AMIGA Plus Disk Information If this is your original disk that came with AMIGA Plus, PLEASE MAKE A COPY IMMEDIATELY! This disk features the following executable programs which can all be run by double-clicking on their icons from the workbench (unless specifically stated that they run from CLI only): GetPointer - This program by Aki Rimpilainen and Arnold Cachelin is the first of the three utilities designed for manipulating custom pointers. GetPointer grabs and saves the present mouse pointer (which you have modified with Preferences' pointer editor) either as a data file or a C-language text file. The C-language source code for all these programs is located in the Programming drawer. The executable files reside in the Pointers drawer. From the CLI the usage is: 1> GetPointer p filename which will save the current pointer as "filename.p" and create an icon for it if the icon "DefaultIcon" is available. 1> GetPointer c [filename] [structname] which will save a C-language file with data for the current pointer. If the optional arguments are left off, the file name will be DefaultSprite.h and the variable name for the C struct will be DefSpr. These default names will compile into PutPointer, if you want to replace the arrow image which it displays (and which is in defaultsprite.h in the Programming drawer). PutPointer - PutPointer takes the data file you have created with GetPointer and displays the pointer image. PutPointer should be in the same drawer as the pointer icons you want to view, To change this, edit the DefaultTool setting of the pointer icon so that the full path of PutPointer given. If you double-click on the PutPointer icon, you will replace the current pointer with an arrow pointer. From the CLI: 1> PutPointer S [filename] will save the pointer in "filename" to your system Preferences file (DEVS:System-Configuration). If no file name is given, the current pointer is saved. 1> PutPointer R will restore the pointer to that saved in your system Preferences file. 1> PutPointer [filename] will load "filename" as the current pointer. If no file name is given, it loads the standard arrow pointer. PointerDemo - This final pointer utility demonstrates the use of include files created with GetPointer. It opens two windows and displays separate pointers with a new set of colors. Fred & Wendy - Run Daniel Wolf's demos of message passing by double- clicking on the Whisper icon located in the Programming drawer. Have you ever seen your Amiga talk to itself? SpellCheck - This program by The Other Guys Software will help you get your spelling right. First double-click on AssignPROMISEHere to inform the computer where the related files reside. Then double-click on the SpellCheck icon in the Promise drawer, load your ASCII text file, and fix its spelling. SpellHelp - This utility, also by the Other Guys Software, will search and display words with a pattern you specify. It will help you spell the words you almost know, without loading the entire spelling dictionary. Run this program for spelling help WHILE you are running your favorite word processor. SpaceCadet - SpaceCadet by the makers of Who! What! When! Where!, Melissa Jordan and Tudor Fay, displays the remaining open space on all your floppy disks, hard drive partitions, and recoverable RAMDisks. It may keep requesting that a certain disk be inserted, if there is something in the system (like an ASSIGN or CD) using the disk. The root directory of this disk contains the THUT Application Support System (TASS) in a compressed form, and a script icon MakeTass, which will uncompress it onto another floppy disk, or a partition on you hard disk. TASS is the system of programs which includes DiskANIM, the live-animation-from-a-hard-disk software, and a bunch of other neat utilities in a customizable, user-friendly environment. Tass was compressed using Zoo 2.0 (also on this disk). The instructions for Zoo are in the file Zoo.Doc, which will be on the same disk as the Tass drawer after they are decompressed. Getting TASS: To reconstitute TASS to a floppy disk, you will need a blank, formatted floppy disk. When this disk is ready, double-click on the MakeTass icon. The MakeTass script will ask you some questions about your system and proceed to copy TASS to destination of your choice. Using TASS: After you have the TASS drawer on your new floppy, open it and double- click the Startup icon. This icon will start ARexx if it is available and do some other assignments for TASS. When it is done, you will see the TASS ShowText module displaying a file of instructions. You can use the LOAD gadget to view other text files, or just click the close gadget in the upper left corner to exit ShowText. The other icons in the TASS drawer will run other modules, many of these modules are accessible from within one another as well. Help is always available by pressing the Help key while the mouse is over the gadget in question. Further help can then be obtained by clicking on the names of the additional help files in the text. The Pointers Drawer contains the GetPointer and PutPointer programs for playing with the mouse pointer image on your Amiga. You will also notice a number of files whose names end with ".p". These are pointer data files for use with PutPointer. To view any of these pointers, simply double-click on its icon. The icons themselves were produced by GetPointer from the actual pointer image. For some of the smaller images, you may have to click around a few times before you actually hit the icon. Double-clicking on PutPointer will restore the pointer to the original Workbench arrow. GetPointer will save the current mouse pointer. Use preferences to edit your pointer, then double-click on GetPointer to save this pointer. You will probably want to rename it, since GetPointer saves it as NewSprite.p. Both GetPointer and PutPointer can be run from the CLI, where they have several additional options available, for example, GetPointer can also save the pointer data in the form of C-Language declarations, which can be incorporated into your own programs. PointerDemo is a small C program which serves as an example of the use of these pointers in a program. Just double-click it, and then click on various windows to see the Mouse pointer change. Source code for these programs is in the Programming drawer. In The Music Drawer you will find Rob Griffith's demo of M, which accompanies his review in this issue of AMIGA Plus. Just double-click on the Nebula icon to hear the "Nebula City Blues". It is recommended that this music be played while you are reading his review. The SMUS player is by Dallas Hodgson. The Promise Drawer holds the Promise spelling checker software. To run it, double-click on the InstallPROMISEHere icon to make the correct assignments for Promise, then just double-click the Promise icon to check the spelling of your documents. NOTE: the spell-checker creates a temporary file named temp.promise on your work disk; therefore, have some extra disk space. The Programming Drawer holds the AmigaBASIC mouse pointer programs CustomPtr.BAS and GetPrefs.BAS by Todd Petit. There are also a few example pointers in AmigaBASIC format. To run the BASIC programs, you will need to move these files onto a disk with AmigaBASIC and some ".bmap" files on it. It would probably be easiest to just drag the entire programming drawer over to a copy of your Extras disk with some room on it. Next, you must copy the files graphics.bmap, exec.bmap, and dos.bmap from your Extras:BasicDemos drawer to the programming drawer. In addition, the Programming drawer contains the files for Daniel Wolf's article about Exec message passing. To try the assembled programs, double-click on the Whisper icon. This will run a script to open two CLI windows. When the windows are open, type Fred into one to start the sending task, then type Wendy into the other. You should see their all too brief messageport tete-a-tete commence. These assembler programs have been written to compile with most assemblers with very little alteration and NO specific library or include files. Finally, the C source code for the SpaceCadet (Lattice C) and the pointer programs GetPointer, PutPointer, and PointerDemo (Aztec C) also resides in this directory. The entire disk has been processed with Blitz A Disk (B.A.D.) from M.V. Micro (distributed by Centaur Software Inc.) in order to speed up disk access. The format is the same as all AmigaDOS disks, but the files have been reorganized so that the icons are found and displayed very quickly. All programs on this disk are Copyright 1989 by AMIGA Plus and may not be redistributed unless specifically referred to as "redistributable". P.S.  Subscribe to AMIGA Plus magazine with disk!!! 6 Issues for only $39.95 Call 1-800-234-7001 NOW!