[comp.sys.amiga] Workbench INFO operation info wanted

cfchiesa@bsu-cs.UUCP (Christopher Chiesa) (09/09/88)

First in a series of mundane questions from a new user...


   I note that the Workbench pull-down INFO operation presents a screen of 
information having to do with the interaction of the icon-oriented interface
and the programs/objects the icons represent.  To wit, there is a "stack"
box, a "default tool" box, and a "tool types" box, which appear to contain
specifications for what will happen in various Workbench operations with that
icon.

   However, I can't find ANY information about this in any of the manuals i
have, which are the Technical Ref., Developer's Guide, AmigaDOS User's Manual,
Hardware Manual, and Robt. Peck's book...  

   I would very much like to know:

       - what is affected by / done with, the information entered into the
         "stack", "default tool", and "tool types" boxes?

       - how does one find out what is allowed/expected/accepted in the "tool
         types" box for a given icon?  It appears to vary with the particular
         application that's going to be invoked.  Why is it called "tool 
         types," anyway?  That seems undescriptive...

       - where is this documented, if anywhere?

   I almost feel as though I did see this somewhere, but it could well have
been in someone else's references.  Thanks for any information.

   E-mail please, the volume in this group is almost more than I can keep
up with.  If you post, E-mail also.  Thank you.

   Chris Chiesa


 

sent an executable file."  However
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UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!cfchiesa 
cfchiesa@bsu-cs.UUCP                                           

jms@antares.UUCP (joe smith) (09/10/88)

The "default tool" is the name of the program to run when this icon is
double-clicked.  If you look at the icon generated by Deluxe-Paint for
high-res Dpaint files, it shows "ILBM" and "interlace" in the tool types.
(You have to press the down-arrow on tool-types gadget to see them both.)

This information is documentation is described in Chapter 18 "Workbench"
in the Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual: Libraries and Devices.

It is passed to the program as a "startup message" when the program is
invoked from the Workbench.  The current startup routines (supplied with
the C compilers) will set "argc" to zero and set "argv" to point to the
Workbench startup message before calling "main(argc,argv)".

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