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*************************************************************************** * * * * * --- KingCON 1.3 --- * * * * --- User Documentation --- * * * * --- Copyright © 1993,1994 David Larsson --- * * * * * *************************************************************************** ========= Preface ========= The program and files in this distribution are freely distributable, but are also copyright (c) David Larsson. They may be freely distributed as long as no more than a nominal fee is charged to cover time and copying costs. No commercial usage is permitted without written permission from the author. Everything in this distribution must be kept together, in original unmodified form. The above is generally known as freeware. Please contact me if you have any comments or suggestions: E-Mail: f92dala@dd.chalmers.se Mail: David Larsson Gibraltarg. 82:150 S-412 79 GÖTEBORG Sweden ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ! KingCON needs Kickstart 2.0 or better to run. ! ========== Contents ========== 1. KingCON compared to CON 2. Installation 3. Editing 4. Filename- command- and device-completion 5. Review-buffer 6. Menus 7. Iconifying the window 8. Options when opening the console-window 9. To do ============================ 1. KingCON compared to CON ============================ The WB2.0 console-handler - CON: - is really good, but it lacks some very handy features that make life easier if you use it a lot. KingCON (or KCON) is a replacement that behaves EXACTLY like CON, but it also adds these important features: * Filename completion. You just type the first letters of a filename, press the TAB-key, and - voilà! - the rest of the name is filled in for you. This makes typing MUCH faster and minimizes frustrating misspellings. KingCON has many options that let you control the operation of this function. Maybe you prefer it window-oriented, UNIX-like or something else. DOS-commands and devicenames can be completed in a similar way. Some of you might say that the Shell should provide this function instead, but since all editing is managed by the console-handler anyway, this is only natural. And as a "sideeffect", the filename- completion will be available AT ALL TIMES - not only when you are standing at the shell-prompt. * Review-buffer. A scrollbar in the right windowborder lets you browse through all text that has been output to the window at any time. (Very useful when your compiler spits out ten pages of errorlistings.) The buffer can be turned on and off, and saved to a separate file. * Intuition-menus that give you a quick access to the features mentioned above. You can control the size of the window, clear it etc. * Default settings can be stored in an environment-variable. * Jump-scroll option, which increases output speed a lot. * The console window can be iconified and put on the Workbench as an AppIcon. The window also has a special icon in the titlebar to quickly iconify it. * Asynchronous typeahead, if you want to type in the next command while watching the output from the previous one. * Workbench icondrop is supported. * You can have the current directory displayed in the windowtitle. * The mouse can be used for positioning the cursor on the input line. * The text can be any (non-proportional) font you like. Topaz 44 is a killer. * The command-history buffer eliminates identical lines, the window is positioned more intelligently etc. Please note that KingCON does NOT patch CON in any way, it is written completely from scratch. There is a way, however, to mount KingCON as 'CON:'. In this way, every program that uses 'CON:' will actually be using KingCON and all the good it stands for.:-> Of course, this is optional. KRAW: is a replacement for RAW:, and is very similar to KCON:, except it doesn't have any line-editing. See some DOS-documentation for details about the differences between CON: and RAW:. ================= 2. Installation ================= Simply run 'Installation' by double-clicking on its icon. The install-script does the following things: * Depending on which processor you have, 'KingCON-handler' or 'KingCON-handler.020' is copied to L:. Once copied, it is always called 'KingCON-handler'. * 'KingCON-mountlist' is copied to DEVS: * 'KCON:' and 'KRAW:' are mounted. * Optionally, the necessary Mount-commands are added to s:user-startup. They are: Mount KCON: from DEVS:KingCON-mountlist Mount KRAW: from DEVS:KingCON-mountlist When KCON: is installed and mounted, you can try it (at last!) by typing the following in a shell-window: Newshell window KCON: or: Echo "Yes it is!!" >"KCON:////Is this happening?/FONT topaz.22/WAIT/CLOSE" (Make sure you get those /'s right!) Mounting KCON: as CON: ---------------------- When KingCON is installed, the DOS-devicename for it is 'KCON:' (and 'KRAW:' for the unbuffered version). If you want that all your shell-windows you open should be KCON-windows, you just change the WINDOW-ToolType of the Shell-icon to say KCON: instead of CON:. (See your Workbench-documentation.) But in this way, you will only get a KCON-window if you start a new shell by double-clicking on the Shell-icon. Furthermore, some programs have their own console-windows and won't let you change them from CON: to KCON:. (Real3D v2.0 is one example). What you need is something that makes every reference to 'CON:' actually lead to KingCON. This is done by mounting 'KCON:' as 'CON:' instead. BUT, this is normally not possible, since 'CON:' (and 'RAW:') are mounted before the startup-sequence is executed. This is the solution: * Add these lines BEFORE the Mount-commands in the user-startup: Assign CON: DISMOUNT Assign RAW: DISMOUNT * Change the Mount-commands to: Mount CON: from DEVS:KingCON-mountlist Mount RAW: from DEVS:KingCON-mountlist Now when you boot, every console-window should be a KingCON-window. There is no need to have a special KCON: or KRAW:-device. Enjoy! !! WARNING !! Before you try the above, PLEASE make sure that the normal installation was successful and that you can mount KCON: and KRAW: when rebooting. Make sure that you follow the steps carefully. If something for some reason goes wrong after the Assign-DISMOUNT-commands, you won't have any console at all. A very frustrating situation if you must start your favourite text-editor, in order to correct the mistake, from the Shell... Remember that you have the Workbench-menu "Execute command" as a final rescue! ============ 3. Editing ============ Note: Everything said here is only true for the "cooked" KCON-console. KRAW is "raw" and has no editing capabilities. Also, if you have specified the ASYNC-option, things will work a bit different from what you may be used to. See the end of this section for details. 'KCON:' is probably most often used as output for the Shell, but editing works the same if it is a program's private AREXX-console, for example. Even the filename-completion is identical. I assume some experience of the editing used in 'CON'. Most things are identical, the exceptions from this are marked with a (!). These keys are used for the line-editing: Key Effect --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any "printable" char. Inserts the character pressed under the cursor, shifting the characters right of the cursor one step to the right. Return or Finishes the line and adds it to the history-buffer, Control-M UNLESS it is identical to the previous line. Alt-Return (!) The line is finished and added to the history-buffer, but it is not sent to the command shell. This means that it won't be executed. Control-\ Inserts an EOF-character and finishes the line. This often means that the window is closed, but it's up to the program that opened 'KCON:' to decide. Control-J or Adds a linefeed. Control-Return Right Arrow Moves the cursor to the right. Left Arrow Moves the cursor to the left. Up Arrow Displays the previous history-line. Down Arrow Displays the next history-line. Shift-Right Arrow or Cursor to the end of the line. Control-Z Shift-Left Arrow or Cursor to the beginning of the line. Control-A Alt-Right Arrow (!) Cursor to the beginning of the next word. Alt-Left Arrow (!) Cursor to the beginning of the previous word. Control-Right Arrow (!) Cursor to the next part of a filename. Control-Left Arrow (!) Cursor to the previous part of a filename. Left Mousebutton (!) Moves the cursor to to the position on the input- line that you clicked on. If you click somewhere else in the window, nothing will happen. Note that the cursor is moved when the button is released and that you must not drag the mouse pointer before you release the button. You can still select text to be copied to the clipboard as usual. Backspace Deletes the character to the left of the cursor and shifts the rest of the line to the left. Delete Deletes the character under the cursor and shifts the rest of the line to the left. Shift-Backspace (!) or Deletes the line to the left of the cursor. Control-U Shift-Delete (!) or Deletes the line to the right of the cursor and Control-K puts the characters in a cut-buffer (NOT on the clipboard.) Alt-Backspace (!) or Deletes the word that the cursor is standing on Control-W to the left. Alt-Delete (!) Deletes the word that the cursor is standing on to the right. Amiga-Delete (!) Deletes the word that the cursor is standing on. Control-Backspace (!) Deletes a part of a filename to the left. Control-Delete (!) Deletes a part of a filename to the right. Control-B or Deletes the whole line. Control-X Control-L (!) Deletes the whole line and clears the console. Shift-Up Arrow or Finds the next history-line whose leading characters Control-R match the first characters in the line up to the cursor. Shift-Down Arrow Clears the line and puts you at the end of the history buffer. (That means that if you then press 'Up Arrow', the last line of the history will be displayed.) Alt-Up Arrow (!) Scrolls backwards one page in the review-buffer. See section 5 about the review. Alt-Down Arrow (!) Scrolls forwards one page in the review-buffer Shift-Alt-Up Arrow (!) Scrolls to the beginning of the review-buffer. Shift-Alt-Down Arrow (!) Scrolls to the end of the review-buffer. Amiga-V Inserts text from the clipboard. Control-Y Inserts the characters deleted with Control-K or Shift-Delete. Control-P (!) Repeats the previous word. Control-T (!) Inserts the arguments for the previus command stored in the history-buffer. Control-S Halts the output (if you are listing a directory for example). This could be done by typing any key and then type Backspace to resume output. During filename-completion, the select-window is opened to make it easier to browse through the matching files. See Other selection-methods. Control-Q Resumes output again. TAB (!) Filename-completion. See section 4 for details. Shift-TAB (!) Device-completion. See section 4. Alt-TAB (!) Command-completion. See section 4. Control-D (!) Outputs the files in the directory before the cursor, unless the command-line is empty. In that case it acts like a breaksignal. See section 4 for details. Asynchronous typeahead ---------------------- Normally, when you press a key while a program ('list' for example) is outputting text to the console, the output is halted until you have finished the your input in some way or another. However, if you specify the ASYNC-option, your keystrokes will be buffered while the output is going on and printed on the command-line when the prompt returns. If you start stepping backwards with the arrow-keys or do something else that makes it hard for you to keep track of what currently lies in the buffer or where the cursor is, the output is halted and the buffer is printed on the command line where you can continue to edit it. ============================================= 4. Filename- command- and device-completion ============================================= The idea with xx-completion (or TAB-expansion) is to make typing faster and more accurate. Once used to it, it will be a great help you don't want to live without. Both commands, devices and filenames can be completed in a way that is described below. KingCON's behaviour when several files match your input can also be controlled in detail. An internal directory cache makes the filename completion fast to use, even if you run it on a slow HD with an old filesystem. Filename-completion ------------------- If you want to enter a specific filename (or a complete path), you start with entering the first characters in the filename, then press TAB (or Amiga-F, see section 6). If only one file or directory relative to the current directory matches those leading characters, the rest of the name will be filled in for you. Normally you just enter the first letters of a filename and then press TAB. If many files begin with the same letters, you can also use standard AmigaDOS wildcards to filter out the file you want. For example, if you want a file that ENDS with the characters '.gif', you type '#?.gif' and press TAB. If more than one file matches the characters you typed, by default, a window with a list of possible filenames will be opened. (You can change this behaviour, however. See further down on how to do this.) You pick the file you want by: * Clicking on it and then choosing 'OK' or * Double-clicking on it or * Browse through the names with TAB and Shift-TAB or Up- and Down-Arrows, then press Return. To cancel, you: * Press 'Cancel' or * Close the window or * Press ESC. If you didn't type any characters at all before you pressed TAB (or Amiga-F), an asl-requester will be opened for you, where you select your file or directory. By default, .info-files are not shown. This can be toggled by selecting the menu Complete->Show .info. See section 6. Command-completion ------------------ Command-completion works in the same way as filename-completion. The difference is that not only the current directory is searched, but also all the command-paths. Only plain executable files are considered in the search. If your system has many command-paths, this operation may take a while. Command-completion is activated by pressing Alt-TAB or Amiga-M. Device-completion ----------------- Device-completion is quite simple, and is invoked by pressing Shift-TAB or Amiga-D. All volumes (like 'Workbench:'), assigns ('L:', 'FONTS:' etc) and DOS-devices ('PAR:', 'CON:' etc) are searched for a match. Other selection-methods ----------------------- When more than one file matches what you have typed, you must choose between the different alternatives in some way. By default, KingCON opens a window as described above. Even if this can be fully operated with the keyboard (you don't have to reach for the mouse), you might prefer another way to present the list. The FNCMODE-option lets you set a combination of "flags" that control what KingCON does when multiple files match you description. Each flag consists of one letter, and is typed directly after FNCMODE. The flags and their function are: W - Opens a window with a list of filenames. This is the default. C - The leading characters that are common for all the alternatives are inserted when you press TAB for the first time. An example: Let's say that you have these files in the current directory: KingCON.doc KingCON.guide KingCON-handler If you type 'ki' and then press TAB, the string 'KingCON' will be inserted on the line, because among the matching files, these characters were common. What happens if you press TAB a second time (before pressing any other key!) is determined by the other flags. B - After pressing TAB the first time, subsequent TABs or Shift-TABs browse you through the alternatives, forwards and backwards respectively. An example: Suppose that you have the same files in your current directory as in the first example. You begin with typing 'ki' and then press TAB. The string 'KingCON.doc' is inserted. Pressing TAB again inserts 'KingCON.guide' etc. You can step backwards with Shift-TAB. Pressing any other key than these exits the "browse-mode". Note: This flag cannot be combined with the W-flag for obvious reasons! Browsing through many matching files just using TAB can be quite tedious. You can at any time press Control-S to open the select-window, and you will get more overview. L - Always outputs a list with all the alternatives on the console. S - Silent mode. The display doesn't flash when a completion fails. The real strength with the FNCMODE-option comes when you combine the flags to suite your needs. I suggest that you experiment to see what you like best. Some useful combinations that you should try are: WC - After the first press on TAB, the common characters are inserted. Pressing TAB again opens the selection-window. BC - This mode is very common on UNIX-system. First the common characters are inserted, then you can browse through the alternatives with TAB and Shift-TAB. Note that some combinations are quite useless and very confusing. Only specifying the L-flag will just make KingCON print the alternatives, and that's it. No characters will be filled in for you. A few notes on the completion-functions --------------------------------------- After having read this, two questions come to our mind (?): The first is how spaces in filenames are handled. If you have completed a filename that includes spaces, quotation-marks will be inserted automatically in the beginning and the end of the word (where necessary). Let's say that you want to enter the following path: My Directory/The Manual.doc You start by entering 'my' and then press TAB. The line will look like this: "My Directory/ Now you enter 'the' and press TAB again. The path is now complete: "My Directory/The Manual.doc" Note how one quotation-mark was inserted in front of My Directory and one after The Manual.doc. The path will now be interpreted as one word by the command shell. If you want to match on a string that contains spaces, you must put a quotation-mark in front of the first word before you press TAB: "my dir<TAB> To sum up, KingCON does the following to determine which filename to complete: If the line contains and ODD number of "'s left of the the cursor, the name is taken from the last quotation-mark to the position of the cursor. Otherwise, the beginning of the word is taken from the character next to the first space, comma, or one of ` = < >. (Dot not included.) The second question (remember?) is probably: What is this talk about 'current directories' and 'command-paths'? 'KCON:' is just a DOS-device and has no 'current dir' like the Shell. Is 'KCON:' some kind of shell, or what?? The answer is that KingCON keeps track of which process that opened a KCON-window. Every time you invoke filename- or command-completion, KingCON looks at which directory is the current directory for the process that opened the window. Command-paths are also found this way. If the process that opened the window dies before the window is closed (this could be the case if it is a WAIT-window. See section 8), KingCON keeps the directory that was used last time some kind of completion was activated. Command-paths are lost, though. The directory cache ------------------- Whenever filename- or command completion is activated, the current directory (or in the latter case, a whole bunch of directories) has to be scanned for its contents. On the Amiga, this is an operation that always has taken some time to do, and even with the introduction of better filesystems in OS3.0, the wait for the scan to complete can be quite irritating. The solution to this problem is an (optional) internal directory cache for all KingCON consoles. Basically it keeps track of the contents of a directory when you first activate filename completion in it. The second time you complete something in the same directory, the cache is searched instead, thus avoiding the extensive disk access that scanning a whole directory means. The matching files (if any) will be found in a couple of microseconds, a really big gain in time. NOTE: The directory cache ONLY works with KingCON's filename- and command completion. Other DOS-programs won't be affected at all. The cache is divided in two parts - one for command completion and one for filename completion. The maximum size for these can be set independently (see the documentation for the DIRCACHE-option). The two caches differ slightly in the way they work when directories have to be flushed. Automatic flushing of directories from the cache occurs when you are adding a new directory to the cache, and the memory isn't enough to fit it. This flushing is designed in a way so that it ensures that in the long run, as few directories as possible have to read in from the disk. It is also possible to set which volumes that should be cached and which should not be. For example, you don't gain anything by caching a RAM-disk. Please see the documentation for the DIRCACHE-option on how to set these parameters. An important feature of the cache is that it is shared by all consoles and remains in memory even after all windows have been closed. This saves memory and also reduces the number of times that a certain directory has to be scanned into memory. You can complete a filename in S:, close the console, play a game, open the console again, and if you activate completion in S:, the cache will be searched instead of the disk. There are occasions when a directory has to be scanned in from disk again, even if the cache isn't full. This happens when you have made a change to a file directly under that directory. So, if you are not only reading from a directory, the increase in speed will not always be very big. But this doesn't mean that the cache is useless if you are editing a lot of files in a directory that you also do filename completion in! It quite often happens that you activate completion several times on the same command line. This is probably often the case if you have set the C-flag in the FNCMODE-option. NOTE: Currently KingCON looks at the creation date of a directory when it tries to figure out if any changes have been made to it. This works fine with all AmigaDOS filesystems, but this may not be the case with all foreign filesystems. For example, if you complete a filename in the root of a CrossDOS-partition or -disk and then add a new file to the root, KingCON won't know about this the second time you do filename completion on that partition or disk. The new file won't be considered when KingCON searches for matches. The reason is that the creation date of the root obviously isn't changed on MS-DOS filesystems. If you want to avoid this kind of problems, you shouldn't include CrossDOS volumes in the cache. A typical cache configuration could then look like "DIRCACHE10/10/~RAM RAD PC0/". Dropping icons on the console ----------------------------- Another quick way to insert a filename on command-line is to drag one or more icons from the Workbench over the console window and drop them there. The complete path for the icon, including quotation-marks (when necessary), will be printed. Holding down the Control-key while releasing the mouse-button inserts the pathpart of the filename. (If you have the icon "Work:Stuff/File", only "Work:Stuff/" will be inserted.) Holding down the Alt-key will insert the filename. ("Stuff" in the previous example.) This is only possible if the window was opened on the Workbench-screen. I've said it before, but I'll do it again, for the sake of clarity: KingCON is NOT a Shell, despite of the filename-completion and some other functions. No interpretation of what you type is done. To the programs that use 'KCON:' for input and output, it behaves just like 'CON:'. ================== 5. Review-buffer ================== One of the major differences between a CON-window and a KCON-window is that the latter has a scrollgadget in the right windowborder, that lets you browse through all the text that has been output to it since it was opened. When you have done a long directory-listing and want to go back to take a look at the first files that were listed, you just grab the knob and move it up until you find the place you looked for. The arrows can be used to scroll (approx.) one row up and down. As soon as you type something on the keyboard or a program wants to output something to the window, the "review-mode" is exited and the scrollknob moves to the bottom. This means that if you try to scroll while a file is being Type'd, the text will jump up and down between the position you want to look at and the bottom of the review-buffer. Confusing, maybe, but fully normal. Differences between buffered text and original output ----------------------------------------------------- The text shown in the review-buffer doesn't always look like the text that originally was output to the window. Control-sequences to move the cursor, delete characters etc are not interpretated, which means that some programs that do fancy things to their output won't look that fancy when you begin dragging the scrollknob. This is not a bug, just a sacrifice for speed. :-> The output of LhA will, unfortunately, not look very good in the review-buffer. I suggest that you use LhA's option for simple I/O, -Qa. You won't have any progress indication this way, but at least you will see what files that were unpacked. If you specify the NOSTYLES-option, all textstyle control-sequences will be filtered. This saves some memory and perhaps speeds up output on plain 68000's. The text in the buffer will always be black and white, though. Memory-management - dynamic and static model -------------------------------------------- By default, the memory for the review-buffer is allocated dynamically when something is output to the window. Normally a maximum of 64Kb can be allocated for the buffer before the first lines start disappearing. The MAXBUF-option lets you specify another limit, if you should find 64Kb too much or too little. Don't forget that no memory is allocated for the buffer when the console window is opened, because of its dynamic nature. The drawback with this is that you lose memory for every line you write. This can be frustrating if you are debugging a program to see if it frees all memory when it returns. ('Avail', 'Program', 'Avail', you know.) In those situations, you should disable the review-buffer. A better solution is to make the review-buffer static. Entering a negative value after MAXBUF tells KingCON that all memory for the buffer should be allocated immediately when the window is opened. Note that if all the memory can't be allocated at once, the memory will be allocated dynamically instead. See section 8 for details about MAXBUF. Some notes on speed (68000-owner, read this!) ---------------------------------------------- You may notice that output is slowed down a bit when the buffer is enabled, especially if you have a plain 68000-Amiga. On faster machines, it takes more time just to scroll the window than to manage the buffer, so it shouldn't be a problem there. If you DO find it too slow, there are five things you can do: * Enable the jump-scroll. This can be done with the JUMP-option or by selecting the "Console » Jump scroll"-menu. Output will be fast but maybe a bit jumpy. * Specify the FASTUPDATE-option. The scrollgadget will be updated more seldom, and you will gain much speed this way. I suggest that you try this option before you start disabling the scrollbar completely. * Specify the NOGADS-option. You will still have a review-buffer as usual, but no scrollgadget in the right windowborder. Because the updating of the scrollgadget has much overhead, removing it in this way is probably enough to solve the speedproblem. * Select the "Review » Enabled" menu to disable the buffer temporarily. You will still be able to scroll back to text that was buffered earlier, though. * Specify the NOREVIEW-option. In this way, you won't get any review- buffer at all. * Specify the NOSTYLES-option. The buffered text will only be black and white and you can save a lot of memory this way. Speed is also affected, especially if the text that is ouput to the window has a lot of fancy colors and styles. ========== 6. Menus ========== Specifying the NOMENUS-option disables the menubar. The NOSHORTCUTS- option can be used to remove the Amiga-key shortcuts that some of the menus have. See section 8 for details. The menubar contains the following menus and menuitems: "Console"-menu: --------------- Reset (Z) - Clears the console-window and resets all styles etc. Use this if a program leaves the window in a complete mess. Jump scroll (J) - If checked, output speed will be increased by scrolling the window several lines at the time. By default, jump-scroll is disabled, because it isn't 100% compatible with programs that do their own jump-scrolling, like 'more'. Use the JUMP-option to have this function enabled when the window is opened. Iconify (I) - The console window is iconified and put on the Workbench as an AppIcon. If you specify the NOICONIFY-option, the menu will read "Minimize", and the window will just be as small as possible instead of being turned into an icon. See section 7 for important details about this feature. Normalize (N) - Positions the window at the same place with the same size as when it was opened. Can be disabled. Maximize (A) - Makes the window as big as possible within the visible area of the screen. Can be disabled. Next screen (S) - Moves the console window to the next public screen. See section 7 for details about this feature. Goto screen... - Lets you select a public screen from a list, to which the window will be moved. If only two screens are open, this function is identical to "Next screen..." Please see section 7. Halt (H) - Halts output. Resume (R) - Resumes output. About... (?) - Opens a requester telling you about the current version of KingCON, the author etc. Close (Q) - The same as clicking in the window's closegadget or typing Control-\. The process that owns the window decides if it should be closed. "Complete"-menu: (See also section 4!) -------------------------------------- Filename (F) - Completes a filename or directoryname. The same as pressing TAB. Command (M) - Completes a DOS-command. Same as pressing Alt-TAB. Device (D) - Completes a devicename. Same as pressing Shift-TAB. Enable cache - If checked, the directory cache will be active and make filename completion faster to perform. This menu is ghosted if you haven't specified the DIRCACHE-option. See section 4 for details. Reset cache - Clears all the contents of the file- and command cache. This operation will affect all KingCON consoles. Purge cache - Frees all resources belonging to the directory cache system. This is useful in low memory situations. The resources will be allocated again the next time you activate filename completion, unless you disable the cache first. This operation affects all KingCON windows. Show .info (.) - If checked, .info-files will be considered when KingCON is looking for matches. "Review"-menu: (See also section 5!) ------------------------------------ Enabled (W) - If checked, all text output to the window will be saved in the review-buffer. If not, you will still be able to scroll through old text, but no new text will be added. Clear buffer - Clears the review-buffer. Save plain text as... - Lets you select a file to which the buffer will be saved as plain text. Save with styles as... - Lets you select a file to which the buffer will be saved, including control-sequences for text style and color. "History"-menu: --------------- Enabled - If checked, lines typed by you will be saved in the command-history buffer. If not, no lines are saved, but you will still be able to browse through the lines that are already in the buffer. Clear buffer - Clears the history-buffer. ========================== 7. Iconifying the window ========================== A very nice way to quickly get rid of a console window temporarily is to iconify it. This can be done by selecting the menu Console»Iconify or by clicking the gadget next to the zoom-gadget in the titlebar. Normally an icon with the same name as the window will be created and put on the Workbench. (You can change the icon's default image and position with the IMAGE and ICONPOS-options. See section 8.) The window can then be brought back by simply double-clicking the icon. If you think that icons clutter up your Workbench, you can specify the MENUFY-option together with NOICONIFY in order to have an extra menuitem in the Tools-menu created for you instead. The icon's or menu's title is normally the same as the window's. You can change it to something else with the ICONTITLE-option. Here you can use the substitution-strings, described in section 8, to insert the name of the current dir etc. If you have specified the SHOWDIR-option, the current directory will NOT be added to the icon. Use the %S or %D substitution instead. If a window is iconified, it will be opened again as soon as a program outputs text to the console or tries to read from it. The KEEPCLOSED-option changes this behaviour, so the window will remain closed in most cases. If you have the review-buffer enabled, the output will be saved to it, so you can for example start a long directory-listing, iconify the window, and return later to see what was output. NOTE! A very importand aspect of this feature is that it doesn't always work. When a program has used a special AmigaDOS-call to find out the address of the console-window it is running in, it is no longer safe to close that window. When you have run such a program (SetFont is one of them), and then try to iconify the window, you will be presented a requester telling you that the window can't be closed in a safe way. You can then select that you still want to iconify it, but you should be very careful when doing this. NEVER iconify the window while running 'More', because this WILL crash your system. Iconifying the window when More is finished works fine, though. This behaviour is a bit ugly, but there isn't much I can do about it. The standard CON: also suffers from this problem, but maybe you haven't noticed it: The AUTO-feature, which is CON's way of iconifying a window (sort of), stops working after running SetFont or More. So, please programmers, stop using the DiskInfo()-call in order to get the address of the window if you just want to know the dimensions of the console. Instead, use the control sequence called 'WINDOW STATUS REQUEST' (9B 30 20 71). The dimensions will then be returned to you with a 'WINDOW BOUNDS REPORT'-sequence (9B 31 3B 31 3B <height> 3B <width> 72). Of course, the console must be in RAW mode when doing this. ============================================ 8. Options when opening the console-window ============================================ A KCON-window is opened in the same way as a CON-window. The template for the "filename" is: KCON:LeftEdge/TopEdge/Width/Height/Title/Options/... All keywords are optional. If you want the default-value, you write nothing. For example, if you want to specify a title, but no position or size, you write: (Don't forget the quotation-marks if you have spaces in the filename!) "KCON:////My Title" The meaning of the keywords are quite obvious. The default is to open a window that covers the whole horisontal and half the vertical visible area of the screen. The window is positioned below the menubar of the screen if possible. The default title is 'KingCON'. This differs a bit from CON, which always opens a window in the top left corner of the screen with a fixed height. I think KingCON's way of opening is better. :-) Inserting the current directory and CLI number in the title ----------------------------------------------------------- When working with the Shell, you probably want to see which the current directory is without having to issue a special command for this. An easy solution is to use the SHOWDIR-option when you open the console-window. This will insert the current dir after your title. Another, perhaps more flexible, way of doing this is to put substitution-strings in the title, much like the AmigaDOS Prompt-command. These substitutions also work with the ICONTITLE-option: %A Inserts the the path for the current directory where as much as possible of it has been replaced with an assigned device. This means that if you type "CD LIBS:", the window/icon's title will actually read "LIBS:" and not "Workbench:libs" %D Only the last part of the current dir is inserted. This is very useful together with ICONTITLE, since it doesn't produce as long strings as %S %N The CLI-number of the owning process, if it is a CLI. Otherwise, a minus-sign is inserted. %P The name of the owning process is inserted. Note that in a shell, this isn't the same as the name of the command that is executed, since all commands are executed by the same process. %S Inserts the complete path for the current directory. Putting this at the end of the title is the same as the SHOWDIR-option %V Only the volumename of the current dir is inserted. This example creates a rather instructive title: NewShell WINDOW "KCON:////Shell #%N in '%S'/CLOSE" The title can then look something like: Shell #4 in 'Work:Pictures/XXX-Rated/Flowers' Default settings in environment variable ------------------------------------------ Apart from old CON:, KingCON offers you many options. Probably you find a certain combination useful, but you don't want to type it every time you open a console. In addition to this, some programs have the CON:-file hard-coded, making it impossible to customize those consoles. The solution to this problem is an environment variable (see the AmigaDOS-documentation) that contains the options you want to be default, unless you specify something else. There is one variable for KCON: (and CON:) and another for KRAW: (and RAW:). They are called KCON.prefs and KRAW.prefs respectively, and have the same form as the "filename" for the KCON: and KRAW: window. Confused? These examples might help: Suppose that you want a closegadget on every window you open. Then you should put put this command in your user-startup (or issue it before you open a console): SetEnv KCON.prefs /////CLOSE If you now type 'NewShell WINDOW KCON:', it will have the same effect as if you had typed 'NewShell WINDOW KCON://///CLOSE'. That saved some typing, didn't it? Now, if you don't want a closegadget for some reason, you will have to type 'NewShell WINDOW KCON://///NOCLOSE'. You could, of course, delete the variable with 'UnSetEnv KCON.prefs', and you will be back where you started. The advantage with env.-variables becomes even more clear when you want to personalise your consoles more drastically. The following sequence changes the default size, alternative (zip) size, windowtitle and makes the review-buffer static: SetEnv KCON.prefs 0/0/640/512/ElvisCON/MAXBUF-10/ALT590/462/50/50 NOTE 1: Changing the default options may make KingCON incompatible with CON:. For example, a program that opens a window without the CLOSE-option, expects that the window will have no closegadget. However, if you have put this option in the KCON.prefs-variable, the window will get a closegadget, and the program that uses the console may not like that, but it is rather unlikely that it actually will. But you should be aware of it, anyway. NOTE 2: The options in the env-variables have a lower priority than the options that are specified when a console is opened. In the previos example, the windowtitle will only read 'ElvisCON' if you don't specify another title, like 'KingsTON,Jamaica'. Multiple defaultsettings ------------------------ When you open a console, you can specify another env-variable to be used as default instead of KCON.prefs. This makes it possible to have a set of different settings for different uses, that are easily accessed with just one keyword. There are two ways to specify the env-variable. The first one is the PREFS-option, that is described further down. The second method involves much less typing. You simply put the name of the variable after the devicename (CON:, RAW: etc), before the first coordinate for the window. The general form for the "filename" then looks like: KCON:Variable/LeftEdge/TopEdge/Width/Height/Title/Options/... Note that the variable-name mustn't begin with a number, or it will be recognised as the LeftEdge-value. Now an example: Let's say you have created a variable like this: SetEnv BigCON 0/0/640/512/Big/MAXBUF-500 If you want to open a shell with this very expensive configuration (it will eat ½ Mb for you!), you type: NewShell WINDOW KCON://///PREFSBigCON or NewShell WINDOW KCON:BigCON or, if you want to add some other options: NewShell WINDOW KCON:BigCON/////BIG!!/CLOSE/JUMP Options ------- Most options have an opposite form within parenthesis. They actually reflect the default-state, and specifying one of them is only useful if the positive form is present in either one of the variables KCON.prefs and KRAW.prefs, or a variable you have specified. For example, NOCLOSE cancels CLOSE, if that was specified in, let's say, KCON.prefs. Using the negative form in an environment variable is thus useless. These options are compatible with CON: ALT<x>/<y>/<w>/<h> When the zoom-gadget is clicked, the window will get the position and dimensions described by x,y,w & h. For example, ...ALT100/100/400/50... will make the window a thin strip in the middle of the screen when you click the zoom-gadget. AUTO The window isn't opened until some text is output to it or (NOAUTO) a program wants to read from it. It also gets a close-gadget. You can also use the AUTOICONIFY-option for the same purpose if you want an icon for the window while it is closed. BACKDROP The window is opened as a backdrop behind all other (NOBACKDROP) windows on the screen. CLOSE The window is equipped with a closegadget. (NOCLOSE) INACTIVE The window isn't activated when it is opened. (ACTIVE) NOBORDER The window has no border. Very confusing. (BORDER) NODRAG The window has no dragbar. (DRAG) NOSIZE The window has no sizing-gadget or zoom-gadget. (SIZE) The "Minimize"- and "Maximize"-menuitems are disabled. SIMPLE You can mark and copy text from the console. This is the default. SMART The opposite of SIMPLE. This is the way the console window was before v2.0 of the OS. If the window is scaled down and then resized again, you will lose the text that was printed on the revealed portions of the window. SCREEN <name> The window will be opened on a public screen with a certain name (case-sensitive!). To open on the screen "TERM", you type: .../SCREEN TERM/... or .../SCREENTERM/... Calling the screen '*' opens the window on the topmost screen. Note that the screen must be a public screen, or the window will open on the Workbench. Also see the POPSCREEN-option. WAIT The window isn't closed until you type Control-\, select (NOWAIT) Quit or click the closegadget. WINDOW <address> The console is attached to an already open window with the address expressed in hexadecimal numbers. The menus and gadgets will be disabled for compability. These options are new for KingCON: ASYNC Enables asynchronous typeahead. See also end of section 3. (SYNC) AUTOICONIFY This is exactly the same as the AUTO-option, except that (NOAUTO) an AppIcon is put on the Workbench as long as the window is closed. If you try a lot of PD-programs, it can be convenient to have the following line in the startup-sequence: Run >NIL: Enforcer FILE CON:////Bang!/AUTOICONIFY (This option was called AUTOICON before) DIRCACHE<filecache>/<commandcache>/<volumes> Enables the directory (NODIRCACHE) cache that is used to speed up operation of the filename completion, and sets the global configuration for it. <filecache> and <commandcache> are the maximum sizes of the two parts of the cache in Kbytes. <volumes> is a list of volumes that should be included, or if a ~ (tilde) is put in front of them, excluded from the cache. Examples: "DIRCACHE 16/16/~RAM RAD SD0 VD0/" sets the buffers to 16 Kbytes each and excludes ram-based volumes. This is the default, equal to "DIRCACHE///". "DIRCAHE 10/0/HD0 HD1" disables the command cache and includes only directories on HD0: and HD1: in the cache. Note that the values you set with this option affect ALL consoles, and that changing the size of a cache means that its contents have to be flushed first. FNCMODE <flags> Sets the flags that determine how you select the file you want after you have activated any of the completion- functions. The flags are described in section 4 and "Other selection-methods". The following sequence makes KingCON behave more "tcsh-like": .../FNCMODE BC/... FASTUPDATE The scrollbar isn't updated at every line that is output, (NICEUPDATE) which is the default, but in bigger intervals. This enhances the performance considerably on slower machines. FONT <name.size> Another font than the default-font is used. To specify a bigger topaz-font you type: .../FONT topaz.44/... or .../FONTtopaz.44/... Note that the font must be monospaced! I suggest that you use the FONT-option to change the font instead of the SETFONT-command. ICONPOS <x>/<y> Specifies the exact position for the icon in screen coordinates. Note that if another icon is already placed at that position, the icon will be put at a random place on the Workbench. ICONTITLE <title> Specifies the title for the icon (and menu) when the console is iconified. Use substitution-strings in order to tell the icons apart easier. An example: .../ICONTITLE Shell.%N (%D)/... See also the section about substitution-strings. IMAGE <filename> This option lets you change the look of the icon when the window is iconified. <filename> is the name of an .info-file (without .info!) in ENV:Sys/, that will be used to describe the icon. If this option isn't specified, the file ENV:Sys/def_KingCON.info will be used, if it exists. An example: KCON://///IMAGEmy_icon The file ENV:Sys/my_icon.info will be used as an icon. JUMP Enables jump-scroll. You can also use the (NOJUMP) "Console » Jump scroll" menu to enable it. Note that some programs, like 'more', don't like jump-scroll. MAXBUF <size> Sets the biggest size for the review-buffer in kilobytes. The smallest possible value is 4. It is not always wise to set the size to a very big value, because your system can run out of memory if you output a lot of text to the console. A negative value makes the buffer static, which means that the amount of memory you specified (-size) will be allocated when the window is opened. MENUFY When the window is iconified, a menuitem with the same (NOMENUFY) label as the windotitle is added to the Tools-menu on the Workbench. MINI The window is minimized the first time you hit the (MAXI) zoom-gadget instead of being resized to fill the whole screen. NOFNC (Short for No FileName Completion). The TAB, Shift-TAB and (FNC) ESC-keys don't activate any completion-function in order to be compatible with CON. Note that you can still use the "Completion"-menu!!! NOGADS No scrollgadget in the right windowborder is created. On (GADS) slower machines this will increase the speed of the review- buffer noticeably. You can still use the keys described in section 3 to scroll through buffered text, of course. There will also be no gadget in the titlebar for iconifying the window. NOICONIFY The window will just be minimized instead of iconified (ICONIFY) when you select Iconify/Minimize from the menu. This is identical to the old NOICON-option (which still works.) NOMENUS No menubar is created. If you just don't like the shortcuts, (MENUS) you should take a look at the NOSHORTCUTS-option. NOREVIEW The window gets no review-buffer. No scrollgadget is (REVIEW) created and the "Review"-menu is disabled. If you just want to gain speed, first try the FASTUPDATE-option. NOSHORTCUTS The Amiga-key shortcuts for the menus are removed, which is (SHORTCUTS) useful if you find yourself accidentally typing Amiga-Q or some other key in you console-windows. See also the NOMENUS-option. NOSTYLES Control-sequences that control textstyle and -color are (STYLES) not saved in the review-buffer. Buffered text will be plain black and white. PLAIN The same as NOREVIEW/NOFNC/NOMENUS. The window will behave (NOPLAIN) exactly like a CON-window. POPSCREEN Brings the screen, on which the window is opened, to (NOPOPSCREEN) the front. PREFS <variable> The env-variable <variable> will be used as prefs-file instead if KCON.prefs (or KRAW.prefs for a RAW console). This keyword is not allowed inside the env-variable itself (no recursion). Using PREFS is equivalent to putting the variable-name right after the colon in the filename, before the LeftEdge-value. KEEPCLOSED If a program wants to do output or input from the console, (NOKEEPCLOSED) while it is iconified, the window will not open. Instead, the text will be saved to the review (if it is enabled) and the read-requests will be queued up. This is useful if you want to open a shell and want it to iconify immediately, without first opening a window. You can then use the following combination: .../KEEPCLOSED/AUTOICONIFY/... SHOWDIR The current directory is displayed in the titlebar. You (NOSHOWDIR) can also use substitution-strings (described above) for the same purpose. ========== 9. To do ========== KingCON introduces some very useful features that makes it a worthy replacement for CON. But there are still a few things I want to see in a future version: * KingCON needs a preference-editor. * Configurable editing- and function-keys. * A configurable shortcut-menu, that lets you quickly insert commonly used strings. These strings should also be tied to the function-keys. * The review-buffer could be more intelligent and interpret cursor-moves. * A new completion-function that completes words from a textfile that you specify. All the switches for DOS-commands, for example. This should replace the command-completion, which is too slow to be really useful. * Localized menus, Kickstart 3.0-specific functions, smaller, faster... If you have something else that you would like to see implemented in KingCON (or if you find one of those annoying b*gs), feel free to mail me. Who knows, maybe I do something about it! (Be prepared that it might take some time before I can read and answer your letter.) /|t last I want to say a BIG THANKYOU to everybody / | that have reported bugs and come with good ideas. / | I also want to thank Anders Hammarqvist for testing / | KingCON, and for sharing his knowledge on consoles, / | shells and many other things! / | /¯¯¯¯¯¯| Last but not least - thankyou Stefan Stuntz, for providing / | the sourcecode for the iconify-gadget! / | (My favourite feature, actually :) / | ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯ I must also thank Anthony Preston and Michael Barsoom for testing KingCON and saving you a couple of bugs that way. /¯\ David Larsson /¯\ Engineering Physics /¯\_/¯¯¯¯ / \_/¯\ /¯¯¯\_/ \ Chalmers University of Technology / Sweden / \_/ \ /¯\ /¯\ /¯\_/¯\ / ¯\ / \ / \_/ \ / \ / \_/ f92dala@dd.chalmers.se \__/ \_/ \__/