Passing Parameters to Auto-Booting Programs =========================================== Stoop can now pass parametrs to auto-booting programs, though this is not reliable as it should be because of bugs in TOS 4 or Lattice C which do not allow the path for a drive or partition to be set. Environment strings can also be set at the same time. To pass parameters to a program another program is needed, in this case Launcher.prg, which is run instead of the required program and then calls the program that you want to use. Launcher has to load in details, prepared by Stoop, which contain the program's name and the other data such as the filename(s) to be passed and the environment strings to be set. Setting Up Stoop for Passing Parameters --------------------------------------- The parameters are attached to the preset buttons so that when you select a preset configuration to be set up the parameters will be set up as well. To set up for passing parameters, set up a button for normal operation, see the section 'Deleting A Button', but after you have given the button a name select the LAUNCH button on the dialogue. A new dialogue will appear which has two windows, called tail and environment. These windows can be have text entered into them in two ways, you can type directly into them or you can use the file selector to either insert the text from a file or the full name of the file in the window. Whatever you choose, the new text will appear at the cursor position. The tail window should contain the parameters to be passed to the program you want to use, this includes filenames or command line parameters. To enter text into either window using the file selector. First move the cursor to the line where you want the text to appear (see below for keyboard commands), then call the file selector with the FSEL button, select the file you want and press OK. Another dialogue now appears, this gives you three choices; INSERT, PUT NAME or ABORT. INSERT - Choosing this button will put the text contained in the file into your window. (WARNING - only try this with small files of about 10k length). PUT NAME - This will put the file name, including it's full path, in the window. ABORT - Allows you to abort making changes to the text in the window. Example, if the program for which you are setting the button up is Gemview, you can put the names of picture files you want Gemview to automatically load and display when you auto-boot it. (Use the FSEL button and PUT NAME to enter the picture files, you can only do this one at a time.) Text Window Keyboard Commands ----------------------------- The four cursor keys move the cursor as normal (left, right, up or down one space). Holding a SHIFT key down with either of the left and right cursor keys to move the cursor to the start or end of the current line respectively. Holding a SHIFT key down with either of the up and down cursor keys will page the text up or down respectively. RETURN will add a new line below the current line the cursor is on. If the cursor is in the middle of the line, the text will be split between the lines. DELETE will delete the character the cursor is covering. If the cursor is at the end of the line, this line and the one below will be joined, (any characters over the maximum character line length will be left on the next line). BACKSPACE will delete the character in front of the cursor. If the cursor is at the start of the line, this line and the one above will be joined, (any characters over the maximum character line length will be left on the line). TAB will change the window the cursor is in (this may also be done with a click of the mouse on the requred window). CTRL - Y (hold the Control key down, press Y key before letting go of Control) will delete the current line. (BUG - the first line cannot be deleted in this way, to get around this put the cursor on the first character and press return to move the line to the next row and then delete, or just use the Backspace and Delete keys to remove individual characters.) CTRL - U (hold the Control key down, press U key before letting go of Control) will put the last line to be deleted by CTRL - Y at the current position of the cursor. These commands are fairly basic, but they are not intended to be used with large amounts of text. NB. The maximum line length is 125 characters, if this is too small, please let me know. Environment Options ------------------- Just below the Environment window are two recessed displays clicking on the first of these will present options which can increase the usefulness of environment strings. The options will appear on a pop-up window in the middle of the screen, they are :- SEND TO PROGRAM ONLY - this is the default setting, the contents of the environment window are sent to the launcher program which then sets them up for the program it will launch. SEND TO FILE ONLY - the environment window contents are sent to a file, the name of the file can be chosen using the file selector by clicking on the second recessed display. This will allow users of MultiTos to edit a MINT _or_ GEM configuration file before launching MultiTos. Other programs which have an editable configuration file may also benefit from this option. If this is popular, I will add the ability to edit more than one file. IGNORE ENVIRONMENT - the contents of the environment window are not used in any way. Problems With Passing Parameters -------------------------------- For some reason unknown to me, I cannot set the current path on a drive. This is a bug in either TOS 4.04 or in Lattice C 5.60. Please let me know if this is a known bug - and if a fix is possible. This only causes problems with a few programs which I believe look for their .RSC and .INF files in the current directory for their current drive. The only program that I found that does this is Papyrus and to get around it put the .RSC and .INF files it looks for in the root directory of drive C (or A if you do not have a harddrive). Hopefully, I can come up with a better solution to this problem for the next release.