@DATABASE "Default" @NODE "MAIN" "LockColors Documentation" @TOC "MAIN" Welcome to the AmigaGuide manual for LockColors. @{" Distibution " LINK "Dist"} Legal issues. @{" Requirements " LINK "Requirements"} What you need to run LockColors. @{" Introduction " LINK "Intro"} What does it do, exactly? @{" Installation " LINK "Install"} How to install LockColors. @{" Tooltypes " LINK "Tool"} Customize LockColors. @{" Usage " LINK "Usage"} Which gadgets to press. @{" History " LINK "Hist"} The lifecycle of LockColors. @{" Bugs " LINK "Bugs"} That is: Features. @{" Future " LINK "Future"} Devlopement plans. @{" Thanks " LINK "Thanks"} The people helping devlopement. @{" Author " LINK "Author"} Snail- and email addresses etc. @ENDNODE @NODE "Dist" "Distribution" @TOC "MAIN" Distribution ~~~~~~~~~~~~ LockColors is 1994 Torgeir Hovden. LockColors is released as CardWare. So if you like LockColors, and live somewhere exiting, please send me a postcard. The archive you just unpacked may be freely distributed, but you may not charge any money for it, except distribution costs (diskettes, postage etc.) The author can not be blamed for any damage caused by LockColors. Use it on your own risk. @ENDNODE @NODE "Requirements" "Requirements" @TOC "MAIN" Requirements ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Any public screen on your Amiga. LockColors uses OS 3.0+ specific system calls. Thus, version 39 or higher of the operating system is required. To be honest, I really don't know what happens if you try to run this on systems <39, and for all I know your system may very well GURU. On systems fitted with os >=39, LockColors has proved to be very stable, and it has been tested with both Enforcer and Mungwall. @ENDNODE @NODE "Intro" "Introduction" @TOC "MAIN" Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have you ever wanted a 256 color screen, use 3 bitplane MagicWb icons AND make the whole thing look right? Well, now you can, with LockColors. LockColors is a commodity that gives you total (well almost) over the system palette on Amiga's fitted with OS3.0 or higher. It lets the user customize the palette and then lock the pens, not permitting any other (OS3.0+ compliant) program to change them. The locks are either exclusive or shared (user selectable). LockColors automatically senses when the Workbench is to be reset, and lock all the colors selected on the new screen. LockColors even closes its window automatically when the Workbench screen is to be reset. I thought use of LockColors only made sense only on screens >8 colors. I was wrong. Users have informed me that LockColors is the only way to monitor which pens are free or locked. So, this version supports any screendepth. @ENDNODE @NODE "Install" "Installation" @TOC "MAIN" Installation ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just copy LockColors to where you want it (or drag the icon). The WbStartup drawer is a good start. It may be a good idea to keep this documentation also. @ENDNODE @NODE "Tool" "ToolTypes" @TOC "MAIN" ToolTypes ~~~~~~~~~ DONOTWAIT For Workbench when starting LockColors from the WbStartup drawer. CX_POPUP Should the GUI appair when you run first LockColors? Defaults to YES. CX_PRIORITY Priority of the CxHandler of LockColors. Defaults to 0. CX_POPKEY Hotkey to show GUI. Defaults to lalt l. CFG Name of Configurationfile. Defaults to S:LockColors.cfg PUBSCREEN Name of the public screen to open on. Defaults to Workbench. MAXSECS Maximum time in seconds to wait for a screenreset when Workbench requests a reset. If the screenreset is canceled for any reason, LockColors will sit idle for maximum MAXSECS seconds. Defaults to 30. LOCK Type of lock for LockColors to use. Choose between Exclusive and Shared. Defaults to Exclusive (recommended). These tooltypes may be either used from the CLI or as icon tooltypes. When used from the CLI, see @{"Bugs" LINK "Bugs"}. @ENDNODE @NODE "Usage" "Usage" @TOC "MAIN" Usage ~~~~~ Well, this shouldn't be too hard. The GUI is simple and easy to use. Just press the buttons and see what happens. When the cyclegadget is disabled, it means that the actual pen is already locked by some other application (typically Workbench). Note that pens 0-3 (and the last 4 pens on screens with more than 4 colors) is always locked by Workbench. You may not alter already locked pens, thus disabled gadgets. From LockColors 1.1, you may not alter free pens either. Lock the pens first. This is to prevent users to 'forget' to lock the pens, and prevents loosing configured pens. Choosing Locked on the cyclegadget causes LockColors to lock the current color, so that it may not be changed (well, actually, LockColors can change it...) by a V39 compliant application. If some of the pens you have locked are already locked some other time LockColors is run, the definitions is simply ignored, until the required pens are available (typically after a screenreset). NOTES: Selecting SAVE makes LockColors save the current setup, and then closes the window while still remaining active. Selecting QUIT unlocks all pens obtained by LockColors, and resets to the original palette. If you have chosen the Shared locktype, some colors may look awful after quiting LockColors, because other applications may have obtained one of the colors while LockColors was running. Use Exclusive lock if this is a problem. Hints: If you use MagicWb, the icons are 3 bitplanes deep. Because Workbench remaps the palette for deeper screens (to make complement right), the icons look really ugly. With LockColors you just copy the last 4 colors to color 5-8, locks these colors and whoila! The icons gets right every time! @ENDNODE @NODE "Hist" "History" @TOC "MAIN" History ~~~~~~~ V0.9 - Used a BYTE as pennumber. Caused LockColors to crash when used on a 256 color WorkBench (negative indexes in my colortable...). Fixed. V1.0 - Intitial release. Released 16/09-94. V1.1 - Released 7/10-94. - Speedup. Does not GetRGB32() for ALL the colors when you click a color in the editor, just the color needed. - Does not prevent your Workbench to close anymore. LockColors even closes it's window when Workbench tries to close the screen. Feature is only available on the Workbenchscreen. - Does not erase settings for a deeper screen than the screen you are currently using. - Now opens happily on screens <16 colors. - Window position made non-static, and saved in the configurationfile. - LockColors now requires a color to be locked before the user can modify it. This means that: - Copying a color to a free pen automatically locks it. - Swapping two colors lock the colors involved. - Fixed case insensitive check of the CX_POPUP tooltype. Only "NO" was allowed, for instance "No" would cause the GUI to open. - PUBSCREEN tooltype allows LockColors to open on any public screen. - LOCK tooltype allows selection between exclusive and shared locks. - MAXSECS tooltype specifies the maximum waittime in seconds when Workbench requests a screen reset. - Added NEWLOOK menus. @ENDNODE @NODE "Bugs" "Features" @TOC "MAIN" Features ~~~~~~~~ - Uses topaz 8 for the sliders. Should have been using the Screenfont. Sorry! - Does not give you any hint on syntax when used from the CLI. May be fixed if anyone really needs it. - LockColors assumes 256 levels of intensity for each colorelement (r g & b), but this shouldn't cause any major problems. If you run LockColors on an OCS/ECS Amiga, compute as follows: Myintesity=Shownidensity DIV 16 :-) I haven't found any other undocumented features (bugs), but if you find some, please let me know. @ENDNODE @NODE "Future" "Future" @TOC "MAIN" Future ~~~~~~ - Bugfixes. - Any ideas???? @ENDNODE @NODE "Thanks" "Thanks" @TOC "MAIN" Thank you ~~~~~~~~~ I would like to thank the people who have mailed me suggestions to make LockColors better: Harald Kunze AJ Meyer Edmund Vermeulen THANKS! @ENDNODE @NODE "Author" "Author" @TOC "MAIN" Author ~~~~~~ Snailmail: Torgeir Hovden Moholt Alle 20-62 N-7035 TRONDHEIM NORWAY email: hovden@idt.unit.no @ENDNODE