On Mon, 30 Sept 2024 at 15:09, Jerome Shidel via Freedos-devel <freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > This must have been a long while back.
According to this, 2 years: « PGME (Program Manager Eternity) is a fully customizable multi-menu application launcher for DOS. It also includes Font Designer and several other utilities. (Requires a mouse.) Jerome writes: "I spent a little time this morning and did a minor update to PGME. Mostly, it improves compatibility with mouse drivers other than CTMouse. For example, the old MS-DOS 6.x mouse driver should be detected and usable now." You can find it at PGME on Jerome's website. Posted by 2022-08-21 » > I apologize if I may have seemed negative about any suggestions you may have > given. Hey, it's OK, no problem. It is a long time ago and it's no biggie. > I always try to be very open about receiving comments on improving anything > I’ve written. Obviously, this is not the same as agreeing with or > implementing everything that is suggested. But, I do try and listen to them > without imposing any of my own personal and biased opinions. *nods* > While there is a little bit of similarity, I don’t feel that PGME is at all > like GEM, Seal, Ozone or any of those other programs. They are all Desktop > Environments. PGME is “just" a program and game launcher. Fair. Maybe some context would make my position clearer. I want to make a live bootable USB with FreeDOS and a few word processors and other writer's tools, such as an outliner, maybe a spreadsheet, as a distraction-free writing tool. I want to put a friendly menu launcher on the front end. It will launch those apps and nothing else. I evaluated various shells in the FreeDOS optional-components CD for this. I found most lacking, either being incomplete or non-functional or other failings. The one notable exception is PGME, which goes the other direction. * It's built in as standard. * It has _more_ features than I want or need. * It does stuff I don't want. I don't need colours, special effects, animation, fonts, etc. I just want a program menu. Plain old VGA text mode would be fine because anything too old for VGA is so old it's an antique. 16 colours are plenty for a menu. Frankly, 2 are enough. I would respectfully suggest that sensible pragmatic defaults are: no colours, no soft fonts, no effects, 16 colour text mode only, default MS > Although PGME requires a EGA or better video card, it does not run in > graphics mode. It is purely a text mode program. The included screen savers > of run in graphics mode. However, they can be easily disabled. I didn't know that. TBH I found it complex and hard to understand so nothing was easy to understand or easy to disable. > It is possible to add an option for PGME not to use any of its fonts. And if > I remember to do it when I find the time, I will add that ability. Sounds good. I would suggest that no soft fonts be the default. > It is also possible to add a setting for PGME to completely ignore a mouse. > Again, if I remember when I find the time. Also beneficial, but I wouldn't suggest that is the default. However, agnosticism to which mouse driver is important. It is 2Y ago but I think when I tested your revised version it still did not work with the default MS MOUSE.EXE that came with PC DOS 2000 in VirtualPC. > Everything about PGME is about function. For a “simple” program launcher, it > is very complex under the hood. I gathered... (!) -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven IoM: (+44) 7624 227612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884 Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053 _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
