Re: Windows 95 shortcomings; directory sorting woes.

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

The Norton DS clone I'm thinking of is lfnsrt. It works on 16-bit files,
but not 32-bit formatted disks. So I can't use it, because my hard drive
was formatted in 32 bit. It doesn't have much support, and the docs have
warnings that you're on your own.

Here's the programmer's message:

From: dmurdoch@xxxxxxxx (Duncan Murdoch)
Subject: Re: Directories
(Folders) sorting utilities ?
Date: 09 Apr 1996 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID:

<3169e4dc.15076122@130.15.126.54>
references:

organization: Queen's University,
Kingston
newsgroups:
comp.os.ms-windows.apps.utilities.win95

deorc@xxxxxxxx (Hades
Kong) wrote:

>Is there any Windows 95 utility for sorting files in
directories
>(folders) ? The old Norton Utilities for DOS used to have
this little
>program DS (Directory Sort) for this purpose. However, it no
longer
>exists in the new Norton Utilities for Windows 95.

There are some
around. I wrote a $10 shareware one with a few more
features than the
freeware ones I could find; mine is available on
garbo.uwasa.fi
as

ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/dirutil/lfnsrt10.zip

(unless I got the
directory wrong).

Duncan Murdoch

Norman

At 06:27 AM 5/25/00 +1000, Michael Edwards wrote:
>----------------------------------------
>>The big thing I lose in Windows 9x, particularly with XyWrite, is Norton's
>>Directory Sort.

>>There is a Windows substitute, which however only works
>>with 16-bit files and not 32-bit files. If anyone knows how to sort
>>directory files in Windows 98, I'd appreciate knowing. A big part of my
>>organization used to be to put my XyWrite files into a rational sequence.
>----------------------------------------
>
>   I think you might be out of luck there, Norman. I haven't read anything
>official, or anything at all, in fact; but, reading between the lines, I
get the
>impression that Windows 95 (and presumably later versions) have given up the
>whole idea of letting you fix a firm directory order.
>   Have you ever noticed that, in XTree Gold (DOS version), amongst the
>sorting options for file-names, as well as the usual date/time, size,
name, and
>extension options, you also have "unsorted" - that is, just in whatever order
>the file-names are listed in the subdirectory - but in Windows Explorer,
and in
>fact any Windows program I've ever seen that lists file-names, it *never*
shows
>file-names in this order? Even when you have sorting options offered,
going by
>name, extension, size, and so on (as in Windows Explorer), the "unsorted"
option
>is *never* offered. I find this one of the clearest examples of Windows'
>bossiness, its tendency to dictate to the user how he or she should work,
>instead of letting the user tell Windows how to do things.
>   Moreover, when you save a file, it is likely to change its position
in the
>directory listing order, too, something which can be easily verified by
opening
>a DOS box, typing "dir", saving a file in that subdirectory, then typing
"dir"
>again. Very likely, but not invariably, the newly saved file will appear
at the
>bottom of the list.

>   (I'm not quite sure what you mean by a 16-bit file: I thought the 16- or
>32-bit thing was an attribute of the F.A.T., not of files. I kept to a
16-bit
>F.A.T. (which required me to partition my laptop's hard disk into four
>partitions), in a desperate attempt (not very successful) to keep as much
>compatibility with DOS programs as possible. I think my brother, who's a
>high-level computer professional, considers that I'm still trying to live
in the
>Stone Age (although he's no lover of Micro$oft or Windoze).)
>


-------------------------------------------------------
Norman Bauman
411 W. 54 St. Apt. 2D
New York, NY 10019
(212) 977-3223
http://www.nasw.org/users/nbauman
-------------------------------------------------------