@database AssignWedge.guide
@author "Olaf `Olsen' Barthel"
@$VER: AssignWedge.guide 1.0 (23.12.94)
@node Main "AssignWedge"
     AssignWedge utility for operating system release v2.04 or higher
                      Written by Olaf `Olsen' Barthel
                          Public Domain (Really!)
                          I.   @{" Introduction    " link Introduction}
                          II.  @{" Installation    " link Installation}
                          III. @{" Troubleshooting " link Troubleshooting}
                          IV.  @{" Credits         " link Credits}
                          V.   @{" History         " link History}
@endnode
@node Introduction
On the Amiga, many programs require a particular logical device name or
assignment to point to a drawer or volume to find their data. If you forget
to place such an assignment in your User-Startup file or take care of it by
hand you will sooner or later see the familiar "Please insert volume ... in
any drive" requester popping up. AssignWedge `wedges' into the operating
system routine responsible for bringing up this requester, giving you the
choice to take one of the following actions using the mouse:
 Retry
     If you have taken care of the assignment or device yourself,
     this will cause the action that brought up the requester
     to be repeated.
Assign
     This will create an assignment under the name displayed in
     the requester. You just have to pick the drawer to tie it to.
 Mount
     Assuming that the device displayed in the requester can be
     mounted, this will execute the AmigaDOS `Mount' command
     and then repeat the action that brought up the requester.
     This effectively denies the program that brought up this
     requester to refer to the device in question. Whenever
     it refers to it, no requester will appear asking you to
     insert the volume in question. Instead, the program to
     ask for the volume will see any attempt to access the
     volume failing.
 Cancel
     Denies the program request to access the volume. It's
     as simple as that.
The Deny option can be a little dangerous. Some programs simply don't
accept that the volume or assignment name they wish to access is
unavailable. In such a case, the program will retry to access the volume
over and over again in a row without getting anywhere. The only noticeable
effect is that the system performance drops sharply. Be prepared.
To get rid of AssignWedge, simply run it a second time.
@endnode
@node Installation
AssignWedge is installed by dropping the program icon into your WBStartup
drawer, that's all.
Now there is a @{b}catch@{ub}, nothing dangerous actually, but it can
become quite annoying. If you happen to use a program which takes over or
replaces your system requesters (such as ARQ or RTPatch) you @{b}must@{ub}
make sure that you invoke AssignWedge @{b}after@{ub} ARQ or RTPatch get
invoked. If you forget about it, the first thing AssignWedge will do is put
up a requester asking you to insert a volume "AssignWedge.07321148:" or
something similar. If this is what happens, you've lost.
If you wish to run the program in your preferred language Workbench 2.1,
3.0 or 3.1 are required. There is a drawer called "Catalogs" which you
should copy to your "LOCALE:" drawer. Enter "copy catalogs locale: all"
in the Shell and press return. Currently, only dutch, english, french
and german versions of the program text are available.
@endnode
@node Troubleshooting
If you see the program crashing, stop working, formatting your harddrive,
feeding your hamster to the neighbour's dog or telling your fianc
e about
the embarassing thing that happened last Christmas party you may not
necessarily be hallucinating, at least as far as the bit about crashing and
stopping to work is concerned.
If the program crashes, I probably don't know why it does so. If you wish
to report this rather than to delete the darn thing, please give the
necessary details regarding your system configuration, including the things
you don't think are important.
If AssignWedge simply doesn't work for you and puts up a file requester
asking you to insert a volume called "AssignWedge.07321148:" (or a similar
name) then there probably is a different program already running trying
to accomplish the same thing AssignWedge does, which is patching the
operating system in order to display system requesters in a different
fashion. To avoid this kind of trouble, make sure that AssignWedge is the
last program in the WBStartup drawer that gets invoked. This is
accomplished by adding the entry "STARTPRI=-128" to the list of program
icon tooltypes. You probably don't need to do this as the icon supplied
with the program already has this entry set. But you may need to modify
other icons found in the WBStartup drawer which also make use of the
"STARTPRI" tooltype. Good luck, you're on your own here.
Parlez-vous fran
ais? Do you speak english? Sind Sie gegen Wasserschaden
versichert? M
wisz po polsku? If you're running Workbench v2.1, v3.0 or
v3.1 you probably take advantage of the localization support built into the
operating system which allows you to use the language of your choice for
system messages and such. AssignWedge fully supports this operating system
feature, but will get into trouble if you change the language using the
Locale preferences editor while AssignWedge is running. In this case,
you should terminate the program by running AssignWedge a second time
and then restart it again.
@endnode
@node Credits
Really, AssignWedge wasn't my idea. Steve Tibbett wrote the original
AssignX which did basically what AssignWedge does now. It didn't work well
for me, especially when using Workbench 2.1, so I started to rewrite the
original program. I was unsatisfied with the result and finally rewrote the
program from the ground up. It no longer shares any code with the original
AssignX, it's a completely new program.
If you wish to tell me of your troubles regarding AssignWedge, here is my
postal address:
   Olaf Barthel
   Brabeckstrasse 35
   D-30559 Hannover
   Federal Republic of Germany
And this is my eMail address:
   olsen@sourcery.han.de
Contrary to common belief, I do check my eMail folder about once every day
while the heap of real world mail that keeps growing on my table has my
attention only about once a week. I suspect that this is the result of a
subtle shift in the time space continuum right behind my waste paper
basket, but maybe I'm just lazy.
I am indebted to the following people:
   Martin Huttenloher created the neat icon
   Benoit Mortier is responsible for the french
   localization of the program text. Benoit also wrote a french
   edition of the original documentation which is not included
   in this distribution.
   Edmund Vermeulen took care of the dutch localization.
   Alessandro Ponzio wrote the italian localization.
   The danish localization was created by Klaus Seistrup.
   Marcin Or
owski wrote the polish localization. This catalog
   will also be included in the official polish locale package W.F.M.H.
   Kai Iske turned my attention to the bugs & misfeatures the
   first AssignWedge release had.
Thank you very much!
@endnode
@node History
A colon was missing in the line that builds the mount command line.
Consequently, the device in question could not be mounted.
This version fixes a number of long standing bugs. Very long standing in
fact, I could have fathered a child since the last release. But back to the
facts. The first release was very vulnerable concerning Enforcer hits.
Also, when running out of stack space the first release could easily crash,
it now allocates enough stack space for itself.
@endnode