Wallpaper Copyright © 1997, 1998 by Duncan Wilcox
Update Wallpaper on the Wallpaper page.
Wallpaper is a Tracker backdrop image preference tool for the BeOS Preview Release 2.
When you first run Wallpaper you'll get the installation window. Clicking the install button will tie Wallpaper into the Tracker. This is not forever, in the post-installation window you'll be able to go back and remove Wallpaper.
The installation process will restart the Tracker and the Deskbar, and the Wallpaper window will "morph" into a Tracker backdrop image configuration utility.
The configuration window, that you'll find every time you re-run Wallpaper, lets you pick the image you want as background, and fiddle with a few settings.
The "Enable Tracker Wallpaper" switch lets you temporarely disable the backdrop image, but notice that Wallpaper is still loaded: you'll have to uninstall it (through the corresponding button) if you want to completely remove it.
The image name is a reminder of the image you have selected, and you can change the current image by pushing the "Open" button, or simply by dropping a new image anywhere in the Wallpaper window.
The "Horizontal" and "Vertical" settings let you choose the image layout. If you are using a small image, like the sample ones provided, you'll probably want to tile them; Wallpaper will paint as many images as needed to cover the whole screen. If the image is large enough you'll probably prefer having just one picture, which you can place in any direction or stretch to full screen size. Note that stretching an image requires an additional computation which will slow image loading.
The memory settings affects image loading when switching workspaces. You can choose to "Load and dither images as needed", to always have the best quality image on screen at the expense of load time, or use an "8 bit color image in all workspaces", to conserve memory in all conditions, and avoid loading images when switching workspaces (unless the images are scaled).
Please excuse me for the images, I'm not an artist, they're just intended as a quick way to get your desktop to life!
If Wallpaper won't start at all, you should make sure you have BeOS PR2 (check the "About BeOS..." menu item in the Be menu; if the item isn't there then you have PR1).
Wallpaper requires the Datatypes library, if you don't have it installed Wallpaper won't load at all, and will fail with a message that says: There was an error opening "Wallpaper". Not an executable. You can get the Datatypes library from the BeWare Datatypes section.
If after going through the installation process (clicking on the install button and waiting for the Tracker and Deskbar to restart) you still see the initial Wallpaper window, chances are the Wallpaper application is not correctly registered in the BeOS MIME signature system. To correct this you can try and select Identify from the Wallpaper application icon, or run a mimeset -f -all Wallpaper from a Terminal window.
If it still doesn't work there probably is some other problem; please contact me at duncan@mclink.it.
If you drop or open an image and it doesn't load, you might be missing the correct Datatype handler. Again, check the BeWare Datatype section.
Wallpaper is relatively bug free, but it might crash because of some bug or because of some buggy Datatype handler. Since a portion of Wallpaper runs inside the Tracker, the Tracker will also crash. You can "solve" this by restarting the BeOS or, if you have an open Terminal window, by running /system/Tracker &.
If the Tracker crashes on startup because of Wallpaper, there are two ways you can get out of it: telnet into your BeOS system from a remote system or start from the BeOS installation CD and open a Terminal pressing CMD-ALT-SHIFT-T (or CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-T). In both cases removing the file /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker/tracker_shelf will remove Wallpaper (and all the replicants you had installed on your desktop) and make the system bootable again.
These are some of the known bugs or potential enhancements for the next release of Wallpaper.
If you have spotted a bug or want your favourite feature added, don't hesitate to contact the author, at duncan@mclink.it.
For new versions of Wallpaper or links to related software, check the Wallpaper page.
Wallpaper will be shareware, but a license for the basic backdrop image will be free. You are granted a license to use all usable Wallpaper features of beta versions until the final version is released.
DUNCAN WILCOX PROVIDES THIS SOFTWARE "AS IS", WITH NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EITHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
IN NO EVENT WILL DUNCAN WILCOX BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT DAMAGES OR OTHER RELIEF ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM INCLUDING, BY WAY OF ILLUSTRATION AND NOT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS, LOST BUSINESS OR LOST OPPORTUNITY, OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF SUCH USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM, EVEN IF DUNCAN WILCOX HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY.
For any comment or information request you can contact Duncan Wilcox, the author, at duncan@mclink.it.
I'd like to thank Marco Nelissen for all the help in finding the final hacks that make Wallpaper work smoothly, and for the outstanding, accurate beta reports.
Released on January 18, 1998
Released on December 13, 1997
Private beta
Privately released on December 10, 1997
© Copyright Duncan Wilcox 1997, 1998