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MultiBoot V1.1 (27-Mar-93)
Copyright (c) 1990-1993 PLL Developments
All rights reserved
A TimeZone Release <tz>
1 CONTENTS
============
This LhA Archive contains the following files:
Directory MultiBoot - MultiBoot program + documents
MultiBoot 9316 - MultiBoot V1.1
MultiBoot.doc 9265 - MultiBoot Documents V1.1
MultiBoot.doc.info 766 - Icon for MultiBoot Docs
2 INTRODUCTION
================
There are currently a lot of programs which allows you to startup other
programs/startup-sequences from a menu with a simple click of a mouse
button. However, most of them are generally quite large, refuse to run
certain programs properly, or in the worst case, have music and graphics
attached and are very memory hungry, so they become pretty unusable to run
from harddisk.
MultiBoot is a small no-nonsense program which allows you to (multi)select
multiple startup-sequences/programs from (hard)disk during boot. It is very
easy to use, fully intuitionized and configurable and it even has a timeout
for unattended operations.
3 INSTALLATION
================
MultiBoot will run on any Amiga system with any KickStart and isn't limited
to be just a WB1.3 or WB2.0 tool.
MultiBoot requires the command Execute and the 'StartUps' below (spelled
EXACTLY as shown) to operate. The command Execute is located in the c:
directory on your Workbench disk. If MultiBoot can't find Execute in your c:
directory, it will also look in the current directory or your path for the
command. In fact, you can copy MultiBoot in any directory you like, but I
recommend to copy it into c: also, for the best operation.
MultiBoot looks in your s: directory if it can find the following files:
StartUp.1
StartUp.2
StartUp.3
StartUp.4
StartUp.5
StartUp.6
StartUp.7
StartUp.8
StartUp.9
StartUp.10
StartUp.11
StartUp.12
StartUp.Default
These files are your alternate startup-sequences. Since Execute processes
these files, the format is exactly the same as your 'normal'
startup-sequence which is located in your s: directory and can be edited
with your favourite text-editor or word-processor. As you can see, twelve
different startup-sequences are possible, with one additional
startup-sequence, StartUp.Default, which is executed after MultiBoot times
out. If MultiBoot can't find a StartUp, an appropriate error message will be
generated.
Since MultiBoot's command line arguments are rather long to type in every
time, you have to add the line 'MultiBoot' with the optional arguments to
your 'normal' startup-sequence. MultiBoot isn't limited to be just the first
or the last entry in your startup-sequence, in fact, it could be anywhere!
4 THE ARGUMENTS
=================
You can get MultiBoot's command template by typing from CLI:
MultiBoot ?
The following text is displayed on screen:
Usage: MultiBoot <text1 ... text12> [<timeout> <title> colour]
Watch the syntax! Everything between <> MUST exist and everything between []
is optional. <text1 ... text12> are the texts of the twelve gadgets that
will be displayed in a window on screen. Yes, you counted right, that takes
at least 12 arguments each separated by a single space to let MultiBoot
function! Followed by, [<timeout> <title> colour] which is optional and let
you specify the window timeout, title and colour. Note that if you specify
timeout, you don't have to include title and colour, if you want to specify
title, you MUST specify timeout but don't have to include colour, if you
want to specify colour, you MUST specify timeout and title!
If you have typed the correct number of arguments, the MultiBoot window pops
up in the upper left corner of the screen, waiting for you to select a
gadget. Here, you can multi-select the gadgets, which will startup your
predefined StartUps (s:StartUp.1, s:StartUp.2 ... s:StartUp.Default) in
logical order (from StartUp.1 to StartUp.12 or in the MultiBoot window from
upper left to lower right). StartUp.Default is intended for unattended
operations and will be invoked after MultiBoot times out. If you have
selected your gadgets, you can click the big OK gadget and all selected
startups will be executed. If you select no gadgets and just click on the OK
gadget NO startups will be executed. Alternatively, if you select a few
gadgets and press the close gadget in the upper left corner of the window,
again NO startups will be executed.
<text1 ... text12>
------------------
These twelve arguments let you specify the texts in the gadgets. (text1
refers to s:Startup.1, text2 refers to s:StartUp.2 etc.) You can type a
maximum of 10 characters in one gadget. If your string is larger than 10
characters, things will get very ugly. Note that you can quote your text to
center your text or to make blank gadgets.
<timeout>
---------
The number of seconds you want MultiBoot to execute StartUp.Default. Use 0
seconds if you want no timeout. The default timeout is 10 seconds. That
means that you have exactly ten seconds to select the appropriate gadgets
and click the OK button or else StartUp.Default will be executed. If you
want to suspend the countdown, you can just click outside the MultiBoot
window. The window will be ghosted and the countdown stops until you click
in the MultiBoot window again.
<title>
-------
Let you specify the window title of MultiBoot. You can type a maximum of 29
characters. The default text displays MultiBoot's current version number
and compilation date.
<colour>
--------
Let you specify the window background colour. Use values 0-3 on a four
colour WorkBench screen. Use Value 1 if you are using WorkBench 1.3. Use
value 2 if you are using WorkBench 2.0 (the colours are reversed). The
default value is 2.
5 EXAMPLE
===========
Currently I am using MultiBoot to optionally load ARexx, WorkBench, Shell,
Snap, DirectoryOpus and ZKick (still I don't own WB2.0 in ROM) on startup.
You see, when I want to play a game from harddisk I don't need
DirectoryOpus, ARexx an lots of other programs in the background. It's also
possible to choose between WorkBench or Shell or BOTH! Alternatively
MultiBoot helps me to decide to choose between WB1.3 or to softkick WB2.0.
Anyway, the choices are unlimited! Recursive use of MultiBoot is also
possible with the Assign command. If you are smart you know how to do it.
One last thing, if you want to do an EndCLI, don't define it in StartUp.1
but in StartUp.12. If MultiBoot detects an EndCLI, all other StartUps after
EndCLI will be aborted. Of course, that's where EndCLI was made for...
A nice way to debug is to look at the Command-00-T0x temporary file, that
will be written in your T: directory.
Example:
MultiBoot > NIL: NoQuotes " Center" "Empty" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" 15
"Red Limbo Squad" 3
The MultiBoot window pops up with in the first three gadgets the text
NoQuotes, Center and Empty, the other nine gadgets are blank. NoQuotes
refers to s:StartUp.1, Center refers to StartUp.2, Empty refers to
StartUp.3, the next gadget "" that is blank, refers to StartUp.4, etc. The
timeout is 15 seconds. The window title contains the text Red Limbo Squad,
and the window background colour is 3, red in my case. All error messages
are not displayed on the screen and are send to NIL: in case you select a
blank gadget.
6 REVISION HISTORY
====================
V1.0 05-Dec-90 Internal
- Initial Release
V1.1 27-Mar-93
- Added colour argument for compatibility with WB2.0
- Scans gadgets from upper left to lower right instead of
the opposite.
Regards this time to: RLS, MegaByte, Turbo-Ties, EuroSoft
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/ / / / _/ \/\/ / _/ \/ / / / / / /_/ / /\ \/ _/ \/ /\ \/ / \/__ \
/ /__/ / /_/\ \ / /_/\/ /_/\/ /_/ / / \_/ /\/ \ \/_/\/ / \ \/_______/ /
\/ \__/\____/ \/\____/\____/\____/\/ \/ \____/\/ /\__________/
\/
Of
/\_ __ /\_ /\ /\___ _/\__ __/\___/\ /\_ __/\___ _/\
/ \Y \\ \/ Y\/ \ Y \ Y \___// \Y \ \ Y \
/ : / \ :/ _· / | _/___/ : / · /
/ _/ · / / .\_ \___/ :__/ Y / \ / \____/
\_/ \ . / / / \ \/ ·\/ : / \_/ ___/_ __
/ \ \ / \ \ / . \ Y\ \/ Y /
/ \ / / \ \ ·/ ·/
\ ______/\ __/\______ /\_____/\______\___ /\____ /
-==========\/========\/==========\/===================\/=->F&A\/===============-
For Updates And BUG reports Contact Mystical Places At:
+31-10-4779507 (16k8 DuAl) sysop: ThC
Or Call To The Other JuStiCe Boards:
CASTLE ROCK [WHQ] +41-31-879-0966
MOZART'S MANSION [USA] +1-904-765-0360
-=============================================================================-
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