IntuiDOS, User Guide -------------------- Table of Contents: 1. Product Status 2. Program Objectives 3. Getting Started Quickly 4. Windows 5. Current Name 6. Scrolling 7. Memory Buffer 8. The Multi-disk Directory 9. DOS Commands and Editing Gadget 10. Menus 11. DOS Command Profile 12. Logical Devices and Files 13. Miscellaneous Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Product Status This program, IntuiDOS, is placed in the AMIGA Public Domain Library to be used by anyone for private purposes. It may not be used in commercial situations of any kind and not within a company or similar institution. For such use the author must be contacted. There is no charge for the program, though the author would not reject a token of recognition if the program is found useful. As far as time (and skill) allows, the author will support the program, especially in removing errors. To obtain such support an error description, an addressed label, a diskette (or corresponding amount in money) and the equivalence of two U.S. dollars for air mailing should be sent to the author: Lennart Sandin Tulegatan 46 S-11353 Stockholm Sweden The program is written in Assembler using a large, private, macro library. It is developed and tested on OS 1.1 and briefly used on OS 1.2. The full test matrix is not rerun on OS 1.2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Program Objectives There are two main objectives for this program: - Giving an improved overview and control over and handling of all diskettes in the 'CLI-area', i.e. all types of work where the Workbench is not appropriate, such as PD software, Program Development and large text libraries. The vehicle for this is a multi-disk scrollable 'directory'. - Issuing DOS commands by using Intuition techniques and by pointing to disks, directories and members (tools/projects) in the directory introduced above. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Getting Started Quickly To quickly get a feeling for the program do the following (assuming a two drives system): - Workbench diskette in DF0: - The PD diskette containing IntuiDOS directory in DF1: - Open the CLI window and expand it to full size. - Enter: Execute DF1:IntuiDOS/Qstart xxxxx where 'xxxxx' is a disk name or a full name of a directory with at least 20K free space. - Select DF0: from the 'Maint' menu of IntuiDOS. - Select DF1: from the 'Maint' menu of IntuiDOS. - Optionally repeat DF1: with other diskettes. - Click on a disk name and select Dirs from the 'Display' menu. - Click on a directory name and select Members from the 'Display' menu. - Start 'playing' around. (The procedure Qstart Assigns required logical device names. If the IntuiDOS session is ended with Save from the 'Project' menu the memory buffer is saved in the disk/directory pointed to by 'xxxxx'.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Windows IntuiDOS uses one window of its own in cooperation with the CLI window(s). The window is sized and positioned to fit nicely on top of a fully expanded CLI window. The window allows some vertical sizing and supports the additional lines on a PAL monitor. It cannot draw the full benefit of an interlaced screen. The IntuiDOS window is used for scrolling of the buffer contents (the multi-disk directory), see 'Scrolling' below, and to select names for substitution into DOS commands. Issued DOS commands are printed in the CLI window, where of course also the result of the commands appear. A second CLI window is opened when the History option from the 'Display' menu is selected. It is designed to sit between the IntuiDOS window and the original CLI window. A strict sequence of back-pushing works nicely on this window scheme. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Current Name A 'Current Name' is selected by clicking on it. It is then highlighted by being printed in a different color. When a Member (project/tool) is selected, there is also by default an implicit Directory and Disk selected. The 'Current Name' remains established even when it is scrolled off the screen. IntuiDOS uses fully qualified names and is not dependent on the setting of CD (DOS' Current Directory). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Scrolling Scrolling status is obtained by selecting 'Scrolling On' from the Display menu. More conviniently, it can also be toggled on and off by clicking in the area above and around the screen Heading Line. (In latter case the checkmark in the Display menu does not follow.) A 'scrolling grid' is printed overlaying text. By pointing on the upper half of the screen upwards scrolling takes place (towards the top). By pointing on the bottom half the opposite takes place. By pointing in the leftmost column scrolling is done to next disk. The middle column scrolls to the next directory and the rightmost scrolls 10 members at a time. The options 'Disks', 'Dirs' and 'Members' controls the level of details available in the window and helps significantly in locating certain material. When using these selections the 'Current Name' is positioned at the top of the screen, except for disks (that always are positioned at first disk in the memory buffer). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Memory Buffer IntuiDOS uses a memory buffer to keep the scrollable multi-disk directory. The size of this buffer is the length of the last saved buffer + 10K, but minimum 30K. 10K buffer is sufficient for adding 4-8 disks, depending on their contents. To add directory information to the buffer select DF0:, DF1: or Ram: (or IuDosD:) from the 'Maint' menu. If the disk name exists in the buffer already, the old content is first wiped out (takes some seconds). The new information is added at the bottom. To remove a disk from the buffer, position its name at the top of the screen, then select Remove from the 'Maint' menu. If a 'Buffer Exhausted' -message is encountered, just end IntuiDOS by saving the buffer (Save option from 'Project' menu) and restart IntuiDOS. This will give you 10K additional memory. Then obtain the directory (Maint menu) for the disk that failed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. The Multi-disk Directory The memory buffer keeps, for every disk(ette), all names obtained by a full directory scan including all subdirectories. The 'root' directory is given the same name as the disk. A directory is distinct from its sub-directories. When obtaining names IntuiDOS drops all starting with a period (.) and all ending with '.info'. (See command 'AskIcon' in the sample DOS commands.) IntuiDOS cannot work -- in the substitution process -- with names that require quotes in DOS commands (e.g. names containing spaces). Relabel or Rename those first. The multi-disk directory can accomodate those, though. Changes to the actual disk are not reflected in IntuiDOS directory. The DOS Command Profile contains an Action code that can specify that the Current Name should be 'marked' (it is printed in Italic) to remind you of some action taken. At any point in time a new fresh copy can be obtained by selecting the device in the 'Maint' menu. This can also be specified to take place automatically by means of the Action code in the DOS Command Profile (see CopyDir in the sample commands). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. DOS Commands and Editing Gadget DOS commands are selected from three menus. This allows at least 50 predefined DOS commands. You design these commands in the IntuiDOS DOS Command Profile (file IuDosProf), including the option name you want to appear in the three menus. The profile shipped with the program is for education/demonstration purposes only. The layout of this Profile is described below under heading 'DOS Command Profile'. If these commands contain a 'Promting Text' an editing (string) gadget will be opened, in which you can enter (or change default) text. Click in the input-box to activate the gadget and end with 'Return'. The Undo feature is supported. To withdraw, click on the cancel-box at the right end of the input-gadget. If the option Inspection is selected from the 'Display' menu, the editing gadget will appear once more with the text 'Verify / Modify' and the fully built DOS command available in the input field. Proceed as above to issue or to cancel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Menus Menu / Item / Description ------------------------- Project Save Saves the memory buffer (the multi-disk directory) in file IuDosBuff in directory assigned to IuDosB:. Quit Ends without saving, but ask for 'Save' if buffer has been changed during the session. (Same as using the Window Closing Gadget.) Maint -df0: Obtains directory information from disk(ette) in drive df0. -df1: Same for drive df1. -Ram: Same for the Ram device. -IuDosD Same for the device assigned to IuDosD:. Remove Removes the disk currently positioned at the screen top line from the memory buffer. Display Scrolling On Selects Scrolling status (same as clicking on the Screen Heading line). Scrolling Off Resets Scrolling status and reverts to normal 'Name selecting' status. (Same as clicking on the Screen Heading line.) Disks Displays only disk names (positioned at first disk in memory buffer. Dirs Displays only disk and directory names (positioned at 'Current Name'. Members Displays all details (positioned at 'Current Name'). History On Opens a CLI window that keeps track of issued DOS commands. History Off Removes the History window. Inspection On Gives an editing gadget containing the fully built DOS command before it is issued. Inspection Off Turns off the editing gadget for inspection purposes. ClearCLI Clears the CLI window. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. DOS Command Profile DOS Command Skeletons are to be provided in the file IuDosProf in the directory assigned to IuDosP:. A sample file is provided with the program. Make sure you understand the layout before editing your own profile. The commands are divided in three groups, corresponding to the three Menu slots in IntuiDOS. The two-byte lines separating the groups contains the digit 1 resp. 2 and ends with an -character (hex 0A). (The first group -- group 0 -- is not explicitly identified.) The layout of the DOS Command Skeleton is as follows: Item , [Prompt] , [Default] , [Action] , DOS command There are four (4) mandatory commas before the DOS command starts. Prompt, Default and Action must thus not contain commas, but the DOS command can. The is hex 0A. Item: The Item text appearing in the Command Menu. May contain blank(s). Max 10 bytes. Prompt: A prompting text of not more than 55 positions (after substitution). If the 'prompt' is specified an Editing Gadget is opened. Default: Deafult data available in the Editing Gadget. May not exceed 400 bytes (after substitution). Is ignored if no 'prompt' is specified. Action: Up to three positional Action codes, telling IntuiDOS some actions to do when processing the command. pos 1: IntuiDOS Window action pos 2: Buffer 'maintenance' after command pos 3: CLI window action pos 1: IntuiDOS Window action blank No window back-push 0-9 Window back-push and number of seconds staying after command ends. X Window back-push and manual front-push. pos 2: Buffer 'maintenance' after command blank No action * Current Name to be marked in the memory buffer (printed in Italics). M Full maintenance on the disk containing Current Name (same as a selection from the 'Maint' menu). pos 3: CLI window action non- blank Clear CLI window before processing the command. DOS command: The DOS command to be issued. May not exceed 400 bytes (after substitution). Substitution: IntuiDOS supports the following substitution in a straightforward way. (To obtain more elaborate substitution use Execute of 'batch' files; Change the T:-directory to Ram: to smooth things up.) %n The full name according to Current Name selected. %v The selected Disk name. (v=volume, to avoid conflict with Directory) %d The selected Directory name. %m The selected Member name. %p The entire string (asis) from the Editing Gadget. %c Hex 0A (eol). Used in the Run command to separate appended commands. If %d, %m or %p is null due to not selected name (or not available Editing Gadget) nothing is substituted, though the code is removed. So is a '/' following a %d. Letters are in lower case. Warning. There is no safety-net in the program regarding the editing of the DOS Command Profile. All rules must be obeyed. Problems encountered from violation of these rules are not concidered program errors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. Logical Devices and Files IntuiDOS uses the following logical devices and file names: Device File Name Contents IuDosB: IuDosBuff Memory buffer IuDosP: IuDosProf DOS Command Profile IuDosB: and IuDosP: must be 'assigned' to a directory. By switching directory several different set-ups can be kept. The logical device name IuDosD: is selectable from the 'Maint' menu, and used to indicate another device than DF0:, DF1: or Ram:. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13. Miscellaneous Notes A memory buffer of not more than about 20K (8-10 disks) works best. Overhead then starts taking its toll. Logical grouping of diskettes is a good dicipline. (The program has been tested with 50K buffer, achieved by several saves and restarts.) The DOS commands are only 'single-dimmensioned', i.e. either you point to a 'project'-member and the command includes the program (tool) or you point to a program (tool) that the commands starts up. A simple editor works better in the IntuiDOS environment than a fancy one with its own Directory function. (Pity ED does not use mouse at least.) Most Workbench programs can be brought up in the CLI environment (usefull when exploring PD software). But PLEASE, don't use IntuiDOS as a Workbench competitor. Workbench with icons is the way our Amiga should be approach from the 'outer world'. IntuiDOS is for the work behind the stage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------