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The Datafile PD-CD 1 Issue 2
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utilities
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004
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1994-09-23
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Con₧gure+ version 1.00
⌐ Sam Kington 24th September 1994
This program is freeware, *not* public domain ù i.e., I retain copyright on
Con₧gure+ and all the related ₧les (see öBoring legal messageò). !Con₧gure
and the patched Con₧gure ₧les remain ⌐ Acorn Computers Ltd. and must not be
copied.
If youære not going to read all of this ₧le, at least read section öHow to
get this to workò ù otherwise it wonæt work (obvious really...).
What this program does
**********************
This program is an extension to !Con₧gure: it allows you to set various
con₧gure options that !Con₧gure omitted, while apparently still using
!Con₧gure. It adds four icons to Con₧gureæs main window, öDrivesò, öFilerò,
öMiscò and öThird partyò; clicking on any of these brings up a window,
exactly like clicking on any of the other icons. The ₧rst three new windows
behave exactly like the others do, apart from the fact that they are in fact
öownedò by Con₧gure+ rather than Con₧gure, and that the öMiscò window has a
scroll bar because thereæs so much in it. The öThird partyò window is
slightly different, as it contains all the *Con₧gure options the program
didnæt know about, and is thus slightly less nice (see below for more
details).
As this is an extension to Con₧gure, operation should be self-explanatory:
if you know how to use Con₧gure, you should know how to use Con₧gure+. If you
want to know what all these new con₧guration options are, use interactive
help and everything will become clear (hopefully).
Why do I need this?
*******************
Because, when Acorn wrote Con₧gure, they left a few things out. The
Con₧gure options in the extra window range from quite useful (ARM3 Cache) to
frankly esoteric (Scroll or More dither patterns), and some can be set elsewhere
(₧ler and net₧ler options, Boot in the Desktop Save box from the Task Manager
iconbar menu) ù you wonæt want to use them all the time, and indeed you
probably wonæt want to use them as much as you will the other options. But
itæs a more friendly way of setting them, it avoids shelling out to the CLI
(F12 or Ctrl-F12), especially as some cannot be set from the command line.
Many of the options in the Misc window are either undocumented or tricky
to set (i.e. there isnæt a *Con₧gure option for them). This is the case of
full hardware tests, solid drags, screen update stops blanker, 3D desktop and
especially prompt for ƒoppy on reset. This last one is in fact totally
undocumented, and I am grateful to Christopher Swaley (BAU July 1993) for
pointing this one out to me. (I had actually found it myself by accident, but
I didnæt know where in CMOS RAM it was). (Conversely, some documented
options donæt actually work, even though theyære in the PRMs...). Again, none
of this is earth-shattering stuff, except solid drags, although if you have
Desktop+ (and you should have) solid drags will be turned on automatically.
Another reason for using Con₧gure+ is that while Con₧gure will save the
entire contents of the CMOS RAM to a Con₧gure ₧le, it will only load back
into CMOS RAM (from a Con₧gure ₧le), the options it knows about. This means
it doesnæt load ADFSBuffers, Cache, third party con₧guration options, etc.
etc. Con₧gure+ will notice when you load a new Con₧gure ₧le, and load all the
options properly. This does mean, of course, that it will take quite a long
time (1 or 2 seconds ù accessing CMOS RAM is quite slow), but then you
shouldnæt have to do this sort of thing too often.
RISC OS 3.5 !Con₧gure no longer loads Con₧gure ₧les - instead you have to
use SaveCMOS. I couldnæt be bothered to change it, and anyway I think you
*should* be able to load Con₧gure ₧les by dragging them to Con₧gure, so for
RISC PC users Con₧gure+ adds even more functionality ;).
A ₧nal reason is that Con₧gure+ knows about third-party modulesæ
con₧guration options, or, to be more accurate, only pretends it does but does
it quite convincingly. The öThird partyò window contains a list of all the
con₧guration options provided by non-Acorn modules, either in expansion cards
or in RAM, that you can set by ₧lling in the appropriate results. There are
no fancy arrows or menu boxes or anything because Con₧gure+ doesnæt know
about the new options, but you do get the *Help text and syntax messages if
you use interactive help on the windows (*Help message for the name of the
option, at the left of the window, syntax message for the value of the
option, at the right of the window).
NB: Con₧gure+ only scans the list of modules for *con₧gure options when it
is ₧rst started up, so if you load a module that has *con₧gure options, you
will have to quit Con₧gure+ and re-run it to see them in the list.
Conversely, if you quit a module that has *con₧gure options and then try to
set the option with Con₧gure+, obviously Con₧gure+ will complain.
How to get this to work
***********************
Con₧gure+ adds new features to !Con₧gure by adding four icons to
Con₧gureæs main window, which means it has to modify Con₧gureæs Sprites,
Templates and Messages ₧les. However, Con₧gure is ⌐ Acorn Computers Ltd., and
the appropriate ₧les, especially when modi₧ed, cannot be distributed like
freeware. As every Acorn user has a copy of Con₧gure, this isnæt too much of
a problem: all you have to do is run a small öpatchò utility.
You should have a program called öConfPatchò supplied with Con₧g+ (if not,
complain loudly to the person who supplied you with Con₧g+). Running this,
having öseenò Con₧g+, will create the appropriate ₧les, after asking you a
few questions (see ConfPatchæs documentation for this).
Before distributing Con₧gure+, run the Obey ₧le öDistributeò in the
!ConfPatch directory (shift-double-click on the !ConfPatch icon to open it).
This will delete the modi₧ed ₧les.
More about some new Con₧gure options
************************************
Using interactive help should be enough to work out what the new Con₧gure
options are, but in some cases there is slightly more to say than will ₧t in
a help message.
Å More dithering in greyscale modes:
In a two or four-colour mode, the WIMP will use dithering to make up for
the lack of colours; however, by default it will only do this for colours 0
to 7, i.e. the grey scales. If you select this, it will use dithering for all
the colours ù but this will not happen everywhere. In practice, sprites in
Filer windows, on the Pinboard, the icon bar or application windows will not
be dithered, except for Sprite editors and the like, for which this option
has no effect as they dither anyway. Draw ₧les, Artworks ₧les and similar
objects will also be dithered whatever the state of the option.
Essentially, dialogue boxes and similar windows will be dithered
differently, as will menus. MemoryPie is a good example of the difference
setting this option makes.
The current dither state will actually change on a mode change.
Å Smarter scrolling
This is a standard option, it even has its own *Con₧gure option, and there
*is* a difference, but itæs not at all noticeable.
Replacing Con₧gure
******************
To make the extension/replacement of Con₧gure complete, there are two ₧les
in the !Con₧g+.Con₧gure directory, SetCon₧g and SetCon₧g+. Running SetCon₧g+
will change Con₧gureæs icon to the Con₧g+ icon (i.e. add a small red ö+ò sign
to it), and change the !Boot, !Run and !Help ₧les in !Con₧gure in the Apps
directory to point to the ₧les in !Con₧g+, the upshot being that Con₧gure is
replaced by Con₧g+. Run SetCon₧g to reverse these changes.
As the RISC OS 3.50 version of !Con₧gure lives on the hard disc inside
!Boot, and not in the Apps directory at all, SetCon₧g+ wonæt work all that
correctly - I assume it will put the appropriate icon in the Apps directory,
but if you double-click on !Boot (the recommended way to run Con₧gure,
apparently) the old one will load.
By default the !Con₧g+.!Boot ₧le runs SetCon₧g+; remove or comment out
(pre₧x with a ö|ò) the offending line if you donæt want Con₧g+ to replace
Con₧gure, or if you have a RISC PC. If you do want to make Con₧g+ the default
version of Con₧gure, you might want to add a Filer_Boot
Utilities:Extensions.!Con₧g+ (replace by the real path) to your Boot ₧le.
The Conf+Resources module, the module that changes the ₧les in
the Apps directory, was created by Joseph Walkeræs ResourceFS modi₧er,
ResMod (with a Help string tweaked to make it look prettier in the *Help
Modules list).
How it works
************
This is mainly for the techies out there, but non-initiates may ₧nd it
interesting.
When you run Con₧g+, or run Con₧gure having run SetCon₧g+ previously, it
does the following things:
Å Loads the module if it isnæt already loaded
Å Runs Con₧gure+ (which just sits in the background and waits for mouse
clicks)
Å Runs Con₧gure
Note that Con₧gure+ and Con₧gure have to be started up by separate ₧les,
as you canæt run two programs from the same Obey ₧le, and Desktop ₧les donæt
set the WimpSlot properly.
The module sets up a ₧rst ₧lter on all tasks, intercepting all messages.
When it gets a Message_TaskInitialise from either Con₧gure or Con₧gure+, it
remembers their task handles; when it has a sensible value for both, it knows
that both tasks have started up, so it sets up another ₧lter on Con₧gure,
intercepting all mouse clicks, as well as open and close window events ù
partly to know where the main window is, to align windows with the top, and
also because the window handle of the main window changes every time itæs
closed and re-opened. These are then passed along to Con₧gure+. When either
of the tasks quits, a Message_TaskCloseDown is received by the ₧rst ₧lter, so
the module stops the ₧lter on Con₧gure. Con₧gure+ is also checking for
Message_TaskCloseDown, so if Con₧gure is quit Con₧gure+ will quit as well.
In addition, the ₧rst ₧lter will also pass along DataLoad and DataOpen
messages to Con₧gure+, so that when you double-click on a Con₧gure ₧le or
drag it to the Con₧gure icon, Con₧gure+ loads all of it into CMOS rather than
just the options Con₧gure knows about (which is what it usually does). This
means all the con₧guration options are loaded, including things like
ADFSBuffers and any third-party options. So you donæt have to use FlDesk
anymore ;).
Note that when Con₧gure+ gets a mouse click on one of Con₧gureæs windows,
it has to know whether the window is the main window (in which case it should
check if one of its icons has been clicked on), or another window (in which
case it should ignore the mouse click). It canæt check the window title, as
the title is stored in Con₧gureæs memory and therefore inaccessible, so it
checks the number of icons in the window ù which should be 16 in the Main
window. So whatever you do, donæt change the number of icons in the Main
window!
Oh, a cautionary tale: I spent what must be several hours (it certainly
felt like it) trying to get the ₧lter to pass along DataLoad events to
Con₧gure+. Sometimes it worked if I passed it along twice (but it only got
there once); once, when it was being sent along three times, it arrived ₧ve
times (according to Vigil, which I suspect was responsible for some of the
crashes). The times I had to reboot the machine because the Filter Manager
got confused... (shudder)
The problem was that I was intercepting messages in the Con₧gure ₧lter
(the second one), which seems like a logical thing to do, except that the
₧rst one was already intercepting messages for all tasks, including Con₧gure,
and obviously the Filter Manager gets a bit confused when two ₧lters with the
same name intercept the same events ;). So if you have more than one ₧lter
intercepting events from potentially the same tasks, make sure theyære not
intercepting the same ones...
Miscellanea
***********
If you have loads of extra, non-Acorn, Con₧gure options, the Third Party
window will cunningly sprout a scroll-bar.
I have been told of a problem with the Ether3 module (obscure stuff, eh?),
which apparently uses the same command to set all of its oodles of
con₧guration options, which means you get a very long string in the Misc
window that you canæt read. If itæs longer than 40 characters, it might crash
the program.
Boring legal message
********************
This application is freeware, that is, it can be distributed freely as
long as only reasonable charges are made for media and distribution. I
retain copyright on all program code and documentation.
There is one exception to this, which is the modi₧ed Con₧gure ₧les in the
!Config+.Configure directory ù namely, Templates, Messages, Sprites, and, if
present, Sprites22 and Sprites23. If you have just got the program, and
havenæt run !ConfPatch, you shouldnæt have these ₧les ù if you do, someone
has been breaking the law. These ₧les remain ⌐ Acorn Computers Ltd., and so
cannot be distributed along with the rest of the program ù you must run
!ConfPatch to create them from the original ₧les. Before distributing Con₧g+,
run the ₧le öDistributeò in the !ConfPatch directory to delete the modi₧ed
₧les. See also the section öHow to get this to workò for more details.
This software is supplied öasáisò: I make no warranty, expressed or
implied, of the merchantability of this software or its ₧tness for any
particular purpose. In no circumstances shall I be liable for any damage,
loss of pro₧ts, or any indirect or consequential loss arising out of the use
of this software or inability to use this software, even if I have been
advised of the possibility of such loss.
In other words, if your computer crashes, blows up, you lose all your work
etc. all because of Con₧gure+ (unlikely I know), donæt blame me.
About all these strange foreign characters in this ₧le
*******************************************************
OK, so if youære reading this on a PC or a Mac or another strange machine
like that, you may be wondering what all these strange ae things are. Well,
theyære quotes (sorry, there was another one), dashes, ligatures, etc.
Honest. But not on all machines...
Basically, character sets are only standard up to character 127, which is
basically alphanumerics and a few standard punctuation marks. Foreign
characters, typographical oddities like quotes and ligatures, and other more
obscure symbols are önon-standardò, and each computer often has its own idea
of where they should go in the character set. So donæt worry: even if itæs
hard to read on your current machine, it wonæt be on an Acorn machine. It may
look slightly strange if youære using the System font, however.
But why am I using these strange characters in the ₧rst place? Well,
theyære in the character set and they look nice in an outine font, and Iæve
written a program called Smart Quotes (sorry for the plug) that substitutes
these sort of characters automatically, and Iæve got it turned on at the
moment...
Thanks
******
Thanks are due to the following people (not in any particular order):
Dick Alstein for TemplEd (couldnæt live without it)
Cy Booker for his wonderful BASIC cruncher (registrationæs in the post)
Simon Middleton at Uniqueway for help and feedback
Rheingold for Vigil (I actually bought it)
David Rushall for FlDesk (I donæt actually use it normally, but the
compare CMOS option was useful)
Kemal Sangrar for his invaluable TaskGuard utility ù press Alt-Break
and the current task is aborted. Makes you wonder what all this
fuss over the RISC PC is all about ;).
Dominic Symes for Zap (couldnæt live without it)
Christopher Swaley for the ƒoppy disc con₧gure option
Dave Walker at Acorn Customer Support for all the help
Joseph Walker for ResMod
Acorn get a ₧rm and hearty thumbs up for the machine, RISC OS, the Filter
Manager in particular and the quality of the PRMs (and at ú100 I should think
so ;) ), and a loud raspberry for not documenting all the CMOS options ù
bytes 215 to 223 arenæt even mentioned, let alone described as öreserved for
Acorn useò when they actually do something quite sensible, like other bytes
I could think of. In the RISC OS 2 PRMs they already got the CMOS slightly
wrong, so Acorn, if you know whatæs good for you ù sack the guy who does the
CMOS ;).
Another thumbs up goes to Dave Walker at Customer Support for all the
help, and another raspberry for those people who designed RISC OS 3.50
Con₧gure, for not deleting the unused icons in the Templates ₧le (look at the
original Templates and count the number of icons shifted to one side...).
How to contact me
*****************
All bug-reports, suggestions, comments or indeed any feedback at all will be
welcomed. Hereæs how to get to me:
E-mail : 9262861k@arts.gla.ac.uk, 926286ki@udcf.gla.ac.uk during term-time
These should be OK until June 1996
At Christmas, Easter and during the summer, you can get me at
wombat@altern.com, wombat@email.teaser.com or sam@altern.com, in order
of preference (that is, if mail bounces off one of these or I donæt
answer within a week send to the next one).
Snail-mail : My term-time address, at least until June 1995, is:
Sam Kington
Flat 2/1
44 Hotspur Street
Glasgow G20 8NL
SCOTLAND
Again, a backup is the home address ù anything that goes here will get
to me eventually.
Sam Kington
Merlhiot
24420 Savignac les Eglises
FRANCE
Term-time is October to June, with bits off at Christmas (3 weeks) and
Easter (4 weeks).