MultiView

Introduction

Multiview can read any file for which there is a descriptor file in Devs:Datatypes. These tell Multiview (and any other programs written to take advantage of datatypes) how to load the various types of files.

Command line arguments

FILE

Name of the file you want to be displayed/played by Multiview. Alternatively you can specify a volume or directory name that will be used by Multiview as the current directory when it opens its requester.

Note: this argument is optional as Multiview can be used to display the content of a clipboard unit instead of a file.

CLIPBOARD/S

Argument that will make Multiview display the content of the clipboard unit specified with the CLIPUNIT argument.

CLIPUNIT/K/N

Clipboard unit you want to display with Multiview. Default is 0.

SCREEN/S

Arguments that will make Multiview open its view window on its own screen.

PUBSCREEN/K

Name of a public screen you want Multiview to open its window on.

Note: usage of the SCREEN switch is implicit so it is not needed. If you quit the program which is owner of the public screen while Multiview is still opened the application will probably crash as it is not necessarily aware of an alien windows opened on its screen.

REQUESTER/S

BOOKMARK/S

Reads file ENV:MultiView.bookmark

FONTNAME/K

Name of the font Multiview will use to display text and AmigaGuide files. If none is specified here Multiview will use the default system font.

FONTSIZE/K/N

Size of the font Multiview will use to display text and AmigaGuide files. If none is specified here Multiview will use the default system font.

CHARSET/K

Charset to use to display text and AmigaGuide files.

BACKDROP/S

When this argument is used Multiview will open its display window in backdrop mode.

WINDOW/S

By default when running Multiview with no arguments, it will open a requester the user can use to select a file to load. With the WINDOW switch Multiview will open with a blank window and no loaded file. The user will have to select Open in the Project menu to select a file to load in Multiview.

PORTNAME/K

Name of the AREXX port to create. By default the port name is MULTIVIEW.n with "n" being an incremental number starting from 1. It is incremented for each started Multiview instance.

IMMEDIATE/S

Indicate whether the object should immediately begin playing. Defaults to FALSE.

REPEAT/S

Indicate that the object should repeat playing. Defaults to FALSE.

PRTUNIT/K/N

Printer unit to use when printing on "printer.device". Defaults to 0.

WINDOWLEFT/K/N,WINDOWTOP/K/N,WINDOWWIDTH/K/N,WINDOWHEIGHT/K/N

WINDOWLEFT is the number of pixels the Multiview window should open from the left screen border. Defaults to 0.

WINDOWTOP is the number of pixels the Multiview window should open from the top screen border. Defaults to screen titlebar height so that Multiview window opens right below the titlebar.

WINDOWWIDTH is the number of pixels wide the Multiview window should be. Defaults to the screen width.

WINDOWHEIGHT is the number of pixels height the Multiview window should be. Defaults to the screen height.

AUTORESIZE/S

Command line examples

Multiview S:Startup-sequence screen windowleft 50 windowtop 90 windowwidth 200 windowheight 200

Displays the file S:Startup-sequence in a window which has the size of 200x200 opened at 50 pixels from the left of the screen and at 90 pixels from the top of the screen. The window is opened on its own screen.

ARexx Commands

OPEN

 NAME/K,CLIPBOARD/S,CLIPUNIT/K/N
 Open a file, or the contents of the specified clipboard unit.

RELOAD

 Reload the current object.

SAVEAS

 NAME/K,IFF/S
 Save the current object to disk. The IFF switch is used to force the
 save to be IFF instead of RAW (local format).

PRINT

 Print the current object.

ABOUT

 Display a requester with information about the current object.

QUIT

 Quit MultiView.

MARK

 Start Mark mode.

COPY

 Copy the currently selected block (or the whole object if no
 selected block exists) to the clipboard.

PASTE

 UNIT/N
 Open the contents of the specified clipboard unit. PASTE <n> is a
 shortcut for OPEN CLIPBOARD CLIPUNIT <n>.

CLEARSELECTED

 Deselect the currently selected block, if one exists.

GETTRIGGERINFO

 VAR/S,STEM/K
 Provide a list of trigger methods that the current object supports.

 VAR causes the information to be returned in RESULT.

 STEM causes the information to be returned in the named stem variable.
 The following values are supported:

   stem.count        number of elements in the array.
   stem.n.label      label
   stem.n.command    command
   stem.n.method     method

DOTRIGGERMETHOD

 METHOD/A
 Perform a trigger method on the current object.

SCREEN

 TRUE/S,FALSE/S
 Cause the object to be displayed on an own screen or not.

PUBSCREEN

 NAME/A
 Cause the object to be displayed on the specified public screen.

SNAPSHOT

 Save the current window position to ENVARC:MultiView/<screen name>.

GETCURRENTDIR

 Return the current directory for the current object.

GETFILEINFO

 Get the file information for the current object.

GETOBJECTINFO

 VAR/S,STEM/K
 Return information about the current object.

 VAR causes the information to be returned in RESULT.

   "name","basename","group","id"

 STEM causes the information to be returned in the named stem variable.

   stem.filename    file name of the current object.
   stem.name        object type name.
   stem.basename    object type basename.
   stem.group       object type group.
   stem.id          object type id.

MINIMUMSIZE

 Resize the object's window to its minimum size.

NORMALSIZE

 Resize the object's window to its nominal size.

MAXIMUMSIZE

 Resize the object's window to its maximum size.

WINDOWTOFRONT

 Bring the object's window to front.

WINDOWTOBACK

 Send the object's window to back.

ACTIVATEWINDOW

 Activate the object's window.

SCREENTOFRONT

 Bring the object's screen to front.

SCREENTOBACK

 Send the object's screen to back.

BEEPSCREEN

 Cause a display beep on the object's screen.

NEXT

 Note: only when viewing an Amigaguide file.

 Jumps to the next node in the guide.

PREVIOUS

 Note: only when viewing an Amigaguide file.

 Jumps to the previous node in the guide.