QMouse 1.3 Copyright 1988 by Lyman Epp
Another "Mouse Accelerator???" What for? It seems that all the
other mouse accelerators have been written in "C". This is okay,
but the programs are 10-30K. This mouse accelerator is written
in assembler and contains most of the features of the others, but
the program size is less than 4K bytes! QMouse stands for "Quick
Mouse."
This is being distributed as ShareWare. If you think that QMouse
is useful, please send $10. Your response will insure the
release of more quality programs for your Amiga! Be sure to
check out the latest shareware version of QView.
The latest version of QMouse can always be found first on the
Wind Dragon Inn BBS, (402)-291-8053.
Lyman R. Epp
10072 Wirt Plaza #15
Omaha, Nebraska 68134
REGISTERED USERS
Thanks to these users of QMouse for your ShareWare donation.
D. J. James Ted Michelse
Scott Brickner Paul O'Keefe
Elliott Hammett Ken Rahmoeller
1
QMOUSE FEATURES
o Screen blanks if keyboard or mouse is idle for a while.
This will prevent an image "burning" onto your monitor while
left unattended.
o The mouse pointer blanks if mouse is idle for a while. The
mouse pointer will also blank when the first keystroke is
typed.
o Mouse accelerator with configurable threshold to allow for
precise mouse pointer positioning.
o Automatic window activation (i.e. Sun Mouse). Makes the
window under the mouse pointer the active window. Sun Mouse
will not activate windows if either mouse button is
depressed--this will allow you to move WorkBench icons
between windows.
o Multiple configurable hot keys, ala PopCli, activated with
the <Left Amiga><hotkey> combination. The <Left Amiga><Esc>
combination is preset to execute "NewCLI". The RUN command
must be in your C: directory.
o Keyboard record/playback. <Left Alt><Esc> toggles the
keystroke recorder on and off. Press <Left Alt><Return> to
playback the previously recorded keystrokes.
o Window to front. Left Mouse Button click(s) in window will
bring it to the front. Won't try to bring the window to the
front if it is already in the front. The number of clicks
required is configurable. The time between clicks is
determined by Preferences.
o Window to back. Hold down the Left Mouse Button in a window
and click the Right Mouse Button to send that window to the
back.
o The smallest clock yet! Can be turned off if you don't like
clocks. The amount of available memory can optionally be
displayed. Starting column is also configurable. The clock
window will be brought to the front (of the WorkBench
screen) whenever it becomes obscured.
o Every option can be turned off or modified. Options can be
entered from the command line (e.g. Startup-Sequence) or
from a user specifiable configuration file.
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o Uses a background CLI. Programs like DMouse and PopCLI3
don't use a background CLI, and therefore any NewCLI's
spawned by them will have no default directory, no default
path, etc. Using a background CLI simply requires that you
use RunBack (included) instead of Run (to allow closing the
initial CLI.) This should be viewed as very beneficial!
You can now set the stack size for any spawned CLI's. This
will allow you to set a lower stack size before starting
QMouse, but insure an adequate stack size for spawned CLI's.
3
COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS
Arguments can be typed in upper or lower case. Arguments can be
enclosed in quotes, e.g. "-A3". Quotes are required if the
argument contains spaces, otherwise they are optional. Commands
can also be in a configuration file and used with the -F option.
-A# Set acceleration to #. Can be in the range of 0
to 65,535. Mouse movement events that have X or Y
motion greater than the acceleration threshold
(see option -T) will be accelerated by this
factor. The default acceleration value is 3. To
disable this feature, specify 0 or 1.
-B Enable click to back feature.
-C[E][M][#] Activate clock. To display clock in 24 hour
format (European), specify an "E" after the "C".
To display available memory, specify an "M" after
the "C" (e.g. -CM). If both "E" and "M" are used,
the "E" must come before the "M". You can also
specify an optional column where the clock will be
displayed. The width of the clock is 44 pixels
(92 if available memory is displayed.) The column
number must be in the range of 0 to [screen width
- clock width]. To place the clock next to the
front/back gadgets, use a value of [screen width -
clock width - 53]. With a screen width of 640 and
with available memory displayed, this would be a
column value of 495 (-CM495). The default column
value is 280.
-Ecommand Set command to execute when <Left Amiga><Esc> is
pressed. If the command contains spaces, then the
entire command must be enclosed in quotes. The
default command is "NewCLI". The "Run" command
must be in your C: directory. The "Run" command
must precede any commands other than "NewCLI"
(e.g. "-eRun ed".)
-Fname Read configuration information from the specified
file. The -F option can be nested any number of
levels (or until the stack overflows.) The format
for the configuration file is identical to the
command line format. Each option can be entered
on a separate line. Anything between a semi-
colon character ";" and the end of the line will
be considered a comment. A sample configuration
file is included.
4
-Hxx=command Set the command to execute when this hot key is
invoked. The 'xx' parameter defines the raw key
code for this hot key. Whenever this key is
pressed in combination with the <Left Amiga><key>,
the command will be executed. The raw key values
are printed later in this documentation. For more
information, see option -E.
-K# Set number of clicks required to bring a window to
the front. The default value is 2 clicks. To
disable this feature, specify 0 clicks. Can be in
the range of 0 to 65,535 clicks.
-M Deactivate the screen shuffler. The <Left Amiga>
<M> combination will revert to Intuition pushing
the WorkBench screen to the back.
-P# Set the number of seconds to wait after a mouse
event before blanking the mouse pointer. Just
move the mouse again and the pointer will
reappear. The default value is 10 seconds. To
disable this feature, specify 0 seconds. Can be
in the range of 0 to 65,535 seconds.
-R Enable automatic window activation.
-S# Set the number of seconds to wait after any user
event (keyboard, mouse or disk changed) before
blanking the screen. Just move the mouse, type a
key or insert a disk and the screen will be
restored. The default value is 600 seconds. To
disable this feature, specify 0 seconds. Can be
in the range of 0 to 65,535 seconds.
-T# Set mouse acceleration threshold in pixels per
event (see option -A). This option provides a way
to position the mouse pointer precisely, without
the acceleration factor "getting in the way." The
default value is 3. Can be in the range of 0 to
65,535 pixels per event.
-V# Set the stack size for any spawned CLI's. This
allows the stack size for the QMouse's CLI to be
set to a minimum. The default value is obtained
from the CLI that QMouse was run from. Can be in
the range of 1800 to 655,360 bytes.
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HOW TO USE
QMouse must be executed from a CLI (or from a Startup-Sequence.)
It can't be run from WorkBench. It is recommended that you set
the stack size option of RunBack to 4000 when starting QMouse.
It is also recommended that you use the -V option of QMouse to
set the stack size for any spawned CLI's to at least 20000.
1> Stack 20000
...
1> RunBack -S4000 QMouse -B -CEM543 -R -V20000
TO REMOVE QMOUSE
Press <Control><Left Amiga><Esc> (all at the same time.)
SOURCE CODE
Due to the large size of the source code for V1.3 (over 45K), it
will no longer be distributed. If you desire the source code,
please send a SASE and a disk with your QMouse donation.
CREDITS
This program has been inspired by PopCLI, Mach, DMouse, MouseOff
and others. Thanks to the authors of these programs for
providing good examples of how to make the Amiga "do its thing!"
RunBack is copyrighted by MicroSmiths, Inc.
KNOWN BUGS
Intuition will often restore the mouse pointer to the Preferences
pointer. QMouse will reblank the pointer within 1/10 of a
second, but this can be very annoying (especially when using
WordPerfect.) This seems to be a tug-of-war match with Intuition
over control of the mouse pointer. If it bothers you, just turn
off the mouse pointer blanking option.
6
RAW KEY DEFINITIONS
Raw Key Raw Key
Number Key Number Key
00 ` 30 Undefined
01 1 31 Z
02 2 32 X
03 3 33 C
04 4 34 V
05 5 35 B
06 6 36 N
07 7 37 M
08 8 38 <
09 9 39 >
0A 0 3A /
0B - 3B Undefined
0C = 3C NK.
0D \ 3D NK7
0E Undefined 3E NK8
0F NK0 3F NK9
10 Q 40 Space
11 W 41 Back Space
12 E 42 Tab
13 R 43 Enter
14 T 44 Return
15 Y 45 Escape
16 U 46 Del
17 I 47 Undefined
18 O 48 Undefined
19 P 49 Undefined
1A { 4A NK-
1B } 4B Undefined
1C Undefined 4C UP
1D NK1 4D DOWN
1E NK2 4E RIGHT
1F NK3 4F LEFT
20 A 50 F1
21 S 51 F2
22 D 52 F3
23 F 53 F4
24 G 54 F5
25 H 55 F6
26 J 56 F7
27 K 57 F8
28 L 58 F9
29 ; 59 F10
2A " 5A Undefined
2B Undefined 5B Undefined
2C Undefined 5C Undefined
2D NK4 5D Undefined
2E NK5 5E Undefined
2F NK6 5F Help
7
RELEASE 1.1 NOTES
08-Jul-1988
o Made the clock come to the front whenever its been obscured,
rather than every 10 seconds. This was bothering some
programs. Thanks to D. J. James for this idea.
o The manual incorrectly documented the <Control><Left Amiga>
<Esc> method of terminating QMouse. This should have read
<Control><Left Amiga><F1>, but I changed the program to work
as documented.
o Intuition will restore the mouse pointer occasionally. I
changed QMouse to re-blank the mouse pointer quicker than
before.
RELEASE 1.2 NOTES
30-Aug-1988
o Modified to assemble with the Manx assembler. The Manx
assembler creates about 5-10% smaller code. See the
included makefile for assembling with the Manx assembler.
Source will still assemble with the Metacomco assembler as
before!
o Intuition calls are now made from the QMouse task, rather
than from the input handler. This should resolve any
Intuition lockups.
o WindowToFront() not called for BACKDROP type windows. This
should help eliminate the possibility of WorkBench locking
up.
o Added automatic window activation (i.e. Sun Mouse). Specify
option -R to activate Sun Mouse (-S was already used.)
o Added click to back feature. Specify option -B to activate
click to back.
o Added stack size feature. Allows QMouse to run with a
smaller stack while insuring adequate stack size for spawned
CLI's. Specify option -V to change the default stack size.
o Fixed bug with clicking to front a window on a screen that
is in the background. No one had reported this bug yet. ;-)
o Cleaned up documentation and fixed any inaccuracies that I
found. Documentation for option -M now reads to
"deactivate" the screen shuffler. Actually, the -M option
was ignored until release 1.2.
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RELEASE 1.3 NOTES
8-Oct-1988
o Added multiple hot key support. Specify option -H to define
multiple hot key commands. Thanks to Clete Baker for this
idea.
o Added keyboard record/playback support. <Left Alt><Esc>
toggles the recorder on and off. <Left Alt><Return>
activates the keyboard playback.
o Added ability to read commands from a configuration file.
This was needed to support multiple hot key definitions.
Specify option -F to read commands from a file.
o Added option to display the amount of available memory with
the clock. Add the "M" modifier to option -C to display the
amount of available memory (e.g. -CM).
o Added option to display the time in 24 hour format. This
option was added at the request of Jim Cooper.
o When pointer blanking is enabled, the pointer will be
blanked immediately when a key is typed. Thanks to Eric
Schwertfeger for this idea.
o Changed the method of screen blanking. Previously, QMouse
opened an Intuition screen and changed it's colors, now
QMouse turns off DMA for the COPPER. This shaved off 88
bytes from QMouse. Thanks to Jim Cooper for this idea.
o General code cleanup. Tried to make the code more reliable
in certain situations. The code size grew several hundred
bytes on account of this effort.
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