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MINIMENU
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MINIMENU.DOC
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1994-09-19
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MINIMENU 1.1
easy menu shell for children that cannot yet read
(C) 1993,1994 SichemSoft Netherlands
Introduction
------------
This package was developed by us for our 4 year old daughter. We wanted her
to be able to start any program herself. Since she can't yet read, this was
not possible without our help. We tried several shareware or public domain
"easy" menu shell systems, but all required the user to be able to read.
So, we wrote MINIMENU.
The child only has to point to a picture button with the arrow keys or by
repeatedly pressing Tab and then press Enter or click on it with the mouse.
After the chosen program finishes, MINIMENU appears again, ready for the
next choice.
MINIMENU works both in DOS and in Windows. The parent (or other adult of
course) only has to add a line to a text file and add an icon to an iconfile
and a just installed new game is instantly accessible for the child.
Registration
------------
Please note that this package is for home use only. Any commercial usage
is strictly prohibited. Neither the package, nor any part of it, may be
sold. If you'd like to pass it on, you must include all original files.
This program is SHAREWARE. This means that when you have tried it out and
decide to use it on a regular basis you are required to register. This can
be done at no charge at all, simply by sending us a picture postcard from
where you live or work. The address is:
Carel & Anneke Sicherer-Roetman
Roghorst 160
6708 KS Wageningen
Netherlands
If you have any questions or suggestions please send them to this address
or email them to: anneke@chem.ruu.nl
System requirements
-------------------
This program should run on any IBM-PC compatible computer with at least 512KB
memory and running under DOS 3.x or later. It requires an EGA, VGA or Hercules
graphics adapter or Windows 3.1. A mouse is recommended but not required.
Installation
------------
Just copy the files to a directory, e.g. c:\minimenu.
The package consists of the following files:
MINIMENU.DOC You're reading it now
MENU.EXE DOS main program
WMENU.EXE Windows main program (works only under Windows 3.x)
MENU.CMD Command file (example)
MENU.ICN Icon file (example)
BASIC.ICN Basic icon file
ADDICON.EXE Adds one icon (Windows format) to an icon file
ICON2DAT.EXE Converts Windows icon format to internal icon format
DELICON.EXE Deletes one icon from an icon file
LISTICON.EXE Lists all icons in an iconfile
TEST.BAT Batch file for use with example command and icon files
On the child's computer only (W)MENU.EXE and at least one .ICN and .CMD
file are required. Start (w)menu.exe from the autoexec.bat!
Copyrights
----------
MINIMENU is (C) SichemSoft, Roghorst 160, 6708 KS Wageningen, Netherlands.
MINIMENU was written in Borland C++ 3.1 and uses Zinc Interface Library 3.6
for it's GUI. The utility icon2dat.exe is (C) Zinc Software but can be freely
downloaded from their BBS. MINIMENU uses the SPAWNO routines by Ralf Brown
to minimize memory use while running other programs. The executables were
compressed using LZEXE of Fabrice Bellard.
Usage
-----
After installation, type "menu" at the prompt to see an example of how it
works. If you have a mouse, load it's driver first! Use Tab and Enter or
point and click to select your program. Click on Stop or press Alt-S to quit.
The complete command line for starting minimenu is:
C> menu [ command file [ icon file ] ]
Both file names are optional. Default names are menu.cmd and menu.icn
respectively. For a given set of programs, a command file and an icon file
should be prepared. On the child's computer only (W)MENU.EXE and these two
files must be present. Both files are always expected to be in the current
directory when (w)menu.exe starts. (w)menu.exe should be started from the
autoexec.bat. If you have a mouse, be sure to precede this command by a
command to load the mouse driver.
On VGA, 24 buttons can be displayed at once, on Hercules 21 and on EGA 16.
If you need more buttons, use a submenu (see the command file example below).
Command file
------------
The command file is a plain text file that can be created with any text
editor. It consists of comment lines, a header line and command lines.
An example is given here:
* example MINIMENU command file
* header line:
&Quit Games menu
* program lines:
* Captain Comic
Comic comic c:\games\comic comic.bat
* Commander Keen
Keen keen c:\games\keen keen1.exe
* Test program (blank icon)
&Test - . test.com 1 2 3
* Shooting gallery
Shootout gun d:\wargames shoot.exe /l apple
* Submenu (this is a second instance of minimenu!)
Numbers numbers c:\education c:\minimenu\menu.exe edu.cmd edu.icn
* (end)
Comment lines have a * at the first position.
The first non-comment line is the header. This line starts with a word that
represents the text to be displayed on the exit button. An ampersand can be
used to designate a hot key. Hot keys are used by pressing Alt-(key). The
rest of the line is the text to be displayed in the title bar of the menu
window. If you do not want to have an exit button, use - for it's text. The
menu can still be exited with Ctrl-Break.
The other non-comment lines each consist of four items. First is the name of
the program to be displayed on its button in the menu window. Here too, a hot
key can be designated by preceding the chosen character with an ampersand.
If you want a space to appear in this name, use the á (ascii 160) instead.
Second is the name of the icon to be displayed on the button. This icon must
reside in an iconfile, see below. A - indicates that no icon is present.
The third word represents the complete drive+path where the program can be
found (its home directory), this may also be just one dot to designate the
current directory. The rest of the line consists of the command to start the
program from its home directory. This command should always include a .com,
.exe. or .bat extension.
Icon file
---------
The icon file is of an internal format and can be maintained with a few
utilities. Icons can be obtained from various sources. Many can be found
on BBS's, simtel or garbo on Internet or can be obtained from user groups.
You can also create your own with an icon editor like Ike (for Windows).
The icons should be of the Windows 3.x .ico format. When you have an icon
in a file called umbrella.ico and want to add it to the MINIMENU icon file
test.icn type:
C> addicon test.icn umbrella.ico rain
This adds the icon as "rain" to test.icn (addicon needs icon2dat.exe in
the current directory). In the command file the icon is referred to as rain.
If you want to see which icons are present in iconfile test.icn type:
C> listicon test.icn
To delete icon "rain" from test.icn use:
C> delicon test.icn rain
You can use basic.icn as a starting point for your own icon files. This
file only contains the icons "blank" and "quit". The first one is displayed
for every program that has - as the second item in the command file. The
other one is displayed on the exit button. Both can be replaced if you like,
but do keep their names (blank and quit) because these are hard coded in
MINIMENU.
Swap directory
--------------
If you use the DOS version of MINIMENU, it is important that you designate
a swap directory. MINIMENU swaps itself out of the conventional memory to
make room for the chosen program. If there is no extended memory, it will
swap itself to disk. When the child turns the computer off during the chosen
program, a hidden file, containing the swapped MINIMENU program, is left
on disk. To ensure that the disk is not slowly filled up because of this,
you must do the following:
- make a swap directory e.g.: mkdir c:\minimenu\swap
- add the following lines to your autoexec.bat file:
set SWAPDIR=c:\minimenu\swap
attrib c:\minimenu\swap\*. -h
del c:\minimenu\swap\*.
WE HOPE YOU AND YOUR CHILD WILL ENJOY USING MINIMENU !!!
Carel & Anneke Sicherer-Roetman
Roghorst 160
6708 KS Wageningen
Netherlands
History:
1.0 (930112) : - initial release
1.1 (940919) : - added possibility to omit exit button in window
- added SWAPDIR environment variable for DOS version
- improved error handling in Windows version