@database @node MAIN @title "FLAGS 2.0" @{fg shine} FLAGS 2.0 (5/6/98)@{fg text} by Vic E Babes in Blitz Basic 2.1 First release. @{fg shine} Contents last updated 30/5/99@{fg text} @{"Legal stuff " link Legalities} : Distribution/Disclaimer/Requirements. @{"What " link What} : is it? @{"Notes " link Notes} : about the source code. @{"Adding Topics" link Topics} : how to add new topics. @{"Credits " link Credits} : for Commodities Library. @{"Rainbow Islands" Link RI} : VERY IMPORTANT!! @endnode @node RI @title "FLAGS 2.0" @{fg shine}Rainbow Islands@{fg text} I got a @{fg shine}4th@{fg text} rainbow on Rainbow Islands - April '98. @{fg shine}@{"Cool..." link MAIN}@{fg text} @endnode @node Legalities @title "FLAGS 2.0" @{fg shine}Distribution:@{fg text} Do what you like with it. @{fg shine}Disclaimer:@{fg text} I accept no responsibility if it causes any damage to you or your machine. @{fg shine}Requirements:@{fg text} Blitz Basic isn't required, but it would be pointless without it - well, no, actually it wouldn't. @{fg shine}@{"Okay..." link MAIN}@{fg text} @endnode @node What @title "FLAGS 2.0" @{fg shine}What is it?@{fg text} A Help Commodity for Blitz programmers. Ever find yourself in the middle of typing a command, such as Window, or GTGetAttrs, and needed to know the value of a certain flag? Or wanted to know the rawkey-code for a certain key? Had to turn the light on to read the manual? Then Flags is the program for you. Simply press "LAlt, LShift" and "f" and up will pop Flags. In fact if you double click its icon now, and then press the above key-combo, you can look at Flags whilst reading this. Flags will pop-up onto whichever screen you are on at the time (it doesn't check these screens so don't try it in a paint package!), and will list, in button form, the following topics: Quit to quit Hide to hide Screen Flags Lists flags for Screen command Screen Tags Lists ScreenTags tag values Window Flags Lists flags for Window command IDCMP Flags Lists IDCMP flags Gadget Flags Lists flags for Gadget command Gadget Tags Lists tags for GTGet and GTSetAttrs Type Sizes Lists byte-sizes of types InitCopList Flags Lists flags for InitCopList command Interrupt Types Lists Interrupt types Req Flags Lists flags for ReqFileRequester RawKeys Lists RawKey codes Test Keys a routine that displays the character, ascii Rawkey, and Qualifier codes for any key or key-combo that you press. $# Commands Not In Help a list of string and variable operators that are not listed when you click the Library option - i.e. - if you're looking at 'Chr$' in the Help window, and then click on Library to see associated string commands - these ones won't be there - useful when you can't remember the name of that string command you want. CX Events Lists the events sent by exchange when a commodity event has taken place. MenuItem Flags Values for flags used in menu items. Printer Stuff Values for printer operation Joystick/Joypad CD32 button values + JoyR values Guru Meditations Taken from Amiga Format Misc stuff Pokes for changing background colour useful for checking that the program is entering certain routines in Blitz mode Click on one of these buttons, and a window will appear with the stated information - so click on 'Window Flags' and the window will display info. on the Window Flags, etc. The only different one is, Test Keys, which will bring a little window up that will display information about any key/key-combo that you might do, until you close it. Click on "Hide" to make it disappear again. Some of this information is available from the online help (if you know where to find it, but another thing about flags is you can keep the information window on Ted whilst typing your command. Highly-useful, if you're a Blitz programmer - though most of the flags are pretty global as far as the Amiga is concerned, so should be useful for any language. @{fg shine}@{"So that's what it is..." link MAIN}@{fg text} @endnode @node Notes @title "FLAGS 2.0" @{fg shine}Notes@{fg text} I've included the source so that you can make changes/add topics etc, just follow the advice in this guide - see the section @{"Adding Topics" link Topics}. Feel free to modify/improve the source - this was one of my first programs designed to make future programming easier. If you want to change the "Hotkey" that brings Flags up, you'll also have to do that in the source, just do a 'Find' "SetHotKey" and change the string to the key-combo you want. I could probably have written a routine to read the icon, but this would have added to its size. There is very little in the way of error-checking, as I wrote it for myself, and know my system - but if you're a Blitz Programmer, you shouldn't have any trouble altering it to suit you. The gadgets are created and deleted each time you call Flags - this was for technical reasons that I won't go into, but feel free to alter the code to suit yourself. @{fg shine}@{"I'll look at the source code then..." link MAIN}@{fg text} @endnode @node Topics @title "FLAGS 2.0" @{fg shine}Adding Topics@{fg text} There are four program labels that will take you to where you need to be to add new topics: @{fg shine}.numtops@{fg text} Will take you to the #numtopics constant which you should increase by however many topics you are adding - this will sort out the topic gadgets/window size automatically. @{fg shine}.select@{fg text} Will take you to the end of the case statement that decides which button you clicked - simply add a new statement with the next available, followed by your , i.e. @{fg shine}Case@{fg text} : @{fg shine}restore@{fg text} @{fg shine}.datatitles@{fg text} A list of Data$ to which you should add your topic title at the end - this will be displayed in the topic button, i.e. @{fg shine}Data$@{fg text} "Topic Name" @{fg shine}.enddata@{fg text} will take you to the end of the data statements so that you can add yours, which should be in the format: .YourDataLabelName ;as specified in the case statement @{fg shine}Data@{fg text}.b n ;number of lines of data to follow @{fg shine}Data@{fg text}$ "your topic text" ;followed by the data itself @{fg shine}Data@{fg text}$ "etc......... ;unless you resize the window width ;you shouldn't go past column 55 in Ted You can also include @{fg shine}Data@{fg text}$ "x" which will cause the next line to be printed in white - @{fg shine}DON'T ADD THIS LINE@{fg text} to 'Data.b n' - the loop that prints the text ignores this "x". It will crash if you do - be warned. Warning! on a 271 high screen, I can get upto 30 lines - any more than this and the program will crash, because it doesn't check that the window can fit on the screen - so if you need to display more information than will fit, think about making the window wider (window 1), and having longer lines. That's it. Hope you find it as useful as I do - I've got ToolsDaemon launching flags automatically when I launch Blitz. @{fg shine}@{"So that's how I add new topics..." link MAIN}@{fg text} @endnode @node Credits @title "FLAGS 2.0" @{fg shine}Credits@{fg text} Thanks to Reflective Images for RICommoditiesLib in Blitz Basic 2.1 which made this possible. Though I should add that if anyone is trying without success to get Ted to recognize @{fg shine}"SetStatus"@{fg text} as a command - my version of Blitz (2.1) had a .obj file that was not the same as the .obj file created when making an executable of RICommoditiesLib.bb. I had to create a new .obj file by compiling the .bb file, and then running MakeDefLibs.bb again. One other thing - there seems to be a bug in the commodities lib, because it doesn't free up all of the memory when quitted - I have found that the usefulness of the program makes up for the amount of memory I may lose in a session - I don't know if there is an updated version of the RICommoditiesLib that has sorted this. *UPDATE* Now that Fred (of AlphaSound) has done NCommandSet, with a new commodity library, I may do a new version of this program, and will replace this version on Aminet. @{fg shine}@{"I'll check that then..." link MAIN}@{fg text} @endnode