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Text File | 1992-05-25 | 23KB | 449 lines

Runner -- A Desktop Alternative ADD / CHANGE DIALOG BOX Parameters / Installed Apps / QuickKeys Copyright (C) 1993 by Dave Thorson Version 1.61 November 18, 1993 Runner uses a single dialog box to obtain much of the information it needs to run your programs and manage your menus. This "Add/Change Dialog Box" (ACDB) appears whenever you add a program or menu. The same ACDB appears if you choose to change a program's information, a menu name, or Runner's title line. The ACDB looks at least a little like this for one program: --------------------------------------------------------------- Desk File Menus Colors --------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Dave's Runner ----------------------- | CYBRMATE.PRG | t m p | | | Description: | |>> Cybermate^_________ | m p | | | x Low Hold Screen | m p | x Med Use Mini-Run | m p | x High x Low or Med | m p | QuickKey: (none) | m p | Colors: current | p | Install: (none) | p | | | Comment (wait): | p | ^__________________ | p ----------------------- The components of this box vary for menus, programs, and title line changes, but each works about the same whenever it appears. The t, m and p shown to the right of the box indicate when that part of the box is available (title, menu, or program/data/ document file). "x" represents a checkmark. The ">>" symbol indicates which of the two text lines is active for changes. To exit the ACDB and return to Runner's menu list, press Return or click the right mouse button. There is no Cancel function, but then there's not much to go wrong! In the example, the top line gives the actual filename of the program. For menus, this line will say "Menu". For title changes, this line says "Title". For program and data/document files, the path to the file is displayed in the GEM menu bar area. $$ (Program Name) -- cannot be changed for "Menu" or "Title" By clicking on the actual name of a program or data/document file (not the Description line), you can change which program is assigned to the menu item you are editing. This is very handy if you get a new version of a program and want to keep the new version number in the filename on the disk, or if you move a program or data file from one folder or disk to another. A file selector appears to allow you to select a new program or data file from the disk. Nothing else in the Add/Change Dialog Box is changed, so your description and QuickKey assignements and other settings remain the same. Much easier than dropping and re-adding a program! $$ ADCB: Description This is the text that will appear in Runner's menu lists. Put in whatever you like. When adding programs, Runner attempts to "beautify" the program name by dropping the extension, converting to lower case, and inserting spaces where it thinks it makes sense. Runner is not always right, but you can change the description as much as you want. Click on this line to edit it if the ">>" arrow is not already pointing at it. Backspace moves the cursor (a triangle in the program) one space left, erasing the last character in the line. The Esc key clears the line altogether, unless it's on a blank line; then Esc will recall the line that you saw when the ACDB first appeared. The following functions are only available in menu and program changes or adds: $$ ADCB: Low / Med / High These are screen resolution indicators. They control whether a program or menu name will be visible in a menu list for each resolution (apologies to TT and Falcon users; if someone would only send me one of these machines for testing I might be able to add the other three resolutions ;-). So, for a program like Word Writer that doesn't work in low res, click on Low to turn off the checkmark in front of it. When you use Runner in low res, Word Writer will not appear in a menu. Click on Low, Med or High to turn the checkmarks on and off ("on" means the item will appear in that resolution). Default values are all on. Note: if you hide a program from the resolution you're currently using, it will NOT appear on the menu when you exit the Add/Change Dialog Box. Press the Tab key to show items hidden from the current screen resolution; press Tab again to hide them. You can create a "hidden" menu for things like installed applications or Strip Poker by clearing the checkmark from all three resolutions. Due to a programming constraint, if an item is hidden in all resolutions and doesn't use Mini-Run (see below), then Hold Screen is forced to be on. Don't worry about it! By hiding programs or menus, it's possible to get over 15 in the same list. Pressing TAB will show only the first 15. $$ ADCB: Hold Screen (ignored for menus) 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. $$ ADCB: Use Mini-Run (ignored for menus) Click here to force the program to be run via Mini-Run instead of directly from Runner. If a checkmark appears in this line, Mini-Run will be used regardless of the Mini-Run flag on Runner's menu list screen. See OTHERS.HLP for more info on Mini-Run. $$ ADCB: Low or Med (ignored for menus) The check mark always appears here because one of these options is always selected. Clicking here cycles through the three options: Low or Med: program will run in either low or medium res, whatever mode the computer is in Low => Med: forces computer in low resolution to run the program in a medium res screen Med => Low: forces computer in medium res to run the program in a low res screen This is simply 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. You might find several programs that are at least usable in the wrong resolution. $$ ADCB: QuickKey You can assign up to twenty QuickKeys for menu items you use frequently. When you press a QuickKey, it acts exactly as if you had selected its associated menu item from the menu (you can even force Mini-Run to be used for programs by holding Control as you press the QuickKey, or press Esc before pressing the QuickKey). QuickKeys can be used no matter which menu is currently displayed. To assign a QuickKey to the menu item you are adding or changing, click on the "QuickKey" line in the ACDB. A brief menu appears in the menu bar area at the top of the screen: Avail: F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 10 (Esc=Clear) In low res, you may only see the first few choices. From this menu, press one of the function keys listed ("10" is used for "F10") to assign that key as a QuickKey. If you have assigned all the QuickKeys already, the message "(none)" appears instead of any function key numbers. If you press Esc or click the Right mouse button, then no QuickKey assignment is made. If you select the QuickKey option for a menu item that already has a QuickKey assigned, the QuickKey option lets you clear the assignment. If, for example, QuickKey F6 had been assigned to CYBRMATE.PRG, and keys F4 and F7 were also available, the QuickKey menu would be: Avail: F4 F6 F7 (Esc=Clear) Notice that F6 has ALREADY been cleared from CYBRMATE.PRG, and you must press F6 to reassign this QuickKey if you want to keep using it for this program. "F6" still appears in the ACDB below as a reminder, in case you forget which key was assigned. $$ Ten More Quickeys! An alternate set of QuickKeys is available for a total of twenty QuickKeys. Press Shift when selecting the QuickKey line in the ACDB to assign or clear from the alternate set. The menu then appears as: Shift: F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 10 (Esc=Clear) Press Shift when pressing the desired function key. To use this QuickKey after leaving the ACDB, press Shift and the function key. Shifted and regular QuickKeys are really two separate lists but both work the same way. 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 BOTH mouse buttons. Use either of these actions return to the normal Runner menu lists. To view the alternate set, hold down Shift when requesting the QuickKeys list. You can also press the right mouse button when looking at a QuickKeys list to see the other list, or click on the line at the top of the QuickKeys list that says "Show other QuickKeys" or something close to that.... When the QuickKeys list is displayed, you can run any of the programs on it, or go to any menu listed on it, as if you were in Runner's usual menus, by using mouse or arrow keys and Return as usual. Use the TAB key to see QuickKeys assigned to programs hidden from the current resolution, just as in menu lists. $$ Changing QuickKeys You can use the Change command to modify any program attributes. Drop works differently: here it only clears a QuickKey assignment (the program disappears from the QuickKeys list, but is not dropped from Runner's normal menus). Restore is disabled, and you cannot add programs or menus or assign QuickKeys here (how would you pick a program to assign?). $$ ADCB: Colors The ACDB lets you select which color palette to use when running a program. The default is "Current", meaning that the Current Palette will be used. Clicking on the Colors line switches to "desKtop", "iNitial", "backGround", "Text" and back to "Current". Any selection but "Current" will override the Current Palette while running the program. $$ ADCB: Install Here is where you can install an application in Runner. This is similar to Install Applications in the Desktop, under the Set Preferences menu, but Runner doesn't know what's installed in the Desktop any more than the Desktop know's what Runner has. Any program can be installed in Runner: you tell Runner what file extensions (such as .PI1 or .DOC) should trigger the program to run, then when you select a file whose name ends with that extension, Runner loads the program. The selected filename is also passed to the program so it can load the file for you. Not all programs will do this, but some (like Word Writer) handle it nicely. As an example, say you installed Word Writer (WWRITER.PRG) to be triggered by the extension ".DOC". When you select a file like "DEAR_SIR.DOC", Word Writer will run and load DEAR_SIR.DOC for you, all with a single mouse click! When you select the Install line in the ACDB, this menu appears: Add/Change/Drop/Next/Quit [none] Press A to add a new file extension. You'll get this prompt: Add/Change/Drop/Next/Quit >. which is asking you to type in a one to three letter file extension. You can use the wildcard characters ? and * if needed (? matches any single character and * matches anything from that character position to the end of the extension). So, if you enter ".P?1", then selecting files ending in .PI1 or .PC1 will trigger the application. Be careful though, if you enter ".P*" or ".P??" with the intent of catching .PI1, .PC2, and so on, you will also trigger your application with any .PRG files! You can use Backspace to erase characters; press Return when done. Now the extension appears in the menu line like this: Add/Change/Drop/Next/Quit [.P?1] To change this extension, press C. To drop it, press D. Runner lets you install multiple extensions per program if needed; press A to add another one. Pressing N displays each one in the list for that program, circling back to the start from the end of the list. C and D only work on the extension displayed. When you have the extensions set the way you want, press Q or the Right mouse button. A total of 63 applications can be installed. You can assign 63 to a single program or one to each of 63 programs or any combination in between. Overhead in memory is small; 2 bytes for each program with at least one installed application and 7 bytes for each extension used. If an installed application is dropped (using "Drop" in the Menus menu) then the extensions it used are fair game for installing elsewhere. If you do not reassign them before restoring the program ("Restore" in the Menus menu) then they will still be intact. Runner doesn't prevent you from assigning the same extension to more than one program but you will get a warning message telling you to clear the extension from one of the programs. If you use the same extension twice then the first program found installed for that extension will be run. Since it's harder to describe how Runner finds programs than to tell you not to do this, Don't Do This! Within Runner's menu list screen you can view a list of all installed applications by selecting "Installed apps" from the File menu, or by pressing the "I" key. $$ ADCB: Comment / Parameter Clicking on this line cycles through four possibilities: - Comment (wait) - Comment (auto) - Parameter (wait) - Parameter (auto) These will be described below; they all work with the text field directly underneath this line. To get to the text field, click on it with the left mouse button or press the Tab key to move between Comment/Parameter text and the Description text field at the top of the ACDB. A ">>" symbol indicates which of the text fields is active. The Comment/Parameter text field can be edited just like the Description text field (described near the start of this file). The Comment/Parameter function is probably the most confusing thing in Runner so don't worry if you don't use it. The idea here is that many programs, in particular those with a ".TTP" (TOS - Takes Parameters) file extension, will accept a list of parameters (also called arguments or even a command line). The ARC program is a classic example. It's filename is ARC.TTP; it expects parameters. If you double click on ARC.TTP from the desktop, a dialog box opens to ask you for the parameters. You might enter a string such as "L E:\CBURST.ARC *.DOC" to list the names of all the files ending with ".DOC" within the archive file CBURST.ARC in the root directory of drive E:. Compilers and assemblers and directory listing programs frequently expect or accept parameters. For .TTP programs and installed applications, Runner normally asks you for a command line. If the program was triggered as an installed application, then the name of the file is automatically placed in the command line for the program. Selecting either of the Parameter options here will override the normal process and will let you pass parameters to other programs as well. Simply type in the command line parameters you want in the text field. If you leave the field blank but select one of the Parameter options (either wait or auto) then no parameters are passed as a default. If you are setting up parameters for an installed application, then use a tilde "~" to mark where the name of the file that triggers the application should go. Using the previous example for Arc, you might set up a parameter field like this: L ~ *.* Now, if you install Arc to be triggered by files with an extension of .ARC, and then select CBURST.ARC from drive A, the command line passed to Arc becomes: L A:\CBURST.ARC *.* If, for some obscure reason, you actually need to pass a "~" character to a program from the parameter line, use "~~". Runner replaces every single "~" with a filename, and every pair of "~" with a single "~". If a "~" is followed by a period, then Runner assumes you want to force a different file extension onto the selected filename and it removes the original extension. For example, you might Install your compiler to be triggered by files with a ".C" extension, and set up this parameter line: ~ -o ~.O -l ~.LST If you select "C:\XYZZY.C", this line would be translated to: C:\XYZZY.C -o C\:XYZZY.O -l C:\ZYXXY.LST Complex stuff, but if you're using a compiler then this should make sense to you. Otherwise file it away into the part of your memory labeled: "Things that could possibly become useful to me under unlikely circumstances". The (auto) and (wait) options are simple: "Parameters (auto)" means that the command line Runner builds will be passed to the application or program automatically, without stopping to ask you anything. "Parameters (wait)" means Runner will display the command line and let you edit it before running the program. For the Arc example, you would probably choose (wait) because you can then edit the first character to be E for extract, V for verbose list, A for add, etc. (these are all ARC functions and have nothing to do with Runner). For others, such as Word Writer, which accepts only the name of a file to open, you should use (auto) with a default parameter list of "~". $$ Program Comments If you don't use parameters for a program, you can use this line as a comment to yourself. Selecting "Comment (auto)" means the comment will only appear in the ACDB. Possibly useful for recording the version number of the program, or maybe you could use "Docs on disk 57". If you select "Comment (wait)" then before the program runs a dialog box will display the comment text and give you the choice of running the program or canceling the request. A blank comment line, even if "Comment (wait)" is selected, is ignored by Runner. (wait) comments can be used for messages like "Key disk in A:" or other reminders. $$ Priority for Parameters and other Settings Since there could be some confusion if you set up options for an installed application, and then set different options for a document/data file that triggers it, the following rules tell who wins: * Options set for a triggering file override options for an installed application. * Exception 1: use of a parameter option always overrides use of a comment option. * Exception 2: Hold Screen and Mini-Run will be activated if either a triggering file or a program request them. [end of DIALOG.HLP]