Hi, everyone,

Launch Thing 1.0 á
Presentation Manager Program for OS/2 2.x
THIS IS A TEST VERSION

Copyright (C) 1995 by Gerard J. Piek

Launch Thing is a menu program that replaces the launchpanel that comes with
OS/2 3.0 (Warp). It is not nearly as flexible (you cannot drag&drop anything
with it), but it is small and easy to use. Furthermore, you can make it pop up
whenever your mousecursor hits the bottom or the top of the screen. 
On top of that you can make sub menus in sub menus and install Launch Thing
to replace the Workplace Shell.

WARNING: This program contains some errors. THE AUTHOR CANNOT ACCEPT ANY 
         RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE OCCURING WHILE USING THIS PROGRAM.
         USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

However, if you have remarks or questions about this excellent (ahummm...)
piece of software, please feel free to write to.

piek@chem.vu.nl

The file which contains the data (menus.lt) is a simple text file as follows:

SM <submenuname>
<menuitem>
<full path to program to be started>
<working directory>
<parameters for program to be started>
<icon file>
<program type>
<next menuitem>
<full path to program to be started>
<working directory>
<parameters for program to be started>
<icon file>
<program type>
ESM

As you can see, each entry requires six lines of text.
You can edit this file with the system editor (e.exe), that comes with OS/2
or any ordinary ascii text editor.
Launch Thing expects menus.lt to be in the same directory as the program is.

Instead of a program you can also nest another menu in a menu:

SM <submenuname>
<menuitem>
<full path to program to be started>
<working directory>
<parameters for program to be started>
<icon file>
<program type>
SM <another submenuname>
<menuitem>
<full path to program to be started>
<working directory>
<parameters for program to be started>
<icon file>
<program type>
ESM
<next menuitem>
<full path to program to be started>
<working directory>
<parameters for program to be started>
<icon file>
<program type>
ESM

This text file has the name MENUS.LT.
As I've noted, the program is not bug-free. It should give you a message when-
ever it encounters an error in the menus.lt file. Sadly, that is not always
the case. This is not a very big problem when you are using this program on top
of the workplaceshell. You can, however, use launchthing as a workplaceshell
replacement. If the program crashes in that case, you will not be able to start
anything and start-up disks of the operating system are required.
I reccomend that you make a menu file (the menus.lt file) while you are in the
workplace shell. When the launchthing is working properly with this file you
can replace the 

RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE

statement with 

RUNWORKPLACE=C:\LT\LT.EXE

As a workplaceshell replacement you can even protect your system 
from unauthorised mucking about by using the
password option for the maintenance menu. This way someone can only use the
programs presented in the menus of launch thing and nothing else.

Gerard J. Piek