NAME

       Prima::Utils - miscellanneous routines

DESCRIPTION

       The module contains several helper routines, implemented in both C and perl.  Whereas the
       C-coded parts are accessible only if 'use Prima;' statement was issued prior to the 'use
       Prima::Utils' invocation, the perl-coded are always available.  This makes the module
       valuable when used without the rest of toolkit code.

API

       alarm $TIMEOUT, $SUB, @PARAMS
           Calls SUB with PARAMS after TIMEOUT milliseconds.

       beep [ FLAGS = mb::Error ]
           Invokes the system-depended sound and/or visual bell, corresponding to one of
           following constants:

                   mb::Error
                   mb::Warning
                   mb::Information
                   mb::Question

       get_gui
           Returns one of "gui::XXX" constants, reflecting the graphic user interface used in the
           system:

                   gui::Default
                   gui::PM
                   gui::Windows
                   gui::XLib
                   gui::GTK2

       get_os
           Returns one of "apc::XXX" constants, reflecting the platfrom.  Currently, the list of
           the supported platforms is:

                   apc::Os2
                   apc::Win32
                   apc::Unix

       ceil DOUBLE
           Obsolete function.

           Returns stdlib's ceil() of DOUBLE

       find_image PATH
           Converts PATH from perl module notation into a file path, and searches for the file in
           @INC paths set. If a file is found, its full filename is returned; otherwise "undef"
           is returned.

       floor DOUBLE
           Obsolete function.

           Returns stdlib's floor() of DOUBLE

       getdir PATH
           Reads content of PATH directory and returns array of string pairs, where the first
           item is a file name, and the second is a file type.

           The file type is a string, one of the following:

                   "fifo" - named pipe
                   "chr"  - character special file
                   "dir"  - directory
                   "blk"  - block special file
                   "reg"  - regular file
                   "lnk"  - symbolic link
                   "sock" - socket
                   "wht"  - whiteout

           This function was implemented for faster directory reading, to avoid successive call
           of "stat" for every file.

       path [ FILE ]
           If called with no parameters, returns path to a directory, usually ~/.prima, that can
           be used to contain the user settings of a toolkit module or a program. If FILE is
           specified, appends it to the path and returns the full file name. In the latter case
           the path is automatically created by "File::Path::mkpath" unless it already exists.

       post $SUB, @PARAMS
           Postpones a call to SUB with PARAMS until the next event loop tick.

       query_drives_map [ FIRST_DRIVE = "A:" ]
           Returns anonymous array to drive letters, used by the system.  FIRST_DRIVE can be set
           to other value to start enumeration from.  Some OSes can probe eventual diskette
           drives inside the drive enumeration routines, so there is a chance to increase
           responsiveness of the function it might be reasonable to set FIRST_DRIVE to "C:"
           string.

           If the system supports no drive letters, empty array reference is returned ( unix ).

       query_drive_type DRIVE
           Returns one of "dt::XXX" constants, describing the type of drive, where DRIVE is a
           1-character string. If there is no such drive, or the system supports no drive letters
           ( unix ), "dt::None" is returned.

                   dt::None
                   dt::Unknown
                   dt::Floppy
                   dt::HDD
                   dt::Network
                   dt::CDROM
                   dt::Memory

       sound [ FREQUENCY = 2000, DURATION = 100 ]
           Issues a tone of FREQUENCY in Hz with DURATION in milliseconds.

       username
           Returns the login name of the user.  Sometimes is preferred to the perl-provided
           "getlogin" ( see "getlogin" in perlfunc ) .

       xcolor COLOR
           Accepts COLOR string on one of the three formats:

                   #rgb
                   #rrggbb
                   #rrrgggbbb

           and returns 24-bit RGB integer value.

AUTHOR

       Dmitry Karasik, <dmitry@karasik.eu.org>.

SEE ALSO

       Prima