Applicon puts up a "tile" (a small square window) for each application you have running under System 7. The tile representing an application displays the application's icon and name. If you click a tile, the corresponding application will come to the front. Option-clicking hides the previous application as the new application comes forward. If Applicon's tiles are all hidden behind other windows, moving the mouse to a "hot spot" in a corner of the main screen will bring them forward.
Applicon itself is just an application. It's not an INIT or system extension, not a DA, not a control panel. It doesn't do anything that a well-behaved application shouldn't do, so it is very reliable and highly compatible with the rest of your software. There's just one thing: it ONLY runs under System 7.0 (or later).
Full on-line help is available under the Balloon Help menu.
••• Golly! How can I use it? •••••••
Just double-click it and away you go. Instructions are available on-line, under the "Balloon Help" menu. Applicon is intended to be used as a startup application, but that's not necessary; you can launch it any time.
You must be running System 7.0. Applicon will politely decline to run under earlier versions of system software.
If you have any version 1.x of Applicon (and its former companion INIT "Iconic"), you should archive them or throw them away: they don't work under System 7.0.
••• Can I Keep It? •••••••
Sure. Applicon is copyrighted freeware. You can use it yourself all you want to. You can give it to anyone else, if:
• you don't alter either Applicon or this "Read Me" file,
• this "Read Me" file always accompanies Applicon, and
• you give Applicon away for free. (Reasonable downloading fees excepted.)
••• What's new? •••••••
Applicon 2.2 fixes two bugs:
- Tiles may now be kept on any monitor, if your Mac has multiple monitors; and
- Large items in the scrap tended to run Applicon out of memory without warning. Very large items can still do so (see below), but Applicon 2.2 will cope when it can.
The on-line help has been enhanced and improved in subtle ways, thanks to Mark Anbinder.
2.2 also contains the author's new e-mail address: rmh@taligent.com
Applicon 2.1 (the previous version) added several features requested by users of version 2.0, including support for color icons, a choice of several styles and sizes of tiles, a way to suppress display of tiles for selected applications, graceful handling of multiple monitors, better use of screen space, and better memory management. The bug that caused version 2.0 to forget your preferences has been fixed.
Version 2.1 (and later) also has its own color icon; but users of version 2.0 won't be able to see it unless they throw out or archive all their copies of version 2.0, and rebuild the desktop. (Sorry, but that's how the Finder works!) To rebuild the desktop, hold down the command and option keys when the Finder starts up (right after all your INITs run). Be aware that rebuilding the desktop will delete all the comments in your files' "Get Info" boxes; so don't do it unless you want the color icon more than you want your comments.
••• What's not new? •••••••
Things people want that are still not in Applicon:
- There is no option for automatically bringing the Finder (or anything else) forward at startup time. This is because there is no reliable way to do it for the case when there are multiple startup items: Applicon can't tell when some other app is through initializing, and attempts to force an app forward can be futile under these conditions. However, many people will be able to use Michael Pierce's ~FinderToFront for this purpose.
- There is no option for automatically hiding the current app when you select another one. This is because Apple provides no documented or supported way to hide other applications. There are undocumented and unsupported ways, and I know a couple; but I don't like to put features into Applicon that may break in some future release of System software. (By the way: option-clicking to hide the outgoing app is NOT a special Applicon feature. It's a system feature, and it works any time you option-click a background app's window.)
••• Memory •••••••
Running in color (version 2.1 and later) will use more memory than before. Applicon will warn you if memory gets low; if you see the warning, you should quit Applicon and give it a bigger partition (use the Finder "Get Info" to set the memory size.)
A utility like Applicon shouldn't use up any more of your precious memory than it needs; unfortunately, Applicon's memory needs vary greatly depending on whether you have color, what size tiles you use, how many apps you usually run at a time, and other considerations. Playing with the preferences and (especially!) turning on Balloon Help uses a surprising amount of memory as well. The suggested memory size of 72K is enough for most people to run Applicon the first time, check out the on-line help, and set their preferences. After that, you may want to shut down Applicon and change its memory partition.
Some suggested settings (number of apps INCLUDES Applicon and the Finder):
• 55K: for black & white, small tiles, six to eight apps at once.
• 72K: 8-bit color, large tiles, six to eight apps at once.
• 100K: 8-bit color, large tiles, 12 or more apps at once.
If you use QuicKeys or other INITs which like to borrow application memory, you may have to give Applicon extra memory. See "Conflicts" below.
Copying and pasting very large pieces of data (big pictures, or hundreds of lines of text) between applications can cause Applicon to quit without warning. This is because the system copies the clipboard contents into the heap of each application when it is brought forward; if the clipboard is too large to fit in the application's heap, it will run out of memory and die. Since you'll want Applicon to use as little memory as possible, it is more susceptible to this problem than most apps. One workaround is to avoid bringing Applicon forward (e.g. don't click any tiles) while you are pasting large amounts of data; and when you're done, copy something small (no need to paste, just copy) to clear the big stuff out of the clipboard. If Applicon does quit under these conditions, don't worry about it: it's harmless, and you can just start it up again later.
See "Memory" under Applicon's Balloon Help menu for more info.
••• Conflicts •••••••
Almost none. Since Applicon is a simple application, it doesn't interfere with INITs or other applications. The only exception seems to be that some INITs (not many) like to borrow memory from running applications. If you use such INITs, you may have to give Applicon more memory so the INITs can use it.
QuicKeys seems to be such an INIT. If you use Quickeys, you may need to increase Applicon's memory to support it. Adding 30K or 40K to Applicon's partition seems to be enough.
••• History •••••••
Applicon 1.0, in assorted development versions, worked under System 6.0.x by performing various heinous deeds: patching traps, diddling low-memory globals, and invading other application's heaps. It required a companion INIT called "Iconic" to do its dirty work. It was intended as an experiment, not as a production application. However, some folks liked it, and it worked well enough to be handed around on an "at your own risk" basis.
System 7.0 provides many new features to the developer. Under System 7.0, Applicon's functionality can be obtained in a completely clean and supported way, using documented toolbox calls. Applicon 2.0 was completely re-written to do its work in the approved way. It is a perfectly-behaved application now: there are NO patched traps, NO secret peeks into low memory, NO fiddling in other applications' heaps or resource forks. No INIT is required.
Version 2.1 adds the new features mentioned under "What's New" above.
Version 2.2 fixes the bugs mentioned under "What's New" above.
