DSTasks version 1.1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table of Contents ----------------- Part 1 - Introduction Part 2 - What's New Part 3 - Installation a) As a wharf module b) As a load module Part 4 - Step.rc Commands a) XPosition b) YPosition c) Background d) TaskMan Part 5 - Usage Part 6 - Problems/Incompatibilities Part 7 - Bug Reports/Suggestions Part 8 - Version History Part 9 - Future Plans Part 10 - Credits/Thanks Part 1 - Introduction What is DSTasks? It's a port of a LiteStep module that I wrote called LSTasks to copy the functionality of an old LiteStep module named LSTaskman by WarezPoet as LSTaskman doesn't display certain tasks such as NeoPlanet and SimulBrowse and because LSTaskman had a bug which caused the system font to get screwed up at times. (So it is a copy of a copy of an original module ) So I wrote LSTasks from scratch in MSVC and continued to update it for a while till I left the LS Dev team and stopped LS development and began working on DarkStep. Once I released DarkStep, one of the problems I noticed was that the LS Desktop.dll had some problems with DarkStep (notably a repetitive crashing when trying to recycle) and decided to do my own port of Desktop.dll for DarkStep. When I began doing this port, I decided to split off the three components that made up Desktop.dll - desktop, systray and taskbar into separate modules. I realized that I didn't have to do a separate systray module as Maduin already had an excellent Systray.dll that worked fine with DarkStep. I did the desktop module with no problems but ran into major memory leaks in my break-off taskbar module and decided to shelve it for a while. But I needed a task management module as I hate having to ALT-TAB to get to the task I needed and so I decided to dust off the old LSTasks source and port it over to DarkStep and here is the result! I have included a DSTasks.bmp which was originally bundled with LSTasks (and before that with LSTaskman - boy, talk about history ). The image has a grid with the "magic pink" as the background color. You should probably change the background to the colour of your choice if you want to avoid all the icon drawing hassles :-) Part 2 - What's New - Fixed XPosition and YPosition not working - Fixed image corruption problems Part 3 - Installation a) As a wharf module 1) Unzip DSTasks to your DarkStep directory 2) Add the line *Wharf DSTasks .none @"C:\DarkStep\DSTasks.dll" to the step.rc. C:\DarkStep being your DarkStep directory. 3) Add a [DSTasks] section to your Step.Rc as per Part 4 4) Recycle DarkStep with the !Recycle bang command. b) As a load module 1) Copy DSTasks.dll to your DarkStep directory. 2) Add the line LoadModule C:\DarkStep\DSTasks.dll to the [Startup] section of your step.rc file. C:\DarkStep\ being your DarkStep directory. 3) Add a [DSTasks] section to your Step.Rc as per Part 4 4) Recycle DarkStep with the !Recycle bang command. Part 4 - Step.rc Commands In order to configure DSTasks, you have to add a [DSTasks] Section to your step.rc. Certain settings in the section will take effect only for a load module. These are the valid settings for DSTasks: a) XPosition n Specifies the X coordinate for the upper left corner of the DSTasks window when it is loaded as a LoadModule where n is the number. Only valid if it is loaded as a LoadModule. Default: 10 ex: XPosition 20 b) YPosition n Specifies the Y coordinate for the upper left corner of the DSTasks window when it is loaded as a LoadModule where n is the number. Only valid if it is loaded as a LoadModule Default: 10 ex: YPosition 20 c) Background Points to the background image to be used for the DSTasks window. Note that you can specify the "magic pink" colour (255,0 255) to make the image pseudo-transparent but this also results in the icons not being erased properly when you close an application. The image should be 64x64 in size and will contain 9 tasks in a 3x3 grid. Valid if loaded as a LoadModule or as a Wharf Module. Default: nothing. ex: Background dstasks.bmp d) TaskMan Points to the location of the task manager of your choice. The task manager will be activated when you double click on the DSTask window. Valid if loaded as a LoadModule or as a Wharf Module. Default: nothing. ex:TaskMan = C:\Win\Taskman.exe Part 5 - Usage - A Click will bring that particular program to the front. - A CTRL+Click will switch between multiple task screens when you have more than 9 tasks running at the same time. - A right click on an application's icon will bring up that application's system menu. - A double click anywhere on the wharf tile will activate the task manager you've specified in your TaskMan setting Part 6 - Problems/Incompatibilities - The tooltips for old apps (and apps which have jumped squares) remain on as "ghost tooltips". - The load module version cannot be dragged around (yet) - The load module version sometimes disappears. Part 7 - Bug Reports/Suggestions There are several ways to get support or to offer suggestions: - You can stop in #ds_help on any EFNet IRC server and ask one of the ops - You can join the support@darkstep.com (http://darkstep.com/mailman/listinfo/support) or darkstep@darkstep.com (http://darkstep.com/mailman/listinfo/darkstep) mailing lists - You can use the web board at www.darkstep.com - You can e-mail me at FahimF@email.com Part 8 - Version History 1.1 (03 Dec 1999) - Fixed XPosition and YPosition not working - Fixed image corruption problems 1.0 (25 Nov 1999) - This is brand new module with a brand-spanking new version 1.0 number even though the source is based on the old LSTasks code :-) - Converted all the API calls to use the DSAPI instead of LSAPI - Changed task detection to use the new Hook.dll messages passed from DarkStep.Exe to any module that registers to receive the messages - Changed the code so that DSTasks will load either as a wharf module or a LoadModule Part 9 - Future Plans Not really sure whether there is any demand for a module like this but if people are interested, I intend to add the ability to drag the module anywhere you want on the screen, the ability to resize it so that you can display more tasks and the addition of several bang commands like !ToggleVisibility, !TaskMan and !AlwaysOnTop. Part 10 - Credits/Thanks - Francesco Stano a.k.a. \\WILD who came up with the original idea for LSTaskman - WarezPoet/Malakai who implemented \\WILD's idea and thus gave me the inspiration for LSTasks - demigod, Bob Wells, TinOmen, Dethnite and all the other beta testers who've always been so helpful Fahim (FahimF@email.com) Desktop documentation rewritten and formatted by demigod for Fahim Farook. contact: demigod@darkstep.com last updated: 12/1/99 9:52AM