Gold Fish 1/GoldFishApril1994_CD2.img/d4xx/d429/climax/climax.readme

Text File | 1991-01-10 | 10KB | 179 lines

                                 CLIMAX        (release three)

For those who have used CLImax in its first released version, here is a quick
summary of how this version differs from that one:
    - You don't need to Run it any more.  Just type "climax".
    - It no longer closes the window when there is still a file handle open
      on it.  I was wrong to say that this was a ConMan problem.  Or rather,
      it was only a problem with obsolete versions of ConMan.
    - Because of this, it now requires ConMan v1.3 or newer.
    - Also, it never closes the screen while any windows are open on it.
    - Memory consumption is about 10K less.
    - There is now a CD= tooltype for setting initial CD from Workbench.
    - There is a FROM option to specify the startup script.
    - There's an option E that makes it try to use the Topaz 11 font.
    - If the Workbench screen is larger than the minimum size CLImax needs,
      it will use that size.
    - It now reports error messages in a Workbench window if it has no
      standard output.  You have to press return in this window to remove it.

Have you ever wished your CLI window had 25 lines of 80 characters, just like
a good old fashioned non-windowing computer?  The answer is here: CLImax by
Paul Kienitz.  It creates a custom screen with a borderless backdrop CLI
window.  The CLI will be a Shell if you have the Shell-Seg resident.  It has
a couple of requirements that you must meet for it to work:

In order to use CLImax, YOU MUST BE USING CONMAN VERSION 1.3 OR NEWER.
(ConMan 1.3 is on Fish disk 165.)  If you use ConMan 1.1 (or any other old
version), the screen will never close.  You'll have to swat it with ScreenX
or something.  If you do not use ConMan, it will be unable to open a CON:
handler for the window.  **** If anyone has any ideas for how to open vanilla
CON: or NEWCON: with a pre-existing window, let me know!

Furthermore, the Run program, and probably the Execute program, must be
available in C: or made resident.  Run must be on disk if you are using a
version of AmigaDOS earlier than 1.3.2 -- that's the first version in which
the Execute() function knows to look for Run in the resident list.  If you
don't use the 1.3.2 version of SetPatch, get it.  It makes anything that uses
Execute(), including CLImax, a lot faster and more efficient, when Run is
resident.  Make Run resident even if you don't make anything else resident.
It's something that should have been in ROM anyway.

To end CLImax, just EndCLI as usual; the screen will be closed when there are
no windows left on it.  If there is still a window from some other program
there after the console closes, it will check once per second to see when it
leaves, and close when it's gone.  The console will stay open if some
background process started with a Run command still has a dublicate file
handle on it, just like regular NewCLI.

Command-line/ToolType options:  You can specify a startup script file, you
can specify the initial current directory when run from workbench, and there
are four one-letter option flags.  From CLI, put the letter(s) after the
word CLImax; from Workbench, you can use the Info menu option to modify the
ToolType OPTION= which is followed by any or all of these four letters.  The
letters can be either case with anything in between.  The word OPTION must be
uppercase with no space before the equal sign.

If you say "OPTION=I" or "CLImax I" you get an interlaced screen with fifty
lines of text.  You might want to use the topaz 11 font (see below), to give
you 36 lines with better readability.  Of course, European users get 32 lines
without interlace anyway, or 46 in interlace with topaz 11.

The second option, "OPTION=G", causes the colors to change to black text on
a greenish background, a good combination for interlaced text without a
flicker fixer.  Ordinarily it uses the same colors as the Workbench screen.
Maybe someday I'll add RGB options, but for now if you want different colors
you'll have to either use a program like Palette or Erik Nygren's
SetColorReg, or recompile CLImax with new values.

The third option is "V" (for Vanilla; I want to save "C" to mean "color").
It is basically a holdover from the days when the FROM option wasn't in yet.
V makes it not try to use S:Shell-Startup as the default startup script, and
just try S:CLI-Startup.  Normally it uses s:CLI-Startup if it finds that
s:Shell-Startup does not exist.  This has nothing to do with whether it is
really a Shell or not.  It will always try to execute S:Shell-Startup if V is
not specified and you don't explicitly name a startup script, even if the
Shell-Seg is not resident.  If there are alias commands in that script, it
won't work, and you'll need to use V or FROM.  If you don't ever use the
Shell-Seg or NewShell, S:Shell-Startup can be written just for CLImax.

The fourth option is "E" (for Eleven).  It makes CLImax use the Topaz 11
font, which was designed for interlaced screens, instead of the default font.
It uses the default anyway if it can't find topaz 11.  Typically you would
use this option with the I and maybe G options, like "climax eig".

To specify a startup script for Workbench use, add the tooltype FROM=
followed by the name of the file to execute.  From CLI, follow the word
climax and any option letters with the word FROM (lowercase is okay) and the
filename.  DO NOT put option letters AFTER the word "from".  In either case,
you can make it use no startup script at all by putting nothing after the
word FROM.  If the file does not exist, an error message will appear in the
new CLI window.

The complete syntax of the CLI command is:

    CLIMAX  { V | I | G | E }  [ FROM [ scriptfile ] ]

typical example, interlaced:    1> climax ei from s:max-startup

There is also a tooltype "CD=", which should be followed by the name of a
directory.  When started from Workbench, it will attempt to CD to that given
directory, and will set the SetName (the name of the current directory that
shows when you include %S in the prompt, with the Shell-Seg) to be a copy of
the string you put there.  It used to always CD to the current definition of
SYS: when run from Workbench, now you need to use the tooltype.  The icon
I've provided has "CD=SYS:" in it.

CLImax will give a usage summary instead of running if you type "climax ?" or
"climax h".

In the upper right corner of the screen you'll see (parts of) the two screen
depth gadgets.  The screen is overscanned vertically, and so (though you
can't see it) there is a piece of screen title bar above the top of the
window, which you can use to slide the screen vertically, or to click the
depth gadgets.  With an interlaced screen the whole title bar is there in
addition to the 400 line window; with a non-interlaced screen the title bar
and depth gadgets are only partially uncovered (just four lines).  I know it
sounds unaesthetic, but it's not really so bad.  Because of the overscan, it
helps to use Preferences settings in which the workbench screen is moved
slightly upwards of center.  If the workbench is already overscanned, CLImax
will not be any larger than the workbench screen is.  (I recently set my own
workbench size to 664 by 212, which gives climax a 26 x 83 character screen
instead of 25 x 80.  In fact this allows 25 x 80 chars in a regular bordered
con window.)

If you leave out the CD= tooltype, or name a nonexistent directory after CD=,
a CLImax started from Workbench will have no current directory.  The
"SetName" in the prompt will be "SYS:", but the effective CD will be the
drive you booted from (df0: or rad: often), NOT the current definition of
SYS:.  Note that many standard commands like Dir and Copy don't like to have
a null current directory.  They attempt to read the boot drive for no reason,
and can fail if there's no disk in it, even if everything they're operating
on is explicitly elsewhere.  Like, the command "c:dir ram:"  will fail if
there's no disk in the boot drive.  This is a bug.  So if you ever create new
CLI's that tell you "SYS:" when you ask what the current directory is, like
by using PopCLI or DMouse, you should make use of my hack FixCLI, which will
give a new CLI a path and a current directory if it has none already.

It is possible to set CD= to a file instead of a directory.  Some programs
will bomb when run from such a CLI.  So avoid doing this.

Some of the programs you run will create windows and stuff on the Workbench
screen, and will seem to be doing nothing if you just look at the CLImax
screen.  One program that is very useful with CLImax for switching screens is
wKeys by Davide Cervone, available on Fish disk 128.  Or you might prefer
Matt Dillon's DMouse or a similar mouse enhancer.  Personally, I use a
modified DMouse with wKeys-like screen flipping features, and a couple of
other improvements.  If anybody wants a copy of this DMouse (called DRat) I
can give you one, but I'm not mass-distributing it because Matt Dillon
doesn't like it.  Anyway, it lacks a couple of features of Matt's latest
version, which is no longer public domain.

It's possible that if you have CLImax and LoadWB both in your startup-
sequence (I do) that you might end up facing an inactive CLImax window which
ignores your typing because the workbench backdrop activated the moment the
initial CLI window vanished.  Try readjusting positions of these things in
startup-sequence; especially try putting CLImax at the very end.

Future plans/hopes:  1) Eliminate dependency on ConMan.  Anybody who thinks
they might know a way to put a CON: handler on an existing window without
ConMan, please tell me about it.  2) Option for RGB colors.  3) Make it
"pure".  4) Productivity mode screen option.  5) Sense whether it's a shell
or not, maybe.  5) Option to set screen depth.

CLImax is in the public domain.  Feedback is appreciated.  If you want to,
and this hack is useful to you, you can send me something nice in return.
(My personal policy is (when I can) to treat all software, from PD to copy-
protected, as if it were shareware.)

                                        Paul Kienitz
no email address, but try               6430 San Pablo ave.
these northern California BBSes:        Oakland, CA, 94608
  Winners Circle 415-845-4812           USA
  Triple-A 415-222-9416
  The Mission 415-967-2021
  FAUG 415-595-2479
(the first two are in the east bay, the last two are in
silicon valley - you'll get slower response with those)