-----------LET 'EM FLY----------- (Flying Dials and more....) version 1.19 July 1992 (C) 1991-92 rote Oliver Dirty Freaky Deaky Software (it's Freeware) Preamble -------- Well, I only wanted to see how fast the Atari ST's VDI could be, then from that came something more... Flying dialogue boxes are features of GEMINI (the shareware alternative desktop) and RUFUS (a terminal program). Besides flying, these dialogues have keyboard equivalents for mouse clicks. Unfortunately these features are active only within these programs, and as soon as one leaves them the features are lost. Now here comes LET 'EM FLY to allow many 'normal' program dialog boxes to have these features. The important features ---------------------- Flying dialogs: Many dialog boxes become able to Fly. Through an intelligent alogorithm the boxes can be shifted tolerably fast and optically optimized without a blitter. When adequate memory is available the boxes can 'remember' the shifted position and will appear there the next time they are called. Also virtual screens like BIGSCREEN 2.0 are supported and the dialogue boxes can be centered in them. Key Bindings for the Dialogues: Just as many dialogues can be controlled from the keyboard, the special keys [HELP] and [UNDO] are also used. Extra editor functions: In a dialogue with editable fields,extra editor functions become available. Also, the GEM Clipboard is supported with a history of the last 20 inputs taken. Some editor functions are effective in programs which use dialogue processes in the program itself. New alert boxes with new icons: The look of the alert boxes is changed. They are only as large as they must be. Further, one can load new icons. Grow/Shrink Boxes switch off: These can be switched off to gain speed. No pilot's license required! Yes, you've read it right. For LET 'EM FLY! no pilot's license is needed. LET 'EM FLY! works on all ST/TT computers in all resolutions. If it does give you any problems, please contact me. LET 'EM FLY! is Freeware. You can freely copy, distribute and use it. Commercial exploitation of LET 'EM FLY! is prohibited without your having obtained written permission from me. All copyright rights remain with the author and I will vigorously prosecute any violations of this notice. LET 'EM FLY! comprises the following files: LETEMFLY.PRG The actual program LET_CONF.ACC/PRG The configuration accessory/program GEM1ICON.RSC The original Atari alert box icons GEM2ICON.RSC The GEM/2 alert box icons LETEMFLY.TXT This (the German) instructions document CHANGES.TXT The (German) changes between versions READ_ME A short instruction document Distribution of LET 'EM FLY! is permited ONLY with all of these files included. Important: More complete documentation for the programmer and developer is available. It is not included in the LET 'EM FLY! 'basic package'. Contact the author through the online addresses shown later or write to him, including a self-addressed sufficiently stamped return envelope. Now you must read and understand this... All software and hardware terms mentioned are the trademarks of their manufacturer. The author assumes no responsibility for direct or indirect damage resulting from the use of this program. ============================================== Installation LETEMFLY.PRG can be run from the desktop as well as from the AUTO folder, but must be in the AUTO folder to automatically install itself. Using LET_CONF.ACC/PRG you may configure LET 'EM FLY! to your requirements. If you have a small-memory ST, the author recommends the use of 'The Chamelion' from Karsten Isovic. With it you can load or remove accessories as needed. LET_CONF.CPX replaces LET_CONF.ACC if you are using Atari's CPX control panel. Service Not all dialogue boxes will benefit from LET 'EM FLY!. Some programs include their own dialogue routines. With these LET 'EM FLY! may not have any effect or may provide only partial features. For any programmers who want to optimize their programs for LET 'EM FLY! use, please contact the author for documentation. Also the desktop dialogues will not support LET 'EM FLY! as they use TOS-direct programming. This is not expected to be the case with MultiTOS. If something does not function as it should, you may deactivate that function through the configuration program (or ACC or CPX). So now let's try it... Move the mouse pointer into a dialogue box but not over one of the selection objects (selection boxes). Hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse. Note how the mouse pointer turns into a 'hand' icon and moves the dialogue box to any position on the screen. Depending on how you have configured LET 'EM FLY!, the dialog box appears to move intact or becomes a transparent frame as long as the mouse button is depressed. Holding down both mouse buttons gives the inverse appearance - if your setting is for 'intact' movement, the box will appear as a transparent frame and vice versa. The transparent feature also allows you to see what's under the dialogue box without moving it. Note: It may be that in a given program, LET 'EM FLY! may be able to 'fly' only over a certain special object. () You can suppress the exclusivity of the 'flying object' by an extra press of the right mouse button, allowing the other object to become the 'flying object'. If a dialog box either will not 'fly' or does not 'remember' its new position, it may be that you have insufficient free memory for LET 'EM FLY! to store its flight path. With a dialogue box on screen, click on another location on the screen. Normally there's no reaction except the 'ding' sound of a no-action mouseclick. But with LET 'EM FLY! the dialogue box 'flies' to the mouse pointer's location! This function proves especially useful with large-screen monitors. Double-clicking (left mouse button) on the dialog box will 'fly' it to the center of the screen. You will notice that the next time you call that dialogue box, it will appear at the last position again. By pressing [ALT]+[CTRL] when calling that dialogue box (example: mouseclicking on a menu selection), the dialogue box will appear centered once again. This function also demonstrates the user-friendly flying routine. It becomes possible to leave dialogue boxes at the actual mouse pointer position. With virtual screens such as BIGSCREEN 2.0 installed, it is now possible to Fly dialog boxes to the virtual screen portion currently appearing on your monitor. By configuring VSCR support ON, these dialogue and alert boxes will automatically appear in the center of the screen portion showing on your monitor. Summary: 1. Not all boxes can fly a. free memory must be sufficient b. the active program must use normal alert/dialogue box programming 2. Insufficient memory can allow boxes to be moved but not allow 'ghosting' 3. You may find programs that allow the boxes to move, but leave garbage on the screen. Data will not normally be lost if this happens, but the author cannot guarantee that. Key Dials: Many dialogues can now work from the keyboard. You will see one letter of each choice in the dialogue's choice boxes. These can be selected by holding down the [ALT] key and pressing the underlined choice box key. If the underlined choices ar numbers, hold down the [ALT] key and press that number on the Numeric Keypad (not the numbers on the main keyboard). Further on is explained how the effect.... GO BACK TO THIS! If no editable field exists in the dialogue box, this kind of box can also be shortcut without resorting to [ALT]+Numeric Keypad reaching. (the author means the Alert Boxes) LET 'EM FLY! uses the [UNDO] and [HELP] keys: [HELP] will select any box who's text reads: 'help' 'hilfe' (German for 'help') [UNDO] will select any box who's text reads: 'quit' 'cancel' 'abort' 'no' 'exit' 'abbruch' 'abbrechen' 'verlassen' 'ende' 'nein' [HELP] and [UNDO] function alone - no key combination is required. LET 'EM FLY! does not distinguish between upper and lowercase. 38 keys (a-z, 0-9, [HELP], [UNDO] perform as 'Key Dials'. If a dialogue box contains a Default (thicker box border and selectable by pressing [RETURN]) choice box and if LET 'EM FLY! has underlined a Key Dial letter in the choice boxes, then the Default choice can be changed. [ALT]+[TAB] moves the default one choice box to the right, [ALT][SHIFT]+[TAB] moves the default one choice box to the left. In many cases this lets you assign your preferred default so you can select it from then on by use of the [RETURN] key. Pressing [SHIFT]+[HELP] while a dialogue box is onscreen will pop up a copyright information alert box. Extended editor: When a dialogue box contains editable fields, LET 'EM FLY! adds several extra editor functions. These are built-in GEM functions moving the cursor... [up arrow key] back one input field [down arrow key] forward one input field [left arrow key] one character to the left [right arrow key] one character to the right [TAB] forward one input field [RETURN] end dialogue LET 'EM FLY! adds the following extra functions [RETURN] if no default choice box, forward one input field [SHIFT]+[RETURN] (default choice box exists) forward one input field [SHIFT]+[TAB] back one input field [SHIFT]+[left arrow] beginning of input field [SHIFT]+[right arrow] end of input field [CTRL]+[left arrow] one word to left [CTRL]+[right arrow] one word to right [CLR/HOME] jump to first input field of dialogue [CTRL]+[DELETE] delete everything to the right of the cursor [up arrow] and [down arrow] will 'wrap' the cursor; ex: if you're on the last input field, [down arrow] will 'wrap' the cursor around to the first field. Further, direct cursor positioning within the input fields by using the mouse is supported. This is a great improvement over the standard system which positions the cursor at one or the other end of the input characters and requires use of arrow keys to move around within the string! All characters are now allowed for Filename and Path: With LET 'EM FLY! you are no longer limited to TOS-legal characters for Filenames and Paths. Symbols like '$' and '-' can be used as well as foreign characters. Special characters: In many cases, accessing special characters from the keyboard is a difficult process if possible at all. With [SHIFT]+[INSERT] an alert box containing all of the non-ASCII characters appears onscreen. Click on your chosen character in this box and it will be inserted at cursor position into the dialogue box's editable field. Note: This only works if the current program allows non-ASCII characters in its editable fields. If it does not, the character box will not appear. GEM Clipboard: LET 'EM FLY! permits use of the GEM Clipboard so you can cut text from a program, then paste it into a dialogue box's editable fields. Your system must know where the Clipboard data is to be sent to and retrieved from. Here you must use the environment variable 'CLIPBRD' or 'SCRAPDIR'. With GEMINI this is more or less automatic. Otherwise this variable can be set using a special program such as JCNBOOT by Jens C. Neffe. The additional line looks like this: CLIPBRD=Path example: CLIPBRD=C:\CLIPBRD Clipboard functions supported by LET 'EM FLY!: [CTRL]+X cut the entire line to the Clipboard [CTRL]+C copy the entire line to the Clipboard at the cursor position any text already in the dialogue's editable field remains there [CTRL]+V pastes the contents into the active editable field any text already in the field is lost to suppress overwriting current text, also hold down [SHIFT] For the first two functions, also holding down [SHIFT] will keep the current Clipboard contents from being overwritten. This will cut or copy the text to the Clipboard as consecutive (Clipboard) entries. History function: Often you will repetitively need certain Clipboard data. (ie: Shell Function) You can use the last 20 entries to input data from the Clipboard. This function is also known as 'history'. Each history entry can have as many as 40 characters saved, duplicate entries are overwritten. (for our GEMINI freaks: 'nohisdouble= TRUE') [CTRL]+[cursor up/down] go through the history [SHIFT]+[cursor up/down] in the current input line, only the character string to the right of your cursor is used as a search path If you have not worked with a History before, you should experiment a little with it. Later you may want to continue learning to work with Histories using the command-line shell, MUPFEL. Many additional editor functions (aside from the mouse assistance) ar enabled in dialogues with unusual routines. MAGIC DIALS by Peter Hellinger is optimally supported by LET 'EM FLY! The new Alert Boxes: LET 'EM FLY! revises the original Atari ST alert boxes. The three-button alert box can use the new procedures as well as responding to the old selection method of pressing F1-F3. Just as with the other shortcuts, you do not have to hold down [ALT]. Boxes are only as large as necessary to house their text. The new icons are loaded at boot-up of the program. The desired .RSC file must be renamed LET_ICON.RSC and placed in the directory (normally the AUTO folder) with LETEMFLY.PRG. You can use either the GEM/1 icons or the GEM/2 icons. TOS produces error alert boxes; LET 'EM FLY! does the same. There are two kinds: Critical Error (ex: 'data on disk X corrupted') and mistake reports (ex: 'insufficient disk space'). The first variant is from LET 'EM FLY! currently supported under 'MagX' (multitasking AES from BELA). It probably will also be supported in MultiTOS. The event-critic boxes distinguish themselves from the original in two kinds of ways. The first is that meaningful icons now are used. Also there is now an 'Ignore' button, i.e. the error is simply ignored. This button should only be used as a last resort as it will produce odd errors in some applications. The second variant works under all conditions that the original alert does, but provides a precise error report with error number. Have a nice time with Niceline: 'Niceline' is a really fussy program which becomes integrated only in LET 'EM FLY!. Because of that, I'll describe it only briefly here. For more information on 'Niceline' I recommend obtaining the standalone version. Important: Workwise: The LET 'EM FLY! configuration program: After starting LET_CONF.PRG (or ACC, or CPX) you see a menu. In the top line is shown the currently installed version number. The second line contains my name. On the third line are three rectangular buttons: There were so many choice buttons necessary that I had combine some operations into these three selections. Config. CPX Clicking here pops up a box listing all of the switches (operations). Clicking on any of these will change it from inverse to normal (black-on-white) text, thus removing it from LET 'EM FLY!'s operating configuration. To make this new configuration permanent, you must 'Save' as described above. Selection Clicking on this button causes the main configuration menu to represent only the Config. CPX installed selections. All Enables all switches - overrides Config. CPX settings. On the bottom border are four buttons: Info Shows author's name and address Save Saves the chosen configuration in the program itself. Pressing 'Save' opens your file selector where the program (LETEMFLY.PRG or LET_LGT.PRG) must be chosen. Cancel Quit program (or ACC or CPX) without saving any changes OK Installs any changes made until you reboot. Changes are not saved. Now to the switches. Click and hold the left mouse button on any of the shadowed selection buttons to the right of the switch text description. The resulting pop-up menu lists configuration choices for that switch. Let 'em Fly! Turning this switch 'Off' completely deactivates LET 'EM FLY!, removing all of its functions. Key Dials 'Off' deactivates single-key dialogue box control. Extended Editor Turns the additional editor functions on or off. Alert-Boxes Turns the enhanced Alert and Error boxes on or off. Flying Dials Turns the 'flying' routine on or off. Fly Type Defines how the boxes fly - how they appear during movement. 'Solid' does not change their appearance in 'flight'; 'Hollow' changes the box to a transparent outine while the left mouse button is being held down. Ghost Flights 'Normal' will keep the box solid during movement unless you hold down the right mouse button as well as the left one. 'Invert' reverses the effect - 'hollow' with only the left mouse button, solid with both mouse buttons. Dials to Mouse 'On' forces alert boxes to appear at the current position of the mouse cursor. 'Off' leaves the boxes appearing as you are used to - in the center of the screen. Jumpin' Dials With this switched 'On', if you click the left mouse button on any point on the screen (other than on the alert box), the alert box will 'jump' to the mouse cursor position. Save Position If this is 'On', the alert box will 'remember' its last position and reappear there the next time it is called. Send Redraw Some programs such as TC-FILESELECTOR, and ADIMENS do not correctly redraw the screen area under the alert box when the box is deleted. 'Yes' forces a proper redraw. VSCR Support Virtual screens such as 'BIGSCREEN 2.0' by Julian Resche create a larger than monitor-size screen in memory. What you see onscreen is a 'window' onto that larger screen. With this switched 'On', LET 'EM FLY! determines what part of the virtual screen is actually appearing on you monitor and will center alert boxes in that portion. No more having to scroll all around a giant virtual screen trying to locate the alert box! Form Grow/Shrink 'Off' considerably improves screen speed by eliminating he normal GEM alert box 'grow' and 'shrink' graphics. KAOS-TOS has a similar feature. Graf Grow/Shrink The above graphics also apply to program 'windows'. Turning this switch 'Off' similarly improves screen speed for window opening and closing. GEMINI uses this technique. Niceline Turns the Niceline effects on or off. Fly Delay Using the slider bar you can choose a delay period before the box 'flies' in response to your mouseclick . '0' = no delay. Shortcut Disp. With this switch you choose whether to have the alert box choice button's 'shortcut key' highlighted by an underscore line ('Uscore') or by displaying the 'shortcut' letter in a different color ('ColChr'). Obviously this switch does not work in monochrome - underscore highlights the letter. Shortcut Col. Selects color for above 'ColChr' option. Red is suggested for medium resolution. Alert-Icon Col. Selects color for alert box icon display. Alert-Border Selects alert box border thickness. Normal border is '1'. ... Here the author remarks about the light version of LET 'EM FLY! At this time there is no light version. Known problems with other programs: UIS III (Universal Item Selector) must run in the AUTO folder after LET 'EM FLY!, otherwise they conflict. LGS (Little Green File Selector) does not work well as both the flying and keyboard shortcuts give it problems. I recommend 'SELECTRIC' as a file selector. MINT 0.94 (and up) is compatible with LET 'EM FLY! - earlier versions are not. Neodesk - there is a dialogue in Neodesk with [RETURN] to end it, so it does not disappear using LET 'EM FLY!. Remedy: Use TOS 2.06 or GEMINI. Troubleshooting: LET 'EM FLY! latches itself into TRAP #2 (AES/VDI) and TRAP #13 (BIOS) and uses with it the XBRA-known 'LTMF'. Under certain circumstamces (see above) is also ETV_critic bent. Cookie-Jar installed (use also the known 'LTMF'). An exact description is found in the programmer's guide 'Three Flights Up'. Of direction: How I said I only wanted to see how fast the VDI could be and this is what came out of that. I had thought the flying routines were only usable in one's own program, but in ST-Computer 6/91 Robert Tolksdorf has shown that on principle a resident installation can effect two programs that have nothing in common except that they have retained the form_DO() source from D.R.. Dan Wilga has written a program, 'FORMDOIT' which makes the dialog work from the keyboard and also has some editor functions available. Unfortunately his form_DO() routine is not 100% compatible with the original and it gave Objects, especially in TOUCHEXIT, problems. Besides, he uses LINE-A routines, which today should no longer be used, for graphic output. Also FORMDOIT has only so much to do with LET 'EM FLY!. Many functions and the principle I have implemented, but LET 'EM FLY! is essentially much wider in scope. LET 'EM FLY!: a. not only form_DO sets b. does not use LINE-A c. is essentially 'intelligent' Credits: The author thanks Olaf Meisiek for INTERFACE, for his design of the dialog boxes in and out (CPX) of LET 'EM FLY!. 'Thanx' to the beta testers, and particularly to Martin Koehling who has in non beta tester status already has found many errors. My address... for tomatoes, threatening letters, etc.: Oliver Scheel Rothehausstr. 28 W-5000 Kohn 30 For the modem-users or whoever can hang on Internet all day long at your university's expense: MAUSNET: Oliver Dirty @ K EMAIL: Oliver_Scheel@k.maus.de LET 'EM FLY! You can't fly without... (C) 1991-1992 by Oliver Scheel