The Manager - how the damn thing works

[gudat@avalon.physik.unizh.ch (gudat henrik)]

Please read the whole text, it took about 1 hour to type that stuff!!

Okay, he's the promised info...
 
First you install TM (The Manager) with the simple Installer. It only
copies a file called Hierarchic (guess what that means, huh???) and
The.Manager into the System folder. (BTW, the first one seems to be a
toolbox patch or some other kind of enhancement for hierarchic menus.
It appears in the CDA menu where you can change "drag delay" and
"initial delay" in discrete steps. Until now, however, I haven't seen
such a menu life in action. But TM doesn't work wihtout this file.)
 
Back to the point. Then restart the computer. When you're in the
finder, you can either launch The.Manager or define as start
application (SetStart). If you coose the latter option, the Manager
will be your start app. Note that you can still use the ol' Finder! It
only appends three extras and the TM-Menu to the far left. Everything
else belongs to the FInder. That should be clear now...
 
To launch a program, start it from the finder. Business as usual. When
it's loaded, you'll notice that this app has been added to the new menu
(exactly as on the Mac). Now if you click into the desktop, the menu is
being redrawn _immediately_, and the desktop as well (TM redraws the
desktop quite often [ca. 2x when switching apps, of course not when
you're in one particular program] which is a bit boring in the course
of time. But cleaning up the Finder desktop helps enormously.)
If the application you've launched opened a window, you can jump back
by clicking it.
 
There are several option for avoiding a big mess on the screen:
- Hide Me
- Hide Others
- Show All
- Hide Others When I'm Selected
- Hide Me When Others are Selected
 
These menu items are all in the new menu to the far left. Below these
entries is the list with the currently loaded apps.
 
I have used only one 320 application so far. What TM does is hide the
Finder's desktop and all other 640 windows and use the standard
background (as if TM were not installed). If this application can
switch modes and you activate the 640 resolution, the Finder icons
appear again - so no problem.
 
Text applications (Merlin for example)
 
Work fine. TM supports a "Finder" key combination (OA-Control-TAB)
which activates the Finder. Using this technique you can suspend Merlin
and return to the desktop interface. Merlin is still in memory - select
it in the TM-Menu to resume.
As I said before, software developers will like this feature. You'll
get used to it damn fast...
 
ProDos 8 apps
 
Here's where TM is limited. To run a P8 app, you need to quit all
programs - except for the Finder.
If you have still some suspended programs around, TM displays a dialog
box. That's one thing I really like: TM has tons of dialog boxes which
inform you every problem very nicely and accurately. It doesn't crash
but shows you exactly why it couldn't finish an operation.
 
3200 color programs
 
A friend told me that DreamGrafix does not work with TM. The system
doesn't crash{. But it seems as if the problem is with DG, not with TM
because DG requires the bank 01 SHR page. I've noticed that QuickDraw
operates without shadowing (funny, huh?). Please reread this sentence
because this also means that desktop stuff is a bit slower! (I'm not
sure whether shadowing is _always_ turned off, but at least Symbolix
did not use bank 01 (it usually does).)
 
GIF3200 (v0.2) does _NOT_ work. I assume that it can't allocate enough
zero page space. It immediately quits to the Finder - it does not
violate system integrity.
 
MOD players
 
I've been using SoniqTracker almost daily (congratulations, Tim!). It
runs! Only the "goofy player" has cosmetic problems: the indicators
cant be seen. Again, that's because QuickDraw is not using shadowing.
If you can live without, you're happy.
(I guess that future version will fix the shadowing stuff)
 
Memory (gimme mooo...)
 
You can load ca. 4 apps with 3.2MB. The vital factor is not fast RAM
but zero page space. With nothing else in memory, I had 27kB free ZP
space (note: with a few inits and NDA. Haven't yet tried disabling
them). One program allocates ca. 4kB, but a few programs (APPLEWORKS
GS!!! 20kB !!!!) are reeeaaal memory hogs. I have normally Merlin,
Symbolix, GraphicWriter, and SoniqTracker in memory, and that's fine
(though you can't open large documents, more RAM will solve the
problem).
 
Attributes
 
Each applications has a few attributes. You can specify them very
easily: click the icon in the finder, then select TM Application Setup
from the Extras menu. A dialog appears whith a few check boxes:
 
- Hide Other's When I'm Selected
(see above, this will be used as default setting)
- Can Release Null Events
The program allows "multitasking". Null events occur when GetNextEvent
does not report any events. TM then passes control to all other
applications which have the check box explained next marked.
- Can Receive Null Events
Checked when the app features "multitasking".
- Not Compatible With TM
Hehehe, check when the program crashed. Whenever you launch the prog,
TM shows an alert box ("Not compatible with.."). This is actually VERY
useful (though I haven't seen an incomatible program yet, IMHO).
 
...and more (Text Mode on ShutDown, Anarchic Screen Use, and one or two
more which I don't remember...).
 
Preferences
 
First, there is a BREAK handler. TM detects breaks and tries to
recover. The manual says (it's the best statement I've seen so far..):
"[not a quote, but as close as possible]...TM then displays and tries
to handle the error. You can click Continue though the system crashes
ANYWAY." Haaaahahahaha
 
BTW, a great thing is this: TM patches SysFailMgr by showing an alert
box and then retunring to the Finder. The program that _wanted_ to
crash is dimmed and can't be selected. Though the error message says
that you should save all documents immediately, I've worked with this
corrupted system for hours!
 
The second check box allows you turn on and off "multitasking" in the
whole TM system.
 
Quitting
 
TM installs a new ShutDown dialog in the Finder. You can select
- Shut Down
- Restart
- Quit
- Use MiniFinder
 
The MiniFinder is a really small program which only allows you to
launch files and access the TM Application Setup, TM Memory Map (BTW:
this command gives you a complete, detailed overview [zero page, max
block, who owns how much memory, etc.]), and TM Preferences.
The reison d'etre of the MiniFinder are the memory requirements of the
normal Finder (actually only 250kB, but maybe you'll need them..).
 
Selecting Quit leaves TM and "starts" the Finder. Of course, the Finder
was always active but upon selecting Quit TM has gone. Now you can
start 3200 color programs and other wild things. To reactivate TM,
launch the application. This takes only a few seconds, so switching
back and forth isn't too annoying.
 
There's one difference (among others, of course) between TM and the
Mac: you can quit with open applications. TM asks you twice ("do you
really...") but does not force you to shut down each app.
 
Quit is dimmed when a program violated system integrity (SysFailMgr).
You have to restart the system (if you feel it's not safe to continue).
 
One reason why I'm impressed is that v1.0 is extremely stabile. I've
used only a few, updated programs but had not one single crash. Also,
there are text files which tell you exactly which programs cause
problems and why. For example, Phantasm does not work because it is
does some criminal things. So don't blame TM for each ajnd everything.
 
Also on the disk is a sample program. Check out the C code and see how
you can write background routines.. I've read somehwere that v1.1 will
support TM-related requests, so stay tuned for more innovative things.
 
 
 
Ey, I've typed quite a lot. Is that enough now? Of course, this book is
(C) by me, myself and I.
 
The Manager, and Finder and all that other stuff are trademarks,
copyrights, drinks, cars, or I don't know what of whoever owns them,
and Henrik is a trademark of Gudat Family, Inc. Amen.
 
Ufff ufff ufff,
 
henrik

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