AlertPatch 3.5 Documentation

Copyright (C)1992-1996 David Swasbrook, All Rights Reserved.

[ Disclaimer | Shareware | Requirements | History | Index ]

AlertPatch enchances the Exec.Library Alert() function - now when your Amiga crashes you no longer get an old fashioned, un-informative flashing box with un-intelligible numbers and letter, but you get a friendly point-and-click window popping up that should decipher some of the jargon of the older style GURU's. The original version was written way back in 1992 and it has not changed much since its original conception, although just recently its has been re-coded in C.

There is a variety of information provided at the time the alert is displayed:

Please remember that AlertPatch is Shareware and that any contributions received are greatly appreciated and will be used to further the development of this and many other productions.

There is an AlertPatch Support Page located at "http://www.ait.ac.nz/~swaz/Amiga/AlertPatch.html", where announcements and new versions should become available.

Disclaimer

 AlertPatch is supposed to be a replacement function for the exec.library/Alert function. Operations of this type are always risky, as when an alert occurs the system is in an inconsistent and/or defective state.

I hereby reject any liability or responsibility for these or any other consequences from the use of AlertPatch whatsoever. This includes, but is not limited to, damage to your equipment, to your data, personal injuries, financial loss or any other kinds of side effects.

Although AlertPatch has been tested thoroughly on several different machines, I cannot rule out the possibility that AlertPatch

It is your responsiblity to take any precautions necessary to protect yourself from these or any other effects. I explicitly reject any liability or responsibility from the consequences of you using AlertPatch.

Shareware

 AlertPatch is SHAREWARE this means I request those users, who use AlertPatch, to send me the shareware fee of 10 US$ (or any other contributions gratefully accepted). The program may be freely distributed and copied, as long as the following conditions are fulfilled:

Requirements

 The following are required for AlertPatch to run:

Libraries

Matrix.Library (V25)

 General purpose routines which are commonly used throught my programs. Some of the key features are the GUI, preferences, and IFF routines. The name "matrix" came from "The Matrix" - The computer system used by the TimeLords (Re: Dr Who).

SwazConfig.Library (V3)

 Provides routines to easily maintain configuration files, not to be stored as binary structured data but in a text based format. My config files may now be edited with a simple text editor.

Author

My real name is David Swasbrook but pretty much well everyone calls me Swaz. I have lived my entire life in New Zeland and have been programming Amigas since sometime around 1991, and plan to keep programming them for some time to come!

Quite often I will be hanging out in Internet Relay Chat (Undernet mostly) in #Amiga channel under the nick of Swaz.

You can find me on the World Wide Web at "http://www.ait.ac.nz/~swaz/" or if I have moved you might be able to get me via "http://www.pobox.com/~swaz/".

Electronic Mail may be sent to me at "swaz@ait.ac.nz", or for some strange reason if that fails you could try "swaz@pobox.com".

If you would like to send me some mail the old fashioned way, my mailbox is:

David Swasbrook,
PO Box 54134,
Bucklands Beach,
Auckland,
New Zealand.

SegTracker

 Copyright © Michael Sinz, All Rights Reserved.

A global tracking utility for disk loaded files including libraries and devices. If placed in the startup-sequence right after SetPatch, it will track all disk loaded segments (other than those loaded by SetPatch)

SegTracker can be found as part of the Enforcer distribution by Michael Sinz.

MultiUserFileSystem

 Copyright © Geert Uytterhoeven, All Rights Reserved.

You've got an Amiga with Kickstart 2.04 or higher and several people are regularly fooling around with it ... Last week your sister deleted your 20MB JPEG collection by mistake and you don't want this to happen again ... Well, here's the answer: MultiUser!

MultiUser allows you to create a *IX-like environment where several users live together in harmony, unable to delete each others files, unable to read those private love-letters of other users ... And this even if several users are working on the machine at the same time (on a terminal hooked up to the serial port) ...

You are the sole user of your computer? Well, make sure it stays that way by installing MultiUser! People without a valid login ID and password won't be able to access files you have made private with MultiUser. If you make all files private (not readable for others), the only useful thing they could do, is boot from a floppy ...

And ... you do not have to reformat your hard drive!

Interface Window

Configuration Window

 This is where you can configure AlertPatch to your own preferences. You can get to this window from the Main Interface Window by selecting the Configure button.

The following options are currently supported:

Alert Window

 [Picture of an Alert Window]

Continue Button
The continue button allows task that caused the alert to continue doing whatever it was doing. If you do this on a DEADEND alert then you may find that the task will cause some serious problems and you will end up rebooting.

Suspend Button
The suspend button simply puts the offending task to sleep. This is achieved by calling the exec.library function Wait() with a NULL for the signal mask. This effectivly stops the task from causing any more harm than it has done already.

Reset Button
The reset button will reboot using the exec.library function ColdReboot().

ARexx

 AlertPatch has an ARexx port named "ALERTPATCH" supporting the following commands:

Sounds

 AlertPatch will play sounds through a Sound Daemon such as MSD or UPD. These add an Arexx port to the system called "PLAY" and the following sound id's are sent to the port:

Acknowledgements

Contributors

Thank you to the following translators:

Thank you to the following who have sent in suggestions and bug reports:

Also thanks to Osma Ahvenlampi for designing the MagicWB icon.

I'm sorry if you have contributed and you name is not in the above lists. I try to reply to all email so if you have sent me some mail and not received a reply then it is more than likely that my mailer sent it to NIL: accidentally.

ToolTypes

 AlertPatch accepts the following ToolTypes (Or Command Line Arguments):

History

Index
Documentation written by David Swasbrook.
Last updated on Sun Feb 4 12:47:08 1996