To make your machine start up in the Desktop, type:
*Configure Language 3
and press Ctrl-Break. To make it start up in Basic, type:
*Configure Language 4
and press Ctrl-Break.
The following summary of the effects of various keys and mouse buttons may prove useful.
F12 | Star command |
Ctrl-Shift-F12 | Quit the Desktop |
Holding down the Shift key has the following effects:
1. Double-clicking on an application will open the application directory rather than running it.
2. Dragging a file or directory to copy it to another directory alters the operation to a move, with deletion of the source(s).
Using the Adjust button rather than Select has the following effects:
1. Scroll in the opposite direction on scroll bars etc.
2. Single-clicking will mark an object without un-marking previously marked objects.
3. Double-clicking on a directory opens or runs it as normal, but it also closes the parent directory.
4. Clicking on a Filer Quit icon closes the directory but also opens the parent.
5. Dragging a file or directory to copy it to another directory causes the source directory to be closed after the copy has been carried out.
To simultaneously drag a number of objects for copying or whatever, mark each in turn using the Adjust button, then drag with Select (or with Adjust if you want to close the source directory).
When dragging objects to an icon or directory, the tip of the pointer determines the destination of the drag, regardless of the size or position of the accompanying drag box.
When copying objects by dragging them from one directory to another on the Desktop, the setting of the variable Copy$Options will determine how the copy takes place. By default it is not set up for forced overwriting of objects. Consequently, if there is already an object in the destination directory with the same name as that to be copied, the copy will not take place. When this occurs, no message is given, and the result can be that you fail to back-up a particular file. It is very easy to fall into this trap if you are copying a number of files at once, or if you have a hard drive. In either case, whether a particular file has copied over would not be obvious.
To rectify the problem, use:
*SHOW Copy$Options
If a "~" character appears immediately before the "F" in the display, then forced overwriting is not set. To rectify this, use for example:
*Set Copy$Options ~C ~D F ~P ~Q R V
using the response to *Show as a guide to the state of the other options. See the RISC OS User Guide for further details.
To enter the Desktop and automatically run or install an application, type:
*Desktop <name>
where <name> is the name of the application, as referenced from a named disc. For example:
*Desktop ADFS::RU207v1_00.$.!NotePad
will enter the Desktop and place the RISC User NotePad icon on the icon bar, ready for immediate use - always assuming that RISC User magazine disc Volume 2 Issue 7 (with disc name "RU207v1_00") is in your disc drive at the time.
To go one step further, and run !NotePad with the NotePad file Notes loaded, use:
*Desktop ADFS::RU207v1_00.$.!NotePad Notes
Unfortunately you cannot use these tricks with applications such as ArcDraw which need resources from the !System directory, since the Filer will not have seen the resource directory before an attempt is made to run the application. In such cases you will need to adopt the technique described in RISC User Volume 2 Issue 7 page 33.