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AUTO UnShrinkIt
---------------

This program is freeware.  Please distribute it, but you may NOT sell it
without a license agreement explicitly allowing you to do so.  This includes
bundling Auto-UnShrinkIt with any other products.

Questions, Comments, and Donations are welcome at:

Andy Nicholas
8415 Thornberry Drive East
Upper Marlboro, MD   20772

America-Online & GEnie: shrinkit
CompuServe: 70771,2615

Release Notes
-------------

Version 1.0, 10/13/90 --

This is the first version of auto-unshrink.  This is also a very simple program
with a simple mission: extract stuff from archives which can be built on an
Apple II using any Apple II which can run ProDOS.

If you launch auto-unshrink from a program launcher shell that provides a
startup filename (such as launching from ECP-8 or Dave Lyons' Davex shell),
then that archive will be opened and the contents extracted to the current
prefix.

If you launch auto-unshrink from a program which does not supply a startup
filename, then you will be told what the source folder (current prefix) is and
be allowed to enter the name of the archive to open.  After you successfully
enter the name of an archive to open, you will be prompted for the name of a
folder to extract the contents of the archive INTO.

At any prompt except those asking for a filename, a 40 second timeout is in
effect.  The default option in most cases for a YES/NO situation is YES, and
for most cases where more than one choice is available, the default is chosen
for you.

AUTO is capable of extracting the following types of archives:

NuFX (ShrinkIt)
NuFX (ShrinkIt) inside a Binary II envelope.
NuFX (ShrinkIt) inside MacBinary.
NuFX (ShrinkIt) from America-Online.
Binary II
Binary II inside a Binary II envelope.
Binary II inside MacBinary.
ACU
ACU inside a Binary II envelope.
ACU inside MacBinary.
SQ

NuFX from America-Online has a 32-byte header in front of the actual archive
data if the archive was uploaded to America-Online from a Macintosh.

Scavenge
--------

Q: What do I do if a disk which contains my most precious archive goes bad and
   says it has bad blocks?

A: Copy the disk using a disk-copier which will ignore the bad blocks.  Then,
   using Auto-UnShrink, try to extract the contents of the archive from the
   good disk. 

   Auto-UnShrink will "scavenge" its way through the archive and pick out all
   the stuff in the archive which is still good.


	****


Q: After I did that, I ran regular ShrinkIt on the archive and could not
   extract everything from the archive.  I did the same for GS-ShrinkIt except
   GSHK said that the archive was "Damaged."  Why can't I extract using the
   regular programs?

A: ShrinkIt and GS-ShrinkIt do not have an archive scavenger built in like
   Auto-UnShrink does.  ShrinkIt displays an asterisk beside the archive name
   if the archive is damaged, while GS-ShrinkIt actually says "Damaged," but
   can't really do anything about it (yet).


	****


If auto-unshrink finds a damaged entry in an archive, you will be given 3
choices.  The first is S = Scavenge.  Scavenge works for shrinkit archive by
searching from the end of the last header looking for the alternating ascii
"NuFX" signature within the file.  If it finds one, it switches back into
normal extraction mode.  If it never finds another good header or gets an EOF
or position past EOF error, then the scavenger will say that it has reached
the end of the archive without any success.

In the case of getting munged data when regular shrinkit would give the data
corrupted $81 error, auto-unshrink will close the existing file, set the file's
attributes as best it can, and then automatically enter scavenge mode, and
begin scavenging from the end of the last good header.

The second option usually given is T = Try extracting.  Although this could
lead to an amazing crash, I included it so that people could at least attempt
to extract a file whose header might simply not even exist.

Scavenge also works for Binary II files.  If scavenge is ever kicked in, the
search for a valid header begins from the end of the last known good header.

Scavenge will not work on ACU files.  The main reason for this is that the
ACU file format is protected by a 16-bit CRC only.  This makes looking for
valid headers amongst the data in the file extremely slow.  If someone
really needs this feature, send me a lot of money and I'll add it.

Speech Support
--------------

If you have an Echo or SlotBuster card, auto-unshrink will make use of the card
and speak as it works.  If you have a Street Electronics Echo card, you must
put the PT.OBJ file from Street's distribution disk into the same folder as
auto-unshrink.  If you want the current Text-Talker software to be overwritten
and Text-Talker reloaded (or just initialized for the first time), hold down
the Open-Apple key on your Echo-equipped machine.  If you have previously run
the Text-Talker software, Text-Talker will not be re-loaded from disk unless
told to do so via the Open-Apple key.

If you have an Apple IIGS, you may need to set the system speed to slow.

At any prompt for a name, pressing Control-L (once) will read the contents of
the name as it exists. Pressing Control-X will clear the filename and say that
the name is empty.