Erm, this version of deskmen has been unchanged for about the last 3 months. I have not released version 2.00 but it has been used in my school. I have not encountered any significant problems with it but if you do have any then please let me know. PLEASE DO NOT ASK THE PERSON WHO YOU GOT THIS FROM AS THEY ARE UNLIKELY TO BE ABLE TO HELP. I CAN!!! (And I would like to know that someone is using my program)
If you are unable to print the impression manual then write and tell me and I shall see what I can do ;-).
Manual
~~~~~~
There are two Impression files supplied with this program. 'Manual' is a 20 page instruction manual, 'UsingDeskM' is a quick guide to using the nenu.
Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
DeskMen is a user definable menu system. It is designed to run on all Acorn Risc OS 3 computers. Although it has only been tested on Risc OS 3.10, it should work with any of the current OSs.
It was originally designed for use at my school but it is suitable for use as a general purpose menu in many situations.
This is version 2 of the DeskMen program and it has been compleatly re-written since the last release (v1.61). It is a constantly updating piece of software, so if you use it and there is any features you would like adding then please let me know. My adress is at the end of this file
Changes since version 1.61
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you have used a previous version of DeskMen then there are a few changes since then:-
* Many of the old restrictions have been removed, you can now have a maximum of 256 items on a maximum of 256 menus (that's 65536 items in total!)²
* The front end has changed slightly with a scroll bar in the menu so you can have more items than can bee seen on screen
* Doesn't use the WimpExtension module, saves memory
² If you take it that an average path would occupy about 55 bytes and an average item text and menu title takes up about 20 bytes then a menu with 65536 items would take about 5 megs of memory and the program would require about 10 megs to process it!
Upgrading from versions prior to 2.00
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you use an older version of DeskMen then you will need to save your menu definition file as text, and load this text file into this version of DeskMen, this is because the Menu files are not compatable as this version of the program performas much more processing on the file than older versions, infact older versions just encoded the text file it's self.
NB: If you save the text file from the iconbar menu rather than using the convert utility you might find that there is a slight problem near the end of the file, load it into a text editor to sort it out.
Resetting the program
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may find that you need to reset the program to it's default state, this can be acomplished in two ways.
If you have experiance with the Risc OS desktop open the DeskMen application directory and delete the files 'DMenOpts' and 'Menu', this will return the program to it's default state.
Supplied with the program are two files called 'Reset' and 'PWord', this is used to restore the menu to it's origonal state, here's how:-
* If the menu is loaded automatically when the computer is turned on, turn the computer on with the SHIFT key held down, this will prevent the menu from loading.
* Open the directory containing the 'Reset' file.
* If the DeskMen application that you use is in a different directory to the 'Reset' file the open this directory also
* Double click on either the 'Reset' file or the 'PWord' file, the 'reset' file will reset the options to their defaults AND remove the menu. The 'PWord' file will just reset the options.
NB: Resetting the options will remove the password
Options
~~~~~~~
The options window is acessable from the iconbar icon by either selecting the options item off the menu or by clicking on the iconbar icon with AJUST. There are two parts to the options window, the menu options section and the password section. The menu options section controls the various menu flags.
Return to menu when applications quit
-------------------------------------
If this option is turned on then when an application is loaded from the menu and quit then the menu is re-displayed. If this option is turned off then once an application is loaded the menu will not re-appear.
NB If you turn this option off you will have to save the options otherwise it will only take affect if you don't quit the program before loading an appliation.
Save memory
-----------
If this option is selected then the program will be removed from memory when it is not displayed, and be re-loaded when the application quits. Sone applications might cause problems and the menu might not re-appear. If memory is not a major problem then leave this option turned off.
The password section controls the password, if the 'case match' is turned on then things like 'Hello' and 'HELLO' will be treated as two different words. The 'Password on exit' and 'Password on shutdown' options decide if you need a password to exit to the desktop and shutdown the computer respectivly.
Creating your own menus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A menu is created as a textfile which is then dragged to the DeskMen applcation icon. A menu file takes the followind format
{<Title>
<Item>
[<Path>] or [{<Title of submenu>] or [*<Command>]
}
Items in <> should be replaced with the relavent information, items in [] are intechangable
The first line must start with a '{' and the text that follows it the title of the menu. The next line is the text that will appear on the menu, and the path is the path of the application, or alternativly it could be another menu. Menu's must end with '}'
There are some special symbols used in the file, these are
{<Title> - Used to denote a new menu <Title> is the title of that menu
} - End of menu, used to signal the end of a menu
|<Comment> - This is a comment, any lines starting with | will be ignored
+<Path> - If this is at the start of a path then the application will be
loaded and immediatly quit, leaving the menu onscreen, this is
usefull for !Printers
-<Path> - If there is an - at the start of a path then the item will be
loaded but the menu will remain onscreen. Usefull for things
like !Help
*<Command> - If there is a star at the begining of a line then the command
<Command> will be exicuted.
Here is an example menu file
--------------------------------------
{Example deskmen menu
This item will load and quit !Edit
+Resources:$.Apps.!Edit
This item should will the menu onscreen
-Resources:$.Apps.!Draw
This item loads Draw, menu goes.
Resources:$.Apps.!Draw
This is a star command
*Show
And here we have a submenu
{This is the submenu title
This is an item on the submenu
Resources:$.Apps.!Paint
|This is a commen line, the next line is the marker for the end of the submenu
}
Main menu item now
Resources:$.Apps.!Paint
| The next line is the end of the menu
}
--------------------------------------
Try entering typing that into a text editor and drag the file to the deskmen icon if you are not sure to see how it works. You can use the convert utility supplied with the program to convert the menu definition file back to text again.
History
~~~~~~~
Version 2.00 was a compleate re-write of the application and hence I have not included any information for versions previous to that one.
2.00 - Re-wrote DeskMen, removing WimpExt support and generally tidying it up a little. It now uses less memory, I think! Only significant downside from old one is that you can't save the menu out as text. yet!
2.01 - No code changes, but some sprites got left out of the last version! Next version will use the Rooster module to armcodify some bits, hmm har, wibble!
The convert utility could be a bit dodgy so let me know if it is!
