Best Objectech Shareware Selections/UNTITLED.iso/boss/util/misc/006/explosiv.doc

Text File | 1992-09-08 | 21.2 KB | 483 lines

              Explosiv 2.10TM

            The DOS and Windows
            Graphic Screen Saver


Explosiv copyright (c) Reidar Gresseth & Chris Hook 1989, 1990,
1991, 1992. This product may not be distributed freely to users.
It may not be or packaged, either individually, or as part of any
other product without the express written consent of the authors.
All financial remunerations must be paid to the authors. This
product may not be changed or altered and then distributed
without the express written consent of the authors.

DISCLAIMER: Explosiv is offered on an as-is-basis without any
guarantee as to the correct functioning or fitness for specific
purpose. The authors believe this program to work as described
but the program is used at your own risk. The authors
will not be responsible for any hardware or software damage, loss
of data, or incidental or consequential damage that may result
from its use, whether or not such use is in accordance with
the instructions.

All enquiries or registrations should be sent to ( see order.frm ):

        Hook & Gresseth Software
        P.O. Box #3013
        Vancouver, B.C. Canada
        V6B 3X5


INTRODUCING EXPLOSIV 2.10

Explosiv 2.10 is the one screen saver that addresses all your
DOS(R) and Microsoft(R) Windows(TM) computing needs. You will find
Explosiv 2.10 both entertaining and practical as beautiful displays
save your computer screen from harmful burn-in. Compatible on
machines running DOS 3.x and up, Windows 3.x and up, and PC
networks, Explosiv 2.10 is designed to take care of your monitor
without getting in the way of the work you need to do.

The DOS version of Explosiv 2.10 is a Terminate and Stay Resident
(TSR) program that loads into memory when you like (for example,
automatically at boot up time) and stays out of your way until you
want it to become active. Occupying from 1 to 28 KB of memory
(which can be loaded above the 640KB limit), the DOS version of
Explosiv 2.10 renders 16 beautifully animated displays. In fact, if
you like, you can invoke the full screen user interface and just
point and click on the displays you want to see. Just sit back and
watch the show!

The Windows version is a full-fledged Windows 3.x application that
perform the same functionality as its DOS counter part; that is, to
give the user 16 beautiful and animated displays while adding an
important level of protection to your computer equipment. In
addition to a highly intuitive MS Windows 3.x standard user
interface - complete with operation and demonstration modes -
Explosiv 2.10 for Windows also includes the additional feature of
password protection - an important security feature for users on
stand-alone and networked PCs who need a level of confidentiality
when not attending their machine.

INSTALLATION

If you wish to install explosiv quickly in the current directory
run the batch file "qinstall".  This will configure explosiv.com
to run from this directory but will not modify your autoexec.bat
or win.ini file.  For full installation you must run "install"
which is discussed below.

The installation options are:

       1. To install Explosiv for DOS and Windows

       2. Install Explosiv for DOS only

       3. Install Explosiv for Windows only

       4. Re configure the DOS version of Explosiv.  This is
      especially useful if you find Explosiv 2.10 for DOS
          conflicting with another TSR. In that case, try
          changing either/or the Multiplex value or the Hot
          Key assignments).

       5. Exit to DOS (chose this option to NOT install Explosiv
      2.10)


Assuming that you selected one of the install choices 1 - 3,
install then asks a second level of questions:

       1. Which directory on your disk would you like to install
      Explosiv into (if no directory of the given name exists,
      the install program will create it).

       2. The directory that is on your named path (as defined in
      your AUTOEXEC.BAT file) that the executable DOS file
      EXPLOSIV.COM will be installed into.

       3. The directory where Windows 3.x resides.

NOTE: At all times help is available in the box displayed at the
bottom of the screen. Also, the ESC key may be pressed at any time
to terminate the install process.

Install will now create a custom version of Explosiv 2.10 for DOS
and place it in the directory you have named. If you selected the
Windows version of Explosiv 2.10 to be installed, Windows will be
invoked, a new Windows Group will be created and Explosiv 2.10 for
Windows will be placed in it. When this is done, windows will exit
and you will be returned to the DOS command line prompt.
Installation of Explosiv 2.10 will now be complete.

If any part of the installation fails, a notice will be displayed
as to what went wrong. You must then remedy the problem and
reinstall (from the distribution diskette) the sections of
Explosiv 2.10 you wish.

Manual Installation

The steps needed to manually install Explosiv 2.10 are:

       a) Create a directory on your hard drive where you wish to
      install the program files.  Assume that this directory
      is C:\EXPLOSIV.

       b) Copy all the files from the Explosiv disk(s) into that
      directory.

       c) Configure Explosiv for DOS so that it knows where to find
      the screen saver modules. This is done with the INSTALL
      command followed by the  directory where the screen saver
          modules have been placed. In our example the command is :

          C:\EXPLOSIV> INSTALL C:\EXPLOSIV

       d) Copy EXPLOSIV.COM to a directory in your path.

       e) If you want Explosiv to run automatically when you boot
      your machine insert the line "EXPLOSIV -" in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
          file.

       f) If you want Explosiv to run automatically when you run
      windows then append "C:\EXPLOSIV\WX.EXE" to your load line
      in WIN.INI.

       g) Start Windows and create the Explosiv Program Group using
      the Windows Program Manager.


USING EXPLOSIV 2.10

The DOS Version

Explosiv 2.10 consists of two different products. First there is
Explosiv 2.10 for DOS, a modular TSR screen saver with a full
screen interface. To invoke the DOS version of Explosiv simply go
to the DOS command line prompt and type:

C:\> EXPLOSIV

and the full screen interface will be invoked. Or alternatively, to
invoke Explosiv 2.10 for DOS WITHOUT invoking the menu system,
simply enter:

C:\> EXPLOSIV -

If the full screen method of starting Explosiv 2.10 for DOS is
used, then a combination of mouse and/or keyboard strokes will
allow you to move about the menu and make the desired choices. The
choices to be made are:

       1. Which display you want to select as the active screen
      saver.

       2. How many things you want Explosiv 2.10 for DOS to save
      for you once it becomes active as a screen saver.
      NOTE: Most of the selections in this box will be set for you
      automatically. If, for example, you find that you are
          experiencing certain restoration problems, such as a loss
      of special fonts or mouse pointers after returning from
      Explosiv, then set the memory field. As a side effect,
          Explosiv will become larger in memory.

       3. Determine what display parameters you want to set.
      Explosiv sets reasonable parameters by default, but you
      can make some of the displays faster, slower,
          denser, or more sparse by modifying these controls.

       4. Determine at what time you wish Explosiv to be invoked
      (i.e., after what period of inactivity).

       5. Save the new settings, or Cancel and leave the settings
      unchanged.


For example, when you install the program you may want to customize
the screen saver to do something other than the default settings
that are given.  Run the interface, you will see the several boxes
with one being highlighted, the bottom of the screen will describe
how to move around in this window and how to move to other windows.
To invoke context sensitive help press F1 at any time.

If the Displays window is highlighted simply move the cursor to the
display you wish to use.  You can demo any display simply by
pressing enter or clicking on the cursor with the mouse button.
Initially the cursor will highlight the display that is given in
the configuration file.

If you press tab the memory settings window will be highlighted.
The default parameter for video check is autodectect.  As setting
this is very hardware independent, change this option only if you
are positive that explosiv does not detect which monitor you have.
You can see this information if you type explosiv ? on the command
line.

Below this is the video check field, if this is on explosiv will
check the screen and will reset its counter if any screen output
occurs.  If you are running a memory resident clock or similar then
you will need to turn this option off to get explosiv to work.

Finally the memory option allows you to control how much memory
explosiv will allocate when it becomes resident.  Allocating
additional memory via small, medium or large will allow explosiv to
restore the screen better.  These parameters have no effect if you
do not have a VGA or EGA monitor.  The all parameter lets you load
every display in memory at once so that you may change the display
without reloading the screen saver.

The next window, which controls the timer settings, can be moved to
by pressing tab.  The delay factor indicates how fast the animation
should occur.  Explosiv will select a reasonable delay factor based
upon your CPU speed, if you change this you can select from a delay
factor of between 1 and 255.  You can see what the default delay
factor is by running explosiv ? from the command line.

Below this is the minutes field which controls the number of minutes
of inactivity that explosiv should wait before starting the screen
saver display.  The minimum is 1 minute and the maximum is half an
hour.  Finally the objects field will control a certain quality of
the animated display, in most cases, this will be the number of
points that are drawn ( the detail of image ).  The function of this
field for each display can be determined by experimentation or by
reading appendix.doc.

The last two fields control how you will exit the explosiv interface.
By selecting save you will save the current screen saver
configuration. Explosiv will attempt to load these new parameters
in memory, or load the screen saver if it is not installed yet
( whichever is  appropriate ).  The cancel button will exit explosiv
without making any changes to the configuration or any attempt to
install the screen saver in memory.

If you want to temporarily turn the screen saver off you can press
Ctrl-E ( and then Ctrl-B to turn the screen saver on again ).  You
can run "explosiv off" to turn the screen saver off and "explosiv on"
to turn the screen saver on.  You can set this up in a batch file if
you want to automatically disable explosiv while you are running a
particular program.  The hot keys listed above can be changed by
re-configuring the screen saver using the install.exe program.

If you want to remove explosiv from memory you can type "explosiv
remove".  This will remove explosiv from memory if there are no
other programs loaded above it in memory.  If it is not possible to
remove explosiv from memory a error message will be printed.

Changing between Old and New Fireworks

You may be familiar with older versions of explosiv that used the
single color per explosion fireworks display.  If you prefer this
display then change to the explosiv directory, which you can
determine by running "explosiv ?" on the command line, and run
swapfire.com.  This will make the necessary changes to the fire.rc
and random.rc modules so that the old fireworks display will
result. The original modules will be stored in fire_old.rc and
rand_old.rc.  You can run swapfire again to revert to the default
display.

The Windows Version

To start the Windows version of Explosiv 2.10, do one of the
following:

       1. Choose Explosiv 2.10 For Windows to be activated during
      the install procedure.

       2. Modify you WIN.INI file (usually found in your WINDOWS
      directory) with an ASCII editor (such as EDIT.COM as provided
      with MS-DOS 5.0) and append the name WX.EXE at the end of the
      load = line. For example, if you installed Explosiv
          2.10 into the Hard Disk directory C:\EXPLOSIV, you would
      then append C:\EXPLOSIV\WX.EXE at the end of the WIN.INI
          file line that starts with the keyword load = .

       3. Invoke Explosiv 2.10 for Windows by double clicking on
      the icon within the Explosiv group in the Windows Program
          Manager.  This will run Explosiv 2.10 for the current
          Windows session ONLY.


Once started, you can set, modify, and view all parameters through
the Explosiv Icon menu-driven Dialog Boxes. There are two important
menu choices to be made after clicking on the Explosiv Icon:


       1. The Explosiv Setup Icon Menu Choice:
          This leads to a group of three Dialog Boxes; the Main Box
      (displayed after clicking on the Icon Menu choice), the
          Display Options Box (displayed after clicking on the
          Options... button in the Main Dialog Box), and the Password
          Box (displayed after clicking on the Password... button).

       2. The About Explosiv Icon Menu Choice:
          This displays a simple box that gives reference to Date
      and Authors of Explosiv 2.10.

The Setup Dialog Box controls are similar in functionality to those
from the DOS version of Explosiv 2.10. To begin with, the Select
Display: Box contains a scrollable list of display choices.
Clicking the mouse on a choice makes that choice the active
display. The Select Time: Box contains a scrollable list of times,
ranging from 1 to 30 minutes.

Clicking on a value causes that time to be the time to activation
for Explosiv. The Screen Saver On: Box indicates whether or not
Explosiv will come on as a Screen Saver at the Activation Time.
Clicking on this Box toggles the Screen Saver On and Off. The Demo
Button lets you get a preview of any of the selected displays. This
button should be clicked On SLOWLY.

The Options... Button opens up a new Dialog Box, which contains
more customized controls, if the user so wishes.

The Display Options Dialog Box contains two Mouse Corner groups.
Clicking on any one corner will make the corresponding corner on
the screen either :

       1. The corner in which the screen saver is INSTANTLY
      activated from (the group to the left indicates this action).

       2. The corner in which, if the mouse is so placed, the
      screen saver will NEVER come on, even at the activation time.


Next are two scrollable boxes that allow:

       1. The rate of Delay to be set. If you find a particular
      display too fast to your liking, increase the Delay Rate
      from between 0 to 3.

       2. The Number of Objects. This is not active in all
      displays, but the displays that do use this control
      will increase the number of displayed objects as the
          number value selected increases (ranging from 1 to 9).
          NOTE: For many of the displays, selecting a value GREATER
      THAN 6 will give you a randomly varying display. This
      is especially effective in the GYRO display.

Finally, there is the Detect Mouse Movement Box. Toggling this On
or Off (by clicking on it with the Mouse) either Enables or
Disables the screen saver to turn off via a movement of the mouse.
This is especially useful for unstable situations, such as laptop
computing. Also, some Graphics Co-Processor boards work better when
the Mouse Movement Detection is turned off.


The Password Dialog Box, the last of the Dialog Boxes, is opened up
by clicking on the Password... Button. To enter a BRAND NEW
password, type in your new password in the Enter Password: Box,
then repeat it in the Confirm Password: Box. Finally, Click on the
Accept button to permanently set your new password. If you made a
mistake in either your original or confirmation entries, a failure
sign will show up on the Accept button. Just start all over again.
If your password was successfully entered, the Accept button will
display a Success message.

NOTE: Passwords can be up to 8 characters in length, and can be any
combination of ASCII characters, including numbers and symbols.
Also, upper and lower case of the same letter are seen as two
different values to the password program.

To change a password, first enter your old password in the Old
Password: Box, and then proceed as outlined above for entering a
FIRST TIME new password. If any error is made (i.e., the Accept
button indicates a Failure), just start the entire process over
again.

After you have successfully entered (or changed) a password, the
Password On: Button is enabled. If this button is selected, then a
Password Box will pop up and ask you for your password every time
an activated screen saver display is halted (e.g., by a mouse
movement, button click, or keyboard key press). At that time, you
enter your password and then click on the Accept button, or click
on the Cancel button to immediately start the screen saver display
again. If nothing happen, the Password Prompting box disappears
after 8 seconds, and the screen saver display resumes activity.


SPECIAL THINGS TO WATCH FOR

Some special things to be aware of include:


       a. When a DOS program is running in graphics mode, Explosiv
      2.10 for DOS WILL NOT display the currently selected module,
      but rather will simply blank the screen.  This insures
          the best possible restoration of any given graphics state
          (this may occur even in text mode if Explosiv cannot
          reliably determine the systems' graphics state).

       b. Explosiv 2.10 for Windows DOES NOT WORK in Real Mode
      (with or without expanded memory) in Windows 3.0. It is
      to be used in Standard or Enhanced Modes only. If
          you try to start Explosiv 2.10 for Windows in Real Mode,
      Explosiv will simply terminate itself with a explanatory
          message.

       c. Explosiv 2.10 for Windows may cause a problem when
      returning from a DOS Prompt session on some machines running
      Windows 3.x in STANDARD MODE (this restriction does NOT
          apply to 386 or Enhanced mode Windows). To avoid this
      situation, close Explosiv 2.10 before you click on the
      DOS Prompt icon. After returning from the DOS Prompt session
          under Windows Standard mode, simply click on the Program
      Manager's Icon of Explosiv 2.10 and Explosiv will pick up
      immediately where you last left off.

       d. Explosiv 2.10 for DOS will NOT ACTIVATE when Windows 3.0
      is running unless Windows is running in Real Mode. To
      disable this (as it could produce undesirable side
          effects), enter the line: EXPLOSIV OFF before you start
          up windows in Real Mode (i.e., win /r), and then
          enter: EXPLOSIV ON after exiting the Windows Real Mode
          session. This could easily be made into a batch file if
      need be.

       e. If you are doing large file transfers over a serial
      communication line in  Windows, it is advised that you use
      one of the following displays in Explosiv 2.10 for Windows:

          CLOCK, STARS, BLANK

          These displays will not impede your file transfers to any
      noticeable degree. The other displays will slow the transfers
      down to varying degrees.

       f. If you are using a Hercules monochrome display and are
      unsure as to whether or not your program is in graphics mode,
      set Explosiv off before starting the program to give maximum
      compatibility with the underlying program (alternatively, you
      can try the +on and -on option as well).

       g. Explosiv 2.10 for DOS has certain Hot Key assignments
      that are very important. They are:

          1. Ctrl-Alt-Shift.  This key combination starts Explosiv
      2.10 immediately.

          2. Ctrl-Alt-E. This key combination temporarily disables
      Explosiv 2.10 for  DOS.

          3. Ctrl-Alt_B. This key combination Enables Explosiv 2.10
      for DOS after it had been previously disabled.

MAILING ADDRESS AND ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

NOTE: If necessary, Explosiv 2.10 is also available either one
3 1/2" or two 5 1/4" floppy diskettes.  There will, however, be an
additional $5.00 charge for shipping and handling per diskette set
ordered.

For all inquiries, including registration (which is done via the
accompanying ORDER.FRM file), please contact us at:

        Hook and Gresseth Software
        P.O. Box 3013
        Vancouver, B.C.
        V6B 3X5  Canada

NOTE: Please write to us for information on other software products
offered - including customizable (via scanned or imported images)
screen savers.