GEM Retrace Recorder

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     Accessory User Manual




     Contents:

     1.   General
     2.   How to use
     3.   Autostart









    
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     1.   General
It's often annoying that when you have done a series of
operations with your computer, sometimes quite lengthy,
and you want to repeat that series of operations, you
have to go through the commands all over again.  It
would be useful if you could record them just once, and
play them back at the press of a key.

Hence the GEM Retrace  Recorder.  It stores all your
mouse and keyboard events in a buffer, and plays them
back at your command. Altogether you can work with ten
different event recordings.

At your wish the recordings can be loaded automatically
when you boot your ST, and if you so choose,
automatically executed.  

GEM Retrace itself is an Accessory and can be used from
within any program that has a menu bar.  All the
important parameters are displayed in a dialog box and
also stored on diskette.



    
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     2.   How to use

In order to use Retrace, you must first set aside part
of the ST's memory. This is done using the accessory's
dialog box.  In the 'SIZE' field, type the required
memory size in Kbytes, and click on the button 'STATE' 
beneath it.  The buffer size can be up to 4MByte.  To
help you allocate memory appropriately, the currently
available memory is shown in the upper right of the
dialog box.

The buffer can be freed and re-allocated with a new size
at any time.

Two other options can be selected using the dialog box.
The 'RATE' field allows you to set the replay speed (S=
slow, N= Normal, F= fast).  The 'MOUSE' field sets the
default accuracy of mouse movements.  The values of X
and Y can be set from 1 to 99 establish the number of
pixels over which the mouse must be moved to establish
its position.  The value '1/1' denotes a 'loss-free'
detection of mouse movement, but requires a larger
amount of memory.  On the other hand you may choose a
smaller value for Y (up to 5) but in this case the menu
bar may not work correctly.

To start recording, press 'CONTROL' together with one of
the function keys F1 to F10.  An 'R' will be displayed
in the upper left of the screen, showing that recording
has begun.  From now on, all mouse movements and all
key-presses are stored.  To end the recording, type
again 'CONTROL'  and one of the keys F1 to F10.  To
confirm, the 'R' disappears. 

If you run out of memory before finishing your
recording, that is if the capacity of the reserved
buffer is exceeded, the computer will automatically stop
the event recording.  The recording of the selected
function key will be lost.

At any time you can see from the Retrace dialog box
which F-keys have recordings assigned to tghem and which
are still free.  Click on one of the allocated keys to
display the name and size of the recording.  The name
can be chosen or changed in this way.  Click on the
'DEL' button to wipe the recording.

Playback is very similar to recording.  Press
'ALTERNATE' together with the function key of your
choice.  If the key is in use, then the mouse and
keyboard are locked, a 'P' is displayed at the upper
right of the screen, and playback begins.

Note that the 'ALTERNATE' und 'CONTROL' keys do not work
when the Retrace dialog box is displayed, also that this
box cannot be displayed while recording is taking place.

If you use a colour monitor, you must not change
resolution while Retrace is 'active'.  Recordings will
only play back in the same resolution as that in which
they were made.

Recordings assigned to keys can be stored on disk using
the 'SAVE' button, and loaded again using 'LOAD'.  In
both cases a File Selector is displayed for you to
choose a suitable filename.



    
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     3.   Autostart

If a file containing Retrace recordings and named
'AUTO.SYS' is on the boot disk, then that file will be
automatically loaded when the accessory starts up at
boot time.  

If the 'AUTO.SYS' file includes a recording assigned to
key F10, then that recording will be played back as soon
as the GEM Desktop appears after boot-up.

In this way you can automatically carry out a sequence
of operations automatically at the beginning of a
session, or have your chosen program auto-start.

The automatic playback of the F10 recording can be
inhibited by holding down the 'ALTERNATE' key during
boot-up.