gt3070b@prism.gatech.EDU (WATKINS) (10/13/90)
Well, version 3.0 of Builder has finally been debugged enough so that it won't be laughed at for being a bad update.( Gosh, I seem to be having difficulty composing this ) It is a significant improvement over the last version, 2.5, which was not posted but merely locally distributed. There is even a revised plea for users to register their copies and receive free future upgrades. Well, the zip file is in the uploads directory of cica and available for download. If you find any bugs, please report them on Monday, I've put in the long hours for one day just figuring out why strtok kept leaving in the newlines even though they were specified as a delimiter... Anyway... goodnight kids... ciao jeff watkins gt3070b@prism.gatech.edu or jwatkins@cadsun7.gatech.edu -- Jeff Watkins jwatkins@cadsun7.gatech.edu Convergent Media Systems (404) 315-0105 voice (404) 315-0231 data "I speak for no-one. AND NO-ONE SPEAKS FOR ME... oh, yes, _dear_...gotta go..."
jls@hsv3.UUCP (James Seidman) (10/15/90)
In article <15141@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt3070b@prism.gatech.EDU (WATKINS) writes: >Well, version 3.0 of Builder has finally been debugged enough so that >it won't be laughed at for being a bad update.( Gosh, I seem to be having >difficulty composing this ) Could you give a clue to us clueless people and tell us what Builder does? (Some of us hate downloading programs at 1200 baud on noisy lines to discover that it's a program we wouldn't use anyway...) -- Jim Seidman (Drax), the accidental engineer. "There's a certain freedom to being completely screwed." - The Freshman UUCP: ames!vsi1!hsv3!jls Internet: hsv3.UUCP!jls@apple.com
gt3070b@prism.gatech.EDU (Jeff Watkins) (10/16/90)
For all of you who are unfamiliar with Builder in any of its incarnations, I will try to explain what it is, where it came from, and where it is going. Builder creates an iconic button that launches applications based on command line arguments. Builder will launch a single application or a group of applications depending on the command line arguments. The new version of Builder can be launched from win.ini because it has an option that instructs it to not launch its application when it is loaded initially. It also can launch its applications from a file that contains a very limited scripting ability (to be expanded in future versions). During the summer I was employed to write a Windows App (yes I am unemployed now) and wished to do my editing from within windows proper. The limitation was that I had to have a DOS cli open and had to type "MAKE -FVCLIP" every time I wanted to compile and test my application. I got very annoyed that there was no make facility for Windows, so I sat down one evening with a mason jar full Guiness Extra Stout and my computer and I pounded out the first incarnation of Builder, version 1.0. Version 1.0 sat in iconic mode and trapped the WM_NCRBUTTONUP message. When it got this message it would spawn (not winexec) the application that had been specified on the command line. It was not very fancy. It had none of the control over the launched applications windows that Builder now has, and it even had an ugly icon (a b&w hammer clipped out of a graphics app) and was compiled using the version 2.11 SDK. Version 2.1 sat at the bottom of the screen and trapped the WM_NCRBUTTONDBLCLK message. When it got this message it would winexec the application that had been specified on the command line. It was fancier than version 1.0. It had a nicer icon. The builder icon took its name from the command line (window title), and it changed directories and drives to the launch point. Version 3.0 sits at the bottom of the screen still trapping the WM_NCRBUTTONDBLCLK message. When it gets this message it winexecs the app specified on the command line _OR_ it executes the launch script specified on the command line. Launch scripts can change drives, change directories, and launch programs in minimized, maximized and normal windows. The icon is now a proper button (actually do not define a class icon and catch the WM_PAINT message to display the up & down versions of the icon depending on whether the mouse has been depressed there recently ) and the system menu supports the build option (aka launch). Version 4 will show improved scripts. Support for looping, dialog boxes, directory maintenance, etc. will be added. Version 4 will be a script interpretter for the windows shell which is currently under development. It will interpret shell scripts _and_ make files. It has been put on hold until the shell is complete. There will be an explaination of what the shell is and how to write programs that interface with it. That will have to wait for a while as I am still busy working out the specs for it. It is very interesting (at least I think so). Among many other properties it will provide a commandline that tty applications can access, plus a method of spawning tty applications into new windows that are controlled via commandline options. The tentative syntax for spawning the application demo.exe into a new window that begins at coordinates 50,50 and is 500 by 300 pixels in size would be: prompt> demo @ win((50,50)(500,300)) The tentative syntax for spawning the application demo.exe and sending its output to the lpt1 port would be: prompt> demo > win((lpt1)(5)) This would send the output of demo.exe to a window that acts as a router to the lpt1 port that has a 5k buffer. We have yet to work out the exact syntax and any suggestions are welcome. well, that about closes it for now... more news later. Jeff Watkins -- Jeff Watkins jwatkins@cadsun7.gatech.edu Convergent Media Systems (404) 315-0105 voice (404) 315-0231 data "I speak for no-one. AND NO-ONE SPEAKS FOR ME... oh, yes, _dear_...gotta go..."