Topic       : The ATARI Compendium
Author      : Scott Sanders / JAY Software
Version     : 1.25 (20/6/2003)
Subject     : Documentation
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Compiled on : Atari
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                           MultiTOS Considerations


Messages

The desktop may be sent messages using the AES's shel_write() command.
The desktop currently recognizes two special messages as follows:

Message      Number    Meaning

SH_WDRAW       72      This message tells the desktop that files on
                       a particular drive have been modified so it can
                       update the information in any open windows. msg[3]
                       should contain the drive number ( 0 = A:, 1 = B:,
                       etc.). A value of -1 will force the desktop to
                       update all of its open windows.

AP_DRAGDROP    63      The desktop included with AES 4.1 now accepts all
                       drag & drop messages and places the dropped object
                       on the desktop.

Extendibility

The MultiTOS desktop allows the replacement of file copy, rename, and
delete, and disk copy and format commands. To replace the file commands,
place the filename of an application designed to replace them in the
environment variable DESKCOPY. Likewise, a disk command replacement
application can be placed in the environment variable DESKFMT.

The file command replacement will be called with one of three command
line formats as follows:

1. Copy a file(s): -c [-options...] [filename(s)] [destination path]

2. Delete a file(s): -d [-options...] [filename(s)]

3. Move a file(s): -m [-options...] [filename(s)] [destination path]

The following are valid options to appear on the command line:


Option    Meaning

  -A      Confirm file copies.

  -B      Do not confirm file copies.

  -C      Confirm file deletes.

  -D      Do not confirm file deletes.

  -E      Confirm file overwrites.

  -F      Do not confirm file overwrites.

  -R      Prompt to rename destination file(s).

An application which is installed to replace disk operations will receive
one of two command lines as follows:

1. Format a drive (ex: A:): -f A:

2. Copy a disk (ex: A: to B:): -c A: B:

TOS Application Launching

When the user uses the desktop to launch a .TOS or .TTP application under
MultiTOS, the desktop looks for an environment variable called TOSRUN. If
it finds one, it attempts to launch whatever application is specified in
that variable with the TOS filename as its parameters.

If the environment variable does not exist, it opens a pipe called
'U:\PIPE\TOSRUN' and writes to it the filename and any parameters
separated by spaces terminated by a NULL byte.

Environment variables used by the Desktop

If the system variable ACCPATH is present, it will be  used as a path from
where to load accessories from. The variables SHSHOW and SHPRINT can be
assigned the complete path and name of programs which are called when the
user tries to view or print a desktop file.