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Text File
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1995-11-25
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5KB
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115 lines
Manual For AutoX V1.01 (as of 03/17/95)
---------------------------------------
1. What Is It Good For?
-----------------------
Sometimes, it's quite useful, if the Auto-folder-programs aren't loaded
from the current bootdrive (for example, if you boot a RAM-TOS from
disk which then continues booting from drive A:). AutoX serves exactly
that purpose: it allows you to run the Auto-folder-programs from a
different drive, which is given in the filename (more on that later).
After that, the system-shell will be executed (normally, GEM and
Desktop), i.e. all programs which physically follow AutoX in the
original Auto-folder will be skipped.
In the beginning, AutoX was just thought as a utility for my MagiC-Hack
(allows you to run MagiC 2.0x on a Falcon030). You need it if you have
to boot MagiC from disk because you don't work with HDDriver (only this
driver allows you to boot from the internal IDE-drive with MagiC). In
that case, AutoX (placed in the Auto-folder of the disk) allows you to
run the programs in your usual Auto-folder. But I thought AutoX might
be useful for other situations like this one, so I decided to publish
it separately.
2. Problems
-----------
Some programs use an illegal method to detect whether they were
executed in the Auto-folder or not (they count the number of their
parents). This method won't work in connection with AutoX, so these
programs will think they were started from the desktop. In the worst
case, this may cause a crash, but this shouldn't happen often.
Moreover, the number of such programs today's very low, so I wouldn't
care too much about it.
Another (planned) side-effect is, as mentioned above, that all programs
physically following AutoX in the original Auto-folder won't be
executed, because AutoX will start up GEM immediately after it has
finished loading the new Auto-folder. Therefore, AutoX should be placed
on a position where all following programs are not needed when running
AutoX (in most cases, that will be the last position). To do so, you
can use XBOOT or one of the many folder-sorters out there.
4. How To Use
-------------
AutoX has to copied into the Auto-folder of a bootdrive, the filename
tells from which drive the new Auto-folder has to be loaded. The name
has to be autox.prg, where x is the letter of the new drive. For
example, if you name it autoc.prg, AutoX will execute the Auto-folder
of drive C: (if this is not already the current drive).
AutoX won't work in the following cases (it prints out a message to
show you what's wrong):
- AutoX wasn't started from the Auto-folder (better: if the AES isn't
active when it is executed).
- One of the shift-keys is pressed (this is quite useful if you don't
need it at the moment)
- AutoX can't resolve its filename, therefore isn't able to detect
which drive to use.
- The drive given in the filename doesn't exist for GEMDOS.
- The given drive is already the current drive (this would leed to nice
loops...)
In all other cases, AutoX will print a little message to tell you which
drive it's using. After that, the new drive will become the current
one, it is entered as the bootdevice in the system-variables, and the
programs located in its Auto-folder will be executed. Once that's
finished, GEM and desktop (the system-shell), will be executed.
5. Legal Information
--------------------
AutoX may be freely distributed, as far as no charge is taken for it
(PD-services may spread it if the price for one disk doesn't exceed 10
DM (~$6)). In all cases, the three files (autox.eng, autox.ger, and
autox.prg) must be copied together and unchanged (archiving is allowed).
AutoX has been developed with great care, and has been thoroughfully
tested. But it's possible that it still has bugs, so please notice: Use
AutoX on your on risk! I do not undertake any responsibility for
damages which occur after the correct or incorrect use of AutoX, or
which were caused by its uselessness for a specific purpose.
If you find a reproducable bug which is not caused by one of the
problems mentioned in section 2, please contact me (of course, you can
also do so if you want to make suggestions). My address follows in the
next section.
6. Contacting The Author
------------------------
AutoX was developed using Pure C 1.0 by:
Thomas Binder
Johann-Valentin-May-Str. 7
64665 Alsbach-Haehnlein
Germany
EMail (InterNet): binder@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de
IRC: Gryf
[German on]
Wer jetzt gehofft hat, hier eine gelungene englische Übersetzung des
"Beipackzettels" zu finden, hat leider Pech gehabt. So gut ist mein
Englisch nämlich nicht...
[German off]