____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___  / /__//_ /__ / //_ //__ / //_ / / / //_ //__//_   / / //__ ___//__//__/___//__// / /_/_// // \/__  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - FOR ABO'S CONTACT US AT: BP:28 1170 WATERMAEL-BOITSFORT 1 BELGIUM!!... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - DON'T SEND ANY DISKS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------  THE LEGENDARY >> SUBSOFTWARE << IN 87/88/89/90/91!!...  ------------------------------------------------------ HARDDISK A LA CARTE V1.63 © 1991 Infocorner ------------------------------------------- By The G - May 1991 1. INTRODUCTION --------------- 'Harddisk a la carte' (short: CARTE) is a DOS menu program which enables you to startup your desired programs without having to type all the necessary CLI commands every time. Although the name implies it's only useful for harddisk owners, it can just as well be used with any other type of drive. 2. THE BASICS ------------- The easiest way to start CARTE is by simply typing 'run carte'. When started, CARTE will search for the file 'carte.config' in the volume 'CARTE:'. Therefore, before you start CARTE, you have to assign a directory to act as this volume with the ASSIGN command. (e.g. assign CARTE: dh0:s). When you have started CARTE as described above, CARTE will open a screen and display an Item-Table, which can contain up to 20 items. An item can be selected be clicking the the left mouse button within the item select box, or be pressing the item key, that is the key displayed on the left/right side of the item. By clicking the right mouse button (menu button) over one of the items a requester will appear with which you can edit this menu item. Every item is made out of two parts: (1) TITLE: This is the title as it will be shown in the menu. e.g. 'Deluxe Paint V3.21' The title can be about 30 characters long. (2) COMMAND LINE: This is the sequence of cli commands you want to have executed in order to start up this program. The different commands are seperated by a semicolon (;) and can be any command/program available. e.g. assign fonts: dh0:fonts;cd DPAINT;DPaint When you do not enter a command line, but you do enter a title, the program displays the title in a different colour. This way you can create a sort of headline. After you've selected an item the menu screen closes and the commands from the command sequence will be executed. When all executed programs have stopped (or have been quit) the menu automatically reopens and you can select another item. 3. MOUSE MENUS -------------- By holding down one of the mouse buttons outside the item select boxes a menu will appear. Items from this menu can be selected in a similar way as normal 'intuition' menus. Just hold down one of the menu buttons while positioning the pointer over the desired item. Releasing the button again will then select the item. When the button is released while the pointer is not over one of the items, none of the items will be selected and the (mouse button) menu will just disappear. Here now follows a description of the items of the two menus: Right Mouse Button Menu: (1) LOAD - (re)Loads the previously saved menu item settings. (i.e. th carte.config file) (2) SAVE - Saves the current item settings. (carte.config) (3) ICONIFY - 'Iconifies' the program. That is, it closes the menu screen and opens a small window on top of your CLI window (or workbench). You can now reactivate the menu by closing this window or by pressing the key combination: CTRL - LEFT AMIGA - HELP (4) AUTO RETURN - When selected (default) the menu will automatically reappear after all commands have been executed. When deselected, the menu iconifies before it starts execting the selected item commands. (see also ICONIFY) (5) BE VERBOSE - When selected the commands are printed while executed. (6) KEYS - When selected (default) the key interrupt will be active in iconified mode, enabling you to start the items through the key combination: CTRL-LEFT_AMIGA- The last three options ('BE VERBOSE' and 'AUTO RETURN' and 'KEYS') are 'toggle items' that is, they're either selected or deselected. When selected they will be displayed in another colour. (7) QUIT - Quit the menu entirely. For more information about ICONIFY (3) and KEYS (6) see section 4: CARTE AT ITS BEST Left Mouse Button Menu: (1) COPY ITEM - When you select this item you are expected to select two items. The values of the first item (title and command sequence) will then be copied into the second item. (2) SWAP ITEM - Just like COPY ITEM you are expected to selected two items. Their values will then be swapped. (3) UNDO - Restores the values of the items which were affected by COPY ITEM or SWAP ITEM. (4) HELP - Gives on-line help about the keyboard shortcuts in iconified mode. (for more information see section 4: CARTE AT ITS BEST) (5) ABOUT - Show the About window again. 4. CARTE AT ITS BEST -------------------- An alternative way to start CARTE is to supply it with the optional parameter SILENT : 'run carte silent'. CARTE will now start in 'iconified' mode, i.e. it opens a small window at the top of your screen. In this mode you can execute your desired item simply by holding down the CTRL and LEFT-AMIGA keys and pressing the appropriate item key e.g. CTRL-LEFT_AMIGA-'B'. (for this, the small CARTE window doesn't have to be active!!). This way you can start the items as fast as possible without having to open the entire menu every time. You can reopen the menu by closing the small window or by pressing HELP while holding down the CTRL and LEFT-AMIGA keys. 5. COMMANDLINE OPTIONS ---------------------- To start CARTE: form the CLI: run carte [?|CLOSE] [SILENT] [TITLE ] [LACE] [NOABOUT] CARTE can take either the single parameter '?' or 'CLOSE' or any of the other parameters in any sequence. Description: ? : CLOSE : With this option you can close a pending CARTE task from the commandline (or from within a shell script!) SILENT : When supplied, CARTE will start in iconified mode. For more about this see section 4: CARTE AT ITS BEST TITLE : With this option you can supply a custom name (max. 24 chars) for the icon window. LACE : Will start CARTE in interlace. (implemented for all those 'lucky bastards' out there with flicker fixers and multi sync monitors!) NOABOUT : CARTE will refrain from displaying the ABOUT window. 6. WELL ..EH..THE WORKBENCH --------------------------- CARTE does work with the WorkBench, but you have to take the following things into consideration: - I've not supplied a .info file, so you have to make your own. In this .info file you have to set the tool types to something like WINDOW=CON:40/20/200/50/Le Garçon - You have to supply the full path with each program. e.g. dh0:tools/local/user/lib/staff/demos/streetlife/partyanimation - don't use the 'cd' command, it is known to crash in the workbench! 7. WHAT'S LEFT...BUGS? ---------------------- If you've spotted bugs or you have some interesting ideas/improvements you wish to have implemented you can contact me via: Infocorner P.O. BOX 223 3800 AE Amersfoort Holland or E-Mail: gpverhag@praxis.cs.ruu.nl