** 1 page regular / 991 words **

QNA

** Q **
Thing v1.27e
** THINGQNA.GIF here **

I recently downloaded Thing 1.27E because I wanted to use it with Gemulator98 v5.01 running TOS 2.06 on a Windows 95 PC.

** UL **
** 1 **
Thing loads running Gemulator98 but it can only access the drives once - you can display a root directory but you can't display another or open a folder or display a text file and sometimes it can't create a clipboard on startup.

** 2a **
Running TOS 4.04 on a Falcon Thing can access the drives but I then found I didn't have enough information to set it up.

** 2b **
Double clicking on a file does not bring up a viewer but instead informs me I have no application to view it.

** 2c **
The applications item on the extras menu has got a Default application in its dialog box but when this is edited, the button to choose the program for it is disabled.

** 2d **
What is the Default application? Is it what I am looking for as the equivalent to double clicking on a file with an unrecognised extension with the Atari desktop? If so, how do I set it up?

** 2e **
I tried installing Everest using the new button in the Application dialog box because this did enable the button to choose the program. I also used a single * in the mask.

** 2f **
Double clicking on a TXT file now launched Everest BUT Everest loaded 2 files. One was the text file BUT the other was EVEREST.PRG which of course displayed gibberish because it was 68k object code.

** 2g **
How do I setup applications to solve these problems? What are all the options for in the Application dialog boxes?

** 3a **
The help file is in ST-Guide format but I have no idea how to access it from within Thing. I dug up a copy of ST-Guide 1.3 but it does not have instructions for how to set it up.

** 3b **
How do I set up ST-Guide?

** 3c **
I used ST-Guide to look at the help file BUT there was no mention of the Default application and there is no proper explanation of how to set up other Applications.

** 4a **
I was very pleased when I read the review of Thing v1.20 in AC#8, it looked ideal for use with Gemulator98 which can launch windows programs. So far, Thing has not lived up to my expectations because the first thing I tried to do has been unsuccessful which does not inspire me with confidence.

** 4b **
I would be more than happy to pay the shareware fee if Thing worked with Gemulator98 and I would like to be able to try it out with a real Atari to see if it works better than Ease.

** 5a **
Does Thing work with TOSBOX or any other emulator?

** 5b **
Can TOSBOX launch windows programs the way Gemulator98 does?

Dave Ansell, via email

** A **

** 1 **
It seems likely there's something wrong with your Gemulator installation or some problem accessing partitions with long filenames. Consider upgrading to the current Gemulator release and make sure you can access the problem devices/partitions from the TOS desktop before installing Thing v1.27e which should resolve the problems you're experiencing.

** 2a **
You need to install ST-Guide

** 2b **
Thing takes a modular approach leaving you to select your file viewer of choice. Most people install a general file viewer capable of displaying most of the file types you need to view. ST-Guide itself makes a fine viewer and you could also consider 1stGuide, Look'n See and Imagecopy.

** 2c/d **
That's normal because it's used to set the options for executing all other programs not on the list - not for setting the program for non-matching files.

** 2e **
This should now work properly and launch Everest to display any files for which there is not a specific match - of course it will also load any graphics files you double-clcik on! Ideally you should also install at least one viewer capable of displaying images.

** 2f **
It sounds like you've also added EVEREST.PRG in the "parameters" field - it's not needed.

** 2g **
Once you have ST-Guide installed you can press the Help button in any of those dialogs (or load the ST-Guide HYP manually via the file selector) and the options are thoroughly explained.

** 3a **
The current English release v1.5e includes full instructions and is available for download via the InterActive webpages at:

http://www.cix.co.uk/~inactive/

** 3b **
ST-Guide looks for its ST-GUIDE.INF file which should reside in the folder specified by the HOME environmental variable or in the root directory  of the boot disk/partition (typically C:\ for a hard disk or A:\ for a floppy drive).

ST-GUIDE.INF is an ASCII file and can be configured using any ASCII text editor (Everest, qed, Luna) to suit your requirements - the file is heavily commented so if you load it into an editor you should be able to make sense of the options from there.

** 3c **
Read the "Extra - Applications... (General)" page which says: The label 'Default application' is reserved and denotes the settings that Thing uses when starting all programs that have not been installed explicitly.

It's possible some of the help pages can be more easily reached from the Help buttons in Thing dialogs rather than navigating the hypertext from the Contents page. Setting up other applications is pretty much self-explanatory.

** 4a **
Thing is without doubt one of the most popular and powerful desktops available for the Atari platform. It is a "power user" desktop and optimising your working environment does take some time but the hypertext is comprehensive so you do need ST-Guide up and running. Make sure you read the "Applications - General" and "Applications - Properties" sections carefully and note the bit about wildcards in the former - Good luck!

** 5a **
Thing works fine with TOSBOX and MagiC PC.

** 5b **
No, TOSBOX is a DOS application which runs full screen and takes over the system.

Bob Paton, Andy G, Bob Paton, Peter West, Joe Connor