PPPop is a MacPPP 2.0.1 operator application. It puts up a little window containing a button. Clicking on the button brings PPP up or takes it down. An arrow on the button shows the current state of PPP. You can set whether to do a "hard close" or a "soft close". The MacPPP extension (2.01 or better) must be installed for PPPop to work. It also requires System 6.07 or higher.
Some other things it does: if you are running System 7, you can open the Config PPP or MacTCP control panels directly from the File menu. These control panels must be in the Control Panels folder of the System folder. A separate little window will show current session time, or monthly or daily cumulative time on-line.
I wrote PPPop because I didn't want to keep looking at the ConfigPPP cdev once I had it set up. (There are now a number of other applications, extensions, control strip modules, scripting additions which perform similar service.)
WHAT IS NEW IN VERSION 1.2
1. There is now an "auto-position" feature for the timer window. If you turn it on, moving the icon window will cause the timer window to follow along. It positions the timer right below the button window.
2. In the timer window, a single click will toggle between session time and total time. You can still click-drag the window. The toggle also works from the background. For safety, the button window will not toggle from the background (unless you double-click).
3. Prefs are now written to a preferences file in the Preferences folder. This is necessary for upcoming developments. It also makes it possible to run PPPop from a locked volume, such as a CD.
4. Prefs are written every time a connection is closed to protect the Total Time count from corruption.
5. Memory leak bug found and fixed. This was the cause of eventual failure of PPPop to play sounds or show icons.
6. Some cosmetic changes for greater consistency—more help from Andy Bauer.
7. PPPop would crash on a machine which did not run Color Quickdraw. Fixed.
8. Cumulative timer can be reset monthly on any given day.
9. Lots of little things.
PROGRAM NOTES
If PPPop is in the background, clicking on it will bring it to the foreground, and double clicking on it will cause it to operate MacPPP. This is normal Finder behavior. The Prefs Menu contains a "Return to Finder" item. Checking this will cause PPPop to return to the Finder after operating MacPPP, rather than remaining in the foreground. After all, there isn't much left for it to do at that point.
In the Prefs menu, the first item reads either "Hard Close" with a checkmark, or "Soft Close" with a checkmark. In other words, the menu item always shows what PPPop will do when you close the connection.
The timer function displays the connect time for the current session. Time appears in a separate draggable window which can be shown, or hidden, from the Prefs menu. The timer maintains a cumulative time as well. Session time is in 00:00:00 format (hh:mm:ss). Cumulative time is in 000:00 format (hhh:mm). To switch between the two, click the Timer window, use the Prefs menu, or press <return>. Cumulative time can be automatically reset daily (at midnight) or monthly on a specific day.
Just for fun, PPPop will play sounds from the "PPPop Sounds" file, which must be in the folder with PPPop. When you get tired of the sounds, you can 1) turn sound off from the Prefs menu, or 2) trash the Sounds file, or 3) paste sounds into "PPPop Sounds", which is just a ResEdit file. Be aware that sounds you paste in must be of reasonable size, or you will have to increase PPPop's partition size.
I have been running Cliff McCollum's MacPPP 2.01cm4 with excellent results. Highly recommended!
Anti-litigation Statement: This program is HACKWARE. It is distributed because it may be useful. It is not warranted to do anything, nor to be free of bugs. If PPPop causes you grave physical, financial, or emotional harm—I'm really sorry.
