------------------------------------------------------------------------ MUI - MagicUserInterface Version 3.3 (c) Copyright 1992-96, Stefan Stuntz ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MUI is an object oriented system to create and maintain graphical user interfaces. From a programmers point of view, using MUI saves a lot of time and makes life much easier. Thinking about complicated terms like window resizing or font sensitivity is simply not neccesary. On the other hand, users of MUI based applications have the ability to customize nearly every pixel of a programs interface according to their personal taste. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Except when otherwise stated in the documentation, redistribution of this package or parts of this package is prohibited without written permission from the copyright holder. More information on this topic is available in the documentation files in the "Docs" directory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to this new version of MUI! If you would like to fire right away and get the benefits of the many new features instantly without studying the documentation, please take a few minutes to read the following brief but important operating tips. This will save you a lot of time: Important Operating Tips ------------------------ Popup Menus: MUI Prefs uses object-specific popup-menus. Dependent on the mouse position on the window you will see an edit menu with the well-known options 'Reset to Defaults', 'Last Saved', 'Restore' and 'Presets' whenever you press the right mouse button. If the mouse was positioned over a gadget, these options will only affect this single gadget. If the mouse was positioned between any gadgets on the actual page, these options will affect all objects on this page. If the mouse was positioned over the left-hand listview where all pages are being displayed, then the options from the menu will affect all settings of the actual program (e.g. all settings of MUI-Prefs). On all other positions in the window (e.g. the window titlebar) the right mouse button will open the standard menu of the specific window. If you do not have installed a popup-menu utility (as for example the fabulous MagicMenu) you will of course not see a popup-menu beneath the mouse pointer. In that case you must keep pressing the right mouse button while moving the pointer to the menu bar in the upper screen to see the object-specific menu. In any case you should instantly see the specific menu title of the object on which you pressed the right mouse button and thereby you'll always know which object will be affected by the menu options. Help Bubbles: If you stop the mouse pointer over a gadget and wait a few seconds, you will be surprised by a help bubble containing a context-specific help text. This is the fastest and most comfortable way to inform yourself about the functions of all gadgets of a program. This will save you the time you would need to study the whole documentation. MagicWB: MUI uses both externally and internally the colors and graphics of the well-known shareware product MagicWB. If you should not have set your workbench to the MagicWB color standard, you are able to catch up on it by clicking on the icon 'ClickForColors' in the 'Goodies' directory. You will be rewarded by a much more colorful and pleasing look of MUI and its icons. Before doing that you should set your screenmode to 8 colors and save the setting. Then start the aforementioned icon. You will instantly notice the new colors. To avoid that this palette is lost after a reset you must also save this setting by starting the palette preferences program and leaving it with clicking on the "Save" button. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Major Changes ------------- To find a compromise between flexibility and resource usage, MUI 3 uses a completely new memory management concept. A lot of extra features which are not necessarily needed to run applications have been moved into external libraries. Most of these libraries are not even loaded if MUI runs with its default settings. With this new memory management, users have the the ability to control MUIs memory usage by using appropriate configurations. MUI's speed has increased considerably compared with earlier versions. This speedup depends on the machine MUI is running on: the slower the Amiga, the more noticeable is the speed increase. Especially drawing of GUI elements on ECS/AGA machines is a lot faster now due to a new way of rendering. Even if a 7 MHz computer stil can't be considered as an optimum MUI platform, applications should perform a lot better now. The slow and bulky preferences system was completely rewritten, the new way of handling settings is a lot clearer and more straight forward. An applications local configuration is no longer adjusted from the global preferences editor. Instead, all MUI applications offer a way to open their private MUI settings window. This makes MUI look more like an integral part of a program. Furthermore, the settings windows are better structurized and offer easier access to all configuration option. Public screen handling moved to an external program called "PSI" (Public Screen Inspector). PSI fixes all known bugs of MUI 2.x screens, is more easy to use and offers a few new features. Furthermore, PSI can also be used independantly as screen manager for non-MUI programs. All accompanying MUI programs make extensive use of brandnew MUI 3 programming features like dynamic object creations, balancing groups, popup menus, full Drag&Drop support or Help bubbles. All those things have been available on other operating systems for a long time, its about time to get them to the Amiga. Of course, MUI 3 is completely compatible with previous releases, all old MUI applications will continue to run and automatically benefit from enhanced speed and from the new preferences system. In near future, most new MUI applications will require MUI 3 to make use of the new way of programming. I wish you a lot of fun with MUI 3! Stefan Stuntz