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BarClock
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BarClock.DOC
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1994-11-25
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If anyone actually reads this I'll be amazed.... anyway, here goes:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
BARCLOCK 1.2
~~~~~~~~ ~~~
It's a clock that sits in your Workbench screen's title bar
~~~~ ~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~
By David Boucher
~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Created: 24-Oct-94 This guide created: 30-Oct-94
Contents:
WHAT IS BARCLOCK?
RUNNING THE PROGRAM.
TOOLTYPES AND CLI PARAMETERS.
DISTRIBUTION & LEGAL STUFF.
PROGRAM HISTORY.
CREDITS.
AND FINALLY...
What is BarClock?
~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~
BarClock is a clock that sits on the Workbench title bar...
Oh, you want more, ok... BarClock is a combined clock and calender
commodity program for Workbench 2.04 or better. It can display time, date
and day in the Workbench screen's title bar and can be configured through
Workbench TOOLTYPES of CLI PARAMETERS. The program's commodity interface
can be used to enable, disable and quit the program.
Options available through ToolTypes/Parameters are:
·Display of DAY/DATE/TIME can be toggled on or off.
·DATE FORMAT can be changed to any one of four available.
·Clock mode can be 12 OR 24 HOURS, with or without SECONDS.
·TASK PRIORITY and COMMODITY PRIORITY can be changed.
·ENABLE option allows commodity to be started enabled or disabled.
·QUIT option allows program to be closed down without EXCHANGE.
Running the Program
~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~
BarClock can be run run from either Workbench or CLI. If the program
is to be run from the WBSTARTUP drawer the DONOTWAIT Tooltype must be
added. When running from the CLI the program will not "lock up" the CLI
and there is no need to use RUN, RUNBACK or any other such programs.
If the program is run twice, the new copy of the program will replace
the old, so settings can be changed by just re-running the program.
Once the program is running, the Commodities EXCHANGE program
can be used to Enable Disable and Quit the program. Simply open Exchange,
select BarClock from the list and select the relevant option. These
operations can also be performed by using the ENABLE and QUIT options.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
When BarClock is enabled it will prevent the Workbench screen from
closing. To close the WorkBench you must disable or quit the program.
This can cause a problem if IPrefs needs to close the screen to update
preferences. IPrefs will repeatedly try to close the WorkBench, and fail
because BarClock is running (this is a problem with IPrefs NOT BarClock).
If this happens you should either:
·Open EXCHANGE with it's hotkey and disable BarClock from there
·Try to hit the CANCEL button of the "Close all windows..." requester
in the brief second it appears.
·Try to open a program window (e.g. a CLI) to stop IPrefs opening and
closing things.
ToolTypes and CLI Parameters
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
BarClock's various options are set through TOOLTYPES and
CLI PARAMETERS. There are ten options in all, but you don't have to
specify a value for all of them. If an option is not specified or
specified incorrectly, a default value will be used.
The available options are:
CX_PRIORITY SHOWDAY
SHOWDATE SHOWTIME
HOURS SECONDS
FORMAT TASKPRI
ENABLE QUIT
WorkBench ToolTypes
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
ToolTypes allow a program to have options attached to it's icon.
ToolTypes for a program can be edited be selecting the icon and selecting
Information... from the WorkBench Icons menu. BarClock's icon in this
distribution has all the available tooltypes specified with their default
value, with the exception of QUIT which has been commented out. If any of
the tooltypes are not specified or specified incorrectly then the default
value for what option will be used.
The guide pages for each option give the values that are allowed for
each option. The general format is:
OPTION=<VALUE>
For more information on ToolTypes, consult your Workbench manual.
CLI Parameters
~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
When a program is run from the CLI parameters van be entered after
it's name to allow options to be specified. BarClock allows it's options
to be specified using CLI parameters. If a certain option is not
specified or is specified incorrectly then the default value for that
option will be used.
The guide pages for each option give the values that are allowed for
each option. The general format is:
OPTION=<VALUE>
For more information on CLI parameters, consult an AmigaDOS manual.
CX_PRIORITY Option
~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The CX_PRIORITY option controls the priority of BarClock in the
commodities system. The only visible effect of this is that it can move
barclock up or down in the commodity list in the WorkBench 2 Exchange
program.
SYNOPSIS:
CX_PRIORITY=<priority value>
The priority value is a number from -128 to +128.
The default value is 0.
E.G.:
CX_PRIORITY=-5 Gives BarClock a CX_PRIORITY of -5. (No! ;-)
ShowDay Option
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The ShowDay option controls whether the clock display includes the day
name. (for example "Monday"). If your machine supports locale, the day
name will appear in your selected language.
SYNOPSIS:
SHOWDAY=<ON|OFF>
Turns day names on or off.
The default value is ON.
E.G.:
SHOWDAY=ON Could produce: Wednesday 12-10-94 21:15:16. While...
SHOWDAY=OFF Could produce 12-10-94 21:15:16.
ShowDate Option
~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The ShowDate option controls whether the clock display includes the
date. The format of the date can be controlled with the format option.
SYNOPSIS:
SHOWDATE=<ON|OFF>
Turns date display on or off.
The default value is ON.
E.G.:
SHOWDATE=ON Could produce: Wednesday 12-10-94 21:15:16. While...
SHOWDATE=OFF Could produce Wednesday 21:15:16.
ShowTime Option
~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The ShowTime option controls whether the clock display includes the
time. The format of the date can be controlled with the hours and
seconds options.
SYNOPSIS:
SHOWTIME=<ON|OFF>
Turns Time display on or off.
The default value is ON.
E.G.:
SHOWTIME=ON Could produce: Wednesday 12-10-94 21:15:16. While...
SHOWTIME=OFF Could produce Wednesday 12-10-94.
Hours Option
~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The Hours option controls whether the clock display format is 12 or 24
hours. 12 hour notation will display a AM/PM indicator. This option has
no effect if SHOWTIME has been set to NO.
SYNOPSIS:
HOURS=<12|24>
Sets clock mode to 12 or 24 hour.
The default value is 24.
E.G.:
HOURS=12 Could produce 9:15:16 PM. While...
HOURS=24 Could produce 21:15:16.
Seconds Option
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The Seconds option controls whether the clock display includes the
number of seconds. This option has no effect if SHOWTIME has been set to
NO.
SYNOPSIS:
SECONDS=<YES|NO>
Sets seconds on or off
The default value is ON.
E.G.:
SECONDS=12 Could produce 21:15:16. While...
SECONDS=24 Could produce 21:15.
Format Option
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The Format option controls how the date will be displayed. There are
four possible styles for the date, which are:
DOS: This is the default style. The date will be displayed as a two
digit day-of-the-month number, followed by a dash (-), followed by a two
or three character month name, another dash, and a two digit year number.
If your machine supports locale, the month name will appear in your
chosen language.
Example of DOS: 12-Oct-94.
INT: (International) This format has two digit year number, dash, two
digit month number, hash, and two digit day-of-the-month.
Example of INT: 94-10-12.
USA: (American) This format has two digit month number, dash, two
digit day-of-the-month, dash, and two digit year number.
Example of USA: 10-12-94.
CDN: (Canadian) This format has two digit day-of-the-month, hash, two
digit month number, hash, two digit year number.
Example of CDN: 12-10-94.
This option has no effect if SHOWDATE has been set to NO.
SYNOPSIS:
FORMAT=<DOS|INT|USA|CDN>
Sets date format.
The default value is DOS.
E.G.:
FORMAT=CDN Could produce 12-10-94.
TaskPri Option
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The TaskPri option controls the priority of BarClock relative to other
tasks running on the system. The Higher the priority, the faster the
program will be in updating the clock. However, running at a high
priority will slow down other tasks on the system. Although the Amiga
allows priorities from -128 to +127, BarClock limits this to +5 to -5.
This prevents the program from slowing up vital system tasks or from
becoming "swamped" by programs running at a higher priority.
SYNOPSIS:
TASKPRI=<priority value>
The priority value is a number from -5 to +5.
The default value is 0.
E.G.:
TASKPRI=1 Gives BarClock a higher than normal priority.
Enable Option
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
The Enable option controls whether barclock starts up enabled or
disabled. This option was added for testing but has been left in in case
anyone needs it.
SYNOPSIS:
ENABLE=<YES|NO>
Sets the program to start up enabled or disabled.
The default is YES.
E.G.:
ENABLE=NO Starts the program disabled
Quit Option
~~~~ ~~~~~~
The quit option, if present, instructs the program to quit as soon as
it has started up. This is to allow you to "kick out" an existing copy of
the program without the need for Exchange.
SYNOPSIS:
QUIT
Causes the program to quit.
This command has no parameters.
The WBStartup Drawer
~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Programs placed in the WBStartup drawer are run automatically when
Workbench is loaded. If BarClock is to be run in this way, the DONOTWAIT
ToolType should be added to it's icon. You can also use the STARTPRI
ToolType to specify the order in which programs in WBStartup will run.
For more information on DONOTWAIT and STARTPRI, consult your Workbench
manual.
The DONOTWAIT ToolType
~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
The DONOTWAIT ToolTypes simply instructs the Amiga not to wait for a
program run from the WBStartup drawer to finish. BarClock requires this
ToolType when run from WBStartup
The Exchange Program
~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
The Exchange program is used to control the activity of commodity
programs. Since BarClock is a commodity it can be controlled from
Exchange. From Exchange, it can be enabled, disabled and made to quit.
BarClock does not have SHOW and HIDE features and therefore these options
will be ghosted when using Exchange.
For more information on Exchange, consult your Workbench manual.
Distribution & Legal Stuff
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
BarClock is © 1994 David Boucher. It is freely distributable as long
as the following conditions are observed:
(1) The program (BarClock) is only distributed with it's associated
documentation (BarClock.guide, this file) and icon files (BarClock.info
and BarClock.guide.info) and that none of these files are changed in any
way (Exception: The program may be packed or archived).
(2) No charge is made for the program. (Exception: a small charge may
be made by PD libraries distributing the program).
(3) The program is not included on any commercial package (This
INCLUDES any disks supplied with magazines e.g. coverdisks) without my
(David Boucher's) prior consent.
WARNING: Although the program has been extensively tested there may
still be bugs, therefore: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! No guarantees whatsoever
are given of this program.
All trademarks/copyrights used in this file are hearby acknowledged.
Program History
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Version 1.0 (12.10.94):
First release (Released to Chris, and the thieving little %£^$ who
stole my disk at uni when I wasn't looking. May it melt their CPU.)
Version 1.1 (22.10.94):
First bug fix: BarClock now runs correctly on KickStart 3.0 (and
probably 3.1) and uses the user defined screen title bar colours. Fixed a
few spelling mistakes in the .guide.
Version 1.2 (24.10.94):
Second bug fix: 12 hour mode now displays correctly and doesn't
cut the first digit of the hour off (oops!). Finally decided to spell
check the .guide file.
Credits
~~~~~~~
BarClock was conceived, designed and written by David Boucher using
Dice C on an Amiga 500 running KickStart 2.05 with 3Mb ram (0.5 chip,
2.5 fast).
Thanks to:
Chris Hurst: For allowing me use of his A1200 to fix bugs and general
testing.
Simon Bromley: For lifts back from uni (Saves me from the bus :-)
Lots of Amiga Programmers: For writing all the progs I use.
All my fellow layabouts at Staffordshire University: For err... what?
And Finally...
~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, here's the bit in every .guide file where the author whaffles for
about a page. Skip this bit if you want, I won't mind.
BarClock was brought to you by DAVID BOUCHER, author of the world's
favorite Amiga programs(?).
If you wish to contact me, then send your comments, bug-reports(!),
suggestions, banknotes, blank cheques, gold ingots, diamonds, etc. to:
DAVID BOUCHER, 37, SMITH STREET, LONGTON, STOKE-ON-TRENT,
STAFFORDSHIRE. ST3 1DR. ENGLAND.
Or you could try: cm3bcdjb@s47a.staffs.ac.uk (if you're feeling lucky)
This program is not shareware, but as you may have guessed from the
above paragraph, I won't be offended if you send me money (I'll be very
surprised though).
Byeee!....