Aminet 1 (Walnut Creek)/Aminet - June 1993 [Walnut Creek].iso/aminet/text/docs/tutorial2_04.lha/2.04Tutorial.txt

Text File | 1992-05-20 | 23KB | 463 lines

The following is the ascii text from a tutorial I prepared for the Pittsburgh
Commodore Group, and is freely distributable.  Portions of it may be included
in User Group Newsletters, or Commercial Magazines as long as credit goes
towards the Pittsburgh Commodore Group, PO Box 16126, Pittsburgh PA 15242,
BBS phone number [phone].

-Ed Berger
Director of Public Relations, Pittsburgh Commodore Group

------------------- BEGIN TEXT -----------------------------------------------

AmigaOS 2.04 Overview
for The Pittsburgh Commodore Group
by Edward D. Berger 5/16/92

Installing 2.04 in your Amiga:

General Floppy Drive installation:
Install 2.04 ROM chip (2.04 Workbench won't work without the ROM.)
Insert the 2.04 Workbench Diskette in any drive.
Power Up the Amiga.

General Hard Drive installation:
Install 2.04 ROM chip (2.04 Workbench won't work without the ROM.)
Reboot machine with 2.04 Install Disk
Select 0 for keymap (USA)
After workbench loads, select the UpdateWB Icon, to start installing
   the 2.04 software.
   InstallHD and PrepHD are specific to CBM SCSI controllers.
   You may not like their defaults...
Give the name of your Workbench partition for installation software.
Correct the Date if it is incorrect.

If you are installing on a New Hard disk, that is not customized:
Format Hardrive with Bootable partition, and 1.3 Workbench
   (remember or write down the name since you'll need it later.)


The Installation Program (UpdateWB) will:
Remove non-compatible 1.3 commands
Asks for the Workbench 2.04 diskette
Asks for the Extras 2.04 diskette
Asks for the Fonts 2.04 diskette
Asks if you want the outline font option
   Answer Y, to use Compugraphic fonts, or diskfont.library is V36 not V37
Asks if Default System Config should be interlace
   Answer Y, if you have a flicker fixed display (as on an A3000/A1950)
   Answer N, if you use standard amiga modes (A500/A1084S)
Gives mention of editing S:user-startup file, and asks you to reboot.
   This is meant to be THE place for user configuration changes.
   This file is automatically executed by the standard CBM
   S:Startup-Sequence before Workbench or ARexx loads.
   It doesn't create one for you!
   Place Old Startup-Sequence/Mountlist  files in the SYS:Old Drawer

When you Reboot:
2.04 Can boot off of any floppy device, so make sure you don't have any
bootable floppies in DF1:, if you want to boot from your Hard Disk.  Or make
sure the boot priority of your hard disk is higher than DF1:.


The way the Amiga Starts up has changed from Workbench 1.3,
S:Startup-Sequence does the Following:
SetPatch is run.     (Updates to System Software will use this program)
Version is checked.  (If using 1.3 Kickstart you get a warning)
Buffers are added for df0: (gives you some speed increases)
Often used commands (list, copy, assign, execute) are made resident.
   Resident commands run faster because they do not have to be loaded
   again, they are sitting in memory waiting to be called.
Ram: directorys are created for T: CLIPS:(Clipboards) and ENV:
Envarc:#? is copied to ENV: (ram:env) directory, for saved preferences, etc.
  Bootdisk:Prefs/Env-Archive = Envarc:
Logical assignments are made for ENV: T: CLIPS: REXX:
Sys:Monitors/~(#?.info) is run to accomodate user selected monitor types
BindDrivers is run.
   Binddrivers is often used by 3rd party hardware, instead of
   autoconfig(tm), but many don't need a separate file in Expansion.
Enviroment variables are set for Workbench and Kickstart (versions)
IPrefs is run
   IPrefs is the actual system preferences program that checks the saved
   configuration information, and creates that environment.
Conclip is run
   Conclip allows cut&paste operations between console type windows and
    the clipboard.device so it can share data with other programs.
Standard Devices (speak: aux: pipe:) are mounted.
Standard Workbench path is set:
   (ram: c: sys:utilities sys:rexxc sys:system s: sys:prefs sys:wbstartup)
   (sys:tools sys:tools/commodities)
Setmap is run, if the keymap environment variable is set.
   (If you greatly prefer a non-standard keymap, this does the remapping.)
Startup-Sequence executes S:user-startup if it exists.
Rexx Master Process is started quietly.
Workbench is started
Startup-Sequence AmigaDOS Shell Script Ends.

Workbench does the following as it Starts Up:
Workbench follows IPrefs to create Workbench Screen with desired preferences
Workbench places icons for every "volume" it finds on the Workbench Screen
Workbench attempts to run any icons it finds in SYS:WBstartup drawer.

Changing your Amiga's Startup:
     The most appropriate way to change your Amiga's startup is to place all
additions that must be run by CLI or before Workbench is loaded, into
S:user-startup instead of the old 1.3 practice of editing S:startup-sequence.
All things that can be run after Workbench loads, should be done by dragging
the icon into the SYS:WBstartup drawer.  This has the advantages that if
you need to return to a stock 2.04 startup, you just rename the file/drawer
and reboot.  If you do edit the CBM S:Startup-Sequence file you must make sure
that all commands before IPrefs have their output redirected to NIL:
(Ex. Virus_Checker >NIL:) or IPrefs will have a problem starting up.
Setpatch should always be the first program run, since it directly affects
the operating system libraries.  Every Program in the WBstartup drawer must
have an Icon, and the Icon should have a tooltype of DONOTWAIT if the program
is to run as a background task.

S:User-Startup AmigaDOS Script:
Assigns and Path additions are good canidates for S:User-Startup
If you want to use Arexx in your startup you can preload it here.
If you are using Arexx, you may want to RXlib all the libraries here.
You can copy a disk type icon to RAM: and have it ready for Workbench.

General Problems you may encounter with adding programs to S:User-Startup:
   If the program requires Workbench or ARexx to be running it will fail
   Commands not redirected to NIL: may leave boot shell open.

SYS:WBStartup drawer:
Since Names are not important to Workbench, you should use copy icon and
move the copy, that way the original file is still in its home directory.
Good Place for VirusChecker, if a new version comes out you can easily
delete the previous version via workbench, and move the new Icon into
WBStartup.  You can put Commodities in here to have them started whenever
you reboot your Amiga.  (Add CX_POPUP=NO to the Icon ToolTypes).
You could put a Clock in here so you always have a clock on your Workbench
Screen. (Tooltypes: DIGITAL DATE TOP=13 LEFT=300 DONOTWAIT)
You could put a Shell Icon here (Add DONOTWAIT to Icon ToolTypes).

General Problems you may encounter with putting files in SYS:WBStartup
   If your program must be run before workbench it will fail
   The program's "Current Dir" will be SYS:WBStartup
   If you do not add DONOTWAIT to the Icon's ToolTypes, you get a requester
      asking if Workbench should wait some more.
   Commodities often open a window if the Icon does not have a Tooltype of
      CX_POPUP=NO


General Overview of 2.04 AmigaOS Features:

Extended Workbench Capabilities
   Drag Select of Icons instead of Shift-clicking for multiple selection.
      Shift Click on one of them to affect all the Drag Selected Icons.
   Zoom Gadget allows you to have 2 settable sizes for your windows.
   Backdrop or Window Style Workbench Screen.

   Workbench Menu:
      Execute Command (A-e) (uses AutoCon) Good for single commands
      Quit (A-q) : You can't if workbench launched any programs

   Window Menu:
      NewDrawer:  You no longer have to duplicate an empty drawer which used
         to take a while to work.  This is much faster.  It also uses your default Icon
         preferences.
      Open Parent:  If you closed the parent drawer to clean up your workbench this
          is a fast way to get that drawer back open, without clicking through volumes.
      Close(A-k):  You can now close Workbench Windows without touching the
         mouse by using the Amiga Key shortcut, or if you want, via the menu option.
      Update:  If you moved files around with a program other than Workbench, the
         window on the Workbench Screen will be out of date, use this option to fix that.
      Select Contents:  Quick way to select every icon in a window to move, copy, or
         snapshot them all in place.
      CleanUp:  If you have a drawer with lots of Icons, some covering others or out
         the way where you can't see them you can use this option to have Workbench
         arrange them for you.
      SnapShot Window/All: Snapshot the size and placement of a disk or drawer window
      Show by Icon, All:  Files select which Icons to show, either all the ones with a real .info
         file or every file in a given drawer with fake icons.
      View By Icon, Name, Date: Decide how you want a drawer's contents displayed.
          You can snapshot this for future use.

   Icons Menu:
      Open:  Same as Double Clicking an icon.
      Copy: Formerly Duplicate, Copy files, disks, etc.
      Rename: Change the Name of an icon.
      Information:  Change parameters of an Icon, Its protection flags, Its ToolTypes
      SnapShot: Save the placement of an Icon
      UnSnapShot: Disable the previously stored placement information of an Icon.
      LeaveOut:  You can now have Icons appear directly on Workbench unattached
         to their normal directory, but It then disappears from view in the drawer.
      PutAway:  Return a "left out" Icon to its home drawer.
      Delete: Erase the Icon, and if it is a drawer its contents.
      EmptyTrash: Delete all files in the Trashcan Drawer.
      Format Disk: Erase anything on the disk Icon selected, use standard sys:format command,
         which creates a trashcan drawer on the disk using the saved Default Trashcan Icon, and
         Default disk Icon.

   Tools Menu:  This is a place for other programs to add menu items to Workbench.
        ProWrite adds a menu item, and you can use programs like ToolManager to create
        customized menu items here.

About Icons:
There are now Three different types of Icons that may show up on your Workbench:
   1.)  The Standard 1.3 type which are the result of a .info file
   2.)  "Fake Icons" that Workbench creates in memory when you select Show All Files
   3.)  AppIcons, which other programs create on the Workbench Screen for launching
            another copy of the program, or for dropping files to be worked on.

Type 1: are Deletable, Renamable, and You can SnapShot their location for future use.
Type 2: are Deletable, Renamable, but you cannot SnapShot their location.  You can use
              icon information to change their protection flags, but you can't add a tooltype.
Type 3: are NOT deletable, only renamable for as long as you don't reboot, and are not
              snapshotable, nor can you use the icon infomation tool on them.

Extended Preferences
Preferences has been broken down into a number of smaller programs with increased
   functionality:
   Input:  Adjusts Mouse and Keyboard speeds and responsiveness
   Palette:  This is for adjusting your screens default colors
   Font:  This preferences tool allows you to select 3 types of fonts, and their background
      colors.  IconText and Screen Text can be any of your standard fonts, but System Default
      must be a NON-proportional font, so it shows less choices.  This is for programs that only
      know how to deal properly with mono-spaced fonts where every character is exactly the
      same width.  The console device for example requires this.
   ScreenMode:  Here is where you select if your Workbench screen should be interlaced or not,
      or if you have ECS, and multisync monitor selected you can choose Productivity mode,
      SuperHires, etc.  This is also the place where you decide how many colors Workbench will
      have, 2, 4, 8, 16.  I find more than 4 colors slows down the Amiga too much for my tastes.
   Printer:  This tool is used for general printer things, choosing the driver for your printer,
       which port it uses (serial or parallel), what size and kind of paper, etc.
   Serial:  Select the speed and parity of the serial device, etc.
   IControl:  Here is where you choose which Keys should be equivalent to selecting YES/NO
      to requesters, Command Verify Timeout, and one thing to check here is if the Text Gadget
      Filter is ON/OFF.  Some programs allow or require you to use CTRL_ keys in their string
      gadgets, and if this is turned on, they won't work properly.
   WBPattern:  Choose a backdrop pattern for Workbench Windows.
   Pointer:  Edit the look of the standard Mouse Pointer (Arrow)
   Overscan:  This allows you to increase the visible working area of Amiga Screens, by
      adjusting the amount of Overscan you can see on your monitor.  Note that if you have this set
      too high, you may be interfering with SPRITE DMA, and some programs/games will have
      big ugly vertical bars where a sprite should appear.  If you see this behavior, try moving
      the screen over to the right and/or shrinking your horizontal overscan.  Then run the program
      and see if the problem goes away.  You may need to do this several times before you have
      the best combination of a full screen, and proper Sprite DMA.
   PrinterGfx:  This is for setting up various graphical aspects of the printer device, such as type
      of dither, scaling, etc.
   Time:  Here is where you set the clock on your Amiga to the current date and time.
   Presets Drawer:  This holds all the other preferences presets you saved,
   Env-Archive: any environment variables you want to be created whenever you reboot your Amiga.

Extended Console Device
   Redraws the current window if you move, uncover or resize it.
   Offers a CLOSE gadget
   Can open on a Public Screen
   Can have an alternate size

Shell/AmigaDOS improvements
   Many Programs are now internal to the Shell, old Scripts that copy programs
       from C: to RAM: will fail, since the programs are not there to copy.  The way
       fix these scripts is to delete the copy comands, and change the commands ram:command
       to just call the command directly, instead of using a copy in RAM:.
   New Command makelink:  You can now have the same file in two places by makelinking
       it at another location, BUT most software does not know how to properly work with links
       and it is generally not reccomended to use.
   Asterisk WildCards:  With a PD program like ToggleWildCard, you can now use * as a
       Wildcard character instead of #?.  This does have some limitations.  It must be used with
       at least one other character including *, such as dir c*, or copy ** RAM:.
   Negation Symbol:  You can now use the ~ symbol to mean not, such as in dir ~(#?.info) to
       see all non-icon files in a directory.
   ParseArgs:  Most commands allow you to use the question mark symbol to get more
       information about a command.

New Workbench Programs:

   Commodities & CX_Exchange:  Commodities are programs that can intercept
     any usual amiga input stream (keyboard input, mouse events, etc.) and use or
     change that data for other programs.  General uses are for Screen Blankers, and
     HotKey programs.  Usually these programs run in the background without a window
     to control them, so CX_Exchange is provided so you can bring up their window and
     make changes to how they work, or tell them to quit.  Many other programs are using
     this function, so you don't have to swap screens, or move other windows around to
     access them. Virus_Checker, and Term are two examples.  Commodities are normally
     placed in the WBStartup drawer, so they startup whenever Workbench Loads.  The
     Icon Tooltypes normally have several options, with CX_POPUP=NO to prevent the
     program from opening a window whenever it starts up.

   Fountain: This is the user program for generating Bitmap Screen fonts from
      their Compugraphic outline data.  You can add Compugraphic fonts by selecting
      the directory you want to load them from, select Install font, and then choose what
      sizes and bitmaps you want, and select perform changes.  Note:  Several of the PD
      fonts can cause your machine to lockup/reboot, so always select a destination directory
      on a floppy you don't care about, or RAM: so you don't write to your Hard Disk during
      a system lockup/crash.

   HDBackUp/BRU:  These are the two programs Commodore provides for making
      backups of your hard drive.  HDBackup is just a User Interface program to BRU.
      BRU was originally designed for use with Tape backup systems and is really not
      that good for backups to floppy.  Each file requires 2K in addition to its size to backup.
      This means that when Compression is turned on, you only get back to what the files
      alone would have been by straight copying to floppies.  A Commercial Backup program
      such as AmiBack, or Quarterback is probably a better tool for this serious job.

   HDToolBox:  HDToolBox is a program for formatting and partitioning hard drives
      that follow Commodores Guidelines for RDB (rigid disk block) and SCSI direct.
      This basically means the A590, A2091, and A3000 internal SCSI controllers.
      (The old A2090 and A2090a are NOT compatible.)  Some third party controllers
      will work with HDToolBox, but you first need to add the following Icon ToolType:
      SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=scsi.device
      (replace the name scsi.device with the correct device name for your controller)

   IconEdit: Is a nice Editor for Icons.  It allows you to save default icons for the various
      types (disk, trashcan, drawer).  It loads and saves IFF brushes.  Its biggest problem
      is that it won't allow Icons larger than its view box.  If you scroll an Icon out of the
      view box area it cuts it off.  Commodore did this to help prevent the use of LARGE
      icons, since they don't look very professional in the 2.04 Amiga OS environment.

   ShowConfig:  Tells you about your Amiga hardware.  It notes if you have ECS chips.
      It lists expansion cards.  Shows amounts of RAM, etc.

   Lacer:  Is a program for Genlock users.  It changes screens to Interlace, if they are not
       already, to be compatible with Video.  Without a Genlock attached to the Amiga, it
       does absolutely nothing.

   Colors:  Is a program for adjusting the FrontMost Screen Color Palette.  Some programs
       don't have any internal tool for adjusting the palette, but have a way to start an
       external program.  Voila, you can launch Colors and adjust the Palette.  I do this with
       my PublicScreen program.

Hidden Capabilities
Some of Amiga OS 2.04's most interesting features are new functions for programmers
use.  As such you will notice some of them appearing more and more.

   ASL requesters:
      Commodore has provided a series of Requesters, that programmers can now use, to
      make opening files or fonts more uniform across applications.  Previously every program
      had to either write its own, or use a non-standard library such as ARP to share a common
      interface, and as this is a standard library, it can be enhanced in the future, automatically
      enhancing any program that uses it.  MagicFileRequester is one authors attempt at
      improving the usability of ASL.

   AppWindow:
       An AppWindow is a new type of Workbench Window, that allows you to drop icons
       into it and it informs the program that you requested it work on that file.  IconEdit uses
       an AppWindow.

   AppIcon :
       An AppIcon is similar to an AppWindow, but is a small Workbench Icon, instead of a
       more featured working Window.  Several programs create AppIcons.  Toolmanager is
       one of the more popular

   AppMenu:
       AppMenu is the function of adding menu items to the Workbench Tools Menu.  Several
       programs make use of this feature such as ToolManager.

   Public Screens:
       Public Screens, are new separate screens that an application can create, which allows
       other programs to share the screen along with the initial program.  This gives you
       flexibility to have Workbench full of Icons, and have a clean working space on another
       screen.  My PublicScreen program is a good example.


Favorite PD Utilities for AmigaOS 2.04:

Disk 1:
CX_Blankers:  Several Commodity blanker programs and an Arexx tool to randomly
   select a blanker to use.

CX_Others:  Several other Commodity programs

NickPrefs:  A group of utilities that allow you to change the Busy pointer,
   Workbench screen background, or Floppy drive parameters.

ARQ:  changes normal System requesters to new animated ones.

ToggleWildCard:  Allows use of "*" type wildcards for AmigaDOS

PublicScreen: My public screen program that allows you to run programs on
   a public screen and leave your Workbench screen free for other things.

ToolManager:  Program allows you to add items to Workbench's Tools menu
   and place either AppIcons or a "Dock" of tools on the Workbench Screen.

Wallpaper:  Allows you to replace the Workbench Window background with an
   IFF picture.

TDX:  a program to stop clicking drives under Amiga OS 2.04, runs from Workbench.

WBGauge:  Adds a Disk Fuel Gauge to every disk volume window.  Also 3D borders
   to other windows.

Virus_Checker 6.04:  Probably the best supported virus detection/killer program for
   the Amiga.  It allows you to scan your whole hard disk for file viruses.


Disk 2:

MFR13:  Magic File Requester patches ASL requesters to be much nicer looking
   with more features and FASTER!

PSX:  Steve Tibbets Public Screen Program

AssignX:  A Steve Tibbet program for changing Assigns

Spin_Pointer:  Program animates the busy pointer by spinning the clock's hands

JUtil_PublicS: Two programs for using Public Screens

SCSI_Stuff:  Two programs for users of compliant SCSI drives.

TDUpdate:  A program for affecting floppy drive parameters

ALoad: Graphical display of how busy your Amiga CPU is.

AppServer: Creates AppWindows for other programs.

AddMenu:  For adding programs to Workbench Tools Menu

ShadowMaster:  A complex system for Screen Blankers, the registered version gets
    more blankers and a random selecter module for them.



Disk 3:

AutoCentre: Trys to automatically center old style screens

ToolsDeamon: Another add tools to menu program

CopyMemQuicker2.1: Supposedly speeds up your Amiga a little.

RemapInfo: Change the colors on 1.3 Icons

IconSwap:  Allows you to select a group of Icons and swap them with another

IconTools:  A couple of Icon tools

NewIcons:  Some new Icons for 2.04

NewIcons2: More Icons for 2.04

GEMcolr: More Icons for 2.04 based on GEM style

SGcolr: More Icons for 2.04 based on Silicon Graphics style

IconsInfos35: More Icons for 2.04

WBPrefs:  Some Preferences presets to try

myicons: a few more Icons



Compugraphic Fonts: 2 disks

   These are 2 disks of Fonts based on some freely distributable postscript type fonts,
which were converted with Professional Page 3.0.  Some of them crash the Amiga when
It tries to create bitmaps of various sizes.  Always output to RAM: or a disposible floppy
when you try converting PD fonts to Bitmaps.