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Text File | 1995-05-25 | 20.5 KB | 573 lines

------------------------------------------------------------------------ MultiCX 1.72 (25.5.95) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MultiCX is the smallest Multi-Function-Commodity for the Amiga, thought as a replacement for many larger and sometimes badly programmed programs. It is a 100% pure commodity, which means that it does not use any patches (SetFunction), no interrupts and no special input handlers. So it can safely be disabled or removed at any time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Features ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Notification MultiCX recognizes any changes of the ToolTypes while running, so there's no real need for a GUI. - Screen Blanker MultiCX includes a simple but compatible screen blanker. It always uses the display mode which fits best to the actual front screen, while taking the lowest resolution with only one plane. ToolTypes: SCRBLANK=n sets number of seconds until screen blanks, 0 means OFF HOTBLANK=Qual&Key sets hotkey for immediate blanking CDNOBLANK do not blank screen if Carrier is detected (currently only supports internal serial port) AVOIDTASK=Pattern do not blank screen if OwnerTask of active screen matches pattern AVOIDSCREEN=Pattern do not blank screen if Title of active screen matches pattern LIKEWB forces cloning the WB's display mode SCRMODE=ModeName selects a display mode by name AVOIDTASK and AVOIDSCREEN fully support AmigaDOS pattern matching and work case insensitive. If LIKEWB and SCRMODE are set, SCRMODE is only used if WB is not available for some reason. But this should never happen... - Moire Blanker MultiCX has a really nice screen blanker, too! It steals no processor time from other tasks, and if it couldn't draw a line for longer than 10 seconds it falls back to a simple black screen. There are some parameters to play with... ToolTypes: MOIRE selects Moire blanker LINES=n number of lines, default is 2 TRAIL=n length of trail, default is 64 XSPEED=n x offset for next line, default is 4 YSPEED=n y offset for next line, default is 6 CSPEED=n color cycling delay, default is 16 COLOR=n drawing color, range is 1-4095 0 means Random, -1 means Color Cycling - Mouse Accelerator MultiCX lets you set Acceleration and Theshold (minimum movement to activate Acceleration) for smooth mouse handling. ToolTypes: ACCELERATION=n sets Acceleration factor, 0 means OFF THRESHOLD=n sets Threshold value, 0 means no Threshold - Mouse Blanker MultiCX blanks the mouse pointer on keypress and/or after approx. 30 seconds when no mouse movement has occured. ToolTypes: KEYBLANK activates MouseBlanking on keypress TIMEBLANK activates MouseBlanking after timeout - Screen Cycle MultiCX allows you to cycle screens using either MiddleMouseButton or BothMouseButtons, this is equivalent to LCOMMAND M. Additionally a hotkey for backward cycling may be defined. If MOUSESHIFT and SCRCYCLE are both set to MMB, then ScreenCycling will occur on a Double-MMB-Click. ToolTypes: SCRCYCLE=MMB|BMB sets Screen Cycle to MMB or BMB BACKCYCLE=Qual&Key sets Qualifier and Key for BackCycle, none means OFF - Mouse Shift MultiCX lets you use the RightMouseButton or MiddleMouseButton as a Shift-Key for extended selection. And this is how it works with RightMouseButton: 1. Press LeftButton to select first icon and hold it. 2. Press RightButton and hold it. 3. Release LeftButton and keep RightButton pressed. 4. Now select some more icons with LeftButton. 5. To deselect an icon, click on it with LeftButton and keep it pressed, then release RightButton and press it again. Sounds much more complicated than it is... ToolTypes: MOUSESHIFT=RMB|MMB sets MouseShift to RMB or MMB - Window Cycle MultiCX lets you put a window to front/back by a configurable number of LeftButton clicks. Qualifiers can be defined for both functions. Additionally there are two hotkeys available for TopWindowToBack and BottomWindowToTop. But only windows with a Depth Gadget are affected by Window Cycling. ToolTypes: WINCYCLE=n sets number of mouse clicks for WindowCycle, 0 means OFF WINFRONTQUAL=Qual sets Qualifier for WindowToFront WINBACKQUAL=Qual sets Qualifier for WindowToBack FRONT2BACK=Qual&Key sets hotkey for TopWindowToBack BACK2FRONT=Qual&Key sets hotkey for BottomWindowToTop - SUN-alike Window Activation MultiCX has three different options to activate windows automatically. All of them activate the window under the mouse pointer, SunKey does it on every keypress, SunMouse does it after mouse movement, and SunRMB does it after pressing the right mouse button. So SunKey and SunMouse together seem to be rather useless. Windows with active Gadgets (like FileRequesters etc) will never be deactivated by one of these functions. ToolTypes: SUNKEY activates SunKey SUNMOUSE activates SunMouse SUNRMB activates SunRMB - HoldX and HoldY MultiCX allows you to lock a specific mouse dimension while holding a defined Qualifier. If both Qualifiers are set to the same it locks all mouse movements. So you are responsible for useful settings... ToolTypes: HOLDXQUAL=Qual sets Qualifier for HoldX, none means OFF HOLDYQUAL=Qual sets Qualifier for HoldY, none means OFF - Enter ASCII MultiCX allows you to enter ASCII codes directly by pressing the RALT key and the numbers in the numeric block, for example: <ALT> 65 = A. Maximum 3 digits, value must not be greater than 255. ToolTypes: ENTERASCII activates EnterASCII - Map Umlauts This option might be of use for german users or other people writing german texts. It will convert the german umlauts into the normal character pendants. ToolTypes: MAPUMLAUTS activates MapUmlauts - CapShift This option changes the way CapsLock works. Just try activating CapsLock, and then press some shifted letters to get an idea of it. Hotkeys etc. are no longer affected by CapsLock. CapShift is ignored if NoCapsLock is active. ToolTypes: CAPSHIFT activates CapShift - NoCapsLock ... simply switches off CAPSLOCK completely. ToolTypes: NOCAPSLOCK activates NoCapsLock - Window Close/Zoom MultiCX allows you to close/zoom windows using pre-defined Qualifiers and Keys. ToolTypes: WINCLOSE=Qual&Key sets Qualifier and Key for CloseWindow, none means OFF WINZOOM=Qual&Key sets Qualifier and Key for ZoomWindow, none means OFF - Window Remember MultiCX remembers the last active window on every screen, and the next time you go to that screen, this window will be re-activated automatically. ToolTypes: WINREMEMBER activates WindowRemember - CenterScreen The active screen is centered when this hotkey is pressed. ToolTypes: CENTERSCR=Qual&Key sets Qualifier and Key for CenterScreen, none means OFF - HotFlush MultiCX frees all unneeded memory when pressing this hotkey, just like "Avail flush" does. ToolTypes: HOTFLUSH=Qual&Key sets Qualifier and Key for HotFlush, none means OFF - PopCLI MultiCX spawns a UserShell using the given command string when pressing the PopCLI key. ToolTypes: POPCLI=Qual&Key sets Qualifier & Key for PopCLI, none means OFF POPCLICMD=Command sets command string for PopCLI, none means OFF POPCLISTACK=n sets stacksize for PopCLI (Default: 4096) - FrontPubScreen If this option is activated the FrontScreen automatically will become the actual DefaultPubScreen, as long as it is public and not private. ToolTypes: FRONTPUBSCR activates FrontPubScreen - System Flags MultiCX lets you set/change some of the internal AmigaOS flags. These may be set, unset or left unchanged, where a parameter of 0 means deactivate, 1 or any value >0 means activate, and putting the ToolType in brackets (the same as removing it) means no change. Old values are NOT restored when quitting/disabling MultiCX, but Notification may be used at any time. ToolTypes: BLACKBORDER=n changes BlackBorder flag, ECS Denise needed NOCLICK=n changes NoClick flag for all drives, may not work with very old drives WILDSTAR=n changes flag for extended WildCarding, if ON "*" may be used instead of "#?" SNDFILTER=n switch Sound filter ON/OFF - Trackdisk Parameters This option is used to set some parameters of trackdisk.device. If used with care these settings could make your drives faster and less noisy. Old values are NOT restored when quitting/disabling MultiCX, but default values are set when disabling these Tooltypes. ONLY USE THEM IF YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING! ToolTypes: TDRETRY=n change TDU_RETRYCNT (Default is 10) TDSTEP=n change TDU_STEPDELAY (Default is 3000) TDSETTLE=n change TDU_SETTLEDELAY (Default is 15000) TDCALIBRATE=n change TDU_CALIBRATEDELAY (Default is 4000) - Public Screen Flags MultiCX also lets you set/change the global Public Screen flags. These may be locked, so that other tasks cannot change them. The values are the same as for the System flags (see above). ToolTypes: POPPUBSCR=n changes PopPubScreen flag SHANGHAI=n changes Shanghai flag LOCKPUBFLAGS locks Public Screen flags - Internal and External Preferences Normally MultiCX opens a WBInfo Requester on CX_POPUP (OS 3.x only!), but this may be replaced by an external program like MultiCXPrefs by Michael Barsoom. BTW: Thanks for the great work, Michael! ToolTypes: CX_POPUP=Qual&Key sets Qualifier and Key for WBInfo or ext. Prefs EXTPREFS=Command sets Command to execute for external Preferences ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Notes and Hints ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - MultiCX must be started from WB, CLI/Shell is not supported. - MultiCX is 100% compatible to Commodore's specifications, so don't complain if some bad-behaving software does not work with it. For example: Some bad filesystems do not support Notification, some bad gfx-board drivers do not support MouseBlanking etc... - MultiCX's Screen Blanker uses BestModeID to find the best display mode. Because this is impossible under AmigaOS 2.x, MultiCX uses a special masking algorythm to find the display mode. But this relies on the fact, that a DisplayID with all ModeKeys set to 0 exists. Anyway you should use AmigaOS 3.x for best results. - BlackBorder is not fully supported by AmigaOS 2.x, but should work. - Some very old drives do not like NoClick, so switch it off at once if your drive makes funny noises... - If you like to toggle some of MultiCX's features using hotkeys, you should try ToolManager 2.1 (by Stefan Becker) together with DoIcon (by Lars Eilebrecht). - MultiCX may be enabled, disabled or removed from within scripts by using HandleCX (included in this archive). Should always be done when starting nasty games... - External Preferences programs must not use more than 4096 byte stack, and should use ReadArgs to get needed arguments. The program is responsible for things like protecting itself against being started twice, popping it's screen to front etc. In order to get the path and name of MultiCX's active icon file a Public Semaphore has been implemented. Programs can use FindSemaphore to get the base of the following structure: struct MCXSemaphore { struct SignalSemaphore mcx_Sem; BPTR mcx_Lock; /* Copy of my wa_Lock */ CHAR *mcx_Name; /* Ptr to Icon Filename */ } The name of the Semaphore is "MultiCX.Semaphore". Don't forget to protect all accesses by a Forbid/Permit pair, because the Semaphore will be removed if MultiCX ends. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ History ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.00 - 1.20 internal Beta releases 1.21 first public release 1.22 - Keyboard Mouse works with SUNKEY now - SCRBLANK uses Standard Monitor now if BestModeID could not find a valid ScreenMode 1.23 - improved MOUSESHIFT and MMBCYCLE, see details above 1.24 - removed little bug in new MMBCYCLE 1.25 - improved SCRBLANK under AmigaOS 2.x 1.30 - Signal/Message system completely rewritten to prevent deadlock situations - improved WINREMEMBER - created seperate version for OS 3.x only with reduced code overhead 1.31 - improved WINCYCLE and SUN-functions 1.32 - improved Signal/Message system and asynchronous design - improved documentation (Special thanks go to John C. Davis for his help) 1.33 - removed some more deadlock candidates 1.34 - removed a small message handling bug 1.35 - fixed stupid bug in WINCYCLE (I hate those typos...) 1.36 - fixed problem in WINREMEMBER which could cause Enforcer hits under some very special conditions 1.37 - improved AutoRepeat behaviour 1.40 - Exchange's "Show Interface" or HandleCX's "POPUP" will open WB Icons/Information now (OS 3.x only!) - fixed bug in SCRBLANK 1.41 - implemented CX_POPKEY feature (OS 3.x only!) - MultiCX opens WBInfo now if it is already running and started again (OS 3.x only!) 1.42 - POPCLI Shell gets full path now (what a bad hack...;-) - SCRBLANK, WINCYCLE, ACCELERATION and THRESHOLD no longer accept negative values 1.45 - improved handling of windows with active menu - implemented timeout for re-blanking of screen - screen will be unblanked when disk is inserted - Mouse Blanker is more compatible to (bad) graphics boards now - implemented POPCLISTACK ToolType - MMBCYCLE changed to SCRCYCLE, see details above - improved MOUSESHIFT, see details above 1.46 - deselecting an icon now works with MOUSESHIFT=MMB, just keep LButton pressed while releasing MButton for a short while 1.47 - Mouse Blanker changed back to old routine, because some gfx board drivers seem to have even more problems with ss_height > 0 - implemented HOTBLANK and LIKEWB features 1.48 - improved ENTERASCII slightly 1.49 - improved SCRCYCLE, MOUSESHIFT and ENTERASCII - some code optimizations 1.50 - some very small bugs fixed - overall code improvements 1.51 - implemented MOIRE Screen Blanker and some ToolTypes, see details above 1.52 - implemented Color Cycling for MOIRE Blanker - implemented SCRMODE ToolType - HOTBLANK works always now, even if SCRBLANK is 0 1.53 - implemented CSPEED ToolType for Moire Blanker 1.54 - Blanker timer was not cleared on Enable/Disable 1.55 - LINES=1 or TRAIL=1 waked up the guru... - improved Amiga-is-busy blanking - improved CAPSHIFT to handle foreign characters (ALT) - ENTERASCII now uses RALT only, this should prevent problems with other software using ALT-NUMKEYs 1.56 - CX_POPKEY now brings Workbench screen to front before opening WBInfo - implemented Window Cycling via hotkeys, new ToolTypes are FRONT2BACK and BACK2FRONT 1.57 - Mouse was not always blanked with HOTBLANK 1.58 - Arghhhh... Mouse blanking still was not 100% ok, but now it is! - some code optimizations 1.59 - fixed some problems with BMB ScreenCycling 1.60 - implemented NOCAPSLOCK - included new version of HandleCX 1.61 - implemented FRONTPUBSCR, POPPUBSCR and SHANGHAI - removed WBTOFRONT because it's no longer needed 1.62 - implemented CDNOBLANK for ScreenBlanker 1.63 - implemented CENTERSCR and SNDFILTER ToolTypes 1.64 - implemented MAPUMLAUTS - implemented TDRETRY, TDSTEP, TDSETTLE and TDCALIBRATE 1.65 - fixed a potential deadlock problem 1.66 - OS3-only version did not work with Kickstart v39 because keymap.library was v37 in these OS versions 1.67 - improved unblanking of Moire Blanker 1.68 - overall code improvements - implemented AVOIDTASK and AVOIDSCREEN 1.69 - improved BMB ScreenCycling again - if SCRCYCLE and MOUSESHIFT are both set to MMB, then SCRCYCLE will use a Double-MMB-Click - implemented Semaphore for MultiCXPrefs by M.Barsoom 1.70 - fixed small bug in new MMB handling code - implemented HOTFLUSH - implemented EXTPREFS ToolType to support external Preferences programs for MultiCX 1.71 - fixed possible deadlock situation in ScreenBlanker - implemented BACKCYCLE - included nice new icons made by Mario Cattaneo 1.72 - implemented LOCKPUBFLAGS - improved multitasking behaviour ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Author ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Martin Berndt Fr.-Alfred-Str. 115 47226 Duisburg Germany E-Mail Germany: m_berndt@wanderer.dssd.sub.org E-Mail International: m_berndt@wanderer.gun.de Support BBS: WANDERER +49-211-463875 Login: GAST Area: WANDERER/BIN/MB-SUPPORT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Legal Stuff ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MultiCX is GIFTWARE, so simply send me anything you like. Gold bars, Ferraris and programming jobs in the US are prefered... ;-) If you have no idea of what to send me, just put $10 in an envelope. BTW: Only 12 (in words: TWELVE) users have sent a gift, yet. So it seems that it's not worth the effort, because nobody is using MultiCX. Is that true? Copyright --------- MultiCX is written and copyright © 1994-1995 by Martin Berndt. No parts of this program may be altered by any means (this includes editing, reprogramming, crunching, resourceing etc.), except archiving. Disclaimer ---------- The author is in no way liable for any changes made to any part of the program, or consequences thereof as he is in no way liable for damages or loss of data directly or indirectly caused by this software. Distribution ------------ Neither fees may be charged nor profits may be made by distributing this piece of software. Only a nominal fee for costs of magnetic media may be accepted, the amount of US $5 shouldn't be exceeded for a disk containing MultiCX. CD Manufactures are specifically granted the right to include this program on CD collections, as long as they are for the Public Domain.