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*****************************************************************************
FormEd 2.87 - by Acorn Computers and the RISC squad
with RISC Squad commentary
*****************************************************************************
Version 2.80 - 21/09/90
Completed 21st September 1990 to version 2.80. Here's a list of all the
things I did, as far as I can remember - I didn't make a list as I went
along.
i) Icons can now be selected/deselected by clicking the menu button
on them whilst holding the SHIFT key down.
ii) The icon dragging procedure - with the left button - now moves
all of the selected icons in the window. Dragging with the
right button (re-sizing) is unchanged.
iii) The main menu structure has been split into an Icon menu and a
Window menu - for convenience and for speed. Previous
releases of FormEd were notoriously slow at creating their
menus. Each of the two menus includes an option for calling
up the other, which will then be opened as default on each
subsequent occasion.
iv) The Window menu is largely unaltered, but does include a 'save'
option for saving only one template at a time. Be warned,
font freaks - the save routine will check for anti-aliased
fonts in all other windows too, so I don't know what will
happen in that situation. Whatever it is, it shouldn't be
fatal.
v) The Icons menu is now far more versatile than before. Many
choices are now available for all selected icons (in that
window only) including specific choices from the EDIT ICONS
submenu structure - notably BUTTON TYPE !!
vi) The RENUMBER option is virtually as before, but the renumbering
process can be optimised by the use of the MENU button whilst
depressing the CONTROL key. This is identical to choosing the
'Renumber #nn' option directly.
vii) The DESELECT ALL option deselects all the icons in the current
window.
viii) The COPY and MOVE choices may now be performed on either single
icons or on all the selected icons.
ix) The WIPE option may now be on selected icons, on a single icon or
on any icon number specified. I find this useful in two
instances - (i) When I import templates which have 'missing'
icons that aren't used - see Paint's 'save' box, icon #1 is
to the right and is '<CRAP>' (ii) If I can't find one of my
own icons !!
x) Note that any options which are either on 'selected' icons or on
a specific icon can be controlled by clicking MENU over a
specific icon for the latter, or on no icons (the window's
work area) for the former. In such a case, if no icons are
selected, you will be informed, eg. 'Wipe No Icons' - which
will also be 'shaded out'.
All in all, the lesson to be learned from this is - if you want any icons
to be selected (in the finished template) - leave them to the end, so they
don't screw up your work !
PS I also put in an 'Info' box and attached it to the icon bar menu as
expected. Plus, while checking up on the 'Save one template' job I
re-enabled the facility to save off the entire file merely by choosing
the 'Save templates' option on the icon bar menu. - this had been
REMd out !
*****************************************************************************
Updates, Version 2.81 - 24/11/90
The main problem bugging those people I knew of who were using this was
that of the un-named windows not being saved. I have therefore included a
new error in the 'save' routine such that the error 'Only the named windows
were saved' occurs if any of the templates were un-named.
I also fixed the 'Move Selected' option from the 'Icons' menu, which did
absolutely nothing in version 2.80.
*****************************************************************************
Updates, Version 2.82 - 02/12/90
Oops, version 2.81 was chronically buggered ! The aforementioned error
occurred on every occasion, without exception. This is now completely
fixed ! The extra features are as follows :
i) It is now impossible to create un-named templates.
ii) The identifiers of windows must be different on a non
case-sensitive basis, i.e. It is not now possible to call one
template 'Save' and a different template 'save' even though
the names, strictly speaking, are distinct.
iii) Clicking on the icon bar icon opens a dialogue box, prompting the
user to enter the identifier of the new template. Press ENTER
or click on OK to confirm; press ESCAPE or close the box to
cancel.
iv) Alternatively, a new template may still be created by the use of
the icon bar menu structure. The normal rules for identifiers
still apply.
v) Any new template has its title bar icon set to text as before,
but the text defaults to the identifier at the time of
creation. This allows easy reference on a set of newly
created templates.
vi) As a result of all this, the errors such as 'Only named windows
can be saved' and 'Only the named windows were saved' are now
a thing of the past !
vii) On a completely different point : newly created icons now appear
directly underneath the pointer rather than a small distance
above it.
*****************************************************************************
Updates, Version 2.83 - 23/12/90
Aha, welcome back to all template designers. It's been exactly three weeks
since v2.82 and in such a short time I found a lot to do to the program, it
wan't hard. Have you noticed how all of these have been issued at weekends,
i.e. Friday, Saturday, then Sunday twice ?
I suppose I should tell you what I've done to it again - well, in order of
appearance...
i) The icon bar menu is restructured so that the templates and the
sprites are handled independently. This also makes the main
menu less tall, which looked very silly.
ii) You will of course have noticed an unfamiliar option on this menu
as soon as you tried it out after you'd read through part (i)
i.e. the new 'Clear' option. Fairly self-explanatory, all it
does is asks for confirmation, then clears all templates from
memory. This is mainly useful for loading a new file etc.
For example, if you want to pinch the save box from Edit, then
you would load the templates from Edit, save off just the one
template you wanted, clear the templates then re-load the old
file, eg from RAM:. This saves either (a) deleting all of the
templates in the file 'by hand' or (b) quitting FormEd and
waiting for another copy to load and initialise (very slow)!
iii) The next idea I had was to add a facility for certain 'default'
icons, rather than the <Untitled> icon as before. This became
a thorough restructure of the icons menu, to become a more
filer-type menu tree. Here's how the new 'icons' menu looks.
iv) Create icon - On its own, this creates the old <Untitled> icon,
almost. The submenu has a variety of goodies on offer ;
Text - Colour 12 bordered text icon (Click/Drag)
Sprite - 'Free-standing' sprite icon (Click/Drag)
Arrow - Colour 12 bordered arrow icon (Click/Drag)
Option - Normal 'Optoff,Opton' icon (Radio)
Radio - Normal 'Radiooff,Radioon' icon (Radio)
Writeable - Normal text entry icon (Write/Click/Drag)
Menu - Normal menu icon, eg 'OK' box (Menu)
Comment - 'Free-standing' text icon (Click/Drag)
e.g. the 'Name:' icon in a
ProgInfo window.
v) This is where the similarities to the Filer start. The third
choice is either 'No Icons' or 'Selected Icons' or 'Icon #0'
for example. The submenu yields to present the choices :
Edit, Copy, Move, Wipe, and Renumber - all as in v2.82
vi) By the way, the 'Button type' menu has been rigged to disallow
types 12 & 13 (reserved) and type 11 is once again referred
to as 'Radio'
vii) Back to the filer, the next two choices are 'Select All' and
'Deselect All'
viii) Lastly, 'Tidy Icons' removes any spurious icons that lie wholly
outside the window's Work Area. Note that this is NOT the
same as outside the opened window space. For example, in
Paint's notorious SaveBox [see v2.80, (ix),(i)] the CRAP icon
is within the Work Area, but the lack of scroll bars on these
windows sometimes makes it seem to lie beyond these bounds.
NB when using the default icons on the 'Create' submenu, make sure that
you remember to set the button types of the icons, particularly the
arrow icons (usually Auto-Repeat). The icons default to Click/Drag
because they rarely appear in exactly the right place, so need moving.
Happy templating ! !
*****************************************************************************
Updates, Version 2.84 - 07/02/91
Thought for the day :
When I use this - and I do, despite the bugs - I nearly always use the
icons menu rather than the windows menu, but this poses an annoying problem.
How does a lazy programmer (contradiction ?) like me delete a window without
using the other menu ? Answer - put the 'Delete window' choice on BOTH.
Completely against the idea of separating the two menus, but I don't care.
I was quite stunned when I happened to notice how Acorn handled their icon
indirection workspace - it goes like this. (i) DIM a large block of memory.
(ii) Set a pointer to the start of this area. (iii) Whenever workspace is
needed, use the memory at the pointer, and move the pointer on. (iv) When
the pointer reaches the end of the buffer, annoy the user by generating
errors. Actually, (iv) might have been 'by crashing without explanation' -
but if it was, I've already 'corrected' this.
To counteract this problem, the pointer is moved back to the beginning
when the last template is deleted, or if 'Clear' is chosen from the icon bar
menu. Crude, but still better than Acorn.
I've been hassled a lot recently by my friend Anonymous 'Rabbit' (Unknown)
'cos he was getting worked up about the indirection buggy bits - apparently,
when large, multi-indirected templates are used (waffle) the indirection
buggers up so the icons start to contain bits of the !RunImage, i.e. it
points to the WRONG BIT of application workspace. As a result, when you wipe
it, bits of your (still running) program go missing, and crashes ensue.
Alternatively, all the icons are inter-connected, so when you delete the
unwanted bit of one, the other one does spurious things too.
I think I've sussed it though; I looked at the code, changed a few things
and now it seems to work, so to quote the ISV docs, 'Everyone is happy'.
Rabbit was also whining about the way that the files were saved
'backwards' so that the window stacking is reversed. Big template files have
to be kept tidy in this respect, it was annoying !
I've just done another detail - when a single template was saved before,
the 'Original' filename, as appears off the icon bar 'save' box, was changed
to become that of the single template just saved. It was wrong, it's not
now.
The other (trivial) bug was that the colours menus did odd things;
sometimes the icon colours menu was in monochrome, and always there were
problems with mobile tick on the currently selected colour - particularly if
a menu choice was made with ADJUST. This is fixed too. Acorn were previously
reading the palette each time the tick moved, to decide which colours
contrasted with which others - this is now, of course, done on the WIMP
message which has something to do with palette changes, and it's faster too.
Typical.
*****************************************************************************
Updates, Version 2.84b - 01/03/91
Nothing fascinating, as usual - a minor bug fix to do with the
'Icon #nn.Edit.Text' bit of a submenu, from where the text sometimes goes
walkies. The usual un-recreatable bug sort of idea, the icon would contain
text, but the menu would suggest that it had a null text string.
Also I added a new choice to the icon bar menu, 'Finish', which is exactly
equivalent to 'Save Templates' then 'Clear Templates'. Some choices, i.e.
'Finish', 'Clear' and 'Save' are now shaded whenever there are no templates
loaded into FormEd.
I thought it would be a nice idea to be able to load an application's
'Templates' file by merely dragging the application to FormEd, so it now
attempts to load the file '!ApplName.Templates', failing if it is not found,
or if it does not have the file type &FEC (Templates). I was right about the
nice idea, it's very convenient ! The slight fib is that the normal error
'This application has no Templates file' occurs even if it exists, but with
the wrong file type. So who cares anyway ? Not my problem.
Lastly, the general icons menu now opens such that the pointer is usually
over the 'Selected icons' jobbie, making editing slightly easier, ta very
much Mister WIMP, see you on the next version of FormEd.
*****************************************************************************
Updates, Version 2.85 - 15/04/91
Back for more, masochist ? Even our goody-goody programmer who can't do a
thing wrong otherwise Acorn will slap him on the wrist has taken a copy of
2.84b-and-a-bit because he got fed up with v1.something by Acorn shite co..
By the way, those who know me - PLEASE - when you find a bug in this, don't
just complain - TELL ME WHAT THE *?#!^& BUG IS !!!! That way I can debug it
faster, n'est-ce pas ?
Anyway; I don't like 12-long sprite names, or 12-long text entries for that
matter, when they're not indirected. I've just ironed out some bugs; for
example, I decided I'd had enough of not seeing save icons in xfer_send
windows (ie when the sprite name is indirected) so I took out that 'feature';
so now you can see them, whoopee, hurrah.
I'm not sure exactly what was going on in the way of sprite-area handling
(ie whether sprites are USER or WIMP) but the load and save bits now trap it
all neatly (see the xfer_send job) and the WIMP area is always assumed.
If you get an error (ie of the type with an error box and a line number) be
careful no to choose 'Cancel' as this now quits FormEd without saving off.
Those of you (ie most) who've played with v2.85 may have noticed one or two
bigger changes :
i) I took out the crappy sprite editing bits, leaving in just rename,
copy, delete, load, merge and save. Note now that your own
sprite files can be merged by SHIFT-dragging to the icon bar;
if this worked, and the 'Sprites' window was NOT open, then a
'beep' tells you that it worked. (Actually, any FormEd window
that isn't the 'Sprites' one will do.)
ii) Select and Deselect icon (from the general icon menu) now have
sub-wotsit-jobbies. (I suppose I should know their real names,
having just read the new 'RISC-OS Style Guide', then wondering
why I bothered).
iii) Choosing [De]Select as normal has the same effect as before.
iv) The dialogue boxes enable choices to be made governing which icons
are (de)selected; any other icons are absolutely unaffected.
Icons of a particular (or 'any') ESG can be chosen.
Icons of a particular (or 'any') Button Type can be chosen.
An icon's TEXT bit can be tested (yes/no/don't care).
An icon's SPRITE bit can be tested (yes/no/don't care).
*****************************************************************************
Updates, Version 2.86 - 29/04/91
Having played with Impression and found many of the bugs (the rest presumed
to exist only when you're not going to immediately notice) I thought :
'Hey, those shaded icons and the icons that change the pointer shape really
do look crap !' However, another anonymous accomplice of mine disagreed, but
that's just the way he is, so he adjusted his copy of v2.85 to support this
'Interface' module he'd just acquired - which does all of the Impression-type
junk for you.
I took one look and said 'NO, NO, NO' a few times, but then took up his
idea of using the MessageTrans module - so now refer to the 'Messages' dir.
inside FormEd.
Following that, I decided to support 'Interface' - as a user-configurable
option. Hence on the 'Options' dialogue box you will now see the extra
'Support Interface' and 'Shade user-redrawn templates' icons. (The latter is
present because Interface uses user-redraws to do it's icon borders, so
normally you will have one OR the other selected.)
In addition, the country name can be changed so that a different 'Messages'
file is used - it is just the name of a file inside that directory. For demo
purposes, I also include a 'Sarcasm' country - for users with a superiority
complex.
There is also a teensy bug fix - your choices in the (de)select dialogue
boxes remain intact, ie are not cleared to the default 'Any, Any, Don't Care,
Don't Care' set-up. This does not change the effect of choosing (De)Select
without using the dialogue boxes.
*****************************************************************************
Updates, Version 2.87 - 23/06/91
Good grief, it's been a long time since the last one...perhaps I've been
doing some 'real' work for a change...??
No bug fixes, 'cos I haven't found the bugs !!!
OPTIONS: A new error message for when you choose a non-existant country.
As before, it chooses 'UK' for you, but it tells you of your error
in the previous language (for continental users rather than for
Britons who piss about)
MENUS: The two main menus ('Window' and 'Icons') re-open properly when
you open one, move it and open the other (it used to open where
you'd opened the first one)
TEMPLATES: When FormEd loads, a window in the top-left called 'Templates'
opens up listing all of the templates loaded. Double-clicking on
a template name toggles its opened/closed state (ie. it will close
an opened window and open a closed one.) SHIFT-double-clicking
opens the appropriate window 'on top'.
A menu from this window (á la Filer) allows you further control
over opening/closing, plus facilities for copy, renaming and
wiping. By the way, don't be surprised if COPY doesn't seem to be
working correctly - it SHOULDN'T work, but it seems to !!
The 'Templates' submenu from the icon bar menu tree is now reached
from this window too. (Create, Clear, Load, Save). The biggest
benefit of this is that the screen does not get so cluttered !!
Rabbit should be pleased, he's got absolutely HUGE template files.
NOTE : closing a template no longer removes it from memory !!!
HANDLES: A useful utility which displays a small window in the top-right of
the screen which tells you which template the pointer is over, and
(if any) what icon number. Most handy for looking over 'imported'
templates.
SHOW: Both 'Templates' and 'Handles' windows can be opened via the icon
bar menu, and the 'Show' submenu.
WORK AREA: The 'set work area' window has an extra option, 'Min'. Choosing
this sets the work area to be equivalent to the visible area. This
bypasses the previous practice of setting the values out of range
via the keyboard, then using the arrows to set the values to their
minimum settings.
MOUSEFIX: Owners of the superb 'Mouse Fixer' module may wish to note that
FormEd now sets the MouseFix variables MinSpeed, Acceleration and
FrameCount to 1, 16 and 4 respectively. This means that delicate
mouse control (moving and resizing) can easily be effected.
NOTE: 'FrameCount' is not available in MouseFix 0.02
*****************************************************************************
For those interested, here's Acorn's crap on the subject, as found in my
application directory. Anything subsequently in this text file is unedited,
excepting the last few lines (blanks and asterisks).
*****************************************************************************
Notes on using FormEd, 16-May-89
FormEd is an editor of Template files. To understand this you need to
understand the program interface of the Window System, as described in the
Programmer's Reference Manual. The description here assumes an understanding
of template files.
FormEd is started by double-clicking on a template file after the FormEd
icon has been "seen". This will cause FormEd to be loaded, and to display
all of the windows in the template file. Alternatively, double-click on
FormEd itself and it will be loaded with no current windows. If a template
file does not appear to load properly, give more memory to FormEd before it
starts using the Task Manager window.
A template file is often constructed with reference to a specific set of
sprites. A sprite file can be dragged onto the FormEd icon on the icon bar
to set the available sprites. These are displayed in a window. Some previous
versions of FormEd used to provide facilities for editing sprites, these are
now provided only in the Paint application.
Clicking on the FormEd icon creates a new window in the current template
file, and displays it on the screen.
The menu provided from the icon on the icon bar provides the following
functions:
Create window - similar to clicking on the FormEd icon, except that a name
may be specified for the template.
Load templates - allows you to type in the filename of a template file to be
loaded, instead of dragging an icon from the Filer.
Save templates - a save box for the templates being edited.
Quit - quit FormEd. Beware that this has no "confirm" option, so any edits
will be discarded instantly if you choose this menu entry.
The template windows displayed by FormEd mirror precisely the size, position
and properties of the windows in the Template file. The following actions
directly affect the stored values:
Close the window - deletes it from the template file.
Move/scroll/resize the window - moves the default setup of the window in the
template file.
Clicking MENU on a template window produces a menu tree that allows a wide
variety of alterations to the menu structure, based on the various control
fields of a window structure as described in the Wimp documentation. It also
allows you to create icons in the window. An icon, once created, can be
moved and resized using drag-SELECT and drag-ADJUST. It can also have its
properties adjusted by pointing at it and then clicking MENU, and following
the "amend icon" submenu.
The best way to experiment is to examine and update the template files
belonging to the Applications Suite (saving the original first!). It's also
possible to update the template files used by ROM utilities. These reside in
the deskfs: filing system in the ROM. They are accessed via the environment
variable Wimp$Path, so by updating this to search a directory of your own
first where your updated template files reside, you can replace the window
templates used by the utilities in the ROM.
Your ability to drag and resize icons may be affected by a button type
affixed to an icon: only those button types which generate the appropriate
Wimp events can be dragged and resized directly. It's interesting to note
that FormEd keeps no data structures describing each template window,
relying on the Wimp to keep and manipulate each structure.
FormEd keeps a file of sprites in memory which can be used in icons in the
template being edited. The default sprite file used is the file Default
inside !FormEd, which is in fact a copy of the sprites found in the RISC OS
ROM. To load in a separate sprite file to use with your template file, drag
the sprite file onto the FormEd icon.
*****************************************************************************