Before diving into all the applications that come with Haiku, let's have a more detailed look at how to install and uninstall programs you downloaded somewhere, for example from a site mentioned on the Welcome page.
Haiku software always comes as an archive. Most of the time it's a ZIP, some old BeOS packages come in Software Valet's PKG format. Software Valet was able to automatically execute installation scripts, so after double-clicking you just select a destination folder and everything's taken care of.
-If it's a ZIP archive, double-clicking opens Expander where you also set the destination and unpack it. As explained in the topic Filesystem layout, that destination is either
-
Haiku software always comes as an archive. Most of the time it's a ZIP, some old BeOS packages come in Software Valet's PKG format. Software Valet was able to automatically execute installation scripts, so after double-clicking you just select a destination folder and everything's taken care of.
+If it's a ZIP archive, double-clicking opens Expander where you also set the destination and unpack it. As explained in the topic Filesystem layout, that destination is either
+
+
/boot/common/apps/
for applications available to every user
+
/boot/home/apps/
for applications only available to yourself
-
This distinction will only become relevant once Haiku gets multi-user support, of course.
-
Once the archive is unpacked, you should have a look into the newly created folder. Often you find ReadMe files or other documentation of interest.
-
Some programs need further configurations. For example, Tracker Add-Ons, Translators or other system enhancing components have to be put into the right folders. Either you'll find a little script file (often with the suffix .sh) like install that you simply double click to have all taken care of.
-Sometimes you'll find folders that link to the correct destination named "drag [filename] here...". So, you simply follow that instruction and you're done.
-
Most of the time, however, nothing of the sort is necessary and you're done after unpacking.
-See topic Deskbar or LaunchBox to see how to add shortcuts to your newly installed application.
-
+
This distinction will only become relevant once Haiku gets multi-user support, of course.
+
Once the archive is unpacked, you should have a look into the newly created folder. Often you find ReadMe files or other documentation of interest.
+
Some programs need further configurations. For example, Tracker Add-Ons, Translators or other system enhancing components have to be put into the right folders. Either you'll find a little script file (often with the suffix .sh) like install that you simply double click to have all taken care of.
+Sometimes you'll find folders that link to the correct destination named "drag [filename] here...". So, you simply follow that instruction and you're done.
+
Most of the time, however, nothing of the sort is necessary and you're done after unpacking.
+See topic Deskbar or LaunchBox to see how to add shortcuts to your newly installed application.
If the installation was done with an install script, chances are, there's an uninstall script as well. In that case, double-click it and you're done.
-Otherwise, uninstalling is simply done by deleting the application's folder.
-
This, of course, leaves back possible configuration files in your ~/config/settings folder. This may be on purpose, if you want to keep those settings in case you'll install it again in the future. Also, when the installation involved those "drag [filename] here..." folders, those files are also left behind.
-
One method to quickly get to all the app's files is to do a quick query for a significant part of the application's name. This will reveal the app's binary, its installation folder and its settings as well as possible links in the Deskbar etc. Simply select all relevant files and delete them.
-
If the installation was done with an install script, chances are, there's an uninstall script as well. In that case, double-click it and you're done.
+Otherwise, uninstalling is simply done by deleting the application's folder.
+
This, of course, leaves back possible configuration files in your ~/config/settings folder. This may be on purpose, if you want to keep those settings in case you'll install it again in the future. Also, when the installation involved those "drag [filename] here..." folders, those files are also left behind.
+
One method to quickly get to all the app's files is to do a quick query for a significant part of the application's name. This will reveal the app's binary, its installation folder and its settings as well as possible links in the Deskbar etc. Simply select all relevant files and delete them.
Haiku comes with a set of mostly small but essential applications. You'll find all of them at /boot/beos/apps/ or /boot/common/apps/. Applications that are not usually launched by a double-click on a data file (e.g. ShowImage for image files) can be found in the Applications menu of the Deskbar.
-
Haiku comes with a set of mostly small but essential applications. You'll find all of them at /boot/beos/apps/ or /boot/common/apps/. Applications that are not usually launched by a double-click on a data file (e.g. ShowImage for image files) can be found in the Applications menu of the Deskbar.
You can track system resources by launching the ActivityMonitor and activating different items of interest.
+
+
+
By right-clicking into the window, you can toggle the display of all kinds of resources:
+Used/Cached Memory, Swap Space, CPU Usage, Network Receive/Send, Page faults, Semaphores, Ports, Threads, Teams, Running Applications, Raw/Text Clipboard Size, Media Nodes
+
Below the graphics is a legend (hideable from the context menu). You can change their colors and that of the graph's background via drag&drop from any color picker, e.g. from Icon-O-Matic.
+
You can add more views from the File menu if it gets too crowded.
+
Each view has it's own Replicator handle and can thus be arranged, for example, on the Desktop.
Magnify shows an enlarged version of the area around your mouse pointer.
+
+
At the top you'll find the size and magnification level of the area. "32 x 32 @ 8 pixels/pixel" means that you look at a 32x32 pixel square around your mouse pointer and every pixel is enlarged by a factor of 8.
+
Below that is the color of the pixel that's marked by a red outline. Its color is presented as RGB and hex value.
+You can move the red outline with the CURSOR keys.
+
To measure distances and align objects, you can add up to two blue crosshairs with ALT+H. Their X/Y coordinates toward the top left corner and, if both are added, their X/Y distance from each other, are displayed at the bottom.
+They can also be moved with the CURSOR keys. The active crosshair is marked with an "x".
+
You can move the mouse pointer pixel by pixel with AltGr+CURSOR keys.
+
Clicking on the drop-down menu gives you a number of options:
+
+
Save Image
ALT+S
Saves the current display as a resource file.
+
Copy Image
ALT+C
Copies the current display to the clipboard.
+
Hide/Show Info
ALT+T
Toggles the display of all the additional information.
+
Add a Crosshair
ALT+H
Adds a crosshair you can drag around.
+
Remove a Crosshair
ALT+SHIFT+H
Removes the last added crosshair.
+
Hide/Show Grid
ALT+G
Toggles the overlayed grid.
+
Freeze/Unfreeze image
ALT+F
Stops/continues updating the magnification area.
+
Stick Coordinates
ALT+I
Keeps updating the magnification area, but don't follow the mouse pointer any more.
+
Make Square
ALT+/
Reverts back to a square display after resizing the window.
+
Decrease Window Size
ALT+-
Shrinks the magnified area around the mouse pointer.
+
Increase Window Size
ALT++
Enlarges the magnified area around the mouse pointer.
StyledEdit is Haiku's simple text editor. Although it saves files in plain text format, additional attributes are written in order to have limited formatting capabilities when viewed with StyledEdit.
+
+
If you're interested, this is what those additional attributes look like when examined in Terminal with listattr:
+
~> listattr /boot/home/Desktop/test.txt
+File: /boot/home/Desktop/test.txt
+ Type Size Name
+----------- --------- -------------------------------
+ Int-32 4 "be:encoding"
+MIME String 11 "BEOS:TYPE"
+ Int-32 4 "wrap"
+ Int-32 4 "alignment"
+ Raw Data 1048 "styles"
+
+1071 bytes total in attributes.
+
As you can see, all the formatting options from StyledEdit's menu are present: line wrapping (on/off) and alignment (left/center/right), each in one attribute. Styles (font, size, color) of each letter mangled into another.
+
Note: Because these attributes are a file system feature of BFS, this means that not only other platforms just see a plain text
+file, it also follows, that the formatting will be lost when a file is stored on a non-BFS partition. The above attributes are simply stripped and what's left is the ordinary, plain text file.
+
In any case, it's a nice idea having the possibility of colored text in different fonts and sizes while still being a normal text file. A ReadMe.txt, for example, is therefore readable in a shell on any platform and still has a bit of style when viewed via double-click from Haiku.
+
Actually using StyledEdit is so simple, we'll skip explaining every mundane menu item. Just write down your text then select the words you'd like to format and apply font, size and color from the Font menu. Line wrapping and alignment from the Document menu only work on the whole file.
~/config/settings/Terminal_settings
+~/.profile - adds/overrides defaults in /boot/beos/etc/profile
+~/.inputrc - adds/overrides defaults in /boot/beos/etc/inputrc
+
+
The Terminal is Haiku's interface to bash, the Bourne Again Shell. Have a look at these links for information on how to work with the shell. Here, we'll concentrate on the Terminal app itself.
You can open as many Terminals as needed, either each in it's own window by simply launching more Terminals or with ALT+N from an already running Terminal. Or you use Terminal's tabbed view and open another tab with ALT+T.
+
A Terminal window can be resized like any other window or you use the presets from the Ssettings | Window Size menu. ALT+RETURN toggles fullscreen mode.
+
Changed window size and text encoding are only kept choosing Settings | Save as default.
+
+
+
Settings | Preferences opens a panel where you can set font type, font size and the different text and background colors. You can save different settings as separate profiles, which on double-click open an accordingly configured Terminal.
+Pressing OK will save the current settings as default.
Coming from Unix, there are countless possibilities to customize the bash itself. There are two files that are especially important to the user: .profile and .inputrc
+Both files can be created in the home/ folder and add or override the system defaults that are defined in /boot/beos/etc/.
+
+
.profile
+
The .profile is loaded every time you open a new Terminal. It sets all kinds of aliases and variables that will affect bash's behavior and appearance. You'll find many online resources that will detail all possibilities.
+
The Haiku/BeOS Tip Server has quite a few tips to get you started, for example:
The .inputrc deals with keybindings. Since Haiku provides useful defaults, you probably don't have to mess with these more involved settings. If you do have special needs here, consult one of the many online resources, e.g. The GNU Readline Library.
Attributes are data fields that belong to a file but aren't part of that file, e.g. they are not computed into the file size and can be copied or changed without touching the file itself. The system uses these attributes to store e.g. file size, file type or date of the last modification. This is similar to other operating systems and their filesystems.
+
What's different is that you can add any kind of attribute to any file and display it or make it editable in a Tracker window. You just have to define the kind of attribute you want to add to a file type (e.g. string, integer or time) and give it a name and description.
+
The file itself doesn't even need any contents at all. Take a look at these People files for example:
+
+
+
As you can see, these are all 0-sized files with attached attributes, the E-mail attribute of "John Nox" being edited right in Tracker.
+
If you index these attributes, as People, Email or audio files are by default, they are also searchable with Haiku's fast query system.
-
Attributes are data fields that belong to a file but aren't part of that file, e.g. they are not computed into the file size and can be copied or changed without touching the file itself. The system uses these attributes to store e.g. file size, file type or date of the last modification. This is similar to other operating systems and their filesystems.
-
What's different is that you can add any kind of attribute to any file and display it or make it editable in a Tracker window. You just have to define the kind of attribute you want to add to a file type (e.g. string, integer or time) and give it a name and description.
-
The file itself doesn't even need any contents at all. Take a look at these People files for example:
-
-
-
As you can see, these are all 0-sized files with attached attributes, the E-mail attribute of "John Nox" being edited right in Tracker.
-
If you index these attributes, as People, Email or audio files are by default, they are also searchable with Haiku's fast query system.
-
Attributes are displayed quite similar to a database or spreadsheet. Using Tracker you can choose which attributes to display (columns) and sort file listings (rows) accordingly.
+
To do this, open a Tracker window, click on the Attributes menu, and select the attributes you want to display. Alternatively, simply right-click onto a column heading and mark the items in the context menu. You can rearrange the columns by a simple drag&drop of the column heading. Moving a column out of a window, is a fast way to get rid of columns you don't need.
+
Double-click on the line between two attributes in the heading to automatically resize a column to its optimal width.
+
Click on a column heading to toggle the sorting order from ascending to descending. You can establish a secondary sort order by pressing the SHIFT key while clicking on a column heading. Doing that you can, for example, sort your People files by company and within that order sort by contact name. See the above screenshot as an example. The secondary sort order is marked by a dotted line under the heading.
+
Editing these attributes is as simple as renaming a file: Either click on an entry or press ALT+E and move between the attibutes with TAB and SHIFT+TAB. ESC leaves the editing mode without applying the changes.
Attributes are displayed quite similar to a database or spreadsheet. Using Tracker you can choose which attributes to display (columns) and sort file listings (rows) accordingly.
-
To do this, open a Tracker window, click on the Attributes menu, and select the attributes you want to display. Alternatively, simply right-click onto a column heading and mark the items in the context menu. You can rearrange the columns by a simple drag&drop of the column heading. Moving a column out of a window, is a fast way to get rid of columns you don't need.
-
Double-click on the line between two attributes in the heading to automatically resize a column to its optimal width.
-
Click on a column heading to toggle the sorting order from ascending to descending. You can establish a secondary sort order by pressing the SHIFT key while clicking on a column heading. Doing that you can, for example, sort your People files by company and within that order sort by contact name. See the above screenshot as an example. The secondary sort order is marked by a dotted line under the heading.
-
Editing these attributes is as simple as renaming a file: Either click on an entry or press ALT+E and move between the attibutes with TAB and SHIFT+TAB. ESC leaves the editing mode without applying the changes.
-
If you prefer to use the commandline or plan to work with many files using scripting, there are several commands for controlling attributes from Terminal:
-
-
listattr - lists a file's attributes, but doesn't show the contents of the attributes.
+
If you prefer to use the commandline or plan to work with many files using scripting, there are several commands for controlling attributes from Terminal:
+
listattr - lists a file's attributes, but doesn't show the contents of the attributes.
usage: listattr 'filename' ['filename' ...]
-
From our screenshot example above:
-
-
55 ~/people ->listattr Clara\ Botters
+
From our screenshot example above:
+
~/people ->listattr Clara\ Botters
File: Clara Botters
Type Size Name
----------- --------- -------------------------------
@@ -74,23 +81,21 @@ MIME String 21 "BEOS:TYPE"
Raw Data 20 "_trk/pinfo_le"
131 bytes total in attributes.
-
Besides all the "META:*" attributes that hold the contact's information, there are two attributes that are managed by the system:
-
-
BEOS:TYPE holds the file type as a MIME string, here "application/x-person. It determines the default icon and the application that opens the file when you e.g. double click it.
-
"_trk/pinfo_le" is the attribute with which Tracker keeps track of a file's icon position.
-
Note the backslash after "Clara". In Terminal you have to "escape" special characters like '"*\$?!. The space between "Clara" and "Botters" is also one of those. Therefore the backslash is really in front of the space character, and not after "Clara".
-
-
-
catattr - displays the contents of a specific attribute of a file.
+
Besides all the "META:*" attributes that hold the contact's information, there are two attributes that are managed by the system:
+
+
BEOS:TYPE holds the file type as a MIME string, here "application/x-person. It determines the default icon and the application that opens the file when you e.g. double click it.
+
"_trk/pinfo_le" is the attribute with which Tracker keeps track of a file's icon position.
+
Note the backslash after "Clara". In Terminal you have to "escape" special characters like '"*\$?!. The space between "Clara" and "Botters" is also one of those. Therefore the backslash is really in front of the space character, and not after "Clara".
+
+
+
catattr - displays the contents of a specific attribute of a file.
string, mime, int, llong, float, double, bool, raw
or a numeric value (ie. 0x1234, 42, 'ABCD', ...)
The default is "string"
-
So, say dear Clara took a job with the multi-national Barkelbaer Inc., you fill
-the formerly empty "Company" attribute with that data (which is of type
-"string"):
-
-
addattr -t string META:company Barkelbaer\ Inc. Clara\ Botters
-
-
-
-
rmattr - completely removes an attribute from a file.
+
So, say dear Clara took a job with the multi-national Barkelbaer Inc., you fill the formerly empty "Company" attribute with that data (which is of type "string"):
+
~/people ->addattr -t string META:company Barkelbaer\ Inc. Clara\ Botters
+
+
+
rmattr - completely removes an attribute from a file.
usage: rmattr [-p] attr filename1 [filename2...]
'attr' is the name of an attribute of the file
If '-p' is specified, 'attr' is regarded as a pattern.
-
Though in all practicality it would be enough to just not fill the "Fax"
-attribute, you can completely remove it from Clara's file by typing:
-
-
rmattr META:fax Clara\ Botters
-
-
-
copyattr - copies attributes from one or more files to another. By
-default, the actual contents of the file is not copied.
+
Though in all practicality it would be enough to just not fill the "Fax" attribute, you can completely remove it from Clara's file by typing:
+
~/people ->rmattr META:fax Clara\ Botters
+
+
copyattr - copies attributes from one or more files to another. By default, the actual contents of the file is not copied.
Haiku's Boot Loader can help you when you experience hardware related problems or want to choose which Haiku installation to start, if you have more than one (maybe on an installation CD or USB stick).
-It's also handy after you installed a software component that acts up and prevents you from booting the system to remove it again. The Disable user add-ons option that's mentioned below, will start Haiku without loading user installed components, e.g. a driver.
-
To enter the Boot Loader options, you have to press the SPACE BAR right at the beginning of the boot process. It's easy to miss so you best keep hitting the key until it shows up.
-
-
Once it's there, you're offered three menus:
-
-
Select boot volume
Choose which Haiku installation to start.
-
Select safe mode options
-
There are several options to try in case of hardware related trouble. When moving the selection bar to an option, a short explanation appears at the bottom of the screen.
-
- Safe mode
-- Disable user add-ons
-- Disable IDE DMA
-- Use fail-safe video mode
-- Don't call the BIOS
-- Disable APM
-- Disable ACPI
+
Haiku's Boot Loader can help you when you experience hardware related problems or want to choose which Haiku installation to start, if you have more than one (maybe on an installation CD or USB stick).
+It's also handy after you installed a software component that acts up and prevents you from booting the system to remove it again. The Disable user add-ons option that's mentioned below, will start Haiku without loading user installed components, e.g. a driver.
+
To enter the Boot Loader options, you have to press the SPACE BAR right at the beginning of the boot process. It's easy to miss so you best keep hitting the key until it shows up.
+
+
Once it's there, you're offered three menus:
+
+
Select boot volume
Choose which Haiku installation to start.
+
Select safe mode options
+
There are several options to try in case of hardware related trouble. When moving the selection bar to an option, a short explanation appears at the bottom of the screen.
+
- Safe mode
+- Disable user add-ons
+- Disable IDE DMA
+- Use fail-safe video mode
+- Don't call the BIOS
+- Disable APM
+- Disable ACPI
- Enable on screen debug output
-
-
Select fail safe video mode
If you had to activate the option Use fail-safe video mode, you can set resolution and colour depth.
-
-
-
After activating one or more options, you return to the main menu and continue booting, which presents you with this boot screen:
-
-
-
If everything works OK, one symbol after another quickly lights up.
+
+
Select fail safe video mode
If you had to activate the option Use fail-safe video mode, you can set resolution and colour depth.
+
+
+
After activating one or more options, you return to the main menu and continue booting, which presents you with this boot screen:
-Below, you'll find the documentation of the most important aspects of Haiku. Naturally, completing and extending the documentation is a continuing process. If you find errors or would like to suggest topics or maybe even contribute yourself, please file a bugreport or get in touch on the documentation mailing list.
-
-
+
Below, you'll find the documentation of the most important aspects of Haiku. Naturally, completing and extending the documentation is a continuing process. If you find errors or would like to suggest topics or maybe even contribute yourself, please file a bugreport or get in touch on the documentation mailing list.
There are some nice little games and demo applications for your entertainment. Most of the demos are targeted to developers who are interested in learning from the code, which is of course open source as is everything Haiku.
-
There are some nice little games and demo applications for your entertainment. Most of the demos are targeted to developers who are interested in learning from the code, which is of course open source as is everything Haiku.
The Deskbar is the little panel that by default is located in the upper right corner of the screen. It's Haiku's version of Windows' taskbar with its Start button. It contains the Deskbar menu from where you can start applications and preferences, a tray with a clock and other tools below that and a list of currently running programs at the bottom.
-
-
-
-
You can move the Deskbar to any corner or as a bar along the upper or lower border of the screen by gripping the knobbly area on the left side of the tray and drag&drop it into the new position. You can also fold it into a more compact layout by drag&dropping the knobbly area onto the Deskbar menu.
-
+
The Deskbar is the little panel that by default is located in the upper right corner of the screen. It's Haiku's version of Windows' taskbar with its Start button. It contains the Deskbar menu from where you can start applications and preferences, a tray with a clock and other tools below that and a list of currently running programs at the bottom.
+
+
You can move the Deskbar to any corner or as a bar along the upper or lower border of the screen by gripping the knobbly area on the left side of the tray and drag&drop it into the new position. You can also fold it into a more compact layout by drag&dropping the knobbly area onto the Deskbar menu.
A menu opens when you click on the Deskbar's uppermost part:
+
About This System... - Shows some basic information of the system, licenses and the credits of the Haiku project.
@@ -61,36 +69,32 @@
Configure Deskbar Menu...
-
-
-
In this panel you set how many recent documents, folders and applications are shown in the Deskbar, or if you show them at all.
-
Here, you also configure folders and their contents, which are by default Applications, Demos, Deskbar Applets, and Preferences. You can add your own entries and edit or remove items.
-This part of the panel is just a representation of the folder /boot/home/config/be/. You can just as well link or copy files and folders directly in Tracker to configure your Deskbar.
-Another method is to simply drag a file or folder and drop it where you want it into the Deskbar.
-
+
+
In this panel you set how many recent documents, folders and applications are shown in the Deskbar, or if you show them at all.
+
Here, you also configure folders and their contents, which are by default Applications, Demos, Deskbar Applets, and Preferences. You can add your own entries and edit or remove items.
+This part of the panel is just a representation of the folder /boot/home/config/be/. You can just as well link or copy files and folders directly in Tracker to configure your Deskbar.
+Another method is to simply drag a file or folder and drop it where you want it into the Deskbar.
Among other things, the tray's housing the clock. Left-click it to toggle between date and time. Right-click it to hide/show it or launch the Time preferences to set it.
-Here you can also launch a calendar that also appears, when you hold down the left mouse button on the clock for a little time.
-
Any program can install an icon in the tray to provide an interface to the user. The email system, for instance, shows a different symbol when there's unread mail and offers a context menu to e.g. create or check for new mail. ProcessController is another example that uses its icon in the tray to provide information (CPU/memory usage) and to offer a context menu.
-
Among other things, the tray's housing the clock. Left-click it to toggle between date and time. Right-click it to hide/show it or launch the Time preferences to set it.
+Here you can also launch a calendar that also appears, when you hold down the left mouse button on the clock for a little time.
+
Any program can install an icon in the tray to provide an interface to the user. The email system, for instance, shows a different symbol when there's unread mail and offers a context menu to e.g. create or check for new mail. ProcessController is another example that uses its icon in the tray to provide information (CPU/memory usage) and to offer a context menu.
You can change to a specific running application by clicking on its entry in the Deskbar and choosing (one of) its windows, from the submenu. By right-clicking you can minimize or close a window or the entire application.
-
If you activated Expanders in the Deskbar settings, you can show/hide the list of windows directly under an application's entry.
-
In front of every application's windows is a symbol providing info on its state. A bright symbol means a window is visible, a dark one that it's minimized. Three lines in front of a symbol shows that it's not on the current workspace.
-
You can change to a specific running application by clicking on its entry in the Deskbar and choosing (one of) its windows, from the submenu. By right-clicking you can minimize or close a window or the entire application.
+
If you activated Expanders in the Deskbar settings, you can show/hide the list of windows directly under an application's entry.
+
In front of every application's windows is a symbol providing info on its state. A bright symbol means a window is visible, a dark one that it's minimized. Three lines in front of a symbol shows that it's not on the current workspace.
One or more LaunchBox applets can be started to organize shortcuts to your favorite applications or documents. You decide if each is shown on all or just the current workspace. They can also serve to quickly open a document in a specific application. For example, you could drag&drop a HTML file onto a text editor in a LaunchBox to open it in the editor instead of its preferred application, the browser.
+
+
All options are reached from the context menu:
+
+
Add Button Here
Adds an empty button.
+
Clear Button
Empties a button.
+
Remove Button
Removes a button.
+
Settings
+- Horizontal Layout
+- Icon size
+- Show Window Border
+- Auto Raise
+- Show On All Workspaces
+Aligns the buttons horizontally.
+Sets the icon size between 16 and 64 pixel.
+Shows the window border.
+LaunchBox pops up if the mouse is near the screen edge.
+Shows the LaunchBox on every workspace.
+
Pad
+- New
+- Clone
+- Close
+Add a new pad.
+Duplicate the current pad.
+Close the current pad.
+
LaunchBox
+- About...
+- Quit
+Shows the About window.
+Quits all LaunchBox pads.
Haiku's filesystem layout is quite transparent, trying to always use non-cryptic names for files and folders, that don't leave the user guessing. Files and folders that are important for the system to function properly, are protected from accidental tempering by showing one of these alerts:
-
-
-
-
-
The second alert pops up if you try to rename or delete something in the system hierarchy. Here, the "Do it" button will only become clickable when you're holding down the SHIFT key.
-
Generally, there are three seperate branches springing from the root folder of the boot volume:
-
-
/boot/beos/
belongs to the system. Don't touch!
-
/boot/common/
holds files that are shared between users.
-
/boot/home/
is your personal folder where you keep your data and settings.
+
Haiku's filesystem layout is quite transparent, trying to always use non-cryptic names for files and folders, that don't leave the user guessing. Files and folders that are important for the system to function properly, are protected from accidental tempering by showing one of these alerts:
+
+
+
The second alert pops up if you try to rename or delete something in the system hierarchy. Here, the "Do it" button will only become clickable when you're holding down the SHIFT key.
+
Generally, there are three seperate branches springing from the root folder of the boot volume:
+
+
/boot/beos/
belongs to the system. Don't touch!
+
/boot/common/
holds files that are shared between users.
+
/boot/home/
is your personal folder where you keep your data and settings.
The fact that it's called "beos" shows Haiku's BeOS heritage. It wasn't renamed yet to ensure backward compatibility with BeOS software.
-Whatever it's named, you should not alter what's inside. Every update of Haiku can add, remove or overwrite anything within it. If you want to add functionality, maybe with other Tracker Add-Ons or Translators or maybe another hardware driver, you install these things under your own /boot/home/ hierarchy or, if it's supposed to be for every user, under /boot/common/. As long as Haiku isn't multi-user, this distinction has no apparent effect, as there's only one user with one home folder. But since there will be support for more users than one eventually, it makes sense to learn the right way from the start.
-
So, let's say you want to install a new Translator for the latest image format, you don't simply copy it into the respective system folder. Remember: Don't touch!
-Instead, you put it into the mirrored hierarchy under /boot/common/ or /boot/home/config/.
-
In our example the location for Translators in the system folder would be
-
This has another advantage: If the component you have installed messes things up (which is possible as you install hardware drivers like this, too) you are able to choose "Disable User Add-Ons" from the Boot Loader menu and are thus always able to boot without the offending component.
-
Most of the time, however, you won't have to deal with these things at all, since every software that comes from a trusted source should include an installation routine that handles these things.
-
+-->
Haiku is not a multi-user system yet. Once it is though, every user has her own home folder that is not accessible to anyone else. Every application or added component like Tracker Add-Ons, Translators etc. as well as any data that's supposed to be shared between different users, go here.
-
Haiku is not a multi-user system yet. Once it is though, every user has her own home folder that is not accessible to anyone else. Every application or added component like Tracker Add-Ons, Translators etc. as well as any data that's supposed to be shared between different users, go here.
This folder belongs to you. Here you can create and delete files and folders as you wish. However, you shouldn't mess too much with the ~/config/ directory and its subfolders. You could delete e.g. the ~/config/settings/ folder without damaging the operating system itself, but who wants to lose all his configurations and application settings? In any case, the system warns you with the at the top mentioned alert.
-
Besides the ~/config/add-ons/ folder, which mirrors the system's add-ons folder for additional components as described above, there are a few other folders of interest. (By the way, the tilde ("~") is a shortcut for your home folder, so you don't always have to write "/boot/home/" in Terminal.)
-
This folder belongs to you. Here you can create and delete files and folders as you wish. However, you shouldn't mess too much with the ~/config/ directory and its subfolders. You could delete e.g. the ~/config/settings/ folder without damaging the operating system itself, but who wants to lose all his configurations and application settings? In any case, the system warns you with the at the top mentioned alert.
+
Besides the ~/config/add-ons/ folder, which mirrors the system's add-ons folder for additional components as described above, there are a few other folders of interest. (By the way, the tilde ("~") is a shortcut for your home folder, so you don't always have to write "/boot/home/" in Terminal.)
+
+
~/mail
By default, this is where your mails are kept.
-
~/queries
+
~/queries
Queries are stored, by default temporarily for 7 days, in this folder.
-
~/config/be/
+
~/config/be/
Again from our BeOS legacy, the be folder contains what's shown in the Deskbar menu. You can add and remove items either with the Deskbar configuration panel or by putting files, folders or links into this folder directly.
-
~/config/bin/
+
~/config/bin/
Complements the system's /boot/beos/bin/ folder and holds all your command line programs.
-
~/config/boot/
+
~/config/boot/
This folder holds the UserBootscript which is executed after the system has booted up and the UserShutdownscript which will be executed before the system does all the necessary things to safely shut down.
-
~/config/fonts/
+
~/config/fonts/
Simply copy a TrueType or Postscript font into this folder and its usable right away.
-
~/config/settings/
+
~/config/settings/
This folder contains the settings to all applications and a few configurations for the system. Some applications manage their settings in their own subfolders, others simply put their configuration file in there.
-
~/config/settings/beos_mime/
+
~/config/settings/beos_mime/
In this MIME database Haiku keeps track of all the different filetypes and their settings.
-
~/config/settings/kernel/drivers/
+
~/config/settings/kernel/drivers/
There, one settings files that may be of interest. kernel offers some low level configurations like disabling SMP, activating serial debugging or enabling advanced power management. You activate a configuration line by removing the commentary symbol "#". Be careful here!
-
~/config/settings/Tracker/
+
~/config/settings/Tracker/
Here are some interesting subfolders:
-
DefaultFolderTemplate/
Show and arrange all attributes and the window size to your liking. Every new folder you create will use it as a template.
+
DefaultFolderTemplate/
Show and arrange all attributes and the window size to your liking. Every new folder you create will use it as a template.
DefaultQueryTemplates/
You can define the layout of query result windows for certain filetypes. See topic Query: The result window.
Other than Windows, Haiku doesn't rely on the 3-letter file extension for a file type (e.g. .txt, .jpg, .mp3). This method is only a last resort fallback. Haiku uses MIME types just like it's custom on the internet.
You can change the type of a specific file, its icon and the associated application. Select the file and invoke the Add-Ons | Filetype add-on from the right-click context menu.
-
You can change the type of a specific file, its icon and the associated application. Select the file and invoke the Add-Ons | Filetype add-on from the right-click context menu.
This is a JPEG file, it's MIME string image/jpeg. Let's say you definitely know that it's not a JPEG but a GIF. You can change that either by entering the correct MIME string by hand or with one of the two buttons below the textbox:
-
Select... shows a hierarchical list of filetypes where you navigate to image | GIF Image.
-
Same as... opens a file dialog where you choose any file that already has the filetype you're looking for.
-
+
This is a JPEG file, it's MIME string image/jpeg. Let's say you definitely know that it's not a JPEG but a GIF. You can change that either by entering the correct MIME string by hand or with one of the two buttons below the textbox:
+
+
Select... shows a hierarchical list of filetypes where you navigate to image | GIF Image.
+
Same as... opens a file dialog where you choose any file that already has the filetype you're looking for.
This drop-down menu shows a list of all applications that can handle this particular filetype. From here you can choose which program should open this specific file when it's double-clicked. You could, for example, change a HTML file's preferred application from the browser to a text editor while you're working on it. Every other HTML file still opens in the browser, only this particular one starts in your text editor.
-
The "Default Application" is the one that's set globally for that filetype. If you don't find the program you want to associate with this file in the drop-down menu, you'll again find the buttons Select... and Same As... which do the similar thing described under "The File Type" above.
+
The "Default Application" is the one that's set globally for that filetype. If you don't find the program you want to associate with this file in the drop-down menu, you'll again find the buttons Select... and Same As... which do the similar thing described under "The File Type" above.
If you're wondering why the icon well on the top right is empty: Icons are normally inherited from the system default for that filetype. You can open the Filetype Add-On of a file that contains an icon and drag&drop it into your file's icon well. Or you double-click the icon well and create or edit your own icon in Icon-O-Matic.
If you're wondering why the icon well on the top right is empty: Icons are normally inherited from the system default for that filetype. You can open the Filetype Add-On of a file that contains an icon and drag&drop it into your file's icon well. Or you double-click the icon well and create or edit your own icon in Icon-O-Matic.
The Filetypes preferences don't deal with individual files but with global settings of filetypes. You can change default icons and preferred applications or add, remove, or alter attributes of whole filetypes. You can even create your own filetype from scratch.
-
All filetypes and their configurations are stored in /boot/home/config/settings/beos_mime/. Before you start experimenting, it may be prudent to make a backup of that folder...
+
All filetypes and their configurations are stored in /boot/home/config/settings/beos_mime/. Before you start experimenting, it may be prudent to make a backup of that folder...
If you invoke the Filetype Add-On on an executable (here: StyledEdit), you'll get a different dialog:
-
-
+
On top, you'll see, instead of a standardized MIME string, the unique application signature. With it, the system finds the program wherever it's installed.
-
Below it are several flags, controlling the app's behaviour:
-
Single Launch - Only one instance of the app can be running per executable file. If you have two copies of that app, however, they can run side by side.
+
Below it are several flags, controlling the app's behaviour:
+
+
Single Launch - Only one instance of the app can be running per executable file. If you have two copies of that app, however, they can run side by side.
Multiple Launch - Many instances of the app can run simultaneously.
Exclusive Launch - Really only one instance with that app's signature is allowed to run at a time.
Args Only - Indicates the app doesn't respond to messages.
@@ -63,15 +76,14 @@
Then there's the list of supported filetypes. You can add (and remove) filetypes if you think the application can handle them. As a consequence, the app will appear in the menu for preferred applications or Tracker's Open with... context menu when you right-click on a file of that type.
At the bottom are version and copyright information. Like the application signature, they are filled in by the app's author and shouldn't be altered.
Haiku's graphical user interface is an integral part of the system. Unlike Unix-based operating systems, there's no separate window manager and booting just into a command line shell is not possible. Haiku's focus being on the desktop user, this is just not considered necessary.
-
As you probably have experience with other graphical environments, let's skip over the standards like menus, right-click context menus, drag&drop etc. Let's have a look at the few unique aspects of Haiku's GUI instead.
-
-
-
-There are only a few things in Haiku's GUI that aren't obvious and deserve an explanation.
-
-[1] The Deskbar is Haiku's "Start" menu and taskbar, if you will. See topic Deskbar.
-[2] The yellow tab offers more than just a program's name or a document's filename:
You can move it by holding the SHIFT key while dragging it to another position, enabling you to stack a number of windows and conveniently access them by their named tab.
+
Haiku's graphical user interface is an integral part of the system. Unlike Unix-based operating systems, there's no separate window manager and booting just into a command line shell is not possible. Haiku's focus being on the desktop user, this is just not considered necessary.
+
As you probably have experience with other graphical environments, let's skip over the standards like menus, right-click context menus, drag&drop etc. Let's have a look at the few unique aspects of Haiku's GUI instead.
+
+
There are only a few things in Haiku's GUI that aren't obvious and deserve an explanation.
+
+
The Deskbar is Haiku's "Start" menu and taskbar, if you will. See topic Deskbar.
+
The yellow tab offers more than just a program's name or a document's filename:
+
You can move it by holding the SHIFT key while dragging it to another position, enabling you to stack a number of windows and conveniently access them by their named tab.
You minimize a window with a double-click on its tab. A such hidden window can be accessed by its entry in the Deskbar or the Twitcher.
-
You can send a window to the back with a right-click on its tab (or its border).
-[3] The close button.
-[4] The "alternative size" button (expands window to full screen in most applications).
-[5] The resize button. Dragging anywhere else on a window's border will move the window.
-
+
You can send a window to the back with a right-click on its tab (or its border).
+
The close button.
+
The "alternative size" button (expands window to full screen in most applications).
+
The resize button. Dragging anywhere else on a window's border will move the window.
When opening or saving a file from any application, a panel like this opens:
-
-
-
It has all the usual things: A list of files of the current folder to choose from, in case of a save panel, a text field to enter a filename and a drop-down menu for different file formats and their settings.
-You can enter parent folders with the drop-down menu above the file listing.
-
If you already have a Tracker window with the location for a file open, you can simply drag either any file or the folder-representation (i.e. the symbol to the far right in its menubar) into the panel. This changes the panel to that new location.
-
+
+
It has all the usual things: A list of files of the current folder to choose from, in case of a save panel, a text field to enter a filename and a drop-down menu for different file formats and their settings.
+You can enter parent folders with the drop-down menu above the file listing.
+
If you already have a Tracker window with the location for a file open, you can simply drag either any file or the folder-representation (i.e. the symbol to the far right in its menubar) into the panel. This changes the panel to that new location.
You can use many of the shortcuts also used in Tracker. Besides the commands that are also available through the File menu, there are a few not that obvious:
-
You can use many of the shortcuts also used in Tracker. Besides the commands that are also available through the File menu, there are a few not that obvious:
-The menu Favorites provides recently visited folders and favorite locations that you can set up yourself. As indicated by the little arrow, you can also use these locations to navigate further down the hierarchy via submenus.
-
-
-
To add a Favorite, you simply navigate to your destination and choose Favorites | Add Current Folder. From now on it will appear in every open/save panel. To remove a Favorite, choose Favorites | Configure Favorites... and delete its entry.
-All Favorites are kept in /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/Go/. So you might as well add and remove links to files and folders there directly.
-
The menu Favorites provides recently visited folders and favorite locations that you can set up yourself. As indicated by the little arrow, you can also use these locations to navigate further down the hierarchy via submenus.
+
+
To add a Favorite, you simply navigate to your destination and choose Favorites | Add Current Folder. From now on it will appear in every open/save panel. To remove a Favorite, choose Favorites | Configure Favorites... and delete its entry.
+All Favorites are kept in /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/Go/. So you might as well add and remove links to files and folders there directly.
Attributes and Queries are key features of Haiku. While attributes are useful on their own, to display additional information on a file, for a query on them, they need to be indexed. It puts them into a lookup table, which in turn makes queries lightning fast.
-The index is part of the filesystem and is kept for every volume/partition separately.
-
+
Attributes and Queries are key features of Haiku. While attributes are useful on their own, to display additional information on a file, for a query on them, they need to be indexed. It puts them into a lookup table, which in turn makes queries lightning fast.
+The index is part of the filesystem and is kept for every volume/partition separately.
Indexing commands in Terminal
-
There are several commands to manage the index:
+
There are several commands to manage the index:
lsindex - Displays the indexed attributes on the current volume/partition.
-
These are the attributes that are indexed by default:
-
58 ~ ->lsindex
+
These are the attributes that are indexed by default:
+
mkindex - Adds an attribute to the index of a volume/partition.
Usage: mkindex [options] <attribute>
Creates a new index for the specified attribute.
@@ -86,7 +97,7 @@ Creates a new index for the specified attribute.
-v, --verbose print information about the index being created
-
Note: Only new files with that attribute come automatically into the index!
+
Note: Only new files with that attribute come automatically into the index!
Existing files have to be added manually by copying them and deleting the originals after that. Alternatively you can use the tool reindex.
@@ -113,9 +124,9 @@ If no volume is specified, the volume of the current directory is assumed.
By default, Haiku's option key, to invoke commands from menus for example, is not the usual CTRL key, but ALT instead. This has historical reasons, because the BeOS was inspired somewhat by MacOS. After you get used to it, it actually feels better as e.g. ALT+C and ALT+V is reached more conveniently on the keyboard and these commands seamlessly integrate into the bash shell of the Terminal, where CTRL+C quits the running process.
-
In any case, you can switch to the maybe more familiar CTRL key in the Menu preferences. The user guide will always describes the default configuration with option key being ALT.
-
Here's a table of many of the most commonly used shortcuts that are always available, even if there isn't a corresponding menu:
-
-
ALT+Fx
Switches to Workspace X (Fx is the function key corresponding to that workspace).
+
By default, Haiku's option key, to invoke commands from menus for example, is not the usual CTRL key, but ALT instead. This has historical reasons, because the BeOS was inspired somewhat by MacOS. After you get used to it, it actually feels better as e.g. ALT+C and ALT+V is reached more conveniently on the keyboard and these commands seamlessly integrate into the bash shell of the Terminal, where CTRL+C quits the running process.
+
In any case, you can switch to the maybe more familiar CTRL key in the Menu preferences. The user guide will always describes the default configuration with option key being ALT.
Additionally to the general shortcuts, here are more for navigating with Tracker:
+
+
ALT+CURSOR UP
Opens the parent folder.
+
ALT+CURSOR DOWN or RETURN
Opens the selected folder.
WIN-KEY
Holding it while opening a folder will automatically close the parent folder. This also works when navigating with the mouse.
right MENU-KEY
Opens the Deskbar menu (leave with ESC)
-
ALT+Z
Undo last action. The undo history is only limited by the available memory. Note, that this only works for actions on the file itself, changed attributes and permission settings can't be undone. Also, once a file is removed from Trash it's gone for good.
+
ALT+Z
Undo last action. The undo history is only limited by the available memory. Note, that this only works for actions on the file itself, changed attributes and permission settings can't be undone. Also, once a file is removed from Trash it's gone for good.
Tab-completion. After entering a few
+letters, press TAB once to auto-complete a filename or path. If
+there are more than one match, it stops where the name starts to differ
+and you have to provide some more letters to further distinguish them.
+You can also press TAB twice to have all matches
+listed.
+
CURSOR UP/DOWN
Moves up or down in a list of
+all previously entered commands.
+
CTRL+R
Bash history. All the commands you enter
+are stored in the file ~/.bash_history. Press CTRL+R
+and start to enter a command and you'll be provided with the first match
+from the bash history. Keep pressing CTRL+R until you find the
+right command line and press enter to execute it.
You can add or remove items to/from a selection by holding down a modifier key while clicking on a entry (or file in case of Tracker).
+
+
SHIFT
This will select everything between the first selected item and the one you click on.
ALT
Adds or removes the item you're clicking on from the selection.
-
In a Tracker window, if you just start typing, Tracker scrolls to and selects the file that best fits your incremental search. If there's no file starting with your typed letters, files that contain the search string anywhere in their name or other displayed attributes are selected. This search is not case-sensitive.
-The letters you type appear at the bottom-left, where normally the number of items are listed. After a second it reverts back and you could start a new incremental search.
-
+
In a Tracker window, if you just start typing, Tracker scrolls to and selects the file that best fits your incremental search. If there's no file starting with your typed letters, files that contain the search string anywhere in their name or other displayed attributes are selected. This search is not case-sensitive.
+The letters you type appear at the bottom-left, where normally the number of items are listed. After a second it reverts back and you could start a new incremental search.
While a key philosophy of Haiku is to cut down on options and have sensible defaults instead, there are some things that have to be configured or can be set to individual preference. You find all panels in Deskbar's Preferences menu.
-
While a key philosophy of Haiku is to cut down on options and have sensible defaults instead, there are some things that have to be configured or can be set to individual preference. You find all panels in Deskbar's Preferences menu.
In the first tab, Colors, you can change the colors of different parts of the user interface. The color well accepts drag&drops from other programs, letting you drag colors over from e.g. WonderBrush, Icon-O-Matic or the Backgrounds panel.
The second tab, Antialiasing, provides different settings for how things are rendered on screen.
+An activated Glyph hinting aligns all letters in such a way that their vertical and horizontal edges rest exactly between two pixels. The result is a perfect contrast, especially when dealing with black on white. Text appears crisper.
+
See the difference of the two settings with these magnified screenshots:
+
+
Another technique to improve rendering is Antialiasing, which supports all vector graphics as well as text. It smoothes lines by changing the color of certain pixels. There are two methods for that:
+
Greyscale changes the intensity of pixels at the edge.
+LCD subpixel does an even better job, especially with (high resolution) LCD monitors. Instead of the intensity of a pixel, it changes its color which moves an edge by a fraction of a pixel, because LCD displays produce every pixel with a red, green and blue component.
+
Again, the two different methods with magnified screenshots:
+
+
Subpixel based antialiasing adds a slight colored shine to objects. Something not everyone tolerates. In Haiku you can mix the two antialiasing methods and find the right setting for you by using a slider.
+
Note: The subpixel based antialiasing in combination with the glyph hinting is subject of a software patent and is therefore not available by default. Depending on where in the world you live, you may get an unlocked version. Sorry about that. Talk with your representative.
+
+
+
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
+
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Appearance preferences.
~/config/settings/system/app_server/workspaces
+~/config/settings/Backgrounds settings - Stores the panel's window position.
+
+
You can set a color or an image as background for every folder and the Desktop for every workspace.
+
+
+
The top drop-down menu specifies if your changes are applied to the current workspace, all workspaces, a specific folder or as default for every new folder.
+
Below that you can assign an image or select None if you want simply a colored background.
+
If you are using an image, you have to decide on the placement:
+
+
Manual
lets you specify the coordinates. You can drag the picture around in the preview to the left or enter X and Y manually.
+
Center
centers the picture in the middle of the screen.
+
Scale to fit
enlarges the picture with no regard to its aspect ratio until it fills the screen.
+
Tile
fills the screen by repeating the picture.
+
+
If you are using an image you can activate Icon label outline which will put an thin contour around an icon's label.
+
If an icon label's actual text is black or white depends on setting of the color picker. A dark color sets the text to white, a light color to black. So, if you assign a very bright image to the background, you should also set the color picker to a bright color in order to have icon labels readable in black. (Or use the outline option above.)
+The selected color is also reflected in the Workspaces applet, which ignores images as backgrounds.
+
+
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Backgrounds preferences.
Every application has the ability to open and save every file format for which there's a Translator installed. The settings for these Translators are configured in the DataTranslations preferences.
-
-
-
-
Depending on its capabilities, each Translator offers different settings. At least you'll get an Info... button that opens a window with the credits and the installation path.
-The following table gives an overview of the default Translators and their most useful options.
-
+
DataTranslations
+
+
Deskbar:
Preferences
+
Location:
/boot/beos/preferences/DataTranslations
+
Settings:
~/config/settings/* - Every Translator creates it's own settings file here after you've changes its defaults.
+~/config/settings/system/DataTranslations settings - Stores the panel's window position.
+
+
Every application has the ability to open and save every file format for which there's a Translator installed. The settings for these Translators are configured in the DataTranslations preferences.
+
+
+
Depending on its capabilities, each Translator offers different settings. At least you'll get an Info... button that opens a window with the credits and the installation path.
+The following table gives an overview of the default Translators and their most useful options.
+
BMP Images
24bit, uncompressed, no transparency
-
EXR Images
ILM's high dynamic-range (HDR) format
-
GIF Images
8bit, lossless compression, transparency
-You can reduce the filesize by limiting the number of used colors and the palette.
+
EXR Images
ILM's high dynamic-range (HDR) format
+
GIF Images
8bit, lossless compression, transparency
+You can reduce the filesize by limiting the number of used colors and the palette.
You can write images with transparency, either by automatically using the alpha channel or by setting the RGB value that will be transparent by hand.
-
JPEG2000 Images
24bit, compressed, no transparency
+
JPEG2000 Images
24bit, compressed, no transparency
Here, you normally only care about the output quality.
-
JPEG Images
24bit, compressed, no transparency
+
JPEG Images
24bit, compressed, no transparency
Besides the output quality you can also set a smoothing that will lessen compression artefacts but can blur the picture a little.
PCX Images
24bit, uncompressed, no transparency, PC Paintbrush Exchange format
PNG Images
32bit, lossless compression, transparency
@@ -50,18 +70,17 @@ Besides the output quality you can also set a smoothing that will lessen compres
Note: Screenshots, charts, black&white drawings and other images with few used colors, as well as small pictures are best saved as GIF (up to 256 colors) or PNG (millions of colors). JPEG, for example, introduces compression artefacts without gain in smaller filesize.
-
+
+
Note: Screenshots, charts, black&white drawings and other images with few used colors, as well as small pictures are best saved as GIF (up to 256 colors) or PNG (millions of colors). JPEG, for example, introduces compression artefacts without gain in smaller filesize.
Haiku provides a system that retrieves e-mail regularly via a mail_daemon and saves each mail as a single text file. It parses the mail and fills its attributes with all necessary header information, like from, to, subject and its unread status. Now it can be queried by you or any application. This system also makes switching e-mail clients easy as all the data and your configuration stays the same.
+The configuration is done in the E-Mail preference panel.
Let's go through the process of setting up an e-mail account.
+You start by clicking the Add button to create a new, unnamed account. Then you declare the Account Type which is either Receive Mail Only, Send Mail Only, or the most usual type, Send and Receive Mail.
+
Now you enter an Account Name, your Real Name and the Return Address where replies will be sent to.
Click on Incoming under your account's name to set up how e-mails are received.
+
+
From the drop-down menu you choose the protocol used by your provider. IMAP and POP3 are supported.
+
Next is the Mail Server address for incoming mails. If your provider needs you to log into a specific port, you add that to the address, separated by a colon. For example, pop.your-provider.org:1400.
+
Then you enter your login information, Username and Password, and if necessary change the Login Type from the default Plain Text to APOP for authentication.
+
If you retrieve mails of this account from different computers, you may want to activate the option to Leave mail on server and only Remove mail from server when deleted locally.
+
The New Mail Notification offers different methods to announce the arrival of new mail. Try different settings to see what works best for you.
+
You can change the Location of your inbox (default: /boot/home/mail/in/), which is useful if you'd like to separate the mails from different accounts into their own folders. However, queries let you sort things out just as well.
+
Last on this page, you can opt to only Partially download messages that are larger than a certain size. This will only get the header and you can decide if you want to download the rest of the message plus possible attachments after seeing the subject and who sent it. Useful if you have a slow connection.
Click on Outgoing under your account's name to set up how e-mails are sent.
+
+
As with incoming mail, you can also change the Location of your outbox (default: /boot/home/mail/out/).
+
Next is the SMTP Server address for outgoing mails. As with the incoming server before, you can use a specific port if needed, e.g. mail.your-provider.org:1200.
+
If you need to login, you change the Login Type to ESMTP and enter username and password above. The other type is used for providers that need you to check for mail with POP3 before SMTP for identification.
If you want to filter your incoming email, you click on E-Mail Filters under your account's name to set up automatic sorting. You can add any number of filters that are applied one after the other. You can rearrange them by drag&dropping them to their new position.
+Besides the R5 Daemon Filter that's used for backward compatibility, there are two other Incoming Mail Filters you can add.
+
+
Spam Filter
+
+
The spam filter uses statistical methods to classify a mail as unwanted spam. It assigns a value between 0 and 1 to it and you can decide what are the limits for a genuine mail and what will be considered spam.
+You can have that spam rating added to the start of the subject.
+Also, the spam filter can learn from all incoming e-mail. Of course, you'll have to teach it by sorting out the false positives, mails that were mistakenly marked as spam. You'll find more on that when we discuss the application Mail.
+
Together with the following Match Header filter, you're able to automatically sort out detected spam mails.
+
+
Match Header
+
+
This filter compares a header to a search pattern and performs some action when it matches.
+With the first text field you specify which header to check against. These are available:
+
+
Name
+
the name of the sender
+
From
+
the e-mail address of the sender
+
To
+
your e-mail address (different for each e-mail account)
+
Reply To
+
the e-mail address replies are sent to
+
When
+
the date and time the mail was received
+
Subject
+
the subject line
+
Cc
+
addresses of anyone receiving a carbon copy (Cc)
+
Account
+
the name of the e-mail's account
+
Status
+
The current status of the e-mail. Normally, this can be "Read", "Replied", "Sent", "Forwarded", "New", or anything you have designated yourself. However, unless you change it yourself in a filter, it will always be "New" when the mail_daemon fetched the mail.
+
Priority
+
is set by the sender's e-mail program (e.g. "urgent")
+
Thread
+
essentially the same as "Subject", but without things like Re: or Fwd:
+
Classification Group
+
depending on what the spam filter classified it as, this will either be empty (if uncertain) or contain the word "Genuine" or "Spam"
+
Spam/Genuine Estimate
+
this is a numerical estimate that the spam filter assigned to the e-mail. They are shown in scientific notation, where 1.065e-12 translates to 1.065 divided by 10 to the 12th power, which in this case translates to 0.000000000001065.
+
+
The second text field holds your search pattern. It accepts regular expressions which gives it great flexibility, while unfortunately complicating things a bit. Read up on it a bit, it's well worth it and simple search patterns aren't that complicated at all.
+
With the drop-down menu below it, you assign an action when the pattern matches. You can move or delete a mail, set the status to "Read" or anything else or set the e-mail account you'll reply with.
+
+
Outgoing Mail Filters
+
At this moment, there's only one filter that deals with outgoing mail: Fortune.
+ It will attach a randomly chosen funny or wise "fortune cookie" to the end of every mail before it's sent out. You can do a dry run by issuing the command fortune in a Terminal.
Now that your incoming and outgoing mail servers (and maybe some filters, too), are configured, you have to tell the mail_server that does all the actual mail checking and fetching how to do its job.
+
+
Under Mail Checking you configure the interval at which the account's mail server is probed for new mail.
+If you're on a dial-up connection, you may want to do that Only When Dial-Up is Connected and also Schedule Outgoing Mail When Dial-Up is Disconnected to avoid dialing automatically in regularly only to check for mail.
+
The mail_daemon has a status window which you can set to show up Never, While Sending, While Sending and Receiving or Always.
+
Make sure to Start Mail Services on Startup or there will be no mail_daemon running to do your bidding...
+
+
Edit Mailbox Menu... will open the folder /boot/home/config/Mail/Menu Links/. All folders or queries (!) or their links put into this folder will appear in the context menu of the mailbox icon of the Mail Services in the Deskbar tray.
+
From that menu, you can also Create New Message...s, Check For Mail Now or Edit Preferences....
+
The mailbox icon itself shows if there are unread messages (status "New") when there are envelopes inside.
You install new fonts by copying them into their respective user folder, i.e. /boot/common/fonts/ or /boot/home/config/fonts/ (see topic Filesystem layout).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+ Keyboard
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~/config/settings/Keymap/* - Location of user modified keymaps.
+~/config/settings/Key_map
+
+
+
+
The Keymap window shows a representation of your keyboard. When you press a key, the corresponding key is inverted and the assigned symbol is entered into the text field at the top. From there you can copy and paste it into any document.
+Thus, the Keymap preferences are not only for configuring your local keymap, but are also useful when looking for a special symbol used in other languages. For example, you can switch the keymap to "French", find the "ç" and copy it into your mail to François. (Though you'll find the "cedil" also in other keymaps...")
+
Pressing modifier keys like SHIFT or AltGr, you'll find more special characters.
+
Then there are the keys that are marked with a yellow outline. These are keys that can change the key you press after that. If you press a yellow key twice, those changeable keys are marked with a red outline. Examples are é, ñ, ó or ë.
+
You set the used font, which may or may not contain all symbols for a specific keymap from the Font menu.
+
+
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Keymap preferences.
You can change the font face and size used in menus, as well as the color of the menu/menubar.
+
Always Show Triggers will always underline the letter for the keyboard shortcut of a menu item. If you don't activate this option, the underlining will only appear when...????
+
With the last items in this preference panel you set the system wide shortcut key. Either the Haiku default ALT or the CTRL key used on some other platforms.
+While it's useful to have always the same modifier key for shortcuts across different operating systems, don't dismiss Haiku's default too quickly. After you get used to it, it actually feels better as e.g. ALT+C and ALT+V is reached more conveniently on the keyboard and these commands seamlessly integrate into the bash shell of the Terminal, where CTRL+C quits the running process.
+
+
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
+
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Menu preferences.
Set your type of mouse: 1, 2 or 3 button mouse. You can simulate the 2nd (=right) mouse button by holding down CTRL while left-clicking. For the 3rd (=middle) mouse button, it's CTRL+ALT and a left-click. A middle-click is also simulated by clicking left and right button together. Useful for notebooks, which mostly don't have a 3rd button.
+
You can rearrange the mouse buttons by clicking on them and choose their new meaning from the drop-down menu.
+
With the sliders to the right, you adjust double-click speed, mouse speed and acceleration.
+
Focus follows mouse means, that you don't have to click into a window to activate it. There are three modes:
+
+
Enabled
The window under the mouse pointer is always activated automatically, but doesn't pop to the front.
+
Warping
Choosing a window from Deskbar or the Twitcher will have the mouse pointer glide smoothly toward it.
+
Instant-Warping
Choosing a window from Deskbar or the Twitcher will have the mouse pointer jump instantly toward it.
+
+
All settings are immediately applied.
+
+
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
+
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Mouse preferences.
At the top, you choose which network adapter to configure.
+
Then you specify if you get your network settings dynamically from a server or router via DHCP or if you're using static addresses. If it's the latter, you'll have to fill out IP Address, Netmask, Gateway and DNS Servers yourself. Otherwise the panel will show the addresses currently set with DHCP.
+
+
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Network preferences.
~/config/settings/system/app_server/workspaces
+~/config/settings/kernel/drivers/vesa - Only when running in VESA mode.
+~/config/settings/Screen_data - Stores the panel's window position.
+
+
Each of your workspaces can have its own resolution and color depth.
+
+
The top drop-down menu specifies if your changes are applied only to the current or to all workspaces. Depending on your graphics card, the other two drop-down menus contain all supported resolution and depth settings.
+
After clicking on Apply, the graphics mode is changed and an alert appears, asking you to keep or cancel the changes. If you don't answer that alert, the graphics mode reverts after 12 seconds to the previous setting. Maybe you couldn't see the alert because your monitor didn't support the setting.
+
To the left, you can set the number of workspaces and open the Backgrounds preferences.
+
Revert brings back the setting that was active when you started the Screen preferences.
The top checkbox enables/disables the screen saver.
+With the slider below it, you control after how long an idle time the screen saver kicks in.
+
+
The next two sliders are only usable after you activated their checkboxes:
+One slider determines after how many minutes the screen is powered off.
+The other, after how many minutes you need a password to unlock your machine.
+
+
By clicking into different corners of the two screens at the bottom, you tell the system when to immediately start the screen saver or when to prevent it from kicking in when you rest the mouse in the indicated corner. Click in the middle of the screens to disable that feature again.
+
The second tab shows a list of all installed screen saver modules and their individual settings. You can test your settings with the Test button below the list and add modules with the Add... button beside it. Other ways to install new screen savers is by a simple drag&drop into the list. Of course, you can also copy/delete a module's file in its respective user folder, i.e. /boot/common/add-ons/screensavers/ or /boot/home/config/add-ons/screensavers/ (see topic Filesystem layout).
+
You can assign sounds to certain events in the system. Just select the event from the list and choose a sound from the drop-down menu below.
+
None will silence an event.
+Other... will open a file panel to find a new sound that isn't yet in the menu.
+
You can use any format that's supported by the system. If MediaPlayer can deal with it, so can any other program.
+You can "pre-hear" an event's sound by selecting it and using the Play and Stop buttons.
~/config/settings/RTC_time_settings
+~/config/settings/timezone - A link to the current timezone in /boot/beos/etc/timezones/*/*
+~/config/settings/Time_settings - Stores the panel's window position.
+
+
The panel of the Time preferences is split into two tabs:
On the left side, you can set the day of the month by simply clicking on it in the calendar. You change the month and year by clicking on it and using the up/down arrows to the right or the cursor keys on your keyboard.
+
Similarly, you set the time. There are two modes for the clock:
~/config/settings/kernel/drivers/virtual_memory
+~/config/settings/VM_data - Stores the panel's window position.
+
+
Virtual memory let's the system swap out memory to harddisk, if the RAM can be used more sensibly for other things. So, even if you have lots of RAM, providing virtual memory is never a bad idea.
+
+
You can set the size to even more than your physical memory size if needed. With today's huge harddisks, assigning the physical memory size shouldn't be a problem. Still, you can quickly adjust the size if your free space ever runs low. In that case you should also have a look at DiskUsage to find out what's eating up your diskspace.
+
Normally, the swap file's written to your boot partition. If you often run into disk thrashing due to the virtual memory system swapping memory in and out, you can try to use a separate harddisk for you swap file. Simply another partition on the same harddisk with your system/data won't help.
+Upgrading your RAM is of course the most effective way to go...
+
+
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
+
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the VirtualMemory preferences.
In the first tab, Colors, you can change the colors of different parts of the user interface. The color well accepts drag&drops from other programs, letting you drag colors over from e.g. WonderBrush, Icon-O-Matic or the Backgrounds panel.
-
The second tab, Antialiasing, provides different settings for how things are rendered on screen.
-An activated Glyph hinting aligns all letters in such a way that their vertical and horizontal edges rest exactly between two pixels. The result is a perfect contrast, especially when dealing with black on white. Text appears crisper.
-
See the difference of the two settings with these magnified screenshots:
-
-
-
-
Another technique to improve rendering is Antialiasing, which supports all vector graphics as well as text. It smoothes lines by changing the color of certain pixels. There are two methods for that:
-
Greyscale changes the intensity of pixels at the edge.
-LCD subpixel does an even better job, especially with (high resolution) LCD monitors. Instead of the intensity of a pixel, it changes its color which moves an edge by a fraction of a pixel, because LCD displays produce every pixel with a red, green and blue component.
-
Again, the two different methods with magnified screenshots:
-
-
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-
Subpixel based antialiasing adds a slight colored shine to objects. Something not everyone tolerates. In Haiku you can mix the two antialiasing methods and find the right setting for you by using a slider.
-
Note: The subpixel based antialiasing in combination with the glyph hinting is subject of a software patent and is therefore not available by default. Depending on where in the world you live, you may get an unlocked version. Sorry about that. Talk with your representative.
-
-
-
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
-
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Appearance preferences.
You can set a color or an image as background for every folder and the Desktop for every workspace.
-
-
-
-
The top drop-down menu specifies if your changes are applied to the current workspace, all workspaces, a specific folder or as default for every new folder.
-
Below that you can assign an image or select None if you want simply a colored background.
-
If you are using an image, you have to decide on the placement:
-
-
Manual
lets you specify the coordinates. You can drag the picture around in the preview to the left or enter X and Y manually.
-
Center
centers the picture in the middle of the screen.
-
Scale to fit
enlarges the picture with no regard to its aspect ratio until it fills the screen.
-
Tile
fills the screen by repeating the picture.
-
-
If you are using an image you can activate Icon label outline which will put an thin contour around an icon's label.
-
If an icon label's actual text is black or white depends on setting of the color picker. A dark color sets the text to white, a light color to black. So, if you assign a very bright image to the background, you should also set the color picker to a bright color in order to have icon labels readable in black. (Or use the outline option above.)
-The selected color is also reflected in the Workspaces applet, which ignores images as backgrounds.
-
-
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Backgrounds preferences.
Haiku provides a system that retrieves e-mail regularly via a mail_daemon and saves each mail as a single text file. It parses the mail and fills its attributes with all necessary header information, like from, to, subject and its unread status. Now it can be queried by you or any application. This system also makes switching e-mail clients easy as all the data and your configuration stays the same.
-The configuration is done in the E-Mail preference panel.
-
Let's go through the process of setting up an e-mail account.
-You start by clicking the Add button to create a new, unnamed account. Then you declare the Account Type which is either Receive Mail Only, Send Mail Only, or the most usual type, Send and Receive Mail.
-
Now you enter an Account Name, your Real Name and the Return Address where replies will be sent to.
-
Click on Incoming under your account's name to set up how e-mails are received.
-
-
-
-
From the drop-down menu you choose the protocol used by your provider. IMAP and POP3 are supported.
-
Next is the Mail Server address for incoming mails. If your provider needs you to log into a specific port, you add that to the address, separated by a colon. For example, pop.your-provider.org:1400.
-
Then you enter your login information, Username and Password, and if necessary change the Login Type from the default Plain Text to APOP for authentication.
-
If you retrieve mails of this account from different computers, you may want to activate the option to Leave mail on server and only Remove mail from server when deleted locally.
-
The New Mail Notification offers different methods to announce the arrival of new mail. Try different settings to see what works best for you.
-
You can change the Location of your inbox (default: /boot/home/mail/in/), which is useful if you'd like to separate the mails from different accounts into their own folders. However, queries let you sort things out just as well.
-
Last on this page, you can opt to only Partially download messages that are larger than a certain size. This will only get the header and you can decide if you want to download the rest of the message plus possible attachments after seeing the subject and who sent it. Useful if you have a slow connection.
-
Click on Outgoing under your account's name to set up how e-mails are sent.
-
-
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As with incoming mail, you can also change the Location of your outbox (default: /boot/home/mail/out/).
-
Next is the SMTP Server address for outgoing mails. As with the incoming server before, you can use a specific port if needed, e.g. mail.your-provider.org:1200.
-
If you need to login, you change the Login Type to ESMTP and enter username and password above. The other type is used for providers that need you to check for mail with POP3 before SMTP for identification.
-
-
If you want to filter your incoming email, you click on E-Mail Filters under your account's name to set up automatic sorting. You can add any number of filters that are applied one after the other. You can rearrange them by drag&dropping them to their new position.
-Besides the R5 Daemon Filter that's used for backward compatibility, there are two other Incoming Mail Filters you can add.
-
-
-
Spam Filter
-
-
-
The spam filter uses statistical methods to classify a mail as unwanted spam. It assigns a value between 0 and 1 to it and you can decide what are the limits for a genuine mail and what will be considered spam.
-You can have that spam rating added to the start of the subject.
-Also, the spam filter can learn from all incoming e-mail. Of course, you'll have to teach it by sorting out the false positives, mails that were mistakenly marked as spam. You'll find more on that when we discuss the application Mail.
-
Together with the following Match Header filter, you're able to automatically sort out detected spam mails.
-
-
Match Header
-
-
-
This filter compares a header to a search pattern and performs some action when it matches.
-With the first text field you specify which header to check against. These are available:
-
-
Name
-
the name of the sender
-
From
-
the e-mail address of the sender
-
To
-
your e-mail address (different for each e-mail account)
-
Reply To
-
the e-mail address replies are sent to
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When
-
the date and time the mail was received
-
Subject
-
the subject line
-
Cc
-
addresses of anyone receiving a carbon copy (Cc)
-
Account
-
the name of the e-mail's account
-
Status
-
The current status of the e-mail. Normally, this can be "Read", "Replied", "Sent", "Forwarded", "New", or anything you have designated yourself. However, unless you change it yourself in a filter, it will always be "New" when the mail_daemon fetched the mail.
-
Priority
-
is set by the sender's e-mail program (e.g. "urgent")
-
Thread
-
essentially the same as "Subject", but without things like Re: or Fwd:
-
Classification Group
-
depending on what the spam filter classified it as, this will either be empty (if uncertain) or contain the word "Genuine" or "Spam"
-
Spam/Genuine Estimate
-
this is a numerical estimate that the spam filter assigned to the e-mail. They are shown in scientific notation, where 1.065e-12 translates to 1.065 divided by 10 to the 12th power, which in this case translates to 0.000000000001065.
-
-
-
The second text field holds your search pattern. It accepts regular expressions which gives it great flexibility, while unfortunately complicating things a bit. Read up on it a bit, it's well worth it and simple search patterns aren't that complicated at all.
-
With the drop-down menu below it, you assign an action when the pattern matches. You can move or delete a mail, set the status to "Read" or anything else or set the e-mail account you'll reply with.
-
-
Outgoing Mail Filters
-
At this moment, there's only one filter that deals with outgoing mail: Fortune.
- It will attach a randomly chosen funny or wise "fortune cookie" to the end of every mail before it's sent out. You can do a dry run by issuing the command fortune in a Terminal.
-
Now that your incoming and outgoing mail servers (and maybe some filters, too), are configured, you have to tell the mail_server that does all the actual mail checking and fetching how to do its job.
-
-
-
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Under Mail Checking you configure the interval at which the account's mail server is probed for new mail.
-If you're on a dial-up connection, you may want to do that Only When Dial-Up is Connected and also Schedule Outgoing Mail When Dial-Up is Disconnected to avoid dialing automatically in regularly only to check for mail.
-
The mail_daemon has a status window which you can set to show up Never, While Sending, While Sending and Receiving or Always.
-
Make sure to Start Mail Services on Startup or there will be no mail_daemon running to do your bidding...
-
-
-
-
Edit Mailbox Menu... will open the folder /boot/home/config/Mail/Menu Links/. All folders or queries (!) or their links put into this folder will appear in the context menu of the mailbox icon of the Mail Services in the Deskbar tray.
-
From that menu, you can also Create New Message...s, Check For Mail Now or Edit Preferences....
-
The mailbox icon itself shows if there are unread messages (status "New") when there are envelopes inside.
-
Haiku defines three standard fonts for different purposes. You set plain, bold and fixed font types and sizes that will be used throughout the system.
-
-
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
-
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Fonts preferences.
You install new fonts by copying them into their respective user folder, i.e. /boot/common/fonts/ or /boot/home/config/fonts/ (see topic Filesystem layout).
-
The Keymap window shows a representation of your keyboard. When you press a key, the corresponding key is inverted and the assigned symbol is entered into the text field at the top. From there you can copy and paste it into any document.
-Thus, the Keymap preferences are not only for configuring your local keymap, but are also useful when looking for a special symbol used in other languages. For example, you can switch the keymap to "French", find the "ç" and copy it into your mail to François. (Though you'll find the "cedil" also in other keymaps...")
-
Pressing modifier keys like SHIFT or AltGr, you'll find more special characters.
-
Then there are the keys that are marked with a yellow outline. These are keys that can change the key you press after that. If you press a yellow key twice, those changeable keys are marked with a red outline. Examples are é, ñ, ó or ë.
-
You set the used font, which may or may not contain all symbols for a specific keymap from the Font menu.
-
-
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Keymap preferences.
You can change the font face and size used in menus, as well as the color of the menu/menubar.
-
Always Show Triggers will always underline the letter for the keyboard shortcut of a menu item. If you don't activate this option, the underlining will only appear when...????
-
With the last items in this preference panel you set the system wide shortcut key. Either the Haiku default ALT or the CTRL key used on some other platforms.
-While it's useful to have always the same modifier key for shortcuts across different operating systems, don't dismiss Haiku's default too quickly. After you get used to it, it actually feels better as e.g. ALT+C and ALT+V is reached more conveniently on the keyboard and these commands seamlessly integrate into the bash shell of the Terminal, where CTRL+C quits the running process.
-
-
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
-
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Menu preferences.
Set your type of mouse: 1, 2 or 3 button mouse. You can simulate the 2nd (=right) mouse button by holding down CTRL while left-clicking. For the 3rd (=middle) mouse button, it's CTRL+ALT and a left-click. A middle-click is also simulated by clicking left and right button together. Useful for notebooks, which mostly don't have a 3rd button.
-
You can rearrange the mouse buttons by clicking on them and choose their new meaning from the drop-down menu.
-
With the sliders to the right, you adjust double-click speed, mouse speed and acceleration.
-
Focus follows mouse means, that you don't have to click into a window to activate it. There are three modes:
-
-
Enabled
The window under the mouse pointer is always activated automatically, but doesn't pop to the front.
-
Warping
Choosing a window from Deskbar or the Twitcher will have the mouse pointer glide smoothly toward it.
-
Instant-Warping
Choosing a window from Deskbar or the Twitcher will have the mouse pointer jump instantly toward it.
-
-
All settings are immediately applied.
-
-
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
-
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Mouse preferences.
At the top, you choose which network adapter to configure.
-
Then you specify if you get your network settings dynamically from a server or router via DHCP or if you're using static addresses. If it's the latter, you'll have to fill out IP Address, Netmask, Gateway and DNS Servers yourself. Otherwise the panel will show the addresses currently set with DHCP.
-
-
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the Network preferences.
Each of your workspaces can have its own resolution and color depth.
-
-
-
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The top drop-down menu specifies if your changes are applied only to the current or to all workspaces. Depending on your graphics card, the other two drop-down menus contain all supported resolution and depth settings.
-
After clicking on Apply, the graphics mode is changed and an alert appears, asking you to keep or cancel the changes. If you don't answer that alert, the graphics mode reverts after 12 seconds to the previous setting. Maybe you couldn't see the alert because your monitor didn't support the setting.
-
To the left, you can set the number of workspaces and open the Backgrounds preferences.
-
Revert brings back the setting that was active when you started the Screen preferences.
-
The top checkbox enables/disables the screen saver.
-With the slider below it, you control after how long an idle time the screen saver kicks in.
-
The next two sliders are only usable after you activated their checkboxes:
-One slider determines after how many minutes the screen is powered off.
-The other, after how many minutes you need a password to unlock your machine.
-
By clicking into different corners of the two screens at the bottom, you tell the system when to immediately start the screen saver or when to prevent it from kicking in when you rest the mouse in the indicated corner. Click in the middle of the screens to disable that feature again.
-
The second tab shows a list of all installed screen saver modules and their individual settings. You can test your settings with the Test button below the list and add modules with the Add... button beside it. Other ways to install new screen savers is by a simple drag&drop into the list. Of course, you can also copy/delete a module's file in its respective user folder, i.e. /boot/common/add-ons/screensavers/ or /boot/home/config/add-ons/screensavers/ (see topic Filesystem layout).
-
You can assign sounds to certain events in the system. Just select the event from the list and choose a sound from the drop-down menu below. None will silence an event. Other... will open a file panel to find a new sound that isn't yet in the menu.
-You can use any format that's supported by the system. If MediaPlayer can deal with it, so can any other program.
-
You can "pre-hear" an event's sound by selecting it and using the Play and Stop buttons.
-
On the left side, you can set the day of the month by simply clicking on it in the calendar. You change the month and year by clicking on it and using the up/down arrows to the right or the cursor keys on your keyboard.
-
Similarly, you set the time. There are two modes for the clock:
-
Virtual memory let's the system swap out memory to harddisk, if the RAM can be used more sensibly for other things. So, even if you have lots of RAM, providing virtual memory is never a bad idea.
-
-
-
You can set the size to even more than your physical memory size if needed. With today's huge harddisks, assigning the physical memory size shouldn't be a problem. Still, you can quickly adjust the size if your free space ever runs low. In that case you should also have a look at DiskUsage to find out what's eating up your diskspace.
-
Normally, the swap file's written to your boot partition. If you often run into disk thrashing due to the virtual memory system swapping memory in and out, you can try to use a separate harddisk for you swap file. Simply another partition on the same harddisk with your system/data won't help.
-Upgrading your RAM is of course the most effective way to go...
-
-
Defaults
resets everything to default values.
-
Revert
brings back the settings that were active when you started the VirtualMemory preferences.
A query is a file search based on file attributes and can be performed within Tracker or in Terminal. Queries are saved in "/boot/home/queries/" and by default last seven days before being purged. Note, that these aren't static result lists of your search, but are the query formulas which trigger a new search whenever you open them.
-
A query is a file search based on file attributes and can be performed within Tracker or in Terminal. Queries are saved in "/boot/home/queries/" and by default last seven days before being purged. Note, that these aren't static result lists of your search, but are the query formulas which trigger a new search whenever you open them.
-
You start a query by invoking the Find... menu either from the Deskbar menu or any Tracker window or the Desktop (which is actually a fullscreen Tracker window). The shortcut is ALT+F. You're presented with the Find window:
-
-
-
-
-
[1] Select previous or saved queries or save the current query.
-[2] Narrow down your search from "All files and folders" to specific file
-types.
-[3] Define the search method:
You start a query by invoking the Find... menu either from the Deskbar menu or any Tracker window or the Desktop (which is actually a fullscreen Tracker window). The shortcut is ALT+F. You're presented with the Find window:
+
+
+
Select previous or saved queries or save the current query.
+
Narrow down your search from "All files and folders" to specific file
+types.
+
Define the search method:
by Name - a basic search by filename
by Attribute - an advanced search, you specify search terms for one or more attributes
-
by Formula - an even more advanced search, you can fine-tune a complex query term
-[4] Select which drives to search on.
-[5] Enter the search term.
-[6] The expander hides/unhides the additional options.
-[7] Uncheck the Temporary checkbox if you don't want this query self-destruct after 7 days.
-[8] Check if your query is supposed to Include trash.
-[9] Optionally, enter a name for this query if you want to save it.
-[10] You can drag&drop the icon to save the query.
-
+
by Formula - an even more advanced search, you can fine-tune a complex query term
+
Select which drives to search on.
+
Enter the search term.
+
The expander hides/unhides the additional options.
+
Uncheck the Temporary checkbox if you don't want this query self-destruct after 7 days.
+
Check if your query is supposed to Include trash.
+
Optionally, enter a name for this query if you want to save it.
If you simply want to find all files on your mounted disks that match a certain pattern, simply leave the search method at "by Name", enter the search term into the text box and press ENTER.
-
If you simply want to find all files on your mounted disks that match a certain pattern, simply leave the search method at "by Name", enter the search term into the text box and press ENTER.
You can create more advanced queries by searching within the attributes of specific file types. For that to work, these attributes have to be indexed (see Index).
-
-
-
-
-
You start by setting the filetype from "All files and folders" to "text | E-mail" and change the search method to "by Attribute.
-
This adds a drop-down menu to the left of the textbox and the buttons "Add and Remove under that. From the menu you choose which attribute to query. With "Add and Remove you can query additional attributes or remove them again. These attributes can be logically linked with AND/OR.
-
Let's do an email query as an example:
-
-
-
-
This is your Find window when you're looking for all emails Clara Botter has sent to you in the last two months that had in the subject "vibraphone" or "skepticality".
-
You can create more advanced queries by searching within the attributes of specific file types. For that to work, these attributes have to be indexed (see Index).
+
+
You start by setting the filetype from "All files and folders" to "text | E-mail" and change the search method to "by Attribute.
+
This adds a drop-down menu to the left of the textbox and the buttons "Add and Remove under that. From the menu you choose which attribute to query. With "Add and Remove you can query additional attributes or remove them again. These attributes can be logically linked with AND/OR.
+
Let's do an email query as an example:
+
+
This is your Find window when you're looking for all emails Clara Botter has sent to you in the last two months that had in the subject "vibraphone" or "skepticality".
Typing in a formula query by hand is daunting and really quite unpractical. It still has its uses.
-
Take the above query by attribute of Clara's mails concerning vibraphones etc. If you have all the attributes and their search terms set, try switching to
-"by Formula mode and be overwhelmed by this one line query string:
-
-
-
-
Typing in a formula query by hand is daunting and really quite unpractical. It still has its uses.
+
Take the above query by attribute of Clara's mails concerning vibraphones etc. If you have all the attributes and their search terms set, try switching to "by Formula mode and be overwhelmed by this one line query string:
You could copy and paste the string into an email, forum or IRC for others to use or debug.
@@ -90,29 +87,26 @@ types.
You can fine tune your query by inserting parenthesis where needed, make parts case-sensitive or negate logical combinations by changing. e.g. "==" to "!=" for a NOT AND. All you need is a basic understanding of regular expressions and maybe some scripting basics.
After you start a search, the Find window will be replaced by a result window. Here is an example that queried for "server":
+
+
Besides the grey background, result windows work exactly like any other Tracker window. Some things are worth noting:
You can open the folder a file resides in by double clicking on its path attribute.
With File | Edit Query or ALT+G you get back to your Find window to refine your query.
A query is live, i.e. if a file that matches your search criteria appears or disappears from your system, this change is reflected in your results in real-time.
-
You can assign a sensible attribute layout for query results of a specific filetype. Open the folder containing files of the filetype you'd like to create a template for and arrange the attributes how you'd like to have query results presented. Copy this layout with Attributes | Copy Attributes.
-
Open /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/DefaultQueryTemplates, create a new folder and rename it to group/filetype, replacing slashes with underscores, e.g."audio_x-mp3".
-Open the new folder and paste in the layout with Attributes | Paste Attributes.
-
+
You can assign a sensible attribute layout for query results of a specific filetype. Open the folder containing files of the filetype you'd like to create a template for and arrange the attributes how you'd like to have query results presented. Copy this layout with Attributes | Copy Attributes.
+
Open /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/DefaultQueryTemplates, create a new folder and rename it to group/filetype, replacing slashes with underscores, e.g."audio_x-mp3". Open the new folder and paste in the layout with Attributes | Paste Attributes.
With CTRL+ALT+DEL you invoke the Team Monitor which lists all currently running programs.
-
-
-
Programs that were launched by the system are blue, those started by the user black.
-Applications that are unresponsive, which is often a sign the program has crashed, are marked red. You can kill a program by selecting it and pressing the Kill Application button.
-
You can summon a Terminal with ALT+SHIFT+T.
-
If your Tracker or Deskbar crashed or froze, a new button appears (you may have to kill the offending team first): Restart the Desktop will restart Tracker and/or Deskbar for you.
-
+
With CTRL+ALT+DEL you invoke the Team Monitor which lists all currently running programs.
+
+
Programs that were launched by the system are blue, those started by the user black.
+Applications that are unresponsive, which is often a sign the program has crashed, are marked red. You can kill a program by selecting it and pressing the Kill Application button.
+
You can summon a Terminal with ALT+SHIFT+T.
+
If your Tracker or Deskbar crashed or froze, a new button appears (you may have to kill the offending team first): Restart the Desktop will restart Tracker and/or Deskbar for you.
Applications can install add-ons so they can be invoked easily on a selection of files from Tracker. Only the add-ons that can handle a specific filetype are presented under Add-Ons from the context menu or the File menu of a Tracker window. Some add-ons don't necessarily need a file to work on and are thus always present.
-
Tracker Add-Ons, or links to applications that can act as add-ons, can be installed in three different locations (see topic Filesystem layout):
-
-
/boot/beos/system/add-ons/Tracker/
for system provided add-ons
-
/boot/common/add-ons/Tracker/
for add-ons available to every user
-
/boot/home/config/add-ons/Tracker/
for add-ons only available to yourself
+
Applications can install add-ons so they can be invoked easily on a selection of files from Tracker. Only the add-ons that can handle a specific filetype are presented under Add-Ons from the context menu or the File menu of a Tracker window. Some add-ons don't necessarily need a file to work on and are thus always present.
+
Tracker Add-Ons, or links to applications that can act as add-ons, can be installed in three different locations (see topic Filesystem layout):
+
+
/boot/beos/system/add-ons/Tracker/
for system provided add-ons
+
/boot/common/add-ons/Tracker/
for add-ons available to every user
+
/boot/home/config/add-ons/Tracker/
for add-ons only available to yourself
-
The file name of an add-on can be suffixed with a dash and capital letter, and is then available via keyboard shortcut. For example, Open Target Folder-T opens with ALT+AltGr+T (at least with my keymap, you may have a different key combination).
-Of course, you have to take care of possible shortcut collisions when deciding on a shortcut. You can't have the same for different add-ons.
-
+
The file name of an add-on can be suffixed with a dash and capital letter, and is then available via keyboard shortcut. For example, Open Target Folder-T opens with ALT+AltGr+T (at least with my keymap, you may have a different key combination).
+Of course, you have to take care of possible shortcut collisions when deciding on a shortcut. You can't have the same for different add-ons.
These Tracker Add-Ons come with every Haiku installation:
+
Background-B
-
Opens the Background preferences to change the color or image of the Desktop or any folder. Invoked on an image file the Background panel is launched with that image already loaded as a potential background.
+
Opens the Background preferences to change the color or image of the Desktop or any folder. Invoked on an image file the Background panel is launched with that image already loaded as a potential background.
DiskUsage-I
-
Starts the DiskUsage application with the according folder as basis.
+
Starts the DiskUsage application with the according folder as basis.
FileType-F
Invoked on a file, opens its specific FileType panel, otherwise the FileTypes preferences are launched.
Open Target Folder-T
It can only be used on a linked file and opens the folder that file lives in.
TextSearch-G
-
Starts the TextSearch application to look for a string in the selected folder (and its subfolders).
+
Starts the TextSearch application to look for a string in the selected folder (and its subfolders).
ZipOMatic-Z
-
A selection of files will be added to a zip archive, invoked without a selection opens a panel to create an archive via drag&drop.
+
A selection of files will be added to a zip archive, invoked without a selection opens a panel to create an archive via drag&drop.
The Tracker is the graphical interface to all your files. It let's you create new files and folders or find, launch or rename as well as copy or delete existing ones.
-
Being an application like any other (the Desktop with its icons is really just a fullscreen window in the background), Tracker appears with its windows in the Deskbar and can be quit and restarted. The easiest way to quit and restart a crashed or frozen Tracker (or a wayward Deskbar) is to call the Team Monitor.
-
+
The Tracker is the graphical interface to all your files. It let's you create new files and folders or find, launch or rename as well as copy or delete existing ones.
+
Being an application like any other (the Desktop with its icons is really just a fullscreen window in the background), Tracker appears with its windows in the Deskbar and can be quit and restarted. The easiest way to quit and restart a crashed or frozen Tracker (or a wayward Deskbar) is to call the Team Monitor.
In order to access a harddisk, CD, USB stick etc., you first have to mount the volume, that is, let the system know it's there. This is done with a right-click on the Desktop or an already mounted volume (like the boot disk) and choosing the volume from the Mount submenu.
-
-
-
-
There are also Mount Settings so you don't have to mount everything manually after every bootup.
-The above settings will mount all disks on bootup that were mounted previously and will automatically mount any storage device you connect/insert.
-
Warning:
-Before you disconnect e.g. a harddrive or USB stick, make sure you have successfully unmounted the volume. This guarantees that all data transfer has finished. Otherwise you may lose data or corrupt the disk!
-
In order to access a harddisk, CD, USB stick etc., you first have to mount the volume, that is, let the system know it's there. This is done with a right-click on the Desktop or an already mounted volume (like the boot disk) and choosing the volume from the Mount submenu.
+
+
There are also Mount Settings so you don't have to mount everything manually after every bootup.
+The above settings will mount all disks on bootup that were mounted previously and will automatically mount any storage device you connect/insert.
+
Warning:
+Before you disconnect e.g. a harddrive or USB stick, make sure you have successfully unmounted the volume. This guarantees that all data transfer has finished. Otherwise you may lose data or corrupt the disk!
Moving through your folders is one of Trackers main purposes, just like the file managers on other platforms. Haiku's Tracker has some unique features that will help you doing that efficiently.
-
Instead of double-clicking your way down folder after folder, there's a better way to drill down:
-
-
-
-
Right-click onto a folder, and at the top of the usual context menu you'll find a submenu of the current folder that let's you navigate down a level. Just move down the hierarchy until you find the file or folder you're looking for and click on it to open it. The above shows the contents of the folder /boot/beos/system/.
-
-
A similar method can be used from any Tracker window:
-
-
-
-
Click on the area in the lower left, where the number of items are listed, and you'll get submenus for every level above you current folder. From there you can drill down through the folders as usual.
-
Note, that the Desktop is always the topmost level as that is where Tracker shows mounted volumes. So, if you want to go to another disk, you first have to navigate to the top (Desktop) and cross over to your other disk from there.
-
-
You'll get the same submenu-navigating when you drag a file over a folder. After a short while of hovering, a submenu pops up and you can drill down to your destination. If you initiated the drag with the right mousebutton, you can choose between copying, moving or linking the file when you release the mouse.
-
-
By default, when you double-click a folder, Tracker opens a new window while leaving the parent window open. This can quickly lead to an overcrowded desktop.
-You can prevent that by holding down the left WIN key, which automatically closes the parent window.
-This is also true for keyboard navigation. For more on that, see topic Shortcuts and key combinations.
-
Moving through your folders is one of Trackers main purposes, just like the file managers on other platforms. Haiku's Tracker has some unique features that will help you doing that efficiently.
+
Instead of double-clicking your way down folder after folder, there's a better way to drill down:
+
+
Right-click onto a folder, and at the top of the usual context menu you'll find a submenu of the current folder that let's you navigate down a level. Just move down the hierarchy until you find the file or folder you're looking for and click on it to open it. The above shows the contents of the folder /boot/beos/system/.
+
A similar method can be used from any Tracker window:
+
+
Click on the area in the lower left, where the number of items are listed, and you'll get submenus for every level above you current folder. From there you can drill down through the folders as usual.
+
Note, that the Desktop is always the topmost level as that is where Tracker shows mounted volumes. So, if you want to go to another disk, you first have to navigate to the top (Desktop) and cross over to your other disk from there.
+
You'll get the same submenu-navigating when you drag a file over a folder. After a short while of hovering, a submenu pops up and you can drill down to your destination. If you initiated the drag with the right mousebutton, you can choose between copying, moving or linking the file when you release the mouse.
+
By default, when you double-click a folder, Tracker opens a new window while leaving the parent window open. This can quickly lead to an overcrowded desktop.
+You can prevent that by holding down the left WIN key, which automatically closes the parent window.
+This is also true for keyboard navigation. For more on that, see topic Shortcuts and key combinations.
Tracker windows offer three different viewing modes from the Window menu:
+
+
Icon View (ALT+1) - Big icons, you can change the size from the submenu.
Mini Icon View (ALT+2) - Small icons.
-
List View (ALT+3) - A detailed list of your files enabling you to show/hide available attributes. (See topic Attributes.)
-
The Window menu offers a number of other functions:
-
Resize Window (ALT+Y) - Resizes the window to its ideal size.
+
List View (ALT+3) - A detailed list of your files enabling you to show/hide available attributes. (See topic Attributes.)
+
+
The Window menu offers a number of other functions:
+
+
Resize Window (ALT+Y) - Resizes the window to its ideal size.
Clean Up (ALT+K) - Aligns all icons to an invisible grid. Hold down SHIFT and the menu becomes Clean Up All which additionally sorts all icons alphabetically.
Select... (SHIFT+ALT+A) - Select files according to a regular expression.
-
The rest of the functions are pretty self-explanatory, leaving the Tracker preferences.
-
+
The rest of the functions are pretty self-explanatory, leaving the Tracker preferences.
Window | Preferences... opens a panel that offers a number of setting that, where not obvious, should become clear once tried out. Since all settings are applied live, you'll immediately see the changes.
- So, in short, the not so obvious settings:
-
Desktop - Decide if all mounted disks appear directly on the Desktop or in a window after clicking a single Disk icon sitting on the Desktop.
+ So, in short, the not so obvious settings:
+
+
Desktop - Decide if all mounted disks appear directly on the Desktop or in a window after clicking a single Disk icon sitting on the Desktop.
Windows - You can set Single Window Navigation, i.e. a double-clicked folder doesn't open in its own window, but inside the already open window instead, replacing the view of it's parent folder. This is not the same as clicking while holding the WIN key, as described above, because you'll lose the per window saved position and size.
-
-
-
-
Before you switch Tracker to Single Window Navigation mode, because that may feel more familiar to you, we recommend giving the menu based browsing a try first, as that may actually work much faster for you after getting used to. On the other hand, single window browsing offers a Navigator where you can enter or copy&paste a path name and use back, forward and up buttons.
+
+
+
+
Before you switch Tracker to Single Window Navigation mode, because that may feel more familiar to you, we recommend giving the menu based browsing a try first, as that may actually work much faster for you after getting used to. On the other hand, single window browsing offers a Navigator where you can enter or copy&paste a path name and use back, forward and up buttons.
Date and Time - Set date and time formats.
Trash - Set the behaviour when deleting a file.
Volume Icons - Set the colour of an optional indicator of free space that's shown besides a disk's icon.
When invoked on a selected file, most of the File menu commands are also offered in the context menu by right-clicking that file.
+
As usual the usage of the commands is pretty clear.
+
+
Find... - Find a file or folder. See topic Query for more info.
New... - Create a new folder or any other file based on a template.
-
-
-
+
+
+
Choosing Edit Templates... opens the folder /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/Tracker New Templates. Creating a file in that folder will offer its filetype with the file's name and other attributes as template in the New... menu. Here, there's a file "Text" with the filetype text/plain. See topic Filetypes for more info.
-
Open With... - A submenu offers all applications that can handle this filetype.
-
-
-
-
The preferred application that would open the file when double-clicked, is checkmarked. This submenu lists first those applications that can handle the exact filetype, in this case it's a text file, the type text/plain. Next come all applications that can handle that supertype in general, here text/*. Last in the list are those that can deal with any file. If you don't click on an app in the submenu, but on the Open With... entry instead, a panel opens:
-
-
-
Here you'll again find the programs that were listed in the submenu. By selecting one and clicking the Open and Make Preferred button, you changed the preferred application for every file of that filetype, here text/plain.
-
+
Open With... - A submenu offers all applications that can handle this filetype.
+
+
+
+
The preferred application that would open the file when double-clicked, is checkmarked. This submenu lists first those applications that can handle the exact filetype, in this case it's a text file, the type text/plain. Next come all applications that can handle that supertype in general, here text/*. Last in the list are those that can deal with any file. If you don't click on an app in the submenu, but on the Open With... entry instead, a panel opens:
+
+
+
Here you'll again find the programs that were listed in the submenu. By selecting one and clicking the Open and Make Preferred button, you changed the preferred application for every file of that filetype, here text/plain.
Get Info
-
-
-
The panel presents info on the selected file and lets you set the default application and, after you expanded that part of the panel, permissions and owner. Clicking on the path will open it in a Tracker window.
+
+
+
The panel presents info on the selected file and lets you set the default application and, after you expanded that part of the panel, permissions and owner. Clicking on the path will open it in a Tracker window.
Edit Name, Duplicate and Move to Trash - lets you rename or duplicate a file or put the selected file(s) to the trash.
Move to, Copy to and Create Link - lets you move, copy or link the selected file(s) using the submenu navigating method. Holding SHIFT while invoking the menu offers the option to create a relative link.
Cut, Copy and Paste - lets you cut, copy and paste files using the clipboard. By holding SHIFT while invoking the menu you can Copy/Cut more files, maybe from another folder that you can paste somewhere else later. Also, while holding SHIFT you can paste the copied files in the clipboard as links.
Identify - will sniff out and set the type of a file if it didn't have one before, e.g. if you transferred a file with wget which doesn't set a filetype itself. Holding SHIFT while invoking the menu changes the item to identify the filetype and correct it if it was false before.
-
Add-Ons - offers you every generic Tracker add-on and those that can handle the selected file(s). See topic Tracker Add-ons for more information.
-
+
Add-Ons - offers you every generic Tracker add-on and those that can handle the selected file(s). See topic Tracker Add-ons for more information.
When you copy, move or delete files, Tracker shows its progress with a status window. If you initiate more than one transaction, each job gets its own status display.
+
+
To the right are two buttons to pause or stop a transaction entirely. Sometimes it can be useful to temporarily pause a large transaction. For example, you may need to quickly launch a large application. Copying large amounts of data chokes your harddisk's IO bandwidth and thus delays your workflow.
When you copy, move or delete files, Tracker shows its progress with a status window. If you initiate more than one transaction, each job gets its own status display.
-
-
-
-
To the right are two buttons to pause or stop a transaction entirely. Sometimes it can be useful to temporarily pause a large transaction. For example, you may need to quickly launch a large application. Copying large amounts of data chokes your harddisk's IO bandwidth and thus delays your workflow.
-
The Twitcher is a task switcher to jump between running applications and their windows.
-
-
-
-
Just tap CTRL+TAB quickly to switch between the current and the last application/window. Or press CTRL+TAB and hold the CTRL key to go through all running applications by repeatedly hitting TAB or CURSOR LEFT/RIGHT. If you need to get to a specific window of a program, move to its icon as described and then go through its open windows with the CURSOR UP/DOWN keys.
-
-
It's also possible to invoke the Twitcher with CTRL+TAB and then use the mouse to choose the application/window you'll jump to when releasing the CTRL key.
-
+
+
Just tap CTRL+TAB quickly to switch between the current and the last application/window. Or press CTRL+TAB and hold the CTRL key to go through all running applications by repeatedly hitting TAB or CURSOR LEFT/RIGHT. If you need to get to a specific window of a program, move to its icon as described and then go through its open windows with the CURSOR UP/DOWN keys.
+
It's also possible to invoke the Twitcher with CTRL+TAB and then use the mouse to choose the application/window you'll jump to when releasing the CTRL key.
This is a workshop to show the use of Attributes, Queries, the Index and custom Filetypes. As an example, we build a database to keep track of our DVD library.
-
This is a workshop to show the use of Attributes, Queries, the Index and custom Filetypes. As an example, we build a database to keep track of our DVD library.
-
Let's first decide what filetype and attributes would serve our needs. Originally, I wanted to use a Bookmark file with a link to the movie's IMdB page, but Haiku doesn't have a "bookmarkable" browser like BeOS' NetPositive at the moment, so I came up with this: The file itself will be a JPEG image for the movie cover.
-To that we add a couple of attributes. Here we have to decide if we want to query it later (then we have to add it to the index) and if so, what type of attribute it should be. Numbers (int, float) can be evaluated differently than text (/= vs. is/contains/starts with).
-
-
Here's are the attributes I'd like to see for my DVDs:
+
Let's first decide what filetype and attributes would serve our needs. Originally, I wanted to use a Bookmark file with a link to the movie's IMdB page, but Haiku doesn't have a "bookmarkable" browser like BeOS' NetPositive at the moment, so I came up with this: The file itself will be a JPEG image for the movie cover.
+To that we add a couple of attributes. Here we have to decide if we want to query it later (then we have to add it to the index) and if so, what type of attribute it should be. Numbers (int, float) can be evaluated differently than text (/= vs. is/contains/starts with).
+
Here's are the attributes I'd like to see for my DVDs:
Movie title
Genre
@@ -42,41 +52,38 @@ To that we add a couple of attributes. Here we have to decide if we want to quer
Coordinates in my shelf, e.g. A2, B3, so I find the DVD also in Real Life :)
Start the Filetypes preferences, and click on the Add... button below the hierarchical list on the left. A small dialog opens and you specify in which MIME Group your new filetype will reside. You can also create a completely new group. Let's put it into "applications" and set the "Internal Name" to DVDdb.
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Double-click the icon well to open Icon-O-Matic to design an icon for your filetype. You can also drag&drop an icon from the icon well of another type, maybe as starting point for a modified version.
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You can add suffixes like .txt, .jpg, .mp3 to recognize files by their extention. Useful when working with files from systems without MIME typing. We don't need that for our example.
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Start the Filetypes preferences, and click on the Add... button below the hierarchical list on the left. A small dialog opens and you specify in which MIME Group your new filetype will reside. You can also create a completely new group. Let's put it into "applications" and set the "Internal Name" to DVDdb.
Double-click the icon well to open Icon-O-Matic to design an icon for your filetype. You can also drag&drop an icon from the icon well of another type, maybe as starting point for a modified version.
You can add suffixes like .txt, .jpg, .mp3 to recognize files by their extention. Useful when working with files from systems without MIME typing. We don't need that for our example.
This drop-down menu shows a list of all applications that can handle this particular filetype. From here you can choose which program should open this specific file when it's double-clicked.
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-Select... opens a file dialog where you choose the application to open with this filetype. Here, we set Showimage to display the DVD's cover.
-Same as... opens a file dialog where you choose any file that already has the preferred application set that you're looking for.
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This drop-down menu shows a list of all applications that can handle this particular filetype. From here you can choose which program should open this specific file when it's double-clicked.
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Select...
opens a file dialog where you choose the application to open with this filetype. Here, we set Showimage to display the DVD's cover.
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Same as...
opens a file dialog where you choose any file that already has the preferred application set that you're looking for.
Here we enter all the custom attributes we decided on in our preparations. Clicking the Add... button opens a panel:
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Attribute Name - Appears e.g. as the column heading in Tracker windows.
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Internal Name - Is used for indexing and querying the attribute.
Type - Defines the value the attribute can hold and therefore how it can be queried.
String for normal text
Boolean for binary data: 0 or 1
@@ -89,75 +96,73 @@ To that we add a couple of attributes. Here we have to decide if we want to quer
Double for floatingpoint numbers, double precision
Time for time and date format
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Visible - This checkbox determines if the attribute is visible in a Tracker window at all. Since the Tracker will be the interface to our DVD database, we check it and define its appearance with:
Display As - Leave on "Default". In the future more option will become available, e.g. a bar or stars for a rating etc.
Editable - Determines if the attribute shall be editable in Tracker.
Width - The default width of that attributes column in a Tracker window.
Alignment - The attribute can be displayed left, center, or right aligned.
Before we start entering data in our little DVD database, we should add certain attributes to the Index. Only indexed attributes can use Haikus fast Queries.
-So, what will we be searching in the future? We probably won't ask "What's in the B4 coordinate in my shelf?" or "Does the IMdB URL or the plot of the movie contain the word 'pope-shenooda'?".
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Before we start entering data in our little DVD database, we should add certain attributes to the Index. Only indexed attributes can use Haikus fast Queries.
+So, what will we be searching in the future? We probably won't ask "What's in the B4 coordinate in my shelf?" or "Does the IMdB URL or the plot of the movie contain the word 'pope-shenooda'?".
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This leaves these attributes:
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Internal Name
Attribute type
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DVDdb:title
text
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DVDdb:genre
text
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DVDdb:cast
text
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DVDdb:rating
int-32
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To index them, we open a Terminal and simply add one attribute after the other:
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mkindex -t string DVDdb:title
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To index them, we open a Terminal and simply add one attribute after the other:
Now, everything's set and we can begin putting some data into our base.
-Since our basic file is a cover image, we go to some online resource like IMdB, look for our first movie and save the cover or movie poster in a new folder where we want to keep our DVDdb files.
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Opening that folder we see a typical Tracker window with one JPEG in it. Right-clicking it, we change its filetype to application/DVDdb with the Filetype Addon. There's more info on this in the Filetypes document.
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Now, we activate all our DVDdb attributes from the Attributes menu of the Tracker window and rearrange the columns to our taste:
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By clicking on a yet empty attribute (or pressing ALT+E) we enter editing mode and fill each attribute. With TAB and SHIFT+TAB you can navigate between attributes.
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In our example, we usually start with a downloaded JPG cover and change its type to applications/DVDdb. There's another elegant way to produce a file to work with.
-Just copy an empty file of our filetype to /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/Tracker New Templates and rename it to DVDdb.
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Right-clicking into a Tracker window, you'll find a new entry under New... besides the default "New folder".
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Several hours of grunt work later, we have a nice little database that you can query to find all your Christina Ricci movies that have a 7+ rating... :)
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You can assign a sensible attribute layout for query results of a specific filetype.
-Open the folder containing your DVDdb files and arrange the attributes how you'd like to have query results presented. Copy this layout with Attributes | Copy Attributes.
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Open /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/DefaultQueryTemplates, create a new folder and rename it to group/filetype, replacing slashes with underscores; in our case "applications_DVDdb".
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Open the new folder and paste in the layout with Attributes | Paste Attributes. Voilà:
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The -t option defines the type of attribute, which is "string" for all but the rating, which is an integer number.
Now, everything's set and we can begin putting some data into our base.
+Since our basic file is a cover image, we go to some online resource like IMdB, look for our first movie and save the cover or movie poster in a new folder where we want to keep our DVDdb files.
+
Opening that folder we see a typical Tracker window with one JPEG in it. Right-clicking it, we change its filetype to application/DVDdb with the Filetype Addon. There's more info on this in the Filetypes document.
+
Now, we activate all our DVDdb attributes from the Attributes menu of the Tracker window and rearrange the columns to our taste:
+
+
By clicking on a yet empty attribute (or pressing ALT+E) we enter editing mode and fill each attribute. With TAB and SHIFT+TAB you can navigate between attributes.
+
In our example, we usually start with a downloaded JPG cover and change its type to applications/DVDdb. There's another elegant way to produce a file to work with. Just copy an empty file of our filetype to /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/Tracker New Templates and rename it to DVDdb.
+
Right-clicking into a Tracker window, you'll find a new entry under New... besides the default "New folder".
Several hours of grunt work later, we have a nice little database that you can query to find all your Christina Ricci movies that have a 7+ rating... :)
+
You can assign a sensible attribute layout for query results of a specific filetype.
+Open the folder containing your DVDdb files and arrange the attributes how you'd like to have query results presented. Copy this layout with Attributes | Copy Attributes.
+
Open /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/DefaultQueryTemplates, create a new folder and rename it to group/filetype, replacing slashes with underscores; in our case "applications_DVDdb".
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Open the new folder and paste in the layout with Attributes | Paste Attributes. Voilà:
Workspaces are virtual desktops, complete with their own resolution, color depth and background. Up to 32 of these workspaces can be set from the Screen preferences.
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Workspaces are virtual desktops, complete with their own resolution, color depth and background. Up to 32 of these workspaces can be set from the Screen preferences.
You find the Workspaces applet with the other Desktop Applets in the Deskbar. It shows a miniature version of all workspaces. There are several options available from the context menu of the applet's window, which are all pretty self-explaining. Since the applet is a Replicant, you can resize the window as desired and then drag&drop it by its handle onto the desktop (make sure "Show Replicants" is activated in the Deskbar menu).
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~/config/settings/system/app_server/workspaces
+~/config/settings/Workspaces_settings - Stores the panel's window position.
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You find the Workspaces applet with the other Desktop Applets in the Deskbar. It shows a miniature version of all workspaces. There are several options available from the context menu of the applet's window, which are all pretty self-explaining. Since the applet is a Replicant, you can resize the window as desired and then drag&drop it by its handle onto the desktop (make sure "Show Replicants" is activated in the Deskbar menu).
You can switch between workspaces by either clicking into the Workspaces applet or by using the keyboard shortcut ALT+Fx, where "x" is the workspace number. Also, clicking on an application or one of its windows in the Deskbar will send you to the workspace it's in.
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You can switch back and forth between two workspaces with ALT+~ (which, depending on the keymap you're using, is the key below ESC, which you have to hit twice to get a ~).
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You can switch between workspaces by either clicking into the Workspaces applet or by using the keyboard shortcut ALT+Fx, where "x" is the workspace number. Also, clicking on an application or one of its windows in the Deskbar will send you to the workspace it's in.
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You can switch back and forth between two workspaces with ALT+~ (which, depending on the keymap you're using, is the key below ESC, which you have to hit twice to get a ~).
To move a window, you grab it in the Workspaces applet and simply drag it to another workspace. This has the advantage, that you can move it without leaving your current desktop. Of course, that only works well when there aren't too many windows in a workspace and your target isn't obscured by other windows. Another possibility is to grab a window by its tab and just holding on to it while switching workspaces with ALT+Fx.
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To move a window, you grab it in the Workspaces applet and simply drag it to another workspace. This has the advantage, that you can move it without leaving your current desktop. Of course, that only works well when there aren't too many windows in a workspace and your target isn't obscured by other windows. Another possibility is to grab a window by its tab and just holding on to it while switching workspaces with ALT+Fx.
Since our developers are unable to test every hardware combination, nor every different way of interacting with the operating system, we are relying on you to give us some input on how things work at your end. Since this is a very early product, it is very likely that you will encounter bugs. We thank you for taking the time to report these.
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Since our developers are unable to test every hardware combination, nor every different way of interacting with the operating system, we are relying on you to give us some input on how things work at your end. Since this is a very early product, it is very likely that you will encounter bugs. We thank you for taking the time to report these.
Please follow these guidelines to create helpful bug reports:
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Before reporting a bug please make sure that it does not yet exist. You can also use the search function for this.
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After you have established this is a unique bug, make your information as accurate as possible:
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Before reporting a bug please make sure that it does not yet exist. You can also use the search function for this.
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After you have established this is a unique bug, make your information as accurate as possible:
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Include basic information such as how you are testing Haiku (on real hardware, on VMWare, on QEMU, etc.).
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Mention which revision from SVN you are running. You can find this information in 'About This System...' from the Deskbar menu.
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Describe the problem you are experiencing. Try to be as accurate as you can: describe the actual behavior, and the behavior you expected.
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Describe what steps you need to perform in order to expose the bug. This will help developers reproduce the bug.
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Attach as much information as you have. If it is a GUI bug, or a bug in one of the applications, try to make a screen shot (the PRINT key files a PNG into /boot/home/). If it is a hardware problem, include a copy of the syslog file (just query for "syslog" to find it).
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When an application crashed, you should invoke the debugger from the alert that pops up. Entering "bt" into the launched debug Terminal, you create a "backtrace" that you should copy into your bugreport.
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After the bug has been reported, a developer will look at your bug and try to classify it. Remember, we are all volunteers, and as such, sometimes a bug report might go unanswered for a while. Adding new information when it becomes available usually helps getting a bug picked up quicker, but do not try to 'bump' the bug up by adding non-descriptive comments.
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Remember, reporting a bug is not something you spend a little time on and then you are done. If you reported a bug, then you are part of the Haiku development process. Developers might come up with questions while they are trying to fix your bug. Please stay around to answer these. Consider your participation 'done' when the bug is marked as 'fixed'. Together we can improve Haiku, bit by bit.
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Include basic information such as how you are testing Haiku (on real hardware, on VMWare, on QEMU, etc.).
+
Mention which revision from SVN you are running. You can find this information in 'About This System...' from the Deskbar menu.
+
Describe the problem you are experiencing. Try to be as accurate as you can: describe the actual behavior, and the behavior you expected.
+
Describe what steps you need to perform in order to expose the bug. This will help developers reproduce the bug.
+
Attach as much information as you have. If it is a GUI bug, or a bug in one of the applications, try to make a screen shot (the PRINT key files a PNG into /boot/home/).
+If it is a hardware problem, include a copy of the syslog file (just query for "syslog" to find it).
+
When an application crashed, you should invoke the debugger from the alert that pops up. Entering "bt" into the launched debug Terminal, you create a "backtrace" that you should copy into your bugreport.
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+
After the bug has been reported, a developer will look at your bug and try to classify it. Remember, we are all volunteers, and as such, sometimes a bug report might go unanswered for a while. Adding new information when it becomes available usually helps getting a bug picked up quicker, but do not try to 'bump' the bug up by adding non-descriptive comments.
+
Remember, reporting a bug is not something you spend a little time on and then you are done. If you reported a bug, then you are part of the Haiku development process. Developers might come up with questions while they are trying to fix your bug. Please stay around to answer these. Consider your participation 'done' when the bug is marked as 'fixed'. Together we can improve Haiku, bit by bit.
-Thank you very much for checking out Haiku! This is our first public release. We hope to attract new developers to our project and give future users a chance to check out Haiku. We realize that this alpha release does not yet fully live up to the goals that we have set for ourselves and doesn't offer all the features and well-rounded end-user experience planned for the final R1 version. However, we hope that this release lets you discover Haiku's great potential and that you share our excitement.
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Thank you very much for checking out Haiku! This is our first public release. We hope to attract new developers to our project and give future users a chance to check out Haiku. We realize that this alpha release does not yet fully live up to the goals that we have set for ourselves and doesn't offer all the features and well-rounded end-user experience planned for the final R1 version. However, we hope that this release lets you discover Haiku's great potential and that you share our excitement.
-We were working very hard to fix all possibly show stopping bugs, however, being an alpha release, there are bound to be plenty left undiscovered. We discourage using alpha versions as a production system. Your data could very well be altered, mangled or downright destroyed.
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-One of the main reasons for releasing an alpha version is to attract more people to test the system and discover bugs or provide suggestions for future enhancements. Please file bugs and enhancements in our bug tracker after using its search function to avoid duplicates.
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We were working very hard to fix all possibly show stopping bugs, however, being an alpha release, there are bound to be plenty left undiscovered. We discourage using alpha versions as a production system. Your data could very well be altered, mangled or downright destroyed.
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One of the main reasons for releasing an alpha version is to attract more people to test the system and discover bugs or provide suggestions for future enhancements. Please file bugs and enhancements in our bug tracker after using its search function to avoid duplicates.
-The first release(s) of Haiku will be very much like the BeOS R5, the OS it is reimplementing. If you never experienced it, have a look at these links:
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The first release(s) of Haiku will be very much like the BeOS R5, the OS it is reimplementing. If you never experienced it, have a look at these links:
-Because of our binary and source compatibility to BeOS, many BeOS applications run on Haiku. After downloading a package, simply unzip it (double clicking should open Expander) to a folder in /boot/apps/ and start the application from there.
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Because of our binary and source compatibility to BeOS, many BeOS applications run on Haiku. After downloading a package, simply unzip it (double clicking should open Expander) to a folder in /boot/apps/ and start the application from there.
-Since Haiku is a reimplementation, the API is still the same as for BeOS R5 (with some additions). Therefore the documentation in the BeBook is still a valid resource. Thanks to ACCESS, who own the rights to former Be Inc. property, we are allowed to provide a copy of the BeBook.
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-There are additional resources that should help you getting started:
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Since Haiku is a reimplementation, the API is still the same as for BeOS R5 (with some additions). Therefore the documentation in the BeBook is still a valid resource. Thanks to ACCESS, who own the rights to former Be Inc. property, we are allowed to provide a copy of the BeBook.
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There are additional resources that should help you getting started:
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ActivityMonitor
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BePDF
CDPlayer
CodyCam
DeskCalc
DiskProbe
DiskUsage
DriveSetup
Expander
Firefox
Icon-O-Matic
Installer
Magnify
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Mail
MediaPlayer
MidiPlayer
PackageInstaller
Pe
People
Screenshot
Showimage
SoundRecorder
StyledEdit
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Terminal
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TextSearch
TV
Vision
VLC
WonderBrush
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LaunchBox
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NetworkStatus
ProcessController
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Appearance
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Backgrounds
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DataTranslations
E-mail
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FileTypes
Fonts
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Keyboard
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Keymap
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Media
Menu
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Mouse
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Network
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Printers
Screen
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ScreenSaver
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Sounds
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Time
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VirtualMemory
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