Marathon-Phile Juggler is a program/system extension designed to manage your Marathon files. I wrote it because I was not satisfied with any of the current file managers. One unique feature is that you are ability to save your sets as double-clickable icons. Another is a system extension that tells Marathon where to look for it's files--no longer will you have make copies for each patch you want to apply.
Getting Started
The first thing you need to do is put everything in its proper place. The Phile Juggler extension should be placed in the Extensions folder of your System folder--you'll have to restart in order to use it. Phile Juggler itself should be in the same folder as the Marathon application(s). Put Map, Music, Physics, Shapes, and Sounds files in their appropriate folders named "Maps", "Music","Physics", "Shapes", and "Sounds", respectively. All your patches should go in a folder names "Patches"--please read section about ResCompare patches below.
Using Phile Juggler
When you open Phile Juggler, it will search the appropriate folders for the various Marathon Files and place their names in the pop-up menus or list box (If Phile Juggler loads up slowly, you probably need to rebuild your desktop, see note below.)
Making a Set
To make a set, select the various files you want in the set (as well as if you want to kill the Finder), choose the new set command, and name the set. The new set will now appear in the sets pop-up menu. After you make a set, don't change the names of the files in the set since all that is saved are the names of the files. Note: Sets made any version of Phile-Juggler prior to 1.0 are incompatible with later versions.
Deleting a Set
To delete a set, just choose the set from the Sets pop-up menu and choose the delete
command.
Saving a Set as an Icon
This is the neat part, and probably the main way you'll use Phile-Juggler. Select a set, or choose the files you want in the set and choose the Save Set as Icon command then select a name and location for the set. Whenever you click on the icon for the set, Phile-Juggler will open, do its thing, and then launch Marathon automatically.
Launching Marathon
To launch Marathon simply click on the Launch Marathon button. Phile Juggler will take a moment to do it's bussiness; if Kill Finder is checked, the Finder will quit; then Marathon will launch.
(This option is not yet implemented)
Convert ResCompare Patches
Patches made with ResCompare--ones that have little "patched" application icons--don't store their resources in the "normal" format, so they need to be "converted" so that Phile Juggler can use them.
How Phile Juggler Works
Phile Juggler first modifies Marathon so that it uses various support files you specify in the various pop-up menus. After Marathon launches, the system extension makes Marathon first look in the files you specified in the patches list box for it's resources before searching the those support files.
Length of Phile Juggler startup
Depending on the amount of files on your hard drive and other vagaries, Phile Juggler will either load up really quickly or fairly slowly. For example, it loads up very quickly on my external drive that has few files, but kinda slow on my internal drive that has lot of 'em. I've sped it somewhat from earlier versions, however, it is possible it might not find all your files--if this happens, let me know. I should have a fix for all these problems in later versions.
Note to users of version 1.0
Since I've changed the mechanism by which Phile Juggler works (from patching the files to a system extension), the first time it encounters a "dirty" file from 1.0, it will have to "clean" it up, before using it.
Obligatory "don't blame me if your computer blows up" section
This version of Phile Juggler uses a system extension instead of modifying your resources (expect for the one that tells Marathon where to look for the "unpatched" resources) this should reduce the risk of something terrible happening to your files. However, it's entirely possible that you could run into some sort of extension conflict. In that case, please inform me so I can fix it or a least inform others.
Version release history
0.91b - first release version
1.0 - faster file search on large volumes
support for patches
filenames now listed alphabetically
quit Finder on Marathon launch
raised file limit from 50 to 255
snazzier interface and cool-looking icons
1.5 - added system extension
fixed bug that made it impossible to delete sets
changed Kill Finder default to off
Improvements for future versions
Phile-Juggler is very much a work in progress, and I intend to refine and add more features as time goes on, so please feel free to offer your suggestions. Among the planned improvements I have in mind, in approximate order of priority:
• Figure out why the heck my ExitToShell patch doesn't work.
• Convert ResCompare patches.
• Associate saved games with sets.
• Make sets additive instead of exclusive, like Extensions Manager.
• Speed up file searches even more. And once Apple makes the Resource Manager native, I'll make it a fat binary.
• Adding a file and patch browser and the ability to add comments to your files and sets, so you can make sense of everything.
Please send bug reports, comments, suggestions, hate mail, etc. to rickb@intellinet.com.
The latest version of Phile Juggler, as well as other cool stuff, can be found on my home page at: http://www.intellinet.com/~rickb/
