Herald 1.0 -- 27.9.2026
WHAT IT IS
Herald is a commodity that shows pop-up notifications. A program sends it
a short message; Herald puts it on screen for a few seconds and keeps it
in a notification center you can open later.
Nothing takes the focus and nothing waits for an answer. A click sends a
notification away, a double-click brings the program that sent it to the
front.
Demonstration video available at: https://youtu.be/giNNSHTGTT0
WHAT IT DOES
* Notifications from any program that can talk ARexx, or from any
Shell script through the included HeraldSend command
* A progress bar with a Stop button for a Shell command that only
prints, such as LhA or xadUnFile, through the included HeraldPipe
* Five looks, including translucent ones on a graphics card, and six
ways for a notification to arrive
* Priorities, with a sound per band and urgent ones marked
* Stacked, one at a time, or grouped per program
* Progress bars an application drives, with Pause and Stop buttons
* Emoji pictures for :shortcodes: in the text, on 16 colours or more
* A notification center that keeps what you were away for
* Do not disturb, on a hotkey or on a clock
* Snooze: shift-click a notification and it comes back later
* A settings window with context help, or the same settings as icon
tooltypes
* Scripts can ask what this Herald understands, and a program that
needs a newer one says so on screen instead of failing in silence
WHAT YOU NEED
AmigaOS 3.1 (V40) or newer, and a 68000. The server runs on a 4 KB stack.
Recommended is AmigaOS 3.9 with BoingBag 2, or newer: that is what Herald
is tested on. 3.1, also with ClassAct, is not tested.
The translucent looks want a 15, 16, 24 or 32 bit screen. On fewer
colours they fall back to a plain look and nothing else changes.
ARexx scripts need RexxMast, which the standard Startup-Sequence starts.
Shell scripts do not: HeraldSend and HeraldPipe talk to the port directly.
HeraldPipe reads a Shell pipe, which AmigaOS has had since 3.9.
The settings window needs the ReAction classes of AmigaOS 3.9 or newer.
Without them Herald still runs, and every setting can be made on its icon
or on the command line instead.
INSTALLING
Unpack, open the drawer and double-click Install.
Everything goes into one drawer, and one assign called Herald: is added
to S:User-Startup. The installer offers to copy Herald into SYS:WBStartup
so it starts with Workbench.
To remove it: delete the drawer, delete SYS:WBStartup/Herald,
C:HeraldSend and C:HeraldPipe if you installed them, and remove the
;BEGIN Herald block from S:User-Startup.
FOR PROGRAMMERS
The ARexx port is HERALD. Any program that can address an ARexx port can
send a notification; no ARexx interpreter has to be running for it.
The complete interface is in the AmigaGuide help. The same reference
comes as one plain Markdown file in the Developer drawer, for writing
scripts with an AI assistant.
The Developer drawer also holds the whole source of the HeraldSend and
HeraldPipe commands, with a Makefile for GCC and an SMakefile for SAS/C:
a working Herald client, meant to be copied.
HISTORY
1.0 - initial release
LICENCE
Herald is free for private use; the LICENSE file in the archive has the
terms. The unmodified archive may be distributed through Aminet, on Aminet
CDs and on magazine cover disks without asking first, and the HeraldSend
source in the Developer drawer may be copied into your own programs.
The emoji artwork is from the OpenMoji project and is licensed CC BY-SA
4.0; its licence file travels in the Emoji drawer and must stay there.
All emojis designed by OpenMoji - the open-source emoji and icon project.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
THANKS
Martin "Mason" Merz drew the GlowIcons. Each one shipped is Herald's own
classic icon with his colour imagery appended, so it shows his artwork on
AmigaOS 3.5 and newer and the plain icon on everything older; the
Installer offers them. He also drew Herald's own picture, which a
notification wears when it brings none of its own and the Default image
setting is on.
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