- extract from the Concise Oxford dictionary 1990 edition
What is utopia?
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Utopia is a small program designed to overcome my problems faced whilst using Risc OS. I'm sure you'll have noticed that the great operating system does have a few minor pitfalls, and this program endeavors to fill some of them in and add other features that you may find useful.
History of utopia
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For several years now, I have had a series of very badly written and rushed together utilities by myself and many Pd authors. These programs each took up 32Kb of memory, Ok, so I have got 4Mb but it still runs out sometimes, so I have decided to group them together into one small, compact, fast, program writhing from top to bottom with features. Anyway, that is what you have before you now.
Loading utopia
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Just load utopia as you would with any other program that you have, by double-clicking on the application icon. Utopia will load and the utopia icon will appear on the icon bar and the main utopia window will open in the top right of the screen.
Adjusting utopia to your needs
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If you click with the menu button over either the icon bar icon or the main window, a menu will come up with lots of different options listed, some going to other submenus. Many options are set up to be turned on/off and only work when the right circumstances appear, if you click on these options they will become ticked to show that thay are selected and are now operating. Other items will not be able to be ticked, these are ones that are minor utilities that operate when that menu item is selected, these items are high-lighted in black, for example the 'Remove' caret option.
Please note, that if you wish the utopia menu to stay open after you have clicked on one of the options, simply click with the adjust button rather than the select button on the item in question, it has the same effect but the menu remains open.
The main window
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I'd like just to get one thing straight, yes, the main window is that tiny little 3d icon which displays the time, thankyou.
If you want to move the window around, as I'm sure you will, simply click on it with select and drag it around as you would if it were the titlebar of any other window. If you click the menu button over the window, the main menu will appear the same as if you clicked the menu button on the icon bar icon.
You can toggle whether or not the window is open by simply pressing Shift-F11 to open or close the window.
If you click select on the icon bar icon, the main window is brought to the top and if you click adjust on the icon bar icon, the main window is closed.
Extra features of the main window
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There are some extra hidden features to this window that are detailed below and are a combination of hotkeys, when clicking on the window.
* If you hold down the adjust button and then press select over the window, the entire screen is redrawn.
* If you hold down the adjust button and then press the menu button, the hourglass is turned off, if it has been left on by a crashed task.
* Click the adjust button whilst pressing C and the !Chars application will be loaded from the Resources directory.
The following each detail the individual submenus leading off from the main utopia window.
Display
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The display option controls which sort of information is displayed in the main utopia window. I'm sure you will have noticed when you loaded it, that utopia displays the current time in the 24hr clock, this can be altered to another type on information or turned off.
To alter the display, simply select the main menu and then goto the display item, them move the pointer right until you see another window open, to select any of these items to be displayed in the main window, simply click on it with select or adjust.
Display options:
• Time
This is merely the time in the 24hr clock, just hours and minutes, no
seconds I'm afraid. (default) I tend to prefer this to the full time, as
it means that there is less activity on the dektop, and I won't be
distracted bye the second's frequently changing.
• Date
This is the date in numerical style, eg 28/12/79
• Free Memory
This is the amount of memory left free or in the next slot in the task
manager window
• Wimp mode
This displays the current mode number, I'm not sure what effect this will
have on a Risc PC (it might crash)
• Icon number
This displays the current icon number that the mouse is positioned over
and if the icon is a title bar etc. it is labelled accordingly
• Cache status
This tells you whether the cache (ARM 3) is enabled or not, again I'm not
sure if this will work on a Risc PC, it checks for the module Arm3Support,
so I doubt it will work.
• Mouse CoOrds
This displays the mouse's current x and y graphical co-ordinates in pixels.
• Full time
This displays the time in hours, minutes and seconds, I found the constant
alteration of the window a bit distracting and prefer the default clock.
• Nothing
This just displays the word 'utopia' in the main window instead of the
time or any of the other features, this is just a little more
aesthetically pleasing if you don't like the other options.
• Time On
This displays the amount of time in hours, minutes and seconds since the
computer was turned on or the lst reset took place.
Pointer
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The pointer submenu gives access to all the options connected with the mouse pointer, there are some others bu the fit better into other categories. As the Risc OS environment is almost entirely mouse driven, it is very important for your mouse to be at its optimum so that you can get the best from your computer, hopefully these settings will help you to do that.
• Wrap Around
The mouse wraparound is not a novel feature and it has been done hundreds
of times before, but it is too useful not to include. When this options is
selected, if the mouse touches the edge of the screen, it suddenly appears
on the other side as if it had been wrapped around the back of your
monitor to reappear. There is a further submenu to the right of this
option, whereby you can set the distance from the edge of the screen where
the mouse will disappear from, this is measured in pixels. For example if
set to '5' when the mouse came within 5 pixels of the edge of the screen
it would be wrapped. Note that if you set this to '0' wrapping is as good
as disabled.
• Large
If you have problems with seeing the mouse pointer on the screen, perhaps
because it is too small, when his option is selected the mouse becomes
much larger than normal. This larger sprite is held inside the Sprites
file inside the utopia application. You are free to change these sprites
but note that the maximum size of sprite that will be displayed is 32x32
pixels. If you have Risc OS 2, and if utopia actually works, you will also
have access to the double-click feature on Risc OS 3 where the mouse
pointer changes when it has received the first click of a double-click.
• Scaled
This scales the mouse so that if the mouse moves faster, it will move
further and if it doesn't move so fast it will move slower. This may sound
strange but it means that for accurate work, the mouse pointer will go at
normal pace but with a quick flick of the mouse, it can skim accross to
the other side of the screen. This does save a lot of wear and tear on
your poor wrists but can also feel a bit strange at first, try it and see
if you like it. The way it works is that is costantly checks the mouse
position, and if it has moved 15 pixels or more from the last check, the
