ACONV by PtMC

sigh, rewritten this whole text...


Background:
ACONV was originally intended for textfiles  to  be  converted,  since  I  use
files frequently on both PC and Amiga. Insiders will  say  CrossDos  or  other
tools should do the job, but I didn't get CrossDos' filters get  to  work  and
didn't want to pay for a new version - so I wrote  that  tool.  "AmigaConvert"
hence the name...



Tech:
Professional C programmers  will  probably  scorn  me  at  some  spots  in  my
program. I know what I have committed and that my style is improper.  But  for
efficiency reasons, it came in handy. Note that this program was  designed  as
stand alone  tool,  and  not  to  be  modulized!  However,  it  can  still  be
implemented by controllers like Directory Opus on the Amiga!
If it doesn't compile, try to change those REGISTER variables i,s to  "short".
This will result in the program being SLOWER, but it should work at least.  Or
find out how your system needs to have register vars specified and adjust  the
line in correspondance. If it works then, please give me a note!



Disclaimer: Blablabla... all your risk ... blabla...



Legal Stuff:
Do with this code whatever you want. If you improve it,  send  me  a  copy  of
your improved source.



Contact:
E-Mail any comments, bug reports, new ideas and so on to:
ChaosWorx@gmx.co.uk

If you find this program useful, e-Mail me and let me know,  please  add  what
exactly you are doing with it.  If  you  program  C  yourself,  feel  free  to
improve the code. But if you do that, mail me the code, also!  I  will  credit
you in the ACONV.TXT and also include any comment you write  along  with  your
new code. Please make also sure that your code is at  least  "as  (un)readable
as mine", so that further developement is still possible.
If you feel so grateful as to donate  any  money,  e-Mail  me  to  receive  my
current account, but I don't really  want  money,  knowledge,  improved  code,
higher efficiency are better goals to pursui - but  money  is  always  welcome
anyway :) hmm, I guess no one will pay anything, after all..



HATES go to:
i599 - Amigas are just great you know?? No, you don't!
CrossDOS makers (Don't know person...) (you really should have done it well
        from on the beginning...)

THANKs go to:
Christian Loeber (for helping me with Linux).
Commodore (for having created one of the most advanced Computers ever)
Maxon (for having existed)



HISTORY:

01.05.99>
V0.1e beta done. Only the first 4 switches available. That  was  the  original
purpose.

04.05.99>
V0.12e beta done. Included list-code removal feature (first list only).

04.05.99>
V0.13e beta done. I never came to real testing the previous  versions  as  you
can see from the dating, thus all is beta! Major addition  just  on  the  same
day done!
Included 2 more lists, added remove single code feature, rewrote code  partly.
1 bugfix and one speed-up (made two variables register - PC VERSION ONLY).
Ported to Amiga: RUNS, but is a little slow, I'll try the  "Amiga  Smartdrive"
(Addbuffers command) when I have time, or if that doesn't help, I  might  just
see how to improve the code...
Amiga version requested type "register" to specify more precisely  -  no  idea
what that means, since I have NO IDEA about  680x0  registers,  so  I  had  to
change them to "shorts" -> speed drop! Sorry...

07.09.99>
V0.2 done. No longer beta, I believe everything  of  the  old  stuff  is  just
fine now. One minor bugfix in the argument counter changing all  "-"  to  "/".
Evaluating switches and some  other  small  things  have  been  reordered  for
efficiency reasons.
New funtion: -re   (/re)
I often work on my PCs in a mixed system like DOS, Win95 and  AmigaOS  all  in
one place at the same time. Having downloaded and transferred some files  from
the internet which were for the Amiga, the long to short  converted  filenames
by MS-DOS made trouble under the Amiga-OS, since the TILDE is  a  wildcard  in
Amiga-OS like the Asterix under MS-DOS! So, the TILDE is an illegal letter  in
an Amiga-DOS filename. Since I didn't want to rename 53  files  manually  with
the  Norton  Commander  I  just  wrote  a  tool  that  did   the   whole   job
automatically. A few hours later, I fully implemented  the  tool  into  ACONV.
This is the first "standalone tool in a tool". It has nothing to do  with  the
original idea of  ACONV,  but  it  also  converts  things,  so  it's  not  too
abstract. Plus, having this all in one file saves space. The -re function  can
only be used solo, ACONV will abort if more arguments are given  reporting  an
"unknown switch". That's OK, since together with file conversions this  IS  an
unknown switch! As you see, ACONV consists out of 2 parts  now,  part  one  is
what it was before, and part 2 is  the  new  function,  but  part  2  must  be
verified first in order to evaluate switches correctly.
