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Geneva 005 Demo Version Copyright © 1996, Gribnif Software All rights reserved This archive may be copied freely, provided that it includes all of the original files in an unmodified form. Geneva is available from: Gribnif Software Phone: (413) 532-2434 PO Box 779 Fax: (413) 532-2540 Northampton, MA 01061 USA email: gribnif@pair.com Welcome to the Geneva demo. Because Geneva replaces a major part of the operating system, it has a large number of options and features that may not be obvious at first glance. Please read this text file thoroughly! Otherwise, you may miss out on important aspects of the program or wonder why something does not work as expected. This text file is broken up into sections, as follows: o Files in This Demo o What's Disabled o About the Full Version o Setting It Up o Running It - Hey, What's This Blank Screen? o Running Programs - Geneva Run - Cleaning Up the Clutter - Single-tasking Mode - The Process Manager o Tear-away Menus o Menu Keyboard Equivalents o Dialog Enhancements o Geneva's Item Selector o Geneva's Options - The Task Manager - Program Flags - Important Notes About Flags o Quitting Geneva o Using the Demo with MiNT - Installation With MiNT o If You Already Own Geneva o Also Available Files in This Demo ------------------ The Geneva demo version includes these files: GENEVA.PRG The main program GENEVA.CNF Configuration file GNVA_TOS.PRG TOS/TTP in a window GNVA_TOS.RSC TASKMAN.ACC Task Manager TASKMAN.RSC GNVARUN.ACC Geneva Run - Program Launcher GNVARUN.RSC JAR10.PRG Cookie jar installation program GNVADEMO.TXT You're reading it What's Disabled --------------- o Every few minutes, the "About Geneva" dialog will appear. Click anywhere in the dialog to close it. o Settings (program flags, etc.) cannot be permanently saved to GENEVA.CNF. o This version of Geneva cannot be run from the AUTO folder. It must be run either from the desktop, or from MINT.CNF (if you are using MiNT.) o Commands to run programs from the GEM.CNF file (run, runacc, shell) do not work. o The video resolution cannot be changed. About the Full Version ---------------------- In addition to the things that are disabled for this demo, the full version also has: o Online hypertext help and a help viewer. o A 150-page manual, with programming documentation. o An installation program that takes care of copying all the necessary files to their correct locations. o The ability to change the mouse pointer shape, including the use of animated shapes. o A special "debugging" version of Geneva for programmers, which helps to point out common errors when testing applications. o A help file compiler. Setting It Up ------------- In order to run the demo version of Geneva, you should have the following files in the same directory: JAR10.PRG GENEVA.PRG GENEVA.CNF GNVA_TOS.PRG GNVA_TOS.RSC TASKMAN.ACC TASKMAN.RSC GNVARUN.ACC GNVARUN.RSC Note that, normally, Geneva reads a file called GEM.CNF to get some of its other settings. In order to make this demo version easier to use, the following settings are created internally if you do not use a GEM.CNF file: setenv ACCPATH=<boot drive>:\ setenv PATH=,<folder where GENEVA.PRG is> setenv ACCEXT=ACC,ACX setenv GEMEXT=PRG,APP,GTP,EXE setenv TOSEXT=TOS,TTP setenv TOSRUN=<Geneva's path>\GNVA_TOS.PRG If you are familiar with the workings of GEM.CNF, you can create this file yourself with a text editor to change these settings. If you don't understand what GEM.CNF is, don't worry. The default values are probably fine. Running It ---------- To run Geneva, simply open GENEVA.PRG. The program will load and then try to load any desk accessories on the boot drive (or, if you've changed it, from the place where ACCPATH points.) Note that since this demo version of Geneva runs on top of any other resident applications or desk accessories you may have loaded, the amount of free memory you have available when Geneva appears may be limited. To get more back, quit the demo (or reboot) and disable all of your desk accessories before running the demo again. Hey, What's This Blank Screen? ------------------------------ Geneva replaces the entire AES (Application Environment Services) portion of the operating system. In so doing, it is impossible for you to continue using the desktop that is part of your computer's ROMs. Of course, Geneva works especially well with our own NeoDesk 4. (The demo version, of which, is also available.) It also works well with other shells like Ease and Thing. Older desktops will work, but may only be able to start new applications in "single-tasking" mode. This means that you cannot return to the desktop until the child program has terminated. With the full version, a desktop can be installed so that it comes up automatically whenever Geneva starts. Even if you would always be using a desktop, it is still helpful to know what the purpose of the menu you are now looking at is. It's called the Geneva Manager menu. It allows you to run programs and gives you access to a few of Geneva's built-in options. Move the mouse into the menu bar over the "File" title. Hey, it didn't pop down! That's because, by default, Geneva uses "pull-down" menus instead of the "pop-down" menus you are used to. You need to click with the left mouse button on the menu title and keep the button held while you make a selection. This feature prevents menus from popping down at inconvenient times. It can be changed back using a setting; more on that later. Running Programs ---------------- To run a program, go to the Geneva Manager's File->Open menu entry. This opens Geneva's item selector (more about its features later on). You can choose any program or desk accessory on your system and it will be loaded. That's right, you can load a desk accessory when you want to, not just by rebooting. You can also have as many of them as you want, memory permitting. You are not limited to only six! For now, try running something that you know uses the menu bar, like Atari Works or a desktop publishing program. When you have a program that uses the menu bar, you can switch back to another application (like the Geneva Manager menu) in one of several ways: o Go to the Desk menu. Here, applications (PRG's) are listed first alphabetically, and desk accessories are listed underneath. You can choose the name of a particular application to switch to it. o If another application has a window open, just click on that window to make it topmost. If the new application has a menu bar, its menu bar is now the current one. o Press [Alt][Tab] on the keyboard to cycle through the applications that have windows and/or menu bars. Applications that are in the background are always able to use the system, if they choose to. For instance, you can be downloading a file in STalker at the same time you are copying some files in NeoDesk 4. Some programs are not multitasking-aware and always take priority. Examples are when you print a document in Atari Works or Pagestream. Essentially, any time you still have access to the GEM menu bar, a program will multitask well. If you run a TOS (or TTP) program, Geneva automatically runs a separate program called Geneva TOS. This program then runs the child, and displays its text in a window that you can scroll and select with the mouse. Geneva Run ---------- Included with this demo is a shareware program launcher, Geneva Run. You can call it up by running GNVARUN.ACC from the Geneva Manager's Open menu entry. It can also be used as a program by changing its extension to PRG. The documentation for Geneva Run normally comes in a Geneva hypertext help file. Since the help file viewer is not included with this demo, we will cover some of the basics of using this program. When it first opens, Geneva Run asks you for the name of a Group file. Unless you already own NeoDesk 4, you won't have any group files, so just use a name like "NEW.GRP". Now, you need to tell Geneva Run which programs you want to be able to run from this group. Go to the Edit menu and select Add Entry. An item selector appears, allowing you to choose a file (most likely a program) from any location on your system. Next comes a dialog which gives you some options. "Name in Window" is the name which appears in the list of items Geneva Run shows you. You can use any character in this name, and it's a great way to give the program a more descriptive name than would otherwise be able to fit into 8 characters. "Program type" is pretty self-explanatory; it controls how the program is run. "Keyboard" lets you choose a keypress which can be used to run that program, provided the group is open. Geneva Run need not be the topmost application for this to work, but the correct group window does have to be open. Several group windows can be open at once, and you can even nest groups within groups, by using Add Entry. There is also the ability to install documents to specific programs, but that is a little bit advanced for this demo. Cleaning Up the Clutter ----------------------- After you have a bunch of programs running at once (trying to reach that 256 window limit, are you?) you may want to close some of them. Here's a neat trick: with a window on top, press [Alt][Esc] on the keyboard. The window closes! That's just one of the many keyboard equivalents Geneva lets you assign to window gadgets. Another thing you can do is to put an entire application "to sleep". Go to the Desk menu and hold either [Shift] key while you select the application's name. Any windows it has are automatically closed and its menu bar is removed from the screen. You can also put the topmost application to sleep by pressing [Control][Alt][Z] on the keyboard. But it's still there. All you need to do is return to the Desk menu and click on its name again (without [Shift]) to restore it. Note that the names of sleeping applications appear in italics. You can also terminate any application or desk accessory by holding [Control] while clicking on its name. If an application does not support the new AP_TERM message, you will get an alert warning you that it may not be safe to terminate the application. Don't be too surprised if the system crashes after proceeding. A small percentage of applications hook into the system in such a way that the only safe way to quit them is by using the regular method. Terminating an application is best used as a last resort. The Process Manager ------------------- Sometimes a program is misbehaving so badly that you can't even get to the Desk menu. In this case, you can often call up Geneva's built-in process manager by pressing [Control][Shift][Alt][keypad *]. This presents you with a list that you can use to terminate, wake up, or put to sleep any of the applications that are running. The "Details" button brings up a more in-depth description of each process, which is intended mostly for programmers. If you are using MiNT, the manager also gives you a list of any processes that are running but do not use Geneva at all, like a printer daemon or a TOS program. These processes can be put to sleep or terminated just like ones that use Geneva. Single-tasking Mode ------------------- Many older applications were written long before anybody ever thought of being able to run more than one program at a time. As a result, they might not get along with other applications at the same time. Geneva offers an excellent solution for this problem: single-tasking mode. As you run programs on your system, you may discover that some of them cause the screen to be cleared completely, removing all other applications. This is because Geneva comes pre-configured with a number of popular programs set to single-task. When a single-tasking application is executed, all other applications are put to sleep. When you quit the single-tasking app, the others wake up automatically. But what if you want to get at the others without quitting first? You can! If the single-tasking application uses the GEM menu bar, just go to the Desk menu and select the name of one of the other applications. The single-tasker goes to sleep and the others wake up. Its name is now listed in small text in the Desk menu so that you know it is single-tasking. An particular application can be set to single-task by turning the "Multitasking" flag off in the Task Manager's Flags menu. This is described in more detail later on. Tear-away Menus --------------- An extremely helpful feature of Geneva is the ability to "tear awawy" any GEM program's menus, putting them into free-floating individual windows. To tear away a menu, place the mouse over a menu title (like "Desk") and hold the [Control] key while clicking on the name. An outline will appear so that you can drag the menu window to a new location. When you release the mouse button, it appears where you dropped it. You can now click on the entries in this tear-away menu just like the menu entries of the normal menu. The difference is that they are easier to get to. There is also a special case, the "Desk" (leftmost) menu. When this menu is torn-away, it becomes a list of applications, just like the Desk menu itself. As you run new applications and quit them, the tear-away menu gets updated automatically! You can also switch between applications, put them to sleep, and terminate them using this tear-away. Menu Keyboard Equivalents ------------------------- Using the keyboard to access programs can often be much faster than always having to use the mouse. Many programs do not offer keyboard equivalents for their menu entries, though. Geneva offers a solution. Hold the [Alt] key and press [Space]. The Desk menu at the top of the screen suddenly opens! Having done this, you will notice that the first menu entry is selected. You can move to the next menu entry by using the down arrow on the keyboard. In fact, you can also move to the other menus by using the left and right arrow keys, as well. To select a particular menu entry, just press [Space] or [Return]. To exit the menu without doing anything, press [Esc] or [Undo]. You may have also noticed some lines underneath letters in the menu entries. If you press an underlined key on the keyboard, that menu entry will be activated. Dialog Enhancements ------------------- Geneva can generate keyboard equivalents for the dialogs of most applications. Much like menu equivalents, they appear as lines underneath buttons. When you hold the [Alt] key and press that letter, the button is activated. A partial list of some of the other improvements Geneva offers: o Editable fields can be clicked on with the mouse, at any cursor position. You can also use lots of editing keys, like [Shift][Arrow] to move to the start/end of the line, and [Shift][Delete] to erase from the current cursor position. The [Insert] key toggles insert/overwrite text mode. Pressing [Clr/Home] presents you with a popup menu from which you can select any ASCII character. o A button with the text "Cancel", "Quit", "Abort" or "Undo" can be activated from the keyboard with the Undo key. o Alerts appear with a mover gadget in the upper right corner, allowing you to drag them with the mouse. Geneva's Item Selector ---------------------- Some of the many features sported by Geneva's item selector: o 1- or 2-column modes (the latter with folders on the left and files on the right.) o Extended wildcard support for viewing more types of files at one time. o A "jump to root directory" [\] button. o A popup list of commonly used paths, that can also be activated with function keys. o File tools for getting file info (and renaming), finding files, copying, moving, deleting, etc. o A list of (editable) preset extensions, and a "Start" option to return to the original extension(s). o A revolutionary search mode that allows you to type the first few letters of a file's name. Start the mode by pressing [Tab]. The "HELP" button in the item selector *does* work in the demo! Geneva's Options - The Task Manager ----------------------------------- Most of Geneva's options can be controlled using the Task Manager, TASKMAN.PRG (which can also be run as an accessory by renamign it to TASKMAN.ACC.) The main window provides you with a list of all applications that are currently running. You can double-click on an application's name to bring it to the foreground. You can select an application's name and put it to sleep or terminate it using the File menu contained in the Task Manager's window. (Just click on a title to start the menu.) The Options menu controls various aspects of Geneva's configuration. Most of them are self-explanatory. Rather than go into lots of detail, let's explore some of the more important ones, in the Misc. Options menu: o "Pulldown menus" controls whether or not you need to click with the mouse to start the menu bar. o "Grow/shrink boxes" controls the "flourish" that some programs use when opening dialogs or windows. Turning this off can speed up these programs. o "Preserve mouse on/off" keeps track of how many times an application has turned the mouse on or off. That way, if you switch to another application, the mouse will be in the state that application expects, not the state of the old one. o "Preserve system colors" works in a similar manner. This is helpful when you have a program that changes one or more of the main 16 system colors. Without this option, dialogs and menus in other programs might be unreadable. You cannot change the video mode in the demo version, nor can you save Geneva's settings. Consequently, any changes you make in the Video and Window/Menu Bar dialogs cannot take effect. You also cannot use the "HELP" buttons in the Task Manager's dialogs. Program Flags ------------- Here's where things can get a little sticky. You see, each application you run can have its own set of flags, which tell Geneva what kind of special handling it needs. Most of the flags provide increased compatibility with multitasking in general, or Geneva in particular. To see this dialog, select the "Permanent" menu entry in the Task Manager's File menu. o Multitasking: Try creating a new flag with this turned off if: a) Button clicks "bleed through" to the application underneath b) The program's dialog will not accept mouse clicks c) Even when its windows are partially covered by ones belonging to other applications, the program draws on top of the other windows. o Limit memory to...: Some programs grab all available memory when they run, leaving no free RAM for other applications. This allows you to set a limit, in kilobytes, for the application. o Optimize window redraws: Geneva can decrease the amount of time an application needs to spend redrawing windows. However, if you notice that a program's windows are not being updated properly, try turning this flag off. A quick note, to avoid confusion: The "Temporary" menu entry only controls flags for the current instance of the application. Once the program quits, any changes to the temporary flags are lost. Don't worry too much. All of the flags in this dialog are explained in more detail in both the manual and the online help of the full version of Geneva. Important Notes About Flags --------------------------- By default, there are some program flags that are set up to provide greater compatibility, which can also sometimes interfere: o Calamus SL: There is a program flag for CALAMUS.PRG which has "Limit memory to..." turned on. This is because without the flag, Calamus 1.09 will grab all available memory. When using Calamus SL, you should either turn this flag off, or just delete the whole set of flags for Calamus. o Pagestream: Similarly, Pagestream will also grab all of your memory, if allowed to. The default flag has a limit set for 2.5 Mb. If this is too small, you will need to increase the number. Quitting Geneva --------------- When you are through trying the demo, you can quit it by selecting "Quit Geneva" from the Geneva Manager menu. Any applications or desk accessories that are in memory will be terminated. It is strongly recommended that you manually quit the ones you can first, otherwise you may get unexpected results (as described above in the "Cleaning Up the Clutter" section.) Of course, you can always just reboot your computer if problems arise. Using the Demo with MiNT ------------------------ Geneva can be used with MiNT (MiNT is Now TOS), from Eric Smith and Atari Corp. Without MiNT, Geneva runs in cooperative multitasking mode (where switching to another process depends on it making calls to the AES). With MiNT, Geneva uses preemptive multitasking (which gives an equal amount of time to each process, regardless of what it is doing.) All of MiNT's normal features are available, like pipes, alternate filesystems, etc. However, while the preemptive mode does prevent programs from tying up the entire system, it is generally slower and continues to get slower the more processes you run. This mode is also less compatible with older applications. In order to conserve space, we do not distribute MiNT with this demo, but it is included with the full package. MiNT can be obtained from various free sources, like atari.archive.umich.edu, ftp.toad.net, and from online services like GEnie. Geneva was tested with version 1.12 of MiNT. Older versions may or may not work properly. Installation With MiNT ---------------------- The demo version can only be run in this way with MiNT. The full version is a little more flexible: o JARxxx.PRG must run in the AUTO folder before MINTNP.PRG. o If you use NeoDesk, you must run NEOLOAD.PRG in the AUTO folder before MINTNP.PRG. Generally speaking, most TSR's work best when run in the AUTO folder prior to MINTNP.PRG. o MINTNP.PRG should be in the AUTO folder, in the last physical position. The current version of Geneva cannot be used with memory protection (MINT.PRG). o MINT.CNF, in the root directory of the boot drive, should contain the line: INIT=<path>\geneva.prg For example, if you have copied GENEVA.PRG to the folder C:\GENEVA\, use the line: INIT=c:\geneva\geneva.prg The MINT.CNF must not contain any other "INIT=..." lines. If You Already Own Geneva ------------------------- Anyone who already has an older version of Geneva can get patch programs to update them to release 005. For $5 + $.65 S&H (slightly higher outside North America), we will send these programs to you on a disk. Updating is a simple matter of running the patch program(s), which modify your original master disk. Also Available -------------- Geneva is not only available on its own for $69.95, but it can also be purchased in a package combined with our award winning desktop, NeoDesk 4 for just $129.95. (Prices do not include shipping; please contact us for more information.) Another product which is available only directly from Gribnif Software is the Geneva Utilities Disk 2.0. It includes three programs: o Geneva View is a simple, efficient, text file displayer. It has a modern windowed interface, with scroll bars, a resizing gadget, and a menu of options within the window itself. Files can be displayed either one page at a time, or in one go. You can display files in any GDOS font you like, and even show them as a hexadecimal dump. Very easy to use and configure! o Geneva Desk allows you to change the pattern and color of the default desktop, which appears when you are not using a desktop shell, or when you run a singletasking application. You can choose from a wide variety of colors and patterns or, if you have NeoDesk 4, you can even use its picture and Desktop Notes! o The most important program on the disk is Geneva Macros 2.0. This macro recorder and editor will store any sequence of timer, mouse button, mouse movement, or keyboard actions and then play them back when you press a key. It's great for automating things like running a program and putting it to sleep immediately, or tearing-off a menu you use frequently. Of course, you can also edit the individual steps that comprise a macro, using the full cut & paste interface. Geneva macros can also be set to look for a specific macro set for every application you run, dynamically changing when you switch between applications. All three of these programs are available on one disk for just $15 + $.65 S&H (in North America).