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1996-09-26
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==============================================================
- Watcher V37 - Advanced title bar watcher -
©1993 by HemSoft Developments
- Requires KS 2.04 or higher -
==============================================================
Copyright
---------
Watcher V37 is Copyright by HemSoft Developments. Watcher.LHA
may be distributed freely as long as all the files in the
archive are left intact.
Disclaimer
----------
HemSoft Developments takes no responsibilities for the misuse
of Watcher. The use of Watcher is strictly at your own risk.
Contents
--------
Watcher contains many files, so let me try to give you an
overview of the sub-drawers in this archive:
ARexxScripts
This directory contains examle ARexx scripts for Watcher.
Catalogs
Catalog description and translation files for Watcher. If
you are using V37+ (!) you can use your favourite language!
In the WatcherPrefs utility, you're able to set the langauge
you want to use with Watcher. Currently only english &
danish is supported.
DataTypes
This directory contains PD datatypes for WB 3.0. With these
datatypes installed on your system, you will be able to
display BMP, GIF & PCX pictures from the App Info utility
build into Watcher.
DataTypesFx
This directory contains different pictures in BMP, PCX, GIF,
HAM8 & IFF format.
Gfx
This directory contains the brush used by App Info.
Lib
Special object files used by Watcher.
Libs
V34 amigaguide.library to be used when running V37. This
library is (C)opyright by Commodore Business Machines.
Notes
Watcher related notes.
Prefs/Env-Archive
Example Watcher.prefs to be put in ENVARC: & ENV:.
Sources/Includes
Include files used by the Watcher sources.
Sources/Watcher
Sources for Watcher.
Sources/WatcherPrefs
Sources for WatcherPrefs.
Tools
Tools used when making the Watcher app.
Purpose
-------
I've always been looking for a good title-bar type of program,
which was able to give me the information I needed, meaning
the free space on my harddrive partitions, the available
memory and the system time.
Sure, there are a lot of these programs, but if I finally
found a program I liked, it wasn't font sensitive, or there
were some other tings that were basically wrong. So, I decided
to try and make something better, and hopefully you think I've
succeeded.
Watcher is a little title-bar utility, which can be customized
to contain various information such as the free space on hard
drive partitions, free memory, system time and date etc. It
takes font size and overscan into account when opening it's
window. Watcher can jump between public screens by clicking on
it's Zoom gadget. Furthermore, you are able to modify the
information displayed, by invoking the WatcherPrefs utility,
which should be located in the SYS:Prefs drawer. This utility
lets you customize what Watcher displays and how it should
behave. More on this issue later.
Watcher is also able to monitor the free space of your drives,
and give you an alert whenever the free space goes below a
limit you define. This is especially useful if you're watching
network drives.
SystemListBrowser (SLB) is an utility build into Watcher. When
you activate SLB through the menu, a window pops up containing
a cycle gadget through which you can choose to display Screen,
Library, Device, Task, Port, Resource, Font, Volume and Assign
information in the listview gadget. Clicking on an item in the
listview gives you addtional information on the item in the
list.
App Info is another utility build into Watcher. This is an
AppIcon you can drop files over in order to get information
about the file. It is intented especially to get version
strings from executables, and displaying pictures. App Info is
datatypes aware, which enables it to display pictures of all
formats, as long as you have a corresponding datatype driver
for the specific picture. The datatypes stuff is only valid
when running V39+.
Furthermore, Watcher can be controlled from ARexx through it's
"ARexx interface". Currently the ARexx implementation is
rather limited.
Watcher also registers itself with the Commodities Exhange
system, which means that you can hotkey control it through the
CX_xxx tooltypes. See the RKM Libraries manual for further
information on this subject.
Features:
---------
Watcher knows about:
- AmigaGuide.
- AppIcon.
- Asl Requesters.
- Boopsi.
- ARexx.
- Commodities.
- DataTypes. (V39)
- Gadget help. (V37 compatible)
- Locale (V37 compatible!)
- Menu help.
- NewLook menus. (V39)
- Notification.
- Pooled memory. (V39)
- Public screens.
Installation
------------
Copy Watcher to your SYS:WBStartup drawer, and copy
WatcherPrefs to your SYS:Prefs drawer and you're ready to
roll. You may want to edit the CX_xxx tooltypes of the Watcher
icon to conform to your needs.
!IMPORTANT!
You may NOT invoke WatcherPrefs from within Watcher if you
don't have a ENVARC:/ENV: Watcher.prefs file installed. Due to
a bug (which I can't seem to find) you must first invoke
WatcherPrefs from the Workbench and then save your settings.
After that you can invoke WatcherPrefs from within Watcher if
you like.
Starting Watcher
----------------
Watcher can only be started from the Workbench. You can
customize the behaviour of Watcher from the WatcherPrefs
utility. You can start the WatcherPrefs utility independant of
Watcher, or you can launch it from the menu within Watcher.
WatcherPrefs
------------
WatcherPrefs is the preference editor for Watcher. Here you
can set all the parameters for Watcher. As there is gadget
sensitive on-line help from this program, I'll omit the
documentation of this program. Whenever you're in doubt of
some features in WatcherPrefs, place the mouse pointer of the
gadget in question and press 'HELP'. Also, during menu session
you are able to press 'HELP' to get help on a menu item.
SystemListBrowser:
------------------
In the Utilities menu you'll discover the SystemListBrowser,
which is a utility to list different system information such
as screens, libraries, devices, tasks, message ports and
resources. The cycle gadget in the top lets you toggle between
the differnt system lists. To get more information on an item
in the listview gadget, simply click on the item. The bottom
gadget let's you update the display, since this is not done
automatically.
App Info:
---------
Another utility that can be activated from the Watcher menu is
the 'App Info' utility. This utility puts a Workbench AppIcon
on the Workbench, and is intented to be used with executable
files and pictures (for now).
There are several ways to control App Info. You can double-
click on the AppIcon itself, or you can drop other icons over
it.
If you double-click the AppIcon a requester will appear,
asking you to either Quit App Info entirely, Load a file, or
Cancel. Hitting 'Quit' will remove the AppIcon. Hitting 'Load'
will put up the asl requester, so that you can choose a file
to get information on.
If you select an executable, App Info will try to obtain some
informaton on the executable including the version string.
If you select a picture, and are running V39+ of the OS, App
Info will ask the datatypes system if it know the given
picture type, if it does, App Info will create a datatypes
object in order to get information on the picture file. A
requester is then put up, where you can choose to display the
picture or return. If you display the picture, simply press
any mouse button to return.
ARexx:
------
Watcher has an ARexx port by the name WATCHERx. The first copy
of Watcher you start will have the port name WATCHER1 the next
WATCHER2 etc. This is the port through which you issue ARexx
commands. Currently there are 4 supported commands available:
GETTITLE - Will return the current window contents.
JUMPSCREEN - Will jump to the next public screen (if any).
SHOWHELP - Will show the help guide file.
QUIT - Will quit Watcher.
Please see the ARexx drawer for example ARexx scripts.
Programmer Notes:
-----------------
You need to copy lib/simplerexx.o to your LIB: drawer, and
replace your include:clib/wb_protos.h header file with the one
supplied in the include/clib drawer. There's an error in the
V39 wb_protos.h header file where the WBInfo() function
returns void instead of ULONG. The header file supplied here
has been corrected for this mistake.
Furthermore, if you haven't already got BumpRev, then copy the
BumpRev file from the Tools directory to a directory included
in your path.
Bug Reports:
------------
If you find any errors, have suggestions for improvements, or
you simply would like to send a small donation of whatever
kind, then please send it to the address below:
Franz Hemmer
Skolegade 21F
8600 Silkeborg
DK - Denmark
If you have the option, then please send email to:
UseNet email: hemmer@hemmer.adsp.sub.org
Please NOTE! that if some task corrupts your memory, Watcher
will most likely be blamed first. This is because Watcher
(im most cases) constantly checks your memory with AvailMem().
Thanks to:
----------
A big thank you is due to the following beta-testers:
Steen Jørgensen sraboel@srabol.adsp.sub.org
Peter Janes pejanes@descartes.uwaterloo.ca
Jonas Andersson Jonas.Andersson@ludd.luth.se
Markus Juhani Aalto s37732v@vipunen.hut.fi
Thanos Angelopoulos ang!thanos@genly.uucp
David Corn dcorn@tusol.cs.trinity.edu
Mickey Everts evermic@instruction.CS.ORST.EDU
Jukka Marin jmarin@messi.uku.fi
Also thanks to those who I've forgotten, and to those who
volunteered as beta-testers, but didn't come through.