What is AutoInfo? Well, I won't go into the history of why I wrote it like many programmers do, but I'll just say that when you need it, it makes life a whole lot easier... It is a finder extension, and basically what it does it is gives you info on whatever you select in the Finder, as soon as you select it.

When you turn AutoInfo on (chooose it from the Extras menu), it makes a bar at the bottom of the screen. This bar is always completely visible (windows and icons go behind it).

If you select a file, it will give you the name, file type (both the "full description" and the numeric file type), the amount of K used on disk, and the length of the file in bytes.

If you select a folder or a group of files, it gives you the total K used on disk, the number of files and the number of folders.

This info appears as soon as you select a file or files -- no need to select any menu items or anything.

Since it takes time for AutoInfo to tunnel through folders to calculate the total size, when a folder is selected, it asks you to press spacebar to calculate. If you want it to automatically calculate folder sizes as soon as you select them, choose "Auto-calc folders" from the Extras menu. It's all really simple.

(Note that even if Auto-calc is turned on, it will still ask you to press spacebar before calculating a total VOLUME size. This is because it is very easy for a volume to accidentally get selected in the Finder, and you don't want to wait around for the calculation every time that happens. (But if you select a -group- of items which includes a volume and Auto-calc is on, AutoInfo will assume that it was intentional and just go ahead and calculate)

If you select a group of items, Auto-info will go ahead add them all up, regardless of Auto-calc setting, UNTIL it hits a folder. Then, it will check if Auto-calc is on, and either proceed calculating or ask for spacebar.

AutoInfo is pretty self-explanitory actually... It isn't even necessary to know the information above, because AutoInfo always seems to do what you want it to. :)
Just install it and select different stuff to see how it works.

Some notes:

- The calculation routine seems to be a little bit faster than the Finder's (Get Icon Info), which is strange since my routine isn't that good... :)

- If you select Auto-calc and there happens to be something to calculate at that moment, AutoInfo will save you the trouble of pressing spacebar, and just go ahead and do it.

- Everything's neat and columnized (as you click on different files, for example, the K on disk is always in the same place for easy comparison). The numbers even use commas in the right place! What more could you want? :)

- The file descriptor routines were taken from Bryan Pietrzak's GSLib. This shouldn't be a problem because a) GSLib is freeware, freely usable and distributable, and b) it's copyright 1990-1993 Softdisk, Inc. (BTW, AutoInfo was written in Merlin... go figure -that- one out!)

- AutoInfo can handle pretty big numbers, so there shouldn't be any problem there. (When are you going to select more than 999,999 files, folders, or K?)

- AutoInfo is -tiny-! Only 8K!

- AutoInfo requires 6.0.1.