Night Owl 9/Night Owl CD-ROM (NOPV9) (Night Owl Publisher) (1993).ISO/054a/barclk13.zip/README.TXT

Text File | 1993-04-06 | 11KB | 372 lines

BarClock(tm) v1.31

Copyright 1993 by Patrick Breen - All rights reserved.



Archive Contents:

   README.TXT    -  this file
   CHANGES.TXT   -  revision history of BarClock
   BARCLOCK.EXE  -  BarClock executable
   CLOCKDLL.DLL  -  BarClock support DLL



Description:

BarClock (formerly WinClock) is a utility that displays
useful information in the caption bar of the active window.
This approach is somewhat less obtrusive than having the
information in a window which is always on top or that can
be covered by other windows.



System Requirements:

BarClock is completely self-contained and is compatable with
both Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1.  BarClock uses very
little memory (about 12 k) and uses almost 0 system
resources.



Installation:

Since you are reading this, I assume that you have unzipped
the BarClock archive.  The rest of the installation is very
easy.  Create a new program manager item for BarClock.  Make
sure CLOCKDLL.DLL is in the working directory or put it in
your Windows directory.  Double-click to start BarClock.  I
prefer to add the program item to the Startup group in
Windows 3.1.  This causes BarClock to launch every time I
start Windows.  Another way to cause BarClock to launch
every time Windows is started is to add the following line
to your win.ini file:

load=barclock.exe

This works for Windows 3.0 and 3.1.



Instructions:

Once BarClock is running, information will appear in the
caption bar of the active window.  Initially, BarClock
displays the date on the left of the bar and the time on
the right.  A short click on either the time or the date
will toggle the display of free memory.  Another short
click will display the percentage of free resources
available.  One more click will display the disk space
available on drive C.  Click and hold the mouse button to
display a menu.  The menu commands are as follows:

Setup...
    The setup dialog is used to specify how the information
    is displayed.  The large group of radio buttons is used
    to control where each of the items appears.  An item
    can either appear on the left or right of the caption
    bar or it can be toggled into view.  If more than one
    item is specified for the left or right, they are
    combined and displayed together.  If more than one item
    is set to toggled, the first short click displays the
    first toggled item, a click on this item displays the
    next item, etc.  In addition, an item can be turned off
    which prevents it from being displayed at any time.  (If
    all items are turned off or all are set to toggle, the
    time will continue to display so the menu can be
    accessed!)

    In addition this dialog is used to set the time format
    and date format.  The clock can be 24-hour and optionally
    display seconds.  The date format can be chosen from the
    set of formats displayed.

About...
    Provides the current version number and tells you where
    you can reach me.

Exit
    Removes BarClock and quits the application.




Advanced Options:

I have added the following advanced options (translation -
there is no UI to set them!) to modify the behavior of
BarClock.  All of these options are controlled by adding
(or changing) lines in the BarClock.INI file which can be
found in your Windows directory.  Future versions of
BarClock will add dialogs that can be used to set these
options directly!


Chimes - (General)

BarClock can play a sound on the hour, on the half hour,
on the quarter hour (15 and 45 past) or any combination
of the three.  If you have MMSYSTEM.DLL and an appropriate
sound driver installed, you can specify a .wav file to play.
If you do not have MMSYSTEM.DLL or a sound driver, BarClock
will simply beep.

Wave files can be found in a number of places.  In the
future, I hope to distribute a .wav or two with the clock
as the default chimes.  If you have access Borland C++ v3.1,
one of the examples comes with a file called "sounder.wav"
which is the perfect hourly chime!

NOTE:  Microsoft has a sound driver available that let's you
play .wav files using the internal speaker - the quality is
not great but it works!  I beleive the file is called
"speak.exe" and should be available in a number of places.
If you can't find it, drop me a line and I'll point you in
the right direction.


HourChime=

    Specifies name of .wav file to play on the hour.  If
    the name is "none" no chime will occur on the hour.


HalfHourChime=

    Specifies name of .wav file to play on the half hour.
    If the name is "none" no chime will occur on the half
    hour.


QuarterHourChime=

    Specifies name of .wav file to play on the quarter
    hour.  If the name is "none" no chime will occur on
    the quarter hour.


Date0 - Date4=

    These are the 5 date formats.  The syntax for the date
    formats is identical to what Windows uses in its control
    panel.  Here is a brief summary of the keywords:

        m    - Month (1-12)
        mm    - Month (01-12)
        mmm    - Month (Jan - Dec)
        mmmm    - Month (January - December)
        d    - Day (1-31)
        dd    - Day (01-31)
        ddd    - Day (Mon-Sun)
        dddd - Day (Monday-Sunday)
        yy    - Year (00-99)
        yyyy - Year (1900-2040)

    All months and days are stored in a string table.  They
    can be modified with any resource editor.


Resource=

    This specifies the format string for the resource
    display.  The key words are "upct" and "gpct" which
    stand for the percent of the User heap which is
    available and the percent of the GDI heap which is
    available.  These heaps are shared by all applications
    and when they run dry, it is necessary to quit one
    or more applications before work can continue.  The
    minimum of the two values is often refered to as
    "System Resources" and is the value that can be found
    in the Progam Manager's About dialog.


DiskSpace=

    This specifies the format string for the free disk
    space.  The key words are "drive" which expands to the
    drive letter and "fdisk" which expands to the amount
    of free space on that drive.


Memory=

    This specifies the format string for the free memory.
    The key word "fmem" expands to the amount of free
    memory that is currently available.  This amount
    includes virtual memory.


ShowWindow=

    This determines whether the BarClock window appears
    if the clock cannot find a home.  By default, the window
    does appear and this value is set to 1.  To keep the
    window from appearing, change this value to a 0.


SystemColors=

    This determines whether BarClock uses the system colors
    to draw the text or a custom color that from this .INI
    file.  By default, BarClock uses the system colors and
    this value  is set to 1.  To specify a custom text color,
    change this value to a 0 and specify the color by adding
    the following lines to the .INI file:

    TextColorR=(red component of text color)
    TextColorG=(green component of text color)
    TextColorB=(blue component of text color)


SystemBackground=

    This determines whether BarClock uses the system
    background color underneath a custom text color.  This
    option is only meaningful if SystemColors is set to 0.
    By default, this value is set to 1 which causes the clock
    to be drawn on top of the appropriate caption color.  To
    specify a custom background color, set SystemColors to 0
    (and specify a text color - see above), change this value
    to a 0 and specify the color by adding the following
    lines to the .INI file:

    BackColorR=(red component of background color)
    BackColorG=(green component of background color)
    BackColorB=(blue component of background color)


EraseAlways=

    This determines whether BarClock invalidates the desktop
    window to remove "ghost" clocks in Windows 3.0.  For
    machines that are running Windows 3.0, this option will
    eliminate the redraw that occurs when switching between
    applications.  By default, BarClock does invalidate and
    this value is set to 1.  This option has no effect if
    you are using Windows 3.1.


LeftOffset=
RightOffset=

    These two values specify how much room BarClock should
    leave between the string it draws and the standard
    system controls.  These can be useful if you are using
    other utilities that want to put controls in the title
    bar.  By default, both values are set to 0.


UseKB=

    If this option is a 1, the free memory and disk space
    are always displayed in kilobytes.  If this option is
    0 (the default), the free memory and disk space scale
    to the best display value.


Overlap=

    If this option is a 1, the text can overlap the window
    title text.  If this option is 0 (the default), the
    text is not displayed if there is not enough room.


MenuDoubleClick=

    This option controls whether the menu is access by a
    click and hold or by a double click.  The default value
    is a 0 and the menu is accessed by click and hold.  In
    order to use the area that the clock information is
    displayed to postion a window, set this value to a 1.
    This will cause a short single click to toggle the
    information and a longer click to behave normally (drag
    the window).  The clock menu can be accessed by a double
    click on the clock information.



Shareware:

Feel free to distribute this program to others.  All I
ask is that this file remain with the distributed copies.
This product is shareware.  If you like it, send $5.  If
you want to licence a number of copies, the following table
gives the discount rates:

Number of users    Cost        Price per user
  25                $ 100    $4.00
  50                $ 150    $3.00
 100                $ 250    $2.50
 250                $ 500    $2.00
 500                $ 750    $1.50
1000                $1000    $1.00



Disclaimer:

This software is distributed "as is".  Although I know of
no problems with the software, I make no warranties.



Other:

If you have any problems with this program or ideas for
features that should be added, I can be reached at the
following electronic addresses (in addition to the mail
address and telephone number below).

Internet:    [e-mail]
CompuServe:  70312,743


___________________ Order Form ___________________________


Send To:

Patrick Breen
3920 Mystic Valley Parkway #1119
Medford, MA 02155

Telephone:   [phone]


(  )  I enclose $5 for encouragement of continuing development



          Name: _________________________ Date:_____________


        Company: ____________________________________________


        Address: ____________________________________________


City, State, Zip: ____________________________________________


        Country: ____________________________________________


      Day Phone: _________________  Eve:  ___________________


If you provide an electronic mail address, I will
send you updates as they become available.


Electronic Mail address: _____________________________________


How did you hear about BarClock v1.31? ________________________


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