Documentation: DELUXE PRESED V1.0 --------------------------------- First Looks. ------------ As I said before, I tried to keep the 'feel' of this presed as close as possible to the soundtracker. This resulted in few radical changes from the other preset editors. The following explains these changes. 1. All user input is done via mouse. There is no keyboard input, which, I hope, will make this utility more user friendly !!! The file names are selected from a window just like with CLIMATE, and the file len. is calculated automatically. The other 2 values needed (repeat vals) can be modified with mouse. (Normally these are left as the supplied default values.) File names can be selected at will. This eliminates the risk of producing such files as ".FASTDIR" and "DISK.INFO" with the other instrument files. 2. The disk names MUST be ST-??, but not ST-00. Come on guys, ST-00: is reserved for the songs, so you should not put any instruments on it. But ... the good news is ... you can actually have any alphanumerics in the ST name. (IE. ST-01 ST-99 ST-C1 ST-CF are all accepted.) This will produce a wider variety of ST names !!! NOTE: Alphanumerics are 0 to 9 and A to Z (or a to z). 3. The PLST is sorted in a bit different way, which I'm sure you'll all prefer. The PLST is in fact now sorted in a way that first all ST-01 are listed, then ST-02 etc. This will also prevent you to select an ST-99 by mistake !! The Gadgets. ------------ Well actually I did not use real Intuition gadgets, (in fact I tried to avoid any close encounters with the system as much as possible), but we need a name to refer to the areas where to user must click !! These are in fact 3-D (!) areas in which clicking does some effect. Clicking with every button has the same effect (except the middle button !), but the right one makes things go a bit faster !! Take care when using it on the KILL gadget as it can mess up the PLST. But unless you are a jompa and save this mess, you do not loose your PLST on the disk. Before describing the actual gadgets, lets describe some other small things. Clicking inside the big window (on the top left) IE. the directory window, selects the file on which you have actually clicked. Clicking on a selected file, unselects it. Note that this feature, and the other gadgets associated with the directory do NOT work unless a 'READ DIR' was selected and a valid disk was present. (In poor words , you MUST have some files in the directory window for these gadgets to work !!) The DISK TO RAM gadget, which is the one with the image of 3.5" disk and RAM chip (DRAM of course) also serves to give information of the disk write protect status, whenever the disk is accessed. In fact the disk image shows a write protected disk, or a write enabled disk according to the actual status of the current disk in drive. Cool aint it ?? There are two windows where the program puts information to the user and thus no matter how hard you click on them, nothing happens ! The first on is the small window on the top right corner where the ST name is shown. If a non-valid disk was inserted, then 'NOT ST' is displayed, and when the program is waiting for a disk to be inserted, 'INSERT' is shown. The other window is the window where the currently selected item of the PLST in RAM, is displayed. This window is also used to pass some messages when the disk is accessed. One last thing, the gadgets will be described from top to bottom way I.E. the top ones go first. ------------------------------------------------------------ ARROW UP. --------- Moves the disk directory upwards. ============================================================ ARROW DOWN. ----------- Moves the disk directory downwards (wot else ?) ============================================================ DISK TO RAM. ------------ Adds the selected items from the directory window, to the PLST RAM. The new PLST is sorted, so there might be a pause before PLST is printed. ============================================================ READ DIR. --------- Read the directory of a disk. The disk must be a valid ST-??: disk. NOTE: Directories are not listed in the window, since its hard (very hard) to play a directory as a musical note ! Also the soundtracker can't access instruments in subdirect. (there's no need to) so subdirectories should be left out of this story. ============================================================ CLEAR ALL. ---------- Clears any previously selected directory items. ============================================================ MARK ALL. --------- Selects all the directory items. NOTE: There could be some files on the disk which are not instruments, such as the .FASTDIR which is produced by CLIMATE, or DISK.INFO which is the disk icon. =========================================================== READ PLST. ---------- Reads a previously saved PLST from disk. NOTE1: Any PLST from other preset list editors should give no trouble at all , and thus can be loaded too. But these are sorted in the new way as soon as they are loaded in, so don't panic !! NOTE2: The PLST from disk will take over (thus erase !) any PLST present in RAM. So take care. NOTE3: Disk name MUST be ST-00: ============================================================= SAVE PLST. ---------- Saves the current PLST in RAM to disk. The PLST is sorted, so there could be some pause, before the PLST is shown. NOTE1: This erases any PLST which was present on the disk, so take extra care !! NOTE2: Disk name MUST be ST-00: NOTE3: The PLST is actually saved as 'ST-00:PLST.TEMP' and after it has been verified that there aint no errors the old PLST is deleted and the PLST.TEMP is renamed to PLST. Now why am I telling you all this eh ??? Well, if something goes wrong (EG. Nuclear Bombs, Space Invasion etc.) you can always check for the file PLST.TEMP on the disk. If this is OK you can rename it as PLST and you would not loose your hours (or days !) work with the presed. This feature is included so that if something not-so-wonderful happens, you would not loose your PLST on disk. ============================================================ CLEAR PLST. ----------- Clears the PLST from RAM. This is irreversable, and so think twice, or three times before clicking. ============================================================= MERGE PLST. ----------- This nice feature enables you to link a PLST which is present on an ST-00: to the one in RAM. With a little thought, you can actually link two PLST from two different ST-00: Since the new PLST is sorted there could be some pause before new PLST is displayed. ============================================================= ARROW UP. --------- This arrow (which is situated next to the PLST window) , selects an item which is one position up in the PLST. ============================================================= ARROW DOWN. ----------- This arrow (which is situated next to the PLST window) , selects an item which is one position down in the PLST. ============================================================= KILL. ----- There are many loosers whom I would like to see dead but this is in fact the gadget with the scissors on it ! This deletes the currently shown PLST item. NOTE: It is NOT possible to kill the first item ST-01: coz this is used in the soundtracker to clear any previously selected instrument. ============================================================= ARROW UP. --------- This arrow (which is situated next to the RLEN window) , increments by 1 the RLEN value. ============================================================= ARROW DOWN. ----------- This arrow (which is situated next to the RLEN window) , decrements by 1 the RLEN value. ============================================================= ARROW UP. --------- This arrow (which is situated next to the REP window), increases by 1 the REP value. ============================================================= ARROW DOWN. ----------- This arrow (which is situated next to the REP window), decreases by 1 the REP value. ============================================================= QUIT. ----- The big window on the botton of the screen, is in fact used to exit the program. NOTE: The PLST in RAM is NOT automatically saved, and thus it is lost when you quit the program ------------------------------------------------------------- The Bugs. --------- There could be some bugs lurking around in the program, and I would be very happy, if you let me know under which conditions any bugs occured. I've got a great debugger (called BAYGON) which I spray on disks with bugs in them. I have actually seen roaches and ants die with this very powerful debugger. 1. The pointer turns to the default when disk is not in drive, and the drive is accessed. This probably occurs due to the system requester which is not seen by user. Is it possible to disable all the system requests ? 2. If by some unlucky chance the workbench screen is not opened as PAL the program will not work properly, since the pointer cant be taken below the 200 the pixel. 3. Make sure that the joystick autofire is off. 4. It is best to keep the system pointer as found on 101 DISK #3. 5. Sorry to Amiga owners with memory expansions. Version 2.0 will be released VERY soon.