
        
                        Runner -- A Desktop Alternative
        

                                    OVERVIEW
        
          What is Runner / Shareware / Related Programs / What's Next?


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


        Legalese: Runner may be distributed freely as long as all 
        original files (except MINI_RUN.TTP and REGIONS.TTP) are 
        included, unchanged.  Dave Thorson is not responsible for any 
        damages (lost files, loss of time, etc.) caused directly or 
        indirectly by this software.  Users of this software assume all 
        responsibility for risk.  This program is Shareware and is NOT 
        released to the Public Domain; Copyright ownership remains with 
        Dave Thorson.  The companion programs Mini-Run and Regions are 
        NOT shareware and are available only to users of Runner who 
        register for $10 or more; they may NOT be distributed to others.


        Note: in most .HLP files, $$ is used to mark the start of a new 
        section.  Use this as a search string to find things quickly.
        

$$      Intro

        Runner is a quick, easy-to-use alternative to the standard Atari 
        desktop, developed for hard drive users with at least one 
        megabyte of memory, however it may still be of use for floppy 
        drive users.  The new Mini-Run program makes Runner suitable for 
        use even on 520K systems.  Runner has only been tested on a 
        1040ST with TOS 1.0 and Atari SH-204 hard drive, but should work 
        on other systems as well (please contact me at the address below 
        with any bug reports, especially for STe systems -- Thank You!)

        Runner lets you manage your programs more effectively by placing 
        them in one or more menus; simply click on a program in a menu 
        to run it.  You can also assign up to twenty QuickKeys to run 
        your most-used software with a single keypress, and install 
        applications to run by selecting their data files.  Default 
        parameter strings can be assigned to installed applications, 
        with automatic name substitution for the selected file.

        Runner is much quicker than the desktop, and programs can 
        be placed in menus regardless of what drive or folder they 
        live in.  You can group similar programs together in the 
        same menu, such as all games or all graphics programs or 
        all word processing software.

        Menus can contain programs or other menus, and you decide how 
        you want to set them up.  Runner also provides direct access to 
        a file selector (if you use Universal Item Selector you may 
        never need the desktop again!), lets you view files or run 
        programs not in your menus and access desk accessories.  Several 
        customization options let you create a personalized computing 
        environment, such as using a background picture if you like 
        (Degas Elite color-cycling supported, of course).  All these 
        features and more are described later, but first....


$$      Shareware Stuff

        I am releasing Runner as Shareware to test the market for such 
        programs.  Runner is NOT "Public Domain" and I reserve all 
        rights to the program and this documentation.  Runner has been 
        in development for over a year, and I use it EVERY time I use my 
        ST (except on self-booting games, Turtle, or the time I lost my 
        main hard drive partition, but that's another story....).

        You are free to take Runner for a test drive on your own 
        computer, and see if you find it to be of value.  Whether you 
        keep it or not, feel free to give copies of RUNNER.ARC (or the 
        full set of un-ARC'ed files) to your friends (do NOT give them 
        MINI_RUN.TTP or REGIONS.TTP!).  I save on distribution and 
        marketing costs, and you don't get stuck buying a program that 
        doesn't work out as you expected after seeing it for only a few 
        minutes in a store.

        Since Runner is a copyrighted, professional program that took a 
        LOT of my time to develop and document, you are expected to 
        purchase it if you want to keep it (just like all those programs 
        on the wall at your local dealer!).  If you decide to keep 
        Runner, please send a donation of $5 to $15 (and a disk I can 
        fill and send back to you) to:

               Dave Thorson
               3018 East Cheery Lynn Road
               Phoenix, Arizona  85016

        Be sure to include a return address if you need a reply, and 
        tell me what program you're registering so I can keep my records 
        straight.  Let me know if you are limited to a single-sided disk 
        drive, and if you object to receiving ARC'ed files (if you don't 
        know what ARC is, tell me, and you'll not get any ARC'ed files).

        I could charge more (like the "going rate" for ST software of 
        $40 per package), but through shareware you can save on 
        marketing and distribution costs as well!  Shareware can make 
        all of us come out ahead, but only if donations are sent.  
        Without them, shareware developers like myself will have no 
        incentive to develop more software, and you will stop seeing 
        nifty utilities and games come your way.


$$             * * *  Mini-Run: Extra Shareware Incentive  * * *

        An extra program, Mini-Run, will be sent to anyone contributing 
        $10.00 or more, as long as a disk to hold the new program is 
        included.  Please be sure to include a return address!  I am 
        making Mini-Run available only through registration because NO 
        ONE sent any contributions for prior shareware programs I have 
        released.  Runner by itself is even better than before, but 
        Mini-Run may entice those who USE Runner to contribute for 
        shareware (this tactic seems to be working -- THANK YOU to all 
        who have registered so far!).

        Mini-Run can be called from Runner to run programs needing all 
        the memory they can get.  Runner exits and loads Mini-Run, which 
        in turn loads the desired program (passing any parameters or 
        filenames as needed for .TTP programs).  When the program exits, 
        Mini-Run exits and reloads Runner in its place.  Mini-Run can 
        free up almost 68K bytes for another program in addition to what 
        Runner allows (almost 100K if a picture is loaded, but the 
        picture must be reloaded as well - Runner "starts over" after 
        Mini-Run exits).  It consumes only 29K of memory and about 8K of 
        disk space.

        Mini-Run is a very short program so it loads quickly, adding 
        only a second or so of delay from a hard disk.  Of course, 
        Runner itself is reloaded later as well, adding a bit to the 
        delay time.  Even with these delays the process of running a 
        program through Mini-Run is still far quicker (and certainly 
        more convenient) than exiting to the desktop to run a large 
        program, and returning to Runner after it's done.  Please note 
        that Mini-Run is not a mini version of Runner; it does not 
        provide any menus or options; it only runs a program as directed 
        by Runner.

        In my configuration I get the following memory values from a 
        command line interpreter (DO-IT! from QMI) run from the desktop, 
        Runner 1.50 (with and without a background picture) and Mini-
        Run.  Values for Runner 1.40 are also shown as a comparison in 
        case you're upgrading from that version.  Memory availability on 
        your computer will depend on how much RAM you have, other 
        installed programs and desk accessories, and how you measure it!  
        Still, the last column shown here should be fairly close to what 
        you will see:

        "DO_IT!" run from:       Free Memory:    Less than Desktop:
           Desktop                 687,480                 0
           Mini-Run                658,468            29,012
           Runner 1.40 no pic      605,626            81,854
           Runner 1.40 w/pic       573,626           113,854
           Runner 1.50 no pic      590,884            96,596
           Runner 1.50 w/pic       590,884           128,596


        (Runner version 1.50 is about 15K larger than version 1.40.  
        Values shown for Low Res color, TOS 1.0, with following 
        accessories/programs in memory: UIS III, a SCRNSAVE, Turbo 
        ST 1.6, Fujidesk, FOLDR060, CodeKeys 1.2, PinHead 1.8, MACCEL3, 
        HeadStart 1.1, and FATSPEED)


$$          * *  Regions: Additional Extra Shareware Incentive  * *

        A new Runner companion program, Regions, lets you set up active 
        screen regions that you can select with a mouse click.  These 
        regions can activate nearly any feature available within Runner 
        and a few more besides.  You can now dress up your screens with 
        disk drive "icons" or other pictures to make your Atari even 
        easier to use.

        Simply paint the screen the way you want it using your favorite 
        paint program, convert the file to Degas format (.PIx or .PCx) 
        if your favorite paint program is not Degas Elite.  Load the 
        picture into Runner as a background pic, then call Regions by 
        pressing the "Y" key.  Within Regions, define the location and 
        size of up to 32 rectangular screen regions on top of your 
        picture, and assign each a Runner function, including all menu 
        options, most keyboard commands, and QuickKeys.

        Regions also lets you define a list of picture files that can be 
        assigned to screen regions and loaded by clicking on the 
        associated region or by pressing a shifted number key.  You can 
        even lock out the GEM menu bar, exit, file selector and menus to 
        create custom applications or demos.  Regions also lets you 
        resave the current picture including any palette changes made 
        within Runner so you will see the correct colors in paint 
        programs or other applications.  The Regions program will also 
        be sent to anyone registering Runner for $10 or more.

        

$$      Other Miscellaneous Stuff

        Do not rename the programs RUNNER.PRG, MINI_RUN.TTP or 
        REGIONS.TTP since these are the names Runner expects to find.  
        Runner's Fix command only loads RUNNER.PRG, and Runner only 
        calls MINI_RUN.TTP and REGIONS.TTP when needed; there is no way 
        to tell it to do otherwise.

        Runner contains only one error message, and it's used no matter 
        what the problem is.  This is better than crashing over small 
        problems, and I felt it better than using lots of memory to 
        diagnose and report various problems.  If you see the error 
        message (something general like "Bad Drive, Path or Other 
        Error"), you can choose to return to Runner or exit to the 
        desktop.


$$      Read Only Problem
        
        For some reason beyond my understanding, a program cannot be run 
        from Runner if the program file is locked (set for Read Only).  
        If you have trouble loading a program, check for this using the 
        File/Show Info function from the desktop.  Runner does NOT write 
        to any files other than RUNNER.CFG and filename.CFx (picture 
        configuration files where filename is the picture's name and 
        x=1,2,3).  Trust me!  (Okay, Regions can write to a picture 
        file, and Runner will write to .TMP files and then rename them 
        if successful (as described above) but everything else is safe!)

        
$$      Template Files

        The template files, called GUIDE.PI1, GUIDE.PI2 and GUIDE.PI3 
        are ready to load into Degas Elite or any other program that 
        accepts the Degas file format.  They mark where Runner displays 
        its menus.  The Grey areas are used by Runner (you can put stuff 
        there, but Runner may cover it from time to time).  The black 
        borders are not part of the area used by Runner.  The red lines 
        (in GUIDE.PI3, the fuzzy markers) are used to verify the 
        location of the lines.  A red line segment appears on each side 
        of the black border lines.  Runner should never cover more than 
        the inside red line segment (or the inside edge of the fuzzy 
        markers).  A calibration guide of sorts....  Color 3 is used for 
        menu text in low res and 15 in medium res, and the opposite of 
        color 0 is used in monochrome.

        Special thanks to David Lindsley and Bruce P. De Vries for some 
        good ideas on this one....

        One last note about GFA BASIC: I spent a great deal of time 
        working around problems in detecting mouse clicks in the GEM 
        menu bar rather then on the underlying screen (for example, when 
        a pull down menu overlaps the title line, and you click on Add 
        Menu but instead get the file selector box called by clicking on 
        the title line).  GFA works reasonably well if everything is 
        done inside a window and you rely on GFA's internal commands for 
        detecting mouse presses, keypresses and so on.  The problem then 
        is that GFA does all this too s-l-o-w-l-y to be usable, and has 
        real problems registering mouse clicks consistently.  The 
        language has a lot going for it, and is clearly up the required 
        level of performance, but NOT if you go "by the book."  If 
        anyone else out there has found better solutions (other than 
        switching to C), please let me know.  I could cut out a lot of 
        silly code that tracks the same things GEM must track 
        internally.

        If you have trouble with mouse clicks, you should try holding 
        the mouse down a bit longer.  This clears up lots of problems 
        like going to a new screen and having the mouse select the first 
        thing it passes over, without a new mouse click.  Runner never 
        uses double clicks, so slow down a bit and it all works better!

        I completely gave up trying to tell when -exactly- to set or 
        clear the inverse display of a program or menu name since GFA 
        gives no way to tell if a GEM menu is displayed or not.  I tried 
        putting in lots of delays.  They kept the screen cleaner but 
        slowed the program too much and weren't completely or 
        consistently effective either.  You'll have to live with the 
        occasional characters staying inverted when they shouldn't 
        until I find a better way (or a better language).  Sorry, but I 
        gave it my best shot.  Just run the mouse over them to clear 
        them if you like.
        
        My apologies to GEM purists everywhere.  My goal here was to 
        design an easy-to-use, powerful program to fit in as little 
        memory as possible.  Sure, there are lots of "niceties" like 
        time and date display or picture animation, but I made tradeoffs 
        to my preference of having more capability with the overhead of 
        not having everything work strictly to GEM standards.  Yes, it 
        would be nice to be able to do everything in the Add/Change 
        Dialog Box with either the mouse OR the keyboard, but that adds 
        a lot of memory overhead.  Same for color changes.  I can read 
        the R, G and B keys in a lot less memory than would be needed 
        for a "Control Panel"-like color change capability.  That would 
        also require use of a mouse, and if the colors loaded from a 
        picture are such that you can't see the mouse pointer or what 
        you need to click on....  Well, I think my approaches are sound 
        when you consider what this program is doing!

$$      What's Next?
        
        I don't see much work remaining in Runner.  I'm looking for 
        ideas, but don't want the program to grow any larger.  I may try 
        to convert it C but don't look forward to that prospect: Runner 
        is currently over 4000 lines of GFA BASIC code.  If initial 
        tests show significant savings in space, then a C version may be 
        on the way.
        
        I also did a lot of testing to find out how much space I could 
        save be dropping certain functions I suspected of being memory 
        hogs.  Here are the results, using (unreleased) version 1.50G.  
        Memory appears to be allocated in pages of 256 bytes, so changes 
        smaller than that don't show up.
        
        Memory  Difference    Description
        549924  0             Full version Runner 1.50G
        549924  0             No use of malloc() or mfree()
        549924  0             No use of LPRINT command
        549924  0             No use of CVL() and related functions
        540436  512           No support for REGIONS program
        553252  3328          No File View
        549412  512           No SELECT/CASE statements (us IF instead)
        549924  0             Use INLINE to pre-store DATA values
        560420  10496         "Small Runner" which leaves out all 
                              editing capabilities (add, drop, change, 
                              restore, QuickKey assign, change or add 
                              installed applications, change menu 
                              position, title, etc.)
        
        Since none of these but the last made any significant 
        difference, they're all still in the program (except malloc() 
        and mfree(), which cause problems of their own).  The "Small 
        Runner" concept seemed a good one; you could set things up using 
        regular Runner, and once your configuration stabilized you could 
        use Small Runner instead.  But I'm not willing to support two 
        versions of the program for a 10K savings in memory!  If this 
        last 10K is really critical, let me know, but you may be pushing 
        up a rope!
        
        I can see other companion programs, such as an arranger program 
        that lets you put menu items wherever you like (you CAN arrange 
        them how you like now; Runner determines the alphabetical order 
        used for placement on the initial contents of the Add/Change 
        Dialog Box description line, BEFORE it presents the box to you.  
        You can change the description all you like without resorting 
        the menu locations.  They only change on Adds and Restores.  So, 
        you would have to give your programs some funny names to get 
        them in the right order....  Not all that acceptable, is it?).
        I would like to have graphics file viewers triggered by common 
        file extensions such as .SPC, .PI1, .TNY, .GIF, .IFF, and so on, 
        that could be installed applications letting Runner view any 
        graphics file.  These could be a series of short programs or 
        maybe one large one that handles them all.  I would also like to 
        see a library of background pics submitted by other users.  And, 
        if you come up with any generally usable applications created 
        using Regions, such as tutorials or whatever, let me know!  I'll 
        try to pass stuff along through GEnie as I get it, or write me 
        to find out what's going on.  I'd love to hear from you!

        $$      Final Note
        
        That about wraps it up for Runner.  If you have any suggestions 
        for additions, or find features you never use that could be 
        removed, or something doesn't seem to work quite right, then 
        contact me at the address at the top of this document.  If you 
        use Runner, please send some $'s my way.  Remember, if you send 
        a contribution of $10.00 or more, accompanied by a disk to send 
        back to you and your return address, I will send you the Mini-
        Run and Regions programs, and any other updates.  Be sure to 
        tell me if you have only a single-sided drive and if you don't 
        know how to use the ARC program.  And send in any background 
        pics you like!

               Dave Thorson
               3018 East Cheery Lynn Road
               Phoenix, Arizona  85016

        If you don't enjoy using your ST, you're not doing it right!

                                                  -- Dave Thorson


$$      Products Mentioned (in no particular order):
        
        Atari Planetarium - Atari    ||  Font Tricks - Analog Computing
        Laser C - Megamax, Inc.      ||  Headstart - CodeHead Software
        Turbo ST - SofTrek           ||  Do-It! - QMI
        Word Writer ST - Timeworks   ||  ST Writer - Bruce Noonan
        Degas Elite / Degas - Batteries Included / Electronic Arts
        Universal Item Selector III - Application and Design Software
        GFA BASIC 3.0 - GFA Systemtechnik / Michtron / Antic Publishing
        RealTime, Diablo, MidiMouse - Intelligent Music / Dr. T's
        Flash, CAD 3D, Spectrum 512 - Antic Publishing
        Colorburst 3000 - BeerysBit Software
        Little Green Selector - Charles F. Johnson

