Tips
* Turn-off or reboot (<CTRL-ALT-DEL>) at any time, except during disk writes. Writes are not cached.
* Use Seed() and the cmd line to switch Rand() to non-timer mode and replay games you like.
* 64-bit values are most efficient for the compiler.
* See Key Map for a list of defined keys. Define your own keys in MyPutKey(). See Keyboard Devices.
* <ALT-m> maximizes a window. <ALT-SHIFT-a> closes AutoComplete. <ALT-a> brings back AutoComplete. <ALT-v> vertically tiles
windows. <ALT-h> horizontally tiles windows. The ALT keys are defined in ~/HomeKeyPlugIns.CC. You can customize them.
* If you make changes to ZealOS files in your /Home directory, generally you reboot to make them take effect. (You don't
compile anything.) You should have two ZealOS partitions on your hard drive because a syntax error in a start-up file will
make the partition unbootable. Boot to the second partition or boot to a standard ZealOS CD/DVD and use Mount() to mount your
hard drive.
* You can copy your files to a mirrored ident partition, periodically with CopyTree() commands in scripts. You can do merge
commands with a menu entry like this:
Merge(\"C:/*\",\"D:/*\",\"+r+d\"); to check your changes.
* <CTRL-m> at the cmd line to access your PersonalMenu. Place macros there with <CTRL-l>, or icon-like sprites with <CTRL-r>.
Use the Pop-Up option on macros to Spawn() a task to run a file. It dies when it is finished. This returns mem to the system.
Be sure to press <CTRL-s> to save your macro/menu area after making changes.
* You can use ans in cmd line expressions. It holds the res the last cmd line operation. You can use the cmd prompt as a
calculator by just entering expressions like 1+2*3;. F64 reses can be accessed with ansf.
* Use the PullDown menu at the top of the screen to learn commands, or for finding the keyboard controls to games.
* You can adjust the mouse movement rate by setting global vars in your start-up file. See mouse scale.
* You can set your local time zone by setting the local_time_offset global var in a start-up file. It's units are CDATE_FREQ.
See local time.
* <CTRL-SHIFT-L> in the editor to reindent a CosmiC function or renumber an asm routine's local labels.
* You can use filter_lines in the editor text search form (<CTRL-f>) to temporarily display just lines near each match. A
value of filter lines set to 5 will display lines within 5 lines of matches. Then, you can do another find to a different
string and achieve a AND search. When finished, press <ESC>.
* You can recompile and reinstall the kernel with BootHDIns(). You'll probably want to make a function for recompiling that
uses the In() function to answer the config questions. See the technique Config Strs, Update Funs.
* Scale2Mem(min,max,limit=2*1024*1024*1024) can be used for config questions when recompiling. The BootHDIns() config prompts
accept expressions, not just numbers. The default disk cache is Scale2Mem(0x80000,0x8000000).
* You can permanently disable AutoComplete commenting-out ACInit() in ~/HomeSys.CC.
* Boolean expressions in if statements don't have short circuit logic and are compiled inefficiently.
* You can use progress1-progress4 in your programs for whatever you like. They're just global vars that are shown on the
wallpaper. The original intent was to indicate how far along operations were. There's no coordination, so different apps might
interfere. They're most often used for debugging--just values easily viewed. See ::/Demo/Progress.CC.
* Use DocMax() to adjust the size of the cmd line buf. It counts CDoc entries, not lines.
* Many data structures have a user_data member. Those are available for you to store a data item, for convenience. CTask,
CDocEntry and CDirEntry have them. You shouldn't encounter conflicts with ZealOS using them.
* If, for some strange reason, you wanted to reduce mem usage, make a smaller disk cache when you recompile the kernel;
disabling AutoComplete; Specify smaller stack sizes when doing Spawn(), change MEM_DEFAULT_STACK, and using DocMax() to reduce
the cmd line buffer size.
* Merge() can be used to see what's changed. The +d flag will show differences of files which have changed and allow you to
merge code. (The +r flag will recurse.)
* There is a utility LinkCheck() which will check for broken links in documentation.
* You can use Option(OPTf_WARN_PAREN, ON) to find unnecessary parentheses in code.
* You can use Option(OPTf_WARN_DUP_TYPES, ON) to find unnecessary local var type statements.
* Option(OPTf_ECHO, ON) can be placed in StartOS.CC to echo start-up scripts.
* Use Plain() to edit a plain text file. You'll need this if your file has $'s. Use the ToDolDoc() utility to convert plain
text to DolDoc's by doubling $'s.
* Use Silent() to disable screen text output.
* Grab-scroll any window at any time with {CTRL-LEFT-MOUSE-DRAG}. Null grab-scrolling with {CTRL-RIGHT-MOUSE}.
* Use <CTRL-ALT-z> to zoom-in and <CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-Z> to zoom-out. You can scroll by moving to the edge of the window. Set
gr.continuous_scroll to TRUE if you want.
* Use <CTRL-ALT-g> and <CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-G> to display a grid on the screen.
* Use <CTRL-ALT-a> to enter an extended ASCII char.
* Use <CTRL-ALT-f> to toggle between the VGA ROM Font and Std Font.
* Use <CTRL-ALT-s> will capture the screen as a sprite on the clip. You can save the cmd line doc as text with <CTRL-a>.
* You can save a sprite as a .GR file in <CTRL-r> on the Sprite BitMap Menu.
* You can eye-dropper colors in the <CTRL-r> sprite editor by pressing 'c'. Press 't' for transparent.
* There are handy functions--F(),R(),FD() and RD() which are defined in ~/HomeWrappers.CC. You are encouraged to change them
and add more. They will perform find-and-replace operations across multiple files. The +l flag is particularly useful since it
limits to whole labels. The +lb and +la flags limit to whole labels just before or after. You are encouraged to add or modify
handy wrapper functions to make cmd line operations easier.
* When using Find() while modifying code, work from the bottom-up so that line numbers are correct. If you work top-down, then
inserting or deleting lines causes the lower file links to become incorrect.
* You can save files after making changes, anytime you are within the editor, like when viewing help/macro files. <CTRL-a>
saves as, <CTRL-s> saves with the same name in the scrolling title bar. Hitting <ESC> will exit and save (<SHIFT-ESC> will
abort). You can save the cmd line window to a file, too, since you're actually in the editor when you're at the cmd line.
* When using <CTRL-l> to insert links in documents, you can usually leave the Tag Text blank and it will be filled-in
automatically based on other entries.
* There is a feature of the precompiler that allows code to be executed in the middle of compilation and data inserted into
the compilation stream. Click here for an example: #exe {.
* If you output to the cmd line and wish to allow users to scroll around and view data, you can use View().
* Use View() in Pop-up macros to linger until the user presses <ESC> or <SHIFT-ESC>.
* You can access the word under the cursor at ac.cur_word.
* You can reactivate AutoComplete after closing it by pressing <CTRL-Fun Key> or <ALT-a>.
* <CTRL-SHIFT-T> to toggle to/from plain text just the CDoc cmd under the cursor. See ::/Demo/DolDoc/TextDemo.CC.
* If you toggle to plain text when you are working with graphics in a document, you can add duplicate entries for sprites by
entering a $SP...$ cmd with the same num.
* If you toggle to plain text when working with graphics, you can add a str to the $SP...$ entry to keep track of it. Try $SP,
"<2>",BI=2$ where '2' is the sprite num.
* You can edit an existing sprite by putting the cursor on it and pressing <CTRL-r>.
* When editing a sprite, you can cut and paste the elements in the sidebar text list window.
* It's recommended to keep CSprite in vector format until you are done creating them, so you can edit the ctrl points. Then,
convert them to bitmaps, so the flood fills work well. If you are doing interpolation, however, they must be vector.
* GrFloodFill() is slow. GrRect() is fast.
* You can customize the wallpaper. See ::/Demo/Graphics/WallPaperFish.CC.
* Your RAM disks will not be reformatted when you reboot if the memory location has not changed and it finds the disk intact.
* try{} catch{} in a function will cause all vars to be non-reg.
* Using a sub-int array, i.u8[3], for example, will force a local var to non-reg.
* You can delete the ~/Registry.CC file. The policy is that deleting it will restore defaults. It is a text doc, if you want
to edit it. Be careful of tree indentations.
* Study ::/System/Utils/MemRep.CC and WallPaper() to learn how the system resources are put together.
* The editor's sel-text mechanism allows for disjoint portions of sel text. This is a feature, not a bug -- you can
cut-and-paste disjoint text.
* counts.time_stamp_freq is continuously calibrated. Be careful because expressions might decrease. Take a snap-shot, like
this: timeout = TSCGet + counts.time_stamp_freq x seconds; and compare against TSCGet(). It's recommended to just use tS or
counts.jiffies.
* Use HeapLog(), HeapLogAddrRep() and HeapLogSizeRep() to find leaks. Don't be confused by CDoc allocations. Those are
generated when text is written to the cmd line buffer.
* For advanced heap debugging, play with _CONFIG_HEAP_DEBUG. You're on your own.
* You can use Type() to display .GR files.
* Use Man() to jump to short sym name src code.
* Use Fix() to edit and fix the last compiler error.
* You can use <CTRL-SHIFT-L> to do a check for compile errors.
* You can use DocOpt() to optimize links.
* With start/end, common trailing code is fast. Common leading code is slow.
* The first line of the Psalmody CosmiC song files is a comment with a category recognized by JukeBox(). The categories are "n
o nothing", "has words", "has graphics", or "special". The third character in the song comment is a digit rating number, shown
in JukeBox(). You can set the song rating in JukeBox() by pressing 0-9. You can press <DEL> to delete songs.
* "Linux" is a trademark owned by Linus Torvalds.