17 Bit Software 2: Collection B

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AddMenu V1.53 (19th Aug 1991) by Nic Wilson ------------------------------------------- Written totally in Assembler ---------------------------- using Hisoft Devpac Amiga ------------------------- on an Amiga A3000 25mhz ----------------------- Nic Wilson Software 138d South Street Toowoomba Qld 4350 Australia Ph (076) 358384 Work or FAX (076) 358539 After hours EMAIL {cbmvax|cbmehq}!cbmaus!wilson!nic@uunet.uu.net This program has been placed on Shareware for your enjoyment You may distribute it freely as long as this document and the program remains unmodified, and accompanies the program. You may modify the script files as examples as long as you FULLY test them before distribution. If you like the program, a donation would be appreciated, and the latest version of this and other programs will be sent to you if requested. FUNCTION -------- Add an infinite number of Menu Items to the Workbench Tools Menu in Kickstart V2.0 using script files. Updating is possible from the menus, from CLI or from Workbench using different script files. Temporary menu items can also be added that stay in the menu strip after upating to new script. REQUIREMENTS ------------ Any Amiga running V2.0 of Kickstart and Workbench including the A3000. Tested to versions 37.157 Kickstart and Workbench 37.66 HISTORY ------- V1.0 Original release. V1.1 Added ability to use different script name/path V1.2 Added quit and update options V1.3 Added ability to change scripts on update V1.31 Optimised and fixed error msg for illegal use under kickstart V1.3. Fully checked with 'Enforcer' for bugs. V1.40 New temporary menus via workbench icon added and ability to update or remove from this icon. V1.41 Stopped illegal devices, drawers or non-executables being added to the menu strip. These will cause workbench screen to flash. Added switch for temporary menus, so you do not have to have the icon around if you do not use them. Added the ability to remove the temporary menus alone. V1.42 Fixed bug. If Temporary menus were removed, they would magically reappear when a script was changed. V1.50 Fixed bug. When updating to new script, old script memory buffers were not being freed. Added ability for each menu item to have more than one executable(SEE 'COMMAND STRINGS' or 'EXAMPLE SCRIPT' BELOW). V1.51 Added an 'About' menu automatically, this allows for easy identification of version number, author and info on its free distribution permission. The About menu will always be at the top of any function you have added in your script. V1.52 Very sorry but the new about function didn't work in hi-res I only use Interlace and I negelected to test other res modes. It is now fixed and will work in all res modes. V1.53 Changed launch code so the program can be called before Workbench is available. This allows the program to be called from the user-startup instead of the startup-sequence. The program will detach itself and then hang around and wait until workbench is available before installing. Also changed it so it can be launched from Workbench and gave it a commodity icon. You can drag this into the WBSTARTUP drawer to launch it if you prefer. If you do it this way the default script MUST be s:addmenu.script as WB parameters are not supported yet. V1.54 Removed ability to run from Workbench beacause of severe problems in DOS being able to find things. Run it from the user-startup and it is much better. IMPORTANT --------- DO NOT USE RUN OR RUNBACK, ADDMENU WILL RETURN THE CLI TO YOU AND ALLOW IT TO CLOSE WHEN YOU GIVE AN ENDCLI. ADDMENU WORKS IN RATHER A SPECIAL WAY, IN ORDER TO ALLOW THE CLI WINDOW TO CLOSE AFTER LAUNCH IT RELAUNCHES ITSELF AGAIN WITH SPECIAL CODE, THIS IS DONE TO OVERCOME ALL THE NORMAL PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT SOME PROGRAMS LOSE THE PATH, STACK, CURRENT DIRECTORY ETC, THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE OF PROGRAMS WRITTEN IN C. ADDMENU DOES NOT SUFFER FROM ANY OF THESE PROBLEMS. POPCLI TYPE PROGRAMS SUFFER BADLY FROM THIS, MY AUTOCLI USES THIS SAME CODE AND SUFFERS NO PROBLEM. IT IS PUBLIC DOMAIN SO SEND S.S.A.E. AND DISK FOR THE LATEST VERSION. USAGE ***** AddMenu [script] [switch] Standard redirection of output is supported. EG. Addmenu >nil: [script] [switch] [switches] -q AddMenu must already be running for this switch to be used. This switch allows the currently running AddMenu to be removed. If AddMenu is not found running an error message will result. If this switch is used then it must be the only parameter. To remove from workbench see 'To Remove Addmenu Completely' below. -t Do not use temporary menus and do not place the icon on the Workbench screen. [script] This is an optional parameter, and can be used when AddMenu is first launched or when updating. By default it reads a script created by you, called 'addmenu.script'. This file is expected to be in the S: directory , but if you wish to supply a different path and name you can use the script parameter. If this parameter is used you must supply the path to the file and its name. There is an example file that accompanies this file to show you how to create it. Below is an explanation of the script file. EG. AddMenu DH0:s/myscript FROM Workbench -------------- This ability has been removed. TEMPORARY MENU ITEMS ******************** This function will default to on unless the -t switch was used at launch. AddMenu will place a special icon on the workbench window. If a program is dragged and dumped over this icon, that program will appear at the bottom of the menu strip. The program itself will not move at all and doing this is quite safe. These temporary menus will survive an update that changes to a different script. They will continue to appear on the bottom of whatever script you update with. Once added they can be removed without removing AddMenu completely by double clicking on the special icon and selecting the 'REMOVE TEMP' gadget from the window. If any illegal device or non-executable file is dumped over the icon the screen will flash and a beep sound will be heard, and it will not be added to the menu. ADDMENU's SPECIAL ICON ********************** This icon does not behave like a normal icon, it is a special icon that allows manipulation of AddMenu from the workbench. Double clicking the icon will open a window with five gadgets. These gadgets allow AddMenu to be removed, temporary menus removed, updating a script or to cancel the operation. They are all explained in the relative sections below. This icon has not been given any specific position on the workbench window. Workbench will choose the best position for the icon, it can of course be dragged to any place you wish. I may add the abilty to snapshot in a future version. CANCELLING THE WINDOW ********************* If you double clicked the special icon, the window opened, and you changed your mind and wish to exit without changes. Click the 'CANCEL' gadget or the CLOSE gadget on the window. This will abort the operation and AddMenu will be unchanged. UPDATING ADDMENU ONCE RUNNING ***************************** From CLI -------- If AddMenu is already installed when launched again, then it will send a message to the running version to update itself, If no script is supplied then it will update from the default file. A different script can be supplied as the update, and because this update can called from inside an addmenu script, this allows you to change the entire menu, by calling a menu funtion. This allows for an infinite number of available menu functions. If a different script is supplied to the current one then it will totally replaced in favour of the new script. This new script could of course have an option to return to the original or any number of other scripts. From Workbench -------------- Double click the special AddMenu icon that appeared on the workbench window when AddMenu was launched. A window will open. Enter a new script path and filename into the string gadget and then press RETURN or click the OK gadget. The menus will be updated if your new script was found and was valid. TO REMOVE ADDMENU COMPLETELY **************************** From CLI -------- Launch AddMenu again with the -q switch. (SEE Usage Above) This could also be done by placing an entry in your script file so quitting could be done from the menus. From Workbench -------------- Double click the special icon that appeared on the Workbench window when AddMenu was launched. Click the REMOVE ALL Gadget. AddMenu will be completely removed. TO REMOVE THE TEMPORARY MENUS ***************************** From CLI -------- Not possible. From Workbench only ------------------- Double click the special icon that appeared on the Workbench window when AddMenu was launched. Click the REMOVE TEMP Gadget. All temporary menus will be removed. They cannot be removed individually. THE SCRIPT FILE *************** The script file is a group of commands you would like in the menu along with the text you want in the actual menu. The format of this script is important for the program to read it correctly. If the number of menu items in a single script overflows the screen height, the menu strips will be made wider and the items split into columns. The maximum number of menus items in a single script is 63, but due to a bug in workbench.library this is not checked for, any extra menus over this amount will be clipped, athough I dont forsee anyone placing this many in a single script. The structure of the script file is as follows. TEXT STRINGS ------------ The text strings are actually placed in the menu, and each one must be before its command string. The Text string must start and end with a plus (+) sign. COMMAND STRINGS --------------- The command strings are the strings that are sent to DOS when a menu item is selected. Each one must come directly after its text string and start and end with an asterisk (*). There are now any number of commands allowed per text string, DO NOT USE THE 'RUN' COMMAND WITHIN A COMMAND STRING, 'RUN' WILL BE ADDED TO THE FRONT OF YOUR STRING AUTOMATICALLY. END OF FILE MARKER ------------------ The script file must end with a hash (#) sign on the beginning of a new line. COMMENTS -------- Comments are allowed in the script file but must follow certain guidelines. They are allowed on a line of their own or beside a text string or command string. They must be outside the command or text string characters. The best way to ensure this is to leave at least one space before the beginning of the comment after the rightmost plus (+) or asterisk (*) of each comment or text string. They MUST NOT use the plus (+) sign, the asterisk (*) or the hash (#) sign within the comment, as these three characters are used to specify the beginning and end of command, texts strings or end of file. Comment lines are completely optional, you do not have to have any at all. EXAMPLE OF A VALID SCRIPT ------------------------- ;this is a valid comment this is a valid comment this is still a valid comment +NEWSHELL+ ;Text for the menu surrounded in plus signs *c:newshell* ;commands surrounded in asterisk signs comments are allowed between menu strings +NoVirus+ this is still a valid comment *dh0:novirus* notice the path to the above command how to execute a group of commands by executing a standard batch file. +WordPerfect+ *execute s:wpscript* the wp script would contain commands needed +XCOPY+ to assign and run it *dh0:copiers/xcopy* now we give option to quit addmenu +Quit Addmenu+ *addmenu -q* now we show how to change menus or update +PageStream+ This example shows executing a number of *assign fonts1: dh0:pagestream* commands after a single text string. *assign fonts2: dh0:pagestream* *assign pagestream: dh0:pagestream* *assign drivers: dh0:pagestream* *cd dh0:pagestream* *dh0:pagestream/pagestream* +Another Menu+ the next following menu. *addmenu s:different.script* # Notice the 'end of file' marker (#) on the end of the script. Please send comments, bug reports etc to the address at the top of this file. Nic Wilson