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PsL Monthly 1994 February
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DOS
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UT_SYSTM
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ICONDOS.ZIP
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ICONDOS.DOC
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1993-11-02
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┌────┐
┌──┴─┐┌─┴──┐
┌──┴─┐┌─┴┴─┐┌─┴──┐
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│ ├┤ ├┤ ├┤ ├┤ │
└────┘└────┘└────┘└────┘└────┘
IconDOS: DOS Program Launcher
ver. 1.7
Copyright 1993, EFD Systems
All Rights Reserved
┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐
│ ├┤ ├┤ ├┤ ├┤ │
└──┬─┘└─┬┬─┘└─┬┬─┘└─┬┬─┘└─┬──┘
└──┬─┘└─┬┬─┘└─┬┬─┘└─┬──┘
└──┬─┘└─┬┬─┘└─┬──┘
└──┬─┘└─┬──┘
└────┘
"Elvis for DOS"
IconDOS is a trademark of EFD Systems.
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
T A B L E of C O N T E N T S
Elvis is Dead but DOS ain't ----------------------------------------- 3
Standard Equipment -------------------------------------------------- 4
Startup and Test Drive ---------------------------------------------- 5
Under the Hood ------------------------------------------------------ 6
Behind the Wheel ---------------------------------------------------- 9
Locking the Doors --------------------------------------------------- 12
Driving and Maintenance Tips ---------------------------------------- 13
Mail Order ---------------------------------------------------------- 14
Maintenance Log ----------------------------------------------------- 15
NOTE: These page numbers are valid only if you are reading this with the
included file viewer, BOOK.EXE. Simply type a number and press ENTER.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Elvis is Dead but DOS ain't
Contrary to recent reports, Elvis is dead, DOS is alive and well. However, a
little of the King's flare and pizazz wouldn't hurt the reputation of DOS at
all. IconDOS is just the ticket to add a little "Elvis" to a boring and
cantankerous DOS system. With IconDOS you can "launch" any of your existing DOS
applications from a graphical icon-based desktop that is similiar to Program
Manager for Windows. The IconDOS desktop works equally well either with or
without a mouse. Memory, your most precious DOS resource, is handled with the
utmost efficiency. All of your existing applications are guaranteed to run
exactly as they always have because IconDOS requires no resident memory (none,
zero, nada) while a launched application is running. And yes, all of you
glitter rock fans will be tickled pink to know that IconDOS has over 400
pre-drawn icons (registered version only) and WALLPAPER to decorate your
desktop! With the included editor, you can make custom icons and wallpaper.
IconDOS provides for a virtually unlimited number of icon menu items. Each menu
can contain up to 32767 icons spread across multiple pages. Each icon can
either launch an application or invoke a submenu which can in turn invoke
another submenu and so on. Clock, calendar, calculator and screen saver are
built-in. A VGA display is REQUIRED. A MicroSoft compatible mouse is required
to setup, edit and configure icons, menus and wallpaper. Password security
controls access to applications, sub-menus and the DOS command line.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Standard Equipment
This version of IconDOS includes the following standard equipment.
ICONDOS.EXE - Desktop program launcher.
ICONEDIT.EXE - Graphics editor. Edits icon graphics, titles, command strings.
ICONDOS.DOC, ICONEDIT.DOC - Documentation for ICONDOS and ICONEDIT.
RUN.BAT - Batch file which works with IconDOS.EXE to actually launch
applications. This one batch file can be easily configured to run all of
your existing applications. Comments in the file itself show you how.
DEMO.MNU, SUBDEMO.MNU - Example icon menu with an example sub-menu. This menu
doesn't run anything. It simply prints a short message identifying any icon
that is selected.
PAPER.ICN - Wallpaper file. A wallpaper is chosen at random from this file
unless wallpaper has been fixed. See README.1ST for details.
ICON.LBR - Icon library. ICONEDIT.EXE can be used to copy these icons to your
own menu files (see ICONEDIT.DOC for details).
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Startup and Test Drive
Before you can use IconDOS, you must install it on your hard drive. Installation
is very easy. Simply make a new directory and copy all of the IconDOS files to
it. If you insist, a batch file called INSTALL.BAT has been provided which will
do this for you. Change to the drive and directory where the IconDOS files are
located and type:
INSTALL drivepath Example: INSTALL C:\MENU
All menu and wallpaper files should always be maintained in the given directory.
Otherwise, IconDOS may have trouble finding the files when needed.
After installation, you can take ICONDOS for a test drive. Change to the
drive and directory where the installation was made and type:
ICONDOS DEMO
Try selecting a few icons using either the mouse or the ENTER key. A short
message is displayed after each selection to identify the selected icon and to
show that the menu is indeed working.
ESC exits IconDOS immediately. F1 invokes a utility menu.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Under the Hood
Before you can configure IconDOS to fit your needs, you need an understanding of
how IconDOS works, in other words, you need a peek "under the hood".
An IconDOS menu is simply a file containing a collection of icons. Each icon
has a title (2-lines, 10 chars. each) and a command string (14 chars. max.).
ICONEDIT.EXE is used to assemble and edit the icon file (see ICONEDIT.DOC). Icon
graphics can be either hand drawn or copied from the supplied icon library
(again, see ICONEDIT.DOC for details). The desktop menu program, ICONDOS.EXE,
simply displays the icons from the menu file against a wallpaper backdrop and
allows the user to make a selection. Once an icon is selected, the associated
command string is examined to determine whether it is the name of a submenu or a
DOS command string. A DOS command string is stuffed into the keyboard buffer
and IconDOS ends. DOS picks up at this point and runs the command as if it had
been typed from the keyboard. Very simple except for one minor problem --- 14
characters is a very limited command string. The solution is to use the command
string to call a batch file. Individual batch files can be setup for each icon;
however, a more efficient approach is to setup one batch file to run a number of
applications. The provided example menu, DEMO.MNU, demonstrates this latter
technique. Every icon in DEMO.MNU calls RUN.BAT but with a unique parameter.
RUN.BAT uses this parameter to select and execute the proper command set for the
icon. This process is shown diagramatically below.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│IconDOS displays icon menu and waits for│< ─ ─ ─ ──┐
│the user to make a selection. │ │
└───────────────────┬────────────────────┘
┌───────────────────┴────────────────────┐ │
│The user selects an icon. │
└───────────────────┬────────────────────┘ │
┌──────────────────