Re: Whats it for?

[a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

"william strutts" <wrstrutts1@home.com> wrote:

>"Mitchell Spector" <a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote in message
>>
>>     Press Control-Option-Reset (or hold down the 'Option' key when you
>> power up) and choose selection '3'. Keep in mind though that this will
>> also reset all the battery-backed Control Panel settings to their
>> factory defaults.
>
>I have found that pressing the Control-Option-Apple-ESC
>will take me to a menu where I can select Control Panel
>and set up my machine.

    The correct key press sequence is actually Apple-Control-Esc. This
brings up the Classic Desk Accessories (CDA) menu, at any time, and
from within any software currently running. Some program may block
access to the menu, or delay entry while certain tasks take place.

    Apple and other programmers wrote many different CDA's which
can be loaded into memory and placed in the menu (under GS/OS,
custom CDA's are loaded from the "/System/Desk.Accs" folder).
Some examples might be a calendar, screen-grabber, IRC-client,
modifier-utility to cheat in games, telephone area code listings, 
etc. Mostly they're text based, though some programmers have 
made graphical CDA's.

>Is this part of the ROM routines of the //gs?

    Yes. The Classic Desk Accessory menu program is a part of the
firmware. There are also 4 different CDA's built-in: Control Panel,
Alternate Display Mode, Visit Monitor and Memory Peeker.

    Control Panel settings are battery backed and somewhat similar
in concept to the BIOS in today's PCs. There's been a graphical
NDA Control Panel (New Desk Accessory--from under the Apple 
menu) ever since System 5, although it's _not_ a part of the ROM.
Visit Monitor and Memory Peeker can be added to the menu by
entering the "#" command in Monitor, or checking off an option
to 'enable programmer CDAs' under the graphical NDA Control
Panel found in System 6.0.1. Otherwise they remain inactive.

Mitchell Spector
a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca