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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: iamaboringperson on January 27, 2003, 01:44:16 AM

Title: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: iamaboringperson on January 27, 2003, 01:44:16 AM
 :-) not much, only somthing trivial:
did you know that control and @ (control-shift-2) (i think)
displays the current directory?
i think this works by the amigados command parser relising this is not the name of a command and therefore loads the command CD which treats it as not being an argument - hence, just like typing CD with no argument shows the current directory
cool, huh? or boring? or did you all know it already?
does anyone else know of any other tricks to do in the CLI? or AmigaOS in general?
 :-)
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Dagon on January 27, 2003, 01:53:20 AM
Quote
or boring

no, that was cool, thanx ;-)

well, ctrl+ \ closes cli (and at least in 3.9 also the wb windows) but I guess most of you already knew it.

Any other tricks?
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Dagon on January 27, 2003, 01:59:07 AM
Quote
did you know that control and @ (control-shift-2) (i think)
displays the current directory?

argh, it doesn`t work here, I tried all possible combinations (I have a UK keyboard here and @ is in the place of " of the US keyboard) nor in a sell with kingcon or VNC_shell.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: iamaboringperson on January 27, 2003, 03:40:11 AM
Quote

Dagon wrote:
Quote
did you know that control and @ (control-shift-2) (i think)
displays the current directory?

argh, it doesn`t work here, I tried all possible combinations (I have a UK keyboard here and @ is in the place of " of the US keyboard) nor in a sell with kingcon or VNC_shell.

temporarily change your keymap!!  :-)   :-D
its actually ASCII code $00, so see how else you can type that in, there must be a way
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Mike_Amiga on January 27, 2003, 04:45:25 AM
CD = Change Directory

List = List Directory

Ed = Edit a very basic text file, the most common of which is         the startup-sequence.

Install = Somehow makes a disk bootable

Nothing special in this lot is there?  :-(
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: tonyw on January 28, 2003, 10:53:28 PM
What is interesting is the keyboard shortcuts for these common commands. Useful stuff. I've always wanted a shortcut to close windows.

tony
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: chris on January 28, 2003, 11:28:28 PM
Quote

tonyw wrote:
What is interesting is the keyboard shortcuts for these common commands. Useful stuff. I've always wanted a shortcut to close windows.

tony


I find that I have to use the shortcut to close console (CLI etc) windows.  Rather strange... I'm sure it worked perfectly in 3.0, but my A1200 with KS3.1+WB3.5 doesn't let me close them with the close gadget, especially the "output window" you get from "execute command...".  It does, however, work with KingCON installed.  I thought it might just be my machine, but KS3.0+WB3.1 on UAE has the same problem.  Really, really, weird and I'm surprised I haven't heard any mention of this bug elsewhere.

Is it just me??! :-?

Chris
(btw that other trick works here, with Ctrl+# as well as @, although you have to press return afterwards so it is just as quick to type "cd"  :lol:)
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Dagon on January 28, 2003, 11:57:12 PM
One thing that I thing is already known to the many but I write it for the ones that haven`t heard of it.

You can drag the icons with the mouse only in vertical or only in horizontal by holding down the right Amiga key.


A very nice commodity is mouseblanker. I get very irritated when I`m in Windows and I write something and because of the mouse pointer I can`t see what I`m writing. Another thing that can be used along with the ctrl+\ is in the FKey the shortcut for changing the selected window.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: KennyR on January 29, 2003, 02:01:32 AM
Here's another:

Edit = the best way to destroy a text file and lots of work if you confuse it with Ed.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Dagon on January 29, 2003, 07:46:27 AM
If you hold down the right Amiga key and you double click an icon it closes the window that contains it.
That way you can browse your hd wihout doing all the time open-close, open-close or letting windows opened that you don`t use.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Dagon on January 29, 2003, 01:07:05 PM
I was on the google newsgroup and I found this ancient message. (before OS3.5)
Quote

Open GUI drawer from the CLI?
What I want is to be able to open the Amiga-OS icon window of the directory I'm currently sitting in rather than having to start from the top of my hard drive and dive down to where I am in my cli window.

Anyone know of anything that does this?


So if someone has AmigaOS >= 3.5 can use my little program that uses that functionality of the WB.
OpenWin (http://ftp.unina.it/pub/aminet/util/cli/openwin.lha)
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Croyzers on January 29, 2003, 03:11:18 PM
Here is another cool thing...

start up a VNC shell and type
multiview &

(the amphersand is important)
then it will run multiview as new process and you get straight back to the shell. I know this is the same as run multiview but I think its pretty cool
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: ilgulamc on January 29, 2003, 03:48:05 PM
well, this one is a very basic one, but for example you cannot doit on a wintel box and it's very frustrating...

if you press SHIFT and one of the four arrows you go at the end of the cli line.

if you press SHIFT plus backspace you delete all the cli line.

I hope they will still be in AOS4 because I find them very useful
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Billsey on January 29, 2003, 04:12:56 PM
An interesting BUG that's been in the last several versions (at least since 3.0) of Amiga OS is switching screens via the depth gadget while a window is trying to open on one of the screens. If you time it just so, Intuition stops responding to the mouse or the keyboard (except for CTRL-AMIGA-AMIGA of course). I've tried to get the attention of those working on AmigaOS as to this bug several times, but never heard anything back. Not even an "I can't reproduce that" type of message.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: SilvrDrgn on January 29, 2003, 05:58:54 PM
@ Billsey,
Quote
If you time it just so, Intuition stops responding to the mouse or the keyboard

I believe that has been fixed in OS 3.9 with Boing Bag #2, but I could be mistaken.  It's never happened to me.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: chris on January 29, 2003, 06:59:59 PM
Alt + Left/Right skips forward or backwards a word at a time.

If you start typing a command in the Shell, Shift+Up will find the last command you typed which starts with the same characters.

With OS3.5 and up, holding the Shift key while booting stops the WBStartUp programs from loading.  In Workbench you can start typing a filename and it will highlight the icon.

With OS3.9 you can press Help to get into the Early Startup Menu instead of holding down both mouse buttons.  There's some other key combo for Early Startup in 3.9 as well but I can't remember what it is.

Chris
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: KennyR on January 29, 2003, 08:14:41 PM
It was an Intuition race condition, and was fixed since OS3.5. You can also get patches to workaround it on
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Billsey on January 29, 2003, 09:05:44 PM
I have 3.5 with the latest (I think) boing bag and it still nips me from time to time. ;-)
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: KennyR on January 29, 2003, 10:06:09 PM
Strange...then maybe it's VisualPrefs or MagicMenu playing up or some other tool or patch doing it. It used to happen to me a lot, until I stopped using either.

There was a patch on Aminet to prevent screen-sweap freezes too, but I don't know whether that actually makes things worse...
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Ancalimon on April 15, 2003, 06:07:18 AM
Actually that intuition freeze bug has been around since the first version of AmigaOS.( I seen it in 1.3 and still in 3.9bb2)

It also happens with a fresh install of os3.1 or 3.9+bb1+bb2

I bugged developpers alot about this bug of AmigaOS. They told me intuition had to be written from stratch to fix this. And some other told me to stop using patches even though I told them it happens even on a fresh install.

To reproduce this bug two intuition actions have to be executed at exactly the same time (milisecond?) And if you`r using your computer as fast as me.(switching screens opening windows,menus,etc...) this lock happens a lot.

TRY IT:

Assuming you have OS3.9+bb2

open a program that does open its own screen. By opening a AWeb on its own screen you are more likely to see this bug. And as soon as Aweb starts loading,(before screen is opened) start clicking on that popup gadget of AmiDock like a maniac. You have to slick on it very fastly. 10 or 20 times a second maybe. And as soon as Aweb screen opens your machine will freeze.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: benJamin on April 15, 2003, 08:49:00 AM
On my machine (A1200/030, OS3.0, blah, blah...), I find the easiest way to reproduce such race-conditions :-o (by which I mean, I learnt to work around it), is to run PPaint, then run Cinema4D.  Cinema will try to open a window while PPaint opens its screen almost every time, hanging the machine.

The other annoying one is OctaMED SS (every version I've had).  It hangs when it tries to open its welcome requester if anything more than the initial 3 windows (Main, Info and Tracker) are set to be open (snapshot windows, leave them open and save the config.) :-x

Patch?  What patch?  I'd /really/ like to upgrade, but my budget says no (woe is me, violins, etc. :-( ) and these niggles are more than a little niggly (sometimes I forget, or am in a hurry, or I'll be opening drawers to run some other program just when PPaint /finally/ decides to show itself:  *Frustration CENTRAL*.


benJamin


"If there is no spoon, how do I eat breakfast?"
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Karlos on April 15, 2003, 10:53:39 AM
Quote

benJamin wrote:
The other annoying one is OctaMED SS (every version I've had).  It hangs when it tries to open its welcome requester if anything more than the initial 3 windows (Main, Info and Tracker) are set to be open (snapshot windows, leave them open and save the config.) :-x


Thats odd. I use OSS with the main, info, tracker, volumes, vumeter bars and sample editor open (on a 1024*768 screen) and it's never frozen on me yet.
The only problem I have is that the white bar across the centre of the tracker window sometimes scrolls up with the notes if I open a window whilst its playing. But it's never crashed my system in all the years I've been using it....Three cheers for Teijo!
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: jaokim on April 15, 2003, 11:25:07 AM
Quote
WB3.5 doesn't let me close them with the close gadget, especially the "output window"


I have also noticed this bug from time to time. I think it disappears with BoingBag2, but I'm not sure.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Desmon on April 15, 2003, 11:33:09 AM
@ilgulamc
Quote

well, this one is a very basic one, but for example you cannot doit on a wintel box and it's very frustrating...

if you press SHIFT and one of the four arrows you go at the end of the cli line.

if you press SHIFT plus backspace you delete all the cli line.

I hope they will still be in AOS4 because I find them very useful

Oddly enough this behaviour is one of the Amiga patents. I doubt that you'll ever find it on a PC OS.

Even more odd though is that MorphOS does it. :)
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Alkemyst on April 15, 2003, 12:46:16 PM
Quote
by Mike_Amiga on 2003/1/27 4:45:25

CD = Change Directory

List = List Directory

Ed = Edit a very basic text file, the most common of which is the startup-sequence.

Install = Somehow makes a disk bootable

Nothing special in this lot is there?


i thought CD=Current Directory=show full path of the directory that im in.

Not change to another.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: benJamin on April 15, 2003, 01:36:57 PM
Hmmm... what's mark-up doing to me?  Its my software, don't tell me... :-(


OctaMED SS

The only problem I have is that the white bar across the centre of the tracker window sometimes scrolls up with the notes if I open a window whilst its playing.
- Karlos

So, is that any particular window(s)?  I have, as yet, been unable to replicate it.  Are you useing a graphics card, FastIPrefs?  Is said window not on a 16-pixel boundary, or summat?


I should also recall for you that certain window setups tended not to crash.  I think it was just when I got carried away, as I shall explain.  Yawn

I have a nice, big, hardware-scrolling, rack-like display not at all like Reason:
· Main, Tracker, Info Screen
· Structure windows and some settings (Mix)
· Sample editing Screen (has anyone made any synth automations?)
· Notation/Cluttered Screen (If not notation, then whatever window that I want to keep open in a session.)

I think it's something to do with the time it takes SS to read the keyboard settings file while all the windows are opening; after the file is loaded, the welcome requester is instantiated.  If all the windows take longer than the config file to open, the requester only gets as far as clearing the window zone before hanging with no visible pointer or response (barring a certain salute... ;-) )

My guess would be Chip RAM allocation conflict between the most recent window, and the new, presumably higher priority requester window; though, I'm no sure I've ever been right...

I would like to comfortably be able to save the config at the end of every session, without having to boot with no startup (and thus, no env:), load the config and close some windows and save it if said combo turns out to be a dud combo.  (Or maybe just Save As... config and load everytime, but still, extra, and unnessary steps...  :-( )


Somebody stop me if this should be another thread by now...


benJamin

"On a good day, I'll keep my mouth shut."



PS: Where is the teary-eyed smiley?  :÷(
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: jeffimix on April 15, 2003, 11:49:32 PM
Press Amiga and Control. It works like a left mouse button. Atleast for me on WB 1.3 it does.
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Karlos on April 16, 2003, 12:02:00 AM
Quote

benJamin wrote:

So, is that any particular window(s)?  I have, as yet, been unable to replicate it.  Are you useing a graphics card, FastIPrefs?  Is said window not on a 16-pixel boundary, or summat?


It's any window that opens over the tracker display, irrespective of boundaries etc. I think it may be a CyberGraphics SCROLLMASK setting bug, but it hardly upsets me enough to worry about it.
Anyhow, it's on a BVisionPPC card 1024*768*8-bit, CGX 4.2, OS3.5 bb1...

Main point is that on my system, OSS is rock solid apart from that wee glitch....
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: jaokim on April 16, 2003, 12:19:08 AM
Quote

jeffimix wrote:
Press Amiga and Control. It works like a left mouse button. Atleast for me on WB 1.3 it does.

Press Amiga and the keyboard arrows and you have a mouse, press left/right alt-key and you have corresponding click.

Try pressing Ctrl-H with something written in the "Execute command"-dialog. Change IControl, Text Gadget Filter to off; does the above work?

Ctrl-M Return
Ctrl-H Backspace
Ctrl- X Delete entire line
Ctrl-U Deltet to the left
Ctrl-K Delete to right
Ctrl-A Move to begining of line
Ctrl-Z Move to end of line

(Just love what the Wb3.0-manual and some tampering can do. It's also very helpful to be a translator, you really have to know what each button does. :-D  ;-) )
Title: Re: (sort of) hidden feature in AmigaDOS i found!
Post by: Jope on April 16, 2003, 05:20:21 AM
Quote

well, this one is a very basic one, but for example you cannot doit on a wintel box and it's very frustrating...

if you press SHIFT and one of the four arrows you go at the end of the cli line.

The Enhanced AT keyboard has separate keys for that, located above the "inverted T" cursor layout.

Usually Shift+cursors are for marking text in the Wintel world.

Quote
if you press SHIFT plus backspace you delete all the cli line.

If you press ESC in dos, you delete all you wrote.

Not missing features, just a different way of working. Such is life.. :-)