Simtel MSDOS 1992 June

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Simtel MSDOS 1992 June / SIMTEL_0692.cdr / msdos / screen / blnket11.arc / BLANKET.DOC next >

Wrap

Text File | 1989-04-18 | 31.6 KB | 740 lines

BLANKET version 1.1 (c) copy right 1989 All Rights Reserved That's right, this is just another one of those screen blanker programs with programmable interval-between-blanking and programmable display of messages with date, time, bell, length of time the screen is blanking, length of cumulative blanking past so far, etc. So why bother? Here is why: Have you used the new boards/softwares which can display 43 rows or even 50 rows? If your old screen blanking program fails, it's because it's outmoded. Or have you almost unplugged someone else's computer? thinking that the blank screen indicates that the computer is not running? Blanking the screen is great for preventing a screen burn out, but it also gives the contra-indication that it's not running, especially if there are other machines near-by which can mask out the computer's fan. This program blanks the screen and then displays a moving message, either the default, or your's to warning others. Unlike another program which was written sometime ago, this one is not specifically for the PS/2 machines and will work with any IBM compatible. An auto-hard-disk park was not included in this because most new hard disk drives on the market have auto-park on power OFF. EGA/VGA graphic screen blanking is not supported because of the memory requirement but CGA graphic screen blanking is supported, even if BIOS indicates that the screen is not in a graphic mode. CHANGES SINCE VERSION 1.0 are very minor The cursor now moves with the moving prompt. There was a report of lock up with Displaywrite v 4.0. Unfortunately, we don't have v 4.0, but with v 2.0, it works fine. On the possibility that a built-in feature called HyperSlice is interferring with v 4.0, a line command to turn it OFF was added. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= If you simply type BLANKET<ntr> then you get the help list only. Out of necessity, the help list is abbreviated. You have to read this document to appreciate the features in this screen blanking program. (If there is a discrepancy between this document and the help in the BLANKET.EXE, then believe in the on-line help list. I may have made a boo-boo writing this document.) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= To run this, simply type BLANKET RUN<ntr> and end it with an <ENTER> or <ntr> or <cr> or anything else you want to call the carriage return. This is a memory resident program, but there is no hot key to press. You must type at least "RU" in "RUN". If you type only "R", then BLANKET.EXE will mistake it to mean "R"eserve and will expect to find a number following it to indicate the size of memory to reserve. By default, if a monochrome adaptor was active when you ran the BLANKET, then the monochrome area will be cleared and 4,000 bytes of space is reserved by this program to store the monochrome memory area. If a CGA/EGA/VGA was active in color mode when you ran the BLANKET, then the color/graphic area will be cleared and 16,000 bytes of space is automatically reserved by this program to store the screen. If you have any of the other parameters described below, you don't have to use the "RUN" parameter. In fact, as soon as BLANKET.EXE sees "RUN", it does, and ignores anything else you may have had on the command line after this. If you run this program from AUTOEXEC.BAT, you may use this feature to add a comment after the "RUN" parameter. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= There is a built-in feature we called HyperSlice. It's not used now, so if you have trouble running this program, try turning it OFF by BLANKET H<ntr> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This program will automatically detect the presence of an EGA/VGA versus a CGA versus a monochrome and adjust itself accordingly. However there are overrides available in case you have a two monitor system and the one you boot this program up with may not be the one you will subsequently be using afterwards. To force blanking the color monitor (which may really be only an amber/green monitor), type BLANKET BC<ntr> This will automatically reserve 16,000 bytes of space to store the entire four text pages or a CGA graph. To force blanking the monochrome monitor, type BLANKET BM<ntr> This will automatically reserve 4,000 bytes of space to store the monochrome area. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= To force a different number of bytes to be reserved for storage than the default, follow the blanking monitor type with the "R" parameter like this BLANKET BC R7<ntr> This forces a color monitor area to be blanked, but instead of the default of 16,000 bytes, this only reserves 7,000 bytes of space: If you don't use graphics but use an EGA with 43 rows modes with your word processor, then you need this value to clear the 43 rows. This parameter "BC" and others may be in either capital or small letters. There is no case sensitivity. If you only have a single monitor, then don't bother with the "BC" or "BM" parameter. But if you have a VGA monitor and the word processor is set for 50 rows mode, then you need to set aside 8,000 bytes like this: BLANKET R8<ntr> Of course, if you want to make sure that you don't come back to the office on Monday morning to find an etched CGA graph on the screen, then use the default to allow 16,000 bytes reserved. If for some reason, you have to reserve, say, 32,000 bytes, even though you have only a monochrome monitor, then you can type BLANKET R32<ntr> to allow 32,000 bytes of the screen to be stored as well. A WARNING is needed: If you reserve space but then tell BLANKET to blank either a monochrome or color in that order like this, BLANKET R32 BM then the default space of 4,000 bytes will be reserved. Not the 32,000 bytes you expected. To have it as you expect, reverse the order of the two parameters. The calculation required for reserving space goes like this number of rows times number of columns times two rounded up to the next thounsand. or (#rows * #columns * 2 + 999) ---------------------------- * 1000 1000 For example. If you have the 43 rows mode, then it's 43 * 80 * 2 = 6880 -> rounded up to 1000 -> 7000 so "R7" is needed. If you found an exotic video card which allows, say 132 columns wide by 43 rows, then you need to reserve 43 * 132 * 2 = 11,352 -> rounded up to 1000 -> 12,000 so "R12" is needed. Such calculations are only needed if you want to keep memory needs to the minimum to allow this program to reside under memory hungry programs. The minimum value allowed is "R4" for 4,000 bytes and the maximum value allowed is "R60" for 60,000 bytes of storage. Now this "R60" seems to be an invitation to try something like "BLANKET BM R49<ntr>" to force the blanking of both a monochrome adaptor and a color adaptor at the same time, right? However, we haven't tested that feature. And rumours still linger about dual monitor systems exploding... so let's not try that, especially if you have cheap non-decoupled, non-isolated monitors. The EGA/VGA graphic mode memory is bank-switched. This is not a limitation by itself, but since it uses from 128kb to 256kb of memory to save such a graph, these use far too much memory and is not supported here. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= By default, this program will blank the screen if you don't type anything for five (5) minutes. To change the default to one minute, type BLANKET T1<ntr> Valid values are "T1" through "T59" for one minute through 59 minutes of no keyboard activity until the screen is blanked. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= After the screen blanks, the following message will display: Blanket ON! This message will move from the top row to the 25th row and will keep moving in this cycle to prevent screen burning under it. If you want to replace this message with your own display message like "Keep your fingers OFF", type BLANKET DKeep your fingers OFF<ntr> Up to 73 characters are accepted for this prompt. The end of the new display is either a tab character or the <ntr> for the end of line. If a tab character is depicted by <tab>, then BLANKET DI am working<tab>T1<ntr> Will display "I am working" if you did not type anything for one minute. But if you forgot to use a tab, then BLANKET DWorking T2<ntr> will display "Working T2" after five minutes (the default value) of no activity on the keyboard. PROGRAMMABILITY After the "D"isplay parameter, till either a <tab> or an <ntr>, most of what is on the string list is used as they are, except for the regular slash character "/": If certain characters follow this character, the two characters are taken as subcommands to be interpreted before displaying of the message. /t This indicates that the present computer system time is to be displayed. The time is the twelve hour cycle type with "am" and "pm" indicating the morning and afternoon times. The hour and the minute separated by a colon is displayed. The second is not shown, but the display moves at the rate of one row per second. (provided that you do not use the bell command "/B" too often) /d This indicates that the date is to be displayed at this location in the string. The date is the American format of month-day-year. The month is in full alphabetical form to prevent confusion from the European or the Canadian format. Unlike the time, the date is not updated past midnight. This is a bit inconvenient but was necessary to avoid locking up many (not all) computers where constantly updated date was tried on. Overcoming this limitation required slightly more coding which was considered not appropriate in a program whose primary purpose is not to show date/time. Any opinion? It's not impossible to reset the date if you left your computer and BLANKET.EXE ON since yesterday or over the weekend, however. Just try to run another BLANKET.EXE from DOS and answer "N" to the prompt to send a new display message to the one already in memory: Every time BLANKET.EXE checks to see if another copy of itself is already in memory or not and finds one in memory, it will automatically update the date in the one already in memory before telling you that it's already in memory. There is another feature which is more useful, however. /i This displays the interval time during which BLANKET.EXE has been active so far. This will display time up to 99:59 for 99 hours and 59 minutes. You must use the small letter "i". As long as BLANKET is keeping the screen clear, this value will keep on increasing to tell you how long the computer was idle since last used. Add the pause time (such as the default of "T5" or "T1") and it tells you just when someone last typed on the computer. This interval time is reset back to zero (0:00) everytime you go back to your software by typing any key, unlike the "/I" subcommand below. /I The capital letter "I" (eye, not el "l") shows the total cumulative interval times BLANKET.EXE has blanked the screen so far. Fractions of minute are truncated off. This shows the total interval time ever since BLANKET.EXE was put into memory that the screen was blanked. This interval time is NOT reset everytime you go back to your software by typing any key. It's major use would be for neo-Scroogeoid bosses who want to know how often the computers in the office are idle in a working day. But at least it's better than sitting on your laurels waiting for Equadorians to reach parity in technology, American. Now seriously... The maximum this will display is up to 99:59 for 99 hours and 59 minutes. If you're using someone else's machine and expect the computer to be left ON for weeks on end, don't use this subcommand. This value will remain constant for any one blanking period, updating itself the next time the screen is blanked. The "D"isplay subcommands is the only case where there is case sensitivity. In other words, whether you use capital letters or small letters make a difference in how they are interpreted. /b The small letter "b" indicates backspace. This erases the last character in the string so far. This can be used to erase the "am/pm" indication from the time subcommand "/t" above or the year from the date subcommand "/d". /B The capital letter "B" stands for bell or beep. The string will stop displaying at this point and pauses while it beeps before continuing to show the rest of the string. /T This is a crude form of a tab in that it only generates eight spaces irregardless of where in the string this is placed. This is used to move your message to the middle or to the right side of your screen. This is for aethetical purposes or to prevent screen burns from even the moving message in one location. // This sends one regular slash character "/" to the listing. /: Since the regular bar character "|" is redirected away by DOS, the colon ":" translates to the bar "|" in case of trouble and you need it. /( and /) Since the less than sign "<" and the greater than sign ">" are used for input/output redirection, if you need to have them in your message and not the parentheses, then the slash followed by the left parenthesis and the right parenthesis will substitute for the two characters. These are useful in EGA/VGA enhanced 25 row modes where you can actually tell the difference between a less-than sign and a left parenthesis. Any other characters not recognized by the program are passed straight as is, so that "/x" becomes "x". For example, assuming that "<tab>" stands for a real tab character in the following command string, display a tab or enter ends command| |display subcommands. | | BLANKET d/d /t/Tx/b/B hello<tab>t1<ntr> | | | | | | | display subcommands here | |pause time in minutes | regular text for display | After a pause of one minute "t1" of no keyboard activity, the "D"isplay command will display the date "/d" followed by a space, the time "/t", followed by eight spaces "/T" and the letter "x". But the backspace "/b" will remove the letter "x" after it is displayed on screen before there is a bell "/B". The string pauses here while the speaker sounds the bell. Then the word " hello" displays. Note that the "D"isplay command can be in capital letter "D" or in small letter "d", but the subcommands embedded within the display message for the "D"isplay command must be in either the respective capital or small letter as required. IS THAT ALL? No. You can change (program?) the message anytime you want by running BLANKET from DOS with the new display message. If you already have BLANKET in memory, but you run BLANKET from DOS again, you will be prompted with a question asking you if you want to replace the display message in memory with the new one. Type on either the letter "Y" or "N" as requested to abort or to send the new display message (with any embedded subcommands) to memory, respectively. You can type capital or small letters. So if you ran the program with the above message but then go away for lunch, you can now have a new message displaying by typing from DOS: BLANKET DI went to lunch. Back by 1:05<ntr> Now type "Y" to the prompt asking you if you want this message replacing the old one and go for lunch. The moving message is set for about a one second interval. But if you have Beeps in the message, this will affect the time update. Also, the message is not moved exactly at one second interval, due to the way the system timer is set up, so the location at which the minute/hour will increment is not always 60 steps later. As stated above, the "D"isplay parameter may be in capital or small letter, but the displayed message itself is accepted just as is, including any embedded subcommands. There is no translation of the words to capital or small letters. If you had anything other than the "D"isplay command, such as the blanking time value "t1", these values are not updated. Only the "D"isplay message and any accompanying subcommands are sent to the copy already in memory. ---------------------------------------------------------------- |BLANKET.EXE itself and all programs hence forth will NO LONGER| |have a self-wipe feature, or the ability to wipe any and all | |other memory resident programs loaded after this program. | | (unless I start hearing otherwise) | | I thought that it was a neat and a great feature and so a | | sub-feature to wipe out any other memory resident program | | made by my group was added for a while, but NOONE seems to | | want it (or care?). Let alone the ability to wipe out ANY | | and ALL TSR programs loaded after this. | ---------------------------------------------------------------- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= HOW BLANKET.EXE WORKS Since there are programs such as LOTUS which display graphs without informing BIOS that it's displaying a graph, there is no simple way to detect whether to save the screen as text or graph. So the simple process of saving a big chunk and erasing that area is used. This may sound crude, but it will allow this program to work on CGA or EGA (43 rows mode) or VGA (50 rows mode) or monochrome, or even the enhanced EGAs/VGAs with higher number of rows and columns. The program will first see what type of video adaptor you have and set itself accordingly, until you override it with the line commands such as "BC" to blank color monitor. Note that the word "color monitor" simply means that you are using the CGA card or its emulation in EGA/VGA. It's not important if what you really have is a green/amber monitor. Now it checks to make sure that BLANKET.EXE was not already loaded to memory. If it was already loaded to memory, that program's date value is updated by this, just in case it changed. If the program is already in memory, it asks you if you did this to change the displayed message. Answer yes or no as needed. Now this becomes a TSR (terminate but stay resident) program. This program monitors the keyboard to see if anything was typed. After it blanks the screen, it will start displaying the default or your message. If you don't want any message to appear, fill the "D"isplay message parameter above with a space or two. The screen is filled with words of nulls (chr$(0)), except for where the screen is written with the display message, which is given a character attribute of 7 for white character on black in text mode and cyan on black in color graphic mode (assuming that the background is black). This sounds crude and unsophisticated but it turned out to be the best compromise among different softwares and video adaptors tried. Once the set time passes without any activity on the keyboard, the screen is blanked (snow suppression is used on CGA or if you specifically requested that more than 32,000 bytes be reserved for screen storage.) Now, every second, the default or your "D"isplay message with any embedded subcommands are interpreted and displayed on screen as needed. After the screen blanks, try typing just the left/right cursors to make the screen come back again to reorient yourself. Or just continue typing where you left off. If you start paging up/down, you may loose track of what you were doing previously. And if your software takes over the keyboard interrupts for its own macros, the image re-written back to the screen may not reflect what the software thinks is supposed to be there. However, this will not destroy your text or data. A simple preview mode or a page up/down pair will cure any inconsistency. Both the ADVERTIZ.EXE and BLANKET.EXE programs spring back and send the key you type to go back to your software. That is, if you turn BLANKET.EXE OFF by typing on the letter "x", this letter will be sent to your software. This program does not support the alternate color palettes of the EGA/VGA. It assumes that the defaults are used. Why? What if on reading the palettes, no black was selected? What if you have an amber monitor and EGA with other TSR programs active? The possibilities of unknown consequences was too large and the people who need screen blankers don't seem to be using the EGA/VGA for those purposes. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= CHAT in a HAT There is one advantage in asking for an update (or purely negative criticisms, even) to this or any other program as early as possible, instead of asking for it as late as possible to avoid bugs in earlier versions: I'm very open to new suggestions when they come in early. By the way, the person who sent me a message about mspool slowing down. I'm working on the multi-tasking solution, still. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= PROMPTS AND MESSAGES =-=-= Unknown parameter on the command line here. =-=-= Something not recognized was found on the line when you ran the program. If you ran this program from a batch command file, error messages are followed by errorlevel = 1 so that you can have your batch file take appropriate actions. Did you type a regular slash character "/" before the commands? Only the "D"isplay command's subcommands need the slash. If you use a slash anywhere else, it won't be understood. This is unrelated (my mind wanders when I'm tired) but the ADVERTIZ.EXE uses the "E" parameter to edit the pop-up advertizement, not the full word "EDIT", which will give you this type of error. =-=-= Valid time values are "T1" through "T59" for waiting 1 - 59 minutes before blanking the screen Default is 5 minutes =-=-= You did not enter a time for inbetween the blanking of the screen which was between one and 59 minutes. Anything less than a minute is annoying on your eyes and over an hour is likely to cause some screen burns anyway. =-=-= Valid memory reserve values are "R4" - "R60" for saving 4,000 - 60,000 bytes of video memory Default is 4,000 for Mono and 16,000 for Color monitor =-=-= Saving less than 4,000 bytes renders a screen blanker useless and over 32,000 bytes really has no merits. =-=-= BLANKET is already in memory. Do you want to send the new display message to the one in memory? Type Y/N. =-=-= BLANKET.EXE was already in memory when you ran it again. However, if you have a new "D"isplay message parameter or you want to change it back to the default, the non-memory resident BLANKET will transfer it to the memory resident one for you. Type "Y" to send the new display message. Type "N" to abort it now. If you had other parameters, such as a new time value before the screen is blanked, they are ignored. Only the "D"isplay message is sent. Whether you typed "Y" or "N", the memory resident BLANKET's date value was updated, so that "/d" will now display the right date in case this is the next day. =-=-= BLANKET is aborting. Bye. =-=-= You typed "N" above to mean "No. I made an error. I did not mean to run BLANKET twice". =-=-= New display listing is sent to the memory resident BLANKET.EXE =-=-= You typed "Y" above to mean "Yes. Replace the display message to the new one here or back to the default". =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= All products and names mentioned are Trademarks or Registered Trademarks of their respective corporations or companies. That includes ours and any associated groups. All enclosed programs, documents and other files are provided AS IS, without any warranty, expressed or implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular purpose. If you find that this does not work in your machine, we would like to know exactly what happened. With enough information, including where the cursor was, what appeared on screen, what other TSR programs you had running, etc, we may be able to make it work in your computer as well. A contribution of $10 US/Canadian is appreciated if you find this useful, or $20 for an improved one as it comes out. (That's $20 Cdn if you're in Canada and $20 U.S. for U.S & others.) Unless you specify otherwise, you will get a 5-1/4" 360 kb diskette. And if you specify 3-1/2", it will be formatted as 720kb on either a 720kb drive or a 1.44Mb drive. Your negative criticisms are as welcome as your positive ones. NAME OF THE PROGRAM: BLANKET.EXE PURPOSE OF THIS PROGRAM: Another of those (yawn) screen blanker? This will blank the screen whether set for 25 rows, 43 or 50 rows. Or the CGA graphic mode. But to prevent someone from pulling the plug, thinking that your computer is not running, this can display a moving message to prevent such mishaps. The message can include the date/time, length of time the screen is blanked and was previously blanked, beep, etc. my old forwarding address was Dr. Masaaki Sawada University of Waterloo, Faculty of Science Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2L 3G1 the new forwarding address (for the moment) is Dr. Masaaki Sawada Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Sir M. B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, 3755 Chemin Cote Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 1E2 The institute name is given instead of home address(es) to lower the chances that any mail is delivered to a wrong address (a common occurrence). However, no institute time nor equipment was used to write this program or document. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ SWEATING OVER THE ADDRESSES? +-+-+-+-+-+-+ If you're frustrated by the cumbersome and ever shifting addresses, forward to c/o Dr. Masaaki Sawada LCS P.O. Box 956 Outremont, Quebec Canada H2V 4R8 This doesn't change. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+