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Text File | 1995-04-04 | 18.1 KB | 340 lines

*************************************************************************** * * * IntroMaker v1.3 by Per-Olof Yliniemi * * * * Copyright © 1993 - All Rights Reserved World Wide * * * *************************************************************************** * * * DISCLAIMER: No responsibility can be taken on the part of the author * * for any consequences that may occur as a result of using this * * program. Every part of the program has been thoroughly tested * * to its specified limits and any known specific limitations of * * the program are stated within this documentation. * * * *************************************************************************** * * * This program is ShareWare. If you like it and use it (more than once), * * or if you want to get the source code for this program, please send me * * $10 as a registration fee, $10 extra for the source code, and if you * * want to use a cheque (not recommended) as payment add $7 to the above. * * * * For users in Sweden, Finland and Norway: * * Sending an equal amount in your own currency is better than go to * * the bank to get your money changed into US dollars. * * * *************************************************************************** * * * The program and the documentation may NOT be modified in ANY way. An * * exception may be to correct some typing errors in this documentation. * * This documentation MUST always be distributed with the IntroMaker * * program. * * * * This program may not be used as a part of any commercial packages * * without my permission. The source code may not be reproduced by * * disassembling the program. The source code you can order from me has * * lots of comments and additional documentation is available. * * * *************************************************************************** What is IntroMaker ? How many times have you tried to get one intro to run from the bootblock ? I've made too many tries with utilities such as BootLeg, Boot'Em and MultiBoot (the best of the three named above), but I missed some features in these programs such as the possibility to have more than one intro to load from the bootblock, be compatible with DOS (FFS and OFS) and so on. This program have some of the missed functions that I want to have in such a program. Here is a list of all (if I remember all of them) functions: * Intuition interface makes it easy to use. Gadgets have 3D-look, even if not running under v2.0 or higher of the operating system. Uses standard gadtools gadgets, but without using the library :-) * Requires NO extra files to run, but uses the ReqTools or the ASL (2.0) library for the file requester if available. Full support for the ARQ requester replacement utility (I've tried to use the right words in the requesters to get the right animations). * You can TEST the intros before writing them to the disk. If one intro doesn't seem to work with the default addresses, change them (if you know what you are doing), and test the demo again. The test function should NOT crash the system, unless the intro doesn't trash other memory that it hasn't allocated. The intro is loaded at the load address and the program is started at the jump address :-) * You have full control over the loader routines. You can select the load and jump addresses by yourself if you want to. The defaults seem to work with the most of the intros and demos. * You can decide whitch drive you want to write to (DF0: to DF3:) * Up to 56 intros can be loaded from the bootblock. Loader code is only 120 bytes. The disk limits the actual number of intros :-) * Allocates used blocks in the bitmap. This prevents DOS from overwriting your intro and crash the system. * Checks for free blocks on the disk rather than overwriting the files. * Works with both FFS and OFS disks. The storage capacity is the same with both FFS and OFS for IntroMaker, but DOS will give you some extra space for your files (837k with OFS, 879k with FFS ;-). * The size of the file to write to the disk is only limited by memory and the disk size (2 files * 439k with MCADOS, 1 file * 878.5k with MCATRK). If you have v2.0 of the OS and some fast memory, then the program will use the fast memory as disk buffer. This allows machines with only 512k chip mem to write larger files to the disk. * Info function allows more advanced users to see how many intros that are installed on the disk, where they are and how big they are. This function also give you access to a three color bitmap displayer. The bitmap displayer shows you how many blocks that are free, how many blocks that are allocated by files and how many blocks that are allocated by intros. * Have its own disk format (MCATRK), which gives the disk one more block to use for your intros. When you are using a MCADOS (DOS) disk to write your intros to, you have 2*878 blocks free on an empty disk. If you are using the MCATRK format (which will give you no access to files on this disk), you will have 1*1757 blocks free on an empty disk. The default MCADOS format can be used on any disk, even if it do not contain any intros. The disk will continue to work as before, but if you install any intros on it, the intros will be executed before the startup-sequence. * Can remove any of the intros that is installed and deallocates the used blocks for that intro. * Can swap the order of two installed intros on the disk. * Another TEST function, but this allows you to test an installed intro and can be useful when you are going to move or delete an intro. * Allows you to convert a disk from MCADOS to MCATRK format. This function will deallocate the blocks used for any files on the disk. After converting to MCATRK, you will have no access to the files that was on the disk. This program was written in assembly language on my Amiga 500+ with 16(!) megs of FAST mem and 2 megs of CHIP mem, VXL-30(33MHz) accelerator, and some other nice things. It should run on any Amiga without problems. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to use IntroMaker: IntroMaker can be started either from Workbench or from CLI. To start it from Workbench, double click on the IM1.3 icon. To start it from CLI, change directory to the one that contains the program and type IM1.3 at the CLI prompt. The IntroMaker window will open and you can now begin to use the program. Here comes an explanation of all gadgets in the IntroMaker window (explanation from top left to bottom right gadget): 1) File: String gadget that should contain the name of the file to put on the disk as a bootblock loaded program. 2) GetFile Button to pop up the ReqTools or Asl file requester. An easy way to change the file name in previous gadget. 3) TEST This function allows you to test the file that is in the File gadget. The file will be loaded to the Load Address and when the program starts, the program will jump to the Jump Address. This test is a bit more safe than when the intro is started from the bootblock, as it will save the interrupts, DMA, copperlist and memory(!) before starting the intro. 4) LoadAddr Address to load the program to in the bootblock. Default address is $1f000 (it seems to work with a lot of intros). The address is entered in hexadecimal format. 5) JumpAddr Address to jump to when executing the program, may not always be the same as the load address, but defaults to it. The address is entered in hexadecimal format. 6) Disk: Cycles through the list of trackdisk devices (DF0: to DF3:) 7) WRITE: Writes the file, updates bootblock and bitmap on dest disk. 8) INFO Displays a list of all intros that is installed on the disk. Press the DOWN ARROW gadget to get to the next page in the list. Press the UP ARROW gadget to get to the previous page. The table of all intros have these values in it: | |^|v| DOffs Len LoadAddr JumpAddr | ------------------------------------------ | 01 00400 03200 0001F000 0001F000 | | 02 03600 04800 00030000 00030000 | ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ | | | | | | | | | | Address to jump to when | | | | |--- when starting the intro | | | |--- Address to load intro to | | |--- Length of the intro | |--- Location on the disk (byte offset) |---Intro number BITMAP At the bottom of this window there is another gadget. The BITMAP gadget allows you to see where your intros, and where your files are, it will also display the number of free blocks, blocks allocated by files and blocks allocated by intros. 9) Type: Disk type to install when the INSTALL gadget is pressed. This gadget also decides which disk type to install when write is used on a disk without MCA bootblock. DOS is the default format and it should not destroy anything (except the old intros) that is on the disk. TRK is my own disk format and it will remove all old info from the disk. 10) DEL/SWAP Opens the same table as the INFO function, but allows the user to remove intros from the disk. Click on the gadget with the intro data to remove the intro. SWAP At the bottom of this window there is another gadget. The SWAP gadget allows you to swap the order of two intros. After selecting the SWAP gadget, press once on the first intro, and then press once on the other intro (this will also be shown in the window title when you have selected SWAP). If you decide to cancel the SWAP function, press on the first selected intro again or close this window. 11) TEST Another intro test function, have exact the same security as the other TEST gadget (3), but allows you to test one intro from the bootblock. The gadget at the bottom of the window allows you to TEST ALL intros that is installed on the disk. You can stop this function by pressing CANCEL in the requester between the intros. 12) INSTALL Installs a new MCA bootblock. If the disk type is TRK it will remove all old info on the disk, if the type is DOS it will only remove all old intros from the disk. It is not possible to install a DOS bootblock on a disk in TRK format 13) DOS->TRK Converts a MCADOS disk to a MCATRK disk. After converting to MCATRK format, there is no way to use the files that was on the disk before converting it. The files will be deallocated from the bitmap when selecting this function. If you want to keep any of the files that is on the disk that you are going to convert, copy them to another disk before converting this disk to MCATRK format. This will also change the loader code a bit. When all are executed, it will skip back to the first one again. 14) ABOUT Some info about the program. TEST IT !!! 15) Stat Shows the current status of the program and unrecoverable errors, that doesn't need a requester. When an error message is displayed, press one of the mouse buttons to get rid of it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tutorial - Part 1 - Installing some intros on a disk ------------------------------------------------------ You should now be familiar with the user interface in IntroMaker. Here is a little tutorial that installs some intros on a disk: 1) Start the program as explained above. 2) Type in the name (or select a file with the file requester) of the intro that should be loaded first when the disk is booted from. This file MUST be a file that contains CODE (otherwise,your computer will probably crash!), but it must not be a program that could be executed from Workbench or CLI. 3) Select your destination drive with the DRIVE gadget by clicking on it 4) Set the disk type to DOS (default). 5) Press the WRITE gadget. The file you have selected will now be loaded into the memory of your computer (this may limit the maximum size of the intro you can install with your computer). 6) A requester will prompt you to insert the disk to write the intro to. Insert the disk in your selected destination drive and press Continue 7) If your disk do not contain a MCA bootblock, a requester will give you the option to install a MCA boot to it. Select Continue to install the disk with my bootblock. 8) The disk should now be ready to boot from and the amount of free space on the disk should now be less than it was before (if you are using the MCADOS format). 9) To install more intros to the disk, repeat steps 2 thru 6 and. 10) You can test individual intros with the TEST function as described above (press the TEST gadget above the ABOUT gadget and click on the intro to test it). 11) You can sort or delete some of your installed intros with the DEL/SWAP function (see above). 12) If you want to test the whole disk, put it in drive DF0 and reset the computer (Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga). 13) The bootblock will open the CLI window when all intros have been executed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tutorial - Part 2 - Using other functions (DOS->TRK) ------------------------------------------------------ Now we are going to change the format of the disk to MCATRK. This will give you one block (512 bytes) extra to save your intros on. It may not sound so much, but these 512 bytes can be very useful if your intro doesn't seem to fit (maybe one byte too large) in the free area before the root block of the disk. The TRK format will give you one big chunk of free blocks for your own use (blocks from 2 to 1758 will be free). 1) Insert the disk that you installed some intros on in the drive that you have selected as the destination drive. 2) Copy all files (if any) from the disk to another disk. The MCATRK format doesn't support any access to any of the files on the disk. 3) Press the DOS->TRK gadget to convert the disk format. 4) Test the disk again. After the last intro, the bootblock will load the first intro again and continue the loop until you remove the disk from the drive. You can't convert a disk to TRK format if it's already in TRK format, and it is not possible to change back to DOS format once you have changed to TRK format. The only way to use the disk for files again is to reformat it (quick format will work) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The INSTALL function ---------------------- It is not really necessary to use the INSTALL function before a intro is installed on a disk. If the disk is in the ordinary DOS format (FFS or OFS), IntroMaker will install it when it copies your intro onto the disk. It is however, possible to install my MCADOS bootblock without destroying any data on an Amiga DOS disk. The bootblock has the same function as the standard bootblock you'll find on any disk you can boot from. The only difference is that it searches through a table when you boot the computer. If the disk is installed with IntroMaker, the table in the bootblock will be empty, and nothing will happen if you boot with it. Using this function is an easy way to deallocate all intros from the disk without having to remove all files (=formatting the disk). If you have the type gadget selected on TRK format, the INSTALL function will remove any files that is on the disk together with all intros. A warning will pop up if you are going to install a MCATRK bootblock on the disk. If you press Cancel in the requester, then nothing will be done. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send suggestions for other functions you want to see in this program, bug reports, your own programs, the shareware fee, old computers (or maybe a new A4000) to: Per-Olof Yliniemi Muoniovaara S-980 64 Muodoslompolo SWEDEN ---------------------------------------------------------------------------