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MenuWriter
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MenuWriter3.1.doc
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MenuWriter 3.1 User Manual
December 12th, 1990
Requires the arp.library
DISCLAIMER
MenuWriter has been thoroughly tested and is the result of a constant
process of changes and updates. The program has proven to be stable in
everyday use. The author is not responsible for any loss of data, damages
to software or hardware that may result directly or indirectly from the use
of this program.
This documentation will always be updated at the top. Users of previous
versions of MenuWriter need only to read the paragraph reflecting the
changes since their last version.
Changes in version 3.1
----------------------
- General code cleanup and major rewriting of support routines
- Improved startup routine
- Squashed some 'potential' bugs.
- NTSC version doesn't load PAL menus anymore and vice versa.
- Fixed a bug in the startup code. BootX now uses the same current
directory as the CLI it was started from.
- Added the 'Are you sure' requesters for the Quit and New menuitems.
- Changed the menuitem 'Switch to' to 'Change sides'. Now you only have to
use this menuitem or Right-Amiga-C to change sides.
Short introduction
------------------
MenuWriter 3.1 allows you to write a menu to the bootblock of a disk. You
have probably seen it on some public domain disk. So what is so special
about MenuWriter 3.1 ? It allows for 40 entries (30 NTSC Amigas) of 39
characters long. The command to be issued can also be 31 characters long.
On top of this the loader allows batch files to be executed. More about
this later. All text in the menu and the loader is coded so the text can't
be changed by the first person who loads it in a diskmonitor. All this
comes at an expense. MenuWriter 3.1 uses 6 extra blocks on the disk to
store the Menu program and data.
MenuWriter 3.1 now comes with a virus detector built-in.
There are two versions available: one for European PAL Amigas and one for
US NTSC Amigas. The only difference is that the PAL version allows 40 and
the NTSC version 30 menuitems.
MenuWriter 3.1 is fast and compact (it is written completely in assembler)
and tries to be as user friendly as possible (use of the arp.library).
This program is shareware. This program can be copied by anyone except for
commercial use as long as this documentation file and the program icon
accompanies the program. Note that this program requires the Arp library
to run. So if you use this program and like it, please send a small
contribution ($10 US would be nice) to:
Peter Stuer
Kauwlei 21
B-2550 Kontich
Belgium - Europe
If you want the source code for the program, send me a disk. Letters with
comments or remarks are also welcome and will be answered as soon as
possible.
Peter Stuer
How to start MenuWriter 3.1
---------------------------
MenuWriter 3.1 (from here on referred to MenuWriter) can be started both
from CLI and the Workbench.
Starting MenuWriter from the CLI
To start MenuWriter from the CLI simply type:
1> MenuWriter3.1PAL (for the PAL version)
1> MenuWriter3.1NTSC (for the NTSC version)
followed by a return. This loads the MenuWriter program and starts it.
MenuWriter then detaches itself from the CLI. This means that you can
start MenuWriter, bring the Workbench screen back to the front and then
close the CLI window with the EndCLI command.
Starting MenuWriter from the WorkBench
This is the easy part. Simply click on the accompanying icon and
MenuWriter starts.
How to use MenuWriter
---------------------
MenuWriter opens a new hires screen. In the title bar you can see the name
and the version of the program. Next to the version is the indication
"Side 1". More about this later.
The program starts by showing you some information in a requester box.
Simply click anywhere on the screen to continue.
The screen is divided in 4 parts:
1. The screen title bar
2. A status line which will show relevant information to the user
3. 2 long boxes
4. 2 rows of 40 or 30 boxes
In the top 2 boxes you enter the title and subtitle of the menu. Any text
you enter will be centered automatically.
The other boxes represent one side of the menu:
The left side is the text that will appear in the menu, the right side is
the name of the program (including arguments) that will be executed when
the corresponding menuitem is selected.
This is where the 'Side' indicator comes in. In the screen title
MenuWriter shows you which side of the menu you are editing.
Pressing the right mousebutton shows you the menu bar. There are 2 menus.
The first one, Project, allows you to load and save menus for later
editing.
* About: shows you some information about the program
* New: clears the current menu in memory. NOTE: no questions are asked.
(Maybe in a next version)
* Load: brings up the Arp filerequester for you to select a menu file for
loading. MenuWriter3.1 accepts only files created with this version of the
program.
* Save: brings up the Arp filerequester for you to select a menu file for
saving.
* Quit: exits MenuWriter.
The 'Edit' menu.
* Switch to side: allows you to switch menu sides.
* Preview: shows you how the menu will look at boot time.
* Write menu to DFx:
This is the big one. MenuWriter asks you to put a newly formatted disk in
the drive you specified. It is VERY IMPORTANT that the disk is newly
formatted because it is possible that DOS has used block 2 thru 8 for
files. The menu will install without a problem but when you boot and make
a selection in the menu, DOS will report a corrupt disk structure and the
Amiga will crash. There is one exception: you can install the menu on a
disk that has the menu on it already. This is because all information will
just be over written. Use this feature to update an old menu. MenuWriter
allocates block 2 thru 9 in the bitmap pages, so afterwards you can use
this disk like any DOS disk except that there will be 3072 bytes less then
880K free to use. MenuWriter first creates a subdirectory C and puts the
Loader and a WorkBench Run command in it. The Run command is needed
because the Amiga needs it to launch a child program.
Then, if you answer Yes at the prompt, MenuWriter creates an S directory
and writes a small startup-sequence to it. BEWARE: if you re-install a
menu and have already modified the startup-sequence, you should answer NO
to the prompt. No backup is made of the old startup-sequence!
Also don't use a disk optimizer like B.A.D. for instance because they
rearrange the diskstructure so that the menu program might be overwritten.
It is possible that some viruskillers don't recognize the bootblock or in
the worst case identify the bootblock as a virus.
About the virus detector
------------------------
The virus detector is simply a recent version of my Anti-Virus bootblock.
Instead of trying to recognize any virusses, it checks some important
vectors that are most likely to be changed by virusses. If it finds
something it doesn't like, it will display the names of the vector together
with a suitable comment. You then get the chance to either continue the
boot proces, which in this case brings you to the menu, or reset the Amiga.
The reset option also erares any code found at the suspicious addresses.
This is the only way the erase a virus completely from memory. Also since
no virus signature is looked for, the bootblock will recognize any new
bootblock or LINK VIRUSSES that come along. (How's that for a bonus ?)
Reset is done in a legal way. (Found the specs on some Commodore disk).
NOTE: this bootblock is a DETECTOR, not a KILLER. I do not guarentee that
my method is fool-proof but it has worked so far.
About the commands
------------------
The commands you enter on the right side can be anything from a
command to a programname or even a batch file.
Some examples:
Menu text Command
--------- -------
Show directory of DF0: dir DF0:
Deluxe Domino v17.8 DeluxeDomino17.8
My font editor execute SYS:StartMyFontEditor
where 'StartMyFontEditor' is a batch file containing f.i.
assign MyDisk: SYS:
run MyFontEditor
I realize this documentation is brief but I made MenuWriter to be as
intuitively as possible.
Future enhancements
-------------------
- An option to customize the colors of the menu.
- More security checks
- Custom password
© 1990 Peter Stuer
_
_ //
Thanks to \X/ Amiga for being the best computer ever !
Thanks to BSB for beta testing and giving useful comments.