Phone Free v0.5
yet another Lazyware product
by Paul Labonski and Robert Little
9/7/93

INTRODUCTION
Phone Free exists for the sole purpose of convenience (or the lack thereof). It gives the Macintosh™ user with a modem hooked up to the Mac’s modem port  the ability to quickly test to see if anyone else is one the phone. It basically checks to see if the phone is free
“Why would anybody need an application to accomplish what I can do by picking up the phone?”, you ask. Well the application comes in handy when you have multiple phones and/or modems hanging off one physical phone line in different rooms throughout the house. If somebody else is using the phone for voice communications, they’ll get an annoying click, they’ll know you’re on the phone, you’ll be embarrassed, have to apologize and then hang-up. Additionally, if somebody else is using a modem and you pick up the phone, the current user will get all sorts of nice garbage on the line... not at all good for long downloads. Using the modem to check the line  doesn’t introduce clicking noise, so it doesn’t disrupt voice or data communications. Plus it’s a great way of eavesdropping on conversations, etc.

USAGE
Phone Free v0.5beta  is very simple to use. Open the application. A dialog box wil appear with two buttons,Probe, and Preferences.

Probe button starts the probe of the modem and the phone line.
If the probe is successful,you’ll hear one of four possible things

effect	reason
(1) a dial-tone	phone is free to use
(2) peoples’ voices	people are talking
(3) weird noises	modem data transmissions
(4) nothing at all	you forgot to pay your phone bill or your modem is not connected to the phone line.
If you hear a dial-tone, you can use your favorite communications package to do what ever you like over your modem. To Exit  the application, simple click the mouse button once, or hit any key.

If the probe is unuccessful,you’ll get a Modem Doesn’t Respond alert box, which could be caused by

Possible causes of Failure
(1) modem is powered-off
(2) modem is not properly connected to the Macintosh
(3) modem is not Hayes compatible
(4) yourself, Venus and Juptier are in line with one another.

Pressing Quit in the alert boxes causes the application to do just that, quit.

Preference button is NOT IMPLEMENTED YET.

Quit button quits the application immediately.

WHY ISN’T IT A DA?
There are two very good reasons why Phone Free v0.5 isn’t a desk accessory.
(1) System 7.0 makes DA’s obsolete
(2) I didn’t feel like going through the coding hassles associated with DA’s
IF (notice a big if) PF is liked by people, AND  System 6.0.x is still widely used in the future, I MIGHT be persuaded to port it to a DA.

If you have previous versions of Phone Free
Phone Free v0.5 sports a set of icons that are new from previous versions. If you have previous versions of Phone Free on you system, it is best to throw them away. Afterwards, you should re-build the desktop so that the Finder recognizes the new icons. To rebuild the desktop, during boot time, hold down the command (clover-leaf) and option keys simultaneusly after your inits/cdev’s have all shown up, but before the Finder’s desktop appears on the screen. The mac will ask you if you’re sure you want to rebuild the desktop...you click “OK”.

WHAT IS Lazyware
Lazyware is a name I came up with just at this moment. No doubt you’re impressed. Lazyware reflects software created for lazy people. It works along the same premise as an automatic garage door opener or television remote control, except in software instead of hardware. At this point every Lazyware product ever produced is classified as Freeware, in that the authors of the product retain all rights to the program, but you can distribute it freely. I won’t go into any other legal mumbo-jumbo because you wouldn’t read it anyway.

ASSUMPTIONS and PROBLEM SOLVING

Phone Free  v0.5 makes the following assumptions in order to work
(1) you have a properly functioning Hayes-compatible modem (300-baud or greater) properly connected to the modem port of your Macintosh™, AND you’ve properly connected you modem to the phone line
(2) your Mac is powered up and running System 6.0.x or higher
(3) you aren’t currently running another communications package that’s using the modem port
(4) you don’t have viruses
(5) your modem’s internal speaker volume is greater than 0 (check the ATLn command).. it’s greater then 0 if you can hear something when you dial-up
(6) you’ve paid you phone bill

If you encounter problems, check the obvious, e.g., the list above. I expect problems to arise because I’ve tried PF  only under the most pristine of conditions. In any case, I and my cohort will appreciate any feedback. Please don’t use four-lettered words if you can avoid it. You can reach the authors by e-mailing your comments to the following addresses

America Online	bonski
Internet	bonski@aol.com

RELEASES NOTES
v0.5
• fixed	the problems with 0.4b. It should work properly with the device manager under Systems 6.0.x & 7.x
• updated	documentation (only slightly)
• updated	icons
• to do	all of the stuff I mentioned in the v0.2b to do list

v0.4b
• fixed	to work under Systems 6.0.7 and 7.0 (hopefully via a kludge)
• updated	documentation (only slightly)
• to do	eliminate kludge
• to do	all of the stuff I mentioned in the v0.2b to do list
v0.3b
• fixed	documentation
•updated	Button, dlog, and alert appearances
•added	Quit button on main modal dialog box
v0.2b
• fixed	icon discrepancies
• fixed	documentation
• added	Quick-and-dirty modal dialog box for probing and status
• added	Timeout checking for no response on the modem port
• added	System 6.0 or higher validity checking
• to do	get appropriate icon.. (note under System 7.0 you can change the icon to whatever you like)
• to do	preferences abilities.. different ports, different speeds,etc.
• to do	check if modem port is currently in use by another program.

v0.1b
• fixed	version 0.0b was communicating with modem at 9600 baud, not 300 baud - some modems can’t handle this
• fixed	some documentation typos.
• to do	get better icons
• to do	preferences abilities.. different ports, different speeds,etc.
• to do	lots
v0.0b
• initial release