*** TOPIK Note : The executable program is called Autopics2.  Also found in
this directory is suffixer2 (for adding suffixes), showham, show and Ushow.
The last three programs are for viewing picture files.  You will also find
the C source file for Autopics, called "Autopics2.c".


AUTOPICS  by  Nick Ruppert  5-22-87
 will call your viewing program to display all the pics in a directory
 having the user-specified extension (such as .pic or .ham).

 In essence, any picture viewing program will become a slideshow without the
 bother of a script.

 It will now default to uShow and .pic.

USAGE: autopics [viewing_prog] [extension] [start (optional)]

It is no longer necessary to type in all the filenames nor to prepare a
script file to view your pics.  Find a program to display the pics and
add a suffix to differentiate them from other files and to separate
different formats.  Use AUTOPICS along with your viewing programs, and
all the pictures with the indicated extension will cycle through once.

Copy your pictures to a disk or directory in the order in which you wish
them shown.  (LIST will show the current order.)  Autopics will start with
the first pic in the directory unless you specify a starting picture name.

[Viewing_prog], [extension], and [start] must be one-word (no spaces) names,
but case is unimportant.

For example, if you had both nudes (suffix ".npic") and regular pics (suffix
.pic) in the same directory, cd to the directory, and then:
   [autopics uShow .pic] would just show the reg pics,
   [autopics uShow .npic] would show just the nudes, and
   [autopics uShow pic] would show everything.

To stop viewing a picture and cycle to the next, do whatever your viewing
prog requires to QUIT. (For uShow, the spacebar or a mouse click -- for
Showham, pull down the screen and close the window).  To end the program
prematurely, a properly timed CTRL-C will work, or simply remove the disk.

I am very impressed with uShow and have made it a default along with ".pic".

   For questions & comments, I can be reached thru
   PSA BBS (sysop Dorothy Dean)
   414-278-5390

Additions for version 2...

Amiga wildcards (? & #?) can be used for the optional starting filename, but
not for the [viewing_prog] or [extension], which still must be typed in full
unless utilizing the defaults.  (This is because I am using Manx functions
which would be too much trouble to rewrite).

You can now specify the optional start without typing all the args by using
"s=" as a prefix to the [start] (which must be the last arg).  Thus,
"autopics2 s=k#?" would default to "uShow" and display the first ".pic"
starting with "k".

Suffixer2 will save some effort by automatically adding the suffix of your
choice.  Version 2 will also remove a suffix (for instance, if you want to
change .iff to .pic).

Nick Ruppert  5/23/87