OS/2 Shareware BBS: SysTools/SysTools.zip/sysmon20.zip/sysmon.INF

OS/2 Help File | 1996-02-01 | 116KB | 588 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. What is SysMon ? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ


SystemMonitor v2.0

      The ultimate monitoring Tool for OS/2

SysMon is a 32-bit multithreaded PM statusbar that displays (almost) everything
you've ever wanted .

You can freely configure which information you want to be displayed and which
items should be disabled.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. SysMon Registation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

SysMon Registation

The registration fee is only 10 US$ or 100 ATS or 15 DM. Where can you get the
satisfacton of being honest at a lower price? But first:

o Benefits of Registering

o How to Register


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1. Benefits of Registering ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

If you register SysMon

o you'll keep the shareware-idea alive :-)

o you'll see no annoying registration-dialog at startup and end

o you are allowed to choose any wave you like

o you'll be informed when there are updates which will work with your existing
  registration mumber

     -> Updates are FREE ;-(


And How to Register??


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.2. How to Register ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

You are licensed to use SystemMonitor for a period of 30 days, after this trial
period you are asked :-) to register.

There are several Benefits of Registering

To do this, just fill in the text provided in the file ORDER.FRM and send it to
the address below.

The registration fee is 10 US$ or 100 ATS or 15 DM.

You can send the money in cash (which is cheaper for you) or you use a postal
order (that is,send the money via post office,not via bank ).

Sorry, we are not able to accept either checks or other currencies.

If you choose a postal order, please send the money in Austrian Shillings; if
you send cash DO NOT send coins.

We cannot accept any other form of payment (e.g. credit cards,checks). (The
bank takes nearly 80% of a $10 check as commission, which we cannot afford).

We are really honest, so you don't have to worry when sending the money in cash
!

Of course all of the given information will be treated confidentially.

Take care, when filling in order.frm, that your first and last names are
legible and correct, because we will base your registration code calculated on
this information.

After you enter this number, your version of SystemMonitor is registered.

It will be much easier if you also send us your Internet E-mail address, so we
can send you update announcements and the registration number more quickly and
easily.

To register fill in the order form, and send it and the payment to:

   Irmgard Wasinger

   Turmburgg. 2/33
   1060 Vienna
   AUSTRIA
   E-mail: [e-mail]

Registration is for personal use only!!! Running this Program on more than one
machine requires special registration - contact the authors for special prices.

Students can request a special academic price.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Features ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Features

These features can be turned on and off by either clicking the right
mouse-button or by double-clicking the left one on the bar.

You will then see a pop-up menu that allows you to check all the items you want
displayed in the bar, and to uncheck those you choose not to use.

o Date,Time

o UpTime

o Cpu Activity

o Average Cpu Activity

o Virtual Memory

o Swap

o Swap Free

o Drives

Using the pop-up menu you can also select which buttons are to appear in the
bar - for more detailed information, see 'Special Features'

To configure the look and performance of SysMon, see 'Configuration'


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.1. Date,Time ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Displays actual date and time.

Date and Time are separately configurable.
- this means you can also choose to display Time only, Date only, or both.

Time and date are displayed in the format for which OS/2 is currently
configured
- this means that if you have configured the date format as YYMMDD, and with
'/' as separator, this is how the date will be displayed.

So what you see might look like  or or maybe like  .


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2. UpTime ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Displays the time that passed since your last reboot.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.3. Cpu Activity ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Displays the percentage of CPU usage to show how busy your processor is ( 0%
means CPU is idle ).

There are four possible views.
The CPU activity can be displayed as:

 1. Plain Text

 2. Graphically as a triangle  filled with current usage.

 3. Graphically as empty pulse
    This allows you to monitor the evolution of CPU activity with time.

 4. Graphically as filled pulse

If you're working on a slow system, you should notice that monitoring CPU
activity consumes some extra processor time
- if you choose text-only display, less CPU time is consumed by SysMon.

If you turn the CPU monitoring feature off, CPU activity isn't measured at all,
and the system will run a little faster.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.4. Average Cpu Activity ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Displays the average CPU usage since SysMon started.

This value is most accurate if you put SysMon in the Startup-Folder, because
then average CPU usage is calculated using all information since boot.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.5. Virtual Memory ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Displays the amount of free Virtual Memory.

Note that Virtual Memory includes RAM and swapped memory .


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.6. Swap ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Displays the size of your swap file.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.7. Swap Free ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Tells you how much your swap file can be enlarged.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.8. Drives ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Displays the available space of as many drives as you are interested in.

After selecting the 'Drives' item from the pop-up menu, a submenu will appear
which lists all the drives installed on your system.
Click on the letter of the drive you wish to monitor (e.g D:) and the desired
information will appear in the bar.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Special Features ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

There are several buttons in the action bar which either display extra
information or perform some action, e.g. program launch or system shutdown.

If you don't want the buttons to be displayed, you can get the same effect by
selecting 'Utils' in the pop-up menu. This will bring up a submenu, in which
you can select the same features.

o Battery

o Run

o Task

o Disk

o Shut


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1. Battery ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This feature is available only in a laptop machine which supports the
power-saving feature.

o APM enabled

  Displays if your computer is battery powered; if you are using a laptop, it
  should always say 'Yes'.

o APM online

o Battery Status

  Displays the status of your battery: High, Low, Critical or Charging.

o Battery Life

  Displays state of charge of your battery - 100% means fully charged,  0%
  means empty.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2. Run ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Opens a file-selection dialog, so you can choose an executable file (*.exe,
*.com, *.cmd, *.bat) to run.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3. Task ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Opens a Task List, which displays all running tasks.

On the Appearance page in the Configuration Notebook you can also specify that
the SysMon tasklist is to replace the system Window List, and is to appear when
both mouse buttons are pressed.

o
  By pressing the right mouse button on an entry you a menu will appear
  allowing you to

        - Switch To
        - Quit (or press Delete)
        - Kill
        - Minimize
        - get INFO about

    any task you like.

  Quit assures that unsaved data is not lost; Kill terminates the application
  without saving.

o There are additional security features which warn you if you try to close
  e.g. a invisible application, or some task which the system might need.

o You can have the Task List open on your desktop until you close it or switch
  to another program.
  (unlike the system Window List, which disappears when it loses the focus, or
  when you terminate a running application)

o The Task List notices if any application was started or terminated, and
  generally refreshes itself.

o Multiple Task Selection is possible for all actions except getting
  information about a selected task.

o Sorting and Filtering By pressing the right mousse button on empty space or
  the container title a menu will appear allowing you to

        - Sort the contents of the Task List by either name or PID.
        - Filter only Visible or Jumpable entries.
        - Refresh the Task List manually.

o Information about a task is only displayed if you select 'Info'.

  If you select 'Info', a dialog will appear which shows you the

        - Pid
        - Session
        - ProgType (e.g. PM,WindowableVIO,VDM,..)
        - Visibility

    of the selected task.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4. Disk ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Choosing this option causes a dialog to open, showing you the following:

o FileSystem: Indicates if this Drive is a HPFS, CDFS or FAT formatted drive.

o Location: Indicates if this Drive is a local or remote drive.

o Removable: Indicates if this Drive is removable (CD or Floppy Disk) or not.

o Description: Indicates the type of this Drive (e.g. Floppy, Fixed Disk, Tape
  Drive, ...).

o VolumeLable: Shows the label of this drive.

o Total Space: Shows the size of the drive.

o Free Space: Shows the ammount of free space on this drive

o Used Space: Shows the ammount of used space on this drive


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.5. Shut ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

SysMon offers you three ways to shut down your system:

o Shutdown

  Performs a normal shutdown, after which you can either reset your computer or
  switch it off.

o Reboot (this) OS/2

  After shutdown, OS/2 is automatically rebooted (this means that the Boot
  Manager is skipped if you have one installed).

o Choose BootDrive

  Reboots from the drive you specify in the adjacent field (also overrides the
  Boot Manager).

  (Note - If you choose a drive with no bootable system, the system will boot
  from drive C).


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Configuration ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Configuration

In addition to selecting which Features you want to be displayed in the bar,
you can also configure many other details of the look and the performance of
SysMon to suit yourself.

All configuring is done in a notebook which appears when you select
'Configuration...' in the pop-up menu.

o Appearance

o Font

o Sound

o Refresh


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. Appearance ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Configure the appearance and performance of SysMon:

o Always on Top

  If this item is checked, SysMon will come to the front, and never be hidden
  by any other window
  (so you can always see the status bar).

o CPU Graphical

  If this item is checked,the CPU activity will be displayed graphically rather
  than as plain text. This is much more attractive, but consumes more space in
  the bar and a little more of the CPU's time.

o CPU Pulse-like

  If you select this item and 'CPU graphical' is checked, the CPU activity will
  be displayed as a time function (like IBM's Pulse), rather than as a
  triangle. This has the advantage that you can see how the activity changes
  over a period of time, while the triangle displays only the current CPU
  usage.

o Pulse filled

  Same as 'CPU Pulse-like', but the interior of the pulse is filled.

  Note that if you are working on a slow machine, it will probable enhance your
  system performance if you do not use the filled pulse-type CPU display,
  because this mode keeps the CPU busier than do the triangle or plain text
  modes.

o Shrink to minimum width

  If this item is checked, the status bar doesn't occupy the whole width of
  your screen but uses only as much space as required to display the items you
  chose.

o Long Descriptions in bar

  If this item is checked, the descriptions of the features displayed in the
  status bar will be whole words instead of abbreviations,

  e.g. 'Swap', 'UpTime', 'Virtual Mem' instead of 'Swp', 'Up', 'VMem'

   or

  Extras

o Replace System Window List

  If this item is checked, SysMon's Task List will pop up when you press both
  left and right mouse-button, instead of the system Window List.
  (You can still see the system Window List by pressing Ctrl+Esc)

   SysMon's Task List has a lot of features

o NumLock turned on at program start

  As OS/2 turns NumLock off every time after boot,it might be useful to have
  SysMon turning it on when started.
  If the NumLock state is already 'On',it remains in that state.

  If you are using a laptop, this feature is always turned off as turning
  Numlock on remaps the alpha-numeric keys on almost every laptop, which can
  make texts unreadable.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.2. Font ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Configure the font, character size and style of the bar:

By moving the slider you can select the size of the font used to display the
information in the status bar.

Note that by changing the font size, you also change the height of the bar and
the room an item needs to be displayed.
( So the larger the font,the less information can be monitored )

You can choose among four fonts:

  Times Roman

  Helvetica

  Courier

  System VIO

Each can also be displayed bold or italic if you choose the corresponding
Style.

You should try different combinations of font, size and style to find out what
is best for your needs.
e.g. if you want as many items as possible to be monitored, it will be best to
choose a small size and a narrow font.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3. Sound ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Configure which sound file you want played, and how often this is to be done:

This page is only available if you have MMOS2 installed on your system and if
you're not using the -quiet command line option, so you don't see a notebook
page with everything disabled.

You can choose any .WAV file you like (in the registered version) by pressing
the 'Select Wave ..' button.

This sound will then be played at intervalls you select (e.g. every
hour,quarter-hourly, etc.)
- just click on the button with the time interval you prefer.
If you don't want any sounds, select 'None'.

(We found it useful to have a reminder sound to keep us in mind of the passage
of time.)


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4. Refresh ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Configure the refresh rates of the features:

By moving the corresponding slider, you choose how often the various displays
are to be updated.

Note that your system will be less busy if the values of the update frequencies
are higher, but you may not notice changes and the values (especially for CPU)
will be less accurate.

These values are effective only if the corresponding items are displayed in the
status bar (e.g. if you don't need the information about Swap, it will not be
sampled by the program).

o CPU

      This value determines how often the CPU Activity is updated
      ( if you chose graphical display: how often the graph is redrawn ).
      This also effects the Average CPU Activity.

o Mem

      This value determines how often the value of the Virtual Memory
      is updated.

o Swap

      This value determines how often the size of the Swap file
      and Swap Free is updated .

o Drives

      This value determines how often the free space of the monitored
      Drives is updated .
      ( It usually makes sense to have a larger value for this feature,
      because the free space on your drives won't often change rapidly ).

The default values used by SysMon are the ones we considered a good trade-off
between accuracy and time-consumption.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. CommandLine Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

CommandLine Options

To use a commandline option, type SysMon -Option or SysMon /Option or add
-Option in the parameter field of the programm's configuration page (available
by pressing the right mouse-button on the SysMon icon on your desktop).

Possible CommandLine Options are:

o QUIET

  If you have MMOS2 installed on your system but don't want the music.dll to be
  loaded because you don't use the Sound features, use this option.

o MMOS2

  If you have MMOS2 installed on your system but SysMon doesn't detect it, you
  can force use of the Sound by adding this option.

  (If this problem occurs, please inform the authors!)


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. About the Authors ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

About the Authors

We're two students, studying Physics at the Technical University of Vienna; our
names and addresses as follows:

o  Irmgard Wasinger

       Turmburgg. 2/33
       1060 Vienna
       AUSTRIA
       E-mail: [e-mail]

o  Ramin Nourbakhch

       Siebertg. 34/14
       1120 Vienna
       AUSTRIA
       E-mail: [e-mail]

Please feel free to contact us, either by post or E-mail, with any suggestions,
remarks, or bug reports. We depend on this sort of feedback from our users to
help us define the direction of our development.