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-
- Workbench Control Utilities by Greg Searle
-
- OpenWB
- CloseWB
-
- These two commands simply open and close the Workbench screen. Alone, they
- are a bit useless -- it is impossible to close the screen when you have a
- CLI window (or any other application window) open, or when the Workbench is
- the only open screen on the system.
-
- On the other hand, if you have a hotkey utility available (such as MachII),
- these two commands can be a life-saver. Simply assign the commands to two
- seperate hotkeys and activate the utility (this won't work if your utility
- opens up its own window).
-
- Some applications close down the Workbench automatically, which is usually
- ok. Problems arise when, say, during a disk save the disk fills up. If
- the Workbench isn't available, you can't delete files to make room. Since
- the program is in the middle of a save, you can't tell it to re-open the
- Workbench. You have to stop the save, open the 'bench, clean up your disk,
- and re-start the possibly long process that started saving in the first
- place (example - Sculpt 4-D in the middle of compressing)!
-
- With these commands in place, you may simply hit a hotkey -- instant
- Workbench! Another case is if a program doesn't close the Workbench, and
- you need the memory. Hit a key, and the 'bench is gone.
-
-
- Some notes:
-
-
- These commands do simple OpenWorkBench() and CloseWorkBench() routine
- calls. Nothing should have problems with this - but they do. Some
- applications get confused -- you'll have to use these with care.
-
- If you don't have enough memory to re-open the Workbench, you'll see an
- alert pop to the top of your screen. Don't panic! Just hit the right mouse
- button to make it disappear. You'll have to close extra windows or screens
- in attempt to re-gain enough chip memory.
-
- If a non-Workbench window is open on the Workbench screen, CloseWB won't
- work. This is also true if the Workbench is the only screen on the system.
- CloseWB and OpenWB won't do anything if the screen is already closed or
- opened, respectively. You may close the Workbench any time another screen
- is available - even a demo screen. The Workbench will pop back up
- automatically when the other screen is closed.
-
- Sometimes a requester will appear when the Workbench screen is closed. This
- doesn't re-load the Workbench properly, and creates a dangerous situation.
- If the Workbench screen is re-opened, the system will crash. If you plan to
- close the Workbench screen, I recommend using the "FixReq" utility
- (available elsewhere) to stop requesters from re-opening the Workbench
- screen. (Note that Workbench icons don't appear when this happens.)
-
-
- Whew! That's a lot of writing for two little utilities! These are not
- written in assembly, but Aztec C, so they are not as small as they could be.
-
- - Greg Searle
-
-