AmigaOS Manual: Workbench Other Programs

This chapter describes the programs found in the Tools and Utilities drawers.

Tools Drawer

The Tools drawer window, illustrated in Figure 10-1, contains numerous utility programs that, for example, expand your printing options, prepare memory cards for use, define new keys, and create new icons.

Tools Window

The following programs are found in the Tools drawer:

Calculator	A standard, four-function calculator.
CMD	Allows you to redirect printer output to a file.
GraphicDump	Allows you to print screen images.
IconEdit	Allows you to change and create icons.
InitPrinter	Initializes your printer.
KeyShow	Displays the current keyboard layout.
Lacer	Turns video interlace on and off.
MEmacs	A text editor, explained in the AmigaDOS User's Guide.
Mounter	An interactive partition mount tool.
PlayCD	User interface for the audio CD playback functionality
PrepCard	Prepares PCMCIA memory cards for use on systems with a PCMCIA slot.
PrintFiles	Sends files to the printer.
ShowConfig	Shows configuration information.
Commodities	A drawer containing programs that monitor your keyboard and mouse input.

HDBackup and HDToolbox are also included in the Tools drawer on hard disk systems only. For information on these programs, see the Amiga Hard Drive User's Guide .

Calculator

The Calculator is a standard four-function calculator for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Opening the Calculator icon activates it.

The calculator works like any standard calculator. The buttons on the calculator are gadgets. The numbered gadgets represent the digits 0 through 9. The non-numerical gadgets represent:

CA	Clear all previous entries. Resets the calculator to 0.
CE	Clear the current entry.
X	Multiply.
/	Divide.
+	Add.
-	Subtract.
.	Decimal point.
«	Delete the last digit entered.
±	Change the sign of the current entry. Positive numbers become negative; negative numbers become positive.
=	Display the result of the operation.

To press a button, select the gadget with the mouse or press the corresponding key on the keyboard. You can use either the keyboard or numeric keypad keys. Return and the keypad Enter key are equivalent to the equals (=) button. The left arrow key is equivalent to the («) button.

The calculator displays a message for Overflow and Divide By Zero errors.

Select the close gadget to exit the Calculator.

Calculator menus

The calculator has three menus: the Project menu, the Edit menu, and the Windows menu.

On the Project menu:

Clear Entry	Clears the current entry only.
Clear All	Clears all entries and resets the display to zero.
Quit	Closes off the calculator.

On the Edit menu:

Cut	Copies and clears the current entry to the Clipboard.
Copy	Copies the current entry to the Clipboard without clearing the area.
Paste	Place the current Clipboard contents into the calculator.

Show Tape is the only Window menu option. It displays a window showing the calculator entries and results. Show Tape can also be copied, but since it does not have a menu, use drag-select and Amiga+C to copy its contents to the Clipboard.

CMD (Change Main Device)

CMD directs your printer output to a file rather than to a printer, capturing output on disk.

To use CMD, Tool Types must be added in the CMD icon's Information window and you must indicate where to send the printer output.

The following lists the CMD Tool Types and their recognized KEYWORDS, arguments, and default settings.

DEVICE=<port>	The Amiga port where your printer is attached, either parallel or serial. DEVICE=parallel is the default.
FILE=<filename>	The name of the file to which the printer output is sent. FILE=ram:CMD_file is the default.
SKIP=true	Tells CMD to skip any short initial write. The first write sent to the printer may be a printer reset. You can use SKIP=true to ignore it. The default is SKIP=false (initial writes are not skipped).
MULTIPLE=true	Tells CMD to redirect more than one file. The default is MULTIPLE=false (only one file is redirected). Tells CMD to display progress messages. When CMD intercepts the file, a typical message that may appear is as follows: Redirected <# of bytes> from parallel.device to <filename>
NOTIFY=true	After the output is sent to the file and CMD is turned off, another message may state: CMD redirection of parallel.device removed The default is NOTIFY=false (messages are not displayed).

To use CMD, double-click on its icon. The next time information is sent to your printer, it goes to the designated file instead.

GraphicDump

GraphicDump prints (or dumps) entire screens, including menus and icons, just as they appear on your monitor. Your printer must be capable of printing graphic images. (Most printers can print GraphicDump output.)

Before using GraphicDump, make sure the settings in the Printer, PrinterPS, and PrinterGfx Preferences editors are appropriate for your printer. You can specify the dimensions of the printout with the Limits setting in the PrinterGfx editor. Otherwise, the printout is the full width allowed by the printer.

To use GraphicDump, double-click on its icon. After a ten second delay the front-most screen image is sent to the printer. The mouse pointer is not printed.

Tool Types

GraphicDump supports a SIZE Tool Type. The acceptable arguments for SIZE and the resulting size of the printout are:

SIZE=tiny	1/4 the total width allowed by the printer.
SIZE=small	1/2 the total width allowed by the printer.
SIZE=medium	3/4 the total width allowed by the printer.
SIZE=large	Full width allowed by the printer (default).

The height of the printout maintains the perspective of the screen. The Limits Type gadget in the PrinterGfx editor must be set to Ignore for GraphicDump, or else the size of the printout is determined by the Limits setting.

To set specific dimensions in a Tool Type, use:

SIZE=<xdots>:<ydots>

Substitute the width, in number of printer dots, for the <xdots> argument and the height for the <ydots> argument.

IconEdit

IconEdit personalizes your Workbench by changing the appearance of existing icons and creating new ones.

The window shown in Figure 10-2 appears when you open the IconEdit icon.

IconEdit Window

Mounter

Mounter is an interactive partition mount tool. It operates on devices that support the RDB (Rigid Disk Block) organization data structures which define which and which size partitions are assigned to a storage medium.

Mounter can be started both from Shell and from the Workbench. In both cases the same parameters can be used. The only difference between them is that for the Workbench, you would need to specify the parameters as tool types.

Supported parameters

DEVICE/K

Example :

DEVICE=2ndscsi.device Default: DEVICE=scsi.device

This specifies the device driver to query for partition information. Not all device drivers are supported. Commonly, you would use this tool only on hard disk drives.

UNIT/N

Example:

UNIT=0 Default: - (No unit specified)

If the UNIT parameter is omitted, Mounter will open a window and query unit numbers 0-6 for attached devices, prompting you to choose a device to examine for partition data. However, if you specify a unit number, it indicates that you want all the partitions on that device to be mounted.

PARTITIONS/M

Example:

PARTITIONS=HD0:|HD1:|HD2: (Workbench only) PARTITIONS HD0: HD1: HD2: (Shell only) Default: - (No partitions specified)

This parameter works in conjunction with the UNIT parameter. Instead of mounting all partitions on the specified unit, you choose which partitions exactly should be mounted.

NOUNMOUNT/S

Example:

NOUNMOUNT Default: - (Partitions with the same name will be unmounted)

If the Mounter tool detects that there is already a partition by the name of a new partition to be mounted, its default action will be to umount the existing partition. This can be undesirable, which is why the NOUNMOUNT parameter can be used to tell Mounter to add the new partition under a new name. The new partition name is created by adding a number to its name. For example, if the partition HD0: would already exist, the new partition would be mounted under the name of HD0.1:. If HD0.1: already exists, HD0.2: would be used, and so on.

NOREMOUNT/S

Example:

NOREMOUNT Default: - (Always mount a partition, even if there already is a partition mounted by the same name)

This option tells Mounter not to attempt to mount partitions again if they have already been mounted. For example, if you want Mounter to mount the partition DH0:" if, and only if, it has not already been mounted, you would start the program with the options NOUNMOUNT and NOREMOUNT. This will tell Mounter not to unmount an already existing partition (NOUNMOUNT) and not to attempt to mount the partition if its name is already in use (NOREMOUNT).

QUIET/S

Example:

QUIET Default: - (Mounter will show a progress report of its actions)

When Mounter mounts or unmounts partitions, it will show briefly what it is currently doing. The reports (except for error messages) can be be disabled with the QUIET parameter.

MASK/K

Example:

MASK=0x7FFFFFFC Default: - (No special transfer mask)

This parameter corresponds to the MASK option associated with a mount list. By default, Mounter will use whatever transfer mask value is associated with the partition data it finds on the disk. If you provide a mask parameter, that parameter will be used instead of the partition`s transfer mask value when the partition is mounted.

QUERY/S

Example:

QUERY (NOTE: Shell only parameter) Default: - (Do not print the queried information)

This parameter will print the same information that would be shown in the graphical user interface in the Shell window.

PUBSCREEN/K

Example:

PUBSCREEN=Workbench Default: - (Use the default public screen)

This parameter tells Mounter to opens its graphical user interface on the named public screen. If the named public screen cannot be found, the user interface will fall back to open on the default public screen.

CX_PRIORITY/N/K

CX_POPKEY/K

CX_POPUP/K

Example:

CX_PRIORITY=1
CX_POPKEY=Control
Help CX_POPUP=No

Default:

CX_PRIORITY=0
CX_POPKEY=Alt Shift F10
CX_POPUP=YES

These are the standard Commodities tool control variables which determine Mounter`s hot key and whether the program should open its display upon startup.

The graphical user interface

Mounter will display a list of devices attached to the driver you specified.

If no device responds to the query, you will see the text <No device present>" following the unit number. Otherwise, you will see a list of device parameters:

Vendor	Name of the device manufacturer
Product	Name of the device
Rev	Revision of the device
Size	Size of the storage media, if available.
Type	Type of the device, such as Disk drive" or CD-ROM drive".
Media	Type of storage media, if available.
Status	This indicates whether the device can be accessed and used. For devices with removable media, you will see not ready" if there is currently no media inserted.

Below this list there are three buttons: "Mount...", "Update" and "Hide". To close the window, either click on the window close gadget or hit the Hide" button. To reread the list of devices corresponding to the device driver you chose, hit the "Update" button. To examine a device for partition tables, first select it from the list, then hit the "Mount..." button (a double-click on the list entry will have the same effect).

After hitting the "Mount..." button, Mounter will check the partitions on the given device. If a partition table is found, it will be presented to you in a new list, like this:

Partition name	Size	File system type
WB_2.X	20M	DOS\1
HD0	500M	DOS\3
HD1	500M	DOS\3

In this list, partitions which are not currently mounted will be highlighted. To change the highlighting, hold down any [Shift] key and click on an entry. To mount all highlighted partitions, hit the Mount" button located in the lower left corner of the window.

PlayCD

PlayCD acts as a user interface for the audio CD playback functionality offered by a CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM drive in question must comply to the SCSI-2 standard and thus support at least a subset of the audio control commands defined for CD-ROM drives.

Starting the program

When the program is launched, it will attempt to configure itself. This involves figuring out which device driver and which device unit to use for audio playback. This information is usually stored in the program's icon, but it can also provided on the command line. The names of the command line options and the tool types are the same. The following options are supported:

DOSDEV

If there already is a filing system mounted on the CD-ROM drive to use for audio playback, the easiest way to tell PlayCD which device it should use is to provide that filing system's name. PlayCD will try to figure out which device and unit that filing system is bound to and use the resulting information.

Example:

PlayCD CD0:
PlayCD dosdev CD2:

Note
That this type of configuration may not work with all CD-ROM filing systems.

DEVICE

Use this option to provide the name of the device driver the CD-ROM drive to use for playback responds to.

Example:

PlayCD device=scsi.device

Default for this option is "scsi.device" .

UNIT

This option works in conjunction with the "DEVICE" parameter. Both the device name and the unit number specified define the interface the PlayCD program should use to address the CD-ROM drive.

Example:

PlayCD unit=5

Default for this option is "2".

SKIP

The PlayCD user interface sports a slider which controls and displays the current play index. Attached to this slider are two buttons which perform fast forward" and rewind" functionality. Pressign any of these two buttons will cause playback to skip a few seconds. The SKIP" option is for configuring the number of seconds to skip.

Example:

PlayCD skip=2

Default for this option is 1", i.e. clicking on the buttons will skip one second each.

PEEKTIME

PlayCD queries the CD-ROM drive in regular intervals to find out whether the CD was changed or how far playback has progressed. The length of these intervals is configured with the PEEKTIME" option. The peek time is specified in microseconds, i.e. one millionth part of a second.

Example:

PlayCD peektime=500000

Default for this option is 200000", i.e. one fifth of a second.

PUBSCREEN

PlayCD can be made to open its display on a named public screen. If the named screen does not exist, it will fall back to opening its display on the default public screen, such as the Workbench screen.

Example:

PlayCD pubscreen=my.public.screen

There is no default for this option. Default behaviour for PlayCD is to open its display on the default public screen which in most cases will be the Workbench screen.

BUFMEMTYPE

PlayCD depends upon the controller hardware the CD-ROM drive is attached to to deliver its commands properly. This may sometimes require that the command data structures are passed in a particular type of memory which the controller hardware has easy access to. In most cases you will not need to change this option, but if the CD-ROM drive is correctly configured, does support the SCSI-2 command set and still does not react to PlayCD`s commands, then it might be necessary to specify a different buffer memory type.

Example:

PlayCD bufmemtype=2
PlayCD bufmemtype=512

Default for this option is 0", which specifies no particular type of memory to use for interacting with the controller hardware.

The user interface

If properly configured, PlayCD will open a window which contains the following controls (left to right):

Track display	Here you will find information about the current audio track and the playback status. The first line displays the track information, the second line indicates how much time has passed with regard to length of the current track and the entire CD.
Track position (below the track display)	This slider displays the current track position. It can also be used to change the current track position.	[Shift]+[Cursor left] and [Shift]+[Cursor right] keys
Track selection	This is a set of 32 buttons, each one corresponding to one of the tracks of the audio CD. Click a button to make the corresponding audio track the current track. If playback is currently in progress, playback will proceed with the selected track.	Any number entered, e.g. entering the two digits 1 and 2 in quick succession will pick track 12.
Volume	This is a vertical slider whose current setting corresponds to the sound playback volume. At the top position, playback volume is loudest.	+ and - keys
Eject (below the Track position slider)	Press this button to eject/load the CD in the drive. For technical reasons, you may need to press this button more than once to load a CD.	[F1] and [Backspace] keys
Stop	Press this button to stop playback.	[F2] and [Cursor up] keys.
Pause	Press this button to suspend/resume playback.	[F3] and [Space] keys
Previous track	Press this button to skip back to the beginning of the previous track.	[F4] and [Cursor left] keys
Play	Press this button to begin playback.	[F5] and [Cursor down] keys
Next track	Press this button to skip forward to the beginning of the next track.	[F6] and [Cursor right] keys
Shuffle	Press this button to set up a play list which contains all CD titles in random order. Playback will step through this list, playing each title once. To return to the regular play list which plays each title in the order the tracks were recorded in, press the Stop" button.	[F7] key
Playback mode	This button selects a playback mode; it can be one of the following: Continue This is the default playback mode. If you pick a track to play, it will be played along with all tracks to follow it until the last track on the CD is played. Clicking one of the track buttons in the track selection table will make the respective track the current track". Program In this mode every track number entered or clicked on will cause a new entry to be added to the play list. To play back the list, click the Play" button. Track In this mode playback will be restricted to the currently selected track. This means, for example, that if a track has been played to the end, playback will stop instead of proceeding to the next track. [F8] key Repeat This switch controls whether playback will stop when the end of the play list has been reached or whether playback will restart with the first list entry. [F9] key
Message list (below the Eject button)	This is where helpful progress reports and error messages are displayed. For example, if you picked a track by entering its number, you will see a notice confirming your input.

Stopping the program

Once the PlayCD program is running, you can stop it by clicking on the window close gadget or by one of the keyboard equivalents [Esc] or [Ctrl]+\.