Alessandro Levi Montalcini
C.so Re Umberto 10
10121 Torino
Italy
e-mail: LMontalcini@pmn.it
ftp://ftp.alpcom.it/software/mac/LMontalcini

 

MenuBall 2.3 documentation - August 1995

• Introduction
◊  MenuBall is an absolutely useless control panel that puts a bouncing ball in your menu bar. It won't slow down your Mac and it shouldn't crash (but use it at your own risk). Should the ball ever leave a mark in your menu bar, don’t panic: it is harmless, just switch to another application to have the menu bar redrawn properly.

 

◊  There's only one smart use for MenuBall: since the ball moves one step at each WaitNextEvent call, you can use it to monitor the system activity. If the ball stops, the Mac probably won't respond to user actions and may even be hung; if it moves slowly, the front application is being friendly to other processes and giving up a lot of processor time; if it moves fast, then the front application is eating most of the CPU time (and possibly wasting it).
◊  If you can bear MenuBall for more than half an hour, you've earned it.

• Instructions
◊  On/Off hot key lets you choose a key combination that will turn the menu ball on and off on the fly.
◊  Enable gravity acceleration changes the way the ball bounces around.
◊  Disable horizontal movement makes the ball stick to the left of the Apple menu.
◊  Make menu ball larger gives you a bigger ball.
◊  Move menu ball faster makes the ball speedier.
◊  Show icon at startup tells MenuBall to show its icon when the mac starts up.
◊  Note: the ball speed depends mostly on the application you're using. When a dialog window is open, the ball usually runs a lot faster.

• Version History
◊  2.3 - Fixed an incompatibility with the PaperPort Extension, cleaned up the code for "strict windows" awareness.
◊  2.2 - Slightly reduced the memory used by MenuBall, added support for the INITGestalt 1.0 proposal by Jeremy Roussak and Rene G.A. Ros.
◊  2.1 - Added a new option to disable horizontal movement. The ball is no longer drawn if no menu bar is visible. Added pictures and a contents menu to the online documentation.
◊  2.0.2 - Cleaned up the code and updated documentation.
◊  2.01 - Recompiled with latest version of the compiler and updated documentation.
◊  2.0 - Rewritten from scratch for Owen W. Linzmayer and his new book.
◊  1.0 - First cut as a simple extension.

• Distribution
◊  MenuBall is ©1994-95 Alessandro Levi Montalcini. It can be freely distributed as long as it is not modified and there’s no charge for it, but it may not be included in any commercial package without my consent.
◊  You may find the latest version of all my shareware programs by anonymous ftp to ftp.alpcom.it, inside the /software/mac/LMontalcini directory. The complete ShareDisk package, which contains all my stuff and can be registered at a very low price, is also available there.
◊  All online services and bulletin boards may make it available to their users at no charge other than the normal connection fees.
◊  All non-profit user groups may distribute it at no charge.
◊  All magazines may publish it on floppy disk without asking me first, as long as I get a copy of the issue containing my software.
◊  All CD-ROM shareware collections and CD-ROM magazines may include it without my prior consent, as long as I get either a copy of the CD-ROM or an offer to buy the CD-ROM at a discounted price.
◊  All redistribution companies such as Educorp may distribute it, as long as I get a copy of each media containing my software and a catalog of the company’s offerings (where applicable).

• Disclaimer
◊  MenuBall shouldn’t cause any damage, but you’re using it at your own risk. As an independent software developer, I can make no warranties whatsoever on it.