Workbench Design/WB Collection.iso/workbench werkzeuge/bootpicturetools/syspic/syspic.guide

Amigaguide Document | 1996-04-07 | 15KB | 305 lines

@database SysPic.guide
@author "Grzegorz Calkowski"
@(C) "The Beet Research"
@$VER: SysPic.guide 2.11 (13.12.95)
@node Main "SysPic v2.11"
             --------------------------------------------------

 SysPic v2.11
                          "Make your boot look cute!"
                       Cardware
 1995 The Beet Research
                         written by Grzegorz Calkowski
      -----------------------------------------------------------------
                             Table of contents:
              @{" Disclaimer " link Legal}             Legal information
              @{" Copying " link Copying}                Distribution & Copyright
              @{" Introduction " link Intro}           What the hell is it?
              @{" Requirements " link Require}           Hard & soft required
              @{" Installation " link Install}           Before using SysPic

              @{" Usage - general notes " link Usage}  Use it!
              @{" Bugs " link Bugs}                   Nothin' is perfect
              @{" To Do " link ToDo}                  What should be done
              @{" History " link History}                Short program history
              @{" Author " link Author}                 The person behind SysPic
              @{" Acknowledgements " link Acknow}       Thank you!
@endnode
@node Legal "Disclaimer"
Disclaimer
----------
    The program executable and information above is provided "as is".  No
representations or warranties are made with respect to the accuracy,
reliability, performance, currentness, or operation of this software and
information, and all use is at your own risk.  The author doesn't assume any
responsibility or liability whatsoever with respect to your use of the program
and information.
@endnode
@node Copying "Copying"
Copying
-------
    SysPic is now CardWare (no longer, hmhm, BeetWare...).  This means your are
*OBLIGED* to send me a postcard if you use it regulary.  (BTW:  if you use
SysPic, it's probably the most frequently used proggie, isn't it?) Treat the
card as a shareware fee.  Or, if sending a postcard sounds to you too
complicated you can e-mail me a message saying that SysPic is the coolest
program you have ever used :-).
                              --- WARNING!!! ---
 USING THE PROGRAM WITHOUT SENDING A POSTCARD OR AN E-MAIL LETTER IS ILLEGAL.
This program can be freely distributed under following conditions:
        1. Everything in this distribution must be kept together and
           unaltered. Applies to:
           Bonus/Bonus.readme           (readme about included pics)
           Bonus/windows1.ilbm
           Bonus/windows2.ilbm
           Bonus/windows3.ilbm
           Bonus/windows4.ilbm
           Bonus/windows5.ilbm
           C/SysPic                     (the program itself)
           C/SysPic.020                 (68020+ version)
           C/SysPic.040                 (68040+ version)
           C.info
           Install SysPic               (installer script)
           Install SysPic.info
           SysPic.doc                   (plain ASCII doc)
           SysPic.doc.info
           SysPic.guide                 (AmigaGuide
'd doc)
           SysPic.guide.info
           WBStartup/ClosePic           (command removing the picture)
           WBStartup/ClosePic.info      (its icon - MWB style)
           WBStartup.info
        2. Copyright notices are not removed from executable and
           documentation.
        3. No more than a nominal fee is charged to cover cost of magnetic
           media.
SysPic is Copyright (C) 1995 The Beet Research. All rights reserved.
@endnode
@node Intro "Introduction"
Introduction
------------
    If you think that black screen during boot time is boring and you want make
the boot look more professional (or even fancy) it is definitely program for
you. I know there are other similar programs - but SysPic's features make it
absolutely the BEST!
    SysPic is a small viewer-like program meant to show a picture during the
boot time.  The picture can be removed at any time using an independent command
(ClosePic) which can be placed for example in your WBStartup drawer.
    Features - SysPic
      o is small & fast
      o shows IFF-ILBM pictures of any size and resolution
      o supports AGA modes (also HAM8)
      o centers picture both horizontally & *vertically*
      o forces Workbench to open behind the displayed picture so it can be
        closed after whole Workbench initialization
      o blanks the pointer sprite so you won't see it when the Workbench
        screen activates (it would look annoying) (see @{"Bugs" link Bugs})
      o has a nice random number generator
      o detaches from shell in an intelligent way (i.e after loading
        the picture)
      o !!!COOL-> sets overscan prefs before IPrefs will do it. <-COOL!!!
      o supports BeetLogin (closes it's 'fake' screen)
      o is 100% legal
      o has been tested with Enforcer, Mungwall & MemWatch
@endnode
@node Require "Requirements"
Requirements
------------
    SysPic requires at least Kickstart 3.0 (no time for 2.04 compatibility,
sorry).  It makes not much sense to use it without harddisk.  Memory
requirement depends on size and no.  of colours of displayed picture.
    SysPic uses iffparse.library which should be installed in your LIBS:.
The library comes with your Workbench package.
@endnode
@node Install "Installation"
Installation
------------
    It's fairly easy.  First copy file 'SysPic' whereever you want.  I
recommend you to put it to C:  or somewhere else on your command path.  Then
add to your 'startup-sequence' following line:
        SysPic <picture> <options>
    As of version 2.00 SysPic sets the overscan prefs so you can put it right
after SetPatch (recommended).
    In order to remove opened picture, the small program 'ClosePic' is needed.
Simply drop it to 'WBStartup' drawer, which is the best suitable place for it.
To have picture closed when whole Workbench is initialized set STARTPRI
tooltype to -128.  It assures that 'ClosePic' will be launched last (for your
convinience it is already set to -128 :).
    In version 2.10 ClosePic has got a tooltype - 'DELAY=xxx' which allows to
delay picture closing, where 'xxx' is ticks amount (1 second = 50 ticks).  For
example:
        DELAY=150
causes 3 second delay. This option is unavailable from Shell.
    If you don't put it to 'WBStartup' drawer you have to add following line at
the end of 'startup-sequence':
        ClosePic
    Note, that there is 68020 version supplied. Use it if you have 68020 or
68030 based Amiga. For higher CPUs there is 68040 version.
@endnode
@node Usage "Usage"
Usage
-----
    The main program - 'SysPic' can be used only from Shell.  It makes not much
sense to use it from Workbench (for what ?).  Therefore don't try to launch it
from WB because it will do nothing (at least it won't crash the machine).
    The options template for 'SysPic' looks like:
        Picture/A,RandMin/N,RandMax/N,Digits/N,BF=BestFit/S,SO=SetOscn/S,
        KP=KeepPtr/S,VC=VCenter/S,BB=BBlank/S
    where
        Picture <path>          Specifies the filepath for an IFF-ILBM picture.
                                Note, that 'Picture' keyword can be omitted.
                                If you specify an asterisk (*) in the name it
                                will be replaced with randomly generated
                                number. In such case you have to specify both
                                'RandMin' and 'RandMax'.
        RandMin <number>        Lower bound for random generator
        RandMax <number>        Upper bound for random generator
        Digits <size>           Specifies how many digits will be inserted.
                                If length of generated number is shorter than
                                specified size it will be filled with leading
                                zeros.
        BF or BestFit           Switch - if specfied program will use
                                BestModeIDA() function of Kickstart 3.0+
                                to get the best resolution for the picture.
                                It sometimes can give unexpected results.
                                Generally it's better to save the picture in
                                the desired viewmode.
        SO or SetOscn           Sets your overscan preferences (from
                                envarc:sys/overscan.prefs file). It avoids
                                the very annoying screen-jump when IPrefs sets
                                the overscan prefs. It's very usable when you
                                want to display a picture in a multisync mode
                                like DBLPAL or MULTISCAN, which overscan
                                preferences usually differ from the defaults.
                                Note, it's a hack! See @{"Bugs" link Bugs}.
        KP or KeepPtr           Switch - if specified the mouse pointer won't
                                be blanked.

        VC or VCenter           Switch - enables vertical centering. Usable for
                                displaying brushes - saves space & time.
        BB or BBlank            Switch - turns blank border around the SysPic's
                                screen.
    The 'ClosePic' can be used from Workbench as well what is recommended.
Simply put it into 'WBStartup' drawer and forget about it.  See @{"Instalation" link Install}.
    Well, in fact, SysPic is full-featured viewer.  It can display any ILBM
image upto 256 colours and HAM6/HAM8 images as well.  IFF parsing routines are
based on orginal C= routines.
    From version 2.03 SysPic's screen is public.  Useful if you want to open a
fancy MultiUserFileSystem login on it, for example.  The screen's name is
'SysPic' (logical, eh?).
@endnode
@node ToDo "To Do"
To Do
-----
    No ideas. I think the proggie is complete
                                (I've told it in 2.02 release... :-)
    But if you have some suggestions...?
@endnode
@node Bugs "Bugs"
    Sprite blanking is still not perfect.  Why?  Normally it's no problem to
get rid of sprites - it can be done by disabling sprite DMA or just by setting
a window's mouse pointer to an invisible one.  It works fine :-).  But no if
another program is poking in sprite stuff in the background.  And this is the
case, because IPrefs does so (it changes display params with VideoControl(),
namely).  The only thing I could do was an interrupt server, which was turning
off sprite DMA subsequently.  I have no other ideas!  If you know a better one
_please_ contact me!!
    Another thing, not really a bug - overscan prefs.  Starting from Release 2
there are no documented methods for setting preferences.  The only program in
universe able to do it is IPrefs.  Well, everything can be done :-) SysPic sets
the overscan prefs EXACTLY in the same way as IPrefs does.  But this can be
considered as kind of hack.  Well, works fine under V39 & V40, however, this
maybe not be the case under future releases of Kickstart.
@endnode
@node Author "Author"
Contacting the author
---------------------
    Any ideas, bug reports, donations, hardware (for example Cyberstorm
turboboard for my A4000), etc.  will be sincerely welcomed.  Just contact me!
    My addy:
                Grzegorz Calkowski
                Rzedowice
                ul.Dobrodzienska 8
                42-780 Dobrodzien
                POLAND
    Phone:      [phone]
    E-mail:     [e-mail]
(Sorry, for my poor English...)
Always remember:
----------------
        Beeting is beliving...
        and Amiga is the best computer ever!
@endnode
@node Acknow "Acknowledgements"
Acknowledgements
----------------
Thanks go to:
   o  Michal Prochownik for general support & for the game idea
      (We WILL make it!)
   o  Ryszard "Justus" Baginski for ClosePic's icon.
   o  Jacek "Plexa" Miklasiewicz for the job...
   o  Jacek "Shind" Grzegorczyk for the 340MB HDD (really nice gift 8-)
   o  Stefano Peruzzi, Aaron Robinson, Christian Kemp, Javier Rodrguez Cos,
      G.Nath for their constructive suggestions.
   o  For develop team at C= (R.I.P) for the wonderful machine.
   o  ESCom for Amiga Technologies.
@endnode
@node History "History"
History
-------
v1.00
 (22.07.95)
    o First BETA release.
v1.50 (25.08.95)
    o not "historized" and not released
v2.00 (30.08.95)
    ** not released to public
    o Now SysPic automatically detaches from current Shell process. It does it
      in intelligent way, i.e exits after the picture is loaded & displayed.
    o Added random generator. New options: RANDMIN, RANDMAX, DIGITS.
    o Added feature of setting overscan prefs before IPrefs will do that!
      (New option: SETOSCN). It's a hack! See @{"Bugs" link Bugs}.
    o Sprite blanking works better but it is still unreliable.
    o Added shortcut for BESTFIT - BF.
v2.01 (05.09.95)
    ** not released to public
    o Improved sprite blanking. A little, in fact :-). See @{"Bugs" link Bugs}.
v2.02 (27.09.95)
    o Added support for my other utility - BeetLogin. Automatically closes
      'fake' screen leftover by it.
    o In some cases SysPic didn't display error messages (ie "Not IFF file").
      Fixed.
    o Rendezvous port priority set to a high value to improve ClosePic's
      performance.
    o Documentation updated.
    o Finally released... (and probably the final release... :-)
v2.03 (27.11.95)
    o Now SysPic's screen is public screen. (Requested by Stefano Peruzzi).
    o For the same reason 'KEEPPTR' switch added. If specified the pointer
      won't be blanked.
    o SysPic always lost 8 bytes of memory due to the patching of
      intuition/OpenScreenTagList() function. Now it losts them only if
      another program patches the same function.
    o Optimized a bit (saved over 512 bytes :-)
v2.10 (14.12.95)
    o Veritcal centering option added - 'VCenter'. (Requested by Aaron
      Robinson and several other people)
    o Border blanking option added - 'BBlank'. (Suggested by Christian Kemp)
    o Options changed to mixed-case (increases readability).
    o ILBM unpacker rewritten in machine code. A bit faster :).
    o 68040+ version included
    o 'DELAY' option added in ClosePic. (Suggested by Javier Rodrguez Cos)
    o Version string included in ClosePic.
    o Bonus pictures cropped to used area (now smaller, but need 'VCenter'
      option to be centered correctly).
    o Further optimizations made saving some bytes (again smaller than previous
      version!)
    o Installer script included (finally...)
v2.11 (18.12.95)
    o Ooopsss... vertical centering had been working until final compilation...
      really stupid bug. Fixed.
    o Error messages sometimes were doubled (strange, indeed). Fixed.
    o Documentation updated...  I didn't write that ClosePic's DELAY tooltype
      value is expressed in ticks.
@endnode