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1989-06-01
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Workbench Control Utilities by Greg Searle
OpenWB
CloseWB
These two commands simply open and close the Workbench screen. Alone, they
are a bit useless -- it is impossible to close the screen when you have a
CLI window (or any other application window) open, or when the Workbench is
the only open screen on the system.
On the other hand, if you have a hotkey utility available (such as MachII),
these two commands can be a life-saver. Simply assign the commands to two
seperate hotkeys and activate the utility (this won't work if your utility
opens up its own window).
Some applications close down the Workbench automatically, which is usually
ok. Problems arise when, say, during a disk save the disk fills up. If
the Workbench isn't available, you can't delete files to make room. Since
the program is in the middle of a save, you can't tell it to re-open the
Workbench. You have to stop the save, open the 'bench, clean up your disk,
and re-start the possibly long process that started saving in the first
place (example - Sculpt 4-D in the middle of compressing)!
With these commands in place, you may simply hit a hotkey -- instant
Workbench! Another case is if a program doesn't close the Workbench, and
you need the memory. Hit a key, and the 'bench is gone.
Some notes:
These commands do simple OpenWorkBench() and CloseWorkBench() routine
calls. Nothing should have problems with this - but they do. Some
applications get confused -- you'll have to use these with care.
If you don't have enough memory to re-open the Workbench, you'll see an
alert pop to the top of your screen. Don't panic! Just hit the right mouse
button to make it disappear. You'll have to close extra windows or screens
in attempt to re-gain enough chip memory.
If a non-Workbench window is open on the Workbench screen, CloseWB won't
work. This is also true if the Workbench is the only screen on the system.
CloseWB and OpenWB won't do anything if the screen is already closed or
opened, respectively. You may close the Workbench any time another screen
is available - even a demo screen. The Workbench will pop back up
automatically when the other screen is closed.
Sometimes a requester will appear when the Workbench screen is closed. This
doesn't re-load the Workbench properly, and creates a dangerous situation.
If the Workbench screen is re-opened, the system will crash. If you plan to
close the Workbench screen, I recommend using the "FixReq" utility
(available elsewhere) to stop requesters from re-opening the Workbench
screen. (Note that Workbench icons don't appear when this happens.)
Whew! That's a lot of writing for two little utilities! These are not
written in assembly, but Aztec C, so they are not as small as they could be.
- Greg Searle