Otherware/Otherware_1_SB_Development.iso/amiga/system/sphinx.lzh/SPHINX2.5y/Docs/SPHINXConfig.doc

Text File | 1992-01-09 | 15.4 KB | 337 lines

                  Sphinx.doc v2.5b
         ⌐ 1992, Nicolas Dade. All Rights Reserved
 permission is hereby granted for non-commercial duplication and distribution
          doc file for the SPHINX: AmigaDOS device
 last revised: January 9th, 1992


 SPHINX configuration file

This file MUST exist
it's name is built out of the name of the SPHINX device:
  s:[SPHINX device name].config
so if the SPHINX device was being called SPHINX2:, then the configuration
file for that SPHINX would be be called
  s:SPHINX2.config

To create this file you must use the config file editor SPHINXConfig,
version 2.5b.

SPHINXConfig can be started either from WorkBench or a CLI.
once it is started, enter the correct filename, if you are not calling this
 SPHINX `SPHINX'.
edit the configuration
click on [Save v2.5]
click on the close window gadget

Initially SPHINXConfig will look for, and if it finds it, will load, a file
called s:SPHINX.config. If it does not find it, it just displays a "default
configuration".

If you start SPHINXConfig from a CLI, you may specify a filename with which
to start in place of s:SPHINX.config by:
 SPHINXConfig configfilename

If the initial file cannot be found, then SPHINXConfig shows the "default"
configuration. This configuration is no better nor no worse than any other;
you are strongly encouraged not to be satisfied with this "default" and
edit it.

the lines in the window:
CONFIG filename :name of configuration file being edited.
        [if the arp.library is available, then clicking on this
         gadget brings up an arp filerequestor in which you chose
         the config file you wish to load.]
         if arp.library is not available, then this is a string
         gadget, and when [RETURN] is pressed in this string, the
         file name specified is loaded, if it exists.
[Save v2.5]    :clicking this saves the configuration as a v2.5 configu-
         rationin the file.
         clicking this saves the configuration in the file specified
         by CONFIG filename.
Close Window GG :causes SPHINXConfig to shutdown. THIS DOES NOT SAVE THE
         CURRENT CONFIGURATION. TO SAVE THE CONFIGURATION YOU MUST
         MUST CLICK ON [Save v2.5] BEFORE CLOSING THE WINDOW.
everything else is a config option, described below

The SPHINXConfig window can be iconized (and deiconized) by clicking the right
mouse button.

NOTE: SPHINXconfig cannot read version 2.3 config files, if there are any left
out there.
SPHINXConfig can read v2.4 configuration files, but can only save v2.5 ones.

NOTE: SPHINXConfig has been compressed using PowerPacker

            - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Max Wrt KBytes/Max Inp KBytes (MaxWriteKBytes/InputKBytes)
this is a number between 1 and 65535. this specifies a maximum on how many
kilobytes of memory each SPHINX window will try to use to save text.

Max WRite Saves/Max Input Saves (MaxWriteSaves/InputSaves)
this is a number between 1 and 65535. this specifies a maximum on the number
of write/input text blocks not to delete automatically. a block of text is
for inputs: an input line
for writes: a block between input lines

Once both more memory than specified is being used, and more blocks than
specified exist, SPHINX will try to free a block, and will continue to do
this until either condition is no longer satisfied.
First it tries to free a write block, and can do this only if the whole block
is above the upper left character, the 10th spot, if it is defined, the
search input line, if you are searching, and the write buffer. If no write
block can be freed, then it tries to free various sorts of input lines: first
empty ones, then duplicate ones, then any available for freeing.
For any input line to be freed, it must be above the upperleft character, and
above spot 10, if it is defined, and above the next character to be read
(returned to a Read()), above the search input save, if you are searching,
AND ABOVE ALL WRITE BLOCKS. This means that if you make MaxWriteSaves greater
than MaxInputSaves, it will be just as if you had made then equal.

Setting the memory maximums to 65535 will save as much as 4 gigabytes/SPHINX
window, which effectively saves everything until memory runs out.
Saved blocks of text are also freed (before this limit is reached) if memory
is needed and there is no other way to get it, or when the user uses RA-F or
SRA-F.
NOTE: the memory in which the text is saved is allocated when needed (not all
at once), thus if you are a programer and you wish to test to see if your
program is freeing all the memory it allocated by watching some free memory
counter, and you don't want SPHINX: to alloc or free some of its memory while
this is going on, then make sure the SPHINX windows don't receive anything
(keystrokes, text to write, etc...). the SPHINX's will not alloc or free
except in response to a signal.
(CON: and NEWCON: windows can be used because CON: saves nothing and NEWCON:
 saves your input in a fixed size buffer that is allocated when the window
 is opened (note also that NEWCON: does something "interesting" when that
 buffer is full).)

Min Wrt Buf Lth (Minimum Write Buffer Length)
this is a number between 32 and 32752, which is the minimum length of the
buffer used to save the text written to the SPHINX. Internally this is
rounded up to the next higher multiple of eight by SPHINXConfig before it
is written to the config file. To be most effective, this value should be
around, and preferably on the larger side of, the length of the typical sum
of all the characters between two input lines + 14.

Wrt Font Name (Write Font Name)
this is a text string (probably ending in .font) specifying the name of the
font to use when drawing text that has been written (Write()) to the window
by the program accessing SPHINX.

Wrt Font Height (Write Font Height)
a number specifying the height of the font WriteFontName.

Inp Font Name (Input Font Name)
this is a text string (probably ending in .font) that specifies the name of
the font to use when drawing text that is or has been inputed.

Inp Font Height (InputFontHeight)
this is a number specifying the height of the font InputFontName.

NOTES:
1)the font names and heights are optional
2)these fonts are looked for and tested in this order, and the first suitable
  one is used:
  if a font was specified
   the user's font in ram (OpenFont())
   the user's font on disk (OpenDiskFont()) ; if diskfont.library not found,
                        ; alert : ODFt
  ; if no font is found, alert : ?FNT, where ? = W or I, depending on the
  ;    font, and after the alert is canceled, continues to look for a font
  ; if a font is found, but its flags are wrong, then alert : ?FFg, then
  ;    continue to look for a font (it is a proportion font, or etc...)
  ; if a font is found, but its width is zero, then alert : ?FWt, then
  ;    continue to look for a font
  then, in any case
  the window's rasterport's font (rp_Font)
  the window's font (IFont)
  the screen's font (sc_Font)
  the system default (gb_DefaultFont)
  and if none of these are suitable, then Topaz/8 is checked.
  ; if topaz/8 is not found, then alert : TpNF, and shutdown
  ; if topaz/8's flags are wrong, then alert : TpFg, and shutdown
  ; if topaz/8's width is zero, then alert : TpWt, and shutdown
3)if a font name is given, the corresponding font height MUST be given too.
4)there is nothing wrong with specifying the same font for both input and
  writing.
5)both fonts must be non-proportional (proportional fonts may look nice and
  be easier to read but they are much too much of a pain for the programer),
  and have non-zero widths.
6)the fonts do not have to have the same width or height.

NOTE: if you are using some text speedup program (FF,BlitzFonts,etc...),
then scrolling with SPHINX will be much faster if you make one or both of
the fonts (one of) the font(s) which is(are) sped up.

Line Height
this number specifies the height in pixels of a line in the window. this
should be greater than or equal to the font heights. the reason this is an
option is to allow you to put blank lines between lines of a dense font.
NOTE: If this value is less than the height of either of the two fonts that
are actually going to be used (if your font cannot be found or has the wrong
characteristics, then font you may not expect may be used, so this could
happen without your control), then line height is increased to be the larger
of the two font heights.

BELL Filename
this is the full file name (path & name) of an iff one-shot 8 bits/sample
file that is loaded and played when the first BELL (ctrl-G) is written
(Write()) to any SPHINX window. thereafter the file is not reloaded, even if
the window that caused it to load is closed; the file is shared between
SPHINX's with the same BELLFilename in their configuration. This will allow
you save CHIP ram if you have differently configured SPHINXs, since, if you
specified the same BELLFilename, they will all share the same audio data, so
you won't have various copies lying around in CHIP ram.
this is optional, and if this line is blank, then DisplayBeep() is called
when a BELL is found, like CON: and NEWCON:.

Help Filename
Ignore this option for now (SPHINX 2.5b does)

Extra Clip Chrs (Extra Clip Chars)
these are the extra characters considered to be part of a word (in addition
to A through Z and a through z, although NOT 0-9). this is used when finding
the edges of the word you have double-clicked on.
for example:
0123456789._-
is enough to clip filenames that contain no spaces,
0123456789._-:/
is enough to clip whole path+filenames, and
0123456789._-:/#?$()*[]{}|~!
is enough to clip whole path+filenames /w wildcards and stuff.
this word clipping is not restricted to clipping filenames, but that is the
use envisioned.

Extra Move Chrs (Extra Move Chars)
these are the extra characters considered to be part of a word when trying to
move one word to the left or right (A-LEFT & A-RIGHT). A-Z and a-z are also
considered to be part of a word.

Extra Del Chrs (Extra Delete Chars)
same as above, except used when deleting a word (A-BS and A-DEL).

Max Lit Cp Chrs (Maximum Literal Comparison Characters)
This is the maximum number of characters in the search string at which the
fragment comparison is not tried. This allows you to get around the problem
of having a lot of unwanted lines returned when you compare lines (as would
happen if, say, you only gave one character of the line you seek).
This also allows you to turn off the fragment comparison by setting this to
257 (a number larger than the maximum length of the search string).
Setting it to zero will enable the fragment comparison no matter how many
characters are in the seagulls string, which usually returns too many matches.
Best values are from 1 to 3.

Cursor Type
this is a text string representing the type of cursor you desire. it can be:
block       : a block the size of the char, over the char, like NEWCON uses.
thinline   : a thin vertical line (1 pixels wide) to the left of the char.
thickline  : a thicker vertical line (2 pixels wide) to the left of the char.
underline  : a horizontal line under the character.
the string is not case sensitive
just pick the one you like, this is just visual.
NOTE: actually there is a little difference: the underline and thinline
cusps are slightly faster to draw than are the thickline and block. this
makes those windows using those cursors slightly faster, but this is not
notice unless you are, say, typing a long file character by character,
(which is itself very slow) which will cause the cursor to be drawn and
undrawn many times. This effect is so small that it really shouldn't be a
criteria for choosing a cursor type unless you are using a program that does
draw it output one or a few characters at a time.

Iconized Width
this number is the width of the iconized window in pixels. numbers smaller
than 4 make a very small window, which is hard to find and click on later.
best values lie between 30 and 80.

Inp Txt Color (Input Text Color)
this is a number between 1 and 7 which ends up being the color of the input
lines. this gives you one more way to differentiate input text from written
text. this can be set to 0, but that will draw color 0 text on a color 0
background, so nothing much is visible.

Detail Pen
this is the number of the color which is used to draw the window's borders
and title bar (nw_DetailPen/wd_DetailPen). Most windows use 1, but using a
different color lets you find a SPHINX window more quickly (especially when
it is iconized).
this is also used as the color of the line drawn by the FF character.

Block Pen
this is the number of the color which is used to draw the window's title and
the background on which the scroll gadget slides (nw_BlockPen/wd_BlockPen).
most window use 0, but... (see also DetailPen).

C-F1...C-F10
these are ten strings which, when C-Fn is pressed, will be inserted in the
input buffer at the cursor, and then the input line will be entered (as if
you had pressed RETURN). This is provided to give you a way even faster than
UP or S-UP for entering input lines you use a lot.

Clip Type
this is a text string which discribes the initial clipping mode.
private   : when window opens, we are in private clipping mode.
clipboard :  " ", we are in locked clipboard clipping mode.
file      :  " ", we are in locked file clipping mode.

Clip File
this is the full intial name (path & name) of the file to which we clip when
we are in file clipping mode.

 " " Mode (Clip File Mode)
this is a text string which discribes the initial mode of writting we do when
we write to the Clip File
append      : each clip is appended to the file.
rewrite   : each clip rewrites the file.

Ins File (Insert File)
this is the full initial name (path & name) of the file from which we insert
when we insert from a file (SRA-I)

Half Wd Scroll (Half Window Scroll)
this is a text string
y : when new text in the window causes the cursor to go out of sight, then
    the window is scrolled half its height, bringing the cursor to the center
    of the window.
n : when the situation occurs, the window is just scrolled to keep
    the cursor in sight, like NEWCON.
Scrolling the cursor to the center of the window every few lines is faster
than scrolling every line.

Center Cursor
y : when, due to certain input buffer editing commands, the cursor goes off
    the window, the window is scrolled to bring the cursor to the middle line
n : the window is always scrolled just enough to bring the cursor back into
    sight (top or bottom line)

Strip Clips
y : the LF, CR or FF at the end of a line being clipped from this window is
    striped if the clip is on one line only.
n : the LF, CR or FF is not stripped.
Stripping should be enabled unless you need to see what the EOL characters
were.

Icnzed FtoB Gg (Iconized has Front to Back Gadget)
y : the iconized window is given front to back gadget(s).
n : the iconized window does not have front to back gadget(s).

Icnzed Auto Bck (Iconized wd Automatically goes to Back)
y : when the iconized window is opened, it is automatically moved to the back.
n : when it is opened, it says in front of the windows.

Parse Inserts
this is the initial value of the condition toggled by RA-P
y : when text is inserted (from a clip, clipboard or file), it is to be
    parsed as if it were comming from the keyboard. thus, for example, any
    CR in the text will cause the input line to be terminated and sent on to
    the program doing whatever it does with them (to the Read()er), and a
    new one to be begun. this mode can be used in conjunction with insertion
    from a file to form primitive macros which are invisible to everyone
    but SPHINX and you.
n : when text is inserted it is treated as if it were literal characters, so,
    for example, our CR would just show up in the input line, instead of
    terminating it.