ﾂｩ1994-96 Beyond Midnight Software (v2.0.0 September 1996)
Shareware $10
About It
At heart, I窶冦 a lazy person. If I have the choice of doing something using three key presses, or doing it using two key presses, I will use the two key presses every time (doesn窶冲 everyone?). Because I窶冦 so lazy, I used to hate ejecting floppy disks. If I was typing at the keyboard, I had to pick up the mouse, click on the disk icon, and drag the disk icon to the trash. That's why I wrote EjectDisk. Now all I have to do is press a single key (on my extended keyboard), and any floppy disks or CD窶迭OMs that are currently mounted are unmounted and ejected.
EjectDisk comes as an control panel. This allows you to customise what keys will eject floppy disks or CD窶迭OMs (or to disable this if you don窶冲 want to be able to do this). EjectDisk requires System 7 or later (it checks this at startup, and if you aren窶冲 running System 7 or later it won窶冲 install itself).
Installing EjectDisk
Simply drag EjectDisk onto your System Folder, and release it. The computer will ask you if you want to put it in the Control Panels folder. Click OK (or press return). Once you have restarted your computer, EjectDisk will be installed and ready for use!
Using EjectDisk
The first thing you should do is set up what keys you want to use to eject floppy disks and CD-ROMs. You can set up different keys for each, and can disable each if you want. By default, EjectDisk has the keys set at Command-Escape for both floppy disks and CD-ROMs, with the ejecting of CD-ROMs turned off. To change the key to use, simply click on the 窶彜et窶ｦ窶 button for the key you wish to change and type the new combination.
Perhaps the only thing that requires explaining is the 窶彜wallow Keypress窶 option. This option indicates whether the computer should ignore the keypress used to eject the disks (窶徭wallow窶 it), or pass it through to whatever applications are currently running. Normally you will want to leave this option set.
Removing EjectDisk
If you later decide that you don窶冲 want to keep EjectDisk, simply remove it from your Control Panels folder and restart.
Possible Problems
窶｢ Occasionally, if you eject a disk and then put it back in the computer, you will find that the last thing you did to the disk is not 窶徨emembered窶. This is because the Finder hasn窶冲 written the changes you have made to the disk. Normally this only occurs when you open/close windows, but it can also occur when renaming the disk or files on the disk IF THE EDIT FIELD IS STILL ACTIVE. In other words, click off the item you are renaming for the disk to 窶徨emember窶 the change. Unfortunately there doesn窶冲 appear to be a way around this problem (other than using really nasty hacks which would probably break under future systems).
窶｢ Sometimes when you invoke EjectDisk to eject a floppy disk the computer will beep and do nothing. This can mean one of three things: you have a program that is currently running from a floppy disk, a program currently running is accessing something on a floppy disk, or the front most process (application) is a DA. The first two cases can be solved by simply quit the offending program(s). The last case occurs due to a documented bug in System 7, which basically means that if EjectDisk did what it normally does when a DA is at the front, the computer would crash. If you really have to eject the disk in this case, simply switch to another application and everything should work fine.
窶｢ Changing the keys in the control panel can sometimes get a bit tricky if you have the 窶彜wallow Keypress窶 option set. An example will best explain this: Suppose you have the key to eject floppy disks set as F15. You open the control panel, and change that key to F12. Without closing the control panel, you decide that changing it was a silly idea, and want to change it back to F15. You go to change it, but for some reason the control panel is ignoring your keypresses. The reason is that EjectDisk doesn窶冲 save any of the changes you make in the window until after you close the control panel, so in the above case EjectDisk is still taking the keypress to mean eject the disk now (and swallowing the keypress, so the control panel never receives it). The solution, as you may have guessed, is to first close the control panel, and then open it again and change the keys back to what they were before.
The Money Plea
EjectDisk is distributed as shareware, with a 30 day trial period. If you are still using EjectDisk after 30 days then you are expected to register it. To remind you, after 30 days EjectDisk will display a message every time you restart the computer (EjectDisk will still work - it won窶冲 be disabled in any way). The shareware fee for EjectDisk is $10. Registration is now handled by Kagi, so it couldn窶冲 be simpler. Simply open the Register program that accompanies EjectDisk, fill in the appropriate information, save or print the resulting registration form, and send it to Kagi at:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-VM
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement.
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical. Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed.
Once you have registered, you will receive a registration form back via email if you have an email address, or by regular post if you don窶冲 (everybody gets a form by post, but those with email addresses get the information they need faster). Enter the information exactly as it appears on the form in the 窶廢nter Code窶ｦ窶 dialog. If you enter the information correctly, EjectDisk will display a short message to say you are now registered. If you get a message saying that you entered the information incorrectly, make sure you typed your name, the number of copies you are registering and the registration code exactly as they appear on the form.
Australian Users
If you prefer, you can send payment with either Cash, Cheque or Money Order directly to Beyond Midnight Software at the address below. This is not only cheaper, but also faster. Send the amount shown on the form generated by Register, but in Australian dollars instead of US dollars. Money should be Australian dollars, cheques drawn on an Australian bank, and money orders done through Australia Post.
Roundup
Well, that's all there is to say about EjectDisk. It has proven itself to be useful to me, and hopefully other people will think so too. Any comments, suggestions or (dare I say it) bug reports, should be sent to:
Normal Mail:
Beyond Midnight Software
PO Box 471
Devonport TAS 7310
AUSTRALIA
e-mail (Internet):
midnight@kagi.com
Distribution
EjectDisk is ﾂｩ1994窶96 Beyond Midnight Software. It can be freely distributed as long as it is not modified and there窶冱 no charge for it, but it may not be included in any commercial package without my consent.
窶｢ All online services and bulletin boards may make it available to their users at no charge other than the normal connection fees.
窶｢ All non窶菟rofit user groups may distribute it at no charge.
窶｢ 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.
窶｢ All CD窶迭OM shareware collections and CD窶迭OM magazines may include it without my prior consent, as long as I get either a copy of the CD窶迭OM or an offer to buy the CD窶迭OM at a discounted price.
窶｢ All redistribution companies such as Educorp may distribute it, as long as I get a copy of each media containing my software and a catalogue of the company窶冱 offerings (where applicable).
Disclaimer
EjectDisk is supplied 窶彗s is窶. Beyond Midnight Software makes no warranties, either expressed or implied, and will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential or indirect damages, including but not limited to loss of data, loss of business profits, business interruption or psychological damage. The person using this software bears all risk as to its quality and performance. By using this software, you are subject and agree to the terms in this disclaimer.
Programming Notes
EjectDisk is written with the aid of Extension Shell, by Dair Grant, and CW CDEV Framework, by Matthew E. Axsom. Both of these packages allow the programmer to concentrate on what they are writing, rather than the mechanics of writing a control panel or extension. If you are interested in programming either control panels or extensions, I suggest you grab these packages and have a look at them. They should be available at all Info-Mac and Umich mirrors.
EjectDisk was originally written and compiled using THINK C 5.0.4. This version was almost totally rewritten using CodeWarrior 9.
Version History
窶｢ v2.0.0 (September 窶96)
- Finally!! Changed EjectDisk into a control panel, which now allows people to change which keys are used to eject the disk. Added the ability to eject CD-ROMs. Added the option to 窶徭wallow窶 the key press used to eject the disk/CD-ROM, and to show/not show the icon at startup. Removed the FKEY version of EjectDisk (did anyone actually use it??)Made EjectDisk shareware, using the Kagi registration system.
窶｢ v1.0.3 (November 窶94)
- Documentation update (mention bug found in EjectDisk).
窶｢ v1.0.2 (August 窶94)
- EjectDisk used to crash if it was used when a DA was the front most process (apparently due to a documented bug in System 7). EjectDisk now checks to see if a DA is at the front, and simply beeps and does nothing if there is.
窶｢ v1.0.1 (August 窶94)
- Fixed a bug in the extension that caused incompatibilities with some extensions that loaded before EjectDisk (Apollo was one - thanks to Jean-Luc Haibette for finding this bug). Also fixed a bug with which any function key, not just F15, would cause EjectDisk to activate.
