Test reports

4. Software test: Multi preferences »MainPrefs« (by Uwe Pannecke)

The Configuration center of the Amiga

MainPrefs by Martin Elsner

1. Program description

Some days ago, a program announcement that promised to help all those "system administrators", appeared on the "amiga-news.de"-news ticker [1]. Martin Elsner described his free program "MainPrefs" as a tool flow system configuration. It includes functions to manage assigns and environment variables, to edit configuration files and to use preferences editors from one central point.

That sounds interesting, and so we will take a closer look at MainPrefs in the current version 2.05.

2. System requirements

The author says nothing about hardware requirements, so "MainPrefs" should work with all systems. So it is even more astounding that the minimum software requirement is Amiga OS 3.5. The reason is simple: MainPrefs uses the ReAction-GUI that was introduced with OS 3.5.

3. Installation

You have two options: either you use the included install script after downloading [3] and unpacking the archive, or you just copy the whole directory anywhere on your system.

If you want to get rid of the program again, you only need to delete the directory.

4. Program usage

The included documentation is short and succinct, but understandable and includes everything you need to know to use this program. The author explicitly warns you about the risks of careless experimenting with environmental variables and the "startup-sequence" - not without reason. You should know what you are doing before editing these files.

MainPrefs can be started from Shell as well from the Workbench.

The main window shows four tabs for the four types of files you can modify: "Assigns", "Files", "Programs" and "Variables".

Furthermore, you can define the standard editor, save changed preferences and load the help file. The latter function did not work initially. SnoopDos quickly showed why: MainPrefs looks for Multiview either in C: or its own directory. But neither is the case on the standard installation. Usually, Multiview resides in the "Utilities" drawer. If you copy the program to one of the aforementioned directories, the help file appears upon pressing the "Help" key.

4.1 Assigns

The tab "Assigns" lists all logical devices that are currently assigned. You can scroll around in this list, and modify, add and delete assigns. If an older assign already exists, you can choose either to add the new assign or to overwrite the old. You can also choose if you want to attach the assign to a path name, so that with removable media the assign is carried over to the new medium; or to use the option "DEFER" to activate the assign only if the "device" is accessed. Note that the newly defined or modified assigns are only temporary. If you want them to survive a reboot, you must save them permanently, for example in the "user-startup".

4.2 Files

And this brings us to the next tab: Martin Elsner already has included the two central configuration files, "startup-sequence" and "user-startup", into the "Files" lists. You can easily add further files. After double-clicking one of those listed files, the standard editor you have configured before starts up with this file and you can start editing.

So far, so good. But if you try to remove all of the files from the list, MainPrefs will punish you with a crash (reproducible) that brings down the whole system.

4.3 Programs

A little scared, we moved on to the "Programs" tab. By default, you find here some programs from the "Prefs" drawer. Similar to "Files", you can add files (not only from inside "Prefs"), give them an informative name and start them by double-clicking.

Unfortunately, this tab suffers from the same deadly bug described in "Files".

4.4 Variables

Many programs put global variables into "ENV-Archive", which then can be found in the "Env" directory on the RAM disk during a session. You can also maintain these with MainPrefs.

That displays the variables themselves as well as their contents. If a subdirectory exists, you can go down it with a mouse click. Of course, you can go up again (UNIX-like).

A button loads the variables from the directory "Env-archive", which is located inside "Prefs". Not all variables can be edited, even if they are displayed by MainPrefs.

You should be especially careful here. You can accept the changes you've made either temporarily for the actual session by pressing "Use" or store them permanently with "Save".

5. Result

MainPrefs is an interesting concept. The program offers a central point for configuration and manipulation of the most important system and program parameters. The program philosophy is well thought out and makes intuitive handling possible.

Unfortunately, MainPrefs requires the ReAction-GUI, which means that users of Amiga OS versions prior to 3.5 are unable to use this helpful program. A pity. A few bugs dull the positive impression. The "repairable" help function may be acceptable, system crashes during the usage of the program are clearly not. As soon as Martin Elsner fixes these problems, MainPrefs is a fine and recommendable piece of Amiga software.

Uwe Pannecke <Uwe.Pannecke@t-online.de>«