To install SlixLaunch, simply copy the SlixLaunch INIT into your */System/System.Setup folder. Also, if you have the "OOW" init, remove it. (Move it to another folder or trash it.)

Then, if you have an accelerator card, crank it all the way up; if you don't have an accelerator... um... go out and buy one. (Sorry, I had expected this to be a lot faster than it turned out... if you are running on a stock IIgs, you'll probably want to play around with it a bit for the gee-whiz factor, then put it away for a rainy day... then again, when I turn off my Zip, -everything- seems painfully slow to me, so who knows....)

[ After I wrote this (and even uploaded it), I figgered out to grab some bank zero memory and make a stack blaster (duhh, right?), use shadow memory, and other neat stuff. So, it's a lot faster now, though probably still unbearable without an accelerator. ]

Then reboot your computer.

When you come back to the Finder, choose your favorite application to launch. You'll notice some subtle changes.

Note that SlixLaunch won't work under MultiGS, and probably not under the Manager either. (It won't crash or anything -- it simply won't work). The reason is that under a multitasker, you never actually -leave- the Finder, and I'm not going to be like other inits ("OOW"ther inits?) and just blindly jump upon every finderSaysBeforeOpen....

For some mysterious reason, EasyMount likes to unselect its alias icons before launching them. Since I've aliased all my applications, and outfitted all my aliases with color icons, that provides a pretty neat effect.... (as opposed to launching a normal icon that stays selected and all black as you open it). Come to think of it, SlixLaunch could've unselected the icons iteself... oh well.

Hmm... well, it looks like this is my grand finale of sorts... No more UselessWare, at least for a while. I leave for college in a few days, and in the meantime... um... I doubt I'll feel like programming much because I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. (Happy happy. Joy joy.)

Obligatory UselessWare rating scale:

No redeeming value | - -<*>- - + - - + - - + - - + - - | Utterly idiotic

(Sorry, I still think it's pretty cool, even if it didn't turn out as well as I hoped.)

E-mail. Send it. To me. Even if you don't have anything to say. Choose a random text file off your hard drive or something. Just let me know that there is someone out there downloading this, and that I'm not just spewing off code into a big empty void.

GEnie : B.VICTOR1 Internet: b.victor1@genie.com

(c) 1995 Bret Victor and his heart which is in Spain, his mind which is lost at the windmills, and his self-esteem which went out with the trash long ago

Bleah.

Opening Line plug? Yeah, here: Buy it, dammit.

Heh... would you believe that next year I'll probably have to take some kind of "Rank-Novice Beginner's Greenhorn's Introduction to Programming" class? This is 'cause I don't know any high level stuff... "I can program! I know 65C816 assembly! Wha... what are you all laughing at?"

So what if I make it a point not to have -any- subroutines in my code? (JSR's... I don't trust 'em. BRL's are the way to go.)

"Empty void"? So much for avoiding redundancies.

Oh yeah. If you liked SlixLaunch, then you might like ShadyBar, Bender, Boinger, GravityMouse, and Horoscope, which are the other members of the UselessWare series. I've also written AutoInfo (coming soon to Softdisk G-S perhaps), MagicMouse, Opening Line (what?), and -- my best -- TextFighter, published on Softdisk (8-bit) #161.

Hey Russ. :)

I wonder if anyone, -ANYONE- has ever gotten to Huang Po...

Whatever.