ΓÇóΓÇóΓÇó ΓÇ£Public BetaΓÇ¥ release. If you have any problems, you may be best off just destroying your copy of hierDA. If you have the time and a postage stamp, I would appreciate it if youΓÇÖd let me know what the problem was, and, more importantly, how/why you ran into it. ΓÇóΓÇóΓÇó
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General Info
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hierDA is a Control Panel document (ΓÇ£cdevΓÇ¥) for use on Macintoshes with System release 4.1 & higher. It installs automatically when you start up your Macintosh, and remains in effect until you turn your Mac off. If you wish to use it, make sure that the file is in the system folder of whatever disk you use to start your Mac. If you want to stop using it, simply move it somewhere else, or throw it to the trash, then re-boot. Holding down shift as you boot disables hierDA.
Anyway, these new systems implemented something called ΓÇ£hierarchical menusΓÇ¥ which allow menus to pop out from items of other menus. To signify that this will happen, a triangle pointing right is added to any item for which a menu might pop out.
hierDA allows desk accessories (DAs), those programs under the Apple menu, to have these ΓÇ£submenuΓÇ¥ menus attached to them. Selecting a desk accesory will function as usual, and if you select something from one of the ΓÇ£submenuΓÇ¥ menus, the desk accessory will first be opened, then the particular item you selected from the submenu will be selected from the menu which the DA has brought up. DAs which do not bring up menus will not have submenu MENUs.
The exception to this rule is the extensible Control Panel. If you are using a new system (i.e. if you can read this) you know that the Control Panel has different icons you can select from at the left side of the Control Panel window. If you select an item from the Control Panel's submenu menu, the icon corresponding to your choice will be brought up on top instead of General. In addition, if you hold down the option key while selecting your choice, the system will remember your choice and bring up that icon as default. You can even add command-key equivalents to Control Panel items by adding /key to their names, i.e. re-naming ΓÇ£hierDAΓÇ¥ to ΓÇ£hierDA/1ΓÇ¥ will make command-1 open up the Control Panel to hierDA.
You do NOT have to select an item from the submenu menu; simply selecting a DA as you normally would still works as it always did.
Specific Info
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The options above on the left side, which control how the DA menu is formed (whether to make a submenu whenever possible (General), only when hierDA-customized info is available, and whether or not to make a submenu for the Control Panel), take effect whenever a program starts up. The options to the right (Whether or not command-keys will invoke DAs) take effect immediately. Concerning this feature, note that if an application defines a command-key and one also exists in a hierDA menu, the app. menu will be used.
The MenuBar Pop-Up, if enabled, brings up a pop-up menu whenever either you click on the desktop (except in the Finder or when working under MultiFinder) or if you hold down command-shift and click anywhere. The menu contains all the other menus present in the menu bar.
Known bugs
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ΓÇóΓÇóΓÇó Under MultiFinder, applications having no command-X or -C may have problems running with hierDA. This a MultiFinder 1.0 bug. ΓÇóΓÇó
Not all DAs use the standard approach to menus, so some DAs which do use menus may not have submenus. This is not a bug.
Pop-ups on a multi-screen Mac system may not work properly, i.e. wonΓÇÖt show up at all on any screen but the one with the menu bar. This is also a bug in the System and is fixed in System 6.0.
The Control Panel submenu does not check to make sure its items are available for your particular Mac. This will not be fixed, as checking takes too much time.
If the Control Panel is open, further selection from its submenu has no effect.
Software Supply's SuitcaseΓäó must load AFTER hierDA, or problems will occur with MultiFinderΓäó when launching an application if one or more DAs are open. This problem is, to the best of my knowledge, COSMETIC ONLY. You can test the order of INIT loading by selecting ΓÇ£View by NameΓÇ¥ on your System Folder from the Finder. They will be listed in the order they are loaded. Another good way is to simply watch the order in which icons get displayed as your Mac boots. If you use Font/DA Juggler, be sure it loads BEFORE hierDA, and be sure the Control Panel is in the system file.
Some MacAppΓäó programs disable all their submenus, since they don't follow Inside Mac guidelines.
Selection from a DAΓÇÖs submenu does not work in conjuction with macro utilities such as Tempo, or MacroMaker. Under QuicKeys, you can get around this by making sure that QuicKeys loads BEFORE hierDA, defining a QuicKey as a menu (NOT a DA!) selection, and changing the text of that selection to match the text of the submenu item you want.
In anticipation of some obscure bug that I have not yet found, or feature I have not yet added, this version of hierDA has been named 0.99. (ItΓÇÖs .9967 now, so as you can tell IΓÇÖve found a few obscure bugs) It is, however, bug-free as far as I can tell. It has been in testing for over four months.
Distribution
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hierDA is ΓÇ£FreeWare.ΓÇ¥ hierDA is uploaded to major BBSes (particularly CompuServeΓäó) upon every major update, so check there for new versions. If you cannot reach a major BBS, or do not have a friend who can, send $1 (more if you wish), a blank disk, and a postage-paid, pre-addressed envelope to the address listed at the end of this text. I will immediately return the latest copy, in addition to problem reports, some miscellaneous public-domain ΓÇ£goodiesΓÇ¥ and other interesting things.
Please note that, since this is FreeWare and NOT public-domain, I retain copyright to this program:
You may NOT charge for hierDA in any circumstances, nor may you ΓÇ£bundleΓÇ¥ it with a product, without my express written permission. The sole exceptions to this rule are bulletin-board systems.
If you send me a copy of a product you created that doesnΓÇÖt work with hierDA, I will, in return, make sure hierDA doesn't bomb with it. If your application is really neat, (like DiskTopΓäó) I may add features to make it work well together with hierDA. I reserve the right to send any product back, ΓÇ£no deal.ΓÇ¥
Hacker Info
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hierDA takes its cues from a DAΓÇÖs MENU resources. To customize a Desk AccessoryΓÇÖs submenu menu, add a menu to the DA with sub-ID 31. It will be used as the submenu instead of the DAΓÇÖs menu, without affecting the DA whatsoever. hierDA keys off menu item strings, not item numbers, so you can add/delete freely. (You could use this to put a small font list onto Key Caps, for example, or to rip out everything in Find File's menu except ΓÇ£Search HereΓÇ¥.) Do not modify a DAΓÇÖs _existing_ MENU resource, as this tends to cause a LOT of problems!
Interesting quote
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ΓÇ£BCS? You can't give hierDA to BCS! They wear suits!!ΓÇ¥ - a BMUG rep.
More interesting quote
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ΓÇ£Ah,ΓÇ¥ said Dirk, ΓÇ£it is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto nonexistent blindingly obvious. The cry ΓÇÿI could have thought of thatΓÇÖ is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didnΓÇÖt, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too.
(from Dirk GentlyΓÇÖs Holistic Detective Agency, p.233, by Douglas Adams)
Dedicated to all the people, especially IBM & Microsoft, who also could have thought of licensing the Xerox PARC user-interface, improving it, and bringing it to the masses. Of course, they neither wish to improve it, nor pay Xerox or Apple their due. All they want is to copy it, and reap the profits. May they die a slow and horrible death by litigation.
Acknowledgements
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I would like to take this time to thank MicrosoftΓäó for their wonderfully ΓÇ£differentΓÇ¥ software. Noone has helped me as much as this Seattle company in finding interesting compatibility problems that might arise should a developer make toolbox calls in a ΓÇ£slightly non-standardΓÇ¥ way. Honorable mention goes to Beyond, Inc. for MenuFonts 2, the reason for the 0.9962 release.
The code to display the icon at boot time is ShowINIT by Paul Mercer.
DiskTopΓäó is an EXCELLENT Desk Accessory which contains most of the features of the FinderΓäó in a Desk Accessory. It is available for about $50 from:
CE SoftwareΓäó
801 73rd St.
Des Moines, IA 50312
(515) 224-1995
SuitcaseΓäó is a product which allows you to have more than 15 desk accessories, for that matter more than 100. It allows you to install and remove Desk Accessories without going through the hassle of Apple's Font/DA Mover, and can do the same with fonts and FKEYs. It is available for $59.95 from:
Software SupplyΓäó
599 N. Mathilda Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-3504
hierDA was written in LightSpeed CΓäó, version 3.0, despite the fact that I own AppleΓÇÖs MPWΓäó environment. LightSpeed compiles and runs about 10 times faster and costs about 4 times less, not including the extra memory and (often) CPU power needed to use MPW.
hierDA was debugged using ICOM simulationsΓÇÖ TMONΓäó debugger. Also highly recommended!
BMUG is a damn good userΓÇÖs group.
1442A Walnut Street, Suite 62
Berkeley, CA 94709 USA
The things in this document which have little Γäó symbols after them are trademarks of the companies which produced the things.
Bug reports (when you care enough to send the very worst) & comments should be sent to:
jbx CIS: 73177,1404
135 South Rd. AppleLink: X0121
Bedford, MA 02137
ΓÇóΓÇóΓÇó I will kill you if you call me at home. ΓÇóΓÇóΓÇó
