High Voltage Shareware/high1.zip/high1/DIR2/DRIVER82.ZIP/DRIVER82.EXE/APMOUSE.DOC

Text File | 1993-03-04 | 18KB | 459 lines

INTRODUCTION

APMOUSE is an independently developed DOS driver that lets you use your mouse
with DOS programs designed to be used with a mouse.

A mouse driver is a small program that provides a standard interface between a
pointing device and an application program that uses the pointing device for
input.  Once the mouse driver program is run, it normally remains in the
computer's memory until the machine is shut off.

Microsoft created the first mouse driver program for DOS in 1983.  Today, the
Microsoft mouse driver continues to define the standard pointing device
interface for DOS application programs.  APPOINT mouse driver
version 8.0 provides a functionally equivalent emulation of the industry
standard Microsoft mouse driver, MOUSE.COM and MOUSE.SYS version 8.0.

The driver software has two main areas of functionality:

    1) Returning mouse coordinates and button status to the applications
       programs;

    2) Drawing and maintaining a tracking cursor that will follow the
       motion of the mouse.

Normally the operation of the driver will be transparent.  You only have to
ensure that the driver is installed before you run applications that use
a mouse.

INSTALLING THE APMOUSE DRIVER

Before you install the software, you should make sure the mouse is hooked up to
the computer.  If you should encounter a problem, always double check the
hardware connection to see if it is correct.

APMOUSE comes in two different forms: the file APMOUSE.COM is a "resident
program" mouse driver, and the file APMOUSE.SYS is an "installable MS-DOS device
driver".  APMOUSE.COM is by far the easier mouse driver to install.  To install
APMOUSE.COM, just type at the DOS prompt:

    APMOUSE

You need to install APMOUSE before running an application which uses the mouse.
If you have a hard disk drive you will probably want to copy APMOUSE.COM onto
your hard disk.  Many people add the APMOUSE command to their AUTOEXEC.BAT file,
so the driver is installed automatically whenever they start using their
computer.

The second way to install APMOUSE is by including APMOUSE.SYS as a device driver
in your CONFIG.SYS file.  Add the line below to your CONFIG.SYS file with a
text editor:

    DEVICE=APMOUSE.SYS

If the APMOUSE.SYS file is not stored in the root directory of your hard disk
drive, the correct path name should be in front of APMOUSE.SYS.  If you need to
change the mouse type, or if you want to remove APMOUSE, you have to make the
changes in your CONFIG.SYS file and then reboot the machine.

This method will have a result that is identical to running APMOUSE.COM each
time that you start up your computer, with the following exceptions: (1) you
can not remove APMOUSE.SYS from memory with the /off command line option;
(2) APMOUSE.SYS cannot read configuration commands from the MOUSE.INI
configuration file; (3) APMOUSE.SYS cannot make use of expanded memory, high
memory, or upper memory blocks.

Usually you do not need to use any command line options. However, if command-
line options are needed, you must include them in you CONFIG.SYS file.

For example:

    DEVICE=APMOUSE.SYS /c2           to install on COM2

Once the mouse driver is installed into memory, you are ready to use your
application program.

REMOVING THE APMOUSE DRIVER

APMOUSE will remain in memory, ready for use by any applications program until
you either reboot or turn off your computer.  Remember though that you will
have to re-install APMOUSE if you reboot an applications disk, unless the
APMOUSE.SYS file is already included in your CONFIG.SYS file as a device driver,
or APMOUSE.COM is included in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

You can disable and remove the APMOUSE driver by typing the command:

    APMOUSE OFF

This command releases the hardware port to which the mouse is connected, and if
 possible, the mouse driver will be removed from memory.  If other TSR programs
 have been loaded after APMOUSE.COM, however, APMOUSE will not be released from
memory.  APMOUSE.SYS can not be removed from memory.

CONFIGURING THE MOUSE DRIVER

Normally the APMOUSE driver automatically configures itself for the type of
mouse you have, you do not need to set any options.  However, there are a
number of options which you can select from the command line or by an entry in
a special file named MOUSE.INI.

The mouse driver options control four areas of the drivers bahavior:

    1) the mouse hardware type and the port that the mouse is connected to;

    2) the cursor the driver displays on screen and what language it uses
       for messages;

    3) the location in memory where the mouse driver will be loaded;

    4) motion sensitivity settings.


COMMAND-LINE SWITCHES

These options can be issued after the driver is initially installed.  However,
memory location and mouse type can not be changed without removing the APMOUSE
driver.  Please refer to the respective sections for details.

The command-line options can be combined together. For example, you can use
both /h and /v together, and it will work in the same way as using /s. The
order of the command-line switches is not significant.

Either upper or lower-case letters can be used in command-line options. The
place-holder # following some option letters represents an optional number.


Mouse Type Options

The APMOUSE driver is capable of operating with any of the standard kinds of Microsoft serial
mice.  When it installs, the APMOUSE driver searches first for a PS/2 mouse, and then a Microsoft compatible
serial mouse.  If the driver does not find a pointing device or the PS/2 port, it will
default to installing a driver for a Microsoft serial mouse on the first
COM port it finds.

For a serial mouse, use the /c# command-line option to select which serial port
the mouse is connected to (# here refers to COM port 1,2,3 or 4).  For example:

    APMOUSE /c2              for com2

Command-line options can also be used to force APMOUSE to install for the type
of serial mouse you have.  For example,

    /mi             force Microsoft-type serial driver to install

For a PS/2 style mouse, you type:

    APMOUSE /z               For PS/2 style mouse

APMOUSE will print a message confirming that it is installed.  For example, if
you are using a serial mouse with COM 1 as the COM port, after you type APMOUSE,
the following message will appear:

    Installed on COM 1

If the mouse does not seem to be working, you should check whether the
connection is correct, and re-install the mouse driver.

Display Options

Cursor Display Delay
The Cursor Display Delay switch (/n#) controls how often the cursor is redrawn
while the mouse moves across the screen.  Reducing the redraw rate may help you
to follow cursor movement better on LCD displays.  The value can be in the
range of 0 - 10.  A larger number results in a less frequent cursor display.

Force Default Cursor
The /m# switch is a useful command if you are using an application that draws
a small cursor on a laptop (or palmtop) computer with an LCD display.  It forces
the mouse driver to use a default text cursor, which is a character size block,
and thus may make the cursor easier to follow.  The command /m0 turns it off,
while /m1 turns it on.

Foreign Languages
If you want to change the language in which APMOUSE message appears, you can use
the commmand-line switch /l(letter).  Besides English, which is the default
language, other languages included are: German(d), Spanish(e), French(f),
Italian(i), Dutch(nl), Finnish(sf), and Swedish(s).

For example, for German messages, type at the DOS prompt:

    APMOUSE /ld

If you want to go back to English, just type:

    APMOUSE /l

Memory Options

Only APMOUSE.COM can be relocated.  APMOUSE.SYS can not be located.

There are many times when you want to maximize the amount of memory available
to your DOS applications programs.  One way to do it is to move the APMOUSE
driver to a location in memory outside of the area used by applications
programs.

New versions of MS DOS and DR DOS can relocate APMOUSE, as can a number of
utility programs such as QEMM, 386MAX, NETROOM and others.  If you are using
one of these programs to relocate the mouse driver, then you do not need to use
the mouse driver's relocation command-line options, although they still work,
and are compatible.

The mouse driver normally resides in low memory, which is where DOS applications
programs are also loaded.  If you need more space for your applications, you
can relocate most of the APMOUSE driver to either expanded memory, high memory,
or upper memory block.

Use the /u command to load the mouse driver into upper memory (between 640k -
1 MB), or the /e command switch to load it into expanded memory, or the /hi
command to load it into high memory (first 64k above 1 MB).

To relocate the driver to expanded memory, you must have either expanded memory
hardware, such as an Intel Above Board, or a software driver, such as EMM386 or
QEMM in your machine.

To relocate the driver to high memory you must have an 80286, 80386 or 80486
family processor and more than 1 MB of memory.  You must also have the
HIMEM.SYS driver, or its equivalent, loaded before installing the mouse driver.

To relocate the driver to an upper memory block, your CONFIG.SYS file should
have the line:

    DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS

In addition, if you are running DOS 5.0, you should also have the line

    DOS=UMB

in your CONFIG.SYS file.  And in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file you can put:

    APMOUSE /hi       for high memory block

A small amount of low memory is still required even when the main body of the
driver is loaded into either high or expanded memory.

You cannot relocate the mouse driver into another memory area without first
removing the mouse driver by using the APMOUSE OFF command.

Other Settings

Sensitivity
Three command options are provided to adjust the sensitivity of the cursor
tracking.  The default sensitivity setting provides the same tracking response
as the mouse hardware.  Each sensitivity option is a number from 5 to 100.  50
is the default setting.

Larger numbers increase the sensitivity, making the cursor move more rapidly,
and smaller number decrease the sensitivity.  You can experiment to find a
comfortable setting for yourself.

The command options are:

    /s#             set both horizontal and vertical sensitivity

    /h#             set the horizontal sensitivity

    /v#             set the vertical sensitivity

For example:

    APMOUSE /s100

provides a very fast mouse while

    APMOUSE /s10

provides a very slow mouse for highly accurate cursor positioning.

Button Mapping
The left button is the primary button by default.  However, you can redefine
primary and secondary buttons to suit your own preferences by using the command
/kp#s#.  In this command, p# is the primary button number, s# is the secondary
button value.

Button numbers for two-button mice:

    Button                          Value
    Left Button                     1
    Right Button                    2


For a left handed user, it is convenient to have the primary button be the
right button on the mouse, and the secondary button be the left button.  The
command to do this is:

    APMOUSE /kp2s1           for a two-button mouse.

Rotation Angle
This command specifies the rotation angle of the mouse cursor's movement
relative to its physical motion.  The rotation angle is an integer value
representing the number of degrees that the mouse's vertical axis is rotated
clockwise from the default axis.  The range is 0 - 359.  Typically this command
is used to adjust the output of a mouse or trackball when the user finds it
most comfortable to hold the device at an angle.

MOUSE.INI FILE

The MOUSE.INI is an initialization file which contains many settings for the
mouse driver.  The file is specially useful if you want to save some features
as default values.  It avoids the trouble of typing in those command-line
options every time you install the APMOUSE driver.

The settings in MOUSE.INI are read by the mouse driver when it is loaded into
memory.  APMOUSE.SYS, however, can not read the MOUSE.INI file.

Whenever you change any setting in the MOUSE.INI file, it becomes the default
setting.  You can always use command-line switches to override the settings in
MOUSE.INI if you want to make a temporary change.  The default settings for
MOUSE.INI file for two button mice are as follows:

[mouse]
MouseType = ** automatic search **
Language = English
Memory = LowMem
ActiveAccelerationProfile = 2

PrimaryButton = 1
SecondaryButton = 2
ClickLock = Off
RotationAngle = 0

InterruptRate = 1
HorizontalSensitivity = 50
VerticalSensitivity = 50
CursorDisplayDelay = 0
ForceDefaultCursor = Off

The MOUSE.INI file stores acceleration profiles at the end of the file.

[DOSPointer]
PointerSize = Small
PointerColor = Normal
Growth = False
Threshold = 1
Delay = 1

[AcelerationProfile1]
Label =         Slow
Movement =      1     30    33    37    41    46
Factor =     1.00   3.00  3.25  3.50  3.75  4.00

[AccelerationProfile2]
Label =         Moderate
Movement =      1     5     7     9    11    37    39    41    43
Factor =     1.00  1.25  1.50  1.75  2.00  2.25  2.50  2.75  3.00

[AccelerationProfile3]
Label =         Fast
Movement =      1    9   12   15   18   21   24   27   30   33   37   41   46
Factor =     1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00 2.25 2.50 2.75 3.00 3.25 3.50 3.75 4.00

[AccelerationProfile4]
Label =         Unaccelerated
Movement =      1
Factor =     1.00

You can use any text editor or word processor that saves ASCII files to edit
the MOUSE.INI file.

The DOSPointer is a newly added section to the MOUSE.INI.  Its features
are most helpful for LCD displays where the cursor movement is not as
easy to follow.

You can change the pointer size from small, medium, to large; and its
color can be set to normal, reverse, or transparent.  You need to try it
yourself to find out the size and the color you like most.

In text mode the pointer will increase and reduce in size if you put
growth value equal to true in the MOUSE.INI file.  In graphics mode,
however, it will be shown against a contrasting block.  If you do not
desire this feature, you only have to set growth value to False.  Please
note, however, that the text pointer can only grow to the size you have
defined in the MOUSE.INI.  That is to say, it will grow too large if set
too large.  It will not grow at all if the pointer size is set to small.

There is a threshold of mouse movement speed you need to reach in order
to enable the pointer to "grow".  It can be set from 1 to 100.  Moving
the mouse at a speed faster than the threshold value will result in a
bigger/contrasted cursor.  The higher the threshold value, the faster
you will have to move the mouse to see the pointer "grow".  If you set
threshold value to 1, you will frequently see the enlarged/contrasted
pointer when moving the mouse.  If your threshold value is 100, however,
you will probably not see it unless you move the mouse very fast.

Delay, which also ranges from 1 to 100, determines the duration the
pointer "growth" lasts.  The higher the delay value, the longer you see
the cursor "grow".  If the delay is set to 1, you will see a
tempoarily enlarged/contrasted pointer before it falls back to the
original state.  If you set the delay value to 100, however, the
enlargement/contrasted block will last for quite a while.


Examples:
To change the vertical and horizontal sensitivities to 95, you type:

    VerticalSensitivity = 95
    HorizontalSensitivity = 95

If you want to load your APMOUSE driver always into expanded memory and the
installation messages appear in French, you type:

    Memory = EMM
    Language = French

MOUSE DRIVER BALLISTICS

APMOUSE supports fully Microsoft compatible ballistic acceleration.  This mouse
driver comes with four built-in ballistic gain profiles:

    Speed                   Value
    Slow:                   ballistic profile 1
    Moderate:               ballistic profile 2
    Fast:                   ballistic profile 3
    Unaccelerated:          ballistic profile 4

To select a ballistic profile, you can use /p# command-line options.  For
example, you type:

    APMOUSE /p1              select ballistic profile 1

Each of the four movement profile defines how much cursor motion results from
a given amount of mouse motion.  You can also use the SETSPEED program to
choose profiles, load a new set of profiles, or find out which profile is in
effect within your mouse driver.  Of course, the mouse driver must be loaded
before you use SETSPEED.EXE.

The command-line options for SETSPEED are:

    SETSPEED /p# /ffilename

where # is 1, 2, 3, or 4. Filename is the name of a text file containing
movement profiles to be used by the mouse driver.

    SETSPEED /?

reports the currently active profile.  For example,

    SETSPEED /p3 /fPROFILES.TXT

selects movement profile 3 from the file "PROFILES.TXT"

The motion profile data files are text files that define the relationship
between mouse motion and screen cursor motion.  For each movement profile
within the file there is a list of mouse motions and corresponding scaling
factors.  A scaling factor of 1.0 means that one mouse motion increment
corresponds to one screen motion increment.  Larger scaling factors result in
"faster" mouse motion.  Use the file DEFAULT.PRO as a guide to the proper
syntax of the motion profile data.

Mouse movement values can range from 1 to 127, while scaling factors can range
from 0 to 16.  A scaling factor value of 0.5 effectively halves the resolution
of the mouse (eg. from 400 to 200 dpi).

You can specify up to 32 mouse movement entries, and the steps between entries
in the list do not have to be equal.  For each movement entry you must specify
a factor entry.  The profile labels are truncated to 16 characters when the
profile is loaded into the mouse driver.


                END.