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ICON MENU Version 1.6 (c) 1993 D. G. Sureau 3, rue Ferdinand-Duval 75004 Paris -- BON DE COMMANDE POUR UNE VERSION FRANCAISE COMMERCIALE -- Nom: __________________________________ (Société, éventuellement): _________________________________ Adresse (no et voie): ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Code postal: ..... Ville:_______________________________ Pays: _______________________________ ICON MENU + Mode d'emploi en français 300 F ____ imprimé + 50 icônes + Assistance tech. et mises à jour gratuites 3 mois pour tous pays. MEGASPRITES + ORGANISATEUR + AUTOMATES 300 F ____ + Mode d'emploi français imprimé + Routines de sprites 80286 asm et C + Icônes + Demo d'animations + Support technique et mises à jour sans frais 3 mois pour tous pays. Les deux ensemble: 400 F (port gratuit pour tout pays) Total: _____ Règlements par chèques à l'ordre de D.G Sureau ou mandats postaux. (Pas de règlements en espèces, S.V.P.) ┌─┐ Choisir un format de disquette: disquette 5.25" └─┘ ┌─┐ disquette 3.5" └─┘ Votre distributeur de shareware:___________________________ Commentaires et suggestions: ______________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ICON MENU Version 1.6 (c) 1993 D. G. Sureau 3, rue Ferdinand-Duval 75004 Paris France - ORDER FORM FOR IMPROVED REGISTERED VERSION - Name or company: __________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Zip Code: .... .... Country: _______________________________ ICON MENU Improved version + Printed 30 £ ____ manual + 50 icons + Support + Updates (3 months free postage) MEGASPRITES + ORGANIZER + AUTOMATON 30 £ ____ MAKER + Printed manual + Optimized asm286 library + Icons & Demo + Technical support & Updates, (3 months free postage) The two above 50 £ ____ (All countries free postage) Total: £ _____ Send check payable to D.G. Sureau or international postal order (No money, please...) ┌─┐ Choose a disc format... 5.25" Disk └─┘ ┌─┐ 3.5" Disk └─┘ Your BBS or distributor:____________________________________ Comments: __________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ DISK CONTENT - ICONMENU.EXE The program. - ICONMENU.SPR Images of icons. - ORDER.FRM This text file. - HOME.BAT A loader for the program when installed on c: drive. - ICONMENU.CFG Set of commands, usual programs to load - ZIP.CFG Alternate set of commands for zip files - DISK.CFG Alternate set dedicated to disk commands. HISTORY 1.0 1.5 - Main change is phantom program feature: QUIT.EXE, EXIT.EXE, WAIT.EXE - Added HOME.BAT file. 1.6 - Now allows multiple boards. - Possibility to assign a path to the board file. - New phantom programs: BOARD.EXE and ECD.EXE. ECD provides easy access to directories. - EGA resolution now accepts 12 icons. - Added 2 boards in cfg files. Registered version improvements: + loading a screen as background. + icon file as second parameter. + files with more icons. + removing all references as a shareware evaluation copy, reducing 'about' screen to copyright notice. (NB: Megasprites allows to make files of icon, register to ICON MENU is not required to register to MEGASPRITES.) ──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ / / │ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ I C O N M E N U │ │ │ │ │ │ Version 1.6 │ │ │ │ │ │ (c) 1993 D.G. Sureau │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ For AT │ │ │ 80286+ 384 Kb │ │ │ VGA │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ / └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ OVERVIEW ICON MENU is an useful DOS interface that allows to select programs to run and DOS commands with a click of the mouse on an icon, or by a press of the ENTER key. Until 20 icons can sit on the board and each stores in is data fields all DOS commands, filenames and options that are typed when user run a software. It is specially useful for these utilities as compression programs that require complex line command syntax... Some useful commands and usuals programs are already installed, but user can change them and add all that it would. The menu provides functions to add icons, modify them, suppress, reorganize and many others again to give a personal touch to the program... This software is shareware, it can be freely copied and distributed by vendors, users, sysops, but using it on his computer more than the 15-DAY trial requires payment of an user licence. INSTALLATION Copy first the files ICONMENU.EXE, ICONMENU.SPR, ICONMENU.CFG, DISK.CFG, ZIP.CFG, HOME.BAT, on the disk or the hard drive unit. Then add the following command on the last line of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file: ICONMENU C:\ICONMENU.CFG for direct load, when the computer is powered. To run directly it, type ICONMENU, or HOME if installed on the c: drive (It is always preferable to give a CFG file as parameter, however). DESCRIPTION OF AN ICON An icon has an image, a title that is displayed under the image, a data field for DOS commands and a second data field for a program with his path and options. The 'COMMAND' field gets DOS commands, which have to be executed without leaving ICON MENU, as for example, a directory change before to run a program. The command field can get any DOS command or a batch file name. When one selects an icon, ICON MENU always first performs the command field before the program field. The 'PROGRAM' field gets path and name of a program to run, with EXE or COM extent, and its options. Example: Title: Word x.x COMMAND: cd \word PROGRAM: word mytext.doc Example: Title: Unpack COMMAND: PROGRAM: \tools\unpack a: \(file.pak) -x2 TO SELECT AN ICON All the menu functions apply to the icon whose title is highlighted, when this command is sent. Use the cursor keys to move the cursor on an icon, then the title of current selected icon becomes highlighted, and press ENTER to execute it, or type a function key. Using a mouse, move the mouse cursor on the icon (on the image or the title), and click to select this icon, his title will be then highlighted as in keyboard mode. Click again on this icon to execute it. TO SEE THE DATA Select an icon and press the END key. A green window shows the title, the image, the command and program fields. To change these data, press a key or click to exit the window, and press the 'c' key or click on the change option in the menu. TO ACCESS PULL DOWN MENUS Press simultaneously the ALT key and a key among F, D, W, C, Q These letters are displayed in red colour on the menu bar. Press Enter or the down cursor key to display a sub-menu. Use cursor keys to move the selection bar or change sub-menu. Press Enter to execute the command. If this command acts on an icon, it will acts on the previously selected one. All sub-menus have a letter assigned to each option to allow you to access directly that option rather than using the scroll bar. The letters are shown in red colour at right on the menu bar. Press Escape pour quit the menu. Using mouse: Do a mouse click on the menu bar to active it, click on a sub-menu option to execute a function. There are two buttons on the menu bar. The one at the left is for the 'about' display, and the one at right, that shows a triangle, replaces the Escape key for the mouse. THE PULL DOWN MENU COMMANDS Files Add icon: To open a dialogue box for icon creation Change: Change fields/image of an existing icon Suppress: Remove an icon from the board Directory: Display current directory Mask: Select files of directory to be displayed DOS COMMAND: Execute directly DOS commands Exit: As Alt+F4. Exit ICON MENU. Display Icon info: To display fields of an icon Move: Reorganize the icons's board Screen: Change the screen resolution to VGA/EGA. Windows Title: Put the title bar. Free space: Display disk free space. See palette: Show the 16 colours palette. Help: List essential commands. Close Title: Remove the title bar Free space: Remove disk free space window Quit Quit: Save changes and quit ICON MENU Restart: Retrieve defaults colours, window size, etc... DIRECT COMMANDS Cursor keys To select icon, sub-menu, etc... END Show content of an icon A Create an icon PG up/down Select the image C Change an existing icon DEL Remove an icon M Move an icon ('M' to get, 'M' again to drop). ALT+key Menu O Execute directly DOS command D Show directory (+ Enter to run highlighted program) S Set directory mask ALT+F4 Exit Q Save changes and quit ESCAPE Leave current function, window, menu, etc... ENTER Keep changes and quit any function R Change screen resolution Shift-a...f Change drive. TO CREATE AN ICON Press 'a'. A dialogue box will appears. This box shows an image, the first in buffer, and three lines. One chooses an image with the page up and page down keys. This can be done any time, in the editing process and will not erase the text if letters are already typed. DO NOT PRESS ENTER when a field is filled! All that is on the screen is so in the memory, and the Enter key serves to save data and to close dialogue box... To change the line, use the (up, down) cursor keys. When each field is filled and a chosen image, press Enter or click on the 'Get' displayed key to save and quit. Press Escape or click out of the window to quit without saving these data. The title can be 20 letters long, other fields have size limited by the screen width and are specially described in the two following paragraphs. The windows can be resized by a press on the F9 key, or a mouse click on the '+' button (See later for details of these). THE 'COMMAND' FIELD This field gets any DOS command as if typed on the DOS line command. Starting MS-DOS version 5, one can chain several commands separated by | symbol. If the field remains blank, the program ignores it when the icon is selected. A batch filename (BAT) is a valid command. One must verify than the batch file process will not have memory action that will erase ICON MENU code or data, as it will remain in memory when the COMMAND field is performed. If the command has data that will be known only when performed, put a string between parenthesis for replacing at the execution time. Example: COMMAND: cd \(directory) When one does a mouse click on this icon a message is displayed: Replace or press Enter to keep directory..................... If one types for example, 'windows', that will produce the following command: cd \windows If one press Enter, there is no change except removing of parenthesis: cd \directory as the string in brackets is the default data. A file with EXE or COM extent is a valid command so long the program works on remaining memory, that is 400-500k on a 640k computer, according to the configuration. THE 'PROGRAM' FIELD The program field gets a program name with '.EXE', or '.COM' extent, and his path if it is not in the current directory. If a path holds unit and directory, this will mask unit and path specified in the COMMAND field. This field can remain blank if one would associate the icon to only DOS command. Program name can be followed by several parameters until a maximum of 5, separated by a space. The first parameter can be separated of the name by '/', if that is a correct syntax for this program. Example: win/s (to execute windows in standard mode). A batch file (with BAT extent) is not a program, however it can be executed as parameter of COMMAND.COM, with /c option, Example: PROGRAM: COMMAND.COM/cbatchname.bat NB: There is no space between /c and the batch filename. It is not assured than this command work on older DOS version. Some programs as PKUNZIP, LHA, can have many parameters including filename that change each time, so to avoid to type often their fastidious syntax, ICON MENU allows strings to replace (as command field) that are in brackets. When the icon will be performed ICON MENU asks for the replacement. Example: PROGRAM: unpak -t a:(SOURCE) (DESTINATION) At the click on the icon, ICON MENU asks: Replace or press Enter to keep SOURCE........................ Type for example: MEGAPROG.PAK.................. ICON MENU asks then: replace or press Enter to keep DESTINATION................... Type for example: c:\temp....................... Substitution will produce the following result: unpack -d a:MEGAPROG.PAK c:\temp Parameters length and strings length is limited only by the screen width. PHANTOM FILENAMES 'Phantom files' are programs integrated to ICON MENU, but which can sit in command field, as normal independent programs. ICON MENU, in this version 1.6 recognizes the following phantom filenames: EXIT.EXE Its action is to return to DOS. QUIT.EXE saves display changes and return to DOS. WAIT.EXE waits for a key press. It allows to read the screen when a command of an icon displays something. BOARD.EXE following by a CFG filename, allows to load a new board of icons. ECD.EXE Program to select a directory and a program, and run it. If by chance one would to put really program with these names in the PROGRAM field, or same names with 'COM' extent, one must specify path (for example: a:exit.com), and ICON MENU understands than these are real programs and run them rather to execute the phantom programs. More on these programs further in special paragraphs. Others phantom files are coming in new versions. TO CHANGE FIELDS OR TO CHANGE THE IMAGE Press 'c'. There is no difference with the 'add' option. TO DELETE AN ICON Press DEL, and confirm by a press on the 'y' key or a mouse click, with the left button, into the dialogue box. To abort, press 'n' or Escape or click out of the box. SHOW THE CURRENT DIRECTORY Press 'd'. The directory only display files and not sub-directories, and only the filenames with selected extent (generally COM, EXE, BAT) are shown unless the ALLFILES option is chosen in the mask window (see further on that). Press Escape or do a mouse click out of the window to quit. The window can be resized after a press on the F9 key. TO MASK THE DIRECTORY FILES TYPES The 's' key opens a dialogue box to select the file type that will be displayed in the directory window. Press '1' to change the switch for filenames with EXE extent. The box writes 'YES' or 'NO' and that means than these files will be displayed or no when the directory is shown. In same manner, press '2' for COM files, '3' for BAT files. Press '4' to keep all files or not. If the ALLFILES option is 'YES', other options are ignored. Press Escape to abort and restore previous options, press Enter to keep, or press 'd' to keep, and show directory. TO RUN DIRECTLY PROGRAMS OR BATCH FILES. One can run directly COM, EXE, or BAT files shown in the directory. One move the selection bar with the cursor keys on the name of the program, and press Enter to quit ICON MENU and run this program. With the mouse, click on a program name to move the cursor and when is name is highlighted, do another click on the same name to run the program. The lift allows to move the window across the files list when directory content can't fit inside the window. TO SEND DIRECT DOS COMMANDS Press 'o', and type a command in the dialogue box as on the DOS line command. To change drive unit type his shift+letter, example: Shift-a, shift-c... CHANGE SCREEN RESOLUTION The screen can switch between two VGA displays, mode 16 (EGA resolution) or mode 18 (VGA 640x480 resolution). Press the 'r' key to change from one to the other. Mode 18 allows to have 20 icons on the board, mode 16 only 12, so a message will be displayed if one attempts to go to mode 16 when there is more than 12 icons. TO REORGANIZE THE ICON BOARD OF ICONS Press 'm'. The title of the current icon is now displayed with a yellow background. Move the icon selection bar with the cursor keys on a new location, and press 'm' again or press Enter. The icon will move to the new location. To cancel, press Escape. With the mouse, select an icon and click on the 'move' option in the pull-down menu, and repeat to move, or click on the triangle at the right of the menu bar to cancel. PREFERENCES The ICON MENU display can be changed with many options, by changes on colours, or by opening or not windows, changing size, loading background screens. To change colours, press simultaneously CTRL and another key: CTRL+b: to change colour of the board background. CTRL+n: to change colour of the icon's titles. CTRL+h: to change the main title colour. TO OPEN AND TO CLOSE WINDOWS Press: '1': to put the main title bar. '2': to open the disk free space message box. '3': to see the current palette. '9': to remove the main title bar. '8': to remove the disk free space message box. TO CHANGE SIZE OF WINDOW Press F9, or do a mouse click on the '+' button at the upper left of current window. A dotted rectangle appears. To move the window, use the cursor keys. Use following keys to change size: '>' to increase width '<' to reduce width, '+' to increase height, '-' to reduce height. Press Escape or Enter to exit. Using the mouse, press left button to move the window, press the right button to change size. To quit, move the mouse on the button at the right of the menu bar. To click is not required here. All windows can't change in size, and some can only change width. TO RESTORE DEFAULTS Press 'z'. All changes relating to display will be cleared and the initial display restored. Changes on icons are preserved however. To suppress all changes including icons, erase the file ICONMENU.CFG. It will be rewritten with default icons. TO QUIT ICON MENU Press 'q' to exit and save the display's options (windows, colours,...) as they are not stored in the cfg file until there is change relating to icons. If you don't want the display's changes, press ALT+F4 instead to exit without saving the data. However, if one does display change, and then icon change, they will be saved together. Alternate key: F4, '*', ALT+X can replace ALT+F4. Mouse: do a mouse click on the Exit or Quit options in sub-menus to quit. EXAMPLES OF ICONS 1) go to a sub-directory and quit ICON MENU TITLE: Change Directory COMMAND: cd \pascal PROGRAM: exit.exe 2) Select a sub-directory TITLE: Easy CD COMMAND: ecd.exe PROGRAM: This call the ECD phantom program and then return to ICON MENU 3) Go to a sub-directory. TITLE: CD and go COMMAND: PROGRAM: ecd.exe This call the ECD phantom program and then exit ICON MENU in the selected sub-directory, if one, or in the current sub-directory otherwise. 4) To come back to ICON MENU after run a program. One can put ICON MENU into a loop in the autoexec.bat file. However it will be difficult to exit from it as the batch file will reload it continuously... (One can stop autoexec.bat with ctrl-c...) A better solution is to run the HOME.BAT batch file, that can be done in any sub-directory as it is assumed to stand on the root directory, and so accessible within the PATH. WARNINGS 1) Don't put resident program in the COMMAND field, as it will install itself in the middle of the memory! 2) If any problem appears in the ICON MENU display, this probably come from a corrupted CFG file, or a CFG file that is for another program, then renaming it and restoring ICONMENU.CFG file from the original disk will fix the problem. 3) If changes are lost. Probably you have sent an 'change directory' command following by these changes, and the updated CFG file is lost in some sub-directory. To avoid this problem, load ICON MENU with a board (CFG) file with his path as parameter, all further changes will then be done in the correct path and file. 4) Using COMMAND.COM to execute batch file. The COMMAND program requires no path except that specified by COMSPEC in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Failing in loading this program can cause some troubles in the system and erases the PATH. If this occurs, reboot the system carefully and correct the mistake. Having COMMAND.COM in the root directory is preferable in all cases. 5) To test the system, type 'MEM', if MS-DOS version is 4 or 5, or type 'CHKDSK' otherwise, to obtain the exact free memory. ICON MENU exit leaving exactly same free memory than before loading. THE HOME.BAT FILE Purpose of this program is to go to c: root directory and run ICON MENU from any disk and directory. If ICON MENU is not installed on c: drive, one can edit Home.bat and change 'c' to proper drive letter. THE 'PHANTOM' PROGRAM BOARD.EXE This integrated program allows multiple boards of icons. Use the 'a' command to create a new icon, put BOARD.EXE MYBOARD.CFG in the command field. Then a click on this icon display until 20 new icons! There is no limit except the disk size to the number of boards. CREATING A CONFIGURATION FILE The program comes with three CFG files. To create a new CFG file is easy and done with following steps: 1) Add a new icon with this data in the program field: BOARD.EXE MYBOARD.CFG BOARD.EXE is the 'phantom' program which loads boards of icons. Select the new icon. An error message is displayed, 'File no found, MYBOARD.CFG' This is normal. The program attemps to load it, does not found it, then start with default parameters. Note than the name 'MYBOARD', without extent is now displayed on the title bar. 2) Suppress the icons you don't want to keep, and add those you want. 3) Create an icon with 'board.exe iconmenu.cfg' in the program file, that is to link the boards. 4) Click on this icon to retrieve the main board of icons. THE 'PHANTOM' PROGRAM ECD.EXE This integrated program allows to sail in directories and select a program. Put it in the command or program line of an icon, and select this ICON to view easily the content of any disk. Commands are: - Escape: exit without any change - Enter: change to the selected directory and exit - Up, down arrow: change sub-directory, move cursor - Home: move cursor to first sub-directory on screen - End: go to last on screen - Left arrow: come back to parent directory - Right arrow: go to child sub-directory level if one - a, b, c, d, e, f: change drive - Space: toggle between tree and content of directories When files of a sub-directory are displayed, commands are followings: - Escape: return to tree - Enter: execute the program, if it is a COM, EXE, BAT file - Up, down arrow: move cursor to new filename. - Home: move cursor to the first file in this sub-directory. - End: move to last file in this sub-directory. - Left arrow: return to tree. - Space: return to tree (also). The mouse use if intuitive. Click where you want to go! Click on menu bar to exit. Click on a name to select. Click on a selected sub-directory name to do a CD command. Click on a selected executable filename to change directory and run it. That is done leaving or not ICON MENU according that the ECD.EXE phantom file is in command or program field of the icon. Use keyboard to change drive. Click at left, right, over, under the displayed list to change level or scroll. TO CREATE IMAGES FOR ICONS - TO DESIGN SPRITES The ICONMENU.SPR file holds 29 images that are icons of commercial or imaginary softwares, loaded or drawn and stored in a file with the sprite designer MEGASPRITES. There are two formats for images: - There is a 16 colours, 'Z' format compressed according to an RLE algorithm, which don't slow the display (as one can see when ICON MENU shows the board of icons). - The other format uses 16 colours + transparent that allows to display black as a colour rather than background. Sprites drawn with MEGASPRITES can take 16 or 256 colours. The program produces binary, ICO or ASCII text files. On can use same images - in VGA 19 resolution (320 x 200 with 256 colours) - in VGA 18 resolution (640 x 480 with 16 colours, and 18 palettes) - or in VGA 16 resolution (640 x 350 Ega resolution). (ICON MENU uses only VGA 18 and VGA 16.) A complete, optimized (certainly the fastest throughout the world), sprite library, written in assembly 80286, is provided with MEGASPRITES, and so are functions of image display in Basic, Pascal and C, for images saved in text files. Coming with MEGASPRITES, and integrated in the same program, are two useful utilities: - SPRITE ORGANIZER allows to reorder, suppress sprite in file. - AUTOMATON MAKER creates and displays sequences of sprites. The order form at the start of this file can be printed to ease order MEGASPRITES or ICON MENU, or twice. *** MEGASPRITES IS NOT DISTRIBUTED IN SHAREWARE VERSION *** CONCLUSION ICON MENU has been written in C and assembly 80286, using a graphical interface written also by the same author. This interface is used also by MEGASPRITES and other programs that are in work. These programs use a special performing 'BGI' module that contains all the graphical functions, rewritten so by the same author and that includes many kinds of image display functions.