HOPPLA/2 - Home Programmable Program-Launcher

Home Programmable Program-Launcher:

Create your own Graphical Program-Launcher

What's it all about?

Version Beta.2 (0.91)

of June 27, 2017


	Currently the program is under development, so from time to time you should expect new versions being offered here.

'Hoppla' - What's it all about?

Hoppla enables you to create your personal GUI, especially for launching multimedia-programs such as listen to music (mp3), watch videos or look at pictures.

Hoppla is aiming at PCs which are installed in your living room, typically connected to a TV output device, which makes program menus and text messages hard to read, because of the generally limited capabilities of TV-CRTs in the field of using a computer. The purpose of a Hoppla-generated GUI is to present to the user a graphical interface with large buttons specially taylored to the user's choice of programs while having an overall limited scope of functionality (meaning you cannot execute every PC-function from a Hoppla-generated GUI).

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'Hoppla' - Features:

The most important property of 'Hoppla' is its absence of doing anything, except what you tell it to do.
The components of your GUI which you must specify are mainly:

A screen-wide background-image (e.g. a nice holidy-picture or whatever you regard as looking pretty)
Graphical push-buttons, which you must assign either
- a prgramm-call (or cmd-file) or
- Special function (such as Shutdown, Show the WPS or the like)
- another Hoppla-GUI.

The background-image as well as the graphical push-buttons must exist as images in BMP-format. You can create them easily using graphic programs such as Embellish or you may use Text2Img in order to directly create a push-button-image.

How To Use:

After starting the program you must keep in mind that there are no menus or buttons. Every program-function of 'Hoppla' is accessed solely via the Context-menu (right mouse-button).
To begin creating your own Hoppla-GUI you must first specify a background-image. Select the appropriate function from the Context-Menu.

Next, you specify each graphical push-button, which you want to be part of your personal Hoppla-generated GUI.

Positioning the Graphical Push-Buttons:

After dragging a push-button-image onto the background-image its position may not be as exact as you like. In order to adjust the position pixelwise you may proceed as follows:

The button in question: left-click on it with <CTRL>-key held down
Using the arrow-keys ←, →, ↑ and ↓ you may change the position in any direction you like
Holding down the <CTRL>-key accelerates the movement.

You may execute / repeat this procedure at any time that you like.

Assign a Function to a Graphical Push-Button:

After creating (and positioning) a push-button you must assign it a function. Position your mouse cursor over that button and right-click. From the context-menu select 'Specify Click-Action'. A dialog pops up where you can specify what action shall be taken whenever the button is clicked.

Save your Schema:

Finally you must save the result of what you have defined, we call this a Schema. Again, select from the context-menu (over the background-image, not a push-button!): 'Save Schema'.

In order to have a Schema being invoked at the start of Hoppla you must specify the Schema-name as a parameter for the Hoppla-invocation.

Download

Before you download the program, please read and accept the following NoWarranty-Clause:

Usage of this program is totally at your own risk. Not the author nor the dirstributor of this program may be held responsible for any damages that may arise out of the usage of this program.
This program is shareware. There is currently no registration implemented, i.e. the program can be used without any functional limitations or restrictions in the version that is currently provided.
This program is currently in beta-state. That means that it conatins bugs and errors and there is the possibility of data loss. If you do not want to bear this risk then you must not use this program.

Installation:	Download 'Hoppla.zip' into an empty directory, e.g. 'c:\Hoppla\' Unzip the Hoppla.zip into this directory Start the Hoppla.exe. There is no special installation-procedure neccessary. No changes to config.sys are made, so there is no need to re-boot your PC.
Download:	Hoppla.zip (ca. 430 kb)
You need also...	vrobj.zip (400 kb) Vrobj.dll is a DLL which is used by many programs and most probably you already have it somewhere on your system (in the LIBPATH). If not or if the version that you have is older than 06-06-1995 then you must download it here and unzip it into (recommended) x:\os2\dll\.