| Readme: | For a list of changes, please see end of this file.
WHAT IS IT
==========
Lucy is a small commodity that uses one of the new features of MorphOS 2.0
and makes currently inactive and/or unfocussed windows translucent,
depending on its operation mode.
REQUIREMENTS
============
- MorphOS 2.0
- Enabled 3D Layers (3D boot parameter)
INSTALLATION
============
Simply start Lucy from its drawer. If you like it copy Lucy over to your
WBStartup drawer.
If it displays an error like "Default pubscreen does not support opacity!"
you don't have enabled 3D Layers. To enable 3D Layers for MorphOS 2.0, you
have to give "3D" (without the quotes) as boot parameter.
Example when you are using the MorphOS Demo from CD: boot cd boot.img 3D
Example for a fully installed MorphOS 2.0: boot boot.img 3D
For a more detailed explaination of boot parameters and how to enter them
please visit http://www.morphos-team.net/faq.html
USAGE
=====
Once Lucy is started it defaults to some (hopefully) sane settings and its
effect should be immediately visible.
By pressing the Popkey (CTRL ALT x) you are able to tweak Lucy's settings
to your liking.
CONFIGURATION
=============
"Operation Mode"
----------------
- "Window under the Mouse Pointer gets full opacity"
Not much to say here. All windows are set to the unfocussed opacity
except the window that is under the Mouse Pointer which gets set to
focussed opacity level. This mode makes sense together with IControls
"Window Actions" mode.
- "Only the active window always gets full opacity"
This mode sets all windows to unfocussed opacity. Focussed opacity level
is set to the active window. In order for it to become the active window
you have to click it (but you knew that already :-)).
- "Window under the Mouse Pointer and active window gets full opacity"
This mode is a combination of the above two modes and there's really
nothing more to say.
- "Auto-Activate window under the Mouse Pointer (gets full opacity)"
All windows are set to unfocussed opacity except for the window under the
Mouse Pointer which will be activated (it becomes the active window) and
then gets focussed opacity set to itself.
- "Off"
Do nothing. Set this if you only want to use the "Window Peek" feature
(which is quite useful in contrast to other options this program offers %-)).
Sliders
-------
- "Focussed window opacity"
Set here the opacity level that focussed and/or active windows will be
set to.
- "Unfocussed window opacity"
Set here the opacity level that unfocussed and/or inactive windows will
be set to.
- "Blend speed when going unfocussed"
Here you can set by what step size windows blend to unfocussed opacity.
The smaller the value, the longer it will take and the more smooth the
blending is.
- "Blend speed when going focussed"
Set the step size that is used to blend to focussed opacity.
As a sidenote and for everyone who's interested: As Lucy runs with 24
updates per second you can calculate how much time it takes to blend a
window that, for example, starts at 0 unfocussed opacity and blends to full
focussed opacity of 255 and has a step size (speed) of 1.
The formula for calculating the time it takes for blending from
unfocussed to focussed opacity is:
(focussed_opacity - unfocussed_opacity) / (updates_per_second * stepsize)
In this example it would be: (255 - 0) / (24 * 1) = 10.625 seconds.
"Window Peek"
-------------
With Window Peek it's possible to set the window under the Mouse Pointer to
a specific opacity quickly by just clicking (or double clicking depending
on what you prefer) the left mouse button together with a qualifier key.
Keeping the qualifier key pressed and clicking other windows will set these to
the selected opacity level too. Clicking an already "peeked" window again
will restore its original opacity level.
The opacity level is kept as long as you don't move the mouse after releasing
the qualifier key. This means that once you peeked a window (or more
windows) you can release the qualifier and mouse buttons and the window
will stay at the selected opacity level as long as you don't move the
mouse.
"Bring active window to front"
------------------------------
This option is only useful together with the 4th operation mode
("Auto-Activate window under the Mouse Pointer"). If auto-activation is
selected as operation mode, this option lets Lucy bring the
auto-activated window to front if either "Immediately" or "After blending" is
selected.
- "Never"
This effect is switched off.
- "Immediately"
As soon as Lucy auto-activates the window it is brought to front.
Usually this is at the same time Lucy starts blending the window to
focussed opacity.
- "After blending has finished"
When Lucy auto-activates the window under the Mouse Pointer it is blended
to focussed window opacity. Only when the windows opacity reaches this
opacity it is set to front with this option selected.
"Options"
--------
- "Ignore backdrop windows"
Makes Lucy ignore backdrop windows.
- "Ignore Desktop backdrop window"
Desktops such as Ambient and Workbench usually use a backdrop window
where they display their icons and wallpaper. If you don't want Lucy to
affect this window, enable this option (you usually want this option
enabled).
- "Ignore always-in-front windows (menus)"
Always-in-front windows are the opposite to backdrop windows (which are
always in the back :-) ). Intuition and MUI context menus use this window
flag to make sure they are always displayed over every other window. So,
if you want Intuition menus and MUI context menus unaffected by Lucy,
set this option.
- "Ignore Toolbar windows (menus)"
With MorphOS 2.0 this new window flag was introduced and is meant for
windows that simply display a toolbar. Such windows cannot be activated
and only react to mouseclicks. Up to now I don't know any application that
makes use of this new window flag except for the fact that Intuition menus
and MUI context menus have this window flag set. So, if you don't want to
use the "Ignore always-in-front windows" option to make Lucy ignore menus,
use this option instead for having unaffected menus.
- "Override windows initial opacity"
Windows that already have an opacity other than 255 set at the time
Lucy finds them will be ignored and stay unaffected by Lucy per default.
If you still want such windows to be blended by Lucy, enable this option.
"Window Ignore Pattern"
-----------------------
This textfield allows you to enter a DOS-Pattern to be matched against
window titles in order to ignore specific windows.
Basically if you want to ignore just one window, for example CygnusED
Professional, all you need to enter here is "cygnused#?" (without the
quotes), and CygnusED Professional will not be blended anymore.
If you want to ignore more than one window you would have to enter the
patterns in brackets separated by | (called Sheffer stroke or just vertical
bar). For example if you wanted to ignore CygnusED and AMIRC the text to
enter would look like this: (cygnused#?|amirc#?)
Please note that the pattern matching is case insensitive.
"Task Ignore Pattern"
---------------------
Like in "Window Ignore Pattern" you can enter a DOS-Pattern here. But this
time it is matched against the task name the window belongs to instead of
just the window title. This can become handy in case the window title is
just empty as it is the case for certain MUI apps that use completely borderless windows like
statline or Wetter. Also this is useful for programs that have a window
title that is always different like for example mplayer.
Lucy is preconfigured to ignore mplayer, AmiNetRadio and statline.
The default string for this is: (#?mplayer#?|#?aminetradio#?|#?statline#?)
NOTES
=====
At the moment Lucy only affects the public screen it was started from.
This might change in the future.
If you encounter any problems with Lucy don't hesitate to report them to
(Internet Relay Chat) irc.amigazeux.net channel #amigazeux.
CREDITS
=======
Thanks for the nice Lucy icon to Andr� "Jobbo" Siegel. :-)
Big thanks goes to Leif Salomonsson for all the hard work he's putting
into ECX to make it perfect.
Thanks also to the MorphOS-Team for MorphOS 2.0 and especially to Jacek
"jacaDcaps" Piszczek for adding all the magic to intuition and layers
making the impossible possible. :-)
DONATING
========
If you like Lucy and want to show your appreciation please consider
donating to #amigazeux at http://www.amigazeux.org
On the left side you can enter the amount you want to donate and then
simply press the "PayPal DONATE" button.
CHANGES
=======
V2.33 (09.09.2008)
------------------
- Fixed the previous fix properly. All windows should really be lucifyable again.
V2.29 (07.09.2008)
------------------
- With MorphOS2.1 MUI windows could not be lucyfied anymore because their initial opacity is always 0 and lucy used to ignore such windows. Removed this check. Lets hope it doesn't break other things :-)
V2.24 (20.08.2008)
------------------
- With Lucy running windows could not be hidden anymore by using Unmask or IControl Hide-Window feature. Fixed.
V2.22 (07.07.2008)
------------------
- Added "Task Ignore Pattern" to be able to ignore windows by the task name it belongs to. Useful for programs that don't have a window title or where the window title changes all the time (mplayer for example).
V2.0 (05.07.2008)
-----------------
- Added "Ignore always-in-front windows" option.
- Added "Ignore Toolbar windows" option.
- Added "Ignore Pattern" option to make Lucy ignore specific windows by their title.
- Wrote more extensive documentation to help people to distinguish features from bugs. :-)
V1.80 (03.07.2008)
------------------
- "Window under the Mouse Pointer and active window gets full opacity" didn't work. Fixed.
- "Auto-Activate window under the Mouse Pointer" didn't work. Fixed.
V1.72 (02.07.2008)
------------------
- First public release.
Have Fun!
-- #amigazeux
|
Ambient (143)
Lucy_2.33.lha