Runner -- A Desktop Alternative Copyright (C) 1990 by Dave Thorson Version 1.22 February 8, 1990 Shareware Stuff I am releasing Runner as shareware to test the market for such programs. Runner is not "Public Domain" and I reserve all rights to the program and this documentation. You are free to take Runner for a test drive on your own computer, and see if you find it to be of value. Whether you keep it or not, feel free to give copies of RUNNER.ARC to your friends. I save on distribution and marketing costs, and you don't get stuck buying a program that doesn't work out for you as you expected after seeing it for only a few minutes in a store. If Runner doesn't meet your needs, please send me some suggestions for improving it. If you decide not to send a donation, please stop using Runner - it's not yours! If you find Runner to be useful, please send a donation of $10 to: Dave Thorson 3018 East Cheery Lynn Road Phoenix, Arizona 85016 Be sure to include a return address if you need a reply, and tell me what program you're registering so I can keep my records straight. I could charge more (like the "going rate" for ST software of $40 per package), but through shareware you can save on marketing and distribution costs as well! Shareware can make all of us come out ahead, but only if donations are sent. Without them, shareware developers like myself will have no incentive to develop more software, and you will stop seeing nifty utilities and games come your way. As they always say with programs, the author (Dave Thorson) cannot be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this program, including loss of your files or time or any business damages whatsoever. I don't expect you'll have any problems at all, but if claim the program is 100% error free and that there is no way you can ever lose files while using it, then one of you out there will find a way to prove me wrong.... Another saying: "You can't make anything foolproof because fools are so ingeniuos". Features of Runner: * Runs in ANY resolution. * Programs can be run without worrying about what folder or disk they're physically stored in. Runner switches to the program's disk and folder automatically. * Tos-Takes-Parameters (.TTP) programs normally require a command line or parameters to be entered; Runner prompts you for this. Command lines can be longer than the 20 characters allowed in the desktop's dialogue box. The previous command line can be recalled and edited. * Lets you install up to 15 programs per menu; any of these programs can be run with the click of a mouse. No more waiting for the desktop to redraw: on exiting a program you are returned immediately to Runner's screen. Programs are installed by simply selecting them from a file selector box, regardless of drive or folder. Additional information may be entered about each program to customize its installation (see below). * Any of the 15 programs in a menu can be a menu itself, giving you access to 15 more programs or menus by clicking on the menu. * Menus can be nested up to 15 levels deep (although why you would ever need more than three levels I don't know....). For example, on the top level menu you might have several programs and another menu named Graphics. Clicking on Graphics displays a new menu containing more menus called Paint Programs, Drafting, Slideshows and Conversions. Clicking on Paint Programs reveals Degas Elite, Colorburst 3000 and Spectrum 512. This nesting capability of Runner means you can logically arrange your programs for quickest access. Runner can theoretically store many billions of programs in its menus. With only 3 menu levels, you could access up to 3,375 programs, more than will fit on any hard disk I know of.... * Programs and menus are listed using descriptions rather than filenames. The default description for Degas Elite is "Degelite", the original program name minus the .PRG extension. If you like "Degelite" as a description, fine, or you can change it to the more readable "Degas Elite". Descriptions can be up to 20 characters. Default descriptions are adapted from file names with a (small) bit of intelligence: "1TO3FOUR.PRG" becomes "1 To 3 Four" and "TNY_VIEW.PRG" becomes "Tny View". * Programs and menus can be installed to appear only in certain resolutions. Spectrum 512 won't appear in the list when using a monochrome monitor, for example. It is possible to override this and list ALL programs when needed. * Runner can force the screen resolution on a color monitor from low to medium or from medium to low, and this is remembered independently for each installed program. While GEM does not always keep up with this trickery, it does allow you to run some programs successfully (or perhaps well enough to gain benefit) from the wrong resolution. * Programs and menus can be added, removed or changed at any time. * Access to a file selector is always a mouse click away. If a selected file is a program, Runner will run it as if it were installed in a menu. Otherwise, Runner will display the file on the screen. "Funny" characters are stripped out, and the text is wrapped at the appropriate place. Low resolution is temporarily switched to medium during file views. The GEM Desktop has trouble displaying files in low res that are more than 40 characters wide; it breaks them at the 40th column, usually in the middle of a word, and loses the line count so that up to forty lines may scroll off the screen without being read. To make matters worse, a text file in the wrong format (such as from ST Writer) just keeps scrolling on by. Runner's file view fixes all these problems. * Up to 16 programs can be "installed" in a fashion similar to the desktop, with support of wildcards in the extensions (for example, ".PI?" will load a program for files selected with extensions of ".PI1", ".PI2", and ".PI3"). * If you use an advanced file selector like Universal Item Selector (UIS II or UIS III) from Application and Design Software, all of its capabilities will be available. UIS II, for example, lets you rename, copy, delete, print and move files, as well as format disks. You will not need to exit to the desktop for these functions (in fact, since using Runner with UIS, I RARELY ever see the desktop anymore). * Runner will use any Degas-compatible (.PI1,.PI2,.PI3) picture as a background display. Pictures for the current resolution can be loaded on startup or after Runner is running. If memory is short, a picture can be unloaded to free up 32,000 bytes. Template "guide" files are included to help you design your own background scenes. * Desk Accessories are also available while in Runner. Due to some insurmountable quirks in GFA BASIC, the accessory interface is a bit strange but it's there.... * Runner's menu lists can be saved any time, loaded on startup or loaded from within Runner. You can have different "configuration" files (containing menu lists and color selections) for different purposes, if desired. * The palette used for running programs and viewing files can be selected to be the desktop colors, the colors last saved in RUNNER.CFG, or the colors of whatever picture file is loaded at the time. This palette selection does not affect the displayed picture (unless you want it to). * Runner will not permit a bad selection of colors to make text completely unreadable. If a picture file is loaded that would make the text and background colors too close, Runner changes the text color (you may not like the color, but you'll be able to see enough of what's going on to fix it!). ARC Contents The RUNNER.ARC file contains the following files: RUNNER.PRG - the Runner program file RUNNER.HLP - a quick "get started" help file, it contains a summary of all the stuff that's not obvious from Runner's screen (you may want to read the rest of this file first, and print RUNNER.HLP as a reminder as you try out the program) RUNNER.TXT - this file you are currently reading RUNNER.CFG - sample configuration file (note: unless your hard disk is set up exactly like mine, you cannot access programs from the menus in this file -- it's just included so you can get an idea how I use Runner every day) RUNNER.PI1 - sample picture file for low resolution RUNNER.PI2 - sample picture file for medium resolution RUNNER.PI3 - sample picture file for high resolution GUIDE.PI1 - Template for designing low res pictures GUIDE.PI2 - Template for designing medium res pictures GUIDE.PI3 - Template for designing high res pictures Installation Runner can be installed in a variety of ways. The RUNNER.PRG file can go almost anywhere except an AUTO folder. When you start RUNNER, it searches for a file called RUNNER.CFG (use mine for a test drive, or create a new one from within Runner). The search sequence for RUNNER.CFG is: 1. in the current directory (folder), where RUNNER.PRG is 2. in the root directory (outside all folders) of the current disk 3. in a folder of the current disk called RUNNER (ex: D:\RUNNER\) If RUNNER.CFG is found, that directory (folder) is assumed to be Runner's "home" directory (Remember that: HOME directory). Whenever you save or load a configuration file or load a picture file, Runner takes you to that directory by default. If RUNNER.CFG is NOT found, then the root directory of the current drive becomes Runner's home directory. After loading (or failing to find) RUNNER.CFG, Runner next looks for a picture file to load from Runner's home directory. The names for these auto-loading picture files are: RUNNER.PI1 for low resolution RUNNER.PI2 for medium resolution RUNNER.PI3 for high resolution These can be any Degas-compatible files (not compressed). If Runner cannot find the appropriate file for the current resolution, no picture is loaded. Note: if you hold down the Alternate key when Runner starts, Runner will NOT look for a picture file to load. A picture can be loaded later from within Runner. I have runner set up for my system as follows: RUNNER.PRG is in the root directory of drive D: RUNNER.CFG and the picture files RUNNER.PIx are stored in a folder called RUNNER which appears in the window when drive D: is opened from the desktop (it's a folder within the root directory of drive D:) There are lots of options. You may want to install RUNNER.PRG in the Install Applications menu from the desktop, and set it to start Runner for filetypes of ".RUN". Then put a file called RUNNER.RUN in any directory where you want to run Runner, and it can be started by clicking on RUNNER.RUN. If RUNNER.PRG is not in the root directory of the drive you are using, you may want to edit the DESKTOP.INF file. Change the line that says RUNNER.PRG to include the full path and drive for the program, such as D:\UTILITY\RUNNER\RUNNER.PRG. This is something GEM should do for you, but it's not a difficult fix to make. Be sure when saving DESKTOP.INF to save it with Word Processing mode OFF or as an ASCII file. And make a backup copy of DESKTOP.INF just to be safe. This change will not be available to you until you until you reset your computer. I use HeadStart (version 1.1) from the geniouses at Codehead Software to start Runner whenever my ST is turned on. A file called HEADSTRT.DAT goes in the root directory of my C: drive, and HEADST11.PRG is in the AUTO folder of the C: drive. HEADSTRT.DAT contains the line: D:\RUNNER.PRG HeadStart reads its data file, and loads Runner after the desktop appears. I don't need to open any drive windows any more! To make life simple while you're first trying Runner, just put all the Runner files in the same directory (folder) or in the root directory of some floppy disk or hard drive partition. Since Runner first checks the directory it was started from for these files, it will find them! At this point, you should go ahead and start Runner. I'll assume you are not using my sample RUNNER.CFG file, although it won't get in the way if you are. Running Runner Double-click on RUNNER.PRG to start the program. Hold down the Alternate key as Runner starts if you do not want it to load a picture file (this saves 32,000 bytes of memory, but you can unload a picture within Runner if you find you need the memory). In the main screen you will see the program title and a line that reads "Exit Runner". Click on this line to exit the program; an alert box will pop up asking you if you do indeed wish to exit. For now, click on RUNNER to return to the program. File Selector Access Click on the title line at the top of the list area to access a file selector box. This can be handy if you want to see what's on a disk, since a file selector displays the filenames in a folder. This can be even handier if you're using Universal Item Selector from Application and Design Software (Grants Pass, OR, 97526), since now you have access to Copy, Move, Delete, Rename, Format and Print capabilities, among others. If you click on Cancel or OK without selecting a file, the file selector goes away and you're back in Runner. If, from the file selector, you click on a program file (ending in .PRG, .TTP or .TOS), Runner will attempt to run that program. Runner asks you for a command line for .TTP programs. When you exit the program, the file selector will appear again. Select Cancel to return to Runner, or pick another file to run or view. For "TOS-Takes-Parameters" (.TTP) files, Runner will prompt you for any command line parameters you want to pass to the program. For example, selecting ARC.TTP lets you enter a command for ARC, such as "V D:DOWNLOAD". You can type and edit a command line using Backspace, arrows, and Delete. Esc clears the line. Enter three X's (XXX) to return to Runner without running the program. Enter three dots (...) to recall the previous command line. Press Return after a command line (or empty space) to start the program. If you select any non-program files, Runner will display them on the screen as text (a nice enhancement would be to display graphics files as pictures, but that's a lot of extra overhead in the program, especially when fine utilities like Pic Switch are available). Press the left mouse button, the SPACE key or the down arrow to continue after the screen fills. Press the right mouse button or the Q key to quit the file view at any time. Press the B key or the up arrow to go back to to the previous page. When you quit the file view, the file selector will appear again. Select Cancel to return to Runner, or select another file to run or view. One last note about the view function: It strips out any non-printable characters, and the "upper" character set with ASCII codes greater than 127 is mapped into the normal lower character set before displaying (since some IBM word processors mark text by shifting a character to the "upper" set, I assume some enterprising ST developer may do that as well). Extra formatting capabilities have been added to handle files from Atari XL/XE computers (which often use ASCII 155 instead of 13 for a carriage return), ST Writer files, which use ASCII 0 instead of 13, and Word Writer files which handle spaces in a strange way. You should be able to view almost any text file, although it may not appear on screen as it would if printed or loaded into the appropriate word processor. Files that do not use a normal carriage return to separate each line are read in differently; occasionally a character is dropped from the display. I've seen this happen with ST Writer files, but it's not a big problem, especially when you consider that the GEM desktop has serious problems displaying anything but the straight ASCII files you might send to a printer. File view is a bit slower than some utilities provide, but it offers a good balance between memory, capability and speed. If you would like to "install" an application as you can from the desktop, so that selecting a data file for that application will load the application and the file, Runner will let you. This is explained in detail below; for now realize that if a file selected from within the file selector has a file extension matching an installed application, that file will NOT be displayed to the screen as described above. Runner will instead try to load the file's application. Aslo note that Runner's "install" list is different from the desktop's list. If you would rather just view one of these files that would otherwise start up an installed application, then hold down the Alternate key while you select the file. This keeps Runner from checking the installed application list for a match. GEM Menu Bar That's it for the file selector; but there are lots of goodies in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Notice that when you move the mouse into the menu bar, the arrow turns into a pointing hand. While the hand is visible, you cannot select anything EXCEPT what's in the GEM menus. Away from the menu bar, press the left mouse button to change the hand back to an arrow (this is done for a variety of reasons stemming from a poor design of the mouse handling routines in GFA BASIC, but it's not all that inconvenient). If you select a menu item, the mouse is returned to the arrow shape automatically. Note that one letter is always capitalized in each menu item (except for the name RUNNER). This is the letter on the keyboard you can press as an alternative to mousing. No Control or Alternate key is required. All of Runner's functions (except for a few alert boxes) can be performed without the mouse. Desk - About RUNNER Under Desk you will find "About RUNNER"; click on it to see my name, Runner's version number, and the approximate amount of free RAM (Runner uses lots of stuff internally that gets cleared before a program is run, and there's no good way to tell exactly how much space will be available to the program -- this estimate may be off by several K bytes). Desk - Use accessories Click on "Use accessories" to get to any of the shaded desk accessories in the Desk menu. The screen will clear and a single Desk menu will appear. Accessories can be freely used now, although many of them leave behind "holes" in the desktop. Under the Desk menu, the second item is now called "End accessories". Click on this to quit using accessories and get back to the program. File The File menu contains Load, Save, Install, Background and Fix Runner options. Note that Quit is not available here as it is in most File menus. "Exit Runner" is available from the top level Runner menu. File - Load config Load lets you load RUNNER.CFG. It starts in Runner's home directory, but you can change to another directory or load a different configuration file from the file selector box that appears. There is no warning to save any changes you may have made to the configuration in memory, so be careful. Loading a new .CFG file will replace anything already in memory except the picture. Clicking on Cancel in the file selector box will stop the load operation. File - Save config Save lets you preserve you current setup for the next time you run Runner. Program configurations and descriptions, menus, menu structures, initial color palettes and the main title are all saved in the configuration file. Use RUNNER.CFG if you want that configuration to be auto-loaded the next time you start Runner, or give it another name if you choose. Clicking on Cancel in the file selector box will stop the save operation. File - Background "Background" lets you load and unload pictures. If no picture is in memory, a file selector will appear showing all the .PIx files for the current resolution in Runner's home directory. Use the file selector box to move to another disk or directory if needed. Select the picture you want, and it will become the background for Runner's screen. If a picture is already displayed when you select "Background", you will be asked if you want to load another picture or unload the one you've got. Unloading a picture frees 32,000 bytes of memory for larger applications. Loading a new picture replaces the old one and brings in the color palette for the new picture. Note that if the color registers used for the background color and the text color have color values that are too close, the text color register value will be changed. Some color in your picture may be different than what you expect, but you'll be able see Runner's menus and prompts. Clicking on Cancel from the file selector box will stop the picture load operation and leave the current picture (if any) in memory. File - Install "Install" is similar to the Desktop's "Install Application" function. The idea is that you specify a file extension, such as ".NEO", and a program, such as Neochrome, to handle files with that extension. Then, suppose you select a file named "HOUSE.NEO" from the file selector. Instead of trying to display the file as text, Runner will load the Neochrome program and tell Neochrome to load HOUSE.NEO for you. Very simple, eh? Selecting the "Install" option of the File menu brings up a screen showing all installed applications and the file extensions that trigger them. To save memory, the mouse does nothing here except exit back to the Runner main screen. Install is all keyboard driven. Press a letter key from "A" through "P" (no shift is needed) to select a line to enter or change. The old extension (for example, NEO) will appear at the top of the screen so you can change it. If the extension was blank, you can enter one. Press ESC to clear the line, Return to accept it. Backspace, Delete and the left/right arrows all work (a lot of power from one GFA BASIC command!). If you erase the extension or leave it blank, that application line is erased and the application is de-installed. File extensions can have a "?" in them to represent any single character (PI? works for PI1, PI2, PI3, PIC, PIX...). You can also use a "*" to mean any characters from that position to the end of the line (P* works for PI1, PC1, PI2, PC2...). Do not enter a "." or space or other characters not allowed in a file extension, or no file will ever activate the application. After entering an extension, a file selector will appear asking you to chose an application to install. Pick the program you want, and you're done. If you press cancel or OK with no file selected, then the application line is unchanged. When you are done entring, changing or erasing application lines, press a mouse button to exit back to Runner's main screen. You can also press most keys other than the letters "A" through "P" to exit Install. When an application is activated by a selected file, you will see a command line containing the filename that you can edit as if you had selected a .TTP program. This is useful for a program like ARC. For example, you install ARC.TTP for extensions of .ARC. You select NEWFILES.ARC, but ARC needs more than a filename passed to it. You can insert "V " in front of the filename to get a "verbose" listing of the files in NEWFILES.ARC. If you select NEWFILES.ARC again, the command line contains "V NEWFILES.ARC" as a starting point for the next command. For more on command lines, the description above under File Selector. File - Fix RUNNER Some programs don't exit as politely as others. They forget to reset colors, or fail to return all the memory they should, or leave important system settings in an altered state. Runner tries to reset many things when a program exits to prevent such problems. Some programs (ST Writer 3.0 is driving me crazy because of this) make such a mess of things that no straight forward fix is obvious. Rather than add lots of code to test and repair scores of potential problems, I've added a Fix RUNNER command. This one clears from memory the current copy of Runner and reloads a fresh copy from disk. This seems to fix most of the stranger problems and is the same as (but quicker than) exiting to the desktop to reload Runner. For some really troublesome programs you may need to reset the computer. Try Fix RUNNER first, it may help. If RUNNER.PRG can be found where Runner was loaded from, it will automatically be reloaded. Otherwise a file selector will appear. Select RUNNER.PRG or Cancel. Be sure you've Saved your current configuration if you need to; Fix RUNNER doesn't check for menu or color changes. If a program leaves you without control of the mouse you won't be able to select Fix RUNNER from the menu; remember you can always press the "F" key. Menus The Menus menu contains add Program, add Menu, Drop and Change. This is where you change Runner's program menus to contain the programs you use most often. For monochrome systems, the Menus menu also contains the choice "White/Black" to let monochrome users swap black and white colors. Menus - add Program "add Program" displays a file selector box. Select a .PRG, .TTP or .TOS file from any disk or directory, or select cancel if you decide not to add a new program after all. Note that if you already have fifteen programs or menu names in the list displayed on the screen, Add Program will do nothing. In this case you must first remove something, or move to another menu. If you select a program file, a dialogue box will appear with a default program name and other default settings for the program. Use the BACKSPACE key, letters, numbers, spaces or other symbols to change the description if you want; this is what you'll see from Runner's screen. The Esc key erases the description. If no description is entered, the default name will be used. Use the left mouse button to click on the options in the box. They are: Low Res - a check mark means the program will appear on menus while in low resolution. If you clear this check mark by clicking on it, the program will NOT appear in the list when you are in low resolution. Click again to restore the checkmark. Med Res - same as Low Res, but for Medium Resolution. High Res - same as Low Res, but for High Resolution (mono). Keep Colors - when a called program exits, Runner normally restores its "current" color palette, in case the called program leaves the wrong colors behind. If a check mark appears on Keep Colors, then Runner will accept any changes is its new current color palette. Hold Screen - 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. Low or Med - the check mark always appears here because one of these options is always selected. Clicking here cycles from "Low or Med" (program will run in either low or medium res, whatever mode the computer is in), "Low to Med" (forces programs in low resolution to run in a medium res screen), to "Med to Low" (forces programs in medium res to run in a low res screen) and back to "Low or Med". This is 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. When you have the dialogue box set the way you want it, press RETURN or click the right mouse button. Any changes will be remembered. Note that there is no UNDO capability; there are not that many options and they're easy to fix if you should mix things up. Your program will now appear in Runner's menu (if you configured it to run in the current resolution). You cannot prevent a program from appearing in all three resolutions at the same time; Runner may surprise you with some clicks on the resolution options because it wants at least one resolution available. Special Function: to see ALL programs, regardless of the current resolution, press the TAB key. Programs not intended for the current resolution will have a "registered" mark in front of their names in the list (a circle with an "R" in it) as a "Res" warning. When displayed, these other programs can be selected to run (in the wrong resolution) but more importantly you can now select Change to alter their resolution settings or select Drop to remove them permanently. Up to fifteen programs or menus can be displayed in a list at one time, but you can have different names in different resolutions. When all names are displayed, there may be too many to show so those at the end of the list will be left off. Press the TAB key again to clear these other programs from the screen. Menus - add Menu Adding a menu works the same as adding a program, except that you skip the file selection process and go straight to the same dialogue box. The Hold Screen, Keep Colors and resolution forcing options don't have any effect on Menus, but to save memory the same dialogue box is used for both menus and programs. Don't worry about it. You CAN select the resolution(s) for which a menu should be available. If you leave the description empty, no menu is added. As with programs, if you already have fifteen programs or menus displayed, "add Menu" has no effect. Menus can be nested, that is a menu list can contain menus which can, in turn, contain more menus. Simply click on "add Menu" while you're inside another menu, and the new menu will be nested inside the current menu. Menus can be nested in this fashion up to maximum of fifteen levels deep, probably more than you could ever use. Since one purpose of Runner is to avoid all the folder searching that goes on from the Desktop, you may want to use as few menus as necessary. This is easier than on the desktop since you're only dealing with program names and don't need a separate menu to group together all the .RSC, data and font files and anything else needed for a program. Folders continue to do this quite well. Menus - Change "Change" lets you change the configuration for any program or menu. When you click on "Change", a prompt at the top of the screen tells you to select a menu or program that you want to change. Use the mouse to pick a program or menu, and the same dialogue box appears that you used when the program or menu was first added. Change the description or any of the other options, and press Return or the right mouse button when finished. You cannot change a program's directory or its location in the display; you'll need to remove it and add it back to do that (If this is a real inconvenience that occurs more than once in a long while, let me know and maybe an enhancement can be made). When the "Select to Change" prompt is visible, clicking the left mouse button away from any selectables (programs, menus and GEM menu bar) will exit the change prompt. If you select the top title line for Change, you can change Runner's main title. This title only appears on Runner's top level menu (the one you see when Runner starts). On lower level menus the name of the menu appears instead. Click on any of these titles to change the main title. The new title is saved to disk when you save a configuration file. Menus - Drop "Drop" lets you delete a program or menu from the display. It DOES NOT change the programs on disk. "Drop" is similar to "Change". Click on "Drop" and a prompt appears telling you to select a program or menu to remove. Click on the program or menu you no longer want in the list. If you drop a menu, EVERYTHING in the menu is removed as well -- all its programs and sub-menus. Remember that none of your changes are permanent until you save this new configuration back to disk with the Save command in the Files menu. Menus - White/black (high res only) On monochrome systems, the "Menus" column also contains "White/black". Click on this to reverse the screen colors for running programs and viewing files. Hold down Alternate when you do this to keep the change for the current picture's colors as well (in memory only -- the picture's disk file is never changed). Color (appears on color systems only) The color menu lets you select which palette you want to see when a program runs or when you view a file. If no picture is loaded, palette changes affect Runner's screen as well. If a picture is loaded, a new palette is displayed only briefly, then the picture's palette is restored. This lets you use a reasonable palette for running programs while displaying a picture that uses colors too disgusting for most programs. If you want to change the palette used for displaying the picture, hold down the Alternate key when selecting a different palette. You can always restore the picture's original palette by selecting Picture, or by selecting another palette without holding down Alternate. Three palettes are available: iNitial - the palette loaded from Runner's configuration file deskTop - the colors in the desktop before Runner was started backGround - the colors from the last picture loaded into Runner Although Runner itself does not let you select which colors go in which palette, it uses the concept of the "Current Palette". The Current Palette is the set of colors Runner switches to when running a program or displaying a file. If no picture is loaded then the Current Palette is used for Runner's screen as well. If a palette is selected with Alternate depressed, then the picture is displayed using the Current Palette. If a program is configured to Keep Colors, then any palette changes done by that program are saved in Runner's Current Palette when the other program exits. You can also use the Atari Control Panel or other desk accessory to change the Current Palette -- Runner saves the changes to the Current Palette when leaving accessories and when saving a configuration file. Any changes saved to a configuration file become the Initial Palette the next time that configuration file is loaded. A separate Initial Palette is maintained for each resolution. To remember the keyboard equivalents for color changes, note that the key to press is the letter at the start of the second sylable (sorry, but I and B were needed elsewhere): i-Nitial, desk-Top, back-Ground. The ALT key doesn't work with N/T/G to select colors for the background picture as well. You'll need to use the mouse for that. The Main Screen Once you have your program and menu lists set up the way you want, you should save a configuration file. Runner is fairly good at recovering from problems in programs it calls, such as too little memory or other errors, but some problems may cause a system lockup or other problem preventing you from saving a configuration later. Now you can try running programs and selecting menus. Move the mouse over any program or menu name and left-click one time. A program name will run the corresponding program. A menu name will cause the contents of that menu to be displayed. From a nested menu, click on the "Up One Level" line to return to the "parent" menu. At the top level menu, this line says "Exit Runner". An alert box makes sure you really do want to exit, so there is no danger of clicking on the Up One Level line too many times. As a shortcut, a click of the right mouse button will take you immediately to the top level menu. This is one of two ways Runner uses the right mouse button. Exiting the Add/Change dialogue box is the other. On the main screen, there are keyboard equivalents for all mouse functions, so you can run Runner without a mouse if you like (you'll still need a mouse to make some dialogue box selections, or you can hold down the Alternate key and press arrow keys to move the cursor, then press Alt-insert to make simulate a left mouse button press). The keyboard and mouse may be used interchangeably from the main screen. Some keys work differently in the add/change dialogue box. All the menu bar selections can be made by pressing the key shown in upper case in the menu. This is usually the first letter of the choice, but in some cases it's in the middle of the name (such as "add Program" or "deskTop"). An important one to remember is the "F" key (for Fix RUNNER) which can be pressed to reload the Runner program and get things working again after an unruly program leaves the mouse dead. Other keys are as follows: * RETURN, INSERT, RIGHT ARROW: Make a selection, the same as the left mouse button. * CLR HOME: Move to top menu level, the same as the right mouse button. * UP/DOWN ARROWS: Move the hilight up and down in the menu list. The mouse cursor is repositioned with each keypress. The hilight wraps around at the top and bottom of each menu. If no title is highlighted, the UP arrow starts at the bottom of the list and works upward; the DOWN arrow starts at the top and moves down. * LEFT ARROW: Move up to the next higher menu. If on the top menu, you'll get the exit dialogue box. * UNDO: Displays the exit dialogue box to let you quickly leave Runner. * HELP: Displays the file selector to let you view files or run programs not in your menu. * TAB: Toggles between normal display of menus lists and an extended display showing all programs in a list regardless of the current resolution. Programs that you have configured NOT to run in the current resolution have a "registered" symbol (an "R" inside a circle) in front of their names as a warning that you may not want to run them in the current resolution. When these programs are displayed in the list, they can be selected for "Change", "Drop" or simply clicked on to run them as with any other program. If you have a lot of "hidden" programs in a list then the list may exceed fifteen names when you press TAB. If this happens, only the first fifteen are displayed (a given menu could actually contain up to 45 menus or program names, fifteen set for low res only, fifteen for medium only, and fifteen set to run only in high res). Other Stuff Runner contains only one error message, and it's used no matter what the problem is. This is better than crashing over small problems, and I felt it better than using lots of memory to diagnose and report various problems. If you see the error message (something general like "Bad Drive, Path or Other Error"), you can choose to return to Runner or exit to the desktop. For some reason beyond my understanding, a program cannot be run from Runner if the program file is locked (set for Read Only). If you have trouble loading a program, check for this cause. The template files, called GUIDE.PI1, GUIDE.PI2 and GUIDE.PI3 are ready to load into Degas Elite or any other program that accepts the Degas file format. They mark where Runner displays its menus. The Grey areas are used by Runner (you can put stuff there, but Runner may cover it from time to time). The black borders are not part of the area used by Runner. The red lines (in GUIDE.PI3, the fuzzy markers) are used to verify the location of the lines. A red line segment appears on each side of the black border lines. Runner should never cover more than the inside red line segment (or the inside edge of the fuzzy markers). A calibration guide of sorts.... Remember that Runner will change a picture color if necessary to make text at least visible. Colors 3 and 15 are used for text in low and medium res. Special thanks to David Lindsley of Magnetic Images for some good ideas on this one.... One last note about GFA BASIC: I spent a great deal of time working around problems in detecting mouse clicks in the GEM menu bar rather then on the underlying screen (for example, when a pull down menu overlaps the title line, and you click on Add Menu but instead get the file selector box called by clicking on the title line). GFA works reasonably well if everything is done inside a window and you rely on GFA's internal commands for detecting mouse presses, keypresses and so on. The problem then is that GFA does all this too s-l-o-w-l-y to be usable, and has real problems registering mouse clicks consistently. The language has a lot going for it, and is clearly up to the required level of performance, but NOT if you go "by the book." If anyone else out there has found better solutions (other than switching to C), please let me know. I could cut out a lot of silly code that tracks the same things GEM must be tracking internally. By the way, RUNNER is written in GFA BASIC 3.07, compiled with the 3.02 compiler and linked with the 3.02 linker. 1,951 lines of code including comments, roughly 60 soubroutines, most of them not re- usable (global variables DO take less space, don't they?). It's been in development off and on for about half a year now. Most recent additions include the clock, the Install screen, and recognition of key presses, as well as lots of cleaning up and a relatively elaborate routine to clear "residual" mouse presses before calling a file selector (I had to move the mouse and set/clear the buttons with SETMOUSE, read it several times, and issue ON MENU, in case you find the same problems). In spite of all the work arounds I shouldn't have needed, GFA 3.07 is a *nice* programming environment, and a fast, capable language. I still recommend it! I completely gave up trying to tell when -exactly- to set or clear the inverse display of a program or menu name since GFA gives no way to tell if a GEM menu is displayed or not. I tried putting in lots of delays. They kept the screen cleaner but slowed the program too much and weren't completely or consistently effective either. You'll have to live with some characters staying inverted when they shouldn't until I find a better way (or a better language). Sorry, but I gave it my best shot. If you insist on clearing up a messy screen, try running the mouse through the area or selecting "Install" from the file menu and then press Return to get back to the main screen with a redraw. It's really not all that bad.... That about wraps it up for Runner. If you have any suggestions for additions, or find features you never use that could be removed, or something doesn't seem to work quite right, then contact me at the address at the top of this document. If you enjoy Runner, please send some $'s my way (and Thank You for your support!). If you don't enjoy using your ST, you're not doing it right! -- Dave Thorson One last bonus for those who managed to read this far: Runner remembers the current directory used in the file selector and also remembers the directory used prior to that. Pressing the "X" key from the main menu (not in the file selector itself) will swap these two directories. The new "current" directory is displayed for a short while in the GEM menu bar area. Pressing "X" again will swap the directories back again. This is useful if you need to keep returning to some directory after viewing a file somewhere else. Of course, UIS III lets you assign frequently travelled directories to function keys, but not everyone has UIS III! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Here is where update/fix information will appear, but since this is the first public release of Runner, there's not much going on yet.... (eof)