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Text File | 1992-04-03 | 13KB | 337 lines

ACCLOAD version 2.22 - Intermediate Release 4 April 1992 -------------------------------------------------------- Program Filename: ACCL222.PRG System Requirements: Any ST Introduction ------------ ACCLOAD is a (fairly) small program which does a number of useful things at system boot time: . Date & Time Set . Reminders . Desktop Accessory Selection . Desktop Selection / Program execute (Boot Options) Each of these features is covered below. Installation ------------ Copy ACCL222.PRG into the AUTO folder of your boot disc, or C:\AUTO if you have a hard disc. (From now on, x:\ will be taken as your system's root directory). It's a good idea if this is the last program to run from the AUTO folder, but this isn't critical. Programs in the AUTO folder run in the order they were copied into it, so if ACCLOAD was the last thing you copied in, it will run last. That's it! Other files and directory structures required by the program are: x:\ACCINFO.INF - if you want to use the Boot Options feature x:\AUTO\REMINDER - if you want to use the reminder feature Hot Shift Keys -------------- The Shift keys are now "hot", in that if you hold any of LEFT SHIFT, RIGHT SHIFT, CONTROL, ALTERNATE, CAPS LOCK down while booting, ACCLOAD will not run. This can be useful in some circumstances. Date & Time Set --------------- If you haven't got a Mega ST or a clock card, chances are that all your files are dated 85/87/89 depending which version of TOS you've got. ACCLOAD gives you the chance to set your system clock, if you want to. You are presented with formatted date & time entries (dd/mm/yy & hh:mm:ss) which you fill in (by typing the right values!!). Help is available by pressing the HELP key. You can skip having to set the date & time by pressing UNDO or ESCAPE. You can now use the numeric keypad to enter the time. DOWN CURSOR, ENTER & RETURN all act as "end of input" keys. Reminders --------- How often have you forgotten to do something because it slipped your mind? Never again! After letting you set the time (if it's wrong), ACCLOAD then looks for any reminders you may have for today. These are kept in x:\AUTO\REMINDER so as not to clutter up the disk. Each day is stored as a separate file, which can big as big as you want. ACCLOAD will display one page of it at a time, then give you the option to delete the reminder. Any key other than 'y' acts as a no! HELP is available by pressing HELP. If you've got a multi-page re- minder, you can only get help on the last page. Run the program and you'll see this isn't a problem. The format of these files is very simple and their filenames very readable. For example, a reminder for 9/2/92 has the filename 09-02-92 Two types of reminders are supported. "Ordinary" reminders, as de- scribed and "anniversary" reminders, whose filename is something like 09-02-AN. A reminder of this form will appear every year on the date indicated and is useful for birthdays etc. A reminder file is simply a file with text in it, so if you've got complex requirements which exceed those offered by the REM20.PRG reminder creation program supplied, you can use your favourite text editor to create your reminders. Something like CLEANUP-ST will tell you that a filename like 09-02-92 is illegal because of the '-'s in it. However, I've kept the "illegal" format because I think 09-02-92 is infinitely preferable to 090292. Accessory Selection ------------------- If you've got any desktop accessories, they're displayed. Accessories displayed in inverse video are the ones which the system will load when you exit ACCLOAD. Use the cursor keys to move the cursors around, INSERT/SPACE to select/de-select an accessory, CLRHOME/ESCAPE to exit, UNDO to exit with no accessories selected, F1 to enter Boot Options Menu, F2 to enter Boot Options Menu with no accessories selected. A help screen is available by pressing HELP. Note that your disc must be write enabled for selection of accessories to work correctly, since the method used is to physically rename any accessories not required to acc_name.ACX. The maximum number of accessories allowed is 176 (the largest number which will fit nicely on the screen). This is a very large number (I've only got 36!!), and it's more than any other menu-based accessory selector I've come across allows!! (on floppies, you can only have a maximum of 111 files plus an AUTO folder anyway!). If you happen to have more than 176 (which is very unlikely) then beware!!! Only the first 176 ACCLOAD finds will be displayed, so archive some of those accessories you never use and tidy that disc up! Beware that you do not have two versions of the same accessory, one named, say, acc.ACC and the other acc.ACX. Having two versions can confuse ACCLOAD (and probably means your old accessory selector was quite ill!) so take care. One final note is that accessories, as always, must be placed in the root directory of your boot disc (either A:\ or C:\). Boot Options ------------ This section will mainly appeal to hard disc users. When you switch your machine on, you usually want to do something specific, like wordprocessing or programming and it's a pain to have to open a few folders and display by Text/Icons, sort by Size or Name to get the setup you want. Or, maybe you run another operating system, like Minix, and want to boot straight into it rather than have to go through GEM. Here's where ACCLOAD can help. The Boot Options screen performs two functions: i) Boot straight into the Desktop of your choice or ii) Execute a *.TOS program To be able to do this requires some arranging. This is taken care of by the x:\ACCINFO.INF file. This is split into 2 parts. Here's a typical file: Standard Desk ; Menu Entry c:\stand_d.inf ; Filename of DESKTOP.INF for standard desk Emacs c:\emacs_d.inf Lattice C c:\c_d.inf Power Basic c:\basic_d.inf # Run CD Selector ; Menu Entry cdc.tos ; Pathname of program to run Boot Minix c:\minix.prg c:\minix.img ; Parameters are allowed Enter Reminder remdat.tos Install GDOS c:\gdos.prg The first part (before the #) deals with Desktop selection, the second (after the #) with programs to execute. You can have up to 26 menu entries in the file. If you only want to use Desktop selection (and not program execution) terminate the file with a #, otherwise arrange it as above. (Similarly, if you only want programs and not desktops, start the file with a #). To set up Desktop selection, proceed as follows: Set up your desk for, say, a wordprocessor. Then save the desktop. Rename the x:\DESKTOP.INF file to something like x:\WORD_D.INF (problems may occur if you don't use a .INF extension). Continue setting up, saving and renaming until you've covered all your packages, then set up the x:\ACCINFO.INF file as above with a text editor. Note that comments (shown above for clarity) are not allowed in the actual file. If you do not supply a full pathname for the files, x:\ will be the folder searched. It's usually a good idea to give a full pathname anyway, just in case. Programs MUST be TOS programs (*.TOS or *.TTP). Usually, if a program has a .PRG extension, it uses GEM, which is not allowed at this stage of the boot procedure and may cause the machine to crash. You CAN run .PRG programs (see Minix in example file above), but they MUST NOT use the AES or VDI (i.e. they must really be TOS programs or programs which take the machine over). As a general rule, if your compiler produces a program with .TOS or .TTP extension, it can be used, otherwise it can't. STOS has been made to run at boot time from ACCLOAD, with a fair memory saving. Menu entries must not be more than 35 characters long, since to allow 26 options, you've got to be able to fit it all on the screen!! Pathnames can be up to 80 characters long, which is sufficient for most applications, including any parameters which may be necessary. That's enough about setting it up. When you use this option (triggered by exiting the Desktop Accessory screen with F1 or F2), the Desktop/Program menus are displayed in 2 (or 1 depending on how many you've set up) columns. Desktops appear first, followed by programs. To make the distinction, Desktops are preceded by an inverse +, programs by an inverse *. To select either, hit the alpha key corresponding to that menu entry. You can execute up to 5 programs in sequence, however after the fifth is run ACCLOAD will exit. Remember that this may not be possible with some programs, as they may take over the machine, or cause ACCLOAD to exit when they return. The main reason for multiple program selection is so that you can install something like GDOS and then change to a desktop you've set up for a program which needs GDOS or whatever. Selecting a desktop to boot to always quits ACCLOAD. Help is available by pressing the HELP key. ESCAPE or UNDO quits without doing anything. -------- That's about it. ACCLOAD finishes when you exit or pick a desk- top/final program from the Boot Menu. Remember that EVERYTHING(!) is optional in this program, and, to re- cap the running order is as follows: Date & Time Set (if date & time are obviously incorrect) Reminders (if directory is there and there is a reminder for today) Accessory Selection (if there are any to select) Boot Options (if there is a x:\ACCINFO.INF file) All have help and are completely optional. If you install it on a system where the time & date are correct, there is no reminder directory structure, no accessories and no ACCINFO.INF, the program does nothing! Equally, if you have no accessories, Boot Options will run automatically, providing it can load its .INF file. However, if you do have accessories, you need to press F1 or F2 to get at the Boot Options screen etc etc. You get the idea. ACCLOAD will behave slightly differently on floppy-based systems. Hard discs normally work so fast, that there is no need to inform the user about what the system is doing. Floppies, of course, are much slower and so small messages are displayed "Renaming accessories .... Desktop ...." etc. It can happen that these messages just "flash past", maybe because you've only a few accessories to rename. There is nothing to worry about, especially since you know what they are now! ACCLOAD is designed to run at system boot time in an AUTO folder. It can be run from the desktop at any time, but if run in LOW RES from the desktop, you'll be left with half a medium res desk! The mouse will also tear holes in the display if run from the desktop. These aren't bugs, but documented features! There's no real point in fixing them, because ACCLOAD runs perfectly how it's meant to be run. A small GEM-driven program is supplied (latest version REM_20.PRG) which makes reminder creation simple. It's simple to use and comes with its own DOC file. ACCLOAD v2.2 by Klint (Me! Read about Limestone Pavements in any good geology book) is FreeWare and you are free to use it however you like. It has been fully tested on both floppy and hard disc based colour and mono systems and there are no known bugs PROVIDED that it is used in accordance with this documentation. No responsibility is accepted by the author for any damage caused by the misuse of this program. I hope you find ACCLOAD useful. I wrote it originally because I couldn't find another simple accessory loader which worked with hard discs. The other options evolved over a period of months. The one I personally use the most is Boot Options. Being able to get straight into the folder you want is very useful with a 300Mb hard disc! Versions 1.0 through 1.7 of ACCLOAD were written in Power Basic. v1.8 was the first major re-write from scratch of the program in LATTICE C v5, of which ACCLOAD v2.2 is a close relative. Cheers HiSoft for an excellent package. You may freely distribute ACCLOAD at will but this DOC file MUST be included. Any suggestions should be sent to: J.P.Connor 15 Connery Crescent Ashton-under-Lyne Lancashire OL6 8DR £5 and a disk will get you the very latest versions of BOTH programs, including as many features as I can pack in (suggestions for more features please!) Development planned: ACCLOAD - Automatically run a list of named programs in order to keep AUTO folder tidy REMINDER - Auto-sensing version which will work as a TOS or GEM program and also as an accessory Thanks to Andrew Baxter & Andrew Dodd for invaluable TOS1.2 & 1.6 testing.