Topic       : Documentation for Thing
Author      : Arno Welzel/Thomas Binder/TransAction
Version     : thing.hyp 1.27E (23/8/1998)
Subject     : Documentation/Shells
Nodes       : 269
Index Size  : 6336
HCP-Version : 4
Compiled on : Atari
@charset    : atarist
@lang       : 
@default    : %I
@help       : %Hilfe
@options    : +g -i -s +y +zz -t4 -d10
@width      : 75
@hostname   : THING   
View Ref-FileDisplay - Appearance...                                               Thing

Use this dialog to set the display options in directory and group windows 
and to call the Thing font selector.
If a directory or group window is open the Directory or Group display
settings dialog appears.
If no directory or group window is open or the  Shift  key is held down 
when selecting 'Appearance...' the Thing 'font selector' dialog is 
displayed.

Font: Desired typeface. If GDOS has not been installed only the system 
  font is available.
  If GDOS (or equivalent such as NVDI, AMCGDOS etc) is installed any 
  available screen font can be selected from those listed (including 
  TrueType and Speedo).
 
ID: The GDOS font ID number is displayed for reference.

Size: Enter the desired point size or select it from the popup.

The following elements are only available for directory and group windows:

Text colour, Background colour: The text and directory background colour 
  can be selected as desired from the popups.
 
Pattern: The pattern for the background colour can be selected from 
  this popup. For technical reasons windows then cannot be positioned or 
  scrolled quite as accurately, although the difference is not all that 
  large.
 
Show: Sets which data, in addition to the filename, is displayed in 
  directory windows when viewed as text or mini-icons.

  The attributes that can be displayed with normal (V)FAT file systems are 
  read only ('r'), hidden ('h'), system file ('s') and archived ('a').
 
  File systems with extended attributes display nine attributes; of these 
  the first three describe the access rights for the owner, the middle 
  three those of the user group and the last three the access rights for 
  all users. Here 'r' means readable, 'w' writeable, 'x' for files means 
  executable and for directories that one can cross the restriction 
  preventing access to lower directory levels.

  If the 'Set user-ID on execution' bit is set, then instead of the 'x' 
  for the owner's access rights an 's' will appear if the x-bit is also 
  set, otherwise an 'S'. In a similar way an 's' or 'S' for the user 
  group's access rights signals that the 'Set group-ID on execution' bit 
  is set. Finally, a 't' or 'T' for all users rights signals that the file 
  or folder has the 'Sticky' bit set.
 
  If the file system also supports file owners and user groups then these 
  will be displayed following the access rights -- first the name of the 
  owner and then the name of the user group. If the ID cannot be assigned 
  to one defined in /etc/passwd or /etc/group, or if the ID is longer than 
  8 characters, then it will be displayed only as a number.

If this option is called when the Console window is topped and GDOS (or 
equivalent) is installed, the dialog may take longer to appear the first 
time while Thing establishes which fonts are available for the Console -- 
in contrast to directories only non-proportional fonts can be used here.

Using NVDI >=3.x this information is available quickly via a simple call 
but with most older GDOS versions (NVDI 2.x, FontGDOS etc) all the 
character widths of a font have to be compared individually -- which 
can take some time when there are many fonts!