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power_m.txt
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1995-11-25
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<<POWER_MOUSE>>
Another great Falcon production from the Reservoir Gods
(And it works on the STe too!)
You know the problem, dodgy mouse - jammed wheels, stuck buttons,
battered balls. It happens to us all, mice come in for a lot of abuse
and they just can't take it.
Some people just don't have desk room to move a mouse about - there
they are with their brand new Falcon030 and not enough room to swing a
mouse.
In the past the previous two groups of people have led troubled lives,
each desolate day being followed by another more miserable one. They
have been shunned by the rest of society and lost the skills of eating
and sleeping as well as the desire to live.
But wait! Salvation is here! All you need to do is be the owner of one
of Atari's Power Pads (they come free with Jaguars these days) and all
your problems will be over. Simply plug it in to Joypad port A, run
'POWER_M.PRG' and hold on tight to any nearby secure object.
You can now use the Power Pad to simulate all mouse movements -
including keyclicks. Not only can you control the desktop using this
but you should be able to use the Power Pad on many GEM application
(and some non-GEM ones!)
Here is a detailed list of Power Pad functions:
+---------------+--------------------------+
| POWER PAD KEY | FUNCTION |
+---------------+--------------------------+
| Fire A | Left Mouse Button |
| Fire B | Right Mouse Button |
| Fire C | Drag Toggle |
| 1 | Decrease x step rate |
| 2 | Increase x step rate |
| 3 | Default x step rate |
| 4 | Decrease y step rate |
| 5 | Increase y step rate |
| 6 | Default y step rate |
| 9 | Single step mode |
| # | 1 pixel movement |
| Pause | Disable Power Mouse |
| Option | Reinitialise Power Mouse |
+---------------+--------------------------+
The Drag Toggle is a feature usually found on trackballs. A click on
Fire C will 'lock' the left mouse button allowing you to drag items
around the desktop with the greatest of ease (also try line functions
on art packages!). Click Fire C again to 'unlock' the left mouse
button.
NOTE - having the left mouse button 'locked' may cause some problems
with some applications, some programs don't expect you to press the
left button all the time. If you have problems, make sure Drag Toggle
is set to unlocked.
The step rate refers to the numbers of pixels in a direction the mouse
cursor will move. The higher the resolution, the bigger the step rate
that you'll want. It can go as low as 1 pixel for fine operations and
as high as 127 pixels for speed freaks and general nutters. It can
even be lowered to 0 pixels so the mouse cursor is effectively
'locked' on a particular axis (at least until the step rate is
increased!) Note that the step rate can be changed 'on the fly' in
real-time.
If you are working on a large desktop, it is nice to have a reasonably
big step rate to get across the area quickly. However, this becomes
impractical when you have to click on small icons. To stop the
annoyance of continually switching between high and low step rates
there is an in-built one pixel movement generator. Simply hold down
the '#' whilst moving the joypad and all movement generated will be
only one pixel in the relevant direction, handy for this tricky
manoeuvres!
If your want to have total control over mouse movement, you can put it
into 'single step' mode by pressing the 9 key. This toggles single
step mode on/off. In this mode you can only move one 'step' in the
pressed direction. To move again you have to lift your hand from the
directional pad and press again. This can be very handy for functions
such as cutting blocks of a precise length in art packages.
You can use the normal mouse in conjunction with the Power Mouse, but
it recommended that you only use one at a time as they may interfere
with each. The main problem will occur when using the normal mouse's
buttons for dragging as 'Power Mouse' will be telling the computer
that the left mouse button isn't pressed whilst the normal mouse will
be trying to convince the O/S that it is on. This can be remedied by
either de-installing Power Mouse for the period you wish to use the
conventional mouse, or using the Power Mouse buttons in conjunction
with the normal mouse.
Because of this you can, at any time, disable the Power Mouse by
pressing the 'Pause' button on the Power Pad. When you want to restart
the Power Mouse, simply press the 'Option' button.
Some nasty applications and operations have the effect of disabling
the Power Mouse. But we're not got rid of that easily! Simply tap
'Option' to re-install the Power Mouse and the world is again your
oyster. The re-install unlocks Drag Toggle, but all other variables (x
and y step rates) remain unchanged.
Power Mouse is a Terminate and Stay Resident program that attaches
itself to the O/S with the minimum of fuss. It is written in 100%
68000 code (to retain STe compatibility), and should keep around 1K of
memory for its own personal use. We can't be held responsible for any
data loss occurred whilst using the Power Mouse, although we had no
problems with it during our extensive five minute testing period.
Power Mouse is 100% GEM compatible and can be run from the desktop or
the auto folder of your root directory.
Power Mouse conforms to the XBRA protocol and leaves the identifier
'POWM'. It has an intelligent installation routine, so running
POWER_M.PRG twice won't install it twice!
Power Mouse is public domain although it may only distributed with the
files POWMINST.PRG and POWER_M.TXT and neither may be altered in any
way. I retain copyright on all the code. Any magazines wishing to put
Power Mouse on their cover disk to boost their flagging sales should
contact me at the address below.
INSTALLING POWER_MOUSE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By popular demand (well at least 2 people have asked for it) you can
now pre-configure power_mouse using the installation program. Simply
run POWMINST.PRG and enter the the default X and Y step rates. This
refers to the amount of pixels the mouse will move in the that
direction on each press. The default step rates are 4 pixels for x
movement and 2 for y, but these can be set from anything from 0 to 99.
The install program will create a new file entitled "POWER_M.PRG"
which will contain all the new configuration data and can be placed on
your desktop or in the auto folder.
Credits
~~~~~~~
Power Mouse concept : Sparehead 3
Power Mouse design & coding : Mr. Pink
Improvement ideas: Flinny & drz
Power Mouse is a 1994/95 Reservoir Gods production.
If you have any comments about the Power Mouse, ideas for new
features, bug reports, or want to get hold of some of our other Falcon
products get in touch with:
Leon O'Reilly (Mr. Pink)
Cwm Isaf
Abermule
Welshpool
Powys
Wales
SY15 6JL
United Kingdom
or e-mail
cmslorei@livjm.ac.uk
try the Reservoir Gods World Wide Web site:
http://basil.acs.bolton.ac.uk/~kwd1mat
Power Mouse v1.5 / 22 Feb 1995