Apple II
Sample Code Notes
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                                                  Developer Technical Support

#22:    AutoLaunch

Version:    3.0                                                     June 1990

MPW Components:    Globals.c
                   Start.c
                   Debug.c
                   Event.c
                   File.c
                   Menu.c
                   Utils.c
                   AutoLaunch.h
                   AutoLaunch.r
                   MakeFile

AutoLaunch is a useful application for testing Apple II applications in a two-
computer development environment where one computer is used for the 
development system and an Apple IIGS is used to test the completed 
application.  AutoLaunch automatically launches an Apple II application when 
it sees a new version of that application.  AutoLaunch is particularly useful 
when the development system and the test system are both connected to an 
AppleShare file server, but can also be used when the application is passed 
from the development system to the test system on a disk.
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To use AutoLaunch, you must choose a trigger file, the application to launch, 
and the time between trigger tests.  AutoLaunch checks the modification date 
and time of the trigger file as often as you tell it, and when AutoLaunch sees 
that the modification date and time of the trigger file has changed, it 
launches the application.  The time between trigger tests can be in the range 
of 0 to 9999 seconds where 0 means as often as possible.  You may not want to 
set the trigger time to anything less than 1 when using a file server, because 
AutoLaunch can cause a lot of network traffic.

AutoLaunch lets you save the Application Launch information so if the program 
you are testing crashes, you can reboot your test system and restart 
AutoLaunch without the need to choose the trigger file, application to launch, 
and time between trigger tests again.

MPW IIGS users need MPW v.3.0, MPW IIGS Tools v.1.1, and MPW IIGS C v.1.0 or 
later.  The name needed by the MPW Build menu's Build option can be found in 
the MakeFile.
