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Monster Media 1996 #15
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Monster Media Number 15 (Monster Media)(July 1996).ISO
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CLOCK.DOC
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1996-04-21
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10KB
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323 lines
C L O C K
v 1.32
Copyright 1994 Vincent Penquerc'h
All Rights Reserved
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
THE AUTHOR WILL REFER TO VINCENT PENQUERC'H.
THE PROGRAM WILL REFER TO CLOCK, INCLUDING THE PROGRAM ITSELF, ITS
DOCUMENTATION, AND ANY FILE IN THE ORIGINAL CLOCK PACKAGE.
THE AUTHOR HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THIS PROGRAM,
WHENEVER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY LIMITATION ANY
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
THE AUTHOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL,
INDIRECT OR SIMILAR DAMAGES DUE TO LOSS OF DATA, DAMAGE OF HARDWARE OR
ANY OTHER REASON, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR WAS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH LOSS OR DAMAGE.
THIS PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION ARE RELEASED "AS IS" AS FREEWARE. HOWEVER,
IT IS COPYRIGHTED BY THE AUTHOR, AND ALL RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP ARE KEPT
WITH THE AUTHOR. YOU MAY USE IT, COPY IT, AND GIVE IT TO ANYBODY AS LONG
AS NO MODIFICATIONS ARE MADE.
PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION COPYRIGHT 1994 VINCENT 'INDY' PENQUERC'H, ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.
ALL QUOTED PRODUCT AND COMPANY NAMES ARE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE
OWNERS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. What is Clock ?
2. System requirements
3. Using Clock
4. Command line options
5. Troubleshooting
6. Contacting the author
7. Revision history
1. What is Clock ?
---------------
Clock is a useful tool that allows you to get an eye on the time while
working. You just hit a key combination and the time is displayed on
the top of the screen. For you who don't have a watch or a clock on
the wall, Clock is for you. Clock supports all video text modes, even
specific hi resolution super VGA ones, and will display the system
clock in the upper right corner. Clock allows you to select an 'alarm'
time, and will warn you with a ring when this time will be reached.
And most of all, Clock only needs 496 bytes in memory.
2. System requirements
-------------------
Clock needs a 286 in order to work well, since earlier PCs don't have
any Real Time Clock. You also need 496 bytes free in memory.
3. Using Clock
-----------
Once resident, Clock displays the system clock in the upper right
corner of the screen. If you selected a non permanent clock, you
may call the resident routine at any time pressing Ctrl-Right Shift
to have the clock displayed. To select an alarm time, follow the
instructions given in the Command line options section, for the 'A'
option, which sets the alarm time.
4. Command Line options
--------------------
Clock can be called with several options on its command line, they
are here presented and explained. Clock doesn't care of the case of
the letters. These options can be browsed by typing one of the
following commands:
CLOCK -H
CLOCK -?
These commands display a short help with all avalaible command line
options and a brief description of what they do. To remove Clock from
memory, type:
CLOCK -U
'U' stands for 'Unload'. If Clock can't unload itself, it will warn
you. You can select a permanent clock, that will be displayed and
updated on the screen continuously, even if the hotkey is not pressed.
You may choose this by typing the folowing command:
CLOCK -P
'P' stands for 'Permanent'. This option may hide some data displayed
by some programs, so it should be used cautiously. You can also ask
Clock to warn you with an alarm at a cetain time. To do this, just use
the following command:
CLOCK -Ahh:mm:ss
'A' stands for 'Alarm'. hh:mm:ss represents the time in hours minutes
and seconds. You have to specify two digits for each component. If you
want the alarm to be triggered at 4pm, just enter:
CLOCK -A16:00:00
When the system clock will reach the alarm time, the selected action
will happen. The default behavior is a bell ring. Nothing is displayed
to prevent Clock from disturbing other application's screens. You can
also choose to reboot the computer at alarm time, instead of ringing,
by typing the command:
CLOCK -Ahh:mm:ss -B
'B' stands for 'Boot'. You may choose a warm or a cold boot by adding
the letter 'W' for warm or 'C' for cold:
CLOCK -Ahh:mm:ss -BC
CLOCK -Ahh:mm:ss -BW
The default is to perform a warm boot, that skips memory tests and
CRT initialization. Note that if you choose the boot feature, Clock
will take 544 bytes in memory instead of 496, because it allocates
some more space for the code to warn disk caching programs so no data
loss occurs. If you only want to know what time it is without keeping
Clock in memory, you may just type:
CLOCK -N
'N' stands for 'Non resident'. Clock will display the time without
staying resident in memory. This option would be quite useful when
you make batch programs where you want to display the time, as the
DOS command waits for a new time to be entered, or at least 'Enter'
to be pressed. You can redirect the output to the NUL device:
CLOCK -N > NUL
The copyright message will not be displayed and the time will appear.
Note that you can't set an alarm time if you use the 'N' switch, as
Clock can't redirect interrupts to its own code, as it it flushed away
from memory when it finishes. Setting an alarm time will be taken into
account only without use of the 'N' switch. Finally, you may also want
to change the system time, in case the CMOS battery got weak. To do
this, use the command:
CLOCK -Thh:mm:ss
'T' stands for 'Time'. The CMOS will be loaded with the new specified
time. To select the messages language, use the 'L' option:
CLOCK -L FRENCH
The supported languages are English (default), French and Spanish.
5. Troubleshooting
---------------
Q: I get the message 'Real Time Clock Power Supply is low ....'
A: Clock has detected that the battery is weak. You should replace it
soon in order to keep your PC working well. Keeping this battery
could cause loss of data in the CMOS memory.
Q: I get the message 'Clock can't be uninstalled ....'
A: As this message says, another program has hooked an interrupt used
by Clock. Unloading Clock would then crash the system. Try to
remove the program that hooked the interrupt, unload Clock, then
load the program again.
Q: I get the message 'Clock not installed'
A: You requested Clock to unload itself from memory, but Clock did
not detect any copy of it in memory. If there is one, it might be
because a program hooked the multiplexer interrupt and did weird
things with it, so Clock doesn't receive requests any more. Another
possibility is a multiplexer conflict, if another program is using
the same multiplexer identification. This is very unlikely but it
can happen. Try to remove some of your resident programs to know
which one causes the conflict.
Q: I get the message 'Clock is already resident in memory'
A: You tried to load Clock more than once, and it sensed there was
another copy of it in memory, so there is no need to have two
copies of Clock in memory. If Clock is not installed, it might be
a multiplexer conflict, as some resident program might use the
same multiplexer identification. This is very unlikely, but it can
happen. Try to remove some of your resident programs to determine
which one causes the conflict.
6. Contacting the author
---------------------
If you have any bug reports, comments, or flames, feel free to write
me at the following email address:
penquerc@enssat.fr
or via snail mail:
Vincent Penquerc'h
3, rue d'Ecosse
35200 Rennes
France
There is no registration fee for this program since it is freeware.
However, if you find it useful, I would appreciate very much if you
would send me a little sum of money. If you do so, please send cash
in french francs or a check drawn in french francs, as banks here
take lots of money to cash a check in another currency.
7. Revision history
----------------
v1.32 April 14th 1996
- Added keypress wait feature.
v1.31 April 23rd 1995
- Enhanced command line parsing.
v1.3 September 12th 1994
- Added language support, with english, french and spanish
v1.21 August 19th (not released)
- Installed permanent multiplex interrupt handler.
v1.2 August 6th 1994 (not released)
- Added code to signal disk caching programs before attempting
to boot, and let them flush buffers.
- Added warm or cold boot choice.
v1.1 July 21st 1994 (not released)
- Added possibility to change system time.
- Added boot possibility at alarm time.
- Fixed a bug that would accept hours in range 0 to 59.
v1.0 July 3rd 1994 (not released)
- First version of Clock.