Desktop Configurator v2
by Paradize (http://paradize.atari.org)
How many times have you wished that you could be a bit more
flexible at bootup?
Back in the days when I had a floppy-only Atari STE as my
development system I used to have lots of needs, depending on
what I wanted to do: Low, Medium, High (via emulator)
resolution. Also usually I wanted to go straight into GFA BASIC,
so I had GFA Low/Med/Hi as well. Later when the assembly
language came into play I added a couple of entries as well.
Also, I wanted to enable/disable some accessories.
So each source disk I had consisted of the programs I wanted to
run (AUTO folder ones as well as normal), and I did the
switching via a program called Superboot. It did the job ok, but
as I recall it was huge, taking precious time to load, not to
mention the disk space it consumed.
Of course I could write a custom program which would do that
job, but I was always bored. Simon Sunnyboy on the other hand
wasn't (or didn't find a single boot program to satisfy his
needs) so he coded one of his own.
Taking up a disk footprint of about 9k, it's ideal for floppy-
only development. A bit of set up is required on the user's end:
You need to set up your desktop configurations, save them, and
then rename them to CONFIGx.INF (where x is an integer from 1 to
9). In addition, you might want to load them into your favourite
text editor and insert a line at the top where the description
of the configuration should be written. Of if you're bored you
can skip this and the program will just display a filename.
Copying the proper program (depending on your TOS version) into
your AUTO folder and putting the CONFIGx.INF files into the root
directory is all that's needed for the program to function on
your next reboot.
Conclusion
It's a small and fast utility that does what it's supposed to
do. Inside the readme file Simon tells us that since it was only
written to satisfy his personal needs it will probably be the
final version.
Obviously the tool is aiming at SingleTOS usage, so alternate
Desktops are out (except if the .inf files have a similar name
as TOS' and they should be in the root folder.
It should have been neat to have an option to turn on/off
accessories and/or CPX modules, or select the AUTO folder
programs to be run, or even have some other controls such as
changing processor frequency and turning cache on/off.
As it stands, it's built for a single purpose, and it performs
it adequately. Nothing more, nothing less. If it fits your
needs, then by all means give it a go!
GGN/KUA for Alive, 2006-07-05
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