A Guide to Workbench 1.3 on the A500/A1500/A200. ------------------------------------------------ By PJ Hutchison 12/1/96 v1.0 This file is Freeware and distributed unmodified. Contents -------- 1. The Menus 2. The Mouse 3. WB Programs 4. AmigaDOS 5. Common Problems 1. The Menus ------------ 1.1 Workbench menu 1.1.1 Open This is used on a selected icon. Instead of double clicking on an icon to show contents of a disk or drawer or run a program you can select an icon with the pointer and Select Open to display or run it. 1.1.2 Close Instead of clicking on the Close Gadget at the top left of a disk or drawer window just select the window (borders blue) and select Close. 1.1.3 Duplicate This open allows you to copy files and disks. To copy a file select the icon and then select Duplicate. Another icon will appear saying Copy_of_file or whatever, you can then move that file elsewhere or Rename it. 1.1.4 Rename This option allows you to change the name of a disk, a drawer or a file. Select the disk, drawer or file icon to rename, select rename, and then type in the new name in the given requester. 1.1.5 Info This option displays details of a given disk, drawer or file. Workbench has 5 types of workbench icons: Disk, Drawer, Trashcan, Project and Tool. A Trashcan is a special drawer for use with the 'Empty Trash' feature to delete files. A Project is a data file and a Tool is a Program. Info will display the type, size, stack size, default file, comment and protection flags of a file. 1.1.6 Discard This is a delete function, to delete a file you would normally drag and drop the file into the Trashcan drawer to empty later. This option allows you to delete a file straight away. A requester may appear to confirm deletion. 1.2 Disk Menu 1.2.1 Empty Trash This option deletes all the files in a selected Trashcan drawer of a disk. This feature is useful because you may want to delete a file but you could change your mind and decide to keep it, all you have to do is to drag the file out of the Trashcan back to its original drawer or disk. 1.2.2 Initialise This option formats a disk for use by the Amiga. It splits the disk into the right number of tracks/sectors and creates an empty root directory. It can also automatically create a Trashcan drawer. To use, select the disk to format and select Initialise. 1.3 Special Menu 1.3.1 Cleanup This option rearrages icons on a drawer or disk into a less cluttered state. To use, open the window to rearrange and select Cleanup. To keep the icons in the new positions, select all the icons and select 'Snapshot'. 1.3.2 Last Error This will display the last message that appeared in the menu bar at the top of the screen. 1.3.3 Redraw If the screen or window has been corrupted by another program and not all the icons or windows have been drawn then this option will do it for you. 1.3.4 Snapshot This option allows you to save the position of an icon on a disk or a drawer. To use, select the icon, drag the icon to its new location and Snapshot it. 1.3.5 Version This will display the version of Workbench and Kickstart you are using. Commodore uses release numbers. For 1.3 it is release 34. 2. The Mouse ------------ On the Amiga mouse there are two buttons. The Left Mouse Button (LMB) and the Right Mouse Button (RMB). 2.1 Using the Right Mouse Button To use the menus, press down the RMB and move the pointer to the title bar at the top of the screen. Move the pointer over one of the menu names and some menu items will appear. Now, still with the RMB pressed, move the pointer down to the selected menu item and release the RMB to select that item. 2.2 Using the Left Mouse Button This button is mainly used to select and move icons around and click on gadgets (or buttons). 2.2.1 Clicking To select an icon move the pointer over the desired icon and then click the LMB once. The icon will change to a reverse or an alternative image to indicate it has been selected. When using gadgets such as those on windows (there are four gadgets on a window: Close, Window-to-Front, Window-to-Back and Resize) move the pointer over the desired gadget and click once to use that gadget. The gadget will change briefly and also change the window. 2.2.2 Double-Clicking This is sometimes a tricky technique to use and requires a steady hand. This method is used to open disks, drawers and files or run programs. To do this, move the pointer over the desired icon and in quick succession (without moving the pointer) click on the LMB twice. This should open the icon. 2.2.3 Dragging This technique allows you to move objects such as icons around the screen or resizing windows. Select an icon with a single click, now keep the LMB down and move the pointer, the icon will now be dragged with the pointer. If you let go of the pointer the icon will be dropped into its new position. 2.2.4 Multiple selection You can select more than one icon at a time. To do this, click on the first icon, press the SHIFT key down (either one) and then click on the second, third, fourth icons etc to select multiple icons You can also select a whole group of icons by pressing the LMB at the top left of the icons and while keeping the LMB down moving the power towards the bottom right. A expanding box will apear and the icons in it will be selected. 3 WB Programs ------------- Here I will give a brief explination of the programs provided with Workbench 1.3. 3.1 Workbench Disk ------------------ 3.1.1 Utilities Drawer Calculator - Program to work out arithmetic calculations Clock - Displays a analogic or digital clock showing the present time and/or date ClockPtr - Turns the pointer from an arrow to a clock! Cmd - Redirects output to the printer to a file GraphicDump - Prints out graphics and pictures InstallPrinter - Installs Printer driver in devs/printers More - Program to display text files Notepad - A simple text editor Printfiles - Prints text files Say - Speaks any text you type in 3.1.2 System Drawer CLI - Opens a Command Line Interface console Diskcopy - Program to copy disks (used by Duplicate) Format - Formats a disk (used by Initialise) Fastmemfirst - Tells Amiga to load programs into Fast memory SetMap - Selects the keyboard map from devs/keymaps InitPrinter - Initalises printer (same as switching it off and on). NoFastMem - Disables all fast memory Mergemem - Adds other memory to be used by the Amiga Fixfonts - Updates Fonts files if changes have been made to any files in Fonts drawer 3.1.3 Prefs Drawer Preferences - Changes the settings used by the Amiga such as the pointer, printer, serial port etc. CopyPrefs - Makes a copy of prefs to be copied to another disk Pointer - Displays the pointer prefs screen. Printer - Displays the printer prefs screen. Serial - Displays the serial prefs screen. 3.1.4 Hidden Drawers C - Stores AmigaDOS commands Devs - Stores keymap files, printer drivers and other device drivers and the preferences file. Fonts - Stores bitmap font files. A .font file for each typeface and a file for each font size. L - Stores device handlers Libs - Stores Amiga operating system libraries S - Stores batch or script files T - Temporary files drawer 3.1.5 Other Drawers Expansion - Stores special device drivers for expansion peripherals Empty - Duplicate this drawer to create new drawers. Trashcan - Stores files ready to be deleted. 3.2 Extras Disk --------------- AmigaBASIC - BASIC Programming Lanaguage interpretor 3.2.1 Tools Drawer MEmacs - Text editor Fed - Font editor Freemap - Memory usage display PrefMon - Performance monitor IconEd - Icon editor Palette - Changes Workbench colour scheme KeyToy2000 - Displays keyboard characters IconMerge - Creates dual-image icons 3.2.2 PCUtil PCCopy - Allows Amiga to copy files from PC disks PCFormat - Allows Amiga to format PC diskettes ToPCCopy - Allows Amiga to copy files to PC disks Read Me - Text file on using PCUtils 3.2.3 Other Drawers BasicDemos - Basic program listings FD1.3 - Contains OS Function Descriptions for AmigaBASIC Fonts - More fonts Devs - Contains all keymap files and printer drivers 4 AmigaDOS Commands ------------------- Amiga DOS commands can only be used on a CLI or Shell window where commands can be typed in to perform various functions. All these commands have to be run from disk. 4.1 Command format To display the information required by a command type a '?' after it. Note, after each arguement there is a slash and a character. This specifies the kind of arguement required such as an option or a name or a value. /A - Argument must be supplied /F - Must be final or last arguement /K - Keyword must be entered with a parameter /M - Multiple arguements may be supplied /N - A Number is required /S - Switch or option. Supply this function to activate it. 4.2 Error messages If you enter a command and comes back with an error message, typing WHY will display more information about it. Use the FAULT command to display the error message that applies to a error code. 4.3 Volume/Drawer/File names Names can be upto 31 characters long and may contain the following characters: Letters A-Z (upper or lower) Digits 0-9 Other characters EXCEPT the colon ':' or slash '/'. Spaces can be used but can be confusing use a dash '-' or underline '_' instead. 4.4 Volumes,Drawers and Assigns A volume is the name given to a disk and may be referred to by its name followed by a colin ':' e.g. DIR DataDisk: A drawer or directory is used to organise files together and they are usually used in conjunction which a slash to seperate the names e.g. DIR DF0:Devs/Printers An assign is a special shortcut name to a volume or a drawer and is created using the ASSIGN command. e.g. TYPE S:Startup-sequence is the same as TYPE Workbench1.3:S/Startup-Sequence 4.5 Devices A device is a special name given to a particular peripheral or an AmigaDOS feature. Typical devices are: DF0: - Internal floppy drive DF1: - External floppy drive DH0: - Hard disk (A590) RAM: - RAM disk RAD: - Recoverable RAM disk (from a reboot) CON: - Console device (CLI) NEWCON: - New Console device (Shell) SER: - Serial port PAR: - Parallel port PRT: - Printer port AUX: - Auxillary device PIPE: - Pipe device CD0: - CD-ROM (A570) 4.6 The Commands Addbuffers - Add memory to floppy disk buffers to improve speed Ask - Asks a question in a script (reply y/n). Use IF WARN to test for a yes. Assign - Assign names to directory paths. Avail - Memory availablility Binddrivers - Load device drivers Break - Stop a program (see Status) CD - Change directory ChangeTaskPri - Changes program's execution priority Copy - Copy files Date - Display/change date or time Delete - Delete files Dir - List contents of a directory Diskchange - Tell Amigados that a disk has been swapped in a non-autosensing disk drive Diskdoctor - Recover files from a disk Echo - Display text in a script Ed - Edit text files (screen editor) Edit - Edit text files (line editor) Else - Used with IF, if not true do these commands Endcli - Close CLI console window Endif - End a IF..ELSE..ENDIF block Endskip - Stops a SKIP branch (for debugging) Eval - Evaluate a simple arithmetic expression Execute - Execute a script or batch file Failat - Change failure limit for scripts (0 - Ok, 5 - Warn, 10 - Error, 20 - Fail) Fault - Display error message from a code FF - Enable Fast fonts Filenote - Attach a comment to a file (see LIST) Getenv - Return contents of an environment variable Iconx - Enables a script to be run from Workbench. The script must have a Project .info file and the Default Tool set to c:IconX to run it. If - If condition is true execute following commands until an ELSE or ENDIF occurs. Info - Displays information about disks Install - Saves a bootblock to a disk. If you have only one drive type INSTALL ? and swap disks and then type DF0: and press RETURN to save bootblock. Join - Join two or files together. Lab - State a Label to Skip to in a script List - List file details in a directory Loadwb - Display workbench screen Lock - Lock a device from writing Makedir - Create a new directory. Mount - Loads and mount a device Newcli - Open a new CLI console (CON) window NewShell - Open a new Shell console (NEWCON) window Sort - Sort contents of a file Stack - Change/display amount of stack space Status - Display status of running programs Type - Display contents of text file on screen Path - Set or change the program search path Prompt - Change the prompt text Protect - Change the 'rwedsp' flags of a file. (r=read,w=write, e=execute,d=delete,s=script,p=pure) Quit - Quit a script Relabel - Change name of a disk RemRAD - Remove RAD device from memory Resident - Stores AmigaDOS command in memory (quicker then reloading from disk each time it is executed). To ensure a command can be made resident check the pure flag (see List). Run - Execute a program in the background (multi-task) Search - Search for a string in a file or a file on a disk Setclock - Load or set the date and time from battery-backed clock Setdate - Set date of a file (see List) Setenv - Change the contents of a environment variable Setpatch - Patch Operating System functions and remove bugs Skip - Jump to a label in a script (see Lab) Version - Display workbench or library version information Wait - Wait for a specified period of time Which - Find where a file is in command path (see Path) Why - Display reason why a previous command failed 5. Common Problems 5.1 How do I retreive a file I accidently deleted? You need to use a Disk Recovery program such as DiskDoctor, FixDisk or Disksalv to scan and recover the file. You cannot retrieve a file that has been deleted and the disk written to later on as it will most likely been overwritten! 5.2 How can I view hidden file from Workbench? There are a number of methods although the best is to use a file manager program which can see all files and you can copy, move, delete and view files very easily. Other than that you need to resort to using the Shell. 5.3 How can I create a bootable disk? The simplest method is to Duplicate your Workbench disk, delete the Utilities and the System files (if not required), copy the program to the disk and then edit the s:startup-sequence to run your program. This method also guarentees that all the necessary files are also on the disk. The minimum required to make a disk bootable is to use the Install command to save a bootblock to the disk. Create a directory called S and create a startup-sequence file with the name of the program and save that in the S directory and copy your program to the disk. To use install with one disk drive, type INSTALL ? then swap disks and type DF0: and press RETURN. 5.4 How can I speed up disk access when using the shell? The shell is a very powerful feature but can be limiting and annoying when working from floppy. You can make common commands run from memory by using the Resident command which allows the Amiga to use commands from memory instead of loading them from disk. For example, Resident C:Dir pure will make the DIR command resident. You can make this a permanent feature by modying the S:Shell-Startup file and insert these resident commands. Also, it is a good idea to do all work on the RAM: disk if you have plenty of memory instead of saving to/from disk. 5.5 Why do some icons, when double-clicked, don't load up? There are two reasons for this. First, if a program is deleted but its .info file is left behind then the program or file may seen to still exist. To rectify this, the program should be re-copied back. Second, a lot of Project icons have A Default Tool set. This default tool loads up the program and the data file. There are many tools, particularly text and graphics viewers. If you try to run a file with a Default Tool that you don't have then the following message will appear: 'Unable to open the tool ' If this happens, select the icon and choose Info from the Workbench menu and change the Default tool to the one you do have. For example, if its a text file, change it to 'More' (Workbench's Text Viewer).