MultiDialog (GEM-Dialogs in Windows) ========================================= Copyright (c) 1992-93 Helmut Neukirchen Bnnersdyk 63 W-4150 Krefeld Germany e-mail: hn@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de All rights reserved. Short english manual for MultiDialog >=V1.00 (25/10/93) --------------------------------------------------------- Any commercial distribution is strictly prohibited! (MultiDialog is a kind of Public Domain.) What does MultiDialog ? ------------------------- MultiDialog puts nearly any GEM-dialogbox into a GEM-Window. The result is that you can access the menu-bar or other applications while a dialog is running. This is especially VERY usefull for multitasking TOS-releases. Though MultiDialog was designed to work with Atari's MultiTOS it runs with all other TOS versions, too (i.e. TOS 1.0 - 4.xx and multitasking enhancements like MultiGEM). (I hope :-) Installation -------------- MultiDialog can be installed (and configured) in several ways, because it can be started as a GEM-Applikation, a GEM-Accessory or as an AUTO-folder TOS-program (You just need to change the extension of "MULTDIAL.*" from "PRG" to "ACC" - the program-file is the same, it recognizes the way it's started!). I suggest the following way of installation: 1. Copy MULTDIAL.PRG to your AUTO-folder. (MULTDIAL.PRG will display a message when it's started via the AUTO-folder.) If you have to configure MultiDialog very often: 2. Copy MULTDIAL.ACC in your root-directory (or from whereever your ACC's are loaded.) If you don't want to reset (in order to load the AUTO-Folder), you can install MultiDialog just by starting MULTDIAL.PRG from the Desktop, too. Configuring MultiDialog ------------------------- You can configure MultiDialog using a GEM-dialog. To do so you should have MULTIDIAL.ACC installed and chose the menu-item "MultiDialog" from the accessory-menu. (If MultiDialog wasn't installed or if it isn't installed as Accessory you will have to start MULTDIAL.PRG now to install or to configure MultiDialog.) A dialogbox should appear now. - The first parameter you can change is "MultiDialog: [An|Aus]". When " An " is selected this means that MultiDialog does interfere in the AES-calls to handle dialogs. When " Aus " is selected MultiDialog does not interfere in these calls (But still remains installed in memory and in several vector-chains.) The next items consider application specific configurations. - "FormCenter: [immer|Mitte|Ecke|Maus]" is the AES-routine which centers a dialogbox in the middle of the screen. Especially when using bigscreens it's annoying that a small dialogbox appears in the middle of the big screen, because you have to move the mouse quite far. MultiDialog can stop this. You can tell MultiDialog to put dialogboxes in the upper left corner (item " Ecke "), just at the mouse-pointers position (item " Maus ") or in the middle (items " immer " or " Mitte "). The options " Mitte ", " Ecke " and " Maus " do remember the position a dialogbox had before, so you can move them at a position you like and they'll appear from now on at this position. If they are displayed for the first time they'll appear in the corner, the middle or at the mouse-position (just as you've configured). In contrast the item " immer " displays the dialogbox in the middle everytime (just as you are used to with the original GEM-routine). If you've got any problems with dialogboxes which are not completely visible try the " immer "-button, it's the most compatible. - The next line "Fenster bei: [Alert|FormDial|FormDo]" considers the circumstances to open a window for a dialogbox. The first item " Alert " is used to decide whether alertboxes should be displayed in windows or not. I suggest to activate this because MultiDialog can handle alertboxes without any problems (well, in fact you might get problems with the redraw...). The next two items refer to ordinary dialogboxes. " FormDial " is the most comfortable setting, but it works only with programs which use FormDial calls. The last item " FormDo " works with nearly any program, but it is not a very elegant way. A window is created at the beginning of a FormDo-call and deleted at the end of the FormDo call. There are two disadvantages: In a lot of dialogs the user can scroll or display different items (e.g. the "Install icon"-dialog of Atari's NEWDESK, but this is no good example as you will see later). In this case the window MultiDialog creates is opened and closed every time a new item is displayed. This slows down the dialog very much. The window MultiDialog creates is opened AFTER the dialog was drawn. When createing the window the dialog might get painted by other windows which are already visible. So the optic gets destroyed. - to handle this problem you can choose with "ObjcDraw bei FormDo: [Ja|Nein]" whether to repaint the dialog or not. " Ja " will repaint the dialog if the window was created by FormDo. This can slow down the dialog handle once again. Furthermore some programs do paint some graphics (e.g. images, color ranges) in the dialog which MultiDialog cannot repaint. For those programs you should choose " Nein ". Because you won't have these problems with FormDial-dialogs this selection is only available if " FormDo " is selected at the "Fenster bei:" line. (That's why I say "Fenster bei: [FormDial]" is more comfortable, because this setting is absolutely compatible to the original GEM-routines (with 1 exception - see Bugs/Restrictions)). Because some programs need other configurations than other programs you can tell MultiDialog to take for specific applications specific configurations - MultiDialog switches automatically. - The " Neu "-button is used to create new entries in the auto- switch list. You can type in the name of the application in the edit field and MultiDialog takes the configuration you have chosen for that application (take the name which is displayed as window-name). - With the up- and down-arrow you can scroll between the different applications which need a special configuration. Most of the application work with the same standard configuration. This configuration-entry has the name " Default "; MultiDialog takes it if it couldn't find the application's name in the list you've entered. - If you want to delete entries from the auto-switch list you have to use the " Lschen "-button which deletes the entry which is visible at the moment. (You can't delete the " Default " entry!) - The " Sichern "-button saves the auto-switch list in your AUTO-folder in a file named "MULTDIAL.INF" which will be loaded next time if it is is found in your AUTO-folder. - " OK " closes the dialogbox. " Abbruch " does the same but it doesn't update the changes you have made (this only works with the changes you've made on the entry which is visible now. Whenever you press the arrow-buttons the changes for that entry are updated at once.) How to handle MultiDialogs ---------------------------- Dialogs which profit of MultiDialog will appear in a window. This window has the title " MultiDialog: " (where is the name of the application). If MultiDialog recognizes an accessory the app_name will be " Accessory " (using MultiTOS you'll see the names of accessories, too). You can manipulate the buttons of the concerning dialog as you're used to. But furthermore you can now access the menu-bar (e.g. the accessories) and the windows of other application which can do graphics in their windows even while the dialog is active. (Now that's wh`ϒOτϐ03*47<19242397:426:0g\X][ۈBX\plays the dialog can't react to them because at this time it is waiting for the dialog apςςπY@!}Ѽɂ p0<74204$:5H!&>8>  '>2 >9>bf8>08>>08?8>!>!>&8!>!>!>!28>#>!>&??" 8!>>8>?2" &83 H#>!> 8> > >bf>8'>>8!>  0 '?2b  >2 >bf3>>08 >!>9 H>!>08!>9> 8>08>bf8>2>&  >08>b@f>9?&>>0 8 '>>2>>08rictly prohibited! (MultiDialog is a kind of Public Domain.) What does MultiDialog ? ------------------------- MultiDialog puts nearly any GEM-dialogbox into a GEM-Window. The result is that you can access the menu-bar or other applications while a dialog is running. This is especially VERY usefull for multitasking TOS-releases. Though MultiDialog was designed to work with Atari's MultiTOS it runs with all other TOS versions, too (i.e. TOS 1.0 - 4.xx and multitasking enhancements like MultiGEM). (I hope :-) Installation -------------- MultiDialog can be installed (and configured) in several ways, because it can be started as a GEM-Applikation, a GEM-Accessory or as an AUTO-folder TOS-program (You just need to change the extension of "MULTDIAL.*" from "PRG" to "ACC" - the program-file is the same, it recognizes the way it's started!). I suggest the following way of installation: 1. Copy MULTDIAL.PRG to your AUTO-folder. (MULTDIAL.PRG will display a message when it's started via the AUTO-folder.) If you have to configure MultiDialog very often: 2. Copy MULTDIAL.ACC in your root-directory (or from whereever your ACC's are loaded.) If you don't want to reset (in order to load the AUTO-Folder), you can install MultiDialog just by starting MULTDIAL.PRG from the Desktop, too. Configuring MultiDialog ------------------------- You can configure MultiDialog using a GEM-dialog. To do so you should have MULTIDIAL.ACC installed and chose the menu-item "MultiDialog" from the accessory-menu. (If MultiDialog wasn't installed or if it isn't installed as Accessory you will have to start MULTDIAL.PRG now to install or to configure MultiDialog.) A dialogbox should appear now. - The first parameter you can change is "MultiDialog: [An|Aus]". When " An " is selected this means that MultiDialog does interfere in the AES-calls to handle dialogs. When " Aus " is selected MultiDialog does not interfere in these calls (But still remains installed in memory and in several vector-chains.) The next items consider application specific configurations. - "FormCenter: [immer|Mitte|Ecke|Maus]" is the AES-routine which centers a dialogbox in the middle of the screen. Especially when using bigscreens it's annoying that a small dialogbox appears in the middle of the big screen, because you have to move the mouse quite far. MultiDialog can stop this. You can tell MultiDialog to put dialogboxes in the upper left corner (item " Ecke "), just at the mouse-pointers position (item " Maus ") or in the middle (items " immer " or " Mitte "). The options " Mitte ", " Ecke " and " Maus " do remember the position a dialogbox had before, so you can move them at a position you like and they'll appear from now on at this position. If they are displayed for the first time they'll appear in the corner, the middle or at the mouse-position (just as you've configured). In contrast the item " immer " displays the dialogbox in the middle everytime (just as you are used to with the original GEM-routine). If you've got any problems with dialogboxes which are not completely visible try the " immer "-button, it's the most compatible. - The next line "Fenster bei: [Alert|FormDial|FormDo]" considers the circumstances to open a window for a dialogbox. The first item " Alert " is used to decide whether alertboxes should be displayed in windows or not. I suggest to activate this because MultiDialog can handle alertboxes without any problems (well, in fact you might get problems with the redraw...). The next two items refer to ordinary dialogboxes. " FormDial " is the most comfortable setting, but it works only with programs which use FormDial calls. The last item " FormDo " works with nearly any program, but it is not a very elegant way. A window is created at the beginning of a FormDo-call and deleted at the end of the FormDo call. There are two disadvantages: In a lot of dialogs the user can scroll or display different items (e.g. the "Install icon"-dialog of Atari's NEWDESK, but this is no good example as you will see later). In this case the window MultiDialog creates is opened and closed every time a new item is displayed. This slows down the dialog very much. The window MultiDialog creates is opened AFTER the dialog was drawn. When createing the window the dialog might get painted by other windows which are already visible. So the optic gets destroyed. - to handle this problem you can choose with "ObjcDraw bei FormDo: [Ja|Nein]" whether to repaint the dialog or not. " Ja " will repaint the dialog if the window was created by FormDo. This can slow down the dialog handle once again. Furthermore some programs do paint some graphics (e.g. images, color ranges) in the dialog which MultiDialog cannot repaint. For those programs you should choose " Nein ". Because you won't have these problems with FormDial-dialogs this selection is only available if " FormDo " is selected at the "Fenster bei:" line. (That's why I say "Fenster bei: [FormDial]" is more comfortable, because this setting is absolutely compatible to the original GEM-routines (with 1 exception - see Bugs/Restrictions)). Because some programs need other configurations than other programs you can tell MultiDialog to take for specific applications specific configurations - MultiDialog switches automatically. - The " Neu "-button is used to create new entries in the auto- switch list. You can type in the name of the application in the edit field and MultiDialog takes the configuration you have chosen for that application (take the name which is displayed as window-name). - With the up- and down-arrow you can scroll between the different applications which need a special configuration. Most of the application work with the same standard configuration. This configuration-entry has the name " Default "; MultiDialog takes it if it couldn't find the application's name in the list you've entered. - If you want to delete entries from the auto-switch list you have to use the " Lschen "-button which deletes the entry which is visible at the moment. (You can't delete the " Default " entry!) - The " Sichern "-button saves the auto-switch list in your AUTO-folder in a file named "MULTDIAL.INF" which will be loaded next time if it is is found in your AUTO-folder. - " OK " closes the dialogbox. " Abbruch " does the same but it doesn't update the changes you have made (this only works with the changes you've made on the entry which is visible now. Whenever you press the arrow-buttons the changes for that entry are updated at once.) How to handle MultiDialogs ---------------------------- Dialogs which profit of MultiDialog will appear in a window. This window has the title " MultiDialog: " (where is the name of the application). If MultiDialog recognizes an accessory the app_name will be " Accessory " (using MultiTOS you'll see the names of accessories, too). You can manipulate the buttons of the concerning dialog as you're used to. But furthermore you can now access the menu-bar (e.g. the accessories) and the windows of other application which can do graphics in their windows even while the dialog is active. (Now that's wh`ϒOτϐ03*47<19242397:426:0g\X][ۈBX\