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DESKMG33.TXT
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1990-05-14
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DESK MANAGER 3.3
Copyright © 1988, 1989, 1990 Charles F. Johnson
and Little Green Footballs Software
Revision: Friday, May 11, 1990
Desk Manager is a program that goes in the AUTO folder of
your boot disk. It will automatically select the correct
DESKTOP.INF file for your desired resolution, and allow you to
choose which AUTO programs and desk accessories will load. In
addition, if one of your AUTO programs is named GDOS*.PRG (the
asterisk means "any characters"), Desk Manager will also let you
choose the ASSIGN.SYS file which will be used with GDOS. And one
of the nicest things about it - even though Desk Manager runs from
the AUTO folder it still lets you use the mouse to select files!
The original version of Desk Manager was published in ST-Log
and only allowed the choice of desk accessories. The latest
versions of Desk Manager have many significant improvements over
the original. Up to 128 DESKTOP.INF files, AUTO programs,
ASSIGN.SYS files, and desk accessories can be displayed and
selected from. A "timeout" feature has been added, so that if you
don't press a key for a configurable amount of time on any
selection screen, Desk Manager continues to the next screen. You
can abort the program without changing anything at any time, or
back up to previous screens after exiting them. Desk Manager can
display a startup picture during bootup before entering the
selection screens, in either Spectrum 512 compressed (color) or
DEGAS uncompressed (monochrome) format. A "Help" function is also
added, to clear up any confusion about how to use Desk Manager.
Desk Manager works on color, monochrome and extended resolution
monitors, takes up very little disk space, and was written
entirely in 68000 assembly language.
*** NOTE: If you're already familiar with the basic operation of
*** Desk Manager, you may want to skip ahead to the section at the
*** end of this document titled "NEW STUFF."
Copyright Information
---------------------
Desk Manager (DESKMG33.PRG) and the documentation
(DESKMG33.TXT) are:
Copyright © 1988, 1989, 1990 Charles F. Johnson
and Little Green Footballs Software.
All rights reserved.
Desk Manager is distributed as SHAREWARE. This means that
you are free (under the conditions explained below) to give copies
of the program to friends, upload it to bulletin boards, etc. If
you end up using the program, you are expected to become a
registered user by sending a shareware payment of at least $15.00
to:
Charles F. Johnson
P.O. Box 1250
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Shareware can be a feasible alternative to the normal means
of distribution; but it will only work if you do send in your
registration fee. So if you'd like to see further updates to Desk
Manager and other useful shareware programs, your support will
make a difference!
If you have suggestions for improving Desk Manager, your
opinions will carry more weight if you're registered; I'll work to
include any suggestions that seem useful. If you have an account
on Delphi, GEnie, or Compuserve, please include your user name or
ID number when registering - this is the easiest way for me to get
in touch with you if I need to.
If you'd like an acknowledgement that I've received your
registration fee, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope
along with your payment. If you also include a disk (and enough
postage) I'll fill it up with the latest versions of all Little
Green Footballs shareware products and mail it back to you.
Desk Manager may be freely distributed as long as both of the
above-mentioned files are included, and as long as neither file is
altered in any way whatsoever. The program may NOT be sold or
included with a commercial product without the express written
consent of the author. Also, this documentation may not be
reprinted without the express written consent of the author.
Preparing to use Desk Manager
-----------------------------
First, if there is no pre-existing AUTO folder on your boot
disk, you must create one. You can do this from the desktop by
opening a window on the drive containing your boot disk, and
choosing "New Folder" from the "File" menu. Enter AUTO in the
dialog box that appears, and press Return. The AUTO folder will
be created.
Now, copy DESKMG33.PRG into the AUTO folder. Do this by
double-clicking on the folder name (or icon); this will open the
folder. Then click and drag DESKMG33.PRG to the open AUTO
window. For best results, DESKMG33.PRG should be as close to the
first program in your AUTO folder as possible. Remember that
AUTO programs run in the order in which they are written to the
folder. If you already have programs in your AUTO folder, you
may have to copy them all to another disk, delete them, and copy
them back in the order you wish them to run, to ensure that
DESKMG33.PRG runs first.
NOTE: If your hard disk driver needs to run from the AUTO
folder (it shouldn't if you are autobooting from the hard disk),
the driver should be copied into the AUTO folder _before_
DESKMG33.PRG.
IMPORTANT: Do NOT rename DESKMG33.PRG! The program writes
configuration data to itself to avoid the need for a separate
data file, and looks specifically for the filename DESKMG33.PRG.
If you've given it a new name, the configuration option will not
work (although the program itself will still run).
Now, with the AUTO folder still open, create another new
folder inside AUTO called DESKMGR. This folder-inside-a-folder
will hold your DESKTOP.INF files and your ASSIGN.SYS files.
Arrange your desktop the way you like it for each resolution
and save it with the "Save Desktop" function in the "Options"
menu. After saving your desktop, rename DESKTOP.INF to
LOWDESK.INF, MEDDESK.INF, or HIGHDESK.INF, depending on the
resolution. Then copy these .INF files to the DESKMGR folder
inside AUTO. Now, whenever Desk Manager starts up, it will read
the correct DESKTOP.INF file for the current resolution and copy
it to the boot drive so GEM will find it when the desktop runs.
To use the startup picture option, copy any Spectrum 512
compressed picture (*.SPC) to the DESKMGR folder and rename it to
DESKMGR.SPC. Monochrome users should copy a DEGAS uncompressed
picture (*.PI3) to the DESKMGR folder and rename it to
DESKMGR.PI3. People with both monitors may have both DESKMGR.SPC
and DESKMGR.PI3 in the DESKMGR folder.
If you have any ASSIGN.SYS files (used by GDOS), rename them
to something more descriptive (e.g. WORDUP.SYS, EASYDRAW.SYS,
etc...as long as you keep the .SYS extension) and copy these
files into the DESKMGR folder as well. (If you are using
CodeHead Software's G+PLUS instead of GDOS, this option will
still work.) You're now ready to go.
Running Desk Manager
--------------------
The first time you run Desk Manager, it will ask you
"Which drive holds the AUTO programs?" and "Which drive holds the
accessories?" You can type any letter from A to P for the AUTO
programs, since some current hard disk drivers will let you boot
from any drive; but you can only type 'A' or 'C' at the
"accessories" prompt. (Floppy disk users will most likely type
'A', hard disk users will probably use 'C'.)
After the "AUTO program" and "accessory" prompts Desk
Manager will ask you, "Write DESKTOP.INF to which drive?" Type
the letter (A through P) of the drive to which you wish to write
the DESKTOP.INF file. This will usually (but not always) be the
same as the drive from which your desk accessories run.
Next, Desk Manager asks how many seconds to hold the
startup picture. Type a number from 0 to 9 (0 means 'don't show
the picture').
The next prompt asks you for a 'timeout length'. This is
the number of seconds that Desk Manager will wait for input