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- Hot Corners 2.0 (C) 1997 Samuel Audet <guardia@cam.org>
-
- THIS IS A FREEWARE UTILITY!! Please send an e-mail if are using this
- program, thank you! If you can spare some money for a pre-university
- student, it would be very much appreciated.
-
- Contents
- --------
-
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Installation
- 3. General Usage
- 3.1 Window Lists
- 3.2 Objects
- 3.3 Options
- 4. Things to come
- 5. Author's recommendations
- 6. For Programmers
- 7. Legal Stuff
- 8. Acknowledgments
- 9. Contacting the author
-
-
- 1. Introduction
- ---------------
-
- I was always interested by the way Screen Savers and Object Desktop windows
- would activate by hitting a corner or a border of the screen edge.
- Unfortunately, they only supported windows that they own. So when I
- learned enough about programming, this is what I decided to do for my first
- PM program. It lets you select any windows from the window list that you
- would like to come up when you hit a border or a corner of the screen as
- well as opening objects. It is very useful when you need windows/programs
- to be frequently foreground, but not always. It can also start objects.
-
- For example, needing to fuss around with background/foreground windows just
- to get to Memsize, or to find a piece of desktop, somewhere, to bring up
- Window List or WarpCenter was just plain frustrating... and even utilities
- that allow you to click on any window to bring things up are not that
- interesting. (ie.: "<censored>, I pressed the Cancel button...")
-
- This program _DOES NOT_ modify anything in your system, not even OS2.INI
- (WPSExtS.dll registeration will though). It will use the first HOTHOOK.DLL
- it finds in LIBPATH (usually the current directory) and only read/write
- from HOTCORN.INI where HOTCORN.EXE resides.
-
- Oh and by the way, in case of error, Hot Corners will never display
- annoying dialog boxes, instead it will display them in red at the bottom of
- the main window. A beep and a warning is given if a second copy of Hot
- Corners is loaded.
-
-
- 2. Installation
- ---------------
-
- If you want to use the Object part properly, you will need OS/2 Warp 3 and
- will need to register WPSAgentSam from WPSExtS.dll and replace WPObject.
- Regagent.exe is provided for this purpose. This is the same DLL than in
- Open 2.0 package, but register with regagent.exe just to be sure everything
- is OK with Hot Corners. Current version of WPS Extention DLL is 1.0, I
- will try to make all new versions backward compatible.
-
- In OS/2 Warp 4, to easily create a Program Object to place into your
- Startup folder, use the "Create Program Object" item in the context menu of
- HOTCORN.EXE.
-
- The state and position of Hot Corners' main window is saved each time it
- gets closed (properly). This means that when you have finished choosing
- and saving your settings, just minimize the window, be sure a Hot Corners
- program object is in your startup folder, and next time you shutdown and
- boot up, it will be minimized ready to do its job.
-
- HELP!! Objects don't work...!! Ok, here are some steps you can follow,
- x: being your boot drive, and the current directory being where you have
- unzipped Hot Corners:
-
- 1. type "copy wpsexts.dll x:\os2\dll"
- 2. type "regagent i"
- 3. shutdown
- 4. reboot
-
-
- 3. General Usage
- ----------------
-
- To make list box changes active, you have to double click or Enter the
- listbox. Pressing OK will make changes active for all list boxes. Pressing
- Save will save the selections (and the options) in the INI file in addition
- to Entering the list boxes, and Reload will reload everything from INI (as
- if you closed and reopened Hot Corners). All the checkboxes and spinbutton
- take effect immediately.
-
-
- The following is for "keyboard junkies"...
-
- Special keyboard combinations:
-
- General
-
- Tab & Shift-Tab Goes to the next and previous
- dialog item in current dialog.
-
- Arrows Circulates through items of same type
- (ie.: buttons, tabs, list boxes, etc.)
-
- In Notebook and Main window:
-
- Alt-Up Gives focus to the notebook.
- Alt-Down Gives focus to the buttons.
- Mnemonic Performs corresponding action.
- Alt-Mnemonic Same as above, but those are actually accelerator keys
- and global.
-
- In Notebook window:
-
- Alt-Page Up Shows Previous page.
- Alt-Page Down Shows Next page.
-
- In Window Lists window
-
- Space Selects and deselects entries.
- Enter Activates the changes made to that list box.
-
- In Objects window
-
- Shift-Arrows Selects while moving.
- Shift-F8 Starts multiple selection.
- Shift-F11 Shows pop-up menu.
- Enter Activate the changes made to that list box.
- Insert Shows the file dialog to Add data file items.
- Delete Deletes the selected items.
-
- In Options window
-
- Up and Down Increments and decrements timeout value by 10.
-
- The notebook page windows seem to be a world apart from the rest of the main
- window. I can't figure out the relation between them and the notebook
- window, neither can I tell why the keyboard accelerator don't work in them
- or why the notebook window doesn't receive WM_CHAR messages from them.
- Sorry :( If anybody figured out that mystery, please let me know.
-
-
- 3.1 Window Lists
- ----------------
-
- You just need to choose anything you want to bring foreground when hitting
- a corner or a border.
-
- "Bring to pointer position" will move the windows that are switched to to
- the mouse pointer position.
-
- "Minimize on pointer leave" will minimize/hide the windows that has been
- brought up when the mouse pointer leaves the window frame. (magic, isn't?)
-
- The listboxes are refreshed each time their page comes up, and of course if
- you make the current page come up, it will refresh also. Note that the
- changes will not take effect until you double click, enter, push OK or
- Save. Therefore, even if windows previously selected get closed, just make
- sure you do not activate the changes.
-
- Note: weird Window List entries you might see:
-
- - PMSPOOL.EXE Huum... beats me why PMSPOOL.EXE includes such en
- ugly name in the window list, maybe the printers need
- to find the spooler in the window list. In any case,
- it cannot come foreground (invisible).
-
- - Workplace Shell This entry is added by Workplace Shell process. I
- don't know much more about it, except that it is not
- of any use to try to switch to it. This is not the
- same as "Desktop".
-
- - 'space' This is cute gray elephant registration window,
- ARTCHRON, but it does not want to come up foreground
- (invisible also).
-
- - Switch to This is the Window List! You can make the window
- list come up this way. It is always the last entry.
-
- I could filter them, and ask PM and the WPS for more information on the
- other entries a la Window List, but is this really necessary?
-
-
- 3.2 Objects
- -----------
-
- Dragging objects in the listbox, or adding files with the file dialog, will
- show the path and the title of the object just as an indication to the
- user. In no way does Hot Corners bases its research on the path and title
- of the object. It will even get modified if the object moves or is
- renamed.
-
-
- 3.3 Options
- -----------
-
- Here, there is only one option for the moment. The timeout delay is the
- amount of time needed for the mouse pointer to stay on the border or on the
- corner to execute the corresponding action. This way, you will have less
- risk of an undesirable switch or open when moving your mouse pointer near
- the borders.
-
-
- 4. Things to come (maybe)
- -------------------------
-
- - Adding "half-split borders"
- - Adding an indication of activated borders and corners
- - Adding a timeout delay for _each_ border and corner
-
- - If people have _good_ ideas, I will add more features!
-
-
- 5. Author's recommendation
- --------------------------
-
- Personally, I use Hot Corners on the Warp Center, 9 lives, Memsize, the
- Window List and some commonly used folders like Incoming and MP3. ;-)
-
- If you like this program, you will surely like the other utilities I use.
- Here are the absolutely needed PM utilities that *EVERYBODY* should have:
-
- - TITLE.DLL (you can put a window last in the Z order with a click just
- like X-Windows!!)
-
- - 9 Lives (probably the only _usable_ virtual desktop utility apart
- from Object Desktop's. Virtual Desktop concept is so advanced on
- anything else!)
-
- - System Resources, AKA Memsize (the coolest system monitor out there,
- be sure to use a nice small font, reduce the length of the
- descriptions, and change the ugly colors)
-
- - Command Folder (lets you drop to any type of command line using a new
- entry placed in folders' context menu)
-
- - Open (lets you objects from OS/2 command line using WPS associations)
-
- - Newdlg (a bigger, more usable and with smaller fonts File Dialog
- window replacement)
-
- - WarpCenter HotKey (brings up the menu of the button with the OS/2 Warp
- logo of the WarpCenter with a hotkey)
-
- - Warp Enhancer (various lil things, but mainly folder status bar)
- Be careful with this one -> current of today's version 0.25, I
- frequently get WPS crash in PMVIOP.DLL when opening folders.
-
- I make all of them available from my home page http://www.cam.org/~guardia
-
- With these in the pocket, you will be using PM more efficiently that you
- might never have imagined!!
-
- I heard other people liked these, although I do not really...
-
- - Xit http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/catalog/xit/xit.html
- - X File http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/catalog/xfile
- - NPS WPS http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/npswps
- - Program Commander/2
- http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/7885/DownloadPC2Beta.html
-
- Object Desktop is a great, but huuuggee desktop enhancer. From my
- experience, it is stable (version 1.5.2), but unless you have CPU cycles
- and memory to waste, do not use it. I truly recommend Stardock to reduce
- the bloat of this beast (by pushing IBM to release a better WPS Reference).
- It is partly because I don't use it anymore that I made Hot Corners.
- http://www.stardock.com
-
- Have fun! And do not forget to send e-mail if you like it, or if you have
- any other comments, suggestions. . .. or bug report.
-
-
- 6. For Programmers
- ------------------
-
- If you want to include things you have seen in Hot Corners' object support
- in your own program, read wpsext.doc.
-
-
- 7. Legal stuff
- --------------
-
- This freeware product is used at your own risk, although it is highly
- improbable it can cause any damage.
-
- If you plan on copying me, please give me the credits, thanks.
-
- Source code is freely available, and done with VisualAge C++ 3.0. I will
- send them to you on request unless you are planning to make money with it,
- in which case I would want to have a bit of $$$ for it.
-
-
- 8. Acknowledgments
- ------------------
-
- Thanks goes to:
-
- Rick Papo <rpapo@msen.com> Il parle francais aussi! :)
- Michael Shillingford <mshill@elkvalley.net> for his Hook articles on EDM/2
- Rick Fishman (for NBBASE, found many good ideas... that I enhanced)
-
- IRC people:
-
- Taneli Leppa <bandit@icenet.fi>
- William Young <young@young.dungeon.com>
- Robert Mahoney <rmahoney@netusa.net>
- Chris Elving <elving@enel.ucalgary.ca>
- Peter Fitzsimmons <pfitz@ican.net>
-
-
- 8. Contacting the author
- ------------------------
-
- Samuel Audet
-
- E-mail: guardia@cam.org
- Homepage: http://www.cam.org/~guardia
- IRC nick: Guardian_ (be sure it is I before starting asking questions though)
-
- Snail Mail:
-
- 377, rue D'Argenteuil
- Laval, Quebec
- H7N 1P7 CANADA
-