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Graphic Interpretation - Useful Utilities
by Bruce Thomas

GEOS users have plenty of utility programs that let them do necessary tasks not available with standard BSW applications. Many times the best way to push the limits with these utilities is to try things that aren't in the manuals. I use a few programs all the time to do things that I am sure the author never intended.

Thank You, Jim

Now, knowing that Jim Collette wrote CMD Move, geoWizard and MiniDesk immediately puts my mind to rest about not being able to crash my system. His programs are far and away some of the best GEOS programs around (although I wish he had put the background color wash into MiniDesk so that my Icons aren't visible when running it from the DeskTop).

I use MiniDesk to move files from my real drives to my REU and back. I have my FD-2000 disks set up as two 1581 partitions and when I am copying files I often want one or two files from each partition on a disk. It is rather clumsy to run MiniDesk, copy some files, exit, run CMD Move to change partitions, exit, run MiniDesk again, copy some files and then exit to start my work.

MiniDesk and CMD Move both support more than two drives so you don't even have to worry about your configuration. I run MiniDesk and copy the files I want from the first partition. Next, I activate geoWizard with my mouse buttons, press C= L to load a program and choose CMD Move (which is stuffed into my REU during bootup). Now I select the other partition and Quit CMD Move.

A dialog box comes up telling me to insert the first partition 'disk' again. Clicking on CANCEL I am returned to MiniDesk where I choose DISK and the directory of the new Partition comes on screen. I can copy the files I want and exit to my REU only once. Fantastic!

Save your work

Another use for MiniDesk involves file updates when working in an REU. I set the Alarm Clock DA for 1/2 an hour when I start working. When the chime goes off I reset the alarm for another 1/2 hour then 'update' my file and activate MiniDesk from the GEOS menu. With it, I copy the file I am working on from my REU to a real disk and exit right back to where I was. I don't have to exit the application or scroll around to find my place again! I keep working until the alarm goes off and then update and save again.

This avoids the agony of losing everything in the event of a power failure, inadvertant 'recover' menu selection (preview and recover are next to each other and it is easy to make a mistake - and everyone makes one now and then), or just plain forgetfulness to save from the REU prior to shutting down.

I have done this in 'Write, 'Paint and 'Publish with no problems but remember, this wasn't the way the software was designed to be used so be cautious the first few times you try these procedures.

Make a note of it

One other extremely handy utility is the D.A. InfoViewV2 by Douglas Adams (2/15/92) which assures that I will remember what fonts I have used in any particular document. Calling InfoView lets you view and edit the info box of any file on any drive.

Whenever I start a document and choose a new font I go to InfoView, call up the file's info box and add the font name to the notes section. If I start using another font I just add its' name in the same manner. This comes in handy if I want to look at a file again at some later date as I keep all of my files on a separate disk from my applications, fonts and utilities.

InfoView has a very thorough visual interface of the information you are viewing including the drive you are looking at, how many GEOS files it contains, the file Icon and full Info Box. While the default view is all files on the disk you can selectively view the file types you want by clicking on the FILE TYPE box just below the InfoView Title. Keyboard shortcuts and a handy search function (including wildcards) makes finding the file you want very easy.

Picture this

With GeoWizard there is a handy little file that will take a screen shot minus the geoWizard menu across the top. I use geoWizDump for the screen shots I send with various articles and, since it runs from geoWizard, you can get shots of screens that don't allow access to D.A.'s.

When I first sent Scott Eggleston a picture for the Underground (now merged with the Loadstar Letter) I sent him a WizDump Photo Scrap (you can save output as geoPaint or Photo Scrap files). Scott used geoPublish V1.0b and this scrap crashed his geoPublish when he pasted it on the page. My versions of geoPublish both took the scrap with no complaints. If you use V1.0b you will want to create WizDump 'Paint files and then use a utility like ScrapCan or Scrap It to cut out your Scrap.

RUNning and stuffing

DA-Runner is another Jim Collette program that was initially a type-in in the June/July 1990 RUN magazine. This handy D.A. lets you choose from up to 50 other D.A.'s from any disk, in any drive, on your system. Check with CMD for this issue of RUN on paper or disk. The functionality the program provides is also an integral feature of geoWizard and Jim's Font Editor 2.5.

Also appearing on a ReRUN disk at CMD is Super Validate by Paul Murdaugh (Mar/Apr 1992). This utility program performs a disk validation but returns legible error messages if a file is bad. Armed with this knowledge, a disk editor (Maverick S.E. is a good GEOS based one) and the instructions, you may be able to resurrect some of your damaged files.

For those of us who don't own a battery backed REU or a RAMLink we require a method of copying files to our REU's when we boot. Files like the desktop, printer driver(s), favorite D.A.'s and applications. I use John Howard's QwikStash. This auto-exec file copies whatever files I specify with its' sister application, QwikPik.

One problem with QwikPik is it doesn't recognize odd-sized Gateway RAM Disks. To get around this limitation I setup the data files on my Gateway boot disks while running the normal Desktop. In this manner the system works great and prevents me from having to swap RAM drivers within Gateway.

Another very good REU stuffer is Jim Collette's (him again!) Batch Copier from the GEOS Companion disk. While this program isn't an auto-exec it can be used in conjunction with Auto-Loader (also on GEOS Companion). When run during the GEOS boot procedure Batch Copier will scour the disk for a list file called AUTO COPY and place the files it specifies into RAM.

Be careful with this procedure. The file must be called AUTO COPY (all caps, one space between words), not Auto Copy as the manual states. I wrote to Jim shortly after getting the disk and having troubles and that was his response although I never saw mention of this in RUN. These programs both run under GEOS 64 and 128.

That is it for now, until next time enGEOy your Commodore! And remember, sometimes you just have to try things that aren't in the dox to come up with new ways to accomplish tasks.