CHANGES TO THE MANUAL Version 1.a3 (release date 1/12/1990) These are arranged per page in the manual that have changes to them, and may be printed and pasted if so wished. Additional reminder: If, in the next 8 weeks, you come across a virus, which Supermon will warn you about, but does not specifically recognise as such, please DO NOT DESTROY, but send it to me. I will return your disk. This allows me to continually upgrade Supermons capabilities in this field. PLEASE NOTE: Due to people not reading the manual, some have destroyed VALID boot sectors on powering up. Therefore, if Supermon finds an UNKNOWN boot sector on power up, it will give a warning, but NO LONGER give the option to destroy at that point! Page 4 Virus checker If Supermon does not recognise the boot sector as either legitimate or a definite virus, it will tell you. Due to people wiping LEGITIMATE boot sectors without checking at this stage, you no longer have the option at this point to "kill" the boot sector. You may now do so only from the Virus checker (see "NEW") Page 5 Par 3 line 2 Low resolution is now the default if no DESKTOP.INF was saved, which is the normal state. Page 6 All references to SUPERMON.ACC and EDITMON.PRG in this and any other pages should now read: SUPER103.ACC and EDIT_103.PRG. This will keep versions seperate. Near bottom Ramdisk opened within a program will NOT be released if reset proof! PLEASE NOTE: Ramdisk can maximum be 1.4 Meg (1400K) as otherwise the FATs are insufficient. It does not seem so much of a limitation that special provisions seem warranted. Page 7 Delete function: WRITE VERIFY Add in functions: VIRUS CHECK and EXTENDED FUNCTIONS. VIRUS CHECK monitors disk access vectors and sounds alarm if changed. (Inverse screen and rapid ringing). Extended functions are the disk parameter display and the mouse X/Y position display. Last par. Most functions, when selected will return to desktop, NOT access. Page 8 Ramdisk size If the ramdisk was made reset proof, it may be closed and re opened at a different size, losing what is in it, but the size cannot be changed directly. ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Mouse speed. Allows 1 (normal), 2(2*speed) and 3(4*times speed). Virus checker. See the file "NEW" Disk Guard: See the file "NEW" Screen saver: See file "NEW" Drive B Steprate: see file "NEW" Print Spooler: This can now be preset from the Editor to 16, 32 or 64K. When cancelled, this memory will most likely NOT be able to be used by the system. If the spooler is opened from WITHIN a program, it will also be released when quitting that program, just like the non reset proof ramdisk. SPOOLER SHOULD NOT BE USED with Desktop Publishing programs or such things as First Word Plus, which has its own spooler. Page 9 Delete last paragraph, relating to Write Verify. Page 10 Under Screen layout and control function: References here and elsewhere about the program PC are ALWAYS the Atari symbol. The asterisk (*) now only appears after a crash (bomb) and will be at the currently running programs start! This is sometimes very useful, as the start of a program can be hard to find! Page 12 2nd last section Supermon DOES allow a low resolution display now, but this is purely to show how, where and why a program crashed. The best option at this point is to make a note of important items, press Shift/F10 or reset, and run Supermon in medium res. Changing displays etc. in low res will just result in a mess. Page 18 last par. Resolution is shown as screen pixels (e.g 640 * 200). Page 21 Under ADDRESS: once again, there is only 1 Program Counter (PC), indicated by the Atari symbol. The asterisk (if there) denotes the START address of the program which crashed. This applies also to STEP, TRACE and 68020 functions, which operate from this location!! Page 23 Delete last lines. There is now a close box, to return to desktop. If any buffers are open, will ask for confirmation. Page 24 DRIVE: When entering Supermon, the selected drive will be the currently active one, except after a crash, when it will be "A". If no drives exist, it will be "greyed out" Page 26 half way Delete the lines BOTH RENAME AND RESTORE ARE FOR THE FLOPPY DRIVES ONLY!! These functions are now valid for hard drives as well!!! HIDE/UNHIDE: This is now called Attributes and brings up a file selector box, and, once a file has been selected, displays a box with the options: READ ONLY HIDDEN SYSTEM The current Attributes will be high lighted. To change, simply click on the option. Cancel will simply exit, OK will rewrite the changes to the directory. Page 27/28, THE FORMATTER Radical changes here. The Supermon formatter has now become the worlds most intelligent and comprehensive formatter. The "Go IBM menu" box now says "IBM FORMAT", and no longer selects a seperate menu. Instead, it will give the diskette an IBM compatible boot sector, and will NOT innoculate it. It will do the number of tracks specified, but will always default to a nine sector format. Additionally, the options "Volume label" and "ONLY" have appeared. Volume label allows you to add a name to the disk when formatting or quick wiping. If you enter a name (max 11 characters) here, and then select either FORMAT or Quick wipe, the name will be written to the disk after the function completes. If you enter a name and then high light (click on) the "ONLY" option, ONLY a volume label will be given to the disk, nothing will be destroyed! Please note that IF there is a volume label already, this may NOT necessarily be deleted. As Supermon uses a system (GemDOS) call for this function, it relies on GemDOS to do this correctly, which is not always true. NINE or TEN sectors per track is now the choice. BOTH these options are the fast so called "twister" format, speeding up disk reads greatly. When formatting, Supermon will detect unusable sectors and then mark them off in the disk FAT. This allows the rest of the disk to be used normally. Alt/Left shift aborts both formatting and/or bad sector marking. Supermon ALWAYS does bad sector marking during formatting,as part of its verify routine. You will notice that the filler bar at the bottom fills quite rapidly, then the busy bee re appears, while the drive continues going. At this time Supermon both verifies the format and marks off any bad sectors in the FATs. This means that really impatient people can press Alternate/Left shift at this time, to abort this function and have a very fast (but un verfied) format. DO NOT quick wipe an IBM format disk, unless formatted with Supermon, as Supermon will innoculate it, destroying the IBM information. You may note that if you have NOT changed the diskette since last access, Supermon will provide an extra warning, for you to check that it IS the right disk you are formatting. ON TOP OF THAT, Supermon starts formatting from the END of the disk, which means that if you stll made a boo boo, you can press Alternate/Left shift to abort, and ONLY the formatted tracks will be lost, ALL other information is still there. If the disk is write protected, you will get a message to that effect TWICE, then Supermon will abort. And to top it all, Supermon will tell you if you try to format more tracks than your drive (or the disk) can handle, as well as indicating that the disk is unusable if any bad sectors occurr within the first 20 sectors, which are used by the system for vital information. When returning to the formatter for the next disk, defaults remain as set up. Page 29 There are now several ways to quit Supermon. All comments about the drop down menu option "Quit" remain as is, additionally: Alt/Q will return to desktop, with query if buffers opened. Closebox will do exactly the same. Sfift/F10 will quit regardless of buffers or breakpoints etc. If you entered Supermon normally, that's it. If you "crashed" into Supermon, Shift/F10 will preserve ALL pointers, registers, status etc. If you now rerun Supermon, the display will show all these. Page 30 If, on asking for directory info, the message "Disk in drive ? etc. appears, or Supermon goes into an endless loop (abort with Alternate/Left Shift), this is due to hard disk fragmentation and FAT errors. Use a hard disk repair/scavenge program such as HD Sentry to correct this. Page 31 As the last line in Boot information, the boot sectors status will be displayed, same as in Virus check (see file "NEW") Page 32 Delete line 7, about floppies only. In READ SECTOR: type in "root" to read drive C partition sector. type in "park" to actually park the hard disk. PLEASE NOTE: You may read the partition sector, but CANNOT write to it. THIS IS NOT THE SAME SECTOR AS THE "BOOT" SECTOR. If you write this to sector zero of drive C (or any other) it is GOODBYE information. If you want to modify the partition sector, get yourself a hard disk editor! For hard disk owners, there is a file called HARDDISK.DOC which explains the entries in the partition sector. Page 39-42 PRINTER: When printing out in Hex, an ASCII column will also be printed. This saves double printing. Additionally, Supermon will check to see whether: either the printer is on line, OR: there is a spooler. If not, you will get an alert box. RUN PROGRAM: This has been modified extensively, and is now a very, very useful tool. Firstly, after selecting your program, you are given the choice to: LOAD + GO or JUST LOAD. Load and go will do just that, after asking you for intercepts. Just load will create a basepage, load the program into memory, and display from the start of the program. Please note that in the register area on the left side: D0 POINTS AT THE BASEPAGE OF THE PROGRAM D1 POINTS AT THE START OF PROGRAM CODE D2 POINTS AT START OF THE DATA AREA D3 POINTS AT START OF THE BSS AREA D4 POINTS AT END OF BSS AREA (usually top of stack when run) If there is a standard symbol table included with the program, D5 will point to where Supermon has stored this, which is at the top of the TPA. If a symbol table is present, Supermon will display all labels. To display without labels, double click "into" and "out of" the buffer. Labels are substituted for all addresses and values in the code, and are given in front of the code where this is correct. This may obscure some of the hex display code. If you now return to Run program option, you will be asked if you wish to RUN, CANCEL or WIPE. Run will produce the intercept box, and become identical to Load and Go from here on. WIPE will release the memory reserved (the entire largest block of free memory, usually ALL memory) BUT WILL NOT WIPE THE CODE. RUN and LOAD AND GO: The intercept box has been changed a bit. You still have the option to intercept any or all of the system calls, but additionally the same box allows you to enter the number of calls to allow through, and asks whether you wish to terminate normally, or stay resident. Terminate normally means that when the program finishes running, it will terminate by releasing memory and return to Supermon. Stay resident means Supermon prevents the program from releasing this memory, and, depending on the program, it may be possible to run it again and again (Be careful here). Also, all variables and pointers set by the program will still be intact, and can be examined. AFTER RUNNING A PROGRAM, PLEASE COMPLETELY RESET THE COMPUTER (COLD START) BEFORE DOING ANYTHING IMPORTANT!!! Page 44 SEARCH: This function may now be repeated by pressing RETURN twice. Please note that when inputting a Hex number ($--------), if you enter a ODD number of chars. Supermon will ignore the LEAST significant one (the last one) Page 50 OPTIONS MENU: Mouse Trap will now first bring up a select box for actual mousetrap ON or OFF (current setting outlined), then a select box for the mouse speed. Options are 1,2 or 3 with the current choice outlined. 1 is normal, 2 is double speed and 3 is quadruple speed EXCEPT in low res. As mouse movement (horizontally) in low res is already twice as fast, Supermon automatically steps down 1 gear. Neat. The mouse accelerator and mouse trap are totally independent of each other. CHANGED: The mousetrap was changed. When pressing the right hand button, the menu above the mouse will drop down, but the mouse will return to it's position. This is done so that you need not change the position of your hand on the desk. Page 52 Spooler When selecting the print spooler, you will now have the option to select either a 16K, 32K or a 64K spooler. This space is reserved normally, and may or may not be available again when cancelling the spooler. Page 53 Set time/alarm: This has been improved, so that, if you make no change to the time, it will not reset it when clicking on OK. Previously, while setting the alarm, many seconds would pass, and the OLD time was passed back to the system. Page 55 Multi task: All STEPping, TRACEing etc. will be done from the Atari symbol location. Page 57 File move buffer now recommends the address at which the file currently resides, and, if accepted, will "hide" the file as in Hide disk buffer. If you specify another address, make it high up in memory, as that space is NOT reserved and may be overwritten. Both disk and file "Move buffer" remember their seperate addresses for later compares. This means you can load a file, move it, load others or disk buffers as well, and still compare the "top" file with the "moved" one. Page 58 Access by track and sector: This function ALWAYS defaults to drive A, regardless of any currently active or selected drive. The move buffer and compare buffer functions may be used with this, the Hide and Show may not! Page 59 Save block WILL NOT save ROM directly to disk. Use the MOVE BLOCK command to move it to Ram, THEN do save block. SET PROGRAM PC: This no longer exists, and has been replaced by 2 new functions: MARK BAD SECTORS: This will read the entire disk, any sectors it finds faulty, will be marked as such in the FAT (File Allocation Table). The operating system will not try and use these sectors. It is recommended that you use this only on blank disks. VIRUS CHECK: Allows rapid scanning of multiple disks. Reports on the disks status. Please see the file "NEW" for a full description. Page 60 onward In these examples, please keep all changes in mind, particularly those relating to RUN PROGRAM. I hope you will find all these changes worthwhile, and wish you much use from Supermon. Will Visser