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Text File | 1990-06-30 | 28.8 KB | 584 lines

****************************************** * MenuMaster V1.0 -by C.Papademetrious * * Copyright-© 1990 by REM-CTP Software * ****************************************** »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»«««««««««««««««««««««« ************************** COPYRIGHT NOTICE ***************************** * * * MenuMaster is a COPYRIGHTED program! The version included in * * this archive is a DEMO version -only- (See section below on creating * * a config script for MenuMaster for details.) * * * * To obtain a fully-functional version of MenuMaster on 3.5" disk, * * please send $15 (Check or Money Order only),to: * * * * REM-CTP Software * * 815 Pleasure Road, * * Lancaster,PA 17601 * * * * MenuMaster currently runs under a beta version of Commodore's 2.0 * * OS, however, we intend to update MenuMaster for full compatibility * * with the September release of OS 2.0, and may include features that * * take advantage of the new 2.0 OS, as well. (Hooray for "Commodities * * Exchange"!) * * * * Those who register for MenuMaster BEFORE 8/1/90, will recieve an * * uncrippled version of MenuMaster on disk via disk-mailer, and are * * entitled to any updates up to and including MenuMaster V2.0, for * * free, provided they send their original disk back with a SASE * * disk mailer. * * * * After August 1st, 1990, MenuMaster will be bundled with a few other * * utility type programs and distributed as a commercial product * * selling for around $50-$60). Those pre-registering MenuMaster before * * date will also have the option to purchase the additional utilities * * that will be bundled with MenuMaster, for an additional $10. * * * * Corporate and government multisite licenses, and special rates * * for user-groups are available. For special rate inquiries, contact * * us at the above address, or via email on the following services: * * * * * * GEnie: REM-TEK * * Compuserve: 71301,224 * * BIX: rmoyer * * * * Or leave email on: * * * * *************************** * * * TUSK BBS - Lancaster,PA * * * * Phone: 1-717-560-1750 * * * * (F8N1 300-2400 baud) * * * *************************** * * * * Addressed to: * * * * Richard Moyer(Asst.SysOp) * * Chris Papademetrious * * * * This demo-version may be redistributed freely, on the conditional * * basis that is done so in its ORIGINAL form, unaltered, AS an .LZH * * archive (Sorry Phil,but some of us want a CLI version of PKAZip). * * * * DISCLAIMER- Although REM-CTP Software has attempted to provide the * * end user with a functional and reliable product as possible, use of * * this program is at the risk of the end-user. We have not, in any * * way, intentionally, or by design, included any code which may * * intentionally cause damage to the end user's equipment, or software, * * nor have we included any self-replicating code, or virus into the * * source code for MenuMaster, or it's associated files. * * * * REM-CTP Software, it's employees, or any authorized agents are not * * responsible for any damages or consequential expenses incurred from * * the use of this program, and in no way are liable for or obligated * * to cover such expenses in the event they should occur. * * * * * * (Some states may have laws or regulations which may render certain * * portions of the above disclaimer innapplicble.) * * * ************************************************************************* MenuMaster history: 04/15/90 (Version 1.0) - Initial release of MenuMaster 05/08/90 (Version 1.1) - A bug in MenuMaster's vertical screen size checking that caused MenuMaster to crash when a defined menu-header contains more entries than will fit on to the current screen, is now fixed. This was due the fact that we apparently forgot to "bump" up the version number on the previous beta-demo-version of MenuMaster and included it in the original archive instead of this one. The error went undetected until we did an incremental backup a few days ago, and dis- covered the oversight. We could have released this version a little sooner, but some people had asked us for a little more "elbow" room with the number of functional menu items, so we've also raised the maximum number of functional menu items to 14, which took us a few more days to beta test. Here it is, enjoy. ««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««« Special thanks to Darren M. Greenwald (DMG)(Co-SysOp of the Amiga Programmers and Developers Roundtable [PRO/AM] on GEnie), for some helpful hints and one of the best darn text editors available..QED! »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» MenuMaster is a user definable, script-configurable, Amigatized menu system which also serves as a title-bar FREE/FAST/CHIP memory indicator and clock, along with several other options, and is the most flexable and powerful Amiga menuing system, to date. MenuMaster is, in several ways, a combination of some of the best features of other menu programs like MyMenu, MenuRunner, and HandyIcons. MenuMaster is updateable on-the-fly like HandyIcons and MyMenu, and also and allows use of the ARP file requestor (This is currently being changed to support the 2.0 file requestor),like MenuRunner. You may ask, why did we bother to write a user-definable menu utility when Commodore is supposedly adding a "Tools" menu in 2.0? Answer: One user configurable "Tools" menu is'nt enough ! Most of the people we know who use a menu utility like MyMenu, Menu- Runner, or HandyIcons, have several menus and some even have several different menu configurations that they "toggle" between because, A> MenuRunner is hard-coded with a limit of 60 menu items, B> HandyIcons requires "toggling" between different configurations if you need to have more than 47 menu items,and C> MyMenu "tacks" it's menu display (illegally), half way across Intuition's Workbench title-bar, limiting the amount of individual menus. Some other reasons MenuMaster was developed were: 1> "I FOUGHT PREFERENCES..AND PREFERENCES WON". Running Preferences, or a program accessing Preferences caused MyMenu's menu display to disappear. MenuMaster does'nt exhibit this annoying "feature". Also, because MenuMaster does'nt require the Worbench screen to run, it does'nt require "zapping" like MyMenu does, in order to use it with the "Fastbench" screen when using Dave Haynie's SetCPU utility on 030 based Amiga systems. In fact, MenuMaster beta tested quite favorably on a 2500's running under the A2630 card, and GVP's 030 accelerator. 2> IMPROPER PROGRAM LAUNCHING. Menumaster does'nt "choke" when you quit MenuMaster, even though there may be programs that were launched by MenuMaster that are still open or running... again, unlike MyMenu. 3> A HUGE MEMORY "APPETITE"". Although MyMenu and HandyIcons are pretty good in this respect, MenuRunner, however is not. In a test which had MyMenu,MenuMaster and MenuRunner displaying similar menu displays, MenuRunner weighed in at a whopping figure of over 60k of memory usage, according to a test which had all three menu utilities displaying menus with the exact same 60 menu entries, or functions. This, we felt, was entirely inexcusable for a menu program. In com- parison, MenuMaster only uses about 16k, a little less than MyMenu, and considerably less when compared to MenuRunner. All three menu utilities ran with basically the same amount of total menu items, counting MyMenu's and MenuMaster's sub-menu items. (By the way, MyMenu users can, with a very *minor* amount of editing, use their MyMenu.Conf file WITH MenuMaster! See the section below on creating a config file for MenuMaster.) 4> "MENU-WRAP". This is an annoying "feature", if you will, that MyMenu exhibits. MyMenu's right most menu will tend to "wrap" around to the left side of the Workbench screen when using several menu-headers across the Workbench title-bar. This tends to cause the last menu display -under- the menu header to "wrap" around, and reappear on the left side of the screen. MenuMaster does not do this. In fact, in addition to checking for Intuition's screen size, it also checks to see if it's menu display exceeds the current screen size, and displays the last menu display RIGHT-JUSTIFIED, if it's size exceeds the horizontal screen size, while leaving the menu entries themselves, left justified. 5> "HOT-KEYS". Because the way MyMenu incorporates hot-keys is illegal according to programming guidelines set by the folks at Commodore, MyMenu will likely break under the next OS revision released by Commodore. An early alpha version of MenuMaster also had them, however, because we had implemented them in a legal fashion, they were also quite cumbersome to use, since it required grabbing the mouse, clicking on MenuMaster's title-bar display to activate it's window, then going to the keyboard to press the hot keys. Kind of *pointless*, right? That's what we thought... so we removed the hot-keys. If, however, enough users request them, we *may* decide to put them back in, but only _after_ Commodore releases 2.0 ««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««« ANYWAY.. enough about the shortcomings of other menu utilities! Here is a list of the features that MenuMaster DOES have: »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» 1> Flexability and user definable, limited only by memory and screen resolution. 2> Use of the ARP file requestor to pass path-filename arguments to user defined menu funtions. We intend to change this to what will be the standard, system supported file requestor in Commodore's 2.0 OS release, for the version 2.0 of MenuMaster. 3> User control over vertical offset (spacing between menu entries),of the menu display, to enable vertical "tight-packing" of menu items. For most users, this will probably be more of a "cosmetic" option. However, enabling this option will yield additional space for more menu entries (4 entries in lores, 8 entries in hires), for those who wish to "stuff" as much as they can into a menu. NOTE- Although this feature does work in this demo-version, it will not overide the imposed limit on the number of functional menu items in this demo-ware release. Sorry... 4> User definable front and back pen colors of MenuMaster's title-bar display. 5> An ICONIFY display mode. MenuMaster can be toggled into a "draggable" window (while retaining menu accessability), or be displayed as a screen-wide title-bar (non-draggable), which icludes FREE/FAST/CHIP memory indicators (Full digit displays), and clock. The FAST/CHIP memory displays will be made an optional feature in the next version for those wishing to use MenuMaster with Commodore's 2.0 OS release. MenuMaster can started via CLI/Shell in iconfied mode (With x/y argu- ments), or can be started in in title-bar mode with arguments providing control over it's "y" positioning on the screen. If MenuMaster is started as a title-bar display, with it's "y" value specified as, or defaulted to "0", MenuMaster will reduce it's width just enough so that Workbench's front/back gadgets are accessable, leaving the user the ability to "toggle" the Workbench depth gadgets, or to grab the 2-pixel wide section just to the right of the depth-gadgets, in order to drag the Workbench screen up or down. 6> "Box" and/or regular solid-bar type menu highlighting. "Box" high- lighting uses a "hollow" rectangle instead of Intuition's more stan- dard type of "solid-bar" type highlighting mode. 7> User definable memory indicator update/refresh rate. The user can choose any value between 1 and 20 to control how often the title-bar memory display updates. 8> User definable pen-colors for displayed menu items. (Up to 8 and 15 colors for those with 3 or 4 bitplane Workbench displays.) 9> MenuMaster can use MyMenu's "MyMenu.Conf" file (With some minimal editing). 10> Full-screen width menu header display ability. The user can have as many menu headers as his or her screen width will permit. That means you could, in theory, have up to 16 single character menus if you wish (more if your interface is in overscan). Also, MenuMaster's right-most menu display is displayed right-justified if any portion of that menu exceeds the screen width.(Unlike Mymenu, which can "wrap-around" it's right most menu to the left side of your screen.) 11> Displays CLI error messages which point to any config file line entry containing an error. Those of you who have "guru'd" 30 or 40 times while hammering out a config script for MyMenu will understand and appreciate this feature. We found it real annoying having to look for a missing or misplaced "quote" in a MyMenu.conf script that was 200 lines long <grin>. 12> An option to turn off MenuMaster's menu display, leaving only it's Titlebar clock and memory display. (Why anyone would want to this beyond us, but we included it, anyway.) «««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««« ************************************* * INSTALLING AND USING MENUMASTER * ************************************* As mentioned earlier, this is a DEMO version only. Although MenuMaster will DISPLAY as many menus that you can fit onto your screen, it will only run the FIRST 14 menu items (sub-menu items are counted as menu items, btw.) that are displayed within the top 14 entries of the config file. To find out how to obtain a fully functional copy of MenuMaster, read the header information at the top of this text file. To use MenuMaster, place the files (listed below), in the specified dir- ectories by clicking on the "Install_MenuMasterV1.1" icon, or doing so via the CLI or Shell, and then click on the "MenuMasterV1.1" icon. MenuMasterV1.1 (An IconX batchfile which starts MenuMasterV1.1.info MenuMaster. Place wherever you wish.) ARP.Library (V39.1) - Your system "libs" directory MenuMaster - Your system "c" directory MM-Handler - Your system "l" directory MM.Cfg - Any directory you wish (This file is provided as an example config which can be edited to suit your needs, and can be renamed to whatever you may wish.) To run MenuMaster, open a CLI or Shell and type: MenuMaster {path+config_filename} [X=Xpos] [Y=Ypos] ...or MenuMaster [X=Xpos] [Y=Ypos] {path+config_filename} NOTE: If no "X" or "Y" arguments are specified, or a "Y"-ONLY argument is given MenuMaster assumes TITLEBAR display mode. If an "X" argu- ment is supplied, then MenuMaster is displayed in ICONIFIED mode. If no X and/or Y value is specified, MenuMaster assumes a value of "0" for X and Y screen coordinates. If the value of "Y" equals "0" (whether specified or by de- fault), then MenuMaster's title-bar display is reduced in width to permit the user to access and toggle the Workbench gadgets. Any other value will result in a title-bar display covering the entire width of the screen, including overscan screens. This was done in order to have a cleaner looking display, should anyone (If for some odd reason), wish to have MenuMaster's title-bar display at the bottom of their screen, or perhaps, just under the Workbench title-bar itself. The display-mode arguments can even be entered as menu-entries, themselves. This way, MenuMaster's display modes can be "toggled" from MenuMaster's menu display itself (See MM.Cfg). »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» ************************************************ * CREATING A CONFIGURATION FILE FOR MENUMASTER * ************************************************ IF YOU ARE A "MYMENU" USER... »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» Those already using MyMenu can use their MyMenu config script with Menumaster! All you have to do is remove the "WB","CLI", and hot-key ("<#>") entries in your "MyMenu.Conf" file. Simply use the search and replace function of a text editor to locate them and replace them with >nothing<. Then insert the additional parameter statements at the TOP of the MyMenu.Conf file, save the edits, and Voila! Now you have a config script for MenuMaster. CONFIG FILE LINE-ENTRY FORMATTING »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» "pipe" character / / MENU {Menu-header name} {Entry definition string} | {command string} EXAMPLE CONFIG FILE MENU ENTRY »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» User defined text as it is to ap- Any valid CLI/Shell command string can pear in menu. (Use quotes to en- be placed here.(Exception: MenuMaster enclose strings w/leading spaces) does'nt path-search. Full pathnames are required.) "c" directory commands don't require specified paths, however. Defines menu-header | | |_____ | "pipe" char._______ | | \ | \ | \ MENU Tools "Edit Startup-Sequence" | Ed s:Startup-Sequence The example above would result in a menu which looks like this: _____________________________________________________________________ | |Tools| |*|*| |-|-------------------------------------------------------------------| | |Edit Startup-Sequence| | | --------------------- | | Workbench Screen | | | Or,if you want "branched" sub-menu items, formatting the menu entry to include a leading space in the entry definition tells MenuMaster to create a sub-menu item in the display. Insert a leading space______ in the definition string | for sub-menus. | | | MENU Tools "Edit a text file" AZ | AZ MENU Tools "Edit a text file" QED | QED In the above example, because both QED and AZ have the same text in their definition strings, their definition strings will appear only once in the main menu as a single menu item, however AZ and QED will appear as seperate entries in a sub-menu (As shown below) _____________________________________________________________________ | |Tools| |*|*| |--|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | |Edit a text File |AZ | | | -----------------| | | | |QED | Workbench Screen | ---- A CAVEAT REGARDING "NEWCON" STATEMENTS IN COMMAND STRINGS »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» When using NEWCON arguments which have leading spaces in them, be sure to enclose the entire newcon argument portion of a command-string within quotes, especially if there is a "from" file or shell-startup script specified in the command string as well. EXAMPLE: Because of this leading space..., \____________ | V menu Tools "script" | newshell "newcon:0/0/320/80/ Script" from s:script ^ ^^ ^ |_________________________||____| | | ...the entire "newcon" portion of the command string must | be enclosed with quotes. Also, be careful of accidentally | leaving any "invisible" leading spaces (i.e.-"ALT+Spacebar") | before or after any "from" arguments in command strings,_______| or AmigaDOS will open a system requester saying something like "Please insert volume: from xxx". CALLING THE ARP FILE REQUESTOR WITH MENUMASTER »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» To call the ARP file requestor for a particular menu entry, insert a "MENU_REQ" statement instead of the "MENU" statement, at the begining of the line entry, AND insert a "%s"(no quotes), AFTER the program filename listed in that menu entry's command string. Example: MENU_REQ Tools "Edit a text file" | Ed %s or.. MENU_REQ Tools "NewZap a file" | NewZap %s NOTE- This will be changed in a future release. Instead of ARP's file requestor, we will be using OS 2.0's system supported file requestor. ADDITIONAL USER-DEFINABLE MENUMASTER FUNCTIONS »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» The following config options allow the user to modify MenuMaster even further. These should be placed at the top of MenuMaster's config file. They are: BOX [ITEM] When set to "ITEM",menu items (With or without sub-menus, [SUBITEM] but not including sub- menu items, however), will be high- [PARENT] lighted with a rectangular "box" type highlighting,in- stead of solid-bar highlighting. If the "SUBITEM" statement is used, only sub-menus will be highlighted with "box" type highlighting. If both options are specified, both main menu items and sub-menu items will use box type highlight- ing. Using the "PARENT" statement causes MenuMaster to use "box" highlighting -only- on menu items which have sub-menus. For normal "block" or "solid-bar" highlighting, omit the BOX statement, entirely. CENTER [ON] This option will allow the user to have MenuMaster's menu [OFF] display center all menu displays under the menu header names, and the menu items in those displays. COLOR [0-3] The specified value after the COLOR statement determines the color of displayed text in MenuMaster's menu display. Any system color can be used (0-3, more if using 3 or 4 bit-plane displays), and color statements can be placed anywhere between any menu line entry in order to change colors with the menu display. DISPLAY # # Title-bar color format; "DISPLAY <FRONT PEN> <BACK PEN>" For example, "DISPLAY 3 2" would give you an "amber" font, (system 3 color), with a black colored backround for the title-bar display,(System 2 color). NOMENUS This option will allow the user to turn off MenuMaster's menu display, and to use MenuMaster as a clock-memory display title-bar -only-. PACK [ON] Enables vertical "spacing" of menu items for asthetic [OFF] reasons. Changing this value to "ON" will enable vertical "tight-packing" of menu-items, if so desired. Additional space can be had for more menu-items, by using this option, as well (4 extra entries in non-interlace, and 8 in interlace). UPDATE [1-20] The numerical value(1-20),after the UPDATE statement, de- termines how many times per second the title-bar memory status indicators will update. One caveat, as this value is set higher, the more processor-time that is used. A value of 4 or 5 is reccomended, for reasonably quick memory updating that does'nt hog the processor. To better understand how these optional config parameters work, see the "MM.Cfg" file included with this archive. »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» *************************************************** * ADDITIONAL CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED FOR THE * * FOR THE OS 2.0 COMPATIBLE RELEASE OF MENUMASTER * *************************************************** Currently, MenuMaster's string parsing does work under 2.0. However, the window-refresh routines are still being optimized for Commodore's 2.0 OS release. Some other things being implemented, or being considered for implementation in MenuMaster 2.0 are: > Hotkeys ...*Possibly*. And then only after Commodore publicly releases 2.0, and we have a chance to see how "commodities exchange" works in 2.0. > CHIP/FAST memory indicators (Not the FREE indicator, however), may be replaced with a date and day of the week indicators, since 2.0 has "graphic memory" and "Other memory" displays. A lot will depend on how the September release of 2.0 implements this, or fast these displays update, however. We may just leave these displays in, and just add the date/day of the week displays, also. > An operating-system supported file-requester. (Again, only after 2.0 is released) > A new command-string parsing routine which does'nt use or require the ARP.library. Again, we hope MenuMaster will suit your custom menu needs, and we encourage user comments, and any bug reports. There should'nt be many, if any. Also, there is a support topic for MenuMaster on GEnie, in CATEGORY 7, of the *Starship* Bulletin Board. -Rick and "Chrispy". »»»» EOF «««««