ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²ÛÛ²Û Û²ÛÆÍÍÍ»²ÄÒÄÛÉÍ͵²Ä·Û²Û²Û²ÖÄÛ²Û²Û²Û²Û²Û²Û²Û²Û²Û²ÛÉZiew20.ZipÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»²Û²Û²Û²Û ²Û²Û²²É¼Û²º²ÛºÛ²ÛÛ²º²Û²Û²ÛºÛ²ÛÛ²Û²²Û²Û²Û²Û²Û²Û²Û²ºFile_Id.Diz 404²Û²ÛÛ²Û² ²²Û²Éͼ²²Ûº²²Ì͵²²²È»²É»²É¼²Û²²Û²²Û²²²Û²²Û²²Û²²Û²ºZiew.Doc 21022º²²Û²²Û²² ²²²É¼²²²²²º²²º²²²²²²ºÉ¼È»º²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²ºZiew.Exe 51440º²²²²²²²² ²²±ÈÍÍ͵²ÄÐIJÈÍ͵²²±È¼±²È¼²²±±²²±²²±²±²±²²±²²±²²±ºZiew.Bat 3213º±²²±²²±² ²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²º º±²±²±²±² ±²±²±Zip File Viewer±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±²±º º²±²±²±²± ²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²±±²º º²±±²±±²± ±±Version 2.0 By Evin Robertson±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±º º±±±±±±±± ±±Freeware Copyright (c) 1997 Evin Robertson±°±±°º º°±±°±±°± ±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±º º°±°±°±°± °±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°±°º º±°±°±°±° °±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°±°°º º°±°°±°°± °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°º º°°°°°°°° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °° °º °° °° °° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °È4ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ76079¼ ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° Ziew 2.0 Documentation Copyright (c) 1997 by Evin Robertson . | - - - - - - - -=o=- - - - - - - - | . Freeware version 2.0; sixth release Ziew is THE free archive viewer. It displays one or two files on the same screen, allowing comparison. Syntax is simple Ziew file1 [file2] [file3] [...] You may use wildcards (*, ?), but don't forget the extension. e.g. ziew hullo.zip ziew *.zip ziew *.* ziew *.zip \lhafiles\?g*.lhz e:\that.arc After the program has started, it will attempt to open the file(s) you have specified. If it can't find one of them or finds some problem with one, it will give an error message and move on to the next file if there is one. If all goes well, it will open one window if you specified only one file, and two files if you specified multiple files. If you specified more than two files, pressing F9 will allow you to switch between the files. Pressing ENTER causes Ziew to view/load/run the file on the top line. Each window has various parts: File Name File Sizes File Dates ³ ³ ³    ÉZiew20.ZipÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» ºFile_Id.Diz 404 5-30-97 Ä Up scroll arrow ºZiew.Doc 21022 5-30-97º ºZiew.Exe 51440 5-30-97º ºZiew.Bat 3213 5-30-97º º º º º º º º º º º º º º  Ä Down scroll arrow È4ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ76079ÍÍ5-30-97¼    ³ ³ ³ Number of files Total Size Latest Date (Note: window has been vertically shortened) File Name: In the border, this is the name of the zip file being viewed. In the window, this is the name of a file contained in the zip archive. In the window, each file is color coded. Text files are colored magenta, binary files are colored yellow. Encrypted files are colored red. If you are viewing two files, and two identical files are found, the identical files will be darkened, magenta becoming dark magenta, yellow becoming brown, red becoming dark red. Note the difference between binary and text files is not carved in stone. PKZIP sometimes makes mistakes, some many archivers don't distinguish between the two at all. File Sizes: The size of each file in the zip archive is reported here. File Dates: The date of the last modification to the file is reported here. If Ziew is in Time mode, the times will be displayed here. If Ziew is in CRC mode, the CRC will displayed her unless the file has no CRC, in which case the date will be shown. Up Scroll Arrow: If you have a mouse driver installed, you can click your mouse here to scroll the window up. Down Scroll Arrow: If you have a mouse driver installed, you can click your mouse here to scroll the window down. Number of files: The number of files contained in the zip archive. Total Size: The total uncompressed size of the archive. Latest Date: The date of the latest file contained within. If in Time mode, the time of the latest file contained within. If in CRC mode, date is displayed. Press the up and down arrows the scroll the window. Press the right and left arrows to switch windows. Press Escape to quit. Press F1 for online help. Press F2 to toggle between Date and Time and CRC modes. Press F3 to sort the files. To search for a file contained within the archive, begin typing its name. What you have typed so far will be displayed at the bottom of the screen where the number of files is normally shown. To switch between windows using the mouse, simply click in the one you want to use. Viewing/running files inside the archive: Starting with version 2.0, Ziew has the capability to view and run files inside the archive. Doing so requires a few things. First, you must have the appropriate archiver for the archive you are using. Second, you must have the file ZIEW.BAT (included) somewhere in your path or in the current directory. When you press ENTER, Ziew will run ZIEW.BAT which will determine how the file is to be viewed/ran. If it is a .COM, .EXE, or .BAT file, Ziew runs it. If it is a .DOC, .TXT, .ME, or FILE_ID.DIZ file, Ziew calls LIST to view it. You must have LIST.COM somewhere in your path. If it is a .GIF, .PCX, .BMP, or .TIF, Ziew calls CSHOW to view it. You must have CSHOW.EXE somewhere in your path. If it is an archive Ziew handles, Ziew calls itself to view it. If you know how to edit batch files, you can teach Ziew other file types or customize which program it uses to view specific files. Note: internal files are distinguished based on extension, not image. If you have a self-extracting archive internally stored, ziew will cause it to be decompressed, not viewed. Clicking on a filename with the mouse causes it to be viewed/run. When Ziew returns, the viewed file will be the first on the list. Use: You may use this program only if you agree to the following: You are permitted use of this program in any non-commercial, non-government environment. All other use requires explicit written permission from the author. You may distribute this program as long as it is distributed in its original, non-modified form, and NO fee is charged, including charge for the media, postage, handling, electronic service. All other distribution requires explicit written permission from the author. You may not disassemble or reverse-engineer this program. Of course, you do not have to agree with the preceding, but failure to do so denies you the right to use this software. Use of this software demonstrates agreement to this contract. If you do not agree, delete this package immediately. If any part of this agreement is conflicting with local, state, or federal law in your country/ province/state, etc., you may not use this software. Warranty: Ziew is absolutely without warranty. You use it at your own risk. Neither I nor anyone else will be held responsible for anything arising out of your use of Ziew. Bugs/Limitations: Filenames with more than 23 characters are truncated. This should only be noticeable with files in nested directories. If the name and file size would overlap, the name is truncated to leave a space between the two. Ziew uses a fair about of memory, so if you are viewing heavily nested archives, you may get out of memory messages. The RAR archiver is quite memory-greedy, so if you don't have much conventional memory available, Ziew may not be able to decompress .RAR files. Ziew writes directly to the video card, so it requires a 100% IBM compatible display card. FAQs: Q: What does "file.ext may not be a valid archive. Try running PKZIPFIX." mean? A: This message is Ziew's way of letting you know it can't read the file you have given it. It may not be an archive at all, or may be a damaged file. If it is a damaged ZIP file, PKZIPFIX may have the ability to (partially) restore it. This message may also be issued if Ziew is running with very little memory. There is also the possibility you have encountered a rare ZIP or ARJ file Ziew is incompatible with. If PKZIP or ARJ work on it and Ziew doesn't, send me an email. Q: How large/How many files can Ziew handle in an archive? A: Ziew should be able to handle files of up to 2 gigs in size. With sufficient memory, Ziew should be able to handle around 15000 files in a single archive. To roughly calculate how many files can be handled, take the number of free conventional kilobytes available, subtract 60 and multiply by 28. This is the total number of files Ziew can handle on your system. If you find excessively large files, trying viewing them one at a time. Ziew will issue the message "Not enough memory" if you try to view an archive with too many files in it. Q: I require use of filenames longer than 23 characters. What can I do? A: Send me an email describing your needs and I'll give you a special version doing what you need it to. The 23-character limit is there for screen formatting purposes. Q: What is a CRC and what do those numbers like 82a839fc mean? A: CRC stands for Cyclic Redundancy Checking, which is a method for verifying a file was copied/transferred/decrypted/etc., correctly. It uses a complex algorithm to ensure a damaged file will almost never have the same CRC as the original. Ziew uses CRC to check to see if two files in two archives are identical. If their CRC's and the file sizes match up, the chance they are differing files is practically zero. The numbers in the CRC are hexidecimal numbers (base 16). They represent a 32-bit number, hence CRC-32. Only .ZIP, .ARJ, .RAR, and HA support CRC-32, the others only support CRC-16. .HYP supports nonstandard CRC-32, so file in .HYP archives can only be darkened if comparing with another .HYP archive. So, when Ziew attempts to darken identical files, it will not be successful when comparing and archive using CRC-32 with an archive using CRC-16. Q: The name? A: A few versions ago. Ziew was called viewzip. "ziew" is much easier to type than "viewzip"- try it! Name story: I've used Hacker's View (HIEW) for years, and thought ZIEW (zip view) seemed appropriate. Now, Ziew supports much more than .ZIP files, but the name stuck. Q: How do I reach the author? A: My email address is evin@notnow.com (I'll get back to you soon) If you don't have email access, try sending a snail mail letter to Evin Robertson/1607 Townwood Ct./Charlottesville VA 22901. Snail address is only good until summer '97 when I go off to CMU, so good luck. I like letters and I especially like letters lacking the word "that." Please send all bug-reports, suggestions, donations, etc. to evin@notnow.com About the file formats: ARC: Ancient, slow, bad-compression file format gone through many rebirths. The file format is a real mess due to all the extras in the format. ARI: Very good compression, very slow. Not a very consistent file format. Ziew only partially supports ARI archives. If all files in the archive are stored in a directory, Ziew can reliably detect and read the archive. Otherwise, Ziew can't tell if it's an ARI archive or not. Possiblities of fixing this exist if someone shows interest. ARJ: Good compression, but just wasn't fast enough to keep up with the 90's (80's?). Quite comparable to ZIP, but not nearly as prevalent. The author was nice enough to release the source to the dearchiver. DWC: Very ancient, slow, bad-compression, simple archiver. Archiver based roughly on .ARC. Compression algorithm bought by DS Technologies. Adjusts the time to Greenwich Mean Time for some reason... HA: Great compression, but a bit slow. Not very widely used. Don't know if author is still planning on revising this. HAP: Not a very good compressor (slow and poor), but the archiver sure is tiny. HYP: Fairly quick, but with not very good compression. Not very common. LBR: Very ancient file format gone through a few reinventions, leaving a rather messed-up file format. Apparently, this archive type didn't support compression. When compression was added, a file was considered compressed if the middle letter in the extension was a Q, and the actual filename was stored in the compressed data area. Ziew does a pretty good job of dealing with this file type, better than programs written specifically to deal with it (this means you, V. Buerg). It find the correct filename of compressed files, and deals with the odd date format correctly, but doesn't deal with file sizes of compressed files correctly. Unfortunately, the programs designed to extract files from this type of archive aren't fully functional. They require the requested file to have the 'Q' in it if the file is compressed. It would be too much work to make Ziew deal with this bug in Vernon's software, so you can only view uncompressed files with Ziew. If you need to access the other files, do it yourself. Doubt you'll ever see one of these archives. LZH: Decent archiver (LHA), but can't really compare to ARJ or ZIP. Some people use it. (Don't know why). The LHARK archiver added another, better compression algorithm to this format, making it almost comparable to ARJ or ZIP, but isn't the standard. PAK: Same as ARC RAR: Another decent archiver. A bit slow, about as good as PKZIP. Not too common. SQZ: Another decent compressor. ZIP: Quick, good compression, widely supported. Best overall. Chances are if it's an archive, it's a ZIP archive. The file format, while very expandable, is a bit slow. To see if a file is a ZIP file, the entire file must be read in (backwards). ZOO: Ancient, slow, terrible archiver. Comparison: I can't say THE free archive viewer without someone giving me a hard time without backing up what I say. Let's look at the competition: AV Archive Viewer (Bruce Guthrie) - Big and slow. Scrolling file list like Ziew, but only supports one at a time and not very many file formats nor SFX files. Doesn't allow easy selection of which archive to view when viewing many archives. FV File View (Vernon D. Buerg) - Small, fast, ancient. SHEZ (Zip Shell?) (Jim Derr) - Undoubtedly the "premier compression shell." It has many of the features Ziew has and a few extras not related to archive viewing. It's huge, it can't run executables in an archive, and it doesn't support as many archive formats as Ziew does. Besides, it's NOT FREE! QAZ Q-A-Z (Robert Rothenburg) - I'm impressed by the number of archive formats, and this program is excellent for what it was written for, but it doesn't allow you to scroll each file individually. Written to automatically go through large number of archive files quickly, writing their contents, not for interactively looking through them. Ziew Zip View (Evin Robertson) - Offers scrolling, side-by-side windows of two archives for comparison. Supports 13 different file formats. Small, quick, free, powerful. Runs/view files/archives within archive. Color codes, optionally sorts. Easy-to-use interface with mouse support. If you find another free archive viewer you believe belongs in this list, or one surpassing Ziew's capabilities, send it in to me and I'll review and comment on it and perhaps extend Ziew's capabilities. Compatibility: Ziew has had only limited testing, especially with the rare file formats. With the more popular formats such as .ZIP, .ARJ, .RAR, etc, I could obtain the latest archiver and test everything out. I obtained an archiver for each of the archive formats supported here, but many of them were quite ancient and/or not the definitive version. If you should _ever_ happen upon a file compressed using one of these rare formats, Ziew may work, it may not. The archivers I used to test Ziew: Ext Archiver Version Author/Company Date ----- ---------- ------- -------------------------- ----------- ARC - PAK 2.51 NoGate Consulting 1990 ARI - ARI 2.15 RAO Inc. ARJ - ARJ 2.50 Robert Jung/ARJ Software Oct 31 1995 DWC - DWC 5.01 Dean W. Cooper May 31 1988 HA - HA 0.98 Harri Hirvola Feb 7 1993 HAP - HAP 3.00 Harald Feldmann 1992 HYP - HYPER 2.5 P. Sawatzki & K.P. Nischke Sep 29 1990 LBR - LUU 2.13 Vernon D. Buerg Apr 28 1986 LHZ - LHA 2.55 Haruyasu Yoshizaki Nov 15 1992 LHZ - LHARK 0.3e Kerwin F. Medina Oct 26 1995 PAK - PAK 2.51 NoGate Consulting 1990 RAR - RAR 2.00 Eugin Roshal May 8 1996 SQZ - Squeeze It 1.08.3 J. Hammarberg Jan 24 1993 *SQZ - SQWEZ 2.2 JM Software Dec 5 1994 *UC2 - UC 3.00 Ad Infintum Programs Jun 1 1995 ZIP - PKZIP 2.04g Phil Katz/PKWARE Feb 1 1993 ZOO - ZOO 2.1 Rahul Dhesi Jun 9 1991 If you know of more recent versions of any of these programs, contact me with their locations. * Ziew doesn't support this archiver. Special Thanks: Ziew wouldn't be possible without many people. The authors of all the above programs, Rey Barry, for giving me the idea ("A free program to place the indexes of two ZIP archives side-by-side and be able to scroll either side. Purpose is to compare the files in two archives for size and date, and to see if one archive contains files not in the other."). Max Maischein for his terrific archive format documents. V. Buerg for his LIST program Ziew uses. Jeff Gilchrist for his Archive Comparison Tests and his web page showing the locations of most of the archivers. History: Version 2.0- sixth release. Major rewrite. Viewing/running of files inside archive added, ARJ, LZH, ARC, etc. support added. Version 1.4- fifth release. Major speed increase, color coding, CRC support, and identical file finding added. ZIP file processing improved. Version 1.3- forth release. Name changed from Viewzip to Ziew. Mouse support added. Sorting added. Filename searching added. Documentation revisions. Version 1.2- third release. Version 1.0-like scrolling reimplemented. Help screen added. Removal of 400 file limitation (smart allocation of memory) PgUp/PgDn/Home/End functionality added. Version 1.1- second release. Major cosmetic cleanup. Colors added, major speed increase. Version 1.0- first release. Worked, but was slow and ugly. Future: Depending on the response I get to this program, various updates are possible. I'm thinking about improving mouse support (for the archive selection menu, for example), letting the user choose colors and other options, and possibly adding a menu. Of course, more archive formats are always welcome; if you have details on an archive format (and preferably some archives to test Ziew on), send it to me and when I'm not too busy, I'll update Ziew. ** Extra Credit ** Figure out what all of the archive extensions mean. A few are obvious, others are tricker. Thank you for visiting, come back soon... Awful curious, aren't ya? :) Only a moment lasts forever; forever lasts only a moment.