Hi list,
there are several ways of writing scripts to help Arachne do her work
faster and more comfortably. Writing these scripts does not require
knowledge in C programming, so anybody can do it. On the other hand
you need quite a bit experience with Arachne and the support of
the mailing list, because something seems to be rather magical.
There are two main categories of these small utilities:
1. The OOKs and EEKs: They are pure DOS batch files. Their file
extension allows them to be started from Arachne. They always
work. But you cannot pass parameters to them.
2. The DGIs: They are defined by a cryptic language in mime.cfg. They
may contain DOS commands and external programs. You can pass
parameters from Arachne to them and their output can be returned to
Arachne. They generally work if Glenn writes them.
Writing DGIs can be quite frustrating. But you can do more things
with them. And basically any OOK can be replaced by a DGI. Am I right?
Here is an implementation:
A further difference between OOKs and DGIs is that for running OOKs
Arachne always needs to leave the graphic mode and shell out to DOS.
The screen gets dark for a short moment while the script is running -
even if the program has no screen output at all. With the DGIs it
depends. If you begin the line in MIME.CFG with the @ symbol Arachne
shells out the same way. If you leave out this symbol and the script
does not require too much memory then the DOS commands can run
invisibly, as Arachne does not leave the graphic mode.
I successfully replaced the ugly \oops\swapedit.ook
@echo off
copy \system\gui\textedit.ah edit.tmp >nul
copy \system\gui\textedit.alt \system\gui\textedit.ah >nul
copy edit.tmp \system\gui\textedit.alt >nul
copy nul edit.tmp >nul
with this line in mime.cfg
file/swapedit.dgi |call swapedit.bat
and a common batch file
@echo off
copy \system\gui\textedit.ah edit.tmp >nul
copy \system\gui\textedit.alt \system\gui\textedit.ah >nul
copy edit.tmp \system\gui\textedit.alt >nul
copy nul edit.tmp >nul
The result is that the program is running invisibly and I do not have
to wait until the current page reloads.
Is there any reason for the prevailing of .OOK scripts uder Arachne?
Regards,
Christof Lange
_______________________________________________
Christof Lange <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Prokopova 4, 130 00 Praha 3, Czech Republic
phone: (+420) 222 78 06 73 / 222 78 20 02
http://www.volny.cz/cce.zizkov
