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System parameters


Index


In the System parameters module, which you can only call from the File menu entry External modules (select it in the list that appears – or if it is not yet present, load the SYSTEM.CXM module first – then click on Execute or press [Return]) you can set global options that control Calamus's system behaviour. These parameters are so fundamental that you will probably only have to define the settings once.

The System parameters module has a dialog in which settings for various theme groups can be made. The description of the individual groups follows:

Screen resolution

In the two editable fields under this name at bottom right of the dialog you can set the resolution of your screen in pixels per inch both horizontally and vertically. With the Standard radio button active the values used will be those returned by the operating system, though only seldom are these absolutely correct. If you activate the Custom radio button, then values typed into the editable fields will be used. For this you have to divide the number of pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions by the actual active screen width and height in inches. With an active screen area of 24 cm wide by 15.7 cm high (corresponding to 9.45 x 6.18 inch) and an image format of 640 x 400 pixels you therefore have a resolution of 67.7 dpi horizontal x 64.7 dpi vertical.

Window position

You can define the standard window position of Calamus Document windows yourself. Until now Calamus opened a new document window to make the most of the free space on the screen below the Top row and right of the function field. But in the meantime many tools have been developed that look for space on the desktop or directly in Calamus, for instance at the lower screen edge. Therefore you can now set the standard position at which a new document window will be opened. To do this, open a document window and position and size it to suit your requirements. Then in the System module click on the Take button below Windows position. Now use Save system settings in the Options menu and all new windows will be opened at your preferred position. (Clicking on the Default button will clear the newly defined window positions once more.)

Move all selected frames at once

Here you define if multiple selected frames can be moved at once (default) or if you have to press the [Ctrl] key to do so. I you set normal and press [Ctrl], only the clicked frame of a selection will be moved. If you have set press [Ctrl] key, the a selection of frames will only be moved if you press [Ctrl]. Try and define your favorite mode. If you then want to use the other mode, without changing the settings here, simply press [Ctrl] which changes the mode temporarily.

System memory buffer

When it is launched, Calamus occupies almost all of the operating system's free memory. Here you can (and should) set how much memory Calamus is to keep free for its host operating system. This is necessary because certain system components (such as NVDI, the Atari or another Control Panel, as well as other applications under a multi-tasking system) also need to reserve memory subsequently, and may not work otherwise.

New standard memory values

Important: In connection with system-wide printer drivers that intercept and pass on Calamus print data (e.g. VDIPrint and NVDI printer drivers), it is important that the host system on which Calamus is running leaves enough RAM free in order to be able to actually pass on the print data. In the System parameters module you can set the minimum amount of RAM that is to be left free for the operating system to use, both for ST-RAM and also for TT-RAM (or corresponding memory regions available to the operating system).

In former SL versions the standard value of RAM that Calamus left free for its host system was always set to 128 KB. With today's computer and RAM requirements, it is hardly surprising that some A4 pages only appeared at the laser printer after several minutes, because, say, NVDI had to make do with this 128 KB and hardly had room to pass on the print data.

Since SL99 the standard value has been moved up to 1 MB. Normally you should keep this value, or even set it higher rather than lower. If you were wondering why Calamus always has 2 MB less RAM than you expected available for use, you will now know the reason.

Calamus vector output

When converting vector to raster graphics, Calamus also requires memory temporarily – called a buffer. The size of this buffer is normally set to 128 KB. If you get error messages when constructing complex vector graphics, increase this value.

Misc. switches

Here you find several switches for various functions which are described as follows:

Save font paths

If you use a large number of fonts, then you are likely to have grouped the font files in some sensible order and stored them in corresponding subdirectories (folders). Although Calamus searches for a font file in all subdirectories of the specified font access path, this can take some considerable time with a large number of subdirectories and fonts.

However, if you select the Save button here, an overall font directory tree will be built up in memory and saved with the filename FILETREE.FNT in the font access path. This tree stores all found fonts showing the subdirectory that contains them. When launching Calamus, this overall tree directory file will be loaded into memory and the location of all fonts in this font access path made known to the program. If a font is required, Calamus only has to look in this font tree to access the desired font file without protracted searching. If a font is not found in the overall tree directory then the usual alert will appear (see Text style module). In that case the overall font directory tree can be rebuilt by clicking on Try again.

As already mentioned: This function is only useful if you keep your fonts in subdirectories of the set font access path.

As long as your font collection does not contain any duplicated names, it is recommended you set the font access path as high as possible (so perhaps even at the root level of you hard drive partition, such as F:\ for instance) and let Calamus search through this partition once. After this you will find a new file named FILETREE.FNT on this partition containing all the fonts found.

If the No radio button is selected, on the other hand, Calamus will search again through the whole hard disk partition(s) for each font to be loaded.

System paths

The system paths can be specified either as relative or absolute. Relative means that all paths are specified relative to the Calamus folder. This is particularly useful if all folders associated with Calamus are contained within the CALAMUS folder. It is then very easy to copy the complete CALAMUS folder to another partition without losing the search paths, for instance.

Normally the Relative radio button should be selected, so that all access paths to folders within the CALAMUS folder are stored as relative, i.e. instead of D:\Programs\Calamus SL\Printerdrivers simply as Printerdrivers. In certain cases though it may be sensible to store the paths generally as Absolute. For instance, with multi-tasking operation it may happen that other programs miss-set the current Calamus system path, so that Calamus no longer knows which folder it is in. So if, say, you note that when saving the Calamus setup file the file path suddenly no longer points to the Calamus folder but to C:\, for instance, you should on the one hand check which program is resetting the system paths, and on the other activate the Absolute radio button.

Equally, if your Calamus folders and access paths are strewn over several partitions, it is better to switch to Absolute.

File selector

Here you can choose whether Calamus should use the handy Calamus file selector dialog, or use the file selector offered by the current operating system.

Warning: Some older TOS operating system file selectors cannot handle long filenames or multiple selections. So in case of doubt activate the Calamus radio button rather than System.

Topline positions

If you choose the optimized mode here, the module bar and the coordinates bar will be placed best possible on the top screen border at each Calamus launch. This is the best choice for avoiding manual resizing when you work with various screen resolutions.

If you prefer a free placement of the mentioned bars, you have to choose the custom mode in order to keep your defined positions for these bars when Calamus starts the next time.

Import mode

Since almost all Calamus import drivers support the automatic import mode, we have predefined the automatic import mode in the CALAMUS.SET file. This means you will directly see the file selector which offers all available file formats according to the already loaded import drivers. When the import mode is set to manual, the object selector dialogs opens first, where you have to select an import driver yourself. In the manual mode, you can only load data which are supported by the selected import driver.

According to the set import mode, you can toggle the mode temporarily by pressing [Ctrl] when you call the file menu entry Import without changing the mode in this dialog.

Output format

Date

In some countries the date is displayed in a different format to that in Germany (in America for instance as 12-31-2001 i.e. as month-day-year, in the U.K. as 31/12/2001 i.e. day/month/year, while the ISO international standard has 2001-12-31, i.e. year-month-day). You can set the format in this editable field, where D will be replaced by the day, M by the month and Y by the four-digit year. With a preceding 0, single-digit days or months will also start with a 0. A lower case y will output the year as a two-digit number.

Here are some examples for the 31st of January 2001:

0D.0M.Y 31.01.2001
D.M.Y 31.1.2001
y-M-D 00-1-31
D/M/y 31/1/01
Time

You can set the format in a similar way to the date. H represents the hour, M the minutes and S the seconds. The minutes will always be output with a preceding 0, for hours you can optionally do the same with 0H. If a lower case or capital a/A appears in the editable field, then the time will be output only in a 12 hour format with a corresponding lower case or capital AM or PM.

File preview: Delay

This value defines how long Calamus must wait until it calls the loaded preview drivers in order to create and show a preview for the selected file.

Help text

Help texts are always output ranged right in the Calamu menu bar. With the value in the Position editable field you determine how many character spaces are inserted at the right screen edge. So if you enter 2 here, for instance, the help text will be output as if there was room for two more characters at the end; in other words the help text will be moved 2 characters to the left. In this way you can keep, say, menu bar clocks or other output clear of the help texts.

Since SL99 you are able to define the foreground and background colours in which the help text will appear in the menu bar, of course in TrueColor mode as well.

Warning: In the SL-WindowsPack the Calamus help texts, as usual under Windows, will be displayed at lower left of the window bar of the Calamus program window. Neither colour nor position settings will apply in this case.

Only when you use the SL-WindowsPack in FullScreen mode (i.e. without a visible Windows task bar) will the Calamus help texts be output at top right of the Calamus menu bar.

Active deadkeys

Here you can set which deadkeys (described in the Text module) should be active. Click on the keys you wish to use to activate them, and when entering text within the text editor these characters when pressed before other letters will produce accented characters for foreign languages.


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Last updated on June 24, 2015

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