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BusyPointer10
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ReadMe
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1995-09-10
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BusyPointer - another Blender Software (BS) production
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There are loads of programs around that give your computer an animating busy
pointer. Some don't work on Workbench 2. Some don't work on Workbench 3. Some
animate the normal pointer but don't bother with the busy pointer. Some store
the busy pointer in their own obscure way so you can't edit them easily. Some
store them in Anims. Some store them in Anim Brushes. Some have their own
animation that can't even be changed. Bit of a pisser, eh?
I thought so. So this one works on everything apart from ye olde 1.3 machines
and it understands all Pointer Prefs, Nick Prefs, ILBM, ILBM Brush, ANIM, and
ANIM Brush files. That means you can throw practically anything at it and it
should work with no problems.
It also has a GUESSBUSY option - this makes it convert busy pointers from
other programs to look like the still or animated busy pointer you want.
Installing
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Drag the BusyPointer icon to the WBStartup drawer. Et voila.
Options
-------
Click on the BusyPointer icon then choose Information from the Icons menu if
you run it from the Workbench or type the options after the program name if
you run it from the shell...
- FILE=<name>
The file to use for the busy pointer. Almost anything will do. You could
search the Aminet index for files with 'pointer' in the description,
download the lot, and see which you like. Or you could design your own
using whatever art package you like.
There's my Nick Prefs busy pointer in the Presets drawer if you haven't got
any others. Drag it to your Prefs/Presets drawer and don't alter the name
to use it.
- GUESSBUSY
Any pointer that matches the system busy pointer is replaced with your own.
Some programs have their own busy pointers though. These won't be replaced
unless you use GUESSBUSY. At the moment it knows about Audio Master 4, DSS
2.01, IE 4, MoviePlayer 1, and SID 1 (and any others which happen to look
like these).
- HOTSPOTX=<number>
HOTSPOTY=<number>
The point that you move around with the mouse. X can be from 0 to 15 and Y
can be from 0 to 63. If you don't give it, it'll look in the file for it
(eg. the brush handle) and if it can't find it there it'll choose 7,0.
- SPEED=<number>
The speed of the animation. 1 is the fastest. If you don't give it, it'll
look in the file for it, and if it can't find it there it'll choose 1.
- PRIORITY=<number>
The task priority. If you don't give it, it'll choose 14. I think this is
OK, but if it isn't then change it to a lower number (eg. 9, 4, or 0). But
the lower it is, the more chance the animation has of slowing down when you
use the disk or hard drive.
Running
-------
If it's in your WBStartup drawer, it'll run automatically every time the
computer boots. To stop it, click on the icon in WBStartup.
If you don't want to do that you can run it after the computer has booted.
From the Workbench, click on the icon once to start it and again to stop it.
From the shell, type "BusyPointer" to start it and hit CTRL-C to stop it. Or
you can use "Run <>NIL: BusyPointer" to start it and the same again to stop
it. The "Break" command works too.
Designing your own pointers
---------------------------
The maximum width is 16 pixels and the maximum height is 64 pixels. If it's
any bigger than this then only the top left bit will be used.
Colour 0 is transparent, colours 1 to 3 are set to whatever's in your pointer
prefs, and colours 4 and above will turn out a bit crap (but only if they're
used, if they're not then they don't, if you see what I mean).
If you give it an ANIM or an ANIM Brush, it can be either ANIM 0 (expanded)
or ANIM 5. If your art package doesn't give a choice when you save then it'll
probably be ANIM 5, which means you're sorted.
If you give it a Pointer Prefs file, it uses the busy pointer. Workbench 2's
pointer editor won't let you make busy pointers, so it won't find one in the
file, so it won't work.
GrabPointer
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If you've got a program that doesn't have its busy pointer replaced and you
want it to be, load up the program, double click on GrabPointer, and get that
program's busy pointer on the screen in 5 seconds. Email me the result and
when I get enough to make it worth uploading, a new version will appear on
Aminet.
Blitz Basic 2's is animated and DPaint's isn't programmed properly, so don't
bother with those.
Boring wibble
-------------
It's not all my work - code from NewIFF and SFPatch, pointers from PointerX
and ZZPointer, and ideas from Nick Prefs were used.
Thanks to Simon, Phil, and Raz for testing it.
This is copyrighted by me but freely distributible. It shouldn't be altered
in any way and you should only charge for disks, postage, or packing if you
charge anything.
If something goes wrong then I can't be held responsible for the mess - you
use this program at your own risk. After all, it's free - what more do you
want? I trust it enough to use it though.
And it can't be used as part of anything that's sold for profit without my
say so, although the chances of that are fairly remote, I think. Oh, that
means cover CDs and disks on those glossy magazines as well.
My Email address is dan@blender.demon.co.uk, if you spot a bug or something.
Dan.