Octamed 6

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Octamed 6 / Octamed 6.iso / c / xicon.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-08-04 | 21.0 KB | 461 lines

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% December 1989 XICON -- Execute Command File from an Icon Release 2.5 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Copyright (c) 1986, 1987 , 1989 by Pete Goodeve -- All Rights Reserved Permission is granted to distribute this program freely, provided that no charge is made for its use. For any commercial purposes, please contact the author: Pete Goodeve 3012 Deakin Street #D Berkeley, Calif. 94705 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% With this program you can execute a file of AmigaDOS CLI commands directly from a WorkBench window, rather than from the CLI, simply by double-clicking an associated icon in the window. A window will be opened to display the output of the commands. It is similar to Commodore's IconX, but has been around about two years longer and has a number of facilities that the other lacks. This is release 2.5 of XICON. In addition to all the features of the previous version, it now changes to the current directory automatically before running the script, and can now invoke the "EXECUTE" DOS command to run it (giving you the use of IF, THEN, and ELSE) if necessary. You can pass other icons as parameters to EXECUTE scripts by multiple selection. Basic Concepts: The straightforward use of XICON is to have a 'project' =============== type icon, with XICON as the Default Tool, associated with a file of CLI commands (a "script"): when you double-click on the icon the commands in the file will be executed. A full-screen window is opened to display their output. The window will remain open when the script is finished until you either click on the Close gadget or type a control-C (or -D). The current directory when the script is entered is the same as that containing the icon. Many changes can be rung on this basic behavior by adding "Tool Types" to the icon's info. (These ToolTypes are all treated more extensively in their own sections later.) For example, the window can be configured to close automatically by setting the ToolType 'MODE=closewindow' in the icon. If none of the commands have any output that you need to see, set it to "'MODE=nowindow' and the program will not bother to open a window at all (any output is just thrown away). To set the size of the window that will be opened, use the Tool Type 'WINDOW=...'. To change its title at any point in the sequence, use 'TITLE=...'. (These options and all the others are described in detail in their own sections below.) You also have the option of executing commands from the ToolTypes lines of the icon itself, if you specify them with the 'CMD=...' ToolType. (There are advantages and disadvantages to this.) You can specify additional command scripts (which will be executed before the one associated with the icon) with 'SCRIPT=...'. This ToolType always executes the specified script directly (it doesn't invoke the DOS 'EXECUTE' command); if your script has conditional commands in it, you will need to use 'EXECUTE=...' instead. The script attached to the icon itself will be run via EXECUTE automatically if the first character is a period. You can include a remark to be displayed in the window with 'REM=...', or a text file with 'TEXT=...'. You can include as many instances of these particular Tool Types as you like (unlike configuration settings such as 'MODE' or 'WINDOW'); they are processed in sequence. The sequence may include a wait for a signal from the user with 'PAUSE'. For some applications it may be of more use to have some file other than a script attached to the icon -- under WorkBench 1.3, in fact, an icon doesn't need any associated file at all. If you set 'MODE=noscript' the attached file can be any type of data -- even a directory; you can operate on it if you want with commands in the ToolTypes list. If you set 'MODE=text' it will be treated as a simple text file to be displayed a page at a time in the window. You can take special action if the sequence has been aborted (except when you cut a test display short) -- see the description of the 'ABORT-...' Tool Types below. You can also use the 'EXISTS=...' ToolType to see if a file exists, and abort if it doesn't. Multiple Icons: You can select more than one icon at a time if you ============== like, by holding down the Shift key as you click on each. Only DOUBLE-click on the LAST selection (or use the "Open" item in the WorkBench Menu -- see "Introduction to Amiga"). The behavior in shift-select mode has changed somewhat in this version: the icons are processed in sequence from first to last, and as long as none of the attached scripts begins with a period (i.e. requires 'EXECUTE') all the ToolTypes and scripts are processed in sequence as well (and as in earlier versions); however, if any attached script DOES begin with a period, ALL the remaining icons are just taken as parameters to the script, without any further processing -- i.e. the icon names (minus the '.info' suffix of course) are passed as command line parameters to the script. The 'EXECUTE=...' ToolType, on the other hand, does not work this way; it can never be passed parameters, though they can be included in the ToolType itself (see the section on this ToolType below). Text Display: When XICON is in the text display mode ('MODE=text' or ============ 'TEXT=...') the file is displayed a window-full at a time, assuming a full screen window. It will also pause if a form-feed character is encountered. To continue, type any key or click in the bottom border of the window. You can abort display of that file by either clicking in the Close gadget or typing control-C; it will immediately proceed to the next operation if any. You will have to repeat the action to exit XICON if there are no more operations. Note that this is different from the immediate exit that follows a click on the Close gadget in reponse to a PAUSE Tool Type. Setup: You can install Xicon itself in any convenient ===== directory: best is to use the 'C:' directory of your Workbench disk; or you could install it in a directory on the same disk as the icons. (It doesn't need an icon of its own. The one supplied is just for "introductory" purposes.) Whichever directory you use, the icons that are going to invoke it must have a matching pathname as their DEFAULT TOOL (see below). You can put an icon and its associated file in any directory ("drawer") that you can open under WorkBench. The file must of course have the same name as the icon (without the '.info' extension the icon has tacked on). Each icon must be of type 'PROJECT' with a DEFAULT TOOL string specifying a path to the Xicon program. If it is in the same directory, 'xicon' will suffice, otherwise you must use the complete pathname. A full pathname always begins with the "device name", which is either an actual device (e.g. DF0: or RAM:) or an assigned name (e.g. SYS: or C:). (See the DOS manual.) If the icons are on the same disk as Xicon, the device can be simply ":" (the colon character alone); for example, if the program 'xicon' is in the directory 'xicon' on the same disk as the icon, the default tool pathname would be: :XICON/XICON If it is in your system "C:" directory, set the entry to: C:XICON Command Scripts: There are many ways to generate Command Script =============== files with their icons. One simple approach is to duplicate an already existing Xicon icon/file pair and rename it (using WorkBench Menu operations), then go to the CLI and modify the text file using whatever editor you are comfortable with. If Xicon is not in the appropriate directory, you will also have to change the Default Tool in the icon to the correct pathname (see below for how to do this). Alternatively you can create the text file first (let's call it 'myscript'), then use the CLI to copy a suitable project icon to 'myscript.info' and modify it as necessary. Modifying an icon: All the changes you should need to make to an icon ================= (except change its appearance! -- there are a number of ways of doing that these days) can be done with the 'Info' item in the WorkBench Menu. Select the icon you want to modify by clicking on it, depress the right mouse button to bring up the menu, and select 'Info' from the 'WorkBench' section. This should bring up an information window for that icon. To set the DEFAULT TOOL, click in that gadget and type in (or edit) the string. To enter a new TOOL TYPE, click first on the ADD gadget, then click in the string gadget and type it in. If you want to insert it into an existing set, use the arrow gadgets on the left to move to the desired point first. You can of course edit the strings in the usual way. Use the DEL gadget to remove a line completely. When you are done, click in the SAVE box to preserve the changes. Note that there is a highly annoying bug in all the releases of WorkBench, until the very latest (1.3.2) where it has been finally fixed: very often the set of Tool Types you enter into the icon gets screwed up -- apparently the string terminator gets lost on some entries, causing the next string to be tagged on. The only fix seems to be to go back to the Info, re-edit all your clobbered Tool Types, and try saving again. Eventually this should work. Scripts with Conditional Commands and Parameters: It is possible to ================================================ invoke scripts that contain conditional DOS commands (IF, ELSE, etc). To do this, Xicon needs to have the EXECUTE command available in the C: directory (as well as the RUN command, which it has always needed). The FIRST character of a script that contains conditional commands (at least if it is the file directly attached to the icon), must be a period ".". This may be the first character of a ".KEY..." script directive (see EXECUTE in the DOS Manual) or sometimes you can simply use a period by itself on the line. If you intend to use EXECUTE, and don't actually have any .KEY parameters, it will probably still save you a lot of grief to simply use a dummy directive of the form: .K "" where the "" supplies a null parameter that EXECUTE will ignore. Otherwise a "<" character occurring ANYWHERE in your script (even in a comment!) will cause EXECUTE to complain "No .K directive". [Just one more of the Amazing features of DOS...] If the first character of an attached script is NOT a period, Xicon runs the sequence of commands directly, just as it always has. MODE Setting: You can alter the assumptions made by Xicon by ============ setting the Tool Type 'MODE'. 'MODE=closewindow' avoids having to use control-C or the Close gadget to terminate the program. The window will close as soon as all the commands have completed. 'MODE=nowindow' tells XICON not to open any window at all. Any output from executing commands is simply thrown away (sent to NIL:). 'MODE=noscript' prevents Xicon from trying to read commands from its associated file, so this can be of any type. This option only makes sense if some ToolType such as 'SCRIPT=...', 'TEXT=...' or 'CMD=...' is used to supply the commands. 'MODE=text' indicates that the associated file is text, and should be displayed a window-full at a time. Only one MODE entry will be recognized in the Tool Types array, so if you want more than one of the above options, you must specify them separated by the vertical-bar character, for example: 'MODE=noscript|closewindow'. Modifying the Window: You can specify the size, position and title of ==================== the window that XICON opens by setting the Tool Type 'WINDOW=xxx/yyy/www/hhh/Title', where xxx and yyy are the co-ordinates of the top left corner, www and hhh are width and height, and Title is the desired name for the window. In other words this is just the string you would use to specify a 'CON:' window from the CLI, WITHOUT the 'CON:' prefix itself. You can't change the size or position of the window once it has been opened, but you can change its title. Just include the Tool Type 'TITLE=title string'. You can use this more than once in a sequence (of Tool Type commands -- see below) if you want. Commands in the Icon: Instead of a script file, you can specify ==================== commands directly in the Tool Types array of the icon, with the 'CMD=command string' format. (For example: 'CMD=list df1:work'.) Include as many of these as you like. They will be executed in sequence, but each by a separate CLI process, so you can't use a command to set parameters like stack size or current directory for the ones that follow. A Command Script file on the other hand is executed completely by one process, so settings are inherited. Before each 'CMD=...' is executed, the current directory is set to that of the icon. If you want to execute additional command script files before the one associated with the icon (if any), use 'SCRIPT=filename'. As usual, 'filename' may either be the name of a script file in the same directory as the icon, or it may be the complete pathname of such a file. These lines may be interspersed with 'CMD=..' lines (or others) and will be taken in their turn. Again, each 'SCRIPT=..' is handled by a separate CLI process, and the current directory is set. You can also invoke the DOS EXECUTE on any script through a ToolType entry: EXECUTE=scriptname arg1 arg2.... where 'scriptname' is the script file you wish to run , and 'arg1' etc are optional arguments (parameters) to pass to the script -- if it has a suitable '.KEY' directive to accept them (see your DOS manual under 'EXECUTE'). Note that -- unlike the automatic decision as to whether to use EXECUTE on an attached script (according to whether or not it begins with a period) -- 'EXECUTE=...' always uses EXECUTE, while 'SCRIPT=...' never does. (An initial period is not even required for the former, which may help some DOS shell scripts to run without modification.) Console Interaction: Any script run via EXECUTE is also run in =================== "interactive" mode. In other words a command in it that expects input from the console will wait for it properly. This was hard to arrange in earlier versions of Xicon: you had to resort to tricks like opening a special input window. Actually a new CLI is being created for this, and terminated when done. If the script fails, it can dump you into this CLI (and you will see a standard prompt). If this happens, simply type "endcli" to get out; you'll have to click on the close gadget as well, of course, if the icon doesn't have 'MODE=closewindow'. Unfortunately nothing ever seems to be entirely free. If any program invoked by the script accesses the console for input, this also diverts access away (permanently) from Xicon, meaning that you can no longer close the window with control-C. You still have the Close gadget, of course, or you can set MODE=closewindow to terminate automatically. In some cases also it seems possible that programs run in this mode may not pick up a control-C abort themselves , so you STILL may have to use special tricks. Sorry. Other Tool Types: You have various other actions that you can ================ request with Tool Type strings. They may be intermixed with the previous types. 'TEXT=filename' displays the specified file in the window, in the same way that 'MODE=text' does for the main file. 'REM=text' displays the text line as a remark at that point. 'PAUSE' (Note -- no "="!) pauses the sequence at that point, as if a form-feed had been encountered in a text file. Continue by clicking in the bottom border of the window or typing any key. If you click in the Close gadget instead, or type control-C, all remaining Tool Type commands will be skipped except 'RESTORE' and those with the 'ABORT-' prefix. 'RESTORE' is only relevant if the sequence has been aborted. If it is is encountered it removes the abort condition; Tool Type commands following it and the file associated with the icon will then be executed as normal. 'EXISTS=filename' will set the abort condition (as if the Close gadget had been clicked or control-C typed) if the specified file doesn't exist. The 'abort' condition: If the Close gadget is clicked or control-C ===================== typed in response to a PAUSE, or if an 'EXISTS=...' Tool Type fails, the abort condition will be set; all further normal Tool Type commands, and execution or display of the file associated with the icon, will be suppressed. If the 'RESTORE' Tool Type is encountered, however, normal operation will be restored. There are a set of alternative Tool Type commands, corresponding to the normal ones but prefixed with 'ABORT-', that will ONLY be executed if the abort condition has been set. The set is: ABORT-REM=... ABORT-CMD=... ABORT-TEXT=... ABORT-SCRIPT=... ABORT-EXECUTE... ABORT-PAUSE Note that the last one behaves JUST like normal PAUSE -- in other words if you click in the Continue gadget or type a key other than control-C the abort condition is REMOVED. Sequence of Tool Types: Remember the difference between the Tool Types ====================== that control the environment ('MODE=...', 'WINDOW=...', etc.) and those that are scanned in sequence. The first appearance of each of the former will be recognized at startup -- and at startup only -- so they won't for example be affected by an abort condition. They may actually be placed anywhere in the set of Tool Types, in any order, and they will still be recognized. The Tool Types processed at startup are: MODE= WINDOW= LOCDIR= Those processed in sequence are: CMD= REM= SCRIPT= EXECUTE= TEXT= TITLE= PAUSE RESTORE EXISTS= ABORT-... If you misspell a Tool Type name, it will simply be ignored. Finding the Directory: Previous to version 2.5, Xicon couldn't set the ===================== current directory automatically before running a script, so the ToolType 'LOCDIR=filename' was provided. This is now as far as I can tell totally redundant, but it has been left available so that earlier scripts will still work. If you include this ToolType in the icon, the specified file will be created and filled with a text string giving the complete path name of the directory containing the icon. Commands in the script can refer to this file -- which should be in a known place such as RAM: -- to take appropriate action. The string is always enclosed in quotes, and has a newline character at the end. DOS commands such as CD or DIR can read this string simply by redirecting their input and prompting with '?' (for commands like CD which don't have any needed output you can suppress the prompt by redirecting output to NIL:). Caveats: ======= Remember that the DOS command file "RUN" must be available in the "C:" directory for Xicon to operate, and so must the "EXECUTE" command if you want to run that type of script file. Because Xicon's method of direct script execution sets up the command file as the input stream, the output window cannot be used as a console unless the file is run via EXECUTE. If a command in a direct script needs keyboard input it must open up its own console window using I/O redirection, e.g.: mycommand <CON:0/100/150/50/input The initial stack size is always 4000 bytes. You can change this in your command script with a suitable STACK command. Note that the STACK gadget in the icon Info window does not have any effect. (Except on the stack used by Xicon itself! I haven't investigated how much it needs.) Remember that DOS won't let you use IF, SKIP, QUIT, and so on in direct command script files. Use the EXECUTE mode for these. You can use the RUN command from a command script, of course, but there are problems with output in this situation. In some cases, RUNning multiple commands can result in a Guru -- apparently from output stream "collision". For safety, ALWAYS direct the output of RUN itself to 'NIL:', and the output of the commands RUN either to their own window or to 'NIL:' also. E.g.: RUN >NIL: mycommand > "CON:100/50/200/100/mycommand output" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%