SuperBD (ver 1.14) - The Ultimate Pinboard
by Glynn Clements (with additions by Lee Calcraft)

Double-clicking on this application installs a powerful sticky backdrop application, an enhanced version of the one published on the magazine disc for RISC User 6:2. SuperBD has major advantages over the RISC OS Pinboard. For example icons can be in standard or small size, and the state of the backdrop can be easily saved from the menu at any time for autobooting.

SuperBD can be run by double-clicking on its icon in a directory viewer. This immediately installs the backdrop. There is no icon to take up space on the icon bar. When a file icon is dragged to the backdrop, the icon is displayed on the backdrop in the position to which it was dragged. The icon then behaves as if it were in a directory viewer, in terms of what happens if it is double-clicked, Shift-double-clicked, or dragged.

Clicking Menu over the backdrop displays a menu containing 13 entries. Entries 1-6 are only available if Menu was clicked over an icon.

'Remove icon' removes the icon. 'Background' and 'Text' lead to colour menus allowing the icon's text foreground and background colours to be set. 'Small icon' allows the icon format to be toggled between large or small. "File/App./Dir. 'xxx'" leads to a submenu allowing any of the commands *Count, *Info, *Access, *Cat, *Ex or Dir to be applied to the file, directory or application. The last three commands can only be used on directories.

'Save' saves the current backdrop state. The backdrop will then start up in this state next time it is run. 'Rename' displays a dialogue box containing two writable icons and an OK box. Dragging a directory to either of the writable icons results in the pathname being entered into the icon; this can then be edited as required. Clicking on OK results in any icons from the source directory being renamed so that they refer to the destination directory. This is used where a directory has been renamed or moved, and the icon pathnames must be updated accordingly. Note that the pathnames are case-sensitive.

The lower set of Background, Text and Small icons entries have the same effect as the upper set of Background, Text and Small icon entries, but affect only icons added to the backdrop after these options are set.

If the !SuperBD directory has within it a sprite named Sprites, this will be automatically loaded when SuperBD starts up, and will appear as a background to the Desktop.

Enhancements
------------

Shift-double-clicking on any item will load it into a suitable editor.

File loading protocol has been corrected: dragging a Basic program from the Backdrop into DeskEdit no longer causes a crash.

Files can now be dragged to DeskEdit using DeskEdit's info option (drag with Alt pressed).

Ctrl-Shift-F11 moves the Backdrop to the front of the window stack, while Ctrl-F11 moves it to the back (these keys are free on DeskEdit). Alternatives are F10 to bring to the front, F9 to put to the back.


 RISC User 1993.