AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") (04/06/89)
>Date: Wed, 5 Apr 89 10:57:00 EST >From: PGOETZ%LOYVAX.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU >Subject: What are CDAs/NDAs? > >I'm curious about these CDAs and NDAs that seem so important. What >are they, and how do they work? (As a ][+ owner I have no exposure >to them.) > >Phil Goetz >PGOETZ@LOYVAX.bitnet Jeepers, you just _now_ decided CDAs and NDAs were important enough to ask about? :-) CDA stands for Classic Desk Accessory; NDA stands for New Desk Accessory. Both kinds are GS-specific. CDAs are nearly always available on a GS, whether you're running a graphics-based application or a text-based application. CDAs are [almost] always text-based themselves. To use a CDA, you just hold down Apple and Ctrl and press ESC, and you get to the Desk Accessories menu. You cuse the arrows & return to choose a CDA. When you're through with it, choose another one or choose Quit to resume the application you were running. The Control Panel is [almost] always the first thing listed--it's built into ROM; it lets you change slot settings, display color, volume, system speed, clock setting, & numerous other things that are stored in the battery-backed parameter RAM. Other CDAs can be loaded from the SYSTEM/DESK.ACCS directory of a ProDOS 16 or GS/OS boot disk. (Or, [plug alert!] many CDAs can be loaded under ProDOS 8 (on a GS) using P8CDA, a thingamajob I wrote that Roger Wagner Publishing sells. As long as I'm plugging my stuff: Nifty List is my favorite CDA. In some people's opinions (notably mine), it's a must-have for someone who really wants to know what's going on inside their GS. NL is Shareware (from me) for $15.) Anyway...the other kind of desk accessory is the New Desk Accessory (NDA). These work just like desk accessories on the Macintosh: you choose them from the Apple menu (the leftmost menu) in a desktop- based application, and a movable window appears (sometimes it's resizable and/or scrollable, etc). NDAs also go into the SYSTEM/DESK.ACCS directory of your boot disk (they have a different filetype from CDAs, so the system can tell them apart). There are numerous public-domain and Shareware NDAs and CDAs, and there are commercial ones, too. I haven't really explained why they're _important_, but I hope that's fairly evident. (The next best thing to multitasking of applications, sort of.) --David A. Lyons bitnet: awcttypa@uiamvs DAL Systems CompuServe: 72177,3233 P.O. Box 287 GEnie mail: D.LYONS2 North Liberty, IA 52317 AppleLinkPE: Dave Lyons