> 1) How do I activate the customHaloSpecs?

Put one of the following commands in a Workspace and evaluate it

Preferences installSimpleHaloSpecs

Preferences installIconicHaloSpecs

Preferences installCustomHaloSpecs

Preferences installClassicHaloSpecs

> 2) What does the fith column of the customHaloSpecs mean?

It must be the key for a dictionary of halo icons; cf. method

classicHaloSpecs.

>Is there already a global variable provided which chooses the user

>level; for example for the levels end-user, omni-user, expert?

No. One lightweight way to add such a thing without needing a global

is to make it a be a project parameter. Apply "method names with it"

(or cmd-shift-W) to the string 'projectparameter' and the resulting

method-names-browser will show you what you need to call to set and

get project parameters.

>How do I add a preference / switch so that I can

>choose that fewer and larger halos show up:

>

>I would just like to have

>

>- the duplication halo

>- the delete halo

>- the resize halo

>- the recolor halo

You've perhaps seen in the "halos" tab of Preferences a set of

checkboxes inviting you to choose a "halo scheme". If you click on

"custom", a user-customizable halo scheme will be used, so that's one

way for you easily to thread your new kinds of halos into the system.

Now to *define* what your custom halos are, just hit that "edit

custom halos" button. You'll need to grok the pattern by looking at

the example code there. I've pasted one possible modification to the

custom-halos method below, one that shows your four chosen handles at

the four corners of the halo, fwiw. Just file it in, choose the

"custom" halos scheme in Preferences, and see how you like it; then

modify it until it does what you want.

>where the halos are just larger so that they can easier by activated with

>the mouse.

Navigate to HaloMorph in a browser, and from the class-list pane's

menu choose "Class vars". In the resulting

class-variables-inspector, click on #HandleSize. Note the current

value (16) in the right-hand pane. Type in the new value you want

(e.g. 32) into the right hand pane and accept it (cmd-s or Enter).

Voil?! You can try it out right away by cmd-clicking on the

class-variables-inspector itself.

Alternate Halo actions

The problem you encountered on that one machine almost certainly was

due to that computer's "caps lock" key having been inadvertently

pushed in. This resulted in all mouse and keyboard interactions

being interpreted on that machine as if the SHIFT key were being held

down.

When the shift key is held down while certain halo handles are

clicked, you get "alternate" halo actions. For example, holding the

shift key down while you click on the magenta halo handle will bring

up a small color chooser rather than the huge graphical-properties

sheet.

In the case of the turquoise-eye halo handle, a normal click brings

up the normal etoy "Viewer", whereas a shift-click brings up a

Smalltalk "Instance Browser" showing "Universal Tiles", which is what

you saw on that computer. I think that probably we had *all* lost

track of the fact that that feature, a leftover from a demo by a

colleague years ago, was still in there. It has no relevance at all

to current etoy users, and should be, and now will be, removed from

the system.