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Console window ... I need scrollbar but not menus

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 6:13 am
by redfox
Is there a NOMENU option for the FE console? The LEGACY option takes away the history scrollbar and buttons as well as the menus. I don't want the menus, but I need the scrollbar and scroll up and down buttons.

I have been updating some of my ARexx scripts that open console windows for input and output. Some use CON: console and some use KCON: console (KingCON). The FE console has many nice features, such as the scrollbar and scroll up and down buttons for history. I like this feature, but I don't like the menus and want to shut them off.

Tonight, I tried KCON: for my sendmail window, and encountered the problem shown in the thread "KingCon failure with FE console.device".

KCON: window locks up after typing about 12-15 characters.

KingCON has a NOMENU option. This takes away the menus but still provides the scrollbar and scroll buttons.

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redfox

Re: Console window ... I need scrollbar but not menus

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 11:53 am
by tonyw
Sorry, you can't create a console window without a menu.

Is it just the aesthetics or is there a good reason why you would want a window without a menu?

KingCon is a very old program that used some undocumented "features" of the old 68K assembler console that no longer exist in the new PPC C version. I spent some time adding support for old programs like KingCon. I think you will find it works properly only using Legacy mode. The Legacy mode uses a window provided by the caller (KingCon in this case) and does not add a menu to it.

Perhaps you can get what you want by running KingCon with a Legacy console and the NoMenu option in KingCon.

Re: Console window ... I need scrollbar but not menus

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 11:33 pm
by redfox
Hi Tony,

Let me back up a bit. I am not attempting to replace the new Shell console with the old console or KingCON. I use the Shell quite alot and I am very pleased with the new look and features, especially the scrollbar and up and down gadgets.

Back some years ago, I started programming with ARexx. I decided that I wanted to make useful programs as I was learning how to program with ARexx and interact with the system and user. Most of my programs are very simple. I don't know how to make a GUI. I found that I could interact with the user by opening console windows to display text and ask for input from the user.

For example, my sendmail program opens a window, asks for To:, From:, Subject: and text. User ends with a "." all by itself on the last line, and the program sends the email. Due to changes at my ISP, I also had to figure out the SMTP protocol. I have debug code in my program to allow me to troubleshoot the protocol. This means I need a big window or a window with scrollbar and scroll up and down gadgets to scroll through the text and messages.

My readmail program is more sophisticated. It opens and closes windows as it proceeds. Opens a small window to ask for mailbox name, opens another window to list the mailbox entries and asks the user for input, user types in the item number, program opens another window to display the content of the selected email, user decides what to do, quit, reply, forward, save, print, view previous email, view next email, go back to the list.

The menus provided by the new FE console program and KingCON are not useful for my ARexx applications. I cannot change the menus, so it is easier to ignore the menus or not use menus at all.

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redfox

Re: Console window ... I need scrollbar but not menus

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 11:51 pm
by redfox
Tony, I forgot to add that while I was using my sendmail program, I chose a menu item, Project > New Shell and my text vanished and was replaced by a new shell process for AmigOS4. The window name was still the same as what I had named it. When I exited from the Shell process, the Shell text vanished and my original text reappeared from behind it. I do not know if the menu selection passed info back to my calling program. I would not know how to deal with that. That is why I used the NOMENU option when I was using KCON windows for this program. The default menus provided nothing useful for my ARexx application, so I figured it was best to have no menu at all. However, I could still use the scrollbar and up and down gadgets supplied with the KCON window.

Since I need the scrollbar and up and down gadgets, I will have to remember to stay away from the menu when I am using the FE console windows.

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redfox

Re: Console window ... I need scrollbar but not menus

Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2019 5:01 am
by tonyw
I chose a menu item, Project > New Shell and my text vanished and was replaced by a new shell process for AmigOS4
That's what happens if you don't have the "Tabbed" option in the window specification. Your old window was still there, behind the new one. You could have switched back to the old window by using "RAmiga/<", "RAmiga/>" or selecting the window you want from the "View" menu. If you had used the Tabbed option in the command line, you would have had a Tab gadget in the top of the window, with a tab for each console window.

If you hit the "Help"/"Scroll Lock" key while the console is active, the Help window will appear - it should explain all these options for you.

As I suggested before, use a legacy console with KingCon - you will then have KC's window (not a new console window) and the KC scrollbars, no menu, etc.

Re: Console window ... I need scrollbar but not menus

Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2019 5:19 pm
by redfox
Thanks Tony

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redfox