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                    Enhancing GShell -- A Proposal
                             Boisy G. Pitre

     With the advent of the speed and power of the 6309, Multi-Vue is
once again being considered for use as a GUI.  Several enhancements
have been made to GShell over the years, making it much more bearable
under the 6809.  However, it could still stand for improvement in several
areas, including extensions and linking to 6309 optimized libraries.

     Currently GShell+ is up to version 1.25 (by Kent Meyers and others).
Any changes would be based on that version of GShell.  The resulting
release, because of the significance of the changes, would (and should)
probably be dubbed 2.00.

     The thrust of this document is to offer some ideas for changing
GShell for the better.  While reading this, keep in mind that nothing
stated in this proposal is set in concrete -- I am open to, and looking
for, practical suggestions to improving GShell's usability from a user's
point of view.


ENV.FILE EXTENSIONS

     The env.file in the /DD/SYS directory currently has the following
format:

Field                           Explanation
=====                           ===========
RBFDEV=/DD,/D0,/D1,/R0          RBF devices
SCFDEV=/P,/T2                   SCF devices
MONTYPE=1                       monitor type (0=Composite,1=RGB,2=Mono)
RAM=512                         RAM size (128, 512)
EXEC=/DD/CMDS                   initial execution directory
*PROGRAM=Shell                  program to start
*PARAM=i=/term                  parameters for program
REPSTR=3                        key repeat start
REPSPD=5                        key repeat speed
PTRRES=1                        pointer resolution (0=lo, 1=hi)
PTRSID=1                        pointer side (0=left, 1=right)
LFTMRGN=8                       left margin
LNLEN=64                        line length
PGWDTH=80                       page width
HDRSIZ=5                        header size (in lines)
TRLSIZ=5                        trail (footer) size (in lines)
PGLEN=66                        page length
TABSIZ=4                        tab size
PGPAUS=0                        page pause
PRPORT=/p                       printer port
PRNAME=STAR NX-1000             printer name
PALET0=3,3,3                    palette 0
PALET1=0,0,2                    palette 1
PALET2=0,0,0                    palette 2
PALET3=0,3,0                    palette 3
PALET4=3,0,0                    palette 4
PALET5=0,3,3                    palette 5
PALET6=2,0,3                    palette 6
PALET7=3,2,0                    palette 7
PALET8=3,3,3                    palette 8
PALET9=0,0,3                    palette 9
PALET10=0,0,0                   palette 10
PALET11=0,3,0                   palette 11
PALET12=3,0,0                   palette 12
PALET13=0,3,3                   palette 13
PALET14=2,0,3                   palette 14
PALET15=3,2,0                   palette 15


     Immediate extensions that come to mind:

PTRRES   0=lo, 1=hi, 3=microsoft, 4=logitech
RAM      128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048

     One of the things that has always bothered me was Multi-Vue's
insistence of having all programs that it forked use the default
palettes in the env.file file.  This is not a problem if you keep
keep the first 4 colors the same as OS-9's default palette.  However,
customizing GShell's own menu colors will result in an across-the-board
change in the default palette registers for all programs forked under GShell.

     This, to say the least, is annoying.  To get around this problem,
several things could be done.  First, we could add 16 more palette fields
which would be set to the default palettes of all programs being
forked by GShell.

     Secondly, we could add only four more palette fields, specifically
for the first four palettes, and just for GShell's color customization.
With this, we could set the 16 palettes to whatever we want by default,
and have GShell use the palettes from the new fields for its own color:

GSHPAL0=3,2,0
GSHPAL1=2,0,3
GSHPAL2=0,3,3
GSHPAL3=1,1,0

     Since GShell only uses the first four palettes for itself, this
would keep the env.file file from being cluttered with 12 extra palette
fields that don't get used anyway.

     Obviously, changes to the env.file file would require updating
of some programs like control, gport, etc.  While I cannot assure
that they will be updated, I will make every effort to try.

     Can anyone think of any other GShell related configuration information
that could be conveniently in the env.file file?


AIF EXTENSIONS

     The AIF file format could be expanded to make for a much more
customizable Multi-Vue environment.  Below is what I propose.  Again,
I'm open to any suggestions on this format:

                        CURRENT AIF FORMAT

Field                    Line   Explanation
=====                    ====   ===========
Shell                  <--- 1:  Name of program to run
                       <--- 2:  Parameters (or ? for prompt)
ICONS/icon.shell       <--- 3:  path to icon, execution directory relative
0                      <--- 4:  additional memory (in pages)
2                      <--- 5:  window type
80                     <--- 6:  X size
24                     <--- 7:  Y size
2                      <--- 8:  foreground palette
0                      <--- 9:  background palette

   AIF EXTENSION (IF EXTENSION LINSES AREN'T EXISTENT, OLD STYLE IS USED)

 Field                    Line   Explanation
 =====                    ====   ===========
 Shell Plus             <--- 10: icon title (to appear instead of prog. name)
 /H0/CMDS/TEST:/H1      <--- 11: execution path to search along for prog.
 /H0                    <--- 12: data directory to change upon forking
 /H0/CMDS/TEST          <--- 13: execution directory to change upon forking



IN CONCLUSION

If you ever wanted to see a feature added to GShell, now is the time to
express it.  Any ideas, cosmetic or otherwise, will be accepted and
reviewed.  Please direct all ideas and suggestions through the following
channels ONLY:

    Internet:   boisy@os9er.waukee.ia.us (preferred)

    Delphi:     BOISY

    U.S. Mail:  Boisy G. Pitre
                PO Box 523
                Waukee, IA  50263