Carousel/CAROUSEL.cdr/mactosh/da/tiler.sit/Tiler Notes

Text File | 1987-05-04 | 8KB | 166 lines

Tiler 1.5 Release Notes
Copyright (C) 1987 Walter R. Smith
3 April 1987

This desk accessory automatically moves and resizes windows so that they do
not overlap--in window manager terminology, they "tile" the screen.  This is
convenient when working on multiple documents that you would like to see
simultaneously.  For example, you could tile two windows containing documents
you want to compare, tile Acta with the document it is outlining, or tile
notes with a research paper.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Selecting "Tiler" from the apple menu creates a "Tiler" menu.  This menu
contains the following items:

- "About Tiler..." puts up a small about box containing a copyright
  notice and a much more concise set of instructions.
- "Tile" tiles the windows whose titles are checked.
- "Set Tiling Area" uses the size and position of the frontmost window
  to define the area in which windows will be tiled.  Each application
  can have its own tiling area (saved in the "Tiler File").
- "Set Columns╔ (n)" puts up a dialog through which you can set the
  number of columns of windows Tiler should produce.  This setting is
  also saved in the "Tiler File".  The current setting is displayed in
  the menu.
- "Quit" closes the DA, removing the menu.

Each visible window has an entry in the menu which may or may not be
checked.  A check mark by a window title means the Tile command will
try to tile that window.  The check marks are turned on and off by
selecting the window titles.

DETAILS:

The tiling area is determined as follows:

  - If there is a tiling area for the application saved in "Tiler File",
    that area is used.
  - If there is a visible application-owned window with a zoom box,
    the tiling area is the rectangle the window zooms into.
  - Otherwise, a default full-screen tiling area is used.

Tiler uses the default area until it gets a better idea (that is, it finds a
zoom box or you use "Set Tiling Area").  After it sees a zoomable window, it
uses that area ever after, even if the window is closed.

If the option key is down:

  - Selecting "Set Tiling Area" will set the area only temporarily (until Tiler
    is closed); the area will not be saved in the Tiler File.
  - Selecting "Set Columns" will cause the "Save setting" check box in the
    dialog to be unchecked.
  - Selecting a window title will bring that window to the front (thanks to
    Bruce Horn for this idea).

The windows are tiled in order, from front to back, with the frontmost
window in the top left corner.  This is the order in which the window titles
appear in the Tiler menu.  If you want to explicitly specify an order, click
in the windows in reverse order; this will produce the correct front-to-back
ordering.  The actual tiling process takes place in back-to-front order
so the order will be unchanged.

The number of columns applies to all but the last row of windows.  The
windows on the last row are sized equally to fit the width of the tiling area.
For example, tiling five windows in three columns produces one row of three
windows, each covering 1/3 the width, and one row of two windows, each covering
half the width.  If there are fewer windows than columns, the windows are all
as tall as the tiling area and equally spaced horizontally.

You can simulate half of the effect of a zoom box in an application that
doesn't have zoom boxes by tiling one window--it will fill the screen.

The minimum window size defined by the application is ignored, because several
applications have unreasonably large minimum sizes.  Nothing bad has happened
because of this (of course, very small scroll bars are useless).  While Tiler
is open, manual resizing is limited to 32x32 pixels, unless the application's
original limit was smaller.  When tiling, windows are never made smaller than
32x32 pixels.

It is impossible for Tiler to decide which windows are document windows, so
all visible windows are put into the menu.  However, only application windows
with close boxes are initially checked.  This heuristic usually does the right
thing, except for resizable desk accessories (which are fortunately not very
common).  Tiler will almost always be able to recover from a bad choice.

If the application does not respond to a click in the lower-right corner
of a window within a reasonable time, Tiler puts the window back where it
was initially and starts over.  Any windows already tiled will of course
become larger, since there are fewer windows to tile.  Tiling is turned off
for the recalcitrant window (its title is unchecked).

Applications that do nasty things to the menu bar (such as MacDraw and
Excel) quite often remove the Tiler menu during normal operations.  Every
.25 seconds, Tiler puts its menu back up if it has disappeared.

Some applications (notably FullPaint) do not like windows to be rearranged
without their permission. Using Tiler in FullPaint causes bizarre things to
happen to the scroll bars, and the palettes are left in the back.  Click in an
inactive drawing window, and FullPaint will put things back the way it wants
them.  This isn't much of a problem since FullPaint has a built-in tiler.

Using Tiler in MacPaint is educational, but not useful.  After destroying
the screen, you can come close to restoring it by closing the current
document and doing a New or Open.  Try it--it's fun!

Windows without titles are represented in the menu by the item "(no title)".
These windows are usually dangerous and should not be selected for tiling
unless you are sure of what you are doing.

KNOWN PROBLEMS:

Quitting ResEdit (version 1.0.1 and earlier) with Tiler open will cause a
crash, because of a bug in ResEdit.  Fortunately, Tiler is not very useful
in ResEdit anyway, since very few ResEdit windows are resizable.

Tiler does not work in MacPascal.  Nothing bad happens, but the windows do
not get tiled.  MacPascal is the only application tested so far that checks
to make sure the button is still down after getting a click in a resize box.

Opening a new application in Switcher with Tiler open will cause the mouse
to freeze and the application to crash.  Tiler works fine in applications
opened under Switcher, but not in Switcher itself.  To avoid accidental deaths,
Tiler will refuse to open if selected in Switcher.

DIFFERENCES FROM VERSION 1.1:

Due to MacDraw silliness, the about box would look bizarre on some systems.
A more robust method is now used to draw the about box.

When running an application on a volume other than the system volume, "Set
Tiling Area" would not work, and the Tiler File would be slightly mangled.
This no longer happens.

The round-off error in window sizes no longer occurs.  The group of windows
always exactly fills the tiling area.

If a window is already in the right place, Tiler will no longer cause the
application to think it has been resized, saving a lot of blinking.  It is
still selected, however, to maintain the proper front-to-back ordering.

Windows can now be horizontally tiled by specifying more than one column.

Informative alerts are now used instead of beeps for almost all errors.

DISTRIBUTION:

This DA can be distributed freely, as long as it is not modified and each
copy comes with a copy of this documentation.

You don't have to send me any money (although I certainly won't refuse it),
but please let me know if you like Tiler, and tell me about any bugs you
find and any enhancements you would like to see.  I can be contacted at
the following addresses:

USMail: Walter Smith
        5139 Forbes Avenue
        Pittsburgh, PA  15213

ARPA:   [e-mail]

UUCP:   ..!seismo!cmu-cs-k!wrs

DELPHI: WSMITH
        [A message in the Mac forum will be read much sooner than mail]