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********************* Very boring Copyright Notice **********************
* *
* All program code is the copyright of Joris RÖling and the 'borrowing' *
* any part of it without the permission of the author is prohibited. *
* *
***************************************************************************
ReadMe file for !Menon
v1.86
This version is a major improvement over the previous ones as
the CTRL key short-cuts now showup in the menu. If an item
has a short-cut, it will be shown in the menu by its key,
preceded with a conventional '^' (this means CTRL). This
feature was suggested to me (by CC) quite a while ago, I
never came to do it as it required a rewrite of a importand
routine in Menon (for the technical minded: as the menu
entries are now somtimes longer then 12 chars, they have to
be redirected. Previously an item was never longer than 11
chars as filenames are limited to 10 chars.)
Preface ___________________________________________________
In this version the Short-cut option has been changed to
Option. In the new Option window, there has been added the
option to startup the relevant task automaticly when Menon
is started. Now it is also possible to open the Option
window (previously called Short-cut window), by selecting a
task by menu selection, while holding down the CTRL key.
Read the Option section for details.
This version has a (Conf) option added: you can specify if
you want a beeb when a directory is selected with Ctrl-Tab.
(See Configuring Menon)
Introduction _____________________________________________
This little tool will allow you to launch your applications
by a menu selection. It will create a window on the back
(you won't see it except for its logo), or a icon on the
iconbar, and whenever you press the menu button while over
this back window (c.q. icon on the iconbar) you'll get a
menu. This menu can be setup to become a menu tree (with
submenus), as complex as you like.
In the menu is of course the Info item, with the copyright
notice. There is also a Submenu item, which will allow you
to create new submenus.
Setup window _____________________________________________
Clicking in the Menon icon (wether it is on the iconbar or
on the back window) will come up with a window. This is the
Setup window, and allows to setup Menon to your needs. Here
you see how much memory there is free, how much entries
there are, you can tell if you want Menon on a back window
or on the iconbar, the current menu is shown, and you can
save all changes you made. (See also the MenonFlags keyword)
The idea behind Menon is to have a alternative for the
Filer. It allows you to organise files in a different way
than the way they are stored on disc. For example, you could
organise files together in a menu, which are stored on
separate discs. Another advantage is the fact that the menus
are there at an instance. No long waiting before the filer
has read all icons of applications.
To setup your own menu tree you'll have to do the
following.
Create new submenu _______________________________________
To create a submenu, you need the second item in the Main
menu. Here you enter the name of the submenu you want to
create. This name will be added to the Current menu. You can
make a submenu the 'Current menu' by selecting its name in
the parent menu when the 'Select item' option in the Setup
window is on. This will create a tick, to show which submenu
is the current one. When first started, the Main menu is the
Current menu. This is shown by the 'Current menu' section in
the Setup window. Below this is the 'Main' button which can
be used to select the Main menu. Selecting a ticked
(selected) menu item will have the same effect. Whenever you
add a file, or create a new submenu, it will be added to the
Current menu. You can create submenus eight levels deep.
This is limited by the WindowManager.
Adding file(s) ___________________________________________
To add files to the Current menu, you only have to drag
them from the directory viewer to the Menon logo (on the
back window or the iconbar). Menon will confirm by rotating
its icon. You can also add direcories to the list. When
selecting one of these, its directory viewer will be opened.
Selecting an application while holding down SHIFT will also
open the directory viewer (like in the Filer). As a matter
of fact, Menon completely imitates the way the Filer reacts
on mouse clicks. For example, if you added a plain text
file, and selected it in its menu, Menon first looks if
there is a application running which would like to open the
file (e.g. !Edit) before it executes the associated alias
(in this example, this last bit starts !Edit which in turn
will read the file in) . Menon disallows menu items to have
the same name, even if they come from a separate disks. This
is rather like ADFS; to have the same file twice on one
disc, you will have to put them in different subdirectories
(here: submenus). When the filename of the file you just
added already exists in the Current menu, you'll be asked if
you want to overwrite the old menu item.
Removing file(s) _________________________________________
To remove files from a menu, you have to select the 'Remove
item' option in the Setup window, and select the relevant
item in the menu. If it is a (non empty) submenu, you'll get
a warning, and when confirmed it recursively deletes all
subsequent entries. To remove multiple items you can select
them with the adjust button, so the menu will not be removed
after a selection. When you delete the Current menu, the
Main menu will become current. The menutitle will be cream
to show you are in the Remove mode. While in this mode, you
cannot create submenus, or add files.
Setting up the file options ______________________________
It is possible to setup keyboard short-cuts. To do this
you'll have to select the 'Option' option in the Setup
window. Now, when you select a menu item, a window appears,
called the Option window. It shows the selected item and
the key which, when pressed together with Ctrl, will act as
if you selected the item in Select mode. If no key is shown,
it means it has no short-cut yet. The icon showing the key
is a writable icon, so there you enter the desired key.
Clicking OK, or pressing return will assign the new key to
the menu item. Only the characters A-Z are allowed here, and
a key may only occur once. The window also contains a
section stating 'Imm. startup' (Immediat startup), with the
following meaning: If the option is selected, the relevant
task will be started automaticly as soon Menon itself starts
up. Also if you decided to leave the desktop, and re-enter
it, all tasks with this option set, will restart.
If for some reason you don't want the tasks to start up,
when ALT is hold down at the time Menon itself starts up,
the setting of this option will have no effect, i.e. no
tasks will start up.
Click modes ______________________________________________
It should be noted that what happens after menu selection,
depends on the 'Click mode' of Menon. The click mode affects
the options desribed above. So there is a 'Select mode', a
'Remove mode' and a 'Short-cut mode'. A menu selection in
Select mode will start a task if a 'File' was selected, or
make a submenu Current if a submenu was selected. The menu
titlebar will have a gray background to show Menon is in
Select mode (normal mode). In any other mode, the titlebar
background colour will be cream, and the Submenu item will
be shaded, to illustrate that any menu selection will only
have effect on the setup of Menon. 'Remove mode' will only
have effect if the Setup window is open (shown) to prevent
unwanted removal of menu items. 'Short-cut mode' will only
have effect if (either or both) the Setup window or the
Short-cut window is open. When Menon is started it is in
Select mode.
Back window ______________________________________________
When other tasks are claiming the back window as well, some
problems may arise when using the back window. It is
unpredictable which one of the back windows will be on top
of which, so you may lose track of Menon. If so, you should
know Menon is still there, but to access it you'll have to
quit the other task. You can use Menon from the iconbar by
selecting the 'Iconbar' option in the Setup window. This way
you could use Menon as well as the other task. This
selection is saved together with the menu structure when you
select the 'Save setup' option.
Adjust button ____________________________________________
You can use the Adjust button (right mouse button) to
select a menu item. This will prevent the menu to be removed
after your selection.
Memory ___________________________________________________
Menon makes use of a heap to store its internal data. You
may specify the size of this heap by passing the required
number of K's as a argument of !RunImage in the !Run file of
the !Menon application. If no argument is specified, Menon
will create a heap with the default size of 4K. Because of
the internal data structure, sometimes gaps of free space
are created, which are to small to use for new data. This is
rather like the OLD disc structure (D & L) of ADFS. The
'Comp' button in the Setup window tries to compact the heap,
which can be examined at the 'Largest' section. This again
is like the old days: it shufles the data (like *Compact),
so pressing this button again will sometimes increase the
'Largest' section again. Compacting will only be necessary
when memory is running out.
Menon Task _______________________________________________
Menon is a module task, which means it stays in the RMA
area. When choosing 'Quit' from the Task window, or 'Exit'
from the Task menu (<Ctrl> <Shift> F12), and whenever a soft
reset is generated the Menon task will be killed, but the
module will still be there and its data intact. Whenever the
Desktop is re-entered Menon will startup itself. Using
'Quit' from the Setup window will quit the task and the
module (see below). But who cares, it only uses ± 17K (plus
heap) of memory. Selecting Quit from the Setup window, while
some changes have been made will result in a warning.
Configuring Menon ________________________________________
Menon allows you to configure its internal functioning.
This is done in the Configure window which will pop up when
clicking on the 'Conf' button in the Setup window. The
various option are quit self explaining, but a short
description folows. When the option is selected it means:
- Every time a new submenu is created, it will be made
'Current', so that all files you'll drop on the Menon icon
will appear in the new menu.
- As a default, 'Quit' in the Setup window will kill the
entire Menon module, but now it will only quit the task, so
that when you next issue the *Desktop command, Menon will
re-appear.
- As a default, quiting Menon from the Task window, or when
you Exit the desktop, only the Menon task is killed, but now
it will kill the Module aswell.
- When you remove a submenu still containing items (unempty),
there will be no warning.
- When file is added, and in the Current menu is a item with
the same name, it will overwrite the old one without
warning.
- When you select a directory by putting the pointer over a
directory viewer, and pressing Ctrl-Tab, a beeb will confirm
the directory change.
It is recomended that the unexperienced user has all
switches set to 'off' (not selected). The setting of the
switches will be saved next to the other data when 'Save' is
next selected.
Bonus keys _______________________________________________
As a bonus, the F11 key has been programmed to open the
Task window of the Task Manager. It acts as if the 'Task
display' item of the Task menu is selected. Pressing
Shift-F11 has the function of closing all open Filer windows
(directory viewers). Ctrl-Tab will make the directory who's
viewer is open, and where the pointer is over, the current
directory. The Menon icon will rotate to acknowledge the
directory change.
If you have any suggestions, or you found some bug, or if
you just want to tell me how great you think this program
is, write a note to the address below.
To contact the author, write or ring to:
Joris RÖling
Kikkerstraat 17a
2515 NB Den Haag
The Netherlands
Tel:070-3840403