DOCS FOR EXECUTIVE V 2.00 ========================= WHAT IS EXECUTIVE V2.00 ========================== Executive brings real multitasking to AmigaOS. Executive is a UNIX-like task scheduler for Amiga. It also has plenty of other features previously available only in larger operating systems. Executive improves the responsiveness of your Amiga. One CPU intensive application no longer causes the whole system to crawl. You can start many CPU intensive applications and the system still feels as if it would be totally idle. The Executive package also includes many useful client programs that let you control tasks and monitor what's going on in your system. No similar programs for Amiga have been made before, so you may not exactly know what Executive is all about, but give it a little time and read the documentation and you won't regret it! Executive is the highest rated item of shareware CU Amiga magazine has ever awarded at 98%. REQUIREMENTS & DOCS ======================== Executive requires at least AmigaOS 2.04. Localization will be available if you're using AmigaOS 2.1 or newer. MagicUserInterface (MUI) is not required, although some clients use it. MUI version 3.3 or later is recommended. If you don't have MUI or don't want to use it, the programs that use MUI are also available with a standard GadTools interface. Executive requires approximately 1.5 MB of hard disk space for full installation. * Schedulers have been improved and a real multi-level feedback queue scheduler, found on most UNIX systems, is now available. * New client, Dashboard, lets you open multiple windows and interactively create all kinds of meters on them and adjust their parameters. Everything is user configurable. * Improved compatibility. * PatchControl and ScreenNotify support. * CPU usage can be displayed with Amiga's power LED. * The server and some clients are now commodities. Scheduling can be disabled and enabled without restarting the server. * ExecutiveAPI is a new low-level API for application programs that wish to directly control scheduling. * A small tutorial is included. * Tasks can now be scheduled as a group, if necessary. * Default catch- and dynamic ranges were changed. The new ranges are -105 -- +1 and -70 -- -50, respectively. The install-script changes the ranges to these new values if you haven't modified the old default ranges. I suggest you use these new ranges, for compatibility and performance reasons. If you're using my Amiga port of NetBSD's SysLog software, get the new V1.20 version of SysLog from Aminet, the file is util/moni/SysLog.lha. Here's a full list of changes made after Executive V1.30: * All schedulers have been significantly improved. The basic principle behind each scheduler is the same, but they have been fine tuned and their specific characteristics emphasized. Nice-value has now more effect and focused task gets more CPU time than before. * Catalog translator's name is now displayed in the About... menu and when a program is started with the VERSION option. * Added a real multi-level feedback queue scheduler, similar to what is used in most UNIX operating systems, for example in all BSD variants (NetBSD, FreeBSD, BSDI, etc.). The new scheduler is called "FEEDBACK". See documentation for technical explanation. * The 68020+ version of Executive used a CMP2 assembly command which isn't supported by 68060. * Added NewIcons, thanks to Philip A. Vedovatti for drawing them! * When Meter was started with the NOTITLEBAR option, it stopped updating when a new value was selected from the Show-menu. * Dashboard is a new client which lets you open windows on public screens and create any number of all kinds of meters (CPU usage, free memory, SANA-II, VMM, Device I/O, etc.) on each window. Everything is congigurable. * ALoad, ALoad3D, Meter and Top now have invisible drag-, close-, depth- and size-gadgets if the system gadgets have been disabled with NOTITLEBAR or NOSIZEGADGET option. * Added a Scan-button to the Tasks-section of ExecutivePrefs. It will scan the system for tasks in the Magic Wand list. * Added Amiga-Oberon interface for SysInfo.library. Thanks to Thomas Igracki, . * Error requester windows are now opened on the screen where the client's window is, not on default public screen. * Fixed a bug that caused an Enforcer hit when Top was started with the STDOUT option. * Removed some unnecessary GUI-generation code. Timer and the GadTools versions of Commander and ExecutivePrefs are now a bit smaller. * GadTools versions Commander, ExecutivePrefs and Timer now use the screen font for the GUI, not the system default font, which is always non-proportional. The system default font is still used for listviews. * Added a checkbox to ExecutivePrefs[_MUI]'s task-edit window, which is used to choose if task's nice-value should be set to the given value or if parent task's nice-value is used. * MUI V3 is now required by all MUI-based clients. * Added Croatian (Hrvatski) catalog. * It's no longer necessary to give the JOINLONELY option with THRESHOLD in Sa, as it will be set automatically. * Sa displayed "NaN0.00%" for CPUTIME% if total CPU time was 0. * Executive server and Acct now support PatchControl. * Dashboard, Meter and Top use "vmem.library" to get virtual memory statistics from GigaMem. It seems that there are other libraries with the same name, and these of course aren't compatible. By default these clients don't try to open the library, unless the VMEM option is given. * Added JUNK and FORCE options to Sa. These are used to strip garbage from the summary files. * Fixed a bug in Meter which caused values to disapper if the window didn't fit on the screen after "Show graphs" was selected. * If a new task is added in ExecutivePrefs and the task name is too long, the name will be cut and an asterisk "*" added to the end. * Fixed a refresh error in ALoad. * When the server or a client is started from CLI, errors will now be shown in a requester if the output is directed to NIL:. * Meter didn't save device names into SHOW-tooltype with the "Save config"-command. * Meter now adds volume names to the Diskspace-submenu, as well as devices. Volume names can also be used with the SHOW option. New options NOVOLUMES and NODEVICES are used to disable volumes or devices from the Diskspace-submenu. * If Timer couldn't create an app-window, one signal bit wasn't freed. * ALoad, ALoad3D, Commander, ExecutivePrefs, Meter, Timer, Top and Uptime now open the AmigaGuide document asynchronously when Help-key is pressed or when "Help" is selected from menu. * Executive can now use the power LED to indicate when a task is running. The new option, LED, enables this feature. * The three bars in ALoad3D are now of different size. The thickest bar is the 1 minute load average and the thinnest bar represents 15 minute load average. * Fixed ExecutivePrefs[_MUI] filerequester. When a preferences file is opened with the Open... menu, the file name will be correct in the Save as... file requester. * Reduced memory usage of the server and all clients by almost 4KB by removing one atexit()-command from the code. * Uptime's window is a now a bit wider, it should be of correct width now. * Ps now has a new option, STATUS, which displays the same CLI processes as the AmigaDOS Status command. * ExecutivePrefs now warns the user about the IGNORE-type, as it really shouldn't be used. It's there for a very few buggy programs only. NOSCHEDULE should be used instead. * Lots of changes in Meter: - Graphs can be individually turned on/off by double clicking the value. - The SHOW command line option or tooltype can be used to specify if a graph should be displayed for a value. Just add a "-" after the value name. For example: SHOW=fast,total-,cpuusage-,uptime - If labels, numbers and bars are turned off, only a graph is displayed. - The window can now be drawn without the standard window border (BORDERLESS) and put behind all other windows (BACKDROP). - Frames can be drawn for the window (WINDOWFRAME) and for individual values (VALUEFRAMES). - Space between window frame and value frames can be set using SPACEHOR and SPACEVER options, and space between the values can be set using the BETWEEN option. * ALoad (not ALoad_MUI), ALoad3D, Top and Uptime are now commodities and support Stefan Becker "screennotify.library". * ALoad, ALoad3D, Meter, Top and Uptime now open a window on the default public screen, if the specified public screen is not found. * If ALoad's window was resized before it could redraw itself after an earlier resize, size after the first resize was used. * It's now possible to account ALL tasks with Acct, not just CLI commands or programs started from Workbench. This is enabled with the new ALL option in Acct. * If signals were used for notification in SysInfo, RemoveNotify() crashed when it tried to reply to unused notification messages in the message port, which isn't allocated if signals are used. * Acct now supports all versions of WBStart. Programs started with it are properly accounted. * By default, the maximum priority for a task to be catched is now +1, it used to be +2. So tasks with priority +2 or higher are not scheduled automatically. Dynamic range is now from -70 to -50, this lets tasks which use approximately the same amount of CPU time to be round- robined with the same priority. * The SIMPLE scheduler was TOO simple, so I removed it. If you're currently using this scheduler, please use the preferences program to change the scheduler. The install-script automatically changes the SIMPLE-scheduler to FEEDBACK during installation. * Added a new "QUEUE" keyword to the Ps-client. When QUEUES or FEEDBACK scheduler is used, this shows task's run queue. * It's now possible to schedule a group of tasks so that their relative priorities are maintained. This is done with the new RELATIVE option, that is used together with CHILDTASKS. There are some applications that use multiple tasks which are expected to have certain priorities. Please read ExecutivePrefs documentation on how to use this option. * Added ExecutiveAPI, a simple, easy to use application programmers interface to some Executive features. The most important feature is the ability to control task scheduling without having to add entries to Executive.prefs file. * Meter and Uptime no longer disable interrupts while calculating number of users logged in (MultiUser). This caused hardware overflow errors in serial transfer. * Disk usage bar in Meter displayed free space available on disk, now it displays how much diskspace is in use, which is more logical. * If SysInfo.library exists in LIBS:, it will be updated. Otherwise user will be asked if the library should be installed. * Added "About MUI..." menu item to all MUI-based clients. * Fixed some backgrounds in Commander_MUI and ExecutivePrefs_MUI, they are now user configurable. * Improved/redraw most of the icons. * New option in Top, CURRENT, displays current CPU usage instead of recent CPU usage. * Top's window now has a size gadget, if the SIZEGADGET option is given. * New option, SCALESTEP, in ALoad[_MUI] controls which scalelines are drawn. If SCALESTEP is 3, every third scaleline is drawn. * ALoad[_MUI], ALoad3D and Top now have a BACKDROP option which makes the window a backdrop window that is always behind all other windows and can't be depth arranged. * Executive is now a commodity. Scheduling can be disabled/enabled using a commodities exchange program. Stat-client displays if scheduling is disabled or enabled. * Lots of changes in Magic Wands: ADDED: FinalWriter, XiPaint, MagiC64, BlitzBlank, DeluxeMusic, DreamTerm, SwazBlanker, MultiCX Blanker, Garshneblanker, Termite. REMOVED: Blanker, Flying Toasters!, Midnight, Rotor. CHANGED: BServer - Schedule blankers with nice-value +20. Garshneblanker - Schedule blankers with nice-value +20. DesktopMAGIC - Schedule the blanker task with nice-value +20. Brilliance - Recoqnize TrueBrilliance also. MultiCX - The correct task name is "MultiCX". MCP - Recoqnize MCP020 also. WBStart Handler - Recoqnize V2.x also. * Added labels to Magic Wand listview. * Added a small interactive tutorial to the AmigaGuide documentation. It takes you through some Executive features and clients. There's now a small "Boxes" program in the Extra-drawer, which is used by the tutorial. * Updated the Meter screenshot. * The documentation has been enhanced, lots of new information has been added. * There are some applications that support Executive through SysInfo.library, added a list these to the Clients-section of the documention. * Price drop from 120 SEK -> 100 SEK (Swedish krona), other currencies unchanged. * Australian (20 AUD) and Canadian (20 CAD) dollars are now accepted. * Postal Money Order is now accepted. * Executive can now be properly installed on systems that are running a utility which converts standard Amiga pathnames to UNIX pathnames, i.e. "/" becomes ":". Normally the "/" refers to parent directory. * The install-script now asks the user if he's using some of the applications which require a special configuration for Executive. The selected applications are automatically added to Executive preferences. * Executive now defaults to using timer.device instead of CIA-B timer on 68020+ systems. The install-script will change CIA-B timer to timer.device (which uses CIA-B). * Numerous small bug fixes and improvements. CHANGES FROM OTHER OLDER VERSIONS !!! =========================================== Changes made after V2.00beta: * Dashboard no longer asks for confirmation when meters are cut. * Fixed a bug in Dashboard: if load average was higher than 1.0, then the first line for a load average graph was too high. The display wasn't divided. * The Install-script didn't work with new versions of Installer, English was always used and no catalog was installed. * Fixed a small vertical alignment bug in Dashboard's text-type meters. * Hopefully Executive now works correctly with PatchControl. * Dashboard and Top now work properly with sysihack and similar programs. * Fixed a CHIP memory leak in Dashboard's bar-type meter. * Fixed a small memory trashing bug in ExecutivePrefs. This occured during first installation of Executive, when initial preferences file was written. * Because of an odd-address error Dashboard couldn't save the preferences when running on 68000. * Stat displayed "Total used CPU time" instead of "Total idle CPU time". * Now clients that have a window will always display error messages on windows, other clients display errors on windows only when started from Workbench. * There's no default SANA-II device name on Dashboard anymore. * If Dashboard couldn't remove its DoIO() and SendIO() patches when quitting, ScreenNotify was turned on and screens couldn't be opened or closed anymore. * Dashboard's round-type meters now work on a CyberGraphX display. * If Meter used borderless window, the size was calculated incorrectly. * Added Norwegian and Italian translation. REACH A NEW VERSION ======================== If you want to be informed when a new version of Executive is released, please send me your email address. Registered users are automatically added to the mailing list. Copyright © 1995-96 Petri Nordlund. All rights reserved. petrin@megabaud.fi - http://www.megabaud.fi/~petrin ... rYAN^cOSMIC/aMBIENT