Module Information Application
by Ashley Ward

This is an application to help when performing 'housekeeping' with modules. When fiddling with the !System directory, it is frequently necessary to know what version number a module has. One way of obtaining this is to double-click on the module to load it, then type *Help Modules at the command line, and read off the help message. The trouble with this is that you have to leave the Desktop temporarily to get the message, and the machine fills up with modules unless you quit them all individually using *RMKill.

So, seeing that relocatable modules all have a standard header, this application takes a module which you drag to its icon, and reads and displays information about it.

When this application is run, an icon appears on the icon bar. You can click Menu on this icon, which produces a standard Info and Quit menu. Slide the pointer to the right of 'Info' to get a standard info box, or click on 'Quit' to quit the application.

The application springs into action when you drag a module to the icon on the icon bar. A window will appear, with the following details on it:

Filename:
---------
This is just the complete pathname of the module that you have dragged to the icon bar. If the length of the name is bigger than the space for it, you will only be shown the righthand end of the name.

Title:
------
The module title, as shown by *Modules

Help:
-----
The module help message, including the version number and date (usually) as shown by *Help Modules.

Startcode:
----------
The address of the start of the module code, given in hexadecimal relative to the start of the module.

Initialise:
-----------
As for Startcode, only the initialisation code.

Finalise:
---------
As for Startcode, only the finalisation code.

Service:
--------
As for Startcode, only the service entry point.

If the module does not have an entry for one of the categories, 'None' will be displayed instead.

The window can be moved, put to the back of the heap or closed as any normal Wimp window. The menu can be called up from here as well: press Menu over the window.

You can drag a file which does not have the filetype 'Module' as long as it makes 'Module' sense: you will get a 'Module error' if it does not. If the file is not a module, the user is asked whether to proceed: click on OK to proceed or Cancel to stop. The application gives a 'Module error' when an address refers to a location outside the file.

You can also drag a module to the window as well as the icon on the icon bar. This has exactly the same effect.

Tab characters are removed from each text string, and are replaced by a space.

If the file is some sort of directory (normal or application), the application will stop with the error 'Cannot get information from a directory'.

 RISC User 1992
