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--------------------
Amigadex Addendums
--------------------
Copyright © 1992 Ray Lambert
This file contains information about new features that have been added to
Amigadex since the original (and only) public release, version 1.0. The
items in this file are organized by the version that they first appeared in.
This information is not contained in the main documentation. For the next
major release of Amigadex (coming sometime in 1992) the documentation will be
completely re-written to include this information, as well as other new info.
Note that the ONLY public release of Amigadex prior to 1.6 was Version
1.0. The newer versions mentioned below were made available to registered
users ONLY, with the exception of this latest release, Version 1.6.
Amigadex is ShareWare. Please read the legal notices and ShareWare
information in the main documentation.
Amigadex is ShareWare. Please read the legal notices and ShareWare
information in the main documentation. (Am I repeating myself?)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5
Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5
Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5
Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5
Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5
Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5 Amigadex 1.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This was the first major update of Amigadex following the original
version, 1.0, and was only available to registered users. Being a major
release, many new features were added...
Import Mode
Amigadex now includes an Import mode which will allow the user to insert
information from other programs into their various card files. The program
where the information is coming from must have the ability to write to a
standard ASCII text file. Note that there are certain "tricks" to get
programs which don't directly do this to do it anyway. The most useful is
the new "CMD" command included with AmigaDOS release 1.3. CMD causes output
normally intended for the "PRT:" Preferences printer device to instead be
placed into a standard ASCII text file. If the program you wish to import
from does not support writing to text files, but does support writing to
printers, you may use CMD to redirect its printer output to a file, which in
turn can be edited (if necessary) and then imported into Amigadex.
Amigadex's Import function is accessed via a menu item entitled: "Import
Data". Selection of this item will cause a new window to appear which is
very similar to both the Printer Set-up and Config Windows. The "Import
Set-up Window", as it is called, contains a single string gadget for entering
the name of the text file to import from, and a series of toggle gadgets in
the left column. These toggle gadgets are each associated with a field whose
name appears beside it. When one of these is toggled on, Amigadex will
expect to find a line of text in the import file for that field. Fields
which are toggled off will always be left blank. This rather flexible "field
selection" mechanism allows you to configure the import operation to the data
that you have available. The "Import Set-up Window" also contains two card
gadgets, "Okay" and "Cancel", which are used to (respectively) begin the
import operation or cancel it and return to the main menu.
For example, let's suppose that you wish to import some names and
addresses from a database program which only has a name field and three
address fields. Remember that Amigadex is capable of storing a name field,
four address fields, a phone number and a comment field; seven fields per
card. However, your data only has four fields per record. In this scenario,
you would turn on the name field and address fields one through three by
clicking on their associated toggle gadgets. You would also leave address
field four, the phone number field and the comment field turned off. Now
Amigadex will expect four lines of text from the file for each card it
imports, and the imported data will be placed into the name field and the
first three address fields.
Now, let's pretend that your database also has a phone number field, but
it still has only three address fields. In addition to what we did above,
you would now turn the phone number field on, leaving address field four and
the comment field off. Amigadex will now expect five fields from your data
for each card. The first four lines it reads will be placed into the name
field and address fields one through three. The fifth line that it reads
however, will be placed into the phone number field. Address field four and
the comment field will be left blank.
To commence with your importing you must first generate a text file
containing the information to be imported and edit that file if necessary.
Note that you cannot have more than seven fields per card in Amigadex, and
therefore, no more than seven lines per record in your import file. Select
"Import Data" from the Amigadex pull-down menus, configure the fields to
import as described above, enter the name of the import file into the string
gadget and click on the "Okay" card gadget. If you have made an error in
your setup, Amigadex will tell you and allow you to fix it or abort the whole
operation, otherwise, the "Import Set-up Window" will go away and importing
will begin.
While importing, the card window will be set-up similar to the Browse and
Normal Print modes. Amigadex will read the first record from the import file
into a temporary card and display it on the screen in the normal manner.
Four card gadgets will be accessible offering the following options to
manipulate the currently displayed temporary card:
Add: This option will save the currently displayed card in the current
card file; it "adds" it to the card file. After adding the card the
next one will be read from the import file and displayed. Note that
the number displayed as "Card Number" is an empty or new card in your
cardfile, and is the card number that will be assigned to the new
card when you add it.
Next: This option throws-out the currently displayed card and reads
the next one from the import file. This allows you to filter out
records from the import file which you do not really want to import.
Edit: This option allows you to edit the currently displayed card in
"Edit Mode" as described above with one important difference: if you
select "File" (which has been changed to "Okay" in this release --
see below) the card is not saved. A temporary card in Import Mode is
only added to the card file when you select "Add". "Edit" is useful
if you wish to further edit the data before adding it to the card
file.
Done: Ends Import Mode and returns to the main menu.
In addition to these options, the arrow gadgets which are found in the
left border of the card window during Import Mode are available. These are
described in the main documentation in the section entitled "Browse Mode".
As a last note on the new import feature, Import Mode is a perfect
complement to Print Mode. This combination makes it relatively easy to
transfer cards from one card file to another. To do this, run two copies of
Amigadex setting the first to use the source card file and the second to use
the destination card file. Using the first, enter Print Mode and print the
cards you wish to transfer to a temporary file (for example, "RAM:TEMP").
Next, using the second copy of Amigadex, enter Import Mode and use it to
import from the temporary file which you just printed to. When printing, set
the "Media Height" variable to the number of fields you have selected to
print, then, when importing, configure the import fields exactly the same as
the Print Flags were when you printed. Note that you can also do this with
only one copy of Amigadex by switching back and forth between card files and
the Print and Import Modes.
Gadget Label Changes
When in Edit Mode, two card gadgets are available which allow the user to
either accept the new input or to cancel it. In Version 1.0, these two
gadgets where labeled with "File" ("okay, save the new input") and "Toss"
("naw, toss these changes"). In Version 1.5, the labels on these two gadgets
have been changed. They now say "Okay" ("okay, accept the new input") and
"Cancel" ("naw, toss these changes"). The main reason for this change is
that, in this new release, selecting "Okay" (formally "File") does not always
save the new input to the card file. Edit Mode from within "Add" and "Browse
Mode-Edit" will save the data upon selecting "Okay", as always. However,
Edit Mode from within Import Mode will NOT save the changes upon selecting
"Okay". Selecting "Okay" from "Import Mode-Edit" will simply return you to
the Import menu. This is because the card data which gets edited in Import
Mode is really in a "temporary" card -- the card does not actually exist in
the card file yet. To save the changes you make here, you must select "Okay"
to exit Edit Mode, then "Add" to save the displayed temporary card into your
card file.
In Browse Mode, the gadget which was formerly labeled "Last" has been
changed to "Prev" (short for "previous"), which should avoid some confusion
about this gadget's function.
Keyboard Shortcuts For Gadgets
Nearly all of the gadgets found in Amigadex can now be accessed through
keyboard shortcuts. The goal of this modification was to allow Amigadex to
be operated completely from the keyboard without any mouse input at all.
This goal has been realized. Only system gadgets such as the Depth and Drag
gadgets have no keyboard equivalents. Most of the keyboard shortcuts use the
CTRL key (qualifier) in conjunction with some other key, and some work
without any qualifier at all. Most of the keys used are obvious. Here are
the rules and exceptions for determining the proper keyboard shortcuts:
(1) All card gadgets are activated with CTRL plus the first letter of
the label on the gadget. For instance, from the main menu, the "Add"
gadget is activated with CTRL+A, the "Browse" gadget is activated
with CTRL+B, the "Print" gadget is activated with CTRL+P, and the
"Config" gadget is activated with CTRL+C. There is only one
exception to this rule: any card gadget which is labeled with "Done"
or "Quit" is activated with the Esc key. In windows which do not
contain any string gadgets (where text may be entered) the CTRL key
qualifier may be left off. For instance, the main menu does not
contain any string gadgets and therefore the gadgets there can be
selected simply by pressing the first letter of each gadget label.
"Browse" can be selected by pressing "B", "Print" can be selected by
pressing "P", etc.
(2) In the Config Window, the Print Set-up Window and the Import Set-up
Window, the seven toggle gadgets which are stacked in the left column
may be toggled (activated) by pressing CTRL+1 through CTRL+7. CTRL+1
corresponds to the "Name" field toggle gadget, CTRL+2 corresponds to
the "Address 1" field toggle gadget, CTRL+3 corresponds to the
"Address 2" field toggle gadget, etc.
(3) In Edit Mode, the seven string gadgets which are used to enter/edit
the seven fields of a card can be activated with CTRL+1 through
CTRL+7 -- similar to the toggle gadgets as described in rule #2.
Note that activation of a string gadget causes it to be selected as
the active string gadget, meaning that the text cursor is position
within it so you may type into it.
(4) Most other gadgets are activated by pressing CTRL plus the first
letter of the label which is associated with the gadget, except where
that keypress interferes with a previous rule. Whenever this
exception occurs, the first letter in the second word of the label is
used. For example, in the Print Set-up Window, the "Card Number"
string gadget is activated with CTRL+C, the "Search String" gadget is
activated with CTRL+S, the "Height" gadget is activated with CTRL+H,
and the "Width" gadget is activated with CTRL+W. However, the
"Output Device" string gadget is activated with CTRL+D ("Device")
because the use of CTRL+O ("Output") would interfere with CTRL+O as
is used for the "Okay" card gadget. Likewise, the "Continuous Mode"
toggle gadget is activated with CTRL+M ("Mode") because CTRL+C
("Continuous") would interfere with the use of CTRL+C for the "Card
Number" string gadget.
(5) The following list contains gadgets whose keyboard shortcuts could
not be determined by any of the above rules:
- The invisible "New Card Number" gadget which is available in both
Browse Mode and Normal Print Mode is activated with CTRL+C, or,
in accordance with rule #1, just "C".
- The arrow gadgets which are available in Browse Mode, Normal
Print Mode and Import Mode are activated with "," and ".". Note
that these two characters are on the same keys as the "<" and ">"
characters. If you think of the "lesser than" and "greater than"
characters as arrows, you should easily remember this. The
direction in which the "lesser than" and "greater than" char-
acters point corresponds to the arrow gadget that they activate,
and, therefore, the direction in which the text will be scrolled.
Also note that these short cut keys should be pressed in-
dependently from any other keys; that is to say that you do not
need to press the CTRL key in combination with these.
- The "Iconify" gadget from the main menu is activated with CTRL+I,
or, in accordance with rule #1, just "I".
- The Amigadex Icon which appears after you "Iconify" Amigadex
also has a keyboard shortcut. To bring Amigadex back after
"Iconifying" simply press CTRL+LeftAlt+A. This combination of
three keys works as a "hot key" which brings Amigadex back at any
time no matter what program you are working in. If the Workbench
screen is not the foremost screen at the time you press this "hot
key," it will be brought to the front and activated for you.
- The "Next" and "Prev" gadgets in various modes will respond to
the cursor keys. Cursor right and down correspond to "Next"
while cursor left and up correspond to "Prev". In addition,
cursor left and right may be used in "Quick Scan Mode" (see
below).
One additional new keyboard feature that should be mentioned here is
this: in any Amigadex Window which contains more than one string gadget, the
cursor up and cursor down keys will move the cursor from the currently
activated string gadget to the next (cursor down) or the previous (cursor
up). This capability is especially useful in Edit Mode where you can now
cursor through all the fields of a card and you never have to touch the
mouse. It is also quite helpful in the Print Set-up Window which contains
five different string gadgets which may all have to be updated for certain
printing jobs. Also note that the TAB key corresponds to the cursor down key
and SHIFT+TAB corresponds to the cursor up key. Also, the RETURN key stills
works as in Version 1.0 -- its function corresponds to that of the cursor
down key. When you press any of these keys (excluding the RETURN key), if no
string gadgets are currently activated, either the first one in the window or
the last one will become activated -- depending on the function of the key
you press. This means that you no longer have to use the mouse to make the
cursor reappear should it disappear for any reason.
More on the Amigadex Icon
Besides the "hoy key" capability described above, the Amigadex Icon has a
few other new features. First, when the Icon is placed on the screen, it
will be placed underneath all other Intuition windows. The icon is actually
a small Intuition window itself so it can be positioned above or below other
windows on the screen. Placing it below all other windows makes it act more
like a Workbench icon and seems to be preferred.
The initial positioning of the icon has been improved. The default
starting location for the icon is now calculated based on the size of your
Workbench screen and is placed in the lower-most, right-hand corner of the
screen. Note that if you are using a utility such as Vscreen (Virtual
Screen) the default position of the icon may actually be off of the currently
visible portion of the screen. Moving your pointer to the lower-most,
right-hand corner of the screen will reveal the Icon's position. You can
then drag it to wherever you like and it will remain there for the remainder
of your Amigadex session. Version 1.0 always placed the icon at the same
location on the screen (upper right corner). The user was allowed to drag it
elsewhere, however, if the user double-clicked on the icon to bring Amigadex
back, and then Iconified again, the icon would not be placed back where the
user had last positioned it. This is no longer true; the location of the
icon is "sticky" -- it is remembered by Amigadex so that it will return to
the same location where the user last positioned it. Of course, Amigadex
only remembers the icon's location until you press the "Quit" gadget or turn
your computer off.
A change was made to the box which appears when you drag the Icon. I
suppose it's a little gaudy, but hey! Why not?? (You'll have to see it to
know what I mean :)
Another enhancement causes Amigadex to perform a LockLayers() before
writing the icon's drag box into the Workbench screen's RastPort. Doing this
prohibits other programs from writing into the RastPort at the same time,
thereby avoiding the possibility of placing garbage on the screen. It was
not possible to do this before because of various conflicts with Intuition.
Basically, the icon code was relying on Intuition for input events and at
certain times Intuition would attempt to lock the layers itself. Since
Amigadex already had the layers locked, Intuition's call to LockLayers()
caused it to be placed into Exec's Waiting task queue. So Intuition would be
sleeping, waiting for Amigadex to unlock the layers, and Amigadex would be
sleeping, waiting for Intuition to send it events. A reset was the only way
to end this deadlock. To get around this problem Amigadex now uses its
custom input handler to get mouse events, rather than relying on Intuition.
One last feature that was added to the icon enables the right-mouse
button as a cancel when dragging the icon. This particular combination of
mouse button presses is also used by another popular ShareWare program called
"DMouse". A conflict will arise between DMouse and the Amigadex icon if this
combination of mouse clicks occurs while dragging the Amigadex icon around
the screen, AND DMouse's handler priority is set above Amigadex's, which is
now set at 60. Version 1.10 of DMouse sets its handler priority at 51. It
is extremely important to note that if you set DMouse's handler priority at
or above 60 while using Amigadex in iconified mode that a deadlock may
result! I know of no reason that you would _need_ to do this, but beware if
you do...
Undelete
If you accidently delete a card from your card file you can now attempt
to get it back with the "Undelete" routine. The current version of Undelete
is fairly simple and requires that you know the number of the card in order
to undelete it. Any deleted card is recoverable unless a new card has
written over it. The Undelete function is accessed through a pull-down menu
available from Amigadex's main menu. Note that the Quick-Scan Mode
(described below) may be most useful for locating deleted cards.
Using Multiple Card Files
It has always been possible to maintain multiple card files with
Amigadex, however, it has come to my attention that this was not very
obvious. The card file name which you specify to Amigadex when you start it
up (either on the CLI command line, in the Amigadex.Config file or from
within Amigadex's Workbench icon) is only your default STARTUP card file.
You are not locked into using this file and this file only. To change the
card file you are working with, simply click on the "Config" gadget from the
main menu to enter the Config Window, type a new card file name into the
"Card File" string gadget, and click on "Use". Amigadex will not try to
create an "Amigadex.Config" file when you do this, but it will begin using
the new card file that you specified. If Amigadex cannot access the new card
file for any reason, including because it does not exist yet, Amigadex will
ask you if you wish to create the file (this is how to create new card
files), or correct the name and try again.
Version 1.5 has a couple new features to simplify this procedure. When
you first start Amigadex Version 1.0, it displays a requester informing you
of what card file it is currently set up to use. In Version 1.5, the
requester has been changed so that it now asks you if you wish to begin with
the default card file. Clicking on the "Yes" gadget in this requester will
cause Amigadex to proceed as normal. However, clicking on the "No" gadget
will cause another requester to appear which allows you to enter the name of
another card file to use. This is useful because you may have your default
card file identified in Amigadex's Workbench icon or in an Amigadex.Config
file. If you are working with multiple card files, you may at one time or
another wish to start with a card file other than the default. This new
feature will allow you change the default card file easily without modifying
the Workbench icon or the "Amigadex.Config" file, or entering the Config
Window.
In addition, a new item has been added to the pull-down menu which is
available at Amigadex's main menu. It is labeled "New File". Selecting it
will cause a file requester to appear allowing you to enter the name of the
new card file to use.
The ARP File Requester
Version 1.5 now supports the ARP File Requester if "arp.library" is
available when Amigadex is first run. "arp.library" should have been
included with Amigadex. If not, ask around. ARP is available from many
places such as public bulletin board systems and the ARP Authors themselves
(See "About ARP" below for more information about ARP). If you are working
with multiple card files, the ARP File Requester will make switching between
them much less painful.
Adding multiple new cards
If you have more than one new cards to add to a card file all at one
time, a new feature to the "Add" routine will help speed things along. After
the addition of a new card, rather than returning to the main menu such as
Version 1.0 does, a requester will appear asking if you wish to add another
card. Selecting "No" will send you back to the main menu as before, but
selecting "Yes" will cause Amigadex to attempt to add a new card to the file
immediately. The time savings involved here comes from the fact that
Amigadex has to search through the card file for an empty record every time
you click on the "Add" gadget. This search always starts at the beginning of
the card file (Card #1). With a large card file on floppy disk this can be a
little time consuming. The time it takes to perform the search is not too
bad if you're only adding one or two cards, but if you have ten or twenty or
even more to add, sitting through this search for each one can become a bit
annoying. Copying your card file to "RAM:" or "RAD:" can help significantly,
but this is also dangerous in case another program decides to GURU, or if you
simply forget to copy the updated file back to floppy disk and then turn your
computer off (ouch!). The new feature will cause Amigadex to begin all
subsequent searches where it last left off thereby avoiding this annoying
delay between each new card you add.
Imagery
Some of the custom imagery in Amigadex has been re-worked a little and
cleaned up. Notice the slightly different imagery used for the card gadgets.
About
The About pull-down menu item has been changed slightly. Rather than
opening a special window, which constituted considerable overhead both in
program size and in memory used at run-time, the Author information will be
presented right on the card window as tough it were a card in some card file.
Try it! :^)
Custom Mouse Pointer
Amigadex's windows now have a custom mouse pointer. The main reason for
this is to aid in determining if the Amigadex window is active or not.
Normally a user can distinguish this by checking if a window's title bar is
"ghosted" or not. This does not work for Amigadex however, because
Amigadex's window does not have a normal title bar, and it never becomes
ghosted. The Amigadex window looks the same whether it is active or not.
With the addition of the custom mouse pointer, whenever Amigadex's window is
active its custom mouse pointer will be visible. When it is not active, the
user's normal mouse pointer will be visible.
Support for Project Icons
Amigadex data files may now have project type Workbench icons. If set-up
properly (default tool etc.) double clicking on a project icon from Workbench
will start Amigadex using the card file associated with the project icon. In
addition, when Amigadex creates a new card file, it will give the user the
option to create a project icon for the new card file. Amigadex has a
default icon compiled into its executable file and will write a copy of it to
disk using the same name as the new card file (plus the ".info" file
extension of course). Amigadex will also allow the user to edit the default
tool for the new icon before it is written to disk. Amigadex will make its
best guess as to what the default tool should be.
Quick Scan Mode
QSM is accessed from the pull-down menu at Amigadex's main menu. It uses
a slider and two arrow gadgets to allow the user to quickly scan through a
card file. The search string capability of Amigadex is bypassed in this
mode. All cards (including deleted ones) may be displayed, however no
editing, deleting or printing may be performed from this mode -- it is a
view-only mode. Deleted cards only show the word "Deleted" in the data
window. Full keyboard operation has been implemented in QSM, keeping it
consistant with the rest of the program.
Context-sensitive Help
Help is offered on a variety of subjects specific to Amigadex and in
particular to the gadgets and menus found in various windows. Help is
context-sensitive when accessed with the HELP key on the keyboard, and may be
accessed from virtually anywhere at virtually anytime. In addition, Help can
be accessed from the pull-down menu in Amigadex's main menu window. Once in
Help, help text is displayed in a scrollable window. Help is separated into
"chapters", each specific to a particular portion of Amigadex, including
"Help on Help". The chapter which gets displayed first when entering Help
mode depends on what section of Amigadex the user is in when he/she presses
HELP. A "Help Index" is also available once in Help mode which allows the
user to access any or all of the "Help chapters". The "Help Index" is
implemented through an Intuition pull-down menu. Full keyboard operation has
been implemented in Help mode, keeping it consistent with the rest of the
program. Cursor up and down may be used to scroll text in the Help window
and ESC may be used to exit help. For more information about Help, see "Help
on Help" available from the index in Help Mode.
About ARP
ARP (the AmigaDOS Replacement Project) is a set of AmigaDOS commands
which have been developed by a group of ShareWare authors to replace those
currently included with AmigaDOS. Among these commands are DIR, COPY, LIST,
TYPE, etc., etc. If you never use the CLI then you may not be familiar with
these. The ARP commands provide more features, a common interface, small
code size and fast execution.
Central to the development of ARP is the "arp.library". The library
consists of a collection of small programs (or functions) which do specific
tasks. Specially written programs can make use of these functions. The
functions contained in the library do not have to be included in each program
that uses them, making the size of these programs smaller. This concept also
makes the programs that use it more consistent as they are all doing specific
tasks in the same manner through the use of the same functions.
One example of a function from "arp.library" is the ARP File Requester.
This is an excellent file requester which is very powerful for both the
programmer and the user. Those of you who currently use TxEd Plus by
Microsmiths will already be familiar with it. The ARP file requester was
written by Charlie Heath.
ARP is user-supported software (a close relative to ShareWare) and can be
obtained on most large BBS systems or from the Arp Authors themselves.
"arp.library" is Copyright 1987, 1988 by Arp Authors. It is freely
redistributable on diskette and BBSs. Modules in "arp.library" may not be
extracted for use in independent code. You may contact the Arp Authors at
this address:
Arp Support
c/o Microsmiths, Inc
PO Box 561
Cambridge, MA 02140
Amigadex will make use of the ARP File Requester if "arp.library" is
available when Amigadex is run. For those of you who do not use ARP
currently, "arp.library" version 39.1, from ARP release 1.3, should have been
included with Amigadex. Please note that you do not have to place the full
ARP command set on your disks to allow Amigadex to use ARP. You only need to
place "arp.library" in your system's "LIBS:" directory, nothing else.
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The following new features were added to Amigadex Version 1.51...
All string gadgets in Amigadex 1.51 support a cut and paste feature. The
following keystrokes are used by this feature:
Alt-C : Copy
Alt-X : Cut
Alt-I : Insert (paste)
Amigadex 1.51 maintains a private internal clipboard which is capable of
holding one line of text from any string gadget used by the program. This
clipboard is used by the copy, cut and paste commands in specific ways. The
commands work as follows:
The "copy" command copies the entire contents of the currently active
string gadget (the one in which the cursor is) to the clipboard without
altering the contents of the string gadget it copies from.
The "cut" command performs the same operation as "copy" except that it
also erases the entire contents of the string gadget that it copies from.
The "paste" command inserts the current contents of the clipboard into
the currently active string gadget at the position of the cursor. If you
wish to completely replace the contents of the target string gadget you must
first use the Right-Amiga-X command, which deletes the entire contents of the
active string gadget, and then use the "paste" command. (The Right-Amiga-X
command should not be confused with the "cut" command -- Right-Amiga-X does
not alter the Amigadex clipboard.)
Limitations: The current version of this feature has a couple of
limitations...
- String gadgets which accept only numbers (known as "integer
gadgets") will not accept input from the paste command. Or, to put it
differently, the "paste" command does not function on integer gadgets.
("Copy" and "cut" do function normally on integer gadgets however). The
reason for this limitation is the lack of a numeric filter on the paste
command. This may be implemented in a future version. On the other
hand, it does not seem that pasting into integer gadgets would be
altogether useful anyway, so this limitation may never be removed.
- The second limitation is not really a limitation of the cut/paste
feature, but rather a rule of string gadgets which must be adhered to.
Each string gadget has a maximum number of characters that it can hold.
If a paste operation would result in this limit being surpassed, only the
number of characters from the clipboard which can fit in the string
gadget without overflowing it will be pasted.
Notes: The main use behind the cut/paste feature is to move card
data-field contents from one field to another, or from one card to another.
For example, if you need to insert a line in the address portion of a card
which is already filled-in, you can use cut and paste to move the fields that
you need to move in order to insert the line. Previously, you were forced to
re-type any lines which needed to be moved. Here is an example:
Imagine that a card contains the following address fields:
Name : Fred Derf
Address1: 123 Foo Road
Address2: SomeTown, SomeState, 01234
Address3:
Address4:
And now you would like to insert "c/o Fred's Company" at "Address1", as
such:
Name : Fred Derf
Address1: c/o Fred's Company
Address2: 123 Foo Road
Address3: SomeTown, SomeState, 01234
Address4:
Before cut/paste you would have had to re-type "Address2" into
"Address3", delete the contents of "Address2", re-type "Address1" into
"Address2", delete the contents of "Address1", and finally type the new
line into "Address1".
I thought that this was too much work...
So now you can use cut/paste in the following manner:
cut "Address2", paste into "Address3", cut "Address1", paste into
"Address2", type the new line into "Address1".
This is quite a bit more convenient as all re-typing has been eliminated.
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No new features were added for this update. Some internal changes were
made, and some of the messages that Amigadex displays were changed slightly.
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This update was meant to fix a few minor bugs that appeared with
Kickstart 2.0. Some new features were also added:
- Keyboard shortcuts now work properly under AmigaDOS 2.0 when using a
virtual (large, scrollable) Workbench screen.
- 'Add' function will no longer ask if you wish to enter another card
after you have selected 'Cancel'.
- Author's phone number updated in 'About' display.
- All windows are now properly centered in visible area of virtual
screens under all OS versions.
- New 3d imagery for 'card buttons' added.
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This update added a few new features for Kickstart 2.0 users, and fixed a
few minor 'annoyances'. This is also the 2nd OFFICIAL public release.
- Under AmigaDOS 2.0, the ASL file requester will now be used rather
than ARP.
- Under AmigaDOS 2.0, there is now only 1 depth gadget, in keeping with
the new window rules. The other depth gadget didn't behave properly
under 2.0 anyway.
- Amigadex help text has now been placed into an external file, called
"Amigadex.Help", reducing the size of the Amigadex executable by 30k.
Amigadex looks for the help data file in three places (and checks in
this order): 1) the current directory, 2) the "Amigadex:" logical
directory, 3) the "S:" logical directory. Note that the current
directory can actually be one of two possible places, depending on how
Amigadex was run: A) if run from the CLI, the help file must be in the
current directory at the time Amigadex was run; B) if run from
Workbench, the help file must be in the same directory as the Amigadex
icon. If Amigadex cannot find the help file, context-sensitive help
will not be available, and Amigadex will inform you of this when the
'Help' key is pressed. Amigadex does not attempt to load the help
file until 'Help' is pressed, thereby saving memory. When 'Help' is
pressed, Amigadex loads the whole file into memory (if there is
enough) and keeps it there in case the user needs more help later in
the session. Amigadex will look for the help file each time the
'Help' key is pressed if it has not yet loaded, thereby allowing the
user to modify the environment so that Amigadex CAN find the help
file after an initial failure.
- Under AmigaDOS 2.0, the old iconify routine is replaced by a Workbench
'AppIcon'. It is similar to the old iconify routine except Workbench
now chooses the initial position for the icon, and the icon behaves
in general more like a Workbench icon (because, of course, it is!).
Also, Workbench refuses to tell Amigadex where the user left the icon
so the icon's position can no longer be 'sticky'. This 'AppIcon'
supports double-clicking only.
- Amigadex now features a 'sleep' pointer to indicate which of its
windows are inactive when more than one window is open. The 'sleep'
pointer is a copy of the Workbench 2.0 'sleep' pointer which resembles
a stopwatch (even under WB 1.3).
- Amigadex will now use the default font for windows and menus, but ONLY
IF that font is 8 by 8 pixels and non-proportional. Otherwise Amigadex
will use topaz-8.
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This update fixes a few bugs that were found in version 1.6.
- Fixed bug which caused the 'sleep pointer' to be active during print
mode, import mode and while initializing a new cardfile.
- Fixed broken 'Save' button on Config screen which failed only under
Kickstart 2.0.
- Fixed bug which caused Amigadex to fail to write the user-supplied
default tool with an icon that was created for a new cardfile.
- The icon that Amigadex creates for a new cardfile was 'Snapshotted'
when it should not have been. Fixed.
- Fixed bug in hot-key code under Kickstat 1.3 and added hot-key support
for iconify mode under Kickstart 2.0. Amigadex Version 1.6 did not
support the LeftAlt+Ctrl+A hot-key to bring Amigadex back from iconify
mode under Kickstart 2.0. 1.61 now does.
- Fixed a bug which caused Enforcer hits when attempting to cursor beyond
the last string gadget on a screen.