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<h1>The Visual Schnauzer</h1>
<p><a name="visual-schnauzer-window"><img
src="images/fig-147.gif" width="629" height="386"></a> </p>
<h2><a name="what-s-visual-schnauzer">What's a Visual Schnauzer?</a></h2>
<p>Hint: it's not a smallish seeing-eye dog of Germanic descent.</p>
<p>Probably the most exciting new feature in Version 3.00 was the
<i>Visual Schnauzer</i>, and while it hasn't changed dramatically
in Version 3.10, it's still plenty exciting. The <i>Visual
Schnauzer </i>gives you a visual interface to the UNIX file
system. It lets you view tiny 'thumbnail' representations of your
image files, directories, and other files. It lets you create
directories, rename files, move and copy files to different
directories, delete files, view image files, view text files, and
just generally nose around.</p>
<p>In short, it's cool, and it should be of some use for those of
us who have large numbers of GIF and JPEG files with
non-descriptive MS-DOS-<i>style</i> '8+3' filenames.</p>
<p>Note: Unlike most <i>xv</i> windows, schnauzer windows are
resizable. You can decide how many (or few) icons you'd like
displayed by changing the size of the schnauzer window. It also
should be pointed out that there are more command buttons
available than are shown at the default schnauzer size. If you
make the window larger, you will be given additional command
buttons. <i>All</i> the commands are always available from the <b>Misc.
Commands</b> menu.</p>
<h2><a name="operating-schnauzer">Operating the Schnauzer</a></h2>
<p>Click on the <b>Visual Schnauzer</b> button in the <i>xv
controls</i> window, or type a <b><Ctrl> v</b> inside any
active <i>xv</i> window. This will open a schnauzer window. The
window will display the contents of the directory that you were
in when you started <i>xv</i>. (Though this behavior, like so
many things, can be overridden. See the description of the '<tt>-dir</tt>'
command-line option in "<a
href="modifying-behavior-3.html#miscellaneous-options">Miscellaneous
Options</a>".)</p>
<p>The first time you open an image directory with the schnauzer,
you'll find that your image files are <i>not</i> displayed as
spiffy little thumbnail icons, but instead are shown as generic
icons showing the file format used. This is because the icons
need to be generated from the image files. Displaying a thumbnail
icon would normally require loading the entire image, compressing
it down to a small 80x60-<i>ish</i> image, and dithering it with
some set of colors. This is a very time-consuming operation. To
avoid doing this every single time you open a schnauzer window, <i>xv</i>
lets you do this operation once, and it maintains the results in
a hidden subdirectory ('<tt>.xvpics</tt>') for each directory.
This subdirectory contains one small (2k) file for each file in
the parent directory. The icons are in an 8-bit per pixel format,
pre-dithered with a 332 RGB colormap.</p>
<p>So, assuming that there are some image files in the current
directory, the first thing you should do is generate some icons.
(If there aren't any image files in the current directory, exit <i>xv</i>
and start it again from a directory that <i>does</i> have image
files. We'll discuss navigating via the schnauzer later.)</p>
<h3><a name="generating-icons">Generating Image Icons</a></h3>
<p>To generate icons for all the images in the current directory,
issue the <b>select All files</b> command from the <b>Misc.
Commands</b> menu. All the icons in the current directory should
'light up' in some way to signify that they are selected, with
the possible exception of the <tt><parent></tt> directory.</p>
<p>Next, issue the <b>Generate icons</b> command from the <b>Misc.
Commands</b> menu. <i>xv</i> will begin the process of generating
icon files for the selected files. This process can be quite
time-consuming, particularly if you have a large number of files
in the directory, or the image files are in the JPEG format.
During this time, <i>xv</i> is effectively 'out-to-lunch', as it
will not be paying attention to any X events. There isn't any way
to stop it either, though if you <i>kill</i> the <i>xv</i>
process from another window, you will succeed in stopping the
icon generation. You will <i>not</i> lose any computed icons by
doing this, as icon files are written out as they are computed,
so it's perfectly safe to stop the generation via this method.</p>
<p>Also, you'll note that <i>xv</i> displays a bar-graph
'progress meter' at the top of the schnauzer window while it's
doing this, so you can gauge roughly how long it will take. Icons
will be displayed as they are generated, in an attempt to make
the process as entertaining as possible.</p>
<h3><a name="changing-directories">Changing Directories</a></h3>
<p>The name of the current directory is displayed in a button at
the top-center of the schnauzer window. You can change to any
higher-level directory in the current path by pulling down this
menu button. The names of the parent directories will be shown in
the pull down menu.</p>
<p>You can also go up one level by double-clicking on the <tt><parent></tt>
directory icon.</p>
<p>You can go down to any subdirectory by double-clicking on the
appropriate subdirectory icon.</p>
<p>The <b>Change Directory</b> command gives you a more direct
route: you just type the pathname of the directory you'd like to
go to.</p>
<h3><a name="scrolling-schnauzer">Scrolling the Schnauzer</a></h3>
<p>You can scroll the schnauzer by operating the vertical scroll
bar, which operates exactly as described in "<a
href="control-window-6.html#operating-list-window">Operating a
List Window</a>" .</p>
<p>You can also scroll the window a page at a time by using the <b><PageUp></b>
and <b><PageDown></b> keys on your keyboard (which may be
labeled <b><Prev></b> and <b><Next> </b>on some
keyboards). The <b><Home></b> and <b><End></b> keys
will take you to the beginning and end of the list, respectively.
(If your keyboard doesn't have Home and End keys, <b><Shift></b>
<b><PageUp> </b>and <b><Shift></b> <b><PageDown></b>
may also work.) You can scroll the list a line at a time by using
the up and down arrow keys. Note, however, that the arrow keys
move the indicator that shows the currently selected file.
Likewise, the left and right arrow keys move the selection
indicator left and right, wrapping at the edges of the window.</p>
<p>Also, if you type a normal, alphabetic character into the
schnauzer window, it will attempt to scroll the window so that
the first file beginning with that character will be visible.
Note that this behavior keeps you from typing normal <i>xv</i>
keyboard equivalents into this window, so don't even try it.</p>
<h3><a name="selecting-files">Selecting Files</a></h3>
<p>Double-click on an image file's icon. The image should be
loaded, and the full path name of the image should be added to
the bottom of the <i>xv controls</i> window's name list. You can
also double-click on text files to view them in a TextView
window. (See "<a href="textview-window.html">The TextView
Window</a>" for more information.)</p>
<p>It is possible to select more than one file at a time. The
easiest way to do so is to hold down the <b><Shift></b> key
and click on icons. When the <b><Shift></b> key is held
down, any icons clicked on are simply toggled between being
selected, and being <i>not</i> selected. All other files remain
as they were. If you type <b><Shift> <Space></b>, <i>xv</i>
will keep all currently 'lit' files lit, and light (and load) the
file <i>after </i>the last lit file it finds. This can be useful
for building up a big list of files to delete by <b><Shift>
<Space></b>-ing your way through the list, and manually
unselecting any files you want to keep.</p>
<p>You can also select files by drawing a rectangle around icons
that you want selected. To do so, simply click in the space in
between the icons, and drag. A rectangle will be drawn, and all
icons that are inside (or partially inside) the rectangle will be
selected. Note that if you drag the rectangle off the top or
bottom of the window, the window will automatically scroll. Also,
if you hold down the <b><Shift></b> key while you draw a
rectangle, any previously selected icons will continue to remain
lit.</p>
<p>Finally, you can also select files by using the <b>select All
files</b> command from the menu (or by typing a <b><Ctrl> a</b>)
to select all the icons in the current directory. If you want <i>most</i>
of the files selected, it might be easiest to select all the
files, hold down the <b><Shift></b> key, and selectively
turn off the ones you don't want selected.</p>
<p>If you double-click on a selected file while there are
multiple files selected, the clicked-on file will be displayed,
and <i>all</i> selected filenames will be copied into the <i>xv
controls</i> window's list.</p>
<h3><a name="file-management">File Management</a></h3>
<p>Once you have some files selected, you can move them to other
directories by clicking on a lit icon and dragging it into one of
the subdirectories. When you press the mouse button, the cursor
will change to a 'files' cursor to indicate that you are
potentially moving files around. If you move the cursor near the
top or bottom edge of the window, the window will scroll up or
down accordingly. Necessary, as the subdirectory folders are
always shown at the top of the window. When you move the cursor
on top of a folder (either the <tt><parent></tt> directory,
or one of the subdirectories), the folder will light up to
acknowledge your selection. If you release the mouse button while
a folder is lit, all currently selected files (and folders) will
be moved into the lit folder.</p>
<p>Note that, using only one schnauzer window, it's only possible
to move files up or down one directory level. If you want to move
files to completely unrelated directories, you can easily
accomplish this by opening a second schnauzer window (via the <b>open
new Window</b> command in the menu, or <b><Ctrl> w</b>).
Get the second schnauzer window aimed at the desired destination
directory, and simply drag the files from the first window into
the second window.</p>
<p>Also, when you drag files around, <i>xv</i> normally 'moves'
the files from one directory to another. If you'd like, you can
copy files instead of moving them. Just press (and hold down) the
<b><Ctrl></b> key while dragging the files. The 'files'
cursor will change to display 'CPY' as well, to signify that you
are copying files instead of moving them.</p>
<p>The remaining file-management commands (renaming files,
deleting files, and creating subdirectories) are discussed below.</p>
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