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Text File | 1991-09-11 | 26.0 KB | 617 lines

ConfigDocs ********** This file describes in detail the setup, operation, and maintenance of the SID configuration file. You can completely customize SID to your needs and environment with the configuration file. Because the configuration changes as often as SID does, I've opted to place the instructions in this separate file. This file assumes you have read the SID.docs and have used SID enough to be familiar with the terms describing the SID functions. Why the config file is needed ----------------------------- SID will run on its own without the configuration file, though you will be restricted to using the defaults that are hardcoded into the program. I must admit that I set these up for my system, but hopefully you will find that many of these defaults will suit you as well. Of course, once the program is running, any of these default settings may be changed. In all likelihood, however, there will be some defaults that you will need to alter. This is where the configuration file enters the picture. This file should contain all SID settings which differ from the hardcoded defaults. Name and location of the config file ------------------------------------ The SID config file must be named SID.config and placed in the s: directory. The s: directory is automatically assigned to the 's' directory on your boot disk, though hard disk users often assign s: to a directory in the Workbench partition of their hard drive. Whatever the case, be sure place the config file there, or SID will not find it. If you are handy with your hex file editor, however, you can change the name and location of the config file. Do a search on the name "s:SID.config" (without the quotes). I've provided up to 30 characters in which to write the entire name (including path) of the SID config file. SID will automatically strip any trailing blanks. Be sure you do not overwrite that final NULL, or nasty things will happen. Also, do not attempt this unless you are handy at this kind of thing. Loading the config file upon startup ------------------------------------ SID automatically attempts to load the config file upon startup. No error message is displayed if SID does not find your config file. Entries found in the config file will overwrite the corresponding default settings, meaning that only entries which differ from the default settings should be included in your config file. That way, SID will load the fastest possible. Editing the config file ----------------------- You can edit the config file with any ASCII text editor. Just load the config file into your favorite editor and enter the keywords and values as described below. I'm using the text-file configuration method so that almost anyone can create and maintain their config file. Eventually I plan to release an interactive configuration editor which will not only explain in detail the meaning of each keyword inside the program, but will also interactively prompt you for the desired values. Registered users will be notified when this program is available. You may also edit the config file from within SID by selecting the "Edit" subitem from the "Configuration" item in the "Program" menu. Format of the config entry -------------------------- The standard format of an entry in the config file is: Keyword=value The "keyword" is name of the setting that you are changing. This must be specified EXACTLY as listed in the docs for SID to recognize it, meaning that there can be no imbedded blanks and that case (upper and lower) is important. The keyword is then immediately followed by an equal sign. Everything from the equal sign to the end of the line (not including the equal sign or the end-of-line character) is considered to be part of the value. For example, consider the following entry: Preferences=sys:prefs/Preferences The keyword is "Preferences", meaning that you want to change the setting for the Preferences command. Note that the first letter is capitalized exactly as listed later in this doc file. The value is "sys:prefs/Preferences", meaning, in this case, that SID can find the Preferences program in the "prefs" directory on the "sys:" disk. The best way to place comments in the config file is to begin the line with a forward slash, followed by an equal sign and a blank, such as: /= this is a comment line Entries in the config file -------------------------- The entries in the config file are divided into four categories based on the values they require: flags, numbers, strings, and keys. Flags require YES or NO values, numbers require numerical values, strings require text string values, and keys require specific key values. The default value for each keyword is listed in parentheses. Flag entries ------------ All of the flag keywords require a YES or NO value. Note that these values must be capitalized and should not include any preceeding, imbedded, or trailing blanks. AbsolutePath= (YES is default). Whether the path name will be converted to its absolute path name. For example, the path name "c:" may be converted to its absolute path name "Workbench1.3:c". Note that even if this flag is set to NO, if you enter a blank directory (which will give you the current directory), its absolute path name will be displayed. BeginShrunk= (NO is default). Whether SID should begin iconified on the Workbench screen when you first run the program. If you specify YES for this flag, SID will then use the configured values for WindowHeight= and ScreenType= when you first click on the EXPAND button. BytesOccupied= (YES is default). Whether you want the BYTES command to display the number of bytes the highlighted files occupy (YES) or the number of actual bytes in the files (NO). CopyOverwrite= (YES is default). Whether you want to overwrite existing files in the destination directory when you copy files. If YES, all highlighted files will be copied to the destination directory, regardless of whether they exist. If NO, only the files which do not exist in the destination directory will be copied. Uncopied files will remain highlighted. You can toggle this flag on and off from within SID by using the "Flags" menu. DateMDY= (YES is default). Whether dates will be displayed in Month-Day-Year format. If DateMDY=NO, dates will be displayed in Day-Month-Year format. This flag also governs the format in which dates entered for the "Select by Date" command are expected. DeleteCheck= (YES is default). Whether a requester will appear at the beginning of each delete command, asking you if you are sure you want to delete the highlighted files. This is different than DirDelete because this keyword causes a requester to appear only once everytime you execute the DELETE command, whereas the DirDelete keyword causes a requester to appear for each directory selected for deletion. DirDelete= (YES is default). Whether a requester should appear every time you try to delete a non-empty directory, asking you if you are sure you want to delete that directory. Though this can be annoying at times, it will save you from the possible catastrophic results of deleting an entire directory you wanted to save. EnglishDates= (YES is default). Whether file dates in the DATE and TIME entry display will be displayed in English for recent dates (such as "Today", "Yesterday", "Tuesday", etc.) If this is NO, all dates will be displayed in the MM/DD/YY format. ErrorStop= (YES is default). Whether the Error requester will be displayed when SID encounters an error while trying to perform a command. This allows you to retry the file, skip the file, or stop the command altogether. If you don't wnat to be bothered each time a command fails, set this flag to NULL. The files for which a command fails will be left highlighted after the command has finished executing. InsertMode= (YES is default). Whether the input fields will be in insert or typeover mode. In insert mode, characters you type are inserted at the cursor, and all characters under and to the right of the cursor are moved over one character position to the right. In typeover mode, the character you type will appear in the field under the cursor, typing over any existing letter under the cursor. Note that once the program is running, you can switch back and forth between insert and typeover mode by pressing CTRL-I and CTRL-T, respectively. LoadDiskette= (NO is default). Whether the root directory of a diskette inserted in any drive will be loaded automatically into the active list. See the LoadSwitch= flag below. LoadSwitch= (YES is default). There are two ways to automatically load diskette directories. You can continuously load dirs into the same list (the active one), or alternate lists (swap the active status after each load). If the config flag LoadSwitch=YES (and LoadDiskette=YES), the directory of an inserted diskette will load into the active list, then the inactive list will be made the active list. This means the diskette directories will be loaded alternating left and right. If LoadSwitch=NO (and LoadDiskette=YES), however, the directory of an inserted diskette will always be loaded into the same list (the active one). If LoadDiskette=NO, however, the directory of an inserted diskette will not be loaded (regardless of the setting of LoadSwitch=). You can also change the status of the LoadDiskette= and LoadSwitch= flags with the "Diskette" item in the "Flags" menu. QuitCheck= (NO is default). Whether a requester will appear when you click on the window close gadget asking you if you are sure you want to quit. This is provided for people with itchy trigger fingers. Requester= (NO is default). Whether a requester will appear for each command allowing you to change the command or its arguments. You can toggle this on and off by clicking on the REQ gadget located in SID's window title bar. The text you enter in the requester will be saved for the next time you execute that command. This can be handy for temporarily changing a command without having to edit and reload the config file. ScreenBehind= (NO is default). Whether the SID custom screen should open behind all the other screens upon startup. This is handy if you run SID from your startup sequence and open it on its own custom screen. It will open out of the way behind the Workbench screen, but you can easily get to it if you need to. You must have the ScreenType= flag set to either CUSTOM or INTERLACE for this to work. ShowHidden= (YES is default). Whether to display hidden entries in the directory lists. Hidden entries are files or directories with the Hidden protection bit set. Even though AmigaDOS doesn't yet support this bit, SID does. If ShowHidden=YES, these hidden entries will not be displayed. This is handy if you don't like to be bothered with all those .info files. Use the SET or PROTECT command to set their hidden bits, and they all disappear next time you reload the directory! Once SID is running, you can toggle this flag on and off from the Flags menu. ShowOutput= (NO is default). Whether a CLI window will appear for every program you run from SID, allowing you to view that program's output. This can be toggled on and off later with the OUTPUT gadget in the SID window's title bar. Note that if you are running SID from the CLI window, the output of programs launched from SID will be displayed in that CLI window anyway. Wait= (NO is default). Whether programs launched with the RUN command will be interactive (I know, "Wait" is a funny name, but you'll see my logic). If Wait=NO, then a program launched with the RUN command will be run in the background, and SID can go on about its business (the program is launched asynchronously, for all you tech buffs). The problem with this is that the program will not be interactive from the CLI. If Wait=YES, then the program will be run in the foreground, meaning SID will wait until the program finishes. The advantage of this method is that the program is interactive in the CLI, allowing you to enter input if it's a command-line- based program. Note that this option works only when the OUTPUT window option is also specified. WindowStay= (YES is default). When you change the size of the SID window, if WindowStay=YES, SID will save the window's location in the Workbench screen so that if you ever return to that size window, it will be right where you left it last. If WindowStay=NO, however, then the window will always be placed in the position according to the config values. Value entries ------------- All of these keywords require a numerical value. Invalid values will be corrected or ignored. Color0= Color1= Color2= Color3= (-1 is default for all of them). These are the colors of the SID custom screen. You can edit the custom screen colors by selecting "Colors" from the "Environment" menu (you must be in Custom or Interlace screen mode to see this menu item, though). If you click on the ACCEPT button in the Color requester, the decimal values (between 0 and 4095) of the four colors you selected will be displayed in the message box. These are the values you need to set here. The four colors are: Color0: screen background, window title bar text Color1: window borders, message box text, field text Color2: directory list background, command button background Color3: show active list, command button text, cursor Specifying a value of -1 will give you the same color as the Workbench screen. FullLeft= (0 is default). This is the left edge of the Full window. FullTop= (0 is default). This is the top edge of the Full window. HalfLeft= (0 is default). This is the left edge of the Half window. Note that on a standard Workbench screen, a left edge value other than zero for all but the Shrink window will be meaningless since both the SID window and the Workbench screen are the same width. This value was placed here for future expansion (I'm sure we'll all have a 1024 x 1024 monitor some day) or for vScreen users ("BigSID"). HalfTop= (0 is default). This is the top edge of the Half window. LaceLeft= (0 is default). This is the left edge of the Lace window. LaceTop= (0 is default). This is the top edge of the Lace window. OutputHeight= (120 is default). This is the height of the CLI output window. OutputLeft= (0 is default). This is the left edge of the CLI output window opened when programs are launched from SID and the ShowOutput flag is on. OutputTop= (80 is default). This is the top edge of the CLI output window. OutputWidth= (640 is default). This is the width of the CLI output window. ShrinkLeft= (344 is default, which will place the shrink window flush right with the Workbench screen). This is the LeftEdge of the Shrink window. ShrinkTop= (0 is default). This is the TopEdge of the Shrink window. SpecifyLeft= (0 is default). This is the left edge of the Specify window. SpecifyRows= (10 is default). This is the number of rows with which the specify window will open. This value is only used if you specify WindowHeight=SPECIFY. SpecifyTop= (0 is default). This is the top edge of the Specify window. String entries -------------- These are the strings used to execute the commands. Everything from the equal sign after the keyword to the end of the line, including imbedded and trailing blanks, will be recognized. Arc= (c:arc a is default). The Arc program you use for archiving files. Notice that five different archival methods are supported: Arc, LHArc, Pak, Warp, and Zoo. Therefore, this value should contain the command to summon the Arc program, not the Pak, Warp, or Zoo program. They have their own separate keywords, as shown below. AutoDir1= AutoDir2= (there is no default). The directories to be automatically loaded upon program startup. AutoDir1 is loaded in the left list, AutoDir2 in the right. You can override these settings by specifying directories in the command line when running SID from the CLI, or you can specify "-n" to load no directories at all. Button1= Button2= Button3= Button4= Button5= Button6= Button7= Button8= (The default is NOT to list them in the config file). The eight Button keywords listed above correspond to the eight device buttons associated with the two directory lists (see the DeviceButtons= keyword). The Button1= keyword corresponds to the leftmost device button, Button8= to the rightmost, and so on. If a device button has a button path specified, then instead of appending a colon to the button name, the button path is used. That means you must supply any necessary colons and slashes. That also means that the button name is ignored and you can name it anything you want. Note that you do not have to specify a button path for each device button. For example, using the DeviceButtons= keyword default, the third button is named DH0. Instead, you could change the name to WKB (with the DeviceButtons= keyword), and set the path with Button3=Workbench1.3: Calculator= (c:calculator is default). The name and location of the calculator program that you like to use. Command= (there is no default). This is the AmigaDOS command executed when you select "Command" from the "System" menu. If there is some command that you execute on a regular basis, you can set that here. DiskEdit= (c:DiskX is default). The name and location of your favorite disk editor. This is not supported by the current version of SID. Execute= (there is no default). The arguments for batch files executed from SID. Though this will likely be blank for most users, you may find sometime that you are often executing the same batch file which requires a certain set of arguments. FileEdit= (c:e is default). The name and location of your favorite ASCII text editor. FileXEdit= (c:newzap is default). The name and location of your favorite hex editor (that allows you to edit binary files). Hear= (c:hear is default). The name and location of the program you use to play digitized sounds. LHArc= (c:lharc a is default). The LHArc program you use for archiving files. ListArc= (c:arc l is default). The Arc program you use for listing the contents of arc'd files. ListLHArc= (c:lharc l is default). The ALHrc program you use for listing the contents of arc'd files. ListPak= (there is no default). The command you use for listing the contents of pak'd files. Even though the current version of the Pak program does not have the ability to display the contents of pak'd files, this was provided for upward compatability. ListWarp= (there is no default). The Warp program you use for listing the contents of warp'd files. Note that the current version of the Warp program does not have a command to display the contents of a warp'd file. This was provided for upward compatability. ListZoo= (c:zoo l is default). The Zoo program you use for listing the contents of zoo'd files. MakeDirIcon= (there is no default). This is icon that is created along with directories you create with the MAKEDIR command. The default is to have no icon created. I've done it this way so that you are not forced to live with the drawer icon image that I choose. I suggest that you place the .info file you want to use somewhere safe, such as the s: directory, perhaps naming it "SID.icon". Note that the new directory icon will inherit all of the characteristics of your MakeDir icon, such as position (if you've done a snapshot on it), protection bits, comment (if any), etc. NewCLI= (c:NewSHELL "NEWCON:0/0/640/96/Type ENDCLI to Quit" is default). The command used to create a new CLI window. Note how I am using the Shell provided with Workbench 1.3 in the default. Other= (c:cc is default). This is a user-definable key which you can set to do anything you want. Pak= (c:pak is default). The Pak program you use for archiving files. Pattern= (#?.c is default). The first time you run the PATTERN command (which highlights all files in the active list based on the AmigaDOS wildcard pattern you specify), this pattern appears in the requester. Preferences= (sys:prefs/Preferences is default). Where to find the Preferences program. Print= (run c:print is default). The name and location of the program you use to print files. A file printing program with C source is included on the disk of goodies sent to registered SID users. Run= (there is no default). The arguments for programs run from SID. Though this will likely be blank for most users, you may find sometime that you are often running the same program which requires a certain set of arguments. SeparateDirs= (NO is default). Whether the dirs and files will be displayed separately in the directory lists with the directories on top and the files on the bottom. The default is NO, in other words, mix the files and directories, sorting them alphabetically. NOTE: To use this feature, you cannot load directories which contain dir names that begin with an alternate character (such as ß, or any character with a value between 0x80 and 0xFF). Such entries will be displayed correctly, but you will not be able to access them. Set= (*******- is default). The protection bit pattern used by the SET requester. This string should be eight characters long, each character representing the bit in the corresponding protection string HSPARWED. A letter indicates that the bit is to be set, a dash (-) indicates that the bit is to be cleared, and an asterik (or any other character) indicates that the bit is to be ignored. Thus, the default setup will ignore all but the Delete bit which will be cleared, meaning if you execute the SET command without changing the bit pattern, all highlighted files will have their Delete bits cleared (making them Not Deletable). UnArc= (c:arc x is default). The Arc program you use for unarchiving arc'd files. UnLHArc= (c:lharc x is default). The LHArc program you use for unarchiving arc'd files. UnPak= (there is no default). The program you use for unarchiving pak'd files. For the current version of the Pak program, just typing the name of the pak'd file will cause it to unpak itself, therefore no command needs to be specified. UnWarp= (c:warp write is default). The Warp program you use for unarchiving Warp'd disks. Be careful with this command. UnZoo= (c:zoo x//is default). The Zoo program you use for unarchiving zoo'd files. The double slashes "//" preserves the structure of zoo'd directories when unzooing files by creating the directories and storing the zoo'd files in them. View= (c:superview -c is default). The name and location of your favorite IFF graphic display program. Notice that you can attach program arguments. In this case, I added a "-c" argument to surpress color cycling. Warp= (c:warp read 0 79 is default). The Warp program you use for archiving disks. Zoo= (c:zoo a is default). The Zoo program you use for archiving files. Special entries --------------- These keywords require one of the special flags listed. ArchiveMethod= (ARC is default). This flag allows you to specify which archive method you want to use when archiving files. You can specify one of the following flags: ARC ..... to use Arc LHARC ... to use LHArc PAK ..... to use Pak WARP .... to use Warp ZOO ..... to use Zoo Of course, you can change this at any time with the "Archival Method" item in the "Flags" menu. Also, this flag has nothing to do with unarchiving or listing the contents of archived files. SID automatically determines which archival method to use in those cases. ArrowDirection= (FLOW is default). The direction in which the arrow (in the center of the SID window) will point. If ArrowDirection=FLOW, the arrow will point in the direction of file flow, i.e. from the active side to the inactive side. If ArrowDirection=ACTIVE, the arrow will point to the currently active side. Requires one of the following: FLOW ACTIVE DeviceButtons= (DF0DF1RAMRADDH0DH1DH2DH3 is default). These are the names of the eight device buttons which appear under each window. Notice how they are listed in succession with no imbedded blanks. The colons are implied and will be added by SID. Each button name must be exactly three characters long, and you must specify all eight button names or strange things will happen. You can override the directories loaded when clicking on the device buttons by specifying alternate path names with the Button1=, Button2=, etc. entries. See those keyword definitions below for more information. EntryType= (SIZE is default). The manner in which the entries will be displayed. Requires one of the following: SIZE ... <--------- File Name --------->9999999 DATE ... <--------- File Name ------> MM/DD/YY TIME ... <--------- File Name -----> HH:MM:SSam BITS ... <--------- File Name -------> HSPARWED NOTE ... <-- File Name --> <---- Comment -----> DESC ... <-- File Name --> <-- Description ---> ScreenType= (WORKBENCH is default). The screen on which the SID window will open when the program begins. Requires one of the following: CUSTOM ...... SID will open on its own non-interlaced custom screen INTERLACE ... SID will open on its own interlaced custom screen WORKBENCH ... SID will open on the Workbench screen WindowHeight= (FULL is default). The size at which SID's window will open when the program begins. Requires one of the following: FULL ..... SID will open with a 640x200 pixel window, if possible HALF ..... SID will open with a 640x100 pixel window LACE ..... SID will open with a 640x400 pixel window, if possible SPECIFY .. SID will open with the number of rows you specified with the SpecifyRows keyword ConfigDocs v1.06 12/02/89 © Copyright 1989 Timm Martin All Rights Reserved Worldwide /*-- END --*/