@database randanim.guide

@node "Main" "No title"
Amiga Browser Animation Randomiser

  By Daithi O'Cuinn (docuinn@cluke.demon.co.uk)

     Version 2.01 - Freeware ©1999

@{" Description " link "desc" 0}
@{" Requirements " link "req" 0}
@{" (Un)Installation " link "inst" 0}
@{" Configuration " link "config" 0}
@{" FAQ " link "faq" 0}
@{" History " link "hist" 0}
@{" Future " link "fut" 0}
@{" Contact" link "auth" 0}
@endnode

@node "inst" "Installation"
Installation:

Easy as pie - Unpack archive, and put the RandAnim program wherever you want!
However, you will need to @{"configure" link "config" 0} some Tooltypes before you can run it.

**WARNING**

Whever you run RandAnim, it will overwrite your default transfer animation, so it
might be wise to copy it somewhere first. Of course, it will always exist
on your original browser install disks, so you can get it from there.

@endnode

@node "req" "Requirements"
Requirements are simple.

OS3.0
IBrowse (v1 or 2), Voyager or AWeb
One or more transferanims (I really recommend >1 or running this program is
a bit pointless! ;)

And that's it!
@endnode

@node "faq" "FAQ"

Q: Something weird has happened to my browser! There is no anim / anim is all junked!

A: You've either put a non-anim in your anim dir and left CHECKPIC=NO, or
used a non-compatible anim. Anims are not totally interchangeable between
browsers, for example AWeb's default will not work with IBrowse. You can
fix this by setting the POPUP tooltype in the RandAnim icon to YES, and
using the GUI to remove the culprit, or to start the browser with a
selected anim you know is compatible.

Q: How do I see what anims I have installed?

A: Set the Tooltype POPUP=YES, or press any key when the initial RandAnim
window appears.

Q: How do I install a new anim?

A: Just drag it into the dir specified by the tooltype ANIMDIR.

Q: What?! You use tooltypes to configure a CLI program?

A: Yes. There was a bit of a discussion of comp.sys.amiga.programmer about
the aesthetics of this, but I decided to do this because the CLI arguments
are passed on to the browser so the 'RandAnim' can be used in any
situtation that the 'IBrowse' (or whatever) command is. So you can do
	RandAnim http://www.amigacentral.com
and it will work.

Q: It doesn't work with IBrowse?
A: Due to the name of the transfer anim being changed between versions 1 and 2,
you need to be sure to specify IBrowse1 in the tooltypes if you are using the older
version.

@endnode

@node "hist" "History"
History:

v2.01
 Those crazy guys at Omnipresence like to keep us guessing - they changed the
name of the transfer animation for version 2 of IBrowse.

v2.00 
 Rewrote the whole shooting match in C, added a GUI, added multi-browser
support. Basically, only the name remains the same!

v1.04
 Fix - Correct icons were not being copied across.

v1.03
 Fix - Some anims do not come with icons (although they should!) and so the
start-up script would display an error whenever running. It would run OK
anyway, so this is only a cosmetic fix. Thanks to Jim Maciorowski for
pointing this out.
 Changed icon for script to something more aesthetically pleasing ;)

v1.02:
 Fix - Script did not copy the anim's icon as well so non-standard anims played
wrongly. Silly. Thanks go again to Nicolas Negretti for spotting this.

v1.01:
 Doc as guide instead of txt.
 Added information on how to suppress the output window, saved original file
name as comment in new anim file (thanks to Nicolas Negretti for these
suggestions)
 Minor improvements.

v1.0:
 First public release.
@endnode

@node "desc" "Description"
This archive contains a program that allows you to start IBrowse, Voyager
or AWeb with a randomly selected transfer animation.

It has a GUI which allows you to delete animations, view animations, or 
start your browser with an explictly selected animation.

It can also easily be uninstalled - just delete the program!

All configuration is done by tooltypes.

This is simply a wrapper program - no part of the browser's distribution is
(permanently) changed (aside from the default animation, but the nature of
the program means it's kind of hard to avoid doing that!). 
No patches are applied.
It should work with any version of the browsers - unless anyone can tell me
different?

@endnode

@node "fut" "Future plans"
Future (maybe):

Support any new browsers...

Well, all the other suggestions I had here in the V1.0 guide have now been
implemented - perhaps you can come up with some more?

@endnode

@node "auth" "Contact"
This program is freeware, but I would appreciate a mail if you use it! Also,
some nice icons for the programs would be appreciated.

    docuinn@cluke.demon.co.uk
@endnode


@node "config" "Configuration"
You can start the program form WB or CLI, but either way all configuration is 
done via tooltypes, and the relevant tooltypes are as follows:

ANIMDIR
	This is the directory in which you hold all your transferanimations.

BROWSER
	This is the browser you use. It must be one of the following:
		IBrowse
		IBrowse1
		Voyager
		AWeb
	IBrowse is default if nothing is specified
(The IBrowse tooltype means version 2 of this program is assumed. 
If you are still using an older version (v1.x) you MUST specify IBrowse1.)

BROWSERPATH
	The directory in which your browser resides. Do not include the browser
program itself in the path!!

BROWSERNAME
	You probably won't need this, it's just if your browser program has
been renamed to something non-standard. The program assumes that IBrowse is called
IBrowse, AWeb is called AWeb, and Voayger is called V. IF you have
something different (e.g. Voyager is called V030) then you will have to set
the tooltype to match.

POPUP
	Set to YES if you want a GUI to pop up when you run the program. You'll
probably want to set this to NO, as you can invoke the GUI by pressing a
key when the RandAnim window opens.

CHECKPIC
	If this is set to YES, then datatypes will be used to make sure any
transferanim really is an picture, and not some other sort of file. Best
set this to YES, unless your animation dir definitely only has anims in it.
(Don't worry about subdirectories or .info files)

QUIET
	If set to YES, the usual RandAnim window will not open, so you'll not
even know it's running. It'll still be doing its stuff though.

VIEWER
	The viewer that the GUI will invoke to display anims for you. Defaults
to SYS:Utilities/Multiview.

@endnode