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- Morning Star XMS 1.00 REFERENCE CARD
- ====================================
-
-
- Morning Star XMS 1.00 by Christopher Antos
- Copyright (c) 1990-1993, All Rights Reserved
-
- Morning Star is ShareWare - please see the file REGISTER.TXT for
- information on how you can help support a talented college student.
-
-
- NOTE: The difference between the normal Morning Star
- (MORNSTAR.COM) and Morning Star XMS (MSXMS.COM)
- is that the former requires EMS memory and can
- draw several different designs and has a popup
- control panel. The latter requires XMS memory
- and can only draw one design. I'm still brain-
- storming on how to get Morning Star to be able
- to use XMS memory and still be able to draw
- several designs and have a popup control panel.
- This does not appear likely, though, for tech-
- nical reasons.
-
-
- -- COMMAND LINE OPTIONS ------------------------------------------------------
-
- /I this option must be used to install Morning Star into memory.
- /U this option is used to uninstall Morning Star from memory.
- /T use this option to view the current settings.
-
- /- disables Morning Star from automatically engaging; hotkeys
- still work, though.
- /+ reenables automatically engaging after the time limit has
- expired; NOTE that /- and /+ are nestable: ie, if you use /-
- twice, you must use /+ twice to enable Morning Star.
- /D disable Morning Star completely; even hotkeys don't work.
- /E reenable Morning Star (after using /D).
-
- /S save a copy of the current settings.
- /R restore settings from a saved copy.
- /R- forget all saved settings.
-
- /Ln set delay factor for line-drawing speed to n (0..1000).
-
-
- The following switches can be turned OFF by following them with a minus
- sign (-). Options with a star (*) next to them are ON by default.
-
- /B blanking only; never draw the design, just blank the screen.
- /F fade out to blank when blanking the screen.
- /G * Ghost mode (see section "Ghost Mode").
- /H alternate method of blanking the screen; some VGA cards require
- this option to work correctly.
- /M * watch for mouse movement or clicks and restore the screen.
- /P enable password protection; screen will not restore until the
- correct password is entered and [Enter] is pressed.
- /V watch for video activity and restore the screen; usually this
- is not necessary.
-
- /Wn sets time limit to n minutes; Morning Star waits until n
- minutes have passed without any activity and then engages.
- /Zn set which COM ports to watch; COM ports recognized are 1-4,
- use 0 to clear the list of ports to watch, eg. /Z1 watches
- port 1 and whatever other ports were already being watched,
- /Z01 watches only port 1.
-
- -- HOTKEYS -------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- [LeftShift]-[RightShift] - engage Morning Star.
- [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[<] - turn Morning Star off (hear one beep).
- [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[>] - turn Morning Star on (hear two beeps).
-
- -- MSCONFIG ------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Use the program MSCONFIG.EXE to change the default settings and change
- the password. MSCONFIG creates a configuration file (MORNSTAR.INI)
- which belongs in the same directory where you keep MSXMS.COM.
-
- -- GHOST MODE ----------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Thanks to a friend in Arizona (Gary Dobbins), Morning Star has a
- special mode which makes it compatible with modem redialers and also
- with networks. Morning Star will allow DOS programs to continue
- processing even while it is drawing the design. It draws bits and
- pieces of the design during the time when other programs are idle.
- This means that you can leave Morning Star on while your terminal
- program is dialing and it will draw the design until your modem
- connects to another computer. Then it will restore the screen for you.
- Once you are connected, however, it will only blank the screen to avoid
- interfering with high-speed file transfers.
-
- -- IMPORTANT NOTES -----------------------------------------------------------
-
- ** Never install or remove Morning Star from a menu system. Always do it
- from the DOS prompt (you can use a batch file if you want to) or in
- your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. (Don't do it from Norton Commander, either).
-
- ** Morning Star does not work in conjunction with Windows.
- It automatically disables itself to avoid crashing Windows.
-
- ** If you have a modem and Morning Star is watching the COM port to which
- it is connected, you will see the border color flash whenever the phone
- rings. Now you can wear headphones while working on your computer and
- still "hear" the phone when it rings!
-
- ** DESQview - To use Morning Star with DESQview, set it to ignore the
- mouse and always blank the screen (use options /M- /B).
-
- ** SuperVGA - Some SuperVGA cards (particularly those with Tseng Labs
- chips) are *NOT* 100% IBM compatible, and there may be minor problems
- when restoring the screen (eg. in Word for DOS, the background colors
- may blink).
-
- ** GAMES - Most games are incompatible with screen savers. It's a good
- idea to turn off Morning Star (use option /D) before running video
- games.
-
- -- COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS --------------------------------------------------
-
- All comments and suggestions are welcome, even if you are not a
- registered user. Please let me know how Morning Star works for you and
- what you think of it. My time is limited (as I'm a full-time student),
- so registered users get first priority when it comes to reply mail.
-
- Correspondence should be addressed to:
-
- Christopher Antos
- 2115 Windsor Drive
- Ann Arbor, MI 48103-5652
- USA
-
- or via InterNet email: antos@engin.umich.edu
-