Splitter V2.00 Release for Atari ST User
 Copyright (c)1994 Uncensored Software


Files in this distribution:

  SPLITTER.PRG - GEM shell for the AtariST version of Splitter
  SPLITTER.TTP - The Atari ST/STe/TT/Falcon version of Splitter
  SPLIT286.EXE - The MSDOS version of Splitter for 286 processors
  SPLIT386.EXE - The MSDOS version of Splitter for 386 processors


Using SPLITTER from the command line:

  To split a file:

    SPLITTER  <file to split> <split files prefix> <max bytes per split>

  To rejoin (unsplit) a file:

    SPLITTER -u <split files prefix>

  To check a split file:

    SPLITTER -c <split files prefix>

      
      Shareware conditions
      
      If you use Splitter and consider it useful enough to continue using 
      it then please consider making a donation to the authors. I would 
      suggest 10 UK pounds as a resonable donation. Any donations should 
      be sent to the address at the end of this doc file and thanks in 
      advance for anything..

      
      And now about the program itself!
      
      Splitter was written after a request from Alan Woodcock (Desktop 
      Services) who wanted to be able to ship a 1meg+ scanned image file to 
      another machine via floppy disks, obviously the size of the file 
      presented a major problem, especially if it had already been packed 
      with LZH,ZIP or another archiver. Splitter allows you to overcome 
      this barrier by breaking the large file into smaller blocks, and then
      rebuilding it to it's original form.


      How to use Splitter.
      
      The main Splitter program was previously written in GFA Basic which 
      made it an Atari specific program, for v2 it has been rewritten in C 
      using ANSI compliant code and has been successfully compiled without 
      any changes on the following platforms:

      Atari ST - Lattice C 5.60
      Atari ST - GNU C 2.4.5
      MSDOS 6.20 - GNU C (32 Bit)
      OS/2 2.1 - GNU C
      Sequent Dynix/PTX 2.10
      IBM RS/6000 AIX 3.2.0

      This will now allow split files to be rebuilt on computers other 
      than Atari's. With the Atari ST release you have the added advantage 
      of an easy to use GEM interface which will make it much easier to 
      use.

      The main display of the Splitter shell allows you to control every 
      feature of the program quickly and very easily.  The following text 
      will describe each step which you should take for splitting or 
      rebuilding a file.

      Setting a block size
      
      There are 3 ways to set your maximum block size. One is to manually 
      enter the size in bytes, secondly you can click on either of the 
      buttons to increase or decrease the value by 1 byte and lastly by 
      double clicking on the buttons which will increase or decrease the 
      block size by 1024 bytes at a time. Please note that you can hold 
      the mouse button down to repeat the procedure and that a minimum 
      block size of 1024 bytes will always be assumed, that is you can 
      define any block size from 1024 to 9999999 bytes.

      Splitting a file.
      
      Click on the 'SPLIT' button and use the fileselector to choose the 
      file to be split. The size of each split block will depend on the 
      setting previously defined.

      Rebuilding a split file
      
      Click on the 'BUILD' button and use the fileselector to select the 
      *.000 file which will be rebuilt. Once selected you will then be 
      asked to choose the path for the file to be rebuilt into.

      Checking a split file
      
      Click on the 'CHECK' button and use the fileselector to select the 
      *.000 file to be checked. No action will be performed apart from the 
      integrity of each split block being checked.

      For support or suggestions contact..
      

      Authors: Stuart Coates & Mark Matts
      Address: 66 Telford Way, Leicester, LE5 2LX, England.

        Or if you have a modem..

      Mark Matts on: AtariNet: 51:6/200.0@atarinet.ftn
                     NeST: 90:100/300.0@nest.ftn

      Stuart Coates on: AtariNet: 51:6/204.0@atarinet.ftn
                        NeST: 90:100/304.0@nest.ftn

      BBS: System ST, upto 14400baud, online 10pm to 7am UK times..

      Updated version information
      
      Version 1.1

      o Changed selectable block sizes to be in 100k steps rather than 10k 
        steps, this made more sense as you can now split a large file into 
        a 720k block to save having too many split files for one large file!
      o When re-building a file you can now select where you want to have 
        it rebuilt instead of it re-building automatically in the split 
        file folder.
      o If you selected a block file and it was incorrect or corrupted you 
        could still click on the 'Rebuild' button even though there was 
        nothing to actually rebuild due to the error, this is now fixed.

      Version 2.0

      o Splitting routines now rewritten in ANSI 'C' to allow support for 
        split files on other platforms.
      o New GEM shell written for the new Splitter program.

                        ---- Happy file splitting ----

