Current version is DesktopToilet v1.2 970110.

Have you noticed that a toilet dock is located on my desktop?

Like all of the other docks on the desktop, this one has multiple functions. If you throw some files/directories into it, it will delete them and ask the Workbench to update its display and as a result you will actually see that the target objects are removed from the desktop. If you click on it without throwing any icon into it, it will close all of the closeable windows on the desktop, thus cleaning it up ;) (well kinda ;)

For the cautious user, a safety mechanism has been implemented in the program. By default, DesktopToilet will ask you to confirm your decision of removing objects before it actually touch them. It gives you one chance to undo your choice.

Users who rather take the risks, can use the "QUIET" argument when they run DesktopToilet. If the "QUIET" option is turned on, DesktopToilet will happily remove everything that you throw into it without bothering you with any question.

If the "QUIET" argument is not used and you try to remove several objects, DesktopToilet ask you to confirm your decision for each object. In the requester that DesktopToilet pops up if the "QUIET" options in not turned on, you can choose to "Remove all of the objects" without any further question.

If you run the program without any argument, it will close all or some of the closeable windows on your desktop. By closeable, I mean windows that carry a Close Gadget. A communication mechanism for letting DesktopToilet know what windows it should not touch has been implemented in the program. Upon start-up and if you are not trying to remove some objects, it will read the file ENV:DesktopToilet.prefs to see what windows it SHOULD NOT close.

ENV:DesktopToilet.prefs is an ordinary ASCII file that you can create with your favorite text editor. Place one window title per line in the file.
You can use the native pattern matching mechanism of AmigaOS for window titles. CygnusEd#? matches any window title that starts with "CygnusEd". I used to name my Shell windows as Shell1, Shell2 etc. To tell DesktopToilet to not close the Shell windows, I have this line of text: "Shell#? in ENV:DesktopToilet.prefs.

Here is a sample of the file ENV:DesktopToilet.prefs in my system:

#?Shell#?
MagicWords#?
CygnusEd#?

In addition to the above options, you can turn on the SkipActiveWindow option of the program. In SkipActiveWindow mode, DesktopToilet will not close the active window.

Here comes the summary of the available options in this version:

Usage: DesktopToilet ?/S,Objects/M,Quiet/S,SkipActiveWindow/S

?, pops up the program's information requester.
QUIET, turns on the quiet option.
Objects, files/directories that you want to delete.
SkipActiveWindow, doesn't close the active window when closing windows

DesktopToilet requires AmigaOS 2.04 or better.
ToolManager is recommended but is not reuired.

FAQ:

• Q: How do I use DesktopToilet with ToolManager?
• A: Create a CLI Exec Object for it. Don't forget to turn on the Arguments option of the Exec Object when you create it.
• Q: How do I use the SkipActiveWindow option of DesktopToilet with ToolManager?
• A: Create a CLI Exec Object for it that runs this Command: C:DesktopToilet SkipActiveWindow
  Attach a Hot-Key to this CLI object. I use "lcommand s" for the task.
• Q: There are many other Trashcan clones available in Aminet, why did you write your own version?
• A: Obviously none of them satisfied my needs. Furthermore, most if not all of them carry their own AppIcons. I wanted to use the AppIcon feature of ToolManager for my Trashcan so I just had to make one myself. Besides, none of them can clean up your desktop :)
• Q: I noticed that DesktopToilet closes windows in the frontmost screen. Is this a bug?
• A: No, not at all. I use DesktopToilet with my own program launcher SoftExe. SoftExe can open its window on the frontmost screen. I wanted to be able to get rid of the windows in the active/frontmost screen, so I added this feature to the program.
• Q: What about the future versions?
• A: Nothing is seriously planed for the future versions. I am open to useful suggestions, though, as long as at least more than 5 users request them.
• Q: What if I find a bug in the program?
• A: You should send me a bug report that states exactly under what circumstances the bug occurred, what equipment was used and what happened.
• Q: What should I do if DesktopToilet does not close a closeable window in my desktop?
• A: You should contact the author of the target program and not me. For the technically oriented user, DesktopToilet sends IDCMP_CLOSEWINDOW intuition messages to closeable windows. Generally, programs should close their windows when they receive this message.
• Q: Can I run the program from Workbench?
• A: Yes and DeskTopToilet will close all (see above) of the closeable windows in the Workbench screen.
• Q: Stand-alone windows closers are available in Aminet. Why should I use DesktopToilet for the task?
• A: A good reason is that DesktopToilet does the job 2 times faster than the one I grabbed from Aminet. Another reason is that DesktopToilet does not crash if it can not close a closable window. And if these are not enough, DesktopToilet is almost 5 times smaller than its clone that I grabbed from Aminet.
• Q: I don't use ToolManager. Can I still launch DesktopToilet via a hot key combination?
• A: Yes, you can launch DesktopToilet via SweetCommodity.
• Q: DesktopToilet doesn't remove icons that have no corresponding files when I launch it via ToolManager. Is this a bug in DesktopToilet?
• A: No, ToolManager doesn't seem to pass the correct argument if the icon object doesn't have a corresponding file.

Download latest version of DesktopToilet, v1.2 (8 KB) here.

Follow the development history of DeskTopToilet:

19930929 - version 0.1 DesktopToilet was born. [ pre-release history deleted ] 19961126 - version 1.0
First version released to the public 8^).
This version was finished 3 years ago (930929) but I did not manage to write a readme file for it until now. ;)

19961201 - version 1.1
Added the SkipActiveWindow option to the program. DeskTopToilet does not close the active window when closing windows if this option is turned on.
[Option suggested by: John Millington.]

19970110 - version 1.2
DesktopToilet couldn't remove an icon object that didn't have a corresponding file. Fixed.
[Scott Greenfield].

DesktopToilet, version 1.2 Copyright 1993-1997 Bahman Moallem.
DesktopToilet.doc v1.2 Copyright 1996-1997 Bahman Moallem.
All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

ToolManager is Copyright Stefan Becker.

DesktopToilet is freely distributable.
Use it at your own risk.
Unlimited non-commercial use and distribution is encouraged.

Copyright © 1995-1997 CTOOLS. Last Modified 1-Jan-97.
For comments, suggestions, questions E-Mail webmaster@ctools.pp.se