MANUAL FOR 'MENUTS VERSION 1.74a'... COPYRIGHT This manual Copyright (c) M. van Aalten / DBPP, Inc. and DBPP software Cor- poration, 1985, All Rights Reserved. This document may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable form without prior consent, in wri- ting, from DBPP software Inc. This software Copyright (c) DBPP software Corporation, 1985, All Rights Re- served. The distribution and sale of this product are are intended for the use of the original purchaser only. Lawful users of this program are hereby licensed only to read the program, from its medium into memory of a computer, solely for the purpose of executing the program. Duplicating, copying, selling, or otherwise distributing this product is a violation of the law. DISCLAIMER THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS ASSUMED BY YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU (AND NOT THE DEVELOPER OR COMMODORE-AMIGA, INC. OR ITS DEALERS) ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. FURTHER, COMMODORE-AMIGA DOES NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE, OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OF, OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF, THE PROGRAM IS TERMS OF CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS, OR OTHERWISE; AND YOU RELY ON THE PROGRAM AND THE RESULTS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. IN NO EVENT WILL COMMODORE-AMIGA, INC. BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY DEFECT IN THE PROGRAM EVEN IF IT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME LAWS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIABILITIES FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY. ============================================================================ The above piece of text was found at the first page of the manual from 'AmigaBasic', and therefore should be ignored by anyone reading this. (I think I broke a copyright.) Thanks to ETO of CCCP for this great idea! The program may be copied as much as you like. I would be pleased if this manual and the example 'list'-file is copied with it. If you want, ask as much money for this program as you like. I hereby give all of you permission to sell it. But, all copyrights are MINE! If you paid for this program, or for this document, bad luck! There were ways to get this one for free... but it's to late to cry now. About 'Menuts': Menuts is supposed to be a user-friendly (?) selector-program, which might even replace your favourite workbench. It shows the user a window with a number of gadgets. Double-clicking on one of those gadgets will start the desired program(s), or reveal a new window with new choices (submenu). Also, it has a built-in screen- and mouseblanker. At the time writing, there are already >5< registered users! History of 'Menuts': It was first programmed as a harddisk selector for HAWK of Sanctuary. He liked it, and being an obeying programmer, I improved it to his needs. At that time, I was a floppy-user and therefore disliked Menuts. Now that I have bought a harddisk myself, I improved Menuts for MY needs... How to use 'Menuts': First, create a 'list' file for Menuts, with all the gadget&file info. Place it in your favourite 'S:' directory, the 'S:Menuts/' directory or the current directory. Execute Menuts, and everything should work fine now. You get a window with a number of gadgets: 1) A window close gadget. In case you get tired of 'Menuts'. 2) A window 'zoom' gadget. (ONLY on Kick2.0 and higher!) Resizes Menuts-window to sleep-size. 3) A window to back/front gadget(s) Guess what it does... 4) A slide bar. When you have defined more gadgets in your list file than the window could handle, you can slide through all the gadgets. 5) A 'parent dir!' gadget. Only found in a submenu, this is the last gadget under your own created gadgets. Doubleclicking leads 'Menuts' back to the last menu. 6-65535) User defined gadgets. These gadgets look just like text strings, max. 12 chars. Doubleclicking one of these probably executes a program. For example, if you have a gadget reading 'PowerPacker', doubleclicking it will hopefully execute the (legal?) version of PowerPacker. I can't promise that, because YOU have to define it in YOUR list-file! The last line of the Menuts-window is a status-line, with memory info and a clock. How to create a 'list'-file: With a text-editor: TxEd, CEd, MeMacs, Ed, Etc. The format of a 'list'-file: The first list-file must be named 'Menuts.List'. This is the file that the program will search for when it is executed. It defines the gadgets you will see immediately when the window shows up, and should therefore contain your most used programmes, and possibly some sub-menus. A list-file is divided in three parts: - First, an option-part, where you can specify specific specifications for Menuts, like X/Y position and its size. - Then, on a fresh, new line, a '#' character, indicating that the next part will follow. - The second part defines all the gadget-names. Every line is for one gadget, in the order left to right, top to bottom. Every name can be max. 12 chars long. The names will not be centered (yet). Names longer than 12 chars will be truncated. Example: " DefPack " "PowerPacker" "AsmOne V1.24" "More Choice" - After that part, another '#' line must follow, to indicate the start of the last part: - The last part specifies what to execute for every gadget. "DH1:Utils/DefPack" will execute that program for the first gadget. Use the '|' character to specify multiple executes: "Type DH1:Utils/pp.copyright|DH1:Utils/PowerPacker_V4.6b|Format DH0:" will type a copyright notice, then execute powerpacker, then format your harddisk. Use the '*' character as the first character on a line to execute all programmes on an output-window. You probably won't need it, but here's an example: "*Type DH0:Utils/Bugreport.txt|DH9:Virus/AsmBugOne" The output-window is sometimes needed with programmes that use Shell I/O, for example the defpack cruncher. Use the '#' character to specify a submenu: Menuts will restart with another list-file! You will get an extra gadget, 'Parent Dir!', which will get you back to the last menu. This can also be done by pressing the RIGHT MOUSE button. An example: "#DH0:S/Menuts/SubMenuts.list" Of course, any filename and any directory can be specified. The 'Options' in a list file: In the first part of the list-file, you may specify the following options: (everything between brackets is the default value for that option) .XPOS ddd The x-position of the top-left point of the window. [-128] Negative values are relative to the right-side screenborder. .YPOS ddd The y-position of the top-left point of the window. [10] Negative values are relative to the bottom screenborder. .XMAX dd The maximum number of gadgets on one line. [1] .YMAX dd The maximum number of gadgetlines in the window. [10] .NOFLASH d When the Menuts-window is active, and you press a key, the [0] window is deactivated. A warning-flash is given, to indi- cate that you have lost a character. By specifying this option, you tell Menuts that you do not like those flashes. d=0 : warning flashes. d<>0 : no warning flashes. .SPEED dd The delay (in seconds) for the status-bar to change. [3] .MOUSEWAIT ddd The delay (in seconds) for the mousepointer to blank. [5] (of course only when seconds no key/mouse/drive activity!) ddd=0 : no mousepointerblanking. .SCREENWAIT ddd The delay (in seconds) for the screen to blank. [60] (of course only when seconds no key/mouse/drive activity!) ddd=0 : no screenblanking. .NOPOINTERCLEAR d Normally, when keyboard activity is detected, 'Menuts' [0] will blank the mousepointer, so you won't be bothered with that irritating little bitch anymore. With this option, you can stop 'Menuts' with that blankaction. d=0 : pointerblanking allowed, d<>0 : not allowed. .NOKEYSTUFF d With this option, you can disable all keyboard function [0] of 'Menuts'. Functions described later. d=0: Keyboard functions enabled, d<> : disabled. .POPUPKEY c You can specify the popupkey: Control + Left-Amiga + c, [m] where 'c' is the specified key. Shifted keys are not supported, unknown characters will be converted to 'm'. Default popupkey: CTRL+LeftAmiga+'m'. .AUTOCENTER d If you want the gadgettexts to be autocentered, d<>0. [1] If you want to center them by hand, d=0 An example list file is hopefully supplied with this document. It shouldn't make it much clearer. Keyboard functions: - Pop-up key: With 'Control+LeftAmiga+"m"' , 'Menuts' will be activated, the window and screen where 'Menuts' is on will be pushed to the front. The popupkey can be modified with the '.POPUPKEY' option. - F1 - F10 and Shift F1 - Shift F10: These will activate the functions of the first 20 user-gadgets, if defined. There is no difference between double-clicking or the corresponding function key. - Parent-key: (backspace) With 'backspace', 'Menuts' will go one submenu back. There is no difference between double-clicking the parent dir gadget or pressing the backspace key. Hints'n'Tips: I think it is smart to have the window positioned at the right side of the screen, just one gadget wide, and right under the window-to-back/front gadget of the Shell-window. That way, it won't be in your way, but is available when you need it. Note from HAWK / SANCTUARY: I've been using Menuts for just about as long as I've had my harddisk and found it a very useful utility. It much is faster than the regular workbench because you don't need to load all those irritating icons. Unlike Speedboy I prefer to have Menuts full-screen width, because then I get more gadgets on the screen without having to use the slider. Some Hints'n'Tips from me: - if you do not own a harddisk, then get one! - if you do not own a harddisk, copy the submenu's to ram: in your startup-sequence if you find that reloading them from floppydisk takes too long. - if you have Menuts take up the whole width of your screen then don't use too may lines. It will prevent you from seeing any useful output in the CLI window. - DO NOT close the CLI where you've started Menuts from, Menuts needs the CLI for output. - use RUN to start any programs which do not release the CLI after execution. This way you can start another process from Menuts. If you don't Menuts will wait for the CLI to be released before accepting your selection. The author and his contact address: M. van Aalten Almalaan 2 3431 GX Nieuwegein Holland I used to be called 'Speedboy', until I dropped my handle. That's it, and that's that! Have fun! =========================================================================== Program History, starting from 'Menuts V1.50a': V1.50a: Follow up to V1.40, but I don't remember what the improvement was. V1.60a-d: - Removed bugs in the auto-runback code. - Menuts forced to Topaz-8 font. (might have some effect on the rest of your system though... :-) - Used the Kick2.0 function for the sleep-mode. Sleep-mode not available on pre-2.0 kickstarts... - Window size relative and user-definable. - Slider bar introduced. - Info-bar, with memory & time info. - More options introduced, needed for the user-definedwindow size. - probably a lot of bugs removed, with a lot of small improvements. V1.62a-d - Removed the extremely silly way for executing programmes, which caused some shell-commands not to function properly. (thanks to ETO-CCCP) V1.70a - Added mouse/screen blanker, with more listfile options. V1.70b - Screen would blank to background color instead of black... bug fixed! V1.70c - Replaced the DMA-way of blanking mouse with a system-friendly solution. V1.70d - When you had 0 bytes chip and/or fast mem, nothing would be displayed... bug fixed! (thanks to the Sourcerer-Sanctuary) V1.71a - Installed all keyboard functions. V1.71b - Changed the popupkey from CTRL+Alt+m to CTRL+LeftAmiga+m. - The popupcharacter can be specified with an option. V1.72a - Gadgets without dos-commands are now unclickable. (KIWI/EFFECT) - Added optional autocentering of gadgets. (KIWI/EFFECT) - When the Menuts window is popupped, it will be 'unzipped' if needed (Kick 2 only). V1.72b - Bugfixed the autocentering function. - Menuts will function properly on the WorkBench (yuk!). For this reason, it is no longer possible to close Shell. - From this version on, Menuts is a Da Bagger Production Posse pro- duction!. V1.72c - Hopefully removed the bug of Menuts blanking screen at startup... V1.72d - Bug removed with the shell being locked when trying to start a second Menuts. (KIWI/EFFECT) V1.73a - When pressing a key, Menuts will be de-activated and shell activated, but from now on without losing the first key into empty space... (thank god!) V1.73b - On KickStart 1.2 systems, removing/inserting disks caused the screen to blank... bug removed. (Carcharoth/SANCTUARY) V1.73c - Hawk-bug of (sometimes) screenblanking at startup hopefully removed in this version (one month testing needed...) V1.74a - Submenus have a different color on screen than the main items. - By clicking on the status-info-bar on the bottom of the window, you can skip a few messages (Handy if you just want to know the time!) - Because I dropped my handle 'Speedboy', 'Menuts' is now an offi- cial 'M. van Aalten / DBPP' production. Buxx known: - I don't feel good about the way I workbenchfixed menuts... Who knows, when the first bug-fix is needed? - Mouseblanker seems to switch mousepointers from different programs now and then... Major thanks to Hawk-Sanctuary, his bug-reports are too numerous to mention seperately...