by Kev Beardsworth.

Rock On Tommy, It's Magic.

Windows 95, "someday all computers will look like this", no doubt since quite a large proportion of its features have been copied from other platforms. "Aha", I hear you cry, "it has one or two original ideas of its own". Indeed it does, so why don't we copy those. Some programmers already have and that's where this article is aimed. Well that's not strictly true, it's actually a rundown of some new MagiC utilities, one or two of which fall into the nicked from Win 95 category. MagiC utilities? let's face it, brilliant though MagiC undoubtedly is, it's rather lacking when it comes to customising, giving it that look and feel unique to your system. One Atari running MagiC looks and acts very like another. And that empty START folder, isn't it about time we had something to put in it?

    Due to the size of this feature we have split it into several 
    pages. This will increase speed and aid loading onto STfm/e's 
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Freedom

To some people reading this there will be a glaring omission. One of the most powerful MagiC enhanced utilities available today is Freedom the replacement file selector. We haven't covered it here for one simple reason, it will appear in AP#3 along with the best of the rest when it comes to file selectors.

Appline.

Clearly copied from Windows 95, this application adds a grey bar to your desktop that installs a button for each program you have running. Left click on a button and the relevant software is instantly topped. While that program is topped the button remains selected.

Right clicking on a button displays a popup giving you seven choices. These include Terminate, useful for any program that misbehaves. Close, which legally quits the buttons matching application, if that application supports MagiC's shutdown feature. Freeze (einfrieren), this suspends the relevant program but keeps it in memory and the self explanatory Hide, Hide others, To Background and To Foreground. A small button at the extreme left of Appline can be used to carry out these functions on itself, should that be required.

Appline is fully configurable, this is achieved by editing its config file in your favourite text editor. A practice that's becoming all too common these days. Fear not however as a well commented example is supplied and configuration is basically a case of adding or removing the # symbol from functions to disable or enable them. The features which can be altered include: Where you'd like Appline to appear, at the top or bottom of your screen, whether you'd like to select the buttons using function keys, if the desktop used should be the first button displayed and whether you'd like a closer button (that's the small one previously mentioned). One of the most useful features is the memory display. Appline keeps you informed of current memory usage if this is required. You can have this displayed in a small or large font or switch it off completely. The config file also gives you the option to stop certain programs and accessories appearing in the bar. This prevents it from being filled to quickly. If this should happen Appline will suspend the memory display and reduce the buttons in size so that it can squeeze more on. In reality this is rare as most users can't cope with loads of programs running at the same time, I certainly couldn't. If you do you can configure Appline to display its buttons vertically. This gives you loads of room for buttons and I'm sure you'd run out of memory or hit the MagiC limits before filling up Appline.

You can even change the colour of the text displayed in the buttons using the config file. You can define one of sixteen colours for any listed application.

Appline supports the now almost standard AV protocol. Drag a file to one of the buttons and it's passed to the relevant program. A useful little utility indeed and one that's soon missed should you disable it. One item worthy of note, if you have the buttons configured for function key selection Appline loses its ability to use the AV protocol. Why this is necessary I've no idea, but it's obviously been done for a reason.

 Appline is supported in this country by InterActive. Send £6+ to: 
      InterActive, 65 Mill Road, Colchester. CO4 5LJ. England

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