BartLauncher 1.00
-----------------

BartLauncher is a program to help you find and launch your files
faster.  All you have to do is type in the first few letters of
the file you are looking for, and Bart will try to complete the 
rest for you.  If you've ever typed a URL into Netscape or Internet
Explorer, you probably know what I'm talking about.


Installation
------------

Step 1:  Drag the BartLauncher executable to wherever you want to keep it.
Step 2:  There is no step 2.


Usage
-----

BartLauncher works something like a cross between Netscape's URL
gadget and Be's Find panel.  To use it, just type some or all of
a file name into the string gadget marked "Command".  As you type,
Bart will try to guess what it is you are typing, and complete the 
word.  If he gets it right, all you have to do is press return to
launch your application.

In addition to completing your text entry for you, Bart will display
all the files that match your text (and search criteria) in the ListView 
below your text entry box.  If you see the file you want in the list 
view, you can click on it to put it in the text entry box, or double 
click on it to launch it directly.


Features
--------

- Search criteria
  
  Like Be's Find panel, BartLauncher lets you restrict your search space
  to certain file types, or to certain disk volumes.  To do this, simply
  select the file types or volumes you wish to look at from the drop-down
  menus at the top of the window.  Note that both drop-down menus allow
  multiple selections to be active at once--to remove a selection, select
  it again, or choose the first entry in the drop-down menu (i.e.
  "All file types" or "All disks") to remove all selections.

- Adaptive searching

  When you launch an application with BartLauncher, Bart will "remember"
  that you did so and give that application preferred status afterwards.
  Whenever that application matches your search criteria, it will be 
  displayed immediately near the top of the candidate list.  Previously 
  launched applications will have lighter-than-normal backgrounds, with
  the most recently launched having the lightest background.  They will
  be sorted from most-recently-launched to least-recently-launched.

- Case sensitive/insensitive toggle

  To the right of the text entry box there is a button with the letter "C"
  in it.  This button controls whether or not Bart will pay attention to
  case differences in letters while searching.  By default, it is unselected,
  meaning that Bart ignores case.  If you change it to its selected (darker)
  state, Bart will become case sensitive.
  
- List sorting

  Once Bart has presented you with a list of candidates, you are able to
  sort that list by clicking on one of the three long, skinny buttons 
  directly below the text entry box.  The first of the three buttons will
  cause the list to be sorted by icon (well, by mime type really), the second
  will sort the list by file path, and the third will sort by file name.
  After you click a sort button, it will turn green to indicate the list
  has been sorted in alphabetical order.  If you click it again, it will 
  turn red to indicate that the list is now in reverse-alphabetical order.
  To do multi-level searches (e.g. "sort by icon, and within each icon
  type, sort by name"), click on the sort buttons in reverse order (e.g.
  click on the name/third button, then the icon/first button).
  
- Replicant

  Bart knows how to function as a replicant, so you can put him in any
  replicant container, including the desktop (see the PAQs section for a
  caveat about this, though!).  To do this, select "Show Replicants" from 
  the Be menu in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.  A little 
  hand-grabber icon will appear to the left of the text entry box.  
  Drag that icon to the container where you wish to place a replicant.  
  Another BartLauncher view should show up there, with the current settings.
  
- Save & Restore settings

  Once you have BartLauncher configured the way you like it, you can save
  the current state (window size, current input line text, file types, etc)
  by selecting "Save Settings" in the File menu.  BartLauncher's current
  state will be saved to a file in your config/settings directory.  The next
  time you run BartLauncher, it will use these settings automatically.
  Or, if you've changed things around and want to get back to your saved
  settings immediately, you can choose "Restore Settings" to do so.
  
- Argument passing

  If you want to give arguments to an application while launching it,
  just type them in to the text window the same way you would type them
  in to a Terminal window.


To Do / Possible Features
-------------------------

- Make use of "live queries" to update the display when the filesystem
  changes.  Right now the display is only updates in response to user
  input.

- Make the GUI prettier

- Any suggestions given by users



PAQs (Potentially Askable Questions)
------------------------------------

Q:  Why are there these backslashes in my text box?
A:  Those are to "escape" the spaces (or other "naughty" characters)
    in the file name, so that the text will be interpreted correctly
    as a program name (and not e.g. a program name plus some arguments).
    
Q:  Can I launch shell-only programs with BartLauncher?
A1: Sure.  But unless you run BartLauncher from a shell window,
    you won't be able to see their output.  
A2: Don't listen to A1, he's lying.  You actually CAN see their output,
    if your run /boot/apps/Terminal and give your shell app's path and
    name as an argument--e.g. enter "Terminal /bin/ls" into BartLauncher's
    text box instead of just "ls".

Q:  Why is this program called BartLauncher?
A:  Because it was Bart's idea.

Q:  How come Bart doesn't look at files on my MS-DOS/NTFS/MacOS filesystem?
A:  BartLauncher relies on the Be File System's wicked-fast indexed
    file searches for its speedy response times.  If Bart was to look 
    for files on non-indexed filesystems, it would be really slow, eh?

Q:  I wanna launch programs FAST!  If I have to go find the BartLauncher
    icon each time, I might as well go dig out the icon of the application 
    I want to run, directly!  What can I do to speed things up?
A1: One thing you can do is drag out a BartLauncher replicant view (or
    two or three!) onto your desktop, so that it is always there when 
    you need it.  As an added bonus, the BartLauncher replicants will
    each remember their settings from session to session, so you could
    have one set to find e-mails, one for apps, one for N+ bookmarks...
A2: If you don't want your desktop cluttered with replicants all the time,
    why not download SpicyKeys from BeWare, and use it to bind BartLauncher 
    to a hotkey?  

Q:  I put a BartLauncher replicant on my desktop, but it won't let
    me enter any text into the command line!  Why is that?
A:  It seems there is a small but annoying bug in the way the Desktop
    handles replicants with BTextControls.  You can see the same problem
    if you drag a NetPositive replicant onto the desktop, and then try
    to edit its URL string.  I have submitted a bug report to Be, 
    so hopefully they will straighten this out in the next release of
    BeOS.  In the meantime, the work around is this:  click on the vertical 
    scroll-bar at the right-hand side of BartLauncher's list area before 
    clicking in the text line.


Licensing
---------

BartLauncher is Freeware.  There are only two restrictions on its use:
You are not allowed to charge money for it (other than your costs for
shipping, media, etc), and you must keep all the files in the archive 
together.  If you want the source code, email me and I'll give to you.


Author
------

BartLauncher was written by Jeremy Friesner (jaf@chem.ucsd.edu).


