Software of the Month Club 1995 December/SOFM_Dec1995.bin/pc/os2/resource/english.hlp

OS/2 Help File | 1995-10-31 | 15KB | 292 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This program displays several items related to system resources, and updates
the display once per second, providing it is given CPU time to do so.  The
items displayed are:

Date/Time - The current date and time, in the format called for in the default
country information for your system, as specified in the 'COUNTRY=' entry of
your CONFIG.SYS file.

Elapsed Time - The elapsed time since the computer was last restarted.

Physical Memory Free - The amount of system memory available, according to the
DosMemAvail function.

Note:   This function is part of the old 16-bit system, and only reports
physical memory below 16Mb, and was also altered just before OS/2 2.0 was
released to never report less than 512K.

Virtual Memory Free - The amount of virtual memory available, according to the
DosQuerySysInfo function. This is the amount of free physical memory, plus the
amount of free space within the current swapping file, plus the amount of space
by which the swapping file could yet grow, less the amount of free space
reserved on the swapping drive.

Swap File Size - The current size of the system virtual memory swap file,
SWAPPER.DAT. To locate the file, the file CONFIG.SYS is scanned for its
SWAPPATH entry. That entry provides the full name of the swap-file's directory
and indicates the minimum free space that must be left on the swap-file's disk
drive.

Available Swap Space - The amount of free disk space on the logical disk drive
where the system swap file resides, less the mininum free space.  This is how
much more the swap file could expand, if necessary.

Unused Swap Space - The amount of free space within the currently allocated
system swap file.  When this drops to zero, the system swap file must be
increased in size, normally by one megabyte at a time.

Spool File Size - The amount of disk space consumed by spool files.

CPU Load (%) - The approximate percentage of the CPU's available horsepower
that's being used at the moment.  It is averaged over the previous second.

Note:   This function and PULSE do not get along with each other. Why?

Note:   If you have the driver HRTIMER.SYS installed, this number will be more
accurate. Why?

Active Task Count - The number of entries in the system switch list, which is
the list displayed when you press CTRL+ESC.

Note:   Not all entries in the system switch list are displayed in the Window
List.  Some are marked for non-display.

Total Free Disk Space - The amount of free space on all the local non-removable
disks combined.

Drive X Free - The amount of free space on drive X.

The help facility is active, as you've already seen, and those program commands
that exist may be accessed via the window's system menu.  The following
commands are available:

Save Settings
Reset Defaults
Hide Controls
Configure...
Reset Load Meter
Copy
About
Close

In addition to those features already described, this program accepts commands
from the OS/2 2.0 Font and Color Palette programs, and is a DDE server for all
the currently displayed items.  The DDE application name is MEMSIZE, and the
item names are the same as the default display item names (like Physical Memory
Free).


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Save Settings (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

When you select this menu option, the program saves its current position and
the status of the Hide Controls option.  The next time the program is started,
it will be started with that position and with the controls hidden (or not)
according to the saved state.

The short-cut key for this command is F2.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Reset Defaults (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Selecting this menu option will reset the program's font and color attributes
to their default values.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Hide Controls (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This menu option, when selected, will cause the program's frame controls (the
system menu, the titlebar and the minimize button) to be hidden. This option
can be toggled with a double-click on either mouse button. Also, since I saw it
as very useful to be able to move the window while the controls were hidden,
the window has been set up so that you can drag it with either mouse button.

The key combination Alt+H will perform this function also.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Configure (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This menu option, when selected, will cause the program's configuration dialog
to be displayed. For more information, see Configure (Dialog).

Note:   The short-cut key to this option is Alt+C.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. Configure (Dialog) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This dialog allows you to change all configurable aspects of this program's
operation.  To escape without effecting any changes, press the ESCAPE key or
click on the Escape pushbutton. To save the changes you've made, press the
ENTER key or click on the OK pushbutton.
The configurable items include the following:

Display Items You may select any or all of the items in the Display Items list
for monitoring and display. Simply click on an item to highlight it, click
again to remove the highlight. Highlighted items are monitored. To change an
item's default label, or to restore the default label, double-click on an
unselected item.  The item will be selected and a dialog presented from which
you may alter the item label.

Show 'K'ilobytes This group of radiobuttons allows you to select whether large
sizes are displayed in kilobyte notation always, never, or only when their
values exceed 512K. The default is to show all sizes over 512K in this way.
Keep in mind that one kilobyte is actually 1024 bytes, not 1000.

Monitor Priority This control allows you to set the absolute priority of the
monitoring thread of the program, within the time-critical priority class. You
may vary the priority from 0 to 31.  Priority 31 is the highest possible
priority in the system, short of physical interrupts. Priority 0 is simply the
lowest priority within the time-critical class. Normally, you should set this
to the maximum for more accuracy in system monitoring.  However, some have
complained that their communications programs occasionally miss data while this
program is running.  For that reason the priority is now variable.

Timer Interval This control allows you to set the interval between monitor
window updates.  It can be varied from 1.0 seconds to 30.0 seconds, in steps of
1/10 second.  The number displayed is in tenths of a second.

Window Anchor This control allows you to set the corner of the monitor window
which remains fixed in position when the window size changes.  The monitor
window can change in size when items are added or removed from the active list,
and when the display font is changed from the Font Palette.

Hide Controls When the clock is not iconized, it can be show with or without
the usual title bar, system menu and minimize/maximize buttons.  If you chose
to hide these controls, the window may still be positioned by dragging its
center area.

Float to Top This button activates an window's float-to-top function. When this
button has been check-marked, the clock will float to the top of the window
stack, making itself visible all the time.

Animate This button activates the window open & close animation feature. When
this is active, the program window will open and close in the same way as the
folder objects do: with sound and motion. As with folders, animation will not
occur unless it has been enabled at the system level.

Show File System Names This button causes the individual drive free space
entries to show the type of file system in use with the drive.  Use of this
option results in a wider monitor window.

Show Disk Labels This button causes the individual drive free space entries to
show their disk labels.  Use of this option results in a wider monitor window.

Show Seconds This button causes the clock and elapsed time displays to include
the seconds of the minute.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1.1. Set Item Label (Dialog) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This dialog box displays the current and default label for a display item, and
allows you to alter it.  To change the label, simply type the new label over
the current one.  To restore the label to its default, click on the Default
button.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Reset Load Meter (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This menu option allows the user to reset the CPU Load meter, recalibrating it,
causing it to forget previous CPU activity in its calculations.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Copy (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This menu option copies the current window display to the system clipboard in
two formats: Text and Bitmap.  The text version shows all the currently
displayed items in a form suitable for pasting into a text editor.  The bitmap
version shows an exact copy of the current window, and can be used by graphic
editors and viewers.

The short-cut key for this command is Ctrl+Ins.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. About (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This menu option, when selected, will cause the program's About dialog to be
displayed. For more information, see About (Dialog).


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.1. About (Dialog) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This dialog box displays the program name, icon and copyright information. To
exit the dialog, press the ENTER key, the SPACE bar or the ESCAPE key, or click
on the OK button with the mouse.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. Close (Menu Option) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This menu option, when selected, will cause the program to terminate.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Keys Help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The following function keys have been defined for this program:

F1 - Help
F2 - Save Settings
F3 - Exit
Alt+C - Configure
Alt+H - Hide Controls
Ctrl+Ins - Copy


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. Set Profile Path (Dialog) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This dialog is displayed when the program cannot find its profile (INI) file,
and asks you where the file is or where it is to be created.

Only a valid existing directory name will be accepted. Once you have entered
the name, press the ENTER key or click on the OK button for the program to
continue.

If you wish to abort the program's initialization sequence, press the ESC key
or click on the escape button.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12. HRTIMER - High Resolution Timer driver ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The high resolution timer device driver, HRTIMER.SYS, enables a program to
access a normally unused timer chip found on IBM PCs.  It has a resolution as
high as 840 nanoseconds, 64K times better than the normal timer resolution of
55 milliseconds.

The only places I know of right now that has this program available are
CompuServe, where the program can be found in the Device Driver Development
library of the OS/2 Developer's Forum I (OS2DF1), under the name TIMER.ZIP, and
on the anonymous ftp sites ftp.cdrom.com and hobbes.nmsu.edu. The file can be
found in the directory /pub/os2/dev16, as hrtimer.zip.

The source code for this device driver was obtained from the Fall 1991 issue of
IBM Personal Systems Developer magazine.  It is freeware, but the original
copyright belongs to IBM.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13. What is the conflict with PULSE? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This program, as well as PULSE, CPULOAD, CPUMETER and similar programs, all
attempt to measure how busy the computer is by trying to see how much work they
can accomplish at the lowest possible priority.  Presumably, if one of these
programs can do anything at that priority, it must be using idle time.  If
there is no idle time, the computer is 100% busy.  The more this program can do
at system idle priority, the less busy the computer is assumed to be.

The problem with running more than one of these programs at the same time is
that they begin to compete for that idle time.  If you ran two copies of the
same program, and nothing else, they should both show about 50% CPU load.  If
you run two disimilar programs, like this one and PULSE, they would both be
affected, but usually to differing degrees.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14. How does HRTIMER.SYS help? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

With HRTIMER.SYS installed, system overhead is included in the CPU Load.

The CPU Load is determined by comparing how much work could be done at idle
priority with the most the program has been able to do up to the present
moment.  Without more information, normal system background activity would
appear as zero load.  If HRTIMER.SYS is installed on your system, then this
program executes a calibration loop at startup, in which it determines just how
much work can be accomplished at the highest possible priority.  This amount is
then used for comparison.