Easy-Boot v1.0

Written By Steve Wells.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever tried a new TSR or ACCessory on your Hard-Drive, only to find that it
doesn't work properly on your system, and the whole thing crashes, with
no way to access the hard-drive other than by loading the driver software
from a floppy disk which you have to spend 5 minutes searching for?

Ever gotten sick of having to move files or rename them to disable them
when you need the extra memory or want to solve a program conflict?

Ever wanted resolution independant desktop setups, with the icons and
applications set up just how you want for each different screen-mode?

Well, now you have a program that can handle all this, Easy-Boot is, as
the name suggests, a very simple, no-fuss, no-frills Bootup manager, that
can turn programs in your AUTO folder, ACCessories, and CPX (X-Control
modular accessories) on & off, and it can also select different ASSIGN.SYS
files for GDOS, and alternative Desktop setup files (Which can be for
the TOS 1.xx desktops, New-Desk (TOS 2.xx to 4.xx), or even for things
such as TeraDesk, Neo-Desk and other replacement DeskTops!).


HOW DOES IT WORK?


Before you can see this, you will first have to set up the program using
the EBCONFIG.PRG Program (Easy-Boot Configurator).

It doesn't matter where this program is loaded from, it will read and write
its data file (EASYBOOT.CNF) to the AUTO folder on the drive it is loaded
from, creating the AUTO folder if required.

After loading the program you are presented with a menu, the commands do
the following:

A)   Enables/Disables the displaying and managing of ACCessories on the
     Bootdrive during the loading process.  If Enabled then you will have
     the opportunity to select/deselect any ACC's you have on the system,
     if it is Disabled, then this will be bypassed.  It will only usually
     be disabled if you have no ACC's, or only one or two which you consider
     compulsory to the efficient running of your system.

B)   Enables/Disables the displaying and managing of CPX files on the
     Bootdrive during the loading process.  This will give you the chance
     to disable any eXtended Control-Panel Modules that you may have
     instead of doing so after bootup.  This is usually to prevent the
     rare conflicts, to speedup booting, or give your computer a bit of
     extra memory to use!

C)   Toggles the selection of alternative ASSIGN.SYS files for your system.
     This will read the alternative GDOS setup files from a directory
     of your specification (see later), and will let you have different
     fonts defined for use with various setups.  So, if you want the
     full works, you can have 30 or so fonts loaded, but if you want
     lots of memory, you can just have an ASSIGN.SYS file with only
     a couple of fonts.

     This works by creating your various ASSIGN.SYS files and saving them
     in a directory of your choice, with a common extender of your choice.
     (I use ASN but they could just as well stick with SYS or anything
     that you prefer).  Then, after telling Easy-Config the extender and
     path (see later), Easy-Boot, when activated, will let you choose which
     ASSIGN file you want to use at that time.  It does this by reading
     the desired ASSIGN file from the directory, and replacing the
     ASSIGN.SYS file in the root directory with the one that you choose, net
     result being is that you can have dozens of different GDOS setups!

     All the different ASSIGN files should have different names, but the
     same extender, e.g.   LOW_MEM.ASN  HIGH_MEM.ASN  NO_FONTS.ASN 
     ALL_FONTS.ASN etc.

D)   Toggles the selection of alternative Desktop setup files.  If selected
     then as with the ASSIGN setup, you can select different setup files
     for your systems desktop.  The same method is involved as with the
     ASSIGN files, create your various desktop setups, and save them under
     different filenames with the same extender, in a directory of your
     choosing.  (The ASSIGN files and Desktop setup files can be in the
     same directory if you wish!).

     Then, tell Easy-Config the path and extender of the files you have
     created.  And finally, the filename you wish them to be copied to.
     This will usually be NEWDESK.INF or DESKTOP.INF but they could be
     the setups of any replacement desktop, or even some other form of
     configuration file.  The files are written to the root directory
     of the boot-drive, so make sure that whatever program they are for
     can read them from the root-directory.  (Usually solvable by running
     the program in question *From* the root directory!).  If you are
     just using the standard desktop files (DESKTOP.INF for TOS 1.xx or
     NEWDESK.INF for TOS 2.xx, 3.xx, 4.xx and Multi-TOS) then this isn't
     a problem!

E)   The search-path for ACCessories.  Usually just '\' (The root directory
     of the boot-drive) but it can be other paths for use with things such
     as Geneva which can load ACCessories from alternative directories.
     These paths are written without the trailling back-slash, (e.g.
     'A:\MISC' NOT 'A:\MISC\'!!)

F)   The Search-Path for CPX files.  Usually '\CPX' (The folder 'CPX' in the
     root directory of the boot-drive).

G)   Alternative ASSIGN.SYS path.  Where the alternative GDOS setup files
     live.

H)   The file extender for the alternative ASSIGN.SYS files. This consists
     of just the 3 letter extender, e.g. ASN or SYS!

I)   Alternative Desktop-setup path.  Where the alternative setup files are
     stored.

J)   The 3 letter extender for the alternative Desktop setup files, usually
     INF as usual, or something else such as DSK.

K)   Desktop setup filename.  This is what the alternative desktop setup
     files are copied to in the root directory.  As stated, this is
     usually DESKTOP.INF or NEWDESK.INF but it could be anything that
     you wanted to use.

L)   Display of on-screen help on/off.  This will toggle the on-screen
     instructions during the use of Easy-Boot.  Probably best to have
     it turned on for the first couple of uses, and then turned off
     once you are familiar with the workings of Easy-Boot, although it
     can quite harmlessly be left on permanently!

S)   Save the current setup.  The selected configuration is saved into the
     AUTO folder on whatever drive that EBCONFIG.PRG was loaded from, as
     a file called EASYBOOT.CNF.

Q)   Exits Easy-Config to whatever it was loaded from.  If you haven't
     saved the configuration before doing this, the old configuration will
     be as it was before modification.


RIGHT - IT'S CONFIGURED, NOW WHAT?


Well, most simply, make sure that EASYBOOT.PRG is in the AUTO folder of
your boot-drive, and executing as early as possible in the order, so that
programs that you want to disable aren't loaded before Easy-Boot is.
(Neo-Desk 3 has this re-ordering built-in, or AUTO-Sort the PD folder
sorter will do the job.  Also, MOVEing all the files elsewhere, and then
MOVEing them back into the AUTO folder in the order you want them loaded
will work just as well - Just make sure that EASY-Boot is run _AFTER_
and Hard-Disk-Drivers etc. and before anything that you might want to
turn on & off!

Once installed, rebooting your computer will startup as normal until
Easy-Boot is loaded.  You will then be presented with a 4-column listing
of the .PRG files in your AUTO folder.  By using the Numerical keypad
keys, you can move the selecting arrow around so that it points to the
filename that you wish to toggle, the keys are as such:

          8  Up
   Left 4   6 Right
    Down  2

Once the arrow is pointing at the file you wish to enable/disable, pressing
the SPACE bar will perform the operation.  The word 'ON' or 'OFF' beside
the filename will change to reflect whether the item is setup to be loaded
during bootup or not.  

Once you have enabled/disabled the programs you want, pressing RETURN or
ENTER will advance you to the next selection screen.

If you have ACC management enabled, that will be the next screen that
appears, otherwise it will be CPX, if not CPX then ASSIGN and if not
ASSIGN then Desktop setups.  If AUTO is the only thing that is enabled
(it isn't possible to disable it as that is basically a quite pointless
thing to do as it saves a lot of hassle!), then the program will exit.

ACC Management is performed the same as AUTO management, just select and
toggle which ACCessories you want loaded.

CPX Management, again, is handled in the same fashion.

ASSIGN management is slightly different.  Here you have a list of the
alternative ASSIGN files that you have available.  Selecting one of them
and toggling it will cause it to become the one that is used after bootup
is completed.  Selecting another one will disable the first, and enable
the new one.  The file that you select will be copied as ASSIGN.SYS into
the root directory of the boot-drive.

Desktop-Setup management is basically the same as ASSIGN management, just
select the desktop (or whatever), that you wish to use during the next
bootup and it will become active.  If you don't select one, then whatever
desktop setup you had prior to bootup will be what is used!


At any stage you can quite Easy-boot just by pressing the 'ESCape' key, the
setups you have made will be in use.

If you change your mind after completing a menu, then you can press the
Backspace key to return to the previous section.  

If you haven't got one of the sections enabled, then it will never appear
unless you run the Config program and re-enable it!  (For instance, I
never use the CPX files so the CPX management menu never appears when I
use Easy-Boot!)


Easy-Boot needs an 80-column screen to work.  The ICD Bootup software has
an option to boot in various resolutions, you should select one with 
80 columns!  The Falcon030 can change its bootup resolution through use
of the program 'NVRAM' which changes among other things, the bootup
mode of the computer and having overscan mode on or off.

If you have neither ICD or an Falcon030 (Which I don't have :-( then supplied
is the program MED_BOOT.PRG will will throw your ST into Medium resolution
for the rest of the bootup process.  This program probably won't like all
AUTO programs, but is does the job for my setup quite nicely!  If you want
something a bit tidier, then find 'DC-Format', which has an option to
put boot-sectors onto disks containing all sorts of useful features, like
setting the system palette from the DESKTOP.INF file, turning Write-Verify
off, bypassing the hard-disk (And the bootup delay on STE's), and, booting
up in Medium resolution!  It is also a very good formatter!

Well, that's it, the program is really very simple once you've had a look
at it, so have a look, and happy booting!


THE POST-SCRIPT


This program is help-ware, I wrote it to help myself, but mostly because
there had been a sudden calling for a program like it.  So, I figured I
could use all the programming practice I could get and wrote what I 
think to be quite a good little program! (Especially considering that it
does what it does with a filesize under 10K!).

If you like & use this program, then I would greatly appreciate some form
of reply.  Be it ~US$5 by whatever method is most convenient to you, a
nice postcard, or if you aren't feeling like you can afford it, just
a simple E-Mail to me would be nice!  (The $5 would be nice, as i'm in
debt up to my eyeballs! :)

The program was written using High-Speed Pascal on a 1040STE (TOS 1.62 UK)
and as I'm pretty secluded, I haven't been able to test it on anything else,
so if you could tell me how well it works on your setup, I'd appreciate
it!  (Or even if it works at all!).

Should you wish to send me cash or whatever form of correspondence, you
can reach me at:

Steve Wells
112 Ohariu Road
Johnsonville
Wellington
New Zealand

My E-Mail address is:    WELLS_S@IX.WCC.GOVT.NZ


TO DO


Add a configurable time-out feature (Easy to do, I just haven't done it yet!)
Add a 'change auto-booting GEM program' feature (Also pretty easy, but as
it isn't highly-important, it didn't make it into this version!).
'Sets' like in the brilliant "X-Boot III" from Gribnif Software, which allows
  entire lists of programs to be enabled/disabled and selected files to
  be used instead of the defaults, just by selection of one option.  This
  takes a bit more work and would probably increase the size of the program
  by a couple of kilobytes!
Work out how to use the cursor-keys instead of the keypad for moving the
  selection arrow around, as the method I used with Turbo-PASCAL doesn't
  work with High-Speed Pascal!

HISTORY


v.2  Could only handle the AUTO folder, and only up to 23 programs.

v.4  Could handle AUTO, ACC and CPX but still only 23 programs.

v.5  Expanded listing into 4-columns so over 80 files can be selected.
     Added support for ASSIGN.SYS and DESKTOP.INF files.
     Added display of current management stage.

v.6  Added online 'help' feature.
     Made management routines optional.

v.7  Added 'return to previous menu' feature.
     Added 'quit without completion' feature (ESCape).

v.8  Improved display and moved location of config file into the AUTO folder.

v.9  Added support for different Desktop setup destination filenames.
     Added definable extenders for alternative Desktop and ASSIGN files.

v1.0 *CURRENT VERSION - 1st Public Release*
     Optimised the code, reducing file size by ~800 bytes, and removing 2
     screens of source and replacing it with about 3 lines that did exactly
     the same thing.  (Required alteration of some variables).
     Improved checking routines.
     Added display of search path for ASSIGN and Desktop files.
     Created simple Configuration program.





DISCLAIMER


I hate these things, but in case some nasty person out there tries to cause
me grief, here it is.

I, (Steve Wells), the author of Easy-Boot, Easy-Config, TDSS and Med-Boot,
will not be held responsible for any problems caused in the unlikely event
that one of these pieces of software should damage any form of software or
(I don't know how), hardware on your system.  The fact that you are reading
these words means you automatically have agreed to waive any and all rights
to claim retribution from me for any problems caused through use, direct,
or indirect of these items of software.

There, I think that's pretty much all encompassing, but for those who can't
be bothered interpreting it, it basically just means that anything that my
software does to your system isn't my fault, so there! 8-)  However, I
would be very surprised if it does anything other that what it is supposed
to do without someone doing some very odd things!  (Which I won't mention
because I'm sure someone will promptly try them! :)


Excuses aside, let me know what you think, and have a nice week!
