CoPilot 1.0 demo ------------------ This demo has been provided so you may evaluate CoPilot at your lesiure. You are not obligated to register for using this demo program. But if you like the features CoPilot has to offer, and wish a fully functional version, you will have to register in order to receive it. CoPilot was developed using: Aztec C68k compiler vers. 3.40a, Copyright (C) 1987, Manx Software. Lint for the Amiga vers. 2.00j, Copyright (C) 1987, Gimple Software. MicroEMACS vers. 3.9e, Copyright (C) 1987, Daniel M. Lawrence. ** COPYRIGHT NOTICE ** Copyright (C) 1988, by Jack Radigan. All rights reserved. This CoPilot demo is copyrighted and is NOT a Public Domain program. It may not be sold or included, in part or whole, of any product for sale. DISCLAIMER ------------ An honest effort has been made to make CoPilot compatible with the Amiga operating system and the Intuition user interface in particular. Outright bugs or problems inherent to CoPilot will not be ignored and will be corrected when necessary, and if possible, in a timely manner. No other warranties are made nor implied as to the fitness or mechantability of this program. DISTRIBUTION LIMITATIONS -------------------------- Anyone may distribute the demo version of CoPilot provided that any fees received are reasonable and limited to the costs directly releated to media, shipping and handling. Distribution is prohibited for any distribution scheme that charges variable rates according to the contents of each disk. REGISTRATION -------------- In order to receive a registered copy of CoPilot 1.0, fill out the registration form located at the end of this documentation and enclose a check or money order for US $25.00, (US $30.00 outside the U.S. and Canada) send to: J. P. Radigan P.O. Box 698 Mays Landing, NJ 08330 I also plan to install a BBS in mid-spring 1988. Registered users will be able to receive updates through the BBS or by sending back your original disk with SASE envelope. Enclose a check or money order for US $5.00 if you do not include a disk. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS ----------------------- CoPilot may be used on the Amiga 500, 1000 or 2000 series of computers. Kickstart 1.2 or greater, with a minimum of 256k of memory is also required. CoPilot occupies approximatly 80k of memory when loaded. This does not include any memory for user defined macros. STARTING COPILOT ------------------ CoPilot can be started from either Workbench or the CLI. You can also start it during the execution of the Startup-Sequence file when you boot your Amiga. Workbench users who wish to start CoPilot this way must use the program RunBack to start it. I have included it with the demo program in case you don't have it. Workbench users who start CoPilot, or any program with RunBack, must not exit that program or you will guru the Amiga. This is because the CLI that it was started from no longer exists. TIME-OF-DAY DISPLAY --------------------- This display shows the current time in either 12 or 24 hour format. In addition, free memory may also be displayed. The display also indicates when the timer, record or playback functions are active by using certain characters on either side of the time display. KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS ---------------------- All references to keys are made with the usage "". The term "hotkey" refers to a CoPilot fucntion that is permanently bound to a specific key combination. A "keyboard macro" or "macro key" refers to a key combination that is defined by you. These macros can either record all mouse and keyboard activity or can contain text strings only. CoPilot has several hotkeys which control itself and the Amiga display. All hotkeys are presented in the format "", both keys must be pressed simultaneously in order to activate the hotkey's function. The designations "L-" and "R-" refer to the left and right version of the specified key. The reference to "AMIGA" is for the command keys located inside of the two ALT keys. The majority of Amiga keyboards have what are known as "open" and "closed" Amiga keys, while some of the keyboards on the 500 and 2000 machines use different logos. GADGET CONVENTIONS -------------------- All of the gadgets in CoPilot windows may be selected by either using the mouse or pressing the key of the first letter for the desired gadget. CoPilot gadgets also subscribe to a set of conventions that are detailed as follows. Selection gadgets are rectangular with rounded corners, there are two types, represented by the colors white and red. (Workbench red...) The white gadgets either select a function or change windows within CoPilot. The red ones represent caution since their function will produce permanent results that cannot be recovered from. For example, the "Load" and "Save" gadgets in the macro editor will change your macro definitions PERMANENTLY. The next class of gadget is a circle that may or may not have a dot inside. These are toggle buttons that indicate the state of the feature the gadget represents. The dot, when present, means that the feature is currently active. Another indicating gadget is a rectangle with square corners. They have a red border and red text on a black background. These gadgets show what the current mode is, selecting it will change modes. The last special gadget is the cursor gadget, it is bound to the cursor key it represents. Currently, these gadgets are used in the Macro Editor to navigate through each macro definition. String gadgets in CoPilot will activate automatically during editing of macros. You can also activate a string gadget by simply pressing while the window is active. Also, each sub-window within CoPilot has a gadget labeled "MENU" that will return you to the main menu if it is selected. COPILOT HOTKEYS ----------------- The main hotkey is the combination. It will either open the main menu or, if one of CoPilot's windows are already open, will re-activate it. If it is not visible, or partially covered, it will also be moved to the front. This includes cases when the window was opened on a screen that is now covered by another screen. Another hotkey, the sequence, deals with bringing the time-of-day display to the front screen. Attempts at making the pop-up feature of CoPilot work across screens would occasionally cause the Amiga to guru. So, I have removed that portion until Commodore develops some sort of "screen locking" that will prevent closing a screen until all tasks that may be using the screen have released it. The display hotkey gives you the added responsibility of moving CoPilot to another screen BEFORE closing the current screen. Otherwise you may get a visit from the guru... DISPLAY MANAGEMENT HOTKEYS ---------------------------- CoPilot provides you with a set of hotkeys that control the Amiga's display in a very flexible manner. Both of the keys listed must be pressed simultaneously to activate the desired function. HOTKEY DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Moves the front screen to the back of all screens. - Moves active window to the back and activates the next window in the window list. If the window is partially covered by another window then it will be moved to the front of all the windows present on the screen. - Activate the next window in the window list. - Bring the active window to the front of the screen. - Close current window if it has a close gadget. - Moves pointer to the lower right corner of screen. This is not the , it's the key on the keypad. Now for a few notes concerning the window hotkeys. First, the activate-next and window-to-back hotkeys will not work if the current window has a string gadget active. Several windows may seem to pop up and back when you use the window-to-back hotkey after a new window(s) has been opened. This is because windows, unlike screens, are not maintained in a true front to back order. After using this macro a few times CoPilot will have re-arranged the windows so that this will not happen again until more windows are opened. You may also occasionally notice that all of the windows seem to be inactive after using the window-to-back and activate-next hotkeys. What actually happened is a "backdrop" window is now activated. Backdrop windows always stay behind all the other windows, so it will never pop to the front. Most backdrop windows also lack a title so you can't tell that is active. Two good examples of backdrop windows are the Workbench screen and the MicroEmacs editor on the Extras disk. MAIN MENU ----------- CoPilot's main menu currently has six selection gadgets and the red "Exit" gadget. One of the selections, "Auto Pilot", is not implemented yet. The "Date" gadget will display the day and date for four seconds when it is selected. The "New CLI" gadget will start a CLI for you, the current directory it will inherit, will be the current directory that CoPilot was started from. It also lacks any paths that have been added/changed after CoPilot has been started. The three other selections, "Quick Timer", "Settings" and "Macro Editor" are described in detail below. QUICK TIMER ------------- The Quick Timer has two modes of operation, one is an elapsed timer and the other is an alarm timer that counts down to zero from a value set by you. The elapsed-time mode can be started only while the timer is reset. To start the elapsed timer, select the gadget labeled "Start/Stop". While the timer is counting, regardless of which mode is active, astrisks will be appear on both sides of the time display. Selecting the "Start/Stop" gadget once again will cease counting and a pair of dashes will replace the astrisks. The "Timer Display" gadget is turned on when the Quick Timer window is first opened. If you activate the timer and do not turn off this gadget, the timer will continue to be displayed after you close the window. The gadget labeled "Add 15 min." lets you quickly set the alarm timer. Each time it is selected, 15 minutes of time are added to the alarm count. After the desired time is set, select the "Start/Stop" gadget to start the alarm counting down. When the alarm times out, CoPilot will open Quick Timer and three beeps will sound every second until you select the "Reset Timer" gadget. The string gadget labeled "Set:" enables you to enter any time value you want. To activate the gadget, simply press then enter the time in the following format: HH:MM:SS CoPilot requires you to enter the colons so that it can distinguish between hours, minutes and seconds, leading zeros are not necessary. The minutes and seconds entries can not exceed 59. The hours entry has an upper limit of 99 hours. The following are all valid entries as far as CoPilot is concerned. 39:37:20 - 39 hours, 37 minutes, 20 seconds. :10: - 0 "" 10 "" 0 "" ::20 - 0 "" 0 "" 20 "" After you've entered the time, you must select the "Start/Stop" gadget to begin the alarm timer. If the time entered is an illegal format or the time requested is outside the range of 99:59:59, you will be informed by CoPilot with a message requester. KEYBOARD MACROS ----------------- Each of the 46 alpha-numeric keys located in the main portion of the keyboard can have up to 6 macros defined. This is accomplished by using "qualifiers" which are two key combinations of the , and keys. The three qualifiers are: or or So, each key can have 3 macros defined for the un-shifted key and 3 more for the shifted version. This gives you a total of 276 keyboard macros. You may find it convienent to use your left hand to control the qualifier and shift keys while using your right hand to press the desired macro key. ADDING NEW MACROS ------------------- To define a new macro, you first set the "Qualifier" gadget to the combination that you will use for the macro. Then select the toggle gadget labeled "New". Remember, you can select a gadget by pressing the key of the first letter of the gadget you want. After you actvate the new-macro mode the string gadget labeled "Key" will activate, the character you enter here determines which keyboard macro you are going to define. After entering the desired macro key, the gadget labeled "Type:" will change color indicating that you are to select the macro type. By pressing you tell CoPilot that you want a string macro. If you select the "Type" gadget, by mouse or by pressing , you will instruct CoPilot to record this macro. If you press before entering a character in the key string gadget, you will activate the screen-editor mode which allows you to create a string macro using a screen editor. You can exit the new-macro mode by turning off the "New" gadget or by pressing until both "New" and "Edit" are off. ADDING LINES TO STRING MACROS ------------------------------- After pressing in response to the "Type:" gadget, the gadget labeled "Add line" will turn on and the edit string gadget will activate. This indicates that you are in the add-line mode. This mode is used for both making new macros and for adding lines to an existing macro. The edit string can have a maximum of 132 characters, but can display only 35 of them at any one time. In case you want to abort any changes you've made while editing, use the -Q sequence. If you want to clear the string gadget, use the -X sequence. Both of these are standard Intuition features for string gadgets that have "undo" buffers attached to them. When you are finished with the line of text, press . This adds the line of text to the macro you're working on. The gadget will clear and reactivate again so that you can add another line of text. When you've finished entering the text you want, press while the string gadget is empty. This will turn off the add-line mode and, if you are in new-macro mode, re-activate the key string gadget so that you can create another macro. ENTERING CONTROL CHARACTERS ----------------------------- Since Intuition string gadgets do not allow you to enter control characters, a method of entering them has been provided for you. By preceeding a character with a '^' character, CoPilot will interpet it as a control character. For example, the sequence "^m" will be interpeted as a . The sequence "^[" will be interpeted as an key. To include the '^' character itself, use the sequence "^^". Be aware that pressing only enters that string into the macro definition. It will not become part of the macro, if you need a , you must include the "^m" sequence as described above. EDITING STRING MACROS ----------------------- Several options are available to you for editing a string macro that is already defined. First, set the "Qualifier" gadget to the correct combination for the macro you wish to edit. Then, use the left or right cursor keys to scroll through the macros until the macro key you want to edit is visible. If the line you wish to change is already visible in the edit string, all you have to do is press to activate the string gadget. Edit the string and press when finished. If the macro contains more than one line and the string you want to edit is not currently displayed, use the up and down cursors to find the string you want to change. Press to activate and edit as above. If you want to add a one or more lines of text to the macro, turn the "Add line" gadget button on. Pressing in an empty line will turn off the add-line mode. If you need to insert a line of text somewhere in the middle of the macro definition or wish to add lines at the beginning of the macro, activate the "Insert line" gadget. Like the add-line mode, pressing return on an empty string will turn off the insert-line mode. The inserted line(s) will be placed ahead of the line that was displayed when you activated the insert line mode. MACRO QUICK-FIND ------------------- The edit string always activates after pressing , but by pressing twice in a row you will activate the key string gadget. You are now in quick-find mode which, by entering a key, will search the macro definitions and display it if found. A message requester will inform you if it is not defined yet. USING A SCREEN EDITOR ----------------------- The button gadget labeled "Edit" allows you to use a screen editor for creating and changing string macros. Instead of the "Type:" gadget lighting up, you will be placed in the default editor for the Amiga which is "Ed". You must follow the same conventions for entering control characters as described above. You can also use the screen editor to modify a string macro by selecting the "Edit" gadget when the macro you wish to edit is visible. When you leave the screen editor, the entries you made will be translated by CoPilot and attached to the macro key. If you decide to exit the editor with the abort command, the macro will be unchanged. If it was a new macro, CoPilot will remove it from the macro list. All null lines will be deleted when the edited file is converted to a macro. Include a space if you want the line to remain. RECORDING MACROS ------------------ Selecting the "Type:" gadget while in the new-macro mode will open up a requester in front of the Macro Editor. This requester lets you enter an optional description of what you're about to record and toggle the mouse-movement-record mode. The button gadget "Record mouse movement" enables you to record actual mouse movement while either mouse button is pressed. Be careful though, this feature can generate an awful lot of data very quickly! It was included for completeness of the record function, but will probably be rarely used. If you select the "OK" gadget or press after entering the description string, both the requester and the Macro Editor will close. You will now be in record mode, which is signified by the two question marks that appear in the time-of-day display. From this point on, all key and mouse button presses will be recorded by CoPilot. It also records the time that has elapsed between each event so that it can play back the macro accurately. When you are finished recording, you notify CoPilot by pressing both keys simultaneously. The question marks will disappear and the Macro Editor will re-open with the key string gadget active so that you can add your next macro. The double shift key sequence can also be used to cancel the playback of a recorded macro at anytime. Two exclamation points will appear in the time-of-day display while a recorded macro is being played back. At the present time, there is no method of editing or appending the recorded data in a macro. You must remove the macro from the list and then re-record it if you want it changed. One last word on recorded macros before moving on. If the operation that you're recording causes a disk access, say, loading one of the libraries from the system disk, make sure you record the macro prior to having the library loaded. Otherwise, the correct time delays will not be recorded. This will cause the macro to get out of synch if the library has to be loaded during playback. If you want to record one long demo of a program that you want to show people, make sure that the same disks are used if any disk access is required. Using a different disk may throw off the playback timing and leave you a bit embarrased. DELETING MACROS ----------------- The gadget labeled "Remove" will delete the whole macro that is currently displayed in the key string. The gadget labeled "Delete" will delete line that is visible in the edit string. If you delete the last line of a string macro, the whole macro will be removed too. The labels "Remove" and "Delete" were used so that full keyboard usage could be achieved, hope it doesn't throw you off too much at first! LOADING AND SAVING MACROS --------------------------- The "Load" and "Save" gadgets will affect the file "CoPilot.macros" in the SYS:s directory. No file will be created unless there is at least one macro defined. COPILOT SETTINGS ------------------ The Settings window provides eight toggle buttons that control some of the features within CoPilot. When you first start CoPilot all but two of the buttons are on. Each function is described below. Normally, the Amiga rapidly flashes the display for a brief instant when either an error occurs or when a -G character is sensed. With CoPilot, you now have the option of sounding a bell instead. This feature is controlled with the "ASCII bell" gadget. The "Free memory" gadget will display chip and fast ram that is currently available. The display will remain on until this gadget is turned off again. The gadget "Time mode 24" will display the time-of-day in 24 hour format. This format displays hours, minutes and seconds. The "Screen saver", when active, will turn off the Amiga's display after five minutes without keyboard or mouse button activity. This feature prevents the phosphor in your monitor from being burned out. To turn the display back on press any key or mouse button. This event will be trapped so that the active window does not receive it. The "Gadget offset" deals with the clock display. When active, the display is posistioned to the immediate left of the depth gadgets. When off, the display will be placed to the extreme right of the title. "Enable macros", when active, allows CoPilot to send keyboard macros. This was added in case the macros intefere with another application that you're running. The same goes for the "Hotkey enable" button. The last button is the "Display pop-up". When it is active, the clock display will pop to the front of the current screen it is attached to whenever it is covered by another window. As described above, this feature will not move the clock to another screen when the screens are changed because of the possibility of a guru happening. WINDOW POSISTION MEMORY ------------------------- When any CoPilot window is opened, it will be centered on the front screen. If you drag the window to a different location, CoPilot will retain this posistion so that the window will re-open at the same place again. If you change to a screen that has a different horizontal or vertical resolution, the window posistion will be reset to the center when you open the window again. ERROR HANDLING AND MESSAGES ----------------------------- All soft errors are reported by a requester with an "OK" gadget and an optional "CANCEL" gadget. When just the "OK" is present it is an informational error that has no impact on CoPilot or the Amiga. When the "CANCEL" gadget is present, you are given a choice to go ahead with the function you selected, or you may cancel that function without any further incident. Dead-end errors that prevent CoPilot from continuing are handled via Alerts in order to allow full compatibility with Workbench. These are recoverable alerts so no system reset will occur after you press a mouse button. You can test this by trying to run CoPilot again with another CoPilot already running. COMPATIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS ------------------------------ CoPilot maintains full compatibility with the Amiga 500, 1000 and 2000 computers by examining the active keymap when it first starts up. This is necessary because there are a few minor differences between the keymaps of the three machines. For this reason, you cannot change keymaps once CoPilot has loaded. Our European cousins will be happy to know that CoPilot is fully compatible with all the keymaps on the Workbench 1.2 disk and that dead-keys are fully supported too. Be aware that using macros recorded on one style of machine might not work as expected on another machine. String macros will not be affected, only recorded ones. DEMO PROGRAM LIMITATIONS -------------------------- "Ed" is the screen editor that the demo CoPilot calls, the registered version will allow you to call the editor of your choice. The demo version of CoPilot will only save the macros assigned to keys <1> through <0> with the qualifier, and only if they are string macros, no recorded macros will be saved. The demo will clear all macros that are currently defined when a new macro file is loaded. The registered version will not effect macros already defined unless a new definition is contained in the macro file. This allows you to have seperate macro files with special definitions for each application you use. The registered verison of CoPilot also provides redirection of the directory for the "CoPilot.macros" file by using an assignment with the AmigaDOS Assign command. The hotkey and macro toggle gadgets will be turned off after 30 hotkeys or macros have been used. To activate them again you will have to use the mouse to turn the hotkey toggle gadget back on. FEATURES NOT YET INCLUDED --------------------------- The following features described below are currently under development. Some may not be included in the version you receive after registering. You will be notified when future versions including these features will be released. Macros do not yet have the capability of calling or "nesting" other macros. If you trigger a macro while recording another macro, all output from the macro will be recorded too, instead of just the macro key sequence itself. Provisions for instant screen blanking will be provided as well as varing the time before blanking occurs. Keyboard lock-out with password protection, it will have the ability to engage automatically if the screen blanks, or can be activated immediately. An Auto Pilot facility is currently being designed. It will enable you to trigger macros or execute AmigaDOS commands and/or batch files at programmed time intervals. Due to the recent outbreak of virus-like programs that "infect" disks, a provision for running a program everytime a disk is inserted is under consideration. Other possibilities currently under evaluation are not discussed here because it's uncertain if they will be included in a future version of CoPilot. Feel free to submit any suggestions you may have to enhance CoPilot. Try to stay away from features that would be best served as seperate tasks. One that comes to mind, and has been played to death, is the ever popular directory utility. COMMUNICATION --------------- I can be reached through the following services. BIX - jradigan GEnie - JRADIGAN CompuServe - 76545,201 The W.E.L.L. - jrad Please leave me e-mail if you have any problems or have found any bugs. I ususally call each system once a week to check for e-mail. If you see a message from me on a BBS then you can try to reach me there too. CoPilot 1.0 Registration form, release 880215 Name:___________________________________________________________________ Address:________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Signature:___________________________________________ Date:_____________