Contents
Wieldy 2.0 - Contents

Introduction

Commands

Revision History

Copyright Notice

Acknowledgements

Registration

Support


Revision History

Wieldy has a short history.

This is release 2.0 dated 18/03/1997.

It is now possible to specify a window by only a part of its title. This version is written in Delphi 1.0.

The first release was 1.0 dated 22/01/1997. It was written in Turbo Pascal for Window 1.5.

Wieldy has been in use for some time now, helping me to accomplish simple tasks from  within AutoLISP, mainly to run batch files in the background. Users tend to get upset by  DOS windows.

Wieldy has been tested under

Windows 3.1

Windows 3.11 for Workgroups

Windows 95

Windows NT 3.51

Windows NT 4


There is no real support, but you can try and send an email to wieldy@post1.com.  By pointing your browser at http://www.post1.com/~wieldy you can get the latest version.


ack
All trademarks are acknowledged, especially Autodesk's and Microsoft's.


commands
The Wieldy Commands

The Syntax for Wieldy is the following:

Wieldy   command   programme

Wieldy   command   programme , caption

Wieldy   command   window

Wieldy   command   window , caption

Wieldy takes one or more parameters.

The first is the command to be executed.

The second is either a filename of the programme to start or the title of an application window to modify.

The third is optional and is the new caption of the window. It has to be introduced by a comma.

If no command is specified, Wieldy asks if you want to turn the current window into a topmost one. To do so, select the window you wish to be topmost, switch back to Wieldy and press OK.

Wieldy commands are built by concatenation of sub-commands. Click on the sub-commands to see examples.

Command	Discription

S - Start	Starts the specified application.

W - Window	Uses the specified window.

I - mInimize   	Displays the window as an icon. The window that is currently active remains active.

X - maXimize   	Activates the window and displays it as a maximized window.

R - Restore	Activates and displays the window. If the window is minimized or maximized, Windows restores it to its original size and position.

N - Non-topmost	Repositions the window to the top of all non-topmost windows (that is,  behind all topmost windows).

T - Topmost	Places the window above all non-topmost windows. The window  maintains its topmost position even when it is deactivated.

D - Destroy	Destroys the specified window.


destroy
DESTROY - Examples

Call

WIELDY WD control panel

to close the Control Panel.


min
MINIMIZE - Examples

Call

WIELDY SI SAMPLE.BAT

to run SAMPLE.BAT minimized and not activated. That is quite handy if you want to use batch files, which tend to be very powerful. Imagine you want to access a list of all directories on E: that start with  the letter 'A'. The following batch file does the job:

dir a* /s /ad /b /l >dir.txt

The batch file also turns everything to lowercase, so I know what case to expect. I wouldn't even know how to do all this in AutoLISP. So I run this batch file. Unfortunately, everybody can see the DOS window coming up, unless you are using Wieldy to run the batch minimized.

N.B.: In Windows 3.1 and 3.11 batch files don't run in the background. The DOS window has to be active. To hide it from being seen, make your application topmost, run the batch. It will be active but you don't see it because your main application stays on top although inactive. Reset your application to non-topmost when the batch is finished (using Wieldy, of course).


start
START - Examples

Use the Start command to execute a programme. Specify the programme's name:

WIELDY SX winfile

to start File Manager maximized.

WIELDY ST notepad my.txt

to start Notepad topmost and load the file my.txt. This enables you to edit a file in Notepad with another instance of Notepad (displaying my.txt) visible.

WIELDY S calc , Abacus

to start Calculator and change its title to Abacus. You could specifiy this in  Program Managers|File|Properties|Command Line for  the calculator application.


win
WINDOW - Examples

Use the Window command to modify a running application on your screen. You have to specify the applications window title.

WIELDY WR myapp

to restore the appications window size after it has been minimized.

WIELDY WD myapp

to close myapp. Note that the first characters of the title will do. You can use

WIELDY WD notepad

to close Notepad although the complete window title might be Notepad - readme.txt.


max
MAXIMIZE - Examples

Call

WIELDY SX myapp

to start myapp maximized.


restore
RESTORE - Examples

Call

WIELDY SR myapp

to start myapp in restored size. Some applications always start maximized. This is a way to change this. You could make this the standard by replacing the command line in Program Manager | File | Properties to wieldy sr myapp.


normal
NON-TOPMOST - Examples

Usually you will use this command to turn a window into a normal one after you have set it to topmost.

WIELDY WN myapp


top
TOPMOST - Examples

Do you want to run Calculator topmost while editing a document?

WIELDY ST calc

or a DOS prompt always somewhere visible?

WIELDY ST command.com

or maybe Program Manager?

WIELDY WT Program Manager

Note that appliccations that have an always on top option in their system menu (as Clock.exe has) will not show the right information when manipulated with Wieldy.


Copyright
Copyright Notice

Wieldy [image]  Steffen Haugk 1997.

Whieldy is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty.  Neither I nor any distributor accepts responsibility of any kind whatsoever for the consequences of using Wieldy and its accompanying documentation or for whether it serves any particular purpose at all.

Everyone is granted permission to copy and redistribute Wieldy.  It shall not be changed.

The Wieldy software is free.


There is, of course, no registration.

Comments and bug reports are welcome.


Introduction

Wieldy is a wee windows programme that allows the manipulation of  Windows applications. It is intended for those who use interpreted languages of other packages and want to call batch files or other external programmes to help them achieve certain effects, like run a programme in the background or change its title. You can also use Wieldy to change the way programmes are run from Program Manager, for example run Calculator always on top.

You just let Wieldy execute your programme and specify how the programme is to be run.

Example

WIELDY  SX  WINFILE

This example shows how to start File Manager maXimized. To run Calculator in Restored size and change its title to Abacus, just run

WIELDY  SR  CALC , Abacus

Note that Wieldy is case sensitive only for the new title.

Wieldy can also be used to close applications.

Note that it is not possible to start an application minimized and change the topmost state or the caption at the same time. If you need an application to be run minimized topmost you use

WIELDY  SI  application.exe

WIELDY  WT  application

or

WIELDY  ST  application.exe

WIELDY  WI  application

Example

(STARTAPP  "WIELDY  WT MS-DOS Prompt")

The above AutoLISP command keeps the DOS shell window on top of the window list. Here is another example:

When in File Manager click File|Run and enter

WIELDY  WD File Manager

This destroys File Manager.

When run without a programme name, Wieldy lets you point at a window,  assuming that you want to turn it into a topmost window.

Wieldy is by no means perfect. It is in fact very simple and has a  restricted usefulness. It can easily be beaten by any of the common windows batch systems.

But, it is free and very small (22016 bytes), so for some purposes it is much faster to use Wieldy to iconize a window or to make it topmost, as in the example above, than to load a batch system and ask it to execute a one-line batch file.

That is certainly not much. Anyway, it might help you to achieve simple window manipulation.