The Arsenal Files 6/The Arsenal Files 6 (Arsenal Computer).ISO/os2/crazy13.zip/CRAZY.HLP

OS/2 Help File | 1996-03-09 | 24KB | 355 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Crazy Clock ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

                                   Crazy Clock
                                   Version 1.3
                           (C) 1994-96 Nicole Greiber
                                   N&O Design

                          This program is Postcardware!

Crazy
Crazy Clock is crazy.
Crazy is Crazy Clock.
Crazy crazy is crazy...
Am I crazy?
No, only user of Crazy Clock.

                                 Pascal Gienger

 Hello!
Are you looking at this in a puzzled way, thinking: "What's all this good for?"
At least you are curious enough to have a look at the helpfile, good! Come on,
don't give up that early, try to figure it out yourself! Play around with it,
turn the seconds on and off, adjust the colors and try to discover the system!

Oh, you did this already? And you don't have a clue? Well then, let me help
you: It's a clock! And it tells you the time!

Hmm, you still look confused. All right, if you really want to know how it
works, have a look at the page What are these coloured circles good for?

Please make sure you don't miss any of Crazy Clock's nice features like
minimizing to desktop or MMPM support!

Now Crazy Clock is also available for the Macintosh Computer! Thanks to Olaf,
the "other half" of N&O Design. If you want to know more about the Mac version,
please contact Olaf at [e-mail].

Crazy Clock will create an .INI file in the current working directory. When you
exit the program, it stores all settings in this file and restores them at the
next start.

You will notice that the display refresh will sometimes take a short while (e.
g. after you uncovered the window). This is not a bug, it's a feature :-) Since
some or all parts of the display are refreshed every second, I don't refresh
the window every time when it's necessary but simply wait for the next second
where the window will be painted nevertheless. This is my attempt to minimize
painting overhead.

For an explanation of the menus please refer to

           Options Menu
           Help Menu
           System Menu Additions

 Last not least, you should be aware that this program is distributed WITHOUT
 ANY WARRANTY of any kind; not even with the implied warranty of
 merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
 You are allowed to copy and distribute the program as long as you don't charge
 more than a nominal fee for handling etc. and as long as all copyright notices
 are kept within the program and the documentation.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1. What are these coloured circles good for? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

For those of you who haven't guessed it yet, it's a clock! Now that it's clear,
you may ask: How does the clock work? I assume that all of you have seen a
clock with a digital display, also known as 7-segment-display. You can
enumerate these seven segments like this:

For every number that is displayed, each of the segments is either on or off.
Now you can arrange the segments in any order you like, and they will still
have the same information (the on/off code for each number is unique, otherwise
you'd have two numbers in the "normal" digital display that looked the same).
And that's what I did: I simply reordered the segments like this:

 Then I stacked the numbers on top of each other, so that the 1-second
indicator is the lowest, followed by the 10-second-indicator, the
1-minute-indicator and so on, up to the 10-hour-indicator. For example, when
it's 12:34:56, the time will be displayed like this:

You don't believe that anybody will be able to tell the time from this crazy
display? Uh, don't be so pessimistic! Give it a try, and in a few weeks you'll
be able to read it like any other clock. When you remember how the segments are
coded, you can always count them and thus figure out what they display.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2. About the author ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This crazy little program was written by Nicole Greiber. It was inspired by a
real Crazy Clock that I've built out of a radio alarm clock. Since this clock
is not able to display seconds, and since I'm very fond of funny nonsense
programs lying around on my computer and wasting my precious CPU cycles, I felt
the urgent need to create a software Crazy Clock. And here it is!

If you like this program, too (and also if you hate it), if (not when) you find
any bugs or have complaints, wishes or any ideas on how to improve it, please
contact me

via eMail (InterNet):

          [e-mail]

 or via SnailMail (that's also where you can send your postcard to):

                    Nicole Greiber
                    BrБningstr. 6
                    42119 Wuppertal
                    GERMANY

 From time to time there seem to occur some problems on the machine where I get
 my email from. Usually they get fixed within some days. So when an email
 rebounces, please try to post it again - sooner or later I will receive it.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.3. Postcardware - what is it? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This program is released as postcardware.

That means, when you like it and want to use it, I ask you to send me a
postcard with a nice picture of your home town.

I have two reasons for this: First, I like to get mail (well, who doesn't?) and
second, I'm curious to see whether there is anybody who likes and uses this
program (apart from myself).

For my address see my address.

Hey, the air-mail fee for a postcard from the USA to Germany is only 40 cents!


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4. Credits ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

There are many people who helped me in developing Crazy Clock, and I want to
thank all of them.

First of all, my thanks go to Olaf, my partner, who has an enormous talent to
discover bugs.

Thanks to everybody who sent me mail or even a postcard. Most of the
improvements of Crazy Clock have been suggested by one of you. Please go on!!

William Scott Hiles helped me to manage playing sounds and allowed me to use
his source code.

Michael Kilby burdened himself with the task of proofreading the documentation.

Larry Salomon Jr. was also haunted by my questions and patiently answered all
of them.

Martin Schwarz told me the trick how to create an animated icon.

Finally, I also want to thank IBM for their great operating system OS/2.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Minimize to Desktop ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

One of the nice features of Crazy Clock is that you can minimize it to the
desktop and still have it show you the time. For this you must select "Minimize
to Desktop" in the program object's settings notebook. When you minimize the
program and close it then, it will still be minimized on the next startup. This
is the only way to have Crazy Clock minimized on startup; checking "Start
minimized" in the settings notebook doesn't have any effect.
When you start Crazy Clock from the command line, you can only minimize it to
the desktop when you checked "Minimize window to desktop" in OS/2's system
object; otherwise it will always appear in the viewer folder. If you don't want
this, the only solution for this problem is to create a program object for
Crazy Clock.

In Crazy Clock's system menu you will find two entries that let you configure
the outward appearance of the minimized program:
To make the animated icon look nice, I had to reduce the dots' sizes; now they
are so small that they are hardly visible on high-resolution displays - at
least on my display (1024 x 768). I changed the dots to little ellipses which
had the disadvantage that the spaces between the dots were reduced. Since there
are so many possible display sizes that it's impossible for me to check them
all and since I don't know how good your eyes are :-), I leave it up to you:
You can choose between the small and the elliptic display! This is done in the
system menu. This choice will of course only affect the minimized icon, so if
you prefer a normal window, the dots will always be perfectly round. Another
restriction for the minimized icon is that the frames around the dots will not
be displayed  (there's already few enough space for the dots).

There is another feature for the minimized program: You can decide whether you
want a frame around it or not. This choice is also set in the system menu. Up
to now, the frame around the icon is not very nice, but I hope that I can
change this soon. If you really want a nice frame around the tiny window,
there's another solution for you: You can now reduce the size of the restored
window very much; you can even make the restored window smaller than an icon!


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Options Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The following menu items can either be accessed via the options menu in the
menu bar or via the popup menu.

 Colors...

 Settings...

 Alarm...

 Adjust window size
    With this menu entry you can shrink the window size so that it will fit the
    dots.

 Minimize
    When you select this menu entry, the program will be minimized to the
    desktop. This menu entry is only added to the popup menu since you can use
    the "Minimize" button in the upper right corner when the title bar is
    visible.

 Close
    This option is only available in the popup menu. It was added because when
    the title bar is hidden, the system menu cannot be accessed, which made it
    impossible to exit Crazy Clock.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.1. Colors... ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

A window will be opened where you can choose the colors of the four clock
elements Lights On, Lights Off, Frames and Background. Simply click on the
desired color for each of these components, and it will at once be applied to
the program. When you leave the window by pressing "Cancel", the colors will be
reset to their previous state.
When the program is minimized to the desktop, the frames around the lights will
not be displayed.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2. Settings... ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The Settings dialog box contains the following items. You can check and uncheck
them and watch the results immediately.

 Show seconds
    With this option you can toggle the seconds' display. When this item is
    checked, seconds are displayed.

 24 hour mode
    This check box toggles the representation of the time.

 Show title bar
    This option lets you hide or unhide the title bar and menu bar,
    respectively. To make all entries of the menu bar accessible when the title
    bar is hidden, a popup menu is available. It can be displayed by clicking
    on the clock with the second mouse button (normally this is the right
    button). The popup menu is available even when the menu bar is visible.
    When the title bar is hidden, you can still move the window around on the
    Desktop: just drag the window with the left mouse button.

 Read numbers
    When you have the MMPM portion of OS/2 installed, you can use this menu
    option to get audible help on the numbers. Check this item, and then all
    you need to do is click on one of the numbers with the first mouse button
    (usually located at the left button), and you'll hear what this number
    stands for. This box is deliberately unchecked every time you start Crazy
    Clock (when you want to cheat, you have to work for it :-) If you'd like
    other languages to be included, please contact me!

 Hour chime
    Checking this option will cause Crazy Clock to play a sound at every full
    hour. This works only when you have the MMPM portion of OS/2 installed.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.3. Alarm... ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Here you can specify an alarm time and what will happen if it's time to notify
you. Please note that once you've activated the alarm function, it will stay
activated until you turn it off.

 Activate alarm
    This button's purpose should be fairly obvious.

 Sound
    You will hear a sound when the alarm is due. With MMPM enabled, this will
    be a WAV file, otherwise you will hear an ordinary beep.

 Sound and window
    When you check this button, you will also hear an alarm sound.
    Additionally, you'll be notified by a message box that is opened (in case
    you've left the room or were too busy to notice the sound).

 Alarm time
    Most important of all, you can enter the alarm time here.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Help Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The menu items of the help menu are:

 Help index
    Here you can get an index of all help entries.

 General help
    This option shows general information about Crazy Clock.

 Using Help
    A system help page is displayed which explains how to use the help.

 Keys and Buttons Help
    Here you find a short reference to all keystrokes and mouse clicks.

 Product information
    Selecting this option will open a window that contains some information
    about Crazy Clock and its author.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. System Menu Additions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

In the system menu you find the following additions:

 Reduce / Enlarge Dot Size
    With this option you can affect the dots' sizes when the program is
    minimized to the desktop. When the dots are enlarged, they will have an
    elliptic shape. I hope that this option will increase the visibility of the
    dots when the program is minimized.

 Show / Hide Icon Frame
    Here you can determine whether the frame is drawn around the minimized
    program or whether it will be overpainted by Crazy Clock every time it
    appears. When the icon frame is hidden, the dots will also be slightly
    larger, due to the fact that the space that is otherwise occupied by the
    frame can now be used for painting, too.

 I added these entries to the system menu because the other menus cannot be
 accessed while the program is minimized.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Keys and Buttons Help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The following keystrokes and mouse clicks can be used in Crazy Clock:

 Alt+F4    closes Crazy Clock no matter whether the title bar is visible or
           hidden or whether the program is minimized.

 F1        opens the online help for Crazy Clock. When F1 is pressed while the
           left mouse button is held down on a menu entry, you will get context
           sensitive help for that menu entry.

 Pressing the left mouse button and moving the mouse (Dragging) When the title
           bar is hidden, you can do this in the whole Crazy Clock window to
           move it. When the title bar is visible, you can only do this in the
           title bar (like with other programs).

 Clicking the left mouse button When "Read Numbers" is checked in the Options
           menu or in the popup menu and when you have MMPM installed, you can
           click on a number of Crazy Clock's display, and Crazy Clock will
           tell you what this number stands for.

 Clicking the right mouse button will cause a popup menu to appear. This popup
           menu contains the same entries as the normal menu (below the title
           bar) plus the entries "Minimize" and "Close". It was added as a
           replacement for the normal menu, the system menu and the minimize
           button since they are not available when the title bar is hidden.