◊ This program is distributed as Shareware: if you like it or use it please honor the shareware system by sending $5 to the author at the address above. Since collecting international cheques is very expensive, please send cash only. If you MUST send a cheque, keep in mind that the banks will gobble up more than half of it.
◊ NOTE: Getting some (usually very few) bucks is what you write shareware for, but getting a note, a postcard or anything else is a lot better than getting nothing. I'd like to know how far this program has gone, so remember that you can do something nice even if you don't have a couple of $$$ to spare.
FROM: THE DELAY MASTER
TO: ALL WANNABE-DELAYERS
SUBJECT: SHUTDOWN DELAY
• WHAT IS IT ?
◊ Yes, I do remember how this whole thing started, back in December 1991. It was a kinda hazy winter day, and I was sitting as always in front of my good ol' Mac, trying to make my way through a messy, crowded desktop. Couple o' files in the Trash, another one in the Mess folder and so on. Then I moved the mouse to the Special menu and emptied the Trash - well, that's what I meant to do. What I actually did - would you ever guess it? - was restarting the Mac. As usual. And then the startup icons - one, two, three… four……… (how can these Extensions and Panels folders grow up so quickly? I know what's going on, I've seen it myself happen on my Mac: some Extensions mate and procreate, giving birth to small extension-pups that happily mess around on your Mac's screen and system, sweet and tender little memory-gobblers). Well, I had to wait a few minutes before the buddy was up and working again. I stuck to the Mac for a little more, then turned it off and picked up the phone. But - ooops! The phone number was in my Scrapbook. And - guess what? - I had to switch it on again. After that I sat down for a whole sleepless night and generated a Panel myself, a small personal contribution to the System Folder Entropy.
• WHAT DOES IT DO ?
◊ What Shutdown Delay basically does is setting up a dialog at Restart/Shutdown time which gives the user four choices:
1. WAIT for the chosen command to be automatically completed after a while;
2. CANCEL and smoothly return to the caller application;
3. RESTART (you can always turn a Shutdown in a Restart);
4. SHUT DOWN (turn power off or safe-shutdown alert as usual);
◊ A fifth key-combination choice has been added in version 1.22 for power users:
5. FORCE QUIT attempts to return to the Finder (this can sometimes recover from system crashes if you get to the dialog after the restart button of the error alert).
• HOW MUCH MEMORY DOES IT ALLOCATE ?
◊ Not much. In fact, Shutdown Delay only allocates about 5K of system memory and only patches one routine (for the technically inclined: the patched trap is _Shutdown ($A895), a routine selector with 4 procedures documented in IM volume V). Shutdown Delay takes about 20K on the disk.
• DOES IT BOMB ?
◊ I hope not. It shouldn't. It won't. And if it ever will, well, you were restarting anyway - no work should be lost. The Finder will attempt to close all applications BEFORE Shutdown Delay is called. Of course, I make no explicit or implied warranty that this piece of software will not cause any problems, or that it will be fit for any particular use you plan to make of it. Use it entirely at your own risk, or trash it.
◊ Shutdown delay has been successfully tested on:
- System 6.0.5, 6.0.7, 7.0, 7.0.1, 7.1;
- Any Macintosh model you may think of;
- Many, many, many Extensions and Control Panels of all kinds.
◊ Please let me know of any problems you run into.
• IS IT ALWAYS POSSIBLE TO CANCEL A RESTART/SHUTDOWN ?
◊ No. Some programs don't expect the Mac to return from a restart or a shutdown and may bomb if you try to cancel the command. Unfortunately, there's no way for Shutdown Delay to know if Cancel will work before you try it and see what happens. On the other hand, the Finder (in both systems 6 and 7) handles it quite gracefully; since this is the application from which one usually issues these commands, you shouldn't experience too many problems if you don't use weird applications. If you do, there's an option that disables the Cancel button in any application other than the Finder (that's for you comfort only, since Cancel is never called if you don't explicitly click the button).
◊ Versions 1.22 and later have an extra feature that can help when applications do not handle the cancel button properly: calling Force Quit tries to exit the current application and return to the Finder. If the current application is the Finder, it is reloaded and restarted. This can also be useful if you want to rebuild your boot disk's desktop at Finder startup without actually restarting the Mac.
• WILL THE DIALOG ALWAYS POP UP ?
◊ Yes, almost always. But since it needs some background (i.e. QuickDraw and the Window and Dialog Managers), there might be some app-weirdo out there that shuts down without initializing the environment. In this unusual case, Shutdown Delay won't do anything and the Mac will restart or shut down as requested. This is not the case if you're issuing the command yourself from a menu or if the front application displays any kind of window. Also, it's kinda obvious that it won't pop up if you hold down the bypass keys.
◊ Note: Since the bypass keys are checked when the Shutdown or Restart routine is called, you have to hold them down until you see the Mac has actually shut or restarted. For example, if you call Restart from the Finder when another application is running, the Finder will quit that application first and then it will call Restart. If you release the keys right after you choose the menu item, the dialog will appear because it can't realize you tried to bypass it.
• WHAT'S IN THE CONTROL PANEL ?
◊ Double-clicking on Shutdown Delay's icon (under System 7) or selecting the icon in the Control Panel accessory (under System 6 and earlier) brings up a Control Panel. All changes you make will take effect IMMEDIATELY if Shutdown Delay is installed. If it isn't the Control Panel works just as well, but a message reminds you that you'll have to reboot. Please note that Shutdown Delay will NOT install at startup time if the On/Off switch is off (the reboot-to-install message will be visible).
1. [On/Off] Activate/deactivate in case you don't have a startup/extensions manager;
2. [Time to wait] Time to wait before the issued command executes;
3. [Show Dialog on Restarts] Show dialog at restart time or don't;
4. [Show Dialog on Shutdowns] Show dialog at shutdown time or don't;
5. [Options] Display the options dialog.
• WHAT'S IN THE OPTIONS DIALOG OF THE PANEL ?
1. [Shift+Ctrl+Opt+Cmd = bypass] Choose a key combination to bypass the restart and shutdown dialog, or uncheck all the keys if you never want to bypass;
2. [Leave “Cancel” button enabled out of the Finder] The Cancel button is always active in the Finder, but you may choose to disable it in all other applications if it is giving you trouble;
3. [Leave “Shutdown” button enabled at Restart] You can always turn a Shutdown in a Restart, but you may choose whether to leave the opposite option available (if the option is disabled, the Shutdown button will be disabled at Restart time);
4. [Black out the screen behind the shutdown dialog] Black out the main screen behind the restart/shutdown dialog or don't.
5. [Show Shutdown Delay's icon at startup time] Show Shutdown Delay's ok/off/can't-load icon at startup time or don't;
6. [Hilite default button and accept Return key] If this option is checked, the original command's button is hilited and the Return and Enter keys mean "do it".
7. [Show "Force Quit" button in the dialog] Adds an extra button to the shutdown/restart dialog that lets you quit the current application and return to the Finder (if you're in the Finder, it is reloaded and restarted).
8. [Enable Command-Q = ExitToShell] If this option is checked, typing Command-Q acts like the button described above at #7.
9. [Custom messages] The restart and shutdown messages can be changed (a typical use is to have your Mac say: “Don't forget to turn off the printer!”).
• VERSION HISTORY:
◊ 2.01 - Added special support for Fabrizio Oddone’s DarkShutdown.
◊ 2.0 - Rewritten a good deal of code to use System 7's features. The restart and shutdown messages can be customized.
◊ 1.28 - The Info dialog in the control panel now behaves better with multiple monitors. A copyright message pops up in the shutdown dialog when there's a mouse click on the icon.
◊ 1.27 - Finally got a second screen, so clearing it at shutdown time doesn't seem useless any longer. Just changed a couple of lines of code to black out all screens before showing the usual shutdown dialog.
◊ 1.26 - Fabrizio ain't tired of finding my bugs yet, so here's another minor fix for the shutdown dialog (mouse up events weren't handled correctly).
◊ 1.25 - The "Black out screen" option now works better, thanks to a low-memory global hint that came from Fabrizio Oddone.
◊ 1.24 - Fixed the "show startup icon" procedure to auto-wrap when the startup icons reach the end of the screen.
◊ 1.23 - Fixed a bug in the Control Panel that could cause address errors on 68000-based Macs when Shutdown Delay was not installed. The bug was reported by Fabrizio Oddone. Minor changes in the Control Panel.
◊ 1.22 - The Control Panel has slightly changed, since I couldn't fit any more options in the panel without setting up a separate dialog. You may now bypass the shutdown dialog when a user-configurable combination of control keys is held down. If you don't check any key, then you won't be able to bypass the dialog. The Esc, Delete and Command-. keys now mean "Cancel" in the shutdown dialog. If the new hilite option is checked, the default button is hilited and the Return and Enter keys can be used as an alternative to the mouse. Another new option lets you use a button or the Command-Q key combination to force a Quit (quit the current application and return to Finder).
• THANKS TO:
◊ Alberto Ricci, who suggested me to use the arrows instead of the radio buttons for better control over the delay time and came out with the great "Force Quit" idea;
◊ Fabrizio Oddone, who made me set up a dialog (instead of just writing to a black window as in version 1.0), suggested to implement keyboard-equivalents and helped a lot with his excellent knowledge of the Mac;
◊ Pietro Ferrero, Giuseppe Carlino and all those who helped beta-testing this stuff.
• HAVE FUN! And don't forget to $$$ SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTION $$$ so that more cool utilities will see the light in the near future, at the low-low-low costs of shareware.
