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- © June 1992 by
- Bernstein Zirkel Softworks
- c/o Hartmut Stein
- Koelner Str. 7
- W-5090 Leverkusen 3 - Opladen
- West-Germany
-
-
-
-
- 1. A short introduction
- -----------------------
-
- Whow! There it is, your brand new A(500+|600|3000|whatever with
- OS 2.xx) and it's just looking great! A nice looking 3-dimensional
- graphics design, a sharp dressed Workbench and hundreds of
- fascinating new functions in the OS.
-
- But after some hours of work (editing, compiling etc., not just
- clicking icons on the Workbench) I discovered that there were a few
- things missing on my A3000. Since I couldn't find a solution for my
- problems in the usual mouse- and Intuition-programs (like MachIV -
- which I use currently - or all the others), I decided to write
- Patch2.0. The program enhances OS 2.04 or higher with three new
- features.
-
-
- 2. Menu-shortcuts
- -----------------
-
- The first new (or old?) feature are keyboard-shortcuts for
- menu-items. You may think now 'What is he going to tell me? I just
- CAN use menu-shortcuts with the right amiga key!' That's right, but
- did you ever try this with an active string-gadget? Under OS 1.3 it
- works well: you just hit right amiga together with the proper key
- and Intuition sends this to your program as a menu-selection. Under
- OS 2.0 this IS a problem, since Intuition totally ignores the
- menu-shortcuts, when a string-gadget is active, and just inserts the
- key into the gadget. This seems to be a really strange idea witch
- makes no sense at all and makes you grab your mouse permanently. As
- an example let's have a look at the editor CygnusEd (which I use
- currently and like very much):
-
- If you want to search a string, CygnusED opens up a new window
- with some toggle buttons ('upper case == lower case', 'wild cards',
- etc.) and a string-gadget, which is automatically activated. So you
- can type in the search string without having to activate the gadget
- manually. The window also has a menu attached ('leave search',
- 'toggle upper case == lower case', 'toggle wild cards', ...), of
- which the items can also be accessed via shortcuts ('l' for leave,
- 'c' for toogle case, 'w' for wild cards, ...). So there are three
- different ways to change for example the case sensitivity of the
- text search:
-
- a) grab your mouse and click the gadget
- b) grab your mouse and choose the menu-item
- c) grab your keyboard and press right-amiga-c
-
- Under OS 1.3 I absolutely prefered the third method, since I
- needn't remove my fingers from the keyboard. But what's happening
- under OS 2.0? When I press this combination while the string-gadget
- is active, Intuition just inserts a 'c' into the string! Hahaha,
- that's a really funny idea commodore had...
-
- This problem does not only belong to CygnusED, it appears in
- every program which offers string-gadgets and menu-shortcuts
- together in the same window.
-
- When Patch2.0 is installed, the program checks all input from the
- keyboard. If it finds a key pressed in combination with the right
- amiga key, it takes a look at the actual window. When it finds an
- active string gadget and a menu bar, which contains an item with the
- pressed key as a shortcut, it sends a menu-selection-message to the
- appropriate program, thus bypassing Intuition's strange way of
- handling menu-shortcuts!
-
-
- 3. Use the '*' in pattern matching
- ----------------------------------
-
- Under OS 1.3 I used the APR Shell commands, which allowed me to
- use the '*' instead of the '#?'. The OS 2.0 pattern matching
- functions of the dos.library also can understand the '*', but it's
- needless to say that this nice little feature is disabled by default
- and that there is no possibility to enable it in one of the
- different preferences editors.
-
- Patch2.0 gives you full control over this pattern matching
- facility.
-
- Since the '*' normally stands for the actual shell window, it is
- not 100% compatible to the '#?' pattern. For example 'Copy * RAM:X'
- won't copy all files from the actual directory to the directory
- 'RAM:X', it just copies all lines of text you now enter into a file
- named 'RAM:X'. This problem only appears when you use a single star
- as a pathname. That means that you can type 'Copy Work:Data/*
- RAM:X' or 'Copy *.c RAM:X'. A very easy solution for this problem
- is to use the '**' pattern which means exactly the same and is
- accepted as a normal pattern.
-
-
- 4. Insert Chars by typing their ASCII-code
- ------------------------------------------
-
- On MS-DOS-PCs I found one feature I missed on the Amiga -
- insertion of any character by entering its ascii-equivalent on the
- numeric pad in combination with the control key (that's the only
- feature of PCs I miss on the Amiga ... by the way: Do you know how
- to create a large program on any computer with an INTEL processor
- inside - like 'Windows' on MS-DOS-PCs? Well, that's very easy.
- Just take some apes - a million or two, or a bit more - and place
- them together in a large, large room. Then give every ape a PC
- (there are people who say that just every real ape on earth owns a
- PC, but I can't agree with this). After that, close the door of the
- large, large room and wait a bit - let's say, one eternity or two.
- Then visit the room again and there it is - 'Windows' for PCs! Now
- you know what 'INTEL' is the abbreviation for: 'INfinite Terror of
- apE Legions'. Now can you imagine what 'IBM' could mean?).
-
- Patch2.0 checks the input stream for any keys on the numeric pad
- pressed together with the control key. If it finds some of those,
- it converts them to the appropriate ASCII-character. This is very
- useful when inserting some special characters (which are difficult
- to find on the keyboard, like '©' or 'ª') into a text or when
- searching for some special ASCII-values like for example 155, which
- is known as the 'Control Sequence Introduce' of the console.device.
- As mentioned above, CygnusED (and all other editors I know) use
- string-gadgets for entering a search-string. Since you can't enter
- a ACII-code like 155 on the keyboard, you can't search for it. When
- Patch2.0 is active, this is not longer a problem (be sure to switch
- the 'Text gadget filter' in the IControl-preferences-editor off).
- Just activate the search option, press the control key and type
- '155' on the numeric pad - that's it!
-
-
- 5. Installation
- ---------------
-
- Patch2.0 consists of two parts: the program 'Patch2.0' itself,
- which can be placed anywhere, and the handler 'Patch2.0Handler',
- which must be placed in the 'L:'-directory.
-
- Workbench-Users should click the 'InstallHandler'-Icon, which
- copies the Handler to the desired directory. Then you should move
- 'Patch2.0' to the 'WBStartup'-directory of your 'WB_2.x'-disk. In
- this case the program will be started automatically every time you
- start or reboot the amiga. To stop the program (if it should ever
- be necessary) just double click on it.
-
- Shell-Users can use the InstallHandler-Skript to copy the Handler
- to the 'L:'-directory (or just the 'Copy'-command...). Then copy
- 'Patch2.0' to your 'C:'-directory and insert a line in your
- startup-sequence, which will start Patch2.0 automatically on every
- start or reboot of the amiga. You don't need 'Run' or 'RunBack',
- since it just installs the handler in the background and then
- returns to the Shell. To stop the program just start it again.
-
-
- 6. Options
- ----------
-
- There are lots of options which control the behaviour of
- Patch2.0. In the normal case you don't need any of those, so
- Patch2.0 will work completely as stated above.
-
- The options are valid for both Workbench- and Shell-users.
- Workbench-users can enter the options as tooltypes (have a look at
- your Workbench-manual for more information about tooltypes),
- Shell-users enter the options as usual after the command's name.
- Upper and lower case are ignored. When started from the Shell with
- a '?' as the only argument, you will get a help string in the usual
- format for Shell commands (look at the Shell manual for more
- information).
-
- On
- Install Patch2.0
-
- Off
- Remove Patch2.0. If neither 'On' nor 'Off' are given, the actual
- state of the program is inverted (that means: if it was off,
- switch it on, otherwise switch it off).
-
- Quiet
- Normally Patch2.0 shows you a requester saying 'Patch2.0
- installed' on startup. This option diables the requester.
-
- Usage
- Show a requester with short explanations for the different
- options (better have a look at this file!).
-
- MenuOff
- Disable the interception of menu-shortcuts; you get the same
- silly behaviour as without Patch2.0!
-
- AsciiOff
- Disable the ASCII-input via the numeric pad (to remove this
- PC-feeling from your Amiga).
-
- PatternOff
- The '*' as replacement for the '#?'-pattern is enabled by setting
- a specified flag in one of the dos.library's data structures
- (sorry, but there is no function for this in the library).
- Normally Patch2.0 sets this flag, if you enable the '*', and
- clears it, if you disable it. So if another program wants to
- manipulate the flag, it will be overwritten by Patch2.0. If this
- turns out to be a problem, you should specify this option.
- Patch2.0 will then never touch this flag.
-
- StarOff
- Disable the '*' in pattern matching.
-
- Qualifier=nnn
- 'nnn' is a decimal number which describes the qualifier
- (qualifiers are: control, caps lock, shift, alt, amiga) for
- ASCII-input via the numeric pad (defaults to the control key).
- The qualifiers have the following values:
- Left Shift 1
- Right Shift 2
- Caps Lock 4
- Control 8
- Left Alt 16
- Right Alt 32
- Left Amiga 64
- Right Amiga 128
- If you want a combination of qualifiers you simply add the
- values.
-
- Cx_Priority=nnn
- The decimal number 'nnn' specifies the priority of Patch2.0's
- inputhandler.
-
- Cx_PopUp=yes|no
- Please enter either 'yes' or 'no' for this option. In the first
- case Patch2.0 will automatically open its commodity window, where
- you can adjust all the settings by the use of gadgets.
-
-
- 7. Some examples
- ----------------
-
- This are some examples for how to start Patch2.0 from the shell. To
- use the examples from the workbench just enter every option as a
- single tool type in Patch2.0's info-window.
-
- Patch2.0 On PatternOff
- Start Patch2.0 (or give an error message if it's just running).
- The pattern matching flag of dos.library will not be affected at
- all.
-
- Patch2.0 Off
- Stop Patch2.0 (or give an error message if it wasn't running
- yet).
-
- Patch2.0 Qualifier=17 CX_Priority=100
- Use the combination of the left shift and the left alt key to
- insert ASCII chars via the numeric pad. The inputhandler is
- inserted at a priority of 100.
-
- Patch2.0 On CX_PopUp=Yes
- Start Patch2.0 (if it wasn't running yet) and open up the control
- window.
-
-
- 8. Commodities
- --------------
-
- Patch2.0 can be controlled via the Commodities Exchange tool you
- find on your Workbench disk. It may be freely enabled, disabled or
- killed. When you use the 'Show'-Button (or the 'Cx_PopUp=yes'
- option an startup) Patch2.0 opens a special window where you can
- control all the programs features.
-
- At the top of the window you find four gadgets which correspond
- to the four '...Off'-options explained above. Use these gadgets to
- toggle the features of Patch2.0 on or off. If a gadget is checked,
- the feature is turned on.
-
- In the field below the features you can adjust the qualifiers for
- ASCII-input by hilighting the desired buttons.
-
- At the bottom of the window you find three gadgets: 'Hide'
- closes the window, keeping Patch2.0 still in memory, while 'Quit'
- closes the window and removes the program. The third button 'Save
- to Icon' is only available when the program was started from
- Workbench. In this case you can save the actual settings as
- tooltypes to Patch2.0's icon, so they will by active on the next
- start of the program. There's no service like this for Shell-users;
- you have to type it to the command line by yourself (I think
- Shell-users like typing, so this should be no problem for you...).
-
-
- 9. Caveats
- ----------
-
- Though I used this program for a couple of weeks without
- problems, there may be any number of lurking bugs in it. So if it
- low-level-formats your harddisk, makes your monitor explode into
- lots of little pieces, gobbles down your cat or drinks all the
- liquid from your neighbour's aquarium, making his goldfish gasping
- for water - please don't blame it on me!
-
- 7236 bytes of disk space seem to be a bit more then needed for
- such a program like Patch2.0. More than 50 % of this (57% or 4140
- byte) are used to manage the commodity window. If you don't need
- this and want to use the smaller version you can order it from me
- (see below).
-
- Following this comes some legal stuff which sounds very well to
- me. I took it from the readme file for Arq, which is a very, very,
- very good and useful program. Hi, Martin, if you would have
- mentioned your adress in this file, I would have sent you something
- for your work. But, maybe, you will find Patch2.0 a bit useful,
- too...
-
-
- 10. Legal Stuff
- ---------------
-
- The author will not be liable for any damage arising from the
- failure of this program to perform as described, or any destruction
- of other programs or data residing on a system attempting to run the
- program. While the author knows of no damaging errors, the user of
- this program uses it at his or her own risk.
-
-
- 11. Other Stuff
- ---------------
-
- This code and documentation are freely distributable and may be
- used, copied, modified, fed to your dog or whatever you like to do
- with it. It would be nice not to remove this text when copying the
- program, so other people will also be able to understand its
- meaning.
-
- If you have any questions, have ideas for special improvements,
- want to have a look at the sources of the program (rather
- undocumented, I'm afraid), want to order the smaller version or if
- you just want to thank me for this wonderful little tool, you should
- send me some money (or other valuables), a self-adressed and stamped
- envelope (if you want response) and a empty disk (if you want the
- sources).
-
- Patch2.0 was programmed using the Aztec C 5.2a compiler, but it
- should be compilable with any of the Aztec compilers.
-
-
- 12. An Apology
- --------------
-
- I'm afraid I have to apologize for the sometimes extremly poor
- quality of this writing. When I left school, my English was very
- bad. Since then I improved it a little bit by reading, re-reading
- and re-re-reading the english Rom Kernel Reference Manuals for a
- long time and also placing them under my pillow to absorb them by
- osmosis (this joke © by Randell Jesup). I also tried this with my
- AmigaDOS manuals, but that gave me extremly horrible nightmares of
- terrible red monsters, at least ten foot tall, stalking me from the
- back while I was sitting at my computer trying to program something
- useful in combination with the dos, with the four green flashing
- letters of 'BCPL' on their chests and trying to beat me with their
- enormous global vectors. I woke up crying and all my sheets soken
- wet and I never tried this again...
-
-
-