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1992-12-23
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* * * T W I L I G H T Z O N E * * *
version 1.1/2.0, October 10th, 1992
User Manual
***************************************************************
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Getting started
3. Creating own blanker modules
***************************************************************
1. Introduction
What is "Twilight Zone" ?
"Twilight Zone" is a modular screen blanker with a user-friendly
control panel. In contrast to most ordinary screen blankers
"Twilight Zone" provides the following features:
* selection of a blanker module out of a list of modules
* "blank now" feature by moving the mouse pointer into a corner
of the screen
* "blank never" option by moving the mouse pointer into a corner
of the screen
* time out freely adjustable (quantity, minutes or seconds)
* "wake up event" freely adjustable (mouse, keyboard, disk drive)
With some knowledge in programming it is not difficult to create
new blanker modules, which can be integrated into "Twilight Zone"
and displayed in its control panel.
Requirements
Version 1.1 of "TwilightZone" was developed and tested with OS 1.3.
Thus it is no commodity. It was also tested with AmigaOS 2.04.
Version 2.0 was exclusively developed for OS 2.04. Thus it does
not need "arp.library" any more. I am going to make it to a
commodity as soon as possible.
***************************************************************
2. Getting started
Installation
To install "TwilightZone" double-click the "Install" icon.
This short shell script will copy the libraries required by
"TwilightZone" into the LIBS: directory. The program needs
- arp.library (v39.1) (version 1.1 only !) and
- intuisup.library (v4.5 or higher).
Furthermore, you must have a directory from where "Twilight Zone"
get its blanker modules. If this directory is not the same as
the one where the program is placed, you must assign the logical
device "TZ:" to it.
When "Twilight Zone" starts, first it looks in the current
directory for blanker modules. If it cannot find any matching file
(with the extension ".tz"), it tries to get files from "TZ:".
Starting "Twilight Zone"
You can start "Twilight Zone" by double-clicking its icon on
workbench or by creating a background task in the shell with the
RUN or RUNBACK command.
At each start the program looks for the configuration file named
"TZConfig" which must be placed in the "S:" directory.
If there exists no configuration file or the file contains bad
data, "Twilight Zone" opens its control panel showing the
standard configuration.
The control panel consists of following elements:
* "Blanker modules" list *
This list contains all blanker modules which could be found at the
start of the program. All blankers have the extension ".tz" except
the built-in module "SimpleBlank", which is the default blanker.
Whenever no blanker module is available or the blanker specified
in the configuration file cannot be found, "SimpleBlank" will be
selected automatically.
* "Sleep delay" adjusting *
The time out period can be adjusted by a counter gadget and a
cycle gadget, which toggles between seconds and minutes.
* "Blank now" corner *
This mutual exclusive gadget allows you to specify a corner of
the screen. If the mouse pointer is moved into this corner,
"Twilight Zone" will blank the screen immediately.
* "Blank never" corner *
This mutual exclusive gadget allows you to specify a corner of
the screen. If the mouse pointer is moved into this corner,
"Twilight Zone" will never blank the screen, unless you move the
pointer away from this corner.
* "When to wake" flags *
When a blanker module is activated, "Twilight Zone" waits for a
event from the user. This event may be a key stroke, a mouse
movement or insertion or ejection of a disk.
There are existing three check boxes for these events, which may
be combined individually.
* Button "About..." *
Click this button to get short information about "Twilight Zone".
* Button "Show" *
If you click this button, "Twilight Zone" will activate the
currently selected blanker module.
(This is a feature I am missing in most blankers ! The action part
is the one and only interesting feature of a screen blanker. Thus
I find it stupid to force the user to activate the blanker and then
to wait a few seconds before he can watch the action part !)
* Button "Use" *
If you click this button, "TwilightZone" will save the current
settings to its configuration file and then install the last
selected blanker module.
You can then return to the control panel by pressing the hot key
kombination RIGHT ALT + RIGHT SHIFT + ESC.
* Button "Quit" *
Click this button to quit from "Twilight Zone".
***************************************************************
3. Creating own blanker modules
In the following section I give a brief description how to
create own blanker modules. For this work you need some advanced
knowledge in Assembler programming.
Each blanker module has the following structure:
********** blanker header **********
0x00 dc.l "TWILIGHTZONE" (12 bytes)
0x0C dc.l LocationID (4 bytes)
********** blanker module **********
->0x10 bra StartBlanker (4 bytes)
->0x14 bra StopBlanker (4 bytes)
0x18 ...
The "LocationID" the following meaning:
1. Most significant bit (MSB, Bit 31) not set:
load blanker to the specified absolute address (if you want
to use a lamer-intro as a blanker module :-( ).
2. Most significant bit (MSB, Bit 31) set:
2.1 Last significant bit (LSB, Bit 0) not set:
Load blanker to an arbitrary address (normal case :-) ).
2.2 Last significant bit (LSB, Bit 0) set:
Load blanker to an arbitrary address in chip memory (if your
blanker module uses graphical data).
The pure blanker code itself is all the (relocatable assembly)
code starting from 0x18 until the end of file.
The code starting at "StartBlanker" has the task to blank the
screen or to install an interrupt service routine or to do
something else. The initialization code must be terminated by a
RTS command.
The code starting at "StopBlanker" resets the screen display
and must also end with a RTS command.
***************************************************************
If you find any bugs or you have any ideas how to improve this
this product, then contact me:
/// Rainer Koppler
/// Stelzhamerstraße 9
\\\ /// A-4623 Gunskirchen
\\X// Austria/Europe
internet: rainer@soft.uni-linz.ac.at