home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Turnbull China Bikeride
/
Turnbull China Bikeride - Disc 1.iso
/
ARGONET
/
PD
/
PROGRAMMING
/
FORMEDEXT.ZIP
/
!FormEdExt
/
!Help
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-11-09
|
9KB
|
208 lines
FormEdExt
=========
Version 1.58 (01 Sep 1996)
Introduction
------------
FormEd was Acorn's first 'attempt' at a template editor, in the /very/ dim
and distant past. Since then, many people have played around with the basic
versions they got hold of to 'improve' them to a usable standard. Thus, many
FormEd's appeared in PD libraries purporting to be the be all and end all of
template editors.
This is another of those hacks :-)
Whilst it doesn't do all the snazzy things that ResEd does, and probably
doesn't reach the heights of TemplEd or Glazier, it is *my* hack and I like
it.
Why should you use it ? I dunno... Look at it, see what you think and tell me.
What features has it got ? Hmm... good question... let me think :
• Create Icon submenu to allow you to create 'standard' icons much more
easily. These come in 7 flavours :
+ Text Entry icons
+ Button icons (OK, Normal action, old dialogue buttons, and a submenu
button)
+ Group icons (Raised, Sunk with a bordered title, and sunk without a
bordered title)
+ Radio icons
+ Toggle icons
+ Info & menu icons (like in !Printers)
+ Sunk data icon
+ Load icon (for dragging files to)
• Amend icon vastly modified.
+ Text changes will extend into indirection if required
+ Sprite changes reflected in the indirection string
+ Border submenu allows you to select from the 7 standard border types,
plus toggle colours for Button and Default types
+ Indirection now allows options of :
. Keys to allow (or disallow)
. Pointer type to change to (including hotspots)
. Protected entries (setable character)
. Key press options
. Long text
+ Colour selection is reflected in the indirection string if fonts are
used.
• Move icon now allows greater control :
+ Absolute position may be specified
+ Width and height may be specified
+ The icon can be shrunk to it's minimum size possible
• Linking (only partially supported)
+ Icons may have their top left corner locked to an arbitary corner of
another icon (I think that's how it works).
+ List of the linked icons by Shift clicking the Amend icon entry
+ Move/copy can be performed on a group
• Window flags now include the keep on screen, Ignore X and Ignore Y flags.
• Work area now allows you to specify that the window will not go smaller
than the title bar.
• Browser window now shows which icons are manually redrawn.
• Templates are now much prettier (use borders and buttons).
• Supports (tentatively) the Interface and WimpExtension modules
• Supports External Edit sessions as an Editor.
Usage (with care)
-----
Double clicking a template file should load it into FormEdExt, and will
display the main browser box.
The browser box
===============
Yellow icons don't have scroll bars of any kind.
White icons (with the bars down the side) do have scroll bars.
Any icon with crosses on it is redrawn by the program and not completely by
the WIMP.
Double clicking any of these will allow you to edit it's definition.
Clicking Menu will allow you to save the templates, copy or rename single
windows or delete one or many, or to create a new window.
Select and Adjust clicks allows you to change the current selection.
Windows
=======
Once a window is open, you can edit an individual icon (or the window) by
clicking Menu over an icon.
Creating icons is done by clicking menu in approximately where you want the
icon, and selecting Create icon (or a sub-menu option).
Editing icons is achieved by the Amend sub-menu. This is really too much for
me to go into detail about at this time of night (4:40 am)
Renumbering, Copying and Moving should be pretty self explanatory.
Linking is only possible if the icon is indirected, and should be used with
EXTREME care.
Guess what Delete does.
The Window flags are again too lengthy to go into right now. Catch me some
time when I'm not busy or when I ask for any ideas for PD programs.
Colours allows you to change the window and border colours.
The Workarea box allows you to change the size of the windows ACTUAL extent
(ie that which you could see if it were full size). The actual positions of
the corners are given for the full extent, whilst the minimum extend applies
to the visible size of the window. The Min title button will ensure that the
window never gets smaller than the length of the title bar text.
The identifier just tells you what the window is called, and cannot be edited.
And finally Close window will do just that (not delete it - do that from the
browser).
Other things
============
Dragging an icon with Select will move it, if (and only if) you have set the
button type to allow such drags. Dragging Adjust will resize the nearest
corner, but again only if the button type allows it. To get around this, you
may use Alt-Select/Adjust drags to force icons to move/resize.
This can, however, cause problems. If you have my TextCopy installed, then
trying to drag a writable icon with Alt held down will try to copy the text
out of it (ie it will ignore Alt completely), so you will have to hold down
Ctrl-Alt, or just Ctrl if you have AllWCD installed as well. The former of
these can cause problems if you have one of the PD screen grabbers which
grabs screens when you press Ctrl and Alt together (I do). Solution: Use the
Other Ctrl and/or Alt keys - it works on mine.
How it works
------------
Ask Acorn. They probably haven't a clue either.
Compatibility
-------------
This application has been tested on the author's A5000, but due to the lack
of friends with Acorns has not been tested on other systems.
Disclaimer
----------
The author accepts no responsibility for any problems which this application
may cause or loss of data resulting in its use. This application is Public
Domain freeware. This means that it may be distributed, so long as no charge
other than copying costs are charged for it.
Contact
-------
Any comments, queries, donations or bug reports can be sent to Justin
Fletcher at :
E-Mail : Gerph@essex.ac.uk
URL : http://users.essex.ac.uk/users/gerph
IRC : On #Acorn as Gerph
Finger : finger jrflet@postman.essex.ac.uk
Tel : (01842) 813979
Snail Mail :
Justin Fletcher
“Galadriel”
17b Cromwell Road,
Weeting,
Brandon,
Suffolk.
IP27 0QT
History
-------
Version 1.00 : ?? ??? ????
Written by those interesting people at Acorn
Version 1.14 : 18 Dec 1990 ?
Well, that's the date on the original Acorn !Help file (which
was so naff, I just binned it and started again.
Version 1.50 : Sometime 1994
I began hacking about on a nice 3010 and added the lovelly
Create menu, plus some changes to make Fonts work with
indirection.
Version 1.51 : A little later, about December, maybe
I got an A5000 :-) Much hacking produced a version which allowed you to fiddle with icons in most ways and your actions would
be carried out, along with any others which might be needed
(eg adding an 'allow keys' entry requires you to specify
indirected). Around this time the lovelly linked icons came
into being.
Version 1.52 : January, February... I dunno...
Hacking a bit with the linking, added a dialogue box (Shift
click on Amend) but it's VERY flakey. Broke the lovelly add an
indirection bit if you start messing around.
Version 1.55 : Somewhere inbetween then and now
(Honest, I'm not making these up, that's when I think I did
these hacks)
Added the extra options to the Window menu from the OSLib
headers.
Version 1.56 : 30 Mar 1996 (Yes ! A real date !)
Changed the templates to look a bit more up to date, and FIXED
the auto-indirection bit of code (Thanks Chris). Put off
adding External Edits.
Version 1.57 : 31 Mar 1996
Finally got around to adding External Edits. Yucky horrible
things that they are. Had a REAL look at the code. So much in
it is redundant, but I really don't want to fiddle /too/ much
with it.
Version 1.58 : 01 Sep 1996
Minor changes to make linking work when you renumber icons.
The list of linked icons should also work now.