Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr22/statl411.zip/STATLINE.DOC

Text File | 1993-05-02 | 20KB | 407 lines

STATLINE 4.11    (C) Jac Goudsmit   (eng)
========================================


Note: This document was created with an editor that uses tabs to compress
spaces. Use the TYPE or MORE command to view this file, or print it on your
printer, and the tabs will be expanded automatically.


DESCRIPTION:
------------
In July 1986, PC magazine published a nice utility called STATLINE, written by
John Socha. This was a TSR program that reprogrammed the 6845 video controller
on the Monochrome and Color/Graphics adapter to show an extra screen line.
This 26th line was then used to display the status of the Caps Lock,
Num Lock and Scroll Lock toggles.

My STATLINE.COM is based on the original STATLINE from PC magazine but
includes a nice extra feature (a disk indicator, showing which drive is
accessed and how) and solves some problems of the 1986 version. It has been
rewritten almost completely; only the parameter tables for reprogramming the
video controller were left intact from the original.

The program is not compatible with EGA and other display adapters, though I am
working on that. Adapters that are not 100% compatible with the monochrome or
color/graphics adapter may have problems with STATLINE. Plasma and LCD displays
will certainly fail to work with the program, because of the fixed dot matrix.
And there is another unsolvable hardware problem: on monochrome displays you
will always see an echo of the top left corner of the screen in the 26th line,
on the CGA you will see part of the next display page when STATLINE is active.


DEDICATION:
-----------
All the files mentioned in the packing list below are free. No registration is
required, though I would like to see reactions from users, preferably by
electronic mail. You are encouraged to copy the programs and share them with
your friends, distribute them via bulletin boards etc. as long as no charge
is involved, except for media (e.g. floppy disk), and as long as you
distribute the complete package as listed below in unmodified form. The author
prefers you to distribute the ZIP file, STATL411.ZIP, that contains all
programs and documentation files belonging to the package.


DISCLAIMER:
-----------
STATLINE reprograms video hardware directly and uses undocumented DOS function
calls. Installing and using the program is at your own risk. The author cannot
be held responsible for any damage (including, but not limited to, data loss
and hardware damage) caused by this program. However, the program has been
tested extensively on various hardware and softare configurations and never
caused any severe troble. If your PC or monitor starts acting strange
immediately after loading STATLINE, press Ctrl-Alt-Del. Sometimes your setup
must be changed a little to use the program - particularly the AUTOEXEC.BAT
file and the settings on your monitor (vertical size, vertical hold).
Directions for this, as well as solutions to some problems are included in a
separate file, STATLTEC.DOC. Please send bug reports, suggestions,
remarks etc. to the address below. I'd like to hear from you!


PACKING LIST:
-------------
You should have received the following files:
FINDDEV  COM    Program that prints device driver information on your screen.
MEMCLEAR ASM    Source code for MEMCLEAR.SYS
MEMCLEAR SYS    Dummy device driver that cleans up memory
STATLINE COM    The STATLINE program
STATLINE DOC    This file
STATLTEC DOC    Some technical documentation and directions in case STATLINE
        fails to install correctly on your system.
You may have STATL411.ZIP. This is a packed (compressed) file out of which you
can extract the files above using a utility like PKUNZIP. The author prefers
you to distribute this packed file, to prevent files getting lost. Use it
to upload STATLINE to a bulletin board system (BBS). Note that the ZIP file
is not necessary for STATLINE (or any other program in the package) to run.


QUICK START:
------------
Just to try it out, you can run the program right now by typing STATLINE
at the DOS prompt. Remember that the program only works on CGA and Monochrome
Display Adapters!
You will see a number-sign ('#') when Num Lock is on, an arrow when Caps Lock
is on and a double arrow when Scroll Lock is on. These indicators are always
"in sync" with the real keyboard status (unlike the LEDs on some keyboards)
and are updated anytime you press a key, or every second if you are not
typing. Note that they are only visible in text mode, not in graphics mode
(this is impossible).
Also, the time of day is displayed on the 26th line. This is a new feature of
version 4.11. The colon (":") between the hours and minutes flashes about 3
times per second.
If a program accesses the disk, you will see the drive indicator. This
works like the LED on your disk drives, except that there is only one "LED"
at a time on the screen (which is not a problem since DOS can handle only
one disk drive at a time). Another difference is, that you are able to
see if a disk drive is read from, or written to. It also works with virtual
and device-driven disks. If you have only one floppy drive and the computer
asks you to change disks, you will see a flashing disk indicator that shows
which drive letter DOS is going to read from or write to. Once you have tried
out the program and like it, you may install it into your AUTOEXEC.BAT. This
is covered in the next section. As mentioned early, you don't have to register
or pay a fee to use the program.


USING STATLINE:
---------------
You can install STATLINE by putting the command STATLINE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
(include a path if necessary). The program works fine with no options.
Depending on your display adapter, monitor and personal taste, you can change
some settings (see below).

STATLINE is a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident program) that uses about 2 KB
of memory. That should not be much of a sacrifice.
The best place in the AUTOEXEC to put the command, is difficult to pinpoint.
As usual with all TSR's, this will be a matter of experimenting.
In some cases, STATLINE may report that it was already installed, even if you
just rebooted using Ctrl-Alt-Del. This may happen if (like me) you have a
memory card in your system that does its own RAM refreshing. If STATLINE was
loaded on such a memory board and the system is restarted, it may happen that
it thinks that STATLINE is still there, while it is not. If you regularly
change your AUTOEXEC.BAT and/or CONFIG.SYS, you may find that STATLINE
sometimes thinks it is already installed, while it isn't. In that case you
should install the MEMCLEAR.SYS device driver in your CONFIG.SYS, before any
other device drivers.
MEMCLEAR wipes clean all unused memory in your computer, but doesn't use any
memory itself. Installing MEMCLEAR.SYS is optional and harmless. It is not
necessary for STATLINE to work. It is included in this package.


OPTIONS:
--------
The entire command parsing section of the program was rewritten in version
4.10. Users of version 4.02 and older have to change their AUTOEXEC.BAT, as
the command line parameters in version 4.10 and later versions are not
compatible with previous versions.

All command line options consist of a slash ('/') followed by one or more
characters indicating the option and the value for that option. The sequence of
the options is not important, but if you specify an option more than once, only
the last instance of the option is valid. Spaces and tabs are ignored.

If any options are specified on the command line, STATLINE will show how the
resident portion of the program is set up after the indicated option values
have changed. But if one of the options on the command line is /N, the report
will not be displayed.

If you don't want to change any options, but want to see how the resident
portion is set up at the moment, just enter STATLINE, if you know that the
program is already resident. If STATLINE is not in memory yet, type
STATLINE /R (for Report) to install the program and then display the installed
(default) values.

If your display is in text mode, your 26th line will be switched on immediately
after STATLINE is run. You can switch it off by using the /O (letter O for Off)
option. To switch the 26th line back on, start up STATLINE without the /O
option.

A complete summary of the options follows:

/B m [m...]    Beep Mode    Specifies when the speaker is activated.
                M is one of the following:
                    r for reads  (through file I/O)
                    w for writes (through file I/O)
                    R for direct reads    (disk I/O)
                    W for direct writes (disk I/O)
                    n or N for neutral operations (the device
                    driver is called but generally doesn't
                    access the disk)

                You can combine options by specifying more than
                one mode at once. e.g. /BRW sounds the speaker
                if a program accesses any disk directly (read
                as well as write).

                The default is /BW. To switch off the speaker
                entirely, use /B without any following
                characters (except other options).

/D n        Duration    This determines the duration of the sound that
                is produced by the speaker. This value is
                processor speed dependent. If your processor
                is fast, use a higher value.

                The minimum value is 1, the maximum is 65535.

                The default is /D4000.

/F n        Frequency    This is the frequency of the beep. The minimum
                value is 40, the maximum is 20000. Not all
                frequencies in that range are available. Some-
                times your value is rounded to the nearest
                available frequency. Note that this value is
                rounded again (to a multiple of 10) when the
                report is shown.

                Default value is 2500 Hz.

/A mc [,mc...]    Attributes    Determines the attributes of the disk indicator
                on the status line.

                C determines the color you want STATLINE to use
                for mode M. To choose M, see the /B option.
                To choose colors, enter any combination of:
                    r for red foreground
                    g for green foreground
                    b for blue foreground
                    R for red background
                    G for green background
                    B for blue background
                    I or i for high-intensity (bright) colors.

                Note that by combining the primary colors, you
                can create any color:
                    cyan=gb
                    yellow=rg
                    magenta=rb
                    white=rgb
                Note that on monochrome adapters, blue shows up
                as underlined.

                Default values are /Anrgb,rg,wr,Rgi,Wri for
                CGA adapters. This means white for neutral,
                green for reads, red for writes, bright green
                for direct reads, bright red for direct writes.

                The default values for monochrome adapters are
                /Anb,rrgb,wRGB,Rrgbi,WRGBb. This means
                underlined for neutral, white for reads,
                black on white for writes, bright white for
                direct reads and underlined black on white
                for direct writes.

                The indicators for Num Lock, Caps Lock and
                Scroll Lock have the same color as the disk
                indicator in read mode.

                To switch the indicator off completely for one
                mode, use a mode character followed by a comma
                or by another option (starting with '/'), or
                by nothing.

/R        Report        Forces generation of a report about the current
                settings of STATLINE. Normally, a report is
                generated whenever you change the settings or
                when you start STATLINE when it is already in
                memory. Note: The /N option overrides the /R
                option.

/N        No report    Disables generation of a report about the
                current settings. See also the /R option.

/O        Off        Temporarily switches off the status line
                display. This may be necessary with programs
                that reprogram the video controller directly,
                to switch to graphics modes. In such a program,
                STATLINE cannot detect the mode change and
                thus interferes with the program's output.

                Note that the speaker is not switched off by
                this option.

                The status line is switched back on if STATLINE
                is run next time.

/T        Time        This switch toggles the time-of-day display.
                The default is ON. Note that the time on your
                screen is not precisely accurate. Because of
                rounding errors, the time runs a bit fast
                compared to the DOS system timer. The maximum
                difference is about 20 seconds - You can see
                this at the end of the day: the STATLINE clock
                will display "24:00" for about 20 seconds,
                while DOS tells you it is only 23:59.
                The colon between the digits is updated every
                third timer interrupt. If a program disables
                interrupts for a while, the colon stays steady.

                Note: Specifying the /T switch more than once
                toggles the setting for every occurrence of the
                parameter.


FINDDEV - THE DEVICE DRIVER FINDER:
-----------------------------------
The FINDDEV program will easily spot STATLINE intercepted devices: run FINDDEV
before and after STATLINE's initialization and you will see the difference.
FINDDEV was a tryout to see if my device-spotting algorithm really works.
If FINDDEV doesn't work on your system, STATLINE won't, either. If you have
any problems, FINDDEV will help you (and me) to find out what's "wrong" with
your configuration, from the program's point of view.
FINDDEV is included in this package.


ERROR MESSAGES:
---------------
When installing STATLINE or changing parameters, you may see one of a few error
messages. The program will report if it has been installed or not,
or if it has been installed partially, i.e. it is resident, but it may not work
for some devices in your system.
The possible error messages are:
1. "Bad DOS version." The program needs DOS 3.0 or up.
   STATLINE has been tested from DOS 3.00 to DOS 4.00. Both MS-DOS and PC-DOS
   should work.
2. "Bad parameter(s)." If there is a bad character in your parameters or if
   a numeric value is out of range, the program issues this message.
   If STATLINE was already in memory before you started the program, only the
   parameters that could be successfully evaluated, are processed.
3. "Too many block devices." The buffer for device drivers was full
   before the end of DOS' table was reached. The program will be installed
   partially; the drivers that are not installed possibly signal direct reads
   and writes instead of normal reads and writes. In this version of the
   program, there is room for 16 drivers, which should be enough for most
   cases, since one driver may contain more than one logical disk drive.
4. "Device block error." An error or inconsistency was encountered while
   installing one of the device drivers into STATLINE's tables. Some of the
   drivers may have been ignored, possibly causing them to signal only direct
   access. This error is not very likely to occur in current DOS versions,
   except in extraordinary environments that I was not able to test STATLINE in.
5. "Error in number of block devices." While scanning through the device header
   chain, the number of logical disks are counted and matched at the end with
   the value of MAXDRIVE. This however is an undocumented constant so it may
   change in future DOS versions, though it is not very likely to do so. If
   this error is displayed, one or more drives may display wrong drive letters.
   However this will not affect the operation of those drives.
6. "Device header chain not found." STATLINE didn't find the NUL device driver
   as first driver in the chain. This is possible in new DOS versions, but
   again very unlikely to happen. If this error occurs, STATLINE will not
   install. Please contact me if this happens.

Diagnostic messages:
1. "STATLINE has been installed." Diagnostic message saying that STATLINE is in
   operation as from now on.
2. "STATLINE already installed." Another copy of STATLINE was found in memory.
   It will not re-install, but it will change the values of the resident
   copy if you specify any command line parameters.
   It is not possible to uninstall this version of STATLINE. It is possible
   however to deactivate it using the /O switch. The program uses about 2K of
   memory. Uninstallation code and data would take up a considerable amount of
   memory, including resident memory. My opinion is that the possibility to
   uninstall was not necessary. It's definitely not easy to implement routines
   that reverse the process of walking through DOS' chain of device drivers.
   Users of TSR managers should be aware that STATLINE plays around with
   hardware and with the innards of DOS. Uninstalling via a TSR manager is
   probably disastrous, if at all possible.
   NOTE: if STATLINE gives you this error message but you just restarted your
   system using Ctrl-Alt-Del, you shoud install the MEMCLEAR.SYS dummy device
   driver into your CONFIG.SYS, before any other device drivers.
   This cleans up your memory at startup time, so STATLINE doesn't find a false
   copy of itself in memory.
3. "Installed values are..." A report is generated on the values that are
   loaded into the resident portion of STATLINE. This happens if you run
   STATLINE and it is already in memory, or if you change parameters. To
   suppress the report, include a /N parameter in your command.


LAST-MINUTE PROBLEM UPDATE:
---------------------------
Just before the release of version 4.11, I discovered that WordPerfect's screen
driver for Hercules-compatible displays does its own video controller
reprogramming, disregarding the standard Video Parameters table. Consequently,
the 26th line disappears as soon as WP is started, and garbage appears on the
View Document screen (graphics mode). STATLINE does not interfere with WP and
causes no trouble to hardware or software, but the garbage in the View Document
is far from elegant, of course. To avoid the garbage, switch the status line
off by starting STATLINE using the /O option. This can be done either before
WP is started, or from within WP (Goto Dos).
The next STATLINE-version will have a hot key to switch the 26th line on and
off. Furthermore, I'll try to find out more about the WP anomaly and make a
patch program if necessary and possible.
By the way: I found out that STATLINE cooperates perfectly with Microsoft
run-time libraries that require the MSHERC.COM or QBHERC.COM program to be
loaded for graphics on the Hercules. That TSR installs a new video mode (9)
to change to graphics mode. STATLINE switches off automatically when the video
mode is set to 9, thereby avoiding garbage like in WP automatically.


CONCLUSION:
-----------
Though it seems that there aren't many CGA and MDA users left, I think
that those who don't think it's necessary to upgrade to VGA (for financial or
any other reasons) will be happy with this nifty little program.

                    Jac Goudsmit
                    Weegbree 101
                    5684 JC Best
                    The Netherlands

                    25 Mar 1991

At the moment, my E-mail address is: <[e-mail]>
If your mailer doesn't recognize this, try <S89406316%HSEPM1.HSE.NL@HEARN> on
BITNET. This E-mail address will probably not expire until 1993. That's when
my study at Hogeschool Eindhoven will be finished (I hope).

Extensions that I have in mind for future versions:
* Improvement of resident-scan-procedure using DOS memory control blocks, so
  that MEMCLEAR isn't necessary anymore
* EGA and VGA compatibility
* Hot key to toggle status line
* Patch for WordPerfect Hercules driver
- Further features on command line itself (optional file-name display...)
- Other features using the command line (using menu-system on 26th line)
- User extensions (binary files
Lines marked with '*' are "in the making". Lines marked '-' are vague (long
term) ideas. Expected release date of next version: 3rd quarter of 1991.
Further suggestions are welcome!