Specifications

2 COMMUNICATING WITH THE SYSTEM SCREEN
2-3
•
A type of
2
is used to restrict a file based application such that only one copy can run at any one
time - this is the case for the built-in
World
application. In contrast see types
0
and
3
.
•
A type of
3
means that the application a) will have a file list when installed in the System Screen,
and b) can receive
Switchfile
instructions. More than one copy of the application can be run at
any one time.
•
A type of
4
means that the application will have a file list in the System Screen, but will never be
sent
Switchfile
instructions: however, it should read the command line on its start up (an example
is the built-in
RunOpl
application)
•
Finally, a type of
5
means that the application is a
pure file list application
, ie not a real
application at all, but just an icon to group together various applications or utility programs (like
the built-in
RunImg
icon) - see below for more details.
The application's behaviour may be further modified by adding one or more of the following values to the
type number:
8000
prevents
Switchfile
messages of the Create sort being sent to the application
(this makes sense for an application such as a file dumper, which can dump the
contents of existing files, but cannot meaningfully create the file it is going to
dump)
4000
prevents the application being sent
Shutdown
messages - this will also prevent
the application being Killed from the System Screen (but not, for example,
from the
Spy
application released as part of the SDK)
2000
indicates that the application's
.ms
file contains public names
for more than one
different language version
(see below)
1000
indicates that the
.pic
file contains a 48 by 48 Series 3a icon (preceded by a 24
by 24 icon if the application is to run on the Series 3 as well as the Series 3a).
The Series 3 does not recognise this flag and will simply read the 24 by 24 icon
if present.
100
the application should not be sent an exit message so that, for example,
pressing
DELETE
acts as Kill application. The Series 3 does not recognise this
flag.
80
on selecting "Create new list" from the System Screen, the resulting dialog box
will contain an extra line, for specifying Text editor or Word processor type.
The Series 3 does not recognise this flag.
Multi-lingual forms of .ms files
Suppose the
Data
application were to be translated into French, German, and Italian, and that its public
names in these languages were to be
Fiche
,
Daten
, and
Archivi
, respectively. In that case, an appropriate
.ms
file would be as follows:
Data.DBF
\DAT\
2003
01Data
02Fiche
03Daten
05Archivi
Here, the
2000
in the application type means that the remaining lines in the
.ms
file are each made up as
follows:
<language number><public name in that language>
where language numbers are as documented in the
p_getlanguage
part of the
Plib Reference
manual.
The same rules apply to the public names for other languages as to the default public name defined in the
first line of the
.ms
file.
It is not possible to change the default extension or the default directory from one language to another.