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Runner -- A Desktop Alternative
Warning: This
Copyright (C) 1990 by Dave Thorson file is about 24
Version 1.40 October 12, 1990 printed pages!
Legalese: Runner and its associated files (except MINI_RUN.TTP) may
be distributed freely as long as all original files are included,
unchanged (except MINI_RUN.TTP). Dave Thorson is not responsible
for any damages (lost files, loss of time, etc.) caused directly
or indirectly by this software. Users of this software assume all
responsibility for risk. Runner is Shareware and is NOT released
to the Public Domain; Copyright ownership remains with Dave Thorson.
Table O' Contents
Intro
Shareware Stuff
New Features
Standard Features of Runner
Contents of Disk or RUNNER14.ARC
Installation
Running Runner
- File Selector Access
- Gem Menu Bar
- The Main Screen
Keyboard Equivalents
QuickKeys
Other Stuff
Products Mentioned
Intro
Runner is a quick, easy-to-use alternative to the standard Atari
desktop, developed for hard drive users with at least one megabyte
of memory, however it may still be of use for floppy drive users.
The new Mini-Run program makes Runner suitable for use even on
520K systems. Runner has only been tested on a 1040ST with TOS
1.0 and Atari SH-204 hard drive, but should work on other systems
as well (please contact me at the address below with any bug
reports, especially for STe systems -- Thank You!)
Runner lets you manage your programs more effectively by placing
them in one or more menus; simply click on a program in a menu to
run it. You can also assign up to eighteen QuickKeys to run your
most-used software with a single keypress, and install
applications to run by selecting their data files. Runner is much
quicker than the desktop, and programs can be placed in menus
regardless of what drive or folder they live in. You can group
similar programs together in the same menu, such as all games or
all graphics programs or all word processing software.
Menus can contain programs or other menus, and you decide how you
want to set them up. Runner also provides direct access to a file
selector (if you use Universal Item Selector you may never need
the desktop again!), lets you view files or run programs not in
your menus, access desk accessories, and have a background
picture if you like (Degas Elite color-cycling supported, of
course). All these features and more are described later, but
first....
Shareware Stuff
I am releasing Runner as Shareware to test the market for such
programs. Runner is NOT "Public Domain" and I reserve all rights
to the program and this documentation. Runner has been in
development for over a year, and I use it EVERY time I use my ST
(except on self-booting games, Turtle, or the time I lost my main
hard drive partition, but that's another story....).
You are free to take Runner for a test drive on your own computer,
and see if you find it to be of value. Whether you keep it or
not, feel free to give copies of RUNNER14.ARC (or the full set of
un-ARC'ed files) to your friends. If you have a registered disk
you may give away a copy of everything EXCEPT MINI_RUN.TTP. We
both save on distribution and marketing costs, and you don't get
stuck buying a program that doesn't work out as you expected after
seeing it for a few minutes in a store.
Since Runner is a copyrighted, professional program that took a
LOT of my time to develop and document, you are expected to
purchase it if you want to keep it (just like all those programs
on the wall at your local dealer!). If you decide to keep Runner,
please send a donation of $5 to $15 to:
Dave Thorson
3018 East Cheery Lynn Road
Phoenix, Arizona 85016
Be sure to include a return address if you need a reply, and tell
me what program you're registering so I can keep my records
straight.
I could charge more (like the "going rate" for ST software of $40
per package), but through shareware you can save on marketing and
distribution costs as well! Shareware can make all of us come out
ahead, but only if donations are sent. Without them, shareware
developers like myself will have no incentive to develop more
software, and you will stop seeing nifty utilities and games come
your way.
* * * Mini-Run: Extra Shareware Incentive * * *
An extra program, Mini-Run, will be sent to anyone contributing
$10.00 or more, as long as a disk to hold the new program is
included. Please be sure to include a return address! I am
making Mini-Run available only through registration because NO ONE
sent any contributions for prior shareware programs I have
released. Runner by itself is even better than before, but Mini-
Run may entice those who USE Runner to contribute for shareware.
Since you should purchase Runner anyway if continue to use it,
Mini-Run is really a freebie that's yours for the trouble of
registration!
Mini-Run can be called from Runner to run programs needing all the
memory they can get. Runner exits and loads Mini-Run, which in
turn loads the desired program (passing any parameters or
filenames as needed for .TTP programs). When the program exits,
Mini-Run exits and reloads Runner in its place. Mini-Run can free
up to more than 85,000 bytes over what Runner uses for use by
another program. It consumes under 28K of memory and less then
8K of disk space.
Mini-Run is a very short program so it loads quickly, adding only
a second or so of delay from a hard disk. Of course, Runner
itself is reloaded later as well, adding a bit to the delay time.
Even with these delays the process of running a program through
Mini-Run is still far quicker (and certainly more convenient) than
exiting to the desktop to run a large program, and returning to
Runner after it's done. Please note that Mini-Run is not a mini
version of Runner; it does not provide any menus or options; it
only runs a program as directed by Runner.
In my configuration I get the following memory values from a
command line interpreter (DO-IT! from QMI) run from the desktop,
Runner 1.40 (with and without a background picture) and Mini-Run.
Memory availability on your computer will depend on how much RAM
you have, other installed programs and desk accessories, and how
you measure it! Still, the last column shown here should be
fairly close to what you will see:
DO_IT! run from: Free Memory Less than Desktop
Desktop 618,262 0
Mini-Run 590,116 28,046
Runner 1.40 no pic 536,612 81,650
Runner 1.40 w/pic 504,612 113,650
WARNING: Mini-Run is NOT shareware, and is registered to each user
by a serial number traceable to each copy of the program. DO NOT
give copies of Mini-Run to friends or bulletin boards since it is
registered to YOU only. If you give away or sell your copy, let
me know so I can update my records.
New Features
Runner has grown by about 12K from the last release (1.3), but
there are lots of new features and a few fixes in version 1.40:
* Support for Mini-Run is main addition. Programs can be set in
the description dialog box to always use Mini-Run, or you can
force a program to be run from Mini-Run as you select it.
* A separate text palette is available (and remembered when saving
a RUNNER.CFG file). This lets you select the colors you like best
for reading text, regardless of preferences for running programs
or other Runner background colors.
* All color palettes can now be changed from within Runner.
* QuickKeys can be assigned to any program in your Runner menu
lists to let you run that program by pressing the assigned
QuickKey. QuickKey assignments can be listed like a Runner menu.
* Ability to restore a dropped program or menu to another place in
your menu structure.
* All Adds and Restores are now sorted alphabetically, with menus
at the top of each list (to sort older menus, drop and restore any
names out of order).
* On-line help for keyboard commands is available (this is done by
viewing a disk file to save memory, but the file is small and is
quickly accessed by pressing the HELP key).
* 12-hour time, 24-hour time or date can be displayed on main menu
screen. The Backspace key switches between them.
* File selector can now be accessed by pressing SPACE (since the
HELP key is now used for, would you believe it, Help).
* Mouse clicks in File View can now move forward, backward
or exit.
* Smart mouse click checking lets you consistently register BOTH
buttons (in the few places BOTH are needed) by pressing the second
any time before releasing the first. No more need to violate of
the Laws of Physics by trying to press both buttons at EXACTLY the
same time.
* New RUNNER.CFG file format is not usable by older versions of
Runner, but RCONVERT.PRG is included to convert older .CFG files
to the new format with NO loss of information.
* You now stay in the file selector until you select Cancel,
rather than exiting any time a program is run.
* Palette checking for background/text color distinction has been
removed. It is now possible to make text invisible if you want,
but you also have easy access to palette changes to fix this
problem. This also fixes the problem where text colors were
sometimes changed to be less readable than when they started.
* Several routines built in to GFA BASIC 3.x now replace the ones
I wrote in GFA BASIC 2.x, to take less memory and provide greater
speed in places.
* The keyboard commands for selecting color palettes have changed
to N-iNitial, K-desKtop, G-backGround and T-Text.
* Menu location (left and right) and menu background (type of
space blanked out behind menu lists) are now adjustable and are
saved for each background picture as well as for a single no-
background setup. Changed picture palettes are also saved for
each picture. These adjustments can be made within Runner.
* Degas Elite color-cycling animation is now supported, all four
channels of it.
* H key now hides all text, leaving the background picture (or
blank screen) in full view. Z key hides picture AND text.
* Support for remembering the color changes made by a program run
from runner is disabled; the meaning of that flag in the
description box has been changed to force Mini-Run to run the
program. Check the description dialog box for any programs where
you enabled "Keep Colors".
* .APP programs are now supported - maybe. I'm not sure what
these are (my TOS 1.0 desktop doesn't know about them) but have
been told they are set up just like .PRG files. Runner treats
them as .PRG files. If this doesn't work for some reason, write
me and let me know.
Standard Features of Runner
* Runs in ANY resolution.
* Programs can be run without worrying about what folder or disk
they're physically stored in. Runner switches to the program's
disk and folder automatically (usually -- see details below).
* Tos-Takes-Parameters (.TTP) programs normally require a command
line or parameters to be entered; Runner prompts you for this.
Command lines can be longer than the 20 provided for in the
desktop's dialogue box.
* Lets you include up to 15 programs per menu; any of these
programs can be run with the click of a mouse. No more waiting
for the desktop to redraw: on exiting a program you are returned
immediately to Runner's screen. Programs are included by simply
selecting them from a file selector box, regardless of drive or
folder. Additional information may be entered about the program
to customize how it will work and what it is called in menu lists.
* Any of the 15 programs in a menu can be a menu itself, giving
you access to 15 more programs or menus by clicking on the menu.
* Menus can be nested up to 15 levels deep (although why you would
ever need more than three levels I don't know....). For example,
on the top level menu you might have several programs and another
menu named Graphics. Clicking on Graphics displays a new menu
containing more menus called Paint Programs, Drafting, Slideshows
and Conversions. Clicking on Paint Programs reveals Degas Elite,
Colorburst 3000 and Spectrum 512. This nesting capability of
Runner means you can logically arrange your programs for quickest
access. With only 3 menu levels, you could access up to 3,375
programs, more than will fit on any hard disk I know of.
* Programs and menus are listed using descriptions rather than
filenames. The default description for Degas Elite is "Degelite",
the original program name minus the .PRG extension. If you like
"Degelite" as a description, fine, or you can change it to the
more readable "Degas Elite". Descriptions can be up to 20
characters. Runner tries to "beautify" filenames such as
"CAD3D.PRG" to the (sometimes) more readable form of "Cad 3 D",
or "SHOW_PIC.TTP" to "Show Pic", but you can still change the
description Runner provides to whatever you like.
* Programs and menus can be forced to appear only in certain
resolutions. You don't need to see Spectrum 512 in the list when
using a monochrome monitor, for example.
* Runner can force the screen resolution on a color monitor from
low to medium or from medium to low, and this is remembered
independently for each listed program. While GEM does not always
keep up with this trickery, it does allow you to run some programs
successfully (or perhaps well enough to gain benefit) from the
wrong resolution. Mini-Run supports these forced resolution
changes as well.
* Programs and menus can be added, dropped, restored or changed at
any time.
* Access to a file selector is always a mouse click or keypress
away. If a selected file is a program, Runner will run it as if
it were listed in a menu. Otherwise, Runner will display the file
on the screen. "Funny" characters are stripped out, and the text
is wrapped at the right edge of the screen, word-processor style.
The GEM Desktop has trouble displaying files in low res that are
more than 40 characters wide; it breaks them at the 40th column,
usually in the middle of a word, and loses the line count so that
up to forty half-lines may scroll off the screen without being
read. To make matters worse, a text file in the wrong format
(such as from ST Writer) just keeps scrolling on by. Runner's
file view fixes all these problems, and lets you move backward
through the a file as well.
* Programs can be "installed" so that clicking on one of their
document or data files in the file selector will cause the program
to be run. The name of the data file is passed to the program so
it can be automatically loaded if the program supports this.
* If you use an advanced file selector like Universal Item
Selector (UIS III) from Application and Design Software, all of its
capabilities will be available. UIS III (from Application and
Design Software), for example, lets you rename, copy, delete,
print and move files, as well as format disks. You will not need
to exit to the desktop for these functions.
* Runner will use any Degas-compatible picture as a background
display. Pictures for the current resolution can be loaded on
startup or after Runner is running. If memory is short, a picture
can be unloaded to free up 32,000 bytes. Template "guide" files
are included to help you design your own background scenes.
* Desk Accessories are also available while in Runner. Due to
some insurmountable quirks in GFA BASIC (or is it GEM?), the
accessory interface is a bit strange but it's there....
* Runner's menu lists can be saved any time, loaded on startup or
loaded from within Runner. You can have different "configuration"
files (containing different menu lists and color selections) for
different purposes, if desired.
* The palette used for running programs can be selected to be the
desktop colors, the colors last saved in RUNNER.CFG, colors used
for viewing text files, or the colors of whatever picture file is
loaded at the time. This palette selection does not affect the
displayed picture (unless you want it to).
* <[This feature removed in version 1.30: Runner will not permit a
bad selection of colors to make text unreadable. If a picture
file is loaded that would make the text and background colors too
close, Runner changes the text color.]> -- Since Runner lets you
change colors easily, if text becomes unreadable you can fix it
yourself (hold down Control or Alternate and press G, then press 0
on the keypad, and R, G or B until you can read the text -- color
changes are described in more detail later).
Contents
The RUNNER14.ARC file or Runner disk contains the following files:
RUNNER.PRG - the Runner program file
READ_ME.TXT - quick start notes for the impatient
RUNNER.HLP - displayed by pressing the HELP key from Runner's
main menu; you may want to print it as well
RUNNER.DOC - the file you are reading
RUNNER.PI1 - sample picture file for low resolution
RUNNER.PI2 - sample picture file for medium resolution
RUNNER.PI3 - sample picture file for high resolution
RUNNER.CFG - sample configuration file (note: unless your
hard disk is set up exactly like mine, you
cannot access programs from the menus in this
file -- it's just included so you can get an
idea how I use Runner every day)
GUIDE.PI1 - Template for designing low res pictures
GUIDE.PI2 - Template for designing medium res pictures
GUIDE.PI3 - Template for designing high res pictures
MINI_RUN.TTP - Only for registered users who contribute at
least $10.00 and a returnable disk
RCONVERT.PRG - Converts older RUNNER.CFG files for use with
newer versions (1.40 or higher) of Runner
WORMS.PI1 - Another background picture for low res to show
a rather extreme use of animation
WORMS.CF1 - Picture configuration file loaded with WORMS.PI1
Installation
Runner can be installed in a variety of ways. The RUNNER.PRG file
can go almost anywhere except an AUTO folder. When you start
Runner, it searches for a file called RUNNER.CFG (use mine as an
example, or create a new one from scratch within Runner using the
Save command). The search sequence for RUNNER.CFG is:
1. in the current directory (folder), where RUNNER.PRG is
2. in the root directory (outside all folders) of the current disk
(the disk RUNNER.PRG was loaded from)
3. in a folder in the root directory of the current disk called
Runner (ex: D:\RUNNER\)
If RUNNER.CFG is found, that directory (folder) is assumed to be
Runner's "home" directory. Whenever you save or load a
configuration file or load a picture file, Runner takes you to
that directory by default. If RUNNER.CFG is NOT found, then the
root directory of the current drive becomes Runner's home
directory.
If you have MINI_RUN.TTP, it MUST also be placed in this home
directory. It's a small file, so don't worry.
After loading (or failing to find) RUNNER.CFG, Runner next looks
for a picture file to load from Runner's home directory. The
names for these auto-loading picture files are:
RUNNER.PI1 for low resolution
RUNNER.PI2 for medium resolution
RUNNER.PI3 for high resolution
Use the pictures included with Runner (who knows what possessed me
to paint them....), or use the guide pictures
to create your own. The names above are used for automatically
loading a background picture. If Runner cannot find the
appropriate file for the current resolution, no picture is loaded.
Note: if you hold down the Alternate or Control key when Runner
starts, Runner will not look for a picture file to load. Any
Degas-compatible (uncompressed) picture can be loaded later from
within Runner.
I have Runner set up for my system as follows:
Top (root) directory
of drive D: Runner's "home" directory:
D:\RUNNER.PRG D:\RUNNER\RUNNER.CFG
D:\RUNNER\RUNNER.PI1
D:\RUNNER\RUNNER.PI2
D:\RUNNER\RUNNER.PI3
D:\RUNNER\RUNNER.HLP
D:\RUNNER\MINI_RUN.TTP
RUNNER.PRG is in the root directory of drive D: (outside of any
folders). RUNNER.CFG and the picture files RUNNER.PIx are stored
in a folder called Runner which appears in the window when drive
D: is opened from the desktop (it's a folder within the root
directory of drive D:). MINI_RUN.TTP is also in this directory.
D:\RUNNER\ is considered to be Runner's home directory in my
setup.
There are lots of options. You may want to install RUNNER.PRG in
the Install Applications menu from the desktop, and set it to
start Runner for filetypes of ".RUN". Then put a file called
RUNNER.RUN in any directory where you want to run Runner, and it
can be started by clicking on RUNNER.RUN. If RUNNER.PRG is not in
the root directory of the drive you are using, you may want to
edit the DESKTOP.INF file. Change the line that says RUNNER.PRG
to include the full path and drive for the program, such as
D:\UTILITY\RUNNER\RUNNER.PRG. This is something GEM should do for
you, but it's not a difficult fix to make. Be sure when saving
DESKTOP.INF to save it with Word Processing mode OFF or as an
ASCII file. And make a backup copy of DESKTOP.INF just to be
safe. This change will not be available to you until you until
you reset your computer.
For floppy disks, you may want a Runner disk with all the Runner
files in the root directory. This disk must be in the drive
whenever you ask for help (or else your help request will be
ignored). On a two drive system you can keep MINI_RUN.TTP in the
drive where Runner started, and put application disks in drive B.
Or, place Mini-Run in the root directory of your application disks
in drive A (assuming you started Runner so that RUNNER.CFG was in
the root directory of drive A). Then Mini-Run will be found and
can load your application. Be sure to replace your Runner disk in
drive A before exiting the application. Of course, if you don't
use Mini-Run then you don't need to mess with any of this....
I use HeadStart (version 1.1) from Codehead Software to start
Runner whenever my ST is turned on. A file called HEADSTRT.DAT
goes in the root directory of my C: drive, and HEADST11.PRG is in
the AUTO folder of the C: drive. HEADSTRT.DAT contains the line:
D:\RUNNER.PRG
HeadStart reads its data file, and loads Runner after the desktop
appears. I no longer need to open any desktop windows at all!
To make life simple while you're first trying Runner, just put all
the Runner files in the same directory (folder) or in the root
directory of some floppy disk or hard drive partition. Since
Runner first checks the directory it was started from for these
files, it will find them!
The only * required * files needed are RUNNER.PRG and your
RUNNER.CFG file, although you may want the RUNNER.HLP file for on-
line help, MINI_RUN.TTP to save space for larger programs, and
your favorite background picture files....
At this point, you should go ahead and start Runner. I'll assume
you are not using my sample RUNNER.CFG file, although it won't get
in the way if you are.
Running Runner
Double-click on RUNNER.PRG to start the program. Hold down the
Alternate key as Runner starts if you do not want it to load a
picture file. Runner will determine where its "home" directory
is, and load a RUNNER.CFG file or background picture as
appropriate.
In the main screen you will see the program title ("Mr. Dave's
Runner" - don't worry, you can change it!) and a line that reads
"Exit Runner". Click on this line to exit the program; an alert
box will pop up asking you if you do indeed wish to exit. For
now, click on Runner to return to the program.
NOTE: Many of the functions in Runner have an alternate way to use
them. To access these alternate functions (as described in lots
of places below), hold down the Alternate key when pressing the
appropriate key or mouse button. Then release the Alternate key.
The Control key can always be used instead of the Alternate key if
that's easier for you to reach. The Shift keys are NEVER needed
or used except when accessing the alternate set of QuickKeys.
File Selector Access
Click on the title line to access a file selector box. This can
be handy if you want to see what's on a disk, since a file
selector displays the filenames and folders. This can be even
handier if you're using Universal Item Selector, since now you
have access to Copy, Move, Delete, Rename, Format and Print
capabilities, among others. If you click on Cancel or OK without
selecting a file, the file selector goes away and you're back in
Runner. Note: you can also access a file selector by pressing the
SPACE bar on the keyboard.
If, from the file selector, you select a program file (ending in
.PRG, .TTP or .TOS), Runner will attempt to run that program.
Runner asks you for a command line for .TTP programs. When you
exit the program, the item selector will appear again. Hold down
Alternate or Control to skip the file selector and return straight
back to Runner's menu screen.
If you select any other file, Runner will display it on the screen
as text (a nice enhancement would be to display graphics files as
pictures, but that's a lot of extra overhead in the program,
especially considering all the different picture types and
compression methods in use). Press the left mouse button, down
arrow, or the SPACE key to continue after the screen fills. Press
the right mouse button, up arrow, or the B (as in Back) key to go
back to previous screens. Press both mouse buttons, Return, Undo
or Q to quit the file view at any time. When you quit the file
view, the file selector will appear again. Hold down Alternate or
Control when quitting to skip the file selector and return to
Runner's menu screen.
If you want to run a program with Mini-Run from the file selector
you have two choices. Press the Esc key before going to the file
selector. "MINI_RUN" will replace the time or date displayed in
the upper right screen corner (press Esc again to turn this off
and disable Mini-Run). Then, the next program selected will be
run by Mini-Run. The other method is to hold down Alternate or
Control when selecting the program. Hold one of these keys until
the program begins to load from the disk.
If you click on a data file for an installed application
(described below), that application will load and use the selected
file. For example, clicking on HI_MOM.DOC in the file selector
would load Word Writer on my computer, and my letter to Mom would
be loaded into Word Writer for me. To simply view a data file
that would otherwise cause its application to load, hold down
Alternate or Control when selecting it. Since this bypasses an
installed application there is no way to force Mini-Run to run an
installed application with Alternate or Control; you'll have to
press Esc as mentioned above.
GEM Menu Bar
That's it for the file selector; but there are lots of goodies in
the menu bar at the top of the screen. Notice that when you move
the mouse into the menu bar, the arrow turns into a pointing hand.
While the hand is visible, you cannot select anything EXCEPT
what's in the GEM menus. Press the left mouse button to change
the hand back to an arrow.
Desk - About....
Under Desk you will find About....; click on it to see my name,
Runner's version number, and the approximate amount of free RAM
(Runner uses lots of stuff internally that gets cleared before a
program is run, and there's no good way to tell exactly how much
space will be available to the program -- this estimate may be off
by several K bytes).
Desk - Use accessories
Click on Use Accessories to get to any of the shaded desk
accessories in the Desk menu. The screen will clear and a single
Desk menu will appear. Accessories can be freely used now,
although many of them leave behind "holes" in the screen
(depending on your color choices). Under the Desk menu, the
second item is now called End Accessories. Click on this to quit
using accessories and get back to the Runner program.
File
The File menu contains Load, Save, Install, Background and Fix
options. Note that Quit is not available here as it is in most
File menus. Exit Runner is available from the top level Runner
menu or by pressing the Undo key.
File - Load config
Load lets you load RUNNER.CFG. It starts in Runner's home
directory, but you can change to another directory or load a
different configuration file from the file selector box that
appears. There is no warning to save any changes you may have
made to the configuration in memory, so be careful. Loading a new
.CFG file will replace anything already in memory except the
picture. Clicking on Cancel in the file selector box will stop
the load operation.
File - Save config
Save lets you preserve your current setup for the next time you
run Runner. Program configurations and descriptions, menus, menu
structures, initial and text color palettes and the main title are
all saved in the configuration file (as well as lots of other
stuff). Use RUNNER.CFG if you want that configuration to be auto-
loaded the next time you start Runner, or give it another name if
you choose. "File - Load config" lists all files in Runner's home
directory that end with ".CFG", so you should use this extension
for any configuration files you save. Clicking on Cancel in the
file selector box will stop the save operation.
Note: File - Save may also create a picture configuration file
recording any changes in menu list position, menu space attributes
(how much of the underlying background picture is blanked out by
spaces around the menu), and background picture palette if you
have changed any of these since loading the picture. These files
have the same name as the current picture in memory, but with a
file extension of .CF1, .CF2 or .CF3 to match the picture's
resolution. If you loaded MOUNTAIN.PI1, File - Save might create
a MOUNTAIN.CF1 picture configuration file. If you want to force
the save of a picture configuration file without updating the
RUNNER.CFG file on your disk, hold down Alternate or Control when
selecting any .CFG file.
Safety Feature: Both Runner configuration and picture
configuration files are saved using this procedure:
1. Create ".TMP" filename (ex: MYCONFIG.CFG becomes MYCONFIG.TMP)
2. Write file to disk using ".TMP" filename
3. If successful:
3a. Delete any file matching desired save name (ex: MYCONFIG.CFG)
3b. Rename ".TMP" file to desired name (ex: MYCONFIG.CFG)
If a save is NOT successful (disk full or other problems) then
your original file is not changed in any way. You may want to
erase any ".TMP" files Runner creates, although they won't cause
any problems for Runner. There is no good way to check disk space
requirements for saving a file without a lot of extra code in
memory. If you try to save a file and fail, you can always return
to Runner and try again to save the file to a different disk.
File - Install apps
Install lets you install applications in Runner, similar to the
GEM desktop's Install Applications concept. Up to 16 applications
can be installed so that they can be run by clicking on a data or
document file they use from within the file selector. As
described earlier, you might install Word Writer to be triggered
by any file ending with ".DOC". Then, by clicking on "HI_MOM.DOC"
in the file selector, Word Writer will be run and will
automatically load your letter to mom for editing or printing.
Some programs do not expect to get a filename so they won't load
the selected file; they can still be started by clicking on a file
with an extension you specify.
The install screen lists all 16 applications. Press a letter key
from A to P to select one to add or change. Enter the file
extension you want recognized, such as "DOC" or "ARC" or "LZH".
Then a file selector lets you tell which program will handle that
type of file. Hold down Alternate or Control when selecting the
program to force it to be run from Mini-Run every time it's
needed. Press any mouse button or key (besides A through P) to
exit the install screen. The installed application list is stored
in RUNNER.CFG.
If you want an installed program to always be run from Mini-Run,
simply hold down Alternate or Control when you select the
application from the file selector in the Install screen. The
symbol "(M)" appears next to all applications that will use Mini-
Run.
One more note on the Install screen - you can enter wildcards in
file extensions to trigger an application from more than one file
type. A "?" replaces one character, and a "*" replaces all
characters from that spot to the end. For example, "PI?" can mean
"PI1", "PI2" and "PI3" (but also "PIC"). Don't get carried away
with using "P*" to represent all picture files; it may seem
reasonable but then your paint program will also be started
whenever you select any .PRG file from the file selector! You can
install the same application more than once, so "PI?" and "PC?"
will get all Degas-compatible pictures. Just install your paint
program twice, once with each extension.
File - Background
Background lets you load and unload pictures. If no picture is in
memory, a file selector will appear showing all the .PIx files for
the current resolution in Runner's home directory. Use the file
selector box to move to another disk or directory if needed.
Select the picture you want, and it will become the background for
Runner's screen. If a picture is already displayed when you
select Background, you will be asked if you want to load another
picture or unload the one you've got. Unloading a picture frees
32,000 bytes of memory for larger applications. Loading a new
picture replaces the old one and brings in the color palette for
the new picture. Clicking on Cancel from the file selector box
will stop the picture load operation and leave the current picture
(if any) in memory. If a picture has an associated picture
configuration file (.CF1, .CF2 or .CF3 extension), it will be
loaded along with the picture.
Note that if the color registers used for the background color and
the text color have color values that are too close, you may not
be able to read text on the screen. You'll need to change colors.
This is described in detail below, but for now hold Control (or
Alternate) and press G to make the background palette the current
colors. Press 0 on the numeric keypad to select the background
color, and press R, G or B to change the background colors. Now
you should be able to see what you are doing. You'll need to
change the picture's palette with a paint program to make the
change permanent.
File - Fix (re-run)
This command lets you "fix" Runner when an unruly application
messes it up. Fix simply reloads Runner, but this is often enough
to solve most problems. For example, after running ST Writer,
Runner has serious problems with clearing inverse video colors and
restoring what the mouse covered. After spending hours searching
for a solution (to absolutely no avail) I realized that other
applications might cause different problems, and that Runner's
size would grow considerably if code had to be added to handle any
condition. Fix is clean and simple.... Running a program
through Mini-Run should also isolate most problems from Runner.
Lest you think that these problems are common, I should point out
that the ONLY two problem programs I've seen are ST Writer and
Word Writer (which forgets to clear its buttons from memory - they
get redrawn even after exiting Word Writer). I regularly use GFA
BASIC, Laser C, Degas Elite, Spectrum 512, DO-IT!, Turbo ST, Atari
Planetarium, Flash, Real Time, Fontrix, and several other programs
and games with no problems! The only programs I've found that do
not work with Runner, other than self-booting games, are Diablo
and MidiDraw from Intelligent Music (these don't seem to work any
time my Atari SH-204 hard drive is running, whether or not Runner
is in use).
Menus
The Menus menu contains add Program, add Menu, Drop, Change,
Restore and Show quickkeys. This is where you change Runner's
program menus to contain the programs you use most often.
Menus - add Program
Add Program displays a file selector box. Select a .PRG, .APP,
.TTP or .TOS file from any disk or directory, or select cancel if
you decide not to add a new program after all. Note that if you
already have fifteen programs or menu names in the list displayed
on the screen, Add Program will do nothing. In this case you must
first remove something, or move to another menu. If you select a
program file, a dialogue box will appear with a default program
name and other default settings for the program. Use the
BACKSPACE key, letters, numbers, spaces or other symbols to change
the description if you want; this is what you'll see from Runner's
screen. The Esc key erases the description. If no description is
entered, the default name will be used. Use the left mouse button
to click on the options in the box. They are:
Low Res - a check mark means the program will appear on menus
while in low resolution.
Med Res - same as Low Res, but for Medium Resolution.
High Res - same as Low Res, but for High Resolution (mono).
Use Mini-Run - whenever this program is run, Mini-Run will be
activated. For large programs like REAL TIME, CAD 3D, or
desktop publishing, you may always want to use Mini-Run.
Hold Screen - this is the default for .TTP programs. If a
check mark appears here, Runner will prompt for a key
press or mouse button click before clearing the screen
and returning to Runner's screen when a program exits.
Low or Med - the check mark always appears here because one
of these options is always selected. Clicking here
cycles from "Low or Med" (program will run in either low
or medium res, whatever mode the computer is in),
"Low to Med" (forces programs in low resolution to run in
a medium res screen), to "Med to Low" (forces programs in
medium res to run in a low res screen) and back to
"Low or Med". This is a way to fool GEM into displaying
the desired resolution, but the mouse control or other
things may not be what you expect. These options can be
useful, but try them to be sure they work for a given
program.
When you have the dialogue box set the way you want it, press
RETURN or click the right mouse button. Any changes will be
remembered. Note that there is no UNDO capability; there are not
that many options and they're easy to fix if you should mix things
up. Your program will now appear in Runner's menu (if you
configured it to run in the current resolution). You cannot
prevent a program from appearing in all three resolutions at the
same time; Runner may surprise you with some clicks on the
resolution options because it wants at least one resolution
available. Note: if you disable a program from the resolution
you're currently using, it will NOT appear on the menu when you
exit the Description dialog box. Press the Tab key to show items
from other resolutions; press Tab again to hide them.
Menus - add Menu
Adding a menu works the same as adding a program, except that you
skip the file selection process and go straight to the same
dialogue box. The Hold Screen, Use Mini-Run and resolution
forcing options don't have any effect on Menus, but to save memory
the same dialogue box is used for both menus and programs. Don't
worry about it. You CAN select the resolution(s) for which a menu
should be available. If you leave the description empty, no menu
is added. As for programs, if you already have fifteen programs
or menus displayed, Add Menu has no effect. Menus can be nested,
that is, a menu list can contain menus which can, in turn, contain
more menus. Simply click on Add Menu while you're inside another
menu, and the new menu will be nested inside the current menu.
Menus can be nested in this fashion up to maximum of fifteen
levels deep, probably more than you could ever use. Since one
purpose of Runner is to avoid all the folder searching that goes
on from the Desktop, you may want to use as few menus as
necessary. This is still easier than on the desktop since you're
only dealing with program names and don't need a separate menu to
group together all the .RSC, data, font files and anything else
needed for a program. Folders continue to do this quite well.
Menus - Change
Change lets you change the configuration for any program or menu.
When you click on Change, a prompt at the top of the screen tells
you to select a menu or program that you want to change. Use the
mouse to pick a program or menu, and the same dialogue box appears
that you used when the program or menu was first added. Change
the description or any of the other options, and press Return or
the right mouse button when finished. When the "Select to Change"
prompt is visible, clicking the left mouse button away from the
programs, menus and GEM menu bar will exit the change prompt.
If you select the title line for Change, you can change Runner's
main title. This title only appears on Runner's top level menu
(the one you see when Runner starts). On lower level menus the
name of the menu appears instead. Click on any of these titles to
change the main title. The new title is saved to disk when you
save a configuration file. Add your own name or whatever you
like!
It's possible to change (and Drop - see the next section on
Menus - Drop) programs or menus that appear only in a
resolution you're not in at the time. Press the Tab key to show
ALL programs and menus; a "registered" symbol ("R" inside a
circle) appears in front of anything you normally can't see in the
current resolution. These menus or programs can now be changed or
dropped normally. Press Tab again to hide items from the wrong
resolution.
Menus - Drop
Drop lets you delete a program or menu from the display. It DOES
NOT change the programs on disk. Drop is similar to Change.
Click on Drop and a prompt appears telling you to select a program
or menu to drop. Click on the program or menu you no longer want
in the list. If you drop a menu, EVERYTHING in the menu is droped
as well -- all its programs and menus. Remember that none of your
changes are permanent until you save this new configuration back
to disk with the Save command in the Files menu. The Tab key (see
above section on Menus - Change) is also useful with Drop.
Menus - Restore
When you Drop a menu or program name from a menu list, it goes
into a "drop buffer". Selecting Restore brings it back, and
inserts it into whatever menu list you're looking at. This lets
you move menus or programs around in your lists, or recall
something tou dropped by accident. Drop and Restore can also be
used to place an old RUNNER.CFG menu list in alphabetic order:
drop items out of order and restore them to the same menu. They
will be inserted in the correct spot. Note that the contents of a
menu that is dropped are also restored with it, so whole menus can
be moved wherever you like. Also note: there is only one drop
buffer; when you drop a second item it clears the old information
from the drop buffer first.
Menus - QuickKeys show/hide
This option lets you display a list of QuickKeys assignments
instead of the normal Runner menus. Programs in the list can be
selected for running as usual, and the Change option works also.
Programs Dropped from the QuickKeys list are not dropped from your
normal menus, they are simply deassigned from the corresponding
QuickKey. Restore is disabled in the QuickKeys list, and new
QuickKeys cannot be added. Selecting this option a second time
returns to the normal menu display. Holding down BOTH mouse
buttons works the same as selecting this option (except in file
view, where BOTH buttons exits file view). To view the list of
alternate QuickKeys, hold down Alternate or Control when
requesting the list (either Shift will also show the alternate
list, which makes some amountof sense since you need Shift with
the QuickKey to run a program in the alternate list).
Menus - White/black (high res only)
On monochrome systems, Menus also contains White/black. Click on
White/black to reverse the screen colors. Hold down Alternate or
Control when you do this to keep the change for the current
picture (in memory only -- the picture's disk file is never
changed). The color selected will be used for running programs.
If a picture is displayed, the color used to run programs is
displayed for a second or so (busy bee time) then the picture
color returns.
Color (color systems only)
The color menu lets you select which palette you want to see when
a program runs. If no picture is loaded, palette changes affect
Runner's screen as well. If a picture is loaded, a new palette is
displayed only briefly, then the picture's palette is restored.
This lets you use a reasonable palette for running programs while
displaying a picture that uses colors too disgusting for most
programs. If you want to change the palette used for displaying
the picture, hold down the Alternate or Control key when selecting
a different palette. You can always restore the picture's
original palette by selecting Picture, or by selecting another
palette without holding down Alternate.
Four palettes are available:
Initial - the palette loaded from Runner's configuration file
Desktop - the colors in the desktop before Runner was started
Picture - the colors from the last picture loaded into Runner
Text - the palette used for viewing files from the file
selector
Runner uses the concept of the "Current Palette". The Current
Palette is the set of colors Runner switches to when running a
program. It is a copy of one of the other palettes (you can
select which one from the menu bar -- it always starts out as a
copy of the Initial Palette). If no picture is loaded then the
Current Palette is used for Runner's screen as well. If a picture
IS loaded, its palette normally overrides the Current Palette
while the picture is visible, but the Current Palette is still
used when running programs (you normally don't want your picture's
colors when running your word processor). If a palette is
selected with Alternate or Control depressed, then the picture is
displayed using the Current Palette.
The Current Palette in effect when you save a configuration file
becomes the Initial Palette the next time that configuration file
is loaded. A separate Initial Palette is maintained for each
resolution. A single Text Palette is also saved in your config
file and shared by all resolutions.
Runner Version 1.30 added support for changing the Current Palette
from within Runner. When viewing files from the file selector,
only the text palette is changed. From Runner's main screen, any
of the palettes can be changed, but they must be made the Current
Palette by selecting them in the Color menu. To change colors
within the Current Palette, simply select the color register you
want to change on the keypad.
This diagram shows each key and +------+------+------+------+
the number appearing on it, with | ( 10 | ) 11 | / 12 | * 13 |
the color register (r0, r1 and +------+------+------+------+
so on up through 15). Background | 7 r7 | 8 r8 | 9 r9 | - 14 |
is always register 0. Text color +------+------+------+------+
varies with resolution. In high | 4 r4 | 5 r5 | 6 r6 | + 15 |
res (mono) it's determined by +------+------+------+------+
the background color (reg.0). In | 1 r1 | 2 r2 | 3 r3 | |
medium res, register 3 controls +------+------+------+ Enter|
text color, while 1 and 2 are for | 0 r0 | | |
any other colors. In low res, +-------------+------+------+
register 15 (the + key) controls
text color. Since only one text palette is used for all three
resolutions, careful use of registers 0 and 3 should give you a
readable combination (medium res is forced for file viewing from
low res, so register 3 affects text color for both low and medium
res when viewing files from the file selector). Register 2 is
left behind by some desk accessories when they exit; set register
2 to the same value as register 0 to avoid these holes in the
screen.
Once you have selected a color register, press the R, G and B keys
to change the color. With Shift, this keys increase the Red,
Green and Blue content. Without Shift, they decrease it. The
color value is displayed (for example, 777 for a bright white).
Increasing R, G, or B when it's already at 7 wraps it around to 0,
and decreasing from 0 wraps around to 7. Another color register
can also be selected by pressing another keypad key. When all the
colors are set the way you like, press Enter or Return to accept
them. Press Esc instead if you don't want to keep the changes.
Colors changed in this manner from Runner's main screen become the
new Current Palette. If you Save the current setup, these colors
will be reloaded from RUNNER.CFG as the Initial Palette. Colors
changed when viewing a file from the file selector (or by pressing
the Help key to view the help file) are remembered as the Text
Palette. If you saved your setup in RUNNER.CFG the Text Palette
will have these new colors the next time you load Runner.
If you change the background picture palette, the new colors will
be remembered in a picture configuration file on the next Save
command.
The Main Screen
Once you have your program and menu lists, and any other
attributes (time/date display, menu position, etc.) set up the way
you want, you should save a configuration file. Runner is fairly
good at recovering from problems in programs it calls, such as too
little memory or other errors, but problems within a called
program may cause a system lockup or other problem preventing you
from saving a configuration later.
Now you can try running programs and selecting menus. Move the
mouse over any program or menu name and left-click one time. A
program name will run the corresponding program. A menu name will
cause the contents of that menu to be displayed. From a nested
menu, click on the "Up One Level" line to return to the "parent"
menu. At the top level menu, this line says "Exit Runner". An
alert box makes sure you really do want to exit, so there is no
danger of clicking on the Up One Level line too many times. As a
shortcut, a click of the right mouse button will take you
immediately to the top level menu.
If you want to force a program to be run from Mini-Run, hold down
Alternate or Control when you select it (or press Esc before you
select it).
Keyboard Equivalents
Anything you can do with a mouse in Runner can be done without a
mouse as well (in fact, there are some things you can't do with
the mouse). If your mouse should die, something in the ST lets
you use the arrow keys to move the mouse pointer. Press Alternate
and the arrows to move in any direction. Alternate and Insert are
like pressing the left mouse button, and Alternate and Clr Home
give a right mouse click. For finer positioning use Shift
Alternate and the arrow keys.
Runner improves on this basic idea: you can also use the up and
down arrow keys without Alternate to move the mouse up an down in
menu lists. A right arrow selects a program to run or menu to
open, and a left arrow moves up one menu level. Insert acts like
a left mouse click and Clr Home acts like a right mouse click.
In addition, Runner supports keyboard equivalents for almost every
action. In the GEM menu bar, there is always one upper case
letter for each action. Press that key as a shortcut:
A - About RUNNER U - Use accessories
L - Load RUNNER.CFG S - Save RUNNER.CFG
I - Install applications B - Background load/clear
F - Fix RUNNER P - add Program
M - add Menu C - Change prog/menu
D - Drop prog/menu R - Restore prog/menu
Q - QuickKeys Show/Hide W - White/black (mono)
N - iNitial palette K - desKtop palette
G - backGround palette T - Text palette
Several other keys are important to Runner (this info is available
by pressing the Help key if RUNNER.HLP is in home directory):
Help - views the file RUNNER.HLP
Undo - quick exit from Runner - dialog box makes sure.
Esc - runs next program from Mini-Run. Esc again turns this off.
The words "MINI_RUN" appear in upper right corner when enabled.
Tab - displays ALL programs and menus in list, regardless of
current resolution. This lets you Change or Remove programs
without switching resolution. Tab again to hide items for
wrong resolution. The "registered" symbol (an "R" within a
circle) appears next to all programs or menus not normally
visible in the current resolution. Think of the "R" as a
Resolution warning.
Backspace - switches display in upper right corner between 12-hour
time, 24-hour time, and current date (MM/DD/YY). If Mini-Run
is enabled, date or time is replaced by "MINI_RUN".
Space - displays file selector. Programs selected will be run,
other files will be viewed unless they are for an installed
application (then it will run and load the file).
Return - selects program to run or menu to open.
Keypad - 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,(,),/,*,-,+ select color registers
to change. Enter normally works as Return.
X - swaps previous path used in file selector with current path;
press X before going to file selector with Space.
; - changes menu background space display. Try this with a
picture displayed to see what it does. Pressing ";" key
cycles between each of three display modes.
< - moves menu left one space; press rapidly (but do not hold
down) to move several spaces without waiting for redraw.
> - moves menu right one space (see "<").
/ - centers menu on screen (default position).
H - hide text - lets you see whole picture. Move mouse or press a
key (it will be ignored) to restore screen.
Z - zaps (hides) text and picture to blank out screen (see "H").
The E, J, O, V and Y keys are not currently used!
QuickKeys
You can assign up to eighteen keys to run programs you access
frequently. They are run exactly as if you had selected them from
the menu (you can even force Mini-Run to run them by holding
Control or Alternate as you press the QuickKey, or press Esc
before pressing the QuickKey). The F10 key is used to clear or
assign a QuickKey. Press F10, and a prompt asks you select a
program. Selecting a menu here will open the menu. Once a
program is selected, another prompt lists the QuickKeys still
available. If the program you selected had a QuickKey assigned,
this will automatically clear the QuickKey from that program.
Now press a function key (F1 through F9) to assign a QuickKey to
the program you selected. Pressing F10 exits without assigning
any keys (if, for example, you simply wanted to clear a key from a
program). Only unassigned keys can be selected. If none are
available, you'll have to clear (or drop) one somewhere else
(press F10, select a program with a QuickKey you want to re-
assign, then press F10 again).
The menu list will be redrawn, and the program you selected will
have a number (1-9) in front of it to remind you of the QuickKey
assignment. If you assigned F3 to Word Writer, for example, a "3"
appears in the menu left of "Word Writer". Press F3 to load and
run Word Writer.
An alternate set of QuickKeys is available for a total of eighteen
QuickKeys. Press Shift-F10 to assign or clear from the alternate
set, and press Shift-F1 through Shift-F9 to select the key and to
run the assigned program. The number (1-9) is displayed using the
"computer font" numbers so you can tell which QuickKeys are which
in your menus.
QuickKey assignments can be viewed in place of the normal Runner
menus by selecting "QuickKeys show" from the "Menus" menu in the
Gem menu bar, or by pressing the "Q" key, or by pressing BOTH
mouse buttons. Any of these actions return to the normal Runner
menu lists, or you can select "Return to Menus" at the top of the
QuickKeys list. To view the alternate set, hold down Control or
Alternate (or either Shift) when requesting the QuickKeys list.
When the QuickKeys list is displayed, you can run any of the
programs as if you were in Runner's usual menus, with mouse or
arrow keys and Return. You can use the Change command to modify
any program attributes. Drop works differently: here it only
clears a QuickKey assignment (the program dissappears from the
QuickKeys list, but is not dropped from Runner's normal menus).
Restore is disabled, and you cannot add programs or menus or
assign QuickKeys here (how would you pick a program to assign?).
Don't forget that programs set not to appear in menus in the
current resolution will not appear in QuickKeys lists either,
unless (as usual) you press the TAB key.
MINI-RUN
If you have MINI_RUN.TTP it should be placed in Runner's home
directory (see above (way above)). Mini-Run is easy to use!
Simply press ESC in Runner before selecting a program to run (the
words "MINI-RUN" appear in place of the clock display; press ESC
again to clear them). Or, you can hold down Alternate or Control
when you select a program to run (but this doesn't work when
running a program by selecting its data file). You can also set a
program to ALWAYS use Mini-Run when you first place it in a menu,
or with the Menus-Change menu command. For installed
applications, hold down Alternate or Control when selecting the
application from the file selector and an "(M)" appears in the
installed application list indicating that program will use Mini-
Run. You'll need to re-install the application to clear this.
Note that installed applications are NOT related to other programs
in Runner menus, even if the same program appears both places.
Settings in the Program Description dialog box do not affect
installed applications.
Mini-Run, when used, displaces Runner from memory and then loads
whatever program you selected from Runner, giving it far more
memory than possible from Runner alone. If you load a large
program from Mini-Run you will have time to read the version
number and registration number of your copy (these are needed in
any correspondence for registered users). There are no other
options for Mini-Run until you exit the application you loaded
with it. If it was a .TTP program, or you selected "Hold Screen"
in the Program Description dialog box, then Mini-Run will prompt
you to hit the SPACE key before returning to Runner. Almost any
key will work here, but pressing ESC will exit Mini-Run wihtout
loading Runner.
When exiting other programs, if you hold down Alternate or
Control, Mini-Run will not reload Runner and will exit back to the
desktop. For programs like Word Writer, where you can exit with a
command such as Alternate-Q, you need to be quick to release the
Alternate key or Mini-Run will act on it.
If you are running from floppy disks, Mini-Run will look for
Runner in the same drive and directory from where it originally
loaded. If it can't find it, you'll get a chance to insert
another disk and try again by pressing SPACE. If you would rather
exit here, press ESC.
If all this sounds complex, don't worry. Mini-Run is very simple
to use; you won't even notice it on a hard drive once you've used
it a few times....
Other Stuff
Runner contains only one error message, and it's used no matter
what the problem is. This is better than crashing over small
problems, and I felt it better than using lots of memory to
diagnose and report various problems. If you see the error
message (something general like "Bad Drive, Path or Other Error"),
you can choose to return to Runner or exit to the desktop.
For some reason beyond my understanding, a program cannot be run
from Runner if the program file is locked (set for Read Only). If
you have trouble loading a program, check for this using the
File/Show Info function from the desktop. Runner does NOT write
to any files other than RUNNER.CFG and filename.CFx (picture
configuration files where filename is the picture's name and
x=1,2,3). Trust me!
The template files, called GUIDE.PI1, GUIDE.PI2 and GUIDE.PI3 are
ready to load into Degas Elite or any other program that accepts
the Degas file format. They mark where Runner displays its menus.
The Grey areas are used by Runner (you can put stuff there, but
Runner may cover it from time to time). The black borders are not
part of the area used by Runner. The red lines (in GUIDE.PI3, the
fuzzy markers) are used to verify the location of the lines. A
red line segment appears on each side of the black border lines.
Runner should never cover more than the inside red line segment
(or the inside edge of the fuzzy markers). A calibration guide of
sorts.... Color 3 is used for menu text in low res and 15 in
medium res, and the opposite of color 0 is used in monochrome.
Special thanks to David Lindsley for some good ideas on this
one....
One last note about GFA BASIC: I spent a great deal of time
working around problems in detecting mouse clicks in the GEM menu
bar rather then on the underlying screen (for example, when a pull
down menu overlaps the title line, and you click on Add Menu but
instead get the file selector box called by clicking on the title
line). GFA works reasonably well if everything is done inside a
window and you rely on GFA's internal commands for detecting mouse
presses, keypresses and so on. The problem then is that GFA does
all this too s-l-o-w-l-y to be usable, and has real problems
registering mouse clicks consistently. The language has a lot
going for it, and is clearly up the required level of performance,
but NOT if you go "by the book." If anyone else out there has
found better solutions (other than switching to C), please let me
know. I could cut out a lot of silly code that tracks the same
things GEM must track internally.
If you have trouble with mouse clicks, you should try holding the
mouse down a bit longer. This clears up lots of problems like
going to a new screen and having the mouse select the first thing
it passes over, without a new mouse click. Runner never uses
double clicks, so slow down a bit and it all works better!
I completely gave up trying to tell when -exactly- to set or clear
the inverse display of a program or menu name since GFA gives no
way to tell if a GEM menu is displayed or not. I tried putting in
lots of delays. They kept the screen cleaner but slowed the
program too much and weren't completely or consistently effective
either. You'll have to live with the occaisional characters
staying inverted when they shouldn't until I find a better way (or
a better language). Sorry, but I gave it my best shot. Just run
the mouse over them to clear them if you like.
That about wraps it up for Runner. If you have any suggestions
for additions, or find features you never use that could be
removed, or something doesn't seem to work quite right, then
contact me at the address at the top of this document. If you
use Runner, please send some $'s my way. Remember, if you send
a contribution of $10.00 or more, accompanied by a disk to send
back to you and your return address, I will send you the Mini-Run
program.
If you don't enjoy using your ST, you're not doing it right!
-- Dave Thorson
Products Mentioned (in no particular order):
Atari Planetarium - Atari Font Tricks - Analog Computing
Laser C - Megamax, Inc. Headstart - CodeHead Software
Turbo ST - SofTrek Do-It! - QMI
Word Writer ST - Timeworks ST Writer - Bruce Noonan
Degas Elite / Degas - Batteries Included / Electronic Arts
Universal Item Selector III - Application and Design Software
GFA BASIC 3.0 - GFA Systemtechnik / Michtron / Antic Publishing / ?
RealTime, Diablo, MidiMouse - Intelligent Music / Dr. T's
Flash, CAD 3D, Spectrum 512 - Antic Publishing
Colorburst 3000 - BeerysBit Software