CU Amiga Super CD-ROM 1

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ CU Amiga Super CD-ROM 1 / CU Amiga Magazine CD-ROM Special Edition (1995)(EMAP Images)(GB)[Issue 1995-11].iso / Aminet / docs / misc / AmigaTutorial.lha / Part4 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-06-14 | 26.1 KB | 514 lines

And now, guess what?! It's time for some more of that neat CLI stuff!! Oh please Mr. BenchMaster, can we have Assign first?? Sorry kids, like desert, you'll have to finish your plates before we get to the good stuff, and that means every last byte! Okay, I'm just going to skip through the c directory; most of the commands just kind of do one thing so don't need much additional comment. AddBuffers-keep it until you get FaccII Assign-sorry, next section Break-Will stop some tasks that otherwise don't have an off command. CD-sorry, next section too Copy-makes a copy of a file where you specify, with a different name if you so further specify. Use "all" to copy all directories and files Date-shows or sets date Delete-deletes specified file unless "all" is used, then deletes specified directory and all files/subdirectories within Dir-shows specified directory's contents. "Dir opt a" for total Dir DiskDoctor-for recovering deleted files or files from a damaged disk Echo-for printing out text in a CLI window Ed-the text editor Else, If, EndIf-next section EndCLI-closes CLI window; doesn't close if you've Run certain programs still in operation, Runback might/should fix this Execute-a "Run" for scriptfiles, if I may be so bold FailAt-We're keeping it around as a sentimental reminder of what our startup-sequence USED to look like Fault-translates error message number into semi-English Info-already covered. You can get a better one off the BBS's Install-to make a formatted disk bootable Join-combines textfiles. Use "Join (file1) (file2) AS (file3)" List-lists bytes in dir, to be replaced with DL, which will go into directories in depth, giving you the full byteage LoadWB-loads up the Workbench screen MakeDir-makes a new directory, but not the icon for it. For the .info file you have to copy over (and rename) another drawer icon, or make up a new one in IconEd NewCLI-it differs from the CLI command that was in the System drawer in only one way, but you can play with them. Both can have their window size changed with NewZap Path-mentioned throughout the tutorial Prompt-changes the ">" sign for your CLI. Could have some use Quit-never found it to do much Rename-renames files as well as moves them. Learn this guy as well as Copy Run-for tools/programs SetClock-for setting the internal and system clocks Sort-alphabetizes textfiles. Use "Sort (file1) TO (file2)" Stack-you won't need this until you get into animations but I left it in just in case some graphics hack you've downloaded wants it. If so, there'll be numbers in the STACK box in the icon's Info window Status-gives you general status of CLI tasks. Like Info, there are better ones around but I find this one adequate Type-went into the dumper as soon as you got Less Version-left in just in case somebody/something wants it Wait-holds up CLI process for requested number of secs/mins Why-like Fault, gives you feedback on error. Use right after boo-boo Okay, that's it for these clowns. Assign, Info, List and Status are the four commands you type alone into the CLI to see the current condition of the system. Use them. * Well, I fibbed. This is the next section and we're NOT going to go over those other commands just yet. Aw-w, gee Uncle BenchMaster, c'mon, just one little Assign, pretty-please??? Well, okay. Geez, I'm such a sucker for you brats. Now, remember when I said we'd wipe out the fonts dir, get all the space back and still have access to the fonts? Here's how: We'll make a fresh fonts dir on a blank disk and Assign fonts over to that disk, so when Notepad or whatever goes looking for fonts, there they'll be. Put a freshly formatted disk in df1 and rename it FontDisk. Type "MakeDir df1:fonts", and you should have a fonts dir on FontDisk. If you still have all the fonts in your Workbench directory, type "Copy fonts df1:fonts all". If you've already blasted them, boot up your Workbench 1.2 and copy them over. Now to run Notepad with df1's fonts, somewhere before you start up Notepad you need to Assign the fonts over to df1, which you can do a number of ways. - You can just put "Assign fonts: df1:fonts" in your st-seq but then FontDisk always has to be in df1 when you're booting up or it stops. - A variation on the above would be to put a If exists df1:fonts Assign fonts: df1:fonts endif in the st-seq so it can see if df1:fonts is there or not. One hitch with this is that unless FontDisk is in df1 during boot-up you'll STILL have to Assign them over before using the Notepad. Also, you could have some ol' game disk with a font dir on it in df1 by mistake and things would really mixt up get. - You could, of course, just type "Assign fonts: df1:fonts" in a CLI before using the Notepad every time. Personally, I can't even imagine it. - You could write a scriptfile saying nothing but "Assign fonts: df1: fonts", call it, say, "fo" (for fonts), and go "f fo" before firing up the Notepad. But then, of course, you still have to remember to do it. - You could use Xicon and run that same scriptfile from an icon, located, say, right next to the Notepad icon and that would do it for you. - Or, of course, you could do it the right way. I've given you enough clues in these pages to let you piece it together for yourself. Clue: It's run but not run. * A few mentions on the new programs you've downloaded/are downloading.. The basic gang: Conman - Only makes the CLI about 2000% times easier to use. Use -q -t in your st-seq. The F2 and F10 keys are great. Lace - It still has a few bugs. The perfect Lace would remember where the windows were when you go back to Interlace Less - Allows you to Ed with "v". Use "g" and "G" for top & bottom of page. This is the only program I can think of that uses "hot keys", meaning you don't have to hit the Return. Rename it as Type. PrefCh - Can also be used for different printer set-ups. Mackie - Must be RunBack'd in st-seq. You can make it do different things but I like it straight up (NewCLI). It's especially handy when you've got the DU and a bunch of windows open and you just want a CLI window for a second..hit Commodore-Esc, bang, up pops the window, you do your thing, slap an "e" in there (for EndCLI) and you're back to where you were, without a bunch of window-shuffling. Runback - Always/usually use instead of Run in a scriptfile (like st-seq). Select - Can also be used at any time in a scriptfile by giving it different options. My favorite Prefs color scheme for it is (Interlace) 000/677/000/707, SavePref'd as "system-configuration". Xicon201 - I confess I only use this as a basic Workbench tool to run scriptfiles with..the doc with it mentions lots of options. Others: Arc - Always, always include a zzenpad.foo file (300-500 bytes) with every file you re-arc. The BenchMaster decrees it be so. Supposedly these newer types of compressors don't need padding at the end, but since it's the ONLY thing we can do, we've just got to. Most of the prob- lems you'll have with corrupt files will probably be due to nothing more than good ol' phone line interference. More on that later. Pkax - This is only a de-arc'er, but it just blows the doors off Arc, time- wise. For what it's worth, I have never had a program de-arc with Arc and not with Pkax. On the same subject, I've heard the Arc people are all bent out of shape because of Pkax and are threatening to encode the Arc'd file so ONLY Arc will be able to de-arc it. If that's the stupidest thing you've ever heard of, join the club. DL - Rename it List2, use List for JUST a directory, List2 -R -s (dir) for in-depth look. Has to be capital "R". Maybe I missed something (I just now looked again..), but it just seems absurd that the Commodore command List doesn't look in a directory's sub-directories as well, thus giving you the total byteage for that directory. Oh well. I MUST have missed something. DL, by the way, has a little bug; it adds a day or two onto the write date of the file. Hey, details, details. DU-VI - See that gap in between the two screens? I kept thinking, gee, what a blow-it, you think he would have noticed! Then, while fumbling about one day moving the right window out of the way so I could get to the Bench icon, I realized, oops, wasn't a blow-it at all! I was just kind of keeping my icons over on the right 'cause that's where they'd always been, but obviously you can Snapshot them where- ever you want..so now I have my Ram and Workbench icons under that gap, so I can get to them when the DU's up. If there's any "bug" with DU-VI it's that it has its own Type program built-in, and you can't use Type (Less, renamed as Type) which is really a drag, Less being so much better. Put "Run Ed" in the Edit requester instead of just "Ed", so you can still use the DU. To "refresh" a directory, click in the lower box behind the directory's name, and then Return. Blitzfonts - Not necessary, just one of those programs where once you get used to it you notice it immediately when it's gone. Use Runback in st-seq. If you need byte space it's one of the first to go. Zoomlens - For just a simple tool this can get pretty surreal. I mean, you always wondered what infinity looked like, right? PlayBeep - I love this guy. Gets rid of that nasty screen flash and substi- tutes whatever little IFF sound file you wish. There's a great "ow.snd" off a similar program called SetBeep you should try. * Let's go over CD for a sec just to make sure you're familiar with it. If there's any command on the disk that's "ours", CD is it. Basically, it means you, meaning your fingers, meaning the keyboard, meaning where the commands being typed on the screen are coming from. You can CD onto any device and into any directory. Type "CD Ram:" and you're in Ram. How do you know? Type "CD" and it'll tell ya. If you type "Dir" then you'll be shown what's in "your" directory and/or device. Type "CD df0:System", then type "Dir". Dir will show you what's in the directory you've CD'd to. You don't have to CD to a directory to find out what's in it, of course. Type "CD df0:", then type "CD" and it should spit the Bench's name back at you. Type "Dir" and there's the stuff on the "surface" of the disk. Then type "Dir System" and there's the System stuff. You already know this stuff? Great, no problem. CD can save us a bunch of keystrokes if we're writing a scriptfile and have to copy or rename or whatever a bunch of files buried deep in some directory. Let's say we've got a disk with nothing but IFF pictures on it, a whole bunch of them, all in separate directories. We want to write a file that when we Execute it it will copy just certain pics to Ram. So first we "Ed X/pics1", which will create a new scriptfile called "pics1" located in the directory X. The pics we want to copy to Ram are in a directory on df1 called Modern, inside a directory called Art, inside a directory called Pics, inside a directory called Graphics. Since this is already confusing enough, we'll just call the pics 1,2,3,4 and 5. Using Ed, we'd write Copy df1:Graphics/Pics/Art/Modern/1 Ram: Copy df1:Graphics/Pics/Art/Modern/2 Ram: Copy df1:Graphics/Pics/Art/Modern/3 Ram: Copy df1:Graphics/Pics/Art/Modern/4 Ram: Copy df1:Graphics/Pics/Art/Modern/5 Ram: Whew! With the CD command, we can do this: CD df1:Graphics/Pics/Art/Modern Copy 1 Ram: Copy 2 Ram: Copy 3 Ram: Copy 4 Ram: Copy 5 Ram: See that? It put us into the Modern dir and then when we said to Copy (or Rename or whatever) a file, the computer knew just where to find it, as it was right there "alongside" us. We have to CD into most directories where programs and games and their associated files are kept for the same reason. The computer can only "be" in one spot at a time (not speaking about multi-tasking) and CD tells it where to go & us where we are. * As you've noticed, I've been playing pretty fast and loose with the words "directory" and "drawer", and not by accident. You might as well get used to them meaning (approximately) the same thing, kind of like that program/ tool/utility business. I'm tending to just use them as the occasion fits; you put things into drawers but you dir a directory, yes? What you have to realize, and yes it comes as a surprise, is that there are "purists" out there who completely disdain the entire Workbench environment, windows, icons and all. Perhaps "elitists" is the word. Irregardless, it's just another word for "old-fashioned". You'll find after a few months the keyboard and mouse blending together very nicely; there are certain functions that naturally fall into the CLI's domain and certain ones that just cry out for a cute icon. And right in the middle of it all is big 'ol DU. And as long as we're talking about putting the knock on friendly ol' Workbench, you'll also hear our DOS being put down here and there, but not to fret; just take a glance at an MS/DOS book (IBM language) sometime and you'll quickly see there's no comparison. We're talking about two completely different things. Ours is just perfect for what we want to do, proven by asking the question "Just what commands are we MISSING, anyways?" The only command "missing" is a "Move" command, as Rename won't move something to a different device. But they didn't include one although they certainly could have, and I've never seen one on a BBS, so I guess that's just The Way It's Supposed To Be. Conversely, it's probably why the DU was invented. Revised Edition note: I finally DID find one, "Move2.4". THANK you. And one other thing: You'll hear mention of "bugs" in AmigaDOS. The "Arp. library" are the "fixed" versions. I've never had a command NOT work, given everything else was in place, so frankly I don't have the foggiest idea what they're talking about. Unless you know better, I would call substituting our commands with the Arp.library "looking for trouble". I kinda feel the same way about the "Shell" program you'll hear some people raving about. It's huge, byte-wise, claims to replace your c commands but doesn't really, and by the time you add this complicated program to "simplify" things, you're less than breaking even. * One of the nicer things about the WorkBench environment is being able to take icons and "store" them on the WorkBench screen, enabling us to close the window and make some space, yet still having them a double-click away. * If you haven't downloaded Conman yet, you're really missing the boat. I guarantee it'll be one of your best buddies ever. I give it my highest praise: It should have been included with the original software. I'd even settle for that tool dir on the Extras/Basic disk. Which, yes, we'll get to eventually. Don't hold your breath, though, there's not much on it for us of the computerati illiterae. * Figured out that deal with Notepad and the fonts yet? * There are two great keyboard commands that as far as I know aren't documented anywhere, probably a 1.2 upgrade. I read about them in a letter to AmigaWorld..what can I say? They're Commodore-N and Commodore-M. They flip you back and forth between screens, two much-used commands. If a program, like gShow, mentions "toggle", that's possibly what it means. To be fair, I think I did see them buried in one of the books eventually, but in some obscure context. They should have been highlighted in Chapter Four. * You're probably getting a handle on Path, that elusive rascal. Path shows the computer where directories are so it can find tools when you command it to. One thing you have to remember about Path is that it only leads to the dir you name, even if it has to go through a couple of directories to do it. The directories it goes through to get to yours are not in the path unless specifically named. I'm not sure if this makes sense or not; I haven't been in a situation where I wanted to make sure something DIDN'T have a path for it or to it. Now that I've said that I'm sure one will arise. Just Path everything that has a tool in it that you might want and be done with it. * Okay...NOW we'll do Assign. Nothing to it, really. Simply Assign anything to what you want and that's it! * Now I'd like to say a few words about the program Xicon. It's one of the more integral programs on your download list, meaning that it touches a lot of areas of the computer. I'm not going to call it a subroutine, though, as it only works when called upon, like any tool, whereas Mackie and FaccII and the like are "always" running in the background, and that's easily proved by quitting the programs and watching the memory they were using come back. Some subroutines, like Conman and Newfont, don't have off switches, so once they're run the memory's gone. That, again, is where Select comes into play, which makes it so important. What's that? You thought the section on Assign was kind of skimpy? Are you sure?? Look, I'll make you a deal: YOU solve the Notepad/fonts puzzle and I'll give you another whole paragraph on Assign..fair enough? Now put this down and get busy, gol'dang it! * Generally, the proper proceedure for using Xicon is this: (I elaborate on this program because the doc is kinda big. That doesn't make sense, but that's what I'm doing) Let's say we want to run a program, any program, say, Notepad for instance. The only hitch is that on the Bench we've only got some lonesome ol' Topaz 11 kickin' around the fonts drawer, all the good stuff's on FontDisk. We haul out Ed and write up a scriptfile for Xicon to run. We type "Ed Utilities/Notepad!", note that the exclamation mark differs it from the program "Notepad". You can use any name, "Note.Pad" for all I care, just so long as it's not the actual program's name. So our scriptfile looks like this: Assign fonts: df1:fonts CD df0:Utilities Notepad Assign fonts: df0:fonts First we assigned the fonts directory over to the one on df1, so when Notepad went looking for "fonts", it was re-directed to the fonts dir on df1. Then we ran the Notepad program, but we didn't Run it, that's the deal. If we'd Run it the scriptfile would have continued, the fonts dir would have been reassigned to df0 and Notepad wouldn't have found them. This way they stay on df1 until the Notepad program is ended, allowing the scriptfile to continue. This is an elemental part of the whole Amiga scheme so make sure you understand it. Did I call it a "puzzle"? Excuse me. So you've got your file written, Esc-X, Return to save it. By the way, I CD'd into the Utilities directory before running the Notepad because Xicon likes you to CD into the directory. It wasn't essential; you'll use Xicon a lot and discover its workings. The next step is to change the Notepad icon from a tool to a project, as Xicon needs a project icon to run from. If you don't have IconType or IconLab yet (where have you BEEN?), haul out good ol' IconEd, load up a project icon and the Notepad icon and do the switch. Save it as "df0:Utilities/Notepad!" (the .info is added automatically) to match our (!) scriptfile. Close IconEd, open the Utilities drawer and there our icon should be. Double-click it just to watch the error message and make a fool of yourself, then activate the icon and pull down the Info menu. Activate the Default Tool box with the mouse then type in "df0:c/Xicon", hit Return, then SAVE the Info. Ready for the big moment? Double-click the icon, things should scratch around for a while then up Notepad should pop. Check the fonts to make sure they're loaded. Quit the program, the fonts should re-assign themselves to df0, and that's that. You find out what things are currently assigned to by typing "Assign". The box Xicon popped up is VERY valuable when getting a scriptfile running as that's your feedback window, which, hopefully, will tell you if something's screwing up. Like if you didn't have FontDisk in df1 and the Assign failed, it'll tell you. After the program's running smooth, re-open the Info window for the icon, click the ADD box then the Tool Types box and type in MODE=nowindow That'll keep the window from opening. It also one of the few times capitals count; any command in the Tool Types box is ALWAYS capitalized, far as I know. If you have the older version of Xicon you'll type in MODE=closewindow. An improvement in the scriptfile would be to say Assign fonts: FontDisk:fonts to make sure the Assign seeks out the disk by name, in which case you'll get a requester if Fontdisk isn't in one of the drives. Xicon, remember, is only for running scriptfiles from the Workbench. You could always rename that Notepad! script to "n", put it in the s dir, and as fast as your fingers could type "f n", you'd be on your way. Given how small, byte-wise, a scriptfile is, you could have both. Yes, but I hear you ask, as long as you have to open Utilities to get to the CLI, why not just punch Notepad! as long as you're there? Well, that, my friend, is because you don't have a handy little CLI window or two pop open down at the bottom of your Bench during boot-up for just such an occasion. But you will, you will... * The thing to understand about Assign is that it's not complicated, al- though it seems kind of hairy because we're dealing with device names and some of our major directories and such. What it really is is kind of a ChangeName command; ChangeName (oldname) to (newname) If we mention the fonts dir to the computer, it's thinking "df0:fonts", so in Notepad's case we: ChangeNamed "df0:fonts" to "df1:fonts". or Assign fonts: df1:fonts There might be the odd occasion where we'd want to have the libs dir in Ram for speed and/or lack of disk access. Something like: Makedir Ram:libs Copy libs Ram:libs all Assign libs: Ram:libs Then when some program goes seeking a lib, the libs dir has had it's name changed to "Ram:libs" and the program seeks it there. AND real quickly, we notice. AND without disk access, we re-notice. With my hard drive I boot up with a regular Workbench, but at some point in the st-seq I assign most of the Workbench dirs over to the dirs on the hard drive. If you "Dir devs" the computer is thinking "Df0:devs", so in the st-seq I: Assign devs: dh0:devs Assign libs: dh0:libs Assign s: dh0:s etc So now if I "Dir devs" the computer thinks "dh0:devs". I "ChangeNamed" "(assumed df0):devs" to "dh0:devs". Occasionally some program will suddenly put up a requester saying something like "Please Insert Disk So-And-So", so at some point in your scriptfile you'd "Assign So-And-So: df0:Gamedir" or whatever dir you've got the program in. Some programs have their own fonts or whatever they want to use, so you put the fonts in their own little dir in Gamedir, then "Assign fonts: df0: gamedir/fonts", so when the program looks for "fonts", it's re-directed to "df0:gamedir/fonts". Try "Assign X: df0:Clock". Type "X:" and you get the Clock. Gee, saved you a whole three key strokes! Goof around with Assign for awhile until you feel comfortable with it..you can't hurt anything and you can always re-boot if you lose it. * A few words on If, EndIf and Else. Unless you want to get cute and start using all the sub-commands that go along with these three, things are pretty straightforward. Take a glance in one of the DOS books if you forget the correct format. Basically, it just checks to see if a file or directory is there, or not there, and then does something, or not. The something it does can be a whole string of commands or nothing. Ditto if the file isn't there. The reason that mess is in the startup-sequence is just in case some idiot renames either the System or Utilities directories, in which case the Path command would fail. That's not so bad; if the Path command fails the scriptfile continues to execute. With a different command, like Assign, it grinds to a halt, so the commands CAN be important. * Some real homework for you: Admittedly, the Notepad/fonts "puzzle" wasn't much of one, so here's a problem that will, hopefully, make you do a little creative thinking. I mentioned it above but you probably haven't tried it yet. It was the placing the Ram icon behind the gap between the DU's windows. You can't just Snapshot it there like you can the Workbench one, because it just saves the information in Ram, which goes bye-bye when you re-boot. Your homework is this: Upon booting up, you should have a custom, NOT default, Ram icon in the spot where the DU's gap will be. Its window has to open just where you want it to. Extra credit will be given if you Dir Ram after booting up and it's empty! The new icon's there and working, but there's no "disk.info" file in Ram. You have until the end of the tutorial to solve this mighty poser. *