FLCUST User Guide

Version 5.00 (2008-07-25)

This page	Other pages
Overview	Main Page
Invocation	Licence
Using FLCUST	FL User Guide
Converting Old Profiles	FLFIND User Guide
Function Keys	FLTREE User Guide
Synonyms	FLVIEW User Guide
Colors	TEE User Guide
Other Settings

Overview

Many characteristics of FL, FLTREE, and FLVIEW can be changed by the user to suit their own particular needs. This process is called "customisation", the result of which is stored in a profile. There are three profiles in the FL toolset:

Name of tool	Name of profile	Edited using
FL	FL.PRO	FLCUST
FLTREE	FLTREE.PRO	FLCUST
FLVIEW	FLVIEW.PRO	Any plain-text editor

The profiles for FL and FLTREE contain the user settings in an encoded form, which cannot be edited using a plain-text editor. Instead, FLCUST must be used, which is described in this document. The profile for FLVIEW can be edited using any plain-text editor, and is described in the FLVIEW User Guide.

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Invocation

FLCUST [[drive][path]name[.[ext]]] [/?]

where square brackets [ ] denote optional items. Parameters and options are as follows:

Parameters

[drive][path]name[.[ext]]

This is the filespec of the profile to be created or modified. If the drive and/or path are not specified, the filespec is resolved using the usual rules. If the filespec contains blanks, the filespec must be enclosed in double quotes. If the filespec does not contain blanks, the double quotes are optional.

The filespec parameter determines what sort of profile is processed:

If the profile already exists, FLCUST examines it to decide whether it is an FL profile or an FLTREE profile, and then displays the appropriate "Customisation Menu".
If the profile does not exist, or the filespec is not specified, a menu is presented allowing you to choose the tool whose profile is to be created. A new profile containing default settings is then created in memory.

Options

Options can be specifed using either "/" or "-" as the option prefix character, and can occur before or after the positional parameters. The following options are valid:

/?: This option causes FLCUST to display brief help information.

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Using FLCUST

The customisation choices for FL and FLTREE are similar, but not identical – FL allows more customisation.
FLCUST requires a minimum screen or window size of 25 rows by 80 columns. However, if you run FLCUST in a larger window, FLCUST adjusts its panels to take advantage of the space available.
On each panel in FLCUST, the entry field that you can alter is highlighted (blue text on a white background). You move from field to field by using one or more of the following keys (depending on which panel is on view):
- ARROW keys (UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT)
- TAB keys (FORWARD/BACKWARD)
Some entry fields contain simple text, which you specify using the usual typing keys. Other fields accept only a restricted set of values, and for these you select the value you want by using the following keys repeatedly to cycle through the valid values:
- CTRL ARROW keys (UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT)
On most panels, summary help is available using the following keys:
- F1 key for FLCUST help
- F2 key for FL help or FLTREE help
During editing you may want to save the changes that you have made so far. You can do this by using the following key:
- F4 key to save changes
When the profile is saved, the old profile is not overwritten. Instead, it is renamed to have a file extension consisting of three numeric digits. The first old profile extension is "000", the next is "001", then "002", and so on. If you change your mind about the changes that you have just saved, simply exit from FLCUST, delete FL.PRO or FLTREE.PRO, and rename the profile with the numerically largest file extension so that it has an extension of "PRO".
When you have finished modifying your profile, you exit from FLCUST by using the following key on the Customisation Menu:
- F3 to quit
If you make changes to the profile and forget to save them, you will receive a warning message when you press F3. You can then do one of the following:
- Press F3 again to exit without saving the changes.
- Press F4 to save the changes, followed by F3 to exit.
- Continue editing.
At any time during editing you can press the following key in order to test the profile being edited:
- F12 key to test profile
This invokes FL using the profile with the changes made so far (the changed profile is written to a temporary file on disk for FL to use). When you exit from FL, you return to FLCUST and you can continue editing, or save the changes made so far, or discard the changes by pressing F3 (Quit) twice on the Customisation Menu. The F12 (Test) key is not available when customising an FLTREE profile.

Summary of keys in FLCUST

What you want to do	What keys you press
Enter a particular customisation panel	UP/DOWN-ARROW keys to select panel, then RETURN key to enter panel
Select field to modify	UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT-ARROW keys, or TAB-FORWARD/BACKWARD keys
Modify contents of a text field	Usual typing keys
Move cursor to start of text field	HOME key
Move cursor to follow last non-blank character in text field	END key
Insert characters in text field	INSERT key
Delete characters in text field	DELETE key or BACKSPACE key
Delete all characters in text field and move cursor to start of field	ESC key
Scroll to next page	PAGE-DOWN key
Scroll to previous page	PAGE-UP key
Modify a field with a restricted set of values	CTRL-UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT ARROW keys
Display FLCUST help	F1 key
Display FL or FLTREE help	F2 key
Exit help	F3 key
Return to Customisation Menu	F3 key
Save the changes made so far	F4 key
Invoke FL to test the profile being edited	F12 key

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Converting Old Profiles

Occasionally a new release of FL requires a new version of the FL profile. FL accepts only the version of the profile that corresponds to that release of FL. However FLCUST accepts all prior versions of the FL profile, and converts them automatically to the current version.

To convert a back-level FL profile, simply start up FLCUST specifying the filespec of the profile to be converted; a message will be displayed on the screen confirming that the profile has been converted successfully, or that you need to take some further action. Make any other changes that you want, and then save the converted profile before exiting from FLCUST.

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Function Keys

A total of one hundred keys can be defined by the user for FL (see table below). These are given the generic name of "function keys", although strictly speaking only the F1-to-F12 keys are function keys, the A-to-Z keys are alphabetic keys.

Key set	Number of keys	Available in FL?	Available in FLTREE?
Unshifted F1 to F12	12	yes	yes
SHIFT-F1 to SHIFT-F12	12	yes	yes
ALT-F1 to ALT-F12	12	yes	yes
CTRL-F1 to CTRL-F12	12	yes	yes
ALT-A to ALT-Z	26	yes	yes
CTRL-A to CTRL-Z	26	yes	no

Keys are customised by allocating commands to them. These commands can be FL/FLTREE's own commands (called "internal commands"), or operating-system commands (called "external commands").
In many cases, a function key is allocated a single command, but it is also possible to allocate a sequence of commands to a function key. The commands in the sequence are joined together using the FL command joiners, which use the return code from each command to determine whether the next command in the sequence should be executed. The following table shows the FL command joiners (the "#" character is the default command prefix character, which can be altered on the "Other Settings" panel):

Command
joiner Command following joiner executed?
#& Always
#&& Only if preceding command succeeds
#|| Only if preceding command fails
For each function key in FL it is also possible to specify when the command should be executed, namely one of the following:
- Immediately the key is pressed (all other pending commands are ignored).
- Wait until the primary or secondary execute key is pressed (the commands defined for the function key are copied into the command field on the current line).
Note: for FLTREE, the F1 to F12 keys are always "immediate", and the ALT-A to ALT-Z keys are always "wait"; these settings cannot be changed in the current release.

Command joiner	Command following joiner executed?
#&	Always
#&&	Only if preceding command succeeds
#\|\|	Only if preceding command fails

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Synonyms

Synonyms can be defined for any commands, including:
- Operating-system commands (for example: COPY)
- Applications (for example: Adobe Acrobat Reader)
- FL's internal commands (for example: #R)
As each command is processed, FL checks the first blank-delimited word in the command, and if it is a synonym, the synonym is replaced by the text defined for that synonym. Note that FL does not check the replacement text for a synonym, so one synonym cannot invoke another synonym.
The synonym name is a string of non-blank characters, one to eight bytes in length. The synonym name is not case sensitive, and can contain any typable non-blank character (the name is not limited to alphabetics and numerics).
The replacement text for the synonym is a string of up to 60 characters. All characters are valid in this string, including blanks. In many cases the replacement text is the name of the command to be invoked, but it can also include options or fixed parameters (provided that it is valid for these to precede the parameters typed on the FL command line or automatically appended by FL). It is also valid for the replacement text to be completely blank. Note however that FL's command joiners (#&, #&&, and #||) are not valid in the replacement text.
To suppress the echoing of commands on the line-mode screen, the FL command line can be prefixed with the "!" character (the exclamation mark). This can still be done when the command actually begins with a synonym, and it does not prevent recognition of the synonym. It is also valid for the replacement text to begin with the "!" character.
There is no limit on the number of synonyms that can be defined. If you fill up all of the definition lines on the "Synonyms" panel, simply press the PAGE-DOWN key to scroll to some empty lines. Lines which are completely empty are discarded when the profile is saved to disk.
Synonyms can be defined in any order, but when checking for a match they are processed in the order in which the synonyms are shown on the "Synonyms" panel. The F5 (Sort) key can be used to sort the definitions so that the synonym names are in alphanumeric order.

Examples

Some example synonym definitions are shown in the table below; refer to the usage notes following the examples for information about these definitions.

Note: for display on this page, long definitions have been split over two lines (indicated by the ellipsis "..."). However, on the "Synonyms" panel each definition must be contained entirely on one line.

Synonym	Replacement Text
`c`	`copy`
`ab`	`!"c:\program files\adobe\acrobat 6.0\... ...reader\acrord32.exe"`
`wp`	`!"c:\program files\windows nt\... ...accessories\wordpad.exe"`
`#r`	`#r /a:-hs`
`cn`	`#name`
`md`	`!#o md`
`rd`	`!rd /s /q`
`nop`

Usage notes

By default, FL includes files and directories in the list without regard for their attributes. If you prefer normally to omit files and directories that have specific properties, define synonyms for FL's #A, #R, and #W commands, and include in the replacement text the required attribute selection option.
For example, if you normally want to omit files and directories that have the hidden (H) or system (S) attributes, specify "/A:-HS" as the attribute selection option in the replacement text (see example above). Then, on the rare occasions when you want to include files and directories that have the hidden or system attributes, simply specify the /A option without any value when you type the #A, #R. or #W command; this overrides the option contained in the replacement text.
If you want to define a synonym for an FL command, the synonym name can be identical to the FL command – this does not cause a recursive definition.
For example, if you want to specify attribute selection options as described above, you can define a synonym called #R that invokes the FL command #R with the required attribute selection option.
Another possibility is to eliminate the need to prefix each FL command with the command prefix character (default: "#") by defining synonyms for the FL commands that you use.
For example, you could define CN ("Change Name") as a synonym for the #NAME command, CP ("Change Path") as a synonym for the #PATH command, and so on. You need to choose synonym names that will not conflict with the names of other commands on your system (operating-system commands, tools, or applications), as the FL synonym always takes precedence (but see below for a way to avoid this).
Note that you cannot define synonyms for the FL command joiners (#&, #&&, and #||), command modifiers (#O and #OQ), or substitution codes (#D, #E, #F, #N, #P, and #), as these can occur anywhere within a command, but synonyms are recognised only at the start of a command.
Two synonyms that you may find useful are MD (Make Directory) and RD (Remove Directory). The examples show how these can be defined for Windows.
The definition for MD uses the #O (Omit) command, which means that you cannot construct the name of the new directory from parts of the filespec on the line where the command is entered – you must always type the name in full (including any path if the directory is not to be created in the current directory).
The definition for RD uses the /S and /Q options of the RD command, which cause all files and sub-directories in the specified directory to be deleted, without asking for confirmation. In this case, the filespec of the directory deleted is that of the line where the command is typed. If you want to be asked for confirmation before the directory is deleted, omit the /Q option.
Finally, a synonym that you may sometimes find useful is one which has blank replacement text (the synonym NOP in the examples above). If you have defined a synonym with the same name as a command on your system, you can cause FL to invoke the command instead of the synonym by prefixing the command with the synonym NOP.

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Colors

The colors of all parts of the FL and FLTREE panels can be changed using the "Colors" panel in FLCUST. For FL, there are 14 items that can be changed; for FLTREE, there are 10 items that can be changed.
For each item you can specify the forground color, and (separately) the background color, from a palette of 16 possible colors. The foreground color is the color of the text. The "Colors" panel has a palette that shows the available colors.
At the bottom of the "Colors" panel there is a sample screen that shows the appearance of the FL or FLTREE screen using the currently-defined colors. Using the sample screen you can easily determine which color combinations give good readability, and which combinations are best avoided:
- Readability is improved when contrast between foreground and background is high (for example, any bright color on a black background).
- Readability is worsened when contrast between foreground and background is low (for example, light green on light cyan).
However, not all combinations follow these guidelines, and some low-contrast combinations are nevertheless very readable (for example: blue on green, or light red on light cyan). There are also some combinations that give a blurred, out-of-focus effect (for example: light blue on green, or light red on green); these are best avoided.
When you have set the colors as desired, use the F12 (Test) key to see how they look on a full-size FL screen. (Note: the Test function is not available for FLTREE in the current release.)
For the column separators:
- If you want a single thin line, set the foreground color to the color desired, and the background color to the same value as the background color for normal text.
- If you want the entire separator column to be in a different color, set foreground and background colors to the same value, but different from the background color for normal text.

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Other Settings

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Command prefix character (FL and FLTREE)

This is the character that occurs at the beginning of all FL and FLTREE commands, command joiners, command modifiers, and substitution codes. It must be a non-alphanumeric character, but not any of the following:

Command suffix character
Command repeat character
Suppress echo character ("!")
AND command joiner ("&")
OR command joiner ("|")

A good choice for the command prefix character is an unshifted character that is near the front of the keyboard, and which is not common in filespecs. On the UK keyboard, the single apostrophe (') and the hash ("#") are good choices; the semicolon (";"), comma (","), and square brackets ("[" and "]") are also worth considering.

Note: for historical reasons FL versions 1 to 4 used "/" as the default command prefix character. However, "/" is not in fact a good choice for the command prefix character, as it is the same as the option prefix character on DOS, OS/2, and Windows, and the same as the directory-separator character on Linux. If you want to use "/" as the command prefix character, you must take special action in order to specify options on commands. This applies both to internal commands and to external commands. Do one of the following;

Double-up each occurrence of "/" that must be passed to the command (this represents an "escape sequence"). Examples:
```
/R C:\*./E //T //D:2007-2008 //Z:10M

XCOPY /\*.* D:/P\*.* //H //Y //K //S //E //R //V
```
Specify the /O (Omit) command modifier to the right of any substitution codes, but to the left of the options. Examples:
```
/R C:\*./E /O /T /D:2007-2008 /Z:10M

XCOPY /\*.* D:/P\*.* /O /H /Y /K /S /E /R /V
```

When you change the command prefix character, occurrences of the command prefix in F-key, A-key, and synonym definitions are changed automatically to use the new command prefix character – you do not need to modify the definitions manually. This makes it easy to experiment with different command prefix characters, to see which one you like the best. Occurrences of the command prefix character which represent ordinary data characters in F-key, A-key, and synonym definitions are not changed.

Activity bar	File gone string
Align file extensions	File name case
Archive attribute char	Full filespec line
Attribute display order	Max width of file column
Auto quote filespecs	Min width of file column
Blank overtyped commands	Newline key
Case sensitive sorts	Number of F-key lines
Command prefix character	Numeric separators
Command repeat character	Panel layout at start
Command suffix character	Panel size
Directory name case	Primary execute key
Directory string	Save screen at start
Drive case	Secondary execute key
Drive info line	Sort order at start
Dynamic F-key line	Symmetric max scroll
Echo repeated commands	Symmetric page scroll
Extension case	Top line of help
Extension truncation limit	User F-keys at start
F-key lines display order	Working directory scope

Subst code	Value
`#`	`E:\DOC\BUGS.TXT`
`#D`	`E:`
`#P`	`\DOC\`
`#F`	`BUGS.TXT`
`#N`	`BUGS`
`#E`	`TXT`

What you type	`COPY # *.NEW`
What you expect	`COPY E:\DOC\BUGS.TXT *.NEW`
What you get	`COPY E:\DOC\BUGS.TXT *.NEW`
Explanation	This example gives you the result that you expect.

What you type	`COPY # #NEW`
What you expect	`COPY E:\DOC\BUGS.TXT E:\DOC\BUGS.TXTNEW`
What you get	`COPY E:\DOC\BUGS.TXT BUGSEW`
Explanation	This example does not give you what you expect because although you typed "#", it happens to be followed by "N", and so FL sees this as the #N (Name) substitution code, and substitutes accordingly.

Panel layout	Information displayed
0	Some file data, with a command field for each line
1	All file data, with a single command field for the panel
2	File names and extensions in multicolumn format, with a single command field for the panel

Sort code	Meaning
D	Sort by date/time
E	Sort by extension
N	Sort by name
P	Sort by path
S	Sort by size
+	Sort ascending
–	Sort descending

Setting	Key	Current line moved to
Symmetric	CTRL-HOME	First line on first page
Symmetric	CTRL-END	Last line on last page
Asymmetric	CTRL-HOME	First line on first page
Asymmetric	CTRL-END	First line on last page

Setting	Key	Current line moved to
Symmetric	PAGE-UP	Last line on page
Symmetric	PAGE-DOWN	First line on page
Asymmetric	PAGE-UP	First line on page
Asymmetric	PAGE-DOWN	First line on page

Code	Meaning
N	no shift key pressed
S	SHIFT key pressed
C	CTRL key pressed
A	ALT or ALT-GR key pressed

Fullspec setting	Mode value	Appearance
no spec	0	No fullspec lines are shown
no box	1	Fullspec lines are shown without a box
half box	2	Fullspec lines are shown in half a box
full box	3	Fullspec lines are shown in a full box

List order ignoring case	List order respecting case
3.bat	3.bat
_.bat	B.bat
a.bat	_.bat
B.bat	a.bat

What you type	What FL generates
`COPY # MYFILE.OLD`	`COPY "#" MYFILE.OLD`
`COPY # #N.OLD`	`COPY "#" "#N.OLD"`
`COPY # "# OLD"`	`COPY "#" "# OLD"`

What you type	What FL generates
`TYPE #N.BAT #N.CMD`	`TYPE "#N.BAT" "#N.CMD"`
`TYPE #N.BAT #OQ #N.CMD`	`TYPE "#N.BAT" #N.CMD`
`#OQ TYPE #N.BAT #N.CMD`	`TYPE #N.BAT #N.CMD`