Topic       : The ATARI Compendium
Author      : Scott Sanders / JAY Software
Version     : 1.25 (20/6/2003)
Subject     : Documentation
Nodes       : 1117
Index Size  : 32614
HCP-Version : 6
Compiled on : Atari
@charset    : UTF-8
@lang       : en
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@help       : %About
@options    : +g -i -t4 +y +z
@width      : 100
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                                 The Basics


All GEM applications should contain a menu bar providing access to
program features. Desk accessories should appear in a window.

'Dialogware' and 'Alertware' applications are strongly discouraged. Each
performs user interaction exclusively in one or more dialogs or alerts
respectively. This makes it impossible for the user to take advantage of
other programs or desk accessories while in use.

Document-oriented applications that are launched with one or more valid
documents specified on the command line should launch those documents
into their own windows, otherwise the application should initialize in
one of two other ways:

   ∙ Open an empty document window with the default parameters labeled
     "Untitled."

   ∙ Present a dialog allowing three choices. "New" opens a blank document
     (as above), "Open" presents a file selector used to select a document
     to open, "Cancel" removes the dialog and leaves the user with the
     menu bar to make other selections.