        
                        Runner -- A Desktop Alternative
        
                                 Other Programs
                    Mini-Run, Regions, Rpicname and Rconvert

        
                       Copyright (C) 1991 by Dave Thorson
                       Version 1.50        March 10, 1991


        This file describes Runner's companion programs and other 
        support programs distributed with Runner or available when 
        registering Runner.
        
$$      Mini-Run
        
        Mini-Run is available only by registering Runner for $10 or 
        more (see OVERVIEW.HLP).  Mini-Run is a companion program 
        callable only from within Runner.  It is used to free more 
        memory for larger programs.  It works like this:
        
        1. Runner determines which program to run
        2. Runner tells GEM to call Mini-Run, and puts information about 
           the program you wanted to run where Mini-Run can find it.
        3. Runner exits from memory, and GEM loads Mini-Run
        4. Mini-Run grabs the information Runner set up, the loads the 
           program you requested based on this information.
        5. Your program starts, you do what you need, and exit it.
        6. Mini-Run resumes control and if you requested Hold Screen, it 
           waits for a keypress or mouse click.
        7. Mini-Run tells GEM to load Runner and exits.
        8. Runner restarts.
        
        Of course there's more detail than that, but this sequence 
        should give you a feel for what's going on.  It's all 
        transparent to you as a user unless the information passed to 
        Mini-Run gets to be too long (Runner will warn you of this and 
        let you change the command line).  Mini-Run takes about an extra 
        second to load on a hard drive, and then Runner must reload 
        after Mini-Run exits, so there is some inconvenience.  But, 
        Mini-Run takes about 29K of memory where runner needs nearly 
        100K more than that if a background picture is loaded.
        
        Mini-Run MUST be copied to Runner's home directory.  That's all 
        there is to installing it.  For floppy disk users, it might work 
        best to put Mini-Run on each disk with a program that needs it, 
        in a RUNNER directory.  See SETUP.HLP for more information.
        
        Mini-Run can be called in several ways:
        
        1. Press ESC.  The words "MINI-RUN" appear in Runner's upper 
           right corner, replacing the time/date display if it's on.  
           The next program run will be run via Mini-Run, and the MINI-
           RUN indicator will be turned off.  Press Esc a second time to 
           turn it off before then, if needed.
        
        2. From the file selector, hold down Alternate or Control when 
           you select a program to run.  Note: if you select a data file 
           that should trigger an installed application, holding down 
           Alternate or Control will simply bypass the application and 
           send the file to File View instead.  Moral: You can't cause 
           Mini-Run to be used for an installed application by using 
           Alternate or Control keys.

        3. Within the Add/Change Dialog Box (you see this whenever you 
           add or change a program) you can left-click on "Use Mini-Run" 
           and then, whenever that program is run from Runner, Mini-Run 
           will be used.  You can do this for programs, installed 
           applications, or data/document files that trigger installed 
           applications.
        
        If Runner senses that Mini-Run is requested by ANY of the above, 
        Mini-Run will be used.  For example, if even though Spectrum 512 
        does not have the "Use Mini-Run" flag set in the Add/Change 
        Dialog Box, if you press Esc before selecting it from a menu 
        then Spectrum 512 will be loaded using Mini-Run.
        
        If you hold down Alternate or Control when exiting an 
        application run via Mini-Run, then Mini-Run will return control 
        to the desktop instead of Runner (if you want to go from Mini-
        Run back to Runner but want to supress the loading of a 
        background picture, be sure to hold down Alternate or Control 
        AFTER Runner begins loading).  Also, if a program is run 
        with Hold Screen enabled, you can exit directly to the desktop 
        by pressing Esc instead of a mouse click or other key.
        
        One design decision made for Mini-Run will cause a problem if 
        you try to enter parameters for a program with characters above 
        ASCII 224.  These will be remapped into the lower-case character 
        range.  Someone please let me know if this is a problem, but I 
        can't imagine a program expecting characters in that range, far 
        above the range of normally printable characters!  As a result 
        of this, you can now pass lower case characters, intact, in your 
        prarmeter strings (also known as command lines).

                
$$      Regions

        This program is sent to all who register Runner for $10 or more 
        (see OVERVIEW.HLP).  Regions is callable only from Runner, and 
        only when a background picture is loaded.  There is a lot of on-
        line help within Regions, so only the basics and obscure stuff 
        are covered here.  Press Y to call Regions.  REGIONS.TTP will be 
        loaded from Runner's home directory (where Runner first found 
        RUNNER.CFG or else the root directory of the drive Runner was 
        loaded from -- see SETUP.HLP).  Once the program is loaded, 
        information from Runner is passed through memory to Regions.  
        Regions has its own GEM menu bar.

        For help in Regions, press the Help key before selecting 
        anything in the pull-down menus.  Press it again to turn off 
        help.  Help is also turned off any time you select an item from 
        a Regions menu.

        Regions displays the current background picture and lets you add 
        or change up to 32 active screen regions for that picture.  When 
        you exit Regions (using the Save & Quit option), all changes are 
        updated in Runner's memory and Regions exits.  No disk access at 
        all (nice, eh?) and your changes are all active within Runner, 
        until you exit Runner or load in another picture.  To make your 
        changes more permanent, you must save them in a picture 
        configuration file.  Use Runner's pull-down menu option File, 
        Save Config to save both picture and Runner config files, or 
        hold down Alt when you select it to save ONLY the picture config 
        file.  (You can also press S or Alt-S, respectively).  See 
        SETUP.HLP for information on picture configuration files.

        Since screen region information is saved in a picture 
        configuration file, you can have different screen regions for 
        each picture.  The idea is that you could create a background 
        picture with "pseudo icons", pieces of a picture that act as 
        icons but are really just pixels in the picture.  You might have 
        different disk drive icons, one for exiting Runner, one or more 
        for your favorite programs.  You can turn off Runner's menus and 
        use nothing but screen regions to control Runner, if you prefer.  
        You could dress up your game disks by showing a picture of each 
        game that would be clicked on to start the game, or create a 
        custom desktop with your own icon shapes to control your Atari 
        system.  Of course these are not "real" icons; you cannot drag 
        them around on the desktop.  To change them, you must change 
        your picture in a paint program, then update where the screen 
        regions are defined to match the new picture, using the Regions 
        program.  More complex than dragging an icon on the desktop, but 
        perhaps more fun and gratifying as well.

$$      Screen regions are created using the Add option.  You can define 
        and adjust a rectangular region anywhere on the screen.  Then 
        you need to assign a function to the region.  Five types of 
        functions are currently available: 

        1. Menu Bar functions or those available from Runner's GEM menu 
           bar.  About, Save, Load, Install, Add, Drop, colors, and so 
           on can be assigned to a spot on the screen.

        2. File Selector functions provide control of the file selector, 
           just like the Space bar and numeric keys.  Display a file 
           selector for the last drive you visited, or start at the root 
           directory of any active drive.

        3. QuickKeys can assigned to any region, so that anything a 
           QuickKey can do (run a program, display a menu, show a text 
           file, etc.) can be done from a screen region as well.

        4. Load Picture functions let you pick a picture file name using 
           a file selector, and assign it to a shifted number key.  It 
           is also assigned to a screen region.  Even if the region is 
           later dropped, the name can remain assigned to the shifted 
           number key.

        5. Miscellaneous functions cover most of the remaining keyboard-
           only types of Runner commands, such as changing date format, 
           exit via Undo key, menus on/off, Help, and so on....

        A Change option lets you alter anything about a region, 
        including its priority.  If one or more regions or menus 
        overlap, the one with the highest priority will be selected.  
        Runner's menus have highest priority, then screen regions.  
        Think of the regions as being on a list; those first in the list 
        have a higher priority than those at the end.  A region may be 
        moved to first or last place, moving other regions down or up as 
        needed.  It's possible to have a region completely surrounded by 
        another; as long as it has a higher priority it can still be 
        selected.
        
        Regions also has the capability to save the current palette into 
        a selected picture file.  Ideally, you should only save the 
        palette to the file whose picture is displayed!  This option 
        lets you take a palette changed within Runner, and update a 
        picture file so it will have the same palette.  Normally, Runner 
        only saves altered palette information in picture configuration 
        files.

$$      One other point should be made about the Regions program: it 
        offers a lockout feature for Runner.  This is intended for use 
        in making demos or custom applications where you don't the user 
        to have access to anything else.  When lockout is selected, 
        Runner's GEM menu bar goes away; selecting Exit Runner does 
        nothing; the keyboard is ignored (mostly -- see below); the 
        QuickKeys menu cannot be displayed; and anything else with 
        potential danger is disabled.  Lockout takes effect only AFTER 
        changes have been saved from Regions to Runner, and from Runner 
        to a picture config file, and that picture is loaded into 
        Runner.  Otherwise you would be unable to save changes from 
        Runner!  Turning lockout OFF in Regions takes place immediately 
        on return to Runner.  One problem: how do you get to Regions to 
        disable lockout if the keys (including the Y key which starts 
        Regions) are disabled?  A not-too-elegant solution: Runner 
        watches for a sequence of keystrokes, namely Esc-y-Esc (three 
        keys, no hyphens, and no shift on the y).  This is hard to hit 
        at random and not too hard to remember.  You can prevent use of 
        Regions for sure by simply removing it from Runner's home 
        directory when it's not needed.

        Since lockout removes the GEM menu bar and Runner's menus, you 
        can create a nice looking custom desktop.  The menu bar area is 
        not available for screen regions but you can put anything else 
        in your picture up there.  Even a Macintosh logo (now wait a 
        minute, let's not get carried away here).  All functions in 
        Runner should be available through screen regions, including 
        displaying sub menus and calling the file selector, but you can 
        pick and choose the ones you need.  If something's not there, 
        let me know!

        I can see uses for locked pictures in disk menus, tutorials 
        where selecting an item on the screen displays a text file 
        describing it, starts a program to animate it, or branches to 
        another picture with all different regions to show more (or 
        different) levels of detail.  You could simulate a large-than-
        screen-size picture by setting up regions at the edges and 
        corners which load a new picture of the view in that direction.  
        You could even program a simple (or complex) 3-D maze, or a 
        walk-through of a house plan showing the view from any 
        direction.  Some of this is limited only by disk space for all 
        the pictures, but you could always change disks before moving to 
        a new picture.  Just be sure the picture's config file 
        accompanies the picture.  And if you need a different set of 
        Runner menus, create what you need and name it after the picture 
        file (if STUFF.PI1 is the picture, then STUFF.CF1 is its config 
        file and STUFF.CFG will be loaded as Runner's config file if 
        it's in Runner's home directory).  Have fun with it!
        
$$      An example picture file deomnstrating the use of Regions 
        is included for both low and high resolution.  Use Background 
        from Runner's File menu to load REGIONS1.PC1 or REGIONS1.PC3 and 
        the corresponding REGIONS1.CF1 or .CF3 file will load with it.  
        Without the Regions program you cannot change anything, but you 
        can click on the various "icons" to see what they do.  The 
        Runner key equivalent letter for each icon is shown next to it.  
        If you have the Regions program you can call Regions to edit the 
        functions or locations of regions in this file, using the 
        REGIONS1 picture as a training ground.

        
$$      Rconvert
        
        This program is provided as an aid to prior users of Runner. It 
        converts Runner configuration files (not picture configuration 
        files) from older formats to the newest one.  All information 
        from older config files can be translated, except for installed 
        application information.  Rconvert will, if you select the 
        appropriate dialog box choices, send a list of all your 
        installed applications to a disk file with a name similar to 
        your config file's name.  Use this list to help you set up your 
        applications in the new version of Runner (sorry, but the new 
        approach to installing applications is just no longer compatible 
        with the older information, and the potential for inconsistent 
        results through an automated translation is just too high).
        
        Rconvert is easy to use, and it need not be any particular 
        directory.  Run it by double clicking on RCONVERT.PRG.  You can 
        then remove the disk with RCONVERT.PRG on it and insert any 
        others with .CFG files that need updating.  Follow the prompts; 
        it's easy to use and quick!  You should be able to convert all 
        your old .CFG files in a matter of minutes, and then you won't 
        need RCONVERT.PRG any more....

        
$$      Rpicname
        
        RPICNAME.PRG is a program that lets you quickly change default 
        (startup) picture files for Runner.  Runner now looks at the 
        size of picture files, and if a file is less than 100 bytes (or 
        was it 128?) then it assume the picture file contains a filename 
        for another picture file instead of picture data.  Runner also 
        looks for RUNNER.PI1, RUNNER.PI2 and RUNNER.PI3 (or the .PCx 
        equivalents for compressed pictures) at startup to use as 
        autoloading picture files.  Rpicname ties these two concepts 
        together.
        
        Run Rpicname by double clicking on RPICNAME.PRG (you can also 
        put this one into a Runner menu, if you like).  Once it's loaded 
        you can take out that disk and put in another if you need to.  
        Rpicname displays a file selector.  Simply click on any picture 
        file you want to use at startup, and Rpicname will put its 
        filename and path into RUNNER.PIx for you (x is 1, 2 or 3, and 
        is taken from the file extension of the picture file you 
        select).  You can select files for any resolution in the same 
        session.  If you did not select picture files from Runner's home 
        directory, be sure to copy the resulting RUNNER.PIx file(s) into 
        the home directory.  And be careful not to copy a name file over 
        a real picture file (check the file sizes).  Rpicname works best 
        if all the pictures you select from are in Runner's home 
        directory.
        
        Rpicname assumes you want to use RUNNER.PIx for holding picture 
        filenames instead of pictures.  If it tries to update a 
        RUNNER.PIx file and finds it longer than 128 (or was it 100?) 
        bytes, it will warn you and stop the update.  This way you 
        cannot lose any picture files.
        
        If you only use one picture for each resolution and never plan 
        to change, then you won't need Rpicname.  Otherwise it can be a 
        very handy way to change the pictures you see on startup without 
        a lot of renaming and copying of picture files.

        
        [end of OTHERS.HLP]
