@database Trashmaster.guide @Master Trashmaster.texinfo @Width 76 This is the AmigaGuideŽ file Trashmaster.guide, produced by Makeinfo-1.49 from the input file Trashmaster.texinfo. @Node Main "Trashmaster.guide" @Next "Who what where when why" TRASHMASTER V1.4 The ultimate in byte disposal for the Amiga. Copyright (c) 1993 By Aric R Caley and Greywire designs 28 April 1993 @{" Who what where when why " Link "Who what where when why"} @{" How " Link "How"} @{" Usage " Link "Usage"} @{" Wish list " Link "Wish list"} @EndNode @Node "Who what where when why" "Trashmaster.guide/Who what where when why" @Next "How" @Prev "Main" @Toc "Main" Who, what, where, when, why *************************** WHO --- Written by Aric R Caley, AKA Dances V2.0, Dances With Coyotes, Major, Mr Coyote, and other handles/nicknames. :) See the readme file if you wish to contact me. WHAT ---- See the Readme file! WHERE ----- Best place is in your WBStartup drawer! WHEN ---- The current version, 1.4, was released on 28 April 1993. The first public release of Trashmaster was Jan 23 1992. WHY --- I had always wanted to write something like this but until now, I couldnt do it. Not that it was particularly easy to do, even on 2.0. @EndNode @Node "how" "Trashmaster.guide/how" @Next "Usage" @Prev "Who what where when why" @Toc "Main" How I did it ************ The main problem is with getting finicky old Workbench to stay "in sync" with the filing system.. IE, removing its icons when a file is deleted. Thanks to a new function called DeleteDiskObject(), it's possible to get workbench to remove an icon. Unfortunately Workbench still is kinda brain-dead... when you have it display ALL files, it spontaneously creates icons in memory for files that dont have them... which results in DeleteDiskObject not working (no file on disk) and Workbench not removeing the icon. The only solution I could come up with is to PutDiskObject() and then delete this icon, which works more or less pretty well. There are still, however, problems. Workbench, it seems, will "lock" a directory if its window is open on the Workbench screen. This means I cant delete it until it's closed.. not too big a deal, since when you delete the icon the window closes automaticly. But what if something ELSE has that directory "locked"? Then I couldnt delete it after all... that means I need to put the icon back! heheh. But I think I've come up with a good solution. Another problem is that there's no way to find out where the AppIcon is, within the WorkBench window -- so there is no way to implement a snapshot option within your application (of course, the root problem is that Workbench doesn't provide any way to "hook" into the Workbench operations like snapshot, info, etc. See below for my solution to this). This seems like a good place to voice some opinions on Workbench 2.0, and what I'd like to see in the future. @{" Wish list " Link "Wish list"} @EndNode @Node "Wish list" "Trashmaster.guide/Wish list" @Prev "Usage" @Toc "Main" Icon / Workbench wish list ************************** * DiskObjects should be a BOOPSI class. * A BOOPSI class would have methods for all the normal Workbench operations; like info, double click, delete, snapshot, copy/move, etc. That way, an AppIcon could give an "about" requester with the info menu function, and behave in every way just like a regular icon. Say you had an icon for a network machine... info could put up a requester saying what the node's name was, CPU class, whether it was Ethernet or serial, etc. neat huh? A Drawer could open it's own type of list window.. perhaps one with a "tree" display. You could replace the standard operation with new ones (via hooks into the DiskObject class). This makes Workbench extremely flexible and extendable and would allow third party people to add tons of functionality to Workbench (I should be able to make Workbench as powerfull as DiskMaster or DirOpus!) * This BOOPSI icon would be able to have more than just a bitmap image; like actual structured drawing objects. Of course, this introduces the problem of how to store objects on disk.. which I myself am working on. * ANY application would now be able to use icons easily (they dont have to have anything to do with Workbench). You could even drag icons FROM an application TO a Workbench window to save a file. * Clipboard support, with a "view clipboard" window. * Definable default tools for projects, with file recognition so it knows what tool to run (in case there's no icon or the normal tool cant be found). And how about a small database that contains application names and then a path to where it is? Actualy, I guess you could have a "Applications" directory, with icons that are linked to whereever the app is -- and Workbench would check here first for tools. * "Left out" icons could be done in the same way, so that the app's icon is still visible in it's Drawer, and so that Snapshoting the left out icon doesn't ruin it's original coordinates. * Something needs to be done about the list windows.. they are slow and clumsy, and are missing what I think is a great feature: a "Tree" mode. * Better tracking of when other apps change/add/delete files. OK, I'll step down off my soapbox now! @EndNode @Node "Usage" "Trashmaster.guide/Usage" @Next "Wish list" @Prev "How" @Toc "Main" Using Trashmaster ***************** To run Trashmaster, simply double click its icon, or run it from a CLI (it will detach from the CLI of course). Obviously, Workbench must be running (and will be, unless you were naughty and modified your startup-sequence). Trashmaster will open an icon on the Workbench screen; this icon will look the same as the icon you ran Trashmaster from. If you want to change it, you can, by modifieing the Tooltypes in Trashmaster's icon (see below about the Tooltypes available). BTW, the icon is supposed to look like a "black hole"... Tooltypes. ---------- There are 3 Tooltypes you can add/modify: 1. X=## -- This is the X coordinate of the icon. A -1 will tell workbench to find a suitable place for the icon. 2. Y=## -- This is the Y cooridnate of the icon. A -1 will tell workbench to find a suitable place for the icon. 3. ICON= -- This is the name of a custom icon to be used instead of the default icon (the default being Trashmaster's icon) Usage ----- To use Trashmaster, simply drag files and drop them on the icon. A requester will come up, similar to Workbench's Delete confirmation requester. If you really want to delete the file(s) or dir(s), click "OK".. if not, hit "CANCEL". Remember, once you hit "OK", the files are deleted.. they're GONE! For reals. Not like the Trashcan. One difference from the Workbench Delete, is the extra option for Interactive deletion. With interactive delete, you will get a confirmation requester for each file you dropped into Trashmaster. For each file, you can choose to either delete it, delete all the rest of the files non-interactively, skip this file, or abort completely. To quit Trashmaster (which you dont really want to do, do you? :), double click the icon. If you want Trashmaster started automaticly (you DO, dont you?), place it into the "WBStartup" drawer on your boot disk. @EndNode