A Guided Tour Of The Desktop - Atari Faicon030 Owner's Manual

Fa/con030 Owner' s Manual
Sometimes you need to give the program additional i n formation, such as what to
do with a data file. This additional i n formation is cal led an argument.
Most programs provide ways for the user to input arguments, such as an Open
File command in a word processing program. In fact, if you i nput the name of an
exi sting data fi l e in the Arguments l i ne, and you have your input parameters set i n
s u c h a w a y that t h e program c a n find t h e fi l e , t h e data fi le w i l l open automatically
when you open the word processing program.
B ut unless you work on one data file almost exclusively, other options such as
l inking an application to a data fi le type make arguments of t h i s kind c l umsy and
unnecessary.
Arguments are used most often w i t h u t i l i ty programs. These programs often need
complex add i tional i nstructions such as a code sequence to determ i ne which part
of RAM w i l l be used to contai n the program instructions. Detai led explanations
of the arguments needed, and the correct syntax for those arguments, w i l l be
i nc l uded i n the program ' s doc u mentat ion .
When you open the Install Application dial og box, the text insertion cursor i s
already o n t h e Arguments l i ne. S i mply type i n t h e arguments and press [ Ret u rn ] .
Remember to u s e S ave Desktop t o save the argument, otherw i se i t w i l l b e erased
when you switch off the computer.
Linking a Document Type to an Appl ication
Normal l y , the on l y way you can process a data fi le is to first open an appl ication
that can work with the type of data contained in the fi l e . Then you can open the
data fi le from w i t h i n the appl ication.
I f you attempt to open a data file directly from a w i ndow, a d ialog box disp l ays
inform i ng you that your options are to show or pri nt the fi l e , or cancel the
req uest. You cannot edit the data i n the file.
B u t you can u se Install App l ication to l i nk a data file type (determined by the
three character file extension) to an app l ication.
4-1 8 A
Guided Tour of the Desktop