Basic black is a simple, basic screen saver. It doesn't have any whizbang graphics, and as a result, it lets everything blast along at full speed.
If you want, Basic Black will bounce a cool analog clock around your main screen so you'll know your machine is still on. By default, Basic Black simply blacks out your screen. A lot of people prefer it this way.
*** How does Basic Black work? ***
If you don't type anything or move your mouse for a period of two minutes (or whatever you set it to), the screen will black out. Also, if you move the mouse to the upper- right corner of your main screen (or whatever corner you have defined), the screen will black out immediately.
To wake up your screen, tap a key or move the mouse. Key presses are NOT passed through to the frontmost application.
If you're doing something that requires staring at the screen for long periods of time, and you don't want the screen to black out at all, just keep the mouse in the bottom-right corner of your main screen (or, again, whatever corner you've defined).
*** How do I install Basic Black? ***
Just drag the Basic Black file to your system folder, and reboot.
*** Configuration ***
Basic Black is now a cdev, and therefore a whole lot earier to configure than previous versions.
To set it up to your tastes, just open the Basic Black control panel. There are several things you can change.
You can set your Sleep Now and Stay Awake corners to your liking by clicking on the appropriate radio buttons.
You can set the amount of idle time that Basic Black will wait before kicking in, and you can set the number of seconds between screen refreshes. (Seconds Between Refreshes is the interval between the times when Basic Black blacks out the screen, which it does periodically when the screen is asleep. If the analog clock is turned on, it redraws in a different place every time the screen is refreshed.)
The "Basic Black On" check box controls whether Basic Black will make the screen fall asleep or not.
The "Bouncing Clock On" check box determines whether or not a bouncing analog clock will appear when the screen falls asleep.
The "Zero Menu Bar" check box should normally be off. It's useful if you use an older version of some software, e.g. Zipple, that doesn't recognize negative menu bar heights. To determine if you need it or not, try using the screen saver with this option not checked. If everything works okay, i.e. you don't have a clock or spinning icon or anything still in your menu bar, then you're all set. If there IS something in your menu bar, then you probably need to check this option.
(If you use Zipple version 1.6 or earlier, you should contact the author, Christopher Suley, and ask him for version 1.7 or later. He may be reached at csuley@cs.cornell.edu.)
The "Fade To White" checkbox is mainly for Powerbook users who need to have their screens fade to white, rather than black.
When you have Basic Black configured to your liking, just click on the "Remember Settings" button, or press the return key.
*** Why bother with this? ***
There are lots of screen savers out there. Why is this one any different?
What makes Basic Black different are its small size and simplicity. Basic Black takes up next to no CPU time when it runs, and it only runs during your machine's idle time. Also, Basic Black will work on any Macintosh, and will run under both System 6 and System 7.
My view of screensavers is that they should be small, unobtrusive, and responsive. Basic Black is all three. If you MUST have flying toasters and QuickTime™ movies available as a part of your screen saver, then there are other free screen savers out there.
If you want a full-featured application-based screen saver that will only run under System 7, try out Darkside of the Mac. It's free and, as of version 4.0, it will run After Dark™ modules. (The Flying Toasters don't come with it, however!)
For myself, I prefer Basic Black, because it's simply more responsive.
*** How much does it cost? ***
Nada. It's freeware. It's not public domain, but you can copy and distribute it to your heart's content. You can't sell it, but you CAN include it in PD collections, put it on bulletin boards, or whatever.
*** Distribution ***
If you're an organization or whatever that wants to distribute Basic Black free of charge, I'm granting you permission, right here, to distribute it, as long as you don't charge more than a nominal fee for connect time or media cost.
If you distribute Basic Black, you must include this file.
*** Modifications ***
The source code for Basic Black is freely available, so feel free to modify Basic Black to suit your own purposes. Don't release the modified Basic Black, though. If you feel that your modifications might have general appeal, please send them to me for consideration, and if they look cool, I'll include them in the following release, and list your name in the docs (and source code, probably.)
If you don't feel adventurous, write to me and I'll do a customized version for you.
*** Beta Tester Appreciation Section ***
Many thanks to my beta testers, who never cease in their quest to find obscure and painful bugs. :-) Basic Black wouldn't be what it is without them.
They are, in no particular order: John Andrews, Tony Doan, Scott Allen Gruby, David Quarles, Chet Niewczyk, Shahrol, blokland, Anders Alvers, Morrison, Jan Pieter Kunst, Sean Elfstrom, Laszlo Radanyi Jr, Jeff Garner, Wayne P. Robarge, Joshua Juran, Jeff Makey, Chase Tingley, and Lars Kjørsvik Schei.
Special thanks to Andy Law for showing me a cool way to have the cdev and INIT interact directly.
*** Version History ***
1.2 Basic Black no longer passes key presses through to the frontmost application when waking up. I added in a cool analog clock for you to sit and watch. Also (the big change) Basic Black now operates as a cdev. You can now fade the screen to white.
1.1 The big change in version 1.1 was user configurability. Also, I fixed several bugs. As of version 1.1, Basic Black works correctly with multiple monitors. Also as of version 1.1, Basic Black no longer causes desktop icons to move.
1.0 The first release. Pretty cool, but it was a little buggy. It didn't work with multiple monitors and stuff like that.
*** Known bugs ***
Certain applications don't like having their cursors hidden, and redraw them as soon as I hide them. I'm working on it...
*** For more info / bug reports ***
If you come across any bugs, or make any interesting changes, you can get to me at:
Internet:
mason@cis.umassd.edu (preferred)
s14787mb@umassd.edu
Mason_Bliss@fourd.com
U.S. Mail:
Mason L. Bliss
18 Beach st.
Middleboro MA 02346
If you email me about Basic Black, I'll put you on my mailing list, so you'll receive new versions as they come out, and stuff like that. I occasionally poll my mailing list for new ideas and suggestions for how they'd like to see me implement things in future versions of Basic Black.
Enjoy Basic Black, and send me any suggestions you have for improvements.
