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Utilities Docs
This file includes Documentation for all files in the Utilities Drawer. They
have all been combined into one to save disk space.
The Docs included in this file are:
Brush2Icon
Cursive
Financa
Free
SetAlert
SplitIcon
Doc File Headers are in
RED!
*****************************************************************************
BRUSH2ICON
This program will turn any iff brush or picture into an
icon for the WorkBench.
I used to use 'zapicon' and it worked just fine except
it used GADGHCOMP for the icon's hilighting mode which I
personal think doesn't look to good. The solution was to
use zapicon to convert the iff brush to am icon and then
load the icon into IconEd, change the hilite mode to
BackFill and resave it. The problem with that approach is
that IconEd doesn't seem to like icons made with zapicon.
It loads them just fine but 30-40% of them it doesn't save
them correctly. I don't know what the problem is but after
they'd been resaved with IconEd they would appear as almost
total garbage on the WorkBench. The other problem to that
approach is that IconEd won't handle large icons. So I
finally sat down and wrote my own program to do what I
needed.
Brush2Icon only runs from the CLI and takes the
following format
Brush2Icon name brush1 [-abrush2] [-backfill] [-tTYPE]
where 'name' is the name of the file your making an icon
for. (ie. do NOT include the ".info") 'Brush1' is the IFF
file that contains the picture to be used for the Icon.
The rest are optional.
-abrush2 allows you to use a second IFF file for the
selected image of the icon. I think it is much easier to
do this here than to make two icons and then run alticon on
them.
-backfill will set the hilite mode to BACKFILL instead
of COMPLEMENT which is the default. Note: this option is
overridden by the -a option.
-tTYPE sets the type of the icon. The default type is
PROJECT. Valid types are TOOL, PROJECT, DRAWER, DISK and
GARBAGE
examples.
Brush2Icon Harv Face.pic
Creates an icon for the file 'Harv' (ie. it creates a file
named 'Harv.info' using the iff image in the file
'Face.pic'. The filetype will be PROJECT and the hilite
type will be COMPLEMENT (GADGHCOMP)
Brush2Icon Harv Face.pic -b -tTOOL
Same as above expect the filetype will be TOOL and the
hilite type will be BACKFILL.
Brush2Icon Progs Closed.pic -aOpened.pic -tDRAWER
Creates an icon for the drawer 'Progs'. The icon will look
like the image in the IFF file 'Closed.pic' then when it is
clicked on or selected it will display the image in the
file 'Opened.pic'. the filetype is DRAWER and the hilite
type is GADGHIMAGE.
Brush2Icon
Prints out a few simple instructions.
Note: 1) If you make an alternate image be sure you save
the two images in the same size. (If you want an
explanation just try it with different sized ones and see
what happens. :-D )
2) This program doesn't strip extra bitplanes so if
you draw a 16 color icon it 'SHOULD' save all 4 planes.
This is a waste of memory if you are only using a 2 plane
WorkBench but if you have modified your WorkBench for more
planes then it should allow you to make icons for it.
(Should means that I haven't actually tried it. I don't
personally strip the planes but PutDiskObject() might.)
I have uploaded the source in case you would like
to add other features, change the defaults or just see if
there are some nifty routines you can use in your own
programs. Actually there are a few but I will upload them
separately with documentation in the near future.
This program is Public Domain. Please do NOT sell it
or take credit for work that is not yours. Thank you.
Gregg Tavares
10500 National Blvd #24
Los Angeles, CA 90034
PLINK: GreggT
*****************************************************************************
CURSIVE
This is a program for generating horizontal cursive banners. It's main
use is for generating cute signatures for email. It is copyrighted by
Jan Wolter, but may be distributed freely. Have what fun you can...
___ _ __ _
( > ' ) / // _/_
__/___. ____ / / / __|/ / _ __
/ / (_/|_/ / <__ (_(_/ (_) \_<__</_/ (__
<_/
janc@crim.eecs.umich.edu
Amiga port by John Hoffman
___ _ ,
( ) / ' ) / /) /)
__/______/_ __ /--/ ____// // ____ __. __
/ / (_) / /_/) )_ / (_(_) /__//__/) ) )_(_(_/) )_
(_/ /> />
</ </
pur-ee!pur-phy!duncan!jrh
Plink: AMIGA*JOHN
NAME
Cursive - prints text in cursive script
SYNOPSIS
cursive [ -i n ] [ -t n ] [message]
DESCRIPTION
Cursive prints a line of text in a rather crude cursive script. It is
intended for use mainly for the generation of decorative signatures for
electronic mail. If message text is given on the command line, that
text is used. Otherwise the text will be read from standard input up to
an end of file. The -i option sets the minimum spacing between adjacent
characters. The default is -i1. The -t option sets the length of the
trailing lines on the end of each word. The default is -t1.
The '_' character is treated in a special way. It may be inserted in
the text anywhere you wish to lengthen a connecting line between two
letters.
BUGS
Many ASCII characters are not defined, notably the numbers and symbols.
Punctuation is mostly available. Some characters are rather ugly.
The author has lousy handwriting.
AUTHOR
Jan Wolter. UUCP mail to janc@crim.eecs.umich.edu
COPYRIGHT
This program and the cursive font it generates are copyrighted by Jan Wolter.
Both may be freely used and distributed in any way whatsoever, so long as
the author's name is left in the source code and documentation.
*****************************************************************************
HERMES' FINANCA (Version 1.0)
Copyright (c) 1988 A. G. Kartsatos
(CIS = 76617,121, GEnie = XTH58515, PLink = HERMES)
*** Shareware Program ***
This is a useful program that makes it easy for you to calculate
mortgages, annuities, and compound interest.
ATTENTION: The "TOPAZ 11" font should be in your current "fonts"
directory. If it is not there, you will get the program running with "funny"
fonts!
To use it from the CLI: Press "RUN FINANCA".
To use it from the Workbench: Click its icon.
To exit, choose "QUIT" from the menu.
CALCULA
CALCULA evaluates any valid expression involving the 5 supported
algebraic functions and the 5 algebraic operations.
In order to use CALCULA, do the following:
(1) Insert the function to be evaluated in the "FUNCTION" gadget.
(2) Insert the values (if needed) for any of the variables X, Y, Z in
their respective gadgets.
(3) Click the "EVALUATE" gadget.
The value of the function is given in the "RESULT" gadget.
REMEMBER:
(I) Use only parentheses. No brackets are allowed.
(II) The function must be at most 100 characters long.
(III) This version does not support scientific notation. Avoid the use
of numbers with more than 13 digits before the decimal point
and/or 9 digits after the decimal point.
(IV) Exponential expressions grow/decay very fast. The largest
power I have allowed for e is 32. (exp(32.)).
(V) Check the available functions and operators by choosing
"FUNCTIONS" from the menu. Make sure that you are using the
right notation for your functions.
(VI) To "CLEAR" ONE of the string gadgets, click into it and press
RIGHT-AMIGA-X. Press "CLEAR ALL" to clear ALL the string
gadgets except the function gadget.
(VII) You may use spaces between any expressions. No problem.
(VIII) Lower or upper case letters are allowed anywhere. The program
turns them all into upper case.
(IX) For the sake of speed I have omitted error messages for a whole
lot of nonsensical things that can happen. For example, if
you insert HERMES in the X-gadget, the program will read it
as 0.000000. Make sure your input makes sense mathematically.
(X) The result is always given with 6 decimal places. The program
will prohibit the generation of numbers that are too large to
print and/or prone to carry prohibitive sizes of error.
(XI) CTRL-N gets you to the Workbench and CTRL-M gets you back to
FINANCA. If you are planning to work on the Workbench while
FINANCA is running, make sure to run it with "RUN FINANCA"
and not just "FINANCA".
(XII) When you raise a function to a power, make sure you enclose
the function in parentheses. For example, you should use
(exp(1.89))^2 instead of exp(1.89)^2. The same remark applies
to other similar situations.
ANNUITY
This menu item computes the FUTURE VALUE of an amount of money deposited
at the beginning/end of each period.
EXAMPLE 1:
Assume that you make payments into an annuity consisting of $300
dollars at the end of every 3 months at the rate of 6% compounded quarterly.
You like to know what the amount (future value) of the annuity is at
the end of 3 years.
Here is what you do: Make sure the beginning/ending gadget is set to
ENDING.
You can do this by clicking into it.
Insert:
PAYMENT = 300 (300 dollars quarterly)
INTEREST = .06 (6% interest: 6/100)
PERIODS = 12 (12 quarters in 3 years)
PERIODS/YEAR = 4 (4 quarters per year)
RESULT: 3912.363429
EXAMPLE 2:
Same as Example 1, but the payments are maid AT THE BEGINNING of each
3-month period.
Set the beginning/end gadget to BEGINNING.
Then insert all the data as above in the corresponding gadgets.
RESULT: 3971.048881
EXAMPLE 3:
Assume that the data of the previous two examples still stand with the
following difference: The amount of $300 is deposited into the annuity at the
beginning of each month.
Insert:
PAYMENT = 300 (300 dollars quarterly)
INTEREST = .06 (6% interest: 6/100)
PERIODS = 36 (36 months in 3 years)
PERIODS/YEAR = 12 (12 months per year)
RESULT: 11859.835647
COMPOUND INTEREST
You deposit a certain amount of money (PRINCIPAL) at a certain interest
compounded monthly (or quarterly, or yearly, or otherwise) and you would like
to know what has become of that amount after a certain amount of time. This
is COMPOUND INTEREST.
EXAMPLE 4:
Assume that $3000 (PRINCIPAL) is placed in a savings account at an
interest of 6% compounded semiannualy. What is the compound amount at the
end of seven years?
Insert:
PRINCIPAL = 3000 (amount deposited)
INTEREST: = .06 (6% interest: 6/100)
PERIODS: = 14 (total number of periods 2x7 = 14)
PERIODS/YEAR = 2 (2 six-month periods per year)
RESULT: 4537.769175
EXAMPLE 5:
Same as above, but the interest is compounded quarterly. Now, the
PERIODS are 28 and the PERIODS/YEAR are 4.
RESULT: 4551.666540
MORTGAGE
This item considers the following problem: Suppose you buy a house at
A dollars, at the rate (interest) r per period, by n equal payments of R
dollars each AT THE END of each period. You know A, r, and n, what is the
value of R? This program will give you the monthly payments of R dollars.
EXAMPLE 6:
Amortize a loan of $30000 for a new home which carries a 20-year mort-
gage at the rate of 9% compounded monthly. Find the monthly payment.
Insert:
PAYMENT: 30000 (loan of 30000 dollars)
INTEREST: .09 (9% interest: 9/100)
PERIODS: 240 (12x20 = 240 months)
PERIODS/YEAR: 12 (12 months per year)
RESULT: 269.917787
EXAMPLE 7:
A person wants to amortize a loan of $10000 with interest at 8% in six
semiannual payments. If the interest is compounded semiannualy, what is
the amount of each six-month payment?
Insert:
PAYMENT: 10000 (loan of 10000 dollars)
INTEREST: .08 (8% interest: 8/100)
PERIODS: 6 (6 six-month payments)
PERIODS/YEAR: 2 (2 6-month periods per year)
RESULT: 1907.619025
*** <<<-->>> ***
This is a SHAREWARE copyrighted program. If you find it useful,
please send $15.00 to the address at the end.
With this contribution you will receive more programs written by the
author.
Feel free to distribute this program, with the doc intact, to any
bulletin boards and other non-profit establishments in the US and abroad.
These include PLink, Compuserve, GEnie, Delphi, etc.
The inclusion of this program, or any part of it, in any form in a
commercial package, or its use for commercial purposes, requires the
written permission of the author.
The author bears no responsibility for errors that might occur while the
user uses this program. A lot of efforts have been made to deliver to you
a responsible program.
Other programs by the author:
PALETTA.ARC (Color Mixing, Modifying IFF's, Random Colors)
DUHERM26.ARC (Great Directory Utility. Macros, Parameters, etc)
SIMPLICA.ARC (The Simplex Method Of Linear Programming)
ROST.ARC (Reports On Storage And Tasks. Useful!)
LISTA11.ARC (Very Convenient File Lister. Alpha, Bytes, etc.)
SCRIPTA.ARC (Online!-PCP Script Maker. Easy To Use!)
CALCULA.ARC (17 Functions Expression Parser And Evaluator)
ARCHA.ARC (ARC-PAK-ZOO Utility Plus 9 Extra Utility Gadgets)
FORMULA!.ARC (Great 3D-Grapher In C. Colors, Parsing, etc.)
For support on the HERMES programs, call:
HERMES BBS (Tampa, FL, USA)
813-985-7624
1400 Files, 2400, PCP, Good Message Base, PRIVATE
Also, you may call (voice) or write:
A. G. Kartsatos (PLink = HERMES)
8524 Caladesi Island Drive
Tampa, FL 33637, USA
813-988-2146
*****************************************************************************
FREE
/*********************************************************************/
/* FREE Copyright 1987 by Tom Smythe */
/*
RealTime Asc.
Seattle, Wa. */
/* (206)-547-7292 */
/* (206)-774-4735 bbs */
/* */
/* FREE returns the available free bytes on any storage device */
/* that AmigaDos sees as a drive. A list of up to six drives */
/* is kept by the program and may be cleared or added to at any */
/* time by the user. Chip and Fast memory, if available, is */
/* always displayed except when in command mode. If a device is */
/* not currently mounted a requester is displayed. If the device */
/* is not subsequently mounted, it is ignored in the output. */
/* */
/* */
/* Command Mode is initiated by the "-x" parameter. */
/* The full path name must be specified eg. "df0:c/free -x" */
/* "-x" with no parameters re-ititializes the drive list. */
/* "-x dfn: dhn: vdn: ram:" adds named devices to list. */
/* "?" returns a USAGE statement. */
/* */
/* The author grants license to copy and distribute this program */
/* for non-commercial purposes as long as the Copyright notice */
/* remains intact. */
/* */
/* I thought it might be fun to write a program that goes in and */
/* alters its own executable code. This was the result of these */
/* efforts. I had fun with it. Hope you do too. */
/* Tom Smythe */
/* Seattle,Wa. */
/* 01/29/87 */
/* */
/*********************************************************************/
*****************************************************************************
SETALERT
Article 13572 of 13602, Tue 22:07.
Subject: AmigaLine #5 - Why recoverable ram disks don't on the A2000/A500
From: bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt)
Path: mcnc!decvax!ucbvax!hoser.berkeley.edu!bryce
Organization: The Institute for Reliable Software, Inc.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Date: 13 Jan 88 03:07:39 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Technical Note #5
Why recoverable ram disks don't on the A2000/A500
SUMMARY
$ 5/0 Why recoverable ram disks don't on the A2000/A500
$ release
$ 9-Jan-88 Bryce Nesbitt / BDI
$ recoverable ram disk, VD0:, VDK:, boot, reset, $C00000 memory, setalert, bug
Recoverable ram disks are used by most programmers. Normally these
come back to life after a crash or reset. All too often on the A2000 and
expanded A500 the disk won't come back.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PROBLEM
These problems affect only "$C00000" memory. Three examples of this
type of memory are:
1> Half of the 1 Meg of memory in an A2000.
2> The memory that sits in the pocket underneath the A500.
3> Expansion products such as the PAL, Spirit and Insider board for the
A1000.
Other memory is not affected.
The problem is not the hardware controlling the memory, it is the
software. The system executive (exec) sees a crash or reset in at least
two different ways:
1> WARM boot. The system has already been set up, just do some cleanup
and start over.
2> COLD Boot. Reset everything and wipe out local memory (including
CHIP and $C00000).
The fact that it ever wipes local memory to zero is the fundamental
bug. The problem is compounded by the fact that it will be fooled into a
cold boot by several factors:
1> If someone tries to post a "Recoverable" Alert. For example, the
AmigaDOS Replacement project does this if it can't find it's library. This
will crash the machine right away.
2> If you have more than 512K of chip memory. (lucky you!)
3> If something writes to memory and happens to corrupt it in the area
that exec keeps a checksum for.
4> If some naugty programmer patches a library routine without using the
"SetFunction()" function.
SOLUTIONS
Problem #1 can be fixed with a ram patch written be Andy Finkel of
Commdore. This is attached at the end of this document.
The next three problems are stickier, and will probably need to wait
until the next Kickstart revision for a complete fix. For owners of an
A1000 with Kickstart disk, the "Transactor Amiga Magazine" will probably
publish a set of patches soon. Everyone else is left out in the cold. A
ram patch is possible, but had not been made available as of this writing.
The US address of the Transactor is:
The Trasactor
PO Box 338 Station "C"
Buffalo, NY 14209-9990
Telephone: (416) 764-5273
As of this writing, 1 year of "Transactor for the Amiga" was $15.
WHERE TO GET A RECOVERABLE RAM DISK (RRD)
There are two. Both with the same low price of just $10:
1) VD0: - The first RRD ever. Available from free software sources.
Suggested $10 donation.
2) VDK: - This program is from Expansion Technologies and it is
a commercial program. (It is also know as SURVIVOR).
Costs $10 from:
EXPANSION TECHNOLOGIES
46127 Landing Parkway
Fremont, CA 94538
This program has the advantage that it will try and avoid $C00000
memory if possilbe. Obviously this feature is only of use if you
have both $C00000 memory and some other non-affected types.
*****************************************************************************
SPLITICON
From the late half hour at Chucks computer... a FREEEBEE... no
shareware.. FREEWARE!! You probably couldn't get anything for it
anyway. But if you are like me... you probably have wanted to be able
to improve on someone elses dual (or action) icon but I haven't seen
anything on the PD circuit that will allow you to get at the back or
SELECTED half of the icon for editing.
Ok.. big deal!! But here it is... a simple hack to take an icon that
has been ALTICON'd and make 2 icons out of the single-dual (action) icon.
Its use is simple....
1. It should be run from the CLI.
2. type.. "spliticon <icon>" (note... leave off the ".info")
3. 2 icons will be added to the same directory. Thier names will
be the same as the original except "-F" and "-B" will be
appended meaning 'front' and 'back' as in the example below.
4. You can now edit either one or both and, useing alticon, put
it back together.
EXAMPLE:
if you have a dual icon on the RAM disk named "polly.info" ....
1> cd ram:
1> spliticon polly<CR>
1> dir
polly.info
polly-F.info (the front [unselected image] icon)
polly-B.info (the back [selected image] icon)
ENJOY... and happy SPLITICONing....
from the desk if Chuck Maier... PLINK OBS533.. 4/20/88
If you like it... just drop me a note..
Be sure to check out the latest Chucks Dutil... if you liked this...
Youll L-O-V-E that!!
*****************************************************************************