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Amiga MG 2a Release Notes ------------------------- This file attempts to document the Amiga-specific features of MG 2a. Except where otherwise noted. It is assumed that you already know about the point and the mark, buffers, windows, extended commands, and the various areas on the screen that all versions of MG maintain. If you don't, see the MG documentation (what there is of it) for more information. Amiga Credits ------------- The Amiga Intuition terminal driver is the combined effort of Mike Meyer and Mic Kaczmarczik. Others who helped and/or inspired good ideas for the MG terminal driver include Steve Walton, Leon Frenkel, Marcus Brooks, and Tom Rokicki. Steve Walton is also responsible for the dired mode. Lastly, Bob Larson redesigned the MG keymap system, making it possible for function keys and mouse clicks to be ``first-class citizens''. OPTIONS ------- This section is for people who have their own C compiler. If you don't have a C compiler, you will hopefully have a version that has everything compiled into it. There are a bewildering variety of extra goodies available as compile-time options when you construct an Amiga MG. If you select none of them, you save on disk and memory space, but lose out on some features and versatility. The Makefile provides documentation on these options and what to do to make them work, but here is a quick overview: STARTUP -- You can configure MG so that it will look for a startup file in either the current directory or the AmigaDOS s: (startup) directory. An example startup file is included in the distribution, and also see the STARTUP section below. MENU -- If this option is used, MG puts an Intuition menu bar with major editing commands at the top of the screen, just like a "real" Amiga program. (See the section on the MENU for more info). BROWSER -- This has got to be seen to be appreciated. The Browser program turns the menu bar into a way to select files on a disk. First you select a disk, then a directory on the disk, then a file or subdirectory on the disk, and so on, all in the menu. MOUSE -- This option turns on the Amiga hot mouse. You can click on a character and move point to that spot, and that's just the beginning. (See the MOUSE section for more.) FKEYS -- This option turns on support for all the extra Amiga function keys. This enables the HELP key, which runs the function "describe-key-briefly". Arrow keys work -- shift-arrow keys apply to words and paragraphs. (See the KEYBOARD section.) NO_BACKUP -- This is actually a default option; #defining NO_BACKUP disables backup files. When chosen, this #define modifies the action of the save-buffer (C-x C-s) command. Normally, save-buffer writes out a new copy of the buffer to disk, thus destroying the contents of the original file. If BACKUP is enabled, MG will rename the file to filename~ (with a tilde character at the end), before the new copy is written out. This keeps the next-to-last copy of your file around on disk, so you can recover from bad mistakes. To avoid filling up disk space too quickly, by default MG does *NOT* make backup files; to do so, enter the command "M-x make-backup-files", which enables making backup files the next time you enter C-x C-s to save a file. If you give an argument to the function (by typing "C-u M-x make-backup-files", for example), backup files are not made. DO_METAKEY -- When this is enabled, Amiga MG uses the ALT key to implement the META key found on some terminals. This means that you can type ALT-f (in one keystroke) to go forward one word, instead of ESC-f, which requires two. CHANGE_FONT -- This allows you to set the font used by the Amiga console device driver when it draws characters in the MG window. For instance, this lets you use a slightly taller font for editing when using interlace mode under 1.2. MG cannot handle proportionally spaced fonts, but will allow you to use them (with rather confusing results) if you really want to. MODE_RENDITION, {TEXT,MODE}_{FG,BG} -- These are #defines that determine the default rendition of the mode line and the foreground and background colors of the text. See the COLOR section for more info. CHANGE_COLOR -- If you want to be able to mess around with the foreground and background colors of the text window, this option allows you to do that. You can also specify the way the status line is rendered (plain, boldface, italics, or reverse video). USE_ARP -- Amiga MG2a uses a few functions which are part of the library for ARP, the AmigaDOS Replacement Project. Work-alikes for these routines are provided for those without a copy of arp.library, but as a future version of Amiga MG will require ARP and it has so many other redeeming values, it is recommended you obtain a copy. DO_ICONIFY -- This turns on the ``amiga-iconify'' function, described in more detail below. THE MOUSE --------- The Amiga Mouse can invoke no less than 24 different functions. Mouse clicks are essentially treated as keys by the MG, even though you click the mouse and hold down qualifier keys to get them. Mouse keys come in three groups of eight, the groups being: Mouse keys -- when clicked in the text of a window Mode-Mouse keys -- when clicked on a window's mode line Echo-Mouse keys -- when clicked in the echo area Inside each group, which of the eight keys you get is determined by the combination of Shift, CTRL and ALT keys you are holding down when the mouse button is pressed. So yes, there really is a Ctrl-Meta-Shift-Mode-Mouse button. Note that the Meta (M-) prefix *MUST* be the ALT key. Prefixing a mouse click with ESC will not work. Mouse keys are generally bound to functions that affect the text in the selected buffer. If the Intuition mouse pointer is located inside an MG text window (i.e. an area where text is being edited), then a Mouse key is sent to the editor when you click the mouse. The buffer associated wth the window the pointer is in is made current, point is set as close as possible to the pointer (the character under the pointer, if possible), then the command bound to that mouse button is executed. If the mouse pointer is in the mode line - the line that is in a different typeface (usually backlit, maybe black instead of white) -- when the mouse button is clicked, a Mode-Mouse key is sent to the editor. The buffer that the selected status line is associated with is made the current buffer, the point is set to the value of point for that window, then whatever command is bound to that button is executed. Most of the Mode-Mouse keys invoke functions that act on the entire window or buffer. Clicking in the echo line - the line at the bottom of the screen where prompts and message appear - results in an Echo-Mouse key. Whatever command is bound to that button will be executed. Since the echo line is not part of a buffer or a window, all the functions bound to Echo-Mouse keys affect the state of the editor as a whole. The default bindings for the hot mouse (as distributed) are: Qualifiers | Area clicked | C A Shift | Text window Mode line Echo line -------------+--------------------------------------------------------- | dot to mouse forward page switch to other buffer X | recenter backward page kill buffer X | delete word split window describe key X X | kill line delete window describe bindings X | delete char goto bob suspend MG X X | delete whitespace goto eob quit X X | kill region enlarge window list buffers X X X | yank shrink window toggle Intuition window To help keep straight what the various keys do, notice that the Status and Echo groups come in pairs; the shifted version of a key is in some sense the opposite of the unshifted version. There is no opposite for display-buffers, so that key is bound to "amiga-toggle-border", which toggles MG' Intuition window between bordered and borderless. Like any MG key, you are free to rebind the 24 mouse buttons to do whatever you wish. You may even rebind them in your startup sequence. NOTE: only functions that start with the prefix "mouse-" are able to handle clicks in windows and mode lines, because they know how to figure out where the mouse was clicked. Conversely, any non-mouse function may be bound to an Echo-Mouse key, because clicking in the echo area does not send the x,y click information to the function. If the iconification code is compiled in, then Echo-Mouse is bound to ``amiga-iconify'' by default. THE KEYBOARD ------------ There is a shortcut for many of the Meta commands (usually indicated by the ESC character): hold down the ALT key at the same time you type what usually comes after the ESC. Historically, this is why keys that are typed with ESC in front of them are called META keys; on the terminals at MIT where the Emacs editor (MG's spiritual parent) was originally written, there was a META key on the keyboard that did what the ALT key does. However, not many terminals outside of MIT have the META key at all, so the ESC key was nominated as a way to tell the system that the next character should be converted into a META key before it is interpreted. MG also recognizes Amiga function keys. For quick help on a key, type the HELP key and then the key you want help on. The following commands are bound to the Amiga function keys: Key Function -------------------------------------------- Help describe-key-briefly Left backward-char Shift-Left backward-word Right forward-char Shift-Right forward-word Up previous-line Shift-Up backward-paragraph Down next-line Shift-Down forward-paragraph F1 find-file Shift-F1 find-file-other-window F2 save-buffer Shift-F2 write-file F3 scroll-up (page down) Shift-F3 scroll-down (page up) F4 enlarge-window Shift-F4 shrink-window F5 fill-paragraph Shift-F5 query-replace F6 split-window-vertically Shift-F6 delete-other-windows F7 transpose-chars Shift-F7 just-one-space F8 start-kbd-macro Shift-F8 end-kbd-macro F9 call-last-kbd-macro Shift-F9 describe-bindings F10 list-buffers Shift-F10 save-buffers-kill-emacs FUNCTION KEY NAMES ------------------ On the Amiga, all the function keys are readily visible on the keyboard, so this table of key names for use in strings is fairly self-explanitory. If you want to rebind Shift-Down-Arrow to scroll-up (move down a whole page), for example, insert the line (global-set-key "\F5" 'scroll-up) in your s:.mg file. Amiga key Startup name ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Up-Arrow \F0 Down-Arrow \F1 Left-Arrow \F2 Right-Arrow \F3 Shift-Up-Arrow \F4 Shift-Down-Arrow \F5 Shift-Left-Arrow \F6 Shift-Right-Arrow \F7 Help \F9 F1 \F12 F2 \F13 F3 \F14 F4 \F15 F5 \F16 F6 \F17 F7 \F18 F8 \F19 F9 \F20 F10 \F21 Shift-F1 \F22 Shift-F2 \F23 Shift-F3 \F24 Shift-F4 \F25 Shift-F5 \F26 Shift-F6 \F27 Shift-F7 \F28 Shift-F8 \F29 Shift-F9 \F30 Shift-F10 \F31 Mouse \F32 Ctrl-Mouse \F33 Shift-Mouse \F34 Shift-Ctrl-Mouse \F35 Meta-Mouse \F36 Meta-Ctrl-Mouse \F37 Meta-Shift-Mouse \F38 Meta-Shift-Ctrl-Mouse \F39 Mode-Mouse \F40 Ctrl-Mode-Mouse \F41 Shift-Mode-Mouse \F42 Shift-Ctrl-Mode-Mouse \F43 Meta-Mode-Mouse \F44 Meta-Ctrl-Mode-Mouse \F45 Meta-Shift-Mode-Mouse \F46 Meta-Shift-Ctrl-Mode-Mouse \F47 Echo-Mouse \F48 Ctrl-Echo-Mouse \F49 Shift-Echo-Mouse \F50 Shift-Ctrl-Echo-Mouse \F51 Meta-Echo-Mouse \F52 Meta-Ctrl-Echo-Mouse \F53 Meta-Shift-Echo-Mouse \F54 Meta-Shift-Ctrl-Echo-Mouse \F55 THE MENU -------- If the menu option is compiled into the program, you can also use the Intuition menu, just like any other well-written Amiga program. The menu names are relatively self-explanitory, as are the names inside each menu. If you want to learn what the command key is for a menu function, use the command "apropos" (invoked by Ctrl-Backspace a), followed by a substring of the menu item you're curious about. THE BROWSER ----------- The Browser is the next best (or even better, for some purposes) thing to a file requester. Simply put, it places the directory tree up in the menu bar, where you can visit files simply by selecting their names from the menu bar. Try it, you'll like it. If the MENU option is also compiled in, the editing menus are all submenus of the first, "Edit" menu, and the Browser uses the rest of the menu bar. WINDOW OPTIONS -------------- As a service to those of us who want a full-size, 80-column editing window on a 640x200 screen, Amiga MG allows you to make its window borderless. If you like, you can take over the full Workbench screen (48 rows, 80 columns in interlace mode under 1.2). Borderless windows can be "visually confusing", to quote the author of Intuition, so it's probably best to either to 1) take over the whole screen or 2) put the MG window at the bottom of the screen. When Amiga MG starts up on a 640x200 screen, its initial window is borderless, and 640x200 pixels in dimension. To change to a resizeable window, issue the command "M-x amiga-toggle-border" or select the "Toggle Window" subitem from the "Window" menu (if it is compiled into the program). MG will create a new, resizeable, bordered window, which you can then set to whatever size you wish using the sizing gadget in the bottom left corner of the window. To go back to a borderless window, issue the "Toggle Window" command again. MG will remember the current size of the resizeable window, and create a borderless window with the same dimensions and position. Since under Workbench 1.2 you can use a 640x400 window, this lets you take up the entire screen, 48 rows by 80 columns. If you use MoreRows, MG will open up a resizeable window if there's enough room on the screen for an 24 line by 80 column window. CHANGING THE WINDOW'S FONT -------------------------- There may be times when you'd like to use another font on the screen, either to make the text easier to read, or for some special effect, like editing something on a TV projection system. MG lets you change the font that is used to draw characters in the window, using the command "M-x amiga-set-font". You can use the universal argument to set the desired text font size, for example saying "C-u 12 M-x set-font", then typing "opal" when it prompts you for the name of the font. If you give an argument that is less than 0, MG resets the window's font to the system default (set by Preferences). If you don't give an argument, MG prompts you for the desired font size. Changing the window's font to one that is designed to be proportionally spaced does not work very well, because MG expects the all characters on the screen to be the same width, which is of course not the case with proportional fonts. MG lets you use proportional fonts, but it asks you to make sure first. TEXT RENDITION -------------- If you really want to, you can change the "soft style" the console device uses to draw characters in the text area and the mode line. The possible values for these styles are: 0 plain 1 boldface 3 italic 4 underline 7 inverse About the only useful values are the ones for plain, boldface or italics. The default value for text is 0 (plain, of course), while the default for the mode line is 7 (inverse video). These can be changed by the appropriate #definitions of MODE_RENDITION and TEXT_RENDITION. The commands to change the rendition values are: amiga-text-rendition Set text area rendition amiga-mode-rendition Set mode line rendition (this is by far the more useful) COLOR ----- You can set the colors the console device uses to draw the text you are editing. (This does not mean that you can specify *any* color; your choices are limited to the colors being used by Intuition to maintain the Workbench screen.) The commands that control this behavior are: amiga-text-foreground Sets the color used to draw the characters you see in the text area (distinct from the mode line area for each window). Accepts a number from 0 to 7. The value initially used is 1. You can get a reverse video screen by selecting 0 for this value and 1 for the background color amiga-text-background Sets the color used the draw the background behind characters in the text area. Accepts the same values as amiga-text-foreground. The initial value is 0. amiga-mode-foreground Sets the foreground color used by the mode line. If you set this to 0 and the background color to 1, you can get a reverse video mode line even when you select italics for the mode line rendition (see RENDITION) amiga-mode-background Sets the background color for the mode line. You should get the idea by now. ICONIFICATION ------------- Leo Schwab wrote a set of very general routines for allowing an Amiga program to shrink its window to an icon. This icon can then be moved around on the screen, and re-expanded to its full size by a double click, like the one used to open a drawer. Amiga MG2a provides this capability through the function ``amiga-iconify'', which is bound to Echo-Mouse by default if the iconification code is present. Not only is this a great way to prevent screen clutter, but it also frees 50K of CHIP RAM while MG's window is iconified (on a 30 line by 80 column mg window). To iconify the window, click the mouse in MG's echo line or issue the extended command ``amiga-iconify.'' To expand MG's window back to its full size, double-click on the MG2a icon in the same way you would on a disk or drawer icon. The icon can also be dragged about, and will remember its last position when the window is iconified again. FUNCTION LIST ------------- For completeness, here is a list of all Amiga MG functions that are specific to the Amiga. amiga-iconify Iconifies the Amiga MG window. amiga-menu The entry point for using MG's Intuition menu. This function figures out which menu selection was used, then calls the appropriate function by name (not hard-coded key value) amiga-mouse Set dot to where the mouse is pointing. Two clicks in the same spot set the mark too. mouse-* Functions that first either 1) move point to where the mouse points to or 2) select the buffer associated with the mode line the mouse clicked in, then call the function indicated by the rest of the name. These functions are all "bound" to various mouse click keys. amiga-set-font Set the font used to draw characters inside the MG window. A positive argument is used for the size of the font, while a nonpositive argument requests that the font be set to the system default font. Menu items are not affected by this command. amiga-mode-rendition amiga-text-rendition Set the way your text (or the mode line) is rendered. Choose from 0 (plain), 1 (bold), 3 (italic), 4 (underline), or 7 (reverse video). 0, 1, and 3 are about the only really useful ones for text; 7 is the default for the mode line. amiga-text-foreground amiga-text-background amiga-mode-foreground amiga-mode-background Set the system color used to draw the characters in the text area and mode line. Accepts a value between 0 and 7; the default for the background is 0, the default for the text is 1. amiga-toggle-border Switch your window between resizable and borderless. Lets you take over the whole screen (80 columns! 48 lines in interlace!)