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PowerSnap 2.0 User Manual Jun 14, 1992 1mPreface0m 1m=======0m The programs and files in this distribution are freely distributable, but are also Copyright (c) Nico François. 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. This program requires Kickstart/Workbench 2.0 or higher to run! If you have suggestions or remarks about this program, or if you find any bugs, please let me know. Contacting the author: FidoNet: 2:292/603.10 (Nico Francois) UUCP : Nico.Francois@p10.f603.n292.z2.FidoNet.Org Address: Nico François Corbielaan 13 B-3060 Bertem BELGIUM If you can please use e-mail. That way you'll stand a much better chance of getting a reply quickly. 1mContents0m 1m========0m 1. An introduction 2. Installation 3. CLI usage 4. Workbench usage 5. Features 1m1. An introduction0m 1m==================0m Snap, snap, snap, snap, eggs and snap :-) Ahem... (If you don't get this don't let it bother you if you think I've gone completely bananas :-) PowerSnap is a utility that allows you to use the mouse to mark characters anywhere on the screen and paste them somewhere else, like in the CLI or in a string gadget. PowerSnap will check what font is used in the window you snap from and will look for the position of the characters automatically. It recognizes all non proportional fonts of up to 24 pixels wide and of any height so this should cover most fonts used. Snapping and pasting text is done using the mouse, making PowerSnap fast and easy to use. To try PowerSnap out, double-click its icon to install the handler, move the mouse over a character on the screen, press the left ALT key and while keeping this pressed press the left mouse button. After a short delay (depends on how big the font is) PowerSnap will either flash the screen, indicating it hasn't found a character at this position (it is possible PowerSnap didn't look for the correct font), or the character you are pointing at will be selected. Move the mouse while keeping the left ALT key and the mouse button down to select more characters. Once you are satisfied with what you have selected release the left ALT key. You can now insert the text you have just snapped by pressing either left ALT + V or left ALT + right mouse button. Both the left ALT and the 'V' keys mentioned in this short explanation are user-definable (see below). Also, don't start snapping on a space because PowerSnap will almost certainly get the character positions wrong. You CAN start snapping on a space if you have already snapped in the window. 1m2. Installation0m 1m===============0m To install PowerSnap automatically run the installation script. Install manually by copying 'PowerSnap' and 'PowerSnap.info' to your C: directory and 'powersnap-handler' to your L: directory. 'powersnap-handler' does not have to be in L: but it is best if you put it there, PowerSnap will also find it if it is in the current directory. If you want PowerSnap to be part of your initial startup (so you always have the comfort of snapping anything anywhere :-) you should put a simple line saying 'PowerSnap' before the 'EndCLI >NIL:' in your startup-sequence. If you wish to specify options include these on the same line, like e.g. 'PowerSnap COLOR 2'. To disable the copyright message redirect output to NIL: like in 'PowerSnap >NIL:'. Workbench 2.0 users have the following extra possibility: drag the PowerSnap icon into the WbStartup drawer of your boot disk/partition. And that's all there is to it. Specify options in the icon's tooltypes. If you do it this way you don't have to change your startup-sequence. 1m3. CLI usage0m 1m============0m Enter 'PowerSnap ?' for a CLI usage template, 'PowerSnap ??' for a more detailed usage report: 1mPowerSnap 2.00m (DATE) 33mCopyright 1992 © Nico François0m Usage: PowerSnap [CX_PRIORITY n] [QUAL qual] [SLQUAL qual] [PASTEKEY char] [COLOR 1-3] [PAQUAL qual] [PREPEND str] [APPEND str] [SNAPCHARS] [SNAPFRAME] [[NO]JOIN] [[NO]XEROX] or PowerSnap LIST or PowerSnap QUIT Explanation of the options: CX_PRIORITY n : Set priority of commodity (default: 0). QUAL qual : Set snap qualifier (qual, default: LALT). This is the qualifier that must be down when you press the left mouse button to start snapping. This is also the qualifier for inserting the snapped text. There are two ways to insert snapped text: using the pastekey or using the right mouse button. SLQUAL qual : Set single line qualifier (qual, default: LALT+LSHIFT). When this qualifier is down and you insert snapped text everything will be put on one single line. All whitespace (spaces and newlines) between words will be changed to a single space. Very useful for inserting a lot of filenames from a directory for example. MULTIQUAL qual: Set MultiSnap qualifier (qual, default: LALT+LSHIFT). When you start snapping with this qualifier the snapped text will be appended after what you snapped before. A newline will be placed in between the snapped texts, so they are all on their own line. Paste snapped text using the single line qualifier to get everything on one line. Note that the default single line qualifier and the multisnap qualifier are the same. You can still toggle MultiSnap on or off when you are already snapping. Just change the qualifier, so in the default setup let go or press down the shift key. There is a small delay of 1/8 sec before toggling the snap mode. This was done so it is less likely that you accidently snap in the wrong mode when you release all qualifiers to stop snapping. PASTEKEY c : Set pastekey (character, default: V). This key is used to insert the snapped text. Insertion will follow when it is pressed with on of the three possible qualifiers down (QUAL, SLQUAL, PAQUAL). SNAPCHARS : Start with character snap (default). SNAPFRAME : Start with frame snap. PowerSnap has two snap modes: character and frame. The easiest to explain is frame snap, you just draw a rectangle and everything inside it will be snapped. Character snap will interpret the screen as lines of text (like an editor) and will snap accordingly. [NO]JOIN : Join mode on/off (default: on). Tells PowerSnap if it's ok to join two lines to a single long line when the first line has a non blank character as its last character. This only works when you are using character or word snap. Default is JOIN. [NO]XEROX : Xerox insert mode on/off (default: off). When xerox mode is on snapped text will be inserted immediately when you stop snapping. Default is NOXEROX. COLOR 1-3 : Set color of select box (1-3, default: 1). This sets the color of the complemented characters. Try all three and see what you like best. MULTICOLOR 1-3: Set color of MultiSnap select box (1-3, default: 2). This sets the color of the complemented characters when doing a MultiSnap. It is best to set this to a different color than the normal snap color. This way you'll have an easy way to see when you are using MultiSnap. PAQUAL qual : Set pre-/append qualifier (qual, default: LALT+CONTROL). When using this qualifier to insert snapped text a string will be prepended to each line and one will be appended. PREPEND str : Set prepend string (default: "> "). Use this to set the string that will be prepended when you paste with the PAQUAL down. This string can be up to 15 characters long. To enter a '"' in the string escape it with a '*'. E.g. 'PowerSnap PREPEND " *" "'. APPEND str : Set append string (default: empty). Use this to set the string that will be appended when you paste with the PAQUAL down. Can be up to 15 characters. [NO]SMARTSPACE: If you do a word snap PowerSnap will normally guess at the boundaries of the word by simply looking for empty chars. If you switch SMARTSPACE on however PowerSnap will really try to recognize the characters and stop at spaces as well as unknown characters. This way you will no longer snap part of the 'scenery' when doing a word snap. Only drawback is that it is a bit slower, so it is disabled by default. If you have a faster Amiga (like the A3000) it is strongly recommended to switch this option on. If you don't exactly understand what I mean try snapping the contents of a 2.0 string gadget (like the one in the 'Execute Command...' feature of WB2.0) with SMARTSPACE switched on or off. Following qualifiers are recognized: LSHIFT Left shift key RSHIFT Right shift key CONTROL Control key CTRL Control key LALT Left alt key RALT Right alt key LCOMMAND Left Amiga key LAMIGA Left Amiga key RCOMMAND Right Amiga key RAMIGA Right Amiga key MIDBUTTON Middle mouse button (if you have one :-) Or any combination of these (separate the qualifiers by a non-alpha character like a '+', '-' or '|'), e.g. 'LALT+LSHIFT' or 'LALT-LSHIFT'. You may run PowerSnap again once it has been installed to change the settings. Enter 'PowerSnap LIST' for a list of current settings. 'PowerSnap QUIT' will remove the handler from memory. Examples: o PowerSnap PREPEND "Type " APPEND " OPT N" When you paste some text 'Type ' will be inserted before each line and ' OPT N' after. If you e.g. snap 'PowerSnap.c' and press LALT-CTRL-V the following will be inserted: 'Type PowerSnap.c OPT N' o PowerSnap QUAL LSHIFT+RSHIFT+CONTROL This sets the snap qualifier to both shift keys plus the control key. This is a rather silly example because unless your name is Zaphod Beeblebrox or you are very good at doing things with your feet it is quite impossible to snap anything with this qualifier :^) o PowerSnap PASTEKEY i Sets the insert key to 'I' instead of 'V'. So pressing LALT-I will feed the text in the clipboard to the keyboard. NOTE: - You can toggle between character/frame snap once you have started snapping. Just keep the left mouse pressed down while you click the right one. Be careful, if you don't keep the left button pressed you will insert the text you have marked. - PowerSnap has the ability to do word oriented snapping. To activate this double-click the left mouse button when you start snapping. Note that word snapping forces character snapping and frame snapping is no longer possible. See SMARTSPACE on how to improve word snapping. - Press the left mouse button while PowerSnap is inserting to abort. 1m4. Workbench usage0m 1m==================0m PowerSnap recognizes the following tooltypes (see CLI options for a more complete explanation): CX_PRIORITY=n : Priority of commodity (default is 0). QUAL=qual : Snap qualifier (qual, default: LALT). SLQUAL=qual : Single line qualifier (qual, default: LALT+LSHIFT). MULTIQUAL=qual: MultiSnap qualifier (qual, default: LALT+LSHIFT). PASTEKEY=c : Pastekey (character, default: V). SNAPCHARS : Start with character snap (default). SNAPFRAME : Start with frame snap. COLOR=1-3 : Color of select box (1-3, default: 1). MULTICOLOR=1-3: Color of MultiSnap select box (1-3, default: 2). JOIN : Join mode on (default). NOJOIN : Join mode off. XEROX : Xerox insert mode on. NOXEROX : Xerox insert mode off (default). PAQUAL=qual : Pre-/append qualifier (qual, default: LALT+CONTROL). PREPEND=str : Prepend string (default: "> "). APPEND=str : Append string (default: empty). Do *NOT* put quotes around the pre-/append string. SMARTSPACE : Switch SMARTSPACE on for improved word snapping. QUIET : Don't open window informing PowerSnap has been installed or removed. Useful for people who wish to put PowerSnap in their WbStartup drawer. Select PowerSnap's icon and choose 'Information' from the 'Icons' menu. You can now edit PowerSnap's tooltypes, check your manual for more information. Run PowerSnap twice to remove it from memory. 1m5. Features0m 1m===========0m o Fully supports the clipboard.device. You can use snapped text in all other programs that supports the clipboard.device. o Snaps all printable characters, from ' ' (32) to 'ÿ' (255). o Supports all keymaps. o Uses a relatively small handler that is about 8K long. PowerSnap uses about 15K of memory once it is installed (excluding memory used by the clipboard.device and commodities.library). o Recognizes all non-proportional fonts to up to 24 pixels wide and of any height. Also recognizes scaled fonts (bitmap and CompuGraphic). o Recognizes plain, underlined, bold, inverse, bold underlined, inverse underlined, inverse bold and inverse bold underlined characters :-) o Works with fonts with kerning data (like the courier.font supplied with Workbench 2.0). o Will remember character positions in up to 8 windows. Once you have snapped in a window the initial character position will be found immediately and you may also start snapping on spaces. o Joins long lines. o Pre-/appends strings to pasted text. o Has a neat single-line mode to paste all you snapped onto one single line. All whitespace and newlines will be changed to spaces. o Supports a middle mouse button if one exists. Using the middle button as qualifier gives the possibility to snap/paste without touching the keyboard! o Inputhandler is written in assembly for lowest possible overhead. New features for PowerSnap 2.0: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ o PowerSnap is a standard commodity. Use the standard commodities Exchange program to enable/disable or kill it. o MultiSnap feature. Allows you to snap something and add it to what you snapped before. This append-snapping is very useful to pick up several words that you might want to join into one long snap. The snapped items are put in the clipboard, each on its own line (with a linefeed between them). You can use the single-line paste to paste them all onto one line. o Recognizes text in all colors. Text in any color on a background of any color will be recognized. o SMARTSPACE argument to make PowerSnap consider unknown stuff as a space. This way you can do _much_ better word snapping in non-shell windows. As always, enjoy ! PROGRAM HISTORY: ****************************************************************************** VERSION 1.0 First release. ****************************************************************************** VERSION 1.1 Fixed bug in reading from clipboard. Strange things could happen if the clipboard did not contain text. Unknown clips are properly ignored now. Incompatibility with 'ConClip' (Workbench 2.0, V37) resolved. Default COLOR changed to 1. Version string embedded for Workbench 2.0 'Version' command. To put the record straight: PowerSnap is not a modified version of Snap (by Mikael Karlsson). It is a completely different program that does most of the things Snap does. A lot of the features and ideas in PowerSnap were influenced by (read stolen from :-) Snap though. I just thought I'd mention this because some German magazine almost convicted me for plagiarism, oh boy :^D The Amiga would hang if you tried to snap something just when a window was about to close. Now all the Intuition functions that open, close or modify windows are patched so they will wait until snapping has finished. If you are running Kickstart 2.0, the new Intuition functions are also patched. This should fix all deadlocks. New tooltype 'QUIET' added for startup from Workbench without window. Tested with Enforcer and Mungwall debugging tools. ****************************************************************************** VERSION 2.0 Only runs on Kickstart 2.0 or higher! ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ PowerSnap is a commodity now, so it can be disabled/enabled and killed using the Commodities Exchange program. Note the replacement of the 'PRIORITY' argument by 'CX_PRIORITY' to set the commodity's priority rather than that of the input handler (default is 0). PowerSnap's character recognition has been improved. Before you could only snap black or blue text, now you may also snap white text. In fact PowerSnap now recognizes text in any color on a background of any color. How could you ever manage without this! :-) New SMARTSPACE and NOSMARTSPACE arguments. Allow you to switch on much better, but slower, word-snap detection. Once you get used to this I think you won't mind it's a bit slower. It is no problem on faster Amigas of course, like the A3000. New MultiSnap feature: allows you to add what you snap now to what you snapped before. That way you can e.g. snap several files from a directory without having to snap them all at once. Now also recognizes LAMIGA, RAMIGA and CTRL as qualifiers. ****************************************************************************** PowerSnap 2.0 written by Nico François (Yes, Nico is my first name :-) thanks to Jorrit Tyberghein, Ives Aerts & Philip Marivoet for beta testing. (c) 1991/1992 Nico François // Thanks to \X/ Amiga for being the best computer ever !