[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

3421.0. "Need HELP aborting a background SHOW task" by ENOVAX::BARRETT (Just an active member of the food chain) Thu Feb 01 1990 18:38

    
    PROBLEM:
    
    I had this bright idea of displaying an IFF picture or graphic of some
    sort on my screen during the execution of my startup-sequence (sort of
    as a method of getting back at those MAC users that complain the amiga
    startup is ugly). Using runback (several different versions), I did
    a "RUNBACK SHOW" of the graphic early in the startup. There was a nice
    display while the "invisible" startup windows were taking place in the
    background. But there was one problem.
    
    I could not come up with a way for the ending logic of the startup
    procedure to kill that background process and stop the display.
    
    
    DETAILS:
    
    The picture was a 2 color low-res w/ overscan display, so as to not
    take up too many resources during startup. I tried SHOW, SUPERVIEW, and
    uSHOW for displaying it - no difference (except in memory usage). I
    tried "BREAK n ALL" to stop the process.
    
    I have thought of trying one of the "slide show" programs & scripts to
    display the picture and then terminate after a time period; but have put
    no effort into this yet and it's kinda distasteful.
    
    
    
    QUESTIONS & REQUESTS:
    
    Does anyone know of a display program that does react to a BREAK
    command or will accept a timing parameter?
    
    Are there other methods (within a script file) to stop the process?
    
    One of the display programs I tried (uSHOW I believe) will terminate
    upon receiving any keystroke. Is there a way for a script to force a
    keystroke to a different window without me writing a program? The other
    display programs terminated on ESCAPE - so sending an ESCAPE would
    be another possibility.
    
    Is there a better/slicker/simpler way to do this?
    
    I haven't tried using the RUN instead of RUNBACK - will it abort if the
    script closes the window?
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
3421.1Watch this space => <=LEDS::ACCIARDIThu Feb 01 1990 18:5820
    
    There is absolutely a way to do exactly what you want.  C-Show will
    display an IFF graphic during startup and will hold it there as a
    background task until C-Show is called again.  For example...
    
    c:SetPatch
    System/FastMemFirst
    c:C-Show FILENAME   ; picture loads and displays
    C:OtherStuffThatHappensDuringYourStartup-Sequence
    c:C-Show		; picture disappears
    c:MoreStuff
    ...
    ...
    C:EndCLI
    
    I'll upload the file this weekend.
    
    Ed.
    
    
3421.2BOMBE::MOOREBaN CaSe_sEnSiTiVe iDeNtIfIeRs!Thu Feb 01 1990 21:143
    I believe "V" has a timer option.  Unfortunately, I don't think I can
    upload it because it's copyrighted.  Came on a recent Amiga Resource
    disk (I think).
3421.3LEDS::ACCIARDIFri Feb 02 1990 02:514
    
    C-ShowII.lzh has been uploaded to TAPE""::USER2:[UPLOAD]
    
    Ed.
3421.4It's in there... ;-)FROCKY::BALZERChristian Balzer DTN:785-1029Fri Feb 02 1990 08:287
    The original Show/View programm by Carolyn Scheppner of CBM has
    a timer option and reacts on CTRL-C/Break signals.
    
    Regards,
    
    <CB>
    
3421.5ENOVAX::BARRETTThis intentionally left blankFri Feb 02 1990 19:5611
    Re: .3
    
    Thanks, I'll check it out tonight.
    
    
    Re: .4
    
    Must be different than the one I have - where can I get that one?
    
    
    {kgb}
3421.6C-SHOW was the answerENOVAX::BARRETTThis intentionally left blankMon Feb 05 1990 16:014
    C-showII works great! Now my system displays a nice hir-res photo of a
    space shuttle astronaut (which I modified to include a "Welcome to the
    Amiga" text) during bootup! I should have known that someone had
    already thought of this. Thanks Ed!
3421.7Where is the Picture?USRCV1::MONTREUILMCustomer Services Rochester N.YThu Feb 08 1990 00:2414
    
    
    Would this space shuttle astronaut happen to appear on the net
    somewhere ?  I have seen one being used a lot to demo VGA graphics
    and I'd like to show off to my unforunate IBM friends.
    
    You could also make use of ARP's ask command to decide to show the
    picture (show off mode) or skip it (work mode).  You can set a timeout
    value if you turn on your system and walk away (work mode but let's
    see if I can avoid it mode).  Even better is is the Public Domain
    program CustReq which puts up a little requester with your title,
    question, and choice of selections (SHOWOFF or WORK modes).  I use it
    to do a full or minimum boot (WORK or GAME modes).  It also has
    a timeout value.  Its on FF242.
3421.8No ProblemENOVAX::BARRETTThe optical mouse that roaredThu Feb 08 1990 13:4226
>    Would this space shuttle astronaut happen to appear on the net
>    somewhere ?  I have seen one being used a lot to demo VGA graphics
>    and I'd like to show off to my unfortunate IBM friends.

	I'll upload it tonight unless someone beats me to it or states it's
	already here. I believe I got this picture (and 1 or 2 more good
        ones) from an early FF "Ham pics" disk.
    
>    You could also make use of ARP's ask command to decide to show the
>    picture (show off mode) or skip it (work mode).  You can set a timeout
>    value if you turn on your system and walk away (work mode but let's
>    see if I can avoid it mode).  Even better is is the Public Domain
>    program CustReq which puts up a little requester with your title,
>    question, and choice of selections (SHOWOFF or WORK modes).  I use it
>    to do a full or minimum boot (WORK or GAME modes).  It also has
>    a timeout value.  Its on FF242.

I think CustREq is great, but I'm kinda squeezing every second
I can from my startup because it already takes 2 minutes (My harddisk is
served by the XT bridgeboard, so I have no access to it until the bridgeboard
boots - about 90 seconds), so I won't use "timeouts" or "questions/requestors"
in my startup. The C-Show program only takes 2 or 3 secs, so I thought it
was worth it Besides; if you really need to see the startup run for debugging
something just press the Amiga/N or M keys -- it's still there on a background
screen. No need to give yourself a startup option.

3421.9OK - here they areENOVAX::BARRETTThe optical mouse that roaredWed Feb 14 1990 00:486
    I've uploaded the astronaut pictures (and a bonus picture) to:
    
    		TAPE::USER2:[UPLOAD]HIRESPICS.ZOO
    
    Sorry for the delay, but I ended up performing a fatter agnus
    installation on my system during the weekend.
3421.10The final frontierUSRCV1::MONTREUILMCustomer Services Rochester N.YMon Feb 19 1990 00:4912
    
    Thanks much for the upload, the astronaut pics look great.
    
    Which viewer did you use for the BFgoodrich pic? I tried superview,
    showall, shamview and dyna but no luck.  Superview showed something
    like a half done shamview picture (i.e. something but missing lots
    of colors and dots).  I'll have to get this C-Show and give it a
    spin.
    
    Thanks again,
    
    Marty
3421.11Can't unfold the HIRESPICS.ZOO, help!BSS::CALLAGHANlast hymn is sung, Devil cries MOREMon Feb 19 1990 01:189
    
    	I can't seem to get the archive to unfold, I'm using the ZOO.EXE
    	from WJG::, and probably the standard ZOO (on amiga) from ATALKIII
    	packages.
    
    			Any suggestions?
    
    					Jack
    
3421.12PAMSRC::BARRETTOf Optical Mice and Men...Mon Feb 19 1990 20:443
    Humm. I used SUPERVIEW and didn't have a problem. I'll check the
    .ZOO file out when I get a chance. At least the ones you wanted
    came through OK.
3421.13C-Show problem reportENOVAX::BARRETTOf Optical Mice and Men...Wed Mar 07 1990 14:0512
    Hummm. I was able to ZMODEM the .ZOO file down to Ami and unzoo it. All
    three pictures displayed fine with superview.
    
    
    I also found a bug/problem when using C-Show. If it is displaying a
    picture, you will get a GURU if you use BITPLANES (to set 8 color
    workbench) or SIMGEN (for background picture). The error is something
    like "attempt to free memory already free"; and I don't know if the
    bug is in C-Show or the other tasks. I find the problem easy to deal
    with -- just use C-Show to remove the picture before using one of these
    2 tasks. They tend to be the last things in the startup-sequence
    anyway.
3421.14BOMBE::MOOREEat or be eatenThu Mar 08 1990 02:328
    One problem I had with C-Show, it fails if you include a comment on the
    command line.  I put something like this in my startup sequence:
    
    	C-Show whatever.pic                  ; Display startup picture
    
    C-Show reported that it could not find the picture file named
    "whatever.pic                  ".
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^------- Pretty stupid, huh?