home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- SCRNSAV2
-
- A Screen Saver Program for PS/2
-
-
- Alan Ballard
- August 28, 1988
-
- Notice: Scrnsav2 is (c) copyright 1988 Alan Ballard.
- It may be used without charge and may be
- freely distributed as long as it is not
- modified in any way. It may not be sold,
- traded, or otherwise disposed of for profit
- without permission from the author.
-
-
- Disclaimer: This program is offered on an "as-is" basis __________ A
- A __________ A
-
- A without any guarantee as to correct
- functioning or fitness for any specific
- purpose. The author believes this program to
- work as described, but you use the program
- entirely at your own risk. The author will
- not be responsible for any hardware or
- software damage, loss of data, or incidental
- or consequential damage that may result from
- its use, whether or not such use is in
- accordance with the instructions.
-
- Purpose: A screen saver is a program which blanks the
- screen after a specified period of
- inactivity, in order to prevent patterns from
- being "burned-in" to the screen.
-
- Hardware and software required:
- SCRNSAV2 is specifically designed for IBM
- PS/2 computers, models 50 and above; that is,
- those IBM PS/2's equipped with VGA graphics.
- It may work with some other machines using
- VGA display boards, but only if they also
- have a BIOS that is compatible with the PS/2
- extended BIOS. MS-DOS release 3.1 or higher
- is also required.
-
-
- Usage: SCRNSAV2 is an MS-DOS TSR ("terminate and
- stay resident" utility. It is normally
- invoked at startup time from an AUTOEXEC.BAT
- file. It may also be used as an MS-DOS
- command to disable the screen blanking or to
- change the inactivity period at which it
- takes effect. The first time it is run it
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- will remain resident. Any subsequent use
- will communicate with the resident copy.
- Installing SCRNSAV2 will decrease available
- RAM by about 550 bytes.
-
- Once SCRNSAV2 has been activated, it will
- monitor keyboard and mouse activity. If the
- specified period elapses, without either
- being used, the screen will be blanked. The
- screen can be reactivated by touching any key
- or moving the mouse. SCRNSAV2 will be
- effective regardless of the graphics mode in
- use at the time; the screen will be correctly
- restored when reactivated.
-
-
- Warnings: (1) Some programs fail to pass keyboard events
- through to SCRNSAV2. Hence it will be
- unaware of keyboard activity and may blank
- the screen at the wrong time. In such a
- situation, you may or may not be able to
- reactivate it by using the mouse, or there
- may be no way to reactivate it except to
- terminate the program or reboot. If you have
- such a program, you must deactivate SCRNSAV2 ____
- (see options, below) before using the
- program.
-
- A notable example is Microsoft Excel; in this
- case the mouse and caps lock/num lock keys
- are passed through correctly, but other keys
- are not. Hence, if SCRNSAV2 is enabled when
- you invoke Excel, the screen will blank if
- you don't use the mouse or caps lock or num
- lock keys for the specified period. If it
- does blank, you can reactivate it by touching
- the mouse or one of these keys. It is likely
- other applications using Microsoft Windows
- Runtime will exhibit the same problem.
-
- Warnings: (2) SCRNSAV2 uses the MS-DOS "multiplex
- interrupt" (int 2fh) to determine whether it
- has already become resident and to
- communicate with the resident copy. However,
- MS-DOS provides no method to reliably assign
- a "multiplex number" that is guaranteed not
- to conflict with other TSR's. By default
- SCRNSAV2 uses number 150. It does attempt to
- verify that no previously loaded TSR is using
- the same number. If SCRNSAV2 appears to
- interfere with other TSR's, or if it emits a
- message suggesting use of another number, you
- should use the /m option (see below) to
- select a different number.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Options: The following options may be specified on the
- SCRNSAV2 command:
-
- integer A simple integer constant (between _______
- 1 and 30) specifies the number of
- minutes of inactivity at which the
- screen should be blanked. The default
- is 5.
-
- /d disables screen blanking.
-
- /e enables screen blanking. This is
- assumed unless /d has been specified.
-
- /m integer An integer following /m specifies _______
- a multiplex number to be used for
- communicating with the TSR, as discussed
- in Warning (2) above. The default is
- 150.
-
-
- Examples: Scrnsav2 10
-
- Enables screen saver with a 10 minute time
- interval. If the program isn't already
- loaded, it will be loaded. If it was
- previously loaded, the interval will be
- changed.
-
- Scrnsav2 /d
-
- Disables screen blanking, leaving it loaded.
-
-
- Author: Alan Ballard,
- 3452 West 11th Avenue,
- Vancouver, Canada, V6R 2J9
-
- Compuserve: 70446,44
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-