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MACSYS 2.0 on the Siena
(v1.0 15/Sep/97)

Artur Miguel Dias
amd@di.fct.unl.pt

[MACSYS 2.0 is a macro utility written by Tom Dolbilin for the Psion 3a.]

This document contains my  recent discoveries on how to make MACSYS 2.0 run
on a Siena. I searched the Net and DejaNews for this kind of information,
but it seems that none is available.

MACSYS 2.0 was developed to run on the 3a, so it should not come as a
surprise that many of the options of the application do not work on the
Siena. However, miraculously, the parts of the application that really
matter - installing macros and assigning key combination to them - work
well enough on the Siena to make MACSYS 2.0 the single most precious
application to have running on it.

THANKS - To Tom Dolbilin for his great program. MacSys really empowers
the user.

WARNINGS - I am an newcomer to the world of Psion and I got my Siena 1M
only three weeks ago. So, all the procedures herein described are obviously
subjected to some improvement...
- Also be patient, as my command  of the English language is not perfect...

IMPORTANT WARNING- The author of this document is not responsible for
any damage due to the application of the procedures described in this document.

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*** Installing MACSYS on the Siena

1:
Copy the application MACRO.OPA to the directory \OPA

2:
Copy all the example macros *.MCR to the directory \MACRO\MCR\

3:
Create an alternative list for the OPL compiler and associate with it
the directory \MACRO\MCR\ and the extension MCR. Call this alternative
list "EditMCR", for example. The creation of alternative lists is done on
the System screen using the command PSION-E.

[TIP: Go to "http://www.livetext.com/macsys/", print the "MACSYS 2.0
User Manual" and keep it in a handy place.]

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*** Using MACSYS 2.0 on the Siena

1:
CREATE, EDIT and TRANSLATE macros using EditMCR.  When translating a
macro, to the question "Run Program?" always reply "N" (or you will get
one execution error.) The translated macros will be automatically given
the extension "OPO" and all of them will go into the directory "\OPO"
(this contradicts the MacSys manual but don't worry, all will be fine.)

2.
INSTALL the macros and assign them key combinations using the MACRO
application. On the "Install macro" dialog, use the TAB key to select a
OPO file from the directory \OPO. This is a bit of a pain, but the bright
side is that with MacSys you will never need to reinstall a macro, even after
changing it: the update process is automatic (in fact, MACRO simply stores
the file names of the installed macros, instead of their contents.)

3.
The commands "Create new", "Record" , "Edit" and "Key Codes"
of the application MACRO do not work properly on the Siena. Neither
the help does. However, as far I can tell, none of these commands cause
any harm to the Siena.

[TIP: Associate macros with the applications MACRO and EditMCR. Now you will
be able to switch between them easily. ]

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*** The key combinations I personally use

I associate the numeric keys with applications and the letters keys with
miscellaneous utilities. As I do not use the infrared features of the Siena
I also associate the infrared keys with macros.

KEY COMB                MACRO
Psion-0                 activate System  (similar to the System button)
Psion-1                 activate MACRO
Psion-2                 activate EditMCR
Psion-3                 activate 3TS
...                     ...
Infrared-receive        circulate over all the open applications and
                        files (similar to the Shift-System button)
Infrared-send           circulate over all the open files of the front
                        application . Beeps if there is only one file.
...                     ...
Psion-Control-I         Info
Psion-Control-T         Tasklist
Psion-Control-L         Toggle link
...                     ...

Most of these macros are trivially written or based on the examples that
come with MacSys. For example the code of "System.mcr" (Psion-0) is simply:

PROC Macro:
        UseApp:("System")
        ToFront:
ENDP

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*** Wish list for  future (?) versions of MacSys

1.
I do not really miss the lost features of MacSys, so I would like to have
all of them removed so that the application could be even smaller.

2.
Supporting the automatic activation of a particular macro on startup (on MacSys
launching) would be nice. The name of that macro could be "Startup". Useful,
for example, for loading a library of procedures on startup: these procedures
would be then automatically available for all the macros and this
effectively  would allow the macro language to be further "extended".

3.
Support for automatic activation of a particular macro when "switching on"
the Psion. The name of the macro could be "SwitchOn".

4.
This is probably a bit far fetched... Associate an optional automatic
activation time with each macro so that MacSys could be used as a simple
Cron utility. As MACRO is already running in the background, this would
be really, really nice...

--Miguel

| Artur Miguel Dias                                         |
| amd@di.fct.unl.pt       http://www-ctp.di.fct.unl.pt/~amd |
| Dep.Informatica/FCT/UNL, 2825 Monte de Caparica, Portugal |

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